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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Reflections on Frequent Extreme Weather in Mainland China – Biblical Prophecies Fulfilled

Reflections on Frequent Extreme Weather in Mainland China – Biblical Prophecies Fulfilled

Chen Ai

Since the beginning of this summer, the extreme weather has happened frequently in Mainland China. In May, abnormal weather appeared in Beijing. That heat struck Beijing was succeeded by large-area rare evening glow in the sky. In June, sixty-one cities of eleven provinces in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the south of China suffered floods, and the casualties and economic losses caused by the floods couldn’t be estimated. Most surprisingly, People’s Daily Online, one of the official media organizations, reported that it unexpectedly drifted snow in a few areas of Heilongjiang Province in June. At about six o’clock a.m. on June 9, Fenghuangshan scenic spot under the charge of Shanhetun Forestry Bureau in Heilongjiang Province had snowfall; at about ten o’clock in the morning, it drifted light snow in Yaxue posthouse of Xuexiang, Heilongjiang, and the snow lasted for about one hour; hailstones also fell in Xuexiang. Since July, the hot weather has yet continued. In the evening of July 7, squall line weather hit Beijing suddenly, with high wind, rain and hail coming together. This was another unusual weather, in which it had a fall of hail in summer, and which followed the hail weather happening in June in FengTai District. On the evening of July 13, Beijing was attacked by the violent storm again accompanied by hail stones, lightning flashing and thunder pealing in the skies over Beijing. To avoid being struck by thunderbolt, the Capital Airport suspended all the incoming and outgoing flights. On July 14, in Shanghai, it hailed in Pudong New Area, while the temperature approached 40°C in Xuhui District. Within a day, the devil capital had a total different world. …

So much strange weather seemed to indicate something. However, after these disasters and curious phenomena occurred, news media hardly focused on them. Some net friends even posted and said, “The media doesn’t report these disasters but reports show-business news items violently, and has made the news up on the lead stories, while the disaster news is paid little attention to.” Others also posted and said, “Now there are too many disasters, so we have become inured to the unusual.”

However, there is one point that has to be mentioned. As is well known to the people who believe in the Lord Jesus, the Bible prophesies, “And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven” (Luke 21:11). “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows” (Mark 13:8). Hail, snow in June, rare evening glow emerged in the sky, the terrible floods and so on, all of these disasters are warning us that the prophecies related to the last days in the Bible have been fulfilled.

Some people will say, “So what is it even if these prophecies have been fulfilled? A little more disasters though there are, don’t we live all the same?”

The Bible records, “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-29). In the times of Noah, before God destroyed the world with flood, He commanded Noah to make an ark. Noah believed God’s word. He made the ark as he spread the gospel. People then ate and drank, they married wives, and they were given in marriage, living in the licentious and corrupt situation and remaining impenitent. Until the day when the world was destroyed by flood, God sent a forty-day-and-night torrential rain and destroyed the whole world; in the days before God destroyed Sodom, it was filled with music and dancing night after night, alluring and bewitching. The people of Sodom, like those in Noah’s time, ate, drank, and feasted. Nevertheless, when the day of God came, fire and brimstone came down from heaven, and burned Sodom into ashes… How about us, the present people? Compared with the people in the times of Noah and Sodom, people in this age are ever more evil and corrupt than them in every way. We live in fleshly enjoyment of eating, drinking and pleasure-seeking, advocate the evil trends, and don’t worship God… Although we are able to live as usual, if we remain impenitent, when God’s day comes, won’t we have the same outcome as that of the people in those two ages?

It is recorded in the third and fourth chapter of the Book of Jonah in the Bible that the Ninevites wore sackcloth and ashes, confessed and repented their sins before God. The people of Nineveh and the people of Sodom alike, esteemed evil, degenerated, worshiped idols, and didn’t worship God, but all the Ninevites, from the king to his subjects, with the beast wore sackcloth and ashes, confessed and repented their sins before God when they heard Jonah convey God’s word that He would send down the catastrophe to destroy them. Due to their sincere repentance, God spared them from the catastrophe that He had said. From the historical facts we can see: The catastrophe is in the hand of God. God allows the catastrophe to come upon us not to destroy us but to warn us. He hopes that we can revive in the frequent disasters, understand the earnest intentions with which God works to save us, and come before God to repent like the people of Nineveh. God doesn’t have the heart to see us fall into the catastrophe.

