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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Obey God’s Sovereignty, Ordinary But Wonderful

Obey God’s Sovereignty, Ordinary But Wonderful

Gao Qian

At nightfall, under the dim light, I was looking at the fallen leaves outside the window with a thread of slight grief welling up in my heart. Thinking that I lacked proficiency at my work, didn’t do things as well as others, and suffered loss of face, I felt I was dwarfed by others, and could not help but be a little depressed: Why do so many unpleasant things appear in my life? Why am not I outstanding in all respects like others? Why don’t others pay attention to me? … When I was full of complaints within, a delicate fragrance floated toward me and interrupted my thoughts. Turning around, I saw the pot of jasmine on the windowsill. If it didn’t emit fragrance, I could hardly pay attention to it. I hadn’t taken good care of that flower, so it lacked nutrition, only bearing two little white flowers. It was hard to believe that these two flowers which were small and unremarkable could emit such fragrance. I couldn’t help walking forth to observe them. I found that these two flowers weren’t big, but their fragrance was so refreshing that I felt a comfort and happiness; they were common, ordinary and unremarkable, but could bring a thread of pleasure to people. Suddenly, I realized that these little flowers live a meaningful life.

Looking at the little flowers, I couldn’t help thinking of God’s words, “While God was speaking, all these things came into being following the thoughts of God, and in an instant, an assortment of delicate little life forms were unsteadily poking their heads up through the soil, and before they had even shaken the bits of dirt from their bodies they were eagerly waving to each other in greeting, nodding and smiling to the world. They thanked the Creator for the life that He bestowed upon them, and announced to the world that they were a part of all things, and that they would each devote their lives to showing forth the authority of the Creator. … This barren world, in which there had not been any trace of life, was rapidly covered by a profusion of grass, herbs and trees and overflowing with greenery…. They were all born, and lived, because of the words of the Creator. They would receive the unceasing provision and nourishment of the Creator, and would always tenaciously survive in every corner of the land in order to show forth the authority and power of the Creator, and they would always show forth the life force bestowed upon them by the Creator …” (“God Himself, the Unique I”).

God’s words gave me a deep feeling. God bestows life on these plants, and they are all demonstrating God’s great power. In addition, they treasure their instincts God has bestowed on them, giving play to their own functions: They add colors to the world for people to enjoy, devoting their life silently and quietly. Though they’ll be withered soon after, they still try their best to give play to their own functions in the limited time, emitting their delicate fragrance and demonstrating God’s authority and power. They thank the Creator for the life that He has bestowed upon them and willingly submit to the order of the Creator. With a thankful heart, they live in happiness, relaxation, freedom and release and haven’t been unworthy of their life bestowed by God. I’m also a creature, but why am I unable to live a relaxed and calm life like these flowers?

Recalling the time when I wrote cases with my two coworkers, they talked about their thinking and opinions, but I sat there and said little. Sometimes, I put forward a piece of advice, but it wasn’t adopted. Then, I felt very uncomfortable, envious and defiant at that moment. And I secretly thought: I can’t fall behind them, otherwise they’ll more look down upon me. However, the more I wanted to express some unique insights in order to be approved, the more I had no thinking, my mind went blank and I had nothing to say. So, my heart became extremely pained. Even more, I wanted to escape that environment and didn’t want to stay there at all. I could not but ask myself: Why am I so sad, painful and always unhappy? I thought of God’s word, “Human beings, dominated by their satanic disposition, harbor a sort of desire, a type of ambition, inside of them. This is hidden within their humanity. They never want to stay on the ground; they keep wanting to go up into the air. Is being in the air a place for a person to stay? Whose place is it to stay? (Satan’s.) That is a place for Satan, not a place for humans. When creating humans, God put them on the ground so that your daily lives could be completely normal and your lifestyles disciplined, and so that you could learn general knowledge about how to be human beings, and learn how to behave, how to live, and how to worship God. God did not give you wings; He did not allow you to stay up in the air. Those with wings are birds, and the ones wandering around in the air are Satan and evil spirits and filthy demons. Those are not human beings! If people keep having such ambitions, always wanting to turn themselves extraordinary and superior, different from others, and special, then that is a problem!” (‘The Five Conditions People Have Before They Enter the Right Track of Believing in God’). The judgment in God’s words made me understand: The reason why I was unhappy and pained was that my ambitions and desires were too strong. In fact, God’s intention of creating us is not to ask us to pursue becoming supermen, great persons or unique men, but to be grounded and forthright in conducting ourselves and doing things, and to be an ordinary and normal man. Though we live a simple life, we can worship God and obey God’s orchestration and arrangement. I reflected on myself: I was unwilling to submit to God’s orchestration and arrangements, living in dependence on Satan’s poisons, such as “ranking higher than others” “rising above others.” I always wanted to be on a higher level, cultivate my own image in other people’s hearts, and let them look up to me, so when I could not be looked up to by others, I would be worried about personal gains and losses and live in agony. Am not I the same as Satan? Satan is unwilling to obey God’s sovereignty and wants to ascend to the highest heights. As a result, it was struck down and into the air by God. I always wanted to rank higher than others, so would I be disgusted by God? How can a man who is disgusted by God obtain God’s blessing or have real joy?

