The Principles of Accepting the Judgment and Chastisement of God’s Words

     The Principles of Accepting the Judgment and Chastisement of God’s Words

  1. You must acknowledge that God’s words are the absolute truth, that they are the reality of positive things whether they accord with people’s conceptions or not, and that this will never change even should heaven and earth turn upside down;

  2. No matter how God’s words judge and chastise you, so long as they accord somewhat with facts and there is truth to seek, then you should obey, and seek the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit;

  3. No matter how God tests or refines you, it is all done to save and change you, and you should obey and accept it, and seek to enter the reality of the truth;

  4. In experiencing God’s judgment and chastisement, you must examine yourself and know the truth of your own corruption and the essence of your nature; and you must accept the truth and have true repentance.

   Relevant Words of God:

  The truth is the most real of life’s aphorisms, and the highest of such aphorisms among all mankind. Because it is the requirement that God makes of man, and is the work personally done by God, thus it is called life’s aphorism. It is not an aphorism summed up from something, nor is it a famous quote from a great figure; instead, it is the utterance to mankind from the Master of the heavens and earth and all things, and not some words summed up by man, but the inherent life of God. And so it is called the highest of all life’s aphorisms.

  from “Only Those Who Know God and His Work Can Satisfy God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

The Principles of Eating and Drinking God’s Word in Congregation

           The Principles of Eating and Drinking God’s Word in Congregation

  1. One must eat and drink God’s word strictly according to the principles as stipulated by the work arrangements from the above in order to keep apace with the Holy Spirit’s work.

  2. One must eat and drink God’s word in combination with the existing problems of the church and the actual situations of the majority of God’s chosen people, with emphasis on solving the problems with the truth.

  3. Conduct eating and drinking of God’s word with piety. Be quiet before God, pray and ponder on God’s word earnestly so as to receive the Holy Spirit’s work and understand the truth.

  4. The purpose of congregating to eat and drink God’s word is to understand the truth, resolve problems and enter into the reality of the truth. It must not devolve into religious rituals and ceremonial procedures.

  Relevant Words of God:

  The work of the Holy Spirit changes from day to day, rising higher with each step; the revelation of tomorrow becomes even higher than today’s, step by step climbing ever higher. Such is the work by which God perfects man. If man cannot keep pace, then he may be forsaken at any time. If man does not have an obedient heart, then he cannot follow to the end. … God abides not by the rules, nor does He treat any stage of His work as unchanging. Rather, the work done by God is ever newer and ever higher. His work becomes more and more practical with each step, more and more in line with the actual needs of man. Only after man experiences this kind of work can he attain the final transformation of his disposition. Man’s knowledge of life grows ever higher, therefore the work of God likewise becomes ever higher. Only in this way can man reach perfection and be fit for God’s use. … In God’s work, He supplies you through His word. When you obey and accept His word, then the Holy Spirit shall surely work in you. The Holy Spirit works exactly in the way I speak. Do as I have said, and the Holy Spirit will promptly work in you. I release a new light for you to see and bring you into the present light. When you walk into this light, the Holy Spirit will immediately work in you. Some may be recalcitrant and say, “I simply will not do as you say.” Then I tell you that now this is the end of the road. You have withered away and have no more life. Therefore, in experiencing the transformation of your disposition, it is most crucial to keep pace with the present light.

  from “The Truly Obedient Shall Surely Be Gained by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

Principles of Loyally Performing One’s Duty

                         Principles of Loyally Performing One’s Duty

  1. You are able to perform all the duties that you ought to perform. You treat God’s commission as a moral imperative, and you are able to take responsibility for God.

  2. You perform your duty only so that you may give every care to God’s heart, repay God’s love, and satisfy God. You do this without the adulteration of motivations, aims, or trades.

  3. In performing your duty, you should not be perfunctory and mess around. You are diligent and earnest, you put the truth into practice as asked by God, and are able to pay a price in order for your duty to bear fruit.

  4. In performing your duty, you are capable of achieving loyalty to God, and are not governed by any person, matter, or thing. You allow God to observe you, and have the utmost loyalty toward God.

  Relevant Words of God:

  6. You should do that which ought to be done by man, and carry out your obligations, and fulfill your responsibilities, and hold to your duty. Since you believe in God, you should make your contribution to God’s work; if you do not, then you are unfit to eat and drink the words of God, and are unfit to live in God’s household.

  from “The Ten Administrative Decrees That Must Be Obeyed by God’s Chosen People in the Age of Kingdom” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

Christians Believe in God, Regularly Attending Gatherings Cannot Be Neglected!

    Christians Believe in God, Regularly Attending Gatherings Cannot Be Neglected!

