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How did She Revive Her Faith and Return to God?

After getting married, I often suffered family violence. My husband and my mother-in-law were temperamental, and often beat me or cursed me. So I lived in great suffering, and sometimes, when I could bear it no longer, I even wanted to die and be done with this life. Later, it was the Lord Jesus who saved me from that brutal family. However, after leaving home one of my feet began to atrophy because of the beatings over many years. Afterwards, my illness got so severe that I was unable to walk and could only lie in bed. After an examination, the doctor said my illness couldn’t be cured. This news hit me like thunder from a clear blue sky, and I felt completely hopeless, lost confidence in my life and thought about suicide. But the Lord never abandoned me. Through the sisters of the church visiting me and praying for me, I gradually made a miraculous recovery. At that time, I was so moved that hot tears would well up in my eyes. I knew it was the Lord who had cured me of my illness, and my heart was full of gratitude toward Him. Having personally experienced His wonderful salvation, my faith in the Lord became greater and I resolved to follow Him all my life to repay His grace. In 2000, my son unexpectedly got seriously ill. When the brothers and sisters of the church found out, they prayed for my son every day. One week later, to my surprise, my son got better without treatment. The Lord is so almighty! I had enjoyed so much of the Lord’s grace, so I dedicated myself to Him and often donated to the church. At that time, I could feel the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and lived in peace, joy, and happiness.

I Was Confused About Why the Churches Gradually Became Desolate

In 2007, because my son was not interested in further study, despite my trying to persuade him, I helped him register for church spiritual training classes. I originally planned to send him to study in the church nearby, but my son couldn’t meet the conditions that students should have a college diploma, be very familiar with the Bible, and so on. Thus, I could only send him to a more remote church. After a few years, the church arranged for him to serve in another city. Unexpectedly, my son had a car accident on the way to that city, and then he was taken to a local police station. I thought the people of our church would come to help us, but who would have known that nobody would show up to help us. Eventually it was some unbelievers who helped us deal with the accident, which made me extremely cold-hearted toward my church. I remembered that the pastor there often taught us to love each other with the Lord’s words, but when we encountered a problem they all protected themselves. How unconcerned and merciless they were!

Later, the situation in the church became worse and worse. The pastors preached with no new light and only explained biblical knowledge and theology and talked about some testimonies of grace and blessings to show off their piety. As a result, the believers were unable to gain supply. They all lived for physical enjoyments, pursued worldly pleasures and were unwilling to attend meetings. When ill, some believers prayed but could not be healed of their sicknesses, and then they all became negative and weak; when adultery occasionally happened in our church, the pastor acted like nothing had happened.

I looked again at my family and myself: Having taken the spiritual training classes for several years, my son had learned much about the Bible and had also preached in the church. However, he didn’t follow the Lord’s way at all. When at home, he only placed importance on dining and playing around, and his disposition became more arrogant and self-righteous. I couldn’t resist sinning with regularity as well, failing to keep the Lord’s teachings, and living in a cycle of sinning and repenting. When I was sinning, I couldn’t feel the discipline of the Holy Spirit and the Lord’s presence, so I gradually lost the faith I had at the start. I repeatedly cried out to the Lord, hoping that He could make me change my old self and no longer struggle in sin. Even more so, I hoped that my church could be revived and that the brothers and sisters could truly love each other. But to my dismay, the church was becoming increasingly desolate. In about 2009, I left the church, but still kept on reading the Bible and praying at home, not daring to leave the Lord.

My Faith Grew Cold and My Situation Became More Depraved

In 2013, under the Lord’s wonderful guidance, my son and I came to America. On arriving in America, I hurriedly looked for a church to join. After visiting many churches, I found that the situation with the churches abroad was the same as that with the domestic churches: I couldn’t feel the presence of the Lord, nor could I see the enlightenment and guidance of the Holy Spirit. I felt very upset and disappointed. I didn’t understand: Why had the churches changed that much? Why was it that the more I believed in the Lord the more tired I felt? From then on, I hardly ever went to church, and only worshiped the Lord on my own at home. I thought of what the pastor once said: “The precious blood of our Lord Jesus has cleansed our sins, so our sins have been forgiven. When the Lord comes, we’ll be raptured to the kingdom of heaven.” I used to warn myself with these words: “I must hold on to the Lord’s way. I won’t stray from the Lord. I believe He will definitely return to take me up into the kingdom of heaven.”

However, my faith was getting weaker and weaker. I couldn’t feel the Lord’s presence when praying. There was no new light when I was reading the Bible. I became gradually unwilling to read the Bible or pray. Finally, I became completely engaged in earning money, drifting further and further away from the Lord. In those years, I felt quite miserable, but I was unable to escape from the bonds of money. I cried out to the Lord many times, and begged Him to strengthen my faith and give me power to overcome sin, but I couldn’t break away from the bonds of sin. It was during this time, when I was in pain and feeling helpless, that the Lord thankfully listened to my prayer and saved me from darkness.

