God Has Brought His Glory to the East

God gave His glory to Israel then moved it away from there,bringing the Israelites and bringing all men to the East.God has led them all to the light,so that they may be reunited and associate with light,no longer have to search, search for the light.

Who is my Lord

Liu Zhizhong is a pastor at a local house church in China. He's been a believer for over 30 years, and has constantly maintained that "The Holy Bible is inspired by God," "The Holy Bible represents God, believing in God is believing in the Bible, believing in the Bible is believing in God."

Faith in God

Yu Congguang is a gospel preacher from the Church of Almighty God. Because he was pursued by the CCP government while preaching the gospel, he fled to the mountain and got help from Zheng Xun, a co-worker of the local house church.

XiaoZhen's Story

Xiao Zhen used to be a pure, kind-hearted Christian, who always treated her friends sincerely. However, when it was to their benefit, her former friends became her enemies.

The Mystery of GodLiness

Lin Bo’en had believed in the Lord for decades and was a senior preacher. Ever since his acceptance of Almighty God, Christ of the last days, he had been confronted with the condemnation and rejection of the pastors, elders, and antichrist forces in the religious world and was eventually expelled from the religion.

Showing posts with label Holy Spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holy Spirit. Show all posts

Friday, November 17, 2017

Escaping Satan’s Sieges by God’s Word

Escaping Satan’s Sieges by God’s Word

Kuozhan
I was once a leader of a Three-Self church. Seeing the pastors and elders scrambled for fame and gain, I was very disappointed with them and my faith and love gradually grew cold. Later, Almighty God’s work of the last days was preached to me. Through a period of investigation, I felt the work and guidance of the Holy Spirit and recovered the faith and love I had at the start. I was fully convinced of Almighty God’s work of the last days, and began to read His words hungrily and have meetings with my brothers and sisters in the Church of Almighty God. However, just then, I unexpectedly encountered the disturbances and sieges of the leaders and fellow believers in the Three-Self Church. In my bewilderment and confusion, it was Almighty God’s words that led me to overcome the temptations and disturbances of Satan, made me see clearly Satan’s ugly face and evil nature, and strengthened my faith in following Him to the very end.
One day, it was raining a bit. Pastor Huang and Sister Song, a leader of another Three-Self church, came to my house. I thought, “They have never come to visit me; for what do they both come today? Did they hear of my acceptance of Almighty God? They have been rejecting God’s work of the last days and sealing off the churches. Do they come to persuade me? It seems that they are well prepared. I must be very careful not to fall into their trap.” After they entered the room, Song queried, “Brother, we heard that you’ve accepted the Eastern Lightning. Is it true?” I thought to myself, “Sure enough they come for that. How did she know that? My wife told them? Well, it seems that I can’t hold out on them.” So I said, “Yes. Someone gave me a book, and I have read it. I think the words in it completely accord with facts, and what’s more, they carry authority and cannot be spoken by any man. I believe they are God’s utterances.” They exchanged knowing looks at each other, and then Song said solemnly, “Brother, you have believed in the Lord for many years; aren’t you confused? Aren’t the words of the Lord all in the Bible? There are no words of the Lord outside the Bible. You read their book; doesn’t it mean that you have departed from the Bible and abandoned the Lord’s way?” I looked at them and said confidently, “It says in John 21:25, ‘And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.’ And John 16:12-13 says, ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.’ From these verses, we can see that there are God’s words outside the Bible; or else the Lord Jesus wouldn’t have said that the Spirit of truth would tell people many things when He came. Doesn’t that prove there are God’s words outside the Bible? You say there are no God’s words outside the Bible; how do you explain about the little scroll prophesied in Revelation? Aren’t you denying the prophecy by saying that? To tell the truth, I also thought that way in the past as you do. But after I read the words of Almighty God, I knew that The Word Appears in the Flesh is God’s utterance in the last days and is the scroll to be opened by the Lamb prophesied in the Bible. I hope you make an investigation and don’t miss the opportunity to be saved by God.” Hearing that, they stood up abruptly, and Song said in anger, “We only believe in the Lord Jesus! The Lord Jesus is our only Savior! And we won’t accept whoever is not called the Lord Jesus!” Pastor Huang also said angrily, “We came to persuade you for your good, but you’re simply irredeemable! I urge you to look out for yourself.” With that they went away in a huff. Looking at their receding figures, I felt sick at heart. “They have believed in God for years, but they don’t seek or investigate God’s work of the last days; instead, they try hard to disturb the believers and stop them from accepting God’s new work. They believe in God but do not know God; they are so pitiable.”
