Glory to God | Praise Dance "Singing of the Millennial Kingdom Descending Among Men"

The New Jerusalem has descended from heaven; God’s word has appeared in the flesh. God’s chosen people witness with their own eyes that everything God says is accomplished and fulfilled one after the other, and that God’s word is reigning on the whole earth. The long-awaited Millennial Kingdom has descended to earth. All God’s people are heartily enjoying God’s abundance and proclaiming God’s word. They are singing and dancing to praise the arrival of the day that God is glorified.

Singing of the Millennial Kingdom Descending Among Men

1. The Millennial Kingdom has descended among men, God’s word has conquered the whole earth, reigning on the whole earth, reigning on the whole earth, and everything has come into being and stood fast because of God’s word, because of God’s word, for us to see with our own eyes, for us to see with our own eyes. We shout for joy, and we sing, singing of the Millennial Kingdom having descended to earth. We shout for joy, and we sing, singing of the New Jerusalem descending from heaven. God’s word is among us and lives with, lives with us, accompanying our every act and move, every mind and thought.

2. The only true almighty God who is self-existing and ever-existing, Your word has appeared in the flesh, living and real for all people to see. Your words from before the ages until today have been accomplished one by one, accomplished one by one and fulfilled one by one. We shout for joy, and we sing, singing of God’s word displaying authority and power. We shout for joy, and we sing, singing of God’s word ruling on earth, on earth. God has gained, has gained greater glory on earth. God’s word has occupied our whole being for us to become God’s manifestation, become God’s manifestation.

3. All people on the whole earth, adult or child, male or female, old or young, are proclaiming God’s word. All people become subject under God’s word and come to worship God. The whole kingdom is a scene of jubilation. We shout for joy, and we sing, singing of the coming of the day God gains glory. We shout for joy, and we sing, singing of God’s deeds having been revealed. Only the practical God is the spring of living water, the spring of living water, ever-flowing, for us to enjoy, for us to enjoy and to nourish our hearts.

from Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs

4. The beautiful prospect of the kingdom is bright and even more infinite. All God’s people are beaming with smiles in heart, for what has long been expected has now become a reality. How could we not dance for joy and give glory to God? We shout for joy, and we sing, singing of and praising God’s almightiness and wisdom. We shout for joy, and we sing, singing of God’s work having been crowned with success. We shout for joy, and we sing. The practical God is personally leading us into the good land of Canaan to enjoy God’s riches, to enjoy God’s riches.

Chapter 3 You Must Know the Truths About the Three Stages of God’s Work

2. You Must Know the Aim of the Three Stages of God’s Work

Relevant Words of God:

My entire management plan, the six-thousand-year management plan, consists of three stages, or three ages: the Age of Law of the beginning; the Age of Grace (which is also the Age of Redemption); and the Age of Kingdom of the last days. My work in these three ages differs in content according to the nature of each age, but at each stage this work befits the needs of man—or, to be more precise, is done according to the tricks that Satan employs in the war that I wage against it. The purpose of My work is to defeat Satan, to make manifest My wisdom and omnipotence, to expose all of Satan’s tricks, and thereby to save the entire human race, which lives under Satan’s domain. It is to show My wisdom and omnipotence, and to reveal the unbearable hideousness of Satan; even more than that, it is to allow created beings to discriminate between good and evil, to know that I am the Ruler of all things, to see clearly that Satan is the enemy of humanity, a degenerate, the evil one, and to allow them to tell, with absolute certainty, the difference between good and evil, truth and falsehood, holiness and filth, and what is great and what is ignoble. Thus will ignorant humanity become able to bear witness to Me that it is not I who corrupt humanity, and only I—the Creator—can save humanity, can bestow upon people the things that they can enjoy; and they will come to know that I am the Ruler of all things and Satan is merely one of the beings that I created and that later turned against Me. My six-thousand-year management plan is divided into three stages, and I work thus to achieve the effect of enabling created beings to bear witness to Me, and comprehend My will, and know that I am the truth.

