12 The Work of the Man Used by the Holy Spirit Is Led Completely by the Holy Spirit

Chao Wei    Hefei City, Anhui Province

We often hear some people in the church say, “The man used by the Holy Spirit is also a man, so his work is unavoidably mixed with man’s will.” For this reason, some people do not absolutely obey the work of the man used by the Holy Spirit nor cooperate with the arrangements from above actively on their own initiative. Some even despise or refuse to read the fellowship from above. Some do not express anything outwardly but resist in their hearts and are unwilling to accept. Some even judge and demolish, and especially when the arrangement from above does not match their notions, they react more strongly. For example, the above said the gospel work would be concluded at the end of the year 2003 by and large, but it was not concluded at the end of that year as people had imagined. Thus, many people complained, “This is done by man. It is to coax us to go forward.” When the above required us to preach the gospel to the unbelievers, many people formed notions, saying, “This is done by man. This stage of the work has nothing to do with the unbelievers at all!” When the above required that those possessed by evil spirits, those who often had the working of evil spirits, those antichrists and the like be purged and expelled from the church and that the church members be classified into groups according to their kind to have meetings, some judged by saying, “This is done by man. It is too harmful and merciless to do like this”; some did not say anything with their mouth but just refused to carry it out. When the above required the workers and the leaders of God’s family to write ministering articles, some formed notions and uttered complaints, saying, “It is enough that we just believe in God; why is it so troublesome? We are asked to write this today and that tomorrow.” And so on. These manifestations are sufficient to prove that we do not know the substance of the work done by the man used by the Holy Spirit, do not know that the leading of the man used by the Holy Spirit is completely the leading of the Holy Spirit and is a way for God to do the work and lead the people, and do not understand why God has to raise up the man used by the Holy Spirit to lead us or what are the purpose and significance of God’s doing the work in this way.

Let us first look at why God has to raise up the man used by the Holy Spirit to do the work. God says: “The work done by the man used by God is for cooperating with the work of Christ or the work of the Holy Spirit. He is a man raised up by God among people to lead all God’s chosen people and a man raised up by God to do the work of cooperation in humanity. With such a man who can do the work of cooperation in humanity, more of what God requires of people and more of the work the Holy Spirit wants to do among people will be accomplished through this man used by God. It can be said that God’s purpose in using this man is that all those who follow God can better understand God’s will and meet more of God’s requirements. Because no one can directly understand God’s word or God’s will, God raises up a man used by him to do such work. The man used by God can be said to be a go-between through whom God leads people and an ‘interpreter’ through whom God communicates with people.” From God’s words, we realize that it is completely due to the need of the work, much more the need of us mankind that God has raised up the man used by the Holy Spirit. Because we have been corrupted by satan so deeply and are with so poor qualities that we do not have the ability to understand God’s word at all and cannot directly understand God’s speech or God’s intention, God conveys his intention through the man used by him to his followers, so that they can understand his intention better and meet his requirements more and more. That is to say, only through the work of human cooperation done by the man used by the Holy Spirit can people better know God and God’s work, better understand God’s intention, better enter into the reality of God’s word, and soon enter the right track of believing in God and be saved by God. Then, God’s work will achieve results. From these we see that the man used by the Holy Spirit is the “interpreter” through whom God communicates with people and is a go-between through whom God leads people. On the other hand, God raises up the men used by the Holy Spirit in different ages; this is the principle of God’s working. All those who have some understanding of God’s work know that in the Age of the Law, God raised up Moses and many prophets to cooperate with his work, so as to lead people to live a normal life and worship God normally on earth. In the Age of the Grace, God raised up the apostles to cooperate with his work, so that his work of redeeming mankind could be preached to the ends of the earth and the churches of that time could be supplied and supported. In the end time, God comes to do the work of purifying, transforming, perfecting, and gaining people, so God raises up the man used by the Holy Spirit to do the work of human cooperation. Yet the man used by the Holy Spirit today is different from the men used in the previous two ages. The man used today is one made perfect by God. His work is completely led, directed, and governed by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, he will never err while leading God’s chosen people. However, many people among us do not know the work of the Holy Spirit. They think that the man used by the Holy Spirit is also a corrupt man and will also do works from man’s will, so they refuse and doubt the leading of the man used by the Holy Spirit and do not absolutely obey the work of the man used by the Holy Spirit, with the result that their life has suffered losses in different degrees. In the fellowship from above, it says: “Only the one who has been made perfect can lead people to be saved by God; only the one who has enough truths can lead people into the reality of God’s word. This is the principle of God’s using men in the Age of the Kingdom. Only the one who has been corrupted by satan and then is saved and made perfect by God can be used by the Holy Spirit. If he has not been corrupted by satan, he cannot have the experience of being saved and the experience of being made perfect; how then can he lead people to be saved by God? Thus, the one who is selected to lead the corrupt mankind must be one who has been corrupted by satan. Only this is realistic and can achieve the results.” From this we see that it is just because the man used by the Holy Spirit is one who has been corrupted by satan and then made perfect by God that he is qualified to be used by God and to undertake the responsibility of leading the corrupt people. Because he is made perfect by God personally, he has true experiences of getting rid of his corruptions and transcending the influence of darkness and has the practical experiences and knowledge of God’s word. He has been gained by God now. He can accurately sense God’s intention and can worry what God worries, think what God thinks, and concern what God concerns. He knows our needs and deficiencies, knows how to lead us so that we can understand God’s intention, and knows how we should cooperate with God so that we can enter into the detailed experiences of God’s word and enter the right track of believing in God. Such a person who has been corrupted by satan and then made perfect by God can best lead us to be saved by God. The work of the man used by the Holy Spirit is an indispensable part of the work in the age of God’s incarnation and is completely from the working of the Holy Spirit. If people accept the leading of the man used by the Holy Spirit, they essentially accept the leading of the Holy Spirit. The work of the man used by the Holy Spirit bears man’s language and man’s style and tone and represents man’s experience and being, but everything he does is led and directed by the Holy Spirit, is an indispensable work of human cooperation while the work of divinity is being done, and is a way for God to do the work and lead the people. This way of working is more beneficial for us to understand God’s speech and God’s intention. If we do not know this way of God’s working and leading people and refuse to accept the leading of the man used by the Holy Spirit, we will become ones who obey God outwardly but resist God essentially, become the arrogant, conceited, and hypocritical ones, and become ones who believe in God yet resist the work of the Holy Spirit and refuse the leading of the Holy Spirit. In that case, even if we believe to the end, we cannot be saved by God.

