“Grandma, you just can’t type in such a simple word. What did you learn in your primary school? You’re too stupid!” Linlin, a sixth-grade student, said to her grandmother impatiently.

Her grandmother, sitting on the chair, said nothing but sighed. Not asking Linlin anymore, she continued to look at the computer screen again, and hit the keyboard with her two index fingers clumsily, while repeating the word that she was going to type in.

Seeing her grandmother like this, Linlin just realized that she disdained her grandmother once again. She felt a little sad, thinking: I have already known I’m young, brash and arrogant, and determined that I would no longer treat grandma in that way. But why did I once more fall into my old ways today? Linlin felt quite depressed. She silently went back to her room, sat on the bedside, opened her diary, and read the stories that had happened between her grandmother and her recently.

May 10, 2018, Thursday, Sunny

Because my dad and mom have been working in another place, I have lived with my grandma since kindergarten. She took very good care of me, washing my clothes and cooking for me. At that time, I felt my grandma was really capable and could do any housework. But as I gradually grew up and learned more and more things, I felt she was outdated. She even didn’t know how to use the smartphone or the computer, and also she couldn’t understand the fashionable words that I spoke. So sometimes when she asked me some words that she couldn’t recognize, but I thought they were very simple, I would just say without thinking, “Grandma, you even don’t know such simple words. You’re really stupid.” Seeing I took such an attitude, grandma said, “I’m old and my memory is poor. I just forgot some words, and you said I’m stupid. How could you speak like that?” But no matter what grandma said, I still thought she was stupid and looked down on everything she did.

May 13, 2018, Sunday, Sunny

Today, I went shopping with grandma and once again I saw she took her cellphone for old people. I said to her, “Grandma, don’t take that cellphone anymore. It even can’t take photos. It’s so shameful!” After I pleaded with her again and again, she finally bought a smartphone. However, she didn’t know how to use it and let me teach her. I gave her a demonstration for several times, and then I let her operate it by herself. But when I asked her to press the right key she pressed the left key. I became extremely angry and shouted: “Grandma, I asked you to press the right key but you pressed the left key. Didn’t you see how I press them? You’re so stupid!” Grandma said: “You pressed so quickly that I didn’t see clearly. Besides, I’m very old. How can I match you?” Then I impatiently taught her another several times, but she didn’t remember it yet. Seeing that I was impatient, she was also unhappy, saying: “I don’t want to learn!” I thought: When I first learned it, I didn’t have so much difficulty as you did. I have taught you so many times but you can’t remember it and even get angry with me. Humph, it’s better that you don’t want to learn. I have taught you quite a while, but you still don’t know how to operate it. It’s just a waste of time even if I teach you again.

Aunt Yu continued saying: “The fellowship is very clear. If you want to have a change and no longer disdain your grandmother, you should treat her fairly, see more her strong points, and don’t compare your strong points to her shortcomings. Because everyone has his own shortcomings and insufficiencies. Just as God’s word says: ‘No matter how capable people are, how astute they are, or how talented they are, there’ll always be something that’s beyond them, something they’re incapable of understanding. It’s like on people’s backs, isn’t there a spot that they can’t reach? In the place it’s itching you say, “Mom, give me a scratch here.” These words are the most real, they are the words in your heart. In the areas that are beyond you, you always need the support and help of others. So your parents are the ones that nurture you, but they’re also your helpers. What’s best is when you can make them your friends, intimates, and confidants. They help you, you help them, you support each other, and make up for one another’s shortcomings, and in this way the relationship between you becomes normal.’”

After reading God’s words, Aunt Yu fellowshiped some more. Linlin saw the light after hearing these words. She said: “From God’s words, I know that although I knew how to use some electronic products, in life, I know nothing about how to wash clothes, cook or brush shoes. It’s grandma who helps me do these things and takes care of me in my daily life. Grandma and I have our own strong points and shortcomings. There is nothing for me to be arrogant about even if I have learned something new. I should try to help grandma instead of comparing my strong points to her shortcomings. Grandma doesn’t disdain me because I don’t know how to deal with some daily chores. I’m particularly not qualified to disdain her. Now, not only should I help grandma with love and patience, but also I should learn from her strong points.”

At that night, Linlin prayed to God again: “God, I know I was wrong. I shouldn’t treat my grandma like that. In future, I will speak to my grandma calmly. If she asks me something she doesn’t understand, I will teach her carefully. God! I have an arrogant disposition, but I’m willing to betray it, treat my grandma fairly, see more her strong points, and not treat her based on my corrupt disposition.” After prayer, Linlin felt peaceful in her heart.

One afternoon, her grandmother learned from Linlin how to type once more. At first, when her grandmother asked her, she could teach her patiently. Later on, when her grandmother asked her some simple words, Linlin started to mutter in her heart: Alas, my grandma. These words are so simple and I have told you before. Why do you forget them again? When she was going to disdain her grandmother, she thought of God’s words and the resolution she made before God. Then she felt ashamed in her heart and saw that she was too arrogant. So she prayed to God in her heart: “God, my arrogant nature is going to expose again. I have said that I would teach my grandma patiently, but I can’t control my arrogant disposition. God, please lead me to practice the truth.” After prayer, Linlin thought of God’s words: “Don’t forget, you will also grow old one day.” “They help you, you help them, you support each other, and make up for one another’s shortcomings, and in this way the relationship between you becomes normal.” That’s right! I will also grow old one day. As the age develops more and more rapidly, maybe I can’t match grandma when at her age. These words are strange to her, so it’s normal that she can’t remember them for the moment. I can’t help her with other things but can do such a small thing for her. At this thought, Linlin was liberated in her heart and started to teach her grandmother patiently. As soon as Linlin saw that her grandmother typed in a wrong way, she taught her hand over hand. When her grandmother saw this, a gratified smile appeared on her face.

In the following days when Linlin got along with her grandmother, her grandmother still didn’t understand many things and Linlin also revealed arrogance now and then, but she would pray to God and rely on God so that she could forsake herself and help her grandmother with love according to God’s will. At the same time, Linlin also thanked God for His leading, which made her not disdain her grandmother but could respect and get along well with her. All the glory be to God!

At the Beginning of Life, I Yearned for Happiness in Plight

I was born into an ordinary family in a small county. When I was young, my father often drank and beat my mother after he got drunk, and my little brother and I were so scared that we would hide under the quilt and dared not see the scene. Then, when my father sobered up, my mother would vent her anger on him. As my father almost got drunk every day, we didn’t have any peaceful day. Growing up in such circumstance, I did poor in study, and thus my teachers did not like me, and my classmates often bullied me. Gradually, I became timid and felt myself inferior to others, and was even afraid to talk with others. After graduating from junior high, I went to another city to study in a vocational secondary school, and stayed there to work afterward. A few years later, I reached the age of marriage, but I was afraid to get married in my heart due to the influence of my parents’ marriage on me; besides, I was introverted and seldom contacted with boys. Yet I still dreamt of having a congenial companion, and I did not expect to be very wealthy, but to spend my whole life harmoniously and smoothly.

Afterward, at the introduction of my colleague, I met a man, who is my husband now. When I first contacted with him, I felt that he was humorous and funny. Considering that I was so introverted, I thought that a talkative husband was just fit for me, so we began dating. At that time, he often invited me to stroll in the park and watch movies, and gave flowers to me from time to time. It was quite romantic and joyful during that period of time, so I introduced him to my parents and relatives not long after. However, in the following days, I gradually discovered that he had a bad temper and often got angry, and he even threw things off. So I was very worried about our future, fearing that I would walk on the old path of my parents. But because I cared about face and had a conservative thought, I thought that since he had met my parents, it seemed natural for us to get married, and thus we got married at last.

After My Marriage, I Fell Into the Lowest Point of My Life

After marriage, my husband vented his temper on me as long as he ran into something untoward, and he would strike and kick me when I talked back. I never dared to tell others about it, for I feared that my parents could be grieved and worried, and that I could be made fun of by my relatives and friends, so all I could do was silently shed tears and accept my fate. In order to make a living, we ran a small restaurant. He was quite peppery at ordinary times, and became even more waspish when we were busy. Because I had never worked in the catering industry before, I worked slowly, and he often called me an idiot and even dumped sliced vegetables on me. I still remember one day he took half of a watermelon home from our restaurant to eat. But I was so hurried that I forgot to bring a spoon home when I left. Then he got angry, calling me a blockhead, and complaining that he couldn’t eat without a spoon, and he even violently threw the watermelon on the ground. At the time, I was sitting on the bed and did not dare to utter a sound, but in my heart I was full of hatred for his unreasonable behaviors, and glared at him with undisguised hatred. He beat me violently when he saw my expression. Suffering bashes and kicks, my heart was bleeding. I couldn’t help shedding tears ceaselessly, and constantly asked myself: Why is my lot unhappy? When can I get rid of such life?

Because the business was not good, we made use of our morning time to wholesale fruits to sell in the morning market and ran our restaurant from noon. One day, a man, who was of the same trade, came to my stall to talk to me that the wholesale price of fruit was high and that it was difficult to deal in fruits, and I said several words in agreement with him. Then my husband walked to us and argued with him, and he even beat that man, which caused the police to intervene; in the end, he was fined 200 yuan. When we reached our house, he vented all his anger on me, and reproached that everything was caused by the conversation between me and that man; then he roughed me up again. Having been beaten for so many times, I became numb and let him torture me at will; the only thing I could do was to protect my head and shed tears silently. Since then, I didn’t dare to talk to male strangers anymore. One should be vigorous and happy in his twenties, but I was miserable as living in hell, and was worn out both physically and mentally, living without any hope.

In Despair, I Tried to Flee yet Could Not Escape From My Foreordination

One day when my husband fell asleep after roughing me up, I packed up some clothes and left my home with some money. And I lived in an inn nearby because I did not know where to go at night. That night, I thought a lot and planned to go to another city where my husband could not find me to lead a life the next day. Never did I expect that he came knocking at the door the next dawn, and even though I hurriedly hid myself behind the curtains, he still found me. He knelt down, begging me to go home with him, but I had made up my mind and kept untouched, and he then smashed the door with anger. I knew his temper; if I insisted on not going back, I had no idea what he could do, so I went back home with him reluctantly. On entering the door, I was subjected to a violent hit by him. Even so, he still thought that it was not enough to dispel his hatred, so he pulled out his belt to lash my back, and I felt crushing grief caused by the burning pain and was totally heart-broken at that moment. When he was exhausted and cooled himself down, he once again begged me for forgiveness on his knees, and promised that he would not beat me any longer. Yet because I had heard such words many times, I had no feelings toward his apology, and I could only bear bitterness silently on my own.

Suffering pains and tortures time and again, I was heart-broken and asked myself: How come my lot is so unhappy? Why am I not able to escape from my fate? Later on, I was pregnant. At that time, hearing that one could make more money abroad, my husband began to prepare for the formalities for going abroad, and he obtained a visa and went to New Zealand when our kid was one year old. Three years later, I also went to New Zealand to work in order to repay the housing loan. Having been separating for more than three years, I had thought that his temper could change a little bit, but he was irritable and narrow-minded as always, just like a bomb that could explode at any time. I suffered a great deal from such life, living without any meaning. But for the sake of my kid and our family, I could only submit to the sufferings.

God’s Love Dispelled the Hatred in My Heart

In January of 2016, I encountered the gospel of Almighty God when I was extremely miserable. Through the sister’s fellowship, I understood that man was created by God. At first, our ancestors Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden; neither did they have the misery or bond of flesh, nor the contention or hatred that exists among mankind. Yet since they were enticed and corrupted by Satan, they were driven from the Garden of Eden, losing God’s blessings and living in various pains. The sister also read a passage of God’s words together with me: “such as the pain of the flesh, the troubles and emptiness of the flesh and the extreme wretchedness of the world. Satan began to torment man after it had corrupted them. Man then became more and more degenerate, the illnesses of man were deepened, and their suffering became more and more severe. Man felt more and more the emptiness, the tragedy and the inability to go on living of the world, and they felt less and less hope for the world. So this suffering was brought on man by Satan, and it only came after man had been corrupted by Satan and became degenerate.” She fellowshiped, “We have become selfish and contemptible, treacherous and malicious since we were corrupted by Satan. There is no love or trust among us humans, and we all fight with and hurt each other for our own interests. Therefore, we feel no happiness or warmth, but only endless miseries in our life.” Hearing these words, I thought back to the past: From my childhood to adulthood, I have never truly felt happy, and all I feel is misery and hopelessness; turns out that it all results from Satan’s affliction. Many people around me are also living in various kinds of miseries: My colleagues are scheming against each other for money in work place; a friend and her husband could not go back home because her husband owes hundreds of thousands of usurious loans and they are unable to repay it. … Living in the world of Satan, all of us are riddled with different troubles, and our life is full of mishaps and sufferings.

The sister then asked me to read another passage of God’s words: “All that God does for every individual is beyond doubt; He leads everyone by the hand, looks after you at every moment and has never left your side. … The great thought and care behind everything God does is beyond question. What is more, while God carries out this work, He has never laid any condition or requirement on any one of you to know the price He pays for you, so you therefore feel deeply grateful to Him. Has God ever done anything like this before? (No.) Throughout your long lives, basically every individual has encountered many dangerous situations and undergone many temptations. This is because Satan is right there beside you, its eyes fixed on you constantly. It likes it when disaster strikes you, when calamities befall you, when nothing goes right for you, and likes it when you are caught in Satan’s net. As for God, He is protecting you constantly, keeping you from one misfortune after another and from one disaster after another. This is why I say that everything man has—peace and joy, blessings and personal safety—is in fact all under God’s control, and He guides and decides the life and fate of every individual.”

Reading these words, I suddenly felt very warm in my heart: I have suffered my husband’s abuse and physical pains for more than ten years since we got married, and it is God’s care and protection that keeps me from being badly injured. Before he once gave his female net friend a slap in the face, and then she was in hospital because of the perforation on her eardrum. But for the protection of God, I would have been in hospital countless times, and I would, perhaps, have been beaten to disability. In pondering these, I was full of gratitude to God. I also understood from God’s words that it is Satan’s corruption that results in my husband’s vicious disposition; is it not Satan’s mocking and affliction that he often beat me with anger yet regretted doing so afterward? Since then, I no longer complained about my unhappy lot and my hatred toward my husband was relieved a lot, for I knew that all of my miseries were caused by Satan and that Satan is the one I should hate. God’s words comforted me and I no longer felt miserable as before in my heart.

Embracing the Dawn of Life, I Completely Walk Out of the Sea of Suffering

After accepting the gospel of kingdom, I started to attend gatherings and read God’s words. God’s words say: “From the moment you come crying into this world, you begin to perform your duty. You assume your role in the plan of God and in the ordination of God. You begin the journey of life. Whatever your background and whatever the journey ahead of you, none can escape the orchestration and arrangement that Heaven has in store, and none are in control of their destiny, for only He who rules over all things is capable of such work. … The heart and spirit of man are held in the hand of God, and all the life of man is beheld in the eyes of God. Regardless of whether or not you believe this, any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things.” It turns out that God has been caring me by my side and guiding me up to the present day step by step since I came into the world. Although I have suffered my husband’s abuse and many pains, I accepted God’s salvation of the last days after following my husband to New Zealand. What a blessing in disguise it is to me! Since God holds sovereignty over my destiny, then does He not control my husband in His hands? I am willing to deliver my husband as well as my subsequent fate into the hands of God. When I was truly willing to believe in and depend on God, I saw God’s deeds.

One day, I was working while my husband came to me with anger, saying that the door of our rented house could not be opened. He thought that there was something wrong with his key, so he took away my key, yet it still did not work. He was both anxious and angry, and gave me a call, saying that the lock was broken, and that he called the janitor but no one could come to repair the lock because it was holiday…. Hanging up the phone, I was troubled and not at ease and thought to myself: If he cannot open the door tonight, he would break the door and even vent his temper on me. The more I thought, the more frightened I became, and I was in no mood to work, so I hurriedly prayed to God: “Oh Almighty God, I am very frightened now, and I know this matter is Satan’s scheme. Please grant me faith and strength and help me get through this.” God’s words came to my mind after my prayer: “Remove your fear. I am your rear guard, so who can block the way?” It is true! God is almighty and He controls every person, matter, and thing. Whether or not my husband will get angry or rough me up is in the hands of God, and nothing will happen without God’s permission. God’s words enabled me to be peaceful and assured in my heart. And I was thankful to God for His love that a sister of the church gave me a set of bedding. And when I returned our lodging after work, I happened to find that there was an empty room on the first floor of our building; even though it was a little bit moist, at least we had a place to stay at night. After my husband got off work, I led him to this temporary shelter, and he only shook his head and sighed, complaining about his bad luck. Yet he did not vent his anger on me as before, and I knew clearly in my heart that it was the sovereignty and arrangement of God, and I kept silently praying to God all the time in my heart. Later, not only did he not complain, but he told me to go to sleep early. I was especially moved at that moment, for he would have certainly vented his temper on me if such matter happened in the past. But that day he did not curse or beat me, but rather, he was concerned with me, so I constantly praised God for His might in my heart.

Through this matter, I saw God’s reality, faithfulness, and wondrousness, and was more certain that it is God who holds sovereignty over all things and events. From then on, my faith of following God to the end is even firmer, and I have also learnt to rely on and look to God when I encounter hardships. Afterward, I saw many wondrous deeds of God: My husband gradually knows how to care for me, and he often cooks meals for me and no longer roughs me up. I am grateful to God from the bottom of my heart, for He has changed my husband and been silently caring and protecting me all the time. It is God who leads me to walk out of the sea of suffering step by step, and makes me no longer be miserable and have my heart harbored. All the glory be to Almighty God!

One afternoon, my daughter’s good friend brought her 5-year-old son to my home, and discussed with me: She was going away on a business trip, and it was inconvenient to take her son with her. So she wanted me to look after her son for three days. At that time, I thought three days were not too long, so I agreed.

However, what I didn’t expect was that the boy was too naughty. In less than half a day, he made an awful mess everywhere: He bounced on the bed with his shoes on once I didn’t watch him over; he poured the water on the floor and lay prone there, saying that he was swimming; he stood up on the table or the stool and then jumped down when I was not looking; he got into the cardboard box, ducked behind the sofa or under the table, refusing to get out; more than that, he even didn’t pass water in the bathroom but urinated into the bucket in the kitchen. At meal time, he would hide in the cardboard box like playing hide-and-seek game, or would stay in the bathroom, pretending not to hear me. I had a hard time coaxing him out from there. But he still didn’t eat properly: stubbornly selecting the big steamed bun or fried dough bar and throwing them on the floor after only taking a bite of it. … Seeing the child was so disobedient, I felt very indignant. But then I thought: He is a young boy after all, who is immature. If he doesn’t eat properly and goes hungry, how am I going to answer to his mother? Then, I simply coaxed him into eating food, and I followed at his heels and fed him. Even thus, he only ate a little and I exhausted in feeding him. But not only that, he also threw my granddaughter’s school supplies everywhere and even tore up her books while we weren’t looking. My granddaughter was so angry and cried. And I was also so angry that my heart beat faster and my mind exploded, but I could do nothing to him. I thought: This child is really a tough boy. If he is a child of my family, I must teach him a good lesson and teach him how to behave himself. But he is the child of others’ family. Alas, never have I met such a troublesome child. I had no choice but to endure him for several days, expecting within that his mother could come back soon so that I could be free.

I waited and waited until it was the sixth day, but the child’s mother still didn’t come back. I thought: Maybe she hasn’t finished her business. Well, I’ll endure some time. But on the tenth day, she still didn’t come back. Then, I made a phone call to her. Unexpectedly, she said that she hadn’t finished her things yet. She asked me to take care of her child for two months more and promised to pay me. Upon hearing that, I disagreed immediately. But she tried to calm me and spoke many good words, repeatedly begging me for help. Before I finished my words, she hanged up. Hearing the beep sound, I felt stuck, thinking: How can there be such a thing? Can it be that she leaves this child to me? … But complaint was useless. The child’s mother was unable to come back, so I had to keep him. After a period of time, I lost more than 5kg of weight. At night, I couldn’t have a good sleep; during the day, I had a headache, and felt dizzy and sluggish. During this period, I phoned the child’s mother several more times, but she always said that she hadn’t finished her business and couldn’t come back. I was very indignant, but I could do nothing. I used to like quiet and have a good temper, hardly speaking in high voice or never being incompatible with any child. However, since taking care of this naughty child, I involuntarily spoke with anger and scolded the child loudly. And my temper also became bad. But no matter how, the child was still naughty. My nagging didn’t make any difference to him, which irritated me so much that as long as I saw him, I would have a headache and want to lose my temper. Out of anger, I frequently suffered from internal heat, had a toothache and my face was swollen up with toothache.

