By Amei, United States
Every time when I listen to this article of God’s words “The Sighing of the Almighty,” I feel deeply touched in my heart. Looking back on the first time when I heard God’s voice, it was God’s heartfelt words that moved me and made me, a lonely soul, find the way home …
As a person who had no faith, I had never known man’s origin, nor had I had any idea of how the heavens and the earth and everything in them came into being. But in my heart, I felt as though there was a God, for I had encountered several dangerous situations since childhood, yet I passed through them safely. At that time, I said in my heart, “Thank Good Heavens!” I always had the feeling that all these are out of the protection of God in the unseen world.
In July 2014, I came to the United States with my husband. Confronted with the unfamiliar surroundings, the stress of working twelve or thirteen hours every day, and the coldness between colleagues, I felt quite lonely. Though when something happened to me, I could face it together with my husband, as for the pressure of both life and work, I often felt that I could hardly bear it.
After two accidental abortions in the years 2015 and 2017, I, who had been exhausted both physically and mentally, broke down completely. During that period of time, I often thought: Why does man have so many troubles? Why is man’s life so tiring? For what purpose should man live? … Thanks to God’s loving hand holding mine all the time, I found the way home just when I was at loss.
It was in May this year. When I took a test for a vocational certificate, I was acquainted with a fellow villager, Sister Lian. After several times of contact, Sister Lian said to me one day, “I find that you’re good and kind, so I’d like to share some good news with you.” I readily agreed. After that, Sister Lian invited me to meet a sister of hers, and they passed on God’s work of the last days to me. That day, I listened attentively to them sharing their experience of salvation through God after they believed in God. They also told me the parable of the lost sheep. They said, “God would cast aside the ninety-nine ones to search for the one lost. This represents God’s heart of love for man and His desire to save man. When God comes to work in the last days, He wants to search for those who have good humanity and who do believe there’s a God. God will send someone around them to preach gospel to them and bring them back to God’s home. You are the lost sheep which God is searching for.” When I heard this, my heart was moved deeply. In some unexplainable manner, I just felt as if God was calling me to go back home. So I told them that I was willing to continue to know about God’s work.
The next day, I went to the sister’s house again, where I met several brothers and sisters. That day, for the first time I heard God’s words: “When you are weary and when you begin to feel the desolation of this world, do not be perplexed, do not cry. Almighty God, the Watcher, will embrace your arrival any time. He is watching by your side, waiting for you to turn back. He is waiting for the day your memory suddenly recovers: becoming conscious of the fact that you came from God, somehow and somewhere once lost, falling unconscious on the roadside, and then, unknowingly having a father. You further realize that the Almighty has been watching there, awaiting your return all along. He longs bitterly, waiting for a response without an answer. His watching is priceless and is for the heart and the spirit of humans. Perhaps this watching is indefinite, and perhaps this watching is at its end. But you should know exactly where your heart and spirit are now” (“The Sighing of the Almighty”). While hearing the sisters reading God’s words, tears welled up in my eyes involuntarily. Since I came to the United States, though accompanied by my husband, I always had the feeling in the depth of my heart that I was like duckweed floating everywhere. God’s words made me feel as though I returned to my parents’ side, and I felt very warm and grounded in my heart. The brothers and sisters were like my family members. Although I first met them, they were all very sincere, and I felt as though I was back home. From then on, I often had gatherings with brothers and sisters.
But unexpectedly, after I had believed in God for less than one month, unpleasant incidents happened to me one after another. The first one: My husband’s bike was stolen after a gathering. The second one: My certificate was granted, but the company wrote my phone number wrong and they were unable to contact me. The third one: When I moved house and changed the address, the landlord wrote the address wrongly. The fourth one: I went to the bank to transfer money. But after I faxed all the documents to the company, I found that my card number and the bank code were wrongly typed by the bank clerk. The fifth one, which was also the one that hit me hardest, was that my husband was diagnosed with a severe illness, and he had to take medicine to keep it under control all his life. Thinking that he got such a disease when he was so young, I felt as if the sky was about to fall. What should I do if something terrible happens to him?
