Tribulation Inspired My Love for God

Tribulation Inspired My Love for God

Meng Yong Shanxi Province

I am by nature an honest person, which is why I have always been bullied by other people. As a result, I have tasted the coldness of the world of man and felt my life empty and without meaning. After I started believing in Almighty God, through the reading of God’s words and living the church life, I enjoyed an earnestness and joy in my heart I had never felt before. Seeing the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God love each other like a family made me realize that only God is righteous, and that only in The Church of Almighty God is there light. Through several years of personally experiencing Almighty God’s work, I have come to truly appreciate that the words of Almighty God can indeed change people and save people. Almighty God is love, and He is salvation. So that more people can enjoy God’s love and seek and receive God’s salvation, my brothers and sisters and I all strived to do our best to spread the gospel, but we never expected to be captured and persecuted by the Communist Party.

On January 12, 2011, several brothers and sisters and I drove to a place to spread the gospel, and ended up being reported by wicked people. Not long after, the county government instructed officers from various law enforcement departments, such as the vice squad, national security forces, the anti-drug squad, armed police forces, and the local police department, to come around in more than 10 police vehicles to arrest us. When a brother and I were preparing to drive away, we saw seven or eight police wielding batons furiously beating another brother. At that point, four police officers ran over quickly and cut off our car. One of the wicked officers pulled out the car keys without any explanation, and ordered us to stay in the car and not move. By then, I saw that that brother had already been beaten to the point where he was sitting on the ground, unable to move. I could not help but be filled with righteous indignation and rushed out of the car to stop their violence, but the wicked police twisted my arm and pushed me aside. I tried to reason with them: “Whatever it is, we can talk about it. How can you just start beating people?” They viciously yelled back: “Hurry up and get back to your car, you’re going to get yours soon!” Later, they took us to the police station, and our car was also forcibly impounded.

After nine o’clock that night, two police officers came to interrogate me. When they saw that they could not get any useful information out of me, they grew flustered and exasperated, gnashing their teeth in anger as they cursed: “Damn it, we’ll take care of you later!” They then locked me in the interrogation waiting room. At 11:30 at night, two officers took me into a room without surveillance cameras. I had a feeling they were going to use violence against me, so I started praying to God repeatedly in my heart, begging for God to protect me. At this time, a wicked police officer surnamed Jia came to interrogate me: “Have you been in a Volkswagen Jetta in these last few days?” I answered no, and he furiously yelled: “Other people have already seen you, and yet you still deny it?” After saying it, he slapped me viciously across the face. All I felt was the burning pain on my cheek. He then roared loudly: “Let’s see how tough you are!” He picked up a wide belt as he spoke and kept whipping it across my face, I don’t know how many times I was whipped, but I could not help but scream out in pain time and time again. Upon seeing this, they pulled the belt around my mouth. A few wicked officers then put a blanket over my body before beating me furiously with their batons, only stopping when they became too tired to catch their breaths. I had been beaten so badly that my head was spinning and my body hurt like every bone had scattered apart. At the time I did not know why they were treating me in this way, but later on I found out that they put a blanket over me to prevent the beating from leaving marks on my flesh. Putting me in a room without surveillance, gagging my mouth, and covering me with a blanket—it was all because they were afraid that their wicked deeds would be exposed. I never thought the dignified “people’s police” could be so treacherous and vicious! When the four of them got tired from beating me, they changed to another method to torture me: Two wicked officers twisted one of my arms back and forcefully tugged it upward, while another two wicked officers lifted my other arm over the shoulder to the back and pulled it down hard. But my two hands could not be pulled together no matter what, so they drove a vicious knee into my arm. All I heard was a “click,” and my two arms felt like they had been torn off. It hurt so much that I nearly expired. They called this type of torture method “Carrying a Sword on the Back,” which normal people would not be able to endure at all. It did not take long for me to lose sensation in both my hands. This was still not enough for them to give up, so they ordered me to kneel down to add to my suffering. I was in so much pain that my whole body broke out in a cold sweat, my head was ringing, and my consciousness began to grow a little blurry. I thought: I’ve lived for so many years; even though I’ve constantly had illnesses, I’ve never had the feeling of being unable to control my own consciousness. Am I about to die? Later on, I really couldn’t take it anymore, so I thought of seeking relief through death. In that moment, the word of God enlightened me from within: “Today, most people don’t realize: They believe that suffering is without value…. The suffering of some people reaches a certain point, and their thoughts turn to death. This is not the true love of God; such people are cowards, they have no perseverance, they are weak and powerless!” (“Only by Experiencing Painful Trials Can You Know the Loveliness of God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words made me suddenly awaken and realize that my way of thinking was not in line with God’s intentions and would only make God sad and disappointed. Because amid this pain and suffering, what God wants to see is not me seeking death, but that I can swallow humiliation and bear the heavy burden, and that I can rely on God’s guidance to battle Satan, to bear witness to God, and make Satan ashamed and defeated. Seeking death would be falling right into Satan’s scheme, meaning I wouldn’t be able to bear witness and would instead become a mark of shame. After understanding God’s intentions, I prayed to God silently: Oh God! Reality has shown that my nature is too weak. I don’t have the will and courage to suffer for You and wanted to die just from a bit of physical pain. Now I know that I cannot do anything to shame Your name and must stand witness and satisfy You no matter how much suffering I have to endure. But at this time, my physical body is in extreme pain and weak, and I know that it is very difficult to overcome the beatings of these demons on my own. Please give me more confidence and strength so that I can rely on You to defeat Satan. I swear on my life that I will not betray You or sell out my brothers and sisters. As I repeatedly prayed to God, my heart slowly became at ease. The wicked police saw that I was barely breathing and were afraid they would have to bear responsibility if I died, so they came to release my handcuffs. But my arms had already stiffened, and the cuffs were so tight that they became very hard to undo. If they used any more force my arms would have broken. The four wicked policemen took several minutes to release the handcuffs before dragging me back to the interrogation waiting room.

