After Ten Years, My Hope Has Finally Come True! – A Christian Testimony

After Ten Years, My Hope Has Finally Come True! – A Christian Testimony

Tiexin, Taiwan

In November 2002, on one occasion I was admitted into the church, was baptized and became a Christian of the Local Church. At that time, a brother told me, “The preaching of the Local Church is the loftiest and the truth here is the purest. We are the called-out congregation from the world and the people most blessed by the Lord.” All his words made me feel that I indeed enjoyed a great blessing in that I could have meetings in the Local Church. Immediately a sense of superiority emerged from my heart.

After I joined the church, the responsible brother often said to us, “We are sinners and often unable to walk the way of the Lord. So, in order to remove the old man and put on a new one, every day we must call upon the Lord’s name, read The Holy Word for Morning Revival. By praying, studying, reciting and preaching, we’ll receive the Lord’s words within. And then, the Spirit and our spirit are mingled together as one Spirit; the Lord will within us do the work of changing the life disposition of man, such as regeneration, transformation, conformation, and glorification, and so forth. As a result, we’ll have the opportunity to become overcomers, and enter into the new heaven and new earth, and the new Jerusalem.” Thinking that I was able to become an overcomer, enter into the new heaven and new earth and enjoy the grace from the Lord, I was very excited in my heart. Especially, each time when I, in the assembly held by the church, heard the brothers and sisters on the platform share their gratitude and promises to the Lord one by one, I would be infected with their passionate lectures, full of strength in my inner heart. In my opinion, only the preaching of the Local Church was the highest. As long as I pursued according to the way the brother in the church led us on, I would certainly enter into the new heaven and new earth in the end. Therefore, in the days that followed, I took an active part in every big or small gathering, such as the daily morning watch, the Lord’s day, group meetings, blending and video trainings, and so on. Moreover, I doubly read The Holy Word for Morning Revival and the Bible, and shared them with the brothers and sisters. So that I could achieve changes in my disposition soon and enter into the new heaven and new earth prepared by God for us.

However, two years later, I gradually came to realize: Each time I attended the assembly held by the church, the atmosphere was electric; we called on the Lord Jesus’s name, with the blood boiling, as if we could offer up money, time and even everything for the Lord. However, when we came down to earth, we would lose enthusiasm in a few days. Some brothers and sisters were full of zest when they listened to sermons, but speaking of preaching the gospel for the Lord, they would find sorts of excuses to refuse. Faced with this situation, I ever asked the responsible brother, “How to solve the problem that we speak catchphrases loudly but cannot practice what we said when they need to be carried out? How can man’s disposition be changed?” The brother answered, “They are not simple matters but require a whole lifetime. We are still in the process of transformation. Provided that you aspire to grow in life, you should pay more price and ask the Lord to bestow grace and wisdom upon you.” Later on, I found when I met with the people who were not in accordance with my concept in my life, I would unconsciously feel loathing toward them in my heart. The Lord taught us to love others as ourselves. I not only couldn’t love others, but often couldn’t help loathing them. I knew this was not right, but I could find no solution. Hence, several years having passed, I still lived in sin and didn’t have any change in my disposition, though I read The Holy Word for Morning Revival and called on the Lord’s name every day. I even felt more and more confused about the way of restoring harmony in the spirit and toward a changed disposition. I thought: How on earth does our spirit mingle with the Spirit? How are the words of the Lord worked into me? How can I have a real transformation on earth? Concerning these issues, I ever asked other brothers and sisters in the church. But I only had a vague idea of their explanations. As a result, I began to doubt whether the Lord liked me or not, for I had no the enlightenment and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and couldn’t comprehend these mysteries. At the time, I sensed the beautiful dream of entering the kingdom of heaven had gone too far away from me, and I felt rather discouraged. Gradually I got less and less interested in the meetings. In addition, my house was distant from the church after I moved, so I no longer went to the church.

After leaving the Local Church, I felt a bit of disappointment. Was my dream of entering the kingdom of heaven broken in this way? I was not reconciled. Thereupon I started to listen to the sermons given by different shepherds on channel GOOD TV. Once in a while, I would go to attend assemblies when some Christian friends invited me, by which I hoped to better understand the Lord’s words. I still dreamed about perhaps having an opportunity to enter into the kingdom of heaven someday.

