How Satan uses knowledge to corrupt man (Satan uses fame and gain to control man’s thoughts)
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.
Now that we have finished talking about Satan, let us return to talking about our God. During God’s six-thousand-year management plan, very little of God’s direct speech has been recorded in the Bible, and that which has been recorded is very simple. So let us start at the beginning. God created man and since then has ever led the life of mankind. Whether in giving mankind blessings, giving them the laws and His commandments, or stipulating the various rules for life, do you know what God’s intended aim is in doing these things? Firstly, can you say for sure all that God does is for the good of mankind? (Yes, we can.) You may think that this sentence is relatively broad and hollow, but specifically speaking, everything God does is to lead and guide man toward living a normal life. Whether it is so man keeps His rules or keeps His laws, God’s aim is for man not to worship Satan, not to be harmed by Satan; this is most fundamental, and this is what was done in the very beginning. At the very beginning, when man did not understand God’s will He took some simple laws and rules and made provisions that covered every conceivable aspect. These provisions are very simple, yet within them they contain God’s will. God treasures, cherishes and dearly loves mankind. Isn’t that the case? (Yes.) So can we say His heart is holy? Can we say His heart is clean? (Yes.) Does God have any ulterior intentions? (No.) So is this aim of His right and positive? (Yes.) It is positive. No matter what provisions God made, the effect of them all in the course of His work is positive for man, and they lead the way. So are there any self-serving thoughts in God’s mind? Does God have any additional aims where man is concerned, or does He want to use man in some way? Not at all. God does as He says, and He also thinks this way in His heart. There is no mixed purpose, no self-serving thoughts. He does not do anything for Himself, but does absolutely everything for man, without any personal aims. Although He has plans and intentions for man, He does not do anything for Himself. Everything He does is done purely for mankind, to protect mankind, to keep mankind from being led astray. So is this heart not precious? (Yes.) Can you see even the tiniest hint of this precious heart in Satan? (No.) Can you see it? Can you? We cannot see one hint of this in Satan. Everything God does is revealed naturally. By looking at the way God works, how does He work? Does God take these laws and His words and bind them tightly onto the heads of every person like the incantation of the golden hoop,[a] imposing them on each man? Does He work in this way? (No.) So in what way does God do His work? (He guides us.) Well, this is one aspect. Any others? God works on you in many ways, how can it be that you have run out of things to say after just one? (He advises and encourages.) There’s a second one. Any more? Does He threaten? Does He talk in circles to you? (No.) When you do not understand the truth, how does God guide you? (He shines a light.) Well, He shines a light on you, telling you clearly that this is not in keeping with the truth, and what you should do. So from these ways in which God works, what kind of relationship do you feel you have with God? Do they make you feel that God is beyond your grasp? (No.) So how do they make you feel? God is especially close to you, there is no distance between you. When God guides you, when He provides for you, helps you and supports you, you feel God’s amiability, His respectability, you feel how lovely He is, how warm. But when God reproaches your corruption, or when He judges and disciplines you for rebelling against Him, what way does God use? Does He reproach you with words? (Yes.) Does He discipline you through your environment and through people, affairs, and things? (Yes.) So what level does this discipline reach? (To a level that man can endure.) Does His level of discipline reach the same point where Satan harms man? (No.) God works in a gentle, loving, delicate and caring way, a way that is especially measured and proper. His way does not cause you to feel intense emotions, saying, “God will not let me do this” or “God must let me do that.” God never gives you that kind of intense mentality or intense feelings that make things unbearable. Is this not the case? (Yes.) Even when you accept God’s words of judgment and chastisement, how do you feel then? When you feel the authority and power of God, how do you feel then? Do you feel the unoffendable divinity of God? (Yes.) Do you feel distanced from God at these times? Do you feel frightened of God? (No.) Instead, you feel fearful reverence of God. Do people feel all these things only because of God’s work? (Yes.) So would they have these feelings if Satan worked on man? (No.) God uses His words, His truth and His life to continuously provide for man, to support man. When man is weak, when man is feeling down, God certainly does not speak harshly, saying: “Do not feel down. What are you down for? What are you weak for? What is there to be weak about? You are so weak, you may as well just die. You are always so down, what is the point in living? Just die!” Does God work this way? (No.) Does God have the authority to act this way? (Yes.) But does God act this way? (No.) The reason why God does not act this way is because of His essence, the essence of the holiness of God. His