My Confusion Was Resolved Because of a Wondrous Encounter

In April 2017, when I was on vacation, I carelessly booked the wrong hotel. By chance, the hotel proprietor was a Christian. After finding out that I was also a Christian, he treated me very warmly. One evening he just happened to be attending a Bible study group, so he invited me to join them. I actually didn’t want to go, thinking that there were no good sermons to be heard in churches nowadays and attending would be just a waste of time. But the proprietor told me that there was a brother who preached with great light at every meeting, which helped him a lot and resolved much of confusion and trouble in his daily life. Eventually, after his repeated invitations, I decided to go and have a look. After I met them in person, I saw that the brothers and sisters treated others kindly and enthusiastically and that everyone talked openly and freely at the gathering. In particular, the brother who preached looked so young and what he preached was quite fresh. He fellowshiped that after we humans became depraved, God started His management plan for the salvation of mankind. God’s work is always progressing forward. According to our needs, He has performed different work during different ages. Every step of God’s work is carried out upon the foundation of the previous stage, and they are all complementary and linked one to the next. The brother also preached the inside story and substance of the work in the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. I had never heard these sermons, and so I listened more seriously.

When the brother talked about the current situation of the churches, I asked: “Why have we not felt the Lord’s presence in recent years though we follow Him? Why have the churches become more and more desolate?” Afterward, the brother fellowshiped this with us: “In fact, now it’s not just your church that is bleak and desolate, but the entire religious world is in a desolate situation. Just as it is said in Amos 8:11, ‘Behold, the days come, said the Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Jehovah.’ It is said that the famine the entire religious world is facing now is just the fulfillment of God’s prophecies and the sign of the last days. On the one hand, it is caused by mankind. Just as it says in the Bible, ‘not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Jehovah.’ This primarily refers to the fact that religious pastors and elders mainly preach biblical knowledge and theology, and that they also use it to glorify themselves to be worshiped by others, but do not follow the Lord’s teachings and commandments, nor lead the followers to practice and experience the words of the Lord so that the followers can understand the truth and know the Lord. They’ve gone astray from the Lord’s way, which has resulted in them losing the work of the Holy Spirit and God’s blessings. On the other hand, the work of the Holy Spirit has moved, and does not work in the churches of the Age of Grace. Just as it was at the end of the Age of Law, the temple of the Jews, once so full of glory, grew desolate and then became a den of thieves for money changers and sellers of cows, sheep and doves. The main reason was that the work of the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the temple, and was working only on those who accepted the new work of the Lord Jesus. All those who could accept the Lord Jesus as their Savior, pray to Him and confess and repent their sins could receive His salvation and enjoy peace and joy from Him. Similarly, nowadays the reason the churches have become desolate is also because God has performed a new stage of work upon the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, that is, the work of judgment beginning with the house of God. And those who follow in God’s footsteps have regained the work of the Holy Spirit and received watering with God’s living water of life. But those who don’t accept God’s new work have been cast out from the tide of work performed by the Holy Spirit and have fallen into darkness, and thus they will be rejected and eliminated by God.”

From the brother’s fellowship, I clearly realized that the situation in the churches at present was indeed as desolate as in the temple at the end of the Age of Law. In the past, I could never figure out why so many iniquities happened in the churches if they were holy places. Now I understood that the work of the Holy Spirit had departed from the churches of the Age of Grace, and the Holy Spirit now works on those who have accepted God’s new work. It is recorded in Psalms, “Except Jehovah build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except Jehovah keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain” (Psalm 127:1). I thought: “That’s right. If the Holy Spirit doesn’t work, no matter how hard we work, the church won’t be revived.” Thank the Lord. Through the brother’s fellowship, my questions, which had puzzled me for years were solved.

I Understood How to Resolve All the Sin That Plagued Me and Followed in the Footsteps of the Lamb

Although what the brother said accorded with the Bible, I still had some doubts: Was it possible that the Lord Jesus has returned and performed the new work? Since the precious blood of our Lord Jesus has cleansed our sins, and our belief in the Lord Jesus means our sins have already been forgiven, why does God need to come back in the last days to do another stage of work? Therefore, I asked him these questions. The brother communicated this with us: “The Bible says, ‘Because it is written, Be you holy; for I am holy(1 Peter 1:16). From this verse, we can see that only persons purified by God are qualified to enter into the kingdom of God. The Lord Jesus only did the work of redemption. Our sins have been forgiven, but what is undeniable is that our sinful nature is still rooted deeply within us, and we still unknowingly commit sins and resist God. Though we appear on the outside to be humble and patient, our hearts are full of evil. We are still arrogant, treacherous, engage in jealousy and disputes, only care for ourselves, lust for wealth, follow worldly trends, and so on. Aren’t these all current attributes of us Christians? People like us, who always sin and confess, can we enter the kingdom of heaven?” Hearing this question, we all shook our heads. The brother looked at us, smiling.

