By Song Yu, Netherlands

One day at the end of 2020, an upper leader found a church in my area of responsibility in which dozens of newcomers didn’t attend gatherings regularly. He dealt with me, saying, “These newcomers have just accepted the true way and face many disturbances and temptations. If they have no one to water or support them and they fail to attend gatherings, they are in constant danger of being taken captive by Satan. As a church leader, you should do your best to water them, so that they can lay down a foundation on the true way. This is the most critical work. There are so many newcomers who don’t attend gatherings regularly in a church you are responsible for. This proves that as a leader, you haven’t done watering work well, haven’t done your duty well, are irresponsible, are muddling through, are deceiving God, and are someone who resists God while serving Him.” It was difficult to accept being pruned and dealt with like this. I hadn’t been the one to directly water these newcomers, and I had fellowshiped clearly on the principles of watering with the watering staff at this church. Now they hadn’t done the watering work well, causing many newcomers to gather irregularly. Why was it my responsibility? It was the lack of responsibility in watering work that had caused newcomers to withdraw, which was a disruption and disturbance. If I took responsibility for this, wouldn’t that be a transgression and a stain on my belief in God? So I outright denied the problem that the leader had leveled at me, I continued to argue and justify myself, and I stressed that I hadn’t been the one directly watering the newcomers to avoid responsibility. Seeing that I wasn’t reflecting on myself at all, the leader interrupted me, and dealt with me for not accepting the truth. I was shocked to hear the leader say this, and thought, “Aren’t those who do not accept the truth nonbelievers? Nonbelievers always argue when things happen, and they don’t accept the truth at all.” My reasoning and excuses frightened me, so I didn’t dare to speak anymore. I prayed to God, asking Him to guide me, watch over my heart, and allow me to obey.

For the next few days, I kept thinking about this matter. I had been dealt with for being irresponsible in my duty and failing to do watering work well. Why couldn’t I accept this? In reflecting, I realized that I had thought that as long as I wasn’t watering the newcomers directly, then if they didn’t gather regularly, it was the watering staff’s responsibility, not mine. But the church had arranged for me to be responsible for the work of several churches, and whenever there were problems and difficulties in church work, I had to follow up and resolve them quickly. But I hadn’t supervised or followed up on work of the watering staff during my duty, and as a result, dozens of newcomers weren’t attending gatherings regularly. Wasn’t this the consequence of my irresponsibility and neglect for my duty? I recalled that some time ago, I had heard that the watering staff in this church tended to fall into difficulty. Faced with the actual difficulties of newcomers, when a few fellowship sessions didn’t achieve results, they claimed it was too hard and didn’t want to make the effort to water the newcomers. But I hadn’t fellowshiped with them to resolve these problems in a timely manner, and as a result, the number of newcomers attending gatherings regularly continued to fall. My leader had dealt with me for being irresponsible in my duty, and he was right. Why didn’t I have even the slightest bit of acceptance or obedience, and why did I still argue and justify myself? Wasn’t this being unreasonable? At this thought, I felt a little sad. I felt I had made a huge mistake, but I was still unwilling to take responsibility. Like an idiot, I was trying to make excuses, justify myself, and shirk responsibility. Thinking on my ugly state of barefaced arguing and self-justification, I felt embarrassed, my face flushed with shame, and I wished for nothing more than a hole to bury myself in. I prayed to God, “God, I was irresponsible in my duty and hindered the watering of dozens of newcomers. I have committed a serious transgression, and yet when pruned and dealt with, I lacked even the most basic acceptance and obedience. God, please guide me in knowing myself.”

