Does God answer your prayer❓

Does God answer your prayer❓

I have been working overtime recently. I can't get up in the morning and I don't insist on normal devotion. I didn’t work overtime last night and I’d like to get up early the next morning. But I was afraid that I would snooze and could not get up, So I prayed to God and hope God could wake me up to take morning devotion. At 6:44am the next morning I suddenly woke up, I thought, let me sleep for another 6 minutes and then get up. After when I lay down, I felt hot behind and I could not sleep. I felt that the hot was not normal, and I realized that the room's geothermal heat had been turned on. After I got up and switched off the heat, I thought about why the ground heat would be turned on while I was sitting on the bed. At this time, I suddenly thought of the prayer I made to God last night, This is God wake me up in this way. Later I got to know it is the guests who came last night turned on the heat. In my understanding, I understood God's intention. It was God who listened to my prayers because my prayer was to satisfy God, not to satisfy my own body-flesh. I saw this passage when I doing morning devotion, "Personal prayer life is based upon understanding the significance of prayer and the basic knowledge of prayer. Man must often pray for his shortcomings in his daily life and must pray upon the foundation of the knowledge of God’s words in order to achieve changes in his life disposition. Everyone should establish their own prayer life, they should pray for the knowledge based upon God’s words, should pray in order to seek the knowledge of God’s work. Lay your actual circumstances before God, and be pragmatic, and don’t pay attention to method; the key is to attain a true knowledge, and to actually experience God’s words. " I truly feel God's holiness and God's wisdom, I understand the true meaning of prayer. The Lord Jesus said, "But seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you." (Matthew 6:33) As long as what you ask for is inorder to satisfy God and is after God's heart. God will answer your prayer. If what your asked for is to satisfy flesh and satisfy Satan, God will hide His face from you. 

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4 Ways to Quiet Your Heart Before God

4 Ways to Quiet Your Heart Before God

By Liujing

Over the past few years when I believed in the Lord, I persisted in praying and reading the Bible every day, and always went out to work for the Lord, but I felt that I was still estranged from the Lord. Even when sometimes I prayed or read the Bible, my mind would wander away into other things, being bothered by some trifling matters in my daily life, and then I was incapable of quieting my heart before the Lord at all. So after several years, I did not have much understanding of the Lord’s words, nor did I have much growth in my spiritual life.

Recently, I read some books. And only then did I understand that if we want to achieve a result in our spiritual training, the most fundamental lesson to enter is to quiet our heart before God. Only by doing so can we receive the moving, enlightenment, and illumination of the Holy Spirit, and then establish a proper relationship with God and enter the right track in our spiritual life. Gradually, our spiritual life will have ever greater progress. Then what should we do to practice quieting our heart before God? I have found some ways of practice from a book. Now, I’d like to share them with you.

1, While Praying, Our Heart Must Be Focused and Sincere

As a Christian, we pray to the Lord every day, but most of our prayers are the following of procedure: We neither truly quiet our heart before the Lord or use a single-minded and honest heart to speak from our heart to Him, nor bring any issues we don’t understand or any difficulties we have before the Lord to seek, to ask for His enlightenment and illumination, and for more and new understanding of His words. Instead, we always kneel there merely to murmur what we do not mean, speaking some commonplace or repeated words. Sometimes when we hurry to go to work or go out to do something, in order to finish our prayer as soon as possible, we just say some words simply, going through the motions; even when sometimes we are kneeling in prayer, our heart is thinking about other things, and so on. All these behaviors show that we are not truly quieting our heart before God to have true communion with the Lord, but are stalling and deceiving the Lord. When we pray in this way, not only can we not obtain the Holy Spirit’s moving or enlightenment, but we will make God feel disgust and hatred. 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). From these words we can see that, the Lord’s demand for us is that we should worship God with an honest and focused heart. So while praying, we should tell God about our true states and difficulties. No matter what ideas and plans we have in our mind, we should completely open ourselves up to God. Only then will God be interested in our prayers, let us be more touched by the Holy Spirit, be enlightened and illuminated in various things that we do not understand, and let us gradually come to understand God’s will.

