🎵🎶 Eastern Lightning | A Hymn of God's Words "The Effect of God's Work of Word in the Last Days"

Eastern Lightning | A Hymn of God's Words
The Effect of God's Work of Word in the Last Days

I

In the work of the last days, the word is mightier Its authority surpasses all signs and wonders. The corrupt dispositions that are within man's heart, you're unable to recognize, but the word reveals. When they are revealed to you, you'll naturally realize them. You'll be fully convinced and won't deny them. This is the authority of the word. This is what's achieved by the present work of the word.

II

Before man's redemption, Satan's poisons were put in them. Corrupted for thousands of years, man's nature, against God. Therefore, when man was redeemed, bought at a high price, their poisonous nature still remained, not removed as yet. A man so filthy and corrupt must be changed before serving God. Judged and chastised by God, man gets clean, worthy to return to God. Judgment, chastisement, refinement, all the work done this day is achieved by the word of God to make man clean and changed. This is the authority of the word. This is what's achieved by the present work of the word.

III

"Word" sounds simple and ordinary. But the word from the mouth of God in flesh shakes the entire universe. It transforms the heart, notions, old dispositions of man, and transforms the old appearance of the entire world. This is the authority of the word. This is what's achieved by the present work of the word. This is the authority of the word. This is what's achieved by the present work of the word. This is the authority of the word. This is what's achieved by the present work of the word.

from in The Word Appears in the Flesh

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The Church of Almighty God-Farewell to Those Days of Wrestling With Fate

Farewell to Those Days of Wrestling With Fate-Eastern Lightning

Yixin

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

A rustic village fallen behind, my parents exhausted from their work, a life in financial straits … these gloomy memories were branded on to my young mind, they were my first impression of “fate.” After I started attending school, the first time I heard my teacher say that “You control your fate in your own hands,” I kept these words firmly in my mind. I believed that although I could not change the fact that I was born into poverty, I could still change my own fate through hard work. As a result, I exerted my full strength to wrestle with my “fate,” and gain a slice of heaven to call my own.

A Setback in My Studies

Just like generation after generation of countless students, my determination to study and get into college was the first step in changing my fate. To this end, I studied hard. When in class I listened attentively, when outside of class while other students were all out playing, I was still studying, often immersed in my books deep into the night. Due to my rigorous studying, my grades were always among the best. Every time that my teachers or classmates would cast gazes of admiration upon me it would reinforce my conviction that “I need to rely on my own two hands to carve out a place in the world for myself.” But the ways of the world are unpredictable. As I was striving for these beautiful ideals, my father suddenly fell ill. After being examined we found that he had cirrhosis, and that it had already progressed into the middle stages. My father grew swollen all over his body due to the illness, and not only was he not able to work, he also had to spend a lot of money on doctor visits. For a period of time all house work, as well as farm work on over 3 acres of land, fell on to my mother, and at the same time my mother also came down with a serious gynecological disease. One day my father told me, with a face laden with grief: “Daughter, right now our entire family is relying on just your mother for support. Her burden is very heavy. It costs a lot of money to send four kids to school to study for a year. We really don’t have any way to provide all of you with schooling. You are the oldest, so you should consider your brothers and sisters. Why don’t you stop going to school so that we can set aside this opportunity for your brothers and sisters?” After listening to my father’s words, I felt an overwhelming pain in my heart: I had always hoped to study hard and become an outstanding person, but if I acquiesced to my father’s wish that I give up on my studies, then wouldn’t all of my prospects and hopes just all of a sudden completely vanish?! My eyes were full of teardrops, and I felt a fit of sadness in my heart. I knew that my father had thought it over for a long time before saying these words, and looking at my sick mother, I could not bear to lay such a heavy burden down upon her. Confronted with my family’s impoverished financial situation, I had no choice but to compromise with the current situation and fight back the tears as I acquiesced to my father’s wishes.

Without having finished junior high school, I was young but I was full of ambition. Although I wasn’t able to finish my studies, I quickly set my sights on getting a temporary job to make money. I believed that through hard work I could still absolutely change my fate. Before too long, through a relative’s introduction, I went to the city to work at a textile factory. In order to make more money I worked as hard as I could. Where other people watched after two machines I watched after four, and when others took breaks I would go on working. The boss saw that I was reliable and capable, and within five months of working he increased my wages to as much as what workers who had been there for a long time working. My workmates all cast looks of envy upon me.

That year as I was feeling proud of my success and wanting to keep working hard, mother spread the gospel of Almighty God in the last days to me. Mother told me that God rules over and arranges all things, and that everyone’s fate is administered in God’s hands, but in my proud and arrogant mind there was only the belief that “You control your fate in your own hands,” and I simply did not listen to my mother’s words. In this instance, in my brief encounter with God’s salvation, I did not receive the gospel spread by my mother, rather I continued struggling and fighting in the world.

I went on in this way for several years, and my life started to stabilize. Not only did I have a little savings for myself, I was also frequently able to give a little to my family. I felt that so long as I continued working hard then I would certainly have bright and boundless prospects. As I was lost in the tide of pursuing wealth and the pleasures of the flesh, an unexpected car accident smashed my entire life plan. I laid unconscious in a hospital bed for three days and three nights, and after I awoke I couldn’t say anything. I was just like a mute. It was only after the doctor let me get out of bed to move around a little that I realized that due to the seriousness of my injury I could not move the entire left side of my body. There was no way that I could accept this reality, I was only twenty years old! If from now on I was to always be paralyzed in bed like this, then wouldn’t my splendid youth be ruined? My beautiful life had not even started, and could it really be coming to an end? I was grieved and heart-broken, I wanted to cry but shed no tears, and I did not know how to face the future. … At this time, my mother came to my side to console me. She told me, “Daughter, it was because God protects you that you were able to wake up! Don’t you know? The doctor said that even if you were able to wake up you would be a vegetable. As soon as your father and I heard this our hearts grew cold. For the past several days I’ve been constantly praying to God, delivering you into God’s hands, willing to submit to God’s sovereignty. Thank God! Look at you, now you have awoken. This is God taking pity on you. It is God’s gracious will that this car accident fell upon you! Although we have suffered some pain in the flesh, isn’t it through facing this kind of situation that we are able to turn away from the world and turn toward God? Daughter, you must start believing in God with me right away!” As I saw mother hold back tears while she spread the gospel to me, my heart finally felt stirred. Mother said that while I was unconscious she was constantly praying to God. Regardless of whether or not it was possible for me to wake up, in either case she was willing to submit to God’s orchestration and arrangement. She didn’t actually expect that I would wake up. As I was listening to all of this, I felt that God really was great! Although I had refused His salvation, He had not given up on me. When calamity fell upon me, His protections were by my side all along. He took pity on me and protected me, and He saved me from death. I could not help but start to feel some appreciation toward God. Because of God’s care and protection my body recovered extremely fast, and I was discharged from the hospital one month ahead of schedule.

