I Have Welcomed the Lord’s Return

By Chuanyang, United States

       The winter of 2010 in the United States left me feeling very cold. Besides the bitter cold of the wind and snow, what was even worse was that my heart felt as though it had been invaded by some kind of “cold wave.” For those of us in the interior decorating business, winter is the hardest time of the year, as once winter starts there is very little work. We even face losing our jobs. This year was my first year in the United States, I was fresh off the boat, and everything felt unfamiliar to me. Neither renting an apartment nor finding a job was easy—and my days were full of hardships. It got so bad that I had to borrow money to pay the rent on my apartment. Faced with this predicament, I became melancholy, and I felt like my life was really hard to bear. At night I faced the ice-cold wall, feeling so sad that all I wanted to do was cry. One day, as I walked around listlessly in my sadness and anxiety, someone who was spreading the gospel of the Lord Jesus handed out a card to me, and said, “The Lord Jesus loves you. Brother, come to our church and listen to the Lord’s gospel!” I thought to myself: “I guess there’s nothing I have to do right now, so there’s no harm in me going to listen to this. I might as well, it’s something to do.” So just like that, I stepped into the church. I listened to the pastor read aloud something the Lord Jesus had said: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). When I heard this, I felt deeply moved by the Lord’s love. I cannot clearly explain how I felt, but I could feel that the Lord’s love was real, and that it surpassed any love that could be found in the world. My grief-laden heart felt greatly consoled. As a result, I decided to earnestly place my trust in the Lord Jesus. Afterward, I started enthusiastically participating in meetings every Sunday, and because of my enthusiastic pursuit I quickly became a co-worker in the church.

      After serving in the church for two years, I was feeling less and less like the Lord was with me. I didn’t feel enlightened when reading the Bible, I didn’t feel moved when I prayed, and I didn’t feel like I was getting anything out of attending meetings. In addition, I saw how everyone in the church was living a life whereby they sinned in the day only to confess at night, and how everyone, whether pastors, elders or ordinary believers, was bound by sin, engaging in jealous disputes, colluding with each other to form factions, fighting over fame and profit, and coveting worldly things. All kinds of unlawful deeds were being committed more and more. I also saw that people in society at large were becoming more depraved with each passing day, more and more evil and selfish, and that disasters were occurring all over the world—earthquakes, famines and epidemics were constantly breaking out. All kinds of signs made it clear that the last days had come, and that the Lord Jesus would soon return. The pastors and elders often preached about these Bible verses to us: “Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:23–24). In their sermons, they recklessly claimed that false Christs would appear in the last days, and they told us that by all means we must not listen to strangers preach. They even said that, besides those in our church, the believers in other denominations were all wrong, and that we must take care to be discerning about other people so as not to allow ourselves to be deceived and end up following the wrong path. Since I often heard the pastors preach in this way, I told myself: “I must not deviate from the path in this crucial moment of the Lord’s imminent arrival, and I must be sure to keep my faith in the Lord.”

One day in mid-September 2016, I received an unexpected phone call from Sister Zhu. Sister Zhu was a long-time believer and an enthusiastic seeker in our church, and we had always been on good terms, so I was very happy to get a phone call from her. I listened as Sister Zhu spoke to me excitedly, “Brother, I have some good news to tell you: The Lord Jesus has returned as Almighty God! This time God has incarnated to carry out the work of judging, cleansing and saving man!” I was somewhat surprised to hear these words, and I thought to myself: “Has Sister Zhu not kept the way of the Lord? Has she joined another denomination? How could she be so foolish? The pastors and elders have repeatedly emphasized that false Christs will emerge in the last days, so why hasn’t she listened to them? If we go astray in our faith at this crucial moment when the Lord is soon to come, then won’t we have practiced our faith in vain all these years?” As I thought this, I nervously asked Sister Zhu, “Sister, in the Bible it says that in the last days there will be false—” but without waiting for me to finish speaking, Sister Zhu cut in. “Brother, the Lord Jesus warned us to ‘Judge not,’ and we must not pass judgment as we please, so as not to be condemned by God.” The sister’s warning made me think of these words of the Lord: “Judge not, and you shall not be judged: condemn not, and you shall not be condemned” (Luke 6:37). I didn’t dare say anything more. However, concerning such an important event as the return of the Lord, Sister Zhu and I each had our own opinions, and we both wanted to persuade the other. We therefore took turns trying to make our points, but in the end neither of us could persuade the other.

       For over a month after this, Sister Zhu gave me repeated phone calls to preach the gospel of the kingdom of Almighty God to me, but I always refused to accept it, and kept urging her to come back to our church and continue believing in the Lord. As time went on, I saw that she was very firm in her belief in Almighty God and that she would not waver in the least in her faith, so I had to let it go, and stopped trying to persuade her. I said, “From now on, I’ll still believe in my Lord Jesus and you can believe in your Almighty God, and we won’t interfere with each other’s faith!” After that, whenever Sister Zhu called me to bear testimony to God’s work of the last days, I would look for an excuse to avoid her. I kept on refusing to accept God’s work of the last days, but she never gave up trying to spread the gospel to me.

       One morning in November shortly after 5 a.m., before daylight had even broken, someone rang the doorbell at my home. I opened the door and saw Sister Zhu, and with her were a brother and a sister. When I saw Sister Zhu, I felt quite defensive. I thought to myself: “Haven’t I been clear with you? Why would you still travel such a long way to come to my home? Regardless of what you say I’m not going to believe in Almighty God.” Heedless of all the years we’d known each other as members of the same church, I said some unpleasant words to them and refused to let them in. When Sister Zhu saw how determined I was, a downcast look showed on her face and in a voice choked with emotion she said to me, “Brother, the reason I have come to spread the kingdom gospel to you is because I have been moved by the Holy Spirit. If it weren’t for God’s love, I wouldn’t have been able to swallow my pride and keep trying to spread the gospel to you time and again. Brother, the Lord Jesus really has returned. Right now, the Holy Spirit is working on those who have accepted God’s new work. If it weren’t for the work of the Holy Spirit, how could anyone have this much faith and willpower to come to preach the gospel to you? You too have seen the current situation of our church. Our brothers and sisters all live bound by sin and they lack the strength to break free. God has come this time to express His words to judge man and to carry out the work of ridding us of sin and cleansing us. If we miss God’s work of the last days, we will not have another opportunity to attain God’s salvation.” The sister’s sincere words moved me and I relented a little. In particular, when she was talking about the situation in our church, all the things I’d seen happen in churches suddenly began to flash through my mind: In the first church I served in, the pastors said one thing and did another, and whoever contributed a lot of money was welcomed by the pastors with smiling faces and given lots of attention. Anyone who didn’t contribute very much money, however, was ignored and looked down upon by the pastors. I really couldn’t bear to see this happen, so I joined another church. In this church I witnessed the co-workers excluding one another, getting into jealous disputes, and colluding with each other to form different factions, and they were no different from people in the secular world. This disappointed me greatly. At first, I wanted to move to yet another church, but a brother told me that he had already gone through many churches, and that no matter where he went he always found the same desolation and darkness…. I also thought of the various behaviors I myself exhibited while living in sin, which made me begin to waver in my heart. I thought: “Could it be that the Lord Jesus truly has returned in the flesh to carry out the work of eradicating sin?” Just then, Sister Zhu went on, saying, “As for whether or not Almighty God is the returned Lord, all you need to do is read the word of Almighty God, and then you’ll know. At the time that the Lord Jesus came to carry out His work, His disciples followed Him because they recognized through His words and His work that He was the Messiah who was foretold. Today, in order to determine whether or not Almighty God is the appearance of the Lord Jesus who has come to carry out His work, we must also do so by looking at the work and the words of Almighty God. If, after you read Almighty God’s words, you still believe that He isn’t the returned Lord, then I will not try to force you to believe, and I will stop preaching the gospel to you, because God has never forced anyone to accept His gospel.”