love for man, His treasuring and cherishing of man cannot be expressed clearly in just one or two sentences. It is not something that is brought about by man’s boasting but is something that God brings forth in actual practice; it is the revelation of God’s essence. Can all these ways in which God works allow man to see the holiness of God? In all these ways in which God works, including God’s good intentions, including the effects God wishes to achieve on man, including the different ways God adopts to work on man, the kind of work He does, what He wants man to understand—have you seen any evil or craftiness in God’s good intentions? (No.) You can’t see any evil, can you? (No.) So in everything God does, everything God says, everything He thinks in His heart, as well as all the essence of God that He reveals—can we call God holy? (Yes.) Has any man ever seen this holiness in the world, or in himself? Apart from God, have you ever seen it in any man or in Satan? (No.) From what we have talked about so far, can we call God the unique, holy God Himself? (Yes.) All that God gives to man, including the words of God, the different ways in which God works on man, that which God tells man, that which God reminds man of, that which He advises and encourages, it all originates from one essence: It all originates from the holiness of God. If there were no such a holy God, no man could take His place to do the work He does. If God took these people and completely handed them over to Satan, have you ever thought of what kind of condition those of you present here today would be in? Would you all be sitting here, complete and intact? (No.) So what would you be like? Would you also say: “From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it”? Would you so swagger, be so brazen and boast without shame before God, and speak in such a roundabout way? (Yes.) Yes, you would. You would one hundred percent! You absolutely would! Satan’s attitude toward man allows them to see that Satan’s nature is utterly different from God. Its essence is completely different to God. What essence of Satan is the opposite of the holiness of God? (Its evil.) Satan’s evil nature is the opposite of the holiness of God. The reason why the majority of people do not recognize that this expression of God’s represents the essence of God’s holiness is entirely because they live under the domain of Satan, within the corruption of Satan, within Satan’s living enclosure. They do not know what holiness is or know how to define holiness. Even when you perceive the holiness of God, you still cannot define it as being the holiness of God with any certainty. This is a disparity in man’s knowledge of the holiness of God.
What kind of representative feature is shown by Satan’s work on man? You should know of this from your own experiences—Satan’s most representative feature, the thing it does the most, the thing it tries to do with every single person. It has a feature that you perhaps cannot see, so that you do not think how frightful and hateful Satan is. Does anyone know what this feature is? Tell Me. (Everything it does is done to harm man.) It does things to harm man. How does it harm man? Can you show Me more specifically and in more detail? (It seduces, entices and tempts man.) That’s right, this shows several aspects. Any more? (It deludes man.) It deludes, attacks and accuses. Yes, all of these. Are there any more? (It tells lies.) Cheating and lying comes most naturally to Satan. It does it so often that lies flow from its mouth without it even needing to think. Any more? (It sows dissension.) This one is not so important. I will describe something to you that will terrify you, but I do not do it to scare you. God works on man and man is cherished in both God’s attitude and His heart. On the contrary, does Satan cherish man? It does not cherish man. What does it want with man? It wants to harm man, all it thinks about is harming man. Isn’t that right? So when it is mulling over harming man, does it do so in a pressing state of mind? (Yes.) So when it comes to Satan’s work on man, here I have two words that can amply describe the malicious and evil nature of Satan, that can truly allow you to know the hatefulness of Satan: In Satan’s approach to man, it always wants to forcefully “occupy” and “attach” itself to each of them so that it can get to the point where it is completely in control of man, harming man, so that it can achieve this objective and wild ambition. What does “forcefully occupy” mean? Does it happen with your consent, or without your consent? Does it happen with your knowing, or without your knowing? It is completely without your knowing! In situations where you are unaware, possibly when it has not said anything or possibly when it has not done anything, when there is no premise, no context, there it is around you, surrounding you. It looks for an opportunity to exploit, then it forcefully occupies you, attaches itself to you, achieving its objective of being completely in control of you and harming you. This is a most typical intention and behavior in Satan’s fight against God for mankind. How do you feel when you hear this? (Terrified and fearful in our hearts.) Do you feel disgusted? (Yes, we feel disgusted.) So when you feel disgusted, do you think Satan is shameless? (Yes.) When you think Satan is shameless, do you then feel disgusted with those people around you who always want to control you, those with wild ambitions for status and interests? (Yes.) So what methods does Satan