I am sixty years old and used to have a harmonious family. My sons were obedient and filial to me, my husband was devoted and responsible, and I kept my family in line—such a life seemed to have been impeccable. However, I didn’t know why I felt empty in my heart frequently, and for what purpose man should live his life.

In March 2017, a fellow villager preached the kingdom gospel of Almighty God to me. Since then, I read God’s words every day and often fellowshiped about the truth and worshiped God with brothers. My heart was full with a sense of good fortune. In the midst of three months of meetings, I read a lot of God’s words and I learned that God rules over the fate of all mankind and that the reason people live in emptiness is because there is no place for God in their heart. At the same time, I also found the meaning and value of life, and understood that as a creation, man should believe in God and worship God. I thanked God for selecting me, letting me find the real direction of life and helping me bid farewell to my previous empty life.

As if having found a priceless treasure, I wanted my family to come before God and accept His salvation. Therefore, I preached the gospel to my elder son with the brothers and sisters. On that day, as the brothers and sisters shared God’s love and teachings to mankind with him, he listened with deep interest. He also shared his gains with us and expressed his willingness to continue to investigate the work of God. When I saw my son was willing to investigate God’s work, I was extremely happy in my heart.

Unexpectedly, the next day, my son took several pages of negative propaganda copied from the Internet about The Church of Almighty God and said to me fiercely: “This is propaganda about your church. Take a good look at it!” After saying this, he entered his room. Faced with my son’s sudden change in his attitude, I knew that he had believed the rumors online. However, I was clear in my heart that these negative reports were the atheistic CCP slandering and condemning The Church of Almighty God, all of which are untrue. Moreover, through these several months of attending meetings and fellowshiping the truth expressed by Almighty God with brothers and sisters, I had long ago ascertained that Almighty God is the unique, true God who rules and provides us with everything. I thought to myself that no matter what my family says, I would firmly follow God.

One day, for the sake of obstructing me from attending meetings, my eldest son called the sister who had preached the gospel to me and verbally abused her. When I saw my son, who had always been sensible, suddenly become like this, I was at a loss. What’s more, that sister must have felt humiliated. I felt extremely guilty as well as a little weak in my heart. I prayed to God: “O God! Now I feel weak. I don’t know why my previously obedient eldest son has suddenly become like this. It seems as if he has become a different person overnight. O God! I don’t know what I should do. May You guide me….” After the prayer, I thought of God’s words: “You know that all things in the environment that surrounds you are there by My permission, all planned by Me. See clearly and satisfy My heart in the environment I have given to you. Do not fear, the Almighty God of hosts will surely be with you; He stands behind you and He is your shield.” “Have no scruples, and do not be disheartened or weak. Directly fellowship more with Me in your spirit, wait patiently, and I will surely reveal to you in My own time. … When you are constantly drawing close to Me in this way, regardless of your surroundings or what person, event or thing you encounter, you will not become muddled but will have a way forward.” God’s words gave me faith and strength. Although I didn’t know what God’s will was, I knew this situation that I had encountered was permitted by God. Moreover, God is always with me and is my rear guard and my reliance. As long as I rely on God to march forward, I believe that God would surely lead me.

Afterward, while my family went to work, I went out for meetings with a few sisters. Seeing them, I felt a warmth in my heart and told them about the situation that I had encountered recently. After they heard about it, they read two passages of God’s words to me: “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men and the interference of men. Behind every step of work that God does in you is Satan’s wager with God—behind it all is a battle.” “You must be awake and waiting at all times, and you must pray before Me more. You must recognize the various plots and cunning schemes of Satan, recognize the spirits, know people, and be able to discern all kinds of people, events, and things; you must also eat and drink more of My words and, more importantly, you must be able to eat and drink of them by yourselves. Equip yourselves with all of the truth, and come before Me so that I may open your spiritual eyes and allow you to see all the mysteries that lie within the spirit…. When the church enters its construction phase, the saints march to battle. Satan’s various hideous features are set before you: Do you stop and edge backward, or do you stand up and, relying upon Me, continue to move forward? Thoroughly expose Satan’s corrupt and ugly features, spare no feelings, and show no mercy! Fight Satan to the death! I am your backup, and you must have the spirit of the male child!”

