Eastern Lightning | Chapter 10. Knowledge of the Incarnation

Knowing God must be done through reading God’s word and understanding God’s word. Some people say: “I haven’t seen God incarnate, so how can I know God?” God’s word is actually an expression of God’s disposition. From God’s word you can see God’s love for mankind, His salvation of mankind, and the way He saves them … because God’s word is expressed by God as opposed to God using man to write it out. It is personally expressed by God. It is God Himself expressing His own words and His inner voice. Why do we call them heartfelt words? Because they are issued from deep down, expressing His disposition, His will, His thoughts, His love for mankind, His salvation of mankind, and His expectations of mankind. Among God’s words are severe words, gentle and soft words, some considerate words, and there are some revelatory words that are inhumane. If you look only at the revelatory words, you feel that God is quite stern. If you look at only the gentle and soft side, God appears to not have much authority. You must therefore not understand out of context in this. You must look at it from every angle. Sometimes God speaks from a gentle and compassionate perspective, and people see God’s love for mankind; sometimes He speaks from a strict perspective, and people see God’s unoffendable disposition. Man is deplorably filthy and is not worthy of seeing God’s face, and is not worthy of coming before God. People’s coming before God now is purely out of God’s grace. God’s wisdom can be seen from the way God works and the meaning of His work. Even if people don’t come into contact with God, they will still be able to see these things in God’s word. When someone who has true understanding comes in contact with Christ, his understanding can match Him, but when someone who has only theoretical understanding comes in contact with God, it cannot match Him. This aspect of truth is the deepest profound mystery, difficult to fathom. Summarize the words that God says about the mystery of the incarnation, look at them from various angles, then discuss these things among yourselves. You may pray, and do a lot of pondering and discussion of these things. Perhaps the Holy Spirit enlightens you and lets you understand them. This is because you have no chance to come in contact with God, and you must rely on experience in this way to feel your way in a little bit at a time, to achieve true understanding of God.

Eastern Lightning | The Hymn of God's Word "Christ of the Last Days Has Brought the Age of Kingdom"

Christ of the Last Days Has Brought the Age of Kingdom

I
When Jesus came into the world of man, He brought the Age of Grace, ending the Age of Law. God once more became flesh during the last days. He brought the Age of Kingdom, ending the Age of Grace. All who accept God's second incarnation shall be led into the Age of Kingdom and receive His guidance. Jesus labored among man to redeem mankind, offering Himself as sacrifice for man's sins. Yet man's corrupt disposition remains.

II
To save man from Satan's corrupt influence, it's not enough for Jesus to be sin offering. It needs God to do a greater work to rid man of his disposition tainted by Satan. All who accept God's second incarnation shall be led into the Age of Kingdom and receive His guidance. Jesus labored among man to redeem mankind, offering Himself as sacrifice for man's sins. Yet man's corrupt disposition remains.

Eastern Lightning | The Hymn of God's Word "The True Embodiment of the Creator's Authority"

Eastern Lightning | The Hymn of God's Word "The True Embodiment of the Creator's Authority"

Mankind and the universe are woven into the Creator's design. Mankind and the universe are woven into the Creator's design. Tied to His workings, they are held within His sway. The laws of science and nature reveal how He works and rules. And the struggle to survive shows His supremacy. Yes, the fates of all things; yes, the fates of all things; yes, the fates of all things show His sovereign control.

II

In life and death and everything, mankind sees the Creator's work. In life and death and everything, mankind sees the Creator's work and bears witness to His superior ways that transcend all earthly powers and laws. So no created being can violate God's rule or change what He has ordained. All things bow to His laws, showing His authority. Both now and forever more.

  from "God Himself, the Unique III" in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh

Eastern Lightning| The Difference Between the Ministry of the Incarnate God and the Duty of Man