The next afternoon, the police arbitrarily pinned a “criminal offense” on me and took me back to my home to raid it, and then sent me to a detention center. As soon as I entered the detention center, four correctional officers confiscated my cotton jacket, trousers, boots, and watch, as well as the 1,300 yuan in cash I had on me. They made me change into their standard prison uniform and forced me to spend 200 yuan to buy a blanket from them. Afterward, the correctional officers locked me up with the armed robbers, murderers, rapists, and drug smugglers. When I entered my cell, I saw twelve bald prisoners eyeing me with hostility. The atmosphere was gloomy and terrifying, and I felt my heart suddenly rise up to my throat. Two of the heads of the cell walked up to me and asked: “What are you in here for?” I said: “Spreading the gospel.” Without another word, one of them slapped me across the face twice, and said: “You’re a ‘Bishop,’ aren’t you?” The other prisoners all started laughing savagely and mocked me by asking: “Why don’t you let your God rescue you from here?” Amid the jeering and the ridiculing, the cell head slapped me across the face a few more times. From then on, they nicknamed me “Bishop” and often humiliated and mocked me. The other cell head saw the slippers I was wearing and arrogantly shouted: “You don’t know your own place at all. Are you worthy of wearing these shoes? Take them off!” As he said it, he forced me to take them off and change into a pair of their worn-out slippers. They also gave away my blanket for the other prisoners to share. Those prisoners fought back and forth for my blanket, and in the end left me with an old blanket that was thin, torn, dirty, and smelly. Instigated by the correctional officers, these prisoners subjected me to all sorts of hardships and torment. The light was always on in the cell at night, but a cell head said to me with an evil grin: “Turn that light off for me.” As I could not do it (there wasn’t even a switch), they started laughing at me and mocking me again. The next day, a few juvenile prisoners forced me to stand in a corner and memorize the prison rules, threatening: “You’re going to get it if you don’t memorize it within two days.” I could not help but be terrified, and the more I thought about what I had been through the last few days, the more frightened I became. The only thing I could do was to keep calling out to God and beg for God to protect me so I could overcome it. At this moment, a hymn of God’s word enlightened me: “If you can still love God regardless of whether you are imprisoned or ill, whether others sneer at or slander you, or whether you come to a dead end, this means that your heart has turned to God” (“Has Your Heart Turned to God” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). God’s word gave me power and pointed out a path for me to practice—seek loving God and turn my heart to God! In that moment, it suddenly became crystal clear in my heart: God allowing this suffering to befall me was not to torment me or intentionally make me suffer, but to train me to turn my heart to God in such an environment, so that I can resist the control of Satan’s dark influences and so my heart can still be close to God and love God, never complaining and always obeying God’s orchestrations and arrangements. With this in my mind, I was no longer afraid. No matter how Satan treats me, all I shall care about is giving myself to God and doing all I can to seek loving God and satisfying God, never bowing my head to Satan.