Persisting to Go About Things the Wrong Way

Although I had enjoyed God’s love and mercy, I still did not understand the true significance of believing in God, so I did not treat having faith in God as a serious matter. It wasn’t until after my body had recovered some that mother suggested that I find a job close to home to eke out a living, and that she hoped that I would spend more of my spare time on practicing my faith in God. But I was not willing to live this kind of life. I waited until my leg injury healed completely and then left home without hesitation to work a temporary job. During this job I had a relationship with a boy, and after courting each other for a period of time, he asked me to marry him, promising me that he would love me for the rest of our lives. I thought about how my studies had been obstructed over the years, how part way through I also suffered a car accident, and how after these efforts I still wasn’t able to change my fate. So this time I placed my hope of changing my fate onto this marriage. If I married a man who was willing to promise to love me for my whole life, then the latter part of my life would certainly be happy and blissful. I carried this vision of a beautiful life with me into the marriage hall. But unexpectedly, once I was married, it completely wasn’t how I imagined it would be. My husband would often quarrel with me because of trifling matters, and my mother-in-law was also tepid toward me, and would even instigate my husband to quarrel with me. … I lived in suffering with no one to console me. What’s more, the family I was married off to lived far away, so there was nobody around me that I could find to open up to. Under this feeling of helplessness, all I could do was go off again and look for a temporary job. Due to my husband and I living in two different locations, it wasn’t long until we felt like strangers. After five years of marriage my husband brought up getting a divorce, telling me that he had already met another woman that he liked more. When I heard him say this, my mind felt completely empty, and I thought to myself, “What do I do? Everyone says that divorce to a woman is the same as being half alive, so how should I live the latter part of my life?” As I signed my divorce certificate, I was by myself carrying luggage onto a train to head back home, and I started to cry uncontrollably. I had a deep sense of the pain people experience while living in this world, and I had an even greater sense of the unprecedented solitude that faced me. It was such a big world but there was no place where I could stay. I felt quite desolate. I really wanted to kill myself to end it all. But then I thought about my father who was growing older with each passing day, and I felt a sense of hesitation: If I died, what would my father’s grief do to him! It was out of the question. I could not die in that way. I must wipe my tears dry, bite the bullet and continue living.

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The Church of Almighty God-What Allows Me to Regain a Happy Life?

What Allows Me to Regain a Happy Life?-Eastern Lightning

Xiaoping

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

This is an age when people care very much about physical attractiveness and a good looking body. With a beautiful face and a slim figure, I turned heads no matter what kind of clothes I wore. People around me often praised me and envied that I had both a great figure and a great face, and my husband was also very kind to me. Because of this, I was especially confident. No matter where I went, I walked with my head held high and my back straight. I displayed myself to receive praise from others. In my heart I believed: As long as a woman has a graceful figure and a pretty face, she could rewrite her own life.

However, unexpectedly, after having a child, I began to put on weight. Gradually, my husband began to dislike me, and he said I had a chubby stomach and fat legs. Some people also joked sarcastically at me, saying that I even put on weight when I drank water, and that I was so fat that I was out of shape. Listening to these words, I felt especially awful. My face burned as if I was slapped. When I had used to go out, people praised my beauty, but now they all ridiculed me. It was as if I fell from heaven to hell. The drastic contrast seriously damaged my pride, and I felt so painful inside. One time, I went shopping with my husband, and I was buying trousers for him in a department store. Two shop assistants quietly whispered behind me, “This guy is so young and handsome. How is he with this big fat woman?” When I heard their critiques, I was so angry that I threw the pants onto the counter, and then turned and left. I couldn’t stop my tears from flowing. I thought: These days, people only value a good face and a nice figure. If a woman doesn’t have a beautiful face and a slim figure, then there’s no way for her to stand in society. So, I made up my mind: When I stop breastfeeding my child, I’ll try to lose weight. I’ll make those people who laughed at me envious and jealous! Later, a friend of mine said to me, “Look at how chubby you’ve become. So many men have a young mistress these days. If you keep getting fatter and don’t try to lose weight, what will you do if one day your husband becomes unfaithful and finds a mistress?” When I heard things like this, I became more miserable inside, and I felt a strong sense of danger. I thought: When my figure hadn’t changed, my husband obeyed everything I said. After I put on weight, my husband started to dislike me. If things go according to what my friend said, this would be awful. I can’t allow something like this to happen. I felt very anxious. In those days, even in my dreams I dreamed that my husband ran off with some other woman. This made me feel even more that losing weight is of utmost importance. After my child was weaned, I looked for effective short-term ways of losing weight through acquaintances and the Internet. I even consulted experts in weight loss, who said to me, “If you want a slim figure, you have to pay the price. A married woman like you especially needs to look after her weight. You’re still young. It’s too late if you want to lose weight when you’re older. Your figure is your confidence. Only when your figure is better can you grasp your husband’s heart.” The expert was right! Only when a woman has a perfect figure can she have total confidence and restore her image in others’ minds. So, I started to implement my own weight loss plans without hesitation, looking for “secret recipes” for losing weight.

One time, my younger sister said to me that her neighbor took some diet pills and lost around 15 kg in one month. I was really excited after hearing it, and I got my sister to look into it and buy a few boxes for me. My sister said, “Sis, every medicine has its side effect. It will surely do some impact to your body. You have to be careful.” When I heard this, I was a bit worried. I was afraid that maybe it really had some side effects that would damage my body. But then I thought: When my figure was good, my husband and people around me all praised me and were envious. However, after my figure became bad, all that I have encountered is sarcasm, jokes, and humiliation. There’s so much difference between the two. I’ll just throw caution to the winds. I don’t care about whether taking this medicine is dangerous to my body. As long as it could make me slimmer, nothing else is important. So, I started taking weight loss pills. Normally, I should have taken one pill a day, but I increased the dosage to achieve a faster result. Because of the stimulus from the pills, I could only sleep about two to three hours a night. My head felt bloated, my eyes hurt, and my heart began palpitating. I also stopped having proper meals every day, but only ate various fruits and vegetables which can lower fat like cucumbers, tomatoes, and watermelons. I only had some plain noodles twice a month. Since I lacked both nutrition and sleep, I became a bit dazed. But so that I could regain my original slim body after the diet, I felt that this wasn’t much pain to suffer through. Determination would lead to success. After some time, every day, I would try on a nice dress that my friend had given me. In the beginning, I could only pull it over my head, but after a month, I could finally put it on easily. I happily stood in the courtyard admiring myself, but suddenly I saw blackness and collapsed. Seeing this, my husband angrily said to me, “You’re really throwing away your life to be beautiful!” But I ignored his words. No matter what, I slimmed down now. I didn’t suffer in vain this past month. Later, I purposefully wore pretty dresses and went out into the streets. I wanted to let those people who had used to joke about my weight see my slim figure. When my neighbors saw me, sure enough, they were surprised, “Wow! How did you slim down so quickly? Your weight loss is really successful!” Once again, they gazed at me with envy and jealousy. At that time, my husband didn’t say sarcastic things as he did before, and his attitude toward me improved. He even smiled at me and said, “You really do look better when you’re thin!” Listening to these words, my vanity was satisfied once again. My desire to lose weight became even stronger. I got addicted as if I was on drugs, and I couldn’t even have stopped if I wanted to. I still thought that my figure wasn’t perfect enough, so I bought another box of weight loss pills. But I could never have thought that when I slimmed down to the figure I wanted, suffering would follow on.