You must come to know the vision of God’s work and grasp the general direction of His work. This is entry in a positive way. Once you accurately master the truths of the vision, your entry will be secure; no matter how His work changes, you will remain steadfast in your heart, be clear about the vision, and you will have a goal for your entry and your pursuit. In such manner, all the experience and knowledge within you will grow deeper and become more refined. Once you have grasped the bigger picture in its entirety, you will suffer no losses in life, and you shall not be lost. If you do not come to know these steps of work, you shall suffer loss at each of them. You cannot turn around in just a few days, and you will not be able to set upon the right track in even a few weeks. Is this not setting you back? There is much of entry in a positive manner and such practices that you must master, and so too must you grasp several points on the vision of His work, such as the significance of His work of conquest, the path to being made perfect in the future, what must be achieved through experience of trials and tribulations, the significance of judgment and chastisement, the principles of the work of the Holy Spirit, and the principles of perfection and of conquest. These are all truths of the vision. The rest are the three stages of work of the Age of Law, the Age of Grace, and the Age of Kingdom, as well as future testimony. These too are truths pertaining to the vision, and are the most fundamental, as well as most crucial. At present, there is too much that you ought to enter into and practice, and it is now more layered and more detailed. If you have no knowledge of these truths, it is proof that you have not yet entered. Most of the time, man’s knowledge of the truth is too shallow; man is unable to put into practice certain basic truths and does not know how to handle even trivial matters. The reason that man is unable to practice truth is because of his disposition of rebelliousness, and because his knowledge of the work of today is too superficial and one-sided. Thus, it is no easy task for man to be made perfect. Your rebelliousness is too great, and you retain too much of your old self; you are unable to stand on the side of truth, and you are unable to practice even the most evident of truths. Such men cannot be saved and are those who have not been conquered. If your entry has neither detail nor objectives, growth will be slow in coming for you. If your entry has not the slightest bit of reality, then your pursuit will be in vain. If you are unaware of the substance of truth, you will remain unchanged. Growth in man’s life and changes in his disposition are all achieved by entering into reality and, moreover, through entering into detailed experiences. If you have many detailed experiences during your entry, and you have much actual knowledge and entry, your disposition shall quickly change. Even if at present you are not very enlightened in practice, you must at the very least be enlightened about the vision of the work. If not, you shall be unable to enter, and you will not be able to do so unless you first have knowledge of truth. Only if the Holy Spirit enlightens you in your experience will you gain a deeper understanding of the truth and enter more deeply. You must come to know the work of God.

Eastern Lightning| The Hymn of God's Word "God Becomes Flesh to Save Mankind" | The Church of Almighty God

God Becomes Flesh to Save Mankind

I

Today is the day, have you seen? It's something for God to come among man. He's come to save man, defeat Satan— the reason for His incarnation. If not for this, He wouldn't work by Himself. God has taken on flesh to battle Satan and shepherd mankind, whose flesh is corrupted and whom God wants to save. God comes twice in the flesh to defeat Satan and save mankind. Only God can battle Satan in Spirit or in flesh.

II

The angels can't fight, they have no power. And corrupt man, he stands no chance. So God puts on flesh to be man's life, to work on them and save them all, with His inherent identity, and the work He must do. God has taken on flesh to battle Satan and shepherd mankind, whose flesh is corrupted and whom God wants to save. God comes twice in the flesh to defeat Satan and save mankind. Only God can battle Satan in Spirit or in flesh.

