From Suffering Is Emitted the Fragrance of Love | The Church of Almighty God

From Suffering Is Emitted the Fragrance of Love

January 19, 20157

Xiaokai, Jiangxi Province

I’m an ordinary country woman and, because of the feudalistic idea of only valuing male children, I was unable to raise my head in front of others for shame at having borne no son. Just when I was suffering the most, I was chosen by the Lord Jesus and, two years later, I accepted the salvation of Almighty God. Moreover, I understood much truth from within the words of Almighty God and my heart obtained true release. However, while I was performing my duty to repay God’s love, I was twice arrested by the CCP government and I suffered brutal torture and torment at the hands of the CCP’s pawns. Just when I was on the verge of death, the words of Almighty God guided me and inspired me and caused me to stand witness in the midst of Satan’s cruel harm, thereby strengthening my determination to follow God and love God for all my life.

I Fell in the Light of Almighty God

August 22, 20150

Zhou Liwei

Bei’an City, Heilongjiang Province

I was a church leader of the Pentecostal Church in Bei’an City. I turned to the Lord by grace in 1993. Since then, reading the Bible had been my great pleasure. Several months later, I began to teach hymns and give sermons in my church. I always reckoned myself as a loyal believer of the Lord, who was most worthy to see the Lord in the future. However, when the Lord truly came, I became one who resisted His new work.

At the end of 1998, I attended a co-workers’ meeting called by the leader of the upper level. At the meeting, the leader said to us, “There now appears a false Christ, called the ‘Eastern Lightning.’ Nobody knows where this gang come from. They are very horrible. As long as you join them, you’ll never get out. If you try to do so, you’ll be beaten to death. They are purely ‘heretics,’ ‘cultists,’ and are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Tell the believers, throw them out when they come to their home, and if they don’t leave, beat them away with a stick. Such behavior is loyalty to God, not a sin.” I had no doubt about what he said, and began to hate the “Eastern Lightning” from my heart. After I came back, I immediately got the brothers and sisters together and indoctrinated them with what I heard from the leader in an exaggerated way, in order to prevent them from accepting the “Eastern Lightning.” And I also told them, “Without my permission, no one shall receive any outsider, not even your parents.” What’s more, I wrote on the blackboard the words of cursing the “Eastern Lightning,” which I put down at the co-workers’ meeting, and ordered them to recite together and to say these words in every prayer.

In May, 2001, two sisters who had once sustained me came to my home to preach God’s new work of the last days. I said to myself, “Even though you sustained me before, I can’t be soft on you.” I pulled a long face and said, “Get out of here! I don’t know you devils!” Seeing this, one sister said softly, “We mean no harm. We just came here to testify God’s new work to you. Sister, let me read God’s word to you and you’ll understand!” As the sister took out the book and was about to read, I grabbed the book with fury and dashed it to the ground, and shouted at her, “Read what? I don’t want to listen! I order you to leave at once in the Lord Jesus’ name!” With that, I pushed and shoved them out of the door.

One day in the late fall of 2001, an elderly sister came to my home in the rain. When I was well aware that she was a believer of the “Eastern Lightning,” I said to her fiercely, “Who sent you here?” “God,” said the sister. “God expects you to come to Him earlier, so He gives me this burden. That’s God’s love!” I flung her a scornful smile, “You don’t deserve to talk about ‘love,’ I don’t need this kind of ‘love.’ Go away!” The sister said sincerely, “Sister, please don’t resist anymore. God truly has come and done a new work…” “Don’t talk nonsense here. I don’t want to listen. Go away!” As I was saying, I jerked the door open and shoved the sister out with force… I felt no guilty at all as I watched her doddering away in the heavy rain. After that, many people constantly came to my home to preach the gospel, but they were all refused by me by various means. Meanwhile, I put stringent measures in “flock guarding.” I paid a visit to every believer and told them never to go easy on the people of the “Eastern Lightning” and that it wasn’t a sin to treat them with any means.

Just when I spared no effort to resist Almighty God’s new work of the last days, my five-year-old child suddenly began to keep crying all day long. No matter how earnestly I prayed, there was no effect. I took her to the church and fasted and prayed with others for her. However, she not only didn’t turn better but got even worse instead. I was so exhausted that I couldn’t eat or sleep. Just when I was in anxiety, my child accidentally stepped her foot into the pan filled with hot dish. It was scalded and the whole skin peeled off, and she cried more fiercely. My husband hence shouted his complaints at me and quarreled with me every day. Furthermore, the church fell into a gradual decline, and I got no nourishment in preaching and received no moving of the Holy Spirit in praying. Facing all these, I was consumed by an unspeakable misery. The double pressure, the family problem and the desolation of the church, put me into a tight corner. Many times I called out to God with tears, “O God! Please turn and look at me. O God! What have I done to You? Please enlighten me. O God! I can’t live without You.”

pray,  Pictures of The Church of Almighty God

When I was in a bitter struggle of weakness and disappointment, Almighty God’s great love came to me again.

