Eastern Lightning | How to Know God’s Disposition and the Result of His Work

Eastern Lightning | How to Know God’s Disposition and the Result of His Work（part2)

In every age of God’s work amongst man, God bestows on people some words and tells them some truths, and these truths are the way people should hold to, and are that which people should practice and hold to as they live, and throughout the course of their lives; this is God’s aim in telling these truths to man. These words come from God and people should hold to them; when people hold to them they then gain life. If people do not hold to them and do not practice them, and they do not have these words of God in their lives, then they are not practicing the truth; when people do not practice the truth they are then not capable of satisfying God; when people are not capable of satisfying God they are then not able to be praised by God, and thus they will have no end. So how does God determine people’s ends within His work? What method does He employ to determine people’s ends? If I don’t talk about this then you are perhaps unclear about it. But once I talk about this process you may gain some clarity, for many people have already experienced this matter before. Over the course of God’s work, from when He began His work up until the present day, to each and every person—it could be said to each and every person who follows Him—He gives trials of varying degrees. Some people undergo trials whereby their families abandon them, some undergo trials of environments, some undergo trials whereby they face choices, and some face trials to do with their status or wealth. In short, all manner of trials befall each and every person. So why does God want to do this? Why does He want to treat each and every person this way? What is the outcome God wants to see? It is as I said just now, God looks to see whether or not someone is a person who fears God and shuns evil. This means that when God gives you a trial, when He causes you to encounter some environment, He then tests you to see whether or not you are fearing God and whether or not you are shunning evil. Suppose something happened to someone and this event caused them to come into contact with offerings. Tell Me, is this event arranged by God? There is no need to query this; everything you encounter is all God’s arrangements. When this event happens to you, what do you choose? God is watching how you choose, how you practice, and what you think in your heart, and this is the outcome God wants to see and that He is most concerned with. But when events happen to people, they frequently don’t think this way; most people don’t think this way. As soon as something happens to them, they say, “This has happened to me and no matter what, it is God’s offering and I must not touch it.” They think in such a simple way. They don’t go to touch God’s offerings, nor do they think about it too deeply; they just think about it in this simple way and then they’re done with it. Is the outcome of this trial that they stand firm, or that they don’t stand firm? Tell Me. (If someone has a God-fearing heart, then when something happens to them whereby they come into contact with God’s offerings, they will think it is something in which they can easily offend God’s disposition, so they will certainly err on the side of caution.) You are kind of on the right track, but you’re not quite there. How to explain this? Following the way of God is not outwardly keeping some rule, but rather it is when this event happens to you, you first of all see it as an environment orchestrated by God, a responsibility given to you by God, or something God has entrusted to you and, when it happens to you, you even see it as God’s trial, and these thoughts come clearly to you. When this thing happens to you, there must be a standard in your heart and you must think that this event has come from God, and you must think how you should handle it to not aggravate God and to not offend His disposition. We spoke just now about the matter concerning offerings. It is your duty to take good care of these offerings and it is your responsibility; you are duty-bound to this responsibility, but is there any temptation when this matter befalls you? (Yes.) Where does this temptation come from? This temptation comes from Satan, and it also comes from man’s corrupt disposition, from man’s evil, corrupt disposition. But as far as God is concerned, what does it mean to you when this matter befalls you? God wants to do this thing, and when it befalls you it becomes a trial for you—it is a trial which has befallen you. Some people ask, “This is such a tiny matter. Is it necessary to make a mountain out of a molehill?” Yes, it is necessary. Because if we want to follow the way of God, then we cannot see any tiny, minor matter as being a small matter that can be ignored or paid no heed. But rather regardless of whether a matter is big or small, regardless of whether we see it as something we need to take heed of or not, so long as it is something that happens to us we cannot let it slide, and we must see it as God testing us. So what kind of attitude is this? This attitude verifies a fact, and having this attitude proves that your heart fears God and wishes to shun evil. When you have this desire to satisfy God, then your practice will not be far from the standard of fearing God and shunning evil. Is this not the case?

