Four Stages of a Change in Life Disposition

The few steps, or stages, in the process of experiencing a change in life disposition are something that everyone pursuing a change in disposition, every pursuer of salvation, must understand. The process of salvation is the process of a person being purified by entering into the truth. It is also the process of a person’s life disposition transforming from rebelling against God, resisting God, to submitting to God, and turning to God. It’s absolutely no easy matter for deeply corrupted humanity to change from people betraying God and belonging to Satan, to people submitting to God and belonging to God. In this, there is an internal process of experience that follows an objective pattern. We who are experiencing God’s work all know that salvation is the result attained by pursuing the truth. As soon as people understand the truth and grasp the truth, people’s viewpoints, their outlook on life and their values will undergo a fundamental transformation, and following this their life disposition will also inevitably undergo a fundamental change. In this way a person’s satanic nature will completely crumble and be cleansed away. It is clear that a person’s salvation and their change in life disposition are established on the basis of an understanding of the truth, and a knowledge of God. Therefore, we can define the four stages in the process of experiencing a change in disposition as understanding the truth, knowing oneself, repentance and aversion, and change and renewal. Together, we simply call these the four stages of a change in disposition. Among these four stages, understanding the truth is the first step, knowing oneself is the second step, repentance and aversion is the third step, and change and renewal is the fourth step. Every step in a person’s life experience is built on a foundation of understanding the truth. People’s life experience begins with understanding the truth, so a person’s salvation, their change in disposition, at every step is inseparable from understanding the truth. In our experience of God’s work we have all had some progress and change, we all see clearly that entering into the truth is no simple matter. Every aspect of the truth requires at least a year or two of experience before understanding and true entry into it can be reached. It takes about as much time as learning a new skill or art. Next we’ll give some examples to explain the four stage process of life experience. People’s understanding of every aspect of the truth has its process, and this process is the first step of the four stages of life experience, that is understanding the truth. God’s judgment and chastisement of corrupt humanity achieves its results via the expression of the truth. In God’s judgment and chastisement we see that the words God expresses are all the truth, that which we must enter into, and if we can enter into all the truths expressed by God, we can reach purity, reach salvation, and be perfected.

Only Being an Honest Person Is a True Human Likeness

We have had a lot of fellowship on how to be an honest person, and the significance of being an honest person. Now do you have an understanding that only by being an honest person can one have proper humanity, and that only an honest person can be in line with God’s will? This is a crucial issue in changing your life disposition. We’ve communicated in the past that only being an honest person is true repentance. What do you think of this understanding? Why is that said? Do you have an understanding of what that means? How can we measure whether a person has had a change in their life disposition? To put it correctly, it’s to measure it according to whether or not you’re an honest person: If you are an honest person, then there will be a change in your life disposition. If you are not an honest person, there will be no change. Some people say: “I’m not really qualified to be an honest person, but I can obey God and devotedly expend myself for Him. This means that I’ve had a change in my life disposition.” Would you say that this holds water? If someone has believed in God for many years, can expend himself for Him and really engage in pursuit, but is not an honest person, does he really have love for, obedience of, and devotion toward God? He says that he’s devoted and obedient to God. Does that hold water? How about saying that he has been saved, or that he understands the truth, and has entered into reality? If he is not an honest person, then he doesn’t have even a drop of reality. First, he is not someone who is obedient to God. Second, there are certainly a lot of other things mixed in to how he expends himself for God and performs his duty, because he himself is not honest. And if he’s not an honest person, then can he possess proper humanity? (No.) So only being an honest person is genuine repentance, and only a genuinely honest person can have a change in their life disposition. Now can you understand this? (Yes.) Now reflect on this: How many years you’ve believed in God, and if you actually are an honest person.

Why Does God Do the Work of Saving Mankind?

