How to Pray? 4 Keys to Pray to God We Shall Know

How to Pray? 4 Keys to Pray to God We Shall Know

Xiaoxi

Prayer is often overlooked by us in our daily life. Often times, we pray before God perfunctorily, just going through the formalities. Never have we presented our hearts before God to have true prayers, and we just hurriedly come before Him to pray and look up to Him when we encounter some issues. It is because of such an attitude that we don’t know how to pray to God, even if we have believed in Him for many years. Today, let’s share how to pray to God together.

1. What Does It Mean to Truly Pray?

One day, a friend of mine came to my home and had a gathering with me. In talking about this topic, she took out a book and read to me: “What does it mean to truly pray? It means speaking the words within your heart to God, and communing with God having grasped His will and based upon His words; it means feeling particularly close to God, feeling that He is in front of you, and that you have something to say to Him; and it means being especially radiant within your heart, and feeling that God is especially lovely. You will feel especially inspired, and after hearing your words your brothers and sisters will feel gratified, they will feel that the words you speak are the words within their hearts, the words they wish to say, and that what you say represents what they want to say. This is what it means to truly pray”. This paragraph of words allowed me to understand: A true prayer means speaking our heartfelt words to God and opening our hearts to commune with Him about our difficulties, things that we face, and the questions we don’t understand. Through praying to God and drawing close to Him, we understand His will and find the ways of practice. With prayer such as this, we can be clear-minded and enlightened under the guidance of God, so that we can see the true nature of problems more thoroughly. In the meantime, we can feel that God is right by our side; our hearts will feel particularly close to Him and our relationship with Him gradually gets closer. If we always pray to God in this way, our prayers will be after His heart and surely be answered.

2. What Is the Content of Prayers?

Later we fellowshiped about the content of prayers. Many times our prayers before God are dry and banal and we don’t know what to say; we only spew out all difficulties and worries in our life and work to God, not caring whether it conforms to His will or not or whether He will listen to it, we just babble on and on like reciting scripture. As a result, we are unable to obtain the Holy Spirit’s work and our problems can’t be solved. Is this not ignorant? Actually, the Lord Jesus has long since told us, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you”. From this passage of God’s words, we come to understand: Praying is not to seek what we will eat, drink, or wear. God has painstakingly arranged these material needs for us since we came into this world, and there is no need for us to pray for them. This is similar to a mere child; does he need to tell his parents what he will eat and put on every day? No. All necessaries of his life have been arranged appropriately by his parents. In many instances, we pray to God, “Lord, I have no a good job, please give me one,” “Lord, I’m being sorely pressed, please give me a chance to make money,” and so on; such kind of prayers is not in line with the will of God. God has told us what the content of prayers ought to be, “You should pray, step-by-step, in accordance with your true state and that which is to be done by the Holy Spirit, and you should commune with God in keeping with God’s will and His requirements of man. … When you are possessed of this burden, God will surely make you perfect; you should not only pray for the sake of yourself, but also for the sake of carrying out the will of God, and for the sake of loving Him. Such is the truest kind of prayer”. Are your prayers for the purpose of carrying out the will of God? If we pray for ourselves, for the sake of satisfying our own flesh and selfish desires, God will definitely not accept our prayers.

3. What Is the Significance of Prayer?

Concerning the significance of prayer, after our fellowship, our understanding was: Only when we understand why we pray to God and the importance of prayer, will we place great importance on praying and pray with our hearts. Only when we know the significance of whatever we do, can lots of problems be readily solved. Then, after all, what’s the significance of prayer? God says, “Prayer is one of the ways in which man cooperates with God, it is a means by which man calls upon God, and it is the process by which man is touched by God’s Spirit. It can be said that those who are without prayer are dead ones without spirit, proof that they lack the faculties to be touched by God. Without prayer, they are unable to attain a normal spiritual life, much less are they able to follow the work of the Holy Spirit; without prayer, they sever their relationship with God, and are incapable of receiving God’s approval. Being someone who believes in God, the more you pray, the more you are touched by God. Such people have greater resolution and are more able to receive the latest enlightenment from God; as a result, only people like this can be made perfect as soon as possible by the Holy Spirit”.

