Relevant Words of God:
In believing in God, you must at least resolve the issue of having a normal relationship with God. Without a normal relationship with God, then the significance in believing in God is lost. Establishing a normal relationship with God is entirely attained through quieting your heart in God’s presence. A normal relationship with God means being able to not doubt or deny any of God’s work and submit to it, and furthermore it means having the right intentions in the presence of God, not thinking of yourself, always having the interests of God’s family as the most important thing no matter what you are doing, accepting God’s observation, and submitting to God’s arrangements. You are able to quiet your heart in God’s presence whenever you do anything; even if you do not understand God’s will, you must still fulfill your duties and responsibilities to the best of your ability. It is not too late to wait for God’s will to be revealed to you and then put this into practice. When your relationship with God has become normal, then you will also have a normal relationship with people. Everything is established on the foundation of God’s words. Through eating and drinking the words of God, practice in accordance with God’s requirements, put your viewpoints right, and do not do things that resist God or disturb the church. Do not do things that do not benefit the lives of the brothers and sisters, do not say things that do not contribute to other people, do not do shameful things. Be just and honorable when doing all things and make them presentable before God. Even though the flesh is weak sometimes, you are able to attach the highest importance to benefiting God’s family, not covet your own benefits, and carry out righteousness. If you can practice in this way, your relationship with God will be normal.
from “How Is Your Relationship With God?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Whenever you do anything, you must examine whether your motivations are right. If you are able to act according to the requirements of God, then your relationship with God is normal. This is the minimum criterion. If, when you examine your motivations, there emerge those that are incorrect, and if you are able to turn your back on them and act according to the words of God, then you will become someone who is right before God, which will show that your relationship with God is normal, and that all that you do is for the sake of God, and not for yourself. Whenever you do or say anything, you must put your heart right, be righteous, and not be led by your emotions, or act according to your own will. These are the principles by which believers in God conduct themselves. A person’s motivations and stature can be revealed in a small thing, and thus, for people to enter onto the path of being made perfect by God, they must first resolve their own motivations and their relationship with God. Only when your relationship with God is normal will you be able to be made perfect by God, and only then will God’s dealing, pruning, discipline, and refinement in you be able to achieve their desired effect. That is to say, people are able to have God in their hearts, not seek personal benefits, not think about their personal future (referring to thinking of the flesh), but rather they bear the burden of entering life, do their best to pursue truth, and submit to God’s work. This way, the objectives you seek are correct, and your relationship with God is normal. It can be said that fixing one’s relationship with God is the first step on entry into one’s spiritual journey. Although man’s destiny is in God’s hands, and has been predestined by God, and cannot be changed by themselves, whether or not you can be made perfect or gained by God depends on whether or not your relationship with God is normal. Perhaps there are parts of you that are weak or disobedient—but as long as your outlook is right and your motivations are correct, and as long as you have put right your relationship with God and made it normal, then you will be qualified to be made perfect by God. If you do not have the right relationship with God, and act for the sake of the flesh, or your family, then regardless of how hard you work it will all be for nothing. If your relationship with God is normal, then everything else will fall into place. God looks at nothing else, but He looks only at whether your views on the belief in God are right: who you believe in, for whose sake you believe, and why you believe. If you are able to see these things clearly, and are able to put right your views and practice, then your life will make progress, and you are sure to be able to enter onto the right track. If your relationship with God is not normal, and your views on the belief in God are deviant, then these will preclude all else. No matter how you believe in God, you will gain nothing. Only if your relationship with God is normal will you be approved by God when you turn your back on the flesh, pray, suffer, endure, obey, help your brothers and sisters, devote more effort to God, and so on.
from “How Is Your Relationship With God?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
People believe in God, love God, and satisfy God by touching the Spirit of God with their heart, thereby obtaining His satisfaction; when engaging with God’s words with their heart, they are therefore moved by the Spirit of God. If you wish to achieve a proper spiritual life and establish a proper relationship with God, you must first give your heart to Him, and quiet your heart before Him. Only after you have poured your whole heart into God can you gradually develop a proper spiritual life. If people do not give their heart to God in their belief in Him, if their heart is not in Him and they do not treat His burden as their own, then everything they do is cheating God, and it is all the behavior of religious people—this cannot receive God’s praise.
