A Battle

My name is Zhang Hui, and in 1993 my entire family came to believe in the Lord Jesus. I was an enthusiastic seeker, so I quickly became a preacher. I would often travel around to different churches to work and preach. After a few years, I quit my job and began to serve the Lord full time. However, for some unknown reason, my brothers’ and sisters’ faith and love gradually cooled, and jealousy and strife grew between co-workers. I also felt that my spirit was withering, and I had nothing left to preach on. In 2005, my wife got cancer, and she died soon after that. This was a huge blow for me and I became even weaker. One day, I went to stay at my cousin’s house and met two sisters there, who preached Almighty God’s gospel of the kingdom. Over several days of fellowship and debate, I came to truly believe that the Lord Jesus had returned, that He is Almighty God in the flesh. Through reading Almighty God’s words, my thirsty heart was watered and supplied, and I savored the sweetness of the Holy Spirit’s work, understanding many truths and mysteries I had never understood before. However, just as I was immersed in the joy of reunion with the Lord, the temptations and attacks of Satan were creeping ever-closer to me …

One afternoon, I was practicing spiritual devotions when there was a sudden knock on the door. When I opened it, I found Pastor Li Yang and Co-worker Wang Jun from my old church standing outside. My heart thumped, and I wondered: “What are they doing here? Could it be that they have learned of my faith in Almighty God? Before, when the brothers and sisters who were good seekers began to believe in Almighty God, Pastor Li and Co-worker Wang frightened them with rumors and incited their families to coerce them into shunning The Church of Almighty God. They did everything in their power to block them from following Almighty God. Today, I don’t know what kind of tactics they’re going to use to disturb me.” I greeted them and sat them down. Soon after, my daughter Xiaoyan and my son Dayong came back too. I was puzzled: My kids had said they were really busy with work, so why would both of them come today? Could it be that Pastor Li had them come? It seemed that Li Yang and Wu Jun had come prepared! I rushed to pray to God: “Almighty God! Today, they have definitely come to hinder and disrupt me. God, my stature is too small. I beg You to guide me and help me to deal with them. I am willing to stand witness for You!” After praying, my heart calmed down. At this moment, Li Yang smiled falsely and said: “Brother Zhang, I’ve heard that you believe in Eastern Lightning now. Is that true? No matter how much truth there is in Eastern Lightning, we cannot accept it. Brother Zhang, we’ve all believed in the Lord for many years, and have done the work of preaching. We are all clear on the fact that the Lord Jesus was crucified and became a sin offering, which has redeemed us from our sin. We have also enjoyed the rich grace, and the peace and joy bestowed on us by the Lord, so we must uphold the name and the way of the Lord at all times. We cannot believe in another God. Isn’t you departing from the Lord Jesus and believing in Almighty God a betrayal of the Lord?” I calmly said: “Brother Li, we have to be objective and practical. We must have a basis for this, and we can’t just arbitrarily condemn it. Have you looked into the way of Eastern Lightning? Have you read Almighty God’s words? You’ve never investigated it, so how can you come to the conclusion that me accepting Eastern Lightning is a betrayal of the Lord? Do you know where the truth comes from? Do you know who expresses the truth? The Lord Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (Jhn 14:6). God is the truth. How can you say that no matter how much truth there is in Eastern Lightning, you won’t accept it? Isn’t that intentionally resisting the truth, and resisting God? If we were to do that, would we even count as believers in the Lord? To be honest, because the pastors and elders of the religious world openly resist and condemn Almighty God’s work of the last days, when I started believing in Almighty God I too was afraid that I might be wrong, and that I might have gone astray. But, later I read a lot of Almighty God’s words, and I’ve discovered that they are all the truth, that they reveal many mysteries, such as the mysteries of God’s 6,000-year management plan and the inside truth of the three stages of work, the mysteries of God becoming flesh, and the true inside story of the Bible, and more. The confusion and difficulties through my many years of believing in the Lord have all been resolved through Almighty God’s words. The more I read God’s words, the more I feel that these are the utterances of the Holy Spirit, that they are God’s voice. I firmly believe that Almighty God is the Lord Jesus returned, and that the Lord is appearing to us! Brother Li, Brother Wang, Almighty God and the Lord Jesus are the same God. Believing in Almighty God is welcoming the Lord’s coming! Let’s think about it. When the Lord Jesus came to work, many people left the temple to follow Him. At the time, there were certainly many people who passed judgment on them saying that they had betrayed Jehovah God, and that it was apostasy. Now we all know that although the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption was different from the work of issuing the law that Jehovah God did, and God’s name changed as well, the Lord Jesus and Jehovah God are one and the same God. Believing in the Lord Jesus is not betraying Jehovah God, but it is following the footsteps of the Lamb and gaining God’s salvation. In fact, those who believed in Jehovah God but did not follow the Lord Jesus were the ones who were truly forsaking God and betraying Him. The same goes for today. Even though Almighty God’s work of judgment in the last days is not the same as the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, and God’s name has changed, Almighty God and the Lord Jesus are one and the same God. This is an undeniable fact. In the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus did the work of redeeming mankind, but He only forgave man’s sins, and did not absolve man of their satanic dispositions and sinful nature. Almighty God’s work of judgment in the last days is to resolve man’s satanic disposition and sinful nature, to fully save them, to have them cast off the influence of Satan and be gained by God. Clearly, these two stages of work are complementary. They deepen with every stage, and each stage transitions into the next. This truly is done by one God. My belief in Almighty God is not a betrayal of the Lord Jesus. It is following the footsteps of the Lamb. If we only believe in the Lord Jesus and refuse to follow Almighty God, not only will we be the same as the Pharisees who would only believe in Jehovah God and rejected the Lord Jesus, losing God’s salvation, but we will also suffer God’s punishment. Only this is true resistance and betrayal of the Lord! Wouldn’t you sayso?”

When Li Yang heard me say this, he looked very uncomfortable, and Wang Jun tried to ease the situation by saying: “Elder Zhang, Pastor Li is giving you this advice out of a sense of responsibility for your life, fearing you may take the wrong path. You have believed in the Lord for many years and you have served the Lord together. Over the years, getting through all these ups and downs has not been easy. You are an elder in our church and you have given a lot for the work of the church. All of our brothers and sisters respect you and trust you, but you leaving the church and believing in Almighty God has been so disappointing for them! Elder Zhang, come back quickly!”

Li Yang then took the lead, trying to cajole me, saying: “Brother Wang is right. You’ve worked hard all these years. How can you so cavalierly throw away the prestige and status you’ve built up in the church? It’s such a shame! Turn back now. Everyone is waiting for you to come back! Our church has set up a retirement home, we’ve made connections with churches abroad and they’re giving us financial support. If you come back, we’ll provide a car for you right away. If you’d like to manage the retirement home, or manage the church, or continue to take care of the church’s finances, that’s all up to you. Whatever you want to do is fine!” The more I listened to them, the more I felt something was off. What they were saying didn’t sound at all like things believers in the Lord would say. The devil’s temptation of the Lord Jesus recorded in the Bible came to mind: “Again, the devil takes him up into an exceeding high mountain, and shows him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And said to him, All these things will I give you, if you will fall down and worship me” (Mat 4:8–9). Weren’t all those things they were saying exactly the same feeling, the same tone as what Satan said? Wasn’t this Satan’s temptation? Their goal in enticing me with fame, status, and wealth was to have me turn my back on the true way and betray Almighty God. This was Satan’s trickery! I’d believed in God for over ten years and it had been so hard to wait for the Lord to return. I could not fall for Satan’s trickery now or else I’d regret it all my life. I realized then that God was leading me, guiding me, so that I could recognize their cunning scheme. Thinking of this, I seriously said, “Haven’t I believed in the Lord these years to wait for His return? Now that He has returned, my only choice can be to go with God. Don’t try to persuade me anymore. I will not return to religion again.”