I was really very upset. When I thought that so many things untoward happened in only a short month, I began to doubt God’s work in my heart: Do I take the wrong path? If not, why do so many bad things take place? The more I thought the more I felt depressed in my heart. In a sudden fit of anger, I deleted all the messages and software related to the Church of Almighty God and the brothers’ and sisters’ telephone numbers. I didn’t want to see anyone except my fellow villager, Sister Lian, and I became wary of the brothers and sisters of the church.
I contacted Sister Lian, asking her to return the books to that sister. She said to me, “Whether to believe in God or not is your own choice, and nobody will force you. But if we just escape it, we’ll never have the problem resolved. You can talk with the sister what you have in mind face to face.” I felt what she said was reasonable, but I still somewhat hesitated. After going home, scenes of having meetings with brothers and sisters these days arose in my mind: They were all very sincere; every time when I encountered problems or difficulties, they cared for me and patiently fellowshiped with me about God’s words. I felt that all these words were leading me to the right path, though I couldn’t communicate much knowledge about them. Besides, I felt relaxed and assured in my heart after every meeting. After attending the meetings several times, I gradually had direction of life, and didn’t feel so perplexed like before.… In pondering this, my wavering heart had a direction. I told Sister Lian that I agreed to see the sisters and have a talk with them. She then arranged a time and brought me to a sister’s home.
In that meeting, the sister first read some words of God to me in terms of my husband’s illness: “When Satan tempted Eve, it said: ‘Why don’t you eat the fruit on that tree?’ Eve answered, ‘God said that if I eat that tree’s fruit, I will die.’ Satan then said, ‘You won’t necessarily die if you eat the fruit from that tree.’ The intention of this statement of Satan’s was to tempt; it did not say for sure that by eating the fruit from the tree man wouldn’t die, it just said that man wouldn’t necessarily die, and this caused man to think: ‘If I won’t necessarily die, it should be fine to eat it!’ Man could not resist the temptation to eat the fruit” (“Those Who Have Lost the Work of the Holy Spirit Are Most at Risk”). “After Satan corrupted man, they have become ever more fallen, afflicted by increasingly severe illnesses, and suffered more and more deeply. They felt more and more intensely the emptiness and misery of the human world, how hard it is to survive in it, and they lost hope for it as time went on. All such sufferings were caused by Satan” (“Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs”).
The sister said, “Mankind’s ancestors, Adam and Eve, originally lived in the Garden of Eden, and they did not have suffering and tears. It was because they listened to Satan’s lies and ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which God did not allow them to, that sin came among man, and man then began to experience illness and death. The sorrows and joys, and grief and pains of the world all came about after Satan had corrupted man. Therefore, people of today all live under the domain of Satan. With their life full of distress, they have no happiness to speak of. All these result from the affliction of Satan….” At this point, I came to understand that the rooted cause of man’s illness is Satan’s corruption. So, Wasn’t my husband’s illness also Satan’s affliction?
After that, the sister read two more passages of God’s words: “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” (“God Himself, the Unique VI”). “Man walked through the ages with God, yet man knows not that God rules the fate of all things and living beings or how God orchestrates and directs all things. This is something that has eluded man since time immemorial to the present day. As for the reason why, it is not because the ways of God are too elusive, or because the plan of God has yet to be realized, but because the heart and spirit of man are too distant from God. Therefore, even as man follows God, he unknowingly remains in the service of Satan. None actively seek out the footsteps or appearance of God, and none wish to exist in the care and keeping of God. Rather, they are willing to rely on the corrosion of Satan and the evil one in order to adapt to this world and to the rules of life the wicked mankind follows. … God loses the man of His original creation, and man loses the root of his beginning. This is the sorrow of this mankind” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life”).
