Only by Satisfying God’s Final Requirements Can One Be Saved

God’s Ten Requirements for His Chosen People

　　The practical standard of entry into life is to satisfy God’s requirements, and the greatest reality of man’s entry into life is to satisfy God’s final requirements. Regardless of how deeply a man has entered into life, if he fails to meet God’s requirements and lacks real testimonies in his trials, the reality he has is empty. All of those who believe in God know that entry into life refers to entry into the truth, and that only when one has entered into the truth will he have reality. Because the truth is the life of man, only he who truly understands the truth and lives out the truth is a man who has entered into reality. Then what is the greatest reality of entry into life? Anyone who pursues salvation must know it clearly. Most people only pursue to have entry in certain aspects, but they have not truly entered into God’s requirements, especially the most critical requirements of God. What do you call this? This is called “giving up a goose for a feather.” Does barely having entry in trivial matters mean that you are standing firm in your testimony? Does it mean you are obedient to God? Does it mean you are faithful to God? Does it mean you are someone who loves God? If you fail to achieve these results, such entry of yours is worthless. If you are seemingly obedient in minor aspects but are not truly obedient to God’s will and cannot satisfy God in His requirements, this kind of entry of yours is meaningless. The work of God is to change man’s life disposition through judgment and chastisement so as to achieve the goal of saving man from the influence of Satan. Since this is the work that changes man’s life disposition, there are criteria for receiving salvation. Some major requirements that God finally makes of man are the criteria for receiving salvation. Now we all know some of God’s requirements, which are actually His major requirements for His chosen people. The first requirement is what God required of us at the initial stage of His work. Whoever expends himself for God wholeheartedly shall receive His blessings. This is God’s earliest requirement for His chosen people. Whoever expends himself for God wholeheartedly shall be greatly blessed by Him. The second one is that God requires all those to be made perfect by Him to undergo refinement, to have the refined faith. This is God’s second requirement for His chosen people. Whoever believes in God must have true faith in God. Faith becomes true after refinement, which is like that of Job, who was able to stand firm regardless of what trials befell him. The third requirement is that God requires us to follow Peter’s example, to have true love for God and become a person who truly knows God. This is also a requirement made by God at the early stage of His work. It is mainly written in “How Peter Came to Know Jesus,” through which God particularly requires man to follow Peter’s example, to pursue to know God and love God. The fourth requirement is that God requires His chosen people to have enough good deeds, because only those who have enough good deeds will have a good destination. God has made this requirement in the piece of His words “You Ought to Prepare a Sufficiency of Good Deeds for Your Destination.” The fifth requirement is that God requires us to pursue the truth tirelessly to know our own corrupt essence and enter ont0 the right track of believing in God. This requirement is very important, because entering onto the right track of believing in God requires man to know his corrupt essence. The sixth requirement is that we must resolve our transgressions, because only by resolving our transgressions can we truly be saved. This is a requirement God has made in the piece of His words “Transgressions Will Take Man to Hell.” This requirement is also very important, because no matter how you pursue in believing in God, if you have too many transgressions which remain unresolved all along, according to the words of God, transgressions will take you to hell. This requirement is quite important. The seventh requirement is that God requires us to be a person who is loyal to God. We believers in God should be loyal to God rather than to any people, matters, or things, and we are also required to offer up our final devotion for God’s work. This is the seventh requirement. The eighth requirement is that God requires us to be honest people. Because God is pleased with honest people, only by being an honest person can we truly receive salvation. The ninth requirement is that God requires us to pursue to be made perfect. God requires us to enter into all truths and become witnesses of God. The tenth requirement is that the chosen people of God must understand the disposition of God and know the practical God on earth. These are the most important things God has required of us, which are also the ultimate effects God’s work will achieve in us. God has made the tenth requirement in the two pieces of His words “It Is Very Important to Understand God’s Disposition” and “How to Know the God on Earth.” We see from God’s work that God has these ten greatest requirements for His chosen people. If a person has met all these ten requirements, he is undoubtedly someone who has been saved and made perfect. If someone has experienced God’s work but not met God’s requirements in the end, or if he has not met even one of God’s requirements, what do you say, can such a man receive God’s salvation? That is absolutely impossible. Not satisfying even one requirement, he is destined to be eliminated. To be sure, those who are eliminated are those who are to be punished by God.

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　　What is the first requirement? That is, God requires us to expend ourselves for Him wholeheartedly. God will bless those who expend themselves for Him wholeheartedly. Have you entered into this requirement? How should one enter into it? Some people say, “This is really quite strange. I’ve never thought about it before, so how could I possibly have entered into it?” Whether you have expended yourself for God wholeheartedly refers to whether you, in experiencing God’s work, have fulfilled the duties that you ought to and that are suitable for you in God’s family. This is one aspect of it. The other aspect is whether you have done what is required of you by God and whether you have made an effort to put it into practice—whether you have put it into practice regardless of how well you have done it. If you say, “I have been putting it into practice but I haven’t done it very well,” it can also be considered as having had some entry. If in experiencing God’s work, first, you do not perform your duty and, second, you do not put into practice what God requires of you, such a person like you have not made any expense for God at all. In God’s family, what kind of a man is it who does not make any expense in God’s work? He is just there to fill the quota. He doesn’t do any duty in experiencing God’s work. Occasionally, he attends the meetings but that’s all. He does not perform any duty. Whatever God requires of him he neither pursues nor practices, as if it had nothing to do with him. Such is not a person that expends himself for God wholeheartedly. What is the second requirement? It is that we are required to undergo refinement to have true faith, the refined faith. Faith that has not gone through refinement is not true faith. If one stands firm after refinement, his faith is a faith that has experienced refinement. Faith that has gone through refinement is true faith. Now, has your faith gone through refinement? What kind of tests does it have to go through? For instance, as you believe in God, an event occurs that poses a great threat and challenge to you. You are bound to betray God and give up your belief if your faith is weak. But you manage to withstand it—you are able to stand firm in this trial and refinement. Subsequently, you feel your faith in God is firmer, and no one can sway your faith in God. This is a faith that has gone through refinement. In this regard, some brothers and sisters may not have experiences, while most brothers and sisters have. The persecutions and tribulations they underwent were so great—the persecution from their families, social rejection and slander, as well as the seizure and persecution by the state, but they could stand firm in the end. Such a faith is not a little faith. What is the third requirement? The third requirement is that God requires us to follow Peter’s example, to be able to pursue to love and know God like Peter, so that we can ultimately be made perfect by God and bear a resounding testimony for God. If we have Job’s faith and Peter’s knowledge of and love for God, we will be ones who have been made perfect. This is a requirement that only those who pursue the truth can fulfill. It is the highest requirement. Anyone who has the will to pursue Peter’s knowledge of and love for God has what it takes to be made perfect. Those who pursue to meet this standard are all ones who have a very strong will and can pay the price and leave everything. Those who now endeavor to pursue the truth, if they can persist to the end and achieve a true knowledge of God, it can be said that they are following Peter’s example, and they will be made perfect by God. If people’s pursuit of the truth is really effective—they only need to understand the truth to practice and enter into the truth, this will ensure that they will be made perfect. Some people who pursue the truth stop when they understand some simple doctrines; they do not seek to enter into or fully gain and possess the truth, but stop at merely understanding doctrines. Such people are too shallow and unable to be made perfect. What does it mean by understanding the truth? Understanding the literal meaning of the truth does not mean understanding the truth. As it does not involve understanding the essence of the truth, it is not understanding the truth. Many people are content with speaking about letters and doctrines; they assume that they have understood the truth as they are able to speak about letters and doctrines, so they begin to be glibly self-aggrandizing, believing that they have possessed the truth. Aren’t they being foolish? Peter pursued the truth and pursued the true knowledge of God. His pursuit fully achieved the results. Peter’s level of achievement was the highest in the Age of Grace because he received the approval of God. God said that Peter was a man who knew God best. The word of God is the testimony and the truth. What is the fourth requirement? We must have enough good deeds. Is this requirement easy to meet? Not at all. What does the “good deeds” refer to? When it comes to any duty that someone can fulfill, if he can do it well and succeed in satisfying God, it is a good deed. If someone is perfunctory and slipshod and cannot satisfy God in performing his duty, it means that he does not have good deeds. Some people have no selfishness in receiving brothers and sisters, and their purpose is just to satisfy God and to fulfill their duty. They believe that they should satisfy brothers and sisters when receiving them. Doing one’s duty like that is a good deed. Some people have given up their families and their jobs, and devote themselves entirely to expending for God. If they can be faithful to God without deception or going through the motions, it is also a good deed. Some people truly offer up their wealth to God, it is a good deed as well. Some people stay celibate for God’s work, devoting their youth to God and expending themselves for Him, this is also a good deed. Some people have abandoned their families, spouses and children, to expend themselves for God. As long as they expend themselves for God with faithfulness, without deceit, perfunctoriness, slipshodness, or dealings, it is a good deed. If people with such good deeds can be faithful to God and satisfy God’s requirements in the end, completely possessing the truth and obtaining changes in their life disposition, they will be God’s most blessed people who can inherit God’s promise. What is the fifth requirement? We must know our own corrupt essence and enter onto the right track of believing in God. This is God’s requirement for His chosen people. What is the sixth requirement? One must resolve his transgressions, because those transgressions will take him to hell. How should one enter into this requirement? One must resolve his transgressions. What are those transgressions? What transgressions can take one to hell? Like judging God, always having notions about God, and always complaining about God and having grievances against God, these are transgressions that offend God’s disposition. They are very serious. Some people deceive God in performing their duties by doing them perfunctorily and going through the motions, thereby creating troubles for the work of God’s family; this is a transgression. One more example. Some people steal the offerings to God. They pilfer, embezzle, steal or appropriate the offerings made by God’s chosen people to God. These transgressions are the same as those of Judah. They are more serious. In addition, fornication, homosexuality, deceiving and disturbing God’s family, drawing brothers and sisters over to one’s own side, and disturbing the church life, these are evil deeds and transgressions. If you have committed these transgressions and instead of resolving them, you commit them over and over again, you will be finished and surely be cast down to hell. God will not save you. Since mankind is utterly corrupt, during the course of God’s work, it is inevitable for people to occasionally commit some transgressions. This is normal. But once you commit a transgression, you must resolve it. You cannot commit it again and again. After committing a particular transgression, if you are pruned, dealt with, judged and chastised, you shall not commit it a second time. If you commit it a second and third time, the Holy Spirit will stop working in you, because you are a habitual transgressor. God will not save you anymore. This is why it is said that transgressions will take man to hell. When someone is allowed to be a leader in God’s family, he does not do his duty well, and instead he just does it perfunctorily and goes through the motions, and he ends up being eliminated by God’s family. This is a transgression. When God’s family allows someone to do his duty, he is unfaithful in it and deceives God’s family, which holds things up and causes troubles for the family of God. This is a transgression. If someone doesn’t repent after committing such a transgression, and no matter how he is dealt with and pruned by God’s family, he shows no changes and keeps on deceiving God’s family and acting irresponsibly, such a person will be eliminated by God’s family. He will no longer be needed to do his duty, because he is not a trustworthy person. He has no credibility. A person without credibility is not trustworthy. Does someone like this have any human dignity, conscience and sense? Can someone without any human dignity be called a human being? Such a person is not different from an animal. That is an inferior and abject person. A man needs prestige as much as a tree needs bark. A man without human dignity lacks prestige. Such a person is disliked and detested by God. Even people dislike and loathe such a person. He is universally rejected and outcast. If you pursue salvation, you must resolve any transgression as it happens. If you always condone your transgressions and scoff constraints, and you ignore whatever transgressions you have committed and act as if nothing has happened, muddling along, then you are a hopeless person. At present, there are many people in God’s family who do not pursue the truth. Why haven’t they been expelled from God’s family? That is to give them a chance and observe them. If they really do not pursue the truth and can even do evil and disturb the church life and God’s chosen people’s entry into life, they will then be expelled. Any evildoer or anyone who is detrimental to God’s chosen people can be denied as a brother or sister and rejected by God’s chosen people. There is no need to show love for such a person. What is the point of showing love for this kind of person? He is the devil, the servant of Satan; he is not the object of God’s salvation. There is no need for us to call such a person a brother or sister, or to treat him as one. We can just treat him as an unbeliever. Those who have spoken words of disturbing the brothers and sisters, those who have spoken words resistant to God and judgmental to God’s work are all wicked people, and the church has the right to expel them. If most brothers and sisters say that a certain person is not a true believer and he speaks like an unbeliever, this is enough. He can be expelled. Therefore, those who have committed transgressions without repentance, who always commit transgressions without pursuing the truth for remedy, are evildoers and unbelievers. These people should not be treated as our brothers and sisters. They should be handled as unbelievers. What is the seventh requirement? It is that we are required to be a person loyal to God. Have you entered into this requirement? Read God’s word carefully to find out what to practice to achieve loyalty to God. What are you being loyal to now? Is it your spouse, children, money, status or honor? Does the truth have any position in your heart? Does God have any place in your heart? What is occupying your heart? Reflect upon yourself. Are you loyal to God? What are the manifestations of being loyal to God? Which of these manifestations do you now have? Do you have a heart loyal to God now? Have you ever thought that man should be loyal to God and give God a place in his heart, and no people or events should have any place in it? Are you clear on how to enter into this requirement? If you have really entered into this truth, then you are certainly a person who has been saved. This is because it is not simple to be loyal to God, which not only means you have had a foundation but also means that you have had some true knowledge of God and that God has a place in your heart. This shows that you are a person who has received salvation. This truth is very important. What is the eighth requirement? It is that God requires us to be honest people. Being an honest person is also crucial. Being an honest person involves the matter of whether you can be saved or not. If you cannot be an honest person, God says you cannot be saved. You see, it is so critical to enter into this requirement. To enter into the truth of being an honest person involves the matter of whether you can be saved. If one day you reflect upon yourself, “Can I really receive God’s salvation?” and you cannot find the basis for assessment, then you should associate it with being an honest person. You should first ask yourself, “Am I an honest person now?” If the things you express are completely in line with the criteria of being an honest person and you have become an honest person, surely there is hope for you to receive salvation. If your behavior and disposition are not those of an honest person, but of a deceitful and selfish and base person who lives only for himself and lacks any concern for God in his heart, then you are a deceitful person. Can a deceitful person receive salvation? A deceitful person is certainly a target for elimination. So, to know whether you can be saved or not, you need to ask yourself if you are an honest person. This is crucial. What is the ninth requirement? It is the pursuit of being made perfect. God requires His chosen people to pursue to be made perfect. Are you now a person who pursues to be made perfect? Do you know how God makes someone perfect? Have you truly cooperated with God? Are you really pursuing the truth? How much have you truly entered into the various aspects of the truth? This is related to the matter of whether you can be made perfect. If you do not know whether you can be made perfect, you should first look at yourself to see if you are a person who pursues the truth. Then you should look at yourself to see how many truths you have understood and possessed today as a believer in God. If you don’t have any truth at all, then you will know you are not a person who pursues the truth. If you have now understood many truths, if you can tell some real experiences and knowledge of many truths, it is enough to prove that you are a person who pursues the truth. Can you now know if you are a person who pursues the truth? Form what aspect can you be sure about it? Have you ever put any effort into the truth? What are you thinking about every day? What do you keep your mind on? Is it all about making a living, eating, drinking and enjoying yourself? If so, it is problematic, and it proves that you are not a person who pursues the truth. It is crucial how much time you spend every day on eating and drinking God’s word and pondering about the truth. In addition, are you practicing God’s word and the truth in your daily life? Can you speak something about your experience on how you practice God’s word in the things you encounter every day? As man does not live in a vacuum, he has to face various kinds of people, things, and events. How do you experience these events when you encounter them? How do you treat them? How do you deal with them? What do you practice? Suppose someone says, “When I encounter whatever an event, I deal with it according to my philosophy of life. I use my head to figure out how to do it right, how not to incur any loss, and then I do it. I have never used the word of God or the truth to deal with it.” Do you think that such a person has God in his real life? Is there God’s word in it? One can say that his faith in God is lip service without reality. In real life, when you encounter things, if you cannot relate any word of God to them, if you don’t practice any word of God, if you don’t apply any truth you understand to them, then your faith in God is just empty talk. Your faith in God is to be mainly manifested in how you apply God’s word in your life and how you lead your life according to God’s word. You need to go by God’s words in how you deal with problems, deal with personnel relations, and deal with all kinds of things. A person who keeps God’s words and requirements in his heart and does not go against them is someone who has God in his heart. Such a person is a true believer of God. Those religious people do not have reality. They only believe in God in the meetings, and they have no God when they get home. There is no God and God’s word in their life. Such people’s way of belief in God is incorrect. They have not brought God and God’s word into real life. How do you lead your life? If you do not have God and His word in your living, then your living must be the living of Satan, the living of unbelievers, the living without the truth, and the living without God’s reign as King. It is completely your own living without anything to do with God. This is enough to prove that you are living outside of God’s word. Can such a man be saved by God? Certainly not. What is the tenth requirement? We must know the God we believe in today. The God we believe in today is not the vague God in heaven, but the practical God incarnate. We eat and drink the word of the practical God and experience His work. If in the end we do not treat Him as God, and do not have the slightest knowledge of Him, God incarnate, without having any substantive knowledge of Him, what do you say, can this kind of person who experiences God’s work like this be saved by God? No. Since he does not know anything about the God he believes in, can he be someone who is obedient to God? Can he be someone who is loyal to God? Can he be someone who loves God? Can he be someone who belongs to God? No. In this case, he must be an object of elimination. Therefore, when we experience God’s work, knowing God is the ultimate criterion that we must meet, and particularly we must understand God’s disposition. It is so important to understand God’s disposition. Why is it so important? If you do not understand God’s disposition, how will you treat God? You will offend God, you will resist God, and you will provoke God’s anger. In addition, if you do not have a real knowledge of God’s disposition, it can be said with certainty that you will never have a fearful heart for God, much less have a loving heart for God. If first, you don’t fear God, and second, you don’t love God, then third, how can you obey God? So, if you have failed to gain knowledge of God, it will be all empty and you will end up with nothing regardless of how many years you have believed in God. It is you who have fooled yourself. Therefore only by knowing the practical God on earth can one be gained by God, be compatible with God, bear good witness for God and receive God’s salvation. If someone has not gained knowledge of the practical God, then he has believed in God in vain and gained nothing. So this requirement is the greatest requirement of all. It is man’s vision for belief in God. If you cannot meet this requirement, then you have no vision. If you believe in God without the vision, it is a confused belief.

