What should you know about the practical God? The Spirit, the Person, and the Word make up the practical God Himself, and this is the true meaning of the practical God Himself. If you only know the Person—if you know His habits and personality—but do not know the work of the Spirit, or what the Spirit does in the flesh, and if you only pay attention to the Spirit, and the Word, and only pray before the Spirit, but do not know the work of God’s Spirit in the practical God, then this yet proves that you do not know the practical God. Knowledge of the practical God includes knowing and experiencing His words, and grasping the rules and principles of the work of the Holy Spirit and how the Spirit of God works in the flesh. It also includes knowing that every action of God in the flesh is governed by the Spirit, and that the words He speaks are the direct expression of the Spirit. Thus, to know the practical God, it is paramount to know how God works in humanity and in divinity; this, in turn, concerns the expressions of the Spirit, with which all people engage.

What are the aspects of the expressions of the Spirit? Sometimes God works in humanity, and sometimes in divinity—but in both cases the Spirit is in command. Whatever the spirit within people, thus is their external expression. The Spirit works normally, but there are two parts to His direction by the Spirit: One part is His work in humanity, and the other is His work through divinity. You should know this clearly. The Spirit’s work varies according to circumstances: When His human work is required, the Spirit directs this human work, and when His divine work is required, the divinity appears directly to carry it out. Because God works in the flesh and appears in the flesh, He works both in humanity and in divinity. His work in humanity is directed by the Spirit and done in order to satisfy people’s fleshly needs, to facilitate their engagement with Him, to allow them to behold the practicality and normality of God, and to allow them to see that the Spirit of God has come in the flesh and is among man, lives together with man, and engages with man. His work in divinity is done in order to provide for people’s lives and to guide people in everything from the positive side, changing people’s dispositions and allowing them truly to behold the Spirit’s appearance in the flesh. In the main, the growth in man’s life is directly achieved through God’s work and words in divinity. Only if people accept God’s work in divinity can they achieve changes in their disposition, and only then can they be sated in their spirit; only if, added to this, there is the work in humanity—God’s shepherding, support, and provision in humanity—can the results of God’s work be achieved fully. The practical God Himself who is spoken of today works both in humanity and in divinity. Through the appearance of the practical God, His normal human work and life and His completely divine work are achieved. His humanity and divinity are combined as one, and the work of both is accomplished through words; whether in humanity or divinity, He utters words. When God works in humanity, He speaks the language of humanity, so that people may engage and understand. His words are spoken plainly and are easy to understand, such that they can be provided to all people; regardless of whether people are possessed of knowledge or poorly educated, they can all receive God’s words. God’s work in divinity is also carried out through words, but it is full of provision, it is full of life, it is untainted by human ideas, it does not involve human preferences, and it is without human limits, it is outside the bounds of any normal humanity; it is carried out in the flesh, but it is the direct expression of the Spirit. If people only accept God’s work in humanity, then they will confine themselves to a certain scope, and so will require perennial pruning and discipline in order for there to be even a slight change in them. Without the work or presence of the Holy Spirit, though, they will always resort to their old ways; it is only through the work of divinity that these maladies and deficiencies can be rectified, and only then can people be made complete. Instead of sustained pruning, what is required is positive provision, using words to make up for all shortcomings, using words to reveal people’s every state, using words to direct their lives, their every utterance, their every action, to lay bare their intentions and motivations. This is the practical work of the practical God. Thus, in your attitude to the practical God, you should submit before His humanity at once, recognizing and acknowledging Him, and you should furthermore accept and submit to His divine work and words. God’s appearance in the flesh means that all of the work and words of the Spirit of God are done through His normal humanity and through His incarnate flesh. In other words, God’s Spirit at once directs His human work and carries out the work of divinity in the flesh, and in God incarnate you can see both God’s work in humanity and His completely divine work. This is the actual significance of the practical God’s appearance in the flesh. If you can see this clearly, you will be able to connect all the different parts of God; you will cease to attach undue importance on His work in divinity, and you will cease to view His work in humanity with undue dismissiveness, and you will not go to extremes, nor take any detours. Overall, the meaning of the practical God is that the work of His humanity and of His divinity, as directed by the Spirit, is expressed through His flesh, so that people can see that He is vivid and lifelike, real and true.