God says, “The disaster is brought down by Me and of course orchestrated by Me. If you cannot work for good in My presence, then you will not escape suffering the disaster”. This passage let me see God’s thoughtful kind intention. God is waiting for us to turn to Him. No matter how great the catastrophe is in the last days, only if we truly repent to Him, are willing to rely on and look onto Him, and come before Him, can we get His care and protection!

Recommended:
Strongest Hurricane Ever Recorded Kills 14 People; Warnings of the Last Days Escalate
Once-in-a-hundred-year Total Solar Eclipse Passes God’s Warning of the Last Days!
Do Not Miss the Lord’s Calls – Salvation of the Last Days

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Super Full Eclipse – Signs of the Last Days

Super Full Eclipse – Signs of the Last Days

On August 21, 2017, “Super Full Eclipse” occurred within a band across the entire contiguous United States. Is the super-solar eclipse the sign of the last days? Let us see what Bible prophecies have been fulfilled concerning the super-solar eclipse!

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come. – Joel 2:31

And it shall come to pass in that day, said the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day: – Amos 8:9

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, see, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; – Revelation 6:12

And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: – Acts 2:19-20

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; – Luke 21:25

Now all kinds of disasters are getting bigger and bigger, the prophecies in the Bible become true one by one, and countless Christians are looking forward to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. At this crucial moment, what should we do to welcome the second coming of the Lord Jesus and avoid being abandoned by Him? This question is worthy of our deep thought. What you might be interested in are as follows:

The Alarm of the Last Days Has Struck
How Will Prophecies About the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in the Bible Come True?
Have You Welcomed the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus?
Do Not Miss the Lord’s Calls – Salvation of the Last Days

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How To Shake Off Worries And Find A Happy Life

How To Shake Off Worries And Find A Happy Life

Hanxiao

There is no denying that we all want to live a happy life, having a warm and harmonious family, an ideal job, a good prospect, sensible children and so on. However, in the process of seeking happiness, we are besieged by all sorts of worries. Some people worry about whether their jobs will be threatened in face of fierce social competition. Some worry about their success in competition with their colleagues.Some  rack  their brains trying to make big money to remain invincible in the business.Some seek every means to attend training classes given by famous teachers to improve themselves constantly, so that they will become the strong of life or social elites. And some worry about when they can pay off their car loan or housing loan and therefore rush and busy about for it. More people can hardly breathe due to hard work or heavy business, and pressures of life have greyed their hair. Others worry about their marriage and family in face of the temptations from the evil trends of the world. Still others worry about how to educate their children and make them stand out among others in the increasingly fierce social competition. … With so many worries in our life, isn’t the happy life we yearn for far from the reality?

Then, What Causes the Worries in Our life?

There are mainly two reasons.

First, our criteria of a happy life are fame and gain. We think we will live happily as long as we succeed in our studies, careers, and marriage, our children become useful, and we become the best of the best and are admired by others. We all live by the rules for survival such as the “wealth and status,” “family prestige,” “rising above others,” “money talks,” “money isn’t everything but without money you can’t do anything.” So we fix our life goals firmly on those which can bring us fame and gain, and fear that something would go wrong in the course of our pursuit and thus we might brush past happiness.

Second, we live in our own worlds and always want to live the life we desire through our own exertion. In fact, we are insignificant in this universe, but we always consider ourselves powerful. We think that our fates can be controlled by our own hands. Only by seizing the right moment and grasping our fate can we succeed, and only by keeping ourselves progressing can we achieve a happy life step by step. For these reasons, we often worry: Should I have done it better? Have I missed any chance?

Can These Things We Pursue Bring Us a Happy life?