One day in January, 2003, I went to the home of a relative of mine (who believed in the Lord) on business. There I met several brothers and sisters who preached God’s new work of the last days. (At that time, I didn’t know they had accepted God’s new work.) At first, we fellowshipped very harmoniously. But when they talked about God’s new work of the last days, His judging and purifying men through words, and showed me the little scroll, I took the book and slammed it aside, and said, “I didn’t expect you’re the preachers of the ‘Eastern Lightning’! You are the tares plucked out by God. But you even attempt to deceive me. A colossal joke!” But the sister said mildly, “Sister, man cannot decide who are the tares and who are the wheat, for only God can separate the wheat from the tares. It says in John 4:37, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ Here ‘One sows’ means that when Jesus did the redemptive work in His first incarnation, He sowed the seeds of the kingdom gospel in the world. ‘Another reaps’ refers to God’s carrying out the work of judgment with words in the last days through His incarnation and separating the good from the evil, that is, separating the wheat from the tares. When Jesus sowed the seeds, the tares and the wheat grew together. But when it’s time to reap, the wheat will be gathered into the barn and the tares will be burned with fire. Sister, God’s reaping is not as simple as man imagines. God has His own plan and He does not do the work according to man’s notions. For example, at the end of the Age of Law, the Israelites expected a king, like David, to lead them to overthrow the Roman rule. But when Jesus came, He didn’t work according to people’s concepts, and so people denied the truth expressed by Him, rejected Him, and nailed Him onto the cross. Today, God has done a new work on the basis of redemptive work of the Age of Grace so as to bring the people from the Age of Grace into the Age of Kingdom. Though this stage of work is likewise inconsistent with man’s notions, yet those who truly belong to God can drop their notions and seek the truth, and they can accept God’s new work and seek the transformation of their disposition and finally become sanctified. Such people are the wheat in God’s eyes. If those who don’t know God’s work and condemn it with their notions insist on refusing to accept it until the end of the work, then they will be the tares in God’s eyes. Just as Almighty God says: “The return of Jesus is a great salvation for those who are capable of accepting the truth, but for those who are unable to accept the truth it is a sign of condemnation.” (from “When You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus Will Be When God Has Made Anew Heaven and Earth” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) Sister, today only those who keep up with God’s new work can be purified completely in the chastisement and judgment of God’s word, and the holy ones who are purified are the grains God desires to gain. Only such mankind can glorify God, manifest God, and testify God. These people have accepted the truth God expresses in the last days and kept pace with God’s footsteps. They are the very ones approved by God. So, we can’t confine God’s work within our imaginations and notions.” At this point, the sister read the following passage of God’s word to me: “When Jesus came into the world of man, He brought the Age of Grace and ended the Age of Law. During the last days, God once more became flesh, and when He became flesh this time, the Age of Grace ended and the Age of Kingdom began. All those who accept the second incarnation of God will be led into the Age of Kingdom, and be able to personally accept the guidance of God. Though Jesus did much work among man, He only completed the redemption of all mankind and became man’s sin offering, and did not rid man of all his corrupt disposition. Fully saving man from the influence of Satan not only required Jesus to take on the sins of man as the sin offering, but also required God to do greater work to completely rid man of his disposition, which has been corrupted by Satan. And so, after man was forgiven his sins, God returned to flesh to lead man into the new age, and began the work of chastisement and judgment, which brought man to a higher realm. All those who submit under His dominion shall enjoy higher truth and receive greater blessings. They shall truly live in the light, and shall gain the truth, the way, and the life.” (from “Preface” to The Word Appears in the Flesh) “I am never hurried in My work. No matter how man follows Me, I do My work in accordance with each step, as in My plan. Therefore, though you rebel against Me so much, I do not stop My work and still continue to speak the word I wish. I call to My house all those I predestined to listen to My word, then place all who obey and long for My word before My throne. Those who rebel against My word, those who do not obey and submit to Me, and those who openly defy Me, shall all be cast off to the side to await their final punishment. All men live in corruption and under the hand of the evil one, so not many of those who follow Me actually long for the truth. That is to say, most do not worship Me with a true heart or with the truth, but try to gain My trust through corruption, rebellion, and deceitful measures. It is for this reason I say, ‘Many are called, but few are chosen.’ All those called are deeply corrupted and live in the same age, but those who are chosen are only the ones who believe in and acknowledge the truth and who practice the truth. …” (from “Many Are Called, but Few Are Chosen” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) God’s words, with authority, struck my heart. “In the past, I thought I was most loyal to the Lord. But faced with my family problem and the desolation of the church, I either became weak or made complaints. Do I have any loyalty? I condemned and resisted Almighty God and despised and slandered the brothers and sisters who believed in Almighty God. Do I have any love? But the brothers and sisters in front of me, who were once considered as demons by me, have such a good living out, and they can suffer and pay the price for the sake of preaching Almighty God’s gospel.” Compared with them, I felt extremely ashamed, and tears rolled down my face. The brothers and sisters saw that I was moved by the Holy Spirit, and they all shed tears with excitement. I took the book of God’s word from the sister and read it sentence by sentence. Every word of God, which carried power, shook my heart. Almighty God says: “Do many people not oppose God and obstruct the work of the Holy Spirit because they do not know the varied and diverse work of God, and, furthermore, because they possess but a smidgeon of knowledge and doctrine with which to measure the work of the Holy Spirit? Though the experiences of such people are superficial, they are arrogant and indulgent in nature, and they regard the work of the Holy Spirit with contempt, ignore the disciplines of the Holy Spirit and, moreover, use their trivial old arguments to ‘confirm’ the work of the Holy Spirit. They also put on an act, and are wholly convinced of their own learning and erudition, and that they are able to travel across the world. Are such people not those who are rejected by the Holy Spirit, and will they not be eliminated by the new age? Are not those who come before God and openly oppose Him myopic little people, who are merely trying to show how clever they are? With but a meager knowledge of the Bible, they try to straddle the world’s ‘academia,’ with but a superficial doctrine to teach people, they try to reverse the work of the Holy Spirit, and attempt to make it revolve around their own thought process, and short-sighted as they are, they try to behold in one glance 6,000 years of God’s work. Do these people have any reason to speak of? In fact, the greater people’s knowledge of God, the slower they are to judge His work. Furthermore, they only talk a little of their knowledge of God’s work today, but they are not rash in their judgments. The less people know of God, the more arrogant and overconfident they are, and the more wantonly they proclaim God’s being—yet they only talk of theory, and offer no real evidence. Such people are of no value whatsoever.” (from “Knowing the Three Stages of God’s Work Is the Path to Knowing God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) God’s words, like a sharp two-edged sword, pierced through my joints and marrow, and I knelt down, bursting into tears, “O Almighty God, I am the kind of person You speak of. I am arrogant and willful by nature and slight the work of the Holy Spirit, and I have shallow knowledge and am worthless. I, like a worm, dare to measure and condemn Your new work and reject Your coming by my only little Bible knowledge. Too arrogant I am! O God! I’m unworthy to live before You, and really deserve to be cursed. Thank You for Your mercy. You didn’t treat me according to my transgression but instead opened my blind eyes with Your words and showed me Your wonderful deeds. O God! I’m willing to accept Your work of the last days and accept the chastisement and judgment of Your word, so that I may become a person after Your heart, to glorify and testify Your holy name.”

It has been over one year since I accepted Almighty God’s new work. My family has restored to its former peace. I am performing my bounden duty under the guidance of God’s word, and feel very delighted. Dear brothers and sisters, maybe you are now full of suspicion and hostility toward Almighty God’s work of the last days and haven’t dropped your notions as I did before. I hope you may learn from my experience and come to Almighty God earlier. Almighty God will tell you all the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and even more, bring you the truth, the way, and the life.

Recommendation:  The Church of Almighty God

Fleeing From the “Tiger’s Den” (Part 1) | Eastern Lightning

Fleeing From the “Tiger’s Den” (Part 1)

January 1, 201871

Xiaoyou

My name is Xiaoyou and this year, I am 26 years old. Originally, I was a Catholic. When I was little, I went with my mother to church for Mass, chanting scriptures, confessing and receiving communion. My mother was very zealous in her faith. She would often donate food and clothing as well as money to the church. The church leaders and nuns particularly liked my mother. When they saw her, they would greet her with smiles and show great concern for her. They would also frequently call my mother on the phone to ask her to participate in all kinds of church activities and to help out with various tasks. I would also proactively participate in the classes that the nuns taught. My church friends and I would chant scriptures together. At that time, I felt the joy and the peace that comes along with being with God. I was very happy every day. However, as time passed on, the faith of my church friends became colder and colder. My spirit also became weak and I was unable to adhere to the teachings of God. I would frequently commit sins and confess. After I got married, I went with my husband to other parts of the country for work.

After Listening with My Heart, I Have Welcomed the Lord’s Return | Eastern Lightning

After Listening with My Heart, I Have Welcomed the Lord’s Return

Max    United States

In 1994, I was born in the United States. My parents are both Chinese. My mother was the classic example of a successful career woman. She is able to think for herself and is very competent. I love my mother very much. When I was in Grade 2, my parents brought me back to China to study so that I would be able to learn Chinese. It was also at that time that I started to get acquainted with the Lord Jesus. I remember one day in 2004, after I got home from school, there was a guest at our house. My mother introduced her and told me that she was a pastor from the United States. I was very happy because that was when I found out that my mother had believed in the Lord Jesus for some time. Before, she did not believe. Every Chinese New Year, she would burn incense and worship Buddha. However, after my mother started to believe in the Lord Jesus, I no longer had to smell the whiff of burnt Joss paper and incense. That day, the American pastor told me a story about the Lord Jesus. Soon after, I was brought to the bathroom and before I could react, “plop,” the pastor had dunked my head into the bathtub and after a moment, pulled my head out. All I heard was my mother and the pastor telling me, “Welcome to the embrace of the Lord Jesus. We are all lost sheep.” In this way, I started a new life journey before I knew it. However, because the Lord was with me, my heart was very happy. Afterward, each Sunday, I would go to church to worship and listen to the pastor talk about Bible stories and read from the scriptures. I was very happy all along. My heart was steadfast and I felt that believing in the Lord Jesus was truly a good thing.

