Question 3: You say only those who obey the will of God receive the way of everlasting life. After we started believing in the Lord, we suffered and paid a price to spread the Lord’s gospel. We’ve shepherded the Lord’s flock, taken up the cross and followed the Lord, practiced humbleness, patience, and tolerance. Are you saying we haven’t been following God’s will? We know if we continue, we will become holy, and be raptured to the kingdom of heaven. Is this way of understanding and practice wrong?

Answer: You have the notion that if you labor, sacrifice, or do good deeds, you are obeying God’s will. But are these imagined notions of yours after God’s heart? Do they have a basis in God’s word? Let’s see what the Lord Jesus said: The Lord Jesus said: “Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity” (Mat 7: 21-23). From the Lord Jesus’ words we can see that those who prophesy, cast out devils, and do many wonderful works in His name are the ones who suffer and do works for the Lord. They serve God, devote all their time to Him, and have many good behaviors. But, why does the Lord Jesus call them those who work iniquity? How should we understand this? By your notions, any who suffer and do work for the Lord and spend and sacrifice for Him are obeying God’s will. The chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees in Judaism also appeared to be very pious. They traveled far and wide to preach the gospel. So why did the Lord Jesus condemn and curse them? That’s something worth reflecting on, isn’t it? We can’t determine obedience to God’s will using the notions of man. True obedience to God’s will refers to people who can obey God’s work and words, practice God’s words, follow God’s commandments, and fulfill their duties according to God’s will and requirements. You say any who suffer and do work for the Lord are obeying God’s will. Then let’s evaluate them using the Lord Jesus’ requirements. What was the Lord Jesus’ most important requirement for man? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like to it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mat 22:37-39). But are we doing this? Obeying God’s will means loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind. No matter how much work we do, or how much we suffer, there must be no personal ambition or impurity, we must be devoted purely to obeying and satisfying God, to carrying out God’s will. We must be happy to sacrifice everything for God, without demand for recompense. In the face of trials and tribulation from God, we must not complain or betray Him, and put ourselves at the mercy of God’s arrangements. Like Abraham, Job, and Peter, when God’s trials come, we must accept with utter obedience and without complaint or question, and bear good and resounding testimony for God. This is obedience to God’s will. Given those demands, it should be obvious whether or not we are people who truly obey the heavenly Father’s will.

Question 2: The Lord Jesus and Almighty God are the same God, but do different work in different ages. The Lord Jesus did the work of redemption, and preached the way of repentance. In the last days, Almighty God does the work of judging and purifying mankind, and brings them the way of everlasting life. I still have another question, what is the difference between the way of repentance and the way of eternal life?

Answer: There is only one God, and His work of saving mankind can’t be done in one or two stages. Because there are three stages of work in God’s management plan to save mankind, the truth expressed by God in each stage is different, and gradually deepens, so that in the end it becomes perfect. God does different work across the ages based on the needs of man at the time, so the way God gives to man in each age is different. Knowing the difference between the way of repentance and the way of eternal life is very important. It is a truth every true believer in God must understand, because it’s related to how we know the truth and gain eternal life. Now we all know that the Lord Jesus did the work of redemption in the Age of Grace, and gave man the way of repentance. As the Lord Jesus said: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat 4:17). Which is to say, man should confess his sins and repent before God if he wants to enter the kingdom of heaven. After man confesses previous sins, such sins will be forgiven. Man will no longer sin, repent and be born again. This is repentance. But at that time, the Lord Jesus only taught man to confess his sins and repent, not to commit sins, not to do evil, to deny himself, take up the cross, and follow the Lord, to love the Lord with all his heart, his soul, and his mind, to love others as himself, with humility, forbearance and patience, and to forgive others seventy times seven and so on. These are the ways for man to repent. When man confesses his sins and repents before the Lord Jesus, these sins will be forgiven, which qualifies man to pray before God and fellowship with Him, and enjoy the bountiful grace and truth given by God. But what we can’t deny is that even if man’s sins are forgiven, his sinful nature still exists, and he can still sin, oppose and betray God. This proves that though man’s sins can be forgiven, he can still sin, and can’t escape the satanic disposition to attain purification. The Lord Jesus only did the work of redemption, which merely allows man to confess his sins, repent, return to God, and enjoy the grace given by God. This shows that the truth expressed by the Lord Jesus is the way for man to repent. Just as Almighty God says: “At the time, Jesus only spoke to His disciples a series of sermons in the Age of Grace, such as how to practice, how to gather together, how to ask in prayer, how to treat others, and so forth. The work He carried out was that of the Age of Grace, and He expounded only on how the disciples and those who followed Him ought to practice. He did only the work of the Age of Grace and none of the last days. … The work of God in each age has clear boundaries; He does only the work of the current age and never does He carry out the next stage of work in advance. Only in this way can His representative work of each age be brought to the fore. Jesus had spoken only of the signs of the last days, of how to be patient and how to be saved, how to repent and confess, as well as how to bear the cross and endure suffering; never did He speak of what man in the last days should enter into or how to seek to satisfy God’s will” (“How Can Man Who Has Defined God in His Conceptions Receive the Revelations of God?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “The sins of man could be forgiven through the sin offering, but as for just how man can be made to sin no more, and how his sinful nature may be extirpated completely and transformed, he has no way of solving this problem. The sins of man were forgiven, and this is because of the work of God’s crucifixion, but man continued to live within the corrupt satanic disposition of old. This being so, man must be completely saved from his corrupt satanic disposition, so that his sinful nature may be completely extirpated, never to develop again, thus enabling the disposition of man to be transformed. This would require man to grasp the path of growth in life, to grasp the way of life, and to grasp the way to change his disposition. Furthermore, it would require man to act in accordance with this path, so that his disposition may gradually be changed and he may live under the shining of the light, so that all that he does may be in accord with the will of God, so that he may cast away his corrupt satanic disposition, and so that he may break free from Satan’s influence of darkness, thereby emerging fully from sin. Only then will man receive complete salvation” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The words of Almighty God clearly tell us that the Lord Jesus did the work of redemption, and what He gave us was only the way of repentance, but He didn’t give man the way of everlasting life to cast off his satanic nature and attain purification. So, in the last days, Almighty God has come, and on the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, He has done the work of “judgment beginning at the house of God” and gives us the way of everlasting life. Only by accepting the way of everlasting life given by Almighty God in the last days can we become obedient to the will of God, completely escape the dark influence of Satan, reach salvation, and enter the kingdom of God.