Later, after reading a passage of God’s word, I finally gained a little understanding of the root of my refusal to accept being pruned and dealt with. God’s words say, “Antichrists’ archetypal attitude toward dealing and pruning is to vehemently refuse to accept or admit it. No matter how much evil they do or how much harm they do to the work of God’s house and the life entry of God’s chosen people, they do not feel the slightest remorse or that they owe anything. From this point of view, do the antichrists have humanity? Absolutely not. They cause all sorts of damage to God’s chosen people and bring harm to the work of the church—God’s chosen people can see this as clear as day, and they can see antichrists’ succession of evil deeds. And yet the antichrists do not accept or acknowledge this fact; they stubbornly refuse to admit that they are in error or that they are responsible. Is this not an indication that they are sick of the truth? Such is the extent to which antichrists are sick of the truth. No matter how much wickedness they commit, they refuse to admit it, and they remain unyielding to the end. This proves that antichrists never take the work of God’s house seriously or accept the truth. They haven’t come to believe in God; they are minions of Satan, come to disturb and disrupt the work of God’s house. In antichrists’ hearts there are only reputation and status. They believe that if they were to acknowledge their error, then they would have to accept responsibility, and then their status and reputation would be severely compromised. As a result, they resist with the attitude of ‘deny until you die.’ No matter what revelations or analysis people make, they do their utmost to deny them. Whether their denial is deliberate or not, in short, in one regard this exposes the antichrists’ nature and essence of being sick of and hating the truth. In another regard, it shows how much the antichrists treasure their own status, reputation, and interests. What, meanwhile, is their attitude toward the work and interests of the church? It is one of contempt and denial of responsibility. They lack all conscience and reason. Doesn’t the antichrists’ shirking of responsibility demonstrate these issues? In one regard, shirking responsibility proves their essence and nature of being sick of and hating the truth, while in another regard, it shows their lack of conscience, reason, and humanity. No matter how much the brothers’ and sisters’ life entry is harmed by their interference and evildoing, they feel no self-recrimination and could never be troubled by this. What sort of creature is this? Even admission to part of their mistake would count as them having a bit of conscience and sense, but the antichrists do not even have that slight amount of humanity. So what would you say they are? The essence of antichrists is the devil. No matter how much damage they do to the interests of the house of God, they do not see it. They are not remotely troubled by it in their hearts, nor do they reproach themselves, much less feel indebted. This is absolutely not what should be seen in normal people. This is the devil, and the devil is devoid of any conscience or sense. No matter how many bad things antichrists have done, incurring great losses to the church’s work, they remain dead set on not admitting to them. They believe that if they admit to mistakes, they will be condemned, sentenced to death, obliged to go to hell, to the lake of fire and brimstone. Do you think such people can accept the truth? Can one expect true repentance from them?” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Nine (Part Three)). God’s word reveals that antichrists never accept the truth, are sick of the truth by nature, and no matter how great the mistakes they make or how much harm they bring upon the work of the church, when they are pruned and dealt with, they never admit their mistakes, and they constantly try to argue and justify themselves. Antichrists are also selfish and despicable, and only value their own interests and status. Therefore, no matter how much damage antichrists cause to the work of the church, they don’t feel guilty in the slightest or want to take any responsibility. Reflecting on my attitude toward being pruned and dealt with, I saw my behavior had been the same as an antichrist’s. I was a church leader and I was responsible for any problems in the work of the church. I knew there was a problem with the church watering staff, but I didn’t follow up on or solve the issue. As a result, the watering staff didn’t secure the newcomers, but I didn’t admit my mistake, and I kept making excuses for myself. I put all the responsibility on my brothers and sisters because I feared taking any for myself. I didn’t accept being pruned or dealt with, and I insisted in front of my leader that these newcomers weren’t directly watered by me to absolve myself of my transgression. So many newcomers weren’t attending gatherings regularly, but I felt no regret or indebtedness at all, and I didn’t hate myself for neglecting my duties and harming the church’s watering work. With these facts before me, that I could still try to justify myself showed that I didn’t accept the truth in the slightest. Looking at it now, no matter how I argued, I couldn’t deny the fact that I had not been responsible in my duty. Instead, my justifications and arguments exposed my satanic nature of being sick of the truth and not accepting it. In the act of trying to protect my own interests, I revealed the ugly fact of my shirking responsibility and being selfish and despicable.