In 2008, my father accompanied me to the United States so that I could study here. During this time, I went to church and participated in fellowships. In 2012, after I graduated from high school, my father bought me a plane ticket so that I could go back to China to visit my mother. Right before leaving, my father sat down with me and spoke many heartfelt words to me. He told me that in China, my mother had started to believe in “Eastern Lightning.” He hoped that on my return, I would be able to talk to my mother and get her to abandon her faith in “Eastern Lightning.” As a student who was about to enter into university, of course, I would not only listen to my father’s side of the story. Soon afterward, I went on the internet and searched for information related to “Eastern Lightning.” I wanted to have more of a realistic understanding of them. The result was that I found some opinions originating from the CCP government and pastors and elders from the religious world that condemned and slandered “Eastern Lightning.” I started feeling worried for my mother. I decided to go home and see how my mother was doing. After I got back home, I found that everything was normal with my mother. Her concern and love for me had not changed. Her faith and love for God had grown greater and she was more devout than before. I was a little less worried about my mother then.

During the time I was back in China, my mother, as expected spoke to me about “Eastern Lightning.” She said, “The Lord Jesus has already returned and He has started doing a stage of judgment work beginning with the house of God….” From my mother’s words, I understood that when the Lord Jesus incarnated this time, He had come as a female to do His work. I just remember that at that time, I stared blankly because this was completely different from what I had been told about the Lord Jesus when I was in the States. My pastor always emphasized in the sermons that Jehovah God is the Holy Father and the Lord Jesus is the Holy Son. Since They were Father and Son, both of them were male. Moreover, all the portraits of the Lord Jesus that were hung in the church and all the crosses that had the Lord Jesus on them indicated that the Lord Jesus was a male. However, my mother said that this time, the Lord Jesus has returned as a female. This completely exceeded my knowledge of the Lord Jesus. My heart could not take it and I told my mother, “The Lord Jesus is a male. When the Lord returns, how could it be that He would return as a female?” My mother replied, “God is Spirit in essence. God does not have a gender. It is only because He has incarnated to do the work of salvation that He chose a different gender….” However, since the viewpoint that my pastor had inculcated me with was the first and strongest impression, regardless of what my mother said, I would not believe it.

A few days later, my mother wanted to take me to attend a gathering with her. Even though I did not want to, because I respected my mother, I went with her. At the time, I remember that there was an aunty from Northeast China that said, “The last days have already arrived. The Lord Jesus has already come back in the flesh and lives amongst us. He is doing the work of the Age of Kingdom. Presently, the churches of the Age of Grace no longer have the Holy Spirit’s work and they are all completely desolated….” However, since my heart was already closed, I still maintained that the Lord Jesus is a male and that when He returns, He would surely return as a male. That is why I basically did not believe in what this aunty was talking about. All the way until I left China, I was still very bewildered: Why would the Lord Jesus return as a female? I was worried that my mother was walking on the wrong path. All I could do was pray for my mother, “Lord Jesus! Please keep my mother and make sure she does not walk on the wrong path. Guide her back into Your embrace….”

After I returned to the United States, I continued attending worship at my church. However, gradually, I discovered that the majority of what my pastor was saying was outdated and repetitious. Otherwise, it was specifically about donating to the church. As a believer, we were not able to obtain genuine shepherding. Many people would doze off during the gatherings and the number of people that attended gradually diminished. In 2014, the church I went to encountered a significant misfortune. The pastor had used public money to buy a house for himself in another state and as a result, our church went bankrupt. When I saw all these things, I felt very disappointed. At this time, my classmates brought me to their church to participate in worship. This church was a lot bigger than the previous church I went to. Each Sunday, when the pastor was giving his sermon, I would sit in the upper row of seats to listen. However, as before, I saw many people dozing off. Sometimes, even I started to doze off. Frequently, the pastor would deliberately raise his voice in an attempt to wake up the brothers and sisters. However, his attempts to get us to listen to his sermons failed. I thought back to the previous church I attended where the pastor misappropriated the church’s money to buy himself a house. His sermons were unable to provide for the spiritual life needs of the brothers and sisters. Instead, they basically came to church to sleep! The church that I was going to at that time was also like this. I asked myself, “Could it be that all churches are desolate?” Suddenly, I thought back to 2012 when I went back to China and the things that my mother and that aunty from Northeast China said. They told me: God has started the work of the Age of Kingdom. The Age of Grace has concluded. God no longer works in the churches belonging to the Age of Grace. Only by following God’s work in the Age of Kingdom can one be able to obtain the Holy Spirit’s work. This was the first time that I asked myself, “Could it be that the Lord Jesus has really returned?”

picture the church of Almighty God

In a blink of the eye, it was the end of 2015. I received news that my mother went to San Francisco to visit my elder brother. I bought a plane ticket so I could go and see her. Once again, my mother mentioned “Eastern Lightning”—the second coming of the Lord Jesus. She also got me to watch many gospel videos from the Church of Almighty God as well as read many of Almighty God’s words. This time, I did not resist in the way I did before because in the past two years, I saw many scenes of desolation in the churches that I went to. This confirmed for me what they were telling me about the desolation in the churches. It is indeed the truth! I started to quiet my heart and listen to what my mother was saying, so that I could unlock the shackles that were within my heart. At that time, my mother targeted my notions. She read to me God’s words concerning the aspect of God’s gender. This left a very deep impression on me. It also explained the confusion I had all along regard the gender of the Lord who has returned. Almighty God says, “Each stage of work done by God has a real significance. When Jesus arrived, He was male, and this time He is female. From this, you can see that God created both male and female for His work and with Him there is no distinction of gender. When His Spirit arrives, He can take on any flesh at will and the flesh represents Him. Be it male or female, both represent God as long as it is His incarnate flesh. If Jesus arrived and appeared as a female, in other words, if an infant girl, not a boy, was to be conceived by the Holy Spirit, that stage of work would have been completed all the same. If so, this stage of work would have to be completed instead by a male and the work would then be completed all the same. The work done in both stages is significant; no work is repeated or conflicts with each other. … If in this stage He did not become flesh to personally do work for man to witness, man would forever hold on to the notion that God is only male, not female” (“The Two Incarnations Complete the Significance of the Incarnation” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “God’s wisdom, God’s wondrousness, God’s righteousness, and God’s majesty shall never change. His essence and what He has and is shall never change. His work, however, is always progressing forward and always going deeper, for He is always new and never old. … If He were only incarnated as a male, people would define Him as male, as the God of men, and would never believe Him to be the God of women. Then, men would believe that God is of the same gender as men, that God is the head of men—and what of women? This is unfair; is it not preferential treatment? If this were the case, then all those whom God saved would be men like Him, and there would be no salvation for women. When God created mankind, He created Adam and He created Eve. He did not only create Adam, but made both male and female in His image. God is not only the God of men—He is also the God of women” (“The Vision of God’s Work (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). After I finished reading God’s words, this matter which was gnawing at my mind disappeared almost instantly. In my heart, I felt that these words are correct. In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve. Originally, male and female were equal. If that’s the case, why can’t God return as a female?! God’s essence is Spirit. Of course He can assume either gender identity when He comes amongst us to do His work. Regardless of whether God incarnates as a male or a female, it is God’s choice. God has the right to choose what gender to incarnate into because God is the Ruler of all things and He is the Creator. Is God’s work restricted by people? What is man when compared to God? Isn’t man just dust? How can man fathom God’s wisdom? Before, I believed that God could only be a male. I truly defined God and it reveals that I did not have any knowledge of God. I was too arrogant and foolish.