For instance, in the face of difficulties, our heart is always occupied by matters of wealth or the flesh, so we are unable to put our heart into working or expending for the Lord. At this time, we can speak the truth to the Lord, “O, Lord, I see that my stature is too small. I always live in the entanglement of the flesh, always consider and plan for my future, and always cannot wholeheartedly serve You. When I see those brothers and sisters who expend for You can forsake their flesh, and are considerate to Your will, I feel very ashamed. I also want to rise up to care for Your will, to expend and work for You, but my faith is too paltry, so I cannot achieve it. I only wish to entrust this difficulty into Your hands. May You lead me and grant me confidence and strength….” If we always share what is in our heart and commune with God like this, God will see our prayer is sincere rather than the following of procedure. Then the Holy Spirit will work within us, lead us to gradually break free from the entanglement of the flesh and to rise up to devote ourselves to the Lord. Simultaneously, when we pray to God, we should avoid all of the matters, people, and things that can disturb our mind, and find a quiet environment. Just like the Lord Jesus said, “But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly” (Matthew 6:6).

2, While Reading the Word of God, We Should Be Quiet and Use Our Heart to Ponder

Although we often read the Bible at ordinary times, we seldom expend effort in pondering God’s word. Most of the time we just read without devotion, like viewing flowers on horseback, and being satisfied with understanding the literal meaning of the truth. Even though sometimes we are staring at God’s word and reading it, our heart is wandering in the great world, and as a result, after we read it, we do not know what God’s word means. Sometimes we also ponder God’s word for a while, but if we have no enlightenment afterward, then we will give up pondering it. Actually, we do not at all quiet our heart before God to figure out why God say these words, what results God wants to reach with them, and how to practice and enter in order to meet God’s requirements. That’s why we have believed in the Lord and read God’s word for many years, but we still do not have much understanding of the will of God, nor have we found the way to practice the many truths which we should practice and enter. It is clear to see that ordinarily we do not ponder God’s words enough, so even though we have read much of God’s words, we are still incapable of comprehending their inner meaning, and our spiritual life still cannot grow. Then, as to this aspect of truth, how should we do to enter into it? Here is an example. The Lord Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Mat 19:24). Then we should contemplate: What did the Lord mean by saying that? Which aspects of God’s will and disposition are revealed? What result does God want to achieve on us? By contemplating, we see that those people who pursue money but not the truth cannot get into the kingdom of God. We may think back to the Age of Grace. Some landlords also wanted to follow the Lord. But they were unwilling to give up their wealth and superior living conditions because they were greedy for comforts and pleasures of the flesh, and could not bear to live a simple and poor life. Therefore, although they knew that those who believed in the Lord would have eternal life and the chance to enter into the kingdom of heaven, they still lost the opportunities to get God’s salvation. This shows that it’s nearly impossible for a landlord to enter into the kingdom of God. Through this story, God’s will is that we should not pursue money but should pursue life. If we pay attention to money, and when we get the money, we lose our life, then what benefit is this to us? As we ponder God’s words like this, we will understand God’s will better and better, and then we can also act in accordance with God’s will better no matter what we encounter.

3, When Something Happens, We Should Seek and Practice the Truth, and Live Before God

We all know that spiritual devotionals take up only a small portion of time in our daily life; most of the time we are working or dealing with various matters in our life. So if we want to practice quieting our heart before God, then we cannot be limited to just practicing reading the Bible and praying. We should also practice to come close to God, to meditate on and contemplate God’s love with our heart, and to focus on seeking the truth and God’s will, and on acting in accordance with the truth at any time in all the people, events, and things that we encounter in our daily life. God’s word says, “In your daily life, you must grasp those words you say and those things you do that will cause your relationship with God to be abnormal, then rectify yourself and enter into the correct manner. Examine your words, your actions, your each and every move, and your thoughts and ideas at all times. Grasp your true state and enter into the way of the work of the Holy Spirit. Only in this way can you have a normal relationship with God. By weighing out whether your relationship with God is normal, you will be able to rectify your intentions, understand the essence of man, and understand yourself; through this, you will be able to enter into real experiences, truly forsake yourself, and achieve deliberate submission.”