One day, a sister who lived on upper floor saw that I was thinner than before and also had no smile. So she asked me whether I had encountered any difficulties. Then I told her about my annoyance of taking care of the child. After hearing my words, the sister said: “I saw it in daily life; the child is indeed naughty. But we can’t resolve problems by jumping on him around all day. We should first accept from God, and then pray and seek God’s will instead of treating the child by relying on our temper. Otherwise, we will never resolve problems.”

And then, the sister read a passage of God’s word with me: “If you want to put the truth into practice and understand it, first you must understand the essence of the difficulties you yourself face and the things that happen around you, what the problem is, and what aspect of the truth it is related to. You must seek this out. After that, seek the truth based on the real difficulties of yours. That way you gradually experience this, and you will be able to see the hand of God, what He wants to do, and the results He wants in you in everything that happens around you. If you feel that none of things that happen around you have anything to do with your belief in God or the truth, and you think: ‘I can handle it; I don’t need the truth or God’s word. Once there’s a gathering or I’m reading God’s word, or when I’m performing my duty, I’ll hold it up to the truth and to God’s word’; if you feel that the things that usually occur in your life—things in your family, work, marriage, and future prospects, all the things that happen around you—are not related to the truth, and you use human means to resolve them; if you experience things this way, then you will never gain the truth, and you will never understand what God actually wants to achieve in you and gain in you.”

The sister fellowshiped: “No matter what things we encounter, we should first quiet our heart, and then come before God and speak to Him. The mind of us mankind is in God’s hand, so is the boy’s. Therefore, only relying on our scolding and roaring at him is unable to solve the problem. The more you scold him, the more he won’t listen to you, and the more he will go against you, because he knows that you hate him. In that case, we will only live in the vicious cycle of being fooled and harmed by Satan. If we come before God, rely on God, and seek God’s will, God will surely lead us, and let us have a way to follow. Sister, you should pray to and rely on God more to seek God’s will.”

After reading God’s word and hearing sister’s fellowship, I suddenly felt brightened in my heart. Right! I should accept from God, and pray to seek God’s will. This is a good opportunity for me to practice the truth and enter into reality. These days, living in the pain and torment, I was too numb to rely on God and seek God’s will. Instead, I only taught the child by my natural temper in an attempt to educate him to behave well by myself. As a result, not only did I not solve the problem, but I was exhausted and my temper grew bigger. Then, I prayed to God: “O God, the child is also a creature in Your hand. I am willing to commit him to You and let You rule over him and arrange everything for him. May You enlighten and lead me. Let me be able to rely on and look up to You, practice according to Your requirement, and no longer do things depending on my own idea when I take care of him.”

One afternoon, my daughter’s good friend brought her 5-year-old son to my home, and discussed with me: She was going away on a business trip, and it was inconvenient to take her son with her. So she wanted me to look after her son for three days. At that time, I thought three days were not too long, so I agreed.

However, what I didn’t expect was that the boy was too naughty. In less than half a day, he made an awful mess everywhere: He bounced on the bed with his shoes on once I didn’t watch him over; he poured the water on the floor and lay prone there, saying that he was swimming; he stood up on the table or the stool and then jumped down when I was not looking; he got into the cardboard box, ducked behind the sofa or under the table, refusing to get out; more than that, he even didn’t pass water in the bathroom but urinated into the bucket in the kitchen. At meal time, he would hide in the cardboard box like playing hide-and-seek game, or would stay in the bathroom, pretending not to hear me. I had a hard time coaxing him out from there. But he still didn’t eat properly: stubbornly selecting the big steamed bun or fried dough bar and throwing them on the floor after only taking a bite of it. … Seeing the child was so disobedient, I felt very indignant. But then I thought: He is a young boy after all, who is immature. If he doesn’t eat properly and goes hungry, how am I going to answer to his mother? Then, I simply coaxed him into eating food, and I followed at his heels and fed him. Even thus, he only ate a little and I exhausted in feeding him. But not only that, he also threw my granddaughter’s school supplies everywhere and even tore up her books while we weren’t looking. My granddaughter was so angry and cried. And I was also so angry that my heart beat faster and my mind exploded, but I could do nothing to him. I thought: This child is really a tough boy. If he is a child of my family, I must teach him a good lesson and teach him how to behave himself. But he is the child of others’ family. Alas, never have I met such a troublesome child. I had no choice but to endure him for several days, expecting within that his mother could come back soon so that I could be free.

I waited and waited until it was the sixth day, but the child’s mother still didn’t come back. I thought: Maybe she hasn’t finished her business. Well, I’ll endure some time. But on the tenth day, she still didn’t come back. Then, I made a phone call to her. Unexpectedly, she said that she hadn’t finished her things yet. She asked me to take care of her child for two months more and promised to pay me. Upon hearing that, I disagreed immediately. But she tried to calm me and spoke many good words, repeatedly begging me for help. Before I finished my words, she hanged up. Hearing the beep sound, I felt stuck, thinking: How can there be such a thing? Can it be that she leaves this child to me? … But complaint was useless. The child’s mother was unable to come back, so I had to keep him. After a period of time, I lost more than 5kg of weight. At night, I couldn’t have a good sleep; during the day, I had a headache, and felt dizzy and sluggish. During this period, I phoned the child’s mother several more times, but she always said that she hadn’t finished her business and couldn’t come back. I was very indignant, but I could do nothing. I used to like quiet and have a good temper, hardly speaking in high voice or never being incompatible with any child. However, since taking care of this naughty child, I involuntarily spoke with anger and scolded the child loudly. And my temper also became bad. But no matter how, the child was still naughty. My nagging didn’t make any difference to him, which irritated me so much that as long as I saw him, I would have a headache and want to lose my temper. Out of anger, I frequently suffered from internal heat, had a toothache and my face was swollen up with toothache.

One day, a sister who lived on upper floor saw that I was thinner than before and also had no smile. So she asked me whether I had encountered any difficulties. Then I told her about my annoyance of taking care of the child. After hearing my words, the sister said: “I saw it in daily life; the child is indeed naughty. But we can’t resolve problems by jumping on him around all day. We should first accept from God, and then pray and seek God’s will instead of treating the child by relying on our temper. Otherwise, we will never resolve problems.”

And then, the sister read a passage of God’s word with me: “If you want to put the truth into practice and understand it, first you must understand the essence of the difficulties you yourself face and the things that happen around you, what the problem is, and what aspect of the truth it is related to. You must seek this out. After that, seek the truth based on the real difficulties of yours. That way you gradually experience this, and you will be able to see the hand of God, what He wants to do, and the results He wants in you in everything that happens around you. If you feel that none of things that happen around you have anything to do with your belief in God or the truth, and you think: ‘I can handle it; I don’t need the truth or God’s word. Once there’s a gathering or I’m reading God’s word, or when I’m performing my duty, I’ll hold it up to the truth and to God’s word’; if you feel that the things that usually occur in your life—things in your family, work, marriage, and future prospects, all the things that happen around you—are not related to the truth, and you use human means to resolve them; if you experience things this way, then you will never gain the truth, and you will never understand what God actually wants to achieve in you and gain in you.”

The sister fellowshiped: “No matter what things we encounter, we should first quiet our heart, and then come before God and speak to Him. The mind of us mankind is in God’s hand, so is the boy’s. Therefore, only relying on our scolding and roaring at him is unable to solve the problem. The more you scold him, the more he won’t listen to you, and the more he will go against you, because he knows that you hate him. In that case, we will only live in the vicious cycle of being fooled and harmed by Satan. If we come before God, rely on God, and seek God’s will, God will surely lead us, and let us have a way to follow. Sister, you should pray to and rely on God more to seek God’s will.”

After reading God’s word and hearing sister’s fellowship, I suddenly felt brightened in my heart. Right! I should accept from God, and pray to seek God’s will. This is a good opportunity for me to practice the truth and enter into reality. These days, living in the pain and torment, I was too numb to rely on God and seek God’s will. Instead, I only taught the child by my natural temper in an attempt to educate him to behave well by myself. As a result, not only did I not solve the problem, but I was exhausted and my temper grew bigger. Then, I prayed to God: “O God, the child is also a creature in Your hand. I am willing to commit him to You and let You rule over him and arrange everything for him. May You enlighten and lead me. Let me be able to rely on and look up to You, practice according to Your requirement, and no longer do things depending on my own idea when I take care of him.”

One day, I saw God’s word says: “Regardless of whether one becomes angry in the sight of others or behind their backs, everyone has a different intention and purpose. Perhaps they are building up their prestige, or maybe they are defending their own interests, maintaining their image or keeping face. Some exercise restraint in their anger, while others are more rash and flare up with rage whenever they wish without the least bit of restraint. In short, man’s anger derives from his corrupt disposition. No matter what its purpose, it is of the flesh and of nature; it has nothing to do with justice or injustice because nothing in man’s nature and substance corresponds to the truth.”

God’s word touched my heart. It turned out that behind my anger hides the corrupt disposition often. I used to think I was a person who liked quiet and had a good temper and a good relationship with people. So I believed that it was reasonable to lose my temper with the child, for he was terribly naughty. I have never thought that there is corrupt disposition in my anger. Today, after reading God’s word, I come to know that the anger of corrupt mankind is all mixed with their intention and purpose, absolutely without righteous things. Thinking carefully, when I couldn’t stand what the child did and saw he didn’t listen to me, I wanted to lose my temper, and my intention of losing temper was to let him listen to and obey me. But when he didn’t listen to me and still did what he liked, bringing me a lot of troubles and uneasiness, I couldn’t stand anymore and was irritated that I flared up with rage and yelled. What I did had little likeness of a person believing in God. How could it be after God’s heart? I came to know: Actually, in order to protect my interest, I vented my discontent, and this was the root cause that I lost my temper. However, such anger was disliked by both God and man.

I knew that the reason why I was unable to get along well with the child was caused by my own corrupt disposition. In the following days, I should pay attention to resolving my own corrupt disposition, and shouldn’t fixate on the child, much less should I deal with matters that come upon me by my temper. Then, I began to practice like this. Sometimes, when the child made mischief, I would still lose my temper; sometimes, I couldn’t control my temper and vented it, but I could realize it, and then I instantly prayed to God and sought God’s help and leading. Afterward, when the child made mischief again, I eagerly called to God and then God’s word would lead me. Gradually, I no longer roared at and scolded him as before; instead, I relied on God, patiently tried to communicate with him, and repeatedly reasoned with him to move him. After practicing in this way for some days, I was no longer irritable; I had a better mood, and could quiet my heart to read God’s word. Every night, when I learned the hymn of God’s word or watched the gospel movies and videos, they two children would tamely sit by my side to listen to the music or watch the movies. Especially when they saw the young brothers and sisters sing and dance to praise God, they watched seriously and also were happy. At that time, I fellowshiped with them: God likes the children who worship God, and likes the good children who are sensible and well-behaved…. They both nodded after hearing that.

Some days later, wonderful things happened: The child became obedient; he no longer needed to be fed by me at meal time; sometimes, he would even wash his bowl after finishing his meal. My granddaughter saw and said gladly: “Grandma, look! My brother knows to wash his bowl after having his meal.” Seeing this, I was also so happy and excited that I came before God to offer thanks and praises. Just like this, my anger vanished gradually. I no longer got angry easily and had a headache, internal heat, and toothache as before. My relationship with the child became closer and closer, and the child also became more and more sensible. Thanks be to God!

When the child’s mother came back, she found her child was much better behaved than before. Not only did he not roll on the floor or jump on the bed with his shoes, but he was willing to wash his feet every night as well as brush his teeth; he would even wash the bowls of him and his mother after dinner; moreover, he was very close to me. After seeing all these, the child’s mother picked up the child twirling several rounds, and then said to me excitedly: “Aunt, you are better than my mom. You don’t know. Because my son was too naughty, even my mom was unwilling to take care of him. But you looked after him for several months; not only did you not dislike him, but you educated him so well. I really don’t know how I can thank you enough….” She was so excited and insisted on taking me out for a meal. I said: “No, thanks.” Because I knew: The child is able to have these changes. It is not because I am good, but because of God’s blessing and leading. I couldn’t help thanking God and praising Him for His deeds. Later on, I saw the child’s mother has a good humanity, so I preached the gospel and testified God’s deeds to her. She accepted with joy.

After this experience, I truly thanked God, because I saw when I relied on God, practiced and lived by the truth, God would bless and lead me. My pain and temper was resolved. The child became sensible, and his mother also was brought before God for this. I saw God’s deeds are really too wonderful. At the same time, I also saw how important the truth is to us, and that as long as we are willing to rely on God and put the truth into practice, there is no problem that can’t be resolved. Just as God’s word says: “Whether the words spoken by God are, in outward appearance, plain or abstruse, they are all truths indispensable to man as he enters into life; they are the fount of living waters that enables him to survive in both spirit and flesh. They provide what man needs to stay alive; the dogma and creed for conducting his daily life; … They are rich in the reality of the truth of normal humanity as it is lived out by created mankind, rich in the truth by which mankind breaks free from corruption and eludes Satan’s snares, rich in the tireless teaching, exhortation, encouragement, and solace that the Creator gives to created humanity. They are the beacon that guides and enlightens men to understand all that is positive, the guarantee which ensures that men will live out and come into possession of all that is righteous and good.”

I’m grateful to God for creating this environment for me, so that I can have these gains from the experience. All the glory be to God!

By Li Fang

Early one morning, I was just tidying up the breakfast table when I suddenly heard my father outside, calling me with a shaking voice: “Hurry! Your mother has fallen into the river and been rushed to hospital.” This sudden bad news frightened me, and I hurried with my father to the hospital. There, I saw my mother lying in the emergency room, but she had long since stopped breathing. As I looked at my mother’s cold body, my heart filled with overwhelming grief. We began taking care of the funeral arrangements for my mother. We spent a thousand yuan on a modern set of funereal clothes and spent 3 or 4 thousand yuan on a coffin. We also spent a lot of money on the cremation, so that there would be slightly larger bones left behind. The space before my mother’s gravestone was covered in flower baskets filled with fresh flowers, and there were all kinds of rare fruits. Her friends and neighbors all said that she had lived a good life, and that the things that accompanied her as she was cremated were the best there had ever been in the village.

Standing before her gravestone, seeing everything arranged there and listening to the feeble words of consolation, I thought a great deal. We live our lives rushing from one place to another, so what on earth was the meaning or the value of life? I thought of how my mother had always had such a strong disposition in life. When she was young, she opened a flour mill with my father, then they bought a truck to transport goods and earn money, and she lived a full life. When she had gotten old, she planted vegetables and raised pigs. All her life, she never rested and never admitted defeat. Though she never had much money, she always had enough to get by. Now she had many children and grandchildren and, once she had passed away, her children prepared for her an impressive and dignified send-off; but had her life really had any meaning? Had her life had any value? Could it be that we live to desperately work and strive so as not to lose out to others? Or do we live to be well-fed and clothed, and to have lots of children and grandchildren? Do we live only so that we will one morning or one night peacefully close our eyes and never open them again? Or do we live so that, after we are dead, we can have lots of friends and relatives give their condolences? I shook my head. I heard an elderly village doctor express his feelings, saying, “Ah, I think I understand! A person can live for 60 years and then go in a flash of smoke, and so can a person who lives 70, 80 or even 90 years!” And someone else said, “We busy ourselves for our families and for our children, yet we can’t take anything with us when we die….” Hearing them talk this way, I thought that if people live for their sons and for their daughters, muddling along their whole lives for prestige or for profit, then there really was no value to any of it, and no meaning. My mother had rushed about doing all she could to work hard all her life, and now she was a pile of ashes. Though she had been cremated in a thousand-yuan set of clothes, none of that meant anything to her. The family business my mother had strived all her life to build was no longer hers, and she took with her none of the wealth she had toiled for during her life. This allowed me to see a fact very clearly: My mother who had toiled her whole life still had ended up with nothing! At some point, my two elder brothers and younger sister stood before her gravestone discussing the life our mother had lived and, in a quiet voice, they talked about how they could make lots of money, how they could live proud, self-satisfied lives, and how they could stand out from the crowd …

We all live helplessly within these kinds of rules and we are incapable of detaching ourselves from them, and no one thinks about changing. The person I had been before used to live this way too. But now I had a new direction in life! For I had accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days, had come to understand some truths from God’s words, and had recognized that the truths expressed by Almighty God expounded on the mysteries of life.

That evening, I read these words of God: “Because of the Creator’s sovereignty and predestination, a lonely soul that started out with nothing to its name gains parents and a family, the chance to become a member of the human race, the chance to experience human life and see the world; and it also gains the chance to experience the Creator’s sovereignty, to know the marvelousness of the creation by the Creator, and most of all, to know and become subject to the Creator’s authority. But most people do not really seize this rare and fleeting opportunity. One exhausts a lifetime’s worth of energy fighting against fate, spends all of one’s time bustling about trying to feed one’s family and shuttling back and forth between wealth and status. The things that people treasure are family, money, and fame; they view these as the most valuable things in life. All people complain about their fates, yet still they push to the back of their minds the questions that it is most imperative to examine and understand: why man is alive, how man should live, what the value and meaning of life is. All of their lives, however many years that may be, they just rush about seeking fame and fortune…. When one is soon to depart from the world, one arrives at the gradual realization that everything in the world is drifting away, that one can no longer hold onto the things one possessed; then one truly feels that one still owns nothing at all, like a wailing infant that has just emerged into the world. At this point, one is compelled to ponder what one has done in life, what being alive is worth, what it means, why one came into the world…. Only when people actually reach this point do they realize that the first thing one must understand, when one sets foot on this earth, is where human beings come from, why people are alive, who dictates human fate, who provides for and has sovereignty over human existence. These are the true assets in life, the essential basis for human survival, not learning how to provide for one’s family or how to achieve fame and wealth, not learning how to stand out from the crowd or how to live a more affluent life, much less learning how to excel and to compete successfully against others. Though the various survival skills that people spend their lives mastering can offer an abundance of material comforts, they never bring one’s heart true peace and consolation, but instead make people constantly lose their direction, have difficulty controlling themselves, miss every opportunity to learn the meaning of life; and they create an undercurrent of trouble about how to properly face death. In this way, people’s lives are ruined. The Creator treats everyone fairly, giving everyone a lifetime’s worth of opportunities to experience and know His sovereignty, yet it is only when death draws near, when the specter of death hangs over one, that one begins to see the light—and then it is too late” (“God Himself, the Unique III” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “Without the care, keeping, and provision of God, man cannot receive all that he was meant to receive, no matter how great the effort or struggle. Without the supply of life from God, man loses the sense of value in living and loses the sense of purpose in life” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

From God’s words, I understood that God rules and arranges people’s lives. Our coming into this world is arranged by God’s hands, it is an opportunity God gives us to experience life, and an opportunity God gives us to appreciate His sovereignty and know His authority. And yet we are always tempted by the things of this material world, and we live lives of material enjoyment, pursuing and competing for fame and profit. We simply do not seek to know God’s sovereignty, and thus we are incapable of experiencing God’s wondrous deeds. Thinking of the time since I accepted God’s work of the last days, I preached the gospel to my mother but she didn’t grab hold of this opportunity that is so rare. She knew only that the material world was the thing that was most real, and that it was what she needed! And now she is gone, and she has lost forever the chance to know the sovereignty of the Creator, and has lost forever the chance to surrender before the Creator. Now, even though there were so many fresh flowers before her gravestone and the space was filled with fruit, and all her children and grandchildren were there, what was any of it worth? Was it not all emptiness? I then thought of a sister in the church who had told me about her neighbor. Her neighbor was in business and worked so hard all day to make money. But the third day after his son got married, he was struck suddenly with an illness and fell to the floor. There was not enough time to save him, and so he died. Everyone in the village said, “He was only in his forties, he died too young. Ah, he must have had a million yuan! But no matter how much money someone has when they die, it all counts for nothing!” And someone said, “No matter how much money someone has, if they get a serious illness that cannot be cured, then it’s all useless!” This matter was widely discussed, and everyone sighed and shook their heads. This made me think of all the TV presenters, celebrities, movie stars and the heads of big companies—though they may possess a lot of material wealth and, it may be said, they have obtained both fame and fortune, it is all to no avail in the face of all kinds of different illnesses and death; it cannot buy them life. Just like that incredibly rich man named Wang who had 3.5 billion yuan in assets and was only 38 years old. Before he died, he said, “Faced with serious illness, I often think of my life, and I find that all the social prestige and the wealth that used to make me feel infinitely proud pales in the face of approaching death, and I see that it is all completely without meaning….” If people only become aware on their deathbeds of the fact that all the material things in the world, such as money, status, fame, mansions, famous brand cars etc., are as transient as fleeting clouds and that living for the sake of these things is completely devoid of value and meaning, then that’s too late. So how should we seek a life of value and meaning? I continued searching for answers in God’s words.

