Relevant Words of God:

Transformation in disposition mainly refers to the transformation of a person’s nature. The things of a person’s nature cannot be perceived from external behaviors. They are directly related to the worth and significance of their existence, to their outlook on life and their values, they involve the things in the depths of their soul, and their essence. If a person cannot accept the truth, they will undergo no transformation in these aspects. Only by experiencing God’s work, fully entering the truth, changing one’s values and one’s outlooks on existence and life, aligning one’s views on things with God’s word, and becoming capable of completely submitting to and being loyal to God, can one’s disposition be said to have transformed. Presently, you may appear to put forth some effort and be resilient in the face of hardship while performing your duty, you may be able to carry out work arrangements from the Above, or you may be able to go wherever you are told to go. On the surface, it may look like you are somewhat obedient, but when something happens that is not in line with your notions, your rebelliousness comes to the fore. For example, you do not submit to being pruned, and you are even less submissive when a natural or man-made disaster strikes; you even find it within yourself to complain about God. Therefore, that little bit of submission and change on the outside is just a small change in behavior. There is a little bit of change, but this is not enough to count as the transformation of your disposition. You may be able to run down many paths, suffer many hardships, and endure great humiliation; you may feel very close to God, and the Holy Spirit may do some work on you. However, when God asks you to do something that does not conform to your notions, you still might not submit, rather, you might look for excuses, rebel against and resist God, and on dire occasions even question and fight back against Him. This would be a serious problem! It would show that you still have a nature that resists God, that you do not truly understand the truth, and that you have had no change in your life disposition at all.

—The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. What Should Be Known About Transforming One’s Disposition

If a person has many good behaviors, it does not mean they possess the truth realities. Only by practicing the truth and acting according to principles can you possess the truth realities. Only by fearing God and shunning evil can you possess the truth realities. Some people have enthusiasm, can speak doctrine, follow the regulations, and do many good things, but all that can be said about them is that they possess a little humanity. Those who can speak doctrine and always follow regulations cannot necessarily practice the truth. Although what they say is correct and sounds like it is free of problems, they have nothing to say in matters concerning the essence of the truth. Therefore, no matter how much doctrine someone can speak, it doesn’t mean they understand the truth, and no matter how much doctrine they understand, they can’t solve any problems. Religious theorists can all explain the Bible, but in the end, they all fall, because they do not accept the whole truth that God has expressed. People who have experienced a change in their dispositions are different; they have understood the truth, they are discerning on all issues, they know how to act in accordance with God’s intentions, how to act in accordance with the truth principle, and how to act to satisfy God, and they understand the nature of the corruption they reveal. When their own ideas and notions are revealed, they are able to be discerning and rebel against the flesh. This is how a change in disposition is manifested. The main manifestation of people who have undergone a change in disposition is that they have come to clearly understand the truth, and when carrying things out, they put the truth into practice with relative accuracy and they do not reveal corruption as often. Generally, those whose dispositions have transformed appear to be particularly reasonable and discerning, and due to their understanding of the truth, they do not reveal as much self-righteousness or arrogance. They can see through and discern much of the corruption that has been revealed in them, so they do not give rise to arrogance. They are able to have a measured grasp on what place they should take and what things they should do that are reasonable, on how to be dutiful, on what to say and what not to say, and on what to say and what to do to which people. Thus, people whose dispositions have changed are relatively reasonable, and only such people truly live out a human likeness. Because they understand the truth, they are able to speak and see things in accordance with the truth, and they are principled in everything they do; they are not subject to the influence of any person, event, or thing, and they all have their own views and can uphold the truth principles. Their dispositions are relatively stable, they do not blow hot and cold, and no matter what their circumstances, they understand how to do their duties properly and how to behave to God’s satisfaction. Those whose dispositions have changed are not focused on what to do externally to make others think well of them; they have gained internal clarity on what to do to satisfy God. Therefore, from the outside, they may not seem to be so enthusiastic or to have done anything important, but everything they do is meaningful, is valuable, and yields practical results. Those whose dispositions have changed are certain to possess a lot of truth realities, and this can be confirmed by their perspectives on things and their principles of action. Those who have not obtained the truth have absolutely not achieved any change in life disposition. How exactly is a change in disposition achieved? Human beings have been deeply corrupted by Satan, they all resist God, and they all have the nature of resisting God. God saves people by turning those who have the nature of resisting God and who can resist God into those who can submit to and fear God. This is what it means to be someone whose disposition has changed. No matter how corrupt a person is or how many corrupt dispositions they have, as long as they can accept the truth, accept God’s judgment and chastisement, and accept various trials and refinements, they will have a true understanding of God, and at the same time they will be able to clearly see their own nature essence. When they truly know themselves, they will be able to hate themselves and Satan, and they will be willing to rebel against Satan, and completely submit to God. Once a person has this resolve, they can pursue the truth. If people have true knowledge of God, if their satanic disposition is purified, and God’s words take root within them, and have become their life and the basis of their existence, if they live by God’s words, and have completely changed and become new people—then this counts as change in their life disposition. A change in disposition does not mean having a mature and seasoned humanity, nor does it mean that people’s outer dispositions are meeker than before, that they used to be arrogant but now can communicate reasonably, or that they used to listen to no one but now can listen to others a bit; such external changes cannot be said to be transformations in disposition. Of course, transformations in disposition do include such manifestations, but the most crucial ingredient is that internally, their life has changed. This is entirely because God’s words and the truth have taken root inside them, rule within them, and have become their life. Their views on things have also changed. They can see straight through what is going on in the world and with mankind, how Satan corrupts humankind, how the great red dragon resists God, and the essence of the great red dragon. They can hate the great red dragon, Satan, in their hearts, and they can completely turn to and follow God. This means their life disposition has changed, and they have been gained by God. Changes in life disposition are fundamental changes, while changes in behavior are superficial. Only those who have achieved changes in life disposition are those who have obtained the truth, and only they have been gained by God.