4. How Can We Enter Into True Prayer?

We have just fellowshiped that “What is true prayer?” Then how do we enter into true prayer? God’s words tell us the answer, “Whilst praying, your heart must be at peace before God, and it must be sincere. You are truly communing and praying with God; you must not deceive God using nice-sounding words. Prayer is centered around that which God wishes to complete today. Ask God to bring you greater enlightenment and illumination, and bring your actual state and troubles before God to pray, and make resolution before God. Prayer is not the following of procedure, but the seeking of God using your true heart. Ask that God protect your heart, making it able to often be at peace before God, making you able to know yourself, and despise yourself, and forsake yourself in the environment that God has set for you, thus allowing you to have a normal relationship with God and making you someone who truly loves God”. These words make us understand: We can enter into true prayer as long as we grasp these three aspects: First, we must be quiet in front of God, speaking from the heart; we should never deceive God with words of praise and never cheat Him with falsehoods or empty words. Second, we should pray around actual things and the situation arranged by God. For example, our practical difficulty is that we don’t know how to practice to be an honest person, yet we pray for God to purify us in that we still have arrogant disposition. So this will be wrong. If we pray like this, it proves that we don’t possess the normal people’s thinking. Third, praying is not to go through the process but to come before God sincerely to seek the related truth and the way of practice, through which we can gain the work of the Holy Spirit and have deeper knowledge of our own corrupt disposition and better understanding of God’s will to save man. Possessing these three aspects of practice, we are able to enter into true prayer.

Our gathering has enabled me to understand the above four aspects of the truth with regard to the practice of prayer. I hope it will help you. Thank the Lord! In the end, I’d like to share with you the basic general knowledge of prayer:

“1. Do not blindly say whatever comes to mind. There must be a burden within your heart, which is to say, you must have an objective when you pray.

2. Your prayers must contain the words of God; they must be based upon the words of God.

3. When praying, you cannot go over old ground; you must not bring up things that are outdated. You should specially train yourself to speak the actual words of the Holy Spirit; only then will you be able to make a connection with God.

4. Group prayer must be centered around a core, which must be the work of the Holy Spirit today.

5. All people must learn how to pray for others. They must find the part in God’s words that they wish to pray for, based upon which they must have a burden, and for which they must often pray. This is one manifestation of care for God’s will”.

Though I pray to God every day, many times I feel my prayer dull and dry as if the Lord doesn’t listen at all; many times I pray, He doesn’t fulfill my prayers; still many times I have nothing to say when praying. How exactly to pray to God? I feel confused about that for a long time, and I haven’t find out a way to practice. Thanks for the Lord’s guidance and the author’s sharing, I understand the significance of prayer, and know how to pray to God with a true heart in order to gain rapid spiritual growth. I have no clue whether you’re also in this state. If you have any other practice and experience about praying, you’re welcome to leave messages to us or chat with us via the online window at the bottom of the website. We look forward to sharing God’s enlightenment with more and more brothers and sisters, growing together in Christ.

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Why Christians Spread the Gospel?

Why Christians Spread the Gospel?

Hanxiao

Many people have found such phenomena: Most of the true believers in the Lord, after believing in God, will spread the gospel, do their work and establish churches everywhere with the utmost confidence; there are even some who never get married in their entire lives so as to spread the gospel; some believers who have families even give up their enjoyments of family, conjugal affection and the attention of their children for spreading of the gospel…. Some people think these behaviors incomprehensible and don’t know why they believe in God so fervently. Believing in God at home doesn’t disrupt them making money or supporting their family, and they can also enjoy family happiness with their loved ones and moreover can enter heaven after death. Isn’t it a perfect choice? Contrarily, when spreading the gospel everywhere, they often face ridicule and slander, and even will suffer the arrest and persecution of the atheistic CCP, drifting around and unable to return to their home. Then what power impels them to run on the way of spreading the gospel?

