How should man love God during refinement? Having experienced refinement, during refinement people are able to truly praise God and to see just how much they are lacking. The greater your refinement, the more you are able to renounce the flesh; the greater your refinement, the more your love for God. This is what you should understand. Why must people be refined? What effect does it aim to achieve? What is the significance of God’s work of refinement in man? If you truly seek God, then having experienced His refinement to a certain point you will feel that it is so good, and that it is of the utmost necessity. How should man love God during refinement? By using the resolve to love God to accept His refinement: During refinement you are tormented inside, as if a knife were being twisted in your heart, yet you are willing to satisfy God using your heart, which loves Him, and you are unwilling to care for the flesh. This is what is meant by practicing the love of God. You hurt inside, and your suffering has reached a certain point, yet you are still willing to come before God and pray, saying: “O God! I cannot leave You. Although there is darkness within me, I wish to satisfy You; You know my heart, and I would that You invest more of Your love within me.” This is practice during refinement. If you use the love of God as the foundation, refinement can bring you closer to God and make you more intimate with God. Since you believe in God, you must hand over your heart before God. If you offer up and lay your heart before God, then during refinement it will be impossible for you to deny God, or leave God. In this way your relationship with God will become ever closer, and ever more normal, and your communion with God will become ever more frequent. If you always practice in this way, then you will spend more time in God’s light, and more time under the guidance of His words, there will also be more and more changes in your disposition, and your knowledge will increase day by day. When the day comes and God’s trials suddenly befall you, you will not only be able to stand by God’s side, but will also be able to bear testimony to God. At that time, you will be like Job, and Peter. Having borne testimony to God you will truly love Him, and will gladly lay down your life for Him; you will be God’s witness, and one who is beloved by God. Love that has experienced refinement is strong, and not weak. Regardless of when or how God subjects you to His trials, you are able to care not whether you live or die, to gladly cast aside everything for God, and to happily endure anything for God—and thus your love will be pure, and your faith real. Only then will you be someone who is truly loved by God, and who has truly been made perfect by God.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only by Experiencing Refinement Can Man Possess True Love

I

Since you believe in God, you must hand your heart to Him. Offer up your heart, and when refined, you’ll not deny God or leave. And your connection with God will take on a normal form. Your communion with God will become more frequent and more close. If you always practice this way, you will live in God’s light more, you’ll be more guided by God’s words, your disposition more transformed. Your knowledge, day by day, it will accumulate. When the day comes and God’s trials fall upon you suddenly, you will not only stand by God’s side, but you’ll bear witness to Him. Then you’ll be a person just like Job, just like Peter. Since you believe in God, you must hand your heart to Him. Offer up your heart, and when refined, you’ll not deny God or leave. And your connection with God will take on a normal form. Your communion with God will become more frequent and more close.

II

Having borne witness to God, you’ll be the one who truly loves Him. For Him you can lay down your life, and His witness you will be. You will be the one beloved, the one who is beloved by God. Since you believe in God, you must hand your heart to Him. Offer up your heart, and when refined, you’ll not deny God or leave. And your connection with God will take on a normal form. Your communion with God will become more frequent and more close.

III

Love that has undergone refinement, it’s strong and isn’t fragile. Regardless of when or how God subjects you to trials, you will not give any thought to whether you live or not. For God you’ll gladly cast all aside, happily endure all for God. Thus your love is pure, your faith is real, and then you will be loved by God. Only then can you become someone perfected by God. Since you believe in God, you must hand your heart to Him. Offer up your heart, and when refined, you’ll not deny God or leave. And your connection with God will take on a normal form. Your communion with God will become more frequent and more close.

Adapted from The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only by Experiencing Refinement Can Man Possess True Love