—The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Part Three

In religion, many people suffer a great deal throughout their lives: They subdue their bodies and bear their cross, and they even continue to suffer and endure when on the very verge of death! Some are still fasting on the morning of their death. All their lives they deny themselves nice food and clothing, focusing only on suffering. They are able to subdue their body and rebel against their flesh. Their spirit for enduring suffering is commendable. But their thinking, their notions, their mental attitude, and indeed their old nature, have not been pruned in the slightest. They lack any true knowledge of themselves. Their mental image of God is that traditional one of a vague God. Their resolve to suffer for God comes from their zeal and the good personality of their humanity. Even though they believe in God, they neither understand Him nor know His intentions. They merely work and suffer blindly for God. They place no value whatsoever on discernment, care little about how to ensure that their service actually fulfills God’s intentions, and much less are they aware of how to achieve the knowledge of God. The God they serve is not God in His inherent image, but a God they have imagined, a God of whom they have only heard, or of whom they have only read legends in writing. They then use their fertile imaginations and piousness to suffer for God and undertake God’s work that God wants to do. Their service is too inexact, such that practically none of them are truly able to serve in accordance with God’s intentions. Regardless of how gladly they suffer, their original perspective on service and their mental image of God remain unchanged, because they have not undergone God’s judgment, chastisement, refinement and perfection, and nor has anyone guided them using the truth. Even if they believe in Jesus the Savior, none of them has ever seen the Savior. They only know of Him through legend and hearsay. As a result, their service amounts to no more than serving randomly with eyes closed, like a blind man serving his own father. What, ultimately, can be achieved by such service? And who would approve of it? From beginning to end, their service remains the same throughout; they receive only man-made lessons and base their service only on their naturalness and their own preferences. What reward could this bring? Not even Peter, who saw Jesus, knew how to serve in accordance with God’s intentions; he only came to know this in the end, in his old age. What does this say about those blind people who have not experienced the slightest bit of being pruned, and who have had no one guiding them? Is not the service of many among you today like that of these blind people? All those who have not received judgment, not received pruning, and who have not changed—are they not all incompletely conquered? Of what use are such people? If your thinking, your knowledge of life, and your knowledge of God show no new change and you do not truly gain anything, then you will never achieve anything remarkable in your service! Without a vision and a new knowledge of God’s work, you are not conquered. Your way of following God will then be like those who suffer and fast: of little value! It is precisely because there is little testimony in what they do that I say their service is futile! Throughout their lives, those people suffer and spend time in prison; they are ever forbearing, loving, and they ever bear the cross, they are ridiculed and rejected by the world, they experience every hardship, and although they are obedient to the very end, they are still not conquered, and can offer no testimony to being conquered. They have suffered a great deal, but inside they do not know God at all. None of their old thinking, old notions, religious practices, man-made knowledge, and human ideas have been pruned. There is not the slightest hint of new knowledge in them. Not one bit of their knowledge of God is true or accurate. They have misunderstood God’s intentions. Does this serve God? Whatever your knowledge of God in the past, if it stays the same today and you continue to base your knowledge of God on your own notions and ideas no matter what God does, which is to say that if you possess no new, true knowledge of God and if you fail to know God’s true image and disposition, if your knowledge of God is still guided by feudal, superstitious thinking and is still born of human imagination and notions, then you have not been conquered. All the many words I now speak to you are meant to let you know, to have this knowledge lead you to a newer, accurate knowledge; they are also meant to prune away the old notions and the old knowledge in you, so that you may possess new knowledge. If you truly eat and drink My words, then your knowledge will change considerably. As long as you eat and drink God’s words with a heart of submission, then your perspective will be reversed. As long as you are able to accept the repeated chastisements, your old mentality will gradually change. As long as your old mentality is thoroughly replaced with the new, your practice will also change accordingly. In this way, your service will become increasingly on-target, increasingly able to meet God’s intentions. If you can change your life, your knowledge of human life, and your many notions about God, then your naturalness will gradually diminish. This, and nothing short of this, is the effect when God conquers people, it is the change that occurs in people. If, in your faith in God, all you know about is subduing your body and enduring and suffering, and you do not know whether that is right or wrong, much less for whose sake it is done, then how can such practice lead to change?