One morning, when I woke up I found that there were many small red spots on my body, even on my scalp and in my ears. I immediately had my mother accompany me to the hospital for an examination. The doctor said I had psoriasis, a refractory skin disease. It couldn’t be totally cured, but could only be controlled as much as possible through medicine. The reason was because my immunity was lowered and I had no resistance, so that the toxin in my body was unable to be purged and remain in my bloodstream. I had never imagined that, while pursuing a slim figure, I would catch a skin disease that caused anyone who saw me to distance themselves. This price is too high. Later, I had very itchy reddish patches from head to toe. My husband despised me and kept his distance too. Additionally, I didn’t dare to go out and was afraid of being laughed at. I felt exceedingly painful inside, and cried every day. I had tried to lose weight to show off my body, but now, not only could I not show off, but I brought trouble upon myself. Other people could wear short tops and pants, but I had to wrap myself up tightly to hide the patches I had all over my body. I was so regretful, but things being what they were, there was no way to turn back. I could only look everywhere for doctors to cure my skin problems. However, all medicine could only control it for a time, but not cure the cause. What made me even more pained was that weight loss drug induces dependency—since I stopped taking weight loss pills because of my sickness, I quickly got fat again. The ridicule from people and cold-shoulder and dislike from my family made me feel very distressed, and I even had suicidal thoughts. I had always pursued a perfect figure and always wanted to change my own fate through losing weight, but, not only did I not lose weight, I even caught this disease and brought myself great damages. In particular, I saw that some people around me got insomnia, heart diseases or anorexia for losing weight, and some even got stomach cancer and paid for beauty with their lives. All this made me feel lost: What did I do this for? Is it just so that people would praise me? Is it really worth it to damage my body to this extent?

Later, I had the fortune to accept Almighty God’s work of the last days. In a gathering, I fellowshiped about my process of losing weight to the sisters, and one of them read me a passage of Almighty God’s words: “Your temperament, caliber, appearance, stature, family in which you were born, your job and your marriage, the entirety of you, even the color of your hair and your skin, and the time of your birth were all arranged by My hands. Even the things you do and the people you meet every single day are arranged by My hands, not to mention the fact that bringing you into My presence today is actually My arrangement. Do not throw yourself into disorder; you should proceed calmly” (The Word Appears in the Flesh). The sister fellowshiped, “Everything is predestined by God, including the kind of marriage and family we have, what appearance and skin color we have, when we are fat, and when we are thin. It is not something that anyone or anything could change. What God gives us is all the best, it is all meaningful, but we are not able to obey God’s sovereignty and predestination, and we always feel that everything God bestows is not to our will. We always want to pursue perfectness and oppose God’s sovereignty and change all that God has given us. That is why we have self-harmed and brought ourselves so much pain. Look at such and such in my working unit. In pursuit of beauty, she messed up her nerves when undergoing a lip line surgery and now she has a crooked mouth. Some other people, in order to lose weight, went to have liposuction and died on the spot. The reason these people have encountered such disasters is because they do not understand God’s authority and sovereignty. This is the bitter consequence of their vain attempt to change their fate by themselves.”

Through God’s words and the sister’s fellowship, I knew that the kind of marriage, family, appearance, and figure I have are all in God’s hand. God has already arranged it. It is not something that I can change when I want to. However, because I had no understanding of God’s sovereignty, I tried to change my own fate through losing weight. As a result, I spent a lot of money and suffered a lot of hardships, but in the end, not only did I not change my fate, I caught an obstinate skin disease and suffered from it every day…. I am truly too foolish and ignorant! Later, I partook in church life with brothers and sisters, singing hymns in praise of God, fellowshiping about God’s words, and sharing our own respective experiences and witnesses. In my association with them, I saw that those brothers and sisters dress very plainly. They do not pursue physical attractiveness or a good figure. They accept and submit to whatever God has given to them, and they live relaxed and carefree. They help and support each other and treat everyone fairly. They do not deal with somebody differently because of differences in their appearance and figure. This gave me consolation and release. I also realized that I could no longer rely on weight loss to change my own fate. The whole life of every person is in God’s hands, and I must submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangement.

Later, I saw these words of God: “It is like someone saying to you: ‘Your face is shaped wonderfully. Just a little short along the bridge of the nose, but if you have that fixed, you will be a world-class beauty!’ For someone who has never wanted to have cosmetic surgery, would their heart be moved hearing these words? (Yes.) So are these words seductive? Is this seduction tempting to you? Is it testing? (Yes.) Does God say things like this? (No.) Was there any hint of this in God’s words that we looked at just now? (No.)Why? Does God say what He thinks in His heart? Can man see God’s heart through His words? (Yes.) But when the serpent had spoken those words to the woman, were you able to see its heart? (No.) And because of man’s ignorance, they were easily seduced by the serpent’s words, they were easily hooked, easily led. So were you able to see Satan’s intentions? Were you able to see the purpose behind what it said? Were you able to see its plot and its cunning scheme? (No.) What kind of disposition is represented by Satan’s way of speaking? What kind of essence have you seen in Satan through these words? (Evil.) Evil. Is it insidious? Perhaps on the surface it smiles at you or reveals no expression whatsoever. But in its heart it is calculating how to reach its objective, and it is this objective that you are unable to see. You are then seduced by all the promises it gives you, all the advantages it talks about. You see them as good, and you feel that what it says is more useful, more substantial than what God says. When this happens, does man not then become a submissive prisoner? (Yes.) So is this means used by Satan not diabolical? You allow yourself to sink low. Without moving a finger, with these two sentences you are happy to follow along with it, to comply with it. Its objective has been reached. Is this not so? (Yes.) Is this intention not sinister? Is this not Satan’s most primal countenance? (Yes.) From Satan’s words, man can see its sinister motives, see its hideous countenance and see its essence” (“God Himself, the Unique IV” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh). The revelations in God’s words allowed me to see that the pursuit of a fine physical figure is Satan’s trick. Satan uses some lies and fallacies to deceive me. On the outside, they sound very reasonable and kind, as if it’s for my own good, so that I am unknowingly deceived and controlled by them. For example, “A graceful lady is a gentleman’s desire,” “A woman’s asset is her figure and face,” and “As long as you have a good figure, you’ll get the praise of people around you and the love of your husband, and your life will be more exciting.” All the time, I was fooled by these satanic lies and they led me by the nose. I thought wholeheartedly that only by having a fine figure would I be able to grasp my husband’s heart, and receive the praise and esteem of others. In order to satisfy my vanity, to reach the goals of my own desire, I didn’t even hesitate to use drugs to damage my own body. But in the end, what it brought me were only the torment of sickness and pain that I cannot shake away. Only then did I realize that when people follow the trends of the world and live for the flesh, they are suffering from Satan’s trampling and affliction. At the same time, I also recognized that only God’s word can allow people to understand the truth, see through Satan’s tricks, and rescue people from Satan’s deception and harm. Slowly, I turned away from Satan’s lies and didn’t rely on those weight loss pills and food. I no longer cared about other people’s gazes and their critiques about me, nor did I care about how my husband treated me. Instead, I believed in the destiny God has for me, and I lived by God’s words. I ate regularly every day and normally read God’s word, pursued the truth, and performed my duty as a creature of God. Unwittingly, I recovered, and there were few patches on my body. Thank God! I know that this is all God’s love for me. It is God that has brought me before Him, bestowed the truth upon me, and given me discernment, so that I am no longer tricked by Satan and am able to live under God’s care and protection. My spirit is released and set free, I have a proper goal in life to pursue, and no longer live in so much pain.