I read God’s word over and over again, and the more I compared how antichrists handle being dealt with to my own behavior, the more I felt God’s word was exposing me. I had been irresponsible in my duty, causing great harm to the watering work, transgressing in doing so, yet when I was pruned and dealt with, I didn’t accept it, and was sick of the truth. I wasn’t someone who pursued the truth. Thinking of this, I felt that God must be particularly disgusted by my behavior. Beyond that, with my arguing, the leader must have seen clearly who I was, and known that I was untrustworthy and unworthy of cultivation. I started to wonder, “Is the leader watching me? This time, I didn’t do the watering work well, and I have transgressed. If one day I cause another disruption or disturbance and am pruned and dealt with again, will I be revealed and cast out? If so, I will have no hope of salvation from my belief in God.” Then I thought of how I had forsaken my family and career to do my duty, and I realized that in the end, I might be cast out. The more I thought, the more negative I felt. I even felt that since I had been irresponsible and neglected my duty, and I hadn’t accepted the truth and was sick of it, I wasn’t suitable to be a leader, so I should have some self-awareness, quickly resign, and find a simple duty I could perform in an honest manner. That way, I would reveal fewer problems and be pruned and dealt with less, and I would still have hope of surviving when God’s work concludes. During that time, I didn’t seek God’s will at all, nor did I seek to solve my problems of muddling through and being irresponsible in my duty. I lived in a state of defensiveness and misunderstanding, I thought only about how to resign, and my mind wasn’t on my duty at all. I was utterly miserable. Afterward, I told my partner sister about my state, and she read some of God’s words to me, which gave me some understanding of God’s will.

God’s words say, “Faced with man’s state and man’s attitude toward God, God has done new work, allowing man to possess both knowledge of and obedience toward Him, and both love and testimony. Thus, man must experience God’s refinement of him, as well as His judgment, dealing and pruning of him, without which man would never know God and would never be capable of truly loving and bearing witness to Him. God’s refinement of man is not merely for the sake of a one-sided effect, but for the sake of a multi-faceted effect. Only in this way does God do the work of refinement in those who are willing to seek the truth, in order that their resolve and love be made perfect by God. To those who are willing to seek the truth and who yearn for God, nothing is more meaningful, or of greater assistance, than refinement such as this. God’s disposition is not so easily known or understood by man, for God, in the end, is God. Ultimately, it is impossible for God to have the same disposition as man, and thus it is not easy for man to know His disposition. The truth is not inherently possessed by man, and is not easily understood by those who have been corrupted by Satan; man is devoid of the truth, and of the resolve to put the truth into practice, and if he does not suffer and is not refined or judged, then his resolve will never be made perfect. For all people, refinement is excruciating, and very difficult to accept—yet it is during refinement that God makes plain His righteous disposition to man, and makes public His requirements for man, and provides more enlightenment, and more actual pruning and dealing; through the comparison between the facts and the truth, He gives man a greater knowledge of himself and the truth, and gives man a greater understanding of God’s will, thus allowing man to have a truer and purer love of God. Such are God’s aims in carrying out refinement. All the work that God does in man has its own aims and significance; God does not do meaningless work, and nor does He do work that is without benefit to man. Refinement does not mean removing people from before God, and nor does it mean destroying them in hell. Rather, it means changing man’s disposition during refinement, changing his intentions, his old views, changing his love for God, and changing his whole life. Refinement is a real test of man, and a form of real training, and only during refinement can his love serve its inherent function” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only by Experiencing Refinement Can Man Possess True Love). After contemplating God’s words, I understood when God arranges situations for people to experience suffering and refinement, judgment and chastisement, being pruned or dealt with, all of it is targeted at