Just then, I remembered a paragraph of words in Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life: “If God lets us be like grass, we should be like grass and not seek to be great trees; if we’re like trees, we shouldn’t seek to become high buildings. Just be ourselves. We should stand correctly in our positions and be honest in seeking truth and fulfilling our duties. Only living in this way is the best and not tiring.” Just then, I had a clear understanding and had a way of practice: Though I’m ordinary, I can try my best to do what I should do, which is the best manner of living. I was no longer depressed, nor did I escape or stay away from this environment, and instead, I was willing to obey the order and arrangement of the Creator, living out the manner of a created being like these flowers. I couldn’t help praying to God, “Oh, God! I’m willing to straighten out my state of mind, and try my best to do what I should do according to Your words. Whatever You give me is the best. I hope that I can live freely, submit to Your orchestration and arrangement, stand correctly in my position, and manifest and glorify God like these little flowers!”

These flowers made me realize a principle of how to be human: Though we are ordinary, we aren’t humble. As long as we submit to God’s sovereignty, we can also live out a wonderful life.

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The Secret of Happy Life

The Secret of Happy Life

Xiangyi

An employed laborer, lately married, enjoyed a conjugal affection and had cute children. But he had to journey to and fro for supporting his family, feeling perplexed by the uncertainties of his life.

A white-collar worker, middle-aged, lived an affluent life, yet he still worked overtime and was busy with social activities for promotion and a pay increase, so he failed to go home on time after work. He was exhausted both mentally and physically and indescribably painful.
A wealthy man, having entered old age, was respectable in the presence of others. However, he had to face his children’s scramble for his property after returning home. He could hardly feel any happiness in his twilight years.

Different life situations bring man different life experiences, which are accompanied with different troubles and bitterness. Everyone longs for perfection, wanting both family togetherness and success in career, and hoping for not only fame and fortune but also the fulfillment in heart. With varied discontent and regret of life, one day, the three, encountered each other.
The employed laborer envied the white-collar worker’s stable job; the white-collar worker envied the wealthy man’s success in career; the wealthy man was envious of the employed laborer’s harmonious family. They, complaining of the disappointments of life, vowed to strive hard to change their fate by their own hands and gain the happy life.

More than ten years later, the employed laborer led a rich life but no longer returned home on time from work. Instead, he was engaged in the social occasions only concerned with eating, drinking, and the pursuit of pleasure. The white-collar worker became a successful boss. Nevertheless, he had to be wary of someone’s scheming for his property all the time, always feeling empty and lonely in the depths of his heart. The wealthy man had passed away, with his children just placing flower baskets before his grave on the anniversary of his death.
Actually, aren’t many of us one of the employed laborer, the white-collar worker or the wealthy man? In the time of poverty, we yearn to live in comfort. After being comfortably off, we desire to be exceedingly wealthy. But after that, we fall into the deeper emptiness of the heart.