During the days that followed, the pastors, elders, preachers, co-workers, and believers in the Three-Self church came to persuade me time after time. They said, “Brother, please come back. We all miss you. If you come back, we will line up to welcome you….” After hearing these words repeatedly, I began to waver. I remembered my years of belief in the Lord in the Three-Self church; every tree and bush and every inch there were so familiar to me. I became kind of weak within. Just when I hesitated, a hymn of God’s word that I often sang rang in my ears: “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, condemnation. You should choose your own path, and should not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and reject the truth. You should not be an ignorant and arrogant person, but someone who obeys the guidance of the Holy Spirit and longs for the truth; only in this way will you benefit. …” (“You Should Be Someone Who Accepts the Truth” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). I sang it repeatedly in my heart. I pondered the lyrics, thinking, “What God has expressed today is the truth, and God’s work is all the more brought by the incarnate God Himself. If I don’t accept the returned Lord Jesus, won’t I be condemned? This is just as when the Lord Jesus came and did His work; the Pharisees held on to their conceptions and refused to accept Jesus’ gospel and finally was condemned by God. If today I yield to the persuasion of the people in the Three-Self church, won’t I be condemned like the earliest Pharisees? Besides, I have enjoyed the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church of Almighty God. In the past, when I was in the Three-Self church, I didn’t feel the work of the Holy Spirit at all. The pastors and elders had jealous disputes with one another and schemed against one another, and their preaching couldn’t supply the believers with life. The believers became cold in their faith and love. Now I am fortunate to keep up with God’s new work and receive the truth that can provide me with life; won’t I ruin myself if I go back? If they really take responsibility for my life, why did they not come to sustain or supply me when I was passive, but come and try hard to prevent me from walking the right path when I accepted God’s new work? The Lord Jesus said: ‘No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God’ (Luke 9:62). I shouldn’t turn back. All that came upon me these days is a spiritual battle of life and death. I must see through Satan’s cunning schemes and not waver. I should have a firm faith and rely on God’s words to overcome Satan’s sieges and follow God to the end.”
One day soon after, Mr. Sun came to my house on his motor tricycle. Upon entering my room, he said to me excitedly, “Brother, I have some good news for you. The director of the Religious Affairs Bureau told me that he wanted to talk to you. He asked you to go back to the church and continue to serve as the leader, and he promised to pay you a salary. He personally told me that. Once you agree and call him, it is done. Where would you find such a good opportunity?” At his words, I said to myself, “Today the director sent him to persuade me; it shows that he thinks highly of me. He remembers me and asks me to go back to work as the leader with salary; this will bring me both fame and gain. If I agree, I’ll have a guaranteed livelihood and be financially secure in my old age. That is what I have been expecting these years.” But then I thought, “If I go back to the Three-Self church, won’t I resume a life of struggling for fame and gain? Won’t I suffer the exclusion of the pastors and elders once again? Have I not suffered that enough? Besides, if I go back, it means that I have rejected God’s name and work and have given up the true way for the sake of fame and gain.” So I said to Sun, “I have retired from that position; I won’t go back. Thanks for your kindness.” He said anxiously, “Think it over again. Do not miss such a good opportunity. I’ll come in several days.” After Sun left, I was troubled: One way is to continue to follow Almighty God and endure the rejection of the religious people, the exclusion of the world, and the persecution of the government…. The other way is to have fame and gain and position as well as an assured life in my later years. What should I choose? Just then Sun returned. At the sight of my hesitation, he said loudly to me, “You can’t miss such a good opportunity!” I hovered. Then the words in a hymn occurred to me: “That which you are enjoying today is the very thing which is ruining your future, whereas the pain you are suffering today is the very thing that is protecting you. You must be clearly aware of that so as to keep away from the hook of temptation and to avoid entering the dense fog that blocks out the sun. When the dense fog clears off, you will find yourself in the judgment of the great day” (“Enjoying Fleshly Comforts Will Ruin Your Future” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). God’s enlightenment made me realize that the material enjoyments I pursued would only ruin my life and cause me to end up being completely eliminated by God. At the time, I thought, “Why didn’t the Pharisees accept the gospel of the Lord Jesus? Wasn’t it because of their pursuit of fame and gain, position, and the enjoyments of the flesh that they rejected the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus and were cursed by God in the end? Satan’s scheme is really sinister! If I take a wrong path today, I will surely be eliminated by God. It is so horrible!” Then I refused Sun on the excuse of my old age and poor health.
Afterward, I read these words of God: “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). At the moment, I understood more clearly: The disturbances that have come upon me are all spiritual battles, and they are Satan’s accusations against me and also the sinister means Satan uses to plunder me. Its purpose is to try every way to make me reject the true way and deny God’s work and thus live under its domain again. I thought, “All that have happened to me during this period of time, whether Song’s disturbance, time after time of persuasion of the clerics and fellow believers in the church, or the director’s enticement of benefit, are actually despicable means Satan uses to deceive me. Satan is so hateful. It has been eyeing me greedily and trying every possible means to make me stray away from God and betray God and return to its camp.” The disclosure and guidance of God’s words enabled me to see through Satan’s schemes. I was resolved to stand testimony and firmly follow God to the end no matter what contemptible means they would use to disturb me in the future. So when Sun came and tried to persuade me again, I declined. From then on, they no longer came to interfere with me. I knew God had triumphed and that Satan had failed in humiliation. Thank God for leading me out of the sieges of Satan step by step. All the glory be to Almighty God!