A sister fellowshiped: “Auntie, today we encounter these situations; from the outside, it seems that your son opposes your belief in God with other members of your family due to the negative propaganda. But, behind the scenes, it’s a spiritual battle taking place and is one of Satan’s tricks. As we all know, God’s work is to save man while what Satan does is to corrupt man. Satan uses various ways to entice us to stray away from God and make us live in suffering, so as to achieve its purpose of harming and devouring man. Since God began to manage mankind, Satan has always trailed along behind God and done everything it could to snatch the people God intends to save. Thus, when it sees us turn to God, it is unwilling to be defeated. So it strives to hinder, disturb and attack us through our family. Its aim is to use them to oppose us and force us to give up believing in God so that we will return again under its domain and continue to be afflicted and trampled by it, thus losing God’s salvation. This is the treacherous intention of Satan. However, God’s wisdom is exercised based on Satan’s schemes. God permits these situations to come upon us and there is God’s good purpose in them. God uses Satan’s temptations to teach us how to rely on and look up to God so as to test our faith in God. Just as when Job was tempted by Satan so that he lost all of his property and his body became covered with sores, his wife came out and played the role of Satan to attack Job and said to him: ‘Do you still retain your integrity? curse God, and die’ (Job 2:9). However, Job replied to her: ‘You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?’ (Job 2:10). These words of Job show that his faith in and fear of God were true and able to withstand the test of the situation. Within Job’s heart, no matter what situations, trials and suffering he encountered, he would never betray God. It was Job’s practical living out that finally put Satan to shame and made Job bear a beautiful and resounding testimony for God before the people of the world as well as Satan. Originally, Satan wanted to use temptation to destroy Job’s will and make him stop believing in God. However, Job didn’t fall for Satan’s scheme to stray from God. On the contrary, through this opportunity, Job’s faith in and fear of God was strengthened and he became a person approved by God. Similarly, today, God also wants to gain us through such situations. Therefore, when facing this spiritual battle, we must see through Satan’s tricks. The more Satan attacks us, the more we should maintain our faith in God and stand witness for Him to shame Satan and satisfy God’s will.”

Then the sister read me two passages of God’s word: “Look back to the time when Noah built the ark: Mankind was deeply corrupt, people had strayed from the blessing of God, were no longer cared for by God, and had lost the promises of God. They lived in darkness, without the light of God. Then they became licentious by nature and abandoned themselves to hideous depravity. Such people could no longer receive the promise of God; they were unfit to witness the face of God or to hear the voice of God, for they had abandoned God, had cast aside all that He had bestowed upon them, and had forgotten the teachings of God. Their heart strayed farther and farther from God and, as it did, they became depraved beyond all reason and humanity and became increasingly evil. Then they walked ever closer to death and fell under the wrath and punishment of God. Only Noah worshiped God and shunned evil, and so he was able to hear the voice of God and hear His instructions. He built the ark according to the instructions of God’s word, and there assembled all manner of living creatures. And in this way, once everything had been prepared, God unleashed His destruction upon the world. Only Noah and the seven other members of his family survived the destruction, for Noah worshiped Jehovah and shunned evil.” “Now look upon the present age: Such righteous men as Noah, who could worship God and shun evil, have ceased to exist. Yet God is still gracious toward this mankind and still absolves them during this final era. God seeks those who long for Him to appear. He seeks those who are able to hear His words, those who have not forgotten His commission and offer up their hearts and bodies to Him. He seeks those who are as obedient as babes before Him and do not resist Him. If you devote yourself to God, unimpeded by any power or force, then God shall look upon you with favor and shall bestow His blessings upon you.”