In reality, if we think back and observe carefully, we can easily find this fact: Many people try their best to live happily, but when some of them do get fame and gain and position, they find themselves living in a treacherous world where people intrigue against and outwit each other. They are no happy at all. Some people have reaped fame and gain after struggling most of their life, but they do not feel happy within their hearts. For they have seen that there is no justice, no righteousness, and no light in the world—everyone lives for fame and gain and for pursuing fleshly enjoyments, and nobody can find a shred of the value and meaning of life. Some people have successful careers and happy marriages, but in real life, they rack their brains to get money, fame, gain, and position, and are exhausted from the sinister interpersonal relationship. Some people become millionaires, but they die young or commit suicide, for the material wealth cannot fill the emptiness of their hearts. So money cannot bring us happiness, either. Even many elderly people who used to eat bland food say, “Now we are wealthy and don’t need to worry about food and clothing, but we always have a sense of emptiness within. Well, we’re just muddling along.’” Maybe you don’t understand why they say so. Since they had gone through many hardships and now live a wealthy life, they should feel happy. But how come …

Actually, King Solomon’ words in the Bible have given us the answer. He said, “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit” (Ecclesiastes 1:14). This shows that a wealthy life, and fame and gain cannot bring us happiness; they can only make us feel increasing emptiness.

How Can We Shake off Worries and Live a Happy Life?

As a matter of fact, the true happiness comes from God, and only God is the source of our happiness. Only by obeying God’s sovereignty and walking the way of human lifein accordance with God’s requirements, can we have the true happiness. The LordJesus has said to us, “Therefore I say to you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? … 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” (Matthew 6:25-26, 31-33).

We were created by God; and in the beginning, in order to make us mankind live better on earth, God created the beautiful Garden of Eden for our ancestors, Adam and Eve, and unconditionally bestowed upon them everything they needed to exist. They were carefree and blissfully living in Eden. Abraham, recorded in the Bible, heard God’s command and went to the place God promised to him. He didn’t worry about his future life, rising up and leaving his hometown. Because he had the true faith in God and true worship of God, he could obey all the orchestrations and arrangements of God. He took no thought of his own future and fate, nor did he have unreasonable requirements or extravagant desires for God. He lived in God’s blessings all his life because of his worship for God. In addition, Job, a character in the Bible that is familiar to us, spent all his life in seeking to know God among His creation of all things and worship Him, so he was blessed by God and became wealthy. When he was stripped of all, he neither complained or misunderstood God, nor worried about his future life, because he knew that everything was in God’s hands. When he absolutely obeyed and offered praise to God, not only did he gain double blessings from God, but also his life was prolonged and he died full of days at last. The Lord Jesus’ words make us understand that in our real life, if we are able to practice the Lord’s words, follow His way, and pursue the truth to gain life and attain fearing God and shunning evil, we will receive God’s blessings and salvation and be qualified to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Only when we love the Lord with all our heart, all our mind, and all our soul, only when we have an obedient attitude to our future life, and only when we receive everything God has arranged and prepared for us and seek to know God through it, can we live in happiness.

Finally, let me share a passage in “God Himself, the Unique III”: “For one sees that when one does not comprehend fate, when one does not understand God’s sovereignty, when one gropes forward willfully, staggering and tottering, through the fog, the journey is too difficult, too heartbreaking. … When one has no God, when one cannot see Him, when one cannot clearly recognize God’s sovereignty, every day is meaningless, worthless, miserable. Wherever one is, whatever one’s job is, one’s means of living and the pursuit of one’s goals bring one nothing but endless heartbreak and irrelievable suffering, such that one cannot bear to look back. Only when one accepts the Creator’s sovereignty, submits to His orchestrations and arrangements, and seeks true human life, will one gradually break free from all heartbreak and suffering, shake off all the emptiness of life.”

Dear friends, I hope this article could help you reflect on life, shake off your worries, and have a happy life.

Recommended:

Life Could Be So Beautiful

What Are The Meaningful Things For Man To Pursue In Life?

Seek And Investigate – Don’t Miss This Precious Opportunity

God’s Word – The Only Way To Have Normal Interpersonal Relationships

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There Is A Love That Is Called Pain

There Is A Love That Is Called Pain

There is a love that is called pain.

Perhaps you are competent, but you are always serving others, while someone else who is very cowardly has been taken care of. You may have experienced many hardships and are no stranger to tribulations, but the one you are most familiar with lives their entire lives in peace. You probably have spent over half your life suffering from illness, while some others lead a happy and comfortable life. … In short, there are many things you may find unfortunate and hard to accept.