Saturday, November 11, 2017

I Have Seen Clearly the Truth II

I Have Seen Clearly the Truth II

The sister nodded with a smile, “God allows Satan to tempt us, because this makes us see clearly Satan’s evil and cruel substance. That way we will be able to hate it and reject it from the bottom of our hearts and stand firm in our testimony to God. Actually, God has power to protect us. But if God did not permit Satan to tempt us and just directly brought us into the kingdom, then Satan wouldn’t be convinced. God’s work is to fully defeat Satan and convince it beyond the shadow of a doubt. So we need to see clearly the truth and penetrate Satan’s sinister motives. This impinges on the important matter of our salvation. We must pray more and depend on God and make up our mind to follow Him so that Satan will be left utterly humiliated and defeated.
I said, “Your fellowship makes me completely understand that it is actually a spiritual struggle. It turns out to be Satan’s disturbance that these things which are not to my liking come upon my family. I thought that I had taken the wrong path, so I wanted to stop my faith, nearly falling into Satan’s trap. It really is too dangerous. Satan wants to disrupt me with these bad things in order to have me betray God and lose the chance for salvation and suffer destruction together with it. Satan is too detestable. I will pray more and read God’s words more often, and put my husband and my children in God’s hands.”
The sister continued, “Right. We need to see through the tricks of Satan. For the substance of Satan is evil, it doesn’t want man to worship God, and it has been continually destroying man’s relationship with God. Therefore, we need to understand the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of Satan, so that we will have discernment in our future experiences, no longer falling into Satan’s trap. Let’s read more of Almighty God’s words, ‘The work of the Holy Spirit is proactive guidance, and positive enlightenment, it is not allowing people to be passive, bringing them solace, giving them faith, and resolve, and enabling them to pursue being made perfect by God. When the Holy Spirit works, people are able to actively enter; they are not passive or forced, but are proactive. When the Holy Spirit works, people are glad and willing, and they are willing to obey, and happy to humble themselves, and even though they are pained and fragile inside, they have the resolve to cooperate, they suffer gladly, they are able to obey, and they are untainted by human will, untainted by the thinking of man, and are certainly untainted by human desires and motivations. When people experience the work of the Holy Spirit, they are especially holy inside. Those who are possessed of the work of the Holy Spirit live out the love of God, the love of their brothers and sisters, and delight in the things that delight God, and loathe the things that God loathes. People who are touched by the work of the Holy Spirit have normal humanity, and they are possessed of humanity and constantly pursue the truth. When the Holy Spirit works within people, their circumstances become better and better, and their humanity becomes more and more normal, and though some of their cooperation may be foolish, their motivations are right, their entry is positive, they do not try to interrupt, and there is no malevolence within them. The work of the Holy Spirit is normal and real, the Holy Spirit works in man according to the rules of the normal life of man, and He enlightens and guides in people according to the actual pursuit of normal people. When the Holy Spirit works in people, He guides and enlightens them according to the needs of normal people, He provides for them based on their needs, and He positively guides and enlightens them based upon what they lack, and upon their deficiencies; when the Holy Spirit works, this work is in consonance with the rules of the normal life of man, and it is only in real life that people are able to see the work of the Holy Spirit (“The Work of the Holy Spirit and the Work of Satan” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).
From God’s words, we can see that God does His work based on the needs of mankind and the rules of the normal life of man, and that He does not force man. According to the needs of people, God guides, enlightens, and provides them in accordance with what they lack and with their deficiencies. When the Holy Spirit works, people can positively and actively cooperate with God. They are willing to read God’s words, sing, pray, and praise God, and assemble and commune His words together with brothers and sisters. They will have ever greater faith in God and ever higher aspirations to pursue the truth and the change in life disposition. They won’t doubt or complain against God in all circumstances. For instance, when they encounter things and don’t know how to practice, they can have a path to travel through prayer and reading God’s words. Thus, their hearts will brighten more and more and all the sorrows and worries will dissolve away. Although sometimes people are weak when they don’t understand the things cropping up, they will obey God’s work once they have understood His will, and will discover the loveliness of God through their experiences. When the Holy Spirit works in people, they are willing to satisfy God and practice according to God’s words. The more they satisfy God, the more God blesses them and the more their spirits are enlightened. Then they can possess discernment about many things. The work of the Holy Spirit on people allows them to be at peace and steadfast and experience enjoyment in their spirits.
However, the work of Satan causes people to be negative and in retreat. Almighty God says, ‘At the interference from Satan, you lose the love and loyalty toward God within you, you are stripped of a normal relationship with God, you do not pursue the truth, or the improvement of yourself, you regress, and become passive, you accommodate yourself, you give free rein to the spread of sin, and are not hateful of sin; furthermore, the interference of Satan makes you dissolute, it causes God’s touch to disappear within you, and makes you complain about God and oppose Him, leading you to question God, and there is even the risk of you leaving God. All this is of the work of Satan (“The Work of the Holy Spirit and the Work of Satan” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From these words of God we can understand that at the interference from Satan, people will lose their faith in God and their love toward Him. They are unwilling to read God’s words, to pray, much less to have contact with brothers and sisters, and they are not happy with anyone. They even misunderstand and complain against God when something happens to them, and sometimes think of no longer believing in God and of betraying Him. They think nothing of committing sins, sinking into spiritual darkness without the feeling of being touched.As long as we understand this aspect of the truth, we can have a grasp on whether our own state is normal or abnormal. So in the face of Satan’s interference, we will be able to have discernment, rebel against Satan and establish a normal relationship with God, gradually walking the path toward salvation. In this way, God’s work to save us won’t be made void.”
After her fellowship, I felt I had the direction and faith. I came to know the differences between the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of Satan. God is the One who saves man while Satan is the one who slaughters and swallows man. From this time on, I could no longer be fooled by Satan to wound God’s heart. I would believe in God and follow Him properly. I would pray more and read His words more in the future.
After I thought this, a phone call from my younger son in the following day delivered the message that he had recovered from his illness. I felt very pleased and thought it was so wonderful. When I made up my mind to follow God, my son’s stomach sickness just passed. This made me further ascertain that Almighty God is the one true God who I could depend on and worship. My eyes blindfolded by Satan were opened and I gained the discernment of these things that happened to me. It was not that I took the wrong path; rather, it was Satan’s cunning scheme, a battle in the spiritual realm. Thank God for enlightening my spiritual eyes with His words and allowing me to see the facts. In the days that followed, I regularly led the life of the church and read God’s words, and was frequently touched and encouraged by His words. Also, God continually used His words to lead and guide me. When I had conflict with my husband, I no longer kicked up a fuss about trivial matters. Instead I discussed things with him with a calm heart. My husband thought that I had been an altered person. So he began to look at Almighty God’s words and accept His work afterward. Now our family lives in perfect harmony, no more strife-torn or warring, and is immersed in joy.
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Thursday, November 9, 2017