What really, then, is the substance of the work done by the man used by the Holy Spirit? The word of God tells us: “The man used by God, however, is a man who is prepared by God and who has proper qualities and has humanity. He has been prepared and perfected by the Holy Spirit ahead of time. He is led completely by the Holy Spirit, and especially in working, he is directed and governed by the Holy Spirit. So, he will not deviate on the path of leading God’s chosen people, because God will surely be responsible for his own work and he is doing his own work all the time.” From this we see that the man used by the Holy Spirit today is different from any leader or worker who is working in God’s family. The work he does cannot be done by any other person in his stead. He has been prepared by God and has been made perfect by God ahead of time. He is directed and governed by the Holy Spirit, especially in doing the work. Everything he does is to care for God’s intention and cooperate with God’s work. When he fellowships, makes arrangements, or deals with and prunes people, no matter what his tone, it is to let God’s chosen people understand the truth, understand God’s intention, and better meet God’s requirements. He leads people into God’s word completely according to God’s intention and requirements. Therefore, he will never err while leading God’s chosen people. If we say that the work of the man used by the Holy Spirit is the work from man’s will, this is resisting God and blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Actually, in our experiences of following God, if we ponder carefully, we will find that everything done by the man used by the Holy Spirit is to cooperate with the work of Christ and is a part of the work of the Holy Spirit. Every work he does is after God’s heart and is leading God’s chosen people to understand God’s intention better, enter the right track of believing in God sooner, and gradually be saved by God. For example, after we read the piece of God’s word “Transgressions Can Lead Man to Hell,” we are not clear what specific aspects the “transgressions” spoken of by God include. Through reading the man’s fellowship attached to Christ’s Talks with Church Leaders and Workers, we know what the ordinary transgressions are and what the serious transgressions are, and become clear what specific manifestations these two kinds of transgressions respectively have and what danger they will bring to people. This is more beneficial for us to know our states and resolve all the transgressions in us. Again, for example, the work arrangement requires us to purge and expel from the church those possessed by evil spirits, those who often have the working of evil spirits, those antichrists and false christs and the like. This is cooperating with God’s work, because those God saves are the ones who can be saved, while those expellees are the devilish and satanic ones who have crept into God’s family. They not only do not take the right way or pursue the truth themselves, but also do their utmost to disturb others, especially posing a graver threat to the new believers who do not have any foundation. After they are purged, the normal order is restored to the church life; all those who are willing to pursue the truth can eat and drink and enjoy God’s word normally and avoid being entrapped and disturbed by the evildoers on the path of believing in God and being saved. Again, for example, every fellowship of the man used by the Holy Spirit is to help us understand God’s word, understand the truth, and understand God’s intention and help us know God and God’s work, and at the same time, it shows us the way to practice and leads us into the reality of God’s word, and so on. It is undeniable that many times we eat and drink God’s word but do not understand the meaning of God’s word, or we even cannot understand or use the spiritual terms and cannot understand the literal meaning of God’s word. We are willing to pursue the truth, willing to be honest people, and willing to pursue the transformation of our disposition to be saved by God, but we do not know how to pursue the truth, how to be honest people, and how to pursue the transformation of our disposition to be saved by God. We only pursue in our notions. Through the fellowship of the man used by the Holy Spirit, our various kinds of deviations and absurdness are corrected, and we are shown the proper and specific ways to practice. We have all experienced this, and we believe everyone will acknowledge this. Who among us has a clear goal and a proper way to practice in being an honest person? Who knows that the meaning of “being saved” God speaks of refers to overcoming satan and transcending sin? Who has found the proper pathway to being saved in God’s word by himself? Who among us can know the different states of the life experience in the different phases? Who can measure with several specific indices whether his or others’ life disposition has been transformed? Aren’t all these what God makes us understand through the fellowship of the man used by the Holy Spirit? The man used by the Holy Spirit is leading us to understand the truth little by little, leading us to enter into the reality of the truth step by step, leading us to walk the path to being saved and being perfected. If it were not for the man perfected personally by God, who could lead people with the truth and with the knowledge of the practical experiences? From these we see that every work done by the man used by the Holy Spirit is to cooperate with the work of Christ, and that his work is a part of the work of the Holy Spirit. Hence, if we want to be saved by God and be made perfect by God while believing in God, we have to follow Christ, obey all the work of the Holy Spirit, and obey the work of the man used by the Holy Spirit.