The sister said: “Auntie, as we all know, in the days of Noah, because of man’s evil and corruption, God wanted to use a flood to destroy mankind. But, before destroying mankind, God commanded Noah to build an ark and preach the gospel to the people in the meanwhile. However, people at that time didn’t believe Noah’s words much less did they believe that God would destroy the world with a flood. They all considered Noah to be a mad and foolish man. Consequently, when the flood truly came, only Noah’s family of eight entered the ark and survived while the rest were all destroyed by the flood. What warning does the story of Noah give to people nowadays? Nowadays, the extent of people’s evil and corruption is far beyond that of the time of Noah. However, the difference is that today, in the last days, God has personally become flesh and expresses the truth to save deeply corrupted mankind, letting man hear His voice and obtain His salvation. But, because of the CCP’s negative propaganda, many people refuse to seek and investigate the true way and thus miss the opportunity to receive salvation. Auntie, wouldn’t you say that this shows that man is too foolish? God’s work in the last days has revealed all kinds of people through Satan’s obstructions and disturbances. Those people who truly believe in God and love the truth are certain that Almighty God is the One who rules over and controls all things. So, no matter what temptations and disturbances they encounter, they can maintain their faith in God and not leave God. Only such people can gain the eternal salvation bestowed on man by God. Yet, those people who do not love the truth, because of having no true faith in God or because of their cowardice, leave and betray God amid Satan’s temptations and lose God’s salvation of the last days. In the end, they will be destroyed by God, as is Satan’s fate.”

After hearing God’s words and the sister’s fellowship, I understood: When I encountered this situation today, it seemed that my family opposed my belief in God from the outside. But behind the scenes, it was Satan making a bet with God. Satan wanted to use the obstructions of my family to make me live in negativity and weakness, betray God and leave God. However, God uses this situation to test my faith in Him so that I can learn to rely on Him, practice according to His words, see through the various tricks of Satan and finally be able to bear testimony for Him. From this, I saw the wisdom of God’s work and His righteous disposition. Thank God. After understanding God’s will, I seemed to gain a surge of power within and offered a prayer to God in my heart: “O God, thanks for Your guidance. Through the fellowship of the sister, You allow me to understand Your will. O God, I am over sixty but still have the honor to be selected by You to come before Your presence. This is Your grace and You uplifting me. You want to use this situation to test my faith in You. O God, I don’t want to disappoint You. I’m willing to rely on You to stand testimony for You by faith to shame Satan.”

I made a resolution to stand testimony for God. However, Satan still did not let me off and it continued to disturb me through my family. One time, my younger son put a pile of negative material into my hands and told me: “Read this information first. It says that if you believe in God for a long time, you will not care about your family and you will leave your home.” I didn’t read it and retorted: “Do you know under what circumstances the brothers and sisters leave their homes? If everything is OK, who wants to leave home? Is it not because of the persecution of the CCP that makes brothers and sisters unable to go back home?” He wanted to say something more to me, but I didn’t want to talk to him. I said to him: “Enough, don’t say anymore. I am tired and want to take a rest. Go back to your own room.” After I closed the door, my son still didn’t give up. He slipped the negative material under the door one sheet at a time. Looking at the papers filled with written rumors, I thought of the movie Faith in God: In Mainland China, the CCP hunts for brothers and sisters everywhere. As a result, they have to flee their hometown and scatter about everywhere. They have no place to rest their heads. Due to the persecution of the CCP, countless Christians have been arrested and put in jail and some have even been persecuted to death. In order to protect its dictatorial regime and achieve its ambition of holding permanent power, the CCP bitterly hates Almighty God who has become flesh to express the truth to save man, and thus madly persecutes and suppresses The Church of Almighty God. It also fabricates various lies and fallacies to deceive those who do not know the truth, leading to countless Christians being persecuted by their unbelieving relatives and ultimately leading to the breakup of their families. Yet, it distorts the facts, shamelessly saying that the breakup of their families is due to their belief in God. It attempts to use this to force us to give up our faith. Satan is so insidious, so venomous and so despicable. Thinking of this, I felt much clearer in my heart and gained some discernment of Satan’s schemes. I made a resolution inwardly that no matter how my family disturbed me, I would follow Almighty God.