Eastern Lightning| Only Those Who Know God and His Work Can Satisfy God

The work of God incarnate includes two parts. The first time He became flesh, people did not believe in Him or know Him, and nailed Jesus to the cross. The second time, too, people did not believe in Him, much less know Him, and once again nailed Christ to the cross. Is man not the enemy of God? If man does not know Him, how could man be the intimate of God? And how could he be qualified to bear testimony to God? Loving God, serving God, glorifying God—are these not deceitful lies? If you devote your life to these unrealistic, impractical things, do you not labor in vain? How could you be God’s intimate when you do not even know who God is? Is such pursuit not vague and abstract? Is it not deceitful? How can one be an intimate of God? What is the practical significance of being an intimate of God? Can you be an intimate of God’s Spirit? Can you see how great and exalted the Spirit is? To be the intimate of an invisible, intangible God—is that not vague and abstract? What is the practical significance of such pursuit? Is it not all deceitful lies? What you pursue is to become God’s intimate, yet in fact you are Satan’s lapdog, for you do not know God, and pursue the non-existent “God of all things,” which is invisible, intangible, and of your own conceptions. Vaguely speaking, such a “God” is Satan, and practically speaking, it is you yourself. You seek to be your own intimate yet still say you pursue to be the intimate of God—is that not blasphemy? What is the value of such pursuit? If the Spirit of God does not become flesh, then the substance of God is merely an invisible, intangible Spirit of life, formless and amorphous, of the nonmaterial kind, unapproachable and incomprehensible to man. How could man be the intimate of an incorporeal, wondrous, unfathomable Spirit such as this? Is this not a joke? Such absurd reasoning is invalid and impractical. Created man is of an inherently different kind to the Spirit of God, so how could the two of them be intimates? If the Spirit of God were not realized in the flesh, if God did not become flesh and humble Himself by becoming a creature, then created man would be both unqualified and unable to be His intimate, and apart from those godly believers who may have the chance to be God’s intimates after their souls have entered into heaven, most people would be unable to become the intimates of God’s Spirit. And if man wishes to become the intimate of God in heaven under the guidance of God incarnate, is he not an astonishingly foolish non-human? Man merely pursues “faithfulness” to an invisible God, and pays not the slightest attention to the God that can be seen, for it is so easy to pursue an invisible God—man may do so however he likes. But the pursuit of the visible God is not so easy. The man that seeks a vague God is absolutely unable to gain God, for things that are vague and abstract are all imagined by man, and incapable of being gained by man. If the God that came among you were a lofty and exalted God who was inaccessible to you, then how could you seek His will? And how could you know and understand Him? If He only did His work, and had no normal contact with man, or was possessed of no normal humanity and unapproachable to mere mortals, then, even if He did much work for you but you had no contact with Him, and were unable to see Him, how could you know Him? If it were not for this flesh possessed of normal humanity, man would have no way of knowing God; it is only because of God’s incarnation that man is qualified to be the intimate of this God in the flesh. Man becomes God’s intimate because man comes into contact with Him, because man lives together with Him and keeps His company, and so gradually comes to know Him. If it were not thus, would man’s pursuit not be in vain? That is to say, it is not all because of God’s work that man is able to be God’s intimate, but because of the reality and normality of God incarnate. It is only because God becomes flesh that man has the chance to perform his duty, and the chance to worship the true God. Is this not the most real and practical truth? Now, do you still wish to be the intimate of God in heaven? Only when God humbles Himself to a certain point, which is to say, only when God becomes flesh, can man be His intimate and confidant. God is of the Spirit: How is man qualified to be the intimate of this Spirit, who is so exalted and unfathomable? Only when the Spirit of God descends into the flesh, and becomes a creature with the same exterior as man, can man understand His will and actually be gained by Him. He speaks and works in the flesh, shares in the joys, sorrows, and tribulations of man, lives in the same world as man, protects man, and guides him, and through this He cleanses man, and allows man to gain His salvation and His blessing. Having gained these things, man truly understands God’s will, and only then can he be an intimate of God. Only this is practical. If God were invisible and intangible to man, how could man be His intimate? Is this not empty doctrine?

The Hymn of God's Word "God Treasures Those Who Can Listen to and Obey Him" | Eastern Lightning

God doesn’t care whether one is humble or great.

As long as he listens to God,

obeys what God orders and entrusts,

can cooperate with His work, with His plan and His will,

so that His will and plan can proceed without hindrance,

such action is worthy of, worthy of God’s remembrance,

and worthy of receiving, receiving His blessing.

God treasures such people, and cherishes their actions,

and their love and affection for Him.

This is God’s attitude.

Eastern Lightning| The Hymn of God's Word "God Is Incarnated Just to Defeat Satan and Save All Mankind"

God Is Incarnated Just to Defeat Satan and Save All Mankind

I

During this incarnation of God on earth,

He does His work among man.

All of this work has one purpose—

to defeat the devil Satan.

He will defeat Satan through conquering man,

also through making you complete.

When you bear resounding testimony,

this, too, will be a mark of Satan’s defeat.

God is incarnated just to defeat Satan and save all mankind.

II

In order for Satan to be defeated,

man is first conquered, then made complete.

But in substance, while defeating Satan,

God saves man from the world of pain.

No matter if this work is carried out

in China or throughout the universe,

it’s all to defeat Satan and save mankind,

so that man can enter the place of rest.

God is incarnated just to defeat Satan and save all mankind.