from “The True Story Behind the Work of the Age of Redemption” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

30. The Work of God Is So Wise

By Shiji, Anhui Province

Normally, when attending co-workers’ meetings, my leader would often preach about the experiences of people who failed in their service to God, and would ask us to learn lessons from their experiences and to take them as a warning. For example, some leaders always preached letters and doctrines when they gave sermons or fellowshiped. They were unable to preach real knowledge of the truth and they were unable to perform practical work, with the result that they served as leaders for years without moving the work of the church forward; the church work almost came to a complete standstill, and they became false leaders and were sifted out by God. When performing their duties, some leaders always showed themselves off, exalted themselves and testified to themselves, and worked to protect their status, and in the end, such leaders led people before themselves, and became antichrists to be expelled. Some leaders showed too great a consideration for their own flesh, coveting comforts and never doing any real work. Such leaders were like parasites in the church who coveted the blessings of status, and in the end, they were exposed and weeded out. Hearing these examples of failure, I couldn’t help but question: “Is God not almighty? Given that these leaders were perpetrating evil and resisting God as they worked and were causing loss to the church’s work, why didn’t God step in sooner to expose and weed them out? In this way, would not the life of the brothers and sisters and the church’s work suffer less loss?” I was beset with this question.

25. I Have Seen My True Colors

By Xiaoxiao, Jiangsu Province

Due to the needs of the church’s work, I was transferred to another church, which was in a frail state, to fulfill my duty. At the time, the gospel work at that place was at a low ebb, and the states of brothers and sisters were generally not very good. But because I was touched by the Holy Spirit, I still took on everything that I was entrusted with, full of confidence. I would get up early and stay up late every day, busying myself in the church so that I could do my work well. After a period of time, the church’s work was taking a turn for the better. Seeing this, I couldn’t help but become quite self-satisfied. I felt that I was all right, that I really took on a burden in fulfilling my duty, and that I was full of the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. I felt that I was full of courage and resolve in my work. I believed myself able to perform the job well. I was living mired in self-satisfaction and self-admiration.

24. God’s Words Have Awakened Me

By Miao Xiao, Shandong Province

In the past, I used to always think that God’s words “a puppet and traitor who flees from the great white throne” were referring to those who accept God’s work in the last days but who then retreat; to me, they were all people who weren’t willing to endure the pain of being judged and chastised. Therefore, whenever I saw brothers and sisters retreat for whatever reason, my heart would be filled with contempt toward them, thinking: “There goes another puppet and traitor fleeing from the great white throne who shall receive God’s punishment!” Each time this happened, I felt I was behaving properly in accepting God’s judgment and was not far from receiving God’s salvation.

9. A Bit of Understanding of Being Saved

By Lin Qing, Shandong Province

After becoming a Christian I always believed that as long as I put everything aside and expended myself for God, did the work of the church well, I didn’t give up my duty or betray God no matter what tribulations or pain I suffered, and could follow Him until the end, I would be someone God would be pleased with. I thought that I could gain God’s salvation and I would be able to remain. So I gave up my family and fleshly enjoyments, and spent every day rushing around, busy in the church. This is how I came to believe that I had already walked the path of salvation by God, and all I had to do was follow Him to the very end.

8. The Holy Spirit Works in a Principled Way

By Qin Shuting, Shandong Province

For some time, whenever I read the words of God, I never felt the light. I didn’t reflect on the reason for that, but just continued to pray to God, asking Him to enlighten me. But when I read God’s words after that, I still didn’t have any enlightenment. So I thought, “There is a time for God to enlighten each man, so there is no use in trying to rush it.” After that, I unhurriedly plodded along reading God’s words, patiently awaiting God’s enlightenment.