Life in prison is practically hell on earth. The prison guards kept coming up with ways to torture people: I was squeezed in with several other prisoners when sleeping at night. Even turning in bed was difficult. Since I was the last to arrive, I even had to sleep next to the toilet. After being captured, I didn’t sleep for several days and became so sleepy that I couldn’t take it and would doze off. The prisoners on duty who were standing guard would come to harass me, intentionally flicking me on the head until I woke up before they would leave. Once, at around three in the morning, a prisoner woke me up on purpose because he wanted to check the size of my long johns to see if he could fit into them. He brought a dirty and torn set of thin long johns to exchange with mine. Those were the coldest days of the year, but these prisoners still wanted to take away the only set of long johns I had on me. The people in there were as barbaric as beasts. They had vicious dispositions and sinister hearts, without a shred of humanity, like demons who torture people in hell for fun. Moreover, the food there was even worse than what was fed to dogs and pigs. The first time, I received half a bowl of congee, and saw that there were many black spots in it. I didn’t know what they were, and the color of the congee was also blackish. It was very difficult to swallow. I really wanted to fast at the time, but God’s words enlightened me: “… during these last days you must bear testimony to God. No matter how great your suffering, you should go on to the very end, and even at your last breath, still you must be faithful to God, and at the mercy of God; only this is truly loving God, and only this is the strong and resounding testimony” (“Only by Experiencing Painful Trials Can You Know the Loveliness of God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words were full of love and affection like the comforting of a mother, arousing my courage to face suffering. God wants me to keep on living, but I was too weak, constantly wanting relief through death. I don’t even cherish myself; it is still God who loves me the most. A warmth suddenly surged in my heart, making me so emotional that tears burst from my eyes and dripped into the congee. Being moved by God’s love once again gave me energy. I must eat this meal regardless of how it tastes. I finished off the congee in one breath. After breakfast, the cell head made me scrub the floors. These were the coldest days of the year and there was no hot water, so I could only use cold water for the cleaning cloth. The cell head also ordered me to scrub like this every day. Then, several armed robbers made me memorize the prison rules. If I couldn’t memorize them, they would punch and kick me; getting slapped in the face was even more common. Facing such an environment, I often wondered what I would have to do to be able to satisfy God’s intentions. At night, I pulled my blanket over my head and prayed silently: Oh God, You allowed this environment to befall me, so Your good intentions must lie therein. Please reveal Your intentions to me. At that moment, God’s words enlightened me: “Flowers and grass are spread over the mountains and plains, but before the spring arrives they can add luster to My glory on earth. Can mankind accomplish this? Can they bear witness for Me on earth before My return? Can they offer themselves for the sake of My name in the nation of the great red dragon?” (“The Thirty-fourth Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Yes, the grass and I are all God’s creation. God created us to manifest Him, to glorify Him. The grass is able to add luster to God’s glory on earth before the spring arrives, meaning it has fulfilled its duty as a creation of God. My duty today is to obey God’s orchestration and to bear witness to God before Satan, to let everyone see that Satan is a living demon who harms and devours man, while God is the one true God who loves and saves man. Enduring all this suffering and humiliation now is not because I committed an offense, but is for the sake of God’s name. Enduring this suffering is glorious. The more Satan humiliates me, the more I have to stand on God’s side and love God. That way, God can gain glory, and I would have fulfilled the duty I should have fulfilled. As long as God is happy and pleased, my heart will also receive comfort. I am willing to endure the final suffering to satisfy God and let all be orchestrated by God. When I started to think this way, I felt especially moved in my heart, and was once again unable to control my tears: “Oh God, You are too adorable! I have followed You for so many years, but never had I felt Your tender affection like I have today, or felt as close to You as I do today.” I completely forgot my own suffering and became immersed in this moving feeling for a long, long time …

On my third day at the detention center, a correctional officer took me to their office. Once there, I saw more than a dozen people staring at me with peculiar eyes. One of them held a video camera in front of me to my left, while another walked up to me with a microphone, asking: “Why do you believe in Almighty God?” That was when I realized that this was a media interview, so I answered with proud humility: “Since I was little, I have often been subject to people’s bullying and cold shoulders, and I’ve seen people mutually deceive and take advantage of each other. I felt that this society was too dark, too perilous; people were living empty and helpless lives, with nothing to look forward to and with no life goals. Later, when someone preached the gospel of Almighty God to me, I started believing in it. After believing in Almighty God, I have felt other believers treat me like family. No one in The Church of Almighty God plots against me. Everyone is mutually understanding and caring. They look after each other, and are not afraid to speak what’s on their minds. In Almighty God’s word I have found the purpose and value of life. I think believing in God is pretty good.” The reporter then asked: “Do you know why you are here?” I responded: “After believing in Almighty God, I no longer care about personal gains and losses or honor and disgrace. My heart is turning more and more toward kindness, and I am more and more willing to be a good person. Seeing how Almighty God’s word can truly change people and turn them into good people, I thought if all of mankind can believe in God, then our country would also be much more orderly and the crime rate would also drop. Hence, I decided to tell this good news to other people, but I never knew that such a good deed would be illegal in China. And so I was arrested and brought here.” The reporter saw that my responses were not advantageous toward them, so he immediately stopped the interview and turned around and left. At that moment, the deputy head of the National Security Brigade was so furious that he kept stomping his feet. He stared at me viciously, gnashing his teeth and whispering: “You just wait and see!” But I was not at all afraid of his threats or intimidation. Conversely, I felt deeply honored to have been able to bear witness to God on such an occasion, and moreover I gave glory to God for the exaltation of God’s name and the defeat of Satan.