After I read more of God’s words, my notions about God incarnating as a female this time to do work became thoroughly extinguished. I was also able to accept that God has already returned to do new work. However, I was still not one hundred percent certain about the work of Almighty God because I had read negative propaganda about resisting and condemning the Church of Almighty God on the internet. As a result, my heart still had a bit of apprehensions. I thought, perhaps I should thoroughly examine this and see whether the Church of Almighty God is like this. As a result, starting in February of 2016, with an objective lens, I officially had online meetings with the brothers and sisters from the Church of Almighty God. I also prayed to God to guide and lead me to distinguish what is true and what is false regarding the negative propaganda.

After a period of time of investigation, I discovered that each time that we had a gathering, the brothers and sisters would read God’s word, communicate the truth and fellowship about God’s intentions. Moreover, Almighty God’s words requires people to live out a normal humanity and become honest people. The content of Almighty God’s words also includes how to know God’s disposition, how to pursue the truth in order to attain God’s salvation etc. These are all necessities when it comes to our spiritual life needs and they are beneficial to us living genuinely as humans. From what the brothers and sisters were saying, I could see that they genuinely show care and concern and help each other in spiritual life. The intentions of an individual’s conduct are evident from what he says and the points of views he expresses. From my interactions with the brothers and sisters of the Church of Almighty God, I could feel that they simply are not the way that the material on the internet purported them to be. Instead, they are very kindhearted and sincere. They have a heart that reveres God in all the things they say and do. Moreover, I felt that the Holy Spirit’s work is there. These brothers and sisters pursue the truth with passion. In their communication of God’s words at gatherings and their individual experiences and knowledge, there were certainly the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment and illumination. Each time we had a gathering, I was able to have some understanding of the truth and could have something to gain. This was something that I did not experience at the churches I attended in the past. The truth is victorious over mere rhetoric and rumors are discredited in the face of the facts.

In one gathering later, I told the sister about the rumors that had been fabricated by the CCP government and the pastors and elders of the religious world. I did not understand: The Church of Almighty God has the Holy Spirit’s work and it is the church that has been produced by God as He appears to do His work in the last days. Why does it face the frantic opposition and condemnation of the CCP government and the pastors and elders of the religious world? The sister communicated with me about the truth of this aspect, “We must see through the rumors on the internet. It is not strange that the CCP government and the pastors and elders of the religious world would attack and judge God’s work of the last days and condemn the Church of Almighty God because since ancient times, the true way has been persecuted! Satan has always been the enemy of God. It fabricates and spreads all sorts of rumors in order to deceive and disturb us so that we will leave and betray God. Its goal is to control us and possess us. This is similar to the beginning when Satan used rumors to deceive Eve into denying God’s word and betraying God. When the Lord Jesus came to do His work, the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees also relied on all kinds of rumors to deceive the common Jewish people. They disparaged the Lord Jesus as a carpenter’s son. They blasphemed that the Lord Jesus relied on the ruler of demons to drive out demons and even colluded with the Roman government to nail the Lord Jesus to the cross. After the Lord Jesus’ resurrection, they even bribed soldiers to lie and say that the Lord Jesus had not resurrected to block the common Jewish people from returning to the Lord. In the last days, God has incarnated once again to do a stage of judgment work to thoroughly cleanse and save man. God’s kingdom gospel is already common knowledge in mainland China. Presently, Almighty God’s work is in the process of being spread to all corners of the world. Under the guidance of God’s words, more and more people are able to distinguish the evil forces that originate from Satan. They also see clearly the satanic and demonic essence of the leaders of the religious world and the atheistic political regime of the Chinese Communist Party. They thoroughly reject them and have started to return to God, pursue the truth and walk on the proper path of life. Will Satan just do nothing as God comes to do the work of saving man and helping man break away from Satan’s dark influence? It is not willing to be defeated. In order to vie over God’s chosen people with God, it will fight to the end. The religious world and the satanic CCP regime have teamed up together and through the internet and media, they spread rumors about and smear the name of the Church of Almighty God without restraint in order to deceive those who do not have the truth or cannot distinguish. They are attempting to obtain control over the human race forever. Their evil goal is to corrupt and devour mankind. It is precisely as the Bible says: ‘the whole world lies in wickedness’ (1Jn 5：19). The Lord Jesus said, ‘And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved’ (Jhn 3： 19-20). In terms of how to see through Satan’s evil schemes and not to be deceived by Satan, Almighty God exhorts us and says, ‘When you have undergone experiences, you will be able to differentiate many things—you will be able to distinguish between good and evil, between righteousness and wickedness, between what is of flesh and blood and what is of the truth. You should be able to distinguish between all these things, and in so doing, no matter the circumstances, you will never be lost. Only this is your real stature. Knowing the work of God is no simple matter: You should have standards and an objective in your pursuit, you should know how to seek the true way, and how to measure whether or not it is the true way, and whether or not it is the work of God’ (“Only Those Who Know God and His Work Can Satisfy God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). When we think about the background of the Lord Jesus’ work and based on the truth, weigh God’s salvation work in the last day and the rumors and lies that Satan spreads in order to obstruct man from returning to God, it is not hard to see Satan’s sinister motives. It is also not hard to understand the reasons why the CCP government and the religious world resist, condemn, suppress and persecute the Church of Almighty God.”

After listening to the sister’s fellowship, I gained some discernment about Satan’s schemes. I also had some knowledge about Satan’s essence of resisting God. Moreover, I understood that someone simply has to practically examine and understand God’s work to distinguish all these rumors and separate the truth from the lies. If you just blindly believe in the one-sided story and do not seek the truth nor investigate the facts, you will be deceived by the rumors of the Chinese Communist Party and the pastors and elders of the religious world. If this is the case, you will have missed out on the salvation of God in the last days. At this time, my heart was thankful to Almighty God for guiding me to understand these truths and helping me become completely certain that Almighty God is the second coming of the Lord Jesus, so that I could keep up with the footsteps of God and welcome the Lord’s return. Thank God! Amen!

Almighty God Is the Returned Jesus

2 Almighty God Is the Returned Jesus

Wang Yang

Guichi City, Anhui Province

I was formerly a leader of the Justification by Faith Church in the city of Guichi. Before I accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days, I, like all brothers and sisters, had been eagerly expecting the Lord Jesus’ coming again. But because of the constant “warnings” from the senior leader above and the biblical verse that there will surely appear many false Christs in the last days, I became one who resisted and condemned God’s work of the last days. Thinking of these, I feel very guilty. Now, I will tell brothers and sisters my personal experience, hoping that brothers and sisters will learn a lesson from it and come back to God’s family soon.

One day in September 1999, I was collecting cotton on our own threshing floor, because it was going to rain. Two sisters who preached the work of the last days of Almighty God came to me. Seeing them, I said, “How come you preachers of the false way come again to draw me? Save your breath! I won’t be deceived by you! You say that God has come, but no matter what you say, I believe that whatever departs from the Bible is false, because it says clearly in Matthew 24:36 that no one knows when the Lord comes. How could you know?” Seeing that they didn’t leave, I swore, “What a cheek, like the skin of an old sow! I will never let you enter my house!” I ran back home as I swore, and shut them out.