Why must the person that God perfects be one who loves Him? This is because man has a spirit, and there is a substantial difference between whether the spirit is that of a man or the devil. The spirit that is of man has love and he is able to love God. If a man loved God, he would obey God in all that he does and would care for God’s will. He would be able to bear with hardship and forsake everything in order to satisfy God. Such true love is very important to God. You see, when a woman chooses her partner, she would ask of the partner’s true love and a sincere heart. She would never choose the man if he did not have true love. Why is it so? This is because he would surely have hate if he did not have love. If he had hate in him, disputes would easily arise between them and they two would always be at daggers drawn. He would betray her readily. Such love and hate is thus too important. In the course of experiencing God’s work, as man is not able to penetrate the spiritual world directly, he is not able to understand God’s will. However, he would not begrudge God when he has love; he is able to understand God when he has love, and he would be able to treat all that God does in the right way. When he understands God’s love and that all that God does is the truth, his love for God would become stronger. Therefore, the man who loves God can be perfected more easily, and he would not betray God easily. It is very dangerous if he does not have love. He who does not have love would surely have hate, and he would begrudge easily. A man with hate makes enemies and betrays easily. We see that if a husband and a wife did not have true love betwen them, they would not understand each other easily. They will always doubt, suspect and complain about each other. They cannot get along with each other, and their conflicts deepen in the end. When the conflicts come to a boil, they would go their separate ways. Therefore, if a person has a heart that truly loves God, no matter what God does and no matter how much pain he goes through, he would not begrudge God. He believes firmly in one thing, that all that God does is love. He believes firmly that God is the truth. He believes firmly that all that God does is for the salvation of man and to perfect man. You can see that his heart is pure and that he would not have any conceptions on any matters. He has no misunderstandings about God, and is able to submit to God instead. He would conversely comfort God when he sees that God is suffering. He would spare no effort in satisfying God when He needs him. Such a person has a heart that truly loves God. He can be perfected by God easily because he understands God. He is a man with the greatest conscience and the most rationality before God. A person without conscience and rationality has no true love for God. If he does indeed show a little love for God, what do you think his love is built on? He would only show a little love for God when he really sees that God has benefited and blessed him in some ways, when he really sees that he has gained something from God and achieved his objectives. Such love is totally built on the basis of a transaction and can exist completely with the purpose of satisfying oneself. Such love is therefore neither pure nor true. The more conscience and rationality a person has, the truer his love is. A person without conscience and rationality has no love. God is thus willing to perfect the person who loves Him. … Why doesn’t He perfect those who do not love Him? Why is a person who does not love God not perfected by Him? Because such a person is inhuman and is without conscience and rationality. A person without conscience and rationality would not have a heart that loves God, and a person without a heart that loves God is one who does not have conscience and rationality. Such a person is not fit to be human. A person who does not have a heart of love for God has hatred for God. A person who has hatred for God is an enemy of God and is one whom He punishes. Can God perfect His enemy? A person who has a heart of hatred of God is an evil person. An evil person is an object of God’s punishment and destruction. A person who truly loves God is one who has conscience and is rational. He is one who is truly a human. Therefore, only a person who truly loves God can be perfected by Him. Those who do not love God are the evil ones, God’s enemies, people without conscience and rationality, and people who are inhuman. God thus does not perfect them. People without conscience and rationality have no love in them. They know only to seek their own interest and selfish gains and have never known what love is. Don’t you see that some people only seek their own selfish gains? They operate on the principle of doing something only if it benefits them in some ways. Can such people have love? Who can they love? They love whoever benefits them, and the love they show is not true at all. You benefit them today and they love you today. They will kick you aside tomorrow when you no longer benefit them. They love you for a day today when you are of use to them and kick you aside tomorrow when you are no longer of use to him. Such are mercenary people. Can such people have love? What is your basis for making friends? You have to base it on whether the person has conscience and rationality and whether he has humanity. This is key. Do not be acquainted with an inhuman person without conscience and rationality because he seeks only his own interest and selfish gains. He goes with whoever benefits him. Do any of you have such friends? Can you be friends with such people? It is of no use to be friends with such people as they cannot be a close friend. He has a transactional motive in making friends with people. He makes friends with you when you are of use to him and walks out on you when you are no longer of use to him and kicks you aside. He cares nothing about conscience and friendship and has even less credibility to speak of. All that he seeks is selfish gains. There are too many of such people around! Very few people care about conscience and rationality, and thus very few are perfected by God even though there are many who believe in Him. Why is this so? It is because very few have conscience, rationality and humanity. Most of the people who believe in God want to make use of Him and seek to gain something from Him. They seek to use God to achieve their objectives. Such a person leaves and forsakes God when he sees that God no longer blesses or perfects him. See, does such a person have a heart that truly loves God? God reveals this kind of person in His work and the person’s ugliness would be exposed. “So, he is such a person.” Therefore, a person who loves God is a man after His heart. God is pleased with him because he has humanity and has conscience and rationality. Those who cannot love God are inhuman because they have no conscience and rationality. A person who is inhuman is an evil person. An evil person is an object of God’s punishment rather than one of God’s salvation, much less an object of His perfection. This is the most crucial point.

Questions and Answers on the Conditions for Entering the Kingdom of Heaven

Question 1: The Lord Jesus died on the cross for us, He forgave all our sins and redeemed us from the hands of Satan. That is to say, He did this to save us and grant us access to the kingdom of heaven. Even after this redemption, we continue to sin and we have yet to be cleansed. Nevertheless, I believe that the Lord’s forgiveness has made us righteous through our faith. As long as we sacrifice everything else to work and spend for God, as long as we are willing to endure suffering and pay the price, we’d be raptured into the kingdom of heaven. I think this is the Lord’s promise to us. However, my brothers and sisters have now questioned this belief. They say that although we labor and work for the Lord, we still sin often and then confess our sins, so we have not yet been cleansed. They have stated that the Lord is holy, so unholy people cannot meet Him. My question is: We who have sacrificed everything else and spend for the Lord, can we really be raised up into the kingdom of heaven? We really don’t know the answer to this question, so we’d like you to talk to us about it.