Church life is only a kind of life where people gather to savor the words of God, and it makes up only a small sliver of one’s life. If people’s real life could also be like their church life—including a normal spiritual life, normally savoring God’s words, praying and being close to God normally, living a real life where everything is carried out in accordance with God’s will, living a real life where everything is carried out in accordance with the truth, living a real life of practicing prayer and practicing being quiet before God, of practicing the singing of hymns and dancing—then this is the only kind of life that would bring them into a life of God’s words. Most people only focus on the several hours of their church life without “caring for” their life outside those hours, as though it were of no concern to them. There are also many people who only enter into the life of the saints when eating and drinking God’s words, singing hymns, or praying, and then they revert to their old selves outside those times. Living like this cannot transform people, much less make them know God. In believing in God, if people desire transformation of their disposition, then they must not detach themselves from real life. In real life, you must know yourself, forsake yourself, practice the truth, as well as learn the principles, common sense, and rules of self-conduct in all things before you are able to achieve gradual transformation. If you only focus on the theoretical knowledge and only live among religious ceremonies without going deep into reality, without entering into real life, then you will never enter into reality, you will never know yourself, the truth, or God, and you will forever be blind and ignorant. God’s work of saving people is not to allow them to live normal human lives after a short period of time, nor is it to transform their erroneous notions and doctrines. Rather, His purpose is to change people’s old dispositions, to change the entirety of their old way of life, and to change all of their outdated ways of thinking and mental outlook. Focusing only on church life will not change people’s old life habits or change the old ways in which they have lived for a long time. No matter what, people must not become detached from real life. God asks that people live out normal humanity in real life, not just in church life; that they live out the truth in real life, not just in church life; and that they fulfill their functions in real life, not just in church life. To enter into reality, one must turn everything toward real life. If, in believing in God, people cannot come to know themselves through entry into real life, and if they cannot live out normal humanity in real life, then they will become failures. Those who disobey God are all people who cannot enter into real life. They are all people who speak of humanity, but live out the nature of demons. They are all people who speak of the truth, but live out doctrines instead. Those who cannot live out the truth in real life are those who believe in God, but are detested and rejected by Him. You have to practice your entry in real life, know your own deficiencies, disobedience, and ignorance, and know your abnormal humanity and weaknesses. That way, your knowledge will be integrated into your actual condition and difficulties. Only this kind of knowledge is real and can allow you to truly grasp your own condition and achieve dispositional transformation.

Now that the perfecting of people has formally begun, you must enter into real life. Therefore, to achieve transformation, you must start from entry into real life, and transform little by little. If you avoid normal human life and only talk about spiritual matters, then things become dry and flat; they become unrealistic, and then how could people transform? Now you are told to enter into real life to practice, in order to establish a foundation for entering into true experience. This is one aspect of what people must do. The work of the Holy Spirit is mainly to guide, while the rest depends on people’s practice and entry. Everyone may attain entry into real life through different paths, such that they can bring God into real life, and live out a real normal humanity. This is the only kind of life with meaning!

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Discussing Church Life and Real Life