       After Sister Zhu said this, I hesitated for a moment and thought to myself: “I might as well read them and see exactly what truths are spoken in the words of Almighty God that have given Sister Zhu such a staunch belief in Almighty God.” Thereupon, I opened the door and let Sister Zhu and the rest of them into my home. Sister Zhu introduced the others, and they were Sister Zhang Qing and Brother Liu Kaiming from The Church of Almighty God. Sister Zhu said, “Brother Chuanyang, it has been several months since I accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days. I went to The Church of Almighty God to check it out for myself, and I have participated in their church life. Through personal experiences and through earnest investigation, I have seen that The Church of Almighty God really is a church that has the work of the Holy Spirit. It is a genuine church, and it absolutely arose from God. You and I have been members of the church together for years, and as a co-worker in the church, you ought to know better than I about what’s going on within it now. The Holy Spirit stopped working in our church long ago, and this is something everyone knows. The pastors cannot preach sermons that supply us with life. They only preach about how to attack or to be on guard against other denominations, telling us that we must keep the Lord’s name and that we will be saved so long as we don’t leave our church. But really there is no basis in the word of the Lord for them to act this way. They only do so in order to protect their positions and keep their livelihoods, and they give no thought to our lives. If they truly felt responsible for our lives then they should take the initiative and lead us in search of a church where the Holy Spirit is at work, rather than have us remain obstinately in a religion in which the Holy Spirit stopped working long ago, awaiting our deaths by starvation or from being trapped in a church without the Holy Spirit’s work.” After hearing this I thought to myself: “Sister Zhu really is describing what’s going on. The church today really does not have the work of the Holy Spirit, everything the pastors and elders do really is not done out of consideration for the lives of us believers, and as I’ve stuck with this church over the years I’ve felt more and more like the Lord is not with us. My spirit has long felt parched and far from the light, as though it has come to a dead-end.” Hearing her speak in this reasonable and well-grounded way, I no longer felt opposed to their visit.

       Right then, the brother who had come with her—Brother Liu—said, “Brother, the reason the religious world is this desolate is because God has come to carry out new work and the work of the Holy Spirit has moved on, but people have not kept up with the new work that God is doing. An even bigger reason is that the pastors and elders have not obeyed the Lord’s commandments or put the Lord’s words into practice, but instead have led believers to follow the evil trends of the world, and have even resisted and condemned the new work of God. It’s just like when the Lord Jesus came to carry out His work, the temple had been turned into a place where cattle, sheep and doves were sold and money was exchanged. Priests violated laws and offered animals with blemishes as sacrifices to deceive God, the Pharisees coveted wealth and enjoyed the spoils of their position, and other such sins were committed. Even those who served God lived in sin, without the least bit of reverence for God in their hearts. This was enough to show that the Holy Spirit no longer worked in the temple, that the work of the Holy Spirit had moved on, and that God’s work in the Age of Law had come to an end. The Lord Jesus had come to carry out the work of redemption upon the foundation of the work of the Age of Law, and the Holy Spirit no longer worked in those who kept the name of Jehovah God and clung obstinately to the laws. Instead, the work of the Holy Spirit shifted to those who accepted the new work of the Lord Jesus. Since the presence of God was no longer in the temple, it became more and more desolate, until in the end it became a den of thieves. The Lord Jesus’ disciples, on the other hand, received the Lord’s salvation, they put into practice the Lord’s teachings, they followed the Lord with faith and strength, they forsook their homes and abandoned their jobs in order to bear witness to and spread the Lord’s gospel, fearing no persecution or adversity. Wasn’t all of this the effect achieved in them by the work of the Holy Spirit? In the same way, today the return of the Lord signifies that the old age has come to an end and a new age has begun. The Holy Spirit long ago stopped working in the churches of the Age of Grace; rather, He has begun to work on those who have accepted God’s new work, which fulfills these prophecies in the Bible: ‘And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city: one piece was rained on, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered’ (Amos 4:7). ‘Behold, the days come … that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah’ (Amos 8:11). Almighty God also says: ‘God will accomplish this fact: He will make all people throughout the universe come before Him and worship the God on earth, and His work in other places will cease, and people will be forced to seek the true way. It will be like Joseph: Everyone came to him for food, and bowed down to him, for he had things to eat. In order to avoid famine, people will be forced to seek the true way. The entire religious community will suffer severe famine, and only the God of today is the wellspring of living water, possessed of the ever-flowing wellspring provided for the enjoyment of man, and people will come and depend on Him’ (“The Millennial Kingdom Has Arrived” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘God has made this group of people the sole focus of His work throughout all the universe. He has sacrificed all His heart’s blood for you; He has reclaimed and given to you all the work of the Spirit throughout the universe. That is why I say you are the fortunate ones. Moreover, He has shifted His glory from Israel, His chosen people, onto you, and He shall make the purpose of His plan fully manifest through this group. Therefore, you are the ones who will receive the inheritance of God, and even more than this, you are the heirs to God’s glory’ (“Is the Work of God As Simple As Man Imagines?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘Because those in religion are incapable of accepting God’s new work, and only hold to the old work of the past, thus God has forsaken these people, and does His new work on the people who accept this new work. These are people who cooperate in His new work, and only in this way can His management be accomplished’ (“God’s Work and Man’s Practice” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From these words of God, we can see that the Holy Spirit no longer works in the churches of the Age of Grace, so no matter how hard people try or what kind of human methods they use to revive the churches, it is of no use. The Catholic Church and the Protestant denominations are all the same; the spirits of their believers are parched and starved, their faith and their love gradually grow cold, they are unable to keep the Lord’s teachings, and many of them follow the evil trends of the world, pursuing wealth and coveting worldly things. The churches have become places of desolation. On the other hand, the brothers and sisters in The Church of Almighty God are those who have left different denominations and who come from different professions to accept God’s work of the last days. They are the wise virgins who, upon hearing the voice of God, have returned before His throne. They are receiving the supply of the living water of life that flows out from the throne of God, they are being shepherded and led by God Himself, and they are spreading and bearing witness to the gospel of the kingdom of God with one accord. They endure being ridiculed and slandered by the world, they endure the abuse and condemnation from the leaders of various denominations, and are even beaten, and they endure being arrested, having their homes searched, their possessions confiscated, and being cruelly tortured and imprisoned and more by the CCP government. Still, they have faith, they have strength, they have love, and they are tenacious and unyielding as they follow Almighty God and bear witness to God’s work of the last days. It isn’t by their own strength that they are able to do so. These are all effects achieved through the work of the Holy Spirit! In addition, God’s will is to be found in His sending of famine into the religious world. His purpose in doing so is to compel those who truly believe in God and who thirst for the truth to break away from religion, to rid themselves of the deception and control of religious antichrists, and to walk away from religion. In doing so, they can then seek God’s footsteps and God’s appearance, accept God’s work of judgment in the last days, and be cleansed and perfected by God. At the same time, those nonbelievers who remain in religion, who seek to eat their fill of bread and who do not believe in God with a true heart, but who instead idolize and follow people, shall be exposed and eliminated. In this way, all people will be separated according to their kinds. Is this not the wisdom and almightiness of God?”