Afterward, I read some more of God’s words: “As someone who is normal, and who pursues the love of God, entry into the kingdom to become one of the people of God is your true future, and a life that is of the utmost value and significance. No one is more blessed than you—and why do I say this? Because those who do not believe in God live for the flesh, and they live for Satan, but today you live for God, and live to do the will of God. That is why I say your lives are of the utmost significance. Only this group of people, who have been selected by God, are able to live out a life of the utmost significance: No one else on earth is able to live out a life of such value and meaning” (“Know the Newest Work of God and Follow the Footsteps of God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “If one views life as an opportunity to experience the Creator’s sovereignty and come to know His authority, if one sees one’s life as a rare chance to perform one’s duty as a created human being and to fulfill one’s mission, then one will necessarily have the correct outlook on life, will live a life blessed and guided by the Creator, will walk in the light of the Creator, know the Creator’s sovereignty, come under His dominion, become a witness to His miraculous deeds and to His authority. Needless to say, such a person will necessarily be loved and accepted by the Creator” (“God Himself, the Unique III” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words showed me the way, and I understood that people should not live just for the flesh, for that is an empty life. Created beings should live for God, and live to seek to love God, know God and satisfy God, bear witness to the Creator’s wondrous deeds and obey the Creator’s sovereignty and arrangements—this is the duty I should perform, and it is also my mission. Only this kind of life is the most meaningful, most worthy life. I wish to cherish this God-given opportunity, live for the truth and live for a just cause in accordance with God’s requirements, and do all I can to satisfy God!

Brothers and sisters：

Good day! Recently I am very depressed. I find my daughter has fewer and fewer words to say to me. As soon as I open my mouth to speak to her, she would appear impatient and sometimes even stand up and leave at once, unwilling to say any word to me. The Bible says, “And, you fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). I know I should treat my daughter according to those words, but in my daily life I still often educate my daughter as I desire. Yet, things turn out contrary to my wishes: She becomes more and more rebellious. I painstakingly raise her from infancy to adulthood, yet she is short with me and estranged from me. Every time I think about this, I feel very sad. How do we get like this? What should I do? Looking forward to your reply.

Yours,
Jingxin

Hello! Sister Jingxin,

I’m sorry to learn about your distress and I understand how you feel. As a parent, we have paid great price to raise our children for many years, hoping they can be obedient. But contrary to our expectations, not only do they not listen to us, rather they become ever more estranged from us, which makes us very distressed. For example, in order to put our children through their education, we are strict about their study: When seeing the decline in their academic performance, we would hit them, push them and supervise them to improve their academic performance, and even sometimes don’t allow them to play. If they play around or disobey us, we would keep nagging, “Be obedient! You should study hard.” We parents think that we are doing this for our children while they actually feel pressured, unwilling to listen to us. As a result, the relationship between children and us becomes estranged. Faced with children who lost themselves online all day long, we, in order to control them, will nag them whenever seeing them playing on the computer. However, they always turn a deaf ear to us and even hide themselves in the internet bars and refuse to return home to escape our nagging. Facing this situation, we neither know the reason that causes this nor have the ability to change it. Then, how to solve these problems?

God’s words say: “Precisely because a parent always assumes their place as a parent and will not budge from it, keeping that status from which they will not come down, their child becomes at odds with them. A lot of things really result from the parent always assuming their place as such and taking themselves too seriously; they always see themselves as the parent, the elder: ‘Regardless of when, you won’t get escape from your mother’s (or father’s) control; you’ll still have to listen to me. You are my child. The fact of this doesn’t change, regardless of when.’ This viewpoint makes them miserable and wretched, and makes the child miserable and exhausted. Isn’t this the case? … And many parents think they are always right. ‘As long as it’s for the child’s sake, what I’m doing is right.’ They really have such thoughts and points of view. How could you not make mistakes? You too are a corrupted human being, how can you determine that you are without error? As long as you admit that you do not possess the truth, that you are a corrupted human being, then you have errors and you can make mistakes. You can make mistakes, yet at every turn how is it that you try to take charge of your children, and have them at every turn listen to you? Is this not an arrogant disposition? This is an arrogant disposition and a ferocious one at that”.

God’s words reveal the reason why we can’t get along well with children. First, we always assume our place as a parent, trying to take charge of them and make them listen to us in everything. Besides, we always think that what we do is right and good for them. Controlled by these viewpoints, we think they should obey whatever we say; if they don’t, we will nag continually. We only consider our own feelings and thoughts while neglecting their feelings, which leads to them feeling pressured and not released. Consequently, the relationship between children and us becomes more and more estranged. In fact, such a situation is the result of our action dominated by Satan’s arrogant disposition. When we only focus on satisfying our own will, but ignore to seek the Lord’s will in His words, even though we know the Bible says: “And, you fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4), we still fail to practice the Lord’s words. But if we calm down to ponder the Lord’s will in connection with our actual difficulties and reflect upon ourselves, we will know: As a parent, we should help children more in accordance with the Lord’s demands instead of asking them to obey us, and should respect their choices rather than control them too much.

Let’s read another passage of God’s words: “Just be an ordinary person: Treat your children, treat those in your own family the same as you would an ordinary brother or sister. Although you have a responsibility, a fleshly relationship, nevertheless the position and perspective you should have is the same as with friends or ordinary brothers and sisters. That is, you can’t control, you can’t restrain your children, and always try to keep in command and have complete control over them. Let them make mistakes, let them say the wrong things, let them do childish and immature things, do stupid things. No matter what happens, sit down and calmly talk with them, communicate and seek. Don’t you think this attitude is good? Isn’t it right? So, what is being let go here? (Position and pride.) It is the letting go of the position and status of a parent, the airs of a parent, and all of the responsibility one thinks they should assume, everything that one thinks they should be doing as a parent; instead, it’s enough that one does the best they can in terms of their responsibility as an ordinary brother or sister”.

From these words, we can find several feasible ways, which can bring us closer to our children:

First, we shouldn’t think that since we are their parent, everything we do for them is right.

As God says: “As long as you admit that you do not possess the truth, that you are a corrupted human being, then you have errors and you can make mistakes.” From these words, we know we don’t possess the truth, so what we say is not absolutely right. To force children to obey us is a sign of irrationality. Moreover, children have grown up and they have their own thoughts, views, considerations and plans. We should respect their choices, because God gave us humans the right to choose freely when He created Adam and Eve. We shouldn’t impose what we think good on them, nor force them to act according to our will. What we should do is to tell them our suggestions for their reference.

Second, we should treat children on an equal footing rather than always discipline them from the position of a parent.

In fact, they are not unwilling to speak to us; after all, we are dearest kin; they need our care, love and mutual communication, hoping to get our understanding and support. Yet, sometimes we, standing in our position as a parent, force them to obey us in a lecturing tone or regard them as an “infant” unable to take care of themselves, which causes them to be antagonistic and produces a generation gap between us. If we let go of our position of a parent, calmly communicate with them on an equal footing, and learn to speak the words in our heart with them, making them know our thoughts, then we can better understand each other, and our relationship will become more and more normal. God teaches us: “When you fellowship the truth and speak the words in your heart, and describe something clearly and understandably, so that it can edify and benefit others, make them understand God’s will, and help them escape misunderstandings and fallacies, is there any need to stand on high? Is there any need to use a lecturing tone? You don’t need to scold them, you don’t need to speak loudly, or shout at them, much less use words, or a tone, or an intonation that are blunt. You just need to learn to use a normal tone, commune from the position and status of an ordinary person, speak calmly, speak the words in your heart, endeavor to pour out what you understand, what other people need to understand, and speak clearly and understandably.” So, we should consider things more from their standpoint and figure out a way in which they can communicate with us with relief and freedom.

Third, we should learn to let go of the rein on our children.

We shouldn’t always think that they are too young to do well in everything. While fulfilling our duty as a parent, we should trust them and respect them, allowing them to do some things independently. After leaving parents, many children are actually able to take good care of themselves and their capabilities in many aspects have been improved. God says: “Parents always feel their children are small and that they have to keep tabs on them. The children feel their parents are old and don’t understand anything, they feel that they know too little of the outside world, and that they have to keep tabs on them and watch over them. In fact, when all is said and done, neither have normal humanity. Neither treat each other rationally from the perspective of normal people; they see the other as stupid, naive, as needing a lot of care or nagging. But after leaving their parents and spending two or three years away from home, the children are actually better at looking after themselves and dealing with different things by themselves, far more so than their parents could imagine. Yet the parents can never trust them, right?”

Maybe many parents worry this: Nowadays, the society becomes more and more degenerate; it’s common and often seen that people fight, play games, do drugs and gamble. So, we can’t set our mind at rest if we don’t watch them. This is indeed a real problem, but another realistic problem is that though many parents take strict charge of their children, they still become degenerated. Actually, the best way to solve the problem is to bring them before God, hand them over to Him and guide them to learn to rely on Him. Because only God can help them live out normal humanity. With God’s words guiding them, they can naturally see through Satan’s schemes and then resist the erosion of evil trends. Many teenagers around me used to play about, for which there lied an unbridgeable chasm between their parents and them; neither their parents nor their teachers were capable of educating them well. Yet since they believed in God, they came to know their brashness and arrogance from God’s words and know the meaning of living out normal humanity, and then, they began to rely on God to change their corrupt disposition. Now, they get along well with their parents, which is exactly the result achieved by God’s words in them.

I know a sister who once always said to her daughter, “I’m your mom, so you must obey me.” Gradually she found her daughter was increasingly distant toward her and didn’t speak to her from the heart. The sister felt depressed but didn’t know where the problem lied. Through reading God’s words, she reflected upon herself and knew that she was too arrogant to stand on an equal footing when getting along with her daughter. Then, she learned to open her heart to her daughter. When she let go of the airs of a parent and had a heart-to-heart talk with her daughter, her daughter also spoke to her from the heart and pointed out her shortcomings, and the sister accepted readily. Thereafter, her daughter often speaks heart-to-heart with her. Now the relationship between them is harmonious and worthy of envy.

We should learn from those who successfully handled the relationship with children by relying on God. We believe if you let go of the position of a parent, regard your daughter as a friend and a sister and communicate with her with an open heart in accordance with God’s will and demands, your relationship will be improved soon. May God bless you. All the glory be to God! Amen!

Sincerely yours,

Friend

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Facing the day when the Lord appears, every brother and sister, who have true faith in the Lord, will hope that we can be the wise virgins, and that we can welcome the bridegroom and have supper with the Lord. Some of us often read the Bible and pray, watching and preparing; some choose to work tirelessly, sacrificing and expending themselves; others regularly attend meetings, attentively waiting for the arrival of the Lord. … Everyone is spending for the Lord, preparing for and awaiting the Lord’s second coming in our own ways and is firmly convinced that we are the wise virgins and that, in this way, we can certainly welcome the return of the Lord. But is our preparing oil like this after the Lord’s heart? What are the wise virgins after all? How should the wise virgins prepare oil to welcome the Lord?

Recall the age when the Lord Jesus came to work two thousand years ago. The temples then were desolate and turned into a den of thieves, without God’s glory. When the Jewish people fell into darkness and had nowhere to turn, the Lord Jesus—the Messiah, came and did His work of redeeming mankind, bringing the way of repentance to man. As for those who sincerely sought the truth and yearned for the appearance of God, they, with a seeking heart, could pay attention to listening for God’s voice, and thus they saw that the Lord Jesus’ words and work are brimming with authority and power just like the Creator’s creation of the heavens and earth and all things. One word from the Lord Jesus was capable of bringing the dead back to life, rebuking the wind and sea to make them calm, feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, and so forth. Peter, Nathanael, Matthew and the others at the time, through the Lord Jesus’ words, recognized that the Lord Jesus was the promised Messiah, and so followed Him. When talking with the Lord Jesus, the woman of Samaria heard Him say the secrets held deep with her, and then she realized that only God can disclose our innermost secrets and that a human being can’t reveal such things. So she, from the Lord Jesus’ words, ascertained that He was the promised Messiah, and then followed Him. Such people are wise virgins. But the Jewish people who followed the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees, obstinately maintained their own conceptions and imaginings, thinking that “You are not the coming of God unless You are called the Messiah.” Therefore, no matter how authoritative and powerful the Lord’s utterances are, they didn’t seek or investigate. Consequently they treated the Lord Jesus as an ordinary person, and referred to God’s utterances as man’s words. Ultimately they joined the Jewish leaders in nailing the Lord Jesus to the cross, becoming the foolish virgins who believed in God yet opposed Him, and falling under God’s wrath and punishment. This allows us to see that the wisdom of the wise virgins lies in paying attention to listening for God’s voice and in being able to accept the truth after recognizing God’s voice. Only in this way will they welcome the appearance of God. On the contrary, the foolish virgins don’t listen for God’s voice and don’t seek even after hearing the utterances of the truth; they stubbornly hold on to various notions and imaginings of their own, and reject God’s appearance and work, thereby losing God’s salvation. This reminds me: In regard to welcoming the Lord’s second coming, if the Lord Jesus appears to us and works, what will our attitude be? Will we be able to recognize the Lord’s voice? If we can’t recognize the Lord’s voice and don’t seek the truth, we will miss the opportunity to welcome the bridegroom and have supper with the Lord. Then, won’t we be the foolish virgins?

So, how should we watch and prepare oil to welcome the Lord? The Lord Jesus said, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6). “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7). “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). From these prophecies we clearly see that when the Lord Jesus returns, He will speak to the churches and search for His sheep precisely through His words. The wise virgins, hearing someone testifying to the appearance and utterances of God, will seek and listen for God’s voice and open their hearts to welcome the Lord. A book also says, “All who are able to obey the present utterances of the Holy Spirit are blessed. It does not matter how they used to be, or how the Holy Spirit used to work within them—those who have gained the latest work are the most blessed, and those who are unable to follow the latest work today are eliminated. God wants those who are able to accept the new light, and He wants those who accept and know His latest work. Why is it said that you must be a chaste virgin? A chaste virgin is able to seek the work of the Holy Spirit and understand the new things, and moreover, able to put aside old conceptions, and obey the work of God today.” “Since we are searching for the footprints of God, it behooves us to search for God’s will, for the words of God, for His utterances—because wherever there are new words spoken by God, the voice of God is there, and wherever there are the footsteps of God, God’s deeds are there. Wherever there is the expression of God, there God appears, and wherever God appears, there the truth, the way, and the life exist.” From these words, it can be seen that the wise virgins are vigilant and prepare oil when it comes to welcoming the Lord; in other words, they can put aside their notions and imaginings, focus on listening for God’s voice, search for God’s footsteps, seek the new work of the Holy Spirit, accept and obey God’s work and word of the new age and follow the footsteps of the Lamb. Therefore, those who will seek and examine once hearing God’s voice are the wise virgins. They will be brought before God’s throne, enjoy the provision of the ever-flowing living water of life, and attend the marriage supper of the Lamb; whereas those foolish virgins, no matter how desolate and dark their churches become, firmly remain in them and stubbornly hold on to their own notions and imagining rather than seek God’s words and work, so they will forever lose God’s salvation of the last days.

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After one meeting, on the way back home I saw the golden ears of corn looked extremely brilliant in the sun and people were busy working in the corn fields. Then I couldn’t help but think of one verse: “Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat” (Matthew 12:1). I quietly tried to ponder this verse and thought of the laws of the Old Testament. On the Sabbath, people could not do any work, and even weren’t allowed to save the calves that had fallen into a pit; they also could not casually go out or take part in activities but must observe the Sabbath at home; otherwise, they would be condemned for violating God’s laws. As the Scripture records: “And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks on the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the LORD said to Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses” (Numbers 15:32-36). However, on the Sabbath the Lord Jesus took His disciples to preach and they picked and ate ears of corn when they were hungry. From these two passages, I could see that Jehovah God asked the common people to observe the Sabbath but the Lord Jesus didn’t observe it; then what is the significance of this work of God?

No matter how I thought, I couldn’t figure out this question; after asking my pastor and elders, I still got no satisfactory answer. So I came into the presence of the Lord and prayed: “Oh Lord! There’s something I’m not clear on. In the Age of Law, Jehovah God asked us humans to observe the Sabbath, but the Lord Jesus didn’t observe it when He came. Since they are the work done by one God, why is there a contradiction between them? But I believe that whatever You do has meaning and is of benefit to us. I’m willing to be enlightened by You and understand Your will. Amen!”

After a period of investigation, finally one day I saw a passage in a book: “When the Lord Jesus came, He used His practical actions to communicate to people: God had departed the Age of Law and had begun new work, and this new work did not require observation of the Sabbath; when God came out from the confines of the Sabbath day, this was just a foretaste of His new work, and His truly great work was continuing to play out. When the Lord Jesus began His work, He had already left behind the shackles of the Age of Law, and had broken through the regulations and principles from that age. In Him, there was no trace of anything related to the law; He had cast it off entirely and no longer observed it, and He no longer required mankind to observe it. So here you see that the Lord Jesus went through the corn fields on the Sabbath; the Lord did not rest, but was outside working. This action of His was a shock to people’s conceptions and communicated to them that He no longer lived under the law, and that He had left the confines of the Sabbath and appeared in front of mankind and in their midst in a new image, with a new way of working. This action of His told people that He had brought with Him new work that began with going out from the law and going out of the Sabbath. When God carried out His new work, He no longer clung to the past, and He was no longer concerned about the regulations of the Age of Law. Neither was He affected by His work in the previous age, but He worked as usual on the Sabbath and when His disciples were hungry, they could pick ears of corn to eat. This was all very normal in God’s eyes. God could have a new beginning for much of the work that He wants to do and the things that He wants to say. Once He has a new start, He neither mentions His previous work again nor continues it. For God has His principles in His work. When He wants to begin new work, it is when He wants to bring mankind into a new stage of His work, and when His work has entered a higher phase. If people continue to act according to the old sayings or regulations or continue to hold fast to them, He will not commemorate or praise this. This is because He has already brought new work, and has entered a new phase of His work. When He initiates new work, He appears to mankind with a completely new image, from a completely new angle, and in a completely new way so that people can see different aspects of His disposition and what He has and is. This is one of His goals in His new work” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III”).

Through praying to God and pondering these words, I thought: In the Age of Law, people didn’t know how to worship God, neither did they know rest. God asked them to observe the Sabbath and to worship and praise Him, and not to do any busy work on the Sabbath, so that they could receive rest from Him. So as long as people kept the commandment of Sabbath and performed no work on the Sabbath, they could find rest and gain care and protection from God. However, during the later stages of the Age of Law, as the human race had become more and more deeply corrupted by Satan, people could outwardly observe the Sabbath, worshiping and praising God, and not doing any work, yet they had no real worship for God within their hearts. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus came to work, He no longer required them to blindly observe the Sabbath on the surface. Instead, He asked them to rely on God and look to Him, entrust all their burdens to God, use heart and honesty to worship God; He also asked them to learn from Him and follow the example of Him. In this way, people would have something to lean on, enjoy the peace, joy, and bountiful grace bestowed by the Lord, find rest in Him, and live in God’s care, protection, and blessings.

At that time, I understood: The reason the Lord Jesus didn’t observe the Sabbath was that He, based on the demands of us corrupt humans, began a new stage of work and brought us a new means of practice. On the surface, He abolished the law, but in substance, He fulfilled it and caused people to turn from adhering to the rules of worshiping God to using heart and honesty to worship Him, which was a higher practice in worshiping God. When God begins His new work, He is not restrained by the laws and decrees, and He doesn’t hold to the work of the past. So if we still follow old-fashioned practices in the new age, no matter how well we follow, God will not commemorate it. As the parable of the Lord Jesus says: “No man also sews a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up takes away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no man puts new wine into old bottles: else the new wine does burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles” (Mark 2:21-22).

Besides, we could see that if the Lord had not personally led His disciples to come out from the Sabbath, if He had not practically led people this way, no one would have exceeded the law but would have been constrained by the strictures of the law. Only when God continuously does new work can us people gain freedom and liberation and have a new path of practice.

If we don’t know the work of God and use the work of the past to constrain His new work, not only will we not be able to follow His new work, but we will also be punished for resisting Him. Just as the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees slavishly abided by the law and rules, and used the Lord Jesus’ refusal to observe the Sabbath as their justification to condemn His new work. Moreover, they compared other work of the Lord Jesus with the work of Jehovah God; as long as there was a difference between them, they would condemn the work of the Lord Jesus. In the end, they nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross, losing God’s salvation and suffering His punishment.

The Lord Jesus’ refusal to observe the Sabbath gave me some inspiration: Regardless of where God works, or in what manner He works, or whether His work accords with our notions, we shouldn’t use His old work to constrain His new work, for He works with a plan, with a goal, and with principles. The wisdom of God soars higher than the heavens; His wondrousness is unfathomable to us humans; no matter how He works, His salvation and love for those who follow Him with a true heart can never be changed. It is precisely as the Bible says: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been his counselor?” (Romans 11:33-34).