The work of God’s Spirit in humanity has transitional phases. By perfecting humanity, He enables His humanity to receive the direction of the Spirit, after which His humanity is able to provide and shepherd the churches. This is one expression of God’s normal work. Thus, if you can see clearly the principles of God’s work in humanity, then you will be unlikely to harbor notions about God’s work in humanity. Regardless of anything else, the Spirit of God cannot be wrong. He is right and without error; He does not do anything incorrectly. Divine work is the direct expression of the intentions of God, without the disturbance of humanity. It does not undergo perfection, but comes directly from the Spirit. However, the fact that He can work in divinity is due to His normal humanity; it is not in the least supernatural, and it seems to be carried out by a normal person. God came from heaven to earth primarily in order to express the words of God through the flesh, to complete the work of the Spirit of God by means of the flesh.

Today, people’s knowledge of the practical God remains too one-sided, and their understanding of the significance of the incarnation is still too meager. With God’s flesh, people see through His work and words that God’s Spirit includes so much, that He is so rich. Yet no matter what, God’s testimony ultimately comes from the Spirit of God: what God does in the flesh, which principles He works by, what He does in humanity, and what He does in divinity. People must have knowledge of this. Today, you are able to worship this person, while in essence you are worshiping the Spirit, and that is the very least that people should achieve in their knowledge of God incarnate: knowing the essence of the Spirit through the flesh, knowing the Spirit’s divine work in the flesh and human work in the flesh, accepting all the Spirit’s words and utterances in the flesh, and seeing how the Spirit of God directs the flesh and demonstrates His power in the flesh. This is to say that man comes to know the Spirit in heaven through the flesh; the appearance of the practical God Himself among man has dispelled the vague God in people’s notions. People’s worship of the practical God Himself has increased their submission to God, and, through the Spirit of God’s divine work in the flesh and His human work in the flesh, man receives revelation and is shepherded, and changes are achieved in man’s life disposition. This is the actual meaning of the Spirit’s arrival in the flesh, the primary purpose of which is that people may engage with God, rely on God, and arrive at knowledge of God.

In the main, what attitude should people have toward the practical God? What do you know of the incarnation, of the Word’s appearance in the flesh, of God’s appearance in the flesh, of the deeds of the practical God? What are the main topics of discussion today? The incarnation, the Word’s arrival in the flesh, and God’s appearance in the flesh are all issues that must be understood. You must come gradually to understand these issues and to have a clear knowledge of them in your life experience, based on your stature and based on the era. The process by which people experience God’s words is the same as the process by which they know the appearance of God’s words in the flesh. The more people experience God’s words, the more they know the Spirit of God; through experiencing God’s words, people grasp the principles of the Spirit’s work and come to know the practical God Himself. In fact, when God makes people perfect and gains them, He is letting them know the deeds of the practical God; He is using the work of the practical God to show people the actual significance of the incarnation, to show them that the Spirit of God has actually appeared before man. When people are gained and made perfect by God, the expressions of the practical God have conquered them; the words of the practical God have changed them and worked His own life into them, filling them with what He is (whether it be what He is in His humanity or what He is in His divinity), filling them with the essence of His words, and making people live out His words. When God gains people, He does so primarily by using the words and utterances of the practical God as a way to prune people’s deficiencies and to judge and expose their rebellious disposition, causing them to gain what they need and showing them that God has come among man. Most important of all, the work done by the practical God is that of saving every person from the influence of Satan, taking them away from the land of filth, and dispelling their corrupt disposition. The most profound significance of being gained by the practical God is being able to live out normal humanity with the practical God as an exemplar and a model, being able to practice according to the words and requirements of the practical God without the slightest deviation or departure, practicing in whatever way He says, and being able to achieve whatever He asks. In this way, you will have been gained by God. When you are gained by God, you do not only possess the work of the Holy Spirit; principally, you are able to live out the requirements of the practical God. Merely having the work of the Holy Spirit does not mean you have life. The crux is whether you are able to act according to the practical God’s requirements of you, which relates to whether you are able to be gained by God. These are the greatest meaning of the practical God’s work in the flesh. This is to say that God gains a group of people by really and actually appearing in the flesh and being vivid and lifelike, being seen by people, actually doing the work of the Spirit in the flesh, and by acting as an exemplar for people in the flesh. God’s arrival in the flesh is primarily meant to enable people to see the practical deeds of God, to give fleshly form to the formless Spirit, and to allow people to see and touch Him. In this way, those who are made complete by Him will live Him out, will be gained by Him, and will be in line with His intentions. If God only spoke in heaven and had not actually come onto the earth, then people would yet be incapable of knowing God; they would only be able to preach God’s deeds using empty theory and would not have God’s words as reality. God has come onto the earth primarily to act as an exemplar and a model for those whom He is to gain; only thus can people actually know God, touch God, and see Him, and only then can they truly be gained by God.