I Learned to Discern the Work of Satan II

I Learned to Discern the Work of Satan II

At dawn of the next day, I heard some knocks at the gate, so I hurried to rise and open the gate, only to see Sister Yang and Sister Zheng with their hair and eyebrows covered with white frost. They were very excited at seeing me. Sister Yang said, “Oh, brother, we finally see you. Where were you the previous two nights? We waited long but didn’t meet you.” I was deeply moved, saying, “Sisters, it’s cold outside. Hurry in.” They entered the room and sat down, and I gave each of them a cup of hot water. Then I was open with them, “Sisters, these days I actually kept avoiding you. I’m so sorry. After you left that day, I began to read Almighty God’s words. But I just felt sleepy and got a headache soon afterward. I didn’t understand what all that was about, so I didn’t want to read the words of Almighty God anymore and deliberately hid from you. Last night, I was in and I heard all that you said. Your love moved me and left me condemned, and I felt I couldn’t avoid you anymore. Today I’d like to figure out the problem. If I miss the return of the Lord Jesus, I’ll regret for the rest of my life. Now that you’re here, could you please fellowship with me about that problem?”
In reply, Sister Yang said, “Brother, the question you ask is crucial. Many people have been troubled in varying degrees when they first believe in God, which concerns the battle in the spiritual realm. In the last days, Almighty God brings us the everlasting way of life while Satan fears most that we may gain eternal life after accepting Almighty God’s work. So, Satan finds ways to interfere with us and make us doubt, fear and even deny God’s work. Only when we are capable of discerning Satan’s work and see through its schemes can we better read God’s words and follow His work. Then how does Satan disturb God’s work? Let’s look at what Almighty God says about it. The word of Almighty God says, ‘What work comes from Satan? In the work that comes from Satan, the visions in people are vague and abstract, and they are without normal humanity, the motivations behind their actions are wrong, and although they wish to love God, there are always accusations within them, and these accusations and thoughts are always interfering within them, constraining the growth of their life, and stopping them from having normal circumstances before God. Which is to say, as soon as there is the work of Satan within people, their hearts can’t be at peace before God, they don’t know what to do with themselves, the sight of an assembly makes them want to run away, and they are unable to close their eyes when others pray. The work of evil spirits wrecks the normal relationship between man and God, and upsets people’s previous visions and the path that their life has entered upon, in their hearts they can never draw close to God, things always happen that cause disruption to them and enshackle them, and their hearts cannot find peace, leaving no strength to their love of God, and making their spirits sink downward. Such are the manifestations of the work of Satan. The work of Satan is manifested in the following: being unable to stand your ground and stand witness, causing you to become someone who is at fault before God, and who has no faithfulness toward God. … it causes God’s touch to disappear within you, and makes you complain about God and oppose Him, leading you to question God, and there is even the risk of you leaving God. All this is of the work of Satan’ (“The Work of the Holy Spirit and the Work of Satan” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘That which comes from Satan makes your visions disappear, it strips you of all that you used to have, it causes you to stray far from God, it takes away the love between you and your brothers and sisters, breeds in you a heart of hate, gives you nowhere to go, makes you unwilling to lead the life of the church, and leaves you without love of God in your heart. This is the result of the work of Satan and evil spirits’ (“The Twenty-second Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).”
