By Jin Yue, Malaysia

In March of 2018, my relatives preached Almighty God’s last days’ gospel to me and invited me to attend an online gathering. Through reading Almighty God’s word, I learned Almighty God does the work of judgment based on the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, and has come to thoroughly cleanse and save people, free people from sin, and bring them into the kingdom of God. Although I believed in the Lord in the past, and I actively took part in church service, I spent my days in a cycle of sinning and confessing, I couldn’t practice the Lord’s word, and I lived in pain. Now, I had finally found a way to be cleansed of corruption, so I was very happy, and I was certain that Almighty God is the second coming of the Lord Jesus. I began attending online gatherings with brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God, and I told my mother about the light I gained at gatherings. She said what I told her was beneficial, and she was interested in the sermons I heard online, so I invited her to attend online gatherings with me. Unexpectedly, she stopped listening halfway through, and then tried to stop me from believing in Almighty God.

One day, my mother suddenly asked me, “Was the fellowship at the gathering the other day an Eastern Lightning sermon?” Faced with my mother’s sudden question, I didn’t know how to answer at first. I thought, “My mother always listens to the pastor. If she is asking me this, has she been deceived by the pastor’s rumors condemning Eastern Lightning?” Just as I thought, the moment I finished speaking, she said in an accusatory tone, “Think about what the Bible says, ‘Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect’ (Matthew 24:23–24). The pastor mentioned these verses many times. In the last days, many false Christs will emerge to deceive people. Especially in Eastern Lightning’s case, they testify that the Lord Jesus has returned incarnate. This has to be false. The pastor told us never to believe it, and never to listen to their sermons! You should do what the pastor says too. Stop listening to those sermons!” I was angry when I heard my mother say that. The pastor hadn’t heard Almighty God’s words or investigated His work in the last days. How could he condemn the Lord’s return so easily? My mother hadn’t read Almighty God’s words either. How could she be so uncritical, and simply follow the pastor’s claim that it is false? Many sincere believers in the Lord have read Almighty God’s words and recognized it as God’s voice. After reading Almighty God’s words, I also felt their authority and power. They are from the same source as the Lord Jesus’ words, and it is the voice of God Himself. Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus. How could they say He was a false Christ who deceived people?