Reviewing the process of my losing weight, it was truly full of difficulties and danger. I almost ended up losing my life. If it wasn’t for God’s care and protection and His salvation, I would still be trapped in this evil current, stubbornly seeking after a perfect figure and being afflicted and trampled by Satan…. It was God’s words that allowed me to understand that all of this was caused by Satan, which used my vanity to confuse, seduce, and cheat me, so that I sank low and was trapped in its snare and unable to escape. Thanks to God’s words that awakened me, I was no longer bothered by my figure, nor did I care how others judged me. Instead, I only pursued the truth, lived by God’s word, and submitted to God’s sovereignty and arrangements, so as to live out the true likeness of man that God demands and receive God’s approval. I felt that living like this was very happy and fulfilling. After a period of time, as my husband saw that my illness was getting better, that my mental outlook was improving, that my attitude toward life became positive and optimistic, and that all the brothers and sisters in the church were good honest people, he didn’t cold-shoulder me for my weight anymore and was nicer to me. I thank God from the bottom of my heart that His words have brought an upturn in my life. Now, my life is full of happiness. I am extremely released and free when living church life and performing my duties with my brothers and sisters. I realize that only by giving myself into God’s hand and submitting to God’s sovereignty and arrangement can I gain the greatest happiness and live the most beautiful life!

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The Church of Almighty God-My Life Principles Left Me Damaged

My Life Principles Left Me Damaged-Eastern Lightning

Changkai Benxi City, Liaoning Province

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

The common phrase “All lay loads on the willing horse” is one with which I am all too personally familiar. My husband and I were all particularly guileless people: When it came to matters that involved our own personal benefit or loss, we weren’t the type to haggle and fuss with others. Where we could be forbearing we were forbearing, where we could be accommodating we also did our best to be accommodating. As a result, we often found ourselves cheated and abused by others. It really seemed that in life, “All lay loads on the willing horse”—if you have too much kindness in your heart, if you’re too accommodating and modest in your affairs, you’re very liable to be cheated. With these thoughts in mind, I resolved to not subject myself to all this abuse and live in frustration anymore: In future matters and in dealings with others, I vow not to be too accommodating. Even after I accepted Almighty God’s work, I still applied this principle in conducting my behavior and interactions with others.

At one point, I was working with a sister in fulfilling our duties. This sister often pointed out my inadequacies and shortcomings; I had the feeling that she was holding me down in every way. At first I thought: It’s not easy to be on your own away from home, try to use some forbearance. Later, however, after the sister proved to be unrelenting in her criticisms, I finally thought back to that phrase “All lay loads on the willing horse.” It occurred to me that the sister must have recognized I was too kind and therefore an easy target and decided to make things hard on me by nitpicking over petty and inconsequential matters. I decided I wasn’t going to accommodate or forbear her behavior any longer, so I summoned all of the fishwife energy suppressed inside me and let loose an apoplectic tirade, stopping only when the sister didn’t dare to utter another word. Later, the sister asked me to commune with her and confided that she had realized the way she spoke and acted was very inhumane and hoped that I could forgive her. She also said that God had orchestrated this situation and used me as a way to deal with her. When I heard this, I was so pleased you would have thought I was a four-star general emerging victorious from the battlefield. What’s more, I was even further convinced that there was a lot of merit to the phrase “All lay loads on the willing horse.”

Only recently, while reading “The 100 Axioms of Satan Upon Which Corrupt Humans Rely for Existence” issued by the church, did I see a passage which said: “‘All lay loads on the willing horse.’ … Humanity has been corrupted by Satan for thousands of years and there are countless fallacies which Satan uses to brainwash people. Here we summarize 100 fallacies which humanity prizes as precious maxims to guide them through life. These fallacies have already taken root in the deepest depths of the human heart; if not equipped with the truths, humans are largely incapable of uncovering the true nature of these fallacies. If humans continue to hold Satan’s fallacies up as maxims and principles for living, corrupt humanity will never attain salvation.” After reading this passage from the fellowship I had a sudden realization, as if waking up from a long dream: The phrase “All lay loads on the willing horse” was a fallacy created by Satan to indoctrinate and corrupt humankind. God asks that in our interactions with others we should be accepting, patient, tolerant, and forgiving. We should be thoughtful, respectful and loving toward others. By contrast, Satan’s life principle, “All lay loads on the willing horse,” subtly guides us away from good and toward evil, teaches us to not be too kind or conciliatory in our dealings with others. To protect ourselves, we must take “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” we must learn to be tough, barbarous and evil. I realized that “All lay loads on the willing horse” represents a fallacy, which is in diametrical opposition to the truth—it is Satan’s logic, it belongs to the negativity of Satan, a poison of the great red dragon. Satan works through these specious “theories” to brainwash humans into scheming against one another, murdering in cold blood, engaging in dogged and endless competition, sub`