use to forcefully attach itself to and occupy man? Are you clear on this? When you hear these two words of forceful “occupation” and “attaching,” you get this feeling of strangeness and disgust, don’t you? Do you get a taste of their evil flavor? Without either your consent or your knowledge it attaches itself to you, occupies you and corrupts you. What can you taste in your heart? Loathing? (Yes!) Disgust? (Yes!) So when you feel this loathing and disgust for this way of Satan, what kind of feeling do you have for God? (Thankful.) Thankful to God for saving you. So now, at this moment, do you have the desire or the will to let God take charge of your all, to dominate your all? (Yes.) In what context? Do you say yes because you are afraid of being forcefully occupied and attached to by Satan? You cannot have this kind of mentality, it is not right. Do not be afraid, God is here. There is nothing to be afraid of, right? Once you have understood the evil essence of Satan, you should have a more accurate understanding or a deeper cherishment of God’s love, God’s good intentions, God’s compassion and leniency for man and His righteous disposition. Satan is so hateful, yet if this still does not inspire your love of God and your reliance on and trust in God, then what kind of person would you be? Are you willing to let Satan harm you so? After seeing the evil and hideousness of Satan, we turn it around and look then at God. Has your knowledge of God now undergone any change? (Yes.) What kind of change? Can we say God is holy? Can we say God is flawless? (Yes.) “God is unique holiness”—can God bear up under this title? (Yes.) So in the world and among all things, is it only God Himself that can bear up under this understanding of man’s? Are there any others? (No.) So what exactly does God give to man? Does He only give you a little care, concern and consideration when you are not paying attention? What has God given to man? God has given life to man, given man everything, and bestows on man unconditionally without demanding anything, without any ulterior intention. He uses the truth, uses His words, uses His life to lead and guide man, bringing man away from the harm of Satan, away from Satan’s temptations, away from Satan’s seduction and allowing man to see clearly through Satan’s evil nature and its hideous face. So is God’s love and concern for mankind true? Is it something that every one of you can experience? (Yes.)
Look back on your lives up till now at all the things God has done on you in all the years of your faith. Whether you feel it deeply or not, was it not most necessary? Was it not what you most needed to obtain? (Yes.) Is this not truth? Is this not life? (Yes.) So has God ever enlightened you to give anything back or repay anything after He gave you these things? (No.) So what is God’s purpose? Why does God do this? Does God also have an objective to occupy you? (No.) Does God want to ascend His throne in the hearts of man? (Yes.) So what is the difference between God ascending His throne and Satan’s forceful occupation? God wants to gain the hearts of man, He wants to occupy the hearts of man—what does this mean? Does it mean that God wants man to become His puppets, His machines? (No.) So what is God’s purpose? Is there a difference between God wanting to occupy the hearts of man and Satan’s forceful occupation, its attaching itself to man? (Yes.) What is the difference? Can you tell Me clearly? (Satan does it through force whereas God lets man volunteer.) Satan does it through force whereas God lets you volunteer. Is this the difference? So if you do not volunteer, what then? If you do not volunteer, does God do anything? (He gives some guidance and enlightenment, but if in the end man is not willing, He does not force them.) What does God want your heart for? And besides, what does God want to occupy you for? How in your hearts do you understand “God occupies man’s hearts”? We must be fair to God here, otherwise people always misunderstand, saying: “God always wants to occupy me. What does He want to occupy me for? I don’t want to be occupied, I just want to be myself. You say Satan occupies people, but God also occupies people: Are these not the same? I don’t want to let anyone occupy me. I am myself.” What is the difference here? Take a minute to think about it. (I think God wants to gain man’s hearts and occupy man’s hearts in order to save man, to make man perfect.) What you say is the aim of God’s management of man—to make him perfect. So do you understand what “occupy” means here? (It means not letting Satan occupy man. If God is in occupation, then Satan has no way to occupy man.) You mean God is the first occupant; like an empty house, whosoever enters first becomes the master of the house. The one who comes after cannot become the master of the house, but instead becomes the servant, or else they cannot enter at all. Is this what you mean? (Yes, I mean something like this.) Does anyone have a different view? (My own understanding of “God occupies man’s hearts” is that God treats us like His own family, caring for us and loving us. Satan occupies man’s hearts in order to damage us, to harm us.) This is your understanding of “God occupies man,” is it? Are there any different understandings or views? (God occupies man using His word, in the hope that man can accept the word of God into his life, so that man can live in accordance with the word of God.) This is the true meaning behind “God occupies man,” isn’t it? Are there any different views? (My