However, we should not think ourselves unfortunate, or feel greatly wronged and complain how fate is unfair to us. Look at the people around us: In experiencing pain, some choose to escape and cease the effort to move forward, whereas some others choose to brave it and keep groping for progress. In the end, those who choose to escape, despite suffering little, live their lives in mediocrity. Those who choose to confront pain suffer a lot and shed many tears, but after going through painful struggles, they gain some understanding of human life, become mature in their thinking, and conduct themselves and handle things in an experienced and steady manner. On top of that, they can submit to the orchestration of fate, and feel steadfast, released and liberated in their hearts.

When I didn’t believe in God, I saw a lot of the above cases. After I believed in God, I read many of God’s words, and realized a fact: Every one of us is a part of God’s management plan, and we came into this world as a result of God’s arrangements. In our life journeys, there are many things painstakingly arranged by God for us. Some of them are very disappointing and we feel pain about them, but they are truly beneficial to us. Take myself for example. I was born vain. No matter what I did or said, I preferred to be praised and complimented by others. Any words that damaged my reputation would make me feel upset. Later, I married a man who was very lazy and ill-tempered. He often threw our family into turmoil. I felt my reputation was ruined, and I couldn’t keep my head high in front of others or speak with confidence. I had lived in pain and depression, and at some point I even lost the courage to live on. Afterward, I saw God’s words: “Corruption within human nature must be resolved through trials, however. In whichever aspects you do not pass, it is in these aspects that you must be refined—this is God’s arrangement. God creates an environment for you, forcing you to be refined there to know your own corruption. Ultimately you reach a point where you would rather die and give up your schemes and desires, and submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangement. So if people do not have several years of refinement, if they don’t have a certain amount of suffering, they will not be able to avoid the bondage of corruption of the flesh in their thought and in their hearts. In whichever aspects you are still subject to Satan’s bondage, in whichever aspects you still have your own desires, your own demands—it is in these aspects that you should suffer. Only in suffering can lessons be learned, which means being able to gain truth, and understand God’s intention” (“How to Satisfy God in the Midst of Trials”). Looking at God’s words, I felt very warm inside. I came to understand why God arranged things for me in this way and what His purpose was. God knows man best. He knew that I always worried about gaining and losing reputation, living in pain and depression without being able to be released. So, He arranged such a husband for me according to my corrupt disposition and my need. However, I was unwilling to accept it, and misunderstood God’s will, thinking God mistreated me so that I lived a miserable life. But on mature reflection, if I, as a person who treasured reputation more than life, had actually had my own way in everything, I would have become more arrogant with my internal desires continually growing, and more lacking in how a human being should be. I would even have been led astray by reputation and status. If that was really the case, not only would my whole life have been thoroughly ruined by vanity, but I would have brought much suffering to my family. At this point, I understood God’s will and His kind intentions. I saw that all He does is salvation and greatest protection for me. This is a love that cannot be expressed with words.

God says: “God can perfect man in both positive and negative aspects. It depends on whether you are able to experience, and on whether you pursue being perfected by God. If you truly seek being perfected by God, then the negative cannot make you suffer loss, but can bring you things that are more real …” (“Only Those Who Focus on Practice Can Be Perfected”). God’s words are very true. Whatever God does, be it good or bad in our eyes, contains God’s good intention, and it is to change us. When we have experienced some pain, we will truly recognize that pain is a unique gift and the truest love God bestows upon us.

Recommended:

Why Did God Command Abraham to Sacrifice Isaac?

God Allowed Satan to Tempt Job for the Purpose of Perfecting Job’s Faith

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Church Life – The Losses And Gains In The Meetings

Church Life – The Losses And Gains In The Meetings

Guozi    United States

My name is Guozi, and I’m a high school student studying in the United States. I come from a Christian family. When I was one year old, my mother accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days. I remember that when I was very young, my mother often told me, “God created this world, and He created mankind. God loves us the most. Remember to pray to Almighty God when things happen to you, and He will care for and protect you.” Therefore, I was aware of the existence of God from my early childhood, and I also experienced the protection of God when I prayed for things that befell me. But my true knowledge of God and God’s work was gradually gained only after I entered into God’s words in the meetings with my sisters from the Church of Almighty God.

