God Only Perfects the Person Who Has a Heart That Truly Loves God

　　Why must the person that God perfects be one who loves Him? This is because man has a spirit, and there is a substantial difference between whether the spirit is that of a man or the devil. The spirit that is of man has love and he is able to love God. If a man loved God, he would obey God in all that he does and would care for God’s will. He would be able to bear with hardship and forsake everything in order to satisfy God. Such true love is very important to God. You see, when a woman chooses her partner, she would ask of the partner’s true love and a sincere heart. She would never choose the man if he did not have true love. Why is it so? This is because he would surely have hate if he did not have love. If he had hate in him, disputes would easily arise between them and they two would always be at daggers drawn. He would betray her readily. Such love and hate is thus too important. In the course of experiencing God’s work, as man is not able to penetrate the spiritual world directly, he is not able to understand God’s will. However, he would not begrudge God when he has love; he is able to understand God when he has love, and he would be able to treat all that God does in the right way. When he understands God’s love and that all that God does is the truth, his love for God would become stronger. Therefore, the man who loves God can be perfected more easily, and he would not betray God easily. It is very dangerous if he does not have love. He who does not have love would surely have hate, and he would begrudge easily. A man with hate makes enemies and betrays easily. We see that if a husband and a wife did not have true love between them, they would not understand each other easily. They will always doubt, suspect and complain about each other. They cannot get along with each other, and their conflicts deepen in the end. When the conflicts come to a boil, they would go their separate ways. Therefore, if a person has a heart that truly loves God, no matter what God does and no matter how much pain he goes through, he would not begrudge God. He believes firmly in one thing, that all that God does is love. He believes firmly that God is the truth. He believes firmly that all that God does is for the salvation of man and to perfect man. You can see that his heart is pure and that he would not have any conceptions on any matters. He has no misunderstandings about God, and is able to submit to God instead. He would conversely comfort God when he sees that God is suffering. He would spare no effort in satisfying God when He needs him. Such a person has a heart that truly loves God. He can be perfected by God easily because he understands God. He is a man with the greatest conscience and the most rationality before God. A person without conscience and rationality has no true love for God. If he does indeed show a little love for God, what do you think his love is built on? He would only show a little love for God when he really sees that God has benefited and blessed him in some ways, when he really sees that he has gained something from God and achieved his objectives. Such love is totally built on the basis of a transaction and can exist completely with the purpose of satisfying oneself. Such love is therefore neither pure nor true. The more conscience and rationality a person has, the truer his love is. A person without conscience and rationality has no love. God is thus willing to perfect the person who loves Him. … Why doesn’t He perfect those who do not love Him? Why is a person who does not love God not perfected by Him? Because such a person is inhuman and is without conscience and rationality. A person without conscience and rationality would not have a heart that loves God, and a person without a heart that loves God is one who does not have conscience and rationality. Such a person is not fit to be human. A person who does not have a heart of love for God has hatred for God. A person who has hatred for God is an enemy of God and is one whom He punishes. Can God perfect His enemy? A person who has a heart of hatred of God is an evil person. An evil person is an object of God’s punishment and destruction. A person who truly loves God is one who has conscience and is rational. He is one who is truly a human. Therefore, only a person who truly loves God can be perfected by Him. Those who do not love God are the evil ones, God’s enemies, people without conscience and rationality, and people who are inhuman. God thus does not perfect them. People without conscience and rationality have no love in them. They know only to seek their own interest and selfish gains and have never known what love is. Don’t you see that some people only seek their own selfish gains? They operate on the principle of doing something only if it benefits them in some ways. Can such people have love? Who can they love? They love whoever benefits them, and the love they show is not true at all. You benefit them today and they love you today. They will kick you aside tomorrow when you no longer benefit them. They love you for a day today when you are of use to them and kick you aside tomorrow when you are no longer of use to him. Such are mercenary people. Can such people have love? What is your basis for making friends? You have to base it on whether the person has conscience and rationality and whether he has humanity. This is key. Do not be acquainted with an inhuman person without conscience and rationality because he seeks only his own interest and selfish gains. He goes with whoever benefits him. Do any of you have such friends? Can you be friends with such people? It is of no use to be friends with such people as they cannot be a close friend. He has a transactional motive in making friends with people. He makes friends with you when you are of use to him and walks out on you when you are no longer of use to him and kicks you aside. He cares nothing about conscience and friendship and has even less credibility to speak of. All that he seeks is selfish gains. There are too many of such people around! Very few people care about conscience and rationality, and thus very few are perfected by God even though there are many who believe in Him. Why is this so? It is because very few have conscience, rationality and humanity. Most of the people who believe in God want to make use of Him and seek to gain something from Him. They seek to use God to achieve their objectives. Such a person leaves and forsakes God when he sees that God no longer blesses or perfects him. See, does such a person have a heart that truly loves God? God reveals this kind of person in His work and the person’s ugliness would be exposed. “So, he is such a person.” Therefore, a person who loves God is a man after His heart. God is pleased with him because he has humanity and has conscience and rationality. Those who cannot love God are inhuman because they have no conscience and rationality. A person who is inhuman is an evil person. An evil person is an object of God’s punishment rather than one of God’s salvation, much less an object of His perfection. This is the most crucial point.