people’s corruption and shortcomings, and these are things people must experience and face in the process of life entry. Although we need to suffer a little in the process of going through these things, they are very helpful for us in knowing God’s work and our own corrupt dispositions. Looking back on my last year as a leader, I basically experienced no setbacks, and had not been seriously pruned or dealt with. Sometimes some things weren’t done in line with principles, but the leader provided fellowship appropriate to my stature, helped me reverse the deviations in my duty, and pointed out the path of practice to me. When my brothers and sisters saw the problems in my duty, they frequently provided loving help and rarely exposed or dealt with me. So when faced with my corrupt dispositions and the problems that arose in my duty, I always thought these problems weren’t very big, that I could simply avoid doing it again, and so I never really reflected to understand the root of my failure. It was only after being pruned and dealt with on this occasion that I could see my true stature. I was negligent in my duty, and as a result, many newcomers weren’t watered or provided for in time, but to protect my own interests, I shirked responsibility and absolved myself of guilt. I even worried about losing my future and fate, and I became negative, harbored misunderstandings, and wanted to just give up my duty. When people spoke gently about my problems in the past, I could accept it, but when I was pruned and dealt with this time, and told the consequences of my muddling through, I couldn’t accept it at all. When I was dealt with for small matters, I could accept it. But when I was dealt with for major matters where the essence and consequences were more serious, and where I had to take responsibility, I couldn’t accept it. I saw that I was selective in my acceptance of being pruned and dealt with, which wasn’t a manifestation of obedience to God at all. If I hadn’t been pruned and dealt with by my leader, I wouldn’t know my own measure, I would still consider myself someone who pursued the truth, I would be blinded by my own facade. My life entry would be stagnant, I wouldn’t learn lessons from the situation God arranged, come to understand myself in God’s word, or resolve my own corruption. Thinking of this, I was very grateful to God, and I was willing to seek God’s will and learn lessons from this situation.

During my devotionals, I sought out the relevant parts of God’s word to eat and drink. I read a passage of God’s word that gave me some understanding of my desire to resign after being pruned and dealt with. God’s words say, “When antichrists are pruned and dealt with, they always see it in connection to their hopes of gaining blessings. This attitude and view is incorrect, and it is dangerous. When someone points out an antichrist’s flaws or problems, they feel they have lost their hope of gaining blessings; and when they are pruned and dealt with, or disciplined, or reproached, they also feel they have lost their hope of gaining blessings. As soon as something does not go their way or does not conform to their notions, as soon as they are exposed and dealt with, feeling their self-esteem has suffered a blow, their thoughts go at once to whether they no longer have hope of gaining blessings. Is this not overly sensitive of them? Are they not too strongly desirous of gaining blessings? Tell Me, are such people not pitiful? (They are.) They are pitiful, indeed! And in what way are they pitiful? Is whether one can obtain blessings related to their being dealt with and pruned? (No.) They are unrelated. Why, then, do antichrists feel they have lost their hope of gaining blessings when they are dealt with and pruned? Does this not have something to do with their pursuit? What do they pursue? (Gaining blessings.) They never let go of their desire and intent to gain blessings. They have intended to gain blessings from the start of their belief in God, and though they have listened to plenty of sermons, they have never accepted the truth. That whole time, they have not given up their desire and intent to gain blessings. They have not rectified or changed their views on belief in God, and their intent in performing their duty has not been purified. They always do everything while clutching their hope and intent to gain blessings, and in the end, when their hopes of gaining blessings are about to be dashed, they erupt in anger, and bitterly protest, finally laying bare the shameful facts of their doubt about God and their denial of the truth. Are they not walking the road to ruin? Such is the inevitable consequence of the antichrists’ not accepting