There are some people who often regard things that are not paid much attention by anyone or things that are not ordinarily mentioned to be small matters. When they encounter this thing they think simply, “All done. Either way, this is my responsibility, and it’ll all get done so long as I take care with it, so long as I do it well and fulfill my responsibility.” This is wrong. In fact, it is exactly when you encounter this thing that you should be learning the lesson of how to fear God and shun evil. And even more than this we should know what God is doing when we encounter this thing. Do you know? God is by your side, watching everything you say and do, watching how your thoughts change and watching your actions—this is God’s job. Some people say, “So how come I haven’t felt this?” You haven’t felt it because you haven’t taken the way of fearing God and shunning evil as the most important way for you to keep, and so you haven’t felt it. You’re just so careless! What are big matters? And what are small matters? All the things that involve following the way of God cannot be separated into big matters or small matters—can you accept these words? We see some of the things that happen to us every day as big matters and some as small matters. People often see big matters as being very important, believing them to be from God, but they often don’t gain any revelation, any enlightenment or illumination from these big matters. When it comes to small matters, people just overlook them and let them slip away little by little, thereby losing many opportunities to be examined and tested before God. Therefore, you are always overlooking the people, matters and things, and the environments that God orchestrates for you; what does it signify? It signifies that every day, even every hour, you are renouncing God’s perfection of you and renouncing His leadership. When God orchestrates an environment for you, He observes in secret, examining your heart and examining your every thought, watching how you think and what you do. If you are careless, if you are someone who never takes God’s way, God’s words or the truth seriously, then once you have been through many environments and trials and God doesn’t see you bearing any fruit, what will He do? You may come to experience this gradually later on. What will God do in this situation? If, after you have encountered many trials, your heart does not magnify God, you don’t treat the environments God orchestrates for you seriously or treat them as being God’s trials and tests, but instead you let them slip away one after another and one after another you push away these opportunities that God bestows on you, wouldn’t this be the pinnacle of rebellion? (Yes.) So would God feel grieved? (Yes.) God would not feel grieved. You are surprised again, aren’t you? Didn’t I say before that God always feels grieved? When does God feel grieved? In short, God would not feel grieved in this kind of situation. So what is God’s attitude to people? When people push away the trials and tests He gives to them, when they push these things away there is only one attitude for God to take toward them; what is that attitude? That attitude is that God, from His heart, detests and rejects these people. There are two levels of meaning to “detestation and rejection.” How do I explain them? “Detestation” means great loathing and hatred. Then what does “rejection” mean? With God, it means “to give up on.” You all know what “to give up on” means, right? It means that, in God’s attitude toward the people doing these things, His final response and attitude toward them is of the utmost detestation, rejection and disgust; this is His final attitude toward someone who has never followed the way of God and never feared God and shunned evil. Do you now see the importance of the saying I said earlier? (Yes.) So now do you understand exactly what method God uses to determine people’s ends? (He arranges different environments for people every day.) Arranging different environments is something that people can come into contact with, but what is God’s motive? His motive is that He wants to use different methods at different times and in different places to try each and every person. What aspects of man does He try? He tries you to see whether or not you are someone who fears God and shuns evil in everything you encounter, everything you hear, everything you see and everything you experience personally. The trials God gives to people are fair to everyone and everyone will encounter them. Some people say, “I’ve believed for many years, so how is it that I have never encountered one?” If you think you haven’t encountered one then this means that you have simply never treated seriously any environment God has orchestrated for you and that you have simply never thought of wanting to follow the way of God, so you have no perception whatsoever. And some people say, “I have encountered several trials but I don’t know how to practice, and I don’t know what the outcome of the trial will be for me when I have finished practicing.” So what is the standard by which God measures people? It’s what I said just now, seeing whether or not you act and behave in a way that fears God and shuns evil. Is it simple? (Yes.) Although it is a simple matter, is it simple to put into practice? (No, it isn’t.) Can you explain why you say “No”? Using your own thoughts and in your own words, tell Me why it is not simple. (People don’t know God and they don’t know how God perfects people, so when things happen to them they don’t know how to seek the truth to resolve their problems. People must undergo different trials and refinement, chastisement and judgment before they can possess the reality of fearing God.) It seems as though “fearing God and shunning evil” is something that is easy for you to do now, so why do I say this? For you have now heard many sermons and accepted much watering of the reality of the truth, and these things you understand are a great help to your practice of “fearing God and shunning evil,” and they make it easy for you to achieve this. But why can’t anyone achieve it? It’s because they don’t fear God and they don’t shun evil—this