Brother Cheng from The Church of Almighty God had fellowshiped on this aspect of truth, and he read me some of God’s words, “He who is God incarnate shall possess the essence of God, and He who is God incarnate shall possess the expression of God. Since God becomes flesh, He shall bring forth the work He intends to do, and since God becomes flesh, He shall express what He is, and shall be able to bring the truth to man, bestow life upon him, and point the way for him. Flesh that does not have the essence of God is decidedly not the incarnate God; of this there is no doubt. If man intends to inquire into whether it is God’s incarnate flesh, then he must corroborate this from the disposition He expresses and the words He speaks. Which is to say, to corroborate whether or not it is God’s incarnate flesh, and whether or not it is the true way, one must discriminate on the basis of His essence. And so, in determining whether it is the flesh of God incarnate, the key lies in His essence (His work, His utterances, His disposition, and many other aspects), rather than external appearance. If man scrutinizes only His external appearance, and as a result overlooks His essence, this shows that man is benighted and ignorant” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Preface). “If, during the present day, there is to emerge a person who is able to display signs and wonders, cast out demons, heal the sick, and perform many miracles, and if this person claims that they are Jesus who has come, then this would be a counterfeit produced by evil spirits which imitate Jesus. Remember this! God does not repeat the same work. Jesus’ stage of work has already been completed, and God will never again undertake that stage of work. The work of God is irreconcilable with the notions of man; for example, the Old Testament foretold the coming of a Messiah, and the result of this prophecy was Jesus’ coming. This having already happened, it would be wrong for another Messiah to come again. Jesus has already come once, and it would be wrong if Jesus were to come again this time. There is one name for every age, and each name contains a characterization of that age. In the notions of man, God must always display signs and wonders, must always heal the sick and cast out demons, and must always be just like Jesus. Yet this time, God is not like that at all. If, during the last days, God still displayed signs and wonders, and still cast out demons and healed the sick—if He did exactly the same as Jesus—then God would be repeating the same work, and the work of Jesus would have no significance or value. Thus, God carries out one stage of work in every age. Once each stage of His work has been completed, it is soon imitated by evil spirits, and after Satan begins to follow on the heels of God, God changes to a different method. Once God has completed a stage of His work, it is imitated by evil spirits. You must be clear about this” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Knowing God’s Work Today). Brother Cheng also fellowshiped with me about God’s word, saying, “In discerning between the true Christ and false Christs, we must first look at whether they can express the truth, express God’s disposition and all that God has and is, and do the work of saving humankind. This is the most crucial and fundamental principle. Only Christ can express the truth, and someone who can’t express the truth certainly isn’t Christ. False Christs do not possess the essence of God and cannot express the truth. They can only imitate the Lord Jesus and show simple signs and wonders to deceive those who are muddle-headed and lack discernment. So, if anyone claims to be the coming of Christ, but can’t express the truth in the slightest, and can only show signs and wonders, then they are an evil spirit imitation and false Christ come to deceive people. Only Christ is the truth, the way, and the life, and only He can express the truth and do the work of saving humankind. The Lord Jesus Christ expressed many truths when He appeared and worked, He gave people the way of repentance and redeemed all humankind, and He began the Age of Grace and concluded the Age of Law. This is why we can all identify that the Lord Jesus was God incarnate, the Christ. In the last days, Almighty God comes to express all truth necessary for the salvation of corrupt humankind. Almighty God’s words have authority and power, and what they reveal is God’s disposition and all that God has and is. He opens the scroll, opens the seven seals, unveils the mysteries of the Bible, ends the Age of Grace, begins the Age of Kingdom, and does the work of judgment to completely save mankind. Almighty God’s words and work fully prove that He is God incarnate, the appearance of Christ in the last days.” Thinking of this, my heart brightened. I said to my mother, “Why do you believe the pastor’s words so much? We believe in the Lord, so we should listen to His words. As the Lord Jesus said, ‘My sheep hear My voice’ (John 10:27). Almighty God’s words fellowship clearly on the truth of the true Christ and false ones. The Christ is God incarnate as the Son of man. Because Christ is God Himself, He can express the truth and work to save people. False Christs are corrupt people, imitations, who cannot express the truth or save humankind, and can only show signs and wonders to deceive people. In the last days, Almighty God comes to do the work of judgment, meaning He expresses the truth to thoroughly cleanse and save people. If we read Almighty God’s words more, we can discern between the true Christ and false ones, and we are able to hear the voice of God and welcome the Lord’s return. …” Before I could finish, my mother stopped listening. I wanted to read Almighty God’s words to my mother, but she walked away angrily. After my brothers and sisters heard about it, they told me my mother was deceived by the pastor and didn’t understand the truth of discerning the true Christ and false ones, which is why she misunderstood God’s work. They also told me to fellowship on the truth with her more and lovingly resolve her notions and confusion. After that, I found a chance to fellowship with her on how to discern the true Christ and false ones. After she heard what I said, she felt it made sense and was in line with the Bible, she wasn’t so opposed to my online gatherings anymore, and she said she wanted to read the words of Almighty God. This made me very happy, so I downloaded The Church of Almighty God app for my mother and asked her to a gathering. But before the gathering, she saw rumors posted online by the pastor and started hindering me again.

