【126-A-2】
We’ve just read a passage from God’s word “God’s Work and Man’s Practice.” This passage tells people clearly how to experience God’s work and how to fulfill their duty. Now, let’s have a fellowship. Read this first: “Each stage of the Holy Spirit’s work simultaneously requires the testimony of man. Each stage of work is a battle between God and Satan, and the object of the battle is Satan, while the one who will be made perfect by this work is man. Whether or not God’s work can bear fruit depends on the manner of man’s testimony to God. This testimony is what God requires of those who follow Him; it is the testimony made before Satan, and also proof of the effects of His work.” What is this paragraph saying? It’s easy to see the literal meaning of God’s word: God has requirements for those who experience His work. What does He require? He requires you to bear witness once you’ve experienced a step of God’s work. What will the result be if you don’t bear witness? Needless to say, you will definitely be eliminated. Those who bear witness are those who will be gained by God and receive God’s blessing. It is extremely important that people bear witness during every step of work done and it should not be treated as a trifling matter; but if people don’t pay attention, does this show they are heartless? God requires people to bear witness during every step of His work, but what exactly does it mean to bear witness? Someone once said: “It means fulfilling my duty, and fulfilling it in every step of the work done; that’s what it means to bear witness.” Is this right? It’s good, but not complete, though you can say that the response is correct. Why is it said that it’s correct? What is the basis for determining whether or not one’s performing duty is bearing witness? It’s based on whether one fulfills their duty adequately. Fulfilling your duties adequately; that is bearing witness. Like when someone says, “When I fulfill my duties well, is that not bearing witness?” This sounds absolutely correct! Fulfilling one’s duty well is bearing witness. But what is the standard for “fulfilling one’s duty well”? Does it mean to fulfill one’s duty adequately? When you fulfill your duty, and do so adequately, that is bearing witness. Someone might ask if doing good deeds had any relationship to bearing witness. Doing good deeds is a part of bearing witness. Aren’t most of the good deeds man does part of duties they should fulfill? You can say that good deeds are the duties that one should fulfill; the more good deeds one does, the more of their duty they fulfill, and their testimony will resonate. If someone fulfills their duty only in one aspect, does that mean they’ve done many good deeds? If they fulfill their duty in one aspect without accomplishing any other good deeds, is their testimony bright and resounding? This does not meet the standard!
What exactly does it mean to bear witness? To bear witness is to be able to fulfill one’s duty according to God’s will while in the midst of experiencing God’s work. To bear witness encompasses all the good deeds of man and all the good deeds of man are also considered as bearing witness. The more and higher one can bear witness, the better the results that one can achieve when experiencing God’s work. Additionally, this kind of witnessing can confirm the results one can achieve when experiencing God’s work as well as changes in one’s life disposition. This is completely true. If one can continually improve on bearing witness, that is, if one can do more good deeds, what else can be said? This shows that one has conscience, reason and good humanity. Only a person with a kind heart is prepared to accomplish so many good deeds. If one has a wicked disposition and does not love truth or if one is selfish and contemptible, how can one be prepared to do so many good deeds? It’s impossible! Can a selfish and contemptible person offer all he has and pay whatever price to fulfill one’s duty for the sake of God’s work? Not likely. So, the more kind-hearted a man is and the more prepared he is to accomplish good deeds, then the more he can fulfill his duty accordingly. Conversely, a man who lacks conscience, sense and humanity is not prepared to accomplish many good deeds, nor is he capable of fulfilling his duty adequately. So, if we want to know what one’s humanity is like and what kind of changes has his life disposition gone through, how do we examine this? Do we have to merely look at the words a man says? The key is to look at how a man fulfills his duties. If one fulfills his duties responsibly and sincerely, and is able to seek the truth, follow proper principles when accomplishing tasks and suffer to pay the price, then they surely have a good humanity. Even though their words are not very clear or even clumsy when they give sermons or communicate the truth, they are kind-hearted, have humanity, and love the truth; is this viewpoint appropriate? Clearly, there is evidence for this! When you say something, you must have evidence. If you say this person is good, then why exactly are they good? If they are skillful at speaking doctrines and letters, is this evidence that they have good humanity? If their speech is impeccable, is this evidence that they have good humanity? There are some people who are not good with their words, but they fulfill their duty single-mindedly, they are sincere and responsible. Can you say that these people have no truth? Understanding the truth is not necessarily related to speaking eloquently. The most important thing to consider is whether someone can bear witness, whether they fulfill their duties appropriately, and whether they fulfill their duties according to principle. This is the most important thing to consider. It should follow that those who can practice the truth and follow principles in their actions are all people who love the truth. This is because those who genuinely love the truth are also the ones who are able to practice the truth. Those who cannot practice the truth say with their mouth that they love the truth, which is fruitless, groundless, and untenable!