                                                 Xiaogao

  Hello brothers and sisters of Spiritual Q&A,

  I get very tired from working during the day, and I do not sleep very well at night. As a result, I am not willing to make it to gatherings on time. I do not like to be restricted. I feel that if I have spiritual needs, as long as I look for my brothers and sisters to chat during those times, it should be fine. I wonder what the cause of this issue is. How should I resolve this?

  An Jing

  Hello Sister An Jing,

  You said that you are not willing to attend gatherings on time and that when you feel you have spiritual needs, that is the only time you will actively look for your brothers and sisters to chat. We can think like this because we do not understand what truly believing in God and the importance of gatherings are. Thank the Lord. I will talk a little bit about my understanding about this aspect. I hope it will be useful to you.

  What It Means to Truly Believe in God

  We all know that the reason why God originally created man was so that man would honor and worship God on earth. The Lord Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Mat 22:37-38). As believers in the Lord, we should all prioritize faith and worshiping God and have normal relationships with God. Gatherings, prayer, communicating the truth, singing hymns and praising God are ways to establish a normal relationship with God. As Christians, these are things that we must do at the very least. God’s words say: “‘Belief in God’ means believing that there is a God; this is the simplest concept of faith in God. What’s more, believing that there is a God is not the same as truly believing in God; rather, it is a kind of simple faith with strong religious overtones. True faith in God means experiencing the words and work of God based on a belief that God holds sovereignty over all things. So you shall be freed of your corrupt disposition, shall fulfill the desire of God, and shall come to know God. Only through such a journey can you be said to believe in God” (Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh). “There are some people whose belief has never been acknowledged in God’s heart. In other words, God does not recognize that these people are His followers, because God does not praise their belief. … They regard believing in God as some kind of amateur hobby, treating God merely as spiritual sustenance…. How does God look upon these people? He views them as non-believers” (“How to Know God’s Disposition and the Result of His Work” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From here we can see, if our faith in God merely consists of verbal acknowledgement and believing within our hearts, yet we do not pursue the truth, do not experience and practice God’s words but regard faith as spiritual sustenance or a hobby, this is not truly believing in God. God does not praise this sort of faith. True believers in God should frequently come before God, pray to God often, read God’s words often, attend gatherings often and understand more of the truth from God. At the same time, they must bring God’s words into real life. They believe that what happens every day is presided and arranged by God. This is especially the case when they encounter something that is not in accordance with their notions and when they reveal their own corruption and are unable to let go of it. They are able to come before God and reflect upon themselves in accordance with God’s words. They are able to seek in the environment arranged by God the lessons they should learn and the truths they should enter and put into practice. Afterward, they actually put them into practice in accordance with God’s demands, cast off satanic corrupt disposition, live out a normal humanity and in the end, achieve a true understanding of God, obedience to God and love for God. Only this way of experiencing God’s work and words constitutes truly believing in God. We can only obtain God’s approval if we believe in God in this manner. If we do this, in the end, we will be brought into God’s kingdom. Contrarily, if our faith does not involve a normal relationship with God, regular participation in gatherings, prayer, communicating the truth and putting God’s words into practice; if it is just a spare-time faith, if we believe in God a few years yet our corrupt disposition has not changed whatsoever and if we do not have a true understanding of God, God does not acknowledge this sort of faith. There is no difference between this and the faith of unbelievers. If our faith is like this, even though we believe until the very end, we will not be able to obtain God’s approval and salvation.

4. The Principles of Upholding a Normal Relationship With God

        The Principles of Upholding a Normal Relationship With God

  1. You must first of all give your heart to God and allow God to take charge, frequently have real prayer and association with God, and obtain the guidance of the work of the Holy Spirit;

  2. You must frequently eat and drink of God’s words, fellowship the truth, practice the truth and fulfill your duty in order to repay God’s love;

  3. In all things, you must harbor right intentions, accept God’s scrutiny, put the interests of God’s family first. You must not make plans for yourself, and you must obey God’s arrangements;

  4. You must seek the truth in all things, seek to love God in your heart and practice loving God, and allow God to take charge and hold power in all things.