mitting to no one until there is no humanity left within them. In this way humans become corrupt as Satan itself, sacrificial objects to be buried with it, and Satan achieves its goal of corrupting and consuming all of humanity. I couldn’t see through the illusion and took “All lay loads on the willing horse” as a truth to be accepted and respected. I thought that I couldn’t be too kind or accommodating, and that being patient or tolerant in dealings with others was the way of the stupid and ignorant and would only leave me vulnerable to cheating and abuse. Because I had always taken this fallacy as a maxim to be lived by, when the sister pointed out my inadequacies in order to help me to recognize them and change for the better, not only did I not accept her comments, I actually thought she was bullying me and nitpicking at inconsequential details. As a result, I unleashed the beast inside of me, acting like a demon. Even when the sister abased herself and offered me an apology, I still didn’t gain insight into myself or feel embarrassed, but rather sat there pleased as punch, thinking that the sister had finally “accepted defeat” because I had stuck to my maxim “All lay loads on the willing horse.” Having “won this victory,” I felt even more moved to uphold and praise this axiom of Satan. How absurd, how preposterous I was! I had gotten things completely backward, mistaking evil for good; I simply could not be reasoned with! God’s final work is to cleanse humanity of Satan’s poison, and use truth to change their corrupt disposition. In my own case, however, I hadn’t sought the truth, or strived to recognize Satan’s poison existing within me, nor did I practice the truth to change myself. Instead, I held on to Satan’s fallacies and rejected the truth. If I had continued on like that, I would never have begun to understand myself. I would never gain the truth and achieve a change in my disposition. In the end, I would have to be annihilated by God, as is Satan’s fate.
Thank You God for Your enlightenment and illumination, which allowed me to realize that Satan’s axiom “All lay loads on the willing horse” is nothing but a fallacy which Satan uses to brainwash and corrupt mankind. This phrase is used as an excuse and tool by the corrupt mankind to continue striving against one another. The phrase is in contradiction to the truth, and can only corrupt and ruin mankind. If man attains his sustenance from Satan’s poison, if he acts according to Stan’s axioms, he will only become more corrupt and evil. He will be less and less humane and more and more in opposition to God, removed from God. He will never receive God’s salvation. Almighty God, I vow to put all my effort into Your words and into my pursuit of salvation, so that I may come to recognize the many varieties of Satan’s venom within me, thoroughly forsake the fallacies of Satan, and no more act according to Satan’s axioms. I vow to seek out Your will in all matters, and follow Your word, so that Your word may take root deep within my heart and become the axioms by which I do things, the standards against which I measure myself. Let me live in complete accord with Your word.
Recommendation： The Church of Almighty God

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🎬 Gospel Choir Trailer "The One Who Holds Sovereignty Over Everything" | The Church of Almighty God

We think that we can create a beautiful home with our own hands, but do we really control our own fate? When disaster strikes, we are so small, helpless and uncertain…. Only at such moments do we sense the fragility and preciousness of life …Can mankind control its fate with scientific knowledge❓Who controls the fate of mankind❓

The One Who Holds Sovereignty Over Everything

The musical documentary The One Who Holds Sovereignty Over Everything will reveal all.

Coming soon.⏳⏳

Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was created because of the appearance and work of Almighty God, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, Christ of the last days. It is made up of all those who accept Almighty God's work in the last days and are conquered and saved by His words. It was entirely founded by Almighty God personally and is led by Him as the Shepherd. It was definitely not created by a person. Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. God's sheep hear God's voice. As long as you read the words of Almighty God, you will see God has appeared.

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Amidst Disasters I Saw God’s Righteous Disposition

Li Jing, Beijing

 was a profound and soul-stirring day for me.

On that day, it started raining in the morning. I went to a meeting at a brother’s house, while the rain kept getting heavier and heavier. By afternoon it was pouring down as though straight from the heavens. By the time we finished our meeting, the rain had entered my brother’s courtyard, but because I was worried about my family, I struggled on home. Halfway there, some people fleeing the danger said to me, “Are you not running away, are you still going home?” When I got home, my child asked, “Did the flood not wash you away?” Only then did I know that I didn’t have God in my heart. Not long after, the husband of my neighboring sister climbed up onto the roof, and saw that houses not far from our own had been washed away. The current was getting stronger, and the sister’s husband insisted that they lead their child up to the mountain, but she wouldn’t go. We few sisters discussed it amongst ourselves, that the sister’s husband arguing like this contained God’s will; only then did we follow him to a railroad house on the mountain top to spend the night. There, we heard from those who had fled the disaster how turbulent the floodwaters were, and how people had gone in all directions; some had climbed the rooftops, some were washed away, some were stopped by trees …

The next day I went to see a sister. Her house was by the riverside, with a big road in front and the river behind. Her house was right in the center of the two converging sides of the floodwaters. When the flood came, this sister prayed to God, and relied on Him. The waters washed away all the other houses in her row, leaving only hers and one other unscathed while she slept a sound night’s sleep. I truly saw that when one has God’s protection, one can rest easy in their heart.

A sister came to find the deacon in charge of general affairs and me, and we went to check on the house with the church goods. Because the waters had washed away the bridge and road, we could only get there by going around the long way. Along the way, looking at the “looted” village, coupled with the landslides and mud-rock flow, it was truly a miserable scene; everywhere devastation met the eye. We walked along and looked around, and saw a place where some brothers’ and sisters’ houses had been swept away, and some others had been left to remain. Those that were left were all those of brothers and sisters who fulfilled their duties. This showed me that when people believe in God, only when they seek truth and fulfill their duties will they obtain God’s protection, and survive amidst disasters. In one village, there were only two houses remaining, that of an old brother, and one other house. As the floodwaters came, the old brother saw that the flood was going to topple his house, so from the top of the mountain he shouted loudly twice, “God! My books of God’s word are inside!” He then saw how the floodwaters miraculously let his house remain, and the books of God’s word were also preserved. There was a sister whose house was a meeting place, and who always actively fulfilled her duty. Even though the waters flooded over her entire body, she was not hurt at all. The flood washed away her child, but he was grabbed by an unbeliever and was not washed away after all. An old sister saw that the waters were nearly at the door, that they had already washed away a vegetable garden not far from the house. So she prayed to God, and the waters, which had broken the dams that had held for many years, were redirected, leaving her house remaining. There were two sisters who did not seek, and the floodwaters left their houses remaining, but washed away the courtyards. One sister could not reconcile herself to her hosting duty, she said her family had to get the house repaired, and so she drove out the brothers and sisters; her books of God’s word were all washed away. There was another sister who, although she fulfilled her duty, said that “in my heart I am not willing.” During the disaster she was engulfed by water and swallowed up by mud-rock flow, and a stone tore a hole in her guts. She cried out again and again to God, and the waters washed her to a big tree, stopping her and saving her life. Her wound became infected, and she had to undergo another operation. There was also a brother who acted just as he pleased; whenever there was something that needed doing at home, he would not fulfill his duty. During the disaster he suffered the most seriously; the flood washed away both of his two houses, leaving him with two uninhabitable rooms. Of the books of God’s word, not a single one remained. The brother also came to know that this was God’s love, and did not lay blame.