3. Who Knows the Motherly Heart of God?

By Qingxin, Henan Province

In the past, I didn’t understand God’s work of saving mankind, thinking that if someone reveals corruption or commits transgressions in their duty that bring harm to the church’s work, that person will face the retribution they deserve, or that they will be stripped of their duty or be subjected to punishment. Because of this erroneous viewpoint, I was always afraid of slipping up in my work and being dismissed or sent back home, so I thought of a little “trick”: Whenever I did something wrong, I would try my best to not let the leaders know first, and scramble to make up for it myself and do my utmost to make it right. Wouldn’t that then help me hold on to my duty? So every time I gave reports on my work, I would downplay big issues and simply erase the small ones. During the times I was passive I would do my best to cover it up in front of the leaders and present myself as very active and positive, terrified that they would know I was in an abnormal state and think that I could not do the work, and then remove me from my position. That is how I became very carefully guarded, tiptoeing around the leaders and God in everything I did.

2. I Am Unfit to See Christ

By Huanbao, Liaoning Province

Since I first began believing in Almighty God, end-time Christ, I really admired those brothers and sisters who were following along at Christ’s side, who could personally receive Christ’s shepherding and hear His utterances with their own ears. I felt that it would be wonderful if I were able to hear Christ speak myself one day, and it would be even more glorious if I could see Him with my own eyes. But lately, through listening to Christ’s fellowship, I have come to feel deeply in my heart that I am not fit to see Christ.

What Should I Do if My Work Is So Busy That I Shun the Lord?

Hello brothers and sisters of Spiritual Q&A,

I’m a new believer who has recently accepted God’s work. Although I know that, as a Christian, one must attend church gatherings and read God’s words, and I want to practice in accordance with God’s requirements, my work is so busy every day at the moment and I have an active social life. I feel exhausted every day. Although I’ve made some money over the past few years and my living standards have improved, I always feel like I want to make more money in order to provide protection for my family’s future. Therefore, I work very hard every day to make money and I have no time to attend church gatherings or read God’s words. My heart always feels empty and I feel indebted to the Lord. How can I find a balance between my work and my belief in God?

Xiaodong

June 15, 2018

Hello Xiaodong,

This issue puzzled me for a long time as well. Later, by reading God’s words and through the fellowship and support of brothers and sisters, I finally and gradually came to understand God’s will, and I discovered that if I wanted to balance my work with my belief in God, then I had to understand the value and meaning of pursuing the truth, as well as what it is exactly that we work for. Once we have thoroughly understood these truths, we can then make calm decisions regarding attending gatherings and our jobs. Below, I will fellowship a little of my own experiences and knowledge.

The Value and Meaning of Pursuing the Truth

In fact, we all have to work in order to live, but if we have no time to attend church gatherings or read God’s words because we’re too busy with work, then that is at odds with God’s will. The main reason for this is because we have failed to see the meaning and the importance of pursuing the truth. If we understand the value of the truth and we experience the enjoyment, the release and the freedom that come with practicing the truth, then we will want to attend gatherings and read God’s words. The Lord Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). God’s words say, “Whether the words spoken by God are, in outward appearance, plain or abstruse, they are all truths indispensable to man as he enters into life; they are the fount of living waters that enables him to survive in both spirit and flesh. They provide what man needs to stay alive; the dogma and creed for conducting his daily life; the path, goal, and direction through which he must pass in order to receive salvation; every truth that he should possess as a created being before God; and every truth about how man obeys and worships God. They are the guarantee that ensures man’s survival, they are man’s daily bread, and they are also the sturdy support that enables man to be strong and stand up. They are rich in the reality of the truth of normal humanity as it is lived out by created mankind, rich in the truth by which mankind breaks free from corruption and eludes Satan’s snares, rich in the tireless teaching, exhortation, encouragement, and solace that the Creator gives to created humanity. They are the beacon that guides and enlightens men to understand all that is positive, the guarantee which ensures that men will live out and come into possession of all that is righteous and good, the criterion by which people, events, and objects are all measured, and also the navigation marker that leads men toward salvation and the path of light” (“Knowing God Is the Path to Fearing God and Shunning Evil”).