Through God’s words we can see that, only by always quieting our heart before God and seeking God’s will in all the things we encounter, can we have a clearer understanding of our true states, shortcomings, and inadequacies; can we grasp God’s will in everything we encounter to practice the truth and satisfy the Lord. Only through this can we maintain a normal relationship with the Lord, live before Him, avoid being ensnared in the temptations and schemes of Satan and doing things that rebel against and oppose the Lord.

Just like Job, during his daily life, he sought to fear God and shun evil in everything, for fear that he would sin against God and make God feel disgusted in what he did. So when his sons and daughters feasted and made merry, he not only distanced himself from them, but also sent and sanctified his sons, and sacrificed burnt offerings for them. Even when Job encountered Satan’s temptation and lost a mountain of sheep and cattle, untold masses of wealth, and his sons and daughters, although he was very distressed in his heart and did not understand God’s will, he still was able to quiet his heart before God, seek God’s will, neither sinned with his lips nor said hurtful words about God, much less resisted God. And it was precisely because Job was possessed of rationality and a heart of seeking the truth and fearing God that he could submit to such environment and said, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21), thus standing a beautifully resounding bearing of witness and made Satan retreat in humiliation. In the end, Job was doubly blessed by God. Not only that, but he got the opportunity of seeing the appearance of Jehovah God, and got the blessings which no one had ever previously received.

4, Paying Attention Every Day to Reflecting on Our Problems and Shortcomings

Every day we will face with various things. So we should come before God to reflect on all the things that we have done in a day: Over what matters we practiced the Lord’s words and our actions conformed to the truth; over what matters we followed our own will and went against the Lord’s will. We can recall them and try our best to write them down in our notebook when conditions and time allow. We can go on practicing the things that we acted according to God’s word; as for our doings that were not in line with God’s will, we should integrate God’s words to inspect ourselves about the problems and deviations in them, and seek the truth to resolve them timely. For example, we believe that we can treat the brothers and sisters with sincerity when in association with them at ordinary times. But at nighttime when we reflect on ourselves, we are aware that in the daytime, we did not speak openly and honestly to others in order to protect our own interests in something. We see that for the sake of our personal interests, we lied and committed fraud to the brothers and sisters, and revealed deceitful corrupt disposition in this thing. We know that God is disgusted with deceitful people; He loves those people who are honest, innocent and open. So we should open ourselves up to the brothers and sisters actively, confess to having told lies and deceived them, ask them to forgive us, and resolve not to do this anymore. In this way, unconsciously, we will have some entry into the truth of being an honest person. If we do not reflect on ourselves by coming before God, we will pay no heed to our everyday expressions of corruption, thinking they are all trifles, and then we cannot achieve the effect of improving our spiritual life. So only by focusing on quieting our heart before God, by always reflecting on ourselves and pondering those problems in ourselves, will our spiritual life grow ever greater, our relationship with God become ever closer, and we gradually become a person compatible with God’s intentions.

The four aspects above are the direction and path of practicing entry into quieting our heart before God. I really hope that we can all benefit from them.

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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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Reflection on a Picture: Is It Right to Look at Matters Only Externally?

Reflection on a Picture: Is It Right to Look at Matters Only Externally?

Chenxi

In the picture, one rabbit thinks he has gotten a big carrot since its leaves appear large on the outside and thus is gleeful, while the other rabbit feels pain as he supposes his carrot very small, judging from its tiny leaves. As outsiders, we may find the two rabbits in the picture amusing, but then, a question arises in our minds: Is it right to look at matters only externally?

