The Bible records many stories in which situations take a turn for the better and problems are solved through the power of prayer. So, how can we gain the power of prayer? What should we pray for? Please read the article “The Power of Prayer,” which answers these questions.
Question 9: We accept God’s work of the last days, but how do we experience God’s judgment and chastisement so that we can receive the truth and life, get rid of our sinful nature, and achieve salvation to enter the kingdom of heaven?
Answer: How to experience God’s judgment and chastisement to gain the truth and life, and get rid of our sinful nature to achieve salvation and enter the kingdom of heaven, this question is very important, because this is the major issues that relate to our ending and destination. To seek this aspect of the truth, we should first read a few passages of Almighty God’s word:
One day, I read a popular saying online that went something like this, “The farthest distance in the world isn’t the other side of the world, it’s sitting next to you while you play with your phone.” No matter if you’re on the subway, on the bus, in a restaurant, or on the streets … at any time of the day, you can always find a certain group of people, phubbers. They have a phone, tablet, or some other gadget in their hand as they watch videos, play games, or look at their friend feed, and their members are primarily young people.
As technology has developed, the internet has made our lives much more convenient. People can buy what they want without leaving the house, or they can contact different people without going out. But what is brought about by the convenience of the internet? Let’s take a look at the relevant reports.
Jiao sat by the window looking at the divorce certificate in her hands with a sense of relief. Because of God’s grace and salvation, Jiao was finally free from her painful marriage. She gazed at the street outside the window, and everything that had happened between her and her ex-husband passed through her mind …
Finding Happiness
Jiao was just the same as so many other girls. When she was a teenager, she dreamed of growing up and finding a husband who would love her dearly. Especially when she read romance novels or watched screen idols on TV, and she saw the endless love between the main male and female characters, she would take the ideas of “love is supreme,” and “growing old together, hand-in-hand” as the ideals for her own future marriage, and she yearned to have a grand love. Only then, she thought, would her life not be lived in vain.
Almighty God says, "Oh, that all the humanity I created has at last come back to life again in the light, found the foundation for existence, and ceased to struggle in the mud!" (The Word Appears in the Flesh).
In the beginning, man possessed no truth. Later, he was beguiled by Satan into betraying God, and thereafter has lived tragically in the human hell of utter darkness. It is even more so in China—the old world ruled by the evil forces of the great red dragon. In order to achieve its evil purpose of ruling the whole world, the great red dragon doesn't hesitate to carry out destruction of human life, imposing inhuman and unprecedented slaughter on God's chosen people. When the great red dragon does evil to the utmost, God's righteous disposition and wrath come upon it. Knowing well that its last day has come, it persecutes God's chosen people more frenziedly, and attempts to perish with them so as to abolish God's work of salvation on earth. However, God's wisdom is exercised based on Satan's schemes. God's chosen people are equipped with the truth of God's word as the sharp sword. They no longer fear Satan, and defeat Satan at last. For a time, Satan grows insane—it weeps and gnashes its teeth. But under the shining of God's light, it topples over into the filthy water and dooms. And human beings become the true master of all things, who have the reality of the truth!
God’s Words Resolve Her Bewilderment and Her Heart Is Eased
One time, in a meeting, Jiao told her brothers and sisters all about her pain and bewilderment, and one of the sisters read to her several passages of God’s words: “Born into such a filthy land, man has been severely blighted by society, he has been influenced by feudal ethics, and he has been taught at ‘institutes of higher learning.’ The backward thinking, corrupt morality, mean view on life, despicable philosophy, utterly worthless existence, and depraved lifestyle and customs—all of these things have severely intruded upon man’s heart, and severely undermined and attacked his conscience. As a result, man is ever more distant from God, and ever more opposed to Him” (“To Have an Unchanged Disposition Is to Be in Enmity to God”). “One after another, all these trends carry an evil influence that continually degenerates man, causing them to continually lose conscience, humanity and reason, and that lowers their morals and their quality of character more and more, to the extent that we can even say the majority of people now have no integrity, no humanity, neither do they have any conscience, much less any reason. So what are these trends? You cannot see these trends with the naked eye. When the wind of a trend blows through, perhaps only a small number of people will become the trendsetters. They start off doing this kind of thing, accepting this kind of idea or this kind of perspective. The majority of people, however, in the midst of their unawareness, will still be continually infected, assimilated and attracted by this kind of trend, until they all unknowingly and involuntarily accept it, and are all submerged in and controlled by it. For man who is not of sound body and mind, who never knows what is truth, who cannot tell the difference between positive and negative things, these kinds of trends one after another make them all willingly accept these trends, the life view and values that come from Satan. They accept what Satan tells them on how to approach life and the way to live that Satan ‘bestows’ on them. They have not the strength, neither do they have the ability, much less the awareness to resist” (“God Himself, the Unique VI”).