is the real reason. Why do I say this? Where does this saying come from, “fear God and shun evil”? It’s from the Book of Job, right? Now that Job is mentioned, let’s talk about him. In Job’s time, did God do the work of saving and conquering man? (No.) He didn’t, did He? So in that age, how well did Job know God? (He didn’t know God very well.) So how did his knowledge of God compare to the knowledge you have right now? How come you shy away from answering this question? Did he know God more than you do now, or less? (Less.) Less! This question is easy to answer. It was certainly less. You are now face-to-face with God, face-to-face with God’s words, so you know God much more than Job did. Why do I mention this? Why do I say this? I say it to show the fact that Job knew God only very little, yet was able to fear God and shun evil, while people nowadays are unable to do this. So what does this prove? (People nowadays are deeply corrupted.) Being so deeply corrupted is a superficial phenomenon, and I would never see it that way. You always take these oft-spoken, daily doctrines and letters and pay lip-service to them: “deeply corrupted,” “rebelling against God,” “no loyalty to God,” “disobedience,” “being slack.” You always take these phrases and pay lip-service to them, using them to explain every substantive question. This is a mistake, and it is not the essence or truth of the question. I don’t like hearing this kind of answer. Think about it. Think it over! None of you have ever thought about this matter before, but I can see it and perceive it every single day. So, you do things, and I watch. You cannot perceive the essence of the things you do, but I can both see and perceive the essence of these things. So what is this essence? Why can’t people nowadays fear God and shun evil? This problem has a source! With the way you come to know things, you will never be able to explain the essence of this problem, nor will you ever be able to resolve its essence. So what is the source? You’d really like to hear it, wouldn’t you? (Yes.) Then I will tell you what the source of this problem is.

What did God regard man as when He began His work? He rescued man, regarded them as His family, regarded them as the objects of His work, as the targets He intended to conquer, save and make perfect; this was God’s attitude to man when He began His work. But what was man’s attitude to God back then? They felt He was a stranger. I can say that their attitude toward God was incorrect, and they were unsure how they should approach Him. They treated Him in any way they wanted, and did whatever they wanted. Did they have any views? They had no views to begin with, and their so-called views were actually their conceptions of God, their persistent conceptions: “You are strange to me and I don’t understand You, so I will contradict You, defy You. I won’t listen to anything You say, I won’t believe in anything You say, and I will not easily accept anything You say that sounds right to me.” This was man’s relationship with God in the beginning. God regarded man as His family, and man regarded God as a stranger. But after God worked for some time, what then did man regard God as? Man understood what God intended to do, they knew that God was the true God and knew what man could gain from God, so what did they regard God as at that time? They regarded Him as a straw for them to clutch at and hoped to gain grace, blessings and promises from God. And what did God regard man as back then? God regarded man as the object to be conquered; He used His words to judge man, and used His trials to examine and test man. But to man, what else did God serve as? He was an object that they used to achieve their aims, because people saw Him expressing the truth, and saw that God was able to do His work of conquest and salvation. And man had the opportunity to gain from God the destination they wanted and the things they wanted, and thereafter they became marginally willing, and they desired to follow this God. And afterward, man came to have some superficial doctrinal knowledge of God. I can say that they became more and more familiar with God, more and more familiar with God’s utterances, God’s sermons, with the truth He expressed and with His work, perceiving that these things were the entire work of God. Up till now, I can say that many people have heard many truths and listened to many sermons, and so they feel more and more slack. Because of the disturbances of many different factors and situations, the majority of people are unable to practice the truth nor able to satisfy God. So people become more and more slack in their approach to God, have less and less faith, and they feel more and more that their own ends are simply unknown. They don’t dare to think in any extravagant manner, they just follow in this way, one step at a time. But what does God do now? What is His attitude toward people now? After His way and these truths have been instilled in people, God wants to use various methods and arrange all manner of environments to try people, then see whether or not these words, these truths of God and the work God does have made people able to fear God and shun evil—this is God’s intended result. But from what I can see, most people regard God’s words as doctrines, as letters and as rules to be kept. When they do things, or speak, or when trials befall them, they don’t keep God’s way as the way they ought to keep and, especially when they encounter serious trials, I haven’t seen anyone with the view “I should fear God and shun evil.” What is God’s attitude toward people now? I can say that God’s attitude toward people is one of the utmost disgust and hatred. For after God has tried people many times, even over one hundred times, they still have no clear attitude that would indicate their determination—“I want to fear God and shun evil!” They don’t have this kind of determination, and they don’t express this. Therefore, God’s attitude toward man is very clear. It is no longer merciful, tolerant, forgiving and patient as it was before, but instead it is one of the utmost disappointment. Who brings about this “disappointment”? Who does this attitude