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