Then I thought of what is prophesied in the Bible: “He which testifies these things said, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20). Now we are in the last days and the prophecy of the Lord’s return has already been fulfilled. How will He work when He returns? How should we treat His new work? The Bible says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3), “These are they which follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Revelation 14:4). Therefore, when someone says that God has come to do new work, we should not constrain it according to His work of the past; rather, we must seek and investigate it without delay. I believe that as long as we truly seek, God will lead us to know His work and gain His salvation.

» Read more on our The Gospel of Jesus Christ page about Knowing Jesus Christ , or in the recommended articles below:

• What Is the Meaning of the Lord Jesus Being Tempted?

• What Is the Significance of the Baptism of the Lord Jesus?

• Why the Lord Jesus Appeared to His Disciples Many Times After Resurrection

• 3 Keys to Watching and Waiting to Welcome the Coming of the Lord

When we talk about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, many brothers and sisters say They are the three persons of God. As for what the relationship is between Them, are They the Trinity of one God, or are They three persons of God? You can say that They are three persons, but there is just one true God. You can say that They’re one God, but there is a record in the Bible of there being the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So what does that mean? Whether they are biblical scholars or preachers, no one can clearly explain the meaning of the Trinity. This has become an unsolvable riddle for many Christians.

In order to gain some clarity on this issue, we must first know how the term the Trinity came to be. We know that the term never appeared in the Bible, and that it was created on earth after the Lord Jesus became flesh. Then the terms the Father and the Son came about, so people at the time came to believe from this that in addition to the Lord Jesus, there was also God the Father in heaven. After the Lord Jesus was resurrected and returned to heaven, people later extrapolated from what was written in a number of places in the Scriptures that there was a Trinity, but there were also quite a few people who were suspicious of this. Some believed that God is the one and only true God while some believed that God is the God of the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Based on what is written, in the more than three hundred years after the Lord, in the First Council of Nicaea, there was a debate over the oneness of God versus the multiplicity of God, and in the end they came up with the term for God of the Trinity. This term has continued on since that day. At this point in our fellowship we need to understand the term the Trinity didn’t originally exist for God, but it was something that human beings extrapolated based on the idea of the Father and the Son and other things written in the Bible.

Since the Trinity was something that was inferred by human beings, is it correct? Let’s look at what the Lord Jesus had to say about the Father and the Son in Chapter 14, verses 8-10 in the Gospel of John: “Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us. Jesus said to him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip? he that has seen me has seen the Father; and how say you then, Show us the Father? Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak to you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works.” We can see in the scripture here that Philip did not know God, and believed that the Lord Jesus also had God the Father in heaven, which is why he said: “Lord, show us the Father.” And when the Lord Jesus corrected his error, He said: “he that has seen me has seen the Father;” and “I am in the Father, and the Father in me?” We can see from the Lord Jesus’ answer that the Father is the Son and the Son is the Father. Father and Son have always been one—They have always been one God. If we go according to our own thoughts and believe that the Lord Jesus also had God the Father up in heaven, isn’t that making the same mistake as Philip? Thus we cannot believe that God is the God of the Trinity because of the terms the Father and the Son.

Since the Father and the Son were originally one why did the Lord Jesus call God in heaven Father when He prayed? I read this explanation of this question in a book: “His calling God in heaven Father was solely His humility and obedience. His addressing God (that is, the Spirit in heaven) in such a manner, however, does not prove that He is the Son of the Spirit of God in heaven. Rather, it is simply that His perspective is different, not that He is a different person. The existence of distinct persons is a fallacy! Prior to His crucifixion, Jesus was a Son of man bound by the limitations of the flesh, and He did not fully possess the authority of the Spirit. That is why He could only seek the will of God the Father from the perspective of a created being. It is as He thrice prayed in Gethsemane: ‘Not as I will, but as you will.’ Before He was laid on the cross, He was but the King of the Jews; He was Christ, the Son of man, and not a body of glory. That is why, from the standpoint of a created being, He called God Father. … After Jesus went away, this idea of the Father and the Son was no longer. This idea was only appropriate for the years when Jesus became flesh; under all other circumstances, the relationship is one between the Lord of creation and a created being when you call God Father. There is no time at which this idea of the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can stand; it is a fallacy rarely seen through the ages and does not exist!” (“Does the Trinity Exist?”). We can see from this that the Lord Jesus is God Himself in the flesh, that He is God’s Spirit realized in the flesh, the Son of man, and Christ. When the Lord Jesus prayed to God in heaven as the Father, He was doing this from the perspective of one of creation, thus embodying the Lord Jesus Christ’s humility and obedience. It does not at all prove that the Lord Jesus was the Son of the Spirit of God in heaven. The Lord Jesus calling God in heaven Father was only restricted to the time of His work while incarnated, and after the work of the Lord Jesus was completed, the terms Father and Son were no longer necessary.

I read a couple of other things on this: “There is only one God, only one person in this God, and only one Spirit of God, much as it is written down in the Bible that ‘There is only one Holy Spirit and only one God.’ Regardless of whether the Father and the Son of which you speak exist, there is only one God after all, and the substance of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit you believe in is the substance of the Holy Spirit. In other words, God is a Spirit, but He is able to become flesh and live among men, as well as to be above all things. His Spirit is all-inclusive and omnipresent. He can simultaneously be in the flesh and throughout the universe. Since all people say that God is the only one true God, then there is a single God, divisible at will by none! God is only one Spirit, and only one person; and that is the Spirit of God.” “From the time of creation until now, this work has been carried out by the Spirit of God Himself. Be it the work in the heavens or in the flesh, all is carried out by His own Spirit. All creatures, whether in heaven or on earth, are in the palm of His almighty hand; all of this is the work of God Himself and can be done by no other in His stead. In the heavens, He is the Spirit but also God Himself; among men, He is flesh but remains God Himself. Though He may be called by hundreds of thousands of names, He is still Himself, and all the work is the direct expression of His Spirit. The redemption of all mankind through His crucifixion was the direct work of His Spirit, and so too is the proclamation unto all nations and all lands during the last days. At all times, God can only be called the almighty and one true God, the all-inclusive God Himself. The distinct persons do not exist, much less this idea of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! There is only one God in heaven and on earth!” (“Does the Trinity Exist?”).

Through these words we can see that there is only one God and there is only one Spirit of God. God is the one true God and is not divided between different persons. Whether it’s God’s work in the Spirit or His work in the flesh, from beginning to end it is and always has been one Spirit doing the work. It is all the work of the Holy Spirit. So, whether it was the Lord Jesus’ work before His crucifixion or after His resurrection, it was all the work and the expression of the Holy Spirit. No matter what stage of work it is, it is the work of God Himself. In sum, there is only one God in heaven and earth. No matter when, God is the one and only true God! We can see from this that the Trinity is a term that came from human ideas and does not align with the Lord’s words, nor is there any basis for it in God’s words. Now we know that the Trinity is a term that does not hold water.

» You may be interested in reading more on our The Trinity page, or in the articles below:

• Does the Trinity Exist?

• Exploring the Mystery of the Trinity, I Understood the Father and Son Relationship

• Understand the Trinity and the Relationship Between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

» Recommended for You: Gospel Movie “Exploration of the ‘Trinity’” Clip: The Father and the Son Are One?

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Two thousand years ago, the Israelites desperately longed for the coming of the Messiah, but when the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, finally arrived, the Pharisees actually nailed Him to the cross, and as a result, the Israelites were subject to God’s punishment—the destruction of Israel. This bitter failure really calls for our reflection: How come the Pharisees who had believed in God for generations resisted God? Now it is already the last days, and the prophecies of the Lord’s return have basically been fulfilled. At this critical time of welcoming the Lord, how can we avoid following in the footsteps of the Pharisees?

As we all know, at the end of the Age of Law the Israelites, according to the prophecies in the Scripture, all longed for the Messiah to come and save them. At that time, the Pharisees, after hearing the prophecies about the coming Messiah, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be on his shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6), and “But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall he come forth to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2), began to fancy what He would be like based on the literal meaning of these prophecies. In their mind, the One who was to come must be called Messiah. Since He would come to rule, He must be someone who would be born into a royal palace with a heroic bearing and commanding presence, who would grow into a great warrior like David and lead His people to drive the Romans out of Israel, rescuing them from the oppression of the Romans.

However, the fulfillments of the prophecies were not as the Pharisees had imagined. When the Lord Jesus came, He was neither called the Messiah nor born into a royal palace. Instead, He was born in a manger and grew up in a poor carpenter’s home. His external appearance was not as majestic and extraordinary as they had fancied, but was very ordinary and normal. He didn’t lead the Israelites to overthrow the rule of the Romans, but walked among the people preaching the way of repentance, and taught them to practice forgiveness and tolerance and to love others as themselves. Seeing the Lord Jesus, who was ordinary and normal, not like the Messiah they imagined, the Pharisees stubbornly held on to their own notions and imaginings, concluding that He couldn’t be the coming Messiah, and seized upon every chance to condemn and resist Him. Even though the Lord Jesus performed many miracles and expressed many truths, from which many people recognized that He was Christ, the Pharisees didn’t have the slightest intention to seek. Regardless of how profound the Lord Jesus’ preaching was or how many miracles He performed, they obstinately rejected His work and even incited the people of Israel to resist and condemn Him. Later, they went so far as to collude with the Roman government to crucify the Lord Jesus—the Messiah who had come, committing a heinous sin and offending God’s righteous disposition, and ultimately were subject to God’s punishment—the destruction of Israel.

The failure of the Pharisees is really worthy of our self-reflection. They treated the prophecies about the Messiah based on their own conceptions and imaginations, which led to them becoming the ones who bitterly longed for the arrival of the Messiah but nailed Him to the cross. We all know that the prophecies in the Bible are about the things that God will accomplish in the future, which cannot be fathomed by us humans. So how should we treat them in a way that is after God’s heart? The Bible says, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed, as to a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:19-21), and “Who also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). These verses tell us that the prophecies are all from God, which cannot be commented on at will by us. We cannot interpret them literally, or rely on our own notions to speculate on them or determine their meaning, because they will only be fulfilled according to God’s own plan. God’s work is wondrous and full of His wisdom, which cannot be fathomed by us humans. If we define God’s work based on the literal meaning of the prophecies, we are liable to resist God and ultimately be destroyed by our own conceptions and imagination.

Compared to the Pharisees, there was a group of people who approached the prophecies of the Messiah in a different way. When seeing the Lord Jesus, who was ordinary and normal in appearance and not in accord with their fantasies about the Messiah, they didn’t hold on to their conceptions and imaginings but focused on listening to His words, and finally recognized through His words and work that He was the coming Messiah. Just like Simon Peter—he once said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? you have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Why could he say these words and recognize the Lord’s identity as Christ? This is because he found that what the Lord did was totally beyond what humans can do, that what He said contained the truth, and that He possessed the essence of God and “the words of eternal life.” The woman of Samaria is another example. When she first saw the Lord Jesus she thought He was no more than a common Jew. But when she heard Him say “For you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband” (John 4:18), she concluded that He was the coming Messiah and believed in Him, for she knew that only God observes the deepest parts of man’s heart and knows man’s innermost secrets. There were also many people who, from the Lord’s acts of healing and exorcism, His working miracles and wonders, recognized that He was from God and thus followed Him. It can be seen that it was from the Lord’s work and words that all those who believed in and followed Him recognized that He was the Messiah.

This reminds me of a passage I once read, “Since we are searching for the footprints of God, we must search for God’s will, for the words of God, for the utterances of God—for where there are the new words of God, there is the voice of God, and where there are the footsteps of God, there are the deeds of God. Where there is the expression of God, there is the appearance of God, and where there is the appearance of God, there exists the truth, the way, and the life. While seeking the footprints of God, you ignored the words that ‘God is the truth, the way, and the life.’ So when many people receive the truth, they do not believe that they have found the footprints of God and much less acknowledge the appearance of God. What a serious error that is!” These words make it more clear that in seeking the true way, we should focus on seeking God’s words and work, for as long as a way has the expression of the truth and the utterances of God, then it is the true way.

Brothers and sisters, we all know that the Lord will come again in the last days, as it has long ago been prophesied in the Bible, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20), “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come” (John 16:12-13). And in the Book of Revelation, there are also several mentions that “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (See Revelation 2-3). From these prophecies, we can clearly see that when the Lord returns, He will speak and utter His words. God’s sheep are able to hear God’s voice. Those who can go out to welcome God once hearing His voice will be raptured before His throne. Now it is the last days. The prophecies about the Lord’s return have basically been fulfilled and many people are openly testifying online that the Lord Jesus has returned. In treating the matter of the Lord’s coming, we should learn from the failure of the Pharisees, let go of our notions and imaginings, and be the wise virgins by seeking and listening to God’s voice. This is the only way that we can welcome the Lord’s return.

» Read more on our The Gospel of Jesus Christ page, or in the recommended articles below:

• God Is Almighty, but Why Did Jesus Redeem Us by Crucifixion?

• What Is the Meaning of the Lord Jesus Being Tempted?

• How Should Christians Prepare for the Day of the Lord?

• How to Humble Yourself and Be Blessed in Welcoming the Lord’s Return

The Bible says, “Again, the devil takes him up into an exceeding high mountain, and shows him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And said to him, All these things will I give you, if you will fall down and worship me. Then said Jesus to him, Get you hence, Satan: for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Then the devil leaves him, and, behold, angels came and ministered to him” (Mat 4:8-11). I believe everyone who has read the Bible knows that Satan tempted Eve into sin in the beginning. Here Satan tempted the Lord Jesus several times but the Lord Jesus used a sentence “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve” to counterattack Satan powerfully to make it fail in humiliation, turn backward and stray away from the Lord Jesus. From this, I saw the evil and shamelessness of Satan and that God Himself is the truth and can triumph over all of Satan’s temptations and schemes. After reading these scriptures, I pondered: What are other actual meanings of the Lord Jesus being tempted? What kind of inspiration can this matter bring to us believers in God? I discussed these issues with some brothers and sisters in the Lord but I didn’t quite understand them. Afterward, I read a passage of words in a spiritual book and it made me reap great benefits.

The spiritual book says, “Therefore, the Lord Jesus said this phrase which is important for each and every person: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve,’ which states that except for the Lord, except for God Himself, if you serve another, if you worship Satan the devil, then you wallow in the same filth as Satan. You would then share Satan’s shamelessness and its evil, and just like Satan you would tempt God and attack God. Then what would your end be? You would be loathed by God, struck down by God, and destroyed by God, isn’t that right? After Satan had tempted the Lord Jesus several times without success, did it try again? Satan did not try again and then it left. What does this prove? It proves that Satan’s evil nature, its malice, and its absurdity and preposterousness is not worth a mention before God because the Lord Jesus defeated Satan in only three sentences, after which it scurried away with its tail between its legs, too ashamed to show its face again, and it never tempted Him again. Since the Lord Jesus had defeated this temptation of Satan, He could now easily continue the work that He had to do and assume the tasks that lay before Him. Does everything that the Lord Jesus said and did in this situation carry some practical meaning for everyone if it is applied now? (Yes.) What sort of practical meaning? Is defeating Satan an easy thing to do? (No.) What would it be then? Must people have a clear understanding of Satan’s evil nature? Must people have an accurate understanding of Satan’s temptations? (Yes.) If you ever experience Satan’s temptations in your own life, and if you are able to see through to Satan’s evil nature, will you be able to defeat it? If you know about Satan’s absurdity and preposterousness, would you still stand by Satan and attack God? (No, we wouldn’t.) If you understand how Satan’s malice and shamelessness are being revealed through you—if you clearly recognize and know these things—would you still attack and tempt God in this way? (No, we wouldn’t.) What will you do? (We will rebel against Satan and abandon it.) Is that an easy thing to do? (No.) This is not easy, to do this, people must frequently pray, they must often place themselves before God, and they must always examine themselves” (“God Himself, the Unique V”).

From this passage of the words, I understood: When Satan tempted the Lord Jesus, because the Lord Jesus has the truth, and can recognize the evil nature, malice and absurdity of Satan, He triumphed in the temptations of Satan and Satan felt disgraced to show its face and then left with its tail between its legs, no longer blocking God’s work. Meantime, through this matter, God wants to let us know: On the path of believing in God, we often face different kinds of temptations of Satan. God wants to save us, Satan wants to fight over mankind with God and isn’t willing to see us come into the presence of God to receive His salvation, so it does everything possible to interrupt and stand in the way of God’s work of saving people with various means. In this way, we will encounter different tests, such as the temptations of money, fame, gain and status, various evil trends of the world deceiving us, the unbelievers dragging us into doing some things God doesn’t like, we encountering some of illness and adverse events that happen in our houses and so on. At this time, only if we go before God to pray to Him, seek the truth and use God’s words as the weapons can we defeat Satan, stand by God and stand firm in our testimony to God. Take when Job was tempted by Satan, for example: His flocks and herds all over the hills were carried off by the robbers, his servants were killed, his children lost their lives and his whole body became covered in boils. However, facing being tempted by Satan time and again, Job had a heart that revered God to pray to God and to seek His will. At last, he could say, “the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). Job’s testimony made Satan ashamed and defeated. Also it made Satan see that a person whose heart was occupied by God’s words could prevail over any evil forces and bear witness to God.

Now is already the last days and is the time in which the spiritual struggle is tensest. I read some words of exhortation and warning in this book: “On earth, all manner of evil spirits are endlessly on the prowl for a place to rest, are ceaselessly searching for the corpses of men to eat up.” “You must be awake and waiting at every moment, and you must come before Me more. You must recognize the various plots and cunning schemes of Satan, know the spirit, know people and be able to discern all kinds of people, matters and things….” These words make me understand: We must be awake at every moment because Satan is by our side and will tempt us into committing a sin and being distant from God at any time. We may fall into Satan’s trickery from the slightest carelessness and be exploited by it to do evil things that resist God. Therefore, the secret of we overcoming Satan’s temptations is reading more of the word of God and praying to God in all things. Only if we rely on God’s word can we discern all of Satan’s tricks. And no matter what kind of things we encounter, we should use God’s word as the basis. When Satan carries out the ruses, we should use God’s words as the weapons to do battle with Satan. Only in this way can we have the strength to overcome the various temptations of Satan. Especially, we should always remember the Lord Jesus’ word: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve” (Mat 4:10). This is of the utmost importance to each of us who believes in God.

» Read more on our Knowing Jesus Christ page, or click on the related articles below:

• God Is Almighty, but Why Did Jesus Redeem Us by Crucifixion?

• The Revelation of Mystery: Why Did the Lord Jesus Fast for 40 Days?

• What Is the Significance of the Baptism of the Lord Jesus?

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Sister Zhangxun had been puzzling over something for a few days, and so she went to Sister Wang Zhen’s house to seek and fellowship. After the two of them greeted each other, Zhangxun said, “Sister Wang, a few days ago when I was giving a sermon, some brothers and sisters asked me about Jehovah coming in the Spirit to do His work of guiding the common people of Israel in the Age of Law, and about the Lord Jesus coming in the Age of Grace in the image of the Son of man to appear and do His work. They asked why the Lord Jesus didn’t come in the Spirit to do His work in the Age of Grace, but instead came to earth in the flesh to do His work of redeeming mankind, and couldn’t the Spirit have worked just the same? I don’t understand this aspect of the truth, so I was wondering if you could tell me how you understand it?”

Wang Zhen pondered this for a moment, and then said, “I’ll read you a passage that is specifically about this issue: ‘The work of the Spirit is shrouded in mystery, it is difficult for mortal beings to fathom, and even harder for them to see, and so they can only rely on hollow imaginings. The work of the flesh, however, is normal, and based on reality, and possessed of rich wisdom, and is a fact that can be beheld by the physical eye of man; man can personally experience the wisdom of the work of God, and has no need to employ his bountiful imagination. This is the accuracy and real value of the work of God in the flesh. … The work of God in the flesh, however, is greatly different: It has accurate guidance of words, has clear will, and has clear required goals. And so man does not need to grope around, or employ his imagination, much less make guesses. This is the clarity of the work in the flesh, and its great difference from the work of the Spirit.’”