       After listening to God’s words and this brother’s fellowship, I felt it all sounded very practical, and that it completely accorded with how things really were. I felt like I had awoken from a dream, and I understood the source of the desolation of the various churches. In this moment, I finally saw how insensitive I had been. Although I had seen that, from the pastors and elders to the ordinary believers, all had been bound by sin, and that the church was brimming with lawlessness and iniquity, I still had not sought God’s will, nor had I sought the work of the Holy Spirit. I also had not paid any attention to listening to God’s voice and, as a result, I had been eliminated by the work of the Holy Spirit without even being aware of it. I realized that I needed to carefully read the word of Almighty God. On that day, as Sister Zhu and her companions were leaving, they arranged a time to come back and fellowship with me again, and they also left me with a copy of The Scroll Opened by the Lamb, which I was very happy to receive.

A Wandering Heart Comes Home

       By Novo, Philippines

My name is Novo, and I’m from the Philippines. I have followed my mom in her belief in God since I was little, and would go listen to sermons at church with my siblings. Although I had believed in the Lord for many years, I felt that I hadn’t undergone any change and that I was the same as an unbeliever. Within my heart I was constantly thinking about how to make more money, and about how to spend my days in comfort and enjoy the good life. On top of that, I would also go out drinking with my friends all the time, and the moment I had any spare cash I’d go gambl. I knew that doing these things was at odds with the Lord’s will—I would often pray to the Lord and confess my sins, and I would firmly resolve to Him that I would give up these bad habits and never sin again from that day on. But with the cajoling and enticement of my friends, I simply couldn’t control myself. And so it was that I became more and more degenerate, my heart grew farther and farther away from God, there was no longer any sincerity in my prayers. Every week I would just say a few simple prayers to get it over and done with. Sometimes I felt real despair as I knew that when the Lord returned He would judge each and every person based on their actions and behavior, and then whether they would go up to heaven or down to hell. I felt I was so degenerate that God would not forgive me again. I later married and had kids, and all I thought about was my wife and my children. I had pushed my faith to the back of my mind long before. In order to provide a better future for my children and to realize my desire to become rich, I decided to go work abroad, which is what brought me to Taiwan. After finding a job I still didn’t make any lifestyle changes. In my leisure time I would go with my workmates to drink and sing karaoke, living a life of revelry; I’d long since relegated my belief in God to the back of my mind.

       In 2011, I worked as a welder in a factory in Taiwan. One day in 2012, a colleague in Taiwan learned that I was a Catholic, so she invited me to Mass at her church. One Sunday morning, she came to fetch me from the factory and took me to her friend’s house. It was there that I met Brother Joseph. He asked me, “Brother, do you believe in the second coming of the Lord Jesus?” I said that I did. He then asked me, “Do you know what work the Lord Jesus will do when He returns?” I replied, “I believe that when the Lord Jesus returns, He will sit upon a great white throne and judge mankind. Everyone will account for their sins kneeling before the judgment seat, and then the Lord will decide whether they are to go up to heaven or down into hell based on their actions and deeds.” Brother Joseph continued to ask me, “If we told you that the Lord Jesus has already come and is currently doing His work of judgment of the last days, thus fulfilling the prophecy that ‘judgment must begin at the house of God,’ would you believe this?” I was quite surprised when I heard him say this. I thought: “Has the Lord Jesus already returned? How is this possible? I haven’t seen the great white throne appear in the sky, and I haven’t seen the Lord descending on a white cloud. And yet he says that the Lord has returned to do His work of judgment, thus fulfilling the prophecy that ‘judgment must begin at the house of God.’ It makes sense. God’s wisdom is unfathomable to man, so I’d better keep seeking.” I then replied, “Brother, I wouldn’t dare say whether the Lord Jesus has or has not returned, so please fellowship this with me.” They then found a number of passages within the Bible concerning prophecies of the Lord’s return and His doing His work of judgment that they read to me. For instance, there was chapter 4, verse 17 in the First Epistle of Peter which says: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.” And also chapter 16, verses 12–13 in the Gospel of John: “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.” Brother Joseph said this “Spirit of truth” refers to the return of the Lord and His expressing the truth and doing His work of judgment. God of the last days has returned in the flesh as the Son of man. On the foundation of His work of redemption in the Age of Grace, He expresses the truth and does the stage of His work of judgment beginning with the house of God. In reality, this work of judgment is the work to thoroughly purify and save man. This precisely fulfills the Lord Jesus’ prophecies: “And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejects Me, and receives not My words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:47–48). “For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son…. And [He] has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man” (John 5:22–27). I listened attentively to the brother’s fellowship, and I believed that all these messages he was sharing with me were true because I believe that all the Lord’s prophecies have to be fulfilled, that they must come true.