The swallow departs in autumn and still returns in spring. The grass withers in winter but grows again with the spring breeze. However, our life once lost is never regained. We attempt to change our fate within several years, over ten years or decades. In the limited time, we strive for money, position, emotion, or anything else, that, we think, will make us happy once we get it. But in the end, we have to admit: Money can buy the luxury material comforts but cannot buy the tranquility of the heart; position may temporarily satisfy our vanity but cannot conceal our inner loneliness; emotion may maintain our fleshly relationships for the moment but only can accompany us through our limited life.

One day, I accidentally saw these words on a spiritual book, “From the moment you come crying into this world, you begin to perform your duty. You assume your role in the plan of God and in the ordination of God. You begin the journey of life. Whatever your background and whatever the journey ahead of you, none can escape the orchestration and arrangement that Heaven has in store, and none are in control of their destiny….” “Regardless of whether you are able to recognize the deed of God, and irrespective of whether you believe in the existence of God, there is no doubt that your fate lies within the ordination of God, and there is no doubt that God will always hold sovereignty over all things.”

“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.”

These thought-provoking words made me suddenly understand the secret of happy life: One’s birth, growing up, family and the occupation he pursues all rest in the Creator’s hand. No one can control his own fate and only God is the Master of our fate and our sole reliance. God has made suitable arrangements for everyone’s life. If we don’t worship God in our limited time but try to cast off God’s sovereignty and satisfy our own ambition and desire, we will just waste time and life, and what we will get are emptiness and bitterness. Then how can we have happiness?

Many Christians know the story of Job in the Bible. Job sought to know and worship God among all things of God’s creation during his lifetime, so God gave him good-looking children, great wealth, lots of servants and a mountain of sheep and cattle. However, comfortably as Job lived, he didn’t worry about the gains and losses of his wealth but almost devoted all his effort to worshiping God in his daily life. The Bible says, “And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually” (Job 1:5). Job worried that his sons had sinned and opposed God, so he urged them to offer sacrifices to God. From this we can see Job indeed practiced the right way of life of fearing God and shunning evil. Even though he was tempted by Satan afterward: He lost all his children and wealth; even his whole body was covered with sore boils; he suffered ridicule by his wife and friends, he still witnessed Jehovah God’s name, “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). From his words we know that the reason why Job continued to praise God as before when losing wealth, fame, gain, children, and even falling into the plight of nearly losing his life is because he firmly believed that “Human fate is ordained by Heaven,” and that in one’s life, his lifespan, being poor or wealthy are all ruled and arranged by God. Thus Job could face God’s sovereignty and arrangements calmly and didn’t think of blessings or disaster. As a result, after overcoming the temptations of Satan, he got twice as much blessing as he had before from God: He had better children, double property and prolonged life, and most importantly, he gained the peace and tranquility of the heart due to walking in the way of fearing God and shunning evil. Job spent the latter half of his life amid God’s care and blessings and was no longer attacked and disturbed by Satan, gaining freedom completely. This was God’s greatest blessing to him.

If you are still worrying and complaining about your less favorable life, have you ever thought: Once we who do not revere God in our heart or accept God’s word as our life have enough wealth to squander at will, can we control ourselves not to indulge in the trap of feasting and revelry? Money, beauty, fame, gain and various excitements of flesh will make us lost in the whirlpool of sin and unable to extricate ourselves. Similarly, if you exhaust all your efforts to jockey for position because you are unwilling to be ordinary, have you ever thought: Once we who do not have any place for God in our heart hold a high position and win attention and exaltation, will we not abuse power for personal gain or consider ourselves to be ones with a high and mighty position? Gradually, we will lose all our integrity and true friends, and around us are just all sorts of “masks,” only putting on a performance when the occasion arises. Is such life what we want?