How to Experience and Enter Into the Eleven Criteria of Standing Firm in One’s Testimony During Trials

　　At the end of God’s work, God will test each person’s work with trials. What are the criteria whereby God tries man? They are the eleven requirements that God has mentioned in “A Very Serious Problem: Betrayal (2).” God has referred to the eleven requirements for man here. These requirements are the criteria of standing firm in one’s testimony during trials. If a person meets these final eleven requirements, he will receive the final approval of God, which is the receipt of a pass issued by God. During the final trials, if a person fails to stand firm in his testimony, that is, by these eleven criteria, he is unqualified, he will be eliminated; whoever qualifies will be issued a pass. What does the “pass” refer to? It is a permit to enter the kingdom. This permit means that the person will have the presence of the Holy Spirit with him after standing firm in his testimony during trials. That is a permit. These eleven criteria are too critical for standing firm in one’s testimony during various trials in the future! … Let us look at the eleven criteria of standing firm in one’s testimony during trials. After understanding these eleven criteria, a person also needs to be clear about which truths he must understand in order to meet these eleven criteria. Let’s take a look at the eleven criteria now: “1. If you are truly a service-doer, then can you render service to Me loyally, without any perfunctory or negative elements? 2. If you find out that I have never appreciated you, will you still be able to stay and render service to Me for life? 3. If you expended a lot of effort but I am still very cold toward you, will you be able to continue working for Me in obscurity? 4. If, after you have expended some things for Me, I have not satisfied your petty demands, will you be disheartened and disappointed toward Me or even become furious and shout abuse? 5. If you’ve always been very loyal and loving toward Me, yet you suffer the torment of illness, the impoverishment of life, and the abandonment of your friends and relatives or endure any other misfortunes in life, then will your loyalty and love for Me still continue? 6. If none of what you have imagined in your heart matches what I have done, then how will you walk your future path? 7. If you don’t receive anything you hoped to receive, then can you continue to be My follower? 8. If you have never understood the purpose and significance of My work, then can you be an obedient person who does not make arbitrary judgments and conclusions? 9. Can you treasure all the words I have said and all the work I have done when I’m together with mankind? 10. Are you able to be My loyal follower, willing to suffer for Me for life even if you will not receive anything? 11. Are you able to not consider, plan, or prepare for your future path of survival for My sake? These questions are My final requirements of you, and I hope you can all respond to Me. If you fulfill one or two of the things from these questions, then you still need to continue working hard. If you cannot accomplish a single one of these requirements, then you are surely the type that will be cast into hell. I don’t need to say any more to such people. This is because they are certainly not people who can be compatible with Me. How could I keep someone in My home who could betray Me under any circumstance? As for those who could still betray Me under the majority of circumstances, I will observe their performance before making other arrangements. However, as long as they are people who are capable of betraying Me, regardless of under what conditions, I will never forget and I will remember them in My heart while waiting for the opportunity to repay their evil deeds.” After you are clear about these eleven criteria, you have to figure out whether you can meet these eleven criteria, how many of them you can meet and which ones you can’t. You also have to figure out which truths you must have in order to meet all these eleven criteria. You must know these things very well in your heart. If you don’t have any truth at all, it is useless to rely on the perseverance of man. Even the greatest efforts are useless with just perseverance. You need to have the truth. The entry into life that we are communicating today, we all know what it refers to. The entry into life refers to man’s entry into the truth and living out of the truth. Living out the truth is different from following regulations. To live out the truth, one must have the reality of the truth within his life in order to do it. How can you live out the truth if you don’t have the truth within your life? One follows regulations because he has no truth within his life. That’s why he fails in following regulations. Today if we want to meet the final requirements of God—the eleven criteria, what truths we must be equipped with is very important. What is the reality that we should enter into after all? What is actually this reality? It is the ability to stand firm in one’s testimony during the final big trials. It is the most fundamental reality.