As we live in this world, it won’t do to merely have material things—what we most need is the guidance and the supply of God’s words. Material things can only provide the basic necessities for living and can provide temporary comfort and satisfaction for our flesh. But only the word of God can resolve the difficulties and problems we encounter in our jobs and in our lives, for the word of God is the truth and it can both show us the way to practice and soothe our spirits. Otherwise, though we may be very rich and live a prosperous life, we still feel empty and pained in the deepest recesses of our hearts. For example, we work hard on this earth in order to survive and we come to appreciate how unfair the world is, and how wicked people can be. In our dealings with other people, we all encounter difficulties that we don’t know how to handle, and these difficulties simply cannot be resolved with money or material things. Only by coming before God, attending gatherings, reading God’s words and fellowshiping with brothers and sisters can we understand the truth, be discerning when we encounter issues and thoroughly understand the essences of all manner of different people. Then, when we interact with other people, we will know how to approach them. Furthermore, we are under the dominion of the satanic poisons of “People struggle to go upward, but water flows downward,” and “To be a man is to get ahead.” We focus on pursuing status to make others look up to us in the belief that this is a splendid way to live. When we are without status, we vie with others both openly and behind their backs and we unscrupulously try to usurp their position. And when we obtain status, we are on our guard against others at all times, worrying that someone else will come and replace us and living in extreme suffering. Only through reading God’s words and attending gatherings and fellowshiping the truth with brothers and sisters can we thoroughly understand that fame, fortune and status are ways in which Satan corrupts and harms us. We rack our brains to pursue fame, fortune and status and we will pay any price, and we end up living in unbearable pain, exhausted in both mind and body. Also, the more we pursue fame, fortune and status, all that happens is that we sink deeper and deeper into sin, and our lives cease to have any value or meaning. At the same time, we come to understand from God’s words that, whether us human beings possess status or not, we are just tiny created beings, and the most important things for us to do are to fulfill the duty of a created being, pursue the truth to satisfy God and worship God, and obtain God’s praise and blessings. In this way, our inner satanic outlook is transformed, we no longer concern ourselves with gains and losses for the sake of fame, fortune and status at work, and we no longer try to prevail over others and scheme against them. When someone is better than us at something, we are then able to treat them properly and submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements, and our hearts naturally become peaceful and at ease, free and liberated. Therefore, God is beside us when we pursue the truth and, no matter what situation we encounter, God is always in our hearts, supporting us, and we have God’s words to steer our course by. We can then calmly face and obey the orchestrations and arrangements of God, and this sense of comfort and peace we feel in our spirits is the only true happiness. It is evident, therefore, that the truth gives us so many blessings, and pursuing the truth is more meaningful than anything else. Making the effort to read God’s words and pursue the truth is the only intelligent thing to do!

Trust the Lord to Provide All That We Need

The Lord Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?” (Matthew 6:25–26). “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things” (Matthew 6:31–32). We can see from God’s words that He does not want us to expend too much energy on the basic necessities, but rather He wants us to come more before Him to build a normal relationship with Him and focus on our lives. We don’t need to concern ourselves too much with all the things we need to live, for God will provide them, and all we need to do is submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements—as long as we have food and clothing, then that is enough. Take the story of the prophet Elijah in the Bible, for example. To avoid being killed, he hid in a mountain valley where there was nothing to eat, yet God gave him food through ravens. In a great drought that lasted for three years, God made the poor widow provide for Elijah when all she had was a tiny bit of oil in a jug and a tiny bit of flour in a jar, and yet they survived three years of famine. And there are many brothers and sisters today who follow God who have a deep appreciation of these words of God. When they take pursuing the truth and practicing the truth as their number one priority, and when they entrust their lives to God and let nature take its course with their work, they discover that God still provides much, more even than they ever imagined.

What Do We Work For?