Temperatures were very low on the day of January 17. As the wicked police had confiscated my cotton coat, I only wore a set of long johns and ended up catching a cold. I came down with a high fever and also could not stop coughing. At night, I wrapped myself up in a worn blanket, enduring the torment of illness while also thinking about the endless mistreatment and abuse of the prisoners toward me. I felt very desolate and helpless. Just as my misery reached a certain extent, a hymn of God’s word echoed in my ear: “If You give me sickness, and take my freedom, I can continue living, but were Your chastisement and judgment to leave me, I would have no way to go on living. If I were without Your chastisement and judgment, I would have lost Your love, a love that is too deep for me to put into words. Without Your love, I would live under the domain of Satan …” (“Peter’s Knowledge of Chastisement and Judgment” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). This was Peter’s genuine and sincere prayer before God. Peter was never driven by the flesh. What he loved dearly and valued was God’s chastisement and judgment. As long as God’s chastisement and judgment did not leave him, his heart would receive its greatest comfort. I should now also follow the example of Peter’s pursuit and understanding. The flesh is corrupted and will inevitably decay. Even if I encounter illness and lose my freedom, it is suffering I should bear. But if I lose God’s chastisement and judgment, that is equivalent to losing God’s presence and love, and also means losing the chance to be cleansed. That is what is most painful. Under God’s enlightenment, I once again experienced God’s love. I also hated my own weakness and worthlessness, and saw that my nature is too selfish, never showing any consideration toward God’s feelings of sadness. The next day, several other prisoners in the same cell fell ill, but my high fever miraculously receded. I felt God’s care and protection toward me and also saw the wonders of God’s work. Over the following few days, the small steamed buns we ate got even smaller, so some of the prisoners started complaining: “Ever since the arrival of the ‘Bishop,’ we’ve first had plague and now we have famine.” They said it was all my fault and that it would only be reasonable if I received the death sentence. One night, a vendor came by the window and the cell head bought a lot of ham, dog meat, chicken thighs, and so forth. In the end, he ordered me to pay. I said I didn’t have the money, so he said viciously: “If you don’t have the money I will slowly torment you!” The next day, he made me wash the bedsheets, clothes, and socks. The correctional officers in the detention center also made me wash their socks. In the detention center, I had to endure their beatings nearly every day. Whenever I could bear it no longer, I would always be guided inside by God’s words: “You must do your final duty for God during your time on earth. In the past, Peter was crucified upside down for God; however, you should satisfy God in the end, and exhaust all of your energy for God. What can a creature do for God? So you should give yourself to the mercy of God sooner rather than later. As long as God is happy and pleased, then let Him do whatever He wants. What right do men have to complain?” (“Interpretation of the Forty-first Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words gave me infinite power. Even though from time to time I would still be subject to the attacks, humiliation, condemnation, and beatings of the prisoners, my soul was able to achieve comfort and joy. Like a powerful warm flow, God’s love pushed me to continue on, enabling me to truly feel that God’s love is too great.

On morning, a correctional officer specifically delivered a sheet of newspaper. The prisoners grinned hideously as they used a mocking tone to read out words from the newspaper slandering and blaspheming Almighty God. I was so furious inside I began gnashing my teeth. The prisoners came over to ask me what it was all about, and I said loudly: “This is a smear by the Communist Party!” Listening to these prisoners all just following the crowd and smearing the truth and blaspheming God by speaking the same language as the devil, I seemingly saw the coming of their end. As the sin of blaspheming God shall never be forgiven, anyone who offends God’s disposition will receive the heaviest punishment and retribution! By doing this, the Communist Party is taking all the people of China to their ultimate doom, completely exposing its true face as a soul-eating demon! Later the police officer in charge of my case interrogated me again. This time, he did not use torture to try to force a confession, and instead changed to using a “kind” face to ask me: “Who is your leader? I’ll give you another chance. If you tell us, you’ll be all right. I will show you great leniency. You were innocent in the first place, but other people ratted you out. So why cover for them? You seem like such a well-behaved person. Why give your life for them? If you tell us, you can go home. Why stay here and suffer?” These two-faced hypocrites saw that the hard approach didn’t work, so they decided to try the soft approach. They really are full of cunning tricks and old masters of machinations and maneuvers! Seeing that hypocritical face of his filled my heart with hate for this bunch of demons. I said to him: “I’ve told you everything I know. I don’t know anything else.” Upon seeing my resolute attitude, he knew he could not get anything out of me, so he walked away dejectedly.