       Afterward, Brother Joseph read two passages of Almighty God’s word in “Christ Does the Work of Judgment With the Truth” to me: “The work of judgment is God’s own work, so it must naturally be carried out by God Himself; it cannot be done by man in His stead. Because judgment is the use of the truth to conquer humankind, there is no question that God would still appear in the incarnate image to perform this work among man. That is to say, in the last days, Christ shall use the truth to teach people across the world and make all truths known to them. This is God’s work of judgment.” “In the last days, Christ uses a variety of truths to teach man, to expose the essence of man, and to dissect the words and deeds of man. These words comprise various truths, such as man’s duty, how man should obey God, how man should be loyal to God, how man ought to live out normal humanity, as well as the wisdom and the disposition of God, and so on. These words are all directed at the essence of man and his corrupt disposition. In particular, the words that expose how man spurns God are spoken in regard to how man is an embodiment of Satan, and an enemy force against God. In undertaking His work of judgment, God does not simply make clear the nature of man with a few words; He exposes, deals with, and prunes over the long term. These methods of exposure, dealing, and pruning cannot be substituted with ordinary words, but with the truth of which man is utterly bereft. Only methods such as these can be called judgment; only through judgment of this kind can man be subdued and thoroughly convinced into submission to God, and moreover gain true knowledge of God. What the work of judgment brings about is man’s understanding of the true face of God and the truth about his own rebelliousness. The work of judgment allows man to gain much understanding of the will of God, of the purpose of God’s work, and of the mysteries that are incomprehensible to him. It also allows man to recognize and know his corrupt substance and the roots of his corruption, as well as to discover the ugliness of man. These effects are all brought about by the work of judgment, for the substance of this work is actually the work of opening up the truth, the way, and the life of God to all those who have faith in Him. This work is the work of judgment done by God” (The Word Appears in the Flesh).

       After reading these words, Brother Joseph fellowshiped with me many truths regarding God’s work of judgment of the last days. I came to understand that God’s work is very practical and that it isn’t supernatural at all, that God’s work of judgment of the last days is not at all like I had imagined. I had imagined God placing a gigantic table in mid-air, with God sitting on a great white throne and all of mankind kneeling before Him. Then God would list our sins one by one in order to determine whether we were good or wicked, and would decide whether we went up to heaven or down to hell. Instead, God has become flesh and has come to the world to express the truth in a practical way, to judge man’s sins, and expose the truth of man’s corruption as well as his nature and essence. Brother Joseph went on in fellowship to tell us that our satanic dispositions, such as our arrogance and self-importance, our crookedness and cunning, and our selfishness and baseness, must all undergo God’s judgment before we can be purified. The ultimate outcome of God’s work of judgment is so that we may see our own filth and corruption, our ugliness and wickedness, and see our essence that defies and betrays God, that we may know that we have been corrupted so deeply by Satan, that we are filled with satanic dispositions, that we are the embodiment of Satan, and that we should perish. Only in this way can we come to hate and curse ourselves, and forsake Satan once and for all. Moreover, it is so that, within the judgment and chastisement of God’s words, we may come to know God’s righteous, holy and unoffendable disposition. We can then unconsciously develop a God-fearing heart, never again dare to recklessly disobey and defy God, and become able to forsake our flesh, and practice the truth. Once our life disposition has undergone change we will then be able to truly obey and worship God. And once we have gained various aspects of the truth expressed by God in the last days, we will then be thoroughly purified and saved by God, and qualified to be brought by God into His kingdom. Those who refuse to accept God’s work of judgment of the last days are incapable of gaining God’s purification—in the end they can only be eliminated by God’s work, and will have lost the opportunity to be saved and enter into the kingdom of heaven. Hearing Brother Joseph’s fellowship, I felt that God’s work to save man is so very true and practical!

       I thought of how I had believed in the Lord for many years and although I often confessed my sins to the Lord and repented, I would then continue sinning, lying, cheating, being crooked and cunning, and would even often reveal my wildly self-important, arrogant and self-righteous satanic disposition. I was constantly living in a cycle of sinning and confessing, confessing and sinning—I was living in such pain. God has now come to do His work of judgment and purification of the last days, and this is sorely needed by corrupt mankind. Those who believe in the Lord and have had their sins absolved still need the purification of God’s work of judgment in the last days. The Bible says, “[H]oliness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). The Lord is holy. If we only have our sins absolved, but our sinful nature and satanic dispositions are not purified, then at any moment we are still capable of sinning and defying God, of frequently complaining or even betraying God. How could we, filled with such defilement and corruption, be qualified to look upon the Lord’s face? Only then did I feel in my heart how very necessary God’s work of judgment in the last days is! It would be so unrealistic, so impractical if the Lord came and took everyone up into the air to meet Him in accordance with people’s notions and imaginings! Brother Joseph then fellowshiped with me his experiences and testimony of how he accepted God’s judgment and chastisement. I really felt that his fellowship contained the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit. Listening to it was very edifying, and I believed that the Lord Jesus must really have returned. I thus decided to seek and investigate God’s work of the last days so that I wouldn’t miss my chance to welcome the Lord’s coming.

       Afterward, Brother Joseph gave me a copy of The Word Appears in the Flesh, and I was thrilled. When I got back to my dormitory that evening, I began to read God’s words and I read them all night long. I read these words of Almighty God: “Your mouths are filled with words of deceit and filth, of betrayal and arrogance. Never have you spoken words of sincerity to Me, no holy words, no words of submission to Me upon experiencing My word. What, in the end, is your faith like? There is nothing but desire and money in your hearts, and nothing but material things in your minds. Every day, you calculate how to get something from Me. Every day, you count how much wealth and how many material things you have gained from Me. Every day, you await ever more blessings to come down upon you so that you may enjoy, in greater quantities and of a higher standard, the things that may be enjoyed. It is not Me who is in your thoughts at each and every moment, nor the truth that comes from Me, but rather your husband or wife, your sons, daughters, and the things you eat and wear. You think of how you can gain ever greater, ever higher enjoyment. But even when you have filled your stomach to bursting, are you still not a corpse? Even when, outwardly, you adorn yourself in such beautiful apparel, are you not still a walking corpse devoid of life? You toil for the sake of your stomach, until your hair is streaked with gray, yet none of you sacrifice a single hair for My work. You are constantly on the go, taxing your body and racking your brain, for the sake of your own flesh, and for your sons and daughters—yet not one of you shows any worry or concern for My will. What is it that you still hope to gain from Me?” (“Many Are Called, but Few Are Chosen” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

       What these words revealed was exactly the situation in my life, and they were how I truly felt in my heart. The words were like a double-edged sword that cut through into my numb heart. I knew that only God could examine man’s innermost heart, and only God could reveal the truth of mankind’s corruption as well as what’s hidden deep within man. I felt that these words were the Holy Spirit’s utterances, and they were God’s voice. From God’s words, I came to know that although I had believed in the Lord for many years and I often confessed and repented to the Lord, my sinful nature and satanic disposition had not been purified and had not changed at all. I was only acknowledging the Lord’s name, but there was no place for the Lord in my heart, nor did I expend myself or work for the Lord. I was constantly caught up in how to make more money, how to enhance my pleasures of the flesh, and how I could get my family to live more prosperously, never once concerning myself with God’s will. I even knew that I lied and sinned often but thought nothing of this. I had always believed that God was the forever loving, forever merciful God, and even if I sinned, He would absolve me of my sins, be merciful to me and bless me. Only after having read these utterances expressed by God in the last days did I see God’s righteous and holy disposition, and I knew that God’s disposition is something that no one may offend. The judgment and chastisement of God’s words gave rise to reverence for Him within me and I lamented my own past. I fell down before God and wept bitterly: “O God, I have rebelled against You, cheated You and defied You in many things, and I am unworthy to come before You. All I’ve done only merits punishment. O God, thank You for giving me the opportunity to repent and be saved. From now on, I shall do all in my power to pursue the truth, perform my duty well and repay Your love.” After I prayed, I made firm my resolution: I must accept God’s judgment and change my life of sinning and confessing; I must read God’s words more and contemplate them more so that I may understand more of the truth and have the strength to forsake my flesh, practice the truth and meet God’s will.

       From that time on, I took The Word Appears in the Flesh with me to work so that I could read and contemplate God’s words during my work breaks. From Almighty God’s words, I saw how corrupt and rebellious my behavior and thoughts were. Later, I read these words of God that say: “Your prayer should proceed step by step, in line with the true state of your heart and the work of the Holy Spirit; you come to commune with God in accordance with His will and with what He requires of man. When you begin the practice of prayer, first give your heart to God. Do not attempt to grasp God’s will—only try to speak the words within your heart to God. When you come before God, speak in this way: ‘Oh God, only today do I realize that I used to disobey You. I am truly corrupt and despicable. I have only been wasting my life. From today I will live for You. I will live a life of meaning and will satisfy Your will. May Your Spirit always work in me, continuously illuminating and enlightening me. Let me bear strong and resounding testimony before You. Let Satan see Your glory, Your testimony, and the proof of Your triumph, manifest in us.’ When you pray in this way, your heart will be completely set free. Having prayed in this way, your heart will be closer to God, and if you can pray in this way often, the Holy Spirit will inevitably work in you” (“Concerning the Practice of Prayer” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Within God’s words, I found a path of practice to resolve my corrupt disposition, and I began to earnestly pray to God with a sincere heart, opening up to God about my corrupt disposition and telling God about what I hoped within my heart to achieve. I asked Him to guide me that I may live by His words. Through these kinds of prayers, I often felt that God was leading me and enlightening me, and my heart became filled with faith and strength. I no longer lived the way I had before, nor did I act any longer in accordance with those corrupt thoughts and ideas I had in my heart. My life had changed; it was no longer the degenerate life I had led before of sinning and confessing, but instead I was truly living before God, and I had gained God’s care and protection.

       In July 2014, I returned to the Philippines, and only then did I become aware that God had also chosen many brothers and sisters in the Philippines. I was so happy. Now I fellowship God’s words with my brothers and sisters in the church, we live a life of the church, and we help and support one another. We all pursue the truth; we seek to change our dispositions and be saved by God. We also bear witness to Almighty God’s work of the last days to the people of our own country as well as to those of other countries so that they know that the Lord Jesus has already returned and they may, like us, gain God’s salvation of the last days. Thank Almighty God! I now live a very enriched and happy life. I have completely rid myself of the kind of degenerate, decadent life I had before. It is Almighty God who has led me to find my life goal and direction. I feel that this is the only way to live a life of meaning!

       Recommended for you: 2019 Christian Crosstalk | "Who Are the Wise Virgins?"

Returning to Life From the Brink of Death

By Yang Mei, China

Then one day, out of the blue, my vision in both eyes went blurry and both of my legs became so numb that I couldn’t walk. The doctors said that my symptoms were the result of drug poisoning from taking large quantities of medicine over several years. I first spent a week in the county hospital and was then transferred to a military hospital in Beijing where I was treated for a month. I was then transferred to a well-known traditional Chinese medicine hospital in Beijing to receive TCM treatment. But these 2 months of treatments did nothing to improve my condition. My primary doctor even asked the retired former head of the hospital’s neurology department to come and take a look at me, but there wasn’t the slightest improvement in my condition. Then I heard my future daughter-in-law mention a doctor in Yunnan who was famous for being able to treat difficult and complicated conditions like mine. After various twists and turns, I managed to be taken there in a wheelchair. But after being treated for nearly a month, not only did my condition fail to improve, but the drugs I was taking for my eyes and legs actually exacerbated my kidney disease. Feeling beyond help, and in great discomfort, I decided to go home. After that, I gave up all treatments and drugs for my eyes and legs in order to protect my kidneys.

After that, I had my husband read some of God’s words to me every day. In the book it said that religious people believe in God but don’t know God and even resist God, and that they often commit sins in the daytime and confess them at night. This was even more convincing to me because my mother, and two sisters-in-law were all Christians and the way they lived was just like God’s words described. They really did commit sins and then confess them and then commit them again. That’s when I had a spiritual awakening: Is this really God’s voice? If it’s not God, then how is it that the author understands the religious world so well? Unbelievers don’t understand, the great and famous haven’t a clue, and even religious people themselves don’t realize that they believe in God but also resist God. The more I thought about it the more I felt that the words in the book were not things that people could express, and that they probably were the utterances of the incarnation of God in the mundane world.

One afternoon my husband was reading God’s words to me as usual, and I heard these words of God: “Since mankind’s contrivance of the social sciences, the mind of man has become occupied by science and knowledge. Science and knowledge then have become tools for the ruling of mankind, and there is no longer sufficient room for man to worship God, and no more favorable conditions for the worship of God. The position of God has sunk ever lower in the heart of man. Without God in his heart, man’s inner world is dark, hopeless and empty. … Science, knowledge, freedom, democracy, leisure, comfort: these bring man only a temporary consolation. Even with these things, man will inevitably sin and bemoan the injustices of society. These things cannot restrain man’s craving and desire to explore. This is because man was made by God and the senseless sacrifices and explorations of man can only lead to more distress and can only cause man to exist in a constant state of fear, not knowing how to face the future of mankind or how to face the path that lies ahead. Man will even come to fear science and knowledge, and fear even more the feeling of emptiness” (“God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). It was when I heard these words that I finally understood why God said that all of mankind’s illnesses and suffering originate with Satan: Satan uses knowledge and science to corrupt us. Satan fills us up with its absurd ideas, such as “Humans evolved from apes,” “There has never been any Savior,” “Knowledge can change people’s fates,” “Your fate is in your own hands,” “Science saves people,” and “Man can conquer nature.” Satan has brainwashed mankind with these philosophies, rules, ideas and notions. They have occupied people’s hearts and souls, and force people to have blind faith in knowledge and to worship science. People have the delusion that they can change their fates with knowledge or employ science to solve every difficult problem. People have taken Satan’s absurd ideas to form the basis of their lives, and have thus been taken prisoner, bound, and controlled by Satan. People have started to deny all that comes from God, to distance themselves from God’s care and protection. Satan manipulates them like a puppeteer playing with his puppets, and I was just one of the many millions being harmed in this way. When I was ill, I relied on science to treat me; I blindly believed in and worshiped science. I really thought that the specialists in the famous hospitals, with their advanced techniques and modern medical facilities, would be able to cure my illness. But not only did my condition fail to improve, I actually ended up on the verge of death. The only things science brought me were dream-like hope and irredeemable pain. Science caused me to not believe in God, and so time and time again I rebelled against God, resisted Him, and refused His salvation. But despite my rebelliousness, God never gave up on my salvation, and has since used His words to guide me. Little by little, He has awakened my spirit, which had once been so smothered by knowledge and science. I, who had once been close to death, now came before God and gained God’s salvation.