Having read those words from Almighty God, Sister Yang continued with her fellowship, “God’s words have well explained our problem. All people, matters, and things that stop man from quieting their hearts before God come from the work of Satan. Satan uses certain methods in its work to disturb man so they become upset and can never quiet their hearts before God. For example, people have headaches, feel drowsy, and even nod off while reading God’s words, and then they will have no mind to continue. This is the disturbance of Satan. Satan just uses these methods to make man give up reading Almighty God’s words and leave His care and protection, to prevent them from accepting the true way and thus lose God’s salvation. This is the evil intention of Satan disturbing God’s work and hindering man from investigating the true way. If we want to break free from Satan’s disturbance and temptation, we should have discernment and penetrate its tricks, and come before God to pray, ‘Oh God! I know it’s Satan interfering with the relationship between You and me. Now, I can’t be restrained by it. I should stand my ground. Oh God, I beg You to give me faith and perseverance to overcome Satan’s temptation, to protect my heart, and to allow my heart to be at peace before You.’ When we cooperate with God by praying many times, God will see our heart and then help us overcome Satan’s temptation and disturbance, and in the end, Satan will draw back.”
Then Sister Zheng said, “I’ll share my own experience. I remember when I first accepted God’s work in the last days, I found God’s words are very good and practical and felt like reading them carefully. However, when I read God’s words, my waist hurt and my eyelids began to droop. But once I stopped reading God’s words, those problems just disappeared. At that time, I also doubted God’s work and didn’t read God’s words anymore. In the next meeting, when a sister asked me what I had entered into and what I had gained from reading God’s words, I answered that I didn’t read God’s words because once I read them, my waist would hurt and I would feel drowsy. Then the sister fellowshiped with me that I should have discernment about Satan’s work. Satan just takes advantage of the weakness of our flesh, like illness, headaches, and sleepiness, to interfere with us, cause us to doubt God’s work and word until we betray God in the end. So, when I was disturbed by Satan again, I immediately came before God to pray, consciously cooperated with Him to forsake the flesh, and also asked Him to give me faith and strength so as not to be constrained by the flesh. From then on, I’m no longer troubled while reading God’s words and my heart can also be at peace before God.”
After hearing the two sisters’ fellowship, I said, “Oh, so that explains it. No wonder I dozed off while reading God’s words that day after you left. Today, through your fellowship, I come to understand that Satan was unwilling to see me keep up with God’s work in the last days, meet the Lord’s return, and attain God’s salvation, so it worked behind the scenes. All this turns out to be Satan’s schemes. I didn’t understand the truth in this regard, had no discernment, and rose to Satan’s hook. I nearly betrayed God! Thanks be to God! Today you have cleared up my confusion, and I will no longer be restricted by this. I will read God’s words, pray to God more often about this, and learn to see through Satan’s tricks. I believe God will surely guide me.”
Sister Yang said happily, “Praise God! This is the result achieved by the work of the Holy Spirit. As long as we practically cooperate with God and forsake Satan, we will receive God’s enlightenment and guidance.”
Later, when I read God’s words, I sometimes was still sleepy and could not absorb them, and became upset. Then I knelt down and prayed to God, “Oh God! I know Satan tries to stop me from reading Your words, and it also hinders me from drawing near to You. I don’t want to be restricted by it, and I’m willing to forsake it. I beg You to give me faith and strength so I can overcome its disturbance and concentrate on reading Your words. Amen!” After the prayer, I did not feel that sleepy when reading God’s words and listening to the hymns. Through some time of my practical cooperation with God, I could be at peace before God to read His words and was willing to attend meetings. In the meetings, I read and fellowshiped about God’s words with my brothers and sisters, and understood the truth expressed by God more and more clearly, living freely and unrestrained amidst God’s love.
After a while, I began to cooperate in spreading the gospel, and at last brought the brothers and sisters of my former denomination who truly believed in the Lord with good humanity to God’s family. All the glory goes to God!
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Thursday, October 26, 2017