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Real Story of the Work of Conquest (3)

There are some who often pay lip service to their indebtedness to God; they spend their days with brows locked in worry, putting on an affected air and pretending to be pitiable. How disgusting! If you were to ask them, “Can you tell me about how you are indebted to God?” then they would be rendered speechless. If you are loyal to God, then do not talk outwardly about it; instead, demonstrate your love for God by way of actual practice, and pray to Him with a true heart. Those who just deal with God verbally and perfunctorily are all hypocrites! Some speak of indebtedness to God each time they pray, and begin to weep each time they pray, even without being moved by the Holy Spirit. People such as this are possessed by religious rituals and notions; they live by such rituals and notions, always believing that those actions please God and that He favors superficial godliness or sorrowful tears. What good can come of such absurd people? In order to demonstrate humility, some feign graciousness when speaking in the presence of others. Some are deliberately servile when in the presence of other people, acting like lambs without an ounce of strength. Is this a manner befitting people of the kingdom? People of the kingdom should be lively and free, innocent and open, honest and lovable, and be living in a state of freedom. They should have integrity and dignity and be able to stand firm in their witness wherever they go; such people are beloved by both God and man. Those who are novices in the faith have too many outward practices; they must first undergo a period of being pruned and broken. People who have faith in God deep down are not outwardly distinguishable from others, but their actions and deeds are commendable. Only such people can be deemed to be living out the word of God. If you preach the gospel every day to various people in an effort to bring them to salvation, yet in the end are still living by regulations and doctrines, then you cannot bring glory to God. Such people are religious figures, as well as hypocrites. Whenever those religious people congregate, they might ask, “Sister, how have you been these days?” She might reply, “I feel I owe a debt to God, and that I am unable to satisfy His intentions.” Another might say, “I, too, feel indebted to God and that I am unable to satisfy Him.” These few sentences and words alone express the vile things deep within them; such words are most loathsome, and exceedingly repugnant. The nature of such people is in opposition to God. Those who focus on reality fellowship whatever is on their mind, and do so with open hearts. They do not engage in a single false exercise, displaying neither such civilities nor empty pleasantries. They are always straightforward, and observe no secular rules. Some people have a penchant for outward displays, even to the point of utterly lacking reason. When someone sings, they begin to dance, not even realizing that the rice in their pots has already burned. Such people are not godly or honorable, and they are far too frivolous. All of these things are manifestations of a lack of reality. When some people fellowship about matters of spiritual life, though they speak not of owing anything to God, they do retain a true love for Him deep down. Your feeling of indebtedness to God has nothing to do with other people; you are indebted to God, not humanity. What use is it for you to constantly speak of this to others? You must place importance on entering into reality, not on any outward zeal or display. What does the superficial good behavior of humans represent? It represents the flesh; even the best of outward practices do not represent life, and they can only show your own individual temperament. The outward practices of humanity cannot satisfy the intentions of God. You constantly speak of your indebtedness to God, yet you cannot supply the life of others or stimulate their God-loving hearts. Do you believe that those actions of yours will satisfy God? You feel that it is God’s intention for you to act in this way, and that your actions are spiritual, but in truth, they are all absurd! You believe that what pleases you and what you are willing to do are precisely those things in which God delights. Can your likes represent God? Can a person’s personality represent God? What pleases you is precisely that which God abhors, and your habits are those which God spurns. If you feel indebted, then go and pray before God; there is no need to speak of it to others. If you do not pray before God, and instead constantly draw attention to yourself in the presence of others, can this satisfy God’s intentions? If your actions always exist in appearance alone, then this means that you are vain in the extreme. What manner of humans are those who only have superficial good behavior and are devoid of reality? Such people are just hypocritical Pharisees and religious figures! If you do not shed your outward practices and are unable to make changes, then the elements of hypocrisy in you will grow even more. The greater your elements of hypocrisy, the more resistance there is toward God. In the end, such people will surely be eliminated!