depend on? It depends on every single person who follows God. Throughout His work of so many years, God has made many demands of man and has arranged for them many environments. But no matter how people treat God, no matter what their attitude toward God is, I now sum it up into one phrase, the saying we said just now that explains why people aren’t able to follow the way of God: fear God and shun evil. And what is this saying? God regards man as the object to be saved and as the target for His work, while man regards God as an enemy and as their antithesis. So you now see clearly what man’s attitude is and what God’s attitude is—this is very clear. After listening to many sermons, regardless of whether the things you summarize—whether it’s being loyal to God or obeying God, or searching for the way to be compatible with God, or some people say they will expend their entire life for God and live for God—regardless of the aspect of the things you summarize, what is it that I see? These things you do are not consciously following God’s way—fearing God and shunning evil—but rather they are you being forced to look for some way to constrainedly practicing some truths and keeping some rules for your own aims.

This topic I speak about today is a bit heavy, but whatever the case, I still hope that, in your future experiences and in the days to come, you will be able to achieve that which I have just said. You mustn’t regard God as being like air, thinking that He exists when He is of use, and that He disappears when not in use. This is wrong. When you subconsciously understand it in this way, you have already aggravated God. Perhaps some people say, “I don’t regard God as being like air. I pray to Him all the time and I satisfy Him all the time. Everything I do is done within the scope of His requirements and the standards of His principles. I don’t do things in accordance with my own will.” Yes, your method of practice is correct. But when something happens to you, what do you think? When something happens to you, how do you practice? While they pray, some people feel that God is with them and that God exists. But when something happens to them, when their self-will arises, they regard God as being like air, it seems to them that God doesn’t exist, and that God is only there when they believe He is there and that He shouldn’t be there when they don’t believe Him to be there. They then practice according to their self-will, they do whatever they want, and they simply don’t search for the way of God. With people now being in this kind of condition and in this kind of state, are they not on the edge of danger? Some people say, “No matter what kind of edge of danger I’m on, I’ve believed for so many years, and I believe that God ought not to forsake me and that He hasn’t the heart to forsake me.” And then some others say, “I believed in the Lord while I was still in the womb and it has been 40 or 50 years since then. In terms of time, I am the most qualified to be saved by God and the most qualified to remain. Over these 40 or 50 years I have abandoned my family and given up my business. I’ve given up everything—money, status, pleasure and the joys of domestic felicity. I have missed out on many tasty things to eat and missed out on many kinds of fun; I haven’t been to many places that are good to visit and have even suffered pain that ordinary people could not endure. If, for these things, God doesn’t save me, then it will be a great injustice to me, and I won’t be able to believe in that kind of God.” Are there many people who think like this? (Yes, many.) Then I shall tell you that all those who think like this are shooting themselves in the foot. Because before you form any thoughts or have any conclusion, you first need to understand what God’s attitude is toward you and how He thinks in His heart. You need to first understand these things before concluding whether your thoughts are right or wrong; it’s too early to reach a verdict on this now. God never uses time as a deciding factor when He determines a person’s end. What does He use instead? That is, what standards does He employ to determine a person’s end? Didn’t we speak a lot about this earlier? Using time as a deciding factor in determining a person’s end most conforms with people’s conceptions. And there is something else, something you see often, which is that some people use how much they donate, how much they expend, how much they pay, and how much they suffer as the standards by which they measure whether or not God will save them; is this not also a mistake? (Yes, it is.) Regardless of what you believe, examples of which I won’t cite one by one, so long as it is not a standard that God thinks in His heart, then it is something that people believe and it is a conception of man. So if you blindly persevere in thinking this way, what will the consequence be? It’s obvious—the consequence can only be that God will be filled with detestation and rejection. This is because you always want to flaunt your seniority before God, contest with God and wrangle with God, but you don’t genuinely try to understand God’s thoughts, understand His will and His attitude toward man. Are you fearing God by doing this? No, you’re not. By doing this you are just honoring yourself above all and not honoring God. Therefore, God doesn’t want that kind of person and He won’t save them. If you are able to relinquish this kind of view and act in accordance with God’s requirements, saying, “Despite having believed in God for so many years, during my life of believing in God, if He hadn’t shown me the way, enlightened me and guided me, then I would be nothing. From now on I should practice the way of fearing God and shunning evil, magnify God in all things and not make conclusions about myself or about God based on my own personal imaginings, views and beliefs. Instead I should seek God’s will in all things and understand and comprehend God’s attitude toward mankind, and take this as the standard to satisfy God.” If you can rectify that kind of view and can think this way, then that is wonderful, and it signifies that you will soon embark on the way of fearing God and shunning evil.