One day, while I was at work, my mother sent me a screenshot of a video of religious pastors blaspheming and condemning the Church, and asked me to watch the video. Looking at the screenshot, I got very angry. Why didn’t these religious pastors have even the slightest fear of God? They spread lies and rumors to condemn God’s work of the last days and hindered believers from investigating the true way. They were so evil! I couldn’t understand. As religious leaders, pastors are people who serve God in the church. Why, when the Lord Jesus returns, do they not welcome the Lord, but instead resist the Lord’s return like this? I prayed to God to seek. After praying, I recalled the phrase, “Since ancient times, the true way has been persecuted.” I immediately realized, in the Age of Grace, when the Lord Jesus came to work He was also subject to persecution and condemnation by the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees of the Jewish religion. Those were the people who explained the Scriptures and served God in the synagogues. As I thought of this, I read a passage of God’s words. “Do you wish to know the root of why the Pharisees opposed Jesus? Do you wish to know the essence of the Pharisees? They were full of fantasies about the Messiah. What is more, they believed only that the Messiah would come, yet did not pursue the truth of life. And so, even today they still await the Messiah, for they have no knowledge of the way of life, and do not know what the way of truth is. How, say you, could such foolish, stubborn and ignorant people gain God’s blessing? How could they behold the Messiah? They opposed Jesus because they did not know the direction of the Holy Spirit’s work, because they did not know the way of truth spoken by Jesus, and, furthermore, because they did not understand the Messiah. And since they had never seen the Messiah and had never been in the company of the Messiah, they made the mistake of clinging to the mere name of the Messiah while opposing the essence of the Messiah by any means possible. These Pharisees in essence were stubborn, arrogant, and did not obey the truth. The principle of their belief in God was: No matter how profound Your preaching, no matter how high Your authority, You are not Christ unless You are called the Messiah. Is this belief not preposterous and ridiculous?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. By the Time You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus, God Will Have Made Heaven and Earth Anew). From God’s word, I understood the root cause of the Pharisees’ resistance and condemnation of the Lord Jesus was their nature and essence of hating the truth and being hostile to God. They didn’t fear God or seek the truth at all. They clearly saw that the words and work of the Lord Jesus had authority and power, but because it didn’t fit with their notions, they denied, rejected, slandered, and condemned the Lord Jesus, and finally nailed the Lord to the cross. Toward God’s work in the last days, the pastors and elders in today’s religious world also stubbornly cling to religious notions. No matter how much truth Almighty God expresses, or how authoritative His words are, if it doesn’t conform to their notions, they frantically resist and condemn it, and they spread rumors to stop us investigating, hoping to completely control us and prevent us from hearing God’s voice and welcoming the Lord. They are so vicious! Isn’t this the same essence as the Pharisees resisting and condemning the Lord Jesus? They resist God even more seriously than the Pharisees! I also saw the fact that because the essence of the antichrists in the religious world is hatred of the truth, no matter in what age or where God appears and works, they will always reject and resist Him. This fulfills the prophecy of the Lord Jesus, “For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in His day. But first must He suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation” (Luke 17:24–25). I understood this point, I wasn’t confused anymore, and I decided to give my mother proper fellowship after I got home.

When I arrived, my mother was very angry when she learned I didn’t watch the video she sent, and before I could explain, she repeatedly asked me why I didn’t watch it. In return, I asked her, “Almighty God speaks so clearly, but you don’t seek or investigate. Why do you watch these blasphemous videos?” At this point, she got even angrier and accused me of mistaken belief. Seeing her get so angry made me very sad. The reason my mother so insistently hindered me from believing in Almighty God was that she was deceived by the pastor’s rumors. This made me hate the pastors even more. They were exactly like what the Lord Jesus said when He cursed the Pharisees, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:13). After that, I urged my mother to listen to God’s words, not people’s words, or she could easily lose God’s salvation, and I said I would never stop believing in Almighty God. Seeing that I had no intention of giving up, my mother’s tone switched to worried, and she asked me to stop attending gatherings and believing in Almighty God. I tried all kinds of ways to fellowship with my mother, but she wouldn’t listen to anything I said, and she said she couldn’t accept the fact that the Lord had returned. After a while, she covered her face and started to cry. Seeing her cry made me very upset. Growing up, I feared nothing more than seeing her cry and making her sad. In my mother’s eyes, I had always been an obedient child, but now I was making her worried and upset over me. I thought it might be best if I listened to her and stopped attending gatherings for the moment. But on second thought, when I believed in the Lord before, I always put service to the church first and my own affairs second. Now I had accepted God’s new work, it was more important than ever to put God first. I didn’t understand much truth, so I especially needed to attend gatherings. Without gatherings, I couldn’t get the help and support of my brothers and sisters. What would I do if I was tempted or disturbed and couldn’t stand? But if I didn’t stop attending gatherings, seeing my mother being so sad every day was torment for me! I was trapped, so I prayed to God to ask Him to guide me in making the right choice.