At this moment, my daughter said to me in tears, “Dad. Please listen to us! Mom passed away recently, we’re already suffering enough. If you continue to believe in Eastern Lightning, how will we face brothers and sisters from our church in the future? Our brothers and sisters will abandon us!” Seeing my children brimming with tears, I felt much pain and suffering in my heart. I thought of how sad they had been because they had just lost their mother, and how they would be laughed at and abandoned because of my faith in Almighty God. I really didn’t have the heart to allow them to undergo the suffering. I experienced a fierce battle in my heart: If I promised to return to religion, my family would be able to live harmoniously; if I didn’t follow God’s last incarnation who expresses the truth to save mankind, that would be a betrayal of God, and the end result would be losing my chance at salvation. I was in a dilemma about how to choose. In the midst of this pain all I could do was silently cry out to God: “Oh God, I’m caught between a rock and a hard place and my heart is weak. I beg You to give me faith and strength so that I can be free of their disturbances and follow You with resolve and confidence.” After praying, I thought of some of God’s words I had read a few days earlier: “You must be awake and waiting at every moment, and you must pray more before Me. You must recognize the various plots and cunning schemes of Satan, know the spirit, know people and be able to discern all kinds of people, matters and things…. Satan’s various hideous features are set before you; do you stop and backslide, or do you stand up and walk onward, relying on Me? Thoroughly expose Satan’s corrupt and ugly features, spare no feelings and show no mercy! Fight Satan to the death!” (“The Seventeenth Utterance” of Utterances of Christ in the Beginning in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Almighty God’s words gave me strength and served as a reminder that I must learn to have discernment. What I encountered today was full of Satan’s deceit and trickery. They enticed me and barraged me with emotions, with status, and with money, causing a disturbance in my heart with the goal of having me betray God. I absolutely could not fall into Satan’s trap or fall prey to its tricks! So, I said to my children, “Xiaoyan, Dayong, I’ve looked into it and I have clarity. Almighty God is the true God, and His words and work are the truth and the true way. For so many years we have longed for the Lord’s return, and today we find the footsteps of God and the true way. This is more precious than anything. We can’t give up the true way just because we’re afraid of being abandoned by others. If they abandon us, if they no longer want us, there’s nothing frightening about that. People can always go on living after others turn their backs on them, but if we believe in God, and do not seek or investigate the true way, if we lose our chance to be raptured by the Lord and are cast out, eliminated by God’s work in the last days, we will be ruined. We will definitely fall into disaster and be punished! What meaning would our lives have then? Xiaoyan, Dayong, you don’t understand. If you could investigate the work of Almighty God in earnest, you would see that Almighty God is the Lord Jesus returned.” Li Yang and Wang Jun saw me with such a resolute attitude, and they could do nothing but leave.

A few days later, Li Yang and Wang Jun came to my house again. This time they did not urge me to return to the church, but instead they used marriage to tempt me. Li Yang said, “Brother Zhang! Your wife passed away, your daughter has gotten married, and your son is not at home. You are all alone. You really should have someone here to cook for you. Sister Wang from our church is single now too, and she’s fairly well-off. Our church can help the two of you make a match, and then you can serve the Lord together. What do you think? You should give it some more thought. Our brothers and sisters in the church are praying for you, hoping that you’ll come back soon. You mustn’t follow that road into darkness!” Sister Wang called me that evening, and during the call she continually urged me to return to the church. She also said that if I was short of money for my son’s marriage, 100,000 or 200,000 yuan, I need only say the word…. Hearing her say this, my heart felt jolted: Wow! She really talks like we’re one family! Thinking of how Sister Wang had always been good to my family and had often looked after my daughter, I felt a constant sense of gratitude to her. Right then, I felt conflicted. I knew that Sister Wang had come to advise me out of the kindness of her heart and I really didn’t want to say anything that would hurt her, so with a heavy heart I said, “Sister Wang, I know you’ve always looked out for my family, and I thank you for it.” After we’d ended our call, I felt a battle being waged in my heart. I had always respected Sister Wang, but today I’d hurt her feelings and I felt terrible about it! However, it was God’s protection that saved me from being enticed by her words and betraying Almighty God.

One day, I was working in the fields when Pastor Li found me and said: “Brother Zhang, even if you don’t think of yourself, you have to think of your children. Dayong just got engaged, and his fiancée entire family believes in the Lord. If they find out that you believe in Almighty God, would they still let her marry into your family? Wouldn’t that be disastrous for Dayong’s marriage plans? You should give it some more thought.” When I heard what Pastor Li had to say, I thought to myself: “In order to get me back into the church, they’re even using my son’s marriage to threaten me. What does me accepting God’s work in the last days have to do with my child’s marriage? What’s more, my son and his fiancée are so in love, why would they not marry just because I believe in Almighty God?” So, I very calmly told him: “Whether or not my son gets married is all in God’s hands, and it has nothing to do with my belief in Almighty God. Since I have determined that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus, I will follow Him until the end. My children still aren’t clear on this and they have some misunderstandings of me, but one day they will understand me.”

One day, I went to my son’s electric welding shop and saw that he’d been lying on his bed all day and not working, so I was puzzled and asked him what was up. He looked depressed and said in a low voice, “Dad, my fiancée called and said that if you have set your heart on believing in Eastern Lightning, then she won’t marry me.” Hearing this really shocked and angered me, and I thought: “Li Yang and the others hate that I believe in Almighty God and it’s enough that they attack me alone. How could they use something as important as my son’s marriage to threaten me?” Seeing my son so crestfallen, I felt terrible. Tears pooled up in my eyes. My son continued, “She also says that if you do not return to the church, then if I still wanted to get married, I would have to make three promises to her. First is to terminate our father-son relationship. Second is to not take care of you in your old age. Third is to cut off all family ties with you. Dad, please just return to the church for the sake of our family.” My son’s words pierced my heart like a knife. I thought to myself: “Just because I believe in the true way, they force my son to cut off ties with me. Why is it so hard to believe in the true way?” I forced back my tears and said to my son, “Son, I must believe in Almighty God and I agree to your fiancée’s demands. I won’t get you mixed up in this anymore from now on. Live a happy life together.” I then turned and walked out of the shop, but as I walked along the street, I couldn’t stop my tears anymore. Once I got home, I knelt down on the floor and cried out loudly: “O Almighty God! I’m in such pain! O God, I know this is the true way and that You have come, and I cannot not follow You. But ever since I accepted Your work of the last days, people have harassed me, and now even my son wants to terminate our father-son relationship. O God! My stature is too small, and I simply cannot get through this by myself. I ask You to guide me and to give me faith, so that I may stand firm….” After I’d prayed, I opened my book of hymns and read this hymn of God’s words: “Although the environment You have given me is grave, I know my stature is small. I beg You to provide to me according to my stature, to make me understand Your will, not rebel against You or complain, and able to completely obey and satisfy You no matter how heavy or light my suffering” (“I’m Willing to Submit to God’s Work” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). As I read God’s words, I felt God comforting me and encouraging me, giving me faith and allowing me to understand His will: God expects me to rely on Him, to keep faith with Him and not to betray Him no matter what adverse environment or trial may befall me. I thought about the co-workers from my old church who had come again and again to harass and pressure me more and more, and yet every time when I was in a lot of pain, so long as I prayed to God and relied on God sincerely, God’s words always enlightened and guided me, they gave me strength and they showed me the path to practice. I was not alone after all, for God was always beside me. At that moment, strength returned to my heart, and I became willing to endure the pain and part with the things I most treasured to satisfy God—I would absolutely not betray God and turn back.

The next day, Sister Gao and Sister Zhao from The Church of Almighty God came to my home, and I told them about what had happened over the past few days. “Brother, how do you feel about these things which have befallen?” asked Sister Gao. I thought for a moment, and said, “At first, I thought Pastor Li and the others were acting in my best interests, because they hadn’t investigated Almighty God’s work of the last days and they didn’t understand. But I never would have thought they would have used such an important thing as my son’s marriage to threaten me. This is really hard for me to get my head around.” Sister Zhao then said, “Brother, how about we read a passage of God’s words? Almighty God said, ‘In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements, or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men, and the interference of men. Behind every step that God does in you is Satan’s wager with God—behind it all is a battle. … Everything you do requires you to pay a certain price in your efforts. Without actual hardship, you can’t satisfy God, it does not even come close to satisfying God, and you are just saying empty slogans!’ (‘Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words reveal the true situation about the battle in the spiritual world. When we encounter such things, it appears on the outside as though religious leaders are harassing us, but in reality, a battle is being waged in the spiritual world, and Satan is vying with God over man. Actually, many leaders of religious denominations acknowledge in their hearts that the words expressed by Almighty God are the truth, but because the work of judgment through words that God performs in the last days is so far out of keeping with their own conceptions and imaginings, and it destroys their dream of simply being blessed and being raised up into heaven, they obstinately oppose and refuse to accept God’s new work. Moreover, they are afraid that if more people accept the work of Almighty God then they will lose their status and livelihoods, and so they do all they can to compel people and stop them from turning to Almighty God, and to make them give up the true way and betray God. In fact, they are the embodiment of Satan in the spiritual world and, in reality, their disrupting people from turning to God is Satan trying to devour people. So long as we can discern the intent and motivation behind their actions and behavior, then we will be able to thoroughly understand their essence. When Job was undergoing trials, people’s physical eyes told them that thieves were taking away Job’s property, but in the spiritual world Satan and God were making a wager. At the time, although Job was unaware that a battle was raging in the spiritual world, he chose to suffer all that pain and even curse the day he was born rather than blame God. Still he extolled the name of Jehovah and stood witness for God, thus shaming the devil Satan and winning God’s praise. Being now besieged by Satan, although we have suffered the pain of duress and abandonment and have lost the transient enjoyments of the flesh, yet we have kept to the true way, we have stood witness for God and obtained God’s praise. This pain has been so worthwhile!” Hearing Almighty God’s words and the sister’s fellowship, my heart was brightened, and I said, “Yes, I was ignorant before and I hadn’t understood thoroughly the essence of my co-workers from my old church. I thought they were acting in my best interests. Only today do I understand that they are the real-life Satan. Only through this fellowship do I now have some insight into the true situation of the battle in the spiritual world. Although I still don’t understand the truth and I don’t thoroughly understand things, yet through this process I have personally experienced God guiding and protecting me, and this has all been God’s blessing on me.” The two sisters then said happily, “Truly, thanks be to God! If they come again to harass you, pray more and read more of God’s words, and you can defeat Satan by relying on God!” Filled with faith, I nodded in agreement.