  Relevant Words of God:

  People believe in God, love God, and satisfy God by touching the Spirit of God with their heart, thereby obtaining His satisfaction; when engaging with God’s words with their heart, they are therefore moved by the Spirit of God. If you wish to achieve a proper spiritual life and establish a proper relationship with God, you must first give your heart to Him, and quiet your heart before Him. Only after you have poured your whole heart into God can you gradually develop a proper spiritual life. If people do not give their heart to God in their belief in Him, if their heart is not in Him and they do not treat His burden as their own, then everything they do is cheating God, and it is all the behavior of religious people—this cannot receive God’s praise. God cannot get anything from this kind of person; this kind of person can only serve as a foil to God’s work, like a decoration in the house of God, taking up space, and is a good-for-nothing—God does not use this kind of person. … If your heart can be poured into God and keep quiet before Him, then you will have the opportunity and the qualifications to be used by the Holy Spirit, to receive the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit, and even more, you will have the opportunity for the Holy Spirit to make up for your shortcomings. When you give your heart to God, you can enter more deeply into the positive aspect and be on a higher plane of insight; in the negative aspect, you will have more understanding of your own faults and shortcomings, you will be more eager to seek to satisfy God’s will, and you will not be passive, and will actively enter in. This will mean that you are a correct person. …

…………

  If you want to have a proper relationship with God, your heart must turn to God.… When one does not give his heart to God, his spirit becomes obtuse, it becomes numb and unconscious. This kind of person will never understand God’s words and will never have a proper relationship with God; this kind of person will never change their disposition. … When you are able to give your heart to God, you will be able to perceive every subtle moving within your spirit, and you will know every enlightenment and illumination received from God. Hold onto this, and you will gradually enter into the path of being perfected by the Holy Spirit. The quieter your heart can be before God, the more sensitive and delicate your spirit will be, and the more your spirit will be able to perceive the moving of the Holy Spirit, and then your relationship with God will become more and more proper.

3. The Principles of Pursuing to Know God

                       The Principles of Pursuing to Know Go

  1. You must eat and drink all of God’s words to reach an understanding of the truth, and to know the significance and purpose of the three stages of God’s work;

  2. You must obey God’s judgment and chastisement, and trials and refinement, to reach a knowledge of God’s righteous disposition and life essence;

  3. You must obtain the guidance of the work of the Holy Spirit and walk Peter’s path of pursuing the truth and being perfected, and be able to seek a true love of God;

  4. You must practice exalting God and bearing witness for God according to God’s words and the truth, and you must use the truth to resolve problems in order to bring people before God.

   Relevant Words of God:

  The effects of the lesson of knowing God cannot be achieved in one or two days: Man must accumulate experiences, undergo suffering, and have true obedience. First of all, start from the work and words of God. You must understand what knowing God includes, how to achieve the knowledge of God, and how to see God during your experiences. This is what everyone must do when they have yet to know God. No one can grasp the work and words of God straight away, and no one can achieve a knowledge of God’s entirety in a short time. What’s required is the necessary process of experience, without which no one would be able to know God or truly follow God. The more work that God does, the more that man knows Him. The more at odds the work of God is with the conceptions of man, the more man’s knowledge of Him is renewed and deepened. If the work of God were to remain forever unchanged, then man would have but a small knowledge of God. From the creation of the world until today, you must know clearly the visions of what God did during the Age of Law, what He did during the Age of Grace, and what He does during the Age of Kingdom. You must know the work of God.

  from “Only Those Who Know God Can Bear Testimony to God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

2. The Principles of Experiencing and Obeying God’s Work

        The Principles of Experiencing and Obeying God’s Work

  1. Accept and obey all the judgment and chastisement, the pruning and dealing, and the trials and refinement of God; never try to escape them, be slipshod, or let it be in vain;

  2. Accept and obey all the truths God expresses, so that God’s words and the truth may become the reality of your life;

  3. Obey the leadership and shepherding of the man used by the Holy Spirit, and fulfill your duties in accordance with the principles prescribed by work arrangements;

  4. Obey the enlightenment, illumination and inner guidance of the Holy Spirit, and obtain the guidance and perfection of the Holy Spirit.

  Relevant Words of God:

  Right now the most critical point is following the guidance of the Holy Spirit. You follow whatever God says; you obey whatever He says. People cannot change their disposition themselves; they must undergo the judgment and chastisement and painful refinement of God’s words, or being dealt with, disciplined, and pruned by His words. Only after that can they achieve obedience and devotion to God, and not try to fool Him and deal with Him perfunctorily. It is under the refinement of God’s words that people have a change in disposition. Only those who undergo the exposure, judgment, disciplining, and dealing with of His words will no longer dare to do things recklessly, and will become calm and collected. The most important point is that they are able to obey God’s current words and obey God’s work, and even if it is not in line with human notions, they can put them aside and intentionally obey. When a change in disposition has been spoken of in the past, it has mainly been about forsaking oneself, allowing the flesh to suffer, disciplining one’s body, and ridding oneself of fleshly preferences—this is one type of change in disposition. People now know that the real expression of a change in disposition is obeying the current words of God as well as being able to have a genuine understanding of His new work. This way people will be able to get rid of their previous understanding of God in their notions, and achieve a true understanding of and obedience to Him. Only this is a genuine expression of a change in disposition.

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