The Principles That Must Be Understood for Serving God

People fulfilling their duties of serving God is not doing their own work, but rather they are doing the work that God has commissioned. To do the work that God has commissioned, it must be done in accordance with God’s requirements in order to satisfy God’s will. If it is their own work, then people can do it according to their own will. They can do it however they like, and other people have no right to interfere. For example, if you are an official in the government, then you would have to work according to the country’s laws in order to be retained. If you work in a factory, you would have to work according to the factory’s rules in order to get paid. In the same way, if you work on God’s commissions in the house of God, you have to do it in accordance with God’s requirements and God’s words in order to not be eliminated. This is like the Chinese idiom, “If you do not work according to your employer’s commands, you wouldn’t be rewarded even if you die from exhaustion.” Now, many people who are working as leaders still do not understand this principle. These kinds of people are truly foolish, ignorant, and lacking in knowledge.

If people do the work of the house of God in accordance with their own will, it would definitely disrupt God’s work. It would absolutely not reach the effect God demands. If people do this, then won’t they become people who serve God yet defy God? Because the work God does is the work of salvation, only by speaking of your own experience and knowledge in accordance with God’s requirements, your enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit, and by pointing out a clear way of practice to others can you bring people into the reality of God’s word. If people do not truly understand the truth during the experience of believing in God, then they cannot work in leading people into entering truth. Man’s imaginations, man’s preferences, and man’s ways of acting are not truth. No matter how well you can speak of letters and doctrines, you cannot save yourself from corruption. No matter how much you perform religious rituals, you cannot lead people into understanding the truth. No matter how great the petty policies and petty rules you set are, if they cannot let people understand the truth and reach an understanding of God, then what you do is completely worthless, and you will have wasted your efforts. Therefore, the most fundamental job for leaders is to lead people into the reality of the truth that God requires people to enter. This is the most urgent task, and it cannot be delayed by even a second. To believe in God, the truth that must be first understood is that God’s work is the work of saving and purifying man. It is the work of purifying and changing man through judging, chastising, trying, and refining them. When people have a true understanding of God’s work, then it is easy to submit to God’s work. They are willing to eat and drink God’s word and pursue the truth, and when they eat and drink God’s word it is easy to understand the truth. Like this, they unknowingly enter into reality. If leaders do this basic work well, then their fulfillment of their duties is qualified. If they do not do this work well, then their fulfillment of their duties is not qualified. Now, many leaders are not clear about the truth that must be entered into, so when it comes to this important task, they all seem helpless and powerless, so they can only do some administrative work to the best of their abilities to cover the emptiness they feel in their hearts. Actually, no matter how busy they are on external matters, there is not much value. If they do not quickly equip themselves with the truth and properly do the fundamental task of serving God, then sooner or later they would be eliminated.

What are the realities of the truth that must be equipped for serving God?

First, in serving God, people must know God’s work, understand the purpose of God’s work, that is, the final effect that God wishes to achieve on people through God’s work. They must be clear about the concrete requirements God has for people, and grasp the truths that must be understood for achieving these requirements. Regardless of how deeply or how shallowly they have experienced these truths, they ought to fellowship the reality of the truths they enter and their true knowledge, so that people can be benefited and edified. In serving God, they must take this job as their main duty, they should supply people by fellowshipping these truths. This job is primary, and all other work is secondary. People who are acting as leaders must properly fulfill this key duty and understand that all work is in service of this fundamental, central work. This is the principle that people who serve God must grasp. In serving God, people must take fellowshipping the truth and leading people into entering into the reality of God’s word as their main duty. They should use all their energies to do this one fundamental task well. Only this kind of service is in line with God’s will.

Second, since all work performed by people who serve God is so that people can understand the truth and enter into the reality of God’s word, then this requires that all people who act as leaders to first understand the truth themselves. If people who are acting as leaders do not understand the truth, then how could they solve people’s problems? What is the source of all of people’s problems? It is because people do not have the truth. If people truly possess the truth, then all problems will not be problems, and they would not even need to be solved. Actually, without the truth people could never solve problems. When people truly understand the truth, then all problems are also dispelled. Therefore, using the truth to solve problems is also a necessary path for leading people into the truth. If leaders do not have the truth, then you could say they cannot solve any problems and cannot do any work, let alone lead people into understanding the truth. Then what is the point of their work? If people who act as leaders are not first equipped with the truth themselves, then they cannot do the work of serving God. Even if they did, they cannot achieve the effect that God requires, so they also cannot receive God’s approval.

Third, a person who is serving God must grasp His will in all things. When encountering any problem, they should seek the truth, and all work must be done on the basis of God’s word. Only this way can they ensure that their actions conform to God’s will. Speaking of empty theories and not having reality would inevitably lead to great disasters, and they will eventually be abandoned and eliminated by God’s chosen people. All work that is done in serving God is principled. Every work is related to the truth, they all contain God’s will, all have God’s requirements for man, and all have realities that man must enter into. If man cannot grasp God’s will on these matters, then they will have no path to walk on. If they act in accordance with their own preferences and will, then this disobeys God’s will, so everything they do becomes defiance of God and doing evil. For example, on the issue of cleaning up the church, some people did not grasp that God’s will is saving man to the greatest extent possible. According to God’s will, if people have a trace of hope then we cannot push them out of the church. Someone did not understand God’s will, so they created a rule where people are purged from the church if they do not come to gatherings for a total of three times. He thought that this would inspire people’s positivity, and this is working according to his own will. This kind of behavior is absolutely not based on God’s word, and in the end, it brought the house of God great losses. People who do not have the truth always work in accordance with their own will. This disobeys the principle of serving God, and it is doing evil and resisting God.