In fact, everyone will face many of Satan’s temptations in the course of his life: money, fame, gain, knowledge, position and power. All can tempt one to depart from the way of truth of fearing God and shunning evil. The reason that many believers in God are often trapped in Satan’s temptations and esteem evil is because they lack the fear of God, that is, they do not regard it as the most important thing to believe in God, follow God’s words and practice the truth. Many believers only focus on outward labor or having good behaviors or observing religious rituals. However, very few people spend more time in quieting themselves before God, opening their hearts up to Him, earnestly pondering and practicing God’s words. In truth, if we, like Job, are really not entangled by money, fame, fortune and other external things from now on, and whatever comes along, we don’t do it blindly by our own preferences, desire and imaginations but pray to God to seek His will, accept His inspection and spend every day according to His guidance and the requirements of His words, then we will come to realize that living in accordance with God’s words and taking the truth as the foundation of our existence and our life, we will live more and more peacefully and confidently in righteousness, gain God’s blessings and satisfy Him. This is the secret of happy life.

Recommended:
A Symphony of My Fate
I Have Found the True Path of Life
Obeying God and Shaking Off Pain and Emptiness

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A New Commentary on Hidden Character Stone Displaying “Chinese Communist Party Perishes”

A New Commentary on Hidden Character Stone Displaying “Chinese Communist Party Perishes”

Qi Miao

In June 2002, a mysterious stone was discovered in the Zhangbu river valley in Pingtang County of Guizhou Province in China. A crack that formed 500 years ago in the megalith revealed six neatly arrayed Chinese characters that read: The Chinese Communist Party perishes. Geologists and paleontologists decided that there was no trace of the characters being made by human beings, and that the inscription, which consists of simplified and traditional Chinese characters, dated back 270 million years.

From the Internet

It is not news today. However, this incredible stone has remained a mystery in people’s hearts. Anyone who has read the report may feel shocked at the supernatural phenomenon. They may also wonder: Will the Chinese Communist Party really perish?

In fact, people with good sense have all seen that since the Chinese Communist Party took power, it has been on a path of destruction. Why? I’d like to share my own views.

First, the Chinese Communist Party endeavors to deny God, advocates atheism and materialism, and makes up an assortment of lies to deceive the Chinese people. One of these lies is Darwin’s theory of evolution. It was already denied by Darwin himself in his old age, but the CCP continues to include it in textbooks as authoritative. Imbued with this thought generation after generation, the Chinese are convinced that man evolved from apes, rather than that man was created by God. Moreover, the CCP promotes scientism, claiming the world was created by nature, that rain is the result of water vapor condensing into droplets that fall from clouds, that lightning is a giant spark of electricity from the collision of the positive and negative charges in the cloud, and so on. It is written in the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The world was created by God, so were we humans. The CCP denies that God created all things and mankind and makes up lies to dupe its people, in attempt to escape God’s sovereignty and build a so-called communist paradise, let all the people deny God and follow it and worship it as God.

Second, the Chinese Communist Party does not worship God, but instead acts perversely and contrary to God. Both mainland and overseas Chinese know well that the CCP is an atheist party which has traditionally persecuted religious faith. Since it took office, it has forced Christians to join the Three-Self Church under its control, apart from burning the Bibles. The house church Christians who refuse to join the state-sanctioned church will be arrested and sentenced to prison on groundless charges, suffering rampant crackdown and persecution. In recent years, even the Three-Self Church has been subjected to persecution. Massive churches were demolished and crosses removed. The CCP has deprived the people’s liberal and democratic rights and human rights, including freedom to religion, leaving them suffering greatly, especially the Christians. The latest annual report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom found a continued deterioration during 2016 in the Chinese government’s persecution on underground Christian churches and religious groups such as Muslims in the Xinjiang region, and China once again was designated as one of the “countries of particular concern” that severely infringe on religious freedom. Just as the Bible says, “the whole world lies in wickedness” (1 John 5:19). The CCP is the most evil of the reactionary forces in the world today. For the past decades, it has been acting in opposition to God and bitterly competing with God, and has long triggered God’s wrath.