Perhaps we may all think like this: “Everyone has to have a career in order to live, and must earn money to support one’s family—is this not the proper way to live?” Of course, there’s nothing wrong with earning money and supporting one’s family, but oftentimes we are not working hard and toiling just to support our families, but instead we do it to satisfy the extravagant desires of our flesh. We want to earn even more money so we can buy a house, buy a car and enjoy a high-flying life and thereby win the admiration and esteem of others. For the sake of physical comforts or the admiration and esteem of others, we work extra shifts and work overtime, to the point where we spend all our time and energy on making money. Not only do we then ruin our bodies through exhaustion, but we also have no time at all to come before God. In this way, we unknowingly lose the chance to worship the Lord of creation as created beings.

God’s words say, “In fact, no matter how lofty man’s ideals are, no matter how realistic man’s desires are or how proper they may be, all that man wants to achieve, all that man seeks for is inextricably linked with two words. These two words are vitally important to the life of every person, and these are things Satan intends to instill in man. Which two words are these? They are ‘fame’ and ‘gain.’ Satan uses a very subtle kind of way, a way very much in concert with people’s notions; it is not any kind of radical way. In the midst of unawareness, people come to accept Satan’s way of living, its rules of living, establishing life goals and their direction in life, and in doing so they also unknowingly come to have ideals in life. No matter how high-sounding these ideals in life seem, they are just a pretext that is inextricably linked to fame and gain. … People think that once they have fame and gain, they can then capitalize on them to enjoy high status and great wealth, and to enjoy life. Once they have fame and gain, they can then capitalize on them in their pleasure-seeking and unscrupulous enjoyment of the flesh. People willingly, albeit unknowingly, take their bodies, minds, all that they have, their futures and their destinies and hand them all over to Satan in order to attain the fame and gain they desire. People actually do this without ever a moment’s hesitation, ever ignorant of the need to recover it all. … Once someone is mired in fame and gain, they no longer seek that which is bright, that which is righteous or those things that are beautiful and good. This is because the seductive power that fame and gain have over people is too great, and they become things for people to pursue throughout their lives and even for all eternity without end. Is this not true?” (“God Himself, the Unique VI”).

God’s words are so clear! From when we are little, we are indoctrinated with satanic life axioms, such as “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing,” “To be a man is to get ahead,” and “A man leaves his name behind wherever he stays, just as a goose utters its cry wherever it flies.” Under the influence of these axioms, our hearts advocate money, we covet physical pleasures and seek to become top dog, regarding fame, fortune and status as being more important than anything else. Under the dominion of these fallacious ideas, we no longer work purely to be able to support our families, but instead we work seeking to have a career with which we can win the admiration and esteem of others. For this reason, one-by-one we become money-making machines, we live exhausted and in pain, and some people even ruin their own bodies and ultimately pay with their lives. Although we may make some money, yet inside ourselves we often feel empty and helpless, without a hint of peace or joy in our spirits. Furthermore, when we live by the life axioms of Satan and persistently pursue fame and fortune, our hearts grow farther and farther from God and our interest in fulfilling the duty of a created being—believing in God and worshiping God—grows less and less. Some people even come to think that attending church gatherings and reading God’s words interfere with their ability to earn money, and so they stop going to gatherings and they stop reading God’s words, and without them being aware of it, they lose their normal relationship with God. From this, we can see that Satan uses our pursuit of fame and fortune to steal us away from God, to bring us thoroughly under its control and occupation and so that we sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire of sin. Therefore, we must understand that fame and fortune are ways in which Satan deceives, harms and devours us, and the pursuit of fame and fortune is the wrong path to take. Once we can understand and discern our inner wrong views on pursuit, we can then take the correct approach to our work.

In fact, there is no clash between our jobs and our belief in God. So how then should we establish a normal relationship with God in our work?