view is that God is the embodiment of truth so God wants to supply the entire truth to us, and because we obtain this truth and are brought under His care and protection, we can therefore avoid running into Satan’s cunning schemes and being harmed by it. Practically speaking, God wants to gain man’s hearts so that man can live a normal life on this earth and obtain God’s blessings.) But you still have not touched on the real meaning of “God occupies man’s hearts.” (Man was originally made by God, so man should worship Him and return to Him. Man belongs to God.) I ask you, is “God occupies man” an empty phrase? Does God’s occupation of man mean that He lives in your heart? Does God dominate your every word and every move? If He tells you to raise your left arm, do you dare not raise your right? If He tells you to sit, do you dare not stand? If He tells you to go east, do you dare not go west? Is it an occupation that means something like this? (No.) So what is it? (It means for man to live out what God has and is.) God has managed man all through the years, so in God’s work on man up until now in this last stage, what effect will all the words God has spoken have on man? Is it that man lives out what God has and is? Looking at the literal meaning of “God occupies man’s hearts,” it seems as if God takes man’s hearts and occupies them, lives in them and does not come out again; He lives inside them and becomes the master of man’s hearts, to dominate and arrange man’s hearts at will, so that man must go wherever God tells him to go. At this level of meaning, it seems as if every person had become God, in possession of God’s essence, in possession of God’s disposition. So in this case, could man also perform the acts and deeds of God? Can “occupation” be explained in this way? (No.) So what is it? (The people God wants are not puppets, they have thoughts and their hearts are alive. Therefore, God’s occupation of man is in the hope that man can have thoughts and can feel God’s joys and sorrows; man and God interact with one another.) I ask you this: Are all the words and truth God supplies to man a revelation of the essence of God and what He has and is? (Yes.) This is for sure, isn’t it? But are all the words God supplies to man for God Himself to practice, for God Himself to possess? Take a minute to think about it. When God judges man, because of what does He do this? Where did these words come from? What is the content of these words God speaks when He judges man? What are they based on? Are they based on man’s corrupt disposition? (Yes.) So is the effect achieved by God’s judgment of man based on the essence of God? (Yes.) So is God’s occupation of man an empty phrase? It certainly is not. So why does God say these words to man? What is His purpose in saying these words? Does He want to use these words for the life of man? (Yes.) God wants to use all this truth that He has spoken for the life of man. So when man takes all this truth and the word of God and transforms them into his own life, can man then obey God? Can man then fear God? Can man then shun evil? When man has reached this point, can he then obey God’s sovereignty and arrangement? Is man then in a position to submit to the authority of God? When people like Job, or like Peter reach the end of their road, when their life can be considered to have matured, when they have a real understanding of God—can Satan still lead them astray? Can Satan still occupy them? Can Satan still forcefully attach itself to them? (No.) So what kind of person is this? Is this someone who has been completely gained by God? (Yes.) At this level of meaning, how do you see this kind of person who has been completely gained by God? To God, under these circumstances He has already occupied this person’s heart. But what does this person feel? Is it that the word of God, God’s authority, and God’s way become life within man, then this life that occupies man’s entire being makes what he lives out enough, makes his essence enough to satisfy God? So to God, is mankind’s heart at this very moment occupied by Him? (Yes.) How do you understand this level of meaning now? Is it God’s Spirit that occupies you? (No.) So what is it exactly that occupies you? (The word of God.) Well, the word of God, the way of God. It is the truth and the word of God that become your life. At this time, man then has the life that comes from God, but we cannot say that this life is God’s life. It is the life man should derive from the word of God. Can we say this life is God’s life? (No.) So no matter how long man follows God, no matter how many words man obtains from God, man can never become God. Is this not correct? (Yes.) Even if one day God said, “I have occupied your heart, you now possess My life,” would you then feel that you are God? (No.) What would you then become? Would you not have an absolute obedience of God? Would your body and your heart not be filled with the life God has bestowed on you? This is a very normal manifestation when God occupies man’s hearts. This is fact. So looking at it from this aspect, can man become God? (No.) When man has obtained all of the word of God, when man can fear God and shun evil, can man then possess God’s identity? (No.) Can man then possess the essence of God? (No.) No matter what happens, man is still man when all is said and done. You are a creation; when you have received the word of God from God and received God’s way, you only possess the life that comes from the word of God, and can never become God.