I’m a Lucky Taiwanese Who Has Welcomed the Lord’s Second Coming I

I’m a Lucky Taiwanese Who Has Welcomed the Lord’s Second Coming I

Xin Sheng    United States

After a Startup Failure, I Believed in the Lord and Received His Grace

My name is Xin Sheng and I was born in Taiwan. In 1978, I moved to the United States at age 19 accompanied by my parents. Afterward, to realize my entrepreneurial dream, I opened a retail auto parts store sponsored by my parents. However, it went out of business later for lack of sales channels. Along with that, my startup dream vanished. My parents often gave me attitude for the money loss and sometimes spoke to me sarcastically, asking me to pay their money back. I was so distressed. At that time, I thought of Pastor Yang and his wife whom I met when I was running my store. They served in a neighboring church and I had visited it several times at their invitation. I felt harmony and love and my heart was at peace there. Faced with my parents’ attitudes toward my failure and toward the loss of my business, I felt that my home was lacking in warmth and love compared with the church. So I wanted to stay in the church to calm my mind. There I was moved by the free help of Pastor Yang and his brothers and sisters to other people. They all abided by the teachings of the Lord and pursued to be good people. I felt it was a pure land in the world. Therefore, I turned to the Lord through baptism on Thanksgiving Day of 1981. Thank the Lord for visiting His blessings and profuse grace upon me thereafter. I got married in 1983. My wife and I left our parents and moved to a town in the middle of the United States the next year. I learned aircraft maintenance and repair at a school and meanwhile attended meetings at a Chinese Christian church. Except for workdays, my wife and I would serve in the church. Although it was a small church, there were many believers with fervent hearts and great faith. In 1986, I became an official aircraft maintenance worker and got a stable job. At the same time, my wife and I had our first child. My career and life went smoothly, which made me feel as if I had entered the good land of Canaan. I was happy with the presence of the Lord, often living in joy.

