Only Those Who Know God and His Work Can Satisfy God | Eastern Lightning

The work of God incarnate includes two parts. The first time He became flesh, people did not believe in Him or know Him, and nailed Jesus to the cross. The second time, too, people did not believe in Him, much less know Him, and once again nailed Christ to the cross. Is man not the enemy of God? If man does not know Him, how could man be the intimate of God? And how could he be qualified to bear testimony to God? Loving God, serving God, glorifying God—are these not deceitful lies?
If you devote your life to these unrealistic, impractical things, do you not labor in vain? How could you be God’s intimate when you do not even know who God is? Is such pursuit not vague and abstract? Is it not deceitful? How can one be an intimate of God? What is the practical significance of being an intimate of God? Can you be an intimate of God’s Spirit? Can you see how great and exalted the Spirit is? To be the intimate of an invisible, intangible God—is that not vague and abstract? What is the practical significance of such pursuit? Is it not all deceitful lies? What you pursue is to become God’s intimate, yet in fact you are Satan’s lapdog, for you do not know God, and pursue the non-existent “God of all things,” which is invisible, intangible, and of your own conceptions. Vaguely speaking, such a “God” is Satan, and practically speaking, it is you yourself. You seek to be your own intimate yet still say you pursue to be the intimate of God—is that not blasphemy? What is the value of such pursuit? If the Spirit of God does not become flesh, then the substance of God is merely an invisible, intangible Spirit of life, formless and amorphous, of the nonmaterial kind, unapproachable and incomprehensible to man. How could man be the intimate of an incorporeal, wondrous, unfathomable Spirit such as this? Is this not a joke? Such absurd reasoning is invalid and impractical. Created man is of an inherently different kind to the Spirit of God, so how could the two of them be intimates? If the Spirit of God were not realized in the flesh, if God did not become flesh and humble Himself by becoming a creature, then created man would be both unqualified and unable to be His intimate, and apart from those godly believers who may have the chance to be God’s intimates after their souls have entered into heaven, most people would be unable to become the intimates of God’s Spirit. And if man wishes to become the intimate of God in heaven under the guidance of God incarnate, is he not an astonishingly foolish non-human? Man merely pursues “faithfulness” to an invisible God, and pays not the slightest attention to the God that can be seen, for it is so easy to pursue an invisible God—man may do so however he likes. But the pursuit of the visible God is not so easy. The man that seeks a vague God is absolutely unable to gain God, for things that are vague and abstract are all imagined by man, and incapable of being gained by man. If the God that came among you were a lofty and exalted God who was inaccessible to you, then how could you seek His will? And how could you know and understand Him? If He only did His work, and had no normal contact with man, or was possessed of no normal humanity and unapproachable to mere mortals, then, even if He did much work for you but you had no contact with Him, and were unable to see Him, how could you know Him? If it were not for this flesh possessed of normal humanity, man would have no way of knowing God; it is only because of God’s incarnation that man is qualified to be the intimate of this God in the flesh. Man becomes God’s intimate because man comes into contact with Him, because man lives together with Him and keeps His company, and so gradually comes to know Him. If it were not thus, would man’s pursuit not be in vain? That is to say, it is not all because of God’s work that man is able to be God’s intimate, but because of the reality and normality of God incarnate. It is only because God becomes flesh that man has the chance to perform his duty, and the chance to worship the true God. Is this not the most real and practical truth? Now, do you still wish to be the intimate of God in heaven? Only when God humbles Himself to a certain point, which is to say, only when God becomes flesh, can man be His intimate and confidant. God is of the Spirit: How is man qualified to be the intimate of this Spirit, who is so exalted and unfathomable? Only when the Spirit of God descends into the flesh, and becomes a creature with the same exterior as man, can man understand His will and actually be gained by Him. He speaks and works in the flesh, shares in the joys, sorrows, and tribulations of man, lives in the same world as man, protects man, and guides him, and through this He cleanses man, and allows man to gain His salvation and His blessing. Having gained these things, man truly understands God’s will, and only then can he be an intimate of God. Only this is practical. If God were invisible and intangible to man, how could man be His intimate? Is this not empty doctrine?