Going back to our topic just now, I asked you whether or not Abraham was holy. He is not, and you understand this now, don’t you? Is Job holy? (No.) Within this holiness is contained the essence of God. Man does not have God’s essence or God’s disposition. Even when man has experienced all of God’s word and possesses the essence of God’s word, man can still never be called holy; man is man. You understand, right? (Yes.) So how do you understand this phrase “God occupies man’s hearts” now? (It is God’s words, God’s way and His truth that become man’s life.) You have memorized this, right? I hope you now have a deeper understanding. Some people may ask, “So why say that God’s messengers and angels are not holy?” What do you think about this question? Perhaps you have not considered it before. I will use a simple example: When you turn on a robot, it can both dance and talk, and you can understand what it says, but can you call it lovely? Can you call it lively? You can say it, but the robot will not understand because it does not have life. When you turn off its power supply, can it still move about? (No.) When this robot is activated, you can see it is lively and lovely. You make an evaluation of it, whether it be a substantive evaluation or a superficial evaluation, but whatever the case your eyes can see it moving. But when you turn off its power supply, do you see any kind of character in it? Do you see it possessing any kind of essence? Do you understand the meaning of what I am saying? (Yes.) You can understand, right? That is to say, even though this robot can move and it can stop, you could never describe it as having “any kind of essence.” Is this not a fact? We will not talk any more on this. It is enough for you to have a general understanding of the meaning. Let us end our fellowship here. Goodbye!
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.
Do Not Miss the Opportunity to Know the Creator’s Sovereignty
The six junctures described above are crucial phases laid out by the Creator that every normal person must undergo in his or her life. Every one of these junctures is real; none of them can be circumvented, and all bear a relationship to the Creator’s predestination and His sovereignty. So for a human being, each of these junctures is an important checkpoint, and how to pass through each of them smoothly is a very serious question that all of you now face.
The handful of decades that make up a human life are neither long nor short. The twenty-odd years between birth and coming of age pass in an eyeblink, and though at this point in life a person is considered an adult, people in this age group know close to nothing about human life and human fate. As they gain more experience, they stride gradually into middle age. People in their thirties and forties acquire a nascent experience of life and fate, but their ideas about these things are still very foggy. It is not till age forty that some people begin to understand mankind and the universe, which were created by God, to grasp what human life is all about, what human fate is all about. Some people, though they have long been followers of God and are now middle-aged, still do not possess an accurate knowledge and definition of God’s sovereignty, much less true submission. Some people care about nothing other than seeking to receive blessings, and though they have lived for many years, they do not know or understand in the least the fact of the Creator’s sovereignty over human fate, and so have not entered into a bit of the practical lesson of submitting to God’s orchestrations and arrangements. Such people are thoroughly foolish; such people live their lives in vain.
If a human life is divided up according to one’s degree of life experience and one’s knowledge of human fate, it will roughly break down into three phases. The first phase is youth, the years between birth and middle age, or from birth till thirty. The second phase is maturation, from middle age to old age, or from thirty till sixty. And the third phase is one’s mature period, from old age, beginning at sixty, till one departs from the world. In other words, from birth to middle age, most people’s knowledge of fate and life is limited to parroting others’ ideas; it has almost no real, practical substance. During this period, one’s outlook on life and how one makes one’s way in the world are all very superficial and naive. This is one’s juvenile period. Only after one has tasted all the joys and sorrows of life does one gain a real understanding of fate, does one—subconsciously, deep in one’s heart—gradually come to appreciate the irreversibility of fate, and slowly realize that the Creator’s sovereignty over human fate truly exists. This is one’s maturation period. When one has ceased to struggle against fate, and when one is no longer willing to be drawn into strifes, but knows one’s lot, submits to Heaven’s will, sums up one’s own achievements and errors in life, and is awaiting the Creator’s judgment on one’s life—this is one’s mature period. Considering the different kinds of experiences and gains that people obtain during these three periods, under normal circumstances one’s window of opportunity to know the Creator’s sovereignty is not very large. If one lives to be sixty, one has only thirty years or so to know God’s sovereignty; if one wants a longer period of time, that is only possible if one’s life is long enough, if one is able to live a century. So I say, according to the normal laws of human existence, though it is a very long process from when one first encounters the subject of knowing the Creator’s sovereignty to when one is able to recognize