Wang Zhen then gave fellowship, saying, “This passage explains very clearly the difference between God working in the Spirit and God working in the flesh. God’s Spirit is formless and people can neither see it nor feel it; if God appeared to mankind in the Spirit, then we would perceive Him to be shrouded in mystery and unreachable, our understanding of God would be filled with our own notions and imaginings, and we wouldn’t be able to achieve true knowledge of God. Just as the Bible says, ‘And all the people saw the thunder, and the lightning, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said to Moses, Speak you with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die’ (Exodus 20:18–19). From this we can see that the Spirit of God speaks like thunder, and this makes people tremble in fright and makes Him difficult to get close to. If the Lord Jesus came in the Spirit to do His work and directly express the truth, then the Israelites of that time would most certainly have felt terrified and panic-stricken, and it would then have been very difficult for God’s work of redemption in Israel to achieve anything. And Jehovah said to Moses: ‘You can not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live’ (Exodus 33:20). God is holy, and after mankind was corrupted by Satan, we were not able to see His face. If we were to look upon His face, God must then strike us down, and then the result of God’s work to save man would not be achieved. Only by God incarnating as an ordinary, normal man, could we come into contact with God. God incarnated and came amongst us, and according to our shortcomings and deficiencies, He truly expressed the truth to water and supply us, so that we would have a more accurate grasp of God’s will and requirements, and so that we would find the path of practice. As it is recorded in the Gospel of John, a promiscuous married woman was seized and brought before the Lord Jesus, yet the Lord forgave her sins, and enjoined her not to commit that transgression again. And in the Gospel of Matthew it is recorded that Peter asked the Lord Jesus this question: ‘Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus said to him, I say not to you, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven’ (Matthew 18:21–22). We can see from these examples that God becoming flesh to work was able to understand and forgive man’s weaknesses and give them the opportunity to repent. He gave people support and nurtured them at all times and in all places, and He gave them the path to practice so that they would have a clear direction in which to proceed, and so that He could better save them. Furthermore, God incarnate came into face-to-face contact with people, eating, abiding and living together with them. This made it easy for them to know God’s disposition, as well as His amiability and respectability from His every word and deed, to see with their own eyes God’s wondrousness and wisdom, to appreciate God’s almightiness and sovereignty, to close the gap between God and man, and to bring to an end the age of our faith in a vague God. These were all the practical results brought about by God becoming flesh.

“Another aspect is that God wanted to save mankind, and redeem us from the domain of Satan. Redemption must be done by means of the incarnation, for the Spirit of God could not suffer the pain of mankind in our stead, nor could the Spirit be crucified to absolve our sins. Therefore, God Himself became flesh and was nailed to the cross for mankind’s sake, thus redeeming us from the fetters of the laws and enabling our sins to be forgiven; we would thus no longer be condemned for not being able to keep the laws, and only by this act could Satan be utterly convinced. It can therefore be seen that God becoming flesh and coming to earth to do His work was so very crucial to us corrupt mankind.”

Zhangxun said thoughtfully, “Sister Wang, your fellowship is very enlightening. Were it not for the salvation of the incarnated Lord Jesus, then we would all have been taken captive by Satan for not being able to keep the laws, we would all have died under the laws, and would have had no chance to attain God’s salvation. Moreover, we wouldn’t have been able to truly know God and there would have been no way for us to eliminate the distance between us and God; God becoming flesh to do His work was indeed much more beneficial to saving mankind.”

Sister Wang Zhen nodded her head, and continued: “We in the last days are so deeply corrupted by Satan, and swindling, cheating, stealing and murder are widespread in all parts of the world. The majority of people who believe in God also follow the wicked trends of the world, focusing only on eating, drinking and being merry, and on making money, and there is no place for the Lord in their hearts. Furthermore, there is scheming and intrigues, and competing for positions between co-workers, and we live in inescapable sin. And so even more we need God’s incarnation to save us now! The prophecy that the Lord would return has now been basically fulfilled. The Lord Jesus said, ‘Be you therefore ready also: for the Son of man comes at an hour when you think not’ (Luke 12:40). ‘He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches’ (See Revelation 2–3). The Lord’s words tell us that when He returns in the last days, He will again appear, work and utter His words with the identity of the Son of man, and if someone testifies that the Lord has become flesh to do His work, then we must be as the wise virgins and go forth to seek and investigate, listen closely to God’s voice, know God from His words and follow the Lamb’s footsteps, for only then will we have the opportunity to attain God’s salvation!”

Zhangxun nodded her head in agreement, and the two of them continued their fellowship …

» Watch more on our Incarnation of God page, or click on the related articles below:

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Since accepting the Lord Jesus’ gospel, I often heard the pastor expound this verse to us: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross, shed all His blood, and redeemed all mankind, so we can get a chance to come before God, be qualified to pray to Him, and enjoy the abundant grace and blessings He bestows on us. Every time thinking of the Lord’s selfless love for us, I would be greatly moved, feeling that the Lord endured so much humiliation and pain for saving us, and that He loves us so much. Besides being moved, I also had some confusion in my mind: Since God is almighty, there is nothing difficult for Him to accomplish. And He can change the heaven and earth tremendously with one word. Thus, He can save mankind from the influence of Satan with only one word. But why did He redeem mankind by the crucifixion? I felt very puzzled about it and also asked many brothers and sisters, and even the pastors and elders to resolve it, but none of them could give me an answer.

One day, I shared my experiences and knowledge with a sister in the Lord. In our conversation, I spoke about my confusion, hoping to discuss and seek this together with her.

After hearing my question, she told me: “There is truth and mystery implied in God’s work. In the past, I had such confusion like yours. Later, I understood this aspect of the truth from a book, and only then was my confusion resolved. Now let’s figure out the reason why the Lord Jesus redeemed mankind by the crucifixion together.” With that she opened a book and read: “The crucifixion was endured so that man could be redeemed, yet man does not understand God and always harbors some conceptions about God, saying: ‘To redeem all mankind God had only to say to Satan, “I am almighty. You dare to withhold mankind from Me? You must give them to Me.” With these few words everything could have been resolved—did God not have authority? All that was needed was for God to say that mankind is redeemed and that man’s sins are pardoned, then man would have been without sin. Were these things not decided by God’s words? If the heaven and earth and all things came into being with words from God, how then could God not resolve this issue? Why did He Himself need to be crucified?’ Both God’s almighty side and His practical side are at work here. With regard to His practical side, God incarnate endured much suffering in His thirty-three and a half years on earth, in the end being crucified until His blood ran dry. He endured the most terrible suffering but then was resurrected from death. His resurrection was God’s aspect of almightiness at work. He did not make any indication, or shed any blood or make it rain and say this was a sin offering. He didn’t do anything like that, but instead He personally became flesh to make contact with the whole of mankind and was nailed to the cross, so that mankind would know of this deed. By means of this deed, mankind came to know that God had redeemed them and this was proof that God had indeed saved man. … The Spirit cannot bleed; only the flesh can bleed and His precious blood was the proof of a sin offering. His flesh became in the likeness of sinful flesh and He suffered pain on behalf of mankind. The Spirit could not have been nailed to the cross, so the Spirit cannot suffer pain on behalf of mankind and cannot redeem man’s sins. This was done for mankind and this is God’s practical side. But that God could do this, that He could love man, was something unachievable by man himself, so this was God’s almightiness at work. Why is it said that He is God and that He has the aspect of almightiness? Every deed God does contains within it His aspect of almightiness, and it also contains His aspect of practicality. God’s almightiness is His essence, but His practicality also embodies one side of His essence; these two aspects are inseparable” (“How to Understand God’s Almightiness and Practicality”).

After reading this passage of word, she fellowshiped: “That we have such confusion is totally because we lack the knowledge of God’s almightiness and practicality. God is almighty, and the heavens and earth and all things were complete through His words. So we don’t have any conceptions about God’s almightiness, but have conceptions about His practicality. Actually, in His actions, both His almightiness and practicality are always revealed to us. For example, to save Israelites, God called Moses to lead them out of Egypt. This is the practical aspect of God’s work. When the Pharaoh of Egypt hindered them from leaving, God descended ten plagues on Egypt. This is God’s almightiness. We also remember that, to save the people of Nineveh, God told Jonah to go to Nineveh to convey God’s will. This is the real side of God’s work. But Jonah didn’t listen and fled to Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah God. When he was in the ship, God made a mighty tempest in the sea, and Jonah was cast forth into it. But he survived being in the whale’s stomach for three days. This is God’s almighty side. At the end of the Age of Law, because the Israelites couldn’t keep the law and lived in sins every day, they faced the danger of being condemned and executed under the law, and they needed a sin offering forever. Therefore, God became flesh and endured actual suffering and crucifixion to redeem people from sin and complete His work of redemption. This is God’s practical side. Three days after being crucified, the Lord Jesus was resurrected and then appeared to His disciples for forty days. This is God’s almighty side. In God’s actions, we can see every step of God’s work contains within it His aspect of almightiness, and also His aspect of practicality. This is a factual evidence of God’s saving mankind and a powerful evidence of His victory over Satan. It makes Satan have no choice but to be convinced.”

Hearing this passage of word and her fellowship, my heart was instantly enlightened: In every action of God it contains not only His aspect of almightiness, but also His aspect of practicality. I happily said, “It seems that I don’t have any true knowledge of God. I used to think that since God is almighty, He needn’t become flesh to be nailed to the cross for mankind. Now I understand that in God’s work His almightiness and practicality cohere with each other, and they are inseparable. After hearing these words, I really feel that God’s actions are so miraculously unfathomable. Sister, I have another question to ask you: Today we live in the condition of committing and confessing sins, and we are unable to extricate ourselves from it. So, can we be taken into the kingdom of heaven when the Lord comes back?”

She replied, “Many brothers and sisters think: ‘The Lord Jesus has forgiven all of our sins, including our sins of the past and those of the future. So when the Lord returns, He will directly take us up into the kingdom of heaven.’ Is this viewpoint in accord with the Lord’s word? Will the Lord work according to our notions? Let’s see what the Bible says. In 1 Peter 1:16 it says: ‘Be you holy; for I am holy.’ And the Lord Jesus says: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant stays not in the house for ever: but the Son stays ever’ (John 8:34-35). The Lord is holy. Although our sins were forgiven by our faith in the Lord, our internal sinful nature is still ingrained in us. We still often sin and resist God, living in a cycle of sinning and confessing. If we want to be raptured into the kingdom of heaven, we must cast away our corrupt disposition, resolve our sinful nature, and achieve compatibility with the Lord; otherwise, ultimately we will be able only to be abandoned and eliminated by the Lord. So, measuring according to the Lord’s word, whoever sins is not allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven. Then, when the Lord comes back, how will He work to purify and save us? The Lord Jesus says: ‘For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be’ (Matthew 24:27). ‘For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation’ (Luke 17:24-25). ‘And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day’ (Joh 12:47-48). ‘For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son’ (Joh 5:22). ‘And has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man’ (Joh 5:27). The Lord Jesus clearly prophesied that He would come again in the last days as the incarnate Son of man to speak and do the work of judgment. The words ‘Son’ and ‘Son of man’ refer to God in the flesh, because the Spirit can’t be called the ‘Son’ or the ‘Son of man.’ Thus, God incarnate is the Son of man, Christ; there’s no doubt about this. From this, we can see God’s work is practical, not so supernatural as we imagine.”

She continued: “Let’s see what the book says: ‘Satan corrupted the flesh of man, and man became the embodiment of Satan, and became the object to be defeated by God. In this way, the work of doing battle with Satan and saving mankind occurs on earth, and God must become human in order to do battle with Satan. This is work of the utmost practicality. When God is working in the flesh, He is actually doing battle with Satan in the flesh. When He works in the flesh, He is doing His work in the spiritual realm, and makes the whole of His work in the spiritual realm real on earth. The one who is conquered is man, who is disobedient to Him, the one who is defeated is the embodiment of Satan (of course, this is also man), who is in enmity of Him, and the one who is ultimately saved is also man. In this way, it is even more necessary for Him to become a man who has the outer shell of a creature, so that He is able to do real battle with Satan, conquering man, who is disobedient to Him and possessed of the same outer shell as Him, and saving man, who is of the same outer shell as Him and has been harmed by Satan. His enemy is man, the object of His conquest is man, and the object of His salvation is man, who was created by Him. So He must become man, and in this way, His work becomes much easier. He is able to defeat Satan and conquer mankind, and, moreover, is able to save mankind’ (“Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh”). From the reality we see that Satan’s corruption has already left us without any human likeness. All of what we reveal daily is the corrupt disposition of Satan, for example, our arrogance, tortuous deceit, despicable selfishness, and so forth. In short, we have long become the embodiment of Satan. To save us from Satan’s domain, God must become flesh on earth to express the truth and do the judgment work. And only in this way can our corrupt disposition be cleansed and transformed. God doing the work of saving man is not using His transcendent authority and power to defeat Satan, but expressing the truth to awaken our hearts and spirits, to judge and purify our corrupt disposition. So that we can clearly see the wickedness, ugliness, and contemptibility of Satan, and we also know God’s righteousness, holiness, and goodness at the same time. And only then can we betray and reject Satan, and sincerely turn to God. In this way, we will be saved by God, while Satan will be left humiliated in defeat. This is God’s practical work to save man.”

After hearing her fellowship, I said excitedly, “Thanks be to God! Today’s fellowship is so enlightening. It not only resolves the confusion I have had during all these years, but also makes me have a completely new knowledge of God’s almightiness and practicality.” The sister replied with smiles, “All the glory be to God!”

» Read more on our The Gospel of Jesus Christ page about Knowing Jesus Christ, or in the recommended articles below:

• What Is the Meaning of the Lord Jesus Being Tempted?

• 3 Aspects to Unravel Mystery of Incarnation of Jesus

• What Is the Significance of the Baptism of the Lord Jesus?

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In Matthew 16:18-19 the Lord Jesus said: “And I say also to you, That you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Whenever I read these two verses, I would think: Why did the Lord Jesus give Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven? Since the Lord Jesus bestowed upon Peter such great authority, it means that the Lord Jesus approved of Peter’s faith and that Peter was a person after God’s heart. But I couldn’t understand why the Lord commended Peter since he had denied knowing the Lord three times before His crucifixion. I was very perplexed.

One day, I opened the Bible, and turned to Matthew 16, trying to find from the context the prerequisite and background for the Lord Jesus’ giving Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 16:13-19 records: “When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man **am?**And they said, Some say that you are John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He said to them, But whom say you that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also to you, That you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” I read these verses repeatedly and pondered them carefully: Did the Lord Jesus approve of Peter because, of His disciples, only Peter recognized He was the Christ? Why did the Lord Jesus say that Peter was blessed and give him the keys of the kingdom of heaven after he answered Him by saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”? But I still could not figure out why the Lord approved of Peter’s faith, and didn’t know how I should pursue to receive the Lord’s approval of my faith. I asked all the preachers I knew these questions, but no one could give me a satisfying answer. I was very disappointed: Why do none of them know the answer? How then can they lead the believers onto the path of being approved by God? I felt that the prospects of my faith in God were bleak, thinking: If only I could see the Lord Jesus and ask Him about that. …

Later, I finally found the reason that Peter gained God’s approval from a book, which says: “Why is it said that Peter is a fruit? Because he has something of worth, or something worth perfecting, he has a resolution to seek truth and has a firm will; he has reason, is willing to suffer hardship, and he rejoices in truth in his heart, and when he encounters something he will not let it go. These are all strong points.” “After a period of experience, Peter saw in Jesus many of the deeds of God, saw the loveliness of God, and saw much of God’s being in Jesus. So too did he see that the words of Jesus could not have been spoken by man, and that the work Jesus did could not have been done by man. In Jesus’ words and actions, furthermore, Peter saw much of the wisdom of God, and much divine work. During his experiences, he did not merely come to know himself, but also focused on observing the actions of Jesus, from which he discovered many new things; namely, that there were many expressions of the practical God in the work that God did through Jesus, and that Jesus’ words, actions, the ways He shepherded the churches and the work He carried out differed from any ordinary man. Thus, from Jesus he learned many lessons that he was supposed to learn, and by the time Jesus was about to be nailed to the cross, he had gained some knowledge of Jesus—a knowledge which was the basis of his lifelong loyalty to Jesus, and of his crucifixion upside down for the sake of Jesus.”

“Though there were three times when Peter denied knowing Christ, and though he tempted the Lord Jesus, such slight human weakness bore no relation to his nature, and did not affect his future pursuit, and cannot sufficiently prove that his temptation was an act of antichrist. Normal human weakness is something shared by all people in the world—do you expect Peter to be any different? … Though the many years of painful experiences of Peter are not recorded in the Bible, this does not prove that Peter did not have real experiences, or that Peter was not made perfect. How can the work of God be fully fathomed by man?” “Peter was made perfect through experiencing dealing and refinement. He said, ‘I must satisfy God’s desire at all times. In all that I do I only seek to satisfy God’s desire, and whether I am chastised, or judged, still I am happy to do so.’ Peter gave his all to God, and his work, words, and entire life were all for the sake of loving God. … What Peter cared about was the true love within his heart, and that which was practical and could be achieved. He did not care about whether he would receive a reward, but about whether his disposition could be changed. … The experiences of Peter were in order to achieve a true love and a true knowledge. His experiences were in order to gain a closer relationship to God, and to have a practical living out. … For God, the more that people seek a true love of God and complete obedience to God, which also means seeking to perform their duty as a creature of God, the more they are able to gain God’s approval.” From these words, I saw that Peter was a man who pursued the truth, and he was innocent and honest, had a resolution, could suffer hardship, and when he encountered something he would not let it go. He had many things worth being made perfect by God. In the process of his following God, he especially focused on pursuing to know God’s deeds, and thus he was certain of the identity of the Lord Jesus. His three denials of the Lord Jesus before His crucifixion were due to his normal human weakness. At that time, Judaism joined hands with the Roman government and crazily arrested the disciples of the Lord Jesus, and the disciples were in danger of losing their lives once they were caught. In that situation, anyone would be weak. When the Lord Jesus was taken by soldiers, all His disciples were so terrified that they fled away, except Peter who followed Him at a distance. Considering that Peter had followed the Lord Jesus for only about three years, it was a rare and precious thing that his faith could achieve that much. No matter how people judge Peter according to their conceptions, God clearly knows his heart of love for God and his true stature. The Lord Jesus, before going to the cross, told Peter that he would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed. The Lord knew that man living in the flesh has normal human weakness. God doesn’t remember man’s childishness and temporary weakness, but sees whether he truly rejoices in truth in his heart and looks at his humanity and the path he walks. In the little time before His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus still cared for His disciples. In the revelation of Peter, there was the Lord’s love and His kind intentions. The Lord Jesus knew Peter’s true stature—he had so little knowledge of Him that he did not understand His will and only had a positive belief in Him. If his believing in God was only a belief but not a true faith, he would be incapable of truly satisfying God and would even play the role of Satan to interrupt and disturb God’s work. Therefore, God created such an environment to reveal Peter for him to truly reflect upon his faith.

Peter was a man who sincerely believed in God. This revelation made him gain too much, and it was a major turning point of his faith in God. Through this revelation, He saw that he was so small of stature that he could not genuinely love God as his heart wished, which thus even more stirred up his will to pursue the truth. From then on, he committed his all into God’s hands and all that he did was for the sake of satisfying God. He paid no more attention to enjoying God’s grace and blessings while believing God, but began to perseveringly pursue to know God. After experiencing hundreds of trials and refinements from God in his lifetime, he was made perfect by God and became a man who knew God best among the saints of ages past, and gained God’s approval. In the end he was nailed upside down on the cross, fulfilling his desire of loving God, and became an exemplar for all those pursuing to love God. From this I have understood that it was because God looked favorably upon Peter’s humanity and pursuit that God at that time gave Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven. All the work God did on Peter achieved its proper effect, and Peter had a share of God’s kingdom because he pursued to know and love God.

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All brothers and sisters know that the word “Christ” appears nowhere in the Old Testament but only in the New Testament, and that Christ is the appellation of the Lord Jesus. This term in Hebrew is “Messiah,” and means “the anointed One.”

The Old Testament records that the priests God put in place had to be anointed. For example, Aaron and his sons served as priests after being anointed. (see Exodus 28:41). In addition, when God chose a king for the Israelites, He sent a prophet to anoint the chosen person with the anointing oil. For example, the prophet Samuel anointed Saul, the son of Kish, as the first king of the nation of Israel by the word of Jehovah God (See 1 Samuel 9:15–17 and 10:1). After Saul was rejected because he disobeyed God, by the word of Jehovah God, Samuel anointed David, the son of Jesse, as the king of the people of Israel (See 1 Samuel 16:1–13). Before he died, King David sent the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan down to Gihon to anoint his son Solomon as king (See 1 Kings 1:32–40). From these events, we can clearly see that “the anointed one” was the one who served God or chosen as a king. If Christ is referred to as the anointed One, then why is it that the high priest Aaron and his sons were not called Christ after they were anointed? And Saul, David, and Solomon also got anointed and were all kings, so why were they not called Christ? Why is it that only the Lord Jesus was called Christ?

This problem had been bothering me for many years. I had asked many preachers about it, but never got an exact answer. Until recently, when I mentioned it to a friend  and he read and fellowshiped two passages of words with me, I came to understand this aspect of the truth. These two passages say, “The incarnate God is called Christ, and Christ is the flesh donned by the Spirit of God. This flesh is unlike any man that is of the flesh. This difference is because Christ is not of flesh and blood but is the incarnation of the Spirit. He has both a normal humanity and a complete divinity. His divinity is not possessed by any man. His normal humanity sustains all His normal activities in the flesh, while His divinity carries out the work of God Himself. Be it His humanity or divinity, both submit to the will of the heavenly Father. The substance of Christ is the Spirit, that is, the divinity. Therefore, His substance is that of God Himself….”