After being held at the detention center for half a month, I was released only after the police asked my family to pay 8,000 yuan in bond money. But they warned me not to go anywhere and that I must stay at home and guarantee to be on call. On the day I was released, the correctional officers did not give me any food to eat intentionally, while the prisoners said: “Your God is amazing. We were not sick people, but we all became sick people here. You came here full of illnesses, but now you’re leaving without any illness. Good on you!” In this moment, my heart became even more thankful and full of praise toward God! My uncle is a prison guard. He kept suspecting that I was released because my father has a special connection to someone powerful, or else there’s no way I would have been released from a high-security prison within half a month—at the very least it should have been three months. My whole family knew very well that this was determined by God’s omnipotence and that it was God revealing His wonderful work on me. I saw clearly that this was the contest between God and Satan. No matter how savage and vicious Satan is, it will always be defeated by God. From then on, I became convinced that everything I encountered was part of God’s arrangement. In late May, 2011, under the crime of “disturbing social order,” the Communist police got me sentenced to one year of re-education through labor, to be served outside prison under surveillance, and suspended for two years.

After experiencing this persecution and tribulation, I had an understanding and could discern the evil essence of the atheist Communist Party of China, and developed a deep-seated hatred toward it. All it does is use violent methods to maintain its ruling status, striking and suppressing all just causes and detesting the truth to the extreme. It is God’s greatest enemy. So it can achieve its goal of permanently controlling people, it stops at nothing to obstruct and disrupt God’s work on earth, furiously suppressing and persecuting believers of God, using both the carrot and the stick, getting others to do its bidding, saying one thing while doing another, and concealing deception and schemes at every turn. The contrast it provides allows me to see even more that only God’s word can bring people life during suffering. When people are at their most desperate or at the brink of death, God’s word is like the water of life, nourishing people’s dry hearts. It’s also like a miraculous elixir that can cure the wounds of people’s souls, rescuing them from danger, fueling their lives with confidence and courage, and bringing them unlimited energy, letting them enjoy the sweetness of God’s word amid their suffering, that can give comfort to their souls, and make them feel that the vitality of God’s word is inexhaustible and never-ending. Throughout this half-month of prison life, if God had not been with me, using His words to remind, enlighten, and encourage me, there was no way my weak nature could have withstood such suffering. If it were not for God looking after and protecting me, there was no way my weak and fragile body could have withstood the torture and ill-treatment of the wicked police, which, even had it not tormented me to death, would have left my body sick and wounded. But God wonderfully protected me through those darkest, most difficult days, and even cured my original illness. God really is too almighty! His love for me is really too deep, too great! I really don’t know how to express my gratitude toward God, and can only say from the bottom of my heart: Oh God, I hope to love You ever deeper! No matter how rough and bumpy the road ahead is or how much suffering I must endure, I will obey Your orchestration and be determined to follow You to the end!

Although my physical body suffered a little through this experience, the benefits I have gained from it are significant. This is a turning point in my road of believing in God, as well as a new starting point in my road of believing in God. I feel deeply that, in the ten years I have believed in God, I have never appreciated God’s love as deeply as I do today, and truly felt that the value and meaning of believing in God, following God, and worshiping God is too great; and moreover, I have never been as willing to seek loving God and offer my remaining life to repay God’s love as much as I do today. I would like to take this opportunity to offer my heartfelt appreciation and praise. All glory and praise to Almighty God.

Read More

This Is How I Welcomed the Lord

This Is How I Welcomed the Lord

Xiyue, Japan

When I was six years old my mother believed in the Lord Jesus, and she would often bring me to church gatherings. I slowly became aware of the fact that man was created by God, that if we are in trouble we should pray to God and rely on God, and that we should thank God for everything. My mother told me: “God loves people, so long as we pray to God and entrust Him with what’s on our mind and truly rely on Him, then He will solve our problems and bestow us with bountiful grace. As long as we truly believe in the Lord then He will come in the future to receive us into the kingdom of heaven!” Listening to mother’s words, my heart felt at peace and free from anxiety, I felt like I had something to rely on, and I firmly believed that one day the Lord Jesus would return to bring us into the kingdom of heaven. I looked forward to and dreamed of the arrival of this day.

Later on, because of unforeseen events in my life, I started working at a clothing factory in my hometown before graduating from junior high school. At the factory, since I was young and had a particularly introverted personality, I didn’t dare to take the initiative to talk with people, and I would often be bullied by my coworkers. My mother would often explain to me: “We are believers in the Lord, no matter what happens to us in the world we must learn to exercise patience, we must do everything according to the word of the Lord, we cannot quarrel with others….” I took mother’s words to heart, so I told myself to show patience and tolerance in all things. Sometimes I would encounter a situation that I felt was really unfair, and there would be a lot of pain in my heart, but any time this happened, I would hum the hymn “Lord, You Are My Closest Friend,” and I would tell the Lord about the pain I was feeling. I felt that only the Lord was my closest friend, and if today I practiced my faith in the Lord and relied on Him then in the future I’d be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whenever I had these kinds of thoughts I wouldn’t feel so much pain in my heart. Thanks be to the Lord, for I have leaned on these convictions to get through these past many years.