the truth in the least, nor accepting dealing and pruning. In their experience of God’s work, all God’s chosen people can know that God’s judgment and chastisement, His dealing and pruning are His love and blessings—yet antichrists believe that this is just something people say, and do not believe it is the truth. So, they do not see dealing and pruning as lessons to be learned from, nor do they seek the truth or reflect on themselves. On the contrary, they believe that dealing and pruning are born of human will, that they are intentional harassment and punishment, laden with personal intents, and certainly not from God. They elect to resist and disregard these things, and even investigate why someone would treat them so. They do not submit at all. They link everything they do in performance of their duty to gaining blessings and rewards, and they regard gaining blessings as the most important pursuit in life, as well as the ultimate and highest goal of belief in God. They cling for life to their intent to gain blessings, however God’s family fellowships about the truth, and do not let it go, thinking that belief in God that is not for the sake of gaining blessings is idiocy and folly, that it is a great loss. They think that anyone who gives up their intent to gain blessings has been duped, that only a fool would give up hope of gaining blessings, and that accepting dealing and pruning is a display of idiocy and incompetence, something a smart person would not do. This is the logic of an antichrist’s mind. So, when an antichrist is pruned and dealt with, they are very defiant at heart, and adept at sophistry and pretense; they do not accept the truth in the least, nor do they submit. Instead, they brim with disobedience and rebellion. This is liable to lead to resisting God, passing judgment on God, and rebellion against God, and in the end, to being exposed and cast out” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Twelve). God’s word revealed antichrists’ erroneous understanding of being pruned and dealt with. They link being pruned and dealt with to their blessings, future, and fate. They think that when someone points out their shortcomings and deficiencies, and seriously exposes, prunes, and deals with them, their hopes of gaining blessings are ruined. When antichrists behave like this, it exposes that their purpose in believing in God is to gain blessings. Antichrists have a special love for their future, fate, and final destination, so they are especially sick of and resistant to being pruned and dealt with, and in the face of being pruned and dealt with, they argue and justify themselves and refuse to admit their problems. I thought again of how I behaved when I was pruned and dealt with. I kept trying to defend myself, and I refused to admit I had made mistakes due to being irresponsible in my duty. I felt that if I owned up, I would have to bear the consequences, so I clung to my twisted reasoning and didn’t accept being pruned and dealt with. I didn’t go on to seek the truth in the matter and understand I had been irresponsible in my duty, and that I had harmed the watering work. Beyond that, I became defensive and had misunderstandings after being pruned and dealt with, thinking I had already transgressed, and that if I made another mistake and was pruned and dealt with again, I was likely to be cast out. So I just gave up on myself and didn’t want to be a leader at all. Through what was revealed in God’s word, I reflected on what I manifested, and I saw what my intention in believing in God had always been to gain blessings. I consulted God’s word once again: “When their hopes of gaining blessings are about to be dashed, they erupt in anger, and bitterly protest, finally laying bare the shameful facts of their doubt about God and their denial of the truth. Are they not walking the road to ruin? Such is the inevitable consequence of the antichrists’ not accepting the truth in the least, nor accepting dealing and pruning.” I was living in a negative state and wanted to resign. This was a manifestation of fighting against God, refusing to accept being pruned or dealt with, and avoiding it. I clearly knew that I needed to be pruned and dealt with to mature in life, and that God arranged situations for me to experience based on my needs and deficiencies, but I regarded belief in God for blessings as my biggest and most legitimate goal, so I put aside pursuing the truth and resolving my corrupt disposition. To safeguard my future and fate and to satisfy my ambition and desire for blessings, I wanted to avoid being pruned and dealt with, and I even wanted to stop being a leader. My nature was so deceitful and evil.