One morning, some co-workers from my old church came calling again, and I hurriedly prayed in my heart for God to give me faith, wisdom and courage. Pastor Li immediately threatened me, saying, “Brother Zhang, if you don’t leave Eastern Lightning, then our church will abandon you and will not permit you to have any more contact with our brothers and sisters.” I said to him, “You can abandon me if you like, but I hope that you can take responsibility for the lives of the more than one thousand brothers and sisters in the church. You may not accept that the Lord has returned, but don’t try to obstruct the brothers and sisters from investigating and accepting the true way. Look at the current situation in the church—brothers and sisters feel weak and dispirited. Some have gone to find work elsewhere and some have backtracked and no longer believe in the Lord, and there are many instances of people being possessed by devils. The church has clearly lost the Lord’s care and protection. Then look at the situation with us preachers—there is not a shred of new light in our sermons, we always preach tired old things and brothers and sisters are simply not being supplied. Is this not worth reflecting on and pondering deeply about? Is it not worth us seeking to find the truth of the matter?” Having said this, my heart felt stirred and I said sincerely to them, “All of us here are the main co-workers of the church, and we can take thought: We talk about shepherding the Lord’s flock all day long, but the Lord has returned to perform a new work and to express new words, and yet we don’t seek or investigate it in the slightest, and we don’t lead our brothers and sisters to accept being watered and nourished by God’s words. Instead, we stop brothers and sisters from investigating the true way by any means possible—by doing this, are we not causing our brothers and sisters to die of thirst and weariness within religion? Are the people who are capable of this good servants or wicked servants? Have you ever thought of what the consequences of these actions will be?” Just then, Pastor Li said in exasperation, “We’ve come to your home to say this to you today because we mean you well, and yet you lecture us instead!” I then said to him, justly yet severely, “You have come again and again to harass me, knowing full well that The Church of Almighty God has the truth, and yet you won’t allow me to accept it and you won’t allow me to gain life. Is this meaning me well? You have spread rumors about me, sowed discord between me and my children, and caused my son to end our father-son relationship. Is this the love you speak of? Have you really meant me well by cooking up all these schemes or have you some other ulterior purposes?” Hearing me speak like this, Li Yang’s expression changed at once, and he yelled angrily at me, “You really can’t tell good from bad!” I shouted back at him, “Let’s go our separate ways from now on. God presides over my life, and you need not concern yourselves with it!” Hearing me say this, Li Yang and the others left looking dejected. From that day on, no one came to harass me again.

Having experienced this spiritual battle, I came to have some discernment of Satan’s trickery and I also came to have a thorough understanding of the God-defying essence of leaders in the religious world. I was never again constrained by the evil forces of religion, and at last I was free to follow Almighty God!

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The Secret Tip to Resolving Hatred (Audio Essay)

I was self-employed. Mainly I sold all kinds of textiles, and I also made clothes for my customers part-time. After a few years, my business became more and more popular, and people around me were all very envious. Later, a neighboring household opened the same kind of shop as mine and became my competitor. Naturally, the business in my shop was affected. The popular proverb says two of a trade never agree, but my peer was not just anyone, but my most trusted pupil, Xiaochen.

Not only did Xiaochen open the same store next to my house, she even waited outside of her shop to intentionally steal my business. Whenever she saw somebody pass by the shop, she approached them and greeted them enthusiastically, guiding them into the shop, and she even purposefully said awful things about me. Seeing Xiaochen do everything she could to steal my business, I regretted taking her as my pupil and started hating her from my heart. When I saw her, I was unwilling to approach or talk to her, and sometimes I would even say some bad things about her in front of customers, or I would intentionally give customers a discount to bring back repeat customers, so that I could reduce her clients. But because we were neighbors, we could not avoid running into each other. As time passed, I became more and more pained and repressed in my heart, and my hate for her became deeper and deeper. It reached the point that whenever I looked at her, my heart became awfully choked, and my whole mind was occupied with thoughts of how to deal with her. Even when I dreamed, I dreamed I was fighting her. I was living so painfully at that time!

In 2002, I heard my schoolmate say that believing in Jesus could bring peace and happiness, that it could broaden our hearts so that we no longer harbored hatred, so I believed in the Lord Jesus. I saw that the Lord Jesus said: “But I say to you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which spitefully use you. And to him that smites you on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that takes away your cloak forbid not to take your coat also” (Luk 6:27-29). From the Lord’s words I saw that the Lord has an unlimited and boundless love for us. He has unlimited tolerance, patience, and forgiveness for us. Didn’t the Lord already practice out these things that He required us to do? The Lord’s love deeply encouraged me, so I wanted to follow the Lord’s teachings, and I tried to tolerate Xiaochen, and not to quarrel with her. But in real life, I still hated her uncontrollably, and I could not practice the Lord’s word at all. When I thought that the Bible said that hating somebody is like killing them, I felt even more pain. I thought: I want to forgive Xiaochen, but why is it that I simply could not do it? I believe in the Lord and I know His demands, but why can’t I put the Lord’s word into practice? I lived in pain, and I could not extricate myself.

Soon, in 2003, I had the fortune to accept God’s work in the last days. In a gathering, a sister read a part of God’s word directed toward my difficulty: “Man was only saved and forgiven his sins for his faith, but the sinful nature of man was not taken away and still remained within him. … This requires man to understand the path of growth in life, the way of life, and the way to change his disposition. It also needs man to act in accordance with this path so that the disposition of man can gradually be changed and he can live under the shining of the light, and that he can do all things in accord with the will of God, cast away the corrupt satanic disposition, and break free from Satan’s influence of darkness, thereby emerging fully from sin. Only then will man receive complete salvation” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). She also fellowshiped to me: “During the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus did a step of redemptive work. The sin of us humans was only forgiven, so that we were no longer sentenced by the laws. However, our sinful nature still remained, and it had not been resolved. It is like you living in hatred to Xiaochen, you can only control your external behavior to not insult her, but you have not resolved the source of hatred in your heart. We humans have been corrupted by Satan for thousands of years, and we have been completely taken over by all kinds of satanic poisons. Satanic philosophies and laws such as “Heaven destroys those who are not for themselves,” and “A man dies for money; a bird dies for food” have become our life and our nature. We uncontrollably rely on these things to live, so we have all become selfish, self-interested, and only interested in profit. We fight and argue over our own interests and become jealous and hateful, causing us to uncontrollably commit sins and oppose God. Although in our heart we want to practice the ord’s word, because we are bound and limited by satanic nature, we cannot put them into practice and we live in unbearable pain. In the last days Almighty God comes to resolve the root problem of us corrupt humans committing sins, to completely rescue us from Satan’s domain. For this purpose, God speaks words to perform the work of judging and purifying man, so that, through the judgment and chastisement of God’s word, we recognize our own satanic nature, come to understand that God’s righteous disposition is beyond reproach, gradually come to revere God, no longer live by Satan’s poison, seek the truth in all things, live on God’s word, and replace our own corrupt disposition with practicing the truth. In this way, we can live out a normal humanity, we can know how to act and how to conduct ourselves in contact with others. When we have left the bondage of Satan’s authority and are no longer controlled by our corrupt disposition, then we are living in release and freedom. Sister, if you often read the word of the Almighty God, experience God’s judgment and chastisement, often pray to God, ask God to protect your heart, then you will surely be able to let go of the hatred in your heart, break away from Satan’s corrupt disposition, and live relaxed and free. So, you must have confidence in God….”

After listening to the sister’s fellowship, I understood that the reason I was never able to resolve the hatred in my heart while believing in the Lord Jesus is because the Lord Jesus only performed the work of redeeming sin, but not the work of casting away sin. This is why the satanic nature and corrupt disposition within me have not yet been removed. Only Almighty God’s work of judgment in the last days can fully cleanse and transform me, rescuing me from sin! Having understood this, I became confident again about how to resolve the hatred between Xiaochen and me, and I made up my mind to properly pursue the truth and shed the satanic corrupt disposition soon.

One day, I saw God’s word saying: “Cruel, brutal mankind! The conniving and intrigue, the jostling with each other, the scramble for reputation and fortune, the mutual slaughter—when will it ever end? … How many do not act for the sake of their own interests? How many do not oppress and discriminate against others for the sake of maintaining their own status? ” (“The Wicked Must Be Punished” in The Word Appears in the Flesh)After reading God’s word, I began to self-reflect. Why is it that I keep living in hatred to Xiaochen? Isn’t it just because she stole my business and this affected my own interests? In order to get more money and have one less competitor, all I thought about was how to exclude her and resent her, and I even had dark thoughts about her. In the past, I thought that my hatred of her had a reason. She offended me first, so that’s why I hated her to this extent. Now, I know that this is caused by my own selfish nature. Having recognized these things, I quickly prayed to God: “God, only now do I know that I hate Xiaochen because I have a selfish nature within me. God, I am willing to rebel against myself, I am unwilling to live by my satanic nature. I hope that You can help me, so that I can let go of my hatred to Xiaochen and live out a normal humanity.”