Soon, it began to rain. The two sisters didn’t have their umbrella with them and had to stand in the rain. Then I thought to myself, “They don’t get angry in spite of my abuse and don’t leave even when it rains. For what do they do so? For money? No! I won’t give them money. For fame? No! The worldly people all ridicule them as insane. They are not afraid of being mocked or abused or suffering. I have to ask them for what they do so.” Just when I was about to open the door, I remembered the words of the senior leader, “Those who preach that God has been incarnated and has opened the little scroll are from the ‘Eastern Lightning.’ No matter who they are and in what weather and at what time they come, don’t sympathize with them, much less receive them.” So, I began to struggle in my heart, “If what they believe in is false, why do they have far greater faith, love, and patience than we believers in Jesus? Am I a believer in Jesus by treating them this way?” I walked back and forth in the room and didn’t know what to do. The struggle in my heart was very fierce. The rain outside became heavier and heavier. In the end, I couldn’t bear it any longer, and said to myself, “Regardless of whether it is true or false, I have to ask them first for what they do so and where their faith, love, and patience come from.”

I opened the door and saw that they got soaked and trembled with cold. I felt quite sorry and let them in. As there were no clothes at home for them to change into, I urged them to hurry home. The sisters said, “If we want to go back, why do we wait until now? Brother, we come just to talk about the Bible with you.” My heart was moved by their sincerity. At that point, I no longer considered how people in the church would think about me, and said to them, “Just say whatever you want to!” One sister said, “Brother, we’ve come to fellowship with you about what Christ is.” I said, “Jesus is Christ and Christ is Jesus.” The sister continued, “Why can Jesus be called Christ?” I said, “Because the Lord Jesus is God, He is called Christ.” The sister asked again, “Is Jehovah not God? Why can He not be called Christ?” I said, “Christ means the anointed King.” The sister went on, “Saul, David, and Solomon were all anointed and were kings, but why could they not be called Christ?” Her questions rendered me speechless. Seeing that I was silent, she said, “Why can Jehovah not be called Christ? Because He only has full divinity and does not have a normal humanity. Why could Saul, David, or Solomon not be called Christ? They only had humanity and didn’t have full divinity, so they couldn’t be called Christ. Then why can Jesus be called Christ? Because He has both full divinity and a normal humanity, He is called Christ.” I was suddenly enlightened, “Ah! That’s how it is then. Thank God very much!” The sister went on, “Christ refers to the incarnate God. Only the incarnate God can be called Christ or the Son of man. In the Bible, Jesus is called Christ and the Son of man many times but Jehovah is never called Christ or the Son of man. This is because Jehovah is the Spirit and cannot be called Christ. When Christ or the Son of man is mentioned, it refers to the incarnate God. In the Bible, the prophets such as Ezekiel and Daniel are also called the ‘son of man.’ Although they and Christ were both men outwardly, they were different in substance. Ezekiel and Daniel could only speak some words and do some work among the people in behalf of Jehovah, and they were human in substance and were performing the duty that a created being should do. Christ, however, is different. He is God’s Spirit in substance, and when He speaks and works, He is performing His ministry. Although Christ can be called the Son of man, not all sons of man can be called Christ. Except the incarnate God, no one else can be called Christ. In the Bible, it mentions the Son of man many times, such as Matthew 24:27, 30; 25:31, Luke 17:30, and Revelation 14:14. Moreover, the Bible prophesies that the Lord Jesus will appear with the image of the Son of man when He comes again. Let’s read Luke 17:22-30. The Lord Jesus said to the disciples, ‘The days will come, when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and you shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.’ From these verses, it’s not difficult for us to see that when God comes again, He will also appear as the Son of man. When the Son of man is mentioned, it refers to the incarnate God. We have just mentioned that the incarnate Son of man has a normal humanity and full divinity and the spiritual body cannot be called the Son of man. The Lord Jesus said to His disciples personally, ‘The days will come, when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and you shall not see it.’ Does the word ‘the days will come’ mean that the days have come or not? Do they refer to the time He was incarnated or the future time?” I said, “They refer to the time the Lord Jesus was incarnated.” The sister continued, “If the Lord Jesus meant Himself, why did He say the word ‘The days will come, when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and you shall not see it’? If the Lord Jesus was referring to Himself, hadn’t the disciples seen Him already? Moreover, they had followed Him and known that He was the Son of man and the Christ. (Matthew 16:15-16) How could He say that they shall not see it? Obviously, He wasn’t referring to the time He was incarnated but was speaking a prophecy concerning His coming again. He also prophesied that there would be false Christs appearing when He came back. In Luke 17:23, it says, ‘And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.’ The Lord Jesus was warning people that they should not be deceived by false Christs when He came the second time, because where there is God’s work, there is Satan’s work. Man cannot recognize or know the image God takes when He comes by his physical eyes. Can man really know what image God will take when He comes again? Acts 1:11 says that the Lord Jesus will come in the same way as He went. At that time, the Lord Jesus went up in the clouds with the image of a Jew, dressed in the Jewish clothes, and with the print of the nails and the wounds of spears. Are you sure that He will still be like this when He comes again? If it were the case, whom should the Son of man described in Revelation refer to? It is written in Revelation 1:13-16, ‘And in the middle of the seven candlesticks one like to the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like to fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shines in his strength.’ Then how should man know this appearance? Moreover, in Luke 24:13-16, it is written, ‘And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village … Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were held that they should not know him.’ John 20:14-15 says, ‘And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why weep you? whom seek you? She, supposing him to be the gardener….’ So, man cannot recognize God through the outward appearance; rather, he can only know God through God’s work and word. Isn’t the Pharisees’ resistance against God a typical case? So, the Lord Jesus warned us many times not to be deceived by false Christs and also taught us how to distinguish false Christs. In Matthew 24:23-24, it is written, ‘Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.’ Here the Lord Jesus was giving us a hint that when God came again, He would not perform these signs and wonders but would do a new work, and if anyone performed signs and wonders, he must be a false Christ, a deceiver. We should know God from His work, as Christ cannot be recognized by man through His appearance. Since the Son of man comes, He will surely bring His new work. But a false Christ cannot bring any new work, and it only imitates and follows the work God did to achieve its purpose of deceiving people. While Satan is imitating the work Jesus did (healing the sick, driving out the demons, and performing signs and miracles), God has already done a new work again. God’s work is always done based on Satan’s plots. So, the Lord Jesus repeatedly taught us that anyone who misuses the name of Jesus and heals the sick, drives out the demons, and performs signs and wonders and says that he is the returned Lord Jesus is a false Christ. In Luke 17:24, the Lord Jesus prophesied the work He would do when He came again, ‘For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.’ He prophesied that the work the Son of man did when He came again would be like the lightning and would be done from the east to the west in the universe and be finished within the shortest time. That indicates that the work God does when He comes again will be done very quickly. As it is the work of reaping, it can be finished within a short time, and will not last two thousand years like the work of sowing. If it is a new work, that is, the work that has never been done, such as reaping, purifying, winnowing, and judging, which is beyond man’s capacity, it is undoubtedly God’s work. We should be cautious and not miss it! We should know God according to the work God does, and this is most after the Lord’s heart.”