In their belief in God today, many people still pursue that which is vague and abstract. They have no grasp of the reality of God’s work today, and still live among letters and doctrines. Moreover, most have yet to enter into the reality of new phrases such as the “new generation of those who love God,” the “intimate of God,” the “exemplar and model in love of God,” the “style of Peter”; instead, their pursuit is still vague and abstract, they still grope around in doctrine, and they have no comprehension of the reality of these words. When the Spirit of God becomes flesh, you can see and touch His work in the flesh. Yet if you are still incapable of becoming His intimate, if you are still unable to be His confidant, then how could you be the confidant of the Spirit of God? If you do not know the God of today, how can you be one of the new generation of those who love God? Are these not the empty letters and doctrines? Are you able to see the Spirit and sense His will? Are these not empty words? It is not enough for you to simply speak these phrases and terms, nor can you achieve God’s satisfaction through resolution alone. You are satisfied with only speaking these words, and you do so to satisfy your own desires, to satisfy your own unrealistic ideals, and to satisfy your own conceptions and thinking. If you do not know the God of today, then regardless of what you do, you will be unable to satisfy God’s heart’s desire. What does it mean to be a confidant of God? Do you still not understand this? Since God’s intimate is man, so God is also man, that is, God has become flesh, has become man. Only those who are of the same kind can call each other confidants, only then can they be considered intimates. If God were of the Spirit, how could created man become His intimate?

Your belief in God, your pursuit of the truth, and even the way you conduct yourself should all be based on reality: Everything you do should be practical, and you should not pursue such illusory, fanciful things. There is no value to behaving in this way, and, moreover, no significance to such a life. Because your pursuit and life are spent amid nothing more than falsehood and deceit, and you do not pursue things that have value and significance, the only thing you gain is absurd reasoning and doctrine that are not of the truth. Such things bear no relation to the significance and value of your existence, and can only bring you to a hollow realm. In this way, your whole life will be without any value or significance—and if you do not pursue a life of significance, then you could live a hundred years and it would all be for nothing. How could that be called a human life? Is it not actually the life of an animal? Likewise, if you try to follow the path of belief in God, but make no attempt to pursue the God that can be seen, and instead worship an invisible and intangible God, then is such pursuit not even more futile? In the end, your pursuit will become a pile of ruins. Of what benefit is such pursuit to you? The biggest problem with man is that he only loves things that he cannot see or touch, things that are supremely mysterious and wondrous, and that are unimaginable by man and unattainable by mere mortals. The more unrealistic these things, the more they are analyzed by man, who even pursues them heedless of all else, and deludes himself that he is able to gain them. The more unrealistic they are, the more closely man scrutinizes and analyzes them, even going so far as to make up his own exhaustive ideas about them. On the contrary, the more realistic things are, the more dismissive man is of them; he simply looks down his nose at them, and is even contemptuous of them. Is this not precisely your attitude toward the realistic work I do today? The more realistic such things are, the more prejudiced you are against them. You don’t spare any time to examine them, but simply ignore them; you look down your nose at these realistic, straightforward requirements, and even harbor numerous conceptions about this God who is most real, and are simply incapable of accepting His reality and normality. In this way, do you not believe amid vagueness? You have an unshakable belief in the vague God of times past, and no interest in the real God of today. Is this not because the God of yesterday and the God of today are from two different eras? Is it not also because the God of yesterday is the exalted God of heaven, whereas the God of today is a tiny man on earth? Is it not, moreover, because the God worshiped by man is the one produced by his conceptions, whereas the God of today is a real flesh produced on earth? When all is said and done, is it not because the God of today is too real that man does not pursue Him? For what the God of today asks of man is precisely that which man is most unwilling to do, and which makes him feel ashamed. Is this not making things difficult for man? Does this not lay bare his scars? In this way, many of those who do not pursue reality become the enemies of God incarnate, become antichrists. Is this not an obvious fact? In the past, when God had yet to become flesh, you may have been a religious figure, or a devout believer. After God became flesh, many such devout believers unwittingly became the antichrist. Do you know what is going on here? In your belief in God, you do not concentrate on reality or pursue the truth, but instead obsess over falsehoods—is this not the clearest source of your enmity to God incarnate? God incarnate is called Christ, so are not all those who do not believe in God incarnate the antichrist? And so is the one you believe in and love truly this God in the flesh? Is it really this living, breathing God who is most realistic and extraordinarily normal? What, exactly, is the objective of your pursuit? Is it in heaven or on earth? Is it a conception or is it the truth? Is it God or is it some supernatural being? In fact, the truth is the most real of life’s aphorisms, and the highest of such aphorisms among all mankind. Because it is the requirement that God makes of man, and is the work personally done by God, thus it is called life’s aphorism. It is not an aphorism summed up from something, nor is it a famous quote from a great figure; instead, it is the utterance to mankind from the Master of the heavens and earth and all things, and not some words summed up by man, but the inherent life of God. And so it is called the highest of all life’s aphorisms. Man’s pursuit of putting the truth into practice is the performance of his duty, that is, the pursuit of satisfying God’s requirement. The essence of this requirement is the most real of all truths, rather than empty doctrine achievable by no man. If your pursuit is nothing but doctrine and contains no reality, do you not rebel against the truth? Are you not someone who attacks the truth? How could such a person pursue to love God? People who are without reality are those who betray the truth, and are all inherently rebellious!