From the Internet

The Consequences of Looking at Matters Only Externally

As recorded in the Book of Job, when Job was tried, his three friends looked at things from the outside and according to their notions and imagination, thinking that Job must have offended Jehovah God since such calamities had befallen him. Just as Eliphaz the Temanite said, “Remember, I pray you, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?” (Job 4:7). Yet the reality is that Job’s trials resulted from a battle in the spiritual realm between God and Satan, not his offense against God. God searches people’s hearts and was fully convinced that Job was “a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God, and eschews evil,” so He permitted Satan to tempt Job, and through this allowed Job to testify to his righteousness and his fear for God in front of Satan and the people of the world. With such big matters coming upon him, Job did not look at things from an external point of view. Rather, from his lifetime experiences, from the heavens and earth and all things created by God, he realized that God rules over, manages, and provides for all things, and that everything he possessed was bestowed by God, not earned through his own labor and efforts. Therefore, Job said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). When Job had borne witness, Jehovah God appeared to him and his three friends. It is written in Scripture, “And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends: for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has. Therefore take to you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that you have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job” (Job 42:7-8). From these words of Jehovah God, we can see that Job’s three friends were loathed by God because they viewed things from the outside, considering Job’s suffering calamities as God’s punishment, and persistently judged and condemned him. By contrast, Job believed in and submitted to God’s sovereignty instead of looking at things externally, and hence received the blessing of Jehovah God. “So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses” (Job 42:12). “After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations” (Job 42:16).

The Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament prophesies, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be on his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, on the throne of David, and on his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from now on even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7). The Jews long enslaved by the Romans relied on their notions and imagination to interpret these scriptures. They believed that the Messiah would definitely be born in the royal palace, looking majestic, imposing and extraordinary, and that He would come to lead them to break away from the rule of the Roman government and free them from the slavery. Nonetheless, when the Lord Jesus came to do His work, He appeared ordinary on the outside, neither lofty nor erudite; not only did He come from a poor carpenter’s family, but He was born in a manger; not only did He not lead them to break away from the rule of the Roman government, but He was so persecuted that He even had nowhere to lay His head. Judging all of this from the outside, the Jewish people concluded that the Lord Jesus could not possibly be the Messiah, and thus rejected His redemption and salvation. Furthermore, they passed judgment on God, opposed, condemned, blasphemed God, and finally nailed the incarnate God to the cross, committing a heinous, irreparable crime.

The two instances above show that if we rely on our notions and imagination to look at things only externally, we will be unable to gain an insight into the truth and thus make an error in judgment, with grave consequences. Obviously, it is wrong to look at matters only externally.

Reflection

When the Lord Jesus carried out His work, some people rejected Him due to His ordinary appearance, whereas some others followed God’s steps in His new work. These people relied on the Lord Jesus’ work and words, rather than His outward appearance, to judge whether He was the Messiah. After investigation of His utterances and the facts and results of His work, they found out that the Lord Jesus had brought the work God was to do, expressed what God has and is, and brought the truth, the way, and the life to man. They focused on performing a substantial investigation of the Lord’s work instead of evaluating it on a superficial level. Therefore, they found God’s footprints and kept up with the steps of His work, and received His salvation.

The two different attitudes among the Jews toward the Lord Jesus’ work two thousand years ago require reflection of people in the last days. Now is the end of the last days when the prophecies of the Lord’s return have basically all come true. It says in the Bible, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches” (Revelation 2:7). Shall we be like Peter, John, Nathanael, paying attention to studying God’s work and words, recognizing His voice, and following His footsteps? Or shall we be like the Jewish people, who focused on only the Lord Jesus’ outward appearance while neglecting His work and words, refused to accept His work, and was eliminated by His work in the new age? It must be said that this is a crucial choice for people in the last days!

Recommended:
The Sorrow of the Eraser
Hardship Is the Best Blessing God Bestows on Us
Why did God allow Job to suffer?

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Tasting God’s Love Under the Guidance of Awakening

Tasting God’s Love Under the Guidance of Awakening

Janice    Germany

Editors’ note:

Janice, Nigerian, moved to Germany together with her husband and two young children in 2014. In Germany, she suffered the betrayal of her husband and the pain and helplessness of being parted from her children. Just when she lost all hope for life, Awakening, a gospel movie from the Church of Almighty God, guided her to find God’s work and word of the last days. Almighty God’s words brightened her heart, allowed her to be reunited with the Creator, to gain the watering of the living water of life, to know the source of man’s corruption and suffering, and finally to find out the bright path to getting rid of corruption and pain and attaining God’s salvation. Starting from then, she has been made anew.