The sister then gave fellowship, saying: “God’s words reveal how Satan corrupts man as well as the truth of our corruption by Satan. In today’s society, the breakup of marriages caused by extra-marital affairs and having someone on the side is a common occurrence, and this is directly related to us being deeply corrupted by Satan. Satan uses all manner of heresies and fallacies to deceive, seduce and corrupt man, such as ‘Seize the day for pleasure, for life is short,’ ‘The red flag at home does not fall, the colored flags outside flutter in the breeze,’ ‘Men go bad when they get money, and women get money when they go bad,’ and so on. Satan arouses these evil thoughts and views to corrode our spirits, and this results in our thinking becoming warped so that we regard the evil trends such as ‘extra-marital affairs,’ ‘having a mistress’ and ‘keeping another woman’ as positive things to pursue. Having a woman on the side has become a symbol that the man is capable and high-powered, and a woman having many paramours has become a reflection of how lovely she is. We as mankind live under the influence of these evil trends, and we become increasingly wicked, promiscuous and corrupt, and our consciences become ever more numb. Even though we do things that fly in the face of ethics and morality, we feel no shame at all. More and more people are becoming assimilated by Satan’s evil trends, and are becoming sacrifices to these trends…. In this way, many families are broken up, many people choose to commit suicide as they cannot bear their partner’s betrayal, and there are also many people who kill their partners because their love turns to hatred. Are these not the bitter fruits of following Satan’s evil trends? Were it not for God expressing the truth and exposing Satan’s cunning scheme to corrupt mankind, no one would be able to see and understand these things. We would just be living under Satan’s power, allowing it to harm us. We really do need God’s salvation, and we really need to understand the truth!”
When I was ten years old, my mother got hepatitis B, and the doctor said that it was difficult to be rooted out.
To heal my mother’s illness, my father had taken her to many places from the north to the south to see doctors and she had taken much medicine but her condition didn’t improve at all. Because the virus continuously attacked her hepatocytes, my mother’s liver was seriously damaged. Following it, she got weaker and weaker with a sallow complexion, only being able to do some easy housework. In addition, under the torment of illness, my mother’s temper got very bad and she often flared at something that was not worth mentioning. At that time, because of this, my family was full of my father’s groans and my fear rather than former cheers and laughter.
From the news, I learned that many sufferers having hepatitis B like my mother left the world because their condition deteriorated. Afterward, I knew that in our village, a person, around my mother’s age, also had the same illness as my mother and died in the end due to unsuccessful medical treatment. Thus, when I saw my mom was woebegone because of the torment of illness, I was afraid that she would die sooner or later as her health became grew worse. In those days, whenever I thought of these, I would secretly shed tears under my quilt and often cried out in my heart: Who can save my mom?
Question 9: If we accept Almighty God, are we guaranteed to enter the kingdom of heaven?
Answer:Almighty God has spoken very clearly about this problem. Let’s first take a look at what he has said.
“The return of Jesus is a great salvation for those who are capable of accepting the truth, but for those who are unable to accept the truth it is a sign of condemnation. You should choose your own path, and should not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and reject the truth. You should not be an ignorant and arrogant person, but someone who obeys the guidance of the Holy Spirit and longs for and seeks the truth; only in this way will you benefit.”(“When You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus Will Be When God Has Made Anew Heaven and Earth” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).
When Lord Jesus appeared and did work, the Jewish priests, scribes, and Pharisees wildly slandered, condemned, and blasphemed Lord Jesus. They nailed Lord Jesus to the cross, and obstructed people from accepting Lord Jesus. During the last days, God has become incarnate again. He has become manifest and is doing work. Pastors and elders of religious circles again wildly resist and condemn God's work of the last days, blocking believers by hook or by crook from accepting Almighty God. Why did God's two incarnations, when He became manifest and did work, meet with resistance and condemnation from religious leaders? What is the source and true nature of the religious leaders' resistance?
More content:
"The Eastern Lightning" has testified that the Lord Jesus has already returned, expressed the truth, and made complete a group of overcomers. Does this fulfill the prophecies from the Bible?
Almighty God says, "Those who have been perfected are not just able to achieve obedience after being conquered, but they are also able to have knowledge of the work of judgment, change their disposition, and know God. They experience the path of loving God and are filled with the truth. They know how to experience God’s work, are able to suffer for God, and have their own wills. …The perfected refers to those who, after the conquering work ends, are able to pursue the truth and be gained by God. It refers to those who, after the conquering work ends, stand firm in tribulation and live out the truth."