I read this in God’s word. “Since being blessed is not a legitimate goal for people to pursue, what is a legitimate goal? The pursuit of the truth, the pursuit of changes in disposition, and being able to obey all of God’s orchestrations and arrangements: these are the goals that people should pursue. Say, for example, being pruned and dealt with causes you to have notions and misconceptions, and you become incapable of obedience. Why can’t you obey? Because you feel that your destination or your dream of being blessed has been challenged. You become negative and upset, and try to get out of doing your duty. What is the reason for this? There is a problem with your pursuit. So how should this be solved? It is imperative that you immediately abandon these mistaken ideas, and that you immediately seek the truth to solve the problem of your corrupt disposition. You should say to yourself, ‘I must not quit, I must still do the duty that a creature of God ought to, and put aside my desire to be blessed.’ When you relinquish the desire to be blessed, a weight is lifted off your shoulders. And are you still capable of negativity? Even though there are still times when you are negative, you don’t let this control you, and in your heart, you keep praying and fighting, changing the goal of your pursuit from the pursuit of being blessed and having a destination, to the pursuit of the truth, and you think to yourself, ‘The pursuit of the truth is the duty of a creature of God. To understand certain truths today—there is no greater harvest, this is the greatest blessing of all. Even if God does not want me, and I do not have a good destination, and my hopes of being blessed are shattered, I shall still do my duty properly, I am obligated to. Whatever the reason, it will not impact my performance of my duty, it will not affect my accomplishment of God’s commission; this is the principle by which I conduct myself.’ And in this, have you not transcended the shackles of the flesh? Some may say, ‘Well, what if I’m still negative?’ Then seek the truth again to resolve it. However many times you fall into negativity, if you keep on seeking the truth to resolve it, and keep on striving for the truth, you will slowly emerge from your negativity. And one day, you will feel that you do not have the desire to gain blessings and are not governed by your destination and outcome, and that you are easier and freer living without these things. You will feel that the life you had before, whose every day you lived for the purpose of gaining blessings and your destination, was exhausting. Every day, speaking, working, and racking your brains for the sake of gaining blessings—and what will that have gained you, in the end? What is the value of such a life? You did not pursue the truth, but wasted all your best days on insignificant things. In the end, you did not gain any truth, and you were unable to offer any experiential testimony. You made a fool of yourself, utterly disgraced and failed. And what is the cause of this, really? It is that your intent to gain blessings was too strong, that your outcome and destination occupied your heart and bound you too tightly. Yet when the day comes on which you emerge from the bondage of your prospects and destiny, you will be able to leave everything behind and follow God. When will you be able to let go of those things completely? As your life entry ceaselessly deepens, you will achieve a change in your disposition, and that is when you will be able to let go of them completely. Some will say, ‘I can let go of those things whenever I want.’ Is this consistent with natural law? (No.) Others will say, ‘I figured all this out overnight. I’m a simple person, not complicated or fragile like the rest of you. You’re so ambitious, which shows you’re more deeply corrupted than I am.’ Is that the situation? It is not. All humankind has the same corrupted nature, undifferentiated in depth. The only difference between them lies in whether or not they have humanity, and in what kind of person they are. Those who love and accept the truth are capable of a relatively deep, clear knowledge of their own corrupt disposition, and others mistakenly think that such people are excessively corrupt. Those who do not love or accept the truth are always thinking that they have no corruption, that with a few more good behaviors, they will be holy people. This viewpoint is obviously invalid—it is not, in fact, that their corruption is shallow, but that they do not understand the truth and have no clear knowledge of the essence and truth of their corruption. In brief, to believe in God, one must accept the truth, and practice it and enter its reality. One must achieve changes in their life disposition before they can alter the incorrect direction and path of their pursuit, before they can completely resolve the problem of pursuing blessings and walking the path of the antichrists. In this way, one can be saved and perfected by God. All the truths that God expresses to judge and purify man work toward this end” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Only in the Practice of the Truth Is There Life Entry). In God’s word, I found a path of practice, which was to let go of my desire for blessings, change my mistaken goal in my belief in God, and change my pursuit of blessings to a pursuit of the truth and dispositional change. Only this is the proper pursuit for a created being. I looked at my behavior, and saw that when I was revealed, I wanted to discard my duty, which wasn’t the right way to practice. Even if I stopped being a leader, since I didn’t resolve my disposition of being sick of the truth or my desire to gain blessings, then no matter what duty I did, I could still do things that disrupt and disturb the work of the church. During this period, I lived in a negative state. I was plotting and scheming for my own interests, I was miserable, I lost enthusiasm for my duty, and my relationship with God was distant. I swore an oath that I would no longer be bound or constrained by my desire for blessings. Regardless of whether I would be blessed, I first had to do my duty well. The church gave me the chance to do my duty, so I had to do my best to fulfill my responsibilities. After that, my state changed a little, and in view of my problem with muddling through and being irresponsible in my duty, I ate and drank of the relevant words of God, and I understood that the essence of muddling through is fooling and deceiving God. If I always treated my duty with a perfunctory and irreverent attitude, I would never do my duty in a qualified manner, and eventually I would lose the chance to do a duty. Thinking of how my irresponsibility had caused many newcomers to stop attending gatherings regularly, I felt remorse and indebtedness, and I hated my irresponsible behavior from the bottom of my heart.

