Monday, November 20, 2017

Critical Moments

Critical Moments

Xiaoxue
In 2009, after I sought, investigated, and read Almighty God’s words, I recognized that Almighty God is the only true God who created the heavens, the earth and all things, the appearing of the Savior of the last days. So, I accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days. Through meetings and God’s words, I saw that the words expressed by Almighty God are the truths for man to be saved. So, I set my determination secretly: I’ll believe in God seriously and pursue the truth and follow God all my life.
One day, I found that the small hip of my daughter was crammed full of blisters which were as big as fingernails. The sight of them pierced my heart. My baby cried every day and even didn’t take milk at all. At that moment, she was only one year old. When I saw her not eat or drink but only cry, my heart was broken. My husband and I took her to the hospital without losing time. After the examination, the doctor told me nervously, “Your baby has suffered from contagious hand, foot and mouth disease and she must be isolated immediately. Otherwise, you adults will be infected soon. Hurry up! Send her to the isolation room at once. Leave your phone number to me and wait for my call. If I call you, come and take her. If I don’t call, it shows that she will have passed away. Now this sort of contagious virus is very severe. Recently, a few people have died from it.” While speaking, he was rubbing his hands hard with disinfectant. His words, like a bolt from the blue, made me collapse right then, with my whole body paralyzed and my heart thumping. A TV report flashed through my mind: Adults and kids died from this disease in these few days. So, I was in anguish. I had come a long way to bring her up and it left me sick all over. I never would have thought in a million years that such a great matter would crop up. I had a second thought: There must be something wrong. Since I believe in God, I should have been kept by God. How come such a matter has befallen me? How has it come upon me? I crumpled on the chair in the hospital’s corridor, shedding tears unconsciously. I kept crying out to God, asking Him to enlighten and guide me. At that point, I thought of the truths communicated by the sister in these past few days when my baby began to get sick. …
At that time, she fellowshiped, “After Satan’s corruption of us, we have been living under Satan’s domain and are manipulated and controlled by Satan. We have rebelled against Satan and turned to God after accepting God’s work but Satan can’t bring itself to quit. So, it figures out every possible way to disturb and afflict us, allowing us and our family encounter illness or meet something unfortunate or lose money, with a view to having us misunderstand, complain against, deny, and betray God and then return to its influence to be controlled and corrupted by it. This is the same as Job encountered trials and sufferings. Just because Satan accused Job and made a wager with God, Job came face-to-face with the misfortunes. In illness and misfortunes, Job uttered praises to God, stood witness and shamed Satan, being approved by God and becoming the exemplar and model of our imitation. We should believe that God’s wisdom is exercised based on Satan’s scheme. His intention is to try His chosen people through Satan’s rendering service and to perfect our faith in Him by Satan’s disturbance and destruction. So, we should see clearly that this is a spiritual war. As long as we have faith, we’ll be able to stand testimony for God, for everything is in God’s hand.” I remembered that back then, we read a passage of God’s words, “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements, or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men, and the interference of men. Behind every step that God does in you is Satan’s wager with God—behind it all is a battle” (“Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). While pondering God’s words, I was thinking: Yes. It is true. Everything is not without reason. Actually, Satan makes troubles behind the scenes. Job stood firm in his testimony for God. I should learn from him. God is looking at me, at the same time, Satan is also looking at me. At this crucial moment, I can’t fall prey to Satan or let its plot succeed. I must stand witness for God. Then, I made a silent prayer: O God! Satan is too evil. Through my baby’s illness, Satan wants me to deny and betray You. I can’t be cheated by it. I wish to stand witness for You. Today, my baby’s life is in Your hand. I’ll obey Your orchestration and arrangement. After prayer, I calmed down gradually.
Considering the examination of one hospital alone may not be reliable, my husband and I went to another hospital with our baby. On the way, I prayed unceasingly. The examination there indicated that she didn’t have that complication. I seemed to see a turn for the better. In my heart, I knew this was God’s love which made me know relying on God was important. My baby didn’t stop crying. Moreover, she hadn’t taken any food and drink for days, but many blood tests were done on her. Seeing that, involuntarily I felt as if my heart was twisted. Her disease couldn’t be cured for a moment. Could she go through it without taking anything? As I cried, I prayed in my heart, “O God! Now my baby hasn’t eaten or drunk and has to take the blood tests. So, my heart is in torment. May You protect my heart! O God! Satan wants to cause me to become negative and weak and complain against You and deny and betray You because of my baby’s disease. O God! I can’t let its scheme succeed. I’ll stand witness to put Satan to shame.”
We sat on the chair in the second hospital’s corridor, waiting for the results of another several examinations. Gradually, my baby stopped crying. At that time, some words of God occurred to me, which we read when the sister had a meeting with me. Almighty God says, “Because of God incarnate, Satan makes every attempt to accuse and wants to attack God by doing so. However, God does not retreat on that account, and He just speaks among man and works among man, letting man know Him through the incarnate flesh. But Satan becomes desperate, and it puts a lot of efforts on His people, trying to make them become passive, draw back, and even get lost” (“The Interpretation of the Thirteenth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). At this thought, I really hated Satan. In order to have me deny and depart from God, Satan puts a lot of efforts on me. It wants me to complain against God for not keeping my family peaceful, to become negative, draw back and leave God. I won’t listen to it. Man’s life is in God’s hand and isn’t decided by Satan. If I complain about God, won’t I fall into Satan’s trickery? Satan is too crafty. Without God’s timely enlightenment, I would have been trapped by Satan. At that time, I wasn’t that afraid and felt my heart brighten up. I prayed silently, “O Almighty God! My baby’s disease is in Your hand. Regardless of how Satan disturbs, I won’t complain against You. No matter what, I can’t let Satan’s trick prevail. I fall far short of Job’s testimony, though. O God, may You lead me and help me! No matter what the examination results will be, I’ll obey Your sovereignty and arrangement and rebel against Satan to stand witness for You.” For a while, the results came out. The doctor said, “Although the baby has no complication and it doesn’t cause other illnesses temporarily, she has to receive isolated treatment.” At that juncture, my husband disagreed with leaving my baby alone in the hospital. Afterward, we took her to a third hospital. After the blood test, the doctor said in an unhurried manner, “It’s not serious. Have an intravenous drip and then take anti-virus injections in your local clinic. Then, it’ll be cured.” Hearing his words, I was so pleased that I didn’t know what to say but kept thanking God. I knew that God is almighty and that it’s God’s great love coming upon me. When Satan’s plot failed to materialize, I saw God’s protection and knew that no matter what sort of misfortune took place, we needed to depend on God to stand witness for Him and that no matter what happened, we should see things from a spiritual perspective and couldn’t leave loopholes for Satan to exploit.
We went back home happily. I knelt before God and offered my thanks and praises to God from the bottom of my heart. Thank God for enlightening me to penetrate Satan’s deceptions in this spiritual war. In critical moments, it was God who secretly guided us to several hospitals step by step and illuminated me in the prayers to understand His intention, not uttering complaints against Him and standing witness for Him. Later, it was only through one week of little injections that my baby’s disease was completely cured. Thanks be to God! All the glory goes to Almighty God!

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