Those Who Submit to God With a True Heart Shall Surely Be Gained by God
The work of the Holy Spirit changes from day to day. It rises higher with each step, the revelation of tomorrow higher than today’s, climbing ever higher, step after step. Such is the work by which God perfects man. If people cannot keep pace, then they could be eliminated at any time. If they do not have a heart of submission, they will be unable to follow to the very end. The former age has passed; this is a new age. And in a new age, new work must be done. Particularly in the final age in which people are perfected, God will perform newer work, more quickly, so without submission in their hearts, people will find it difficult to follow the footsteps of God. God does not abide by any rules, nor does He treat any stage of His work as unchanging. Instead, the work He does is ever newer and ever higher. With each stage, His work becomes more and more practical, and increasingly in line with the actual needs of man. Only after people experience such work can they attain the final transformation of their disposition. Man’s knowledge of life reaches ever higher levels, and so, likewise, the work of God reaches ever higher levels. Only thus can man be made perfect and become fit for God’s use. God works in this way on the one hand to counter and reverse the notions of man, and on the other to lead man into a higher and more realistic state, into the highest realm of belief in God, so that in the end, the will of God can be done. All those of a rebellious nature who willfully oppose shall be eliminated by this stage of God’s swift and furiously advancing work; only those who willingly submit and who gladly humble themselves can progress to the end of the road. In this kind of work, all of you should learn how to submit and how to put aside your notions. You should be cautious in every step you take. If you are careless, you will surely become one who is spurned by the Holy Spirit, one who disrupts God’s work. Prior to undergoing this stage of work, man’s rules and laws of old were so innumerable that he got carried away, and as a result, he became conceited and forgot himself. These are all obstacles that keep man from accepting the new work of God; they are the enemies of man’s knowledge of God. It is dangerous for people to have neither submission in their hearts nor a yearning for the truth. If you submit only to work and words that are simple, and are incapable of accepting anything more profound, then you are one who clings to old ways and cannot keep pace with the work of the Holy Spirit. The work done by God differs from period to period. If you are of great submission to God’s work in one phase, but in the next phase your submission toward His work is poor, or you are incapable of submission, then God shall desert you. If you keep pace with God as He takes this step, then you must continue to keep pace when He ascends the next; only then will you be someone who is submissive to the Holy Spirit. Since you believe in God, you must remain constant in your submission. You cannot simply submit when you please and do not submit when you do not. This kind of submission is not praised by God. If you cannot keep pace with the new work I fellowship, and continue to hold on to the former sayings, then how can there be progress in your life? God’s work is to supply you through His words. When you submit to and accept His words, the Holy Spirit shall surely work in you. The Holy Spirit works exactly as I speak; do as I have said, and the Holy Spirit will promptly work in you. I release a new light for you to behold, bringing you into the light of the present, and when you walk into this light, the Holy Spirit shall immediately work in you. There are some who may be recalcitrant, saying, “I simply will not carry out what You say.” In which case, I tell you that you have now come to the end of the road; you are dried up, and have no more life. Thus, in experiencing the transformation of your disposition, nothing is more crucial than keeping pace with the present light. The Holy Spirit not only works in certain people who are used by God, but, furthermore, in the church. He could be working in anyone. He may work in you during the present time, and you will experience this work. During the next period, He may work in someone else, in which case you must haste to follow; the more closely you follow the present light, the more your life can grow. No matter what manner of person someone is, if the Holy Spirit works in them, then you must follow. Take in their experiences through your own, and you will receive even higher things. In so doing you will progress more quickly. This is the path of perfection for man and the means by which life grows. The path to being made perfect is reached through your submission to the work of the Holy Spirit. You do not know through what kind of person God will work to perfect you, nor through what person, occurrence, or thing He will allow you to gain or see things. If you can set foot upon this right track, it shows that there is great hope for you to be perfected by God. If you cannot, it shows that your future is bleak, devoid of light. Once you embark upon the right track, you will gain revelation in all things. No matter what the Holy Spirit reveals to others, if you proceed on the basis of their knowledge to experience things on your own, then this experience will become a part of your life, and you will be able to supply others out of this experience. Those who supply others by parroting words are people who have not had any experiences; you must learn to find, through the enlightenment and illumination of others, a way of practice before you can begin to speak of your own actual experience and knowledge. This will be of greater benefit to your own life. You should experience thus, submitting to all that comes from God. You should seek the intentions of God in all things and learn the lessons in all things, that your life may grow. Such practice affords the fastest progress.