The hymn of God’s words “God Is the Sole Foundation of Man’s Existence” sings: “When the waters swallow men whole, God saves them from the stagnant waters. When men lose their confidence to live, God reaches out His saving hand to pull them up from the brink of death, granting them the courage to live, that they take God as the foundation of their existence. When men disobey God, He causes them to know Him in their disobedience. In light of humanity’s old nature and in light of God’s mercy, rather than putting humans to death, God allows them to repent and make a fresh start. When men suffer famine, God wrests them from death so long as they have one breath left, and gives them a chance to have life anew, so that they can wake up and not fall prey to Satan’s trickery. How many times have people seen God’s hands; how many times have they seen His kind countenance, seen His smiling face; and how many times have they seen His majesty, seen His wrath. Though humanity has never known Him, God does not seize upon their weaknesses to make unnecessary trouble. Experiencing humanity’s hardships, God thus sympathizes with man’s weakness. It is only in response to men’s disobedience, their ingratitude, that God metes out chastisement in varying degrees. Rather than putting humans to death, God allows them to repent and make a fresh start. When men suffer famine, God wrests them from death.” Amidst this disaster, we saw God’s almightiness and wondrousness, which further strengthened our faith in walking the future path. When God emitted His great wrath, we saw God’s disposition, which cannot be offended. Only because of people’s rebellion, and their ingratitude, does God give people varying degrees of chastisement. However, God uses disasters to make us come to our senses; He is not putting people to death, but is letting people repent and make a fresh start. This disaster has let us see God’s righteous disposition, see His love, His salvation, and even more so it has let me see both God’s almightiness and His domination. Those people who sincerely seek the truth, who are willing to fulfill their duties and expend for God, gain God’s care and protection. Those who are perfunctory, who complain and resist, who are not willing to do their duties or expend for God, gain the retribution they deserve. It is duty that protects us! It is duty that blesses us! May God give us the faith, courage, strength and wisdom to enable us, on the future road, to remain earnest and well-grounded in completing what He entrusts to us, and to let us, for each and every duty, do our best.

We would like to tell these facts witnessed with our own eyes to everyone: God is the sole foundation of our existence. All the glory, wealth, fame and fortune in the world is as transient as fleeting clouds. At the moment when the floodwaters swallowed up human life, the lives of man were so insignificant and feeble. Even the very rich and famous were powerless. When we called out for help, only God could reach out a hand of salvation, and pull those who sincerely believe in Him back from death’s precipice. Brothers and sisters, please grasp the duty that God gives us. Let us, in the final days, be completely loyal, and offer our own strength for the expansion of the kingdom gospel.

Recommendation：Eastern Lightning—the appearance and work of God in the last days has rocked all sects and denominations, and all kinds of men have been revealed.

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🌱🎬 Eastern Lightning | God's Utterance "God Himself, the Unique (III) God's Authority (II)" (Part Two)

God's words in this video are from the book "Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh". The content of this video:

The Six Junctures in a Human Life

Birth: The First Juncture

1. A New Life Is Born Out of the Creator’s Plans

2. Why Different Human Beings Are Born Under Different Circumstances

Growing Up: The Second Juncture

1. The Circumstances Under Which One Grows Up Are Fixed by the Creator

2. The Various Circumstances Under Which People Grow Up Give Rise to the Different Roles

Independence: The Third Juncture

1. After Becoming Independent, a Person Begins to Experience the Sovereignty of the Creator

2. Leaving One’s Parents and Beginning in Earnest to Play One’s Role in the Theater of Life

Marriage: The Fourth Juncture

1. One Has No Choice About Marriage

2. Marriage Is Born of the Fates of Two Partners

Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was created because of the appearance and work of Almighty God, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, Christ of the last days. It is made up of all those who accept Almighty God's work in the last days and are conquered and saved by His words. It was entirely founded by Almighty God personally and is led by Him as the Shepherd. It was definitely not created by a person. Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. God's sheep hear God's voice. As long as you read the words of Almighty God, you will see God has appeared.

The Picture of The Church of Almighty God

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The Finest Gift God Has Given Me

                      

By Yixin, Hebei Province

Before, I would frequently hear my brothers and sisters say, “Everything that God does is for the best; it is all what people need.” I verbally acknowledged this and agreed with it, but I didn’t have any true understanding and experience. Later, through an actual environment that God set up I finally realized that all God was doing to me was based on my own needs, and that it was the finest gift that can be given.




I had a particularly strong desire for status in my heart. When fulfilling my duty in the church, I was always hoping that the leader would pay attention to me and that my brothers and sisters would think highly of me, but reality was never as I hoped it would be. Over several years’ time, no matter who I worked with when fulfilling my duty, I had always been the assistant. No matter what was going on, the leaders would always discuss it with my partners and arrange for them to take care of things. It seemed that in the leaders’ eyes, I was an insignificant, unimportant person. I felt it unfair and I thought: “I fulfill the same types of duties and I’m no worse than the others. Why am I always the assistant? Why am I always inferior to someone else?” I experienced quite a bit of the suffering because my wishes could never be satisfied, and I was constantly living in the midst of my misunderstanding of God. I could not escape from it. One day, the leader had my partner put together some documents, but didn’t ask me to help. That hit a raw nerve for me. Although I knew that I shouldn’t go after that type of worthless thing, I just couldn’t let go of it, and I once again sank into pain. I thought: “Why does this type of situation always find me? Why isn’t what God arranged ever what I want? What is God’s will in this?” I really could not understand it.

Later, I saw the following words from God: “Corruption within human nature must be resolved through trials, however. In whichever aspects you do not pass, it is in these aspects that you must be refined—this is God’s arrangement. God creates an environment for you, forcing you to be refined there to know your own corruption. Ultimately you reach a point where you would rather die and give up your schemes and desires, and submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangement. So if there is anyone who does not have several years of refinement and if they don’t have a certain amount of suffering, they will not be able to get rid of the bondage of corruption of the flesh in their thought and in their hearts. In whichever aspects you are still subject to Satan’s bondage, in whichever aspects you still have your own desires, your own demands—it is in these aspects that you should suffer. Only in suffering can lessons be learned, which means being able to gain truth, and understand God’s will” (“How to Satisfy God in the Midst of Trials” in Records of Christ’s Talks). I felt a wave of warmth in my heart from God’s words, as if God were guiding me face-to-face, telling me what His will was in doing things this way, and allowing me to understand His good intentions. With that enlightenment from God, I took a fresh look at the environment He had created for me. I saw then that God knew me best; He was clear that my corruption from Satan was most severe in status, that I was most greatly constrained in this area. God couldn’t bear to see me always living under Satan’s domain and corrupted, oppressed, tortured, and trodden on by Satan. So, God targeted my nature, continuing to arrange environments to judge, chastise, try, and refine me. All of that was done to purify and transform the corrupt disposition within me, and to save me from the constraints and binds of status. God’s love and salvation was contained within it. But for so many years, I had never understood God’s good intentions. I wasn’t willing to accept God’s work of “divestment” on me. That is why I was always misunderstanding His heart and always felt that He was hard on me, suppressing me, and wouldn’t allow me to really show myself. If I, as a person who saw status as life itself, had actually had my own way in every domain, my internal desires would have just grown and grown, and in the end I would definitely have been detested, rejected, and eliminated by God because my striving for fame and gains offended God’s disposition. When that time came, I would have been utterly ruined for the sake of status. Only then did I understand the earnest intentions behind the work God had done on me for many years; only then did I see that the environments God had created for me were to save me. This is a love that cannot be expressed with words. My heart was moved by God’s sincere love and my misunderstandings toward God disappeared from my heart. I became willing to accept God’s chastisement and judgment, to be obedient within the environment that God had created for me, and to seek the truth to resolve my corrupt disposition.