You Can Experience God’s Work in Your Job

The Lord Jesus said, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). God is a Spirit and we can worship Him and establish a normal relationship with Him in any place and at any time. While we’re at work, though we may be busy with the work at hand, we can still quiet our hearts before God, think of God’s love and salvation, contemplate the truths in God’s words and learn to practice and experience God’s words. God will then be with us, helping us to resolve our difficulties and guiding us on how to conduct ourselves as human beings. When we establish a normal relationship with God and we obtain the work of the Holy Spirit, our hearts derive comfort and will feel peace and joy. In this way, even though we may tire from our work and we may find it hard to make time, we can still face it all with a positive attitude.

Let me tell you a little of my own experiences. When I’d only just started to believe in God, I believed that work was work and faith in God was faith in God. I believed that attending gatherings was the only proper way to worship God and I simply had no idea that I could practice God’s words when I was at work. At that time, I was working in a restaurant and it was very busy. I also had several church gatherings to attend per week and I never felt like I had enough time. I felt like I didn’t have the time to read God’s words nor any opportunity to experience His words. While I was at work, I felt like the time dragged by and was very dull. Later at a church gathering, a sister read me a passage of God’s words that concerned my problem: “Because in order to walk in God’s way, we cannot let go of anything to do with ourselves, or anything that happens around us, even the little things. No matter whether we think we should pay attention to it or not, as long as any matter is facing us we should not let it go. All of it should be viewed as God’s test for us. How’s this kind of attitude? If you have this kind of attitude, then it confirms one fact: Your heart fears God, and your heart is willing to shun evil. If you have this desire to satisfy God, then what you put into practice isn’t far from the standard of fearing God and shunning evil. There are often those who believe that the matters which aren’t paid much heed by people, the matters that aren’t usually mentioned—these are merely minor trifles, and they don’t have anything to do with putting truth into practice. When these people are faced with just such a matter, they don’t give it much thought and let it slide. But in actual fact, this matter is a lesson for which you should be studying, a lesson on how to fear God, on how to shun evil. Moreover, what you should be even more concerned about is knowing what God is doing when this matter arises to face you. God is right at your side, observing every one of your words and deeds, observing your actions, your mind changes—this is God’s work” (“How to Know God’s Disposition and the Result of His Work”). By reading God’s words, I came to know that the people, events and things we encounter every day, whether big or small, are all meticulously arranged by God for our sake. God wants to trial us and test us through these people, events and things to see whether or not we revere Him, whether or not we can practice in accordance with His words in all things, and whether or not we have entered into all kinds of truths. I was never aware before that I could experience God’s words in the people, events and things around me and I therefore missed many chances to gain the truth. I decided that I must focus on bringing God’s words into my real life, I must experience and practice God’s words at work and I must pursue the truth in the environments that God arranges so that my life may gradually mature.

One day, I was in the restaurant writing the menu when the manager asked me to add more dishes to customers’ bills so that we could charge them more. I knew that the Lord said: “But let your communication be, Yes, yes; No, no: for whatever is more than these comes of evil” (Matthew 5:37). The Lord asked that we be honest and call a spade a spade. If we lie for the sake of profit, then we are engaging in deception and we will not earn God’s praise. I knew that I should not tell lies to cheat the customers, but I worried about displeasing the manager so that he would make things difficult for me or cut my pay, and if I didn’t handle it well then I could even lose my job. As I worked my way through this dilemma, I suddenly realized that God had permitted this issue to befall me and that God was right beside me watching to see what I would do with the truth and watching to see whether or not I would practice God’s words and be an honest person. And so, I prayed to God and became willing to forsake my flesh and practice the truth. I didn’t care how people would treat me or whether or not I would lose my job, but instead I wanted to focus on living before God and establishing a normal relationship with God. After praying, my heart felt much more at ease and I found the resolve to practice the truth and satisfy God. Unexpectedly, just as I was truthfully writing up the menu for the customers, though the manager said nothing, he later went and told the restaurant owner that I was honest and trustworthy. I witnessed God’s wondrous deeds and I experienced the feelings of peace and security, of release and freedom that comes from practicing the truth, and those are feelings that no amount of money can buy. In my work after that, I always paid close attention to the people, events and things around me and I focused on experiencing and practicing God’s words, and gradually my relationship with God normalized and I felt much more relaxed at work.