In order to help me walk out of hatred, God arranged a situation for me. One day, Xiaochen was refurbishing her kitchen, and it took up the stairwell passageway shared between our two houses. Looking at this, I felt angry in my heart, that she was really pushing it too far. After stealing my business, now she was coming to take over my territory. This was really getting more and more out of hand! When I wanted to argue with her, I suddenly remembered that God said: “God is forever supreme and ever honorable, while man is forever base, forever worthless. This is because God is forever making sacrifices and devoting Himself to mankind; man, however, forever takes and strives only for himself. … for the effort of man is always for his own sake and not for others. Man is always selfish, while God is forever selfless. God is the source of all that is just, good, and beautiful, while man is he who succeeds to and makes manifest all ugliness and evil” (“It Is Very Important to Understand God’s Disposition” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Yes, God’s love is too selfless. God is incarnated into flesh twice only to save us humans. God has paid the absolute price so that we can achieve salvation. In the past, He sacrificed Himself on the cross for the salvation of humanity, and now He is incarnated into flesh again, enduring people’s resistance, condemnation, persecution, and defamation to perform work and save people, all without complaints or regrets and never asking us to repay Him. God’s life substance is so beautiful, so lovable, so worthy of our admiration and worship! And I have been corrupted by Satan to be too selfish and despicable, too cunning and evil, and I lived by Satan’s poison, “Fight for every inch of land and seize every bit you can get.” As long as it relates to a bit of my profits, I would fight with others, haggle over every penny, and I cannot take any losses. I see what I live out is exactly the same as Satan’s, as if I am a living demon. Now, God has pointed out a path to changing my life disposition. I ought to practice it in accordance to God’s word, rebel against Satan, and no longer live by Satan’s poison. So, I prayed to God: “God, the matter that I encounter today is set up by You for me. I am willing to live out Your word, and no longer live by Satan’s poison. I hope that You will grant me confidence and strength, so I will no longer be fooled by Satan and let go of my hatred to Xiaochen in my heart.” After praying, my heart gradually became calmer, and I felt incomparably secure in my heart. At that moment, I felt for the first time that letting go of hatred could be so relaxing and releasing.

Having had this experience, I was more willing to live my life in accordance to God’s word, and I was no longer willing to be fooled or corrupted by Satan. One morning, Xiaochen’s shop hadn’t opened yet, and I heard somebody yelling outside, “Miss Tailor! Open the door quickly!” I opened it up and had a look, and it turned out to be Xiaochen’s customer coming to pick up clothes from her shop. The customer saw that I opened the door, asking me if Xiaochen was at home. At this moment, I remembered something that happened before: One day, I was cleaning upstairs, and a customer came to look for me downstairs. Even though he knew I was at home, Xiaochen’s husband didn’t tell the customer. Thinking of this, I felt angry, and I didn’t want to tell the customer about the fact that Xiaochen’s at home. Then I remembered God’s word said: “You ought to know that God likes an honest man. … To be honest is to refrain from impurity in your actions and words, and to deceive neither God nor man” (“Three Admonitions” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “When you rebel against the flesh, there will inevitably be a battle within you. Satan will try and make you follow it, will try and make you follow the conceptions of the flesh and uphold the interests of the flesh—but God’s words will enlighten and illuminate you within, and at this time it is up to you whether you follow God or follow Satan” (“Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The enlightenment of God’s word allowed me to see that what I had just thought was still living by Satan’s poison. I wanted to treat Xiaochen as an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Isn’t this still living within Satan’s corrupt disposition? God asks us to be an honest person and not lie or deceive people, but Satan allows me to act in accordance to the corrupt disposition of the flesh. Should I follow Satan and satisfy the flesh, or should I rebel against Satan, practice the truth, and satisfy God? At this moment, I felt God observing my every word, every act, and each and every movement. No, I must rebel against the flesh and practice the truth to satisfy God. Thinking of this, I told the customer calmly, “If you’re looking for Miss Xiaochen, she’s at home, just wait for a bit and she’ll come out.” When I practiced this, I felt very secure in my heart.

Later, when repeat customers came to my house to make clothes but I was too busy and couldn’t manage it, I would introduce them to Xiaochen’s shop. When she found out later, she was also very touched. Finally, one day, when she saw me, she deliberated for a long time, and then called excitedly out, “Master!” This “Master” made me feel extremely warm inside. Ever since she opened her shop next to my house, she had never called me Master once. I knew at that moment that the reason we could resolve our hatred was because of the effect achieved by God’s word. Otherwise, the hatred between us could only get deeper and deeper. Thank God! All glory and praise unto Almighty God!

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Worshiping God | Christian Music Video "Thanks and Praise to Almighty God

I

We have been brought before God. His words we eat and drink.
Holy Spirit enlightens, we understand truth God speaks.
Rituals of religion, we’ve cast them off, all those bonds.
Unrestrained by rules, our hearts released.
And we are happy as can be, living in God’s light,
happy as can be, living in God’s light.
Thanks and praise to Almighty God,
who expresses truth to all mankind.
Thanks and praise to Almighty God,
we have a way to change,
and our vague faith subsides.
We sing praise, oh.

II

We closely follow God, kingdom training we accept.
God’s judgments are like a sword,
disclosing thoughts that we have.
Arrogance, selfishness, and falseness are not concealed.
Only then I see my truth. Ashamed I fall to God, revealed.
Thanks and praise (oh, thanks to God) to Almighty God,
who expresses truth to all mankind.
Thanks and praise to Almighty God,
we’re face to face with God,
and in His joy we rejoice.
Thanks and praise (thanks and praise) to Almighty God.
You are holy, You are righteous, oh.
My desire is to practice truth (practice truth),
forsake the flesh, to be reborn (be reborn),
comfort Your heart.
Thanks and praise to Almighty God,
Your judgment has me truly saved.
Thanks and praise to Almighty God,
my disposition has changed.
Because of You, I am blessed, oh, I’m blessed.
from Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs

Recommendation：If the Eastern Lightning is the true way, why has the CCP government consistently engaged in frantic oppression, arrests, and persecution against the Eastern Lightning?

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To Be an Honest Person Is Truly Great! (Audio Essay)

One day in 2004 a friend said to me: “Every day you get up early and are busy all day cutting cloth, you exhaust yourself, yet you still don’t make money. Today’s society relies on the tongue to make money, like the popular saying goes: ‘It is better to have a slick tongue than to have strong arms and legs.’ You know that I’m now engaging in the direct sales business selling makeup products, not only does it make me beautiful, I also don’t need to exert too much effort each day, I just need to speak a few words with my customers and sell my products in order to make a lot of money. Why don’t you change jobs and come sell makeup products with me?” I looked my friend over, she really was prettier than before, and then I thought about how I had been a dressmaker for over 10 years, how I hadn’t really made any money at it, and how I wasn’t getting any younger. If it really was like what my friend was saying, if by switching to a job where I sold makeup products I could make easy money, and could even become younger and prettier and win the high praises of others, then that would be much better! As I thought about this, I told her right then and there that I was willing to become a part of the company. Later, after my inspection, I ordered over 3,000 yuan worth of products, and I started my job in the cosmetics industry as a beauty consultant for this company.

A coworker told me that after becoming a beauty consultant, if we are able to develop between 8 to 12 other beauty consultants then we can be promoted to work as a seller. But if we want to be a seller then we must have more customers ordering products as a condition of good performance. After this, I started to rack my brains to think of a way to increase my performance. I consulted other people, and studied marketing methods; frequently invited customers to our store to try out our products, and persuaded them to buy the products that I showed them; when I had time I would practice speaking in front of the mirror to raise the level of speech I used to express myself, so that I could interact with the customers better. Through my constant hard work I gradually got more customers. In order to stabilize the customer base, I had to keep up with the promotional sales activities at the company and make phone calls to invite customers to attend our workshops, where they could experience the effectiveness of our products for themselves, and at the same time I could introduce company products and our rewards system, sales promotions, etc., thereby attracting customers. I often would talk constantly for over an hour, not stopping until the customers were satisfied enough with buying the products. Looking down at the money in my hands that I had earned so easily made me feel so happy: Relying on my mouth to make money really was a lot more effortless compared to making money in my previous honest manual labor job, and I figured that so long as I continued working hard, then becoming a seller was just around the corner for me.