Question 4: The Lord Jesus spoke the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven to the disciples, and as the return of the Lord Jesus, has Almighty God also revealed many mysteries? Could you fellowship with us about some of the mysteries revealed by Almighty God? It would be a great help to us in identifying the voice of God.

Answer: Each time God becomes flesh, He reveals many truths and mysteries to us. This is without doubt. God becomes flesh in order to save mankind, and so, He naturally expresses many truths, and reveals many mysteries. In the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus, God incarnate revealed many mysteries whilst preaching and doing His work, such as, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat 4:17). “Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Mat 7:21). The Lord Jesus also revealed many other mysteries in addition to this, which I won’t go into now. In the last days, Almighty God has come, and carried out the work of judgment beginning from the house of God, and has expressed all truths for the purification and salvation of mankind. Almighty God has not only accomplished all of the prophecies of the Lord Jesus, but has also laid bare to us the great mysteries of the past, the present, and the future, which relate to God's management plan. Let us read two passages of the words of Almighty God. “The work I have been managing for thousands of years is only completely revealed to man in the last days. It is only now that I have opened up the full mystery of My management to man. Man knows the purpose of My work and moreover has obtained an understanding of all My mysteries. And I have told man everything about the destination he is concerned about. I have already uncovered for man all My mysteries that were hidden for over 5,900 years” (“The Work of Spreading the Gospel Is Also the Work of Saving Man” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “This stage of work will elucidate for you the law of Jehovah and the redemption of Jesus, and is principally so that you may understand the entire work of God’s six-thousand-year management plan, and appreciate all the significance and substance of this six-thousand-year management plan, and understand the purpose of all the work done by Jesus and the words He spoke, and even your blind credence in and adoration of the Bible. All this it will allow you to perceive. You will come to understand both the work done by Jesus, and the work of God today; you will understand and behold all of the truth, the life, and the way. … In the end, this current stage will bring God’s work to a complete end, and will provide its conclusion. All will come to understand and know of God’s management plan. The conceptions within man, his intentions, his erroneous understanding, his conceptions toward the work of Jehovah and Jesus, his views about the Gentiles, and all his deviation and errors will be corrected. And man will understand all the right paths of life, and all the work done by God, and the entire truth. When that happens, this stage of work will come to an end” (“The Vision of God’s Work (2)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

IV. Questions and Answers on How to Discern the Voice of God

Question 1: The Lord Jesus has now returned and He has a new name—Almighty God. Almighty God has expressed the words in the book The Word Appears in the Flesh, and it is the voice of the bridegroom, yet many brothers and sisters are still unable to discern the voice of God. And so, today we have invited the witnesses from the Church of Almighty God. We have invited them to fellowship with us about how to identify the voice of God. So we’ll know how to ascertain that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus.