Eastern Lightning | Almighty God's Word "Focus More on Reality"

Eastern Lightning | Almighty God's Word "Focus More on Reality" 

Every person has the possibility of being perfected by God, so everyone should understand what service to God most suits God’s intentions. Most people don’t know what it means to believe in God and have no idea why they should believe in God. That is to say, most people have no understanding of God’s work or the purpose of God’s management plan. Down to the present, most people still think believing in God is about going to heaven and having their souls saved.

Eastern Lightning | Almighty God's Word "All Who Do Not Know God Are Those Who Oppose God"

To grasp the purpose of God’s work, what effect to be achieved in man, and the will of God toward man, this is what every man who follows God should achieve. Now what all men lack is the knowledge of God’s work. Man neither comprehends nor understands exactly what constitutes the deeds of God in man, all the work of God, and the will of God since the creation of the world. This inadequacy is not merely seen throughout the religious world, but moreover in all believers of God.

Eastern Lightning | Almighty God's Word "What Qualities Should an Adequate Shepherd Possess"

Eastern Lightning | Almighty God's Word "What Qualities Should an Adequate Shepherd Possess"

       You must have an understanding of the many conditions men will be in when the Holy Spirit performs work on them. In particular, those who coordinate to serve God must have an even better grasp of the many conditions brought about by the work that the Holy Spirit performs on men. If you only talk about many experiences and many ways of entry, it shows that man’s experience is too one-sided. Without grasping many situations in reality, you are unable to achieve transformation in your disposition.

Eastern Lightning | What Viewpoint Believers Ought to Hold

The Church of Almighty God | What Viewpoint Believers Ought to Hold

Eastern Lightning | What Viewpoint Believers Ought to Hold

What is it that man has received since he first believed in God? What have you known about God? How much have you changed because of your belief in God? Now you all know that belief in God is not solely for salvation of the soul and welfare of the flesh, nor is it to enrich your life through love of God, and so on. As it stands, if you love God for the sake of welfare of the flesh or momentary pleasure, then even if, in the end, your love for God reaches its peak and you ask for nothing, this “love” you seek is still an impure love and not pleasing to God.

Eastern Lightning | You Ought to Maintain Your Devotion to God

You Ought to Maintain Your Devotion to God

How is the Holy Spirit working within the church now? Do you have a grasp of that? What are the brothers’ and sisters’ greatest difficulties? What do they most lack? Currently, there are some people who are negative in the midst of trials, and some of them even complain, and some are no longer moving forward because God is no longer speaking. People have not entered the right track of belief in God. They cannot live independently, and they cannot maintain their own spiritual life.

Eastern Lightning | Almighty God's Word"The Age of Kingdom Is the Age of Word"

Eastern Lightning | Almighty God's Word"The Age of Kingdom Is the Age of Word"

In the Age of Kingdom, God uses the word to usher in a new age, to change the means of His work, and to do the work for the entire age. This is the principle by which God works in the Age of Word. He became flesh to speak from different perspectives, enabling man to truly see God, who is the Word appearing in the flesh, and His wisdom and wonder. Such work is done to better achieve the goals of conquering man, perfecting man, and eliminating man. This is the true meaning of using the word to work in the Age of Word. Through the word, man comes to know the work of God, the disposition of God, the essence of man, and what man ought to enter into.

Genuine Love for God Is Spontaneous

All people have been subject to refinement because of God’s words. If it hadn’t been for God incarnate mankind absolutely would not be blessed to suffer that way. It can also be put this way—those who are able to accept the trials of God’s words are blessed people. Based on people’s original caliber, their behavior, and their attitudes toward God, they are not worthy of receiving this kind of refinement. It is because they have been uplifted by God that they have enjoyed this blessing. People used to say that they were not worthy of seeing the face of God or hearing His words. Today it is entirely because of God’s uplifting and His mercy that people have received the refinement of His words. This is the blessing of every single person who is living in the last days—have you personally experienced this? In which aspects people should suffer and have setbacks is destined by God, and is not based on people’s own requirements. This is absolutely true. Every believer should possess the ability to undergo the trials of God’s words and suffer within His words. Is this something that you can see clearly? So the suffering you have undergone has been traded for today’s blessings; if you do not suffer for God, you cannot gain His praise. Maybe you have complained in the past, but no matter how much you have complained God does not remember that about you. Today has come and there is no reason to look into yesterday’s matters.

Some people say that they try to love God but cannot, and when they hear that God is about to depart they then have love for Him. Some people generally don’t put the truth into practice, and when they hear that God is about to depart in anger they come in front of Him and pray: “Oh God! Please do not go. Give me a chance! God! I have not satisfied You in the past; I have been indebted to You and resisted You. Today I am willing to fully offer up my body and heart so that I may finally satisfy You and love You. I will not have that opportunity again.” Have you made that kind of prayer? When someone prays this way it is because their conscience has been roused by God’s words. Humans are all numb and dull-witted. They are subject to chastisement and refinement yet they do not know what God is accomplishing. If God didn’t work this way, people would still be befuddled; no one could inspire the spiritual feelings in people’s hearts. It is only God’s words of judging and exposing people that can bear that fruit. So, all things are achieved and fulfilled because of God’s words, and it is only because of His words that mankind’s love for God has been roused. If people only loved God based on their own consciences they would not see any results. Didn’t people base their love for God on their consciences in the past? Was there a single person who took the initiative to love God? It was only through the encouragement of God’s words that they loved God. Some people say: “I’ve followed God for so many years and enjoyed so much of His grace, so many blessings. I’ve been subject to refinement and judgment from His words. So I’ve come to understand much, and I’ve seen God’s love. I must thank Him, I must repay His grace. I will satisfy God with death, and I will base my love for Him on my conscience.” If people only rely on the feelings of their consciences, they cannot feel God’s loveliness; if they just rely on their consciences, their love for God will be feeble. If you only speak of repaying God’s grace and love, you will not have any drive in your love for Him; loving Him based upon the feelings of your conscience is a passive approach. Why do I say that it’s a passive approach? This is a practical issue. What kind of love is this? Isn’t it trying to fool God and just going through the motions for Him? Most people believe that there is no reward for loving God, and one will be chastised all the same for not loving Him, so overall just not sinning is good enough. So loving God and repaying His love based on the feelings of one’s conscience is a passive approach, and it is not love for God that comes spontaneously from one’s heart. Love for God should be a genuine feeling from deep in a person’s heart. Some people say: “I myself am willing to pursue God and to follow Him. Now God wants to abandon me but I still want to follow Him. Whether He wants me or not, I will still love Him, and in the end I must gain Him. I offer up my heart to God, and no matter what He does, I will follow Him for my entire life. No matter what, I must love God and I must gain Him; I will not rest until I have gained Him.” Do you have this kind of will?

End Religious Service

                                    End Religious Service 

Since the beginning of His work in the entire universe, God has preselected many people to serve Him, including people from every walk of life. His purpose is to fulfill His own will and to ensure that His work on earth is brought to fruition. This is God’s purpose in choosing people to serve Him. Every person who serves God must understand this will of God. Through this work of His, people are better able to see God’s wisdom and God’s almightiness, and to see the principles of His work on earth. God practically comes to earth to do His work, contacting people so that they will know His deeds more clearly. Today, it is the privilege of you group of people to serve the practical God. This is a great blessing for you. God is truly raising you up. When God selects a person to serve Him, He always has His own principles. Serving God is not merely a matter of enthusiasm, as people imagine. Today a person can serve God in His presence, as you can see, because they are guided by God and have the work of the Holy Spirit; and because they are seekers after the truth. These are the minimum requirements for a servant of God.

Serving God is no simple task. Those whose corrupt disposition is not changed can never serve God. If your disposition has not been judged and chastised by God’s word, then your disposition still represents Satan. This is sufficient to prove that your service of God is out of your own good intention. It is service based on your satanic nature. You serve God with your natural character, and according to your personal preferences; what’s more, you keep thinking that God loves whatever you like, and that God hates whatever you do not like, and your work is guided entirely by your own preferences. Can this be called serving God? Ultimately your life disposition will not be changed one iota. In fact, you will become more stubborn because you have been serving God, and it will make your corrupt disposition deeply ingrained. Inside yourself, you will develop doctrines of service to God based on nothing more than your own character, and the experience derived from your serving according to your own disposition. This is human experience and lessons. It is man’s philosophy of life. People like this are among the Pharisees and the religious officials. If they never wake up and repent, then they will ultimately turn into the false Christs who will appear in the last days. They will be deceivers. The false Christs and deceivers that were spoken of shall come from this type of people. If those who serve God follow their character and act according to their own will, then they are in constant danger of being cast out. Those who apply their many years of experience to serving God to ensnare the hearts of people, lecture and control people, elevate themselves—and who never repent, never confess, never renounce the benefits of position—these people will fall down before God. They are people of the same type as Paul, conceited with and showing off seniority. God will not perfect people like this. This kind of service interferes with the work of God. People love to cling to the old. They cling to the notions of the past, cling to things from the past. This is a great obstacle to their service. If you cannot throw them off, those things will throttle your whole life. God will not commend you, not in the slightest, not even if you run your legs off or break your back laboring, nor even if you are martyred in your “service” of God. Quite the contrary: He will say that you are an evil-doer.

You Must Understand the Work; Don’t Follow Foolishly!

At present there are many people who foolishly believe. Your curiosity is too great, your desire to seek blessing is too great, and your desire to seek life is too small. Believers in Jesus nowadays are full of enthusiasm. Jesus is going to welcome them to the heavenly home. Can they not believe? Some people are believers their whole lives, some people believe for more than twenty years, or believe for forty or fifty years and never tire of reading the Bible, because, no matter what happens, as long as they believe they will get into heaven. You have followed God along this path for only a few years, yet you are not okay and have no more endurance, because your desire to gain blessing is too strong. Your walking this true way is governed by your desire to obtain blessing and by your curious heart. You do not have much understanding of this stage of the work. Much of what I am saying today is not speaking to those people who believe in Jesus; it is not at all only spoken to counterattack their notions. In fact these notions that are being exposed are the very notions that exist among you, because you do not understand why the Bible has been put down, why I say that the work of Jehovah has grown old, why I say that Jesus’ work has grown old. In fact, you have many notions to which you have not given voice. You have many opinions that are enclosed within your hearts, and you just follow the crowd. Do you think that the notions you have are only a few? It is simply that you do not talk of them, and nothing more! Actually, you are only following perfunctorily, are not seeking the true way at all, and are not intentionally coming to obtain life. You have an attitude of only wanting to see what is going on. Because you have not put down many of your old notions, there is not one among you who has been able to fully offer him or herself up. Having arrived at this point, you are still all worried about your own fate, thinking day and night, never able to put it down. Do you think that the Pharisees of whom I talk are the “old men” in religion? Aren’t you representatives of the most progressive Pharisees of the present age? Do you think that those people I mention who check Me against the Bible only refer to those Bible experts of religious circles? Do you think that when I talk of those who once again nail God to the cross I am talking of the leaders of the religious circles? Are you not the very best actors who are playing those roles? Do you think that all of the words I say to counterattack people’s notions are mocking the pastors and elders of religion? Haven’t you also taken part in all of these things? Do you think that you have only a few notions? It is none other than that you have all learned to be so clever now. You do not talk about the things you don’t understand or betray your feelings about them, but your heart of reverence and your heart of submission simply do not exist. As you see it, studying, observing, and waiting are your greatest practices of today. You have learned to be too ingenious. Do you know, however, that this is a cunning psychology of yours, and, do you think that a moment of cleverness on your part will help you escape the eternal chastisement? You have learned to be too “wise”! And some people ask Me things like: “One day, when religious people ask me why my God has not performed a single miracle, how should I provide an explanation?” Now, it is not only people of religion who will ask such things. Rather, it is that you do not understand today’s work, and have too many notions. Do you still not know to whom I refer when I mention religious officials? Do you not know for whom I am explaining the Bible? Do you not know for whom I am speaking when I illustrate the three stages of the work? Were I not to say these things, would you be so easily convinced? Would you yield so easily? Is it so easy to set down those old notions of yours? Especially those “real men” who have never obeyed anyone, would they obey so easily? I know that though you have low-grade humanity, are of low caliber, have less-developed brains, and do not have long histories of believing in God, yet you actually have quite a lot of notions, and your nature is to not lightly submit to anyone. Today, however, you are able to submit because you are compelled and helpless; you are tigers in a cage, not able to give free play to your skills. It would be hard to fly even if you had wings. Though not given blessings, you desire to follow along. This is not your “good man” spirit, rather it is that you have been thoroughly knocked down, and you are at wit’s end. It is that all of this work has knocked you down. If there were anything that you are able to attain, you would not be so obedient as you are today, because, before, you were all wild asses in the wilderness. So what is being said today is not only directed toward people of various factions, it is not to counterattack their notions; rather it is to counterattack your notions.

Practice the Truth Once You Understand It

God’s work and word are meant to bring about a change in your disposition; His goal isn’t merely to make you understand or recognize it and have that be the end of it. As one with the ability to receive, you should have no difficulty in understanding the word of God, as most of God’s word is written in human language that is only too easy to understand. For instance, you can know what God wants you to understand and practice; this is something that a proper person who has the faculty of understanding should be able to do. What God says now is especially clear and transparent, and God points out many things that people have not considered and the various circumstances of man. His words are all-embracing, as clear as the light of a full moon. So now, people understand many issues; what they lack is putting His word into practice. People must experience all aspects of truth in detail, and explore and seek it out in greater detail, not simply wait to take in what’s readily given to them; otherwise they become little more than freeloaders. They know God’s word, but don’t put it into practice. This kind of person doesn’t have a love of the truth, and will ultimately be eliminated. Having a style like a Peter of the 90s means that each one of you should practice the word of God, have true entry in your experiences and gain even more and even greater enlightenment in your cooperation with God, bringing even more assistance to your life. If you’ve read a lot of God’s word but only understand the meaning of the text and you do not have first-hand knowledge of God’s word through your practical experience, you won’t know God’s word. As far as you are concerned, God’s word is not life, but just lifeless letters. And if you only hold fast to lifeless letters, you cannot grasp the essence of God’s word, nor will you understand His will. Only when you experience His word in your actual experiences will the spiritual meaning of God’s word open itself up to you, and it is only in experience that you can grasp the spiritual meaning of many truths, and only through experience that you can unlock the mysteries of God’s word. If you do not put it into practice, then no matter how clear His word, the only thing you’ve grasped hold of is empty letters and doctrines, which has become religious regulations to you. Isn’t this what the Pharisees did? If you practice and experience God’s word, it becomes practical to you; if you do not seek to practice it, then God’s word to you is little more than the legend of the third heaven. In fact, the process of believing in God is the process of you experiencing His word as well as being gained by Him, or to put it more clearly, to believe in God is to have the knowledge and understanding of His word and to experience and live out His word; that is the reality of your belief in God. If you believe in God and hope for eternal life without seeking to practice the word of God as something you have within you, then you’re foolish; it’s like going to a feast only to take note of what’s there to eat without actually trying it. Isn’t a person like that foolish?

On Quieting Your Heart Before God

Quieting your heart before God is one of the most crucial steps for entering into God’s words, and is a lesson that all people presently have an urgent need to enter. The entry ways to quieting your heart before God are:

1. Withdraw your heart from external things, be quiet before God, and pray to God with a focused heart.

2. With your heart quiet before God, eat, drink, and enjoy God’s words.

3. Make it a usual practice to meditate on and contemplate God’s love and ponder God’s work with your heart.

First begin with the matter of prayer. Be single-minded, and pray at a fixed time. No matter how pressed for time, or how busy, or what comes upon you, pray every day as normal, and eat and drink God’s words as normal. As long as you eat and drink God’s words, it doesn’t matter what your surroundings are, your spirit is especially pleased, nor are you bothered by the people, events, or things around you. When you normally contemplate God in your heart, what goes on outside cannot bother you. This is what it means to have stature. Begin from prayer first: Praying at peace before God is most fruitful. After that, eat and drink the words of God, and ponder God’s words and try to obtain the light, find the path to practice, know what the aims of God’s utterances are, and understand without deviation. Ordinarily, draw close to God normally in your heart, contemplate God’s love, and ponder the words of God, without being disturbed by external things. When your heart is at peace to a degree that you are able to muse, so that, within yourself, you contemplate God’s love and truly draw near to God regardless of what environment you are in, and you have ultimately reached the point where you give praise in your heart, and it is even better than praying, then in this you will be possessed of a certain stature. If you are able to achieve the states described above, then this will prove that your heart is truly at peace before God. This is the first step; it is a basic exercise. Only after they are able to be at peace before God can people be touched by the Holy Spirit, and enlightened and illuminated by the Holy Spirit, only then are they able to truly commune with God, and able to grasp God’s will and the guidance of the Holy Spirit—and in this, they will have entered onto the right track in their spiritual lives. Exercising yourself to live before God to reach a certain depth so that you are able to rebel against yourself, to despise yourself, and to live in God’s words, this truly is quieting your heart before God. Being able to despise oneself, curse oneself, and rebel against oneself is the result that God’s work achieves, and people can’t do this. Therefore the practice of quieting one’s heart before God is a lesson people should immediately enter. Some people not only cannot usually quiet their hearts before God, but their hearts are not quiet before God even when they pray. This is altogether too far from God’s standards! If your heart cannot be quiet before God can you be moved by the Holy Spirit? If you cannot be quiet before God, you can be distracted when someone comes by, you can be distracted when people are talking, and your heart can be drawn away when others are doing things, so you are not someone living before God. If your heart truly is quiet before God you won’t be bothered by anything going on in the world outside, and no person, activity, or thing will occupy you. If you have entry into this, then those negative states or all negative things, such as human conceptions, philosophy of life, abnormal relationships with people, and thoughts in your heart will naturally disappear. Because you are always pondering God’s words, and your heart is always drawing close to God and occupied by the actual words of God, those negative things are unconsciously stripped off. When positive new things occupy you, negative old things will have no place, so don’t pay attention to those negative things. You needn’t make efforts trying to control them. Pay attention to being quiet before God, eat and drink more of God’s words and enjoy them, sing more hymns praising God, and let God have a chance to work on you, because God at present wants to personally perfect people, He wants to gain your heart, His Spirit moves your heart, and if you live before God following the guidance of the Holy Spirit you will satisfy God. If you pay attention to living in God’s words and fellowship more about the truth to gain the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit, then those religious conceptions, self-rightness and self-importance will all disappear, and then you will know how to spend for God, know how to love God, and how to satisfy God. Those things outside God are then unconsciously forgotten.