After that, I frequently got together with the brothers and sisters to read God’s words, fellowship on truths, and sing hymns of praise to God. I felt that my heart had been greatly enriched, and with this enrichment came a decrease in my suffering. Even more mysterious was that, almost without realizing, the numbness in my legs started to fade and I slowly began to regain the ability to walk, eventually not having to rely on a wheelchair at all. What was even more unexpected was that one day my vision suddenly returned and I was able to see the words printed in the books of God’s words. I could finally see God’s words! I couldn’t believe it, but I truly had experienced a miracle. The joy that I felt in my heart was something indescribable, and so I continually prayed to God, thanking and praising Him. When I excitedly told my husband the good news, he was overcome with emotion. With tears in his eyes, he cried out over and over again, “Thank You God, thank You God!” Yes, it’s true—I submitted to God just a little bit and God bestowed this great blessing on me. I deeply felt how even though God’s work of the last days doesn’t involve performing miracles, the authority of God’s words far surpasses the authority of God’s miracles. God really is the almighty God, the God who loves people!

Know more: That Was Close! I Nearly Let the Lord Pass Me By

That Was Close! I Nearly Let the Lord Pass Me By (Part 1)

The very first thing I did after getting to the States was find a Chinese church in New York’s Chinatown, and after that I attended service every Sunday.

(Source: Fotolia)

By happenstance, I met Brother Zhao along with Sister Tina, who I knew pretty well, at the home of one of her friends. When I learned that Brother Zhao was a preacher I immediately got my guard up and asked him probingly, “Brother, I’ve heard that you go all over the place spreading the gospel and shepherding churches. Are you familiar with Eastern Lightning? They bear witness that the Lord has already returned, that He’s Almighty God in the flesh. They also say that He was incarnated as a woman. What’s your take on this?” Brother Zhao smiled and said, “the term ‘Eastern Lightning’ comes from one of the Lord’s prophecies in the Bible, ‘For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be’ (Matthew 24:27). So it certainly has something to do with the coming in the last days of the Son of man. We don’t really have a good understanding of Eastern Lightning, but as believers we must have reverence for God, and we can’t just arbitrarily express our own opinions. James 4:12 says, ‘There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who are you that judge another?’ And Proverbs 13:3 says, ‘He that keeps his mouth keeps his life: but he that opens wide his lips shall have destruction.’ These verses very clearly remind us to very carefully guard our words so that we don’t arbitrarily pass judgment and offend God. We are created beings so before the Creator, we must possess reason and a heart of reverence for God. God’s plan is within however He carries out His work; we can’t rely on our own notions and imaginings to delimit how we think the Lord should work. If we just randomly spout off about God’s work, we very well may offend His disposition and suffer His displeasure, bringing ruin upon ourselves.”

After a few more gatherings, Brother Zhao gave testimony that the Lord has already returned, and He is Almighty God in the flesh doing the work of judgment beginning with the house of God. When he said that the Lord Jesus has returned and is called Almighty God, I immediately thought of the pastor’s many warnings not to listen to what is preached by Eastern Lightning. I started feeling restless and unsettled. I listened for a bit longer before leaving, but my heart wasn’t in it. When I got home I flopped onto my bed and thought back over the several times I had heard fellowship from Brother Zhao. He always integrated Bible passages into his fellowship on the truth, and what he shared was practical and really contained light. I could feel the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit and nothing seemed off. I had come to understand all sorts of truths I had never understood before and I felt real spiritual sustenance. However, the pastors and elders in religious circles all condemned Eastern Lightning. I was at a loss regarding who I should listen to. I tossed and turned, unable to sleep, feeling more conflicted the more I thought about it. I was really afraid of taking the wrong path and losing salvation for all eternity. This was really a dilemma—on the one hand, I really wanted to walk away from it, but on the other hand, I really wanted to continue seeking and investigating. I told Sister Tina that evening what was on my mind, and after hearing me out she shared this passage: “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. 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 and seeks the truth; only in this way will you benefit. I advise you to tread the path of belief in God with care. Do not jump to conclusions; what’s more, do not be casual and carefree in your belief in God. You should know that, at the very least, those who believe in God should be humble and reverential” (“When You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus Will Be When God Has Made Anew Heaven and Earth” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

the style="color: #000000;">Eastern style="line-height: 29px; margin-bottom: 10px; min-height: 28px;">

Almighty God’s work.(From The Church of Almighty God)

I Welcomed the Return of the Lord

       My parents are both Christians and from an early age I started going with them to church to attend services. At the age of 12 I attended a grand Christian camp in Myanmar, and while I was there a pastor told me: “The only way to avoid death and enter the kingdom of heaven is to be baptized.” And so in order to enter the kingdom of heaven I decided to get baptized while I was at the camp. From that time on, I became a genuine Christian.

       After reaching adulthood, I became the chairperson of my church’s youth association for many years, and whenever the preachers weren’t there I would lead the brothers and sisters in prayer, Bible studies, hymn-singing, and the sharing of testimonies. After getting married, I was put in charge of receiving the Sunday offerings and the tithes. At first our church had the work of the Holy Spirit: The pastor talked fluently and eloquently, and the brothers and sisters enjoyed the sermons and felt that they were edified by them. Everyone was brimming with confidence, and we attended all the church services and spread the gospel wherever we could with great enthusiasm. But eventually the pastor’s sermons became repetitive and lackluster, and could no longer provide what we needed. The confidence of brothers and sisters thus began to wane, and they became more interested in money and pleasures of the flesh. Congregation numbers began to fall, until it got to the point where the pastor had to make calls every Saturday just to try and get everyone to attend. Even when the brothers and sisters did show up they sang the hymns listlessly and without devotion, dozed off during the sermons, and started talking about business as soon as the services ended. The services had become all form and no substance. And I was very troubled by this. I thought to myself: “How does our church turn into such a barren pasture?” But then I remembered how, over the previous 30 years, I had often heard different pastors saying the same thing: “We believe in the Lord Jesus, so our sins have all been forgiven.” “We gain salvation by the grace of God because of our faith.” “The Lord Jesus has already completed His work of redemption once, so we believers in the Lord are already saved and will enter the kingdom of heaven.” Because of this, “I’m already saved, I will enter the kingdom of heaven” became the basic tenet of my faith in God. No matter how bleak the church was, or how weak and passive the believers were, I would always tell myself: “I must keep the way of the Lord. As long as I don’t leave the Lord, then He won’t abandon me. When the Lord returns, He will take me into the kingdom of heaven.” Although I kept on warning myself in this way, I still wasn’t able to keep on the Lord’s path: I would sin by day and confess sins by night, but whenever I prayed, I couldn’t feel the Lord by my side. My spirit felt dark and empty, and I felt I was getting farther and farther away from the Lord, as if He had abandoned me. This caused me great    suffering, but I was unable to find the source of the problem …