We’ve talked a lot about this, and seeing as God doesn’t take people’s thoughts and views—whether they think this way or that way—as the standards by which He determines their ends, what kind of standards does God use? First of all, let Me tell you that God uses trials to determine people’s ends. There are two standards involved in God using trials to determine people’s ends. The first is the number of trials people are given, and the second is the outcome of the trials—God uses these two indicators to determine people’s ends. Let’s talk in more detail about these two standards. Firstly, when you encounter one of God’s trials, it may seem to you to be a small thing, something not worth mentioning. But God will make you patently aware that it is His hand that has come upon you and that He has arranged this environment for you. While your stature is immature, God arranges some trials for you that you are able to understand and which you are capable of enduring, and He uses this kind of trial to test you. What is He testing? God is testing your attitude to Him. Some people ask, Is this attitude really so important? Of course it is important, otherwise God wouldn’t expend any effort to do this kind of work on man. The outcome of these trials is of the utmost importance to God, for God wants to see your attitude toward Him through these trials, to see whether or not you are walking the right path, and to see whether you fear God and shun evil. No matter how much understanding of the truth you have at that time, God still wants to try you in this way. Once you have understood some truth then God will still continue to arrange this kind of trial for you. He still wants to see your views, your thoughts and your attitude toward Him once the trial is upon you. Then some people say, “Why does God always want to see what people’s attitudes are? Can’t He see them while people are practicing the truth in this way? What does He want to see people’s attitudes for?” This is nonsense. Now that God is doing this work, He is by people’s side at all times watching their every word and deed, their every action and movement, even their every idea and thought; He remembers everything people do right, and records each and every fault or transgression they make, and even their rebelliousness and betrayals. As you mature, you hear more and more of the truth and you accept more and more positive things and more and more positive sermons, and you accept more and more positive information and reality of the truth. At this time, God will arrange for you trials of greater severity. What God wants at this point is not someone’s letters and doctrines, but rather their genuine fear of God, and He also needs your views which, of course, need to be deeper and more real at this time.