picture the church of Almighty God

“However, when God opens a new age and does a new stage of work, He will be confronted with many people’s resistance and great hindrances. This is because men are ignorant about the direction of the Holy Spirit’s work and they resist God’s new work according to God’s former work, measure God’s work by their imaginations and notions, and check God’s new work according to the old regulations. Every time when God is incarnated to do the work of saving men, men don’t like to accept or follow but instead do their utmost to resist, saying that this is a deceiver coming, and also spread slanders, blasphemies, and condemnations. God is so great, noble, and holy, yet He is incarnated into the world and lives with the most corrupt and filthy people, and He, humble and hidden, is saving men in obscurity. Men not only don’t repay God but requite evil for good, denying Him as the true God, and reviling, mocking, ridiculing, and rejecting Him. God endures all these silently for man’s sake. This is what will happen when Jesus comes again, as prophesied by Jesus personally, and is the true meaning of the word ‘But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation,’ (Luke 17:25) which prophesies that He will suffer many things when He comes the second time. The word ‘and be rejected of this generation’ means that He will not be accepted by this generation again. If He comes as a spiritual body and not as an incarnate flesh, He need not suffer, not to mention being rejected by men. Because when He is a spiritual body, He is not restrained by space or geography, and only the incarnate Son of man will undergo such sufferings.” I argued at once, “It means that Jesus suffered many things when He was on earth, and it doesn’t mean that He will be incarnated when He comes again.” The sister said, “Well, we will be clear after reading the following scriptures in Luke 17:26-30, ‘And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.’ From these verses, we see that the day when the Son of man is revealed is like the days of Noah and the days of Sodom when they all were destroyed. If it referred to the fact that the Lord Jesus Himself suffered things at that time, firstly, it would not be called a prophecy. This is because a prophecy prophesies things that have not happened; only if it prophesies things that will be fulfilled in the future can it be called a prophecy; otherwise, it is not called a prophecy. Secondly, if it referred to the fact that Jesus suffered things at that time, why did Jesus say that the day when the Son of man comes will be like the days of Noah and the days of Sodom? As we all know, the days of Noah were the days of destruction of the flood when the whole world was cursed and destroyed by God and only the eight people of Noah’s family received God’s blessings and were left. The days of Lot were the days when Jehovah God destroyed the sins of the city of Sodom. Because the sins of the people of Sodom reached Jehovah’s ears, God poured down the brimstone and fire from heaven and burned them all and only left three people of Lot’s family. If it referred to the first incarnation of the Lord Jesus, how do we explain it that we have never seen any work of destruction done by God over the two thousand years after the Lord came to the world? Doesn’t it refer to the second coming of the Son of man?”

Through the biblical verses we studied and the sister’s fellowship, I knew much about God’s coming again through being incarnated as the Son of man. Thank God very much! I was much enlightened! Then I said to them, “I can accept that Jesus will be incarnated when He comes again, but I still don’t understand one thing. You say that God has come, but the Bible says, ‘But of that day and that hour knows no man … but the Father.’ Then how do you know that?” The sister answered, “It means that man cannot possibly know the specific time of Jesus’ coming again. But when God comes and begins to work, won’t people know it? This is like Jesus’ first coming. First, Mary and Joseph knew it. Then after He was born, the three Magi and the shepherds knew it. When He began to perform His ministry, His disciples knew it; and the woman of Samaria said that He was Messiah, the Savior. If no one knew it, how could His work be carried out? The object of God’s work is man, so His work requires man to cooperate. If no one knew it, how could God save man? The Bible tells us clearly that ‘the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.’ Today, if we hold fast to the Bible and deny God’s work of today, aren’t we too rash and thoughtless? If it were the case, as we imagine, that He who does not come with white clouds is not Jesus, why would Jesus have spoken so many parables and prophesied things about His coming again? The Lord repeatedly warned us to watch, but we misunderstand Jesus’ words and just ‘close the door tight.’ As such, to guard against false ones, we shut the real One out. What will we gain in the end through believing in God then?” What the sister said and the biblical prophecies made me change my mind: The fulfillment of the biblical prophecies cannot be within the Bible, and since it is beyond “the Bible,” it means that God has done a new work. Only God can do new work, and no one else can make such a start. And the sister said, “All that we have known and talked about today is in God’s word. God has made all the mysteries and truths clear to man. As long as you read God’s word more, you will understand the truths of all aspects and all your notions and difficulties will be solved by God’s word.”

Unconsciously, we talked like this for several hours. Thank God for His enlightenment, so that I understood many truths and mysteries I had been unclear about in believing in God for years. From the fulfillment of the biblical prophecies and the speech and living out of the people led by Almighty God, I was sure that the incarnate Almighty God today is the Jesus who has appeared. I was really remorseful for my deeds, blindness, and ignorance and regretted that I believed in God for years but didn’t know God, and blindly believed people’s rumors, rejected the true way, and drove away the brothers and sisters who preached the gospel. Yet, God didn’t treat me according to my evil deeds but saved me time after time and brought me back to His throne. I sincerely hope that the brothers and sisters who have not come before Almighty God will not be like me, who believed in God but relied on men. Wake up! Almighty God is the returned Jesus, only He can bring us the truth, the way, and the life, and only Almighty God can spare us from the disasters of the last days. Come back to God’s family quickly! Almighty God is expecting us!

The Word Appears in the Flesh | The Church of Almighty God

Beholding the Appearance of God in His Judgment and Chastisement

Like hundreds of millions of other followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we abide by the laws and commandments of the Bible, enjoy the abundant grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and gather together, pray, praise, and serve in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ—and all this we do under the care and protection of the Lord. We are often weak, and often strong. We believe that all of our actions are in accordance with the teachings of the Lord. It goes without saying, then, that we also believe ourselves to walk the path of obedience to the will of the Father in heaven. We long for the return of the Lord Jesus, for the glorious arrival of the Lord Jesus, for the end of our life on earth, for the appearance of the kingdom, and for everything as it was foretold in the Book of Revelation: The Lord arrives, and brings disaster, and rewards the good and punishes the wicked, and takes all those who follow Him and welcome His return into the air to meet Him. Every time we think of this, we can’t help but be overcome with emotion. We are thankful that we were born in the last days and are lucky enough to witness the coming of the Lord. Though we have suffered persecution, it is in return for “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”; what a blessing that is! All of this longing and the grace bestowed by the Lord make us often sober unto prayer, and bring us together more often. Maybe next year, maybe tomorrow, or maybe even sooner when man does not expect it, the Lord shall suddenly arrive, and shall appear among a group of people who have been attentively waiting for Him. We are all contending with each other, none wanting to fall behind, in order to be the first group to behold the appearance of the Lord, to become one of those who shall be raptured. We have given everything, regardless of the cost, for the coming of this day. Some have given up their jobs, some have abandoned their families, some have renounced marriage, and some have even donated all of their savings. What selfless devotion! Such sincerity and loyalty must be beyond even the saints of ages past! As the Lord bestows grace upon whomever He wishes, and has mercy on whomever He wishes, our devotion and spending, we believe, have already been beheld by His eyes. So, too, have our heartfelt prayers already reached His ears, and we trust that the Lord will reward us for our devotion. Moreover, God was graceful toward us before He created the world, and none shall take away God’s blessings and promises to us. We are all planning for the future, and take it for granted that our devotion and spending are bargaining chips or stock for our rapture into the air to meet the Lord. What’s more, without the slightest hesitation, we place ourselves on the future throne, presiding over all nations and all peoples, or ruling as kings. All this we take as a given, as something to be expected.

