For years, life has been continuing in this world through generation after generation. Everyone live a life in their respective roles, smooth or rough, poor or rich. No matter what kind of life they live, very few have found the real life. Before the age of 28, I had lived my life as most people do.
On a very common day, I was chosen by God from among the vast sea of people. It was then that I came to know the source of all things, the source of man’s life, and the two different destinations for man, heaven or hell, and I also knew that God, because of mankind’s sin, was incarnated personally and laid down His life for them through His crucifixion, thereby bringing them grace, peace, and joy. This was the first turning point in my life. From then on, I began to preach the gospel and build up the church, and healed the sick and cast out demons in the Lord’s name; I also attended service and studied the Bible. All that almost became my entire life, and I no longer felt empty. The church gradually revived because of God’s favor. The brothers and sisters loved one another and shared everything together. They helped anyone in the church who needed help. As the number in the church increased, the church selected co-workers at different levels, and I became the most senior leader. Everything in the church must be approved by me, and the brothers and sisters also submitted to whatever I said. Later, some puzzling things happened in the church. The sick could not be healed, and the demon-possessed could not be released. The brothers and sisters asked me the reason, and I said, “It is because you lack faith in prayers. You should fast when necessary.” Actually, I myself didn’t know the reason either. Later, such things happened more often. And what’s more, I obviously felt that I had nothing to say in preaching. My sermon was becoming dry as dust, and I was often incoherent with lack of words. The co-workers in the church often raised such question, “What should we preach in the meetings?” I answered them, “I don’t know either. Just read the Bible if you really have no idea what to preach.” But this was only a temporary remedy. Because there was no supply of the living water, the number in the church, which could be maintained in the beginning, began to drop later. Faced with this, I burned with anxiety but did not know why it happened. I could do nothing but pray to God, “Lord, You know best what is happening in our church. In the past, whatever we asked in Your name, You granted it to us, and we often witnessed the signs and wonders. Now, we do the same, calling on Your name, reading the Bible, and praying to You, but why does it not work today? We pray but receive no answer; we preach the gospel but gain no fruit; the number of the believers is decreasing; and some co-workers even want to return to the world to find another way out. Lord! Why so? Please help us!” Later, to recover the love of the brothers and sisters, I asked all in the church to pray in shifts around the clock and to fast on the 21st day every month. I wanted to revive the church by doing so, but I didn’t expect that after practicing for some time, all the brothers and sisters said, “We have no desire to eat in ordinary days, but on the fasting days we feel extremely hungry and can’t hold on.” Having no choice, I came before the Lord again, “O Lord! Please help us! If it goes on like this, we will all be finished! I really don’t know what to do…” Yet the church was still in such condition.
At the end of 1997, a leader from Henan Province said at a meeting, “I tell you one thing. Now a sect, the ‘Eastern Lightning,’ preaches that the Lord has already come, and that He is in China, and is a female. They are very aggressive. They preach especially among the churches of Jesus. You must be wary of them…” From then on, how to resist the “Eastern Lightning” became a necessary topic of our every meeting. And we constantly heard that people from such and such a church had joined the “Eastern Lightning.” We even heard that many key co-workers who had believed in the Lord for years and pursued eagerly had joined it too. I thought to myself: Now the church is in a slump and the number of the believers is on the decline. I must keep a close watch on the church and prevent the brothers and sisters from being deceived. As such, I blindly believed what the leader said without any investigation and began to seal off the church. I told the believers, “You mustn’t receive any strangers, much less the believers in Jesus. Even if they are your relatives, you shall not bring them to the church without my permission. Everyone, whoever he is, must comply. He who disobeys will be expelled!” I also said, “This is all for your good, because your spiritual life is immature and you are lack of discernment. We do so to keep you from being deceived.” Then, I fabricated many rumors to frighten them by saying, “Those who preach the ‘Eastern Lightning’ are cruel. If you refuse to accept their way after listening to their preaching, they will break your limbs or ruin your family. So, stay away from them if you want to keep your family safe and sound.” In fact, when I said these words, I knew nothing at all about what the “Eastern Lightning” was, nor had I ever seen anyone of the “Eastern Lightning.” However, in order to prevent these “sheep” from falling into others’ hands and preserve my position, I fabricated rumors to incite people to resist the “Eastern Lightning.” Just as Matthew 23:13 says, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in.” I, like the “evil tenant,” resisted God but was unaware of it. In 1998, the condition of the church was even worse. The co-workers not only had nothing fresh to preach, but they came into conflicts with each other. They judged one another and tried to exclude one another. What worried me most was that opening the Bible, I didn’t know what to preach. The brothers and sisters received no supply of the living water from the meetings, so they would rather rest at home. The whole church came to a dead end. At that time, my only hope was that Jesus could come to take us sooner. It never occurred to me whether God would want a person like me or not. I only wanted to extricate myself from these difficulties as soon as possible.