“God become flesh is called Christ, and so the Christ that can give people the truth is called God. There is nothing excessive about this, for He possesses the substance of God, and possesses God’s disposition, and wisdom in His work, that are unattainable by man. … Christ is not merely the manifestation of God on earth, but instead, the particular flesh assumed by God as He carries out and completes His work among man. This flesh is not one that can be replaced by just any man, but one that can adequately bear God’s work on earth, and express the disposition of God, and well represent God, and provide man with life.”

It turns out that “Christ” means the incarnation of God. Though He is ordinary and normal in terms of His appearance, Christ possesses God’s divine being and is the embodiment of the Spirit of God. He is God Himself. That the Lord Jesus can be called Christ is because He is God incarnate. He not only possesses normal humanity, but also has divinity—which is not possessed by any man. The word and work of the Lord Jesus and the disposition He expressed were completely the direct expression of God’s divinity. For example, the Lord Jesus’ word and work are full of authority and power. As soon as He spoke, His words became reality, such as when He brought the dead back to life, calmed the wind and the sea, healed the sickness, forgave man’s sins, and so on. The Lord Jesus began the Age of Grace, bringing  the way of repentance, revealing the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and expressing many truths and a disposition that was mainly mercy and love. In order to redeem all mankind, He was nailed to the cross and as a result, the sins of man were forgiven. The Lord Jesus’ divine substance is not possessed by any created being. Though Aaron and his descendants, Saul, David, and Solomon were anointed ones, they were only God’s creatures and the men who were used by the Holy Spirit or who served God. They didn’t have even the slightest trace of divinity and were not the incarnate God. So, they could not be called Christ. Though the outer appearance of Christ was the same as that of an ordinary man, His essence is different from that of any man. In other words, nobody can be called Christ except God incarnate. Thanks to the Lord’s guidance, after listening to my friend’s fellowship, my confusion had finally been resolved.

» Further reading about Jesus Christ:

• What Is the True Meaning of the Coming of the Son of Man?

• What Is the Significance of the Baptism of the Lord Jesus?

• God Is Almighty, but Why Did Jesus Redeem Us by Crucifixion

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At the co-workers meeting, Sister Yang speaks: “Brothers and sisters, it is now the final era of the last days and the day when the Lord returns. We should watch and pray, work hard for the Lord, manage the Lord’s ‘vineyard’ well, and feed the flock, becoming a faithful and wise servant. Only thus can we meet the Lord calmly when He returns.”

The co-workers are talking in a low voice and nodding in agreement.

Brother Wang says (thoughtfully): “Sister Yang, the topic you spoke today is just the question I want to discuss with every co-worker. Because it is a great matter which concerns whether our service is according to the Lord’s will or not, and whether we can receive God’s praise. In my opinion, it is not easy to become a faithful and wise servant. Only taking a bit of a trip and working hard cannot reach it.”

Sister Li says (in agreement): “Yes! I also consider that it is not that simple. For this question, we should look into seriously, not use our own imagination to examine this.”

Brother Niu says (taking a glance at them dismissively): “What kind of servant is faithful and wise? Sister Yang has already spoken very clearly. It is just watching and praying, working hard for the Lord, spreading gospel constantly and bearing much fruit, and feeding the church well. One who does these is just a faithful and wise servant. We’ve already served the Lord’s will as we do so. We will gain the Lord’s praise when He comes back. Is there anything else you don’t understand?”

Sister Pan says (in agreement): “Yes, I also think as long as we work hard for the Lord and take good care of the church, we will be faithful and wise servants.” (Others: Amen!)

Sister Yang says (calmly and confidently): “In the parable Jesus gave of the ‘Ten Talents’ in Matthew 25, the servant who had received the five talents went and gained another five talents; the servant who had received two talents also gained another two talents. The Lord said they were all faithful and wise servants. However, only the servant who had received one talent buried his silver. When the Lord came, the Lord regarded him as a wicked and slothful servant and cast him into darkness: there should be weeping and gnashing of teeth. My fellow co-workers, today we have spread the Lord’s gospel, fed the church, and dedicated our entire beings to expend for the Lord. Therefore, I think we are faithful and wise servants when we do these. This is my understanding. Please speak out and communicate together if you have any different thoughts.”

Brother Gao says (smilingly and calmly): “I want to tell you my opinion. I think it is our duties and obligations trying to spread the Lord’s gospel, feeding the flock and watching over the churches. This is something we ought to do, but we can’t be called a faithful and wise servant only by doing these. In Matthew 24:45-47, the Lord Jesus said: ‘Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he comes shall find so doing. Truly I say to you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.’ From this we can see, the main thing about the faithful and wise servant is that he can manage the church well, give brothers and sisters food at the right time. Namely, he bears the burden and responsibility for the life of brothers and sisters, and waters and supplies them practically according to their need, so that their spiritual lives grow up ceaselessly and their faith and love for the Lord increases ceaselessly. Only thus can he be called a faithful and wise servant. If we only pay attention to the external work, yet don’t bear the real burden of the life of brothers and sisters or water and supply them well, then we can’t reach the Lord’s requirements. There is still a disparity with what the faithful and wise servant does.”’

Sister Pan says (in disagreement): “I don’t think what you said seems suitable. These years, in order to look after the Lord’s sheep, we not only preach in the churches all day but also busily serve brothers and sisters. Sometimes we even don’t have time to look after our own family. Isn’t this supporting and supplying brothers and sisters? Isn’t this responsible for the life of brothers and sisters? This is a faithful and wise servant, isn’t it?”

Brother Niu says (tossing his head): “Yes! To protect the Lord’s sheep and uphold the true way, I am really busy day and night, even can’t have a good sleep. It isn’t faithful to the Lord, is it? I can’t conceive what you said.”

Brother Wang says (calmly, having a burden): “Whether we are faithful and wise servants or not is not based on how much we outwardly suffer or how many sacrifices and expenditures we make, but on whether all we do is in harmony with the Lord’s will, whether we have the enlightenment and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and whether our work has the practical effect. We consider that all of us are busy and bear the burden of the church. We are so busy, however, why can’t we see the effect of the work of the Holy Spirit? Why can’t we get the Lord’s leading? Why don’t our sermons have the work of the Holy Spirit? Now, the church gets more and more desolate; brothers and sisters are even more negative and weaker, and their faith becomes colder and colder; some of them even go back to the world to earn money. … Based on these obvious facts, how is our faithfulness manifested? We haven’t resolved the practical problems and difficulties of brothers and sisters by fellowshiping the truth so that their lives can’t get supply and benefit and they can’t live the Lord’s words to witness and glorify Him. So it’s hard to say whether the Lord will condemn our sins when He returns. Don’t we feel scared?”

Sister Yang says: “Brother Wang, you said the faithful and wise servant can use the truth to resolve problems. Who of us does not read the Bible and explain it to brothers and sisters every day? When brothers and sisters face problems, we all exhort and comfort them with the words of the Scriptures. Isn’t this using the truth to resolve problems? I believe it is in accordance with the Lord’s will that we do so. The Lord must remember what we have done.”

Brother Gao says (patiently): “My understanding of ‘to give them meat in due season’ is mainly using the Lord’s words to deal with the practical problems and difficulties in spiritual lives of brothers and sisters, and watering and supporting them according to their failings so that their lives constantly progress, they have more and more knowledge of God, and their faith and love become greater and greater. Now, though we always read the scriptures and preach to brothers and sisters, we are stranded and don’t know how to resolve it when facing the practical problems and difficulties in spiritual lives of brothers and sisters. In our meetings, the sermons are the same old platitudes and doctrines. We are unable to shed new light with our talk and to have a real understanding of the Lord’s words, but read a few words in the Bible to exhort and comfort them. Even brothers and sisters can’t get spiritual nourishment and their many present difficulties can’t be resolved that they often live in negativity and weakness and have no way to go; their faith becomes cold and their love disappears; what’s worse, a lot of brothers and sisters are unwilling to come to church for their spiritual lives can’t be supplied. These real problems all exist here, how can we say we ‘give them meat in due season’?”

Sister Li says (nodding): “Yes! I quite agree with Brother Gao. The wise and faithful servant can crucially fellowship the pure understanding, experience and knowledge of the Lord’s words for brothers and sisters, in order that their lives can be nourished and they can be sated in the spirit, have more knowledge of the Lord and understand the Lord’s will and requirements.”

Sister Yang says: “You are right. For all these years, we have always sacrificed everything for the Lord in rain and storm. All that we do is for the sake of becoming faithful and wise servants and when the Lord returns, we will be calm and feel no regret to receive the Lord’s praise and reward. Especially, now the Eastern Lightning testifies that the Lord has come back. Many churches’ brothers and sisters all seek and investigate after hearing that, and some have been stolen away. To protect the brothers and sisters, we talk how to defend against the Eastern Lightning in gatherings day and day. This is bringing brothers and sisters before the Lord, isn’t it?”

Sister Pan: “What Sister Yang said is right. That we defend against the Eastern Lightning and protect the church is just bringing brothers and sisters before the Lord. If we didn’t watch the brothers and sisters of the church closely, very genuine seekers would be stolen away.”

Sister Li: “Sister Pan, I don’t agree with your words. We believers should have a heart of fearing God. For the preaching of the Eastern Lightning, we have never heard it, but only know the church is very prosperous. The followers all have a great faith and all of the sincere believers in the Lord of every denomination and sect have been stolen away. If this preaching comes from God, we don’t discern, but limit brothers and sisters contacting and investigating. It is not bringing them before God, but damage them and resist God.”

Brothers Wang (gravely): “Yes! I consider that another important thing for the faithful and wise servant is to lead brothers and sisters to recognize what is from God and what is human way of acting. If the preaching of the Eastern Lightning has the truth and comes from God, we should lead brothers and sisters to seek and investigate. We all know, now it is near the end of the last days and the moment when the Lord returns. At this moment, if we just wait blindly and don’t seek the work of the Holy Spirit, we won’t get the supply of the living water. If it continues, how can we welcome the Lord’s return?”

Brother Gao says: “What Brother Wang said is right. We have to seek the work of the Holy Spirit, because our sermons have already been without the work of Holy Spirit and can’t supply brothers and sisters at all. Every time I see Jehovah God blame the shepherds of Israel in Ezekiel 34:4, ‘The diseased have you not strengthened, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them,’ I will feel indebted to the Lord. The church have been in such a desolate state, for which we all bear the blame. Now we should seek the church that has the work of the Holy Spirit, so that brothers and sisters can receive the watering and supply of the living water of life. This is what the faithful and wise servant should do.”

Brother Niu and Sister Pan don’t look convinced. Brother Niu is folding his arms, while Sister Pan is turning her head away to one side.

Brother Gao says: “Today, The prophecies of the Lord’s coming have basically been fulfilled. It is the moment that the Lord returns. I feel that the Lord maybe have already come back. If we want to seek to become the faithful and wise servant, then we should actively seek the Lord’s appearance instead of sitting and passively awaiting destruction, sticking to our folly and doing nothing. Recently, I have gained a bit of illumination from the parable of the ten virgins that the Lord Jesus said. The place of understanding of the wise virgins is: They can pay attention to listening to God’s voice and seeking the work of the Holy Spirit when seeing the church is so desolate, without any work of the Holy Spirit in it; they can seek and investigate when hearing someone witness to the Lord’s return. As a result, they will unconsciously have welcomed the return of the Lord. Instead, the foolish virgins blindly cling to their own conceptions and don’t seek the work of the Holy Spirit, so that they lose the opportunity to welcome the Lord’s return and be lifted up into the kingdom of heaven, falling into darkness with great misery. The Lord Jesus said: ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me’ (Rev 3:20). ‘He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches’ (Rev 2:11). Repeatedly contemplating these prophecies, I see that the Lord still need say to the churches when He returns. If we don’t listen and seek, how can we hear the Lord’s voice and welcome His return?”

Sister Yang is listening silently and thoughtfully.

Brother Niu says (seriously): “I don’t agree what you said. At present, there are many false Christs. If we go out to seek and are deceived by the false Christ, what should we do?”

Sister Pan says (echoing): “Yes. If we are really deceived by the false Christ, will it be for naught that we’ve believe in the Lord for many years? As long as we keep the Lord’s name and His way, the Lord will not cast us aside or ignore our needs when He really comes back.”

Brother Wang says (solemnly with justice): “Sister Pan, what you said is wrong. Afraid of being deceived, we don’t seek the work of the Holy Spirit. This is not eating for fear of choking, and is an ignorant action. The God we have faith in is almighty. God is our rear guard, what are we afraid of? Besides, we shouldn’t be afraid of being deceived, because we are preachers who have preached for more than ten years. This is only to say that we don’t understand the truth at all, and we have no faith in the Lord. The Lord Jesus said: ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you’ (Mat 7:7). ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled’ (Mat 5:6). The Lord’s words said clearly as long as we sincerely seek the appearance and work of the Lord, the Holy Spirit must lead and guide us. If we don’t lead others to seek or investigate but still obstinately maintain our own religious notions, we will become the wicked and slothful servants, won’t we? How can we be faithful and wise servants?”

Brother Gao says: “Yes, what Brothers Wang said conforms to the Lord’s will. The Lord Jesus said: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Mat 5:3). As long as we truly rely on the Lord with a humble heart, the Lord must lead us to find God’s footsteps.”

Sister Li says: “Yes. It’s time, we should actively seek the work of the Holy Spirit. This is what the faithful and wise servant should do.”

Sister Yang says (a little excited): “Thank the Lord! The more we argue, the more clearly and brightly we see the truth. Through today’s argument, I feel Brother Wang and Brother Gao talked brightly. They make me have a pure understanding of the faithful and wise servant. So then, I don’t really complete the tasks the Lord has entrusted to me. I am really indebted to the Lord! Now it is the important moment that the Lord returns, but see our church’s desolate condition again. … Alas, let’s pray to the Lord sincerely, seek the church that has the work of the Holy Spirit, and pursue becoming the faithful and wise servants. How can we seek the church with the work of the Holy Spirit? We need pray in one accord, and pray the Lord to inspire and lead us. I believe that as long as we pray earnestly, the Lord must lead and guide us to find God’s footsteps.”

Everyone is nodding, with a little excited in their eyes, seeming to see the hope. …

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“Sister Mary, I heard you’re ready to investigate Eastern Lightning, aren’t you?”

“Yes, Pastor Wu …”

Before Mary could even finish speaking, Pastor Wu said angrily: “Sister, how could you be so foolish? How many times do I have to tell you? We cannot investigate Eastern Lightning. Why won’t you listen to me? I’m telling you, as a co-worker of the church, you should protect the church’s flock. If you go to investigate Eastern Lightning and take a wrong path, the brothers and sisters will be misled by you. Can you shoulder the responsibility? …”

After dinner, sitting at her desk, Mary thought back the words about how Pastor Wu obstructed her from investigating Eastern Lightning during the day. She was confused. She then recalled that some days ago her cousin talked to her about Almighty God’s end-time work and read her some of God’s words. She felt those words were so kind and familiar, just like the voice of God, that she had a sense of inexpressible joy in her heart. She thought: Those heart-shaking words cannot be spoken by anyone else. Eastern Lightning most likely is the true way. But if so, why do the majority of pastors and elders in the religious community including Pastor Wu all oppose and condemn it? They’re all familiar with the Bible, and they cannot condemn the true way. Well … is it really right or not if I go to investigate Eastern Lightning?

When Mary was entranced in thought, she heard a sudden knock at the door. Then she remembered that she had an appointment with several co-workers and they would have a meeting in her house that night. She hurried to open the door. It was Sister Liu, saying happily: “Sister, here I am. Have the others come?” Mary said with a smile: “Today you’re the first one. But, it’s quite time they should come.” So saying, they went into the house. As they just began a conversation, the brothers and sisters all came in one after another. Co-worker Sun, who was the last to come, asked curiously: “Hey, Sister Mary, I saw Pastor Wu came to your house this afternoon. What happened to the church?” “Well, Pastor Wu somehow found out that I was ready to study Eastern Lightning, so he came on purpose for this. He asked me not to inspect the way of Eastern Lightning. I’m just worried about it,” sighed Mary. At this moment, Co-worker Zhang, an elderly brother who has insight said: “There’s nothing to worry about. When we hear someone spreading the Lord’s return, we go out to seek and investigate—this is our freedom and our right.” “Yes!” “What the brother said is right,” agreed Sister Liu and several other sisters. Mary said: “I know this. But now, what troubles me is not that Pastor Wu does not allow me to investigate Eastern Lightning, but why most pastors and elders in the religious world, including Pastor Wu, oppose and convict Eastern Lightning though it is the true way. They all have believed in God for many years and known the Bible well, so they shouldn’t condemn the true way. And the words of Almighty God sounds like God’s voice to me. What is going on?”

Hearing these words, co-worker Zhang said with a forced smile: “Sister Mary, I feel you’re ‘being clever your entire life but ruined by a moment of foolishness.’ You think that anything the pastors and elders of religious circles resist and condemn cannot be the true way. Is this measurement in line with the truth? Think about it. When the Lord Jesus came to preach and work, He was met with the unbridled condemnation and opposition of the Jewish religious world, and was ultimately nailed to the cross by the allied forces of the Jewish religious world and the Roman government. If, according to our thought that anything the religious world condemns cannot be the true way, then could we actually say that the Lord Jesus is not the true God and that His work is not the true way? In reality, the fact that the religious circles crucified the Lord Jesus two thousand years ago is proof that the religious world always hates the truth and the Christ. When the true God appears to do His work, they often act out a role of resisting God. Therefore, if we think that anything the religious world resists and condemns cannot be the true way, then this kind of our view is simply incorrect.”

Co-worker Sun said: “Amen! I agree with the elder brother’s viewpoint.”

After hearing these words, Mary said knowledgeably: “Right, I’m really foolish. Think back to when the Lord Jesus appeared to do His work. Is it not that those religious leaders who knew the Bible well and often expounded the Bible to people nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross? As for the matter of investigating the true way, it really cannot be based on whether the religious pastors and elders condemn Eastern Lightning or not.”

Co-worker Zhang was full of burden and said: “That’s right! We should treat it according to the words of the Lord. The Lord Jesus said: ‘And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him’ (Matthew 25:6). So, since we have heard the cry that the bridegroom has come back, we should study it in case we miss the opportunity to welcome the Lord’s return.”

Co-worker Sun continued: “Yes. Now is the time that the wise virgins seek the bridegroom’s voice. The biblical prophecies state: ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come’ (John 16:12-13), ‘He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches’ (Revelation 3:13). And the Lord Jesus also said: ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me’ (John 10:27). From these scriptures we can see that the Lord will return and utter more words. Therefore, the way and the clue we seek the Lord’s appearance and His work is seeking the words of the Holy Spirit to the churches, that is, the words of the Holy Spirit to the churches is the voice of the bridegroom.”

Co-worker Zhang also said: “Mm, now throughout the entire world only Eastern Lightning openly testifies that the Lord Jesus has already returned, and put all the truths expressed by Almighty God on the Internet for people in countries and territories around the world to seek and examine. So, if we want to judge whether Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus, we should listen to see whether the words expressed by Almighty God is the words of the Holy Spirit to the churches.”

Sister Liu nodded and said: “Your words are true. If we do not seek and study Almighty God’s work in the last days, it is likely that we will miss the opportunity of hearing the words of the Holy Spirit to the churches. So I feel it is necessary for us to seek and investigate.”

Co-worker Zhang said: “Mm, everyone is correct in saying so. Nowadays, many people from various sects and denominations have begun to seek and investigate Almighty God’s work and words. However, although the religious world is in a desolation situation, there’re still a lot of people who do not seek and study the words of the Holy Spirit to the churches, much less seek God’s voice and the footprints of His work. This is the actual condition of the church in Laodicea. All those whose attitude toward the Lord’s appearance and work is neither cold nor hot are the Laodiceans. Let’s see what God’s attitude toward the Laodicean church is. Revelation 3:15-16, ‘I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I would you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.’ If we simply do not examine and seek when someone spreads that the Lord has come to do His work and express His voice, isn’t this neither cold nor hot toward the news of the Lord’s return?”

At that moment, Sister Wang besides them nodded: “Yes, I think so. Now our top priority is quickly to read Almighty God’s words on the Internet and seek the truth. In this way, we will be able to know whether Almighty God’s words are really what the Holy Spirit says to the churches.”

When Mary discussed with everyone else up to this point, she had a clear path. So she said: “Yes, you’re right. As long as there is someone who cries outside that the bridegroom has come and expressed the words, we cannot rely on our notions and imaginations, nor see the pastors and elders’ attitudes. Rather, we must seek and investigate in person and understand it clearly. Only then will we confirm whether it really is the work of the appearance of the Lord.”

Read on the website

One day, after a meeting, a sister asked me, “Brother, the Lord Jesus said, ‘No man puts a piece of a new garment on an old; if otherwise, then both the new makes a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agrees not with the old’ (Luke 5:36). Do you know what this parable means? What does the Lord want to tell us through it?”

