The work of God incarnate includes two parts. The first time He became flesh, people did not believe in Him or know Him, and nailed Jesus to the cross. The second time, too, people did not believe in Him, much less know Him, and once again nailed Christ to the cross. Is man not the enemy of God? If man does not know Him, how could man be the intimate of God? And how could he be qualified to bear testimony to God? Loving God, serving God, glorifying God—are these not deceitful lies? If you devote your life to these unrealistic, impractical things, do you not labor in vain? How could you be God’s intimate when you do not even know who God is? Is such pursuit not vague and abstract? Is it not deceitful? How can one be an intimate of God? What is the practical significance of being an intimate of God? Can you be an intimate of God’s Spirit? Can you see how great and exalted the Spirit is? To be the intimate of an invisible, intangible God—is that not vague and abstract? What is the practical significance of such pursuit? Is it not all deceitful lies? What you pursue is to become God’s intimate, yet in fact you are Satan’s lapdog, for you do not know God, and pursue the non-existent “God of all things,” which is invisible, intangible, and of your own conceptions. Vaguely speaking, such a “God” is Satan, and practically speaking, it is you yourself. You seek to be your own intimate yet still say you pursue to be the intimate of God—is that not blasphemy? What is the value of such pursuit? If the Spirit of God does not become flesh, then the substance of God is merely an invisible, intangible Spirit of life, formless and amorphous, of the nonmaterial kind, unapproachable and incomprehensible to man. How could man be the intimate of an incorporeal, wondrous, unfathomable Spirit such as this? Is this not a joke? Such absurd reasoning is invalid and impractical. Created man is of an inherently different kind to the Spirit of God, so how could the two of them be intimates? If the Spirit of God were not realized in the flesh, if God did not become flesh and humble Himself by becoming a creature, then created man would be both unqualified and unable to be His intimate, and apart from those godly believers who may have the chance to be God’s intimates after their souls have entered into heaven, most people would be unable to become the intimates of God’s Spirit. And if man wishes to become the intimate of God in heaven under the guidance of God incarnate, is he not an astonishingly foolish non-human? Man merely pursues “faithfulness” to an invisible God, and pays not the slightest attention to the God that can be seen, for it is so easy to pursue an invisible God—man may do so however he likes. But the pursuit of the visible God is not so easy. The man that seeks a vague God is absolutely unable to gain God, for things that are vague and abstract are all imagined by man, and incapable of being gained by man. If the God that came among you were a lofty and exalted God who was inaccessible to you, then how could you seek His will? And how could you know and understand Him? If He only did His work, and had no normal contact with man, or was possessed of no normal humanity and unapproachable to mere mortals, then, even if He did much work for you but you had no contact with Him, and were unable to see Him, how could you know Him? If it were not for this flesh possessed of normal humanity, man would have no way of knowing God; it is only because of God’s incarnation that man is qualified to be the intimate of this God in the flesh. Man becomes God’s intimate because man comes into contact with Him, because man lives together with Him and keeps His company, and so gradually comes to know Him. If it were not thus, would man’s pursuit not be in vain? That is to say, it is not all because of God’s work that man is able to be God’s intimate, but because of the reality and normality of God incarnate. It is only because God becomes flesh that man has the chance to perform his duty, and the chance to worship the true God. Is this not the most real and practical truth? Now, do you still wish to be the intimate of God in heaven? Only when God humbles Himself to a certain point, which is to say, only when God becomes flesh, can man be His intimate and confidant. God is of the Spirit: How is man qualified to be the intimate of this Spirit, who is so exalted and unfathomable? Only when the Spirit of God descends into the flesh, and becomes a creature with the same exterior as man, can man understand His will and actually be gained by Him. He speaks and works in the flesh, shares in the joys, sorrows, and tribulations of man, lives in the same world as man, protects man, and guides him, and through this He cleanses man, and allows man to gain His salvation and His blessing. Having gained these things, man truly understands God’s will, and only then can he be an intimate of God. Only this is practical. If God were invisible and intangible to man, how could man be His intimate? Is this not empty doctrine?

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Those Who Know God and His Work Can Satisfy God