Troubles came one after another. In July, 1999, my body began to swell. Sometimes it got so serious that I couldn’t stand up after I squatted down. The brothers and sisters fasted and prayed for me, but it didn’t get any better. Later, I went to the hospital for an examination. The doctor told me that a tumor about the size of an egg was in my womb. I was greatly shocked at this. I swallowed my tears and returned home. On the way home, I thought back to the things that had happened in our church: The gospel preaching is ineffective; the attendance gradually drops off; the brothers and sisters are passive and indifferent, and no love is found among them; the co-workers act in envy and strife, and some of them even want to return to the world; the flock is in misery with no supply of grass and living water. I myself have nothing new to provide the brothers and sisters, and now, such illness comes upon me. I was seized with feebleness, both physically and spiritually. Facing the fact that there was no way out for the church and me, I felt very distressed. But what troubled me most was that I didn’t know why these problems happened, much less know how to solve them. At that point, a sense of loneliness ran through me, and I felt helpless and far distant from God, tears flowing down my cheeks. I cried out to God, “Lord! I miss You very much. Only You know my miseries, and only You are my help. But I don’t know where You are now. Lord, where are You? Have You really left me? How can I meet You again? How can I return to the days You were with me? O Lord, I’m almost dying in spirit now. Please appear to me. Please save me! …” I didn’t know how long I prayed and wept bitter tears before God that day.
Almighty God says: “When the waters swallow men whole, I save them from the stagnant waters and give them a chance to have life anew. When men lose their confidence to live, I pull them up from the brink of death, granting them the courage to live, that they take Me as the foundation of their existence. When men disobey Me, I cause them to know Me in their disobedience. In light of humanity’s old nature and in light of My mercy, rather than putting humans to death, I allow them to repent and make a fresh start. When men suffer famine, I wrest them from death so long as they have one breath left….” (from “The Fourteenth Utterance” of God’s Utterance to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh) That’s right! God is love. God is the truth, the way, and the life. Man’s end is God’s beginning. God does not give up anyone whom He has bought at a high price, much less want to see any lamb left with no supply of grass, water, or way to go.
On October 8, 1999, God stretched out His saving hand to me again and pulled me back from the brink of death. That was the second turning point in my life. Almighty God gave me a second life on that day and I could never forget it.
That day, I met two brothers thanks
Since then, I have been following Almighty God and walking on the path toward the kingdom. I have been with God once again. Every day I am watered by God’s word and receive new light. With God’s personal guidance every day, I’m growing in life constantly. It is Almighty God who gives me a second life. Brothers and sisters, how is your church now? How is your spiritual state? Do you also desire to receive the spring of living water? Have you found it now? If not, please drop your critical views of Almighty God and come to investigate the word expressed by Him. Then you will know that Almighty God’s word is the truth, the way, and the life. As Almighty God says: “When you have finished reading this book, when you have experienced each step of the work of God incarnate in the Age of Kingdom, you will feel that the hopes of many years have finally been realized. You will feel that only now have you truly seen God face-to-face; only now have you gazed upon the face of God, heard the personal utterance of God, appreciated the wisdom of God’s work, and truly sensed how real and almighty God is. You will sense that you have gained many things that people of times past have never seen or possessed. At this time, you will clearly know what it is to believe in God, and what it is to be after God’s heart. Of course, if you cling to views of the past, and reject or deny the fact of the second incarnation of God, then you shall remain empty-handed and acquire nothing, and ultimately be guilty of opposing God. Those who obey the truth and submit to the work of God shall come under the name of the second incarnate God—the Almighty. They will be able to accept the personal guidance of God, and shall acquire more and higher truths and receive the real human life. They shall behold the vision that people of the past have never seen: ‘And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the middle of the seven candlesticks one like to the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like to fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shines in his strength.’ (Revelation 1:12-16) This vision is the expression of God’s entire disposition, and such an expression of His entire disposition is also the expression of the work of God when He becomes flesh this time. In the torrents of chastisements and judgments, the Son of man expresses His inherent disposition through the speaking of words, allowing all those who accept His chastisement and judgment to see the true face of the Son of man, a face that is a faithful depiction of the face of the Son of man seen by John. (Of course, all this will be invisible to those who do not accept the work of God in the Age of Kingdom.) The true face of God cannot be fully articulated using the words of man, and so God used the expression of His inherent disposition to show His true face to man. Which is to say that all those who have experienced the inherent disposition of the Son of man have seen the true face of the Son of man, for God is too great and cannot be fully articulated using the words of man. Once man has experienced each step of God’s work in the Age of Kingdom, then he shall know the true meaning of John’s words when he spoke of the Son of man among the lampstands: ‘His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like to fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shines in his strength.’ At that time, you shall know beyond all doubt that this ordinary flesh that has spoken so many words is really the second incarnate God. And you shall truly sense how blessed you are, and feel yourself the most fortunate. Would you be unwilling to accept this blessing?” (from “Preface” to The Word Appears in the Flesh)