A Person Who Pursues God’s Perfection Must Experience Trials and Refinement

So, now do you know how God perfects people? Is judgment and chastisement alone enough? Can judgment and chastisement alone be enough to achieve the result? No, it cannot. It needs to involve various trials and refinement. Man’s flesh must undergo much suffering before he can be perfected. Do you know what judgment and chastisement achieves? God judges and chastises people so that they know how corrupt they are, as well as their sinful essence in resisting and betraying God. It is to let man know that Satan is the root of the corruption of humanity, so that man can turn his back on Satan and return completely to God. Therefore, judgment and chastisement serves to help people understand the truth. What does “understand the truth” mean? It refers to man’s clear and unerring understanding of the essence of corrupt mankind and the source of their corruption, and of Satan being the root of such corruption. In other words, it means to understand the truth about humanity’s corruption, to see how God created man and how He saves and leads man and provides for him; how God allows humanity to survive and what His will and desire for man is. Once man knows these truths, he achieves the objective of God’s judgment and chastisement of man. However, when man understands the truth, man may not necessarily be able to rid himself completely of his corrupt disposition, and neither is he necessarily able to practice all the truth completely. This is because Satan’s nature and poison remain in man’s flesh, and they need to be resolved through various trials and refinement. Man will know how deeply embedded his sinful nature and essence is during the trials and refinement. He will know how deeply rooted Satan’s corrupt nature is in him and how much it has taken over him. After he has come to know these, man will see what impurities there are in his love for God and what his difficulties are in practicing the truth when he undergoes trials and refinement. He will know where these impurities and difficulties come from. Therefore, trials and refinement allow man to see all of these clearly and resolve all the problems. Therefore, judgment and chastisement alone is not enough for man to achieve perfection by God. He must undergo many trials and refinement. The corrupt flesh must experience countless sufferings before it is cleansed. Such trials and refinement alone proves to be too much for many, and those who cannot take it either escape or are not able to move another step forward. Man would not be able to achieve the final perfection this way. All of us know such a truth, that truly good steel is refined by fire. The steel is burned till it turns red during refinement until a certain point before it is taken out and beaten and molded. You would not be able to refine steel if you do not refine it in fire. The impurities in the steel could not be removed if you do not refine it in fire. The steel thus has to undergo much suffering before it is refined. Man is like the steel undergoing refinement when he undergoes trials. When steel is burned to the reddest point and starts to melt, the impurities in it would be removed. Therefore, man must undergo much suffering during trials before the various impurities in him can be removed. Man cannot be made useful and be perfected if he cannot endure suffering. This is the conclusion arrived at by humanity, especially those who have particular experiences: Man cannot be made useful and achieve great things if he cannot endure suffering. He will not be able to shoulder great responsibilities. Today, if we seek to be perfected, we would have to endure the suffering of many trials.