Why Do Christians Spread the Gospel?

In fact, the reason why Christians persistently spread the gospel under various difficult environments is mainly because they have understood the Lord’s will and known their missions and duties. Thus all Christians who truly believe in God and understand God’s will can set aside their family, marriages, youth, the enjoyments of the flesh for God’s gospel.

The verses record, “And he said to them, Go you into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you: and, see, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:18-20).

From these words of the Jesus Christ, we can see that the Jesus Christ intended to let His disciples and followers spread His gospel in order that all nations and all peoples could receive His redemption. When the Jesus Christ worked in Judea, Israel, there were only a small number of the Jews admitted that the Lord Jesus is Christ. And the disciples didn’t truly believe the Lord Jesus is Christ until He was resurrected three days after the crucifixion and then appeared to His disciples for 40 days. As we can imagine, most of the Jews at that time didn’t acknowledge that the Jesus Christ is the incarnate God. So, after the Jesus Christ finished the redemptive work, in order for more people to receive His redemption, the gospel of the Lord require His disciples and followers to be spread to the end of the earth, so that the Gentile nations can receive His salvation. Therefore, the disciples of that time, after accepting the Lord’s commission, spread the Lord’s gospel to all tribes and nations, even most of them were martyred: Matthew was hocked to death; James was beheaded; Peter was crucified upside down; Andrew was nailed onto the cross in the shape of “X” …. In this process, the Lord’s gospel was rapidly expanded. Furthermore, when the foreign missionaries preached the gospel in China, a host of them were also martyred. Under such circumstances, at last the Chinese heard the Lord Jesus’ gospel. So, after that, the Christians in China begin to rush about spreading the gospel. Obviously, it is the most righteous undertaking that the disciples and prophets of the past offered up their minds and bodies, and that the Christians of today sacrifice everything for the gospel. Just as the Jesus Christ said, “Truly I say to you, There is no man that has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundred times now in this time, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30).

Spreading the Gospel Is Christians’ Sacred Duty

Spreading the gospel is God’s commission to us and the sacred duty given by God. In one regard, it is for the sake of rescuing souls, and in the other, it is in order for ourselves to accumulate good deeds. Just like the parable told by the Jesus Christ in Matthew 25, saying that a man would travel into a far country, and then he called his servants and delivered to them his goods according to their ability: onto one He gave five talents, to another two, and to another one. The former two servants traded with them and made money. After the master came back, he praised them as the good and faithful servants, letting them rule over many things and share his joy. But, as for the servant, who received one talent and dug in the earth to hide the money, his master called him as the wicked and lazy servant, casting him into outer darkness (See Matthew 25:14-30).

Here we know, God has given each of us a commission. Though our gifts from God are different, we should try our best to cooperate with God. Just as some brothers and sisters have the gift of preaching; some have the gift of singing; some have the gift of evangelism…. All of us ought to spare no effort for the gospel work of God. If we take believing in God as a kind of faith, only having meetings when happy, praying to God when facing difficulties, offering a little when getting God’s grace but not consecrating our own portion to the most important gospel work, then we will finally be abandoned by God, just like the wicked and lazy servant who received one talent from his master. Therefore, spreading the gospel is a great matter. As for those who forsake their youth, careers, parents, children and even are jailed and martyred for evangelical work, although they undergo the misunderstandings from many people and even are rejected and condemned, yet it’s undeniable that their efforts and sacrifice are remembered by God and worthy of emulation. They are the ones who show the most consideration for God’s will. On the other hand, God is not pleased that we merely enjoy His grace and blessings but don’t care for His will. He hopes His believers can rise up to give their all for the evangelical work.

A prophecy from Revelation says, “And I saw another angel fly in the middle of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Revelation 14:6-7). When the Jesus Christ comes again, He will preach the everlasting gospel to man on the earth. If we accept and then spread the gospel to all nations and all peoples, we will become the ones who care about God’s will and enjoy His blessings in the kingdom of God. Ultimately we will certainly gain God’s greater care and protection when He brings down disaster, rewards the good and punishes the wicked.

