You need to have an understanding of the many states that people will be in when the Holy Spirit performs work on them. In particular, those who coordinate in service to God must have an even stronger grasp of the many states brought about by the work that the Holy Spirit performs on people. If you only talk about a lot of experiences or ways of attaining entry, it shows that your experience is overly one-sided. Without knowing your true state and grasping the principles of the truth, it is not possible to achieve a change in disposition. Without knowing the principles of the Holy Spirit’s work or understanding the fruit it bears, it will be difficult for you to discern the work of evil spirits. You must expose the work of evil spirits, as well as the notions of man, and penetrate straight to the heart of the issue; you must also point out many deviations in people’s practice and problems they might have in their faith in God, so that they may recognize them. At the very least, you must not make them feel negative or passive. However, you must understand the difficulties that objectively exist for most people, you must not be unreasonable or “try to teach a pig to sing”; that is foolish behavior. To resolve the many difficulties people experience, you must first comprehend the dynamics of the work of the Holy Spirit; you must understand how the Holy Spirit performs work on different people, you must have an understanding of the difficulties people face and of their shortcomings, and you must see through to the key issues of the problem and get to its source, without deviating or making any errors. Only this kind of person is qualified to coordinate in service to God.

Whether or not you are able to grasp the key issues and see many things clearly depends on your individual experiences. The manner in which you experience is also the manner in which you lead others. If you understand letters and doctrines, then you will lead others to understand letters and doctrines. The way that you experience the reality of God’s words is the way in which you will lead others to attain entry to the reality of God’s utterances. If you are able to understand many truths and clearly gain insight into many things from God’s words, then you are capable of leading others to understand many truths, too, and those whom you lead will gain a clear understanding of the visions. If you focus on grasping supernatural feelings, then those whom you lead will do the same. If you neglect practice, instead placing emphasis on discussion, then those whom you lead will also focus on discussion, without practicing at all or attaining any transformation in their dispositions; they will only be enthusiastic superficially, without having put any truths into practice. All people supply others with what they themselves possess. The type of person someone is determines the path onto which they guide others, as well as the type of people that they lead. To be truly fit for God’s use, you not only must have an aspiration, but you also need a great deal of enlightenment from God, guidance from His words, the experience of being dealt with by Him, and the refinement of His words. With this as a foundation, in ordinary times, you should pay attention to your observations, thoughts, ponderances, and conclusions, and engage in absorption or elimination accordingly. These are all paths for your entry to reality, and each one of them is indispensable. This is how God works. If you enter into this method by which God works, you can have opportunities every day to be perfected by Him. And at any time, regardless of whether your environment is harsh or favorable, whether you are being tested or tempted, whether you are working or not, and whether you are living life as an individual or as part of a collective, you will always find opportunities to be perfected by God, without ever missing a single one of them. You will be able to discover them all—and in this way, you will have found the secret to experiencing God’s words.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. What an Adequate Shepherd Should Be Equipped With