Specific Manifestations of Whether Man Has a Heart of Love for God

What qualities does a person who really loves God have? He must have at least a conscience, rationality, character and dignity, and have normal humanity. If a person with these qualities understands the truth and knows God, he would naturally be able to love God truly. A person without these qualities is one without normal humanity, and he would never love God. Therefore, a person who could truly love God is definitely one with normal humanity. What are the manifestations of a person who truly loves God? First of all, he loves God’s word and the truth. He loves positive things and he thus does all that he can to pursue the truth. Second, he is most interested in God’s word and loves it in particular. When he hears God’s word, he feels like he has heard God’s voice, and feels that God is dear and worthy of love, everything He says is the truth, is practical and is something everyone should be equipped with. God’s word is the right way of life that he hopes for. Third, a person who truly loves God has a sense of justice. He is able to protect God’s work and the interest of God’s family, which is protecting brothers’ and sisters’ pursuit of entry into life. He hates negative things as well as evil people as if he hates his enemy. He hates those who resist God and disrupt His work as well as the evil ones who confuse and mislead God’s chosen ones, the brothers and sisters. This is the most basic expression of a person who loves God. A person who loves God would be willing to act on and enter the word of God when they hear and understand it. Thus, whenever he understands the truth, he would be able to enter and act on it. He is willing to act on whatever God says. He would integrate God’s word to find the path he has to take in whatever problem he encounters in daily life. He would choose God’s will and act in submission to Him and satisfy Him. This is the specific manifestation of a person who loves God. Once a person who loves God finds that he has gone against God, that he has committed a transgression, and that he has shown corruption in his ways, his conscience would rebuke him and he would pray to God immediately to confess to Him and seek His forgiveness. He would then be able to seek the truth to resolve his own corruption. Therefore, a person who loves God is very afraid of offending God in whatever he does and that he has resisted God in his ways. He is thus always able to live before God and submit everything about himself to Him. This is the most normal of actions of a person who loves God. Everyone who loves God would do the same and nobody can stop him. He has such a heart that is willing to live before God and would do nothing behind God’s back that is in violation of the truth. A person who truly loves God would be worried when he sees that brothers and sisters lack the provision of life or deviations in their actions. He is able to care for God’s will and desires that all brothers and sisters are able to live before God and submit to Him, to enter God’s word and gain the truth and satisfy God. If brothers and sisters are not able to do so, he would have a burden to lead them to live completely in God’s word and satisfy Him. He would only have peace in his heart when God is happy, satisfied and glad in His heart. Therefore, a person who truly loves God does not wish to see God in pain and does not wish to see anything that saddens Him. Even more so, he does not wish to see anything that grieves God. Such a person is one who cares for God’s will. … A person who loves the truth is one who has a heart that loves God. The key to whether a person’s heart that loves God is true depends on whether he loves the truth and whether he is able to accept God’s word, especially words that do not conform to man’s conceptions, that judge, chastise, prune and deal with people, and those most stern words that contain God’s righteous disposition and wrath. If the person accepts the words of truth without minding if they are harsh, such a person is one who loves the truth. A person who loves the truth respects the facts. He does not base his views on his feelings. He would accept unconditionally what is being said if it is correct, true and based on facts and would not reject it. Such a person is one who loves the truth. A person who loves the truth accepts everything fellowshiped that is the truth and conforms to God’s will. A person who does not love the truth would not accept God’s word and truth no matter who they are communicated by. He would accept only if the fellowship conforms to his conceptions and benefits him and is beneficial to his gaining blessings. He would not accept the truth that is communicated by the person he does not like or approve of, no matter how good the words sound. Such a person is one who does not love the truth. A person who loves the truth would say, “No matter how stern God’s word is, even if it were a curse, I would accept it if it is the truth. I do not complain against God, much less hate Him. I have only myself to blame for being too corrupted and for resisting God.” Such a person has rationality. A person with rationality and conscience knows that God is the Creator, the one true God. His creation has no reason to reject what He says and should submit to and accept His word without conditions. This is the manifestation of rationality that man should have. A person with rationality is able to accept and love the truth. He believes that the truth is a positive thing, something that man should be equipped with and gain, and something that gives life and that changes people. He believes that the truth is the most precious, more precious than anything, and so he loves the truth. The main manifestation of a person who truly loves God is when he understands God’s will, he would care for and satisfy His will because he loves the truth. When a person who truly loves God goes through trials and sufferings, he