One time a girl with pimples on her face came into the store, and I thought to myself: This is an opportunity, I need to make this girl feel the need to appear beautiful and recommend to her some high-profit products, this way not only will I be able to make lots of money, but also I can turn her into my long-term customer, and when the time is right I will get her to bring me more customers, which will then increase my product sales volume, thereby naturally increasing my performance. I saw that the pimples on her face were not that serious, but in order to receive high profits, I said in an exaggerated tone: “Oh! If we don’t treat the pimples on your face right away they will grow deeper into your skin and damage it, and then there will be no products that can heal it, which will also affect the skin on your face in the future. It could get serious enough that your face will get bumpy and covered in zits. Not only will this affect your appearance, it will also have an effect on your future, that will be a problem!” When the girl heard this, she was scared out of her wits and immediately wanted me to give her any products that could help her. So I struck while the iron was hot, immediately taking out some products to show her, and she ended up leaving with over 1,000 yuan worth of products. I thought to myself: It seems that if I want to make money I can’t be that honest, and that I must take a customer’s weak points and exaggerate them based on their own preferences, because that’s what it takes to make them willing to buy our products. After that, I learned how to use different methods on different types of customers in order to sell our products, and as a result my performance at the company grew more and more.

I worked hard for four years, eventually being promoted to the level of seller, but it was not easy to hold on to this position. According to the company’s unwritten rules: Our performance is based solely on orders, the higher our performance, the higher our wages, and the higher our rank, the more rewards we will receive. In order to reach these targets and meet our performances as sellers, we used a rewards method to encourage beauty consultants to order products. Sometimes when beauty consultants didn’t place orders, we had to use our own money to purchase products so that we would pass in our performances. This would overstock many of our products, and after a long period of not being sold, these products would expire. In order to maintain our performance, we would discount these soon-to-be-expired products to sell to customers. One time, a colleague of mine sold a customer a product that was about to expire, and afterward the customer’s face turned red, like a blossoming flower. This annoyed the customer and they came looking for my colleague to make trouble for them, who was so scared that they didn’t know what to do. After talking it over, they ended up compensating the customer, which finally put an end to the ordeal. When this happened, I thought about how each month, in order to meet my own performance, I too would sell overstocked products that were about to expire, and how these soon-to-be-expired products had no company guarantees, so if by chance a customer developed a skin problem after using one of these products and came looking for me wanting to file a lawsuit, what was I to do? This made me feel more and more uncomfortable, it made me scared enough that my heart started racing, and I told myself that from now on I could no longer sell products that were about to expire. But then I thought about it some more: If I don’t sell out all the products then my performance will not pass, and then I won’t have my qualifications to be a seller, and before I know it I’ll be demoted to an ordinary beauty consultant. This would mean that the dream I had worked toward for so long of getting rich would just become a pie in the sky, and all the hard work I put in for so many years would be for nothing! As I thought about the past and the future I realized that in order to keep my qualifications to be a seller then I wouldn’t be able to change that much. If others could do it why not me? So, I kept going along with this unwritten business rule.

In 2012 a friend of mine got me into believing in Almighty God, and since then I have often read the word of God, prayed to God and fellowshiped together with brothers and sisters. During fellowships, brothers and sisters all openly speak from the heart, discussing what they know and have experienced from the word of God, and I really enjoy listening to them. One day, I read God’s word saying: “You ought to know that God likes an honest man. God has the substance of faithfulness, and so His word can always be trusted. Furthermore, His actions are faultless and unquestionable. This is why God likes those who are absolutely honest with Him” (“Three Admonitions” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Through God’s words I discovered that God is faithful and that He likes honest people. God also asks all of us to be honest people, to not tell lies, to not cheat others. I thought about all the dishonest words I’d used every day to cheat customers as I conducted my business and tried to make a profit, one that I gained by cheating the trust of my customers. I had used dishonest methods to make money. These were all expressions of dishonesty. If I kept going in this way, how could God like me? Now I believe in God I must be like my brothers and sisters and practice being an honest person and speak the truth. This is how I will be able to make God happy and obtain His approval.

But in real life, when facing profits, practicing being an honest person really wasn’t as easy as I imagined it would be. One day a customer came to me with a list of 7,000 yuan worth of makeup products that she wanted. I looked at the list and saw that we didn’t have all of the products that she wanted in our store, so I wondered what I should do. Should I tell her the truth, or … I felt an intense battle raging in my heart: I am now a believer in God, to tell a lie is to not fit with God’s will, I cannot go on cheating people like I did before; but if I tell the truth to this customer then it goes without saying that I won’t be able to make a sale with her this time, and perhaps she won’t come back next time, in which case I would no longer have an opportunity to make money from her. Alas, to tell a lie is to not fit with God’s will, but to not tell a lie is the same as letting go of over two thousand yuan that was about to fall into my hands, which, if my coworkers found out, they would surely laugh at me for, so I might as well do it this time, and then next time I won’t do it. So then I went over to the customer and said: “I am a skincare specialist, if you take my advice and use the products I recommend then I guarantee that your skin will get better.” I relied on my silver tongue, speaking with the customer for over an hour until she was finally willing to buy the products that I recommended. So I gathered together a random collection of 7,000 yuan worth of high grade products to give to her. After she left I looked down at the money in my hands but I didn’t feel the least bit happy. I felt very ashamed because I had not practiced being an honest person as God requires. After several days the customer gave me a call out of the blue asking to return the products. She said that she didn’t feel comfortable using the products that I had put together for her. I tried everything I could do to persuade her, but her mind could not be changed. After this incident, one customer after another wanted to return their products. As this series of unfortunate events fell upon me I started to mull things over: In order to profit myself I have always used dishonest words to cheat my customers into buying products. This doesn’t conform to the will of God, but I did it to hold on to my qualifications as a seller. In spite of being fully aware of the truth I deliberately went against it and continued using methods of deceit to conduct my business. God is pure and holy, how could He allow me to say one thing and do another? These events that have befallen me recently, for all of it, I only had myself to blame, I was reaping what I sowed. This was the dealing and discipline of God, and it was God saving me. But I didn’t understand, with profits in front of me, why I wanted to act according to the word of God but was unable to. All I could do was pray and seek before God.

Afterward I saw in the word of God where it says: “Once man has been contaminated by this cheating, it is the same as someone who gets involved in gambling and then becomes a gambler. In unawareness, he approves of his cheating behavior and accepts it. In unawareness, he takes cheating to be a legitimate commercial behavior, and takes cheating to be the most useful means for his survival and his life; he thinks that by doing this he can get rich quick. At the beginning of this process people cannot accept this type of behavior, they look down on this behavior and this way of going about things, until they try it out and experiment with it in their own way, personally and firsthand, and then their hearts begin to gradually transform. So what is this transformation? It is an approval and admission of this trend, an admission and approval of this type of idea instilled in you by the social trend. In unawareness, you feel that if you do not cheat in business then you will suffer losses, that if you do not cheat then you will have lost something. Unknowingly, this cheating becomes your very soul, your mainstay, and also becomes a type of behavior that is an indispensable rule for your life. After man has accepted this behavior and this thinking, does the heart of man undergo a change? Your heart has changed, so has your integrity changed? Has your humanity changed?(Yes.) So has your conscience changed? (Yes.) Man’s entirety undergoes a qualitative change, from their heart to their thoughts, to such an extent that they are changed from the inside out. This change puts you further and further from God, and you become more and with Satan, more and more similar to it” (“God Himself, the Unique VI” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words uncovered the riddle in my heart, I understood that with my own benefits in front of me I could not put God’s words into practice, I could not live like the kind of honest man that God requires, and the reason was that I had been deeply corroded by the evil trends in society and had relied on the poison of Satan to live. “Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.” “Man will do anything to get rich.” “As a small mind makes no gentleman, a real man is not without venom.” Such poisons of Satan as these were already deeply rooted within me, which caused me to be unable to practice the truth despite being fully aware of it and to lose my innate sense of right and wrong when it comes to being a normal person, which made me grow further and further away from God. I thought about how I had blindly followed the societal trend of putting money above all else, and how I thought that being honest and willing to toil was not as good as using methods of deceit to make money quickly, which led me to change jobs and sell makeup products where from the start I pursued Satan’s life philosophy in a way where “it is better to have a slick tongue than to have strong arms and legs.” When conducting my business I relied on my silver tongue, always using dishonest words to deceive my customers, saying whatever it took to reach my goals. I told myself that this act of deception was normal, that everybody did it, that I would be at a disadvantage if I didn’t do it, which led me to disregard my conscience telling me what I should do and to not practice the truth even though I was aware of it. It was clear that the various poisons that Satan had instilled in me had become deeply rooted into my bone marrow and had become my life. In my heart everything that I wanted to do was to my own benefit, as long as something involved directly benefiting me then I started to go against my conscience and the truth to tell lies to people. All of these actions and behaviors of mine truly made God detest me, and it was plain to see that Satan’s rules for survival were in direct opposition to the truth, they resisted the truth, and they resisted God. God raised up this kind of environment to deal with me and discipline me so that I may change my corrupt disposition, get rid of my lying and deceiving ways, be able to live like an honest person, and no longer rely on Satan’s rules for survival to live. He roused my numb heart and enabled me to see clearly my ugly look of being corrupted by Satan. He made me able to despise myself and return to Him. God truly is righteous and holy! God is faithful. God likes honest people, and He blesses honest people. Only by pursuing being an honest person can we attain God’s salvation. Once I understood God’s intentions I prayed to Him to make a resolution: From now on I would no longer tell lies to deceive people, and I would no longer do things that go against my conscience.

