Awakening in the Tribulation of Persecution

Chaotuo    Henan Province

Since I was very young, my parents had often been publicly criticized on the stage, paraded through the streets, and so on because of believing in Jesus. I passed my childhood in the cold eyes and mockeries of the people in the village. In my childhood memories, the brothers and sisters who came to my home were all very kindhearted and genial. I never understood why such good people should be publicly criticized and paraded. In 2001, when I was twenty years old, my whole family accepted the end-time work of Almighty God. Later, I also personally experienced a nightmarish arrest and cruel tortures because of believing in God. Then I finally found the answer and solved the puzzle I had in my mind for years….

How to Do Devotions to Achieve Good Results

By Xun Qiu

Every Christian knows that believing in God requires a normal spiritual life, namely spiritual devotion. It is the foundation of establishing a proper relationship with God and the way of practice that is absolutely necessary in the growth of our spiritual life. Then, how should we practice spiritual devotion to achieve good results? Today, let’s communicate this aspect of the truth together.

Christian Movie "The People of the Heavenly Kingdom" | Only the Honest Can Enter the Kingdom of God

The Church of Almighty God | Christian Movie "The People of the Heavenly Kingdom" | Only the Honest Can Enter the Kingdom of God

The Lord Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). The Lord Jesus told us that only honest people can enter the kingdom of heaven; only honest people can be people of the kingdom. This movie tells the story of the Christian Cheng Nuo's experience of God's work and the course of her pursuit to become an honest person in life.

Living abroad, we are quite busy with our work and with things at home and sometimes we don’t have time to read God’s words or attend meetings. I feel that this is not putting God first, however, and I feel in my heart that I owe God. I’d like to ask how we can find a better balance between our work, our families and seeking the truth?

Bible Verses for Reference:

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mak 8:36-37).

And he said to his disciples, Therefore I say to you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat; neither for the body, what you shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment (Luk 12:22-23).

Reflect: I, Qualified Christian?

By Li Zhi

I, who have believed in God for many years, had always thought that those who believed in God’s existence, could follow God and often pray to Him for keeping them from all calamities, could receive His grace, and moreover, were able to preach the gospel and bear witness to Him—these were people who truly believed in God. However, I found recently that whenever encountering difficulties and adversities, I would have no faith in God, and even be full of misunderstanding and blame toward Him within. For instance, when I was ill yet God didn’t remove my illness because of my prayer, my faith in Him would become ever weaker, until in the end I was even unwilling to pray; when encountering various hardships and frustrations in life, I often complained about God in my heart and thought that He should keep my family peaceful and not allow these unpleasant things to come upon me since I went to meetings regularly, and prayed and read the Bible every day. And so, time after time, I was full of misunderstandings and complaints toward God. Not until then did I begin to examine myself: Am I a true Christian? Acting in this way, am I believing in God?

What to Do When You’re Losing Faith in God in Setbacks

By Dai Ning

    In real life, every time we face unfortunate events such as setbacks and illnesses, we may think that God has forsaken us and no longer protects us, and thereby sink into negativity and lose our faith in God. Yet as long as we pray to God in these situations and understand His will, our mistaken viewpoints will be turned around.

—Notes

In your belief in the Lord, what do you expect to receive from Him?

One Must Bear Witness to the Aspect of Truth Concerning God’s Incarnation

How to understand that Christ is the truth, the way, and the life?

Bible Verses for Reference:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God” (Jhn 1:1-2).

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (Jhn 1:14).

“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me” (Jhn 14:6).

“The words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life” (Jhn 6:63).

Relevant Words of God:

The truth comes from the world of man, yet the truth among man is passed on by Christ. It originates from Christ, that is, from God Himself, and is unattainable by man.

from “Success or Failure Depends on the Path That Man Walks” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh.” This (the work of the appearance of the Word in the flesh) is the work that God will accomplish in the last days, and is the final chapter of His entire management plan, and so God has to come to earth and manifest His words in the flesh.

from “All Is Achieved by the Word of God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

How do the three stages of God’s work gradually deepen for people to be saved and perfected?

Relevant Words of God:

The entire management of God is divided into three stages, and in each stage, fitting requirements are made of man. Furthermore, as the ages pass and progress, God’s requirements of all mankind become ever higher. Thus, step-by-step, this work of God’s management reaches its climax, until man beholds the fact of the “appearance of the Word in the flesh,” and in this way the requirements of man become even higher, and requirements of man to bear testimony become even higher. … In the past, man was required to comply with the law and the commandments, and was required to be patient and humble. Today, man is required to obey all of God’s arrangements and possess a supreme love of God, and is ultimately required to still love God amid the tribulation. These three stages are requirements that God makes of man, step-by-step, throughout His entire management. Each stage of God’s work goes deeper than the last, and in each stage the requirements of man are more profound than the last, and in this way, God’s entire management gradually takes shape. It is precisely because the requirements of man are ever higher that man’s disposition comes ever closer to the standards required by God, and it is only then that the whole of mankind gradually departs from the influence of Satan until, when God’s work comes to a complete end, the whole of mankind will have been saved from the influence of Satan.

from “God’s Work and Man’s Practice” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

Only Possessing the Reality of the Truth Means Having Gained the Truth

It is only right for people to pursue to gain the truth when believing in God, but to truly gain the truth is not so easy a matter. Some think that they have gained the truth because they can preach some messages and resolve some difficulties of the brothers and sisters. Some think that they have gained the truth because they can receive some revelation and enlightenment when reading God’s word and have gained some knowledge of the truths of a certain aspect. Some think that they have gained the truth because now they can fellowship three or four days without running out of words when having a meeting, while in the past they would have nothing to say after fellowshipping only one day. Still others think that they have gained the truth because they are very familiar with God’s word and can immediately find in the book of God’s word any words they speak about when preaching or fellowshipping. Then, do such states and manifestations prove that they have gained the truth? What are the states of having truly understood the truth and gained the truth?

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.

A Brief Talk on “What Having Reality Is”

Many times God has required us to be a person who has reality. Then, what are the manifestations of “having reality”? Some leaders or workers think that they have reality because they have meetings with the brothers and sisters every day fellowshipping about the truth and have resolved many of their passive states and many difficulties in the church. Some of the brothers and sisters who preach the gospel think that they have reality because they can speak about the three stages of God’s works quite clearly and have caused many people to accept God’s new work. Some brothers and sisters think that they have reality in the truth of living out humanity because they pay much attention to their living out of humanity before the religious people or when they newly arrive at a host home and have received favorable comments and praise from them. Other brothers and sisters think that they have reality because they have written several acceptable sermons or communication articles on the experience of life. And still other brothers and sisters think that they have reality because they have never committed any serious transgressions or have never outwardly done anything that obviously offends God or resists God, and besides, the brothers and sisters also have a good opinion of them.

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.