In December, 2015, my mother advised me to attend gatherings with brothers and sisters. She said, “God’s work in the last days will soon reach its end. If you don’t attend meetings and fellowship about God’s words with brothers and sisters, you can hardly understand the truth, much less be perfected by God.” At that time, thinking my mother was just speaking casually, I consented perfunctorily. But I never expected that she really contacted the church, and I was arranged to have meetings online with some sisters. When one sister set the time for the gatherings with me, I felt a strong disinclination. I thought attending meetings every week would take up my spare time and hinder me from going out eating, drinking, and having fun with my friends. I was unwilling to attend meetings from the bottom of my heart, and merely preferred to continue my past life—not to resist the work of Almighty God, to be able to pray to God when encountering things, and to occasionally experience God’s protection. I thought it was enough that I had God in my heart. But feeling ashamed to refuse, I had to consent to it grudgingly. When the time for the meeting arrived, I always felt like making excuses to avoid it. What I feared most was the coming of the gathering on Sunday. Even though I attended the meeting, I still couldn’t quiet my heart. During my prayer, I only said some praises to God or asked God to allow me to get through the exam, and so on. When we began to fellowship about God’s words, I trembled for my turn, for I received no illumination within and had no idea of what to communicate. I only read some sentences in God’s words that I thought crucial, and explained the literal meaning of them, just as when I worked on a Chinese reading comprehension. I didn’t have a right attitude toward God’s words and treated the meetings carelessly, so I didn’t gain anything. The more I did so, the more boring I felt the meetings; and I thought it better to go out and play with my classmates than to attend the meeting. Especially when finding my mobile phone received many messages, I was more unable to resist the desire to go out to play with my classmates or friends. Thereupon I told my mother that I’d like to read God’s words by myself rather than attend meetings. But she said, “If you don’t attend meetings, you simply won’t read God’s words on your own initiative, nor will you understand them. For God’s words are all the reality of the truth, which are different from the books you read at school, and you can only clearly understand them by fellowshiping at the gatherings.” I never realized that having meetings was so important. It would not only urge me to read God’s words, but also enable me to understand the truth better. So I could say nothing more. Yet I was so excessively fond of play that I couldn’t be bothered to forsake the flesh to practice the truth, in spite of having understood a bit of truth. Therefore, later at every gathering, I just went through the motions when communicating about God’s words, and after that, I would start to use my phone, browsing gossip, watching the latest updated TV series, or chatting with my friends sometimes. So, I gained nothing from each meeting.

Once, my mother asked me, “How do you feel about your recent gatherings? Can you understand what your sisters fellowshiped? Do not play with your phone or be absent-minded at the gatherings. Although you have meetings online and your sisters can’t see what you are doing, God is watching your every action all the time. If you never concentrate your attention, God knows it and will discipline you.” Then she read me a passage of God’s words: “Because in order to walk in God’s way, we cannot let go of anything to do with ourselves, or anything that happens around us, even the little things. No matter whether we think we should pay attention to it or not, as long as any matter is facing us we should not let it go. All of it should be viewed as God’s test for us. How’s this kind of attitude? If you have this kind of attitude, then it confirms one fact: Your heart fears God, and your heart is willing to shun evil. If you have this desire to satisfy God, then what you put into practice isn’t far from the standard of fearing God and shunning evil” (“How to Know God’s Disposition and the Result of His Work” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh). She said to me, “Probably in your opinion, having a look at your phone at the gatherings is just a small matter, and is nothing serious. But it concerns your attitude toward the gathering and God. God is right by man’s side, watching his every action and looking upon his thoughts. Have you ever considered why you constantly feel like playing with your phone at the gatherings? As a matter of fact, in it lies Satan’s trick. God’s intention is to, through the meetings, make you understand more truths so that you can mature in your life soon, and eventually receive God’s salvation. On the contrary, Satan’s attempt is to distance you from God and God’s way. It seduces you through these things you like and prevents you from quieting your heart before God, so that you will have gained nothing ultimately and your life will have been ruined when God’s work ends.” As I listened to my mother, I thought to myself: So there is the truth to be sought even in such a small matter, which concerns man’s attitude toward God. I felt ashamed within, thinking my mother had read my thoughts. Before, I had always thought that I gathered with my sisters online and no one could see me, so I began to play with my phone secretly to satisfy my desire. Not till then did I know God was watching over all of this. Then I developed feelings of guilt and some unease: In the last few meetings, I played with my phone and God saw it all. Will God really discipline me? With my heart full of regret, I immediately prayed and apologized to God, and determined that I would no longer play with my phone during the meetings, and instead, I would ponder God’s words attentively and listen to the other sisters’ fellowship carefully. Thereupon at the following gatherings, I turned off my mobile phone and put it far from me, and then focused my mind on my sisters’ fellowship. Despite the fact that sometimes I still stared blankly or let my mind wander as I listened, I felt I had gained something after every gathering.