Ten years had slipped by. Once while gathering for a meal with my townsmen, I made the acquaintance of Sister Yao in the Lord. That day, she introduced Sister Xu to me. After a brief salutation to each other, we started to share the Bible. Sister Xu shared with me the mystery of God’s six-thousand-year management plan. She said, “After God created man, He planned to get a group of people who are of one heart and mind with Him, and can obey and worship Him, so God began the plan of managing human six thousand years ago. In the Age of Law, God used Moses to set forth laws to tell people how to live. By the end of the Age of Law, people couldn’t observe the laws by degrees, and they faced the danger of being put to death by the law. Therefore, God was incarnated for the first time, was crucified for us human as a sin offering, and redeemed us. From then on, as long as we mankind pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, our sins will be forgiven, and we are qualified to come before God. However, we are forgiven of our sins and no longer condemned by God, but our sinful nature still exists, and we could still involuntarily commit sins and oppose God. So, in order to truly obtain us, God needs to do the work of removing sin. For this reason, in the last days, God became flesh again to express His word, and has done a stage of work of judging and purifying with His words. Only if we get the truth expressed by God as life, get rid of Satan’s bondage, have changes in our life disposition, and become men who fear and obey God, can we be brought into the new heaven and new earth. Therefore, God’s management plan of salvation for us human is divided into three stages, and each stage is the work of salvation carried out upon the foundation of the previous stage. If we merely experience the redemption of the Lord Jesus, but lack the judgment and chastisement of God’s words in the last days, we are unable to be purified and to enter into God’s kingdom.”

After hearing her fellowship, I felt somewhat surprised: How can she expound God’s management in such detail? Isn’t the way of the Local Church the highest? Why have I never heard such preaching in the Local Church before? Is it because I haven’t been to the church for so long that I don’t know God has done the work of judgment and purification? Therewith, I quickly sought what I had been unclear about previously in the Bible with the sister, and she explained them all to me in detail. Seeing that some verses in the Bible, which I couldn’t understand no matter how I had sought before, were explained so plain and easy to understand by her, I was completely convinced. I joked with Sister Xu, “Why not share them with me earlier? They’ve baffled me for so many years.” Sister Xu said, “It is because God Himself reveals the mystery of God’s management plan that we could understand. None knows the mystery other than God.”

In the following days, I often met the sister to seek God’s work of judging, chastising and purifying man. In a fellowship, we read the words of Almighty God, “The work of the last days is to separate all according to their kind, to conclude the management plan of God, for the time is near and the day of God has come. God brings all who have entered His kingdom, that is, all those who have been loyal to Him to the end, into the age of God Himself. However, before the coming of the age of God Himself, the work that God desires to do is not to observe the deeds of man or to inquire about the lives of man, but to judge his rebellion, for God shall purify all those who come before His throne. All those who have followed the footsteps of God to this day are those who have come before the throne of God, hence all who accept the last of God’s work are those to be purified by God. In other words, all those who accept the last of God’s work are those who will be judged by God.”

“When God does the work of judgment, He does not simply make clear the nature of man with just a few words, but carries out revelation, dealing, and pruning over the long term. Such manner of revelation, dealing, and pruning cannot be substituted with ordinary words but with the truth that man does not possess at all. Only such manner of work is deemed judgment; only through such judgment can man be persuaded, be thoroughly convinced into submission to God, and gain true knowledge of God. What the work of judgment brings about is man’s understanding of the true face of God and the truth about his rebelliousness. The work of judgment allows man to gain much understanding of the will of God, of the purpose of God’s work, and of the mysteries that could not be understood by man. It also allows man to recognize and know his corrupt substance and the roots of his corruption, as well as to discover the ugliness of man. These effects are all brought about by the work of judgment, for the substance of such work is actually the work of opening up the truth, way, and life of God to all those who have faith in Him. This work is the work of judgment done by God”.

The sister fellowshiped with me, “As was said above, we mankind have experienced the redemption in the Age of Grace. Though our sin is forgiven, our deep-rooted satanic nature has not been removed. We still live under the domain of Satan, and commit sins involuntarily. It is said in the Bible, ‘For the wages of sin is death….’ (Romans 6:23). So, if we want to be truly saved and enter the new heaven and new earth, we must experience the process of purification. Today Almighty God’s work of judgment and chastisement by expressing words is the work of ending the age, as well as the work of purifying and saving man thoroughly. These words are different from those expressed by God in any previous age. They have revealed our satanic nature of resisting God and the fact that we have been corrupted by Satan. Reflecting on God’s words, we can really see the truth that we have been corrupted deeply by Satan and our ugly face, and thus we can truly hate ourselves, betray Satan, and then have strength to practice God’s words. Through experiencing the judgment and chastisement of God’s words, we can gain some knowledge of God’s righteous disposition as well, and thereupon produce a God-fearing heart to obey and worship God. After our nature of resisting and betraying God and the satanic poisons within us are purified through the judgment of God’s words, our viewpoint on things will be compatible with that of God, and our disposition will change. Then we will be the very people who possess the truth and humanity. In the end, God will bring these people into His kingdom, namely into the new heaven and new earth, to inherit His promise and blessing forever.”