Finally let’s share a hymn video “Follow God Along the Rough Path.”

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Daily Bible Devotions: Which Is Greater in Your Heart, God or the Temple?

Daily Bible Devotions: Which Is Greater in Your Heart, God or the Temple?

By Lin Lin

The Bible records, “But I say to you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day” (Matthew 12:6-8). When I was a new believer, I read these verses. At that time, I only knew the Lord Jesus was saying this to remind people who lived under the law that He is greater than the temple and that He is Lord of the Sabbath day. Therefore, He could heal patients on that day, and He didn’t condemn His disciples who plucked and ate the ears of corn when they went through the corn fields on the Sabbath. Yesterday I read these verses again. From the fact that He worked on the Sabbath day, I clearly realized the Lord was reminding people who lived under the law that He had done new work outside the temple, and that everyone should depart from the temple to accept His new work.

However, during that time, the Pharisees who slavishly abided by the laws and rules saw the temple as greater than God. Apparently, they served God in the temple and explained the laws to the people, but they only talked about some letters, rules and restrictions. They themselves never complied with the law. Worse still, they renounced God’s law, killing prophets and devouring widows’ houses. Hence, in the eyes of God, all they did had nothing to do with His will and requirements; their service was merely going through the process of sacrificing, and was idol worship. They had no place for God in their hearts for they valued the temple, their status and livelihood above God and the truth He expressed. As a result, though having heard the Lord Jesus’ preaching, seen various signs and wonders He manifested, and perceived His power and authority and wonderful deeds, they did not at all have the heart to seek the truth or look for a way to be compatible with God. Besides, they judged the Lord Jesus, saying that He was just an ordinary person, condemned Him, and blasphemed that He cast out devils by the prince of the devils. They even joined hands with the Roman government to crucify the Lord Jesus. Ultimately, they were subjected to God’s righteous punishment and curse and were destroyed in hell because they offended His disposition.

Then let’s turn to the followers of Judaism who were deceived by the Pharisees. They too saw the “temple” as greater than God. For example, they viewed those chief priests, scribes and Pharisees as greater than God. So, when deceived and incited by the chief priests, they lost the rationality and ground that a believer in God should have. Not only did they fail to stand on the side of the Lord but they blindly followed the chief priests and yelled out to nail the Lord Jesus to the cross. They lacked penetration into the truth of the hypocrisy of the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees, and didn’t know these people who served God saw their own status and the words of the Bible as greater than the Lord. These so-called “God’s servants,” taking “defending the true way” as camouflage, fabricated various rumors and made up lies to deceive the people. They controlled the people firmly in their hands, frantically disturbed and impaired God’s work, and competed with God for people. Therefore, the Jews who followed them also perished and were destroyed in the end.

So, what kind of people are those who honor God as great? I thought of Job. When all his children died and all his properties were taken from him, grieved as he was, he didn’t sin with his lips against God but still extolled His name. Job said, “the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). Job had a place for God in his heart. For Job, his sheep and cattle, wealth and children couldn’t compare with God, because God was the only One in his heart. Job could honor God as great in his heart, so he received greater blessings from God after he underwent the trials. Peter was another example. As he followed the Lord Jesus, he carefully obeyed His voice and acted in accordance with what He demanded. At a critical time, when the soldiers tried to seize the Lord Jesus, Peter rushed over and cut off a soldier’s ear, disregarding his own life to protect the Lord Jesus. From this I saw Peter loved the Lord more than himself, which cannot be reached by ordinary people. Peter’s actions gained the Lord’s approval. Therefore, the Lord Jesus gave the keys to the kingdom of heaven to Peter and entrusted him with the heavy responsibility of shepherding the churches.