Four, those who would serve God must in all matters exalt God and bear witness to God. Only thus can they attain the fruit of leading others to know God, and only by exalting God and bearing witness to Him can they bring others into the presence of God. This is one of the principles of service to God. The ultimate fruit of God’s work that must be achieved is to make people come before God by means of knowing the work of God. If those who serve as leaders do not exalt God and bear witness to Him, but instead are constantly putting themselves on display, constantly limiting others, controlling others, caging others, and forcing others to obey themselves, then they are actually setting themselves up in opposition to God. They sit in God’s place and have people treat them as God. Their work becomes a work that vies with God over people. Isn’t this exactly how Satan resists God? Now, there are many leaders who each have an entourage of followers under them, and they are promoting and training people as they themselves wish. In the end, God has not gained anyone who knows His heart. For whom do people do all their work? How many people have they trained that are of one mind with God? How many people have they led into truly knowing and loving God? Therefore, if people’s service does not exalt God and bear witness to God, then they are certainly showing themselves off. Even though they purport to serve God, they are really working for their own status and are really working for the enjoyment of their flesh. They are in no way working to exalt God or bear witness to God. If anyone violates this principle of service to God, then it proves they are defying God.

The more a person who serves God has entered into the truth, the less he is arrogant and self-right. At the same time, he feels he is lesser and lesser, and he thinks that he is not even worthy of being God’s slave, and his service is because of God’s elevation. When he truly possesses this sense, he would no longer raise himself up. Regardless of who God uses and likes, he does not feel jealous. When someone is better than himself, he does not confront them. When someone disagrees or betrays him, he does not feel unease, and he can affirm that they are doing the right thing. He is able to realize that he ought to be treated in this way because of his own rebellion and defiance of God. He hopes that others are better than himself, that they can attain God’s approval. He is happy and satisfied that God has gained people, does everything in order to satisfy God, and lives in order to repay God’s love, feeling that if he could satisfy God, he would be willing to die without regret. Only people whose life disposition has changed in this way are people who have reality in believing in God. Only people who have attained a change in disposition can lift up God and witness God without showing themselves off. Despicable people can never attain witnessing God and lifting up God.

Fifth, we who serve God must be able to recognize our own lowliness, ugliness, and that we do not possess anything. We must know who exactly we are, and be clear that God has made an exception in exalting such dirty and corrupt people as us, so that we could do some duties for God. So, people must have the conscience and reason to willingly spend for God, they do not have any right to trade or negotiate with God. If there are still extravagant desires within people and their own goals and intentions, that is the most dangerous. Once faced with trials, people would suffer great setbacks and cause great problems. So, in serving God there cannot be personal goals and intentions, nor can there be personal managements. We can only do the work that God has entrusted us to do and aim to satisfy God in everything we do. This is also a principle for serving God. People without trade in their heart is willing to pay any price. Even if they get nothing, they are willing and not regretful. If people acting as leaders always act for their own position and fame, if they keep mixing in personal motivations in their work, this is the most offensive thing to God, because this affects the results of work the most, and it is the most disruptive to the work of the house of God. If people who serve God disobey principles, this would only offend God. It would absolutely not earn the approval of God. People like this are all selfish, despicable, shameless demons.

Six, in order for people who serve as leaders to guarantee they won’t suffer setbacks, they must first resolve their own arrogance and self-rightness, as well as their own various corrupt dispositions. This requires people to recognize their own nature of resisting God, recognize which toxins of the great red dragon are still able to lead to their defiance and betrayal of God, and especially to recognize their own fatal flaws, to know where they might suffer setbacks, which lead to perdition and death. Some people suffer setbacks in the aspect of position. After getting position, they are arrogant, conceited, self-right, self-important, and disobey everyone. No matter how much other people’s words might correspond with the truth, they do not accept it. They think that they can do anything, and they want everyone to listen to them, to work according to their will. This is what “pride comes before a fall” means. Some people cannot resist adulterous temptation. They think that this transgression is not very severe, but perhaps one day they will encounter a situation and suffer setbacks. And other people are too greedy for money and burning with desire for it, as if losing money means losing everything and they cannot live without money. These people are also in the most danger. As too many people have fallen because of these three aspects, people who are comparatively weaker on these aspects are people who are in the most dangerous situation. Once they have position and an opportunity to be taken advantage of, these three aspects of nature will activate simultaneously, leading them to perdition and death. If people serving as leaders can guarantee purity on these three aspects and not be tainted, if they can stand their ground and moreover they possess a heart of pursuing the truth, then they have hopes of being perfected by God.

November 18, 2005