The Holy Spirit enlightens you through your practical experiences, and perfects you through your faith. Are you truly willing to be perfected? If you are truly willing to be perfected by God, then you will have the courage to cast aside your flesh, you will be able to carry out God’s words, and you will not be negative or weak. You will be able to submit to all that comes from God, and all of your actions, whether done in public or in private, will be presentable to God. If you are an honest person, and practice the truth in all things, then you will be perfected. Those deceitful people who act one way in front of others and another way behind their backs are not willing to be perfected. They are all sons of perdition and destruction; they belong not to God but to Satan. They are not the kind of people chosen by God! If your actions and behavior cannot be presented before God or looked upon by the Spirit of God, this is proof that there is something wrong with you. Only if you accept the judgment and chastisement of God, and care about the transformation of your disposition, will you be able to set foot upon the path to being perfected. If you are truly willing to be perfected by God and to follow the will of God, then you should submit to all of God’s work, without a single word of complaint, without presuming to evaluate or to judge the work of God. These are the minimal requirements for being perfected by God. The necessary requirement for those who seek to be perfected by God is this: Act with a God-loving heart in all things. What does it mean to act with a God-loving heart? It means that all of your actions and behavior can be presented before God. And because you have the right intentions, whether your actions are right or wrong, you are not afraid to show them to God or to your brothers and sisters, and you dare to swear an oath before God. You must present your every intention, thought, and idea before God for His scrutiny; if you practice and enter in this way, then progress in your life will be swift.
Since you believe in God, you must put faith in all of the words of God and in all of His work. Which is to say, since you believe in God, you must submit to Him. If you are unable to do this, then it does not matter whether you believe in God or not. If you have believed in God for many years, and yet have never submitted to Him, and do not accept the entirety of His words, and instead ask that God submit to you and act according to your notions, then you are the most rebellious of all, you are a disbeliever. How could such people be able to submit to the work and words of God that do not conform to the notions of man? Most rebellious of all are those who intentionally defy and resist God. They are the enemies of God, the antichrists. Theirs is always an attitude of hostility toward the new work of God; they never have the slightest inclination to submit, nor have they ever gladly submitted or humbled themselves. They exalt themselves before others and never submit to anyone. Before God, they consider themselves the best at preaching the word, and the most skillful in working on others. Never do they discard the “treasures” in their possession, but treat them as family heirlooms for worship, for preaching about to others, and they use them to lecture those fools who idolize them. There are indeed a certain number of people like this in the church. It can be said that they are “indomitable heroes,” generation after generation sojourning in the house of God. They take preaching the word (doctrine) to be their highest duty. Year after year, generation after generation, they go about vigorously enforcing their “sacred and inviolable” duty. None dare touch them; not a single person dares openly reproach them. They become “kings” in the house of God, running rampant as they tyrannize others from age to age. This pack of demons seeks to join hands and demolish My work; how can I allow these living devils to exist before My eyes? Even those who are only half submissive cannot carry on until the end, much less these tyrants without the slightest submission in their hearts! The work of God is not easily gained by man. Even using all the strength they have, people can only gain a mere portion of it, ultimately allowing them to be made perfect. What, then, of the children of the archangel, who seek to destroy the work of God? Do they not have even less hope of being gained by God? My purpose in doing the work of conquest is not solely to conquer for the sake of conquest, but to conquer so as to reveal righteousness and unrighteousness, to obtain proof for the punishment of man, to condemn the evil, and, furthermore, to conquer for the sake of perfecting those who willingly submit. In the end, all will be separated according to kind, and the ones who are perfected will be the ones whose thoughts and ideas are filled with submission. This is the work that shall ultimately be accomplished. Those whose every action is rebellious, meanwhile, will be punished and sent to burn in the fires, the objects of eternal curse. When that time comes, those “great and indomitable heroes” of ages past will become the basest and most shunned “weak and impotent cowards.” Only this can illustrate every aspect of God’s righteousness, and His disposition that is unoffendable by man, and only this can appease the hatred in My heart. Do you not agree that this is entirely reasonable?
Not all those who experience the work of the Holy Spirit, nor those who are in this stream, can gain life. Life is not a common property shared by all humanity, and changes in disposition are not easily achieved by all people. Submission to the work of God must be real and actual, and it must be lived out. Superficial submission alone cannot receive God’s praise, and merely submitting to the superficial aspects of God’s word, without seeking change in one’s disposition, is not in line with God’s intentions. Submission to God and submission to the work of God are one and the same. Those who submit only to God but not to His work cannot be deemed submissive, much less those who do not truly submit but are outwardly sycophantic. Those who truly submit to God are all able to gain from the work and achieve understanding of the disposition and work of God. Only such people truly submit to God. Such people are able to gain new knowledge, and undergo new changes, from new work. Only these people are praised by God, only these people are perfected, and only these are the ones whose dispositions have changed. Those who are praised by God are those who gladly submit to God, and to His word and work. Only such people are in the right, only such people sincerely want God, and sincerely seek God. As for those who merely speak of their faith in God with their mouths, but in essence curse Him, they are people who mask themselves, who bear the venom of the snake; they are the most treacherous of all. Sooner or later, these scoundrels will have their vile masks ripped away. Is this not the work that is being done today? Evil men will always be evil, and will never escape the day of punishment. Good men will always be good, and will be revealed when God’s work comes to an end. Not one of the evil shall be deemed righteous, nor any one of the righteous deemed evil. Would I let any man stand wrongfully accused?
As your life progresses, you must always have new entry and new, higher insight, which grow deeper with every step. This is what all humanity should enter into. Through communing, listening to sermons, reading the word of God, or handling some matter, you will gain new insight and new enlightenment, and will not live within the rules of old and times of old; you will always live in the new light, and will not stray from the word of God. This is what is meant by embarking upon the right track. Paying a price on some superficial level will not do; day by day, the word of God enters a higher realm, and new things appear every day, and man, too, must make a new entry every day. As God speaks, so He brings to fruition all that which He has spoken, and if you cannot keep up, then you will fall behind. You must go deeper in your prayers; eating and drinking of the word of God cannot be intermittent. Deepen the enlightenment and illumination you receive, and your notions and imaginings must gradually recede. You must also strengthen your judgment, and whatever you encounter, you must have your own thoughts about it and have your own viewpoints. By understanding some things in the spirit, you must gain insight into the outward things and grasp the essence of any issue. If you are not equipped with these things, how will you be able to lead the church? If you only speak of words and doctrines without any reality and without a way of practice, you will only be able to get by for a short period of time. It may be marginally acceptable when speaking to new believers, but after a time, when new believers have had some actual experience, you will no longer be able to supply them. Then how are you fit for God’s use? Without new enlightenment, you cannot work. Those without new enlightenment are those who do not know how to experience, and such people never gain new knowledge or new experience. And, in the matter of supplying life, they can never perform their function, nor can they become fit for God’s use. This kind of person is good for nothing, a mere wastrel. In truth, such people are wholly incapable of performing their function in the work, they are all good for nothing. Not only do they fail to perform their function, but they actually place much unnecessary strain on the church. I exhort these “venerable old men” to make haste and leave the church, so that others no longer have to look upon you. Such people have no understanding of the new work and are filled with endless notions. They serve no function whatsoever in the church; rather, they make mischief and spread negativity everywhere, even to the point of engaging in all manner of misconduct and disturbance in the church, thereby throwing those who lack discrimination into confusion and disarray. These living devils, these evil spirits should leave the church as soon as possible, lest the church be blighted on your account. You may not fear the work of today, but do you not fear the righteous punishment of tomorrow? There are large numbers of people in the church who are freeloaders, and a great number of wolves that seek to disrupt the normal work of God. These things are all demons sent by the demon king, vicious wolves who seek to devour the unknowing lambs. If these so-called people are not expelled, they will become parasites on the church, moths devouring the offerings. Sooner or later, a day will come when these contemptible, ignorant, base, and repulsive maggots are punished!