During my gathering that evening, I told a sister about my state, and she sent me a passage of God’s word. “When God works, cares for a person, and looks upon this person, and when He favors and approves this person, Satan trails closely behind, trying to dupe the person and bring them to harm. If God wishes to gain this person, Satan will do everything in its power to obstruct God, using various evil ploys to tempt, disrupt and impair the work of God, in order to achieve its hidden objective. What is this objective? It does not want God to gain anyone; it wants to snatch possession of those whom God wishes to gain, it wants to control them, to take charge of them so they worship it, so they join it in committing evil acts, and resist God. Is this not Satan’s sinister motive?” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique IV). She fellowshiped, “What is happening to you may outwardly seem like your family disrupting and hindering you as you follow Almighty God, but Satan’s manipulation is behind it. This is a spiritual battle. God comes incarnate in the last days to save people, but Satan doesn’t want people to gain God’s salvation, so it uses the people around us to disturb and hinder us, make us deny and betray God, and finally occupies us, controls us, and drags us down to hell with it. Just like this time, you have just accepted God’s work of the last days, and Satan attacks and disturbs you through your mother, so that you would obey your mother, give up your belief in God, and lose God’s salvation. This is Satan’s sinister intention. We need to see through Satan’s tricks and rely on God to stand firm. Think about Job. When Satan used his wife’s complaints to make him forsake God, Job maintained his faith and obedience to God, stood firm in his testimony to God, and humiliated Satan. In the end, Job’s faith earned God’s approval. We also need to have the faith to stand firm and not fall for Satan’s tricks!” My sister’s fellowship on God’s word was very moving. After accepting God’s work of the last days, I faced many obstacles at every step, and it turned out that there was a spiritual battle behind it. Satan knew I was considerate of my mother and listened to her, so it used her to disturb me time and again, fill me with notions and fallacies, spread rumors to deceive me, and force me to stop following Almighty God. Satan’s intentions really are insidious and evil. I couldn’t let myself be fooled by Satan. I determined that no matter how my mother disturbed me, I’d continue to believe in God and gather with my brothers and sisters to seek and understand more of the truth.

Over the next few days, my mother looked sad and sighed every day, and when she saw me gathering online, she was curt with me. Seeing my mother like this, I still felt a little constrained, but I knew I couldn’t compromise on the matter of belief in Almighty God. I remembered God’s words, “You must possess My courage within you, and you must have principles when it comes to facing relatives who do not believe. For My sake, however, you also must not yield to any dark forces. Rely on My wisdom to walk the perfect way; do not allow any of Satan’s conspiracies to take hold” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Utterances of Christ in the Beginning, Chapter 10). God’s words significantly cleared up my mind. I realized Satan’s schemes had come to me again. Satan saw that I hadn’t given up my belief in God, so it was still using my mother to attack and disturb me, so that it was impossible for me to find the quiet to attend gatherings properly. I had to rely on God to overcome Satan’s temptation, and completely humiliate Satan. After that, I proactively spoke to my mother every day, showing her my usual concern and care, but trying to avoid her when it was time for gatherings and reading God’s word. Gradually, my mother stopped involving so much in my belief in God, and didn’t even say anything when she saw me at gatherings online. I was very grateful for God’s guidance in overcoming Satan’s temptation.