In February 2016 I met Brother Zheng and Sister Li Hui online. After sharing experiences concerning faith in the Lord with each other, I told them about my bemusement that my church had become a barren pasture. Brother Zheng said to me: “It’s not just your church that is bleak and desolate: The whole religious community is bleak right now. It’s like the desolate temple that became a den of thieves when the Lord Jesus was doing His work. If we understand how that temple became desolate in the first place, then we’ll know how it is that the religious community is so bleak and desolate now. When the Lord Jesus concluded the Age of Law and began the Age of Grace, the Holy Spirit did not perform work in the temple but did it instead on those people who accepted and followed the Lord Jesus. Those who worshiped Jehovah missed out on the work of the Holy Spirit because they couldn’t keep up with the pace of God’s work. Without the protection and care of God, they lived in sin, as shown by their temple becoming a place to sell cattle, sheep, and doves and exchange money. A temple that originally shined with the glory of Jehovah became a den of thieves, thus offending God’s disposition and being abandoned by Him in disgust. This was one of the reasons why the temple originally fell into desolation.” Then we examined two passages from the Book of Amos in the Bible: “And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city: one piece was rained on, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered” (Amos 4:7). “Behold, the days come, said the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11). Brother Zheng also sent me two passages of Almighty God’s words: “God will accomplish this fact: He will make all people throughout the universe come before Him, and worship the God on earth, and His work in other places will cease, and people will be forced to seek the true way. It will be like Joseph: Everyone came to him for food, and bowed down to him, for he had things to eat. In order to avoid famine people will be forced to seek the true way. The entire religious community is suffering severe famine, and only the God of today is the wellspring of living water, possessed of the ever-flowing wellspring provided for the enjoyment of man, and people will come and depend on Him” (“The Millennial Kingdom Has Arrived” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “But in fact, God’s work in them ceased long ago, and the work of the Holy Spirit is absent from them. The work of God was long since transferred to another group of people, a group on whom He intends to complete His new work. Because those in religion are incapable of accepting God’s new work, and only hold to the old work of the past, thus God has forsaken these people, and does His new work on the people who accept this new work. These are people who cooperate in His new work, and only in this way can His management be accomplished” (“God’s Work and Man’s Practice” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Brother Zheng then said: “The churches at present are as desolate as the temple was, and it’s also because God is doing new work. The Lord Jesus that we have been desperately waiting for is now incarnated in human form and returns among us. He has taken the name Almighty God to express the truth and do the work of judging, cleansing and saving man in the last days. He has come to conclude the Age of Grace and begin the Age of Kingdom. The Holy Spirit has already left the churches of the Age of Grace and is now working on those who accept Almighty God’s work of the last days. All those who are merely keeping the name of the Lord Jesus but are not keeping up with God’s new work no longer have God by their side, no longer have the work of the Holy Spirit, and will never be provided with the living water of life. So, of course these churches will become more and more desolate….."

       Through listening to Brother Zheng, I came to realize that the situation with the churches nowadays is indeed the same as with the temples when the Lord Jesus began His work. I felt that there was a new light and the guidance of the Lord in what Brother Zheng was fellowshiping. But I felt a bit bemused by what he said about the Lord Jesus returning to do the new work of judging and cleansing man: It is possible that the Lord Jesus has returned, but we believers were already saved so when the Lord returns He should take us directly to the kingdom of heaven, not to carry out another stage of judgment and cleansing work! But then I realized that the Lord’s return was a big event and so I should first seek hard for answers.

       So, I told Brother Zheng of my bemusement and he told me: “Many of the Lord’s brothers and sisters share your point of view. They also think that because we have accepted the Lord Jesus as our Savior, then our sins are forgiven, we will attain salvation through His grace, and when He returns we will all be taken directly to the kingdom of heaven. So, they refuse to accept God’s salvation of the last days. The main reason for this is that we don’t understand the good results that the work of the Lord Jesus has brought and we don’t know the work of God. Almighty God said: ‘At the time Jesus’ work was the redemption of all mankind. The sins of all who believed in Him were forgiven; as long as you believed in Him, He would redeem you; if you believed in Him, you were no longer a sinner, you were relieved of your sins. This is what it meant to be saved, and to be justified by faith. Yet in those who believed, there remained that which was rebellious and opposed God, and which still had to be slowly removed. Salvation did not mean man had been completely gained by Jesus, but that man was no longer of sin, that he had been forgiven his sins: Provided you believed, you would never more be of sin’ (‘The Vision of God’s Work (2)’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘Though Jesus did much work among man, He only completed the redemption of all mankind and became man’s sin offering, and did not rid man of all his corrupt disposition. Fully saving man from the influence of Satan not only required Jesus to take on the sins of man as the sin offering, but also required God to do greater work to completely rid man of his disposition, which has been corrupted by Satan. And so, after man was forgiven his sins, God has returned to flesh to lead man into the new age, and begun the work of chastisement and judgment, and this work has brought man into a higher realm. All those who submit under His dominion shall enjoy higher truth and receive greater blessings. They shall truly live in the light, and shall gain the truth, the way, and the life’ (Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words we can see that the work of the Lord Jesus during the Age of Grace was that of redemption for mankind. The Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross to be our sin offerings, to redeem us from condemnation by law. By coming in front of the Lord, admitting our sins, and repenting, we are able to be forgiven of our sins. This is being saved. In other words, being saved means sins are forgiven and there is no accusation of sin under law, but it doesn’t mean that we have escaped from Satan’s corrupt disposition or our satanic nature and will never sin again. Our satanic nature such as arrogance, deceit, selfishness and greed still exists. Due to the dominion of our satanic nature and Satan’s disposition, we still frequently lie and cheat, act in an arrogant and self-opinionated manner, and pretend to be good to dupe God. We always criticize God’s work willfully, especially when it doesn’t match our conceptions, we accuse God and resist God. How could a mankind like us that is so deeply corrupt and resistant to God win His praise? Are we qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven? If God took us—a corrupt mankind that resists Him and belongs to Satan—into His kingdom, then there would be no way to account for God’s righteousness and holiness. So for us to be qualified to enter the kingdom, we need God to do a stage of judgment and cleansing work to transform our corrupt disposition and thoroughly shake off the shackles of our sinful nature. Once our life dispositions have been transformed, we will no longer rebel against or resist God and we’ll be able to truly obey Him, be completely gained by Him, be completely saved by Him and enter the kingdom of heaven to inherit what He has promised. These are the results brought by the judgment work of God of the last days, and we can see that the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption was to pave the way for the judgment and cleansing of people during the last days. Therefore, our faith in the Lord brings us forgiveness of our sins but not complete escape from sin or entry to the kingdom of heaven. We need to undergo another stage of judgment and cleansing work to be thoroughly saved from sin. God’s judgment work of the last days exactly makes these words from the Bible into reality: ‘Who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time’ (1 Peter 1:5).”

