Realizing I’ve Been Walking the Path of the Pharisees | Eastern Lightning

Wuxin

Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province

Something we have always discussed in previous communions is the paths walked by Peter and Paul. It is said that Peter paid attention to knowing himself and God, and was someone God approved, while Paul only paid attention to his work, reputation and status, and was someone God despised. I have always been afraid of walking Paul’s path, which is why I normally often read God’s words about Peter’s experiences to see how he came to know God. After living like this for a while, I felt I had become more obedient than before, my desire for reputation and status had dimmed, and that I had gotten to know myself a little. At this time, I believed that even though I was not completely on Peter’s path, it could be said that I had touched the edge of it, and at least it meant I was not heading down Paul’s path. However, I would be shamed by the revelations of God’s word.

The Holy Spirit Works in a Principled Way | Eastern Lightning

Qin Shuting
Linyi City, Shandong Province

For some time, although I had not ceased to eat and drink the words of God, I never felt the light. I had prayed to God for this but, afterward, I had still not been enlightened. So I thought, “I have eaten and drunk what I should have and God is not enlightening me. There is nothing I can do, and I do not have the faculty to receive God’s words. There is a time for God to enlighten each man, so there is no use in trying to rush it.” Afterward, I kept the rules and ate and drank the words of God without anxiety, “patiently” awaiting God’s enlightenment.

Chapter 7. View Yourself Correctly and Do Not Give Up on Truth | Eastern Lightning

Chapter 7. View Yourself Correctly and Do Not Give Up on Truth

People are always unable to correctly view their own strengths and weaknesses, which unconsciously influences their knowledge of God. There are some people who even give up on themselves and lose hope, who do not seek to change their disposition, and are not willing to suffer hardships to put the truth into practice; these people think they have never changed. Actually, these people have changed, yet they themselves are not able to realize it: Instead they only look at their problems, and are not willing to cooperate with God. This not only delays their normal entry, but will also increase their misunderstandings about God, and even more so have an effect on their destination. Therefore, this issue must be one you should carefully study so as to gain deeper entry, and reach the change effects that you should be obtaining.

The Experiences of Peter: His Knowledge of Chastisement and Judgment | Eastern Lightning

    When he was being chastised by God, Peter prayed, “O God! My flesh is disobedient, and You chastise me and judge me. I rejoice in Your chastisement and judgment, and even if You do not want me, in Your judgment I behold Your holy and righteous disposition. When You judge me, so that others may behold Your righteous disposition in Your judgment, I feel content. If it can show forth Your disposition, and allow Your righteous disposition to be seen by all creatures, and if it can make my love of You purer, so that I can attain the image of one who is righteous, then Your judgment is good, for such is Your gracious will. I know that there is still much in me that is rebellious, and that I am still not fit to come before You. I wish for You to judge me even more, whether through a hostile environment or great tribulations; no matter how You judge me, to me it is precious. Your love is so profound, and I am willing to lay myself at Your mercy without the slightest complaint.” This is Peter’s knowledge after he experienced the work of God, and is also a testimony to his love of God. Today, you have already been conquered—but how is this conquest expressed in you? Some people say, “My conquest is the supreme grace and exaltation of God. Only now do I realize that the life of man is hollow and without significance. Living is so pointless, I’d rather be dead. Though man spends his life rushing about, producing and raising generation after generation of children, man is ultimately left with nothing. Today, only after being conquered by God have I seen that there is no value to living in this way; it really is a meaningless life. We may as well die and be done with it!” Can such people who have been conquered be gained by God? Can they become specimens and models? Such people are a lesson in passiveness, they have no aspirations, and do not strive to improve themselves! Even though they count as having been conquered, such passive people are incapable of being made perfect. At the near end of his life, after he had been made perfect, Peter said, “O God! If I were to live a few more years, I would wish to achieve a purer and deeper love of You.” When he was about to be nailed to the cross, in his heart he prayed, “O God! Your time has now arrived, the time You prepared for me has arrived. I must be crucified for You, I must bear this testimony to You, and I hope that my love can satisfy Your requirements, and that it can become purer. Today, to be able to die for You, and be nailed to the cross for You, is comforting and reassuring to me, for nothing is more gratifying to me than to be able to be crucified for You and satisfy Your wishes, and to be able to give myself to You, to offer up my life to You. O God! You are so lovely! Were You to allow me to live, I would be even more willing to love You. As long as I am alive, I will love You. I wish to love You more deeply. You judge me, and chastise me, and try me because I am not righteous, because I have sinned. And Your righteous disposition becomes more apparent to me. This is a blessing to me, for I am able to love You more deeply, and I am willing to love You in this way even if You do not love me. I am willing to behold Your righteous disposition, for this makes me more able to live out a life of meaning. I feel that my life now is more meaningful, for I am crucified for Your sake, and it is meaningful to die for You. Yet still I do not feel satisfied, for I know too little of You, I know that I cannot completely fulfill Your wishes, and have repaid You too little. In my life, I have been incapable of returning my entirety to You; I am far from that. As I look back at this moment, I feel so indebted to You, and I have but this moment to make up for all of my mistakes and all the love that I have not repaid You.”

God's word | Eastern Lightning

You Ought to Consider Your Deeds

Judging from the actions and deeds in your life, you are all in need of a passage of words every day to supply and replenish you, for you are too lacking, and your knowledge and ability to receive are too meager. In your daily lives, you live in an atmosphere and environment without truth or good sense. You lack the capital for existence and do not have the foundation to know Me or the truth. Your faith is merely built upon a vague confidence or upon religious rituals and knowledge based wholly on doctrine. Every day I watch your movements and examine your intentions and evil fruits. I have never found one who truly placed his heart and spirit upon My altar, which has never been moved. Therefore, I do not wish to pour out in vain all the words I wish to express upon such mankind. In My heart, I am planning only to complete My unfinished work and to bring salvation to the mankind that I have yet to save. Nevertheless, I wish for all who follow Me to receive My salvation and the truth My word bestows upon man. I hope that one day when you close your eyes, you will see a realm where fragrance fills the air and streams of living waters flow, not a bleak, cold world where darkness clouds the skies and howls never cease.

God's Word | Eastern Lightning

Man Can Only Be Saved Amidst the Management of God

Everyone feels that the management of God is strange, because people think that the management of God is completely unrelated to man. They think that this management is the work of God alone, is God’s own business, and so mankind is indifferent to the management of God. In this way, the salvation of mankind has become vague and indistinct, and is now nothing but empty rhetoric. Even though man follows God in order to be saved and enter the beautiful destination, man has no concern for how God conducts His work. Man does not care for what God plans to do and the part he must play in order to be saved. How tragic that is! The salvation of man is inseparable from the management of God, much less can it be divorced from the plan of God. Yet man thinks nothing of the management of God, and thus grows ever more distant from God. Consequently, increasing numbers of people are becoming followers of God who don’t know things that are closely related to the salvation of man such as what creation is, what belief in God is, how to worship God, and so on. At this point, then, we must have a talk about the management of God, so that each follower may clearly know the significance of following God and believing in Him. They will also be able to choose the path that they should tread more accurately, instead of following God solely to gain blessings, or avoid disaster, or become successful.