After the arrival of our family in Germany, my husband and I lived a hard life in the beginning. We had to take care of our children and earn a living, but we loved each other and led a life of mutual support. At least we were both devoted to our family and children then. However, I found gradually that my husband changed. He often complained about the hardships in life, grew ill-tempered, and spent fewer nights at home. As a Christian, I only prayed to the Lord, hoping that I could get help from the Lord Jesus. I also communicated with my husband and tried to straighten him out. In the end, nonetheless, he still betrayed me, and even took away my two beloved children by contemptible means. He filed a lawsuit and falsely accused me of child abuse, demanding deprivation of my custody of our children. What surprised me most was that my best friend should stand on my husband’s side and bear false witness. Eventually, my husband, my friend abandoned me, and I was also separated from my children.

All this just happened too suddenly, like hailstones falling from the sky hitting me. I did not understand why my husband was so cruel and heartless, nor did I know what I had done wrong, why I must suffer such pain, or where the meaning of my life lay since I had lost everything. I was devastated, having no heart to anything, and began a decadent life. Every day I did nothing but go on a drinking binge to paralyze myself and pass the time with movies in futility and boredom. As the days passed, my anguish did not lessen; instead, I felt increasing emptiness and agony. I had no more courage to live on, and thought about suicide. However, as soon as I thought about dying, I would feel particularly scared, and I just had no idea of where this vague feeling of fear came from.

Gospel movie “awakening“

One day, I thought of my belief all of a sudden, as well as the Lord Jesus. I googled “ChristianMovie” with a view to seeking help from gospel movies and ending my agony. When I browsed on Youtube, I saw “Voice of God ‘Awakening’,” which seemed kind of appealing to me: awakening from what? I opened the link and watched the movie for two minutes, feeling it similar to other gospel movies. Then I dropped it and continued to browse African movies. But there was always a moving inside me: Go on with Awakening. It came up several times, and I felt it was from the guidance of the Lord. So I returned to the movie Awakening and watched it seriously from the beginning. When I saw the part where the heroine refused to listen to the gospel preached by two sisters, I was very curious: What gospel were they preaching? Why did the heroine cast them out without even listening to it? I wondered what was going on, so I continued with it. Then I saw the desolate scenes in the church in the movie, and I felt they were exactly what happened in the practical church life: The believers intrigued against each other, the pastors preached and worked for the offerings, and so on. Following that, when I saw the preachers communicate that the reason for the desolation in the church was that God has done a new work, I was even more curious: God has done a new work? What is it? I kept on watching the movie with wonder.

The heroine said, “But you said that God comes again to do the work of saving man. That’s impossible. As long as we obey the Lord’s teachings to confess and repent and rely on the Lord Jesus’ redemption, we got saved.”

The preacher from the Church of Almighty God replied, “Sisters, although we’re not of sin due to the Lord Jesus’ redemptive work, it doesn’t mean that we’ve broken away from sins and always got saved. Because we haven’t broken away from sins, we still live in the fallen life of committing sins in the day and confessing them at night, and still can’t break free from the bondage and restriction of sins. This is the state of us believers in the Lord. As Paul said, ‘… for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Romans 7:18-19). Although the apostle Paul was forgiven of his sins due to the Lord Jesus’ salvation, the biggest misery in his heart was that he still often committed sins and resisted God in spite of himself because of being unable to break free from the bondage and restriction of sins. So he said helplessly, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24). Sisters, isn’t Paul’s misery the misery of the brothers and sisters believing in the Lord today? Isn’t the salvation that Paul eagerly wished to receive what we believers in the Lord eagerly wish to receive today? Sister, especially believers in the end time have a deep experience of it. Man’s heart is taken by various poisons and philosophies of Satan and man is filled with arrogance, selfishness, craftiness, greed, evil, and so on. So, we can still go with the world trend and associate with Satan, seeking after position, fame and gain, and money and enjoying the pleasure of sin. Even if one is familiar with the Bible, he can in no way break free from the bondage of sin. So, in the Age of Grace, all believers in the Lord who have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus haven’t truly broken away from Satan’s influence of darkness and their heart hasn’t been completely gained by God. Even if they have some changes in their outward behaviors and sometimes they can do some good things, their inner sinful nature still rules and controls them within, so that what they live out is still the corrupt satanic disposition and they haven’t broken away from the bondage of sin.