Brother Xiaodong, having now given fellowship about how to find a balance between work and belief in God, I trust that you will now have some paths to follow. In work, we should let nature take its course and not struggle for the sake of our own fame and fortune—it is enough to have food and clothing. At the same time, we must put our heart into reading God’s words and pursuing the truth, we must arm ourselves more with the truth, train with and practice God’s words in our lives and allow God’s words to become the principles of our lives and our conduct. In this way, we will gradually be able to understand the truth and come to know God more and more. At the same time, we will obtain inner liberation and freedom as well as the joy that comes from having God beside us. May the Lord bless you!

Xiaoming of Spiritual Q&A

June 17, 2018

That Was Close! I Nearly Let the Lord Pass Me By (Part 2)

By Weilian, United States

Seeking Jesus’ Return: Why Would God Incarnate of the Last Days Be a Woman?

After that I reached out to Brother Zhao online and told him the source of my confusion. “The Bible says, ‘He that has the bride is the bridegroom’ (John 3:29). And ‘Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready’ (Revelation 19:7). It’s written that the ‘bridegroom’ will marry the ‘bride’, so doesn’t the ‘bridegroom’ refer to the Lord being male when He returns? However, you testify that the Lord has returned as a woman. This is something I don’t understand. Brother, can you share fellowship on this?” Brother Zhao responded, “I used to think that since the Bible says that the bride will adorn herself to welcome the bridegroom, when the Lord returns He will certainly be male and couldn’t possibly be a woman. So is this understanding of the prophecy actually accurate, or not? If it’s as we take it, when God comes He has to be a man, and only a man can be called the ‘bridegroom’ so the ‘bride’ without a doubt refers to a woman, then which of our brothers, who are male, could become a ‘bride’ and attend the wedding banquet of the Lamb? Wouldn’t they all be cast out by the ‘bridegroom’ into the darkness, weeping? God is the God of all creatures; He is the God of all men and all women, so how could He only save women and not men? That is to say, our concept that the ‘bridegroom’ should be a man comes from looking at things from a worldly viewpoint. It’s just a literal understanding of the Bible, our own notions and imaginations. It is not remotely in line with the true meaning of what was prophesied in the Bible, and it is even less in line with the truth.

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.

Several Principles for Leading Non-Religious New Believers

God’s salvation of people is not limited to those who are already religious or are outsiders. As long as a person is willing to accept God’s work, is able to eat and drink God’s words and seek truth, then they are a suitable target for God’s salvation. God’s will is such that all those who can accept the work of Almighty God and attain purification are those who shall attain God’s salvation. There is no seniority among believers when practicing faith in God. As long as someone seeks truth and accepts God’s judgment and chastisement—thereby achieving transformation in his or her life disposition—then they are someone perfected by God. Therefore, mankind’s conceptions, imaginings or delineations about God are all ridiculous. God is righteous; God does not treat anyone with preference. To nurture and give sustenance to non-religious believers—truly bringing them into God’s words and helping them to enter into all truths—is God’s requirement, and this is also God’s commission to the leaders and workers of God’s house. All those who have prejudice against or exclude non-religious new believers, all those who muddle through the work of nurturing and giving sustenance to non-religious new believers, are all servants of Satan and they are all interrupting and disturbing God’s work. This is entirely the revelation of mankind’s satanic nature that opposes God. This must be clearly discerned.