When thinking of this, I prayed to God and reflected: Which is greater in my heart, the “temple” or God? The fact that the Pharisees resisted God gave me a warning. That is, if I believe in God but in my heart I don’t honor Him as great, nor do I know, obey or worship Christ incarnate, then all that I have done will be in vain in His eyes no matter how I believe in Him, follow Him, and sacrifice and expend for Him. I should emulate Job and Peter: No matter what trials I encounter, I shall believe in God’s sovereignty and have true faith in Him; no matter how God’s work and word do not conform to my own conceptions and imaginations, I shall put myself aside to obey Him. Only in this way can I become someone who genuinely follows God and honors Him as great in his heart. Brothers and sisters, let’s honor God as great in our hearts in everything. Then God’s blessings and grace will surely be with us!

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The Sorrow of the Eraser

The Sorrow of the Eraser

Yang Yang

I once read a parable of a pair of good friends of an eraser and a candle. The candle always wins praise from people, which makes the eraser feels imbalanced. One day, the eraser says, “We both serve humans. You’re dolled up every day, and people compare the drips you produce while burning to tears and regard your flames as the symbol of light. Whereas my body gets dirtier and the crumbles I produce are thrown away as waste. It’s unfair!”

The candle says sincerely, “You remove wrong writing for children every day. You’re a good help for them to do their homework, and a behind-the-scenes contributor to their bright future.”

However, the eraser is not satisfied with its role as a behind-the-scenes contributor, saying, “I must give off light and heat like you!”

Then the eraser throws itself on the candle. As a result, it gleams slightly, and a foul stench thickens the air.

The eraser is left charred all over. With a shake of his head, the young owner tosses it into a garbage can.

What can we learn from this parable? Much of the time we are just like the eraser. We are not satisfied with what we’ve already owned and always want to get what we lack. Some people resent being short and are envious of those tall; some with a tall and slim body structure feel pained about their ordinary appearance; some have gained a certain position and yet long for a higher status; some covet power though they have owned enough wealth. …

As a matter of fact, in our lifetime, what and how much we have, what our career is, what role we play, whether we are rich or poor—all of this is ordained by God. Some people who don’t expect to manage something achieve success in the end, while some others finally fail despite their meticulous planning and arrangement for achieving the goal. Some people lead an affluent life without paying much price, while some others spend their lives struggling and yet are still unable to move out of poverty. … Countless facts prove that we have no control over our fates and that God presides over our fates as well as the fates of all things. There is a saying prevailing among the farmers who have worked on the farms for their lifetime and experienced the vicissitudes of life, “Man works the land, but the yields depend on Heaven.” To take another example: Zhuge Liang, a chancellor and regent of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period, was skilled at strategy and running wars. Yet in the face of a war in which he almost succeeded, he couldn’t help but sigh, “Man proposes, but Heaven disposes!” Regardless of whether we believe it or not, no one can change the fact of God ruling over all things, or contend with God’s sovereignty and predestination.

God’s word says: “Mankind does not know who is the Sovereign of all things in the universe, much less does he know the beginning and future of mankind. Mankind merely lives, perforce, amidst this law. None can escape it and none can change it, for among all things and in the heavens there is but One from everlasting to everlasting who holds sovereignty over everything. … Regardless of whether you are able to recognize the deed of God, and irrespective of whether you believe in the existence of God, there is no doubt that your fate lies within the ordination of God, and there is no doubt that God will always hold sovereignty over all things.”

“Because people do not recognize God’s orchestrations and God’s sovereignty, they always face fate defiantly, with a rebellious attitude, and always want to cast off God’s authority and sovereignty and the things fate has in store, hoping in vain to change their current circumstances and alter their fate. But they can never succeed; they are thwarted at every turn. This struggle, which takes place deep in one’s soul, is painful; the pain is unforgettable; and all the while one is frittering away one’s life. What is the cause of this pain? Is it because of God’s sovereignty, or because a person was born unlucky? Obviously neither is true. At bottom, it is because of the paths people take, the ways people choose to live their lives. Some people may not have realized these things. But when you truly know, when you truly come to recognize that God has sovereignty over human fate, when you truly understand that everything God has planned for and decided for you is a great benefit, and is a great protection, then you feel your pain gradually lighten, and the whole of you become relaxed, free, liberated.”