Almighty God says, ‘A sinner such as you, who has just been redeemed, and has not been changed, or been perfected by God, can you be after God’s heart? For you, you who are still of your old self, it is true that you were saved by Jesus, and that you are not counted as sinners because of the salvation of God, but this does not prove that you are not sinful, and are not impure. How can you be saintly if you have not been changed? Within, you are beset by impurity, selfish and mean, yet you still wish to descend with Jesus—you should be so lucky! You have missed a step in your belief in God: You have merely been redeemed, but have not been changed. For you to be after God’s heart, God must personally do the work of changing and cleansing you; if you are only redeemed, you will be incapable of attaining sanctity. In this way you will be unqualified to share in the good blessings of God, for you have missed out a step in God’s work of managing man, which is the key step of changing and perfecting. And so you, a sinner who has just been redeemed, are incapable of directly inheriting God’s inheritance’ (“Concerning Appellations and Identity” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

‘Though man has been redeemed and forgiven of his sins, it is only considered as God not remembering the transgressions of man and not treating man in accordance with man’s transgressions. However, when man lives in the flesh and he has not been set free from sin, he can only continue to sin, endlessly revealing the corrupt satanic disposition. This is the life that man leads, an endless cycle of sin and forgiveness. The majority of men sin in the day only to confess in the evening. As such, even if the sin offering is forever effective for man, it would not be able to save man from sin. Only half the work of salvation has been completed, for man still has corrupt disposition’ (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Sisters, God speaks very clearly that it is because of God’s salvation that man is forgiven of sins after being redeemed by the Lord Jesus. God says that man is no longer of sin, but it doesn’t mean that man won’t commit sins. It just means that God doesn’t remember man’s sins and doesn’t treat man as a sinner. But the Lord Jesus’ work just achieved the result of redeeming man’s sins, and it didn’t solve the problem about the root of man’s sinning. So, man’s sinful nature still roots in his heart. In this regard, even if the Lord Jesus’ sin offering is forever effective for man, it can’t save man from sin thoroughly. So, those who have received the Lord Jesus’ redemption still commit sins and resist God. They need God’s further work of salvation, and only thus can they thoroughly break away from sin and receive God’s full salvation.”

The dialogue in the movie made me clearly understand that God’s new work stems from our living in the cycle of sinning and confessing without breaking free from the bondage of sin. We’re only redeemed by the Lord Jesus, yet our sinful nature has not been rid of. So we can still commit sins in spite of ourselves, and we really need God to do a new work to thoroughly get rid of our sins. It’s quite likely that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus. Though I’d believed in the Lord for years, I lost my faith and began to degenerate in the face of trials. I was simply not a strong and good Christian. The pastors also committed sins, and even stole the offerings. They lived in sin without being able to extricate themselves from it, so they were truly in need of God’s salvation. Suddenly I felt as if I had seen the sun, and that all my agony and helplessness could be resolved there. Then I watched several other movies of the Church of Almighty God where many truths were fellowshiped about. I felt that God’s words had come into my heart, and my intuition in the spirit told me that it is the true way. I prayed to God silently in my heart, asking Him to lead me to understand more. Many movies I watched before seemed made up, whereas these movies did not. They were preaching the gospel, were under the guidance of God’s work, and were preaching Almighty God’s words to let more people hear them and recognize that the Lord Jesus has returned. Almighty God’s words were something I had never heard before, and they had deeply attracted me. I kept watching the movies. It was not until the dawn broke that I realized that I did not sleep the whole night.