Third, the Chinese Communist Party relies on lies and violent slaughter to safeguard its regime and achieve its goal of forever ruling the Chinese people. As is known to all, the CCP has taken advantage of campaigns since assuming power, such as the June 4 Incident, Xinjiang and Tibet riots, to consolidate power and eliminate the “enemy forces” that posed a threat to its dictatorship. These stacks of homicide cases were all schemed up by the CCP, who shifted the blame onto others to serve its sinister purpose of forever ruling the Chinese people. The CCP has brought great disaster to the whole Chinese people and left scenes of bloodshed and misery all over Mainland China. Its reaction and cruelty have incurred the indignation of both God and man. “Give a thief enough rope and he’ll hang himself,” as people often say, the CCP cannot escape perdition anyway.

Thanks be to the Lord! At this point, I’ve felt all the more that God is the God that keeps watch over all and searches people’s hearts. The deeds and thoughts of everyone in this world, from the president of a country to an ordinary person, cannot escape being observed by God’s eyes. Wicked people shall be wiped out by God while those who truly worship God shall receive God’s care; negative and evil things will finally be destroyed by God while good and beautiful things will remain, for God is holy and righteous. So, every one of us should caution ourselves to honor God as great in all things, do what God likes, and fear God and shun evil like Job. Only in this way can we gain the Lord’s joy and approval.

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The Lunch Before Departure
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The Path to Entering Into the Kingdom of Heaven

 The Path to Entering Into the Kingdom of Heaven

Han Xu

The Lord Jesus once said, “Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21-23). Why did the Lord say that “Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven”? Why will He say that those who in His name have prophesied, cast out devils, and done wonderful works are ones who work iniquity, and tell them to depart from Him? Aren’t prophesying, casting out devils, and doing wonderful works in the Lord’s name doing the will of the Father in heaven? How to explain this?

As believers in God, we all hope to receive God’s promise, to enter into the kingdom of heaven and live with God in the future to enjoy the blessings there. But what should we do to receive the promise God bestowed upon man? The Lord Jesus clearly told us only those who do the will of the Father in heaven can enter into the kingdom of heaven. So what kind of people are the ones who do the will of the Father in heaven? Precisely speaking, they are the ones who can obey the work of the Holy Spirit, obey God’s words, do things in accordance with God’s requirements, seek God’s will and act according to God’s guidance in everything, have God’s words as their standard in whatever they do, and obey and satisfy God. So, whether one can enter into the kingdom of heaven depends on whether he can obey God’s words and act according to His requirements. In the Age of Law, Jehovah God set forth laws and led the people to live on earth, so that they knew how to worship God to receive His blessings, and they also understood that as long as they listened to His words, obeyed His leading, and kept the laws and commandments, they would be ones who did the will of the Father in heaven and could receive the care, protection, and blessings from Jehovah God; if they did not comply with the laws and commandments, they would not be ones who did the will of the Father in heaven, and they would lose God’s care and protection, and would be condemned by the law, be stoned to death or be burnt to death by the fire from heaven. When the Age of Grace arrived, the Lord Jesus did the work of redeeming mankind, and He made new requirements of people, telling them to confess their sins and repent, practice forbearance and patience, love their enemies, etc., giving them the ways of practice in the new age. In that age, those who could accept the work of the Lord Jesus, obey His words, and practice according to His requirements were ones who did the will of the Father in heaven. They could be forgiven of their sins and enjoy God’s rich grace and blessing. On the contrary, those who still held onto the law and refused to accept and obey the Lord Jesus’ work and words were not ones who did the will of the Father in heaven. They were eliminated by the work of the Holy Spirit and fell into darkness. For example, generation after generation of the Pharisees served God in the temple or traveled land and sea to preach the law, and they had abandoned many things, but when the Lord Jesus became flesh and did the new work, they held onto the law and refused to accept His new work, and even resisted it and persecuted the Lord Jesus. In the end, they nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross and were cursed by God. This is thought-provoking. Weren’t they familiar with the Scriptures? Weren’t they the ones who served God in the temple? How could they do such a wicked thing that resisted God? Although they were well versed in the law and had served God in the temple for years, they were not ones who followed the laws and commandments and did the will of the Father in heaven. They sewed the Scripture to the hem of their garments and prayed standing on the corners of the streets, trying to win the adoration of the Jews and keep their positions and jobs with their godly appearance. Therefore, during the Lord Jesus’ work on earth, when they saw His words and work had authority and power and many people followed Him, for fear of losing their positions and jobs, they hated His coming and the truths expressed by Him, and slandered, framed, and condemned Him contrary to the law and commandments. They defamed the Lord Jesus by claiming that He cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils (see Matthew 9:32-34), falsely accused Him of speaking blasphemies (see Luke 5:20-21), condemned Him for healing on the Sabbath days in violation of the law, and plotted how to kill Him (see Matthew 12:9-14). Now it is not hard for us to understand why the Lord Jesus rebuked and cursed them, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” (Matthew 23:13). These Pharisees were all cursed by God, and they could never enter into the kingdom of heaven. So, in God’s eyes, whether one can enter into the kingdom of heaven does not depend on the amount of work he has done outwardly but on whether he can obey God’s new words and work and do the will of the Father in heaven.