God’s words are so true! We do not recognize God’s ordination and sovereignty, nor do we know what we truly need for our lives. Greed and extravagant desires cause us to never be content with our present circumstances and always rely on our own efforts to strive, which in turn invites a lot of trouble and distress for ourselves. Some people commit many evil deeds against the law, ruining their own prospects and even paying the price with their life. By contrast, those who can submit to their fates spend their lives, though unremarkable, in peace and joy. … In fact, as we humans were created by God, only God knows our real needs, and what God bestows upon us is the most appropriate.

We now are in the last days when God has come to do His work and expressed all the truths we human beings need. After reading God’s word, we will come to fully realize and confirm this fact: We will be able to shake off pain, live under God’s care and blessing, and become truly free and liberated if we can come before God to accept His word as our life, practice according to the truth, and obey God’s orchestration and arrangements, rather than cling to our excessive desires and rely on our own will and abilities to resist fate.

Watch the Video: The Sorrow of the Eraser – Inspiring Story

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God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind
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Who Has Hindered You From Following God?

Who Has Hindered You From Following God?

Chengxin

Once, Brother Yang shared his experience with me.

Brother Yang is the only son of his family. He didn’t get married until he was middle-aged. Seeing his parents were getting old, he wanted to get married and have children as soon as possible. Later, through a matchmaker’s introduction, he got married. After his marriage, he had hoped that his wife would believe in the Lord together with him, but she not only disbelieved, but also did her utmost to oppose his belief in the Lord. They often argued about it, and their life was not happy at all. Brother Yang didn’t want to give up believing in the Lord and serving Him, but he wondered whether he could divorce his wife. So he went to ask his pastor. The pastor told him that marriage was arranged by God; no matter what happened, he shouldn’t divorce his wife; and instead, he must respect marriage and his wife. Then, Brother Yang kept the pastor’s words for more than ten years as if they were truth. Over those years, he could only read the Bible occasionally and secretly. He could no longer attend meetings regularly, not to mention working or spending for the Lord. In the end, he said because he hadn’t attended meetings for a long time and he had already strayed too far from God, he really didn’t want to attend meetings….

Brother Yang’s story provoked us into thinking: Over two thousand years of the continuation and development of the religion, a great number of denominations and sects have been formed, and now no one can approach the standing and prestige of pastors and elders in our hearts. Because they graduated from seminaries, can preach biblical knowledge and theological theories, are ones who serve the Lord, and are the head sheep in the church, many of us think they must be good servants and good stewards of the Lord. For this reason, in times of problems and difficulties, we first turn to the pastors and elders, rather than seek and pray to the Lord and put His words into practice. Just as they say, so will we do. Few of us are serious about whether their words accord with the Lord’s will. And we seldom ponder over these important problems: Whether are their requirements on the basis of God’s words? Even if they are, is their understanding of God’s words pure or one-sided and distorted?

Now is the crucial moment for us to wait for and meet the second coming of Jesus Christ. We learn from brothers and sisters who have visited many denominations that, outwardly all denominations are anxiously yearning for the second coming of Jesus Christ. For instance, some churches require believers to pray with fasting regularly and wait for the Lord watchfully. Some pastors often tell believers, “Now is the time when the Lord is to return. Never crave for the world and money anymore. We should often read the Bible and attend gatherings actively. Only in this way can we welcome the Lord.” However, while they are seemingly preparing to welcome the second coming of Jesus Christ, they often warn believers that only the head sheep and leaders of the church can convey the message of the Lord’s return; they should never read, listen to, or believe any messages that say the Lord has returned or that are related to the return of the Lord, much less receive those who testify about the Lord’s return; and whoever violates it is betraying the Lord and will be expelled from the church. Some brothers and sisters obey all these mandatory and arbitrary regulations without discernment.