would be able to think back on the sufferings that God had gone through for man and what are the sufferings that he should go through for Him. He would care about God’s heart this way. Not only would he have no complaints about God’s work, he would even be able to be more understanding and would want to pay the price to comfort and satisfy God’s heart. This is the manifestation of a person who loves God. A person with a heart that loves God is able to base everything he does on God’s will in his service to Him. He would learn how to care for God’s will in everything he does and tries in every way to satisfy and comfort His heart. Such is a person who has a heart that loves God. A person with a heart that loves God feels burdened when he sees what brothers and sisters are lacking or inadequate in, or if they have deviated in any way, or if they have disobeyed or resisted God in any way. He would feel that he should play his part to help brothers and sisters resolve their deviations and bring them onto the right track of belief in God and to come back before Him again, and equip them with the truth so that they can submit to God. This is the manifestation of a person who loves God. Therefore, a person with a heart that loves God feels particularly burdened for brothers’ and sisters’ entry into life. He feels that he should stand up and defend God’s work especially when he sees the evil ones disrupting God’s chosen people and disturbing and demolishing His work. He feels it is his bounden duty to play his part in countering Satan and protecting brothers and sisters. He does not want God to be sad any longer, to be worried about the corrupted human race, and so he is able to stand up to defend God’s work and not look back. This is the manifestation of a person who loves God. A person with a heart that loves God seeks God’s will when he is experiencing God’s work and performs his duty in order to care about His heart. He has God in his heart and always takes comfort and joy in satisfying and loving God. If he does something that disobeys God or sees that the work of God’s family is being disrupted or disturbed and he does not take responsibility for it, he would hate himself and feel that he has not done his duty and has lost the responsibility he should bear. He would feel that he is not fit to live before God, and he feels especially ill at ease. He would feel slightly better the moment he no longer disobeys God and does something to make up for his lack of responsibility. This is the normal manifestation of a person who loves God. It can be seen from the various manifestations of a person who loves God that he has the most conscience and rationality; he has the kindest heart that is close to God, and he always feels that he should play his role in such a way as God’s creation to satisfy and comfort God. This is the manifestation of a person who loves God. A person who loves God knows what he is after and what he should pursue to give his life greater value and meaning and make it closer to what God wants it to be. Therefore, a person who loves God is definitely one who pursues the truth and to be perfected by God. His goal in life is to live out an image of one who loves God, of one in whom God delights. In other words, to live out a true life. Such a life is the most meaningful and valuable to a person who loves God. A person who loves God regards his service to God as the most honorable of duties. He feels that “It would be the most honorable if I could be exalted by God to serve Him all my life. I would be the most fortunate person alive.” Therefore, he disregards all things in the world and deems loving and serving God the most honorable of things in life. This is the true manifestation and pursuit of a person who loves God. What about those who do not love God? What are the manifestations of their belief in God? The pursuits and manifestations of a person who does not love God are the exact opposite of those who do. A person who does not love God does not love the truth. What he loves is status and empty glories. He loves money and material enjoyment. He would lose sleep over something nice that he couldn’t get his hands on. He would lose his appetite over an empty and frivolous status. Some people would even fret over a piece of nice clothing that they did not wear. This is the manifestation of a person who does not love God. Also, a person who does not love God does not pursue the truth. He cannot see the significance and value of doing so. All he could feel is the power of money. Enjoying the flesh is happiness. Having a good family and good children is happiness. These are the goals of his life. Therefore, the thoughts of a person who does not love God all day are evil and injustice and have nothing to do with the truth. A person without a heart that loves God would not pursue the truth; he would have no interest in God’s judgment and chastisement in the course of experiencing His work. He even detests the pruning and dealing by the family of God and is not able to submit to them. He regards all forms of trials and refinement as an enemy, and would surely reject and run away from them. He is not able to submit himself at all. He would persist in running away from and avoiding anything that causes pain and suffering to his flesh, no matter what they are. A person who does not love God has no interest in whatever He is doing. He would not think, “Can I be saved if I did this?” but rather, “Being comfortable and happy now is more important than anything.” He only thinks that not suffering in the flesh is more important than anything else. What he hates the most are the sufferings of the flesh. He wishes that his flesh can be happy and comfortable every day, and that he is able to enjoy himself every day. Only this would be the best. A person who does not love God lusts for the enjoyment of the flesh and the comforts of life. He does not want God. He would still be willing to listen if you talked