One night, my husband and my son came to my room and asked me again not to believe in God. I didn’t listen to them. Seeing this, my husband immediately shouted at me fiercely: “If you continue believing in your God I will divorce you!” At that moment, I thought of God’s words: “Of everything that occurs in the universe, there is nothing in which I do not have the final say. Is there anything that is not in My hands?” God’s words gradually calmed down my restless heart. Then, I prayed to God silently in my heart: “God, my marriage is in Your hands. Whether we divorce or not is not decided by man but by You. I am willing to entrust all this to You.” After my prayer, I said calmly: “Whether we divorce or not is in God’s hands. Even if we divorce, I will still believe in God.” Seeing I didn’t fear him, my husband exposed his ferocious expression, pointed to the door, and said: “If you don’t give up believing in God, I will chase you out of this house.” Hearing him say this, I couldn’t help but feel a little worried. I thought to myself: “If I’m truly cast out, where will I stay in future?” At that time, I realized that I had fallen for the scheme of Satan again, so I hurriedly cried out to God in my heart: “O God, whether I will be driven out today is in your hands. No matter what, I’ll believe in You and follow You and never make concessions to Satan.” After the prayer, I suddenly remembered that I shared the ownership of our house. As such, he couldn’t drive me out at will legally. Thereupon, I retorted: “I have my share of this house. In this family, I take care of all the housework and have done my duty. It is my freedom to believe in God in my spare time. Moreover, in Hong Kong, everyone enjoys freedom of belief. Why do you interfere with me? In the past, when I stayed at home with nothing to do and felt very empty, I always did something meaningless, such as playing mahjong and gossiping with the neighbors. Now, I’ve read Almighty God’s words, understood some truth, found the right way of human life, and feel enriched. Yet, you always try to hold me back. I hope you can respect my decision and don’t try to prevent me from believing in God anymore.” Seeing that I still insisted on my belief, my husband was speechless and turned his head, ready to go out. Before leaving, he said: “I will make you give up your faith in God.” Then, he left angrily. I thought: “Regardless of how you obstruct me, I will follow God unwaveringly.” Externally, my husband left in a rage, but I knew that in the spiritual world Satan had been put to shame. Thank God. It was God giving me faith and wisdom in secret that made me able to firmly stand on God’s side. I gave praise and thanks to God from my heart.

One day, my husband changed his previously exasperated attitude and said to me calmly: “Do you still insist on believing in God? Don’t believe anymore, okay? I would rather you play mahjong or even go gambling. As long as you give up believing in God, I will immediately give you a million dollars. I can ask for leave to travel all over the world with you or I can even give you all of my money.” His words reminded me of God’s words, which I had read in a meeting before: “You are a created being—you should of course worship God and pursue a life of meaning. If you do not worship God but live within your filthy flesh, then are you not just a beast in human attire?” I thought to myself: “Yes. As a created being, I should worship God. In the past when I didn’t know God, I lived for my flesh. Although materialistically, I had everything, I felt empty in my heart and lived a meaningless life. Today, God has brought me before Him, letting me be able to hear His voice, read the truth expressed by Almighty God and find the direction of my life. This cannot be bought with money. Moreover, money can never buy truth, let alone life. If I give up believing in God and following God for the sake of money and fleshly enjoyment, am I not just too foolish? The Lord Jesus said: ‘For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’ (Matthew 16:26).” Thinking of these things, I felt more determined to adhere to the choice I had made in my heart. I told my husband firmly: “Don’t try to persuade me anymore. I believe in God firmly. Leave the money for yourself. I don’t need it.” When he heard me say this, he no longer said anything …

Thank God. When I truly strengthened my resolution of following God, I saw God’s wonderful deed. Not only did my family no longer prevent me from going out to attend meetings, eventually, things settled down in our family. Now, I live a regular church life and perform my duty as a created being. It is completely due to the guidance of God’s words that I could break through Satan’s attacks and stand testimony to God. All the glory be to God!