the fact of the Creator’s sovereignty, and from then till the point when one is able to submit to it, if one actually counts up the years, there are no more than thirty or forty during which one has the chance to gain these rewards. And often, people get carried away by their desires and their ambitions to receive blessings; they cannot discern where the essence of human life lies, do not grasp the importance of knowing the Creator’s sovereignty, and so they do not cherish this precious opportunity to enter into the human world to experience human life, experience the Creator’s sovereignty, and do not realize how invaluable it is for a created being to receive the Creator’s personal guidance. So I say, those people who want God’s work to end quickly, who wish God would arrange man’s end as soon as possible, so that they could immediately behold His real person and soon be blessed, are guilty of the worst kind of disobedience and foolish in the extreme. And those who desire, during their limited time, to grasp this unique opportunity to know the Creator’s sovereignty, are the wise people, the brilliant ones. These two different desires expose two vastly different outlooks and pursuits: Those who seek blessings are selfish and base; they show no consideration for God’s will, never seek to know God’s sovereignty, never desire to submit to it, simply want to live as they please. They are blithe degenerates; they are the ones to be destroyed. Those who seek to know God are able to set aside their desires, are willing to submit to God’s sovereignty and God’s arrangements; they try to be the kind of people who are submissive to God’s authority and satisfy God’s desire. Such people live in light, live in the midst of God’s blessings; they will surely be commended by God. No matter what, human choice is useless, humans have no say in how long God’s work will take. It is better for people to put themselves at the mercy of God, to submit to His sovereignty. If you do not put yourself at His mercy, what can you do? Will God suffer a loss? If you do not put yourself at His mercy, if you try to be in charge, you are making a foolish choice, and you are the only one who will suffer a loss in the end. Only if people cooperate with God as soon as possible, only if they make haste to accept His orchestrations, know His authority, and understand all He has done for them, will they have hope, will their lives not be lived in vain, will they attain salvation.
No One Can Change the Fact That God Holds Sovereignty Over Human Fate
After listening to everything I have just said, has your idea of fate changed? How do you understand the fact of God’s sovereignty over human fate? To put it simply, under God’s authority every person actively or passively accepts His sovereignty and His arrangements, and no matter how one struggles in the course of one’s life, no matter how many crooked paths one walks, in the end one will return to the orbit of fate that the Creator has traced out for him or her. This is the insuperability of the Creator’s authority, the manner in which His authority controls and governs the universe. It is this insuperability, this form of control and governance, that are responsible for the laws that dictate the lives of all things, that allow humans to transmigrate again and again without interference, that make the world turn regularly and move forward, day after day, year after year. You have witnessed all these facts and you understand them, whether superficially or deeply; the depth of your understanding depends upon your experience and knowledge of the truth, and your knowledge of God. How well you know the reality of the truth, how much you have experienced God’s words, how well you know God’s substance and disposition—this represents the depth of your understanding of God’s sovereignty and arrangements. Is the existence of God’s sovereignty and arrangements dependent upon whether human beings submit to them? Is the fact that God possesses this authority determined by whether humanity submits to it? God’s authority exists regardless of the circumstances; in all situations, God dictates and arranges every human fate and all things in accordance with His thoughts, His wishes. This will not change because humans change, and it is independent of man’s will, cannot be altered by any changes in time, space, and geography, for God’s authority is His very substance. Whether man is able to know and accept God’s sovereignty, and whether man is able to submit to it, does not in the slightest way change the fact of God’s sovereignty over human fate. That is to say, no matter what attitude man takes toward God’s sovereignty, it simply cannot change the fact that God holds sovereignty over human fate and over all things. Even if you do not submit to God’s sovereignty, He still commands your fate; even if you cannot know His sovereignty, His authority still exists. God’s authority and the fact of God’s sovereignty over human fate are independent of human will, do not change in accordance with man’s preferences and choices. God’s authority is everywhere, at every hour, at every instant. If heaven and earth were to pass away, His authority would never pass away, for He is God Himself, He possesses the unique authority, and His authority is not restricted or limited by people, events, or things, by space or by geography. At all times God wields His authority, shows His might, continues His management work as always; at all times He rules all things, provides for all things, orchestrates all things, just as He always did. No one can change this. It is fact; it has been the unchanging truth since time immemorial!