The sister fellowshipped, “We can gain some discernment from God’s words. Actually, the illnesses and calamities that befall us are all the result of Satan’s fooling, for Satan likes to place us in calamities. It wants to use these calamities to make us doubt or even deny God. Although Our life is not smooth sailing, and we have illnesses and suffer disasters both great and small, our life is truly supplied by God and our breath is bestowed upon us by God. No matter how Satan fools us through illness or any other things that don’t go our way, it cannot take our breath without God’s permission, for we are created by God, and our life is governed and controlled by God.” The sister’s words woke me up: Right! We are made by God, and it is God who bestows upon us the breath so that we live. Though Satan can fool and harm us, it cannot take our life without God’s permission. So my husband’s life is also in God’s hand. If God doesn’t permit, Satan cannot take it away.
The sister continued to say, “Among all people in the world, God carefully selects us, this group of people. Although we have already heard God’s voice, if we don’t have true knowledge of God and can’t discern Satan’s scheme when we encounter Satan’s temptation, we will misunderstand and blame God, thinking that all these are caused by our believing in God. But actually, behind the scenes they are ruses carried out by Satan in order to disturb our return to God. Why does God say that we human beings are pathetic? It’s because we live under Satan’s affliction for so many years yet do not feel painful, and what’s worse, when God’s salvation comes upon us, we want to refuse it at the slightest disturbance of Satan. We now even don’t know who our God is, nor do we believe that God truly wants to save us from Satan’s affliction. God’s heart is in pain when He sees such an attitude which we take toward Him. When mankind was created, they were given a free will by God. Although God tells man what he can eat and what he cannot eat, yet He does not compel man to obey Him. It is the same with the matter of believing in God. It all depends on man’s own choice and depends on whether you’re willing to believe in God. But one thing we should know is that since God has brought us back to His home, He will be responsible for our life to the very end. If we don’t have true belief and don’t believe that God wants to save us, but instead we turn to Satan and stay away from God, we will miss the chance to receive God’s salvation of man in the last days.” After that, the sisters shared with me their experiences of how they came back to God. I felt that the process of accepting God was just like a seesaw battle. It’s up to us in whom we would ultimately choose to believe!
I suddenly remembered what a brother said during the first meeting: “Since we have returned to God’s home, don’t let ourselves be easily drawn away by Satan.” At that moment, I felt that these words ringing again in my ears seemed to be a reminding to me. I thought that I didn’t want to miss the chance of being saved by God! Then the sisters talked about many experiences of their own. I was once again deeply touched by their sincerity. They comforted and encouraged me, telling me to pray more to God when I encountered something and never again fell into Satan’s scheme and that only when we turned our heart to God could we stay away from Satan’s affliction. After hearing these words, I had some discernment toward Satan’s scheme. I decided to go on to investigate.
Later, through continuous attending meetings and reading God’s words, I gradually had some understanding and knowledge of God. Only then did I realize that Almighty God is the source of mankind’s life, is the Lord who created all things, and is the return of the Lord Jesus. And only then did I know that Almighty God had been caring for and protecting me all along, and that He predestined me to receive the final stage of work of His salvation. I felt I was so lucky. In God’s words, I also came to know that all the words expressed by God are the truth, that the three stages of work done by God contains God’s wisdom, and that each stage of God’s work of salvation embodies His deep love for man. Looking back, when I encountered Satan’s temptation this time, I almost fell into Satan’s scheme and left God, but God did not condemn me because of my ignorance and naivety, and instead He made my heart turn back through brothers’ and sisters’ loving help. Thank God for His tolerance and love to me and His enlightenment and illumination.
After I was certain about Almighty God, by reading God’s words and singing hymns, and through the meetings and fellowship with brothers and sisters, I feel my life has become easier and I no longer feel perplexed. It is God who brings me back home; no words can express my praise and gratitude to God. I’m willing to follow God to the end. May all the glory be to Almighty God! Amen!
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