to him about the truth, but after that, he would still not submit himself in the course of experiencing God’s work, and he would totally reject God’s judgment and chastisement, pruning and dealing as well as the various trials and refinement, and not welcome them at all. He would even complain about God when he encounters matters that make him unhappy, and would also have conceptions against and do things that oppose and judge God. This is the manifestation of a person who does not love God. A person who does not love God does not pursue the truth. Therefore, a person who does not love God is never willing to practice His word. If you wanted him to be an honest person, he would say, “Why should I be honest? I would only stand to lose if I were honest and told the truth. I am not stupid. It would be much better if I do not lose by being a little deceptive in my words and being a little more cunning.” He is thus not interested in the truth. He does not want to practice God’s word. This is the manifestation of a person who does not love God. A person who does not love God would not be bothered when he sees someone disrupting God’s work and misleading brothers and sisters. He feels that, “This has nothing to do with me. Why should I care? Whoever wants to mislead or believe the way he or she does, just let them be. I will just carry on my way.” He has no sense of responsibility and would show no concern about brothers’ and sisters’ entry into life or when he sees how they have deviated or what they lack, as if none of these have anything to do with him. He feels no burden at all about the part that he should play. He thinks, “Playing my part isn’t necessary. I don’t have to do anything in believing in God. I’ll just have to go for the gatherings and that’s it. I should be blessed if I were indeed to receive any blessings. What part do I have to be playing?” Thus, a person who does not love God would not even want to pay that little price. In man’s words, he does not want to lose but only to gain. He does not want to give even a little but wants to receive blessings from God. Isn’t this a mercenary person? What does he believe in God for? Nothing else but receiving blessings from God! He would not pursue goals like living out the true life, loving God, being perfected by God and serving Him after that. He believes in God only to receive His blessings. What is the purpose of receiving the blessings? It is to not be destroyed by God, that he would not die when disasters befall and to live on for years in a new era and to let his flesh enjoy pleasures for many more years to come. That would be enough. This is the manifestation of a person who does not love God. Each of us should reflect upon ourselves to see how much of the manifestation of a person who does not love God is in us. Are those things good? Are they detested by God? The key lies in what we do about these things after we have gotten to know them. How much of the manifestation of a person who loves God is in us, then? Having even a little of them would be good. If you do not have even a little of the manifestations of loving God but all of those of not loving God, you are in trouble. It proves that you are a wicked person without normal humanity. It is normal if you have manifestations of love for God, and at the same time, you have manifestations of not loving God. If your manifestations of love for God are more and a little stronger, this proves that you have a heart that loves God, that you are one who loves Him. You are still not totally a person who loves God and still have some way to go in pursuing the truth and understanding your own corrupt essence. What you have to enter and be equipped with is the truth. You will be able to truly love God with your heart when you have the truth. A person who has gained the truth would be able to truly love God. A person who does not have the truth would have too little love for God. If you understand and gain some of the truth and have a heart that truly loves God, your salvation through belief in God is for sure. If you do not have a heart that loves God despite having pursued for several years, your salvation is not secured. It can even be said to be impossible. It is impossible for someone to be saved when he does not have a heart that loves God. You should at least achieve half of such a love. Now that you have some understanding of your own corruption, you know where you stand after you have heard me say this. This is an improvement. You are also clearer about the condition of your heart, whether you have the manifestations of love for God and what are those that show that you do not have love for God. This shows that you indeed know yourself a little more. It also shows that you are more discerning now. You are clear about what the positive and negative things are, what sort of disobedience is still within you as well as what negative things are still in you that belong to Satan’s poison. This would be helpful to you in your pursuit of the truth for your own salvation. Therefore, you must first be possessed of a heart that loves God in order to pursue your perfection. This is too crucial. Let your heart love the truth and the positive things. Let your heart be able to love God and His word, to treasure what He is and what He has, to love His disposition, and to love His righteousness more than His mercy and lovingkindness. Your heart that loves God will be completed this way. When your heart that loves God is completed, you will receive more of the work of the Holy Spirit and more of God’s perfection. You will then be qualified and have the stature to undergo the many trials to ultimately be perfected and gained by God. Do you have the will to pursue being perfected now? What is the most important thing that you must possess in order to pursue being perfected? You have to have a heart that truly loves God.

From Classic Selections From Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life