The Proper Attitude and Practice for One Who Wishes to Submit to God’s Authority
With what attitude should man now know and regard God’s authority, the fact of God’s sovereignty over human fate? This is a real problem that stands before every person. When confronting real-life problems, how should you know and understand God’s authority and His sovereignty? When you do not know how to understand, handle, and experience these problems, what attitude should you adopt to show your intention, your desire, and your reality of submitting to God’s sovereignty and arrangements? First you must learn to wait; then you must learn to seek; then you must learn to submit. “Waiting” means waiting for the time of God, awaiting the people, events, and things that He has arranged for you, waiting for His will to gradually reveal itself to you. “Seeking” means observing and understanding God’s thoughtful intentions for you through the people, events, and things that He has laid out, understanding the truth through them, understanding what humans must accomplish and the ways they must keep, understanding what results God means to achieve in humans and what accomplishments He means to attain in them. “Submitting,” of course, refers to accepting the people, events, and things that God has orchestrated, accepting His sovereignty and, through it, coming to know how the Creator dictates man’s fate, how He supplies man with His life, how He works the truth into man. All things under God’s arrangements and sovereignty obey natural laws, and if you resolve to let God arrange and dictate everything for you, you should learn to wait, you should learn to seek, you should learn to submit. This is the attitude that every person who wants to submit to God’s authority must take, the basic quality that every person who wants to accept God’s sovereignty and arrangements must possess. To hold such an attitude, to possess such a quality, you must work harder; and only thus can you enter into the true reality.
Accepting God as Your Unique Master Is the First Step in Attaining Salvation
The truths regarding God’s authority are truths that every person must regard seriously, must experience and understand with their heart; for these truths have a bearing on every person’s life, on every person’s past, present, and future, on the crucial junctures that every person must pass in life, on man’s knowledge of God’s sovereignty and the attitude with which he should face God’s authority, and naturally, on every person’s final destination. So it takes a lifetime’s worth of energy to know and understand them. When you take God’s authority seriously, when you accept God’s sovereignty, you will gradually come to realize and understand that God’s authority truly exists. But if you never recognize God’s authority, never accept His sovereignty, then no matter how many years you live, you will not gain the slightest knowledge of God’s sovereignty. If you do not truly know and understand God’s authority, then when you reach the end of the road, even if you have believed in God for decades, you will have nothing to show for your life, your knowledge of God’s sovereignty over human fate will inevitably be zero. Is this not a very sad thing? So no matter how far you have walked in life, no matter how old you are now, no matter how long the rest of your journey is, first you must recognize God’s authority and take it seriously, accept the fact that God is your unique Master. Attaining clear, accurate knowledge and understanding of these truths regarding God’s sovereignty over human fate is a mandatory lesson for everyone, is the key to knowing human life and attaining the truth, is the daily life and basic lesson of knowing God that everyone faces, and which no one can evade. If some of you wish to take shortcuts to reach this goal, then I say to you, that is impossible! If some of you want to escape God’s sovereignty, that is even more impossible! God is man’s only Lord, God is the only Master of human fate, and so it is impossible for man to dictate his own fate, impossible for him to surpass it. No matter how great one’s abilities, one cannot influence, much less orchestrate, arrange, control, or change the fates of others. Only the unique God Himself dictates all things for man, for only He possesses the unique authority that holds sovereignty over human fate; and so only the Creator is man’s unique Master. God’s authority holds sovereignty not only over created humanity, but over non-created beings that no human can see, over the stars, over the cosmos. This is an indisputable fact, a fact that truly exists, which no human or thing can change. If some of you are still dissatisfied with things as they stand, believing that you have some special skill or ability, and still thinking you can get lucky and change your present circumstances or else escape them; if you attempt to change your own fate by means of human effort, and thereby stand out from others and win fame and fortune; then I say to you, you are making things hard for yourself, you are only asking for trouble, you are digging your own grave! One day, sooner or later, you will discover that you made the wrong choice, that your efforts were wasted. Your ambition, your desire to struggle against fate, and your own egregious conduct, will lead you down a road of no return, and for this you will pay a bitter price. Though right now you do not see the severity of the consequence, as you experience and appreciate more and more deeply the truth that God is the Master of human fate, you will slowly come to realize what I am talking about today and its real implications. Whether you truly have a heart and a spirit, whether you are a person who loves the truth, depends on what kind of attitude you take toward God’s sovereignty and toward the truth. And naturally, this determines whether you can truly know and understand God’s authority. If you have never in your life sensed God’s sovereignty and His arrangements, much less recognize and accept God’s authority, then you will be utterly worthless, you will be without a doubt the object of God’s detestation and rejection, thanks to the path you have taken and the choice you have made. But those who, in God’s work, can accept His trial, accept His sovereignty, submit to His authority, and gradually gain real experience of His words, will have attained real knowledge of God’s authority, real understanding of His sovereignty, and will have truly become subject to the Creator. Only such people will have truly been saved. Because they have known God’s sovereignty, because they have accepted it, their appreciation of and submission to the fact of God’s sovereignty over human fate is real and accurate. When they face death they will be able, like Job, to have a mind undaunted by death, to submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements in all things, with no individual choice, with no individual desire. Only such a person will be able to return to the Creator’s side as a true created human being.