But unexpectedly, some time later, my father and brother learned I believed in Almighty God, and they tried to hinder me and bring me back to religion. One day, my brother was very angry and accused me, “Why are you so stubborn? Mom is worried and sad about your belief in God. How can you live with yourself? Our whole family disagrees with your belief in Almighty God. Can’t you just give up to make mom and dad happy?” Faced with my family’s misunderstandings and accusations, I felt wronged, and I couldn’t stop my tears from flowing. I really wanted to tell them about all I had gained from my belief in Almighty God, but they accused and scolded me with every word they said. I couldn’t help but feel a little weak. I silently cried out to God, asking God to give me the faith to stand firm. After I prayed, I remembered that the Lord Jesus said, “He that loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37). “Truly I say to you, There is no man that has left house, or parents, or brothers, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting” (Luke 18:29–30). Now my family was hindering me from believing in God. If I wanted to follow God, I had to make a choice. I couldn’t stop following God because of my family’s hindrance and failure to understand me. I thought of Peter. When he followed the Lord Jesus, he was also persecuted and obstructed by his parents, yet he still chose to follow the Lord without hesitation. He loved God more than anything, and I knew I should follow his example. Thinking of this, I felt a little calmer. I wanted to properly talk with them to let them know the Almighty God I believed in was the returned Lord Jesus, but my father and brother wouldn’t let me, and insisted I return to the church to believe in the Lord. I felt helpless. Thinking of how my family hindered me from believing in God over and over, I also remembered I had been cared for and loved by my parents and brother since childhood. Now they scolded and besieged me, and it was difficult to bear. Why was it so hard to believe in God? I really didn’t know what they would do to hinder me next. What was I meant to do? Then, I suddenly remembered a passage of God’s words. “The utmost faith and love are required from us in this stage of work. We may stumble from the slightest carelessness, for this stage of work is different from all the previous ones: What God is perfecting is mankind’s faith, which is both invisible and intangible. What God does is convert words to faith, to love, and to life. People must reach a point where they have endured hundreds of refinements and possess faith greater than Job’s. They must endure incredible suffering and all manner of torture without ever leaving God. When they are obedient unto death, and have great faith in God, then this stage of God’s work is complete” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Path … (8)). God’s word made me understand. I was besieged by my family, but God had allowed this environment to come to me to equip me with the truth and discernment, and to perfect my faith. Time and again, my family stopped me from believing in God, and although I felt sad and weak, God hadn’t left me, and had been leading and guiding me with His words, which allowed me to stand firm in the face of my family’s disruption and hindrance. After going through it, I understood some truth, I discerned the essence of religious pastors’ resistance to God and Satan’s sinister intentions, and my faith in God was increased. God’s work is so wise and practical. No matter what difficulties I faced in the future, I wouldn’t need to be worried or afraid. I believed that if I truly relied on God, God would lead and guide me. Thinking of this, my desire to follow God was even stronger.

One day, my father knocked hard on my door, and as soon as I opened the door, my mother cried as she said, “Sweetheart, stop believing in Almighty God. Just listen to the pastor, isn’t it the same if you believe in the Lord in the church?” Seeing her like this made me both angry and sad. My mother, in the face of all the truth expressed by Almighty God, showed no attitude of seeking or accepting. She listened to the pastor completely, and took the pastor’s words as truth. She had rejected God’s salvation in the last days, and done her best to disturb and hinder me from following God. I saw that my mother wasn’t someone who truly believed in God, she followed people. In the last days, the truth expressed by Almighty God indeed reveals all kinds of people. The wheat and the tares are separated, just like the true and false believers. Even though we were a family, because of our different attitudes toward the truth, we took different paths. If my mother still refused to accept God’s work of the last days, then she and I were walking different paths. Now, I had to stand my ground, not be ruled by my emotions, and rely on God to stand firm in my witness. So, I calmed myself and said to my mother, “As believers, don’t we look forward to the Lord’s coming? Now the Lord has returned, and God’s work of judgment in the last days has begun, so I hope you’ll also investigate carefully, and not always listen to the pastor’s words. If we lose God’s salvation in the last days, we completely lose our chance of salvation.” My mother went silent for the moment, but my father got angry and said, “I just have one question for you. Will you stop believing in Almighty God?” I looked at him and answered resolutely, “No.” When I said this, I felt a deep sense of peace and security. I had finally expressed a firm stance. My dad got even angrier and said very seriously, “You’re too old for me to control anymore. You can choose your own path. Make sure you won’t regret it later.” My father’s words made me realize I had grown up, and it was time to take responsibility for my life. Now, I had accepted God’s work of the last days and followed God’s footsteps, so I should follow my path without hesitation.

After that, my parents stopped interfering in my belief in God. I gained some discernment from my family’s disturbance, and understood some truths. I truly felt God is almighty and wise, I saw Satan is despicable and evil, and I truly felt that God is my reliance. Now, I want to properly pursue the truth and follow God to the end!