However, my desire for play never decreased. After some time, once at a gathering, my hands fairly itched to play with my phone again. I thought to myself: I’ll just give a glance at my phone, only one glance. Then I took my phone and began to play with it. Yet it turned out that, once started, it was difficult to stop. Soon I returned to my former condition. Sometimes I even put aside my computer used for meetings, and picked up my phone to watch the TV plays without scruple. I committed mistakes knowingly and willfully, and such attitude prevented me from receiving the work of the Holy Spirit. Although I was attending the meeting, when it was my turn to communicate, I had no idea of what to say, and I was also unaware of what my sisters had fellowshiped throughout the meeting. Gradually my disinclination to have meetings arose involuntarily. But I was ashamed to tell it to my mother again, and I could only attend the meetings perfunctorily. Later, in a meeting, while I was playing with my phone, I found that I could get the first look at a new TV play only if I downloaded a piece of software. I hesitated a moment, yet still decided to download it. However, as soon as I finished downloading and launched it, my phone screen went black; and when I clicked on it again, it showed me to enter the password. How should I know what the password was? Only after I had searched on the Internet for the reason why my phone’s screen was black, did I realize that I was fooled and that my mobile phone was under the control of others and couldn’t be used anymore. At that moment, I was overcome with regret. Meanwhile, I thought of God’s discipline, and it occurred to me: God observes the depths of man’s heart, and my every action is under God’s eye. I did things that I knew were wrong, so this might be God’s discipline coming upon me. It seems that I really should no longer play with my phone at the gatherings.

When I told my mother this matter, she read such a passage of God’s word to me: “What’s a big matter? What’s a small matter? All matters that involve walking in God’s way aren’t divided into big or small ones. Can you accept that? (We can accept it.) In terms of everyday matters, there are some which people view as very big and significant, and others that are viewed as minor trifles. People often view these big matters as being the very important ones, and they consider them to be sent by God. However, over the course of these big matters playing out, owing to the immature stature of man, and owing to man’s poor caliber, man is often not up to God’s intentions, cannot obtain any revelations, and cannot acquire any actual knowledge that is of value. So far as the small matters are concerned, these are simply overlooked by man, left to slip away little by little. Thus, they have lost many opportunities to be examined before God, to be tested by Him. Should you always overlook these matters and circumstances that God arranges for you, what will this mean? It means that every day, even every moment, you’re always renouncing God’s perfection of you, and God’s leadership. Whenever God arranges a circumstance for you, He is watching in secret, looking upon your heart, looking upon your thoughts and considerations, looking at how you think, looking at how you will act. If you are a careless person—a person who has never been serious about God’s way, God’s word, or the truth—then you won’t be mindful, you won’t pay attention to that which God wants to complete, and that which God demands of you when He arranges circumstances for you. You also won’t know how these everyday matters relate to the truth or God’s intentions. After you face repeated circumstances and repeated trials like this, with God not seeing any achievements to your name, how will God proceed? … there’s only one attitude that God has toward these people. What attitude is this? God spurns this kind of person from the bottom of His heart” (“How to Know God’s Disposition and the Result of His Work” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh). Looking at God’s words, I thought: This time I truly experienced God’s work and discipline, and saw that God is really by my side watching my every action. I used to think that my corrupt behaviors and thoughts could deceive my sisters, but they could never escape God’s observation. During the gatherings, I knowingly played with my phone and watched TV plays rather than pursuing the truth properly. My behavior is detested by God. Now not only is my phone controlled by others, but I haven’t gained the slightest truth. Meanwhile, time is wasted and my growth in spiritual life is delayed. I also recognized: I have constantly been trying to restrain myself from playing with my phone at the gatherings through my own efforts, yet as it turns out, I’m incapable of overcoming Satan’s temptation. It shows that, if man only relies on himself rather than on God, he can hardly practice the truth and attain fearing God and shunning evil. I am still too immature in my stature now, and thus in the future, all that I need to do is pray to God and rely on God, and only in this way can I quiet my heart in the meetings, and truly attain fearing God and shunning evil.