In addition, God says in “Ten Administrative Decrees God’s Chosen People Must Keep: “In the work or the church affairs, apart from obeying God, you should take orders from the man used by the Holy Spirit in everything and should not disobey any of them but should obey them absolutely. Do not analyze whether they are right or wrong. Whether they are right or wrong has nothing to do with you. You should just obey them absolutely.” If we cannot absolutely obey the leading of the man used by the Holy Spirit and say that the work of the man used by the Holy Spirit is from man’s will and is done by man, it is a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and is offending the administrative decree. If we offend the administrative decree, we infuriate God Godself and will surely receive our deserved retribution. It is like in the Age of the Law when God used Moses to lead God’s chosen people. All those who attacked Moses were cursed by God. For example, as everyone knows, the company of Korah and Dathan, because of opposing Moses and disobeying the leading of Moses, were cursed by God and were swallowed by the earth, falling into Hades alive. Because Moses was the man used by the Holy Spirit and the work he did represented God’s will, if people resisted him, opposed him, and attacked him, they were essentially resisting the work of the Holy Spirit and were acting against God. Then let us look at those arrogant and self-right people around us today who have no regard for God. They often violated and condemned the arrangement of the man used by the Holy Spirit and had many notions about the work of the man used by the Holy Spirit, saying that it was done by man. As a result, they lost the working of the Holy Spirit and fell into darkness. Some even spread their notions everywhere and disturbed and deceived people; thus they became antichrists and were expelled by God’s family. They came to such an end just because they did not understand the principle of God’s working, did not know the way of the Holy Spirit’s working, and did not know that the work of the man used by the Holy Spirit is led completely by the Holy Spirit. Of course, it was also because of their arrogant and conceited nature. It is so dangerous for us to believe in God but do not know the work of the Holy Spirit. We do not know when and in what things we can resist God and pass judgment on God’s work and even do things that offend God’s disposition.

As ones who believe in God and follow God, we all should know the work of the Holy Spirit and completely obey the work and the leading of the Holy Spirit. This is also what a person who has sense and truly obeys God should do. If we always stick to our notion that the work of the man used by the Holy Spirit is from man’s will but not from the Holy Spirit, thus doubting and resisting the leading of the man used by the Holy Spirit, it can only show that we are arrogant and conceited and do not know the work of the Holy Spirit, and we will eventually ruin ourselves because of that. If we are the ones who know the work of the Holy Spirit, we will follow Christ and obey the work of the man used by the Holy Spirit without the slightest doubt, because only by obeying the work and the leading of the Holy Spirit can we follow God to the end and be saved and made perfect.