Regardless of how you pursue, you must, above all, understand the work that God does today, and must know the significance of this work. You must understand and know what work God brings when He comes in the last days, what disposition He brings, and what will be made complete in man. If you do not know or understand the work that He has come to do in the flesh, then how can you seek His will, and how can you become His intimate? In fact, being the intimate of God is not complicated, but neither is it simple. If man can perceive, then he can implement, and thus it is not complicated; if man cannot perceive, then it is a lot harder, and, furthermore, man becomes prone to pursuing amid vagueness. If, in the pursuit of God, man does not have his own position to stand by, and does not know what truth he should hold to, then it means that he has no foundation, and so it is not easy for him to stand firm. Today, there are so many who do not understand the truth, who cannot distinguish between good and evil or tell what to love or hate. Such people can hardly stand firm. Key to the belief in God is being able to put the truth into practice, care for God’s will, know God’s work on man when He comes in the flesh and the principles by which He speaks; do not follow the masses, and you must have principles in what you should enter into, and must hold to them. Holding firm to those things within you enlightened by God is of help to you. If you do not, today you will veer one way, tomorrow you will veer the other, and you will never gain anything real. To be like this is of no benefit to your own life. Those who do not understand the truth always follow others: If people say that this is the work of the Holy Spirit, then you, too, say it is the work of the Holy Spirit; if people say it is the work of an evil spirit, then you, too, become doubtful, or also say it is the work of an evil spirit. You always parrot the words of others, and are incapable of distinguishing anything by yourself, nor are you able to think for yourself. This is someone without a position, who is unable to differentiate—such a person is a worthless wretch! Such people always repeat the words of others: Today it is said that this is the work of the Holy Spirit, but chances are one day someone will say it isn’t the work of the Holy Spirit, and nothing but the deeds of man—yet you can’t see through this, and when you witness it said by others, you say the same thing. It is actually the work of the Holy Spirit, but you say it is the work of man; have you not become one of those who blaspheme against the work of the Holy Spirit? In this, have you not opposed God because you cannot differentiate? Who knows, maybe one day some nitwit will appear who says that “this is the work of an evil spirit,” and when you hear these words you’ll be at a loss, and once again bound up by the words of others. Every time someone stirs up disturbance you’re incapable of standing by your position, and this is all because you do not possess the truth. Believing in God and pursuing the knowledge of God is no simple matter. They cannot be achieved simply by gathering together and listening to preaching, and you cannot be perfected by passion alone. You must experience, and know, and be principled in your actions, and gain the work of the Holy Spirit. 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. What is the most basic principle in seeking the true way? You have to look at whether or not there is the work of the Holy Spirit, whether or not these words are the expression of the truth, who is testified to, and what it can bring you. Distinguishing between the true way and the false way requires several aspects of basic knowledge, the most fundamental of which is to tell whether or not there is the work of the Holy Spirit. For the substance of man’s belief in God is the belief in the Spirit of God, and even his belief in God incarnate is because this flesh is the embodiment of the Spirit of God, which means that such belief is still the belief in the Spirit. There are differences between the Spirit and the flesh, but because this flesh comes from the Spirit, and is the Word become flesh, thus what man believes in is still the inherent substance of God. And so, in distinguishing whether or not it is the true way, above all you must look at whether or not there is the work of the Holy Spirit, after which you must look at whether or not there is the truth in this way. This truth is the life disposition of normal humanity, which is to say, that which was required of man when God created him in the beginning, namely, all of normal humanity (including human sense, insight, wisdom, and the basic knowledge of being man). That is, you need to look at whether or not this way takes man into a life of normal humanity, whether or not the truth that is spoken of is required according to the reality of normal humanity, whether or not this truth is practical