He continued fellowshiping to us: “How can we obtain cleansing? After reading a passage of Almighty God’s words, we will know. Almighty God says, For all that man may have been redeemed and forgiven of his sins, it can only be considered as God not remembering the transgressions of man and not treating man in accordance with his transgressions. However, when man, who lives in a body of flesh, has not been set free from sin, he can only continue to sin, endlessly revealing his corrupt satanic disposition. This is the life that man leads, an endless cycle of sinning and being forgiven. The majority of mankind sin in the day only to confess in the evening. This way, even though the sin offering is forever effective for man, it will not be able to save man from sin. Only half the work of salvation has been completed, for man still has a corrupt disposition. …’ ‘A sinner such as you, who has just been redeemed, and has not been changed, or been perfected by God, can you be after God’s heart? For you, you who are still of your old self, it is true that you were saved by Jesus, and that you are not counted as a sinner because of the salvation of God, but this does not prove that you are not sinful, and are not impure. How can you be saintly if you have not been changed? Within, you are beset by impurity, selfish and mean, yet you still wish to descend with Jesus—you should be so lucky! You have missed a step in your belief in God: You have merely been redeemed, but you have not been changed. For you to be after God’s heart, God must personally do the work of changing and cleansing you; if you are only redeemed, you will be incapable of attaining sanctity. In this way you will be unqualified to share in the good blessings of God, for you have missed out a step in God’s work of managing man, which is the key step of changing and perfecting. You, a sinner who has just been redeemed, are therefore incapable of directly inheriting God’s inheritance.

From God’s words, we understood that the Lord Jesus merely completed the work of redemption, serving as the sin offering for us human beings and atoning for our sins. Therefore, we will no longer be convicted and punished by law for our sins. But although we have already been saved by His grace, it’s undeniable that we still commit sins. We need another stage of God’s work to solve our sinful natures, that is, the work God does in the last days through expressing His words to judge, chastise and purify mankind. It is the salvation God has prepared for us in the last days which will allow us to be completely free from the bondage of sin and achieve purification. In the last days, on the foundation of the work of redemption of the Lord Jesus, Almighty God has done the work of judgment to change mankind and cleanse our corrupt disposition according to the needs of us corrupt humans. It exactly fulfills the prophecy, ‘Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come(Revelation 14:7). ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth(John 16:12-13). ‘The Spirit of truth’ refers to God incarnate expressing the truth and doing the work of judgment by His words in the last days. Only when we accept and obey God’s work of judgment in the last days can we receive cleansing in order to enter God’s kingdom.

After hearing this, I suddenly saw the light: In the past I always thought as long as I believed in Jesus I could be forgiven of sin and I would get into the kingdom of heaven in the future. Now that I think about it, I was too simplistic in my way of thinking about faith in God. The Bible said a long time ago, “And holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” God is righteous and holy, so how can a person like me, who often sins and can’t keep His teachings, be qualified to enter God’s kingdom? We truly need God to do the work of judging and purifying us, and only then can our sins be resolved at the root of the problem and can we be completely released from the bondage of sin, thereby being cleansed and saved by God. Thank God. Now I clearly understood. For all these years, I wasn’t as relaxed and delighted like I was that day. I experienced ineffable joy.

During the following gatherings, the brother communicated to me about the meaning of God’s names, the inside story of His three-stage work and other aspects of the truth. After hearing all that, I was completely certain that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus, that each word of Almighty God is the truth, and that His word is God’s voice. My spirit really gained sustenance from God’s words, like dry seedlings moistened by rain and dew regaining their life force. God’s word is indeed the living water, which awakened my heart and revived me. I received God’s new work in delight, and followed in the footsteps of the Lamb.

How did She Revive Her Faith and Return to God?Thank God for His Great Grace, Which Made Me See the Light Again

Hereafter, I began to read Almighty God’s words and watch all the different types of gospel movies produced by The Church of Almighty God with the hunger of a man who has been starving. The more I read, the more I felt illuminated in my heart, feeling that I had regained the faith I had at the beginning of my belief in the Lord. I truly enjoyed the sustenance and shepherding gained from God’s words. I recalled the past, when I was thirsty in spirit and fell in the darkness with nowhere to go and was unable to feel God. I certainly had some tough times. Now it was God’s great grace that came upon me, saved me from darkness and made me see the light again.

As I read more and more of God’s words, I gradually got some true knowledge about my wrong outlook on life before. In the past, in order to live a better life, I worked hard to earn money. After arriving in America, I kept on working even harder all day, seldom resting a day all year round. No matter how difficult or dirty the work was, I was willing to do it. In those days when I lived for money, I suffered so much. Now, through reading Almighty God’s words, I understand that my fate is in God’s hands and how much wealth I possess is based on God’s preordination, not by my efforts. When I vainly hoped to escape from God’s ruling and strive with my own two hands, all I brought to myself was pain. Only by coming before God and obeying God’s sovereignty and arrangements can I receive true release from suffering and freedom. Now I spend more time reading God’s words and living the life of the church, so my relationship with God is becoming more and more normal and my life is progressing quickly. I have indeed experienced the happiness of returning to God’s family.

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