The Orchestration of God’s Hands: A Different Experience of Job Seeking

Liang Xin

In today’s society, there are all different kinds of major enterprises and there seems to be a myriad of employment opportunities, but year after year, college graduates are a dime a dozen. The market of qualified employment candidates is so overcrowded you can’t gain a foothold, so the difficulty of finding employment after graduation has become a very practical problem. For every young person on the cusp of entering society after school, the most headache-inducing issue that they have to face is finding work, particularly at a good company. Everyone puts on their best face and racks their brains trying to squeeze their way in—the competition and pressure are intense. I, approaching graduation, had no choice but to face the plight of finding a job just like everybody else. The only thing different about me is that I’m a Christian and I believe that everything is prepared by God. However …

A Doctor’s Experience of Metamorphosis

Liu Jing

When I was a child, whenever my mother took me to the hospital to see a doctor and I saw all the doctors and nurses in their white gowns scurrying around, I always thought that they looked like angels in white. I was full of admiration for them, and I used to think: If I could be an angel in white too when I grow up, that would be so great! As a young adult, my school grades were exceptionally good and I was able to pass the entrance exam for medical college, and eventually my heartfelt wish came true when I was sent to a certain city hospital to begin my career as a doctor. You can’t imagine how happy I was on the first day that I put on a white gown! The professional duty of doctors is to cure illness and prevent death, and that makes the profession highly respected, lofty! I was determined to live up to the nickname, angels in white, by being a totally responsible and professional doctor committed to relieving the suffering of my patients.

Relying on God: It is Possible to Get a Good Job Without Flattering People

By Fangxiang

In summer this year, the Christian Zhang Li began work at a large children’s amusement park. There were many job posts and different personnel were responsible for each post. Confronted with this kind of working environment, Zhang Li thought to herself: “No matter where I work, interpersonal relationships are the hardest to handle. For the sake of their own interests, people either engage in jealous disputes and scheme against each other, or they flatter each other and try to curry favor with each other—they live by satanic life philosophies in everything they do. I am a believer in God and everything I do and say must accord with God’s words. I must fear God and shun evil, not engage in any satanic life philosophy and not do anything that would bring shame on God’s name.”

I Am Unfit to See Christ

By Huanbao, Liaoning Province

Since I first began believing in Almighty God, end-time Christ, I really admired those brothers and sisters who were following along at Christ’s side, who could personally receive Christ’s shepherding and hear His utterances with their own ears. I felt that it would be wonderful if I were able to hear Christ speak myself one day, and it would be even more glorious if I could see Him with my own eyes. But lately, through listening to Christ’s fellowship, I have come to feel deeply in my heart that I am not fit to see Christ.

God’s Words Have Awakened Me

By Miao Xiao, Shandong Province

In the past, I used to always think that God’s words “a puppet and traitor who flees from the great white throne” were referring to those who accept God’s work in the last days but who then retreat; to me, they were all people who weren’t willing to endure the pain of being judged and chastised. Therefore, whenever I saw brothers and sisters retreat for whatever reason, my heart would be filled with contempt toward them, thinking: “There goes another puppet and traitor fleeing from the great white throne who shall receive God’s punishment!” Each time this happened, I felt I was behaving properly in accepting God’s judgment and was not far from receiving God’s salvation.

Do You Know How Important God’s Law and His 10 Commandments Are to Mankind?

By Cheng Xin

I trust that every one of us who believes in the Lord will be familiar with the Ten Commandments and the Law. But are we aware of how important the Ten Commandments and the Law are to mankind, and what profound significance they have for us? Today, let’s investigate and fellowship this topic together.

Do You Know the Real Meaning of Easter?

By Hanxiao

What Is Easter? The Origins of Easter

Easter, or Resurrection Sunday as it is also called, is a holiday which celebrates the Lord Jesus’ resurrection that occurred three days after He was crucified upon the cross. Its exact time falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox every year. In order to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus and to remember the salvation and hope Jesus brought to mankind, each year from March to April, Christians all over the world hold celebrations on the day of Easter. So while us Christians are commemorating the resurrection of Jesus, do we know why He returned from the dead and appeared to man despite having already finished His work of redemption? And what is the meaning behind His resurrection and His appearance to man?