In 2013, right when I turned 21, I left the clothing factory to find work in a big city. There was a kind of strangeness in everything in this place. Every morning I would face the throngs of people and unending flow of cars. It took a great effort just to squeeze onto a bus and rush to work, and then I would be constantly busy working up until lunch time, where I would always scarf something down and then get right back to work. I toiled like this for a month but after my daily expenses I didn’t really have any spending money left over. Facing this kind of life pressure made me feel bitter, like I had been wronged, and I couldn’t help but complain: Everyone else lives so naturally and unrestrained, why is it that I’m so worn out? When will days like this come to an end? I felt deeply that life in the big city was not at all as good as how I imagined it would be, this fast-paced life was stifling, and it gave me little time to get close to God. Every time I would get a call from home, my mother would never forget to remind me: “Sweetheart, you must be sure to pray to the Lord often…. You must remember, the Lord will soon come to receive us and bring us into the kingdom of heaven.” I kept my mother’s words in my heart, looking forward to the Lord arriving soon to receive us and bring us into the kingdom of heaven.

In 2014 I got an opportunity to go to Japan for work, and I hoped to be able to complete my three-year contract over there. As soon as I got to Japan everything around me felt so new and odd, but over time I discovered that life here was not as good as back home. At work in the factory I would often be scolded, and there was also a language barrier. Among my coworkers there was constant infighting, everyone was ambitious and aggressive, and everyone vied to show off in front of the boss. What was even more difficult for me to accept was that some of my coworkers were double-tongued, they would act one way in front of people and then another way behind their backs, so I was often being deceived and judged. Because we were spurred on in the name of self-interest, there were no feelings between us, I didn’t have true friends, it was our own interests above all else. For the sake of our own interests, friendships could be calculated and close relatives could be betrayed, everything could be set aside, and this made me feel like the world was so desolate. I really wanted to get away from them, but in reality I had no choice but to accept this way of living. As the saying goes, “survival of the fittest,” I had no choice, and after a while I learned what to say to the people I saw. In order to have good relations, I would accompany them to KTV and to bars. I saw that the people around me were all vying for their own interests and fighting for fame and fortune. They would even quarrel nonstop about the little things in life like paying utilities. Living in this kind of environment, I too didn’t want to be at a disadvantage, so I lived with no regard for others, I didn’t show tolerance or patience toward others, and I absolutely did not practice the Lord’s teachings. In this foreign land I didn’t have any close relatives, and I didn’t have any true friends, so I felt lonely, and I gradually discovered that I didn’t feel the Lord by my side through my prayers. This brought me even more sorrow, and often when I got off work I’d lock myself in my room without eating or speaking to anyone else. I’d sit on the floor, shedding tears in silence. At that time I felt that there was not a single person in this world who sincerely cared for me, my life had no significance, and I even thought about committing suicide, but I didn’t have the courage to go through with it. Every time that I felt lost in a situation I always thought about the Lord’s promise to us, that He would come receive us and bring us back to the heavenly home, and I thought that maybe this place that the Lord was preparing for us was the only true pure land, and I really wanted that day to arrive soon!

Just when I started to feel the plight of solitude and suffering, Guo, a new coworker of mine, spread the gospel of Almighty God in the last days to me. She told me that the Lord Jesus has returned, and that He is carrying out the work of judging man and cleansing man. When I heard this news my heart jumped, but I also felt like I couldn’t dare accept it to be true. It excited me that the Lord had returned, it felt like I could once again see hope in my life, but I couldn’t dare accept it to be true. Could it be true? I had always looked forward to the Lord coming, but the Lord never came. I had originally thought that I would wait my entire life without the Lord coming, but now I’ve heard all of a sudden that the Lord has returned. This astonished me, it was hard to believe. Seeing my suspicion and astonishment, Guo said to me: “God has been incarnated as the Son of man to appear on earth and carry out His work, and He is called by a new name, Almighty God.” After telling me this she handed me a copy of Classic Words of Almighty God on the Gospel of the Kingdom (Selections), and told me that the words in this book were spoken by God Himself, and that they are the truth expressed by Almighty God enabling mankind to be cleansed and attain salvation. She gave it to me to take home and read carefully. Seeing how sincere she was, I accepted the book from her. Since I do not want to miss the opportunity of welcoming the Lord’s arrival, I decided to carefully investigate the work of Almighty God in the last days.