　　Let us communicate on the first requirement. God said, “If you are truly a service-doer, then can you serve Me loyally, without any perfunctory or negative elements?” What does it take to satisfy this requirement? How should we experience and enter into it in order to achieve this effect? In the past, some people asked, “Exactly how should we eat and drink God’s word?” Today, this is the most practical way to eat and drink God’s word. As God said, “If you are truly a service-doer,” then we need first to have knowledge about service-doers today. What is a service-doer? Before, we have mentioned that service-doers are all those that believe in God but have not obtained the truth and have not obtained the life. Regardless what kind of duties they fulfill, they are service-doers. They do not have the life. What is “not having life” referring to? It refers to the fact that they have not obtained the truth. Once you have obtained the truth, you have obtained the life. If you have not obtained the truth, you have not obtained the life. If a person has not obtained God’s word as life, then regardless of the duties this person fulfills, he is still just a service-doer. How would you regard this “service-doer” now? If God says now that even though you have obtained the truth, you are still a service-doer, are you willing to be a service-doer? What do you know about the “service-doer”? If you feel that the service-doers are very pitiable, you think very lowly of them, you think that being a service-doer for God is not worthwhile, not worth the trouble, then you are wrong. In fact, it is noblest to work for God as a service-doer. Whether one receives the life or not, isn’t it nobler to do service for God than to do it for any man? It can be said that this is the best kind of life. Now that God elevates us and lets us do service for Him, shouldn’t we be willing to do it, willing to be the service-doers for God? As a creature, isn’t it the noblest life for us to be able to do service for the supreme God? How many people are there who can work for God? So it is not a simple feat to do service for God. Now those who are willing to do service for God are the noblest people, the most conscientious and sensible people. They can be said to be the best people. People who do not want to do service for God, people who look down on the service-doers, people who are unwilling to do service for God, are the most foolish, most inferior and most unconscientious and irrational people. They can also be said to be the most abject people. This is how I think now. Regardless of whether I have gained the truth or not, or to what extent God will make me complete, doing service for God is truly being elevated by God, and doing service for God forever is being exceptionally elevated. Therefore when a creature can see that doing service for God is an exceptional elevation from God and the grace of God, such a person is the most conscientious and sensible of all people. If people really regard doing service for God as the greatest blessing, as God’s elevation and profound love of them, wouldn’t you say it is easy for them to meet the first requirement? It is easy, isn’t it? That is because your inner understanding and your notions have been resolved. You feel that doing service for God is what a man with a conscience and sense should do, and it is God’s elevation of you and the utmost glory. You think very highly of those who do service for God. You have a very correct opinion about and very good understanding of them. This already conforms to God’s will. So it would be easy for you to be a loyal service-doer who does service without any perfunctory or negative elements. If you look down on the service-doer, if you think that being a service-doer is degrading, unpromising and deprecating, then you will not be able to meet this requirement, because you are conceited and arrogant. You look upon yourself too highly, as if it should not be encumbered on you to do service for God, as if you should be one of His people, a firstborn son. So if you are asked to be a service-doer, you probably won’t be able to do that. Isn’t it so? It is easy for man to move up from below. It is not easy for him to be lowered from the top. Therefore a man should not look upon himself too highly, as if he should be one of God’s people and a firstborn son, and definitely not be a service-doer. Anyone who thinks this way will stumble over this requirement and fail to meet it. Are you willing to be a service-doer now? What do you think about it in your heart? If you are a service-doer, what should you do? First, you need to correct your perspective for it to be after God’s heart. Once your perspective is corrected, you will have no wild ambitions yourself, and no extravagant desires to ask anything of God. When it comes to position, you will be content with the lowest standard, down to the bare minimum. When you diligently pursue it this way, it will be easy for you to succeed. It is like someone applying for university. He does not know about his academic performance; he just applies for the best program. What will happen? He will not be accepted. If he applies for a program with minimum requirement, he will be admitted. So those who are ambitious and quite arrogant are prone to fail and stumble. Now I ask you again, what is the goal you pursue in the family of God? If there are four titles—firstborn sons, God’s people, service-doers, and ones who will suffer perdition or destruction, which will you choose? Is there anyone willing to choose the title of being a firstborn son? Some people may want it desperately in their heart despite not admitting it. They do not come to terms with not being a firstborn son. When I put it this way just now, you want to be service-doers. Otherwise, won’t you think primogeniture is more suitable for you? Many people have this wild ambition, especially those who have come over from the religious world. They all want to be firstborn sons and be made perfect by God to be the firstfruits. It is right to pursue to be made perfect. Even if I were a service-doer, I would also pursue to be made perfect. Even if I were a service-doer, I would also pursue to be saved and pursue the truth because it is God’s will and requirement for us to pursue the truth. As long as it is God’s requirement of us, we should pursue to fulfill it. We are very content with being a service-doer, and we will always be grateful to God and praise Him. If you pursue it like this, it will be completely after God’s heart. Now, if one cannot turn against and give up his past ambition, arrogant and conceited ideas, he is prone to stumble. If you do not clearly understand about what we are now communicating, that it is God’s elevation being a service-doer, when you really become a service-doer one day, as God says you are a service-doer, you will vigorously complain. When you vigorously complain and begin to rebel against God and betray God, what consequence it will lead to? I’m afraid it is dangerous. This is how to enter into the first requirement, is it clear? We must first know that it is the elevation and love of God for us to do service for Him. There is one more thing we must know. We are a mankind that has been corrupted by Satan. We should be conscientious and sensible in front of God. Whatever God asks us to do, we should feel that it is God’s elevation and profound love for us. If we go by our own corrupt essence, we should perish and suffer perdition. So it is indeed God’s uplifting of us when He asks us to do service and be a service-doer for Him. We first need to see the significance of being a service-doer clearly and have a correct idea about it. Thus, when God says we are service-doers, we will be able to loyally do service for Him without any perfunctory or negative elements. If you have an incorrect idea about being a service-doer, if you never accept the fact and deny that it is God’s elevation, feeling like God has wronged and abused you, then you will definitely stumble over this requirement. This is how to enter into the first requirement. How then should you pray when you know the way to enter into it? If you really know the meaning of being a service-doer, if you believe that being a service-doer is being elevated by God, what position should you take? You should have conscience and sense in your heart and forgo those arrogant and conceited ideas. If man really knows his own corrupt essence and the true nature of his corruption, he should feel that being a service-doer for God is a divine elevation that man does not deserve. Isn’t it the truth and an honest word? What do you say, if we as a group were asked to do service for an archdemon in the world, wouldn’t many among us be very happy? They would do service for this devil more diligently than for God. If you were put in high office by a king of devils, wouldn’t you be serving diligently and faithfully? When you are allowed to do service for God, you are unmotivated, and you feel that God has mistreated you. What kind of mentality and disposition is that? Why are you so happy to do service for the king of devils but unwilling to do service for the supreme God who loves mankind the most? What kind of nature is that? That is the nature of Satan. Yes, you have to know it this way. If you have a real change in your life disposition, you will feel that you would rather die than do service for the king of devils, that it is a glory and the greatest honor to be a most insignificant service-doer for God. If this is really how you believe in your heart, it proves that you have a real change in your life disposition. If you would rather die than serve the king of devils, would rather do service for the supreme God as the least of service-doers, ensure loyal service, and pay any price to satisfy God, then you will have fulfilled this requirement of God. There is a brother who has changed his surname to Ma (which means horse in Chinese). I asked him, “Why did you change your surname to ‘Ma’?” He said, “I changed it to ‘Ma’ because I wanted to be a work horse for God. I am willing to do service for God like a work horse. I used to always betray and resist God. This time I will devote myself completely to doing service for God. I would not complain even if I were slaughtered by God after that.” It is apparent that people have a real change after undergoing the trial of service-doers. There is within them a new knowledge of being a service-doer as they have known it in quite a new way. Therefore if man does not suffer some refinement and trial, it is not easy for him to change. As you can see, no matter how corrupt a person is, he is without exception very arrogant. His intrinsic ideal and ambition are higher than anyone else’s. When it comes to doing some service for God, he is unwilling. When it comes to vying for position, his ambition is unmatched. Man is so corrupt that he has totally lost his sense. Now there are many things to be done in God’s family, and there are many duties for people to perform. When they begin to do their duties, people all feel somewhat unfair, somewhat unjust, and are unwilling to loyally do their duties well. They all do their duties in a perfunctory and slipshod manner, as if they were justified in acting in such a manner when serving God. If they did service for the king of devils, they would be much more serious. They would not dare to make the slightest mistake, fearing that they would not get its praises. That’s why I say, man thinks very low of God and too high of himself. How high does he think of himself? So high that he feels that he is treated unfairly and unjustly if he is asked to do service for God. Can you say that human nature is not rebellious against God? He feels that doing service for Satan is being so elevated that he should be loyal and diligent, but he thinks differently when he does service for God. Such is the nature of man. It is indeed the nature of Satan. Why is man so good to Satan? Why does man have so much affection for Satan? Why does he always hold grudges against God? In man’s heart, why does God have so small a position and Satan so big? Isn’t his disposition that of Satan? So if a man can truly be a loyal service-doer before God, it proves that he has a conscience and sense. If he cannot even be a loyal service-doer, can you say that such a person has any conscience and sense? He has none whatsoever. Can such a person receive salvation? Does he fit to enter God’s kingdom? Now are there any people who believe in God with very high expectation for blessing, but who are unwilling or disinclined to perform their duties, not wanting to do any duty? Is there such a kind of people? What do you say, does this kind of people have any conscience and sense? They just want God’s blessings, just want to enter God’s kingdom, but they don’t want to do service. These people are so calculative. They don’t want to suffer any loss. They just want to take advantage. They covet great blessings without any exertion. What nature is this? What humanity is this? Should they not change, and how? By eating and drinking God’s word, one can change his own viewpoint and can see that his own nature actually is the nature of Satan, the nature of rebellion against God. He should regret and hate himself. He should pray to God and accept God’s judgment and chastisement submissively to undergo a change in his life disposition. Then it will be easy for him to meet God’s requirement. If a man has Satan’s disposition in him, he is simply unwilling to do service for God. Tell me, can he be a loyal service-doer? Can this service not be tainted with any perfunctory or negative elements? If he really has conscience and sense, and really knows that this is the veritable God, the Creator of the heavens and earth and all things, won’t he feel that it is a great glory to do service for this Creator? To do service for Satan is to betray God, and whoever does so deserves death. It is so ignominious to serve Satan. That is to be in the image of Satan the devil. Will you still be willing to serve Satan if you know this? By the time your life disposition has really changed and you have become someone who feels shameful to do service for Satan, who would rather die than do service for Satan, the king of devils, who would cast aside everything to do service for God, who could offer everything to God, you will be a person who really belongs to God and truly believes in God. Have people undergone such changes in their life disposition now? Can they reach this realm? If not, how should they pursue it? A man needs to know whether his actual state is in betrayal of God. For example, after reading God’s requirement in this sentence, you may ask yourself, “If I am truly a service-doer in believing God, how will I deal with it? If God says I am a service-doer, can I really do service for God loyally? When I am doing service for God, will my service not be tainted with any perfunctory or negative elements?” Then you will know whether you are able to do it or not. If you know you are unable, if you will complain against God when you hear that you are a service-doer, you will even do service for God in a perfunctory and slipshod manner, or you will become passive and retreat, then you should know what kind of nature you have. You will be able to completely see the actual fact of your betrayal of God. When you see that you are really a betrayer of God, you should ponder: “If God says I am a service-doer, I cannot do service for Him loyally. If I am actually asked to do service for Him, I can even do it in a perfunctory and slipshod manner, and I can become passive and retreat. Isn’t this the disposition of Satan? Isn’t this the disposition of someone who completely belongs to Satan? He cannot receive the salvation of God. Nor is he fit to live in the family of God, and he is even more unworthy of entering the kingdom of God. If that is the case, am I not still the perishing type? Now I see the truth about myself. No, I need to pursue. I need to accept God’s judgment and chastisement. My life disposition needs to change. Otherwise, I will be in trouble.” You need to ponder and understand it like this. After understanding it, you need to pray. After praying for six months or a year, when in your heart you reach the point where if God really says you are a service-doer, you surely will not be passive but be faithful in doing your duty, that will be fine. From now on, we will practice to be loyal service-doers. When we do our duties now, we will begin not to do them in a perfunctory and slipshod manner with negativity. We will care about God’s will in everything, and do all our duties properly to satisfy God. We will experience and practice it like this now. After practicing for a period of time, you will know whether you can be a loyal service-doer. If you really perform your duty without a bit of perfunctoriness or slipshodness, doing it just in order to be a loyal service-doer, if you are fully able to perform your duty without a shred of perfuntoriness, slipshodness, or negativity, and you can satisfy God in everything you do, then you will have fulfilled the first requirement. This is the entry into God’s word. Now we are eating and drinking God’s word. If we want to enter into life, this is how we should practice it. After practicing for a while, what will you say when someone says you are a service-doer? You will say, “I am doing service for God now. I have long been willing to be a service-doer. How do you see the way I am performing my duty as a service-doer now? Is there any part of my performance that is not up to standard? Is there any part of my duty that I have done perfunctorily or muddled through?” He will say, “Oh, you have long been a service-doer, no wonder you look so serious in doing your duty.” You will say, “I have long experienced it in my heart. I think that doing any service for God is being elevated by God.” You see, haven’t you entered into it ahead of time? You have practiced like this long ago. When you are practicing like this, if various trials befall you one day and God says, “You are a service-doer. It is very good that you are able to do service loyally,” will you still have any complaint then? You will be secretly glad, “I am lucky enough to have experienced this requirement early on and practiced it. Now I am praised by God.” At that time, you will be jumping for joy, and you will not have any complaint. You will say, “My wish and ideal have finally been fulfilled.” When you are praising God like this, God will elevate you again, saying that you are actually one of God’s people instead of a service-doer. How will you feel when you hear God say this? You will be ecstatic, won’t you? You will also feel undeserving in your heart: “God is elevating me exceptionally. I did not hope for it. I thought it was good enough to be a loyal service-doer. I did not expect God to promote me to be one of His people.” You will thank and praise God all the more. This is how to enter into God’s word. A conscientious and sensible person can practice it like this. This is especially true with the leaders at every level today. You need to start out as a service-doer. When someone says, “Ah, you are a leader. So you are definitely someone who is being made perfect. All those who are being made perfect will be firstborn sons,” you should say, “No, you are wrong! I am a service-doer. I am just willing to be a loyal service-doer who endeavors to satisfy God. It is fine as long as I can satisfy God.” If you experience and practice it like this, what does it mean? It means that you are conscientious and sensible. No unconscientious and irrational person can live up to this. What do the unconscientious and irrational people compete for? They compete to be firstborn sons and people of God’s kingdom, don’t they? Some people now even always want to be the Christ, who will become false Christs and antichrists. Why will those people become false Christs and antichrists? That is determined by Satan’s disposition within them. When Satan’s disposition is in power within them, they are simply devoid of conscience and reason. They are not even content with being the firstborn sons. They want to be the Christ and God. Isn’t this what it is all about? How many people are there among the entire corrupt mankind who want to be God, the Christ or president? Too many! After being corrupted by Satan, people all harbor arrogant ambitions. They are no small ambitions. As you can see, those people who believe in Buddhism want to become Buddha, people who believe in Taoism want to become a deity, people of all other religions want to be God or the pope, and the unbelievers in the world all want to be the president and the prime minister. Human ambitions are so big! We, however, are experiencing God’s judgment and chastisement in order to be changed in life disposition, be saved by God and become God’s people in His kingdom. Therefore those who have changed in their life disposition do not have wild ambitions, and they only have one desire—to satisfy God. However God requires us to pursue, that is how we will pursue. Whatever God tells us to pursue, that is what we will pursue. Whatever God asks us to do, we will do. When God says, “You must pursue the truth,” then we will pursue the truth. When God says, “You must pursue to be made perfect,” then we will pursue to be made perfect. As to what titles we will have in the end after pursuing the truth and pursuing to be made perfect, that is God’s arrangement, not our choices. As long as we can succeed in satisfying God, carrying out God’s will, living out the real life to comfort God, we will feel satisfied. What title we will have afterward is up to God, not us. When people pursue like this, do you think it is appropriate? Are they conscientious and sensible? Can they satisfy God? This is how we should pursue. If a man can pursue like this, keep it this way in the depth of his heart, not just saying it with his lips, but keeping it like this in his heart, isn’t this someone who has a change in life disposition? It is. He has no wild ambition, and he only has a heart that desires to satisfy God, a heart that desires to satisfy God’s requirement. This is fine. If someone asks you, “What blessings can you actually receive in the future by believing in Almighty God?” what do you say? You should say, “We are not after any blessings or something. We mainly want to pursue the truth and be saved by God so that our satanic nature will change, and we will be after God’s heart. This is our purpose in believing God. We are mainly after this effect and nothing else. As for whether we will enter God’s kingdom, it is up to God’s sovereignty and arrangements.” What do you think about these words? Is it appropriate and sensible to say so? It is not a simple feat to be so sensible. For instance, when facing a problem, if you are asked what you should do to be considered sensible, can you find the way in which someone sensible should practice? Can you find it? Do you know what a sensible person will say and what a rational person will pursue and do? Can you say it clearly? You cannot. You cannot imagine it, isn’t that true? Why can’t you imagine it? Because you probably do not possess what it takes to be sensible. If you do, you will know what sensible people are possessed of. As for the first requirement, I think we know how to enter into it now.