After that, I read another passage of God’s words that made me understand the meaning of being pruned and dealt with more clearly. God’s words say, “When it comes to being pruned and dealt with, what is the very least that people should know? Being pruned and dealt with must be experienced to adequately perform one’s duty—it is indispensable. It is something that people must face on a daily basis and often experience in their faith in God and attainment of salvation. No one can be apart from being pruned and dealt with. Is pruning and dealing with someone something that involves their future and fate? (No.) So what is pruning and dealing with someone for? Is it in order to condemn people? (No, it’s helping people understand the truth and perform their duty according to principles.) That’s right. That’s the most correct understanding of it. Pruning and dealing with someone is a kind of discipline, a kind of chastening, but it’s also a form of helping people. Being pruned and dealt with allows you to alter your incorrect pursuit in time. It allows you to promptly recognize the problems you currently have, and allows you to recognize the corrupt dispositions you expose in time. No matter what, being pruned and dealt with helps you fulfill your duties according to principles, it saves you from making mistakes and going astray in time, and it prevents you from causing catastrophes. Is this not the greatest aid to people, their greatest remedy? Those with a conscience and reason should be able to treat being dealt with and pruned correctly” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Nine (Part Eight)). After reading God’s word, I realized I had another absurd idea about being pruned and dealt with. When I applied God’s words to myself, I found I had the satanic disposition of being sick of the truth, I felt like I was doomed, that my corruption was too deep, and that God must hate me and wouldn’t save me. Actually, this was a kind of negative and hostile attitude. By reading God’s word, I understood being pruned and dealt with is not the same as being revealed and cast out, and it doesn’t mean your future and fate are stripped from you. Instead, it is done to help people know their deficiencies in their duties, understand their corrupt dispositions, promptly reverse the deviations in their duties, and seek the truth so that they can act according to principles. Without this instance of being pruned and dealt with, I wouldn’t have realized I had a disposition of being sick of the truth, and that in matters concerning my interests, I shirked responsibility, continually made excuses for myself, and didn’t accept the truth at all. I think it was a good thing that I recognized this. It allowed me to focus on seeking the truth when things happened after that and not be blinded by my own good behaviors. This was very important for my ability to seek the truth in my belief in God.

After that, when I was pruned and dealt with for deviations in my duty, I consciously came before God to pray, practiced obedience before all else, and sought the relevant parts of God’s words to read based on my corruption and the problems my brothers and sisters pointed out in my duty. After being pruned and dealt with several times, I understood its significance a little better. Through the experience of being pruned and dealt with and with the guidance of God’s words, I was able to see my true stature and the many problems and deviations in my duty. I also gained some knowledge of my corrupt disposition and God’s desire to save people. Being pruned and dealt with has been very helpful and beneficial to my pursuit of life entry. I feel that knowing myself and doing my duty well are inseparable from being judged, revealed, pruned, and dealt with by God.