It is very common in the religious world that the believers must obey what the pastors and elders say and must always stay within their churches. Even if they can’t feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in meetings, and can’t receive the moving and guidance of the Holy Spirit while reading the Bible and praying, they are still forbidden to search for the movement and footprints of the Holy Spirit’s work outside of their churches. Aren’t the pastors and elders the same as the Pharisees who, in order to maintain their status and power, did their utmost to control the Jewish people and hinder them from seeking and investigating the words and work of the Lord Jesus? At that time, many Jewish people were deceived and controlled by the Pharisees. They didn’t accept and obey the Lord Jesus’ new work, and even nailed the Lord to the cross together with the Pharisees, and thus became the eternal sinners. Until now the whole Judaism hasn’t woken up—the Jewish people are still being deceived by those religious leaders who consume people whole like devils, and as if slumbering in a big dream, they are still ignorantly waiting for the coming of the Messiah.

Then, in the matter of welcoming the return of the Lord Jesus in the last days, has the tragedy already been repeated? The leaders of all denominations and sects spare no efforts in sealing off churches, as if about to put their hands over the believers’ ears and blindfold their eyes. They desperately hinder the believers from seeking any message about the return of the Lord. From this we can see that the religious world in the last days has indeed walked on the old way of Judaism. The return of the Lord will be a thorough test and revelation for these impenetrable and watertight religious groups.

In reality, many of us are very clear that today the disasters in different countries are getting bigger and bigger, that the international situation becomes increasingly tense, and that the biblical prophecies about the signs of the last days, such as the four blood moons, have been fulfilled one by one. All of these show us that the day of the Lord has come. However, due to the constraint and bondage of the pastors and elders, many brothers and sisters dare not to seek the messages about the Lord’s return, and they can only cling to the letters and doctrines of the Bible and the religious rituals. Then what shall we do? Shall we come away from the religious community to look for “what the Spirit said to the churches” (Revelation 2:7), and accept it and follow the Lamb’s footsteps the moment we find it? Or shall we repeat the historical tragedy of the Jewish who didn’t seek the truth but followed the evil ones to oppose God while believing in Him?

Actually, a number of true believers in the Lord have found that today’s religious world has long lost the Holy Spirit’s work. The pastors and elders have repeatedly preached the biblical knowledge, doctrines, and theological theories for so many years and they don’t have anything new to preach, unable to supply life to the believers at all. And the believers all sense that staying within the church is just conducting services and observing religious rituals. Without any watering of the living water of life, their spiritual life become ever drier and they even have been parched and starved to death. Now, the smart people have known that they should not wait interminably, and they have begun to search for the message of the Lord’s return through all sorts of means. For example, they look for the church that has the work of the Holy Spirit through social platforms online. One day, an online friend in the Lord excitedly sent me a post, saying that he had found the church with the Holy Spirit’s work on the Facebook. I asked him how he could tell. He answered, “What is of God will thrive! This church openly testifies on the internet that the Lord has come back and has disclosed many mysteries in the Bible about the Lord’s return in the last days. It’s really worth our immediate seeking and investigating….” After that, I asked more than ten online friends about it and they all thought the same way. I thought: We can find online the gospel of the Lord Jesus’ return. Isn’t it accepting the gospel in the air? Then I thought of the prophecy in Revelation, “And I saw another angel fly in the middle of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Revelation 14:6-7). Amen! Thanks for the Lord’s guidance! Now many online friends in the Lord are no longer restrained by the pastors and elders. They are seeking and investigating this church, and warmly discussing the message of the Lord’s return testified by it. We trust that the Lord will surely lead us to recognize His voice and follow His footsteps.

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The Difference Between Worshiping God and Worshiping Idols

The Difference Between Worshiping God and Worshiping Idols

Now, a statement circulating online says that putting illustrations of the Lord Jesus on the Internet or sharing them with brothers and sisters is worshiping idols, not worshiping God. Does it conform to the truth? How can we tell the difference between worshiping God and worshiping idols?