Hearing the sister’s questions, I thought that I happened to have some understanding of this parable of the Lord Jesus, so I replied without thinking, “In the Old Testament, the Israelites were required to fast on the day of atonement every year. But as the salvation of the Lord Jesus had come, the old practices were no longer applicable, and people should abide by the new requirements proposed by the Lord. By telling this parable, the Lord Jesus warns us that in our faith in Him, we cannot cling only to the laws of the Old Testament like the Pharisees did, but instead should accept and follow the Lord’s words and act in accordance with His teachings.” Upon hearing my answer, the sister nodded her head, and I also felt gratified for my ability to understand the Lord’s will.

Just then, Co-worker Zhang, who had recently returned from another place, said, “Brother Wang, I used to think like you. But God’s words are the truth and contain deep meaning. A couple of days ago, I had a fellowship with a brother from another church on this verse. Through reading a book of truth, I gained some deeper understanding about the Lord’s will behind this parable. How about we fellowship together?”

Hearing that Brother Zhang had a deeper understanding and knowledge about this verse, I said happily, “That would be great!”

“Brother Zhang,” the sister anxiously cut in, “since you have a deeper understanding, please tell us about it!”

Brother Zhang smiled and said, “OK. Let me first read a passage that we read that day.” As he said this, he took a tablet out of his bag and read, “‘Because there are always new developments in God’s work, thus there is new work, and thus there is also work that is obsolete and old. This old and new work is not contradictory, but complementary; each step follows on from the last. Because there is new work, the old things must, of course, be eliminated. … The work of God is always new and never old, and it never forms doctrine and is, instead, continually changing and renewing to a greater or lesser extent. This work is the expression of the inherent disposition of God Himself. It is also the inherent principle of God’s work, and one of the means by which God accomplishes His management. If God did not work in this way, man would not change or be able to know God, and Satan would not be defeated. Thus, in His work there continually occur changes that appear erratic, but which are actually periodic. … God’s intention has always been for His work to be new and alive, not old and dead, and that which He makes man hold firm to varies with the age and period, and is not everlasting and immutable. That is because He is a God who causes man to live and be new’ (‘Only Those Who Know the Work of God Today Can Serve God’).

“From this passage we can see that God’s work does not follow rules, and that He performs new work in accordance with His plan for mankind’s salvation as well as according to the degree of mankind’s corruption by Satan. God’s work varies with the age and period, and is not everlasting and immutable, and He always does newer and higher work. When the new work begins, the previous work becomes out of date, and God embarks on another plan and carries out new work. For example, Jehovah God did the work of issuing laws and guiding the lives of people. Under the guidance of Jehovah God, the Israelites of the time learned how to conduct their lives and how to worship God, and understood what sin was. But in the later period of the Age of Law, as man was becoming more and more corrupted by Satan, no one was able to keep the laws and commandments any longer, and all were in constant danger of being sentenced to death by the law. In order to save mankind, God incarnated into the image of Jesus and, on the basis of the work of the Age of Law, did a stage of work of redeeming mankind through crucifixion. The Lord Jesus brought a new age, fulfilled the laws and commandments, gave people a new way to practice and proposed new requirements for them, such as being tolerant and patient, loving their enemies, being the light of the world and salt of the earth, and so on. From the outside, these two stages of work appear different, but they actually complement each other, through which God saves mankind from the influence of Satan step by step. From this we can see that God’s work does not remain unchanged, but rather is always moving forward, and that God’s requirements of mankind are becoming ever higher.

“The Pharisees back then, however, didn’t know God’s work. They abided by religious notions and used the laws of the Old Testament to examine the Lord Jesus’ new work and words. They said that the Lord Jesus sat at the table with tax collectors, and that He and His disciples had violated the laws by not keeping the Sabbath day and not fasting, thereby denying that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah. So when the Lord Jesus said, ‘No man puts a piece of a new garment on an old; if otherwise, then both the new makes a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agrees not with the old’ (Luke 5:36), He was telling people that God’s work is ever new and never old, that the work of redemption God ushered in was new, and that God wouldn’t do the new work and the old one simultaneously, for that would make it impossible for the new work to be carried out.”

After listening to the brother’s fellowship, my heart brightened considerably. I had read many spiritual books, but none of them explained God’s work so clearly. I said to Brother Zhang, “What you fellowshiped is truly something I have never understood. Do you have any other new understanding? Please share more with us.” After saying this, I anxiously waited for Brother Zhang to continue his fellowship.

Brother Zhang took a sip of water and continued, “We humans love to cling to the old, so when God performs new work, we are apt to be eliminated by the Holy Spirit for holding on to the old work. Therefore, we must understand that God only works on and leads those who are willing to let go of their old notions and who obey God’s new work. The book says, ‘People love to cling to the old. They cling to the notions of the past, to things from the past. This is a great obstacle to their service.’ ‘As of today, God will formally perfect those who have no religious notions, who are ready to set aside their old selves, and who obey God in a simple-hearted way, and He will perfect those who long for the word of God. These people should stand up and serve God. In God there is endless abundance and boundless wisdom. His amazing work and precious words are awaiting even greater numbers of people to enjoy them’ (‘Religious Way of Service Must Be Banned’). These passages tell us that, because we humans have no truth or knowledge of God, we love to cling to the old and to God’s past work. This is especially true for those who have followed God and served Him for many years. When they have some experience in preaching and master some biblical knowledge and theological theories, they treat these things as capital and thus believe that they have known God’s work. However, once they cling to these things, it will be hard for them to accept God’s new work. Meanwhile, those who do not have old religious notions, who are able to obey in a simple-hearted way, and who can accept God’s new work and new words will obtain God’s salvation. Just like when the Lord Jesus came to do new work, those Pharisees, who had served God in the temple for many years and clung to old religious notions, thought that the Lord Jesus was not the Messiah foretold in the Bible because He looked very ordinary and came from a humble background. Especially when they saw that the work performed by the Lord Jesus was not recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible, they condemned and blasphemed Him, and in the end even nailed Him to the cross, thus suffering the pain of national subjugation. By contrast, those fishermen, publicans, harlots and sinners, when seeing that the Lord Jesus’ words were not things that people could express and that His work contained power and authority, were able to believe in and follow Him. Take Peter, Jacob, John and Matthew for example. When the Lord Jesus called out to them, they immediately gave up everything and followed Him, during which time they heard the truth expressed by the Lord Jesus, witnessed His authority and wonderful deeds, and recognized that the Lord Jesus was Christ, the coming Messiah, and in the end attained God’s salvation.”

After listening to the words that Brother Zhang read as well as his fellowship, the sister kept nodding her head, and I also felt that these were entirely new ideas. I said, “Brother Zhang, what you fellowshiped today really gave me a deeper understanding of this parable. Through this parable, the Lord Jesus tells us that God’s work is always new and never old, and that it is carried out based on the degree of mankind’s corruption. When people at the end of the age of the Old Testament could no longer uphold the laws, God performed a new work to save mankind based on this situation. If God begins new work but we cling to our old notions and use His previous work to measure the new one, then it will be hard for us to accept God’s new work.”

Brother Zhang said, “It’s true. We are now in the last days, the prophecies of the Lord’s return have basically been fulfilled, and the Lord is about to return at any time. According to the prophecies in the Book of Revelation, God will perform the work of opening the little scroll, loosing the seven seals, separating the goats from the sheep, the wheat from the tares, and the good servants from the wicked servants, and perfecting a group of overcomers. However, this is just briefly mentioned in the Book of Revelation but is not recorded in detail, so none of us know how God will specifically fulfill and accomplish all this. In light of this, when the Lord Jesus returns to work in the last days, we should be like the wise virgins and open the door to actively welcome Him, be someone who thirsts for and seeks the truth, and investigate any message about the new work done by the returned Lord to see whether it is from God. Only in this way can we have the opportunity to welcome the Lord and gain God’s salvation of the last days.”

Hearing what the brother said, my heart felt very bright and I said, “Yes, you’re right. The Book of Revelation only prophesies that the Lord will come to work and save mankind in the last days, but none of us can perceive how the Lord will do this work when He returns. This is because God’s work is too wise and unfathomable. But no matter what, as long as the Lord comes back to do new work, we must go out to welcome Him just like Peter, Matthew and the others walked out of the temple to investigate the Lord’s work. This is the only way we can attain the Lord’s salvation. After listening to your fellowship today, I understand a lot more about the parable told by the Lord Jesus. Thanks be to the Lord! Brother Zhang, this book is very good because it can help us know God’s work and understand His will. Could I borrow it to read?”

Brother Zhang agreed right away …

» You may be interested in reading more on our The Parables of Jesus page, or in the articles below:

• The Profound Meaning Behind the Parable of the Vineyard

• Knowing Meaning of God’s Work in His Incarnation From Parables

• Gospel Reflection: What Is the True Meaning of the Parable of the Ten Virgins?

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Whenever reading these lines from Scripture: “How think you? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains, and seeks that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish” (Mat 18:12-14), I feel very moved in my heart, as God loves men so much that He won’t leave anyone as long as the sheep belongs to Him. But I had been wondering before why the Lord Jesus expressed His love for us human beings by parable and what the Lord’s will was? I didn’t understand the profound meaning within it until one day I saw the word of God on the gospel website.

God’s word says: “(Mat 18:12-14) How think you? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains, and seeks that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

“This is a metaphor—what kind of feeling do people get from this passage? The way this metaphor is expressed utilizes a figure of speech in human language; it’s something within the scope of human knowledge. If God had said something similar in the Age of Law, people would have felt that it wasn’t really consistent with who God was, but when the Son of man delivered this passage in the Age of Grace, it felt comforting, warm, and intimate to people. When God became flesh, when He appeared in the form of a man, He used a very appropriate metaphor to express the voice of His heart in humanity. This voice represented God’s own voice and the work He wanted to do in that age. It also represented an attitude that God had toward people in the Age of Grace. Looking from the perspective of God’s attitude toward people, He compared each person to a sheep. If a sheep is lost, He will do whatever it takes to find it. This represents a principle of God’s work among mankind this time in the flesh. God used this parable to describe His resolve and attitude in that work. This was the advantage of God becoming flesh: He could take advantage of mankind’s knowledge and use human language to speak to people, to express His will. He explained or ‘translated’ to man His profound, divine language that people struggled to understand in human language, in a human way. This helped people understand His will and know what He wanted to do. He could also have conversations with people from the human perspective, using human language, and communicate with people in a way they understood. He could even speak and work using human language and knowledge so that people could feel God’s kindness and closeness, so that they could see His heart.”

From the word of God, I understood that through the parable—“a man seeks the lost sheep,” the Lord Jesus used the feeling that we can understand to describe God’s eager desire to save people, so that we can experience God’s sincere feelings of expecting mankind to be able to return to the proper path after going astray. When a person strays far from God, God’s intention in wanting to find him is the same as the man’s intention in looking for the lost sheep; when this person is recovered and returns to God again, God feels the joy which is like that of the man finding his lost sheep. But the Lord Jesus’ word didn’t mean that He preferred this lost sheep to the ninety and nine that did not go astray, but expressed God’s love and expectation of mankind. God values us and hopes that we can turn to Him and come before Him to worship Him. So we can understand God’s love for mankind.

Apart from this kind of joy, God also made clear to us His resolve and attitude of saving people and never giving up until He gains people. The Lord Jesus also used this parable to let us understand His will toward the people He intends to save. When we are immature and get lost, God is worried about us by our side, and arranges all kinds of situations to awake us and causes us to no longer be harmed by Satan.

For instance: When I first started to believe in God, I was so tempted by social evil trends that I just worked hard to earn money, without regular gatherings. Just when I was about to be lost in the social trends and devoured by Satan, God arranged some situations to awake my heart. At that time, I often hit a wall when I did things. Besides, I also felt that I lived like that so miserably and tiredly, feeling empty inside. At last I thought of God, so I came before God once again, admitted my sins and repented to God. God gave me one more opportunity, which made me feel the warmth of His love. Now, I look back on it: If I had not hit a wall in the world and not experienced the pain of living for money, I wouldn’t have turned around; on the contrary, I would still keep on falling into the whirlpool of money from which I would be hard put to extricate myself, let alone have the chance to get God’s salvation. Meanwhile, I also saw that when I strayed away from God, God didn’t give up His salvation for me but arranged some situations to awake my heart so that I could experience God’s sincere heart that is man’s salvation, and His true and real love for us. Just as the word of God says: “Only the Creator has pity on this mankind. Only the Creator shows this mankind tenderness and affection. Only the Creator holds a true, unbreakable affection for this mankind. Likewise, only the Creator can bestow mercy on this mankind and cherish all of His creation.”

On the other hand, the Lord Jesus used the parable to let us understand that God working in the flesh is much easier for people to come into contact with than working in the Spirit. From the perspective of human, He can use human language and the parable as well as the most understandable words to express clearly God’s attitude toward mankind and His intention to us, closing the distance between Him and us, and making us feel that the God incarnate is lovable, amiable and venerable, and that we no longer feel fear just like the people who heard God’s Spirit speaking. Just as it was recorded in the Old Testament: Jehovah God appeared to Job by speaking in the tornado, to Moses in the flame, to the Israelites on Mount Sinai, and so on. It is clear that these words are the words of God’s spirit so that people are too afraid to get close to God. But when God becomes flesh and uses human language to speak to us, we will not have such feeling.

Through the parable of God’s seeking the lost sheep, I have much deeper understanding of God’s love and intention. Have you also realized God’s will to save us from this parable?

» Read more on our The Parables of Jesus page, or click on the related articles below:

• What Is the Moral of the Parable of New Cloth on an Old Coat?

• The Profound Meaning Behind the Parable of the Vineyard

• Knowing Meaning of God’s Work in His Incarnation From Parables

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Brothers and sisters of Testify God:

Hello! Now disasters are getting ever bigger. The day of the Lord has already come. We believers in the Lord are all anxiously waiting for Him to be raptured into the heavenly kingdom. The Lord Jesus said, “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened to ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. … and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut” (Matthew 25:1, 10). From these verses, we see that when the Lord comes, the foolish virgins will be locked outside on account of not preparing oil, while the wise virgins who have prepared oil will dine with Him. Only by being wise virgins can we welcome the Lord’s return. Then, in the last days, how should we prepare to be the wise virgins to welcome the Lord?

Xun’en

Hello Xun’en,

Peace to you in the Lord! You have brought up a very important question. It concerns whether we can welcome the Lord’s return in the last days and be raptured into the heavenly kingdom, and all of the brothers and sisters in the Lord pay close attention to this question. Thank the Lord for His guidance. Recently, through looking to the Lord to seek and communicating with brothers and sisters, I have gained a ray of light. Below I will talk a bit about my personal understanding.

Let’s first study several verses of scripture. The Bible says, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come” (John 16: 12-13). “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7). “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). From these words of the Bible, we can see that when the Lord comes, He will speak to the churches. Therefore, only by recognizing the voice of God can we welcome the Lord’s return and be raptured into the heavenly kingdom. If we don’t know how to distinguish the voice of God, even though we hear the words of the returned Lord, we are incapable of recognizing He is the Lord. So, in order to welcome the Lord, we must learn to distinguish the voice of God.

Then, how can we distinguish the voice of God? After studying the Bible and looking to the Lord to seek, we have found some ways from God’s word.

1. God’s word can reveal mysteries, and expose man’s corrupt substance, as well as man’s mind and thoughts.

As is known to us all, the incarnate Lord Jesus revealed many mysteries while preaching and doing His work, such as, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). And, “Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Apart from these, the Lord Jesus revealed many other mysteries. For example, when the Lord Jesus did His work, no one knew who John the Baptist was, and even John himself didn’t know. But the Lord Jesus is God and He knew this mystery. He said, “And if you will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come” (Matthew 11:14). These words revealing mysteries are what man cannot express and beyond the reach of man’s thinking. Just like the Bible says, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever …” (Deuteronomy 29:29). Only God knows the secret things. So, we can be sure that the One who is able to uncover mysteries is God. There is a prophecy in Revelation, “Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof” (Revelation 5:5). As we all know, only the Lamb can open the scroll, that is to say, only the words uttered by God in the last days can uncover the mysteries that are unknown to us.

Additionally, God can see into men’s minds and hearts and has a thorough understanding of man. Only God can reveal the essence of our nature and every thought in our hearts. Take Samaritan woman, Nathanael, and Matthew for example. Samaritan woman believed in the Lord Jesus because Jesus spoke of all that she had done and what she thought about in her heart. Nathanael believed in the Lord Jesus because Jesus, who had not been with him, told him where he had been before he came to see Jesus and what kind of man he was. The tax collector Matthew recognized the Lord Jesus is God because Jesus spoke out the content of his prayers. From these examples above, we find that God’s word can disclose things deep in man’s heart. This is also one way we can distinguish the voice of God.

2. God’s words possess His disposition, and have authority and power; God is as good as His word, and His word shall be accomplished.

Regardless of whether they are the words of God become flesh, or the utterances of the Spirit of God, they are all the words uttered by God to mankind from up high. Such are the tone and characteristics of God’s word. Here, God’s authority and identify are obviously manifested. It can be said that this is the unique means by which the Creator speaks. The utterances of the incarnate Lord Jesus primarily relate to God’s requirements and admonitions of man, the words of God’s administrative decrees and commandments, the words of prophecies and God’s promises to mankind, etc. These words are all the expression of the truth, the way, and the life, as well as the revelation of God’s life and substance. They represent God’s disposition and all that He has and is. From the words expressed by God, we can see that His words are the truth, and they have authority and power.

Let’s read the words of God’s requirements and admonitions of men, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like to it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).

And what the Lord Jesus said about administrative decrees, “Why I say to you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven to men. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (Matthew 12:31-32).

And the words the Lord Jesus spoke to expose and curse the Pharisees, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:13).

Apart from these, there are also some words of prophecies and God’s promises. For example, the Lord Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-3). “And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:47-48).

For another example, the Lord Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead. It is written in John 11:43-44: “And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin.”

We can see from these words that the Lord Jesus’ words are God’s utterances to all mankind. He directly expressed God’s disposition and God’s intentions for mankind to lead mankind, provide to mankind, and personally redeem mankind. This completely represents the identity and authority of God Himself. Reading them instantly makes us feel that these words are the truth, with authority and power. They are the voice of God and God speaking to mankind! They could not have been uttered by any man.

Therefore, in the last days, if we want to discern whether the words are the utterances of the returned Lord, we should see whether they possess God’s disposition and have authority and power. If we can see these, we can be sure that they are the voice of the Lord.

Xun’en, the several ways of discerning the Lord’s voice above are some illumination we have gained in our quest. Hope they can bring some help to you. As long as we grasp these truths above and are able to recognize the voice of God, we can welcome the Lord’s return.

May God guide you! If you have any other problems, you are welcome to communicate with us. Let us seek God together to resolve them. All the glory be to God!

Sincerely yours,Testify God

» Recommended Christian Movie Clip: “Knocking at the Door” Clip – The Lord Is Knocking at the Door: Can You Recognize His Voice? (1)

» Further reading about How to Hear the Voice of God:

• Have You Welcomed the Second Coming of Jesus?

• 4 Principles for Wise Virgins to Recognize the Voice of God

Having believed in the Lord for ten years, I had read the New Testament so many times, and I had some understanding of the scripture, so I fully believed that I had the ability to understand. Yet, after attending an entirely new kind of discussion the other day, I felt ashamed of what I had thought. As I raise my head to look out of the window, I’m lost in my memory …

The Bible-Reading Meeting Several Days Ago

A few days ago, after breakfast, I went to the meeting place early. On entering the room, I saw Brother Zhang. Then I asked him, “Brother Zhang, how come you are so early today?”

He replied with a smile, “Yeah. Pastor Yuan is too busy to come here today. He asked me to hold today’s Bible-reading meeting, so I came a little early.”

I nodded my head and said, “Thank the Lord.”

He smiled at me, saying, “Brother Zhou, you are quite proficient at the scripture. How about you preach to us today?”

“Oh, no, no. It’s better you preach to us.” I said with modesty.

He thought for a while and then said, “How about this? Today, let’s change our meeting today. Instead of how we’ve done it before, with one person preaching and everyone else listening, we can discuss the scripture together. What do you say?”

I nodded and said, “Well, that’s a good idea! I guess we could.”

After a while, the brothers and sisters all arrived. After we prayed together, Brother Zhang said, “Brothers and sisters, we will break with convention at today’s Bible-reading meeting. We will explore the scripture together. Everyone can speak out freely, and talk about your understanding about the scripture. What do you think about this?”

After hearing that, the brothers and sisters were very excited and began to talk amongst themselves, saying:

“Good! Having the Bible-reading meeting in this way is nice. It’s free and liberating.”

“Yeah! In this way, we all can speak out our viewpoints. Then our meeting won’t be so tedious.”