After the breakfast,I found the gospel hotline of the Church of Almighty God in Germany and called. Sister Zhenzhen received my call. Later, she invited Sister Liu Xin and me to an online fellowship on Skype. We really had a good talk. They read Almighty God’s words for me, “Mankind, who left the supply of life from the Almighty, does not know why they exist, and yet fears death. There is no support, no help, but mankind is still reluctant to close their eyes, braving it all, drags out an ignoble existence in this world in bodies without the consciousness of souls. You live like such, with no hope; he exists like such, with no aim. There is only the Holy One in the legend who will come to save those who moan in suffering and long desperately for His arrival. … When you are weary and when you begin to feel the desolation of this world, do not be perplexed, do not cry. Almighty God, the Watcher, will embrace your arrival any time” (“The Sighing of the Almighty” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

“From the time you were born all the way up to now, God has carried out much work on you, but He did not tell you every time He did something. You were not to know, so you were not told, … from the time you were born up to now, God must guarantee the safety of each one of you. You may feel as though you do not fully understand, saying ‘Is this safety so important?’ So what is the literal meaning of ‘safety’? Maybe you understand it to mean peace or maybe you understand it to mean never experiencing any disaster or calamity, to live well, to live a normal life. But in your hearts you must know that it is not that simple. So what on earth is this thing that I have been talking about, that God has to do? What does it mean to God? Is it really a guarantee of your safety? Just like right now? No. So what is it that God does? This safety means you not being devoured by Satan. … Once you have been devoured by Satan, neither your soul nor your flesh belongs to God any longer. God will no longer save you. God forsakes souls like that and forsakes people like that. So I say the most important thing that God has to do is to guarantee your safety, to guarantee that you will not be devoured by Satan. This is pretty important, isn’t it?” (“God Himself, the Unique VI” in A Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh).

Sister Zhenzhen said, “The emptiness and pain in man’s living in this world are all caused by Satan. However, Almighty God has mercy on everyone. He guarantees the safety of each one of us, and finds us back so that we will avoid being devoured by Satan. Our God has never left us. When we don’t know why we exist but fear death, God has seen all this. He knows our sufferings, so He miraculously arranged for us to follow His footprints. God loves man so much! Sister, as long as you read more of Almighty God’s words, you’ll become aware of God’s kind intention of saving man. In God’s six-thousand-year management plan, from the work of Jehovah to that of Jesus, from the work of Jesus to that of Almighty God, God’s work goes higher and deeper with each stage. In the last days, for us to completely cast off corruption, achieve purity, and enter His kingdom, God becomes flesh again to do the work of judgment beginning with the house of God to judge and purify us. All that is God’s practical love and salvation toward us. Praise God! We should cherish this salvation.”

Hearing the calls of Almighty God and the heartfelt words of the sister, I was deeply touched: This is God’s love, God’s great love! Tears flowing down, I did not know how to express my gratitude for God’s love and salvation. Then Sister Liu Xin combined my sufferings to communicate with me. She said, “Without your family, husband, and children, you lost the goals and direction of your life, felt no more the meaning and value of your existence, and even thought about ending your life with suicide. That is Satan’s affliction and trickery. Satan has been corrupting man, and it just wishes people to turn away from God and rebel against God, living in misery. Man’s fate is subject to God’s sovereignty and orchestration, so your children will grow up under God’s protection.”

Almighty God’s words and the two sisters’ fellowship made my heart lighter and lighter, and the long-forgotten expression of a smile appeared on my face. At that time, I had realized how and for whom I should live. I vowed to entrust my children to God and walk out of the harm of Satan thoroughly. No matter what happened, I would obey God and never blame Him, for all the sufferings befalling me were Satan’s mocking. Satan wished me to have misgivings and doubts about God’s sovereignty and orchestration and deny God, but I would never rise to its hook. Thank Almighty God! Since I accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days, I’ve been reading Almighty God’s words every day, and have had a renewed outlook. In my daily life, I try to practice according to God’s words. Every week I have two gatherings with my brothers and sisters, and we pray, sing hymns, and read God’s words together. Besides dealing with my own life affairs, I fulfill my duty as a creature, and preach to others Almighty God’s work of the last days so that more people who are struggling in Satan’s trickery and affliction can receive the salvation of God’s work of the last days. Thank Almighty God for His salvation toward me. All the glory be to Almighty God!

Source: Find the Shepherd  

Related movie: The Everlasting Gospel in the End Time “Awakening“

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