One day a customer called saying that she wanted a case of VC products worth over 900 yuan, and I asked her to come to the store to pick it up. It wasn’t until she arrived that I realized we didn’t have the products that she wanted in stock, but I promised that if she waited a few days I would get the products and send them to her. After a few days she called again to ask me about the products and I thought to myself: When a customer asks about products I used to always sell them ones that were about to expire, but now I can no longer tell lies to deceive people. But then I also thought to myself: If I am unable to send these products to her quickly then it’s very likely that I will lose a customer, as well as the money! So what should I do? To send products that were about to expire would be deceiving, and God would not be happy. After hesitating for a while I prayed to God asking Him for guidance, to make me be able to practice the truth, and to make me no longer tell lies to customers. After praying I thought about God’s word where it says: “You ought to know that God likes an honest man” (“Three Admonitions” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “Whenever you do or say anything, you must put your heart right, be righteous, and not be led by your emotions, or act according to your own will. These are the principles by which believers in God conduct themselves” (“How Is Your Relationship With God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

Under the illumination and guidance of God’s words I came to understand God’s demands. He hopes that I can practice the truth and be an honest person, which is the principle that I ought to maintain as I conduct myself. I can feel God by my side examining my every move, and this time I will not disappoint God again, I must tell the truth to this customer. So, I gave the customer a call: “The VC products you asked for haven’t arrived yet, if you need them right away I have a case of VC at home that’s going to expire soon, I can give that to you at a discounted price, if you want them then tomorrow you can come to the shop to check them out.” The next day the customer came to check out the products, and she took them without saying another word. Since I betrayed my flesh and said the truth I felt very at peace and free from anxiety in my heart. After going through this incident I felt very moved in my heart, I saw that so long as I behaved according to God’s word, spoke with customers truthfully according to the facts, and conducted myself as an honest person then I could truly be happy, only then could I obtain true liberation and freedom! Thanks be to God!

After this I read God’s word where it says: “Behaving like a normal human being is to speak with coherence. Yes means yes, no means no. Be true to the facts and speak appropriately. Don’t cheat, don’t lie” (“Improving Caliber Is for Receiving God’s Salvation” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I also read the fellowship from the above, which said: “To conduct yourself as an honest person there are three principles: One, you must be a sincere person; two, do not resort to tricks; three, do not be treacherous. If you do these three things then you will be an honest person. To be a sincere person is to be upright and honest and to speak honestly and act sincerely, where one is one and two is two” (Sermons and Fellowship From the Above). The word of God and man’s fellowship showed me the path for how to be an honest man. Regardless of whether it is in our daily life or our work life or when we’re associating with other people, we need to always say what we mean and think and act as one, to not deceive others, to not tell lies, and to have one be one and two be two. These are the things that God demands people with normal humanity possess. So I made a resolution then and there, from that point forward, regardless of whether I was in the presence of brothers or sisters or my customers, I was going to live by relying on the word of God, practice being an upright and honest person and accept God’s observation.

One day I ran into a customer and she said to me: “Miss Wu, my skin is so dry, the products I’ve been using for a while haven’t changed anything, I heard that the products you put together are better at improving skin, can you please give me a set of high quality products? Money is not an issue.” When I heard her say this I thought to myself: A set of high quality products priced at 4,000-5,000 yuan could make me a profit of over 1,000 yuan, but if I put together a set of products suitable for her skin it would just cost 1,000-something yuan, and I would just make a profit of around 400 yuan. Just when I wasn’t sure which choice I should make I thought about God’s word where it says: “Today, you are able to satisfy God, in which you are attentive to the smallest detail, you satisfy God in all things, you have a heart that truly loves God, you give your true heart to God, and although there are some things that you can’t understand, you can come before God to rectify your motivations, and seek God’s will, and you do everything needed to satisfy God” (“Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “I am righteous, I am faithful, I am the God who examines the innermost heart of man! I will reveal at once who is true and who is false” (“The Forty-fourth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). That’s right! God is a righteous and faithful God, He is also a God who examines the innermost heart of man. I must act in accordance with God’s will, I can no longer do things that humiliate God’s name in order to protect my own interests. So, I said to her: “The highest quality products are not suitable for your skin, they will add a greater burden to it, the set that is most suitable to your skin that I would recommend is just over 1,000 yuan, it will start repairing your skin from the foundation, which will gradually make your skin better.” Upon acting in this way my mind felt much more at ease. The customer said to me: “Miss Wu, you’re such a good person, what you say is so honest, I will introduce other customers to come use your products.” I smiled, saying: “It’s not that I’m a good person, it’s just that we should act as honest people, only then will we have peace of mind.” Before long the customer returned to get the products, and she also brought some of her friends to introduce to me, and I put together products for them that were suitable for their skin. Gradually but surely, most customers put more and more trust in me, they all brought cash to me asking me to order them products, so there was no pressure for me to come up with the funds for these transactions. In this way I conducted myself as an honest person, one who truly acted in accordance with God’s demands, and business got better and better. I knew that this was God’s blessing, not only did God bestow material things upon me, more importantly He also taught me how to conduct myself. In the real world it truly is great to conduct myself as an honest person according to the word of God!

I thought back on my past, how I followed the evil trends of Satan for my personal interests and pursued Satan’s life philosophy in a way where “it is better to have a slick tongue than to have strong arms and legs.” I thought that I couldn’t get things done without telling lies, that without telling lies I couldn’t make a lot of money, and as a result I was toyed with by Satan until I lived as neither a man or a beast! I had changed more and more into someone without humanity, someone without a conscience and without reason, I had lost the integrity and dignity that one ought to have when conducting oneself. God was not pleased, I was not trustworthy as a person, every day I was behaving like a thief, in fear that any day I could get in trouble and pulled into a lawsuit by someone. My life was very strenuous and tiring. But God knew that I had been deeply corrupted by Satan, and in order to save me He put me in an environment that would discipline me, with words to lead me and guide me, so that I would be able to see clearly the ugliness of my own corruption, so that I could despise myself and turn toward Him, and practice the truth as an honest person. When I acted in accordance with God’s words, when I conducted myself as an honest person, when I played my part as I conducted my business, I received God’s guidance and blessing. In this experience I saw that it was God’s intention to save me and lead me to the right path of life, where I wouldn’t continue being toyed with by Satan. I am thankful from the bottom of my heart for this kind of love and salvation that God has given me. From this point forward, I will certainly conduct myself as an honest person in accordance with the word of God, living as a true person in order to satisfy God and testify to God!

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Finding the Way Back After Getting Lost (part-2) | Eastern Lightning

When my wife read out these words of God I recalled an incident that occurred in the spring of 2016. At the time, I hadn’t yet properly investigated Almighty God’s work of the last days. I was driving my wife and one of the sisters from the church to another state. On the way, we stopped so that my wife could attend to something, and when she got out of the car the sister also got out. It was cold and windy outside, and the sister stood beside the car stamping her feet in order to keep warm. I called to her to get in the car but she said: “It’s OK. I want to stand outside for a while.” It took a pretty long time for my wife to return, and only then did the sister get in the car. Seeing that she was visibly shivering from the cold my wife asked her: “It’s so cold outside. Why didn’t you stay in the car?” The sister replied: “There’s an administrative decree in our church that states that a man and a woman can’t be alone together or have physical contact. This is one of the requirements that God has of God’s chosen people, and we have to strictly abide by it.” On hearing this, I realized just how different The Church of Almighty God’s people are from ordinary people—even in the most trivial matters they keep themselves in check. When I recalled this incident I couldn’t help but thump my head in self-disgust for not properly investigating the facts and instead blindly believing those online rumors. When I thought about all of the times I’d interacted with the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God and seen how well-behaved they were with members of the opposite sex, how proper and decent they were in speech and action, how principled they were when dealing with people, it was obvious that those rumors online were far from the truth. At this point I felt very ashamed for blindly believing a bunch of online rumors that were slanderous distortions of the truth or outright fabrications, and for having doubts about Almighty God and The Church of Almighty God. I was such a confused idiot! My wife then continued with her fellowship: “God has incarnated in the mundane world to express truths, judge people, and cleanse people. In other words, God wants to thoroughly save people from Satan’s dominion. He wants to rid us of our corrupt dispositions—our arrogance, trickery, deceit, selfishness, vileness, evil, filth, etc., and help us to achieve transformation in our life disposition so that we may live as true human beings. God knows that mankind has been very deeply corrupted by Satan and so doesn’t have the capability to overcome sin. So in order to ensure that people don’t offend God’s disposition during the time when they are accepting God’s salvation, and thus avoid being eliminated and punished, God has laid out the administrative decrees of the Age of Kingdom in order to keep believers in check. Anyone who offends the administrative decrees will be punished by God, and serious offenders will be expelled from God’s house and lose any chance of salvation. God’s setting out of these administrative decrees for the church is so that we gain some real knowledge of God’s righteous disposition which is not to be offended, and also so that we have decrees to keep us in check. This way, there will always be a line that can’t be crossed for all our behaviors, and if we keep within these boundaries then we can generally avoid being tempted by Satan. This is God’s way of preserving us and, even more so, is God showing His true love for us!” While listening to my wife’s fellowship I found myself involuntarily nodding my head, and this is how the knot in my heart was completely untied and the suffering that had enveloped it was alleviated. After that, I once again began to participate in the church meetings.