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.
I
The work of God continues to advance;
although the purpose remains unchanged,
the means of His work constantly change,
and hence so do those who follow Him.
The more work that God performs,
the more man knows, knows Him completely,
the more man’s disposition changes
along with His work accordingly.
The work of God continues to advance;
His work is never old and always new.
He never repeats work of old,
only work never done before is what He shall do.
II
God does not sustain the same work;
it’s ever-changing and always new.
It’s the same as God speaking new words
and doing new work every day on you.
This is the work that God does;
the key lies in “wondrous,” “wondrous” and “new.”
“God is changeless and always will be God.”
This is a saying that’s indeed true.
The work of God continues to advance;
His work is never old and always new.
He never repeats work of old,
only work never done before is what He shall do.
III
But as God’s work is ever-changing,
for those who don’t know the Holy Spirit’s work,
and absurd men who don’t know the truth,
they end up becoming God’s opponents.
God’s essence will never change;
God’s always God and never Satan.
But this doesn’t mean that His work is changeless,
and as constant as His essence.
You say that God is never-changing, but
how do you explain “never old, always new”?
God’s work keeps expanding and changing,
He shows His will and makes it known to man too.
The work of God continues to advance;
His work is never old and always new.
He never repeats work of old,
only work never done before is what He shall do.
Only work never done before is what He shall do.
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.
I
Wasn’t clear for whom man should live. Now I’ve got the answer for it.
I used to live just for myself, seeking only status and fame.
Prayer to God full of fine words, yet holding to my own way in real life.
Faith based upon future and fate, I have no truth or reality.
Rituals and rules, confining my faith; I was left with nothing but emptiness.
Failing to live as a human, I don’t deserve God’s love for me.
II
My heart has been awakened now, telling me I should repay God’s love.
I hate myself for I had no conscience, disobeying God and breaking His heart.
Never have I cared for God’s heart; never was I concerned about His words.
Without conscience, having no sense, how can I be listed as man?
God’s judgment makes me see, I was deeply corrupted by Satan.
Evil, this world, full of traps; truth is what a believer should choose.
O dear God, You love me so, doing all You can to make me saved.
What You’ve done for me, I’ll keep in mind! I will never ever forget.
Care for God’s heart, that’s all my will. I am determined to pursue the truth.
Consuming myself to spend for God, offering myself to repay His love,
offering myself to repay His love.
The Incarnate God Is Very Important to Mankind
This flesh is so important to mankind,
for He is man and most of all, He is God;
for He can do the work no ordinary man of flesh can,
and He can save corrupt man living with Him on earth, here on earth.
I
God incarnate can do the work that man cannot,
’cause His inward substance is not like that of man.
He can save man, ’cause His identity is different from that of man.
This flesh is so important to mankind,
for He is man and most of all, He is God;
for He can do the work no ordinary man of flesh can,
and He can save corrupt man living with Him on earth, here on earth.
II
God incarnate, He is the same, the same as man,
but He’s more important than any man of worth.
’cause He can do the work that God’s Spirit cannot.
He can better testify God and win man’s heart.
This flesh is normal and is ordinary,
but His contribution to the humankind.
and His significance to their existence,
make Him much more precious and valuable.
This flesh is so important to mankind,
For He is man and most of all, He is God.
The value and importance, importance of this flesh
is something, something can’t be counted
by anyone, counted by anyone.
III
Though this flesh cannot directly destroy Satan,
His work can defeat it and conquer man,
making Satan completely, completely submit to His dominion.
God can save man, defeat Satan, ’cause He becomes flesh.
He doesn’t destroy Satan but becomes flesh to work
and conquer man corrupted by it.
So, He can better testify Himself among the creatures, and save corrupted man.
This flesh is so important to mankind,
for He is man and most of all, He is God;
for He can do the work no ordinary man of flesh can,
and He can save corrupt man living with Him on earth, here on earth.
IV
God defeats Satan through His incarnate flesh,
and this bears greater, greater witness.
It’s more persuasive than God’s Spirit directly destroys Satan.
This flesh is so important to mankind.
for He is man and most of all, He is God.
God in flesh can better help man know the Creator
and better bear, better bear witness to Himself among the creatures.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
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.
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.