I see some of our brothers and sister; when you want them to communicate the truth to you, they don’t speak clearly, but there is some light within them, some feeling, and yet they cannot convey them well, as if their speech is awkward; but it’s not that their speaking is awkward, merely that there’s a lot of feeling inside, but they never communicate it or put everything together and make it complete. Their knowledge doesn’t reach a level of rational understanding, and thus they cannot speak on things clearly. No matter who it is, when a person is in a haze, they cannot communicate truth clearly, and these cases can be happened in everyone—I was once the same way. When experiencing God’s word brings about clear understanding that becomes accuracy, where one can express themselves clearly, he will naturally communicate the truth clearly. So many people, though being unable to communicate truth clearly, cannot be said to be wholly without knowledge. What matters is how they fulfill their duty. If he is submissive in fulfilling his duty, when being pruned and dealt with, he seeks the truth and shows obedience, and no matter what duty he performs, even if he has experienced setbacks or failures, he can still learn and overcome them, fulfilling his duty better and better, does this kind of person actually love the truth? Firstly, he can seek the truth, secondly, he can practice truth, and thirdly, he can obey the truth. This shows that he is a person who loves the truth and pursues the truth, and it is absolutely right. You’ve no need to focus on whether one communicates truth clearly, because that the truth is not communicated clearly right now is not an indication that they have no understanding in their heart. Because in their heart, they know how to do to be in line with the principles, how to do to be after the will of God, and what to do to be in accordance to the truth, and this is enough. Surely such people are willing to practice the truth, and they love the truth and pursue the truth. This kind of person, after having suffered setbacks and failures and being pruned and dealt with will change. They will finally reach a point where they can wholly fulfill their duty, and this is bearing witness. What does this kind of testimony create? If he does not accept truth, does not seek out truth, and does not obey truth, can he achieve this? (He cannot.) That comes from experience; it comes as the ultimate result of seeking truth and pursuing truth. That is how one bears a bright and resounding testimony for God.
Some of our brothers and sisters don’t fulfill their duties well, and when dealing with them, sometimes I sounded sterner and harsher, but they were neither negative nor did they complain, and afterward I would realize: “There’s a change, and they’re doing well! They’re fulfilling their duty better and better, and the more they do it, the more reassuring it is.” When you reassure people here, you also reassure God there, and doesn’t God bless and guide? If you can’t reassure people, then how can you reassure God? There’s no way you can. When people see you and are not reassured, they’ll say: “Look at this person! First, there’s no certainty in his words; no matter how good his words sound, he never practices truth; secondly, he sometimes speaks extremely well, but he can’t necessarily carry it out in actions; and thirdly, he acts one way to your face and another behind your back, agreeing with you to your face while opposing you inside, and his words don’t match his heart.” Can these people then reassure God? You can’t reassure man, but how can you reassure God? In order to reassure God, he must be able to have the trust of most people. To measure a man’s humanity and whether they pursue truth, this is what you judge by, and this is absolutely true! You see some people fulfilling their duty, who are constantly dealt with, and yet never fulfill requirements. What is the problem with this? We won’t talk about those who perform their duty in a perfunctory manner and act wildly. Most people do not have truth, and so this is the state they are in when fulfilling their duty. However, as he keeps listening to the fellowship and can accept the pruning and dealing, some time later, things come together: “I’ve groped some principles this time, and this time I understand some truths, and in this time of failure I have also learned, and know how to do it better next time.” Is this not how one continues to grow? A person’s experience with many failures does not represent their having no humanity, nor can it say they’ve not pursued truth; all it can say is that they currently have no reality of the truth, that their stature is too small. Small stature is often found in children and youth, doing things in accordance to what their imaginations tell them to, going about things in their own way, resulting in a lot of turns and tumbles. After some time of reflection, they see things clearly, understand truth, grasp the principles, and are finally able to get over the mountain with greater and greater ease, doing things with greater and greater accuracy, and with more and more principles. Even if they cannot see things clearly, they can still search for truth. After understanding it they gradually perform their duty better. This is how most people experience God’s work, finding their way through this process.