Every time that I recall this experience there is always some lingering fear in my heart because I saw how damaging these rumors are and how I nearly got confused by them and lost the chance for God’s salvation of the last days. In the Age of Grace, the Israelites also got bemused by false rumors and ended up not admitting that the Lord Jesus was the coming of the Messiah. They abandoned the Lord Jesus and thus lost the Lord’s salvation. This made me realize just what huge obstacles such rumors are for people to accept the true way! But what I still couldn’t understand was why there are so many false rumors and false accusations about The Church of Almighty God online when it clearly is a good church. So, in a meeting, I brought up this question with the brothers and sisters so that we could openly fellowship about it. The brothers and sisters played for me one of the church’s gospel movies, Break Through the Snare, and this movie completely resolved my confusion. With a bit more fellowship from the brothers and sisters I was then able to understand even better that the use of rumors to disrupt and ruin God’s work is one of Satan’s most common methods. When the Lord Jesus came to do His work, the Jewish leaders, chief priests, scribes and Pharisees wanted to ensure that they kept permanent control over God’s people, and so they created many false rumors about the Lord Jesus. They blasphemed the Lord Jesus by saying that He relied on the prince of the devils to cast out demons, they falsely accused the Lord Jesus of not letting people pay their taxes to Caesar, and they also gave false testimony by saying that the Lord Jesus’ physical body was stolen by His disciples and that He didn’t resurrect. I’m sure that if the Internet had existed then those religious leaders would have put all of their rumors and false testimonies online in order to blaspheme, attack, and condemn the Lord Jesus more effectively. Nowadays, in the Age of Kingdom, Almighty God is doing the work of expressing words to judge and purify man, and the government of China and the pastors and elders in the religious community are acting as Satan’s tools. In order to achieve their goal of controlling and entrapping people, they are blaspheming and condemning Almighty God and are creating a mass of rumors and false testimonies in order to frame and discredit The Church of Almighty God. They want to confuse people and keep them in the dark, and attempt to make people abandon God’s work of salvation of the last days and follow them in resisting God. Satan really is just so evil and loathsome!

Then the brothers and sisters read out another two passages of God’s words for me: “On earth, all manner of evil spirits are endlessly on the prowl for a place to rest, are ceaselessly searching for the corpses of men to eat up” (“The Tenth Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “Satan is constantly devouring the knowledge that men hold of Me in their hearts, and constantly, with teeth bared and claws unsheathed, engaged in the last throes of its death struggle. Do you wish to be captured by its deceitful stratagems at this moment? Do you wish, at the moment that the last phase of My work is completed, to cut off your own life?” (“The Six Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh). They also told me that Almighty God’s words have told us the true situation regarding the spiritual battle, which is that in order to hinder people before they are able to come before God and achieve its goal of devouring them, Satan carries out all sorts of trickery. This includes spreading rumors and false testimonies on the Internet, getting religious leaders to harass and threaten believers, and getting family members to coerce them and prevent them from following Almighty God. In short, anything which makes us doubt, deny or move away from God comes from Satan. If people are unable to seek truths, then they will never be able to see through Satan’s trickery, will easily lose the chance to gain God’s salvation, and will go downhill and eventually be destroyed along with Satan. Thanks to God’s leadership I was able, through watching The Church of Almighty God’s gospel movies and listening to the fellowship of the brothers and sisters, to clearly see Satan’s evil and despicable essence and see through Satan’s schemes.

Since following Almighty God I’ve gained true release and freedom. Now, no matter what happens to me I can read God’s words and pray to God to help me find a path of practice. The brothers and sisters in the church all abide by God’s requirements and seek to become honest people. Their mutual relationships are uncomplicated and open, and they help and support each other as much as they can. As a member of the church, I never have to worry about someone trying to put me down, deceive me, or rip me off. I feel truly happy and content, and this is the life that I always want.

Recommendation：if the Eastern Lightning is the true way, why has the CCP government consistently engaged in frantic oppression, arrests, and persecution against the Eastern Lightning?

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V. One Must Bear Witness to the Aspect of Truth Concerning the Difference Between God’s Work of Judgment in the Last Days and His Work of Redemption in the Age of Grace

4. What is the difference between what the Lord entrusted people with in the Age of Grace and what God entrusts people with in the Age of Kingdom?

Bible Verses for Reference:

“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luk 24:47).

“Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you: and, see, I am with you always, even to the end of the world” (Mat 28:19-20).

“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” (Mat 7:21).

Relevant Words of God:

As was Jesus’ stage of work: He opened a new way. When He came He preached the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, and said that man should repent, and confess. After Jesus completed His work, Peter and Paul and others began to carry on the work of Jesus. After Jesus was nailed to the cross and ascended to heaven, they were sent by the Spirit to spread the way of the cross.

from “Concerning Appellations and Identity” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

When, in the Age of Grace, God returned to the third heaven, God’s work of redeeming all of mankind had actually already moved into its closing act. All that remained on earth were the cross that Jesus carried, the fine linen that Jesus was wrapped in, and the crown of thorns and scarlet robe that Jesus wore (these were objects the Jews used to mock Him). That is, the work of Jesus’ crucifixion had caused an uproar for a time and then had settled down. From then on, Jesus’ disciples began to carry His work forward, shepherding and watering in the churches everywhere. The content of their work was this: to have all people repent, admit their sins, and be baptized; the apostles all spreading the inside story of Jesus’ crucifixion and what actually happened, everyone not being able to help but fall down before Jesus to admit their sins, and furthermore the apostles spreading everywhere the words Jesus spoke and the laws and commandments He established. From that point began the building of churches in the Age of Grace.

from “Work and Entry (6)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

In the past, during the special gatherings or the grand gatherings that were held in various places, only one aspect of the path of practice was spoken of. Such practice was that which was to be put into practice during the Age of Grace, and scarcely bore any relation to the knowledge of God, for the vision of the Age of Grace was only the vision of Jesus’ crucifixion, and there were no greater visions. Man was supposed to know no more than the work of His redemption of mankind through the crucifixion, and so during the Age of Grace there were no other visions for man to know. In this way, man had only a scant knowledge of God, and apart from the knowledge of Jesus’ love and compassion, there were but a few simple and pitiful things for him to put into practice, things that were a far cry from today. In the past, no matter what form his assembly, man was incapable of speaking of a practical knowledge of God’s work, much less was any able to clearly say which was the most suitable path of practice for man to enter upon. He merely added a few simple details to a foundation of forbearance and patience; there was simply no change in the substance of his practice, for within the same age God did not do any newer work, and the only requirements He made of man were forbearance and patience, or bearing the cross. Apart from such practices, there were no higher visions than the crucifixion of Jesus.

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

In the past, man was required to comply with the law and the commandments, and was required to be patient and humble. Today, man is required to obey all of God’s arrangements and possess a supreme love of God, and is ultimately required to still love God amid the tribulation. These three stages are requirements that God makes of man, step-by-step, throughout His entire management. Each stage of God’s work goes deeper than the last, and in each stage the requirements of man are more profound than the last, and in this way, God’s entire management gradually takes shape. It is precisely because the requirements of man are ever higher that man’s disposition comes ever closer to the standards required by God, and it is only then that the whole of mankind gradually departs from the influence of Satan until, when God’s work comes to a complete end, the whole of mankind will have been saved from the influence of Satan.

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

All of you are to receive God’s commission, so what is that? This is relevant to the next step of work, which is going to be greater work that is carried out throughout the entire universe. So now you should pursue a change in your life disposition so that in the future you will truly become the proof of God gaining glory through His work, and be made into specimens for His future work. Today’s pursuit is all laying a foundation for the future work; it is for you to be used by God and so that you are able to bear witness for Him. If this is the object of your pursuit, you will be able to gain the presence of the Holy Spirit. … You should pursue doing everything for the sake of being perfected, obtained, and used by God, allowing everything in the universe to see God’s actions revealed in you. Among all things, you are the master of them, and among all that there is, you will allow God to enjoy testimony and glory because of you—this shows that you are the most blessed generation!

from “Those Whose Disposition Has Changed Are Those Who Have Entered Into the Reality of God’s Words” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

All those who are the people of God must possess life, they must accept the training of the kingdom, and pursue changes in their life disposition. This is what God requires of the people of the kingdom.

God’s requirements for the people of the kingdom are as follows:

1. They must accept God’s commissions, which is to say, they must accept all of the words spoken in God’s work of the last days.

2. They must enter into the training of the kingdom.

3. They must pursue having their hearts touched by God. When your heart has completely turned to God, and you have a normal spiritual life, you will live in the realm of freedom, which means you will live under the care and protection of God’s love. Only when you live under the care and protection of God will you belong to God.