       When I heard the words of Almighty God and what Brother Zheng said, I realized that what the Lord Jesus had done was the work of redemption, not the work of removing sins completely. As people commit sins, they should be accused and punished under law, but if we come before the Lord Jesus and admit to our sins, then we will be forgiven of our sins. God doesn’t see us as sinful and He absolves us of punishment, and that is salvation. But this salvation certainly doesn’t mean that we have been cleansed and thoroughly saved. It seems that people don’t understand the truth, and so have misunderstandings about what true salvation is. I think about that now we are still living sinful lives— committing sins and admitting to them every day—and so that’s why we need another stage of God’s work of judgment and cleansing. When I think about what the pastor at the camp said—“The only way for a Christian to avoid death and enter the kingdom of heaven is to be baptized”—I realize that this way of thinking really is very unrealistic. We could even say it’s childish and ridiculous. When I was later able to have long chats with Brother Zheng and Sister Li Hui and digest their fellowship, I came to feel that there is the truth to seek in the words of Almighty God, that they are very practical, and that they can benefit me and help me a lot. But the return of the Lord is a big thing, and in order to treat it seriously and cautiously I decided to conduct a thorough investigation of the work of Almighty God of the last days.

       So, in the weeks that followed I started to search online for information about the work of the last days of Almighty God. Before going online, I prayed to the Lord: “Lord, if Eastern Lightning is indeed the Lord that I have faith in, I beg You to move my heart and let me recognize Your voice.” Without really being aware of it, I clicked on a website and found to my surprise that it was all judgments, attacks, and accusations on Almighty God and His church from the religious community and the CCP. I was very shocked and became scared that I ventured down a dangerous path. So, I sent the link to Brother Zheng and Sister Li Hui and asked them: “How do you explain all this?” I originally thought that Brother Zheng and the others would have no reply to the information that I had sent, and so was surprised when they calmly and firmly replied: “Almighty God is the real God, the return of the Lord Jesus. The stuff that the religious community and the CCP spread online is all rumors and nonsense designed to confuse people. It’s part of their wicked scheme to prevent people from following God….”

       What Brother Zheng said really moved me, and in my heart I began to struggle to make sense of it all. I got offline and prayed to the Lord: “Lord, if Almighty God really is Your return then I beg You to enlighten and illuminate me so that I can understand Your way and not miss the chance to witness Your return. If all that stuff online is just rumors spread by the religious community and the CCP, then make me deaf to it, because being taken by Satan is a terrible thing.” After praying I felt a bit calmer, and then I remembered the times that I too was falsely accused, and also an occasion when a storekeeper I knew who did good business selling jade products had his reputation ruined by rumors spread by a jealous competitor. Some light began to shine in my heart and I realized just how dark and evil this world is and that most of what is online—good or bad—is just people talking. Then I thought carefully about the online accusations about Almighty God and His church spread by the religious community and the CCP: There was no evidence given and none of it seemed very believable.        Furthermore, I had read Almighty God’s words and been in touch with the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God. What they said bore no relation to the rumors being spread online, and they hadn’t tried to force me to join their church. In the few months of contact with them, besides exploring the Bible, reading Almighty God’s words, and fellowshiping about God’s words with me, we hadn’t discussed any other topics. From the way they spoke, I could tell that they were pious and upstanding people. Their fellowship was full of light and I felt it was very useful to me, and their church was indeed a church that had the work of the Holy Spirit. Thinking about this, I realized that a church that has the work of the Holy Spirit is a church of God, and so of course Satan would attack and accuse it and there would be a lot of negative propaganda surrounding it.

       At a later date I read online about the many evil actions of the CCP: How they drove foreign missionaries out of China, burned Bibles, pulled down churches, and detained and killed Christians…. Hatred and anger toward the CCP grew in my heart. How could they be so spiteful as to persecute innocent, unarmed Christians? The CCP has always opposed God by promoting atheism, and has captured and persecuted Christians with a complete lack of humanity and reason, so there was no way to know whether what they said was true or false. So, I initiated contact with Brother Zheng and the others again, and they fellowshiped about a lot of truths concerning God’s work of the last days and how to discern Satan’s cunning schemes…. After listening to them I felt I had a bit of better understanding of God’s work of the last days and could discern how the nonsense disseminated online by the religious community and the CCP was all baseless rumors and ridiculous opinions that were part of Satan’s cunning plans to prevent people from accepting the work of Almighty God. I resolved not to listen to anything the religious community and the CCP said ever again. The worry and fear in my heart then disappeared and, at the same time, I recognized that the work of Almighty God and the work of the Lord Jesus was the same and they had both encountered resistance and accusations from satanic political regimes and from religious circles. To me, this confirmed even more that the work of Almighty God is the true way!

      One day when I was using Facebook, I heard a hymn that praised God, which I found particularly moving. Indeed, only God deserves praise and is worthy of being extolled. This hymn had the guidance of the Holy Spirit and when I checked to see where it had come from, I discovered it was one of the hymns of The Church of Almighty God. I couldn’t help being moved to tears by this, and excitedly sought the brothers and sisters to tell them that God had moved my heart and led me…. I now completely believe that Almighty God is the Lord Jesus returned, and I am willing to follow Almighty God to the end of the road.

       Now I attend The Church of Almighty God, and I not only enjoy being provided with the water of living life that flows from the throne, but my confidence and love has been restored. Even more importantly, I can now distinguish between right and wrong, darkness and light. I know what truths are and what rumors are. Truths come from God, while rumors come from Satan. When we hear rumors, we shouldn’t just blindly go along with them but should carefully distinguish truth from falsehoods, pray earnestly, and humbly seek and examine the true way. Only then can we escape from rumors and return before God.(Source From: The Church of Almighty God)