In the following several months, I used my classmate’s mobile phone. Considering it was not mine, I didn’t dare to download software to the phone as I pleased. At every gathering, I could not but quietly sit there listening to my sisters’ fellowship. At times, I was still disturbed by the desire to play with the phone. Especially when I heard my friends sending me message after message, my curiosity would be aroused and moved me to read them. However, it occurred to me that God was watching my every action, and that when I was having the meeting, if I was not devout or fearful before God, I would be detestable to God. At the thought I immediately drew back my hand every time I stretched it out to the mobile phone. And I prayed to God in my heart, “O God! Help me quiet my heart and free me from Satan’s disturbance.” I tried to calm my heart down while praying to God so that I could carefully listen to my sisters’ fellowship and sharing. In this way, after the gathering, I found I had received a lot of enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit in the words of God, which allowed me to know much about God and His work. Thinking back to the past, I was always unwilling to have meetings, and often avoided attending meetings under the pretext of being too busy with my study and having no time. Whereas now I felt I ought to forsake the flesh and find time to attend meetings. As there was usually not much pressure or homework in my studies, I frequently spent my spare time playing with my phone and watching TV plays. Actually the spare time might well be devoted to having meetings, which would be beneficial to my understanding of the truth. Thus, I requested to attend meetings twice a week. As my attendance doubled, I understood more and more truth, and obtained much more knowledge of God’s words than ever before. With the mobile phone close at hand, I could not help taking a peep at it sometimes, but I would immediately realize that I should forsake the flesh, and then I threw it onto the bed and went on with the meeting. For I was well aware that God was watching my every action in secret, and that I should no longer follow the flesh but instead should revere God in my heart.

Several months were gone, and I felt I had gained a lot. Not only had I grown much in my spiritual life, I also learned to experience God’s work in my life. The most impressive experience to me was: In a math exam, I copied the answers from one of my classmates in order to get a good record, and then the school suspected me of lacking academic integrity, which was so serious a problem as to influence my college entrance. I was at a loss what to do. At that time, a sister, regarding my situation, shared God’s words and communicated God’s will with me at the gathering. She told me that God likes honest people and that only honest people can receive the salvation. Then when I practiced being an honest person on the basis of God’s words, I witnessed God’s deed. I not only got the opportunity to retake the exam, but also obtained a certificate of merit for my “straight A” grades. I have had such experience far more than once. Now I feel increasingly fond of attending gatherings, fellowshiping about God’s words with my sisters, and sharing my experiences of practicing God’s words. Sometimes, while reading God’s words, when I measure my own experiences against God’s words due to the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, I am moved very much in my spirit and can genuinely sigh from deep within: It’s really good to believe in God! Gradually, through these experiences, I, a person who was afraid of having meetings at first, has changed into one who is fond of having meetings, which is all the result achieved by the guidance of God’s words. Thinking back, though I had less time to go out eating, drinking, and having fun with my classmates because of attending meetings, yet I have received God’s supply of spiritual life, which allows me to understand: One will receive God’s blessing by being an honest person and will feel peace and joy by practicing the truth. If one follows his fleshly desires, like playing with the mobile phone during the meetings, it will invite Satan’s affliction and God will not be pleased with him. Through the fellowship about the truth in the meetings, I have realized that God approves of a person who fears God and shuns evil, and that fearing God and shunning evil is the likeness of a real man one should live out. Thanks to the guidance of God, I have gained too much. Thanks be to Almighty God!

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