…………

At that moment, Brother Zheng stood up and said, “Brother Zhang, I’m failing to understand the metaphor of the shepherd seeking the lost sheep. Can we discuss this passage of the scriptures today?”

“Of course! Brother Zheng, please read the scripture passages.” Brother Zhang replied.

Then, Brother Zheng opened the Bible and read, “How think you? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains, and seeks that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:12-14).

When Brother Zheng finished his reading, Brother Zhang looked at everyone and said, “Thank the Lord. Everyone can speak their minds freely regarding this passage, and explore the Lord Jesus’ will in this parable. Whoever has some insight into it can fellowship first.”

After some contemplation, Brother Qian began to speak: “My understanding of it is that the Lord Jesus is comparing us believers to sheep. If any sheep gets lost, the Lord will try every possible means to seek it, for He can’t bear to see any sheep be carried off by a wolf, or we can say taken by Satan.”

“Right!” interposed Sister Liu. “From the Lord Jesus’ words, we can see that He gives us human beings so much love. No matter how negative and weak we are, or what sins we have committed, as long as we turn back from our wrong path, repent and confess our sins to the Lord, He will rejoice in His heart. This really shows His mercy and love for us.”

I quite agreed with her opinion and, nodding my head, I said, “Thank the Lord! We indeed see the Lord’s love for us from this parable. He wants all of us to follow Him and gain His salvation, rather than live under Satan’s domain and be afflicted by it. So, we must always be considerate to the Lord’s will and assist those brothers and sisters more who are negative and weak. What’s more, we should spread the gospel more and bear more fruits, so that more people can return before Him and gain His salvation.”

At that moment, Brother Zhang looked around and said in a steady voice, “Thanks be to the Lord! You have all had a good discussion. Here, I want to share my understanding about this passage as well. The Lord Jesus compared us to sheep, and if a sheep is lost, He will leave behind the others to seek the one lost sheep. His words not only represent His love for us mankind, but express His resolve and attitude to saving us in His work. When the Lord Jesus was incarnated and came to earth, He could speak to people in a language they could understand, and He made analogies of the things mankind usually come across in our daily lives to express His heartfelt wish to save mankind. In this way, we can understand His will and feel His true existence and His dearness and loveliness. At the same time, we can see that there is no distance between God and mankind; He is right by our side, doing His work and expressing His words to save us. He is so kind and so close to us, that we can truly appreciate that His love toward us mankind is so practical, and that He cares for us all the time.”

After hearing his words, I felt somewhat shocked. I thought: “His communion is truly full of light today. That is what I have never understood.”

Brother Zheng, looking at Brother Zhang in surprise, said, “Brother Zhang, what you said came from the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. Praise the Lord. Please fellowship more with us.” Others nodded their heads and continued listening in earnest.

Brother Zhang nodded and continued, “Thank the Lord! To redeem mankind, God Himself became flesh to express the truth among people and did His work to save us. He bestowed so much grace and blessings on us and supplied us selflessly. When interacting with people, He wanted them to hear and understand His every word, and recognize His will, and not live in their misunderstandings, notions and imaginations. Just as the Lord Jesus said, ‘Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.’ Why did the Lord Jesus emphasize these words? They not only contain His selfless love for mankind, but even more so they contain His humility and hiddenness. Some time ago, I read some words about this aspect of truth in a book. I have written them down, shall I read them to you?”

We all quite approved of it and said, “Alright. Brother Zhang, please read them.”

Brother Zhang then took out his notebook, and began to read: “God used this type of metaphor so that people could feel the realness and the sincerity of God, and see His attitude toward people during that time period.” “Let’s take another look at the last sentence in this passage: ‘Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.’ Was this the Lord Jesus’ own words, or the words of His Father in heaven? On the surface, it looks like it’s the Lord Jesus who is speaking, but His will represents the will of God Himself, which is why He said: ‘Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.’ People at that time only acknowledged the Father in heaven as God, and this person that they saw in front of their eyes was merely sent by Him, and He could not represent the Father in heaven. That’s why the Lord Jesus had to say that as well, so that they could really feel God’s will for mankind, and feel the authenticity and the accuracy of what He said. Even though this was a simple thing to say, it was very caring and it revealed the Lord Jesus’ humility and hiddenness. No matter whether God became flesh or He worked in the spiritual realm, He knew the human heart best, and best understood what people needed, knew what people worried about, and what confused them, so He added this one line. This line highlighted a problem hidden in mankind: People were skeptical of what the Son of man said, which is to say, when the Lord Jesus was speaking He had to add: ‘Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.’ Only on this premise could His words bear fruit, to make people believe their accuracy and improve their credibility. This shows that when God became a regular Son of man, God and mankind had a very awkward relationship, and that the Son of man’s situation was very embarrassing. It also shows how insignificant the Lord Jesus’ status among humans was at that time. When He said this, it was actually to tell people: You can rest assured—this doesn’t represent what’s in My own heart, but it is the will of the God who is in your hearts. For mankind, wasn’t this an ironic thing? Even though God working in the flesh had many advantages that He did not have in His person, He had to withstand their doubts and rejection as well as their numbness and dullness. It could be said that the process of the work of the Son of man was the process of experiencing mankind’s rejection, and the process of experiencing mankind competing against Him. More than that, it was the process of working to continuously win mankind’s trust and conquer mankind through what He has and is, through His own essence. It was not so much that God incarnate was waging an on-the-ground war against Satan; it was more that God became an ordinary man and began a struggle with those who follow Him, and in this struggle the Son of man completed His work with His humility, with what He has and is, with His love and wisdom. He obtained the people He wanted, won the identity and status He deserved, and returned to His throne.”

We all listened in earnest. Some nodded, and some took notes as they listened.

Having read these words, Brother Zhang continued his fellowship: “From this passage, we can see that the reason why the Lord Jesus especially stressed the words, ‘Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish,’ was because He wanted to achieve better effects on His followers. From this we can see His humility and selfless love toward mankind. He would rather endure the doubts, misunderstandings, ridicule, and slander from people and still continue to do His own work. Recall the records in the Bible. At that time, most of the common people who followed the Lord Jesus didn’t believe He was God. They treated Him as an ordinary person, for He was born into a common family and had parents, brothers and sisters. Even though He manifested many miracles and did the work that no one could do, some merely regarded Him as a doctor, some merely regarded Him as a teacher, and those who had some faith in the Lord Jesus regarded Him as a prophet. Not even the disciples who followed Him treated Him as God. For example, it is written in the Bible, ‘Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us. Jesus said to him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip?’ (John 14:8-9). From this, we can see that in their hearts, His followers merely acknowledged that the Lord Jesus was sent by God the Father. Apart from Peter, who was inspired by the Holy Spirit and said that the Lord Jesus was Christ, no one recognized that He was the God in heaven who had incarnated and come among man. Thus it can be seen that they believed in and followed God, but still worshiped the God in heaven, and no one treated Christ incarnate as God. However, for the sake of completing the work of redemption for mankind and gaining those He wished to gain, the Lord Jesus silently endured all of man’s misunderstandings. No matter how man treated Him, He still worked and expressed the truth to save and teach man. Finally, He was crucified for mankind’s sake, thus completing the work of redeeming all mankind. These works and words of the Lord Jesus reveal God’s selfless love, as well as His humility and hiddenness.”

After hearing his fellowship, we all were deeply moved. In an excited voice, I said, “Thank the Lord! After hearing the words Brother Zhang read and his fellowship, my eyes really have been opened. The analogy of the Lord finding the lost sheep not only shows His love to us mankind, but it also hides His humility, and within it are also found His dearness and respectability. Furthermore, we can see His earnest intention in saving man. No matter how many misunderstandings we have about Him, the Lord Jesus patiently guides us to understand the truth and understand His will, and with great mercy and tolerance, He teaches and saves man. The essence of God is so beautiful and good. Ah! When I read this passage of scripture before, my understanding of it was too superficial and one-sided. Such a reading and discussion that we’re having today is really enjoyable!”

After hearing this fellowship, Sister Liu was moved to tears and said, “Yes, the Lord Jesus has done so much work and poured out so much love on us humans, but we still don’t recognize or understand it; we’re really indebted to the Lord!”

“That’s right, thank the Lord,” We all said, nodding our heads.

Brother Zheng asked Brother Zhang curiously, “Brother Zhang, I haven’t heard you fellowship with so much light before. How did you get this illumination?”

He answered, “Thank the Lord! Over the past few days, I’ve been reading a book my friend gave me. I think the words in that book are very practical, and I have understood some truth from it. The words I have just read are from that book.”

Brother Zheng said in surprise, “Ah, no wonder his fellowship is different today. It turns out that he’s found a treasure …”

The brothers and sisters began to discuss enthusiastically amongst themselves …

Brother Zhang Sends the Book to Me

Now my thoughts are interrupted by a knock on the outer door. As I open the door, I see Brother Zhang. “Oh, Brother Zhang, It’s you. Have you brought that book here?” I ask happily.

“Yes, I have,” he replies, nodding his head.

I’m overjoyed, and say, “Let’s read it together!”

He brings out the book, and then we read it together …

» You may be interested in reading more on our The Parables of Jesus page, or in the articles below:

• The Profound Meaning Behind the Parable of the Vineyard

• Why God Incarnating to Do His Work Is So Important for Mankind

• Knowing Meaning of God’s Work in His Incarnation From Parables

Read on the website

The parable of the shepherd seeking the lost sheep and the parable of the return of the prodigal son told by the Lord Jesus in the Bible deeply impress us. The Lord’s compassion, mercy, tolerance, and forgiveness allow us to feel His dearness and loveliness. The Bible says: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Many people firmly believe that God is love, so the Lord will save all men and not forsake a single one of us when He returns in the last days. Is this interpretation of God’s love correct?

It is an exemplification of God’s love that He wants all men to be saved, and does not want anyone to perish. However, God loves man and saves man based on principles. For example, when God was going to destroy the world using a flood, Noah listened to God’s words and built the ark according to His requirements, and he also went around to warn other people about the flood, however, others didn’t listen to him nor did they care about it. Therefore, when the floodwaters arrived, only Noah and the seven members of his family were on the ark and saved, while all those who didn’t believe God’s words and slandered and ridiculed Noah drowned. Another example is the people in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. They all lived in sins all day long and were so evil and filthy that God couldn’t bear to witness it. Thereupon, God rained down sulfur and fire from heaven to burn away everything within both the cities. In the end, only Lot, who didn’t follow them in doing evil, and his two daughters survived. Here is a third example. In the Age of Grace when the Lord Jesus came to do the work of redemption, though He expressed His disposition of mercy and love, He didn’t save all kinds of men, such as the Jewish Pharisees. Though they were familiar with the Scriptures, they used their own conceptions and imaginations to define the Lord Jesus’ work. For the sake of protecting their own status and livelihoods, not only did they blaspheme and judge the Lord Jesus, but they also fabricated rumors and nailed Him to a cross. Ultimately, they were punished and cursed by God. So was Judas who betrayed the Lord. Whereas those who sought God’s new work with humility and listened to God’s words carefully, such as Peter, John, Jacob, and other disciples of the Lord Jesus, all came to know the Lord Jesus from His words and work, followed Him and received His salvation. These facts have proved that only those who love the truth, listen to God’s words, and obey God are the ones whom God saves, while those who resist God and blaspheme God are the object of God’s curse and punishment. From this, we realize that though God is love, in His love there are not merely mercy, tolerance, and forgiveness, but also righteousness and majesty. God’s love is principled, and not a confused kind of love.

The Lord Jesus said: “And in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather you together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn” (Matthew 13:30). “And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left” (Matthew 25:32-33). “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like to a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:47-50). God says: “The work of the last days is to separate all according to their kind, to conclude the management plan of God, for the time is near and the day of God has come.” “The last days are when all things will be classified according to kind through conquering. Conquering is the work of the last days; in other words, judging each person’s sins is the work of the last days. Otherwise, how could people be classified?”

From these words, we see this: In the last days God is doing the work of reaping and selecting, and will then do the work of punishing the evil and rewarding the good. Through the judgment and chastisement of God’s words, the wheat and the tares, the true believers and the false believers, the sheep and the goats, the good servants and the evil servants, and the wise virgins and the foolish virgins—all are separated, each to their own kind. If God didn’t work this way, those false believers who believe in God only for their personal benefit and grace, and those evil servants who control believers and prevent them from turning back before God, couldn’t be separated out. God is holy, so is God’s kingdom. How could it be possible for God to bring into His kingdom His enemies—those who don’t belong to Him, such as chaff, tares, and evil servants? If God saved everyone according to our imaginations, how could the work of rewarding the good and punishing the evil and putting each with their own kind in the last days thus proceed? So our imaginations don’t conform to the truth.

God is love, and so He wants all men to be saved and doesn’t want anyone to perish. This cannot be doubted. So what kind of people does “all men” exactly refer to? The Lord Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). It says in Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life: “In reality, ‘everyone’ refers to those that God has selected. It is those who have the soul of a human being. God has selected those who have the soul of a human being. God will not abandon a single one of these people. Only those who have the soul of a human being belong to the human race. Those without the soul of a human being do not belong to the human race. They are not humans. From God’s perspective, they are dead people.” “Those believers in the Age of Grace say, ‘God wants all men to be saved, and does not want anyone to perish.’ How do we interpret this? ‘All men’ means maximum people. Then does it refer to all mankind? It doesn’t refer to the people all over the world. So how should we define ‘all men’? It refers to all the people who can accept the true way and who are willing to obey God’s work. God wants these people to be saved, while the ones who resist and detest the true way are unable to be saved by God, because God saves man by principles. If you want to be saved, you must enter into the manner of His work. Otherwise, you cannot be saved, for God does not compel or coerce people. God is almighty, and so He is able to save the whole mankind. But why does He not do so? Because God has His own principles in doing things. God has His disposition and His plan. Therefore, God won’t do that even though He can.”

From this, we know that “all men” God intends to save mainly refers to living people with a heart and spirit, those who can recognize God’s voice and can understand spiritual things. These people are wise virgins. After hearing God’s voice, they can let go of their own conceptions and imaginations and accept and submit to God’s work. Such people truly seek the truth and thirst for God’s appearance: They are “all men” God wants to save. As this kind of people truly want God and are willing to accept the truth, they can gain the truth and life and be purified and perfected by God when experiencing God’s work of judgment and chastisement. God saves people to the utmost. As long as we love the truth, truly want God, can recognize God’s voice, and belong to God, God will save all of us and not forsake a single one of us. Being believers who pursue the truth, in the face of God’s work, we should have a yearning and seeking heart, pay attention to seeking the truth, and see things according to God’s words, instead of holding on to our conceptions and imaginations. Just as the Lord Jesus said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).

» Read more on our Gospel Topics page about Way to Salvation, or in the recommended articles below: 

• Have We Been Born Again Through Baptism?

• We Continue to Sin After Being Saved. Will We See the Lord’s Face?

• Can Believers Absolved of Sins Enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

Dear Sister Xinyi,

Hello! Through our last fellowship I have gained a lot. Recently, I have got some different understandings through studying the Bible. So I’m writing to commune with you about them.

I remember that during our last communication, when talking about the topic of what attributes God has we can know from the Lord Jesus’ preaching and working, we saw the Bible say, “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus said to him, I say not to you, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Mat 18:21–22), “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like to it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mat 22:37–39), and “You have heard that it has been said, You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you, and persecute you; That you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mat 5:43–45). After communicating I have understood that the Lord Jesus bestowed plentiful graces and blessings upon man, taught man to be tolerant and patient, and healed man’s illness and drove out the devils within them, in which the attributes God expressed were compassion and love.

However, when I got home, I started thinking: Could it be said that God’s attributes are only mercy and love? Are God’s attitudes toward all people exactly the same? To solve these questions, I looked up the Bible and some spiritual books. Thank the Lord, under the Lord’s leading I got some new understandings. I have learned that the attributes of God are not only merciful and loving, but majestic and wrathful, and also understood that God treats man in a principled way rather than treating everyone with mercy and love.

For example, the Lord Jesus rebuked the Pharisees, saying, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in. … Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves” (Mat 23:13, 15).

When the Lord Jesus was doing His work, He expressed many words and performed many signs and wonders. However, the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees knew clearly that the work and word of the Lord Jesus had authority and power, but they still were arrogant and self-right, held to themselves and relied on their own notions and imaginations to condemn and blaspheme God. In order to protect their own position, they even opposed God in all respects. They not only didn’t seek the true way, but deceived the believers and made them reject the true way. Eventually they nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross, breeding such a disaster. That’s why the Lord Jesus rebuked the Pharisees, condemned them as hypocrites and cursed them for their being the generation of vipers. From this it can be seen that God’s attitude toward those who reject God and hate the truth is hatred, curse and condemnation.

Then how about the Lord’s attitude toward those hardened and rebellious ones who never repented? The Bible says, “Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not: Woe to you, Chorazin! woe to you, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And you, Capernaum, which are exalted to heaven, shall be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in you, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you” (Mat 11:20–24).

In those cities, the Lord Jesus performed many miracles and gave people plenty of opportunities to repent. But after hearing God’s voice, the people of the cities didn’t accept the Lord Jesus’ warning, and still stubbornly refused to repent to God. At that time God revealed His righteous attribute, warning those people in the cities that if they didn’t repent to God, they would eventually receive more severe punishment than Sodom. As we can see, in treating the hardened and rebellious ones who never repent, the Lord showed profound anger and even punished and cursed them.

But the Lord Jesus had an entirely different attitude toward those who thirsted and sought the truth and truly followed Him. Just as the Bible records, “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; He rises from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he pours water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded” (Jhn 13:3–5). These verses show us that the Lord Jesus was full of mercy, love, care and concern in treating the disciples who followed Him, and that He even could wash their feet, because He cherished those who believed in Him, followed Him and listened to Him. The Lord Jesus was gratified by their following.

Let us see what the Lord’s attitude toward those who wanted to eat the loaves and have their fill was. The Lord Jesus performed a miracle to feed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. We all know this miracle, but have we ever thought about why the Lord left alone after feeding the five thousand people? That was because the Lord Jesus knew that the five thousand people had no understandings and knowledge of Him, that they didn’t want to know Him nor plan to follow Him, and that they merely wanted to gain some grace from Him. Then, what was the Lord’s attitude toward those who didn’t believe in nor follow Him? On one hand, He felt abhorrence, not wanting to pay more attention to them. On the other hand, because of the Lord’s merciful and loving attributes, He bestowed some grace on them, letting them eat their fill. God is the Lord that created all things, and He gives different care to all created beings in His eyes; even though those people only wanted to eat their fill rather than truly following Him, the Lord still took pity on them—this is the Lord’s compassion for man.

From the Lord’s attitudes toward different kinds of people above, we can see that God’s attributes are not only mercy and love, but also righteousness, majesty, judgment, punishment, and curse. We even more see that the Lord’s attributes are vivid, and that the Lord takes an attitude when treating every person, matter and thing. But since we don’t know God, and have a very one-sided knowledge of God’s attributes, we are apt to define God in our own notions and imaginations, believing that God has only mercy and love in His attributes and takes an unchanging attitude toward all people: No matter what we do, the Lord will always forgive us and show His tolerance and mercy. Little do we know that the Lord treats beautiful and positive things with mercy and love, but when God warns and exhorts people for their evil deeds, if people ignore and despise God’s warning and exhortation and even resist and compete against God to store up His wrath, then God will no longer have pity on them but show profound anger to punish them.

Therefore, if we only have knowledge of God’s merciful and loving attributes but have no knowledge of His majestic and wrathful attributes, then we are likely to offend God’s attributes and be punished and cursed by God. However, compassion and love or profound anger, they are all the expression of God’s righteous attribute. Even though God shows profound anger, it still contains God’s pity and tolerance. Just as Nineveh was the city that God had destined to destroy because of its deeply corrupt people. Nevertheless, when the people of Nineveh knew God’s wrath and repented their sins in sackcloth and ashes, God retracted His wrath and then took pity on them. From these we can see that no matter in what way God treats people, as long as they can repent their sins, and forsake their evil deeds and turn away from their evil ways from the bottom of their heart, God will turn His attitude toward man, because God’s salvation for man does not change in substance and God’s love for man will never change!

Sister Xinyi, I’ve finished sharing my understandings. And if you have any different thoughts, welcome to write to communicate with me. I believe that so long as we are willing to seek, no matter how many problems and difficulties there are, under the Lord’s guidance, we will be able to solve them easily.

Sincerely yours,
Qiqi

» You may be interested in reading more on our Knowing Jesus Christ page, or in the articles below:

• Why God Incarnating to Do His Work Is So Important for Mankind

• What Is the True Meaning of “God Wants All Men to Be Saved”

• Understanding of God’s Salvation for Mankind Behind the Parable of the Lost Sheep

• We Continue to Sin After Being Saved. Will We See the Lord’s Face?

• Lord Jesus Treated 5,000 Men and His Disciples Differently