Every time a trial befalls you, you need to have a clear attitude and a clear viewpoint and, of course, as your stature gradually increases, so do the standards that God requires of you. While you are immature, God sets a very low standard for you. When your stature is slightly more mature, He sets a slightly higher standard for you. And what will God do after you understand the entire truth? He will cause you to encounter trials of even greater severity. During these trials, that which He wants to gain and see is you having a deeper knowledge of God and you truly fearing God. At this point, God’s requirements of you are higher and more severe than when your stature was immature. It can be said that people think these requirements severe, but actually, to God, they are entirely appropriate. Whilst God is trying people, what fact does God want to bring about? God constantly requires people to give their hearts to Him. People say, “How can I give my heart to God? I do my duty, I’ve given up my family and my business and I expend for God, so how can I give my heart to God? In what way can I give it? What specifically does God require?” The requirement is very simple. In fact, during the trials that happened in different stages, some people have already given God their hearts, but there are some who have never given their hearts to Him. Whilst God is trying you, He looks to see whether your heart is turned to Him or turned toward the flesh, or toward Satan; while He is trying you, He wants to see whether you are standing on the side of God’s antithesis or standing on the path of compatibility with God, whether or not your heart is on His side. When you are immature and you encounter trials, though you may have little faith, as you waver back and forth in the midst of God’s trials you can still pray to God with a sincere heart, devote your heart to God and devote the things you consider the best to God—this means you have already given your heart to God. But as your stature steadily grows, and when you hear more and more sermons and understand more and more of the truth, the standards God requires of you may not be the same as this, but instead His standards for you will be higher. When someone is able to gradually give their heart to God, then their heart gets gradually closer to God. And when someone can truly get close to God, more and more they will have a heart that fears God—this is the heart God wants. Can you understand this? (Yes.) Is there anything you can’t quite grasp? (No.) However, while God is trying someone by giving them numerous trials, if during these trials He has not seen their heart, nor seen any attitude—that is, if God cannot see the side of them that fears Him, nor see any attitude or determination to shun evil—then after many trials God’s patience with this person will be withdrawn; God will no longer show tolerance toward this person, nor will He try this person anymore, and nor will He work any longer on this person. So what does this signify for this person’s end? It signifies that they will have no end. They may not have done anything evil or done any work that interrupted or disturbed anything, and they may not have openly defied God, yet they have never had any kind of attitude toward God. In terms of viewpoint and attitude, God does not see that their heart is clearly turned toward Him and that their heart is clearly seeking to be able to fear God and shun evil, so God will no longer have any patience with this kind of person, nor will He pay any price for them or be merciful anymore, and neither will He work on them any longer—the life of this person’s belief in God will be at an end. Therefore, there are some people whom I have never seen to have any enlightenment or illumination of the Holy Spirit. How can this be seen? This person believes in God for many years, they look very driven on the outside, they do many deeds, they know much about letters and doctrines, they fill over 10 notebooks with notes and they also read many books. But they are never seen to make progress and it can never be seen whether or not they are loyal to God, or whether they have any views; they are never seen to have any clear views, which is to say you can never see their heart—their heart is always wrapped up and it is closed to God. Their heart is closed, so God has not seen their true heart nor truly seen whether or not this person fears God, whether or not they are someone who truly follows the way of God, and so God has still not gained this person’s heart. So if God hasn’t yet gained this person’s heart, will He be able to gain it in the future? (No.) No! This “no” is very straightforward and accurate. No, He can’t! Does God still insist on gaining those things He cannot gain? He doesn’t insist on it, so what now is God’s attitude to this type of person? (He detests and rejects them, and He ignores them.) He ignores them. He ignores these people, and He detests and rejects them. You have memorized these words very quickly and accurately and it looks like you’ve been listening very well! Some people, when they first begin to follow God, are immature and ignorant, they don’t understand God’s will, they don’t know what believing in God is all about, and they are filled with stupidity and ignorance. Afterward, they believe in God and follow Him through some human methods and, when trials befall them, they have no awareness at all. To this kind of person, God gives a little extra time, allowing them to clearly state their own views when they awaken, when they understand what God’s trials are; God still waits for this kind of person. They have no awareness what it means to give one’s heart to God or what it is to stand firm in trials. That is, this kind of person is still confused, and God temporarily gives them extra time. But what is God’s attitude to those who have some views yet still waver back and forth, meaning those who wish to give their hearts to God and who practice certain aspects of the truth but who sidestep, who don’t wish to strive forward and instead wish to give up when severe trials befall them? He keeps tiny expectations for these people, and watches their attitudes. If someone doesn’t actively make progress, what will God do? God will give up on them. This is because before He gives up on you, you have already given up on yourself. Thus you can’t blame God for giving up on you, can you? Isn’t that fair? (Yes, it’s fair.)

From Records of Christ’s Talks

Source from How to Know God’s Disposition and the Result of His Work

Eastern Lightning, the Church of Almighty God was created because of the appearance and work of Almighty God, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, Christ of the last days. It is made up of all those who accept Almighty God's work in the last days and are conquered and saved by His words. It was entirely founded by Almighty God personally and is led by Him as the Shepherd. It was definitely not created by a person. Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. God's sheep hear God's voice. As long as you read the words of Almighty God, you will see God has appeared.