and real, and whether or not it is most timely. If there is truth, then it is able to take man into normal and real experiences; man, furthermore, becomes ever more normal, man’s human sense becomes ever more complete, man’s life in the flesh and the spiritual life become ever more orderly, and man’s emotions become ever more normal. This is the second principle. There is one other principle, which is whether or not man has an increasing knowledge of God, whether or not experiencing such work and truth can inspire a love of God in him, and bring him ever closer to God. In this can be measured whether or not it is the true way. Most fundamental is whether this way is realistic rather than supernatural, and whether or not it is able to provide the life of man. If it conforms to these principles, the conclusion can be drawn that this way is the true way. I say these words not to make you accept other ways in your future experiences, nor as a prediction that there will be the work of another new age in the future. I say them so that you may be certain that the way of today is the true way, so that you will not only be half-sure in your belief toward the work of today and unable to gain insight into it. There are even many who, despite being certain, still follow in confusion; such certainty has no principle to it, and they must be eliminated sooner or later. Even those who are especially ardent in their following are three parts sure and five parts unsure, which shows that they have no foundation. Because your caliber is too poor and your foundation is too shallow, you have no understanding of differentiation. God does not repeat His work, He does not do work that is not realistic, He does not make excessive requirements of man, and He does not do work that is beyond the sense of man. All the work He does is within the scope of man’s normal sense, and does not exceed the sense of normal humanity, and His work is according to man’s normal requirements. If it is the work of the Holy Spirit, man becomes ever more normal, and his humanity becomes ever more normal. Man has an increasing knowledge of his disposition, which has been corrupted by Satan, and of the essence of man, and he has an ever greater longing for the truth. That is to say, the life of man grows and grows, and the corrupt disposition of man becomes capable of more and more changes—all of which is the meaning of God becoming the life of man. If a way is incapable of revealing those things that are the essence of man, is incapable of changing the disposition of man, and, moreover, is incapable of bringing him before God or giving him a true understanding of God, and even causes his humanity to become ever more lowly and his sense ever more abnormal, then this way must not be the true way, and it may be the work of an evil spirit, or the old way. In short, it cannot be the present work of the Holy Spirit. You have believed in God for all these years, yet you have no inkling of the principles for differentiating between the true way and the false way or for seeking the true way. Most people aren’t even interested in these matters; they merely go where the majority go, and repeat what the majority say. How is this someone who seeks the true way? And how can such people find the true way? If you grasp these several key principles, then whatever happens you will not be deceived. Today, it is crucial that man be able to make distinctions; this is what should be possessed by normal humanity, and what man must possess in his experience. If, even today, man still distinguishes nothing in his following, and his human sense still has not grown, then man is too foolish, and his pursuit is mistaken and deviated. There is not the slightest differentiation in your pursuit today, and while it is true, as you say, you have found the true way, have you gained it? Have you been able to distinguish anything? What is the substance of the true way? In the true way, you have not gained the true way, you have not gained anything of the truth, which is to say, you have not achieved that which God requires of you, and thus there has been no change in your corruption. If you continue to pursue in this way, you will ultimately be eliminated. Having followed to this day, you should be certain that the way that you have taken is the right way, and should have no further doubts. Many people are always uncertain and stop pursuing the truth because of some small matters. Such people are those who have no knowledge of God’s work, they are those who follow God in confusion. People who do not know God’s work are incapable of being His intimates, or of bearing testimony to Him. I advise those who only seek blessing and only pursue that which is vague and abstract to pursue the truth as soon as possible, so that their life may have significance. Do not fool yourselves anymore!

From in"Classic Words of God on the Gospel of the Kingdom" | Eastern Lightning