As I read Classic Words of Almighty God on the Gospel of the Kingdom (Selections) I thought to myself: I never heard about the word of God being anywhere besides the Bible, what is being written about in this book? I opened the book with a heart that carried both impatience and curiosity, and I read this passage: “Many of those who follow God are only concerned with how to gain blessings or avoid disaster. At the mention of the work and management of God, they fall silent and lose all interest. They believe that knowing such tedious questions will not grow their lives or be of any benefit, and so although they have heard messages about the management of God, they treat them casually. And they do not see them as something precious to be accepted, much less do they receive them as part of their lives. Such people have one very simple aim in following God: to gain blessing, and they are too lazy to attend to anything that doesn’t involve this aim. For them, believing in God to gain blessings is the most legitimate of goals and the very value of their faith. They are unaffected by anything that cannot achieve this objective. Such is the case with most of those who believe in God today” (“Man Can Only Be Saved Amidst the Management of God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). When I read this passage I felt a painful heat on my face, as if I’d been slapped, and I was at a loss for what to do. I felt that the words spoken by Almighty God were very harsh, and also very blunt. These words hit the nail on the head with my intentions and viewpoints these past many years regarding my faith in God. Until now I thought that to believe in God was to receive blessings and grace, that when something was the matter we can turn to God to seek and request things from Him, and that God ought to bestow such things to man free of charge. I also thought that if I believe in God then isn’t God’s blessing something that I ought to have? I thought this over carefully, if God didn’t promise that I would go to heaven and obtain eternal life, then I certainly would not believe in Him. It was in this moment that I finally recognized that my viewpoint of faith in God was incorrect, and that it did not conform to the will of God, but I didn’t understand what the proper viewpoint of faith in God was, and at the same time I still had doubts: If Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus, then why hasn’t He raptured me into the kingdom of heaven?

Later on, when I met with brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God I looked to them for answers to these two questions. Sister Huixin fellowshiped to me: “God created mankind, He gave us the air we breathe, and He gave us life. In order to allow us to live an even better existence, He gave us everything. We are breathing air created by God, enjoying sunshine and rain given to us by God and eating meals with all kinds of fruits and vegetables given to us by God. We are creatures, it is proper and right to believe in God and worship God. It’s just like children being obedient to their parents. We should not emphasize conditions or try to make deals, nor should we demand God’s grace and blessing. No matter whether we receive blessings or misfortune we should always believe in God and worship God. This is how it was with Job, it was because of his faith that he received blessings, but it was also because of his faith that he came across trials and calamities, but he was always able to praise God, so Job’s faith attained the praise of God.” Through this sister’s fellowship I finally came to some understanding of how man was created by God, how believing in God is proper and right, how it’s just like children being obedient to their parents, how we shouldn’t emphasize conditions, and how no matter whether or not God blesses us, we should always believe in God and worship God. Thinking about these things, I said to the sister: “I’m willing to set aside my conceptions to examine Almighty God’s word and work.” Sister Guo replied: “Thanks be to God! As long as we thirst to seek in our hearts, God will enlighten and guide us, allowing us to see His appearance in the word of God. On The Church of Almighty God’s website you can read more of the word of God and there are also gospel videos and music videos….” As she was saying this she opened the Gospel of the Descent of Kingdom web page and had me look at the content on The Church of Almighty God’s website. I was pleasantly surprised: Wow! There were so many videos and movies! They even had collections of the word of God and hymn videos of God’s word, and testimony articles of brothers and sisters…. It really was abundant, a feast for the eyes. I didn’t know where to start. As I was browsing the web page, one movie—Awakening From the Dream—really caught my attention, and its content really was great. This film remains fresh in my memory to this day. The main character, holding on to her childhood dream of entering the kingdom of heaven through her faith in the Lord, followed the Lord, working for the Lord, spending and sacrificing for Him, but when the Lord returned to express the truth and carry out the work of judgment in the last days, she held on to her convictions and did not accept God’s new work, holding on to her dream of being raptured into the kingdom of heaven. Through fellowships about the truth by sisters from The Church of Almighty God, she came to understand the mystery behind being raptured into the kingdom of heaven, and recognized that she herself was a Pharisee, that she believed in the Lord but did not welcome Him or submit to Him, and that she even resisted His arrival. Through the judgment and chastisement of God’s word, she set aside her convictions and truly turned to God to repent, shedding tears of indebtedness and guilt. This film is so real! I thought about my own experience, how I also had a childhood dream of the kingdom of heaven, and how I had imagined that one day I would wear pure white robes, grow a pair of wings and be able to fly anywhere I wanted to…. For the sake of this dream there have been so many Christians who have looked forward to the day when the Lord will come to rapture them into the kingdom of heaven, but none of them realized that this was just the dream of man, and not the actual situation of God coming to rapture us into the kingdom of heaven, because to actually be raptured means to accept God’s work in the last days and come to God!