It was only through this experience that I truly recognized that God creates environments to try and refine mankind, and there is both deep meaning and great love within this. The truth is that, for me, when those situations that were not in line with my conceptions were upon me, they were exactly what I needed in life. It was an essential means of God making me know and obey Him in order to save me. Just as a mother really understands her own children—which child needs what as they are growing up, what nutrition they need to be supplemented—a mother understands that well. Today, what God does in people’s lives is the same. God possesses penetrating understanding of people. The environments God creates for people and everything He does in their lives are based on what they need. All of it is most beneficial for their lives and it is to allow them to gain the truth, to escape from Satan’s influence of darkness, and to attain obedience to God. Only when people can be obedient within the environments that God has created for them can they gain the truth and life. If people give free rein to their own temperament and preferences and have God satisfy them, then not only will they not gain anything at all, but they will disgust God, and in the end can only harm and ruin themselves. This is because behind the curtain of what people like is nothing but the control of a corrupt disposition that can only make people more and more depraved and rebellious. It is entirely at odds with God’s requirements. It was at that time that I finally had some practical understanding of what God said: “… the path of today goes along with judgment and curse, but you should all know that what I have bestowed upon you, whether it be judgment or chastisement, they are all the best gifts I can give to you, and they are all things that you urgently need” (“Your Character Is So Lowly!” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

I give thanks for God’s enlightenment that has allowed me to gain some knowledge and understanding of God’s work on man, and to see that the more I am unwilling to accept something, the more this is what I need to have in life entry, and the more I should accept it. I also realize that God’s essence is good, and what God does for mankind is all love. It is all what is most beneficial for people’s lives; it is the sustenance most needed in people’s lives, and it is the finest gift given to man by God. From today forward, I am willing to put myself entirely in God’s hands, to obey and accept all the work that God completes on me. I am willing to seek to know the truth, to gain the truth, and to achieve a change in disposition soon within the environment that God creates for me.

Recommendation：Eastern Lightning Shakes the Religious World. Almighty God Has Given Me a Second Chance at Life

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📒 Eastern Lightning-God Didn’t Have the Heart to Let Me Fall Into the Underworld

God Didn’t Have the Heart to Let Me Fall Into the Underworld-The Church of Almighty God

How a Public Security Bureau Local Station Chief Was Conquered by God’s Words

Zhang Jun, Sichuan Province

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

Almighty God says: “Look back to the time of Noah’s ark: Mankind was deeply corrupt, had strayed from the blessing of God, was no longer cared for by God, and had lost the promises of God. They lived in darkness, without the light of God. Thus they became licentious by nature, abandoned themselves to hideous depravity. Such men could no longer receive the promise of God; they were unfit to witness the face of God, nor to hear the voice of God, for they had abandoned God, had cast aside all that He had bestowed upon them, and had forgotten the teachings of God. Their heart strayed farther and farther from God, and as it did, they became depraved beyond all reason and humanity, and became increasingly evil. Thus they came ever closer to death, and fell under the wrath and punishment of God. Only Noah worshiped God and shunned evil, and so he was able to hear the voice of God, and hear the instructions of God. He built the ark according to the instructions of God’s word, and assembled all manner of living creatures. And in this way, once everything had been prepared, God unleashed His destruction upon the world. Only Noah and the seven members of his family survived the destruction, for Noah worshiped Jehovah and shunned evil” (“God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). After reading this passage of God’s words I fell into a state of deep contemplation …

My parents are both Christians and I was baptized and made a follower of the Lord Jesus at an early age. At that time, my spirit was always turned toward brightness and goodness. When the Cultural Revolution hit China, my father was sent to a remote place in the mountains for “reform through labor,” and after that we never got any more news about him. My mother was classed as one of the “four bad elements,” and because she was also a Christian she was classed as a “counterrevolutionary.” I wasn’t able to escape the damage done to my family either: By the time I got to school age there wasn’t a school that was willing to accept the son of a “counterrevolutionary,” and when I got to working age there was no work unit that would take me on. It wasn’t until I was 20 years old that I finally got a job. I’d been oppressed for so long, and had eaten a bellyful of pain and suffering, so when I started work I resolved to work as hard as I could and rely only on myself. There were a few times when I had to really pull out all the stops, but eventually I rose from being an ordinary police officer to being a PSB local station chief.

At the time, I secretly congratulated myself on rising up the ranks, and I didn’t for a moment imagine that behind this good fortune there lay a terrifying darkness that was going to swallow me up. It was like a dark, formless pair of hands dragged me down into the depths of sin. To be honest, soon after becoming a police officer I began to feel that we were no different from bandits or thieves. Our job wasn’t to catch criminals or maintain law and order: It was make money on the side. We even secretly directed prostitutes to go and seduce men so that we could arrest them in the act and extort a fine from them. Whenever we arrested someone we would try to extort money from them through lying, cajoling, or swindling. We have countless examples of this kind of behavior, behavior that was rife throughout the police force. Nightclubs, dance halls, etc. all had to discreetly give us a few thousand yuan or more every month in “protection fees,” otherwise we’d make life difficult for them. We were ready to crack down hard on them at any time. The prostitutes who worked in these red light places were all pretty afraid of us and would not only throw themselves at us but would even give us cash. There was one single guy in our station who, under the pretext of being their boyfriend, managed to cheat money and sex from over 100 females. There wasn’t a single police officer that I knew who wasn’t involved with prostitutes and I too became so deeply ensnared in this world that I couldn’t extricate myself even though I wanted to.