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. In Faith, One Must Focus on Reality—Engaging in Religious Ritual Is Not Faith

Sermon and Fellowship Excerpts for Reference:

In the religious world, there are many devout people saying, “We have changed due to our faith in the Lord Jesus. We are able to expend for the Lord, do work for the Lord, endure prison for the Lord and do not deny His name. We are able to do many virtuous things, give to charity, donate and help the poor. These are big changes! So we are qualified to be brought into the kingdom of heaven.” What do you think about these words? Do you have any discernment when it comes to these words? What does it mean to be cleansed? Do you think that if your behavior has changed and you do good deeds then you have been cleansed? Someone says, “I have cast aside everything. I have cast aside my job, my family and the desires of the flesh in order to expend for God. Is this the equivalent of getting cleansed?” Even if you have done all this, this is not solid evidence that you have been cleansed. So, what is the key point? In which aspect can you obtain cleansing that can be considered real cleansing? The cleansing of the satanic disposition that resists God means a true cleansing. What are the manifestations of satanic disposition that resists God? The most obvious manifestations are a person’s arrogance, conceit, self-righteousness and self-pride, as well as his crookedness, treachery, telling lies, deception and hypocrisy. When these satanic dispositions are no longer part of someone, then they have been truly cleansed. It has been said that there are 12 key manifestations in man’s satanic disposition, such as considering oneself to be the most honorable; letting those who comply with me thrive and those who resist me perish; thinking only God is superior to you, submitting to no one else, having no regard for others; creating an independent kingdom once you have power; wanting to be the sole wielder of power and the master of all things and to decide things all by yourself. All of these manifestations are satanic dispositions. These satanic dispositions must be cleansed before someone experiences a change in his life disposition. A change in one’s life disposition is a rebirth because his essence has changed. Before, when he was given power, he was able to create his own independent kingdom. Now, when he is given power, he serves God, bears witness for God and becomes a servant for the chosen people of God. Isn’t this a genuine change? Before, he showed off himself in all situations and wanted other people to think highly of him and worship him. Now, he bears witness for God everywhere and does not show off himself. No matter how people treat him, he feels it is fine. No matter how people comment about him, he feels it is fine. He does not care. He only focuses on exalting God, bearing witness for God, helps others gain an understanding of God, and helps others obey in the presence of God. Isn’t this a change in life disposition? “I will treat the brothers and sisters with love. I will be compassionate of others in all situations. I will not think about myself, and I will provide benefit for others. I will help others advance their lives and fulfill my own responsibilities. I will help others understand the truth and obtain the truth.” This is what it means to love others as yourself! When it comes to Satan, you can discern it, have principles, draw a demarcation line with it and thoroughly reveal the evils of Satan so that God’s chosen people will be spared from its harm. This is protecting God’s chosen people, and this is even more loving others as yourself. Additionally, you should love what God loves and hate what God hates. What God hates are antichrists, evil spirits and wicked people. That means we also have to hate antichrists, evil spirits and wicked people. We must stand on God’s side. We cannot compromise with them. God loves those who He wants to save and bless. For these people, we must be responsible, treat them with love, help, lead, provide and support them. Isn’t this a change in one’s life disposition? Additionally, when you have committed some transgressions or mistakes, or neglected the principles in doing something, you can accept the brothers and sisters’ criticism, reproach, dealing and pruning; you can treat all of these things correctly and receive them from God, harbor no hatred, and seek the truth to resolve your own corruption. Isn’t this a change in your life disposition? Yes, it is. …

Can the change in one’s behavior that is talked about in the religious world represent a change in life disposition? Everyone says it cannot. Why? The main reason is because he still resists God. It is just like the Pharisees who were very devout externally. They often prayed, they explained the scripture and they followed the regulations of the law very well. It could be said that externally, they were beyond reproach. People were unable to pick out any faults. However, why were they still able to resist and condemn Christ? What does this indicate? No matter how good people appear to be, if they do not have the truth and thus do not know God, they will still resist God. Externally, they were so good, but why does this not count as a change in life disposition? It is because their corrupt disposition did not change in the slightest, and they were still arrogant, conceited and especially self-righteous. They believed in their own knowledge, theories and they believed they had the best understanding of the scriptures. They believed that they understood everything and that they were better than other people. This is why they resisted and condemned the Lord Jesus when He was preaching and doing His work. That is why when the religious world hears that Christ of the last days has expressed all of the truth, they condemn Him even though they know it is the truth.

—Sermons and Fellowship on Life Entry