The Lord Jesus said, “when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him” (John 4:23). Based on these words from the Lord Jesus, many thoughtful, savvy people will acknowledge such a fact: To judge whether or not one truly worships God depends not fully on his outward behavior, but on whether he truly believes in God and thirsts for the truth, and whether he is an honest man who shows a true representation of himself before God. That is to say, a man who appears devout on the outside is not necessarily a true worshiper of God, while a true worshiper of God focuses on worshiping God in spirit and in truth, not outward practices. So, my brothers and sisters and I all believe illustrations of the Lord Jesus are merely a symbol and metaphor which represents God is with us. We are not worshiping idols by using these pictures. What does worshiping idols truly refer to? It means to regard the illustrations or the Bible as God, and prostrate and kneel before them. That is truly worshiping idols. Let us put forward some examples. Some people must pray with a Bible in front of them, and some always take a Bible with them wherever they go and even hold it as they sleep. Still, there are some believers who must pray with their faces to a portrait of the Lord Jesus, and some others who make long prayers laying their hands on the Bible. These people all believe what they do is worshiping God. Yet, in fact, they have been unable to feel the presence of the Lord and the work of the Holy Spirit long ago. Some preachers in the churches cannot communicate any true knowledge of God, or reveal the real road for the believers to practice the truth and follow God’s will. Those who listen to the messages in a muddled way don’t know to actively search for the footsteps of the work of the Holy Spirit and only hold to various religious rituals, even though they cannot obtain the supply of life. Is this type of belief really worshiping God? If one cannot gain the work of the Holy Spirit and worships the illustrations and the Bible as God, then the object of his worship is actually empty air or a vague God in his notions and imagination, and in essence he is worshiping idols. By contrast, some people who have a picture of the Lord Jesus hanging in their homes are very pious as they pray to Him, and in their prayers, they often speak from their hearts, give thought to the Lord’s love, and are moved to tears. They normally focus on practicing and experiencing the Lord’s words, frequently receive enlightenment from the Holy Spirit and reap knowledge about the reality of the truth. This is the result reached through the work of the Holy Spirit. For such people, who can say they are worshiping idols?

Second of all, some people do not honor God as great as they believe in God, but blindly believe in and worship their pastors and elders. They believe and obey whatever their pastors and elders say, and never rely on God’s words to discern whether their words are in accordance with the truth and whether their deeds are after God’s heart. With regard to receiving the Lord’s second coming, many people are especially obedient to their pastors and elders. If their pastors and elders condemn and oppose something, they will follow them without discernment. When the pastors and elders claim that the Lord has not returned or define the way in which He shall come, they put blind faith in it, rather than discern it according to God’s words or seek a way of practice that is after God’s heart in God’s words. In their eyes, belief in God means to listen to the pastors and elders in all things. They worship and have blind faith in man so much that they even obey man as God. This is truly worshiping idols, and the men they worship are precisely their idols.

The Lord Jesus said, “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. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21-23). As we believe in God, we should have a place for God in our hearts, often exalt and testify to God, seek truth in all things, submit to God’s word and put it into practice. This is following the will of God, and through this we can certainly obtain the work of the Holy Spirit. In this way, no matter how many illustrations of the Lord Jesus we place in our homes and churches, or on the websites, it is completely right, because it is for the sake of spreading the gospel and bearing testimony to God, and it is regarded as a positive thing commended by God, which is beyond doubt. Conversely, those who believe in God in name only and worship status and power in reality, blindly believe in and follow the pastors and elders and treat man as God, hold to letters and doctrines as the truth—such people cannot possibly have the work of the Holy Spirit. No matter how many religious ceremonies they follow, God will not like them, but instead detest and reject them, for they never take exalting and bearing witness to God as their duty, or consider implementing and experiencing God’s words as important. These people are the chaff and false believers without life. Their faith is genuinely worshiping idols.

Recommended:
What Is True Faith in God?
Discussing Church Life and Real Life
Knowing God Is the Path to Fearing God and Shunning Evil

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