We disdain all those who are against the Lord Jesus; in the end, they will all be annihilated. Who told them not to believe that the Lord Jesus is the Savior? Of course, there are times when we learn from the Lord Jesus and are compassionate toward the world, for they do not understand, and we should be tolerant and forgiving of them. Everything that we do is in accordance with the words of the Bible, for everything that does not conform to the Bible is heresy, and an evil cult. Such belief is deeply embedded in each of our minds. Our Lord is in the Bible, and if we do not depart from the Bible we shall not depart from the Lord; if we abide by this principle, then we shall be saved. We spur each other on, and support each other, and every time we gather together we hope that everything we say and do is in accordance with the will of the Lord, and can be accepted by the Lord. Despite the severe hostility of our environment, our hearts are filled with joy. When we think of the blessings that are within such easy reach, is there nothing we cannot forsake? Is there nothing we cannot bear to part with? All of this is implicit, and all of this is looked upon by the eyes of God. We, the handful of the needy who have been lifted from the dunghill, are the same as all ordinary followers of the Lord Jesus: We dream of rapture, and of being blessed, and of ruling all the nations. Our corruption is laid bare in the eyes of God, and our desires and greed are condemned in the eyes of God. Yet all of this happens so unremarkably, so logically, and none of us wonder whether our longing is right, much less do any of us doubt the accuracy of all that we hold to. Who can know God’s will? We do not know to seek, or explore, or even concern ourselves with the path that man walks. For we only care about whether we can be raptured, whether we can be blessed, whether there is a place for us in the kingdom of heaven, and whether we shall have a share of the water of the river of life and the fruit of the tree of life. Do we not believe in the Lord, and are we not followers of the Lord, for the sake of gaining these things? Our sins have been forgiven, we have repented, we have drunk the bitter cup of wine, and we have put the cross upon our back. Who can say that the price we have paid will not be accepted by the Lord? Who can say that we have not prepared enough oil? We don’t want to be those foolish virgins, or one of those who are forsaken. Moreover, we pray often, and ask the Lord to keep us from being deceived by false Christs, for it is said in the Bible that “Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:23-24). We have all committed these verses of the Bible to memory, we know them back to front, and we see them as precious treasure, as life, and as the credentials for our rapture and salvation …

For thousands of years, the living have passed away, taking their longings and dreams with them, and no one truly knows whether they have gone to the kingdom of heaven. The dead return, and they have forgotten all the stories that once occurred, and still follow the teachings and the paths of the forefathers. And so, as the years pass and the days go by, no one knows whether our Lord Jesus, our God, truly accepts all that we do. We simply look forward to an outcome and speculate about all that will happen. Yet God has kept His silence throughout, and has never appeared to us, or spoken to us. And so we willfully judge God’s will and disposition according to the Bible and the signs. We have become accustomed to the silence of God; we have become accustomed to measuring the rights and wrongs of our behavior using our own way of thinking; we have become accustomed to using our knowledge, conceptions, and moral ethics to replace God’s demands of us; we have become accustomed to enjoying the grace of God; we have become accustomed to God providing assistance whenever we need it; we have become accustomed to holding out our hands to God for all things, and to ordering God about; we have also become accustomed to following doctrine, not paying attention to how the Holy Spirit leads us; moreover, we have become accustomed to days in which we are our own master. We believe in a God such as this, whom we have never met. Questions such as what His disposition is like, what His possessions and being are, what His image is like, whether or not we will know Him when He comes, and so on—none of these are important. What’s important is that He is in our hearts, that we all await Him, and that we are able to imagine what He is like. We appreciate our faith, and treasure our spirituality. We consider everything as dung, and tread all things underfoot. Because we are the followers of the glorious Lord, no matter how long and arduous the journey, no matter what hardships and dangers befall us, nothing can halt our footsteps as we follow the Lord. “A pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeded out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. On either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bore twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:1-5). Every time we sing these words, our hearts brim with surpassing joy and satisfaction, and tears flow from our eyes. Thanks be to the Lord for choosing us, thanks be to the Lord for His grace. He has given us a hundredfold now in this time, has given us eternal life in the world to come, and if He asked us to die now, we would do so without the slightest complaint. Lord! Please come soon! Do not delay a minute longer, for we desperately yearn for You, and have forsaken everything for You.

God is silent, and has never appeared to us, yet His work has never stopped. He looks upon all lands, and commands all things, and beholds all the words and deeds of man. His management is conducted in steps and according to His plan. It proceeds silently, without dramatic effect, yet His footsteps advance ever closer to mankind, and His judgment seat is deployed in the universe at the speed of lightning, immediately followed by the descent of His throne among us. What a majestic scene that is, what a stately and solemn tableau. Like a dove, and like a roaring lion, the Spirit arrives among us all. He is wise, He is righteous and majestic, He quietly arrives among us possessed of authority and filled with love and compassion. No one is aware of His arrival, no one welcomes His arrival, and, moreover, no one knows all that He will do. Man’s life remains unchanged; his heart is no different, and the days go by as usual. God lives among us like an ordinary person, as a most insignificant follower and an ordinary believer. He has His own pursuits, His own goals, and, moreover, He has divinity not possessed by ordinary men. No one has noticed the existence of His divinity, and no one has perceived the difference between His substance and that of man. We live together with Him, unconstrained and unafraid, for we see Him as nothing more than an insignificant believer. He watches our every move, and all of our thoughts and ideas are laid bare before Him. No one takes an interest in His existence, no one has any imagination of His function, and, moreover, no one has any suspicion about who He is. We merely continue our pursuits, as if He has nothing to do with us …

By chance, the Holy Spirit expresses a passage of words “through” Him, and though it feels very unexpected, we recognize that this is the utterance of God, and we readily accept it from God. That is because, regardless of who expresses these words, as long as they come from the Holy Spirit we should accept them, and cannot deny them. The next utterance could be through me, it could be through you, or it could be through him. Regardless of who it is, all is the grace of God. Yet no matter who the person is, we should not worship them, for regardless of anything else, they cannot possibly be God; we can by no means choose an ordinary person such as this to be our God. Our God is so great and honorable; how could He be represented by someone so insignificant? What’s more, we are all awaiting the arrival of God to take us back to the kingdom of heaven, and so how could someone so insignificant be qualified for such an important and arduous task? If the Lord comes again, it must be upon a white cloud, visible to all. How glorious that will be! How could He quietly hide among an ordinary group of people?

And yet it is this ordinary person hidden among people who is doing the new work of saving us. He does not clarify anything for us, nor does He tell us why He has come. He merely does the work He intends to do in steps, and according to His plan. His words and utterances become ever more frequent. From consoling, exhorting, reminding, and warning, to reproaching and disciplining; from a tone that is gentle and kind, to words that are fierce and majestic—they all instill both compassion and trepidation in man. Everything that He says hits home at the secrets hidden deep within us, His words sting our hearts, sting our spirits, and leave us ashamed and humiliated. We begin to wonder whether the God in this person’s heart really loves us, and what exactly He intends to do. Perhaps we can only be raptured after enduring such pain? In our heads we are calculating … about the destination to come, and about our future fate. Still none of us believes that God has assumed flesh and works among us. Even though He has been with us for so long, even though He has already spoken so many words face to face with us, we are still unwilling to accept someone so ordinary as the God of our future, much less are we willing to entrust control of our future and fate to someone so insignificant. From Him we enjoy an unending supply of living water, and thanks to Him we live face-to-face with God. We are only thankful for the grace of the Lord Jesus in heaven, and have never paid any attention to the feelings of this ordinary person who is possessed of divinity. He still does His work humbly hidden in the flesh, expressing His heart’s voice, seemingly insensible to mankind’s rejection of Him, apparently eternally forgiving of man’s childishness and ignorance, and forever tolerant of man’s irreverence toward Him.