As police officers we had many opportunities to make money, and all it ever took to get some cash was a bit of casual trickery. For example, if a construction company or agency wanted to build some houses we would let the local gangsters set up roadblocks by the construction sites. The builders would then naturally call us and we would show up to deceptively resolve the issue by removing the “hooligans.” The construction companies or agencies—who didn’t realize what we were up to—would of course then be very grateful to us and were happily willing to give us some cash every month. But this cash was just pocket money. What we really wanted to achieve by causing trouble for the businessmen was to get batches of free shares in their companies. To this end, we would first conduct some background checks on the boss of the targeted company, and then if he didn’t meet our demands we would make our move. For bosses who liked to womanize, we would send prostitutes to seduce them. Then we’d follow them to the motel or wherever to catch them in the act and then coerce them. For bosses who liked to gamble, we would make them pay big fines. If any of them didn’t cooperate then we would send in the gangsters to force them out of business and out of our territory. Ordinary citizens would often say things like “The cops and the robbers are just one big family” or “The cops and the gangsters are as close as fish and water” and what they say is right. When I first started doing these evil deeds I always felt uneasy at the thought of making dirty money through unjust means. But every time my colleagues roped me into it I felt powerless to refuse, and after a few years I felt that I didn’t have the slightest bit of remorse left in me. I was stuck in a dark hole and had no way to pull myself out, but I didn’t care as long as there was money to be made. It particularly pains me to remember the times when we forced ordinary citizens out of their homes so that they could be knocked down for redevelopment projects. Those cases were rotten to the core with deceit, fraud, and all manner of evil. Officials from the Land and Resources Bureau and local demolition units would join forces to cheat and bully local residents solely in order to make money. For example, land developers would count the number of houses in the area that they wanted to redevelop and then would give the local government an estimate of how much they could compensate local residents for demolishing their houses and relocating them. If the compensation was 1 million yuan per house, local government officials would work with the PSB officers to coerce the residents to accept the least compensation and then share out the greatest difference between themselves. Generally speaking, in such cases the local government would want to protect its image, and so wouldn’t deal with the residents face-to-face but would instead let the PSB deal with them. As for those residents who refused to accept the compensation offered to them, the police had a number of different ways of dealing with them. Some of them were forcibly detained. Some residents were given notice to leave, had their houses demolished, and received no compensation whatsoever. Some houses were designated as illegal structures that were not eligible for compensation. Some houses were just demolished immediately with backhoes. Some residents were given a little bit of money; others just received a promise of money but never got it. In short, we used every dirty trick in the book to cheat people out of their cash. I remember one time when we were out drinking with a PSB officer from another county. He boasted to us that they had once demolished a 3-storey house but only compensated the owner for 2 stories by claiming that the upper story was illegal. On demolition day, the owner refused to move out and made a big fuss, so the police called in their gangster friends, who—in front of a crowd of people—took out knives and slashed the owner’s Achilles’ tendons. It was a terrible thing to have to watch and a lot of people in the crowd took photos on their cell phones, phones which were immediately confiscated by the police officers present. Someone in the crowd also started shouting about the injustice being done to the homeowner but was politely invited to the police station for a chat and locked up once they got there. There was even an incident in a rural area where a homeowner refused to cooperate during a demolition and so the construction company boss talked it over with the police and then told the bulldozer driver to run over the homeowner. All the other farmers flew into a rage when they saw one of their neighbors crushed to death, and grabbed the bulldozer driver and started beating him. So the police rounded up the 20-30 farmers at the scene and took them all down to the PSB station. Once inside, the police beat the farmers and locked them up, and injected the particularly intransigent ones with a drug that stimulates the central nervous system. Those injected with this drug showed the same symptoms as someone suffering from concussion: They looked stunned and terrified and didn’t dare to speak. Faced with national law enforcement agencies like these ordinary people had no recourse to justice no matter who they appealed to. For citizens unfortunate enough to come up against the government or the PSB it was like throwing eggs at a rock. In fact, many of the formalities used in land expropriation and demolition cases were illegal. They all relied upon forced occupation of the land, forced demolitions and removals, and in many places out-of-date government policies were used as a pretext to cheat and cajole local residents in order to squeeze as much money out of them as possible. Another method was to expropriate more land than officially sanctioned. For example, the upper level government might give permission for 20 acres to be expropriated to build a bridge and then the local government would use illegal means to take another 40 acres. These 40 acres would then be split between local government officials, police officers, and local gangsters who would all sell the land to developers for huge profits. I even heard of one station chief who was able to make over 10 million yuan from selling a piece of illicitly-gained land!

Having committed these evil deeds that were totally devoid of all humanity (although for some of them I was more of a passive participant), I felt that I had become toxic, cruel, and heartless. The darkness was spreading through my heart and I was turning away from all that was bright and good. My family life went from bad to worse: My wife spent her days playing mahjong—winning or losing thousands of yuan daily and coming home late—no one was looking after the kids, and the housework wasn’t being done. My house was a mess and my relationship with my wife was a mess. We began to hate each other, frequently argued ferociously, and threatened to divorce each other on many occasions. In the end, we just let each other do what we wanted: My wife had her mahjong, I had my womanizing. I began to spend money like it was water, drinking and singing in the bars every night and always accompanied by women. My wife became like a stranger to me and our family life was a shadow of its former self. That was when I began to feel that although I was making loads of money my life was nothing but misery. I was like a zombie, incapable of rational thought and lacking a soul. I was allowing Satan to corrupt my flesh, and was living a cursed life.

But there was one thing that I never forgot, and that was that I was a Christian and that God shouldn’t be offended. About 10 years ago, the CCP issued an important edict that stated, in the main, that all believers in God were to be arrested and detained for 15 days under the offense of “disturbing public order.” In fact, the reason for arresting believers was to get money by fining them, and so we were ordered to only arrest those with money because no one would pay for the keep of poor believers while they were in detention. But every time a Christian was detained I stayed in the background because I knew that this was an offense to God and anyone who offended God would suffer His retribution. I personally saw many of the colleagues who detained and viciously beat other Christians go on to suffer God’s punishment. Some of them died very painful or tragic deaths.

But when faced with these dark forces I was powerless as an individual to resist or make any significant difference. All I could do was to go with the flow. In order to relieve some of the suffering in my spirit I started going to church regularly, but I discovered that the pastors in my church were no longer truly pious believers. In fact, they had all become just more corrupt officials: The chairman of the Committee of Three-Self Patriotic Movement sold off all of the houses belonging to the church and kept most of the money for himself; the head of the Administration for Religious Affairs, Li X, colluded with the chairman of the Committee of Three-Self Patriotic Movement (Wang XX) to use donations from believers as capital for their car dealer business and were dismissed from office after being discovered; the next chairman of the same committee, Hao XX, embezzled church money that was to be used for buying furniture and was also dismissed. Then there was Pastor Zhang, who used a house belonging to the church as collateral to borrow a large amount of money which he used to buy a car for himself and one for the head of the Administration for Religious Affairs. He also had a sexual relationship with a nun, and was eventually sentenced to 3 years in jail. But the head of the Administration for Religious Affairs tried to absolve him of responsibility by telling the churchgoers that “Pastor Zhang has gone to the U.S.A. to study for 3 years.” I saw that the religious community was as filthy as my world and I knew that every one of those fake pastors was eventually punished by God. It made me sick to know what was going on behind the dark curtain in these cases, and it was a shock for me to discover that corruption and darkness were rampant at every level of China’s society. I couldn’t find even a twinkle of light, and so lost all hope and became so depressed that I left the church.

Recommendation：The Church of Almighty God was founded by Almighty God personally

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