　　In the second requirement, God said, “If you find out that I have never appreciated you, will you still be able to stay and serve Me for life?” Isn’t this requirement kind of difficult? What do people all like? “The more you appreciate me, the more I am willing to do service for you. When you don’t appreciate me, I won’t feel like doing service for you, and I won’t want to work for you.” You see, it takes effective impetus for man to do service. Corrupt mankind does anything with conditions. When believing in God, if they are asked to do service for God, they also lay conditions: “You need to appreciate me, highly value me, and bless me when I do service for You. If You don’t appreciate me, approve of me or bless me at all, then I won’t do service for You.” Isn’t it the disposition of corrupt mankind? It is. But God said, “If you find out that I have never appreciated you, will you still be able to stay and serve Me for life?” Tell me, does God appreciate human beings like us who have been so deeply corrupted by Satan? The answer is no. If you are really clear about this, are you willing to stay and do service for God for a lifetime? Someone says yes. Does he have the drive in his heart when he says so? You say it so well now. Wait and see how you are going to do service later. When you become passive and discouraged, and want to go home, it will prove that you have a problem inside, which is your God-betraying nature. Isn’t it so? You will say, “If God does not appreciate me, I won’t do service then. What’s the point in doing service?” Isn’t this a betrayal of God? Corrupt mankind tries to strike a deal in everything they do. When you do some work for others, you ponder, “What benefits will you give me as I work for you? What kind of food will you offer me? How much will you pay me?” You keep pondering over it. When you don’t see something you like at meal time, you think, “Fine. You don’t feed me well. I won’t work for you anymore.” When you get paid and you feel the money is not enough, you think, “Fine. The pay is so meager. I won’t work for you then.” If someone really tries to strike a deal with God within himself, what kind of disposition do you call this? It is Satan’s disposition. Now take a look to see if you have that kind of disposition. After seeing there is, what do you think? Don’t you think, “Am I really such a bad person? Am I really so terrible? I feel that I am not bad at all. I can’t be so terrible!”? This is certainly how people think. People always see their own goodness and look at their own good aspects. They conceal their satanic nature completely and wish no one would find out. People know how to disguise. They are good at it. Now, exactly how should we enter into the second requirement? If we learn that God has never appreciated us, we should face it properly. If God does not appreciate us, it means that we don’t deserve God’s appreciation. We are unworthy of appreciation. So God does not appreciate us. Everything God does is meaningful. If we are really worthy of God’s appreciation, it is not possible that God does not appreciate us. God will certainly appreciate us. If we don’t have anything worthy of appreciation, God certainly does not appreciate us then. Now we have seen that we are so deeply corrupted by Satan, and we indeed have nothing worthy of God’s appreciation. It can be said that in whatever aspect, all that we reveal is corruption. There is nothing worthy of God’s appreciation. For instance, in the aspect of loyalty, do we have anything worthy of God’s appreciation? On obedience, do we have anything worthy of God’s appreciation? On testimony, there is also nothing. On our caliber, our personalities, our hearts, or our dispositions, there is nothing worthy of God’s appreciation either. If we don’t have anything worthy of God’s appreciation, should we demand God’s appreciation when we are doing service for Him? Should we have such a demand? It is already God’s exceptional exaltation of us that we can do service for Him. Based on our dispositions and the degrees of our corruption, we cannot even do service well or loyally for God and our service cannot even satisfy God’s desire, so we are even less worthy of God’s appreciation. If we really believe that our services are not worthy of God’s appreciation, and that we have nothing worthy of God’s appreciation, we will be willing to do service for God. If God never appreciates us, we will still be gratified that we can do service for God. If we really think like this, will we not be able to do service for God for the rest of our lives? It will be much easier this way. For we have come to know ourselves and know that we have been so deeply corrupted that nothing of us is worthy of God’s appreciation. So when we do service for God, we will not demand God’s appreciation. Even if God has never appreciated us, we will admit that as we have known it. This way, we will be able to do service for God for life willingly, and it will be easy to meet this requirement of God. If you feel that you are so good, that you can satisfy God in every respect, and that you are very worthy of God’s appreciation, and no matter how trivial a service you do for God, you ask God in your heart, “You must appreciate me because I am so worthy of Your appreciation. If You don’t, I can’t do service for You,” if you have this kind of ideas and mentality, what does it show? It shows that your nature is still the nature of Satan, that you still belong to Satan, and that you still have Satan’s disposition. If you have this idea, this thought, if you feel you are so good and worthy of God’s appreciation, it is enough to prove that you belong to Satan. You are too conceited, too arrogant, too irrational, and too ignorant of yourself. Such an utterly corrupted person who is full of Satan’s disposition does not fit to live before God and do service for God. So, if a man is irrational enough to ask for God’s appreciation when he does service for God, such a person is unable to stand in front of God. He will surely fall during various trials. Now, do we still have such a demand? No matter how trivial a service we perform for God, we keep demanding that God appreciate us, highly value us, commend us and bless us—do we still have such a mentality? If anyone does, he is in great danger. If you have such a corrupt disposition, and such extravagant desires, then you are unable to fulfill this requirement. This is the second requirement.

　　In the third requirement, God said, “If you expended a lot of effort but I am still very cold toward you, will you be able to continue working for Me in obscurity?” If a corrupt man, after expending a lot of effort in the family of God, sees that God is very cold to him, he will certainly be passive, regress, and even betray God. This is the natural behavior of corrupted mankind. Through experiencing God’s judgment and chastisement, we should have some change now. If we expended a lot of effort but God is still very cold to us, how should we look at it? After expending a lot of effort, a person will feel in his heart that he has merits, and that he should receive approval and commendation from God, so he will feel comfortable in his heart, and it will be acceptable to see God’s smile at least. If God is still very cold to him, he will feel that God is too inconsiderate to him and it is absolutely wrong for God to treat him this way. He feels that it is so unfair that after expending so much effort, he doesn’t even see God’s smile. God should not treat him like that. He feels that had he expended so much effort for people, they would have nodded and smiled to him. They would have given him incentives and rewarded him. But this demand is not met when doing service for God. What do you say, is this kind of disposition not Satan’s disposition? Yes, it is. He is constantly comparing God with man. He feels, “What I should get in return for working this way for God should be similar to what I should get in return for working the same way for people.” Is this a proper logic? This is Satan’s logic. When you work for people, they should treat you in a certain way. You cannot apply this to God. Your status and others’ are equal. When you give them some benefits, they are indebted to you. They should make compensation to you. This is right. But what are we in front of God? We are God’s creation. We are corrupt mankind. As corrupt mankind, shouldn’t we exert some effort for God? We should. It is heaven’s law and earth’s principle. Suppose you feel that you should exert some effort for God, and feel that especially as we are corrupt mankind that lacks conscience and sense and that resists and rebels against God so much, exerting some effort to repay God for His love is so justified. If so, can you still make any unreasonable demands of God? Can you still ask God, “For so much effort I have made, You need to smile at me, approve of me and bless me”? Tell me, does someone with such an extravagant desire have any conscience and sense? He doesn’t have any, right? So, when we work for God, no matter how hard we work, how much we offer, and what price we pay, we should not ask God to smile at us, to give us compensation and blessings. We are not fit for God’s smiles and blessings. If a person thinks like this, he is a person with conscience and sense. Someone with conscience and sense should behave like this and treat God like this. If a person lacks conscience and sense, when he sees God being very cold to him after he has expended a lot of effort, he will of course feel passive, complain, voice grievances, and even betray God. This kind of disposition is Satan’s disposition. If an utterly corrupted man has truly expended a lot of effort for God, yet God is still very cold to him, and after knowing this, he becomes passive and regress, wouldn’t you say it is true that such a person has not attained God’s salvation? It is enough to prove that his life disposition has not changed a bit, that he does not have any truth at all, and that he has not entered into any of God’s words. After expending a lot of effort, such a person can utter grievances, complain against God, and betray God if he sees that God is very cold to him. This is enough to prove that he is the manifestation of Satan, and he will be eliminated. The way to enter into this requirement ought to be clear.