Are there any who haven’t failed or stumbled and who were simply successful at fulfilling their duties? No. I too am someone who has experienced many failures, going my own way when I first started out and having no truth, but after I was pruned and dealt with by God and judged and chastised by the words of God, I became knowledgeable and turned around a little bit at a time, so this is a normal state. Some people meet with so many failures and setbacks, they become negative, and will say: “I’m through! I cannot understand the spirit, and I am not one who pursues truth! Perhaps I am of the devil Satan, hopeless and simply needing to give up!” Isn’t this foolish? It is indeed foolishness! Humans can be broken by their own ignorance. You have to understand that all humans go through this; you are not the only one who has gone through these things—every single person has gone through these things. It’s only that you don’t understand how they experience these things. When we have heart-to-hearts with our brothers and sisters, all will discuss with you how they’ve experienced things, their failures, their setbacks, and what they’ve learned from these things. And so when these things befall you, don’t be negative; just strive upward and you’ll be fine; truth cannot be pursued without perseverance! As well, sometimes we get stuck when fulfilling our duties, and for a long time cannot get past this crossroad; some things take 3 to 5 years of experiences, to finally be able to do things based on principle; would you call this normal? All of this is normal. If someone tells you that you will finally be able to do things on principle just after 3 or 5 times of failure, is that true? I can say it isn’t, as I myself have experienced numerous failures, but is it possible to fail for 3 to 5 times and then finally be able to act in accordance with principles and enter into the reality of truth? Yeah, simple things are like that, but some big problems cannot be overcome after 3 to 5 times—they can’t necessarily be overcome in 3 to 5 years! Do you think it takes 3 to 5 years to understand a critical truth? For instance, how many years does it take to enter into the truth of understanding the disposition of God? You could spend 8 to 10 years trying, and it still would not be enough. To genuinely understand a truth, sometimes it takes one or two years to experience, sometimes two or three, and some truths require an entire lifetime. Isn’t that how it goes? Let me give you an example: How many years does it take for someone to become a person of honesty? Experiences of three to five years can bring about change, but would you dare say that the change is complete? Are you completely an honest person? You haven’t thrown any curveballs? You wouldn’t dare say that. Would you say this truth is completely obtainable after 8 to 10 years of experience? The truth concerning how one conducts themselves and the truth dealing with knowledge of God require a lifetime of experiences, and you need to understand this! But there are some people who ask, “If this is a lifelong thing, then if I suddenly die while trying to achieve my goal, won’t it be a waste?” Isn’t this true, though? There really isn’t meaning to this. If you are a pursuer of truth who even wants to die, you cannot die, right? You wouldn’t say that. It’s simply that God doesn’t require too much from you with these truths. What does it mean by “not requiring too much”? It means that you aren’t required to spend 3 to 5 years to complete your experiences. It takes a lifetime for a person to experience truth; can God really request that you achieve this in 3 to 5 years? God wouldn’t do that, as He knows our stature. God created man, and however long you spend trying to achieve whatever result, this is all too clear to God, and so God wouldn’t make such requirements. Man should only strive to move upward, but just because a truth takes an entire lifetime to experience, you don’t need to say, “Augh! Having faith in God takes too much, and pursuing truth is way too hard! What’s the point in still believing? I wouldn’t have believed had I known it’d be this hard!” What kind of talk is this? It’s foolishness, foolish words spoken by a child. Isn’t living hard? If life is so hard, then why do you wish to continue living? Don’t talk such nonsense! You simply have to keep moving forward. Some truths take an entire lifetime to experience, but after only three to five years, you’ll have results. You can have some human likeness, and so some truths can be entered into quickly: Some can be after one or two years, and sometimes you can enter the truth in a few months. What does it mean to have entry after a few months? It means that you are starting out with your experiences. He said, “I saw results after 3 to 5 months of experience, and I did gain some actual knowledge in three to five months, so haven’t I entered the truth?” However, you have to live out the truth completely, becoming a complete person, and that takes a lifetime. Achieving basic results of experiencing some truth needs 7 to 8 years, and you will show human likeness, with others noticing how good you’ve become. Take the truth of being an honest person for example, after you really experience seven to eight years, people will say, “This person is quite honest and has no craftiness.” There are special circumstances where they express craftiness, but they are usually simple, speaking honest words and from the heart; what kind of person then is this person seen as? Aren’t they the kind of person everyone loves? In spite of how you look or if you’ve grown in an average way, people like you, willingly communicating and doing things with you because you’re an honest person and cute.
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