Looking at the coffeemakers which were heaped up on my testing-table, my monitor said impatiently, “Young man! Look! You test the products so slowly that so many of them are heaped up. When you see that the QC who checks over the products isn’t here, you don’t need to test them. Directly give them to the other members of staff. If the QC asks you whether you have tested the products, you can say you have done. The former employee didn’t test all the products. Therefore, the products were not heaped up. How can you be so stupid?” “The previous employee tested the products very fast and didn’t heap them up,” my colleague opposite to me said contemptuously. Hearing their words, I felt very aggrieved in my heart …
I work in an appliance installation company and am responsible for testing the quality of the export coffeemakers. These machines need to be tested by putting some water into them one by one. As soon as I’m not careful, my hands will be blistered by scalding water. In order to prevent any quality problems emerging, I tested each of them carefully. However, to increase the output and gain more awards, my monitor urged me to work quickly more than once. I felt a little shaken within: Since the previous employee didn’t test the products one by one and nothing happened, then I won’t test all of them. But then I thought: I’m a believer in God and God requires us to be honest people. If I don’t test the products one by one, then I’m irresponsible as well as cheating others, and I’m not an honest person that brings God joy. I’ll test what I should test. Therefore, I prayed to God silently in my heart, “Oh God! I’m willing to put into practice being an honest person.” After the prayer, I still tested the products one by one. Seeing that I didn’t do according to what she said, my monitor blamed me in front of my colleagues, “You’re too stupid and your mind is inflexible.” Hearing that she talked about me like this, I thought: This is not because I’m stupid or I can’t do like that. Before I believed in God, I also cheated others. Now that I believe in God, I should practice according to God’s words.
Question 6: You say that if people want to be freed from sin and be cleansed, they must accept Almighty God’s work of judgment in the last days. How does God judge and cleanse people in the last days? Throughout all these years that I’ve believed in the Lord, I thought that it’d be great if there came a time when people no longer sinned. At that time, my life would no longer be painful! Answer: As for how Almighty god judges and cleanses people in the last days, let’s read some more of Almighty God’s words! Almighty God says, “When God becomes flesh this time, His work is to express His disposition, primarily through chastisement and judgment. Using this as the foundation, He brings more truth to man, shows more ways of practice, and so achieves His objective of conquering man and saving man from his corrupt disposition. This is what lies behind the work of God in the Age of Kingdom” (Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh).
Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
– Ecclesiastes 1:2
Thoughts on Today’s Verse…
This verse tells us that our pursuits in life, such as fame and fortune, status, money and fleshly enjoyments, are all vanity and meaninglessness because we do not bring when we are born and we do not take when we die. We cannot help but ask ourselves: If all is vanity, then why do we live? How to live can get rid of vanity? At this moment, a passage of God’s words struck me, “For without the guidance of God, no matter how much rulers and sociologists wrack their brains to preserve human civilization, it is to no avail. No one can fill the emptiness in man’s heart, for no one can be the life of man, and no social theory can free man from the emptiness with which he is afflicted. … Man, after all, is man. The position and life of God cannot be replaced by any man. Mankind does not just require a fair society in which everyone is well-fed and is equal and free, but the salvation of God and His provision of life to them. Only when man receives the salvation of God and His provision of life to them can the needs, yearning to explore, and spiritual emptiness of man be resolved.” From these words we can see that only when mankind accept God’s provision of life to them, seek to know Him, and gain the truth can they solve emptiness. Thanks for God’s guidance!
Before, when I used to hear people commenting on something, they often said “seeing is believing.” As time passed, I also took this as my basis for looking at things, and it was the same regarding God’s words after I had come to believe in God. I was always unable to believe in many of God’s words that had not been fulfilled. As my time spent believing in God went on, I saw God’s words in varying degrees of fulfillment, saw the facts of the accomplishments of God’s words and no longer had any doubt when reading God’s words. Thus, I thought that I had some understanding of God’s faithfulness, and that I was able to believe that everything God said was real.
One day, I read these words spoken by God, “Without the salvation of God incarnate in the last days, then God would have long ago destroyed all mankind in hell” (“Do You Know? God Has Done a Great Thing Among Men” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). When I read these words, I felt a little uncertain. I thought, if it had said “without the salvation of God incarnate in the last days, then all of corrupt humanity must be finally destroyed,” then I could completely believe in it, as I knew how crucial God incarnate is to us. But to say that without the salvation of God incarnate in the last days, then God would have long ago destroyed man in hell, I thought that this was just an interpretation. When I thought this way, I felt reproach in my heart and I felt very uneasy—by thinking like this, wasn’t I doubting and denying God’s words? So I hurried before God, and I looked to Him and began to seek: Oh God! I don’t want to have this approach to Your words and I hate that I am so deceitful. I’ve followed You for so long and have seen many facts of the fulfillment of Your words, so how can I still be thinking this way? Oh God! I wish to believe every word You say and have a true belief in Your words. I wish for You to lead me into this reality.