God said, “Those who cannot closely follow the footsteps of God are incapable of attaining such a life. They will have lowered themselves into darkness, where they will weep and gnash their teeth; they are people who believe in God but do not follow Him, who believe in God but do not obey all of His work. Since man believes in God, he must closely follow the footsteps of God, step-by-step; he should ‘follow the Lamb wherever He goes.’ Only these are the people who seek the true way, only they are the ones who know the work of the Holy Spirit. People who slavishly follow letters and doctrines are those who have been eliminated by the work of the Holy Spirit. In each period of time, God will begin new work, and in each period, there will be a new beginning among man. If man only abides by the truths that ‘Jehovah is God’ and ‘Jesus is Christ,’ which are truths that only apply to a single age, then man will never keep up with the work of the Holy Spirit, and will forever be incapable of gaining the work of the Holy Spirit. Regardless of how God works, man follows without the slightest doubt, and he follows closely. In this way, how could man be eliminated by the Holy Spirit? Regardless of what God does, as long as man is certain that it is the work of the Holy Spirit, and cooperates in the work of the Holy Spirit without any misgivings, and tries to meet the requirements of God, then how could he be punished? … Man believes that the Israelites were wrong to ‘only believe in Jehovah and not believe in Jesus,’ yet the majority of people act out a role in which they ‘only believe in Jehovah and reject Jesus’ and ‘long for the return of the Messiah, but oppose the Messiah who is called Jesus.’ No wonder, then, that people still live under the domain of Satan after accepting one stage of the work of the Holy Spirit, and still do not receive God’s blessings. Is this not the result of man’s rebelliousness? … Only those who follow the footsteps of the Lamb to the very end can gain the final blessing, whereas those clever people, who are unable to follow to the very end yet believe they have gained all, are incapable of witnessing the appearance of God. They all believe they are the smartest person on earth, and they cut short the continued development of God’s work for no reason at all, and seem to believe with absolute certainty that God will take them up to heaven, they who ‘have the utmost loyalty to God, follow God, and abide by the words of God.’ Even though they have the ‘utmost loyalty’ toward the words spoken by God, their words and actions still feel so disgusting because they oppose the work of the Holy Spirit, and commit trickery and evil. Those who do not follow to the very end, who do not keep up with the work of the Holy Spirit, and who only cleave to the old work have not only failed to achieve loyalty to God, but on the contrary, have become those who oppose God, have become those who are rejected by the new age, and who will be punished. Are there any more pitiable than them?” (“God’s Work and Man’s Practice”).