After I heard her fellowship, I recalled the time when I believed in the Lord in the Local Church. Everybody dreamed of entering into the new heaven and new earth, but, however we called on the name of the Lord, we still couldn’t practice the Lord’s words or abide by the way of the Lord, and still lived in the situation of constantly committing sins. Until today, I understood: Although we admit we are sinners, we don’t know our own satanic nature, nor are we clear about the fact that we are corrupt. We only know we should change, but we fail to practice all the time. Hence, only if we accept the work of Almighty God in the last days can we be purified and perfected, become overcomers, and enter into the new heaven and new earth, and the new Jerusalem. Otherwise, no matter how and how long we restore harmony in the spirit, we cannot truly change our disposition. I had been puzzled by the question how to achieve a change in disposition for many years, but now I finally had the way of practice. I felt extremely steady and sure in my heart.

Later, I saw a film called “Rapture in Peril” on the official website of the Church of Almighty God. After watching it, I got a new knowledge of the saying concerning the mingling of two spirits that the Local Church had called on us to pursue. It turned out that it is man’s conception and imagination, and it is wrong. If we continue pursuing like this, not only can we not enter into the new heaven and new earth, but we can become more and more arrogant, and increasingly rebel against and resist God, so that we will ultimately be punished by God. The more important thing was that I had a new knowledge of my satanic nature after I had attended meetings for a period of time. Previously, though I acknowledged I was a sinner, yet I didn’t have an understanding of sin. I thought: I have observed the superficial behavior and haven’t committed obvious sins; this can prove that I have done very well in our belief in God. Unknowingly, I thought highly of myself and looked down on others or believers in other denominations. The sister told me that this kind of manifestation was also dominated by my arrogant satanic nature. Only at this time did I really realize that the deep-rooted satanic nature within us could direct us to do many things that were resistance against and disobedience to God. We indeed need God’s judgment and chastisement. I would definitely cooperate with God, experience God’s judgment and chastisement, change my satanic nature, and become a man that submits to and worships God.

One day, I saw God’s words, “Today I have come to do the work of your salvation, which is to say that the work I do is a continuation of the work of salvation. Every person has the chance to be made perfect: Provided that you are willing, provided that you pursue, in the end you will be able to achieve the effects, and not one of you will be forsaken. If you are of poor caliber, My requirements of you will be in accordance with your poor caliber; if you are of high caliber, My requirements of you will be in accordance with your high caliber; if you are ignorant and illiterate, My requirements of you will be in accordance with your illiteracy; if you are literate, My requirements of you will be in accordance with your level of literacy; if you are elderly, My requirements of you will be in accordance with your age; if you are capable of providing hospitality, My requirements of you will be in accordance with this; if you say you cannot offer hospitality, and can only perform a certain function, whether it be spreading the gospel, or taking care of the church, or attending to other general affairs, My perfection of you will be in accordance with the function that you perform” (“Restoring the Normal Life of Man and Taking Him to a Wonderful Destination). “God abides not by the rules, nor does He treat any stage of His work as unchanging. Rather, the work done by God is ever newer and ever higher. His work becomes more and more practical with each step, more and more in line with the actual needs of man. Only after man experiences this kind of work can he attain the final transformation of his disposition”.

After reading God’s words, I felt that God is indeed righteous: He doesn’t look at how our previous pursuits were, nor does He look at our poor caliber or ignorance. As long as we pursue the truth with our heart and exert ourselves to practice God’s words, we’ll all have the chance to be saved and perfected to be overcomers at last. On the contrary, as for those who do not accept that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus, regardless of how high their Bible knowledge is, if only they cannot keep up with the footsteps of the latest work of the Holy Spirit, they are the ones who will be eliminated by the new work. Think back to the Age of Grace. When the Lord Jesus came, no matter how the priests, scribes and Pharisees recited the Bible backward, so long as they couldn’t keep pace with the work of the Lord Jesus, they would be forsaken by the stream of the Holy Spirit. Thank God for giving me a chance to keep up with the pace of His new work. I finally have the opportunity to realize my dream of entering the kingdom of heaven. This is my true blessing!