from “Establishing a Proper Relationship With God Is Very Important” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Only by building on the foundation of eating and drinking God’s word, and thereby coming to know Him and to satisfy Him, can one gradually build a proper relationship with Him. Eating and drinking God’s word and putting it into practice is for man the best way of collaborating with God, and it is the kind of practice that they can best stand firm in their testimony as His people. When one understands and is able to obey the essence of God’s current word, he is living on the path on which he is guided by the Holy Spirit and has entered upon the right track by which God perfects man. It used to be that people would, as they sought grace, or peace and joy, be able to obtain God’s work. It is different now. If they do not have the word of the incarnate God, if they do not have the reality of His word, they will not be able to gain approval from God, and they will be eliminated by God. To arrive at a proper spiritual life, one should first eat and drink God’s word and put it into practice, and then, on this foundation, establish a proper relationship between man and God.
from “Those Whose Disposition Has Changed Are Those Who Have Entered Into the Reality of God’s Word” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
If you want to have a proper relationship with God, your heart must turn to God, and on this foundation, you will also have a proper relationship with other people. If you don’t have a proper relationship with God, no matter what you do to maintain your relationships with other people, no matter how hard you work or how much energy you exert, it will still belong to a human philosophy of life. You are maintaining your position among people through a human perspective and a human philosophy so that they will praise you. You do not establish proper relationships with people according to the word of God. If you don’t focus on your relationships with people but maintain a proper relationship with God, if you are willing to give your heart to God and learn to obey Him, very naturally, your relationships with all people will become proper. This way, these relationships aren’t established on the flesh, but on the foundation of God’s love. There are almost no interactions based on the flesh, but in the spirit there is fellowship as well as love, comfort, and provision for one another. This is all done on the foundation of a heart that satisfies God. These relationships aren’t maintained by relying on a human philosophy of life, but they are formed very naturally through the burden for God. They don’t require human effort—they are practiced through the principles of the word of God. … A proper relationship between people is established on the foundation of giving their heart to God; it is not achieved through human effort. Without God in their hearts, interpersonal relationships between people are merely relationships of the flesh. They are not proper, but are indulgent of lust—they are relationships that God detests, that He loathes. If you say that your spirit has been moved, but you always want to have fellowship with people who appeal to you, with whoever you think highly of, and if there is another seeker who does not appeal to you, who you hold a bias against and will not engage with, this is more proof that you are an emotional person and you do not have a proper relationship with God at all. You are attempting to deceive God and cover up your own ugliness. Even if you can share some understanding but you carry wrong intentions, everything you do is good only by human standards. God will not praise you—you are acting according to the flesh, not according to God’s burden. If you are able to quiet your heart in front of God and have proper interactions with all those who love God, only then are you fit for God’s use. This way, no matter how you associate with others, it will not be according to a life philosophy, but it will be living in front of God, considerate of His burden.
from “Establishing a Proper Relationship With God Is Very Important” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
No matter what you do, consider: What will God think if I do this? Will it benefit the brothers and sisters? Will it be beneficial to the work of God’s house? Examine your intentions in your prayer, fellowship, speech, work, and contact with people, and examine whether your relationship with God is normal or not. If you are unable to distinguish your intentions and thoughts, then you have no discrimination, which proves that you understand too little about truth. If you are able to have a clear understanding of everything that God does, see things according to God’s word and see things by standing on the side of God, then your viewpoints will be correct. Therefore, to build a good relationship with God is a top priority for anyone believing in God; everyone should treat it as the most important task and as their major life event. Everything you do should be weighed against whether or not you have a normal relationship with God. If your relationship with God is normal and your intentions are correct, then do it. In order to maintain a normal relationship with God, you can’t be afraid of losing out on personal interests, you can’t allow Satan to prevail, you can’t allow Satan to find anything against you, and you can’t allow Satan to make you into a laughing stock. Such an intention is a manifestation that your relationship with God is normal. It is not for the flesh, but rather it is for peace of spirit, it is for obtaining the work of the Holy Spirit and for satisfying the will of God. If you are to enter into a correct state, you must build a good relationship with God, you must set right your viewpoint of belief in God. It is to allow God to obtain you, to allow God to reveal the fruits of His words in you, and to enlighten and illuminate you even more. This way you will enter into the correct manner. Continuously eat and drink God’s current words, enter into the current way of the Holy Spirit’s work, do according to God’s current requirements, not follow old-fashioned practices, not cling to old ways of doing things, and quickly enter into the manner of today’s work. This way your relationship with God will be completely normal and you will enter into the right track of believing in God.
from “How Is Your Relationship With God?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
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