My Wife and I Spread Gospel and Built a Church in Our Hometown, Taiwan

In 1990, my wife came up with the idea of returning to Taiwan for spreading gospel to our families and building a local church. After prayer, we got back to Taiwan with our kids in 1992. At the beginning, there were few believers in our church. Through our constant efforts and cooperation with the local brothers and sisters, the church thrived in five years, burning like fire with an increasing number of believers. Everyone was following the Lord with the utmost confidence. Seeing that the church we established with consistent efforts grew ever better because of the Lord’s blessings, I felt joyous and thanked the Lord for His blessings and grace, and had a greater faith in following Him.
Seven Years Later, I Returned to the United States and Joined the Charismatic Church
Because of some changes in life, my whole family moved back to the United States in 1999. My wife and I decided to settle down here, expecting a new start.
After coming back to America, we found the Charismatic Church and started to serve again, which brought us a new aim and knowledge. The pastor told us, “It is said in the Bible, ‘But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these works that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will’ (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). So we should pursue to be filled with the Holy Spirit, which is a spiritual gift. Only those who are filled with the Holy Spirit are the people possessed of spiritual life. It should be emphasized that everyone must pursue to gain the gift of praying in tongues, for the level of our spiritual life can be upgraded only with the gift of speaking in tongues. If we only pray with the understanding, the level of our spiritual life won’t be upgraded, and then it will be hard to say if we can enter into the kingdom of heaven when the Lord comes….” From then on, people in our church began to pursue various spiritual gifts, and those who gained the gift of speaking in tongues accounted for the largest proportion. I saw that once the pastor laid his hands on the believers and prayed, some cried, some laughed, some suddenly fell down, and some couldn’t stop speaking in tongues … My brothers and sisters always prayed in tongues after we finished singing hymns. But I was unable to do so. I supposed I was not a spiritual person. So I felt troubled for failing to gain any gifts, including speaking in tongues, which was the most common one. Feeling helpless, I just comforted myself with this: Don’t worry, maybe it is still early for me to gain spiritual gifts.

I Was Confused by the Church Situation Where the Believers Pursued to Be Filled With the Holy Spirit

Gradually, a growing number of the believers in our church could speak in tongues. But I saw that when my brothers and sister pursued spiritual gifts and the filling of the Holy Spirit, they paid decreasing attention to the explanation of the Scriptures and the practice of the Lord’s words, and all their deeds were far from testifying to the Lord. I remembered one time when my younger son came back from the church, he said, “I think the church is pretty much like the society. I don’t want to attend meetings anymore.” Actually, I felt the same way about the church. Gradually, I couldn’t feel the work of the Holy Spirit. I began to wonder whether or not the pursuit of being filled with the Holy Spirit was from Him. What’s more, every time we broke bread in Holy Communion, the church became a place of confessing. The moment the glasses of wine were raised, we began to repent our sins. But after that, we returned to real life and again committed sins involuntarily. The original prosperity of our church was lost and never returned. I was worried about living in sin and being unable to save myself. I tried to solve my problem through praying more, reading the Scriptures and spiritual books more, but to no avail. In particular, when I saw the Lord’s words, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3), my heart was full of fear and worry. I still lived in sin and was unable to put the Lord’s teachings into practice. I still could lose my temper, show jealousy and hatred toward others, have passions and lusts, and even tell lies for my personal benefits … I repented my sins, but after that, I continued to sin unwittingly. How could I be reborn in this way? I often thought to myself: If the pursuit of being filled with the Holy Spirit and receiving spiritual gifts is necessary for our salvation, why doesn’t the Lord bless our church? Can we really enter into the kingdom of heaven in such a way?