Unbeknownst to us, this insignificant man has led us into step after step of God’s work. We undergo countless trials, are subjected to innumerable chastenings, and tested by death. We learn of God’s righteous and majestic disposition, enjoy, too, His love and compassion, come to appreciate God’s great power and wisdom, witness the loveliness of God, and behold God’s eager desire to save man. In the words of this ordinary person, we come to know the disposition and substance of God, come to understand God’s will, come to know the nature and substance of man, and see the way of salvation and perfection. His words cause us to die, and cause us to be reborn; His words bring us comfort, yet also leave us wracked with guilt and a sense of indebtedness; His words bring us joy and peace, but also great pain. Sometimes we are as lambs to the slaughter in His hands; sometimes we are like the apple of His eye, and enjoy His love and affection; sometimes we are like His enemy, turned to ashes by His wrath in His eyes. We are the mankind saved by Him, we are the maggots in His eyes, and we are the lost lambs that He thinks of finding day and night. He is merciful toward us, He despises us, He raises us up, He comforts and exhorts us, He guides us, He enlightens us, He chastens and disciplines us, and He even curses us. He worries for us night and day, He protects and cares for us night and day, He never leaves our side, and He devotes all His care to us and pays any price for us. Among the words of this small and ordinary flesh, we have enjoyed the entirety of God, and beheld the destination that God has bestowed upon us. Yet despite this, vanity still stalks within our hearts, and we are still unwilling to actively accept a person such as this as our God. Though He has given us so much manna, so much to enjoy, none of this can usurp the Lord’s place in our hearts. We honor this person’s special identity and status only with great reluctance. If He does not speak up to make us acknowledge that He is God, then we will never take it upon ourselves to acknowledge Him as the God that is soon to arrive yet has been working among us for so long.

The utterance of God continues, and He employs various methods and perspectives to admonish us what to do and express His heart’s voice. His words carry life power, and show us the way we should walk, and allow us to understand what the truth is. We start to be drawn to His words, we begin to focus on the tone and manner of His speaking, and subconsciously begin to take an interest in the heart’s voice of this unremarkable person. He makes painstaking efforts for us, loses sleep and appetite for us, weeps for us, sighs for us, groans in sickness for us, suffers humiliation for the sake of our destination and salvation, and His heart bleeds and sheds tears for our numbness and rebelliousness. Such being and possessions of His are beyond an ordinary person, and cannot be possessed or attained by any of the corrupted. He has tolerance and patience possessed by no ordinary person, and His love is not possessed by any created being. No one apart from Him can know all of our thoughts, or have such a grasp of our nature and substance, or judge the rebelliousness and corruption of mankind, or speak to us and work among us like this on behalf of the God of heaven. No one except for Him can possess the authority, wisdom, and dignity of God; the disposition of God and what He has and is are issued forth, in their entirety, from Him. No one apart from Him can show us the way and bring us light. No one apart from Him can reveal the mysteries God has not disclosed from creation until today. No one apart from Him can save us from Satan’s bondage and our corrupt disposition. He represents God, and expresses the heart’s voice of God, the exhortations of God, and the words of judgment of God toward all mankind. He has begun a new age, a new era, and brought a new heaven and earth, new work, and He has brought us hope, and ended the life we led in vagueness, and allowed us to fully behold the path of salvation. He has conquered our whole being, and gained our hearts. From that moment onward, our minds become conscious, and our spirits seem to be revived: This ordinary, insignificant person, who lives among us and has long been rejected by us—is He not the Lord Jesus, who is ever in our thoughts, and whom we long for night and day? It is He! It’s really Him! He is our God! He is the truth, the way, and the life! He has allowed us to live again, to see the light, and has stopped our hearts from wandering. We have returned to the home of God, we have returned before His throne, we are face-to-face with Him, we have witnessed His countenance, and have seen the road ahead. At the time, our hearts have been completely conquered by Him; we no longer doubt who He is, and no longer oppose His work and word, and we fall down, completely, before Him. We wish for nothing except to follow the footprints of God for the rest of our lives, and to be made perfect by Him, and to repay His grace, and repay His love for us, and to obey His orchestrations and arrangements, and to cooperate with His work, and to do everything we can to complete what He entrusts to us.

Being conquered by God is like a martial arts contest.

Each of God’s words strikes at our mortal spot, and leaves us sorrowful and afraid. He reveals our notions, reveals our imaginations, and reveals our corrupt disposition. Through all that we say and do, and every one of our thoughts and ideas, our nature and substance are revealed by His words, leaving us humiliated and trembling with fear. He tells us of all of our actions, our aims and intentions, and even the corrupt disposition that we have never discovered, making us feel we are thoroughly exposed, and even more feel completely convinced. He judges us for our opposition to Him, chastises us for our blasphemy and condemnation of Him, and makes us feel that in His eyes we are worthless, and we are the living Satan. Our hopes are dashed, we no longer dare to make any unreasonable demands and attempts upon Him, and even our dreams vanish overnight. This is a fact that none of us can imagine, and which none of us can accept. For a moment, our minds become unbalanced, and we do not know how to continue on the road ahead, do not know how to continue in our beliefs. It seems like our faith has gone back to square one, and that we have never met and been acquainted with the Lord Jesus. Everything before our eyes perplexes us, and makes us feel as if we have been cast adrift. We are dismayed, we are disappointed, and deep in our hearts there is insuppressible anger and disgrace. We try to vent, try to find a way out, and, what’s more, we attempt to continue waiting for our Savior Jesus, and pour our hearts out to Him. Though there are times when we are neither haughty nor humble on the outside, in our hearts we are afflicted with a sense of loss like never before. Though sometimes we may seem unusually calm on the outside, inside we endure rolling seas of torment. His judgment and chastisement have stripped us of all our hopes and dreams, have left us without our extravagant desires, and unwilling to believe that He is our Savior and capable of saving us. His judgment and chastisement have opened up a deep gulf between us and Him and no one is even willing to cross. His judgment and chastisement are the first time that we suffer such a great setback and such great humiliation. His judgment and chastisement have allowed us to truly appreciate God’s honor and intolerance of man’s offense, compared to which we are so lowly and impure. His judgment and chastisement have made us realize for the first time how arrogant and pompous we are, and how man will never be the equal of God, or on a par with God. His judgment and chastisement have made us yearn to no longer live in such a corrupt disposition, and have made us long to rid ourselves of such nature and substance as soon as possible, and no longer be detested by Him and disgusting to Him. His judgment and chastisement have made us happy to obey His words, and no longer willing to rebel against His orchestrations and arrangements. His judgment and chastisement have once more given us the desire to seek life, and have made us happy to accept Him as our Savior…. We have walked out of the work of conquest, stepped out of hell, stepped out of the valley of the shadow of death…. Almighty God has gained us, this group of people! He has triumphed over Satan, and defeated all of His enemies!

We are just such an ordinary group of people possessed of corrupt satanic disposition, we are the ones predestined by God before the ages, and we are the needy whom God has lifted from the dunghill. We once rejected and condemned God, yet now we have been conquered by Him. We have received life and have received the way of eternal life from God. No matter where we are on earth, despite persecution and tribulation, we cannot be apart from the salvation by Almighty God. For He is our Creator, and our only redemption!

The love of God extends forth like the water of a spring, and is given to you, and to me, and to him, and to all those who truly seek the truth and await the appearance of God.

Just as the moon always follows the sun, the work of God never ceases, and is carried out upon you, upon me, upon him, and upon all those who follow the footprints of God and accept the judgment and chastisement of God.

Expressed on March 23, 2010

Read more: Is Eastern Lightning the Return of the Lord Jesus?

                   The brief introduction of the Church of Almighty God