In this film there is a scene where Sister Yang says: “Let’s read some words from Almighty God, ‘At the time Jesus’ work was the redemption of all mankind. The sins of all who believed in Him were forgiven; as long as you believed in Him, He would redeem you; if you believed in Him, you were no longer a sinner, you were relieved of your sins. This is what it meant to be saved, and to be justified by faith. Yet in those who believed, there remained that which was rebellious and opposed God, and which still had to be slowly removed. Salvation did not mean man had been completely gained by Jesus, but that man was no longer of sin, that he had been forgiven his sins: Provided you believed, you would never more be of sin’ (‘The Vision of God’s Work (2)’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘Before man was redeemed, many of Satan’s poisons were already planted within him. After thousands of years of Satan’s corruption, man already has within him a nature that resists God. Therefore, when man has been redeemed, it is nothing more than redemption, where man is bought at a high price, but the poisonous nature within has not been eliminated. Man that is so defiled must undergo a change before being worthy to serve God. Through this work of judgment and chastisement, man will fully come to know the filthy and corrupt substance within him, and he will be able to completely change and become clean. Only in this way can man be worthy to return before the throne of God. … Though man has been redeemed and forgiven of his sins, it is only considered as God not remembering the transgressions of man and not treating man in accordance with man’s transgressions. However, when man lives in the flesh and he has not been set free from sin, he can only continue to sin, endlessly revealing the corrupt satanic disposition. This is the life that man leads, an endless cycle of sin and forgiveness. The majority of men sin in the day only to confess in the evening. As such, even if the sin offering is forever effective for man, it would not be able to save man from sin. Only half the work of salvation has been completed, for man still has corrupt disposition’ (‘The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). These words of God really explain it quite clearly with no doubt. They’re so easy to understand! In the Age of Grace, Lord Jesus only did redemptive work. Man’s sins were forgiven. They were justified and saved by faith. But Lord Jesus never said that man could enter His kingdom this way. That’s because Lord Jesus had forgiven man’s sins, but not mankind’s satanic nature. Arrogance and deceit, selfishness, and evil, all these corruptions still exist within us today. And these are much deeper and more stubborn than sins. If our satanic nature of opposing God and our corruption remain unresolved, we could still commit sins not of our own volition, even worse, sins than simply violating the laws of God. We ask: Why did the Pharisees condemn the Lord Jesus and stand against Him, even nail Him to the cross? This proves to us that with man’s satanic nature, they can still disobey God, sin, and betray Him.”

Through listening to this passage from the video, I came to understand that accepting the Lord Jesus’ salvation only absolves us of our sins, it does not enable us to escape from our sinful nature, and this is the reason why once we have faith in the Lord, even if we often confess our sins and repent, we still frequently commit sins. This is because God’s work in the Age of Grace only absolved man of his sins and saved man by his faith, but there is still not a path for how to escape from our sins and be cleansed, it is still necessary for God to carry out a stage of work to eliminate our sins, only then will we be able to completely escape from the binds of our sins and be cleansed and attain salvation. I thought about myself and how if I hadn’t read Almighty God’s words of judgment and chastisement and seen God reveal man’s erroneous viewpoints on faith in God, then I wouldn’t have recognized that my intention and viewpoint to believe in God just to receive blessings were mistaken, I wouldn’t have been able to see my own corruption, I wouldn’t have recognized that my way of pursuit was an expression of my selfishness and despicableness, and I would have kept on thinking that it was okay to seek grace and blessings through faith in the Lord. In addition, although I believed in the Lord, I still followed the trends of the world, I still coveted wealth and sought to eat, drink and have fun, I still scrambled for reputation and fortune and plotted against others, I was still living in sin, unable to free myself, and I only came to some sort of understanding of these corruptions through the judgment and revelations of Almighty God’s words. I feel that God’s carrying out the work of judgment and chastisement by the word in the last days is absolutely essential, and that it really can cleanse people and save people! How else could people like me who are filthy and corrupt be qualified to enter into the kingdom of heaven?

Thanks be to God! Never in my dreams did I think when I came to Japan to find work that I would actually be welcoming the return of our Savior and witnessing the appearance of God. I started to eagerly read Almighty God’s words, actively take part in church life, and gather together with brothers and sisters to fellowship about the word of God. Whenever I had time I watched gospel movies, choir videos, music videos and other videos from The Church of Almighty God. Thanks be to God for His guidance, for I am understanding more and more truths, and my spirit is enjoying peace and stability. Nowadays I am no longer living with worries nor am I in pain, and I certainly do not have suicidal thoughts. It was the word of God that strengthened my faith and allowed me to see a bright and beautiful future. I am ready to pursue the truth along with my brothers and sisters, and to seek out how to best fulfill the duties of a creature in order to repay God’s love, for only by living in this way can I have a truly meaningful life!

Read More