I Heard the News About the Lord’s Return Seventeen Years Later

I befriended Sister Fang on Facebook in November of 2016. In our conversation, I learned that her cousin was very seeking and that his knowledge and understanding of the Bible were very high. Then through Sister Fang, I got to chat with her cousin, Brother Qiancheng. Thanks be to the Lord. He indeed had a thorough and profound knowledge of the Bible, and I gained a new understanding of the Bible through his sharing. He also told me wonderful news that the Lord Jesus has come back. I was ecstatic and eager to know the work He has brought forth. However, when I heard him say, “The Lord has come back. He becomes flesh and expresses the words to do the work of judgment beginning with the house of God …” I felt conflicted and shocked: The Lord has come back through incarnation; how could it be possible? I believe that the Lord will appear to us with glory in a spiritual body instead of through incarnation when He comes back.
I put forward my viewpoint to Brother Qiancheng. He said, “It is meaningful that God incarnate comes to do His work. God doesn’t do anything insignificant. God becomes flesh once again to do His work in the last days. There are divine mysteries here. Let’s look at the prophecies in the Bible, ‘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’ (Luke 17:24-25). ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come’ (John 16:12-13). These verses have prophesied that the Lord Jesus will return through incarnation. The Son of man refers to God’s return to flesh, becoming a person who is born to a human and have parents. God really and actually becomes man, but the Spirit within Him is the Holy Spirit, and He is the embodiment of the Spirit of God. If God appeared in a spiritual body, then He wouldn’t be called Son of man. On the other hand, when God comes back in the last days, ‘first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.’ Only when God comes in the flesh will He suffer many things, and if God appeared as the Spirit, He wouldn’t suffer as much. For instance, the Lord Jesus suffered in a practical way before He was nailed to the cross. When He transcended the flesh and became a spiritual body after the resurrection, however, He did not suffer anymore. On the third hand, ‘when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.’ Man can comprehend and enter the truth only if God’s Spirit is materialized in the flesh, speaks and works among man in a practical way, while the direct work of the Spirit cannot achieve such results. We will understand it more clearly after reading Almighty God’s words.”
Then Brother Qiancheng began to read the words of Almighty God. Almighty God says, “The Spirit is impalpable to man, and invisible to man, and the work of the Spirit is incapable of leaving any further evidence or facts of God’s work for man. Man shall never behold the real face of God, and shall always believe in a vague God that does not exist. Man shall never behold the face of God, nor will man ever hear words personally spoken by God. Man’s imaginings are, after all, empty, and cannot replace the true face of God; the inherent disposition of God, and the work of God Himself cannot be impersonated by man. The invisible God in heaven and His work can only be brought to earth by God incarnate who personally does His work among man. This is the most ideal way in which God appears to man, in which man sees God and comes to know the true face of God, and it cannot be achieved by a non-incarnate God” (“Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh”).
So if this work is done by the Spirit—if God does not become flesh, and instead the Spirit speaks directly through thunder, so that man has no contact with Him, would man know His disposition? If only the Spirit does the work, then man would have no way of knowing His disposition. People can only behold God’s disposition with their own eyes when He becomes flesh, and reveals His words in the flesh, and expresses His entire disposition through the flesh. God truly lives among man. He is tangible; man can truly engage with His disposition and what He has and is; only in this way can man truly know Him” (“The Vision of God’s Work (3)”).
The work that is of greatest value to corrupt man is that which provides accurate words, clear goals to pursue, and which can be seen and touched. Only realistic work and timely guidance are suited to man’s tastes, and only real work can save man from his corrupt and depraved disposition. This can only be achieved by the incarnate God; only the incarnate God can save man from his formerly corrupt and depraved disposition. Although the Spirit is the inherent substance of God, work such as this can only be done by His flesh. If the Spirit worked single-handedly, then it would not be possible for His work to be effective—this is a plain truth” (“Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh”).
After reading Almighty God’s words, Brother Qiancheng fellowshiped, “We are still living in sin and under Satan’s domain. Every day we sin and confess. Such corrupt people like us are unfit to see God’s face. What’s more, we are of flesh and blood, so we can’t see God’s spiritual body. When Daniel saw the vision, he set his face toward the ground, became dumb, and there was no strength or breath left in him. When the apostle John saw the vision on the island of Patmos, he fell to the ground as dead. God’s Spirit allows no offense, and can never be approached by man. Only when God is incarnated to be a man, actually carries out His work and speaks His words in the world of man and expresses the truth, can the outcome of salvation of man be attained.”