From God’s words we see that if one wants to receive God’s promise, he must closely follow the footsteps of God. God’s work is always new and never old, each stage of which is higher and deeper than the last, and done on the foundation of it. If one can follow the Lamb closely wherever He goes, accept and obey God’s new work simply and honestly, and act according to God’s new requirements without cleaving to the old work once done by God, then he is someone who does the will of the Father in heaven, and he can receive the work of the Holy Spirit and the blessings and perfection of God. So, are the pastors and leaders in the religious world today ones who do the will of the Father in heaven? In the last days, God has become flesh again and carried out the work of judging and purifying man on earth, and He has ended the old age and opened up a new age. But the pastors and leaders in the religious world don’t at all seek or investigate the work of God in the new age. In order to attain their ambitious aim of holding on to power, controlling the believers, and establishing their own kingdom in the religious world, they, flying in the face of the words of the Lord Jesus, wildly judge, attack, and blaspheme Almighty God, and try desperately to stop the believers from seeking and investigating the true way. The Lord Jesus once taught us to be the wise virgins, who go out to meet the Bridegroom when hearing someone crying, “Behold, the bridegroom comes.” But when the pastors and leaders in the religious world hear the news of the return of the Lord Jesus, in order to keep their own positions and jobs, they not only do not seek or investigate the true way themselves, but also try by every possible means to seal off the churches and stop and disturb the believers from seeking and investigating it. The Lord Jesus taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves, but they incite the believers to beat and curse the brothers and sisters who bear witness to Almighty God’s work of the last days, and they even report them to the police. They also deceive and bind the believers with the literal meaning of some Bible verses, saying that the Lord will appear as a spiritual body on a white cloud when He comes, and it is impossible that He will become flesh to do the work of judgment and chastisement, that God’s word is only in the Bible, and nowhere else, and departure from the Bible is heresy, and so on. They have plunged the believers deeply into the mire of the religious world using such fallacies contrary to the truth, so that they cannot receive the supply and watering of God’s words in the new age, falling into darkness and losing the work of the Holy Spirit and the chance of salvation. Worse still, many believers are deceived by the rumors spread by them and even follow them to condemn and resist the work of Almighty God, becoming their lackeys and accomplices…. Through hindering and disturbing the work of God, they have deprived so many believers of the opportunities to be saved! These facts show that they are not at all ones who do the will of the Father in heaven. So how can they enter into the kingdom of God? Aren’t they the kind of people spoken of by the Lord Jesus in the words “I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity”?

Therefore, if we want to enter into the kingdom of heaven, we must do the will of the Father in heaven. Today Almighty God, the returned Lord Jesus, has carried out the work of judgment of the last days by expressing the truths. Only if we closely follow the footsteps of the Lamb and accept Almighty God’s work of the last days, obey the guidance of the Holy Spirit, pursue and practice according to the present requirements of God, accept His chastisement and judgment to be free from sin and be cleansed and saved, will we be doing the will of God. Only by doing so can we enter into the kingdom of God. If we cleave to God’s past work and refuse to accept the work of Almighty God, we will not be ones who do the will of the Father in heaven. Even if we believe in God to the very end, we will be destroyed, for all those who fail to keep up with the new work of God are opponents of God and are evildoers. Just as the Lord Jesus said, “He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathers not with me scatters” (Luke 11:23). Almighty God said, “The return of Jesus is a great salvation for those who are capable of accepting the truth, but for those who are unable to accept the truth it is a sign of condemnation. You should choose your own path, and should not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and reject the truth. You should not be an ignorant and arrogant person, but someone who obeys the guidance of the Holy Spirit and longs for and seeks the truth; only in this way will you benefit” (“When You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus Will Be When God Has Made Anew Heaven and Earth” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

Almighty God earnestly exhorts us to obey the guidance of the Holy Spirit and long for and seek the truth. In the face of God’s work, we should not condemn it blindly, should not reject the work of the Holy Spirit for fear of being deceived, and should not blaspheme the Holy Spirit, because the Lord Jesus said, “Why I say to you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven to men. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (Matthew 12:31-32). In treating the work of Almighty God in the last days, only if we seek sincerely with a heart of reverence and obedience for God, can we receive the leading and guidance of God and be brought before His throne to receive His judgment and purification. Only through being judged by God’s words can we see our ugly self corrupted by Satan, and pursue the truth to have our old corrupt disposition transformed. In the end, when we can live by the words of God and have become ones who do the will of God, we will have been saved and will enter into God’s kingdom and inherit His promise.

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