　　In the fourth requirement, God said, “If, after you have expended some things for Me, I have not satisfied your petty demands, will you be disheartened and disappointed toward Me or even become furious and shout abuse?” “Expend some things for God,” do you know what it means? It involves paying a price for God or offering up something to God. After expending some things for God, if not even his petty demands have been granted by God, can a man feel disheartened and disappointed toward God? We all know now, a corrupt human being wants something in return for every effort he makes and everything he expends. This is especially true for what he expends for God. In his heart, he certainly wants to ask God for blessing. We have heard something about certain people who forsook everything for God, including the world, their families, their spouses and their children, to serve God. Later, when they had difficulties or illness, they prayed to God, but God did not answer their prayers. Then they were disheartened and disappointed toward God. They became passive, regressed and complained about God. Afterward, they stopped doing their duties. After expending some things for God, a man is disheartened and disappointed when his petty demands are not granted by God. What do you say, does such a person have any conscience and sense? What kind of disposition does he have? After expending some things for God, he can complain about God when his petty demands are not satisfied by God. This proves that there was a motive behind his expense, which was a business deal. If his expense for God had never been intended as a business deal, had he never wanted anything, would he be disheartened and disappointed when his petty demands are not granted by God? Certainly not. This is because he made no demand of God. He would be merely willing to satisfy God on his part, which he would think to be fine and enough, for he never made any demand of God. If he made no demand of God, he wouldn’t be disheartened and disappointed when his petty demands are not satisfied by God. If he really has a demand, a very strong demand, when God does not satisfy it, he will certainly be discouraged and disappointed, become furious, or even shout abuse. Has this ever happened? Doesn’t everyone express such corruptions? When someone became ill or felt unwell after paying a price for God, he prayed to God for his illness to be cured. God did not cure his illness, and he complained against God. What was he complaining about? “I have done so much work for God, how could it be that God refused to cure my minor illness?” Would you say that this kind of complaint is in line with the truth? No, it isn’t. What is the reason behind this kind of complaint? Where does it come from? It comes from the corrupt flesh. It is produced by the corrupt disposition. The corrupt disposition of man drives man to want to get some rewards and benefits from anyone and to have a deal-making mentality toward anyone no matter what he does for him. As you can see, people make deals with others all the time: “I am doing something for you today. When I ask you for something later, you need to return the favor.” All people have this kind of deal-making mentality. This inherent deal-making mentality is basically a kind of selfishness and baseness. A kind-hearted person would not demand something in return after doing something for others. He does not make such a demand; he thinks, “I should help others. I do not deserve others’ help. I should not demand anything from others. Perhaps others can do something for me, but if they don’t, it is normal. I don’t have any complaint. I should not demand too much from others. It is wrong for me to demand too much from them, and I should not have a deal-making mentality.” This is how a kind-hearted person should treat others. In particular, we should be conscientious and sensible toward God because we owe God too much. God shows us grace even though we are such deeply corrupted human beings. Despite His disgust with and abhorrence for our corruptions, God gives us salvation, guidance and supply, and lets us eat and drink His word, and the Holy Spirit enlightens and illuminates us to understand the truth. God has done so much for us. How much trouble can our petty demands be? God has done so much for us, but why doesn’t He satisfy those petty demands of ours? What is this all about? Could it be that God says, “I have done so much for you already, so there is no need to fulfill these petty demands of yours”? Is this what it means? No. What does it mean then? God sometimes works like this. In this round of His work, God tries us frequently. God refines us for us to know Him and abandon our personal demands on Him, so we can have real conscience and sense, learn how to obey, be purified and forgo our extravagant desires. So there are God’s good intentions in everything God does, which is for saving and purifying us, and is for exposing us so that we will know ourselves. On our side, if we want to satisfy God, we should abandon all our extravagant desires, rebel against our flesh, and refrain from having any deal-making mentality toward God, and should just ask ourselves to satisfy God in everything we do, and to do our duties well as God’s creation without any extravagant desires toward God. No matter what we pray or supplicate to God for, if God answers it, it is God’s love for us. If God does not satisfy our demands, it is God’s love for us too, as God loves us so much. If we have this knowledge of God, and have this sense in what we should do, this requirement will be easy to fulfill. Isn’t it so? Therefore, a person who truly has conscience and sense, who truly knows his own corrupt essence and can rebel against his flesh, and who can abandon his extravagant desires, can never again make any demand of God, and can obey God regardless of what God does will not become passive, much less become furious or shout abuse when he faces this kind of trial, and instead he will praise and thank God. No matter what he has prayed or supplicated to God for, even though God has not satisfied him, he will still thank God and obey God’s arrangement. This is a human being who truly has a conscience and sense. You now know how to enter into this requirement, don’t you? Above all, as human beings, we need to have conscience and sense and rebel against our flesh. No matter what God does, we need to grasp His intention and be able to absolutely obey Him. No matter what God does, if we can thank God, we will be a most sensible person. Many people voice grievances and complaints when their petty demands are not satisfied. These people are too unreasonable. When some people were ill, they prayed to God for cure. They prayed a few dozen times a day. When there was no improvement in several days, they complained about God, “I have prayed for days and I don’t see my illness get any better. I won’t do my duty anymore.” What do you say, do such people have any sense? No. What should you do when you are ill? Go to see your doctor, instead of going to God for help, as God has nothing to do with curing your illness. Is that right or wrong? Some people don’t know. You need to pray to God with the right mentality. You need to learn to grasp God’s intention. For example, when you are ill, you pray, “God, I am Your beloved. You can’t let me fall ill. So I ask You to cure me.” Is this the right way to pray? Not really. Then how should you pray? Someone says, “There is Your good will in my illness. Let me understand Your will. I will still pursue the truth hard.” This is correct. This is a good way to pray. You should also pray like this: “I am ill, and there is Your good will in it.” This is what you should first say in your prayer. Then, you should say: “A corrupt human being like me deserves to be ill. God, You need to refine me with illness so I will be faithful to You. I cannot be too weak. The more I am ill, the more I need to rebel against Satan, rebel against my flesh, and pursue to satisfy You and be loyal to You. This is the best trial for me. It was because of Your love that illness came upon me. I thank You for it. When You achieve the result in trying me that I have been truly purified and can be faithful to You, then God, You can remove my illness.” Is this a good way to pray? It is good, but man is reluctant to suffer. Although the heart of man is willing, his flesh is weak and unwilling to suffer. So some people add another word to their prayer: “O God, it is better that You cure my illness, better that You remove my illness.” You see, what is this extra word for? It does not make sense to add this word. It is not a proper word. The words man says and the prayers he makes before God best reveal the problems of his conscience and sense. No matter how we pray, afterward, if we consider whether we had a conscience and sense by praying this way, we will realize that some of our words were inappropriate and we were not sensible in saying some words, right? When the time comes that a person inspects the many words he said in a prayer, if he finds that he said everything in a very conscientious, sensible, faithful, and obedient manner, and that everything he said was comforting God’s heart and satisfying God, if he finds everything he said was like this, then he will have truly changed in his life disposition and will really have a normal humanity, and he will truly be someone who lives in front of God. If a person inspects his prayer afterward and finds that most of his words lacked a sense of conscience and reason, which even came from the flesh, came from Satan’s disposition, then it proves that he has not been purified, he does not have the truth, and he still lacks the conscience and sense of a normal person. He is still far from receiving salvation. After you finish praying nowadays, can you detect any problems in your prayer? Do you examine your prayer after you make it? What do you do when you find problems? You need to pray again. What should you say to God when you pray again? You should say, “O God, I see that my prayer just now was too unreasonable, and I was devoid of humanity in some words I said in my prayer. I am so remorseful that I want to pray to You again.” This is how you should say it. If we always live in front of God, every time we pray, it is an opportunity for us to be purified. From our prayers, we can locate our corruptions, and where we lack conscience and sense; we can pinpoint our existing problems. So praying before God is the best way to know ourselves and discover our problems. If you do not pray before God, then you won’t find your existing problems; you won’t know whether you have a conscience and which aspects of you are still not after God’s own heart. It is easiest to find the problems only when you come before God. Therefore, in order to truly know yourself, you need to pray much before God, often pray before God, often examine yourself. Now there are some brothers and sisters who only ask God for something and do not commune with God about spiritual matters in life when they pray before Him. When they come before God, the only thing they know is to ask for something, and there is nothing else. They never speak to God from their hearts, fellowship about the truth, communicate about how to know themselves, or examine what corruptions they have expressed. They don’t pray to God about these things. They only ask God to do things for them and satisfy their physical needs. God is not pleased with this kind of people. You always pray to God this way, just asking God for something. Other than that, you never know how to pursue, how to know yourself, how to satisfy God, how to enter into the word of God, and how you are supposed to grasp God’s will. Why don’t you pray to God about these things concerning how to pursue the growth of life and how to enter into the word of God? Why can’t you open your heart to God? This proves that you lack real fellowship with God. You are only asking for this and that for your own flesh. What kind of a person do you say you are? This kind of person is not someone who pursues the truth; he is not someone who really loves the truth. He doesn’t have any true fellowship with God. His relationship with God is only limited to asking God for something. He just keeps asking, asking, and asking, nothing else. What exactly is his reason for believing in God? He purely wants to exploit God, he wants blessings from God. This has exposed his intention and purpose in believing in God. It is not that man should not ask God for something. Rather, man should pray more for his life and for his salvation, ask for how to receive God’s purification and salvation by fellowshiping more with God, speaking of more words within his heart, trying more often to grasp God’s intention and seeking more how to satisfy God. If you pray to God and fellowship with God this way, it is enough to prove that you are someone who pursues the truth and salvation, you are willing to seek God’s intention, you are willing to satisfy God, and you have the will to obey God. So from the way a man prays to God, you can see his intention and purpose in believing in God, and whether he is someone who pursues the truth. As you can see, man always pretends when he speaks. However, when he prays before God, he is unable to pretend. He says whatever he thinks in his heart. Anything he wants to ask for in his heart, he will certainly say. When you pray before God, do you mainly ask for something or do you seek the truth? Which kind of prayer do you mainly make? You should open your heart to God, seek the truth, try to grasp God’s intention, and seek how to satisfy God and how to be made complete by God. If your prayer is always centered upon these things, it is most pleasing to God. Let’s take a child for example. Suppose the only thing a child says in front of his parents is “I am hungry. Give me something to eat.” Whenever he comes before his parents, he says, “Give me something to eat.” He never talks about anything else to his parents from his heart, or about learning something. Do you think this child is lovely or not? When he reaches five to six, or even seven to eight years old, if he still cannot speak like a human but only says, “I am hungry, give me something to eat,” isn’t he kind of silly? This child is mentally abnormal. He won’t grow up to be anything. He only knows about eating, nothing else, doesn’t he? Do you want to have a child like this? Then what kind of children do we want to be before God? We need to learn to care for God’s heart’s desire and be someone who truly loves God.

　　In the fifth requirement, God said, “If you’ve always been very loyal and loving toward Me, yet you suffer the torment of illness, the impoverishment of life, and the abandonment of your friends and relatives or endure any other misfortunes in life, then will your loyalty and love for Me still continue?” This requirement is not a small trial for man. It is not a simple thing that a man has been very loyal, very loving to God, but he is afflicted by the throes of illness. For most people, if they have been very loyal and very loving to God, yet they are afflicted by the throes of illness, they will most likely complain. Particularly if they have hardships in life, difficulties with livelihood, they will blame God even more. In addition, they may also be abandoned by their relatives and friends or endure other misfortunes in life. If they are afflicted by these predicaments, can their loyalty and love for God remain? Recall how you felt when you were ill and stricken by some misfortune. Did you complain and think, “I have been so loyal and loving to God, how could this happen to me”? Did you think like this? You certainly did. However, some people could speak out and voice their complaint, while others keep it in their hearts without speaking it out. Anyway, the conditions in their hearts are the same. How should this matter be dealt with after all? What problem is it? What foundation are one’s loyalty to and love for God built on? How can it be proven that one truly has loyalty to God? How can it be shown that one truly has love for God? They need to be proven by trials and refinements. So, some people who are truly loyal to God, who really love God, will certainly encounter some trials. In order to test you to see if your loyalty to God is really true or not and see if your love for God is really true or not, God will let you encounter illness, encounter various difficulties in life, encounter desertion by your family, relatives, and friends, and the world, to see how you will behave. So when you encounter this kind of trial, God’s first purpose is to expose you, to see if your loyalty and love are really true or not. His second purpose is to purify you, because there are impurities in your loyalty and love. If you are aware of these impurities when you encounter a variety of trials, you will be cleansed of them. If a man has true loyalty to and true love for God, then no matter what befalls him or no matter what kind of trial he encounters, he will not fall down, and will continue to be loyal and loving toward God without wavering. For those whose loyalty and love contain impurities and dealings, it will not be easy to stand firm when trials come upon them, and it will be easy for them to topple. Such people will easily be exposed, won’t they? Therefore, it is such a case in God’s work. The more loyal you are to God, and the more love you have for Him, the more there will be trials to befall you and expose you. We have read the testimony of Job, whose testimony was: Job could fear God and shun evil. So God blessed him and let the sheep and other livestock he raised multiply, and let his household prosper. In the eyes of man at that time, as long as a man feared God and as long as he could shun evil, he would receive God’s blessings. But what did Satan think after a person received the blessings of God? Satan would say, “This man fears God because God is kind to him and God protects him. If God deprives him of his wealth, he will blame God and forsake God.” This was how Satan would look at it. Now we know that was because Satan is such a thing by nature; it was how Satan treated God, so it was also how Satan looked at mankind. Satan believed that mankind was just like it: When God gives him blessings, he is full of joy, and gives thanks and praises to God; once God withdraws His blessings, once God deprives him of the blessings he has received before God, he will complain against and desert God. Thus, God lets man encounter trials to test man’s work. When Job came across such trials, he did not complain. He stood firm in his testimony. This showed that Job’s faith in God was true. He did not build his faith on the foundation of receiving blessings, not saying “If You give me blessings, I will have faith in You, God. If You don’t bless me, I won’t have faith in You.” Job was not such a person. Now there are many people who have been very loyal to God, who have much love for God. Can these people stand firm when they encounter some trials? It is hard to say. Therefore, God will try all those who are loyal and loving to God. If there are impurities, dealings, human motives and purposes in a man’s loyalty to and love for God, he won’t be able to stand firm. If the loyalty to and love for God inside a man have been purified through various trials, it is enough to prove that his loyalty to and love for God are true and commended by God and have been tested and verified. So, now God has made such a requirement of His chosen people. How we should experience and practice it is the biggest test for every one of us. Therefore, when encountering such trials, if a man cannot maintain his loyalty to God and love for God, he is as good as eliminated. It proves that he does not have true loyalty to and love for God. If a person’s loyalty to and love for God have been verified by trials, in which he has stood firm, and no matter how big the trials were, he was able to remain loyal to God and continue to truly love God, such a person has been made perfect by God and he is one who has been saved by God. So, the more loyal a person is to God, and the more truly he loves God, the greater will his future trials be. A great number of trials will certainly befall him. Suppose some people now say, “I have believed in God for years, but why haven’t I encountered any trial?” Some of them may ponder in their heart, “Since I truly love God, and I truly believe in Him, these things won’t happen to me.” Do you think anyone who says this understands the work of God? No, he doesn’t. If you see all kinds of trials befall a person who is loyal and loving to God, do you know what this is all about? This is God’s love coming upon him, and is God’s salvation for him and that through which God is purifying him. This is the love of God. If a man can look at it this way, it proves that he knows God’s work. So God’s work this time is inconsistent with man’s notions in many ways. God has said before that the more this work is inconsistent with man’s notions, the more it is God’s work. Only the work of Satan and all kinds of evil spirits is consistent with man’s notions in every way. Now we know that no matter what befalls us, there is God’s good intention in it. It is not a bad thing to have many trials; it is a good thing. What do you say, was it a good thing or a bad thing for Job to encounter those great trials? It was a good thing. What was it good for? In the end, he received God’s blessings again. Job’s wealth was doubled, his children were better, and his life expectancy was extended twofold. Therefore, after trials come the blessings of God. The more trials a man encounters, the more he is helped to make progress in life, and the more it illustrates that God loves him dearly. If a person has believed in God for a few years but has not encountered any trial, would you say that this person has made any progress in life? Certainly not. Man’s life grows in trials. Without trials, man’s life will not grow. Without trials, man cannot be purified. Without trials, man will not have real entry into life. Therefore a man who does not experience trials definitely will not receive the blessings of God. After you have understood God’s intention, after you have come to know that trials are God’s love and salvation for man, how would you treat them if you encounter many trials, like the affliction of illness, the misfortunes in life, or the rejection of your family and society? You need to first see these as the love of God. When you see God’s love, you will know how to pray to God. If you don’t see God’s love, and instead you think that they are curses befalling you—you are cursed for not believing in God properly, will you be able to thank God? You will definitely blame God. You will definitely become passive and withdrawn. You need to first see them as God’s love and as things through which God saves and perfects you. God does not give trials to those who are not fit to receive them. They are so small in stature and fragile that they want to run away even when there are no trials coming upon them. So they will be more eager to run away when there are. It is very important to know how to experience trials as they come upon us. If you don’t, you will not be able to receive God’s blessings. After trials come blessings. Have you seen how Job experienced them? When trials befall you, remember first to hurry and pray before God to grasp God’s intention and know God’s love, which is most important. You will be in trouble if you run to Satan instead. When Satan tells you some nonsense, you will be confused, and you will betray God. Therefore you need to hurry and come before God so Satan will have no opportunity to exploit. If you go to those unbelievers for consultation, then you will be done for even more. You will give Satan an opportunity to exploit. You will only blame God, and then use the methods of man to eliminate, escape from and resolve them. And you will end up with nothing. Whether a man is able to satisfy God or not during trials depends on whether he really loves the truth or not. If he is someone who really loves the truth, he will be able to obey God and satisfy God’s requirements. This way, what he receives from trials will be purification, salvation and blessings. If he fails to obey God, always protecting his flesh, trying to escape from the trials, and not coming before God or seeking the truth, unable to submit to God, he is someone who will collapse in trials. He will fail without testimony and receive nothing.

