X Classic Words on the Reality of the Truth God’s Chosen People Must Enter Into

(XV) Classic Words on Casting Off the Influence of Satan and Being Gained by God to Achieve True Salvation

400. What is the influence of darkness?

What is referred to as the influence of darkness is the bondage of Satan, the influence of Satan, and it is an influence that has an aura of death.

X Classic Words on the Reality of the Truth God’s Chosen People Must Enter Into

(VIII) Classic Words on How to Obey God

196. Obedience to God and submission to the work of God are one and the same. Those who submit only to God but not to His work cannot be deemed obedient, even less can those who do not truly submit but are outwardly sycophantic. Those who truly submit to God are all able to gain from the work and achieve understanding of the disposition and work of God. Only such men truly submit to God. Such men are able to gain new knowledge from new work and experience new changes from the same. Only such men have the approval of God; only this kind of man is one who is perfected, one who has undergone a transformation of his disposition.

from “Those Who Obey God With a True Heart Shall Surely Be Gained by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

V Classic Words on the Relationship Between Each Stage of God’s Work and the Name of God

1. The work done by God Himself in each age contains the expression of His true disposition, and both His name and the work that He does change along with the age; they are all new. During the Age of Law, the work of guiding mankind was done under the name of Jehovah, and the first stage of work was initiated on earth. At this stage, the work consisted of building the temple and the altar, and using the law to guide the people of Israel and to work in their midst. By guiding the people of Israel, He launched a base for His work on earth. From this base, He expanded His work beyond Israel, which is to say that, starting from Israel, He extended His work outward, so that later generations gradually came to know that Jehovah was God, and that it was Jehovah who created the heavens and earth and all things, and that it was Jehovah who made all creatures. He spread His work through the people of Israel outward beyond them. The land of Israel was the first holy place of Jehovah’s work on earth, and it was in the land of Israel that God first went to work on earth. That was the work of the Age of Law. … During the Age of Grace, the name of God was Jesus, that is to say, God was a God who saved man, and He was a compassionate and loving God. God was with man. His love, His compassion, and His salvation accompanied each and every person. Only by accepting the name of Jesus and His presence was man able to gain peace and joy, to receive His blessing, His vast and numerous graces, and His salvation. Through the crucifixion of Jesus, all those who followed Him received salvation and were forgiven their sins. During the Age of Grace, Jesus was the name of God. In other words, the work of the Age of Grace was done principally under the name of Jesus. During the Age of Grace, God was called Jesus. He undertook a stage of new work beyond the Old Testament, and His work ended with the crucifixion. This was the entirety of His work. Therefore, during the Age of Law Jehovah was the name of God, and in the Age of Grace the name of Jesus represented God. During the last days, His name is Almighty God—the Almighty, who uses His power to guide man, conquer man, and gain man, and in the end, bring the age to its close. In every age, at every stage of His work, God’s disposition is evident.

from “The Vision of God’s Work (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

IX. One Must Fellowship Clearly That Christ Is the Manifestation of God Himself

1. How can one know the divine essence of Christ?

Bible Verses for Reference:

“Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life” “The words that I speak to you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake” (Jhn 14:6, 10-11).

Do You Know? God Has Done a Great Thing Among Men

The old age is gone, and the new age has come. Year after year and day after day, God has done much work. He came into the world and then in turn departed. Such a cycle has continued on through many generations. This day, God continues to do as before the work that He must, the work that He has yet to complete, for to this day He has yet to enter into rest. From the time of creation to this day, God has done much work, but did you know that the work God does this day is much more than before and the scale much greater? This is why I say that God has done a great thing among men. All of God’s work is very important, be it to man or to God, for every item of His work is related to man.

Chapter 85. What Practicing the Truth Is

People listen to sermons often, and yet they don’t know what the truth is, and neither do they know which aspects of the truth they should put effort into. They just listen and that’s it, as though they are without heart. Exactly how well they seek, what they lack, what deficiencies they should make up for, how well they do their duties—they aren’t clear about any of these things, and this means that their hearts are still unclear about the truth. If you want to understand the truth and be perfectly clear on all aspects, on all items of the truth, then when you encounter issues you must first ponder on the truth and the words of God that you have heard, and think: “Have I possessed the reality of this truth? Have I entered into this truth? Exactly which aspect or part of life does this truth refer to? Which environments does it refer to? What circumstances does it refer to?” When you have free time, you must ponder this, and you must have this in your heart and think about it. If you think about it but don’t understand, then you must pray-read within yourself, open your heart to God and come before Him. Most believers’ hearts are not concerned with the truth. What are your hearts concerned with? (I feel that we are concerned with doing things.) Yes, your hearts are concerned with external affairs, with things that happen among people—small household matters, rights and wrongs—and you revolve around these issues; you cannot seem to get into the truth at all. In fact, it is not that you cannot get into it, it’s that you are not concerned with the truth in your heart. You get tangled up and wrapped up in issues, and then you think: “So long as I do things in God’s family—do my duty, run around, work hard, make effort and suffer hardships—then I am practicing the truth.” Actually, you are wrong. You are not practicing the truth. When I say things like this, you seem to feel a little wronged. Why is this not practicing the truth? Because you don’t understand what the truth is. So even though you do those things, you are still doing them in a blind way. You are in a state of confusion, and you don’t do things in a particularly clear-cut, lucid way with clear objectives. In your heart, you don’t have any concept of which way to do things is right and which way to do things is wrong. Therefore, the majority of things people do are just done for the sake of doing them, with no idea whether or not the way they do things conforms to God’s will, conforms to the truth or conforms to the principles of the truth. You have no idea about these things at all, so can you confirm that you are practicing the truth? You certainly cannot. So I take it seriously, and ask, “Have you been practicing the truth?” “Yes.” “So what have you done?” “A couple of days ago I went and did something for God’s family.” This is just a general affair. It can also be considered as doing your duty, but that is just doing your duty through physical exertion, and its relationship with the truth is that you hold to the surface of the truth and you lack the specific details of how to do it. You don’t know this clearly in your heart: “This is practicing the truth. I’m not doing it relying on my own willpower or good intentions, and I’m not doing it for some other aim; I’m not doing it blindly but doing it correctly.” Most things people do are not done accurately and are not goal-oriented.

8. Why must people who believe in God pray, gather, and read God’s word to attain new life?

The Answer from God’s Word:

Prayer is one of the ways in which man cooperates with God, it is a means by which man calls upon God, and it is the process by which man is touched by God’s Spirit. It can be said that those who are without prayer are dead ones without spirit, proof that they lack the faculties to be touched by God. Without prayer, they are unable to attain a normal spiritual life, much less are they able to follow the work of the Holy Spirit; without prayer, they sever their relationship with God, and are incapable of receiving God’s approval. Being someone who believes in God, the more you pray, the more you are touched by God. Such people have greater resolution and are more able to receive the latest enlightenment from God; as a result, only people like this can be made perfect as soon as possible by the Holy Spirit.