What a Real Man Means | Eastern Lightning

What a Real Man Means

Managing man is My job, and having him be conquered by Me was even more predestined when I created the world. People do not know that I will completely conquer them in the last days, and they are also unaware that the evidence of My defeating Satan is to conquer the disobedient members of mankind. But I had already told My enemy when it struggled with Me that I would become the conqueror of those who had been taken away by Satan and had long become its children, and its loyal servants watching over its home. The original meaning of conquer is to defeat, to humiliate. In the way Israel’s people put it, it is to completely defeat, destroy, and make one unable to resist Me further. But today as used among you people, its meaning is to conquer. You should know My intent is to completely extinguish and reduce to ruin the evil one of mankind, so that it can no longer rebel against Me, much less have a breath to interrupt or disturb My work. Thus, as far as people are concerned, it means to be conquering. Whatever the term’s connotation, My work is to defeat mankind. For truly mankind is an adjunct to My management, but more accurately, mankind is none other than My enemy. Mankind is the evil one that resists and disobeys Me. Mankind is none other than the progeny of the evil one accursed by Me. Mankind is none other than the descendant of the archangel that betrayed Me. Mankind is none other than the heritage of the devil that was already detested and rejected by Me and came at odds with Me. The sky above all mankind is murky and gloomy, lacking in even a glimmer of clarity. The human world is in pitch darkness, and when living in it one cannot see his own hand when he stretches it out before him and cannot see the sun when he lifts his head. The road beneath his feet is muddy and rife with potholes, and it is meandering and tortuous; the whole land is littered with corpses. The corners in the dark are filled with the remains of the dead. The cool and dark corners are crowded with hordes of demons taking up residence. Throughout mankind hordes of demons also come and go. The progeny of myriad beasts covered in filth is fighting hand to hand, in a brutal struggle, the sound of which strikes terror in the heart. In such times, such a world, and such an “earthly paradise,” where does one go to seek out life’s felicities? Where would one go to find his life’s destination? Mankind, trampled under Satan’s feet long ago, has been acting in Satan’s image—even being its embodiment. They are the evidence of being Satan’s “witness, loud and clear.” Such mankind, such scum, or such offspring of this corrupt human family, how could they bear witness to God? From whence comes forth My glory? Where is My witness? The enemy that stands against Me and corrupts mankind has already soiled mankind, My creation, brimming with My glory and My living out. It has stolen away My glory, and what it has imbued man with is nothing but poison heavily laced with the ugliness of Satan, and juice from fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the beginning, I created mankind, that is, I created mankind’s ancestor, Adam. He was tangible and formed, brimming with life, brimming with vitality, and furthermore, having My glory’s company. That was the glorious day when I created man. Following that, Eve was produced from the body of Adam, also the ancestor of man, and so the people of My creation were filled with My breath and brimming with My glory. Adam was originally produced by My hand and was the representation of My image. Thus the original meaning of “Adam” was to be My creation imbued with My vitality, imbued with My glory, tangible and in good form, having spirit and breath. He was the only creation endowed with a spirit that could represent Me, have My image and receive My breath. In the beginning Eve was the second person endowed with breath that I had determined to create, so the original meaning of “Eve” was to be a creation to continue My glory, filled with My vitality and furthermore be endowed with My glory. Eve came out of Adam, so she was also of My image, for she was the second person created in My image. The original meaning of “Eve” was to be a living being, given a spirit, existing in flesh and bone, being My second testimony as well as My second image in mankind. They were mankind’s ancestors, his pure and precious treasure, and originally living beings with a spirit. However the evil one trampled and looted the progeny of mankind’s ancestors, closing the human world into complete darkness, such that this progeny no longer believes in My existence. What’s even more detestable is that at the same time when the evil one corrupts and tramples people, it cruelly takes away My glory, My testimony, the vitality I bestowed on people, the breath and life I blew into them, all My glory in the human world, and all the painstaking effort that I have invested into mankind. Mankind is no longer in the light, and has lost everything I have bestowed on them, discarding the glory I have bestowed. How could they ever confess that I am the Lord of the creation? How could they believe in My existence in heaven? How could they discover My glory’s manifestation on earth? How could these grandsons and granddaughters take the God their own ancestors revered as Lord of their creation? These pitiful grandsons and granddaughters have generously “presented” to the evil one the glory, the image, as well as the testimony that I had bestowed on Adam and Eve, and the life bestowed on mankind that they depend on, without minding in the slightest the evil one’s presence, giving all My glory to it. Is this not the source of the title of “scum”? How could such mankind, such evil demons, such walking corpses, such figures of Satan, such enemies of Mine have My glory? I will repossess My glory, repossess My testimony among man and all that once belonged to Me, which I had given to mankind long ago—completely conquer mankind. However you should know, the humans I created were holy men with My image and My glory. They were not originally of Satan, nor subjected to its trampling, but purely My manifestation, free of the slightest trace of its poison. Thus, I let everyone know that I only want that which was created by My hand, My beloved pure ones that never belonged to any other entity. Furthermore, I will take pleasure in them and see them as My glory. However, what I want is not the mankind corrupted by Satan, belonging to Satan today, which is no longer My original creation. Because I want to repossess My glory in the human world, I will gain complete conquest over the remaining survivors of mankind, as the proof of My glory in My victory over Satan. I only take My testimony as My crystallization, as the object of My enjoyment. Such is My intention.