　　In the sixth requirement, God said, “If none of what you have imagined in your heart matches what I have done, then how will you walk your future path?” Man has principles in doing things. Man also has principles in believing in God. In their belief in God, some people first consider whether what God does agrees with their imagination or not. If it matches their imagination perfectly, they will then follow God in their future path. If what God does and says does not match their imagination and notions, then they will no longer want to believe in God. They will have no desire to follow God anymore. They may even betray God and return to religion. This is a natural expression of corrupt mankind’s God-betraying nature, and no one can deny it. By experiencing the work of God now, we are fully aware that God’s work does not conform to the notions of man and is completely inconsistent with man’s imagination, because only by working this way can God save man and change his disposition. With such a basic understanding of God’s work, if you find what God does in the end is completely inconsistent with your imagination, can you still continue to follow God in your future path then? For instance, you know that God tries man in order to save man, to cleanse man, and to make man perfect—you understand it theoretically, but if you actually encounter some big trials, what would you think? Will you still hold your previous point of view, saying “God tries me in order to cleanse me and to make me perfect”? Will you still think this way? You may not be able to. As you can see, before encountering trials, man understands everything well. His word is particularly nice. He might even pray, “God, when I encounter trials, I will definitely be loyal to You. I will obey You completely and satisfy You.” Anyone can say empty words and make pledges like these. However, when trials actually occur which are completely out of line with your notions, whether you can still obey God’s arrangement and follow God in your future path is a real question. For instance, there are many sisters in the family of God, and the husbands of most of them are unbelievers. If you insist on doing your duty by expending yourself for God in His family and your husband divorces you, then can you still follow God? This is not a small problem. It is the most deadly trial indeed. If you encounter such a trial, can you really continue to follow God? Those who can, raise your hands. Many people raise their hands now. You raise your hand now before encountering any trial. Can you still raise your hand when trials actually occur? If you can raise both your hands and cheer to God, thank and praise God when trials actually occur, you are an extraordinary person, a true hero. There is a sister whose faith in God is very determined. She kept doing her duty by leaving behind her family affairs. Her husband coerced her. His coercive means was increasingly brutal, and he even beat her viciously. She continued to do her duty and left her family behind. So her husband divorced her eventually. At the time of her divorce, she praised God in tears. She had long hoped for a divorce. When it finally happened, she just kept thanking and praising God. What do you say, weren’t the praises of this sister for God sincere? Although the thanks she gave to God were true, that was because she had been too harshly persecuted by her beastly husband. She hated him for viciously beating her all the time, didn’t she? Had her husband been particularly kind and loving to her, could she have thanked God when her husband abandoned her? It is hard to say. The situation was quite different. So if this type of trial actually occurs, whether one can continue to follow God or not is hard to say. If one can still follow God and still thank and praise God when encountering this kind of trial, such a person possesses the faith of Job at least. Between believing in God and keeping her husband, she chooses believing in God and following God despite shattering her family and losing her loved ones. This is the spirit of Peter and the faith of Job. It is an extraordinary matter. In the end, when the great trials arrive, all those who can survive the test of the trials will be overcomers who truly want God and truly follow God. This is absolutely true. Those who love their families and money more than the truth will be eliminated by God through a variety of trials. Those who will survive are ones who are faithful to God, who are more loyal to God than to their spouses and children. They are all ones who can leave everything behind for God. Such people are those who are loyal to God, who truly believe in God, and who love God above all else. They can be obedient to God to the point of death. So when the work of God is completed, those who have been left alive through years of great trials will be overcomers. When the great red dragon collapses, these people will step forward as witnesses for God’s victory. They will be proofs of God’s victory over the great red dragon. Do you have such determination now? If you do, you need to make such preparation. It is hard to say when a great trial will arrive and bereave you of something one day. If a loved one in your family dies, will you complain about God? You will say “The death of a devil is justified. If not now, when? The devil should die, the sooner the better.” Is that so? How about putting it this way? Is it okay? Is there any humanity in it? Yes, there is. This is called true humanity—speaking according to the truth of the fact without lies, without feelings for Satan. If one even has feelings for Satan, does he have a conscience and rationality? Is he being faithful to God? The family of God is never lenient to the devils that belong to Satan. They are handled and eliminated one by one when they are discovered.

　　In the seventh requirement, God said, “If you don’t receive anything you hoped to receive, then can you continue to be My follower?” People believe in God with their own intents and purposes, and they all want to receive something. Everyone knows in his heart what he wants to receive. If you don’t get what you want, what you want the most, will you still follow God? This too, is a test for you, and is something through which you are exposed. What are those things people want to receive? Seeing the fights and quarrels, the disharmony and economic hardships that plague their homes, some people want a happy family. By believing in God, they want God to make their families harmonious and their lives happy. This is what people desire. There are those who believe in God because of their chronic sickness, and poor health. By believing in God, they want to receive healing, have good health, and lead a happy life. These are what people desire as well. There are those who don’t get along with others in society. By believing in God, they want to meet some friends in the family of God, to have better interpersonal relationships and mutual supporting companions for better livelihood. These are also what people desire. There are still others who want to find a better job, marry a good wife, and have a good son for a better life by believing in God. People believe in God with all kinds of intents and purposes. But through experiencing the work of God, we have come to understand the significance of God’s work. The work of God in the last days is entirely for the sake of saving man and changing the satanic disposition of man, so that man will have a true life and can completely return to God, live by the word of God, and become a surviving new mankind. This is the purpose of God’s work. Since God does such work, what we should receive by believing in God is very clear. We know that the work of God is the work of saving and transforming man, so that those human beings who have been truly saved will survive and become the master of the next age. This is the work of God. If we have some demands of God and some personal purposes outside the purview of God’s work, will God satisfy us? For example, someone prays, “O God, my son is applying for university. I ask You to give him wisdom, so he can enter the best university.” In your opinion, is this kind of request agreeable to God? No. If someone prays, “O God, I am young and without a mate. I ask You to prepare an ideal partner for me. Then I will truly believe in You and forever expend myself for You,” is this kind of prayer agreeable to God? If someone prays, “God, I have been suffering from poor health. I couldn’t find any doctor who can cure my illness. I ask You to cure my illness today. If You do, I will believe in You forever,” does this kind of prayer please God? There is no need for me to give any more examples like these. There are too many prayers that are not after God’s heart. Everyone has plenty of them. If we know which kinds of prayers and what things man desires are disagreeable to God, can we continue to pray for God to satisfy our personal demands? No. Then how should we pray before God? We have to pray according to God’s will, correct? As for our personal intents and purposes in the past, we need to forsake them and stop asking God to fulfill them for us. Then how should we pray to God? You should say, “O God, my intent and purpose in believing in You in the past were objectionable to You. I just wanted to receive certain things in the past, but now I see that my demands were too rebellious and disagreeable to You. I have given them up. I will never ask You for these things again. I only ask You to enlighten me to understand Your word, understand the truth, and understand Your will. I want to be a person who is saved and made perfect by You.” When one can pray like this, it shows that his perspective has changed, and that he is able to defy the longings and extravagant demands of the flesh. It is also a sign of getting on the right track of believing in God. If a man does not have those extravagant desires and personal demands that are disagreeable to God, then he can certainly meet this requirement of God. For only those who have these demands and personal intents and purposes will be unwilling to remain as God’s followers once they cannot get these things fulfilled. If we have already been purified, if through reading God’s word and experiencing God’s work, we have understood God’s will and given up our personal demands and what we had hoped to receive, then the matter “don’t receive anything you hoped to receive,” spoken of by God, will no longer exist in us. If it no longer exists in us, will we still make any rebellious demands of God when we face a trial? Although our old demands are gone, some new ones will emerge. The old ones that are known to be obviously unreasonable were abandoned by us. When different kinds of trials occur, we will still have demands within us, and still have wishes in the depth of our heart. For example, when someone is ill, he prays, “O God, it is because of Your love that illness befalls me. I thank You and praise You.” But what does he think in the depth of his heart? “If only God would remove my illness.” This “if only” is in his heart even when he does not say it sometimes. The corrupt flesh has its own demands at any time. These demands are in his heart even when they are not on his lips. This is how he thinks even when this is not how he speaks. When praying, he thinks, “If only the illness would be removed by God.” When praying again, he thinks, “If it be possible, let the illness be removed.” By which stage will man’s prayer be proper? When there is no more “if only” in his heart, and he just hopes for God’s will to be done, just hopes for God’s work to have an effect upon him, and nothing else, no matter what trials befall him. If you have such a mindset, the seventh requirement will be easy to meet with absolutely no problem. For instance, if your spouse or other family member were suddenly ill and about to die, how would you pray to God at this critical moment? You would say, “O God, he is a demon. Let him die!” Can you pray like this? How would you pray then? Would there be “if only” in your prayer? No, but you would have another thought. You would say, “O God, since he is a demon, isn’t it quite nice that he lives to render service? Don’t let him die. It will be hard for me to do my duty if he dies.” Isn’t that how it would be? You see, this is still a demand in disguise. Man knows how to beat around the bush. Do you think you are not practicing deceit by talking in a roundabout way? Are you being obedient by doing so? A true prayer involves obedience, only obedience. If you have obedience, this is how you will pray, “God, he is ill. I know this is of You, and there is Your good intention in it. I am willing to obey You. Whether his illness can be cured or not, I will still be loyal to God. I will still follow God and do my duty well. I will not be affected a whit whether he is alive or dead. Even if he dies, I will be following God and loyal to God just the same.” What do you think about this prayer? If you can really pray like this from your heart, Satan will be humiliated. When Satan hears your prayer on the side, it will say, “Oops, this person is formidable. She is really a loyal person to God.” So Satan will be humiliated. When God says, “Satan, you see how she prays,” Satan will run away. Isn’t it so? This is a testimony. You should be clear on how to enter into this requirement. You need to first have yourself purified. When you reach the point that you no longer have any demand toward God but only seek what you can do to satisfy God as God’s creation, your actions will be completely consistent with God’s will. No matter what kind of trial we encounter, no matter how what God does contradicts our imagination and wishes, if it cannot hinder us from being God’s followers, this requirement will then be met by us.

　　In the eighth requirement, God said, “If you have never understood the purpose and significance of My work, then can you be an obedient person who does not make arbitrary judgments and conclusions?” This is a crucial requirement. After man has been corrupted by Satan, man’s most likely offense is the propensity to make judgments and conclusions, regardless of what is involved and how much he understands it. He dares to comment on anything, make conclusions on anything, whether he understands it or not. Isn’t it a display of man’s arrogance and irrationality? The audacity to make conclusions and judgments about anything is a display of corrupt mankind’s arrogant and conceited disposition. It is an expression of Satan’s corrupt disposition. Now everyone should inspect himself: When you do not understand the work of God, do you still have the problem of making judgments about it? Can you still make conclusions about something you don’t understand? Do you still do such things? When you don’t see something clearly, when you don’t understand something, can you still make arbitrary judgments about it or make casual conclusions according to your logical thinking and imagination? If a person can still do such things, what does it demonstrate? It demonstrates that he doesn’t have the truth, he is still an arrogant and conceited person, he still has the arrogant and conceited nature of Satan, and he is just like the unbelievers who haven’t changed at all. If a person really has some truths and he is obedient to God, and if he never casually passes judgments or makes conclusions on anything he cannot discern, and never utters any judgmental word according to the notions and imagination of man, such a person is the most sensible man who is able to obey God. The more he can’t discern something, the less he will make conclusions and judgments about it. Even when he believes that he can truly discern it, he still doesn’t make judgments or conclusions, because he knows that doesn’t necessarily mean he can discern it, for he is a corrupt human being who lacks the truth. If you go by Satan’s logic to look at things, you are prone to judge and resist God. If you go by Satan’s logic to speak and reason, you will be wrong on so many occasions. Now everyone can see that man’s thinking and conception are wrong, and that they don’t represent the truth. If we go by man’s conception to imagine and look at things, we are bound to be wrong, we are bound to distort the facts and contradict the truth of them. Going by man’s conception, what is positive can be interpreted as negative, and what is negative as positive; wicked people can be interpreted as good, and the other way around also. Mankind in the last days is a human race that advocates evil. The more something is evil and negative, the more it is regarded as a positive matter, as black and white are turned upside down. Therefore, going by man’s satanic logic and his satanic conception, one is highly prone to turning black and white upside down and distorting the facts. So, anyone who slightly understands the truth and who knows his corrupt satanic nature, will no longer dare to casually make judgments and conclusions about anything. It shows that this kind of man has changed in his way in looking at things. He has a heart that fears God somewhat. He is able to obey God. If a person can still casually make judgments and conclusions about anything he sees, this kind of man definitely does not have the truth. He is definitely an arrogant and self-righteous person. Without a doubt, this kind of man is definitely someone who resists God and disobeys God. As you can see, the ones who pass the most judgments and make the most conclusions are the most foolish and most devoid of the truth. Those who dare to comment and make conclusions about anything are the most ignorant people. Is it right or wrong? As for the matter of casually making conclusions on something you don’t understand, do you still do it often? If it still happens often, it means that you don’t have the truth. You are still problematic, too prone to resist God and pass judgment on God. As we see in the Bible, when Job encountered trials, what did his friends say? They made many judgments and conclusions about Job. They could not discern his trials. Even so, they still went by their own conceptions and imagination to make judgments and conclusions. It was so foolish of them. Job himself could not see the trials clearly either, but he did not speak carelessly. Job did not blame God; he only cursed the day of his birth. He didn’t say what God did was meaningless or unreasonable. He didn’t say anything like this. He only cursed the day of his birth when he couldn’t discern it. As you see, his friends were unable to do so. They kept making conclusions and judgments. If a brother or sister has some special conditions, what will you say? Will you make judgments? “Oh, this man doesn’t have the work of the Holy Spirit. He has been eliminated by God. These days, I haven’t seen the Holy Spirit’s work on him.” You blindly make judgments like you can see the Holy Spirit at work. When you see someone encounter a certain situation, you will say, “It’s over for him. He is being cursed and eliminated. He must have committed evil and resisted God.” You see, it is judgmental words again. Facing what you don’t understand, if you view it with your notions and imagination, you will make too many judgments. When you say you have discerned something 90%, it doesn’t mean you have discerned it completely. There is still 10% you don’t know, the 10% that can negate your viewpoints and imagination. So, as a person who doesn’t have the truth, it doesn’t work even when you think you have discerned something. Your words are wrong. Don’t you believe? Those without the truth don’t see anything correctly. When you say the way you see things is consistent with logic, it is not necessarily consistent with the truth, and that the way you see things is consistent with the law, it is also not necessarily consistent with the truth. Logic and law are not the truth. Human morality is not the truth. Only the word of God is the truth. You understand that God’s word is the truth, but do you understand God’s word? You don’t. As you don’t, if you blindly apply it as rules, you will be going against God’s word, because God’s word is not to be applied as rules. So the corrupt mankind must understand: Man does not have the truth, and they should not keep using man’s conception to look at things; man’s conception is inconsistent with the truth, and it is not the criterion for evaluating what is the truth. In the future, when you see what something is, if you still hold your past viewpoint, will that be right or wrong? Don’t go by your past viewpoint, because it is wrong. If you don’t understand the purpose and significance of God’s work, can you simply be obedient to God and refrain from making arbitrary judgments and conclusions? If you can’t understand God’s work thoroughly, you can do well by being obedient. The manifestation of being truly obedient is not making arbitrary judgments and conclusions. You should think like this in your heart: “I can’t understand this matter thoroughly. I shouldn’t look at it according to my logic and thinking. It is best for me to be obedient. I will first obey and experience like this to seek the truth in obedience. One day, when I really understand the truth and grasp God’s intention, then I will truly and thoroughly understand it.” What does it take at least to be an obedient person? One needs to refrain from making arbitrary judgments and conclusions. It is so difficult for a corrupt human being to refrain from making arbitrary judgments and conclusions. He will say, “I am so sure what it is about. It is so frustrating that I am not allowed to make judgments and conclusions. I have my own voice to speak for myself. I need to speak up when I know what it is about. I can’t stand it when I am not allowed to talk.” Is what you are saying consistent with the truth? Don’t say anything stupid if it isn’t. When you don’t possess the truth, don’t make conclusions about God’s work and God’s chosen people. Just don’t say anything about these. You can talk about anything else with your voice. Just don’t make judgments and conclusions about God’s work or make arbitrary judgments and conclusions about God’s chosen people. That will be good enough. It is fine for you to talk casually about anything else. Judging God’s work is a serious offense to God. Making judgments about brothers and sisters is also inappropriate. So man needs to be sensible in this regard, right? People now do not understand the truth. What they say are always so disgraceful and wrong; they are always making mistakes. What is it all about? Don’t talk nonsense if you don’t understand the truth. After you talk, you will need to apologize and admit your transgression to others, and end up eating your own words. Why bother? Don’t you all like to make arbitrary judgments and conclusions about others? Isn’t this your corrupt disposition? Will you still trust your own feelings, imagination and conceptions? You should not do so but should always deny yourself. This is the eighth requirement.

　　In the ninth requirement, God said, “Can you treasure all the words I have said and all the work I have done when I’m together with mankind?” The significance of this requirement is profound. The work of God in the last days is expressed among people. All the words God has uttered and the work He has done amidst people are most beneficial to mankind. They are salvation and blessings to mankind. If you treasure all these words and the work, it proves that you are a person who pursues God’s salvation and the truth. It also proves that you are a person who has truly turned to God. If a man, when experiencing God’s work, does not treasure God’s words and work or take them seriously, if he fails to exert an effort or pay a price to pursue the knowledge of God’s words, there is no hope for him to receive God’s salvation. He who fails to receive God’s salvation will definitely be eliminated by God. What is the consequence of being eliminated? It is that he will be punished in the end and be destroyed together with the unbelievers. So what does it imply if you cannot treasure God’s words and work now? It implies that your outcome will be punishment and destruction. It is a very serious matter and nothing trivial at all. How should you treasure the words and work of God? You need to have a correct understanding first. All the words said by the incarnate God who lives among people are definitely the words of salvation for mankind. They are definitely the words that can transform corrupt mankind and save them. If a man can enter into and gain these words and this work, it means that he will receive the salvation of God. If a man fails to gain anything from these words and this work, if he totally fails to enter into them, then his belief in God is for naught, and he will end up receiving nothing. So, for those who believe in God today, whether they can treasure God’s words and work or not will determine their fate and outcome. I see some believers of God who only congregate for formality but never read God’s word at home, never have any real communication with God, and never make any real prayer to seek the truth. What do you say, do such people really believe in God? They are imposters. Those who believe in God for years without entering into any truth or any of God’s words, and even without doing any of their duties, such people are purely paying lip service. They are unbelievers.

　　In the tenth requirement, God said, “Are you able to be My loyal follower, willing to suffer for Me for life even if you will not receive anything?” What is the qualification for a loyal follower? It is the willingness to suffer for God for a lifetime even if he will not receive anything. It is the performance of a loyal follower. Someone may say, “If a person has not received anything after following God for so many years, it means he has not followed God with a true heart.” Does anyone think like that? Actually, it is not the case. There is the phrase “even if” in God’s word “willing to suffer for Me for life even if you will not receive anything.” The phrase “even if” here means “in case,” that is, he is willing to suffer for God for a lifetime in case he will not receive anything. Actually, it is impossible that a person with such determination will receive nothing. His reward will certainly be richer. It is just that a person with such determination would follow God to the end even if he were to receive nothing. The outcome is that with such determination, what he receives in the end will never be little, but will certainly be quite abundant. When someone first follows God, if he doesn’t have the will to willingly suffer for God for a lifetime even if he will not receive anything in return, it will be quite possible for him to receive nothing after following God for many years. Now I want each of you to inspect yourself. If you really received nothing after believing in God for many years, how would you deal with it? What would you think about it? Would you complain about God, saying that God is unfair and not gracious to you? If you don’t pursue the truth, you will surely end up receiving nothing. In that case, whom will you blame? You should blame yourself for not having pursued the truth, right? If you have put in a lot of efforts and work but still end up receiving nothing, whom will you blame? For example, if you fail to gain the truth because of your poor caliber, whom will you blame? Will you blame your parents for your poor caliber? It is okay to blame your parents but not God, isn’t it? If your caliber is good and you have paid a great price, but you still fail to gain the truth or receive God’s blessings, whom will you blame? If you fail to gain anything after enduring a lot of sufferings, whom will you blame? If you knew that you might receive nothing, could you still suffer for God for life? For instance, if someone says, “Even if I cannot gain the truth, it is okay for me to endure some suffering for God as His follower; even to endure a lifetime of suffering for myself as God’s follower, it is still worth it,” is it okay to think this way? Is it okay to be willing to suffer for a lifetime even if you will not receive anything? Will you complain? If you ended up receiving nothing and even dead, would you complain? For instance, a person had believed in God for more than twenty years, but he did not possess the truth. He had read the word of God frequently and endured much suffering, or he might have performed his duty normally and done whatever he was told to do. Finally, he died of cancer. When he was about to die, someone asked him, “What have you received by believing in God?” He said in tears, “I have received nothing by believing in God, but it was worth it for me to have suffered a lot in performing my duty. Anyway, I fulfilled my duty and did all I could. I have no compliant. I feel good this way. I did service for God without receiving anything, but in the end I am dying with a clear conscience. I am happy because I was able to do some service for God and suffer a lot for Him. This is good enough. I feel that I have gained a lot. It was God’s uplifting of me.” What do you think about the testimony of such a person? His heart was in the right place at least. He felt that it was worthwhile to have suffered for a lifetime for God without receiving anything. He was happy and without complaint. What do you say, is someone who has this kind of will a sensible person? This is a sensible person. Are you willing to suffer for a lifetime if you really will not receive anything? Some brothers and sisters have actually received nothing, but in the end they feel, “I can live and do some duties in God’s family, so my life has not been in vain. I couldn’t do much more, because this is the extent of my ability. I don’t deserve to receive anything. It is worthwhile to have endured some sufferings for the sake of fulfilling my duty; I have not lived in vain.” Does this kind of person have sense? Yes, indeed. Everyone needs to examine himself to see if he can do it. If you really will receive nothing, do you have the determination now to say “I am willing to do my duty properly even if I will receive nothing, and I won’t complain no matter how much I suffer”? Having such a will is too important. What does it show if someone has this kind of will? It shows that this person is conscientious and sensible. It can be said that he has done the best a man could. A person who is able to suffer for God for a lifetime even if he will not receive anything is so precious. This is the kind of person I admire the most. He has conscience, sense and integrity. I don’t underestimate this kind of person. Having done service for God for a lifetime, having suffered for a lifetime for the sake of fulfilling his duty, he does not receive anything, yet he has no complaint. Under this situation and background, he does not have any complaint. Such a person is so ennobled, conscientious and sensible. If a person really pursues to satisfy God’s heart, he has to have such a will. It can be said that a person who lacks such a will lacks conscience and sense. He still wants to receive something. Only if he is certain to receive something will he follow and believe in God to the end. If he cannot get what he wants, then he will not accept it. He will complain against God and betray God. It shows that he has not received salvation. It shows that his corrupt disposition has not changed. It is still Satan’s disposition. If a person has such sense now, it shows that he has understood the truth, and his life disposition has been changed. It is not a simple matter. If he hadn’t understood the truth, and his life disposition had not been changed, would he be able to do that? He wouldn’t. Nobody can. I bet no one has seen it like this. In the future, the various trials of God will befall man to reveal who can have this kind of testimonies in the end. In this kind of trials, in the fulfillment of this kind of effects and facts, whoever can really bear witness like this will be most blessed by God. He will be one who has truly been made perfect by God. The willingness to suffer for God for a lifetime even if he will not receive anything is too precious and resounding a testimony, because corrupt mankind only knows to make deals with God. They all can become very resentful when they really cannot receive God’s blessings. It is most extraordinary for a person to have such a will. It is the most resounding testimony. People can’t see it clearly because they look at it too simply. So, when you read God’s word, you need to ponder on it. Do not go by your own imagination to assume that you understand it while in fact you haven’t seen it clearly and understood God’s intention. Why did God say that? This is what a person needs to enter into who pursues to be made perfect. This kind of trials will happen to you in the future. Peter was a man who loved God. In the end, what did Peter say to God in his prayer? He said, “I am not a worthy person. In me, I think it is my heart that loves God that is the most precious. I offer all my love to God. This is the only thing that can bring some comfort to God. Everything else is worthless.” So if before God a person really has the will to suffer willingly for God for a lifetime even if he will not receive anything, what kind of a heart is his? It is a heart that loves God, a heart that desires to satisfy God. This is a requirement for being made perfect by God. Now if you are willing to enter into this requirement, you will have to begin practicing like this from now on. What does “will not receive anything” refer to? What does man usually ask for? It is mostly material things related to livelihood, such as a satisfactory and affluent life, good health without illness, a harmonious and happy family, or children that live up to one’s expectation and imagination, and so forth. In the end, if you not only fail to receive anything you have asked for for your flesh, but also fail to receive the blessings of God and an identity and status in God’s family and His kingdom, and even the necessity for your body is deprived, your loved ones bereft, and your favorite things wrested away, what will you do then? Will you still be willing to suffer for God? This is no trivial matter. When someone encounters this situation, if he can still be loyal to God, expend himself for God, and serve God, and can persevere in performing his duty and following God as long as he is alive, such a person is a loyal follower of God. If you encounter some trials, your most precious things taken away by God, your beloved husband taken away, will you still be able to follow God? If your beloved wife is taken away, will you still be able to follow God? If your most beloved children are taken away, will you still be able to follow God? If your house is washed away by flood and you don’t even have a place to rest your head, will you still be able to follow God? If the only remaining food you have is taken away by the bandits, will you still be able to follow God? These are indeed trials for man. When trials like these befall you, what will you do? Will you still pray to God? Can you still utter a prayer? I am afraid some people will have nothing to say to God. Their hearts will already be complaining, and curses and complaints will follow when they open their mouths. Won’t it be over for them? They will have completely betrayed God. It will be all over for them. In that situation, even as the heart is aching, tears are running, if you can still pray to God, thank God, and love God, and can still be loyal to God, then this will be the testimony that humiliates Satan. Through such trials that befall you, the good intention of God will be fulfilled, a true follower of God made perfect, and a testimony for God borne by a truly faithful person to God. This testimony will achieve the effect that Satan is completely humiliated, and will completely satisfy God. Such trials are just too meaningful. Satan said this in advance, “This person is faithful in serving You, and her most beloved person now is her husband. If You take away her husband, see if she can still be faithful to You.” God replied, “Fine. Now she is under your domain. You can take away her husband to see if she can still be faithful to God.” This is a matter that happens in the spiritual world that man cannot see. In fact, that is exactly the case. When the trial happens, God is there watching, Satan is also there watching, so are all kinds of evil spirits and people, watching how this person will behave and what she will reveal, watching if she can still pray to God, praise God, and remain loyal to God. Isn’t this a war in the spiritual world? Yes, it is. Is this kind of trial meaningful? Yes, very meaningful! The more something disagrees with man’s notions, the more meaningful it is.

　　In the eleventh requirement, God said, “Are you able to not consider, plan, or prepare for your future path of survival for My sake?” This is also a requirement for God’s chosen people, a requirement they must enter into. What is the significance of entering into the reality of this requirement? Now we are aware that our faith is too small. Although we believe in God and are willing to follow God, we all are planning, considering and preparing for our own future. It can be said that each of us has his own future plan. However, God requires us to give up our plans. God does not let us consider, plan and prepare for our future path of survival. What is the significance behind it? Many people say, “I cannot foresee the future. For our future living, I think it is indispensable that we consider, plan, and prepare for it. Take making money for instance; can we function and live without money? Take having a family for example; what will happen if we don’t have a family? Who is going to provide for us?” Others say, “We need to raise children; without children, whom are we going to depend on when we get old?” Still others say, “We need to save money. If not, what are we going to do when contingency occurs?” These are examples of how people consider, plan and prepare for their own future. But God requires otherwise. If man does not heed and accept God’s requirement by insisting on considering and planning for his own future, what is going to happen? Everything he considers and prepares will be shattered and smashed by the work of God. It is futile. What about man’s effort in accumulating things for his future? It will serve no effect. His effort will be in vain. What will he gain? Nothing. He will have planned and prepared for himself in vain, right? Why has God made such a requirement of His chosen people? This is most meaningful. It shows that unpredictable things that result from God’s work will happen and the normal living of mankind will probably be terminated. All kinds of disasters will descend. What are you still preparing and planning for? It is pointless. No amount of human planning can surpass that of Heaven. All human endeavors against Heaven are a waste of time. According to God’s word, as future disasters intensify, there won’t be any more families. All families will be torn apart. There is no telling when it will happen. But it will not be long as disasters are increasingly intense. Now it is urgent that we invest the time and effort spent on considering, planning and preparing for ourselves in God’s word, and in pursuing the truth and equipping ourselves with the truth instead. By understanding the truth, we will be able to stand firm and satisfy God when trials occur. This is most important. If a man spends the best time and the most critical time he has now on planning, considering and preparing for his own future, he will miss the opportunity to be saved. Perhaps most people now see that the world is about to end, disasters are intensifying, nations will cease to exist, all countries belonging to Satan will be destroyed, and God’s kingdom will soon emerge. After several years of disasters, most human beings will have been destroyed. When God’s chosen people are the only survivors, the Millennial Kingdom will be realized. As you can see, what the great red dragon is doing now will be of service to God’s chosen people. When God’s chosen people need housing in the future, everything will be readily available. Don’t you think we will have many venues for congregation in the future? Too many, right? We won’t have to prepare anything or spend any money. There is no need for any effort. That’s why this statement of God is so meaningful. Although it’s hard for man to understand it now, he will understand it later. If you cannot see what it will be like in the future, just be obedient and don’t plan for tomorrow. Go to work normally and don’t make too much effort for tomorrow. It is futile to think too much about the future. Just be concerned about maintaining your livelihood for now. For example, when your child is only ten years old, you are already saving money for his marriage. What’s the point of preparing for something that won’t happen for more than a decade? Do you know how it will be in more than a decade away? Aren’t you thinking too far ahead of time? It is so foolish. Don’t worry about the future. Don’t worry about what will happen in three or five years since you can’t even foresee what will happen in a year, or even half a year. Isn’t it true? There isn’t much time left. The end of the world is imminent. All kinds of disasters are descending. What’s the point of thinking so far ahead? Hurry and spend this limited amount of energy in these precious final times in pursuing the truth, in eating and drinking God’s word. It is better than doing anything else. If you can satisfy God now, then you will be able to stand firm in the future. When various trials befall you, you will be able to bear resounding testimonies, satisfy God, and receive God’s approval. If you truly meet the criteria for salvation, you will survive. If you don’t equip yourself with the truth now, when various trials come upon you, you will complain and betray God. Thus your belief in God will end up in failure, and you will receive nothing. Your outcome will be the same as the devil Satan’s. So the most important thing now is to obey God’s words. Be quick to obey whatever God says and don’t rely on your imagination. You don’t even know whether you will live or die tomorrow. What is the point of imagining? You won’t come up with anything anyway. Just behave by listening to God. Do as God says and practice whatever God says. You can’t be wrong by listening to God. If you do so, you are the smartest of men. He who always believes that his imagination is right and doesn’t listen to God is the most foolish and rebellious person. Isn’t it what this is all about? Do you want to be a smart or a stupid person? If you want to be a smart person, listen well to God’s word and do as God says. Then someone may say, “Well, I won’t go to work tomorrow then.” A farmer may say, “I won’t farm tomorrow. I will just pursue the truth.” Do you think this is right or wrong? It is wrong. When God tells us not to prepare and plan for the future, He doesn’t mean that you can quit your job and abandon your farm. Don’t distort God’s meaning. Go to work if you should. Go to farm if you should. Just don’t plan for the future too far ahead of time. Don’t concern yourself with what will happen several years later. Just take care of what is in front of you. Forget about the things too far down the road. Do you see the situation now? It is becoming more chaotic by the day. Disasters are intensifying by the day, aren’t they? In coming years, the disasters will be increasingly intense. It is critical to equip yourself with the truth. Be content with having food and clothing now. At present, it is okay if you can maintain a normal livelihood and the lifestyle of average people. That is good enough. Don’t think too far ahead of time. You should take your pursuit of the truth and your own life seriously. For example, consider whether your intention and purpose in believing in God are already pure now, whether you are on the right track of believing in God now, to what extent you have equipped yourself with the truth and God’s word, how many truths you have understood, how much transformation you have undergone in your life disposition, and what you should pursue and practice in order to achieve real changes in your life disposition. Then, make an effort to practice and enter into the truths concerning these things. It will be enough when you can satisfy God in them. So, by heeding and obeying God’s words, God will ensure you food and clothing and will protect you from falling into temptation and rescue you from evil. You may encounter some trials, but if you are truly obedient to God and able to stand firm in your testimony, you will receive God’s blessings. In short, a person who truly obeys God and heeds God’s word will absolutely be blessed by God.

　　These eleven requirements are the criteria that man should fulfill ultimately during God’s work of salvation, that is, they are the criteria that man must meet in the final trials through which God tests man’s work. The following truths must be possessed in order to satisfy these eleven requirements: First, one needs to have true faith in God; second, one needs to have a true knowledge of God’s disposition; third, one needs to possess the conscience and sense that a creature must possess in the presence of God. After possessing the conscience and sense of a creature, when a man has true faith in God, he will be able to regard God as God. If a man truly has a heart that reveres God, he will be able to stand firm in his testimony when various trials befall him. If a man lacks a heart that reveres God and cannot regard God as God, he will definitely fail to satisfy God’s requirements. The most critical point therein is that a man must possess conscience and sense. If a man lacks sense and conscience, his extravagant desires and all kinds of demands toward God will certainly persist. A truly conscientious and sensible person will make no demand of God. As a creature, his greatest wish is to satisfy the Creator. He only wishes that he, a corrupt human being, can obey God, comfort God’s heart, and cease to resist God. This is his greatest wish. If a man truly possesses the conscience and sense he should, he will not complain about God regardless of what trials he encounters. Now we all have some knowledge of the essence of corrupt mankind. Why can people complain about God? That is because they have demands toward God within and have their personal desires and ambitions, and when these desires, ambitions and improper demands of theirs are not satisfied, they, as corrupt human beings, will grumble, complain about God, pass judgment on God’s work and rebel against God. Therefore when we are pursuing to know God’s disposition now, we need to know our own corrupt essence. God is worthy of man’s love and worship. Why is corrupt mankind unable to worship God? Corrupt mankind’s only concern is to live for their flesh, for the satisfaction of their fleshly desires and demands; they always have their own pursuits and dreams. These are the cause of their judgment, resistance and betrayal of God. After thoroughly understanding the corrupt essence of mankind, God’s chosen people must be clear about and know what kind of sense man must possess in God’s presence. Then in the presence of God, how should we worship Him? This is one of the most practical issues. In the past, we often communicated about bringing God into real life. If God and the word of God are not present in your real life, what kind of living will that be? Your real life will be the living of a corrupt human being, the living and struggling for the flesh, the independent living of separation from God, and the living of betrayal of God. If a man’s living is devoid of God and the word of God, it will be the living of a man in betrayal to God. So if we want to be purified by God when experiencing God’s work, we need to understand what the living of corrupt mankind is like if they do not have God and the word of God in their lives, and why man always lives for the flesh and fails to live to fulfill his duty and worship God as a creature. After sorting out the roots of these problems, a person will understand what living with normal humanity is, what true human life is, how a creature should fulfill its duty and live before the Creator. This is the most critical issue. When various trials occur in the future, it can be viewed as the period of God’s testing man’s work. What will God test in man? He will see if there is a place for God in your life, and if the word of God is present in your life. If your life is devoid of the word of God, the truth, and you do not have a place for God in your heart, then you will collapse during the trials and be eliminated. If there is the word of God and the truth reigning in your living, you will be able to worship God and perform your duty properly as a creature in real life. Then you will be able to stand firm when various trials befall you. Therefore being equipped with the truth today is for the ability to stand firm during the trials of tomorrow, to withstand the test of God, be up to the standard and satisfy God’s heart. If today you cannot enter into God’s word, cannot live by God’s word, and cannot do your duty normally and properly as a creature to satisfy God, then you will surely not be able to stand firm during future trials. What do you have to rely on to stand firm during the trials? You have to rely on God’s word and the truth. If the word of God and the truth are not present in your living today and you are not living to worship God, you won’t be able to stand firm during the trials of tomorrow. You will be eliminated. You must be clear on this. Some people never see these things clearly. They always think that whether they can enter into the truth and live by God’s word now seems unimportant. They always think that as long as they don’t deny God or complain about God no matter what trials come upon them in the future, they will be able to stand firm. Actually, the fact is not as simple as you think. Without the truth, it is impossible to stand firm during trials. If you want to be able to stand firm during trials, enter into the truth now. Otherwise, you will collapse when the trials occur in the future. Will there still be enough time left for you to equip yourself by then?

From Classic Selections From Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life