4. They must be gained by God.

5. They must become a manifestation of God’s glory on earth.

These five points are My commissions for you. My words are spoken unto the people of God, and if you are unwilling to accept these commissions, I will not force you—but if you truly accept them, then you will be able to do the will of God. Today, you begin to accept God’s commissions, and pursue becoming the people of the kingdom and attaining the standards required to be the people of the kingdom. This is the first step of entry. If you wish to fully do God’s will, then you must accept these five commissions, and if you are able to achieve them, you will be after God’s heart and surely made great use of by God. …

…………

That you are able to accept the judgment, chastisement, smiting, and refinement of God’s words, and, moreover, are able to accept God’s commissions, was predestined by God at the beginning of time, and thus you must not be too distressed when you are chastised. No one can take away the work that has been done in you, and the blessings that have been bestowed within you, and no one can take away all that has been given to you. People of religion brook no comparison with you. You are not possessed of great expertise in the Bible, and are not equipped with religious theory, but because God has worked within you, you have gained more than anyone throughout the ages—and so this is your greatest blessing. Because of this, you must be even more dedicated to God, and even more loyal to God. Because God raises you up, you must bolster your efforts, and must ready your stature to accept the commissions of God. You must stand firm in the place God has given you, pursue becoming one of the people of God, accept the training of the kingdom, be gained by God and ultimately become a glorious testimony to God. How many of these resolves do you possess? If you are possessed of such resolves, then ultimately you are sure to be gained by God, and will become a glorious testimony to God. You should understand that the principal commission is being gained by God and becoming a glorious testimony to God. This is the will of God.

from “Know the Newest Work of God and Follow the Footsteps of God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

You should know that it is not just Me doing all this Myself. Rather, I am representing My Father. Meanwhile, your role is strictly to follow, obey, change, and testify. What you should understand is why you should believe in Me. This is the most important question for each of you to understand. My Father, for the sake of His glory, predestined all of you for Me from the moment He created the world. It was none other than for the sake of My work, and for the sake of His glory, that He predestined you. It is because of My Father that you believe in Me; it is because of My Father’s predestining that you follow Me. None of this is of your own choosing. Even more important is that you understand you are the ones My Father bestowed on Me for the purpose of testifying for Me. Because He bestowed you on Me, you should abide by the ways I bestow on you and the ways and the words I teach you, for it is your duty to abide by My ways. This is the original purpose of your faith in Me. So I say to you, you are merely people that My Father bestowed on Me to abide by My ways. However, you only believe in Me; you are not of Me because you are not of the Israelite family but are instead of the kind of the ancient serpent. All I am asking you to do is to bear witness for Me, but today you must walk in My ways. All of this is for the sake of future testimonies. If you function only as people who listen to My ways, then you will not have any value and the significance of My Father’s bestowing you on Me will be lost. What I insist on telling you is this: “You should walk in My ways.”

from “When It Comes to God, What Is Your Understanding” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

What you have experienced and seen surpasses that of the former saints and prophets, but are you able to provide testimony greater than the words of these former saints and prophets? That which I bestow upon you now surpasses Moses and is greater than David, so likewise I ask that your testimony surpass that of Moses and that your words be greater than that of David. I give you a hundredfold, so likewise I ask you to repay Me the same. You must know I am the One who bestows life unto mankind, and it is you who receive life from Me and must bear witness for Me. This is your duty, which I send down upon you and which you ought to do for Me. I have bestowed all My glory unto you, and bestowed unto you the life that the chosen people, the Israelites, never received. By right, you ought to bear witness for Me, and devote to Me your youth and lay down your life. Whomsoever I bestow My glory unto shall bear Me witness and give his life for Me. This has long been predestined. It is your good fortune that I bestow My glory upon you, and your duty is to testify to My glory. If you believe in Me only to gain fortune, then My work would not have much significance, and you would not be fulfilling your duty. The Israelites saw only My mercy, love, and greatness, and the Jews witnessed only My patience and redemption. They saw only very little of the work of My Spirit; it may be such that their level of understanding was merely one ten thousandth of that which you have heard and seen. What you have seen exceeds even that of the chief priests among them. This day, the truth you have understood surpasses theirs; what you have seen this day exceeds that seen in the Age of Law, as well as the Age of Grace, and what you have experienced surpasses even that of Moses and Elijah. For what the Israelites understood was only the law of Jehovah and what they saw was only the sight of Jehovah’s back; what the Jews understood was only the redemption of Jesus, what they received was only the grace bestowed by Jesus, and what they saw was only the image of Jesus within the house of the Jews. What you see this day is the glory of Jehovah, the redemption of Jesus and all My deeds of this day. You have also heard the words of My Spirit, appreciated My wisdom, come to know My wonder, and learned of My disposition. I have also told you all of My management plan. What you have seen is not merely a loving and merciful God, but One that is filled with righteousness. You have seen My wondrous work and known that I am filled with fierce anger and majesty. Furthermore, you have known that I once brought down My raging fury upon the house of Israel, and this day, it has come to you. You have understood more of My mysteries in heaven than Isaiah as well as John; you know more of My loveliness and venerableness than all the saints of previous generations. What you have received is not merely My truth, My way, My life, but the vision and revelation greater than that of John. You have understood many more mysteries and have also seen My true countenance; you have accepted more of My judgment and known more of My righteous disposition. So, though you were born in the last days, your understanding is that of the former and the past; you have also experienced what is of this day, and such was accomplished by My hand. What I ask of you is not unreasonable, for I have given you too much and much have you seen from Me. Therefore, I ask you to bear witness for Me as former saints have done, and this is My heart’s only desire.

from “What Do You Know of Faith?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

The function of My judgment is to enable man better to obey Me, and the function of My chastisement is to allow man more effectively to be changed. Although what I do is for the sake of My management, I have never done anything that was without benefit to man. That is because I want to make all the nations outside of Israel just as obedient as the Israelites, and to make them into real men, so that I will have a foothold in the lands outside of Israel. This is My management; it is the work I am accomplishing among the Gentile nations. Even now, many people still do not understand My management, because they have no interest in these things, but care only about their own futures and destinations. No matter what I say, people are still indifferent to the work that I do, instead focusing exclusively on their destinations in the future. If things go on in this way, how can My work be expanded? How can My gospel be spread throughout the world? You should know that, when My work is expanded, I will scatter you, and I will smite you, just as Jehovah smote each of the tribes of Israel. All this will be done in order to spread My gospel throughout the earth, and to spread My work into the Gentile nations, so that My name may be magnified by adults and children alike, and My holy name exalted in the mouths of people from all tribes and nations. In this final era, I will have My name magnified among the Gentile nations, cause My deeds to be seen by the Gentiles, that they may call Me the Almighty on account of My deeds, and make it so that My words may soon come to pass. I will make all people know that I am not only the God of the Israelites, but also the God of all the nations of the Gentiles, even those that I have cursed. I will let all people see that I am the God of all creation. This is My greatest work, the purpose of My work plan for the last days, and the only work to be fulfilled in the last days.

from “The Work of Spreading the Gospel Is Also the Work of Saving Man” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

Can you express God’s disposition of the age in suitable language that has age significance? Through your experience of God’s work, can you describe in detail the disposition of God? How can you describe it fittingly, appropriately? So that through this, others can learn about your experiences. How will you pass on your seeings and experiences to those pitiable, poor, and devout religious believers who hunger and thirst for righteousness and are waiting for you to shepherd them? What kind of characters are waiting for you to shepherd them? Can you imagine? Are you aware of the burden you shoulder, your commission, and your responsibility? Where is your historic sense of mission? How will you serve as a good master for the next age? Do you have a great sense of masterhood? How would you explain the master of all things? Is it really the master of all living creatures and all substance in the world? What plans do you have for the progress of the next step of work? How many people are waiting for you to be their shepherd? Is your task a heavy one? They are poor, pitiable, blind, and at a loss, wailing in the darkness, “Where is the way?” How they yearn for the light, like a shooting star, to suddenly descend and disperse the force of darkness that has oppressed men for so many years. Who can know just how anxiously they hope, and how they pine day and night for this? These men who suffer deeply remain imprisoned in the dungeons of darkness, without hope of release, even on the day that the light flashes; when will they weep no longer? These fragile spirits who have never been granted rest are truly suffering such misfortune. They have long been sealed off by the ruthless ropes and the history that is frozen in place. Who has ever heard the sound of their wailing? Who has ever seen their miserable visage? Have you ever thought how grieved and anxious God’s heart is? How can He bear to see the innocent mankind He created with His own hands suffering such torment? After all, mankind are the unfortunates that have been poisoned. Though they have survived to this day, who would have thought that they have long been poisoned by the evil one? Have you forgotten that you are one of the victims? Out of your love for God, are you not willing to strive to save those who have survived? Are you not willing to use all your effort to repay the God who loves mankind like His own flesh and blood? How do you interpret being used by God to live your extraordinary life? Do you really have the resolution and confidence to live out a meaningful life of a pious, God-serving person?

from “How Should You Attend to Your Future Mission” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

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