Believing in God is the right path in life. God has chosen you all, and you have all chosen to follow Him and to embark on the right path in life. Ideally, you will manage to satisfy God’s will, do your duties properly, gain the truth, and be perfected by God. Is this not your dream and aspiration? (It is.) It is a good thing, a positive thing, for a believer to have such a dream, and God fulfills people’s positive dreams and aspirations. Do people sometimes have negative or incorrect dreams and aspirations? This is possible, as people’s states are unsettled before they gain the truth, even regressing at times. When those negative things appear, do they not affect your life entry and impact your normal relationship with God? If people live in those states, will their conditions not worsen and become negative and weak? What should they do at such times? (Come before God in prayer.) Well, are there not times when people do not wish to pray, when they want to keep living in a depraved state, letting Satan manipulate them as it pleases, while they indulge themselves and do whatever they wish, without thinking about what their outcome will be? Does such a state exist? (It does.) What problem is this a manifestation of? (They have turned away from God.) And what led them to turn away from God? Is this not a manifestation of their insufficient stature and their lack of the truth? It is indeed due to their inadequate understanding of the truth, and their insufficient stature. Every time such a situation occurs, when a person finds themselves in a state like that, they must pray to God, rely on Him, and seek the truth. If their stature is too small and they fall short of the truth, they should seek out and fellowship with someone who does understand the truth, and get provision and support from them. Sometimes, they will also need to be pruned by another person, or disciplined by God. If they lack the ability to stand on their own two feet, it is because they do not understand enough of the truth and they are lacking in stature. Inadequate stature makes people unable to resist all manner of negative, depraved states and thoughts. Is this not an exhausting way to live? In what states do those lacking in stature usually live? Do any of you have first-hand experience of this? What sort of states make you feel lonely, miserable, indecisive, and very exhausted and lost, like there is no path forward, leaving you feeling gloomy all day, in no mood to pray or pursue the truth? When you encounter a seemingly insurmountable problem, do you ever think about giving up? (Yes.) So what causes these states to arise? Are they intentionally thought up and planned out in people’s minds? Certainly not. So, ponder on this question—what do you think causes them? Tell Me, if a person understands the truth, then they will truly know their own corrupt disposition, they will be able to see clearly the truth of their own corruption, they will know what truths they need to be equipped with in order to live out human likeness, and they will know how to satisfy God in different situations, as well as the proper ways to handle certain matters and the principles that must be upheld while doing so—when a person who is possessed of such a stature is faced with difficulties, what will their state be like? Surely, they will still feel negative and weak to some extent, right? (Right.) So, where does this negativity and weakness come from, and how can it be resolved? Have you never pondered or sought out these issues before? (Rarely.) So, you have managed to muddle through your difficulties and times of weakness and negativity, without ever taking these matters seriously. In that case, you are very lucky to have made it this far, and it was only thanks to the grace of God, who led you through these difficulties. Now what was the question that I just posed? (What leads people to live in a negative and weak state?) Think about it for a minute; do you have an answer? Theoretically, it is because they do not understand the truth. In that case, what guides people’s lives before they understand the truth? (Their corrupt, satanic dispositions.) Yes, is that not your answer? Have you figured it out now? When people are faced with difficulties, they want to give up, they feel anxious, weak, miserable, constrained, and shackled, like there is no way forward, and then they become negative, they lack faith, and think that believing in God is meaningless. What causes this? (Their corrupt, satanic dispositions.) When people do not understand the truth, what sort of disposition do they live with? What nature do they live with? What guides their life? (Their corrupt, satanic dispositions.) What things can arise within a person as a result of a corrupt, satanic disposition? Arrogance, resistance against God and the betrayal of God, and opposition toward God. All these corrupt dispositions bring people nothing but misery, negativity, and weakness. Now, why is it that corrupt, satanic dispositions can bring people misery, negativity, and weakness, but cannot provide peace, joy, comfort, or happiness to a person’s mind? Why can these negative things make a person negative? Corrupt dispositions are negative things, and they are hostile toward the truth, so they cannot perform any positive functions, only negative ones. They cannot provide people with positivity, drive, or an upward-facing mindset, they only bring people weakness, negativity, and misery. When a satanic disposition has taken root in people and become their nature, this is enough to plant darkness and evil in their hearts, and to lead them to pursue and choose the wrong path. Under the driving force of a corrupt satanic disposition, what are people’s ideals, hopes, ambitions, and life goals and directions? Do they not run contrary to positive things? For example, people always want to have renown or be celebrities; they wish to gain great fame and prestige, and to bring honor to their ancestors. Are these positive things? These are not at all in line with positive things; moreover, they run counter to the law of God’s sovereignty over the fate of mankind. Why would I say that? What kind of person does God want? Does He want a person of greatness, a celebrity, a noble person, or a world-shaking person? (No.) So, then, what kind of person does God want? (Someone with their feet planted firmly on the ground who fulfills the role of a created being.) Yes, and what else? (God wants an honest person who fears Him and shuns evil, and submits to Him.) (Someone who stands with God in all matters, who strives to love God.) Those answers are also correct. It is anyone who is of the same heart and mind as God. Does it say anywhere in God’s words that people must keep to their position as humans? (It does.) What does it say? (“As one member of created humanity, a person must keep their own position, and behave conscientiously. Dutifully guard that which is entrusted to you by the Creator. Do not act out of line, or do things beyond your range of ability or which are loathsome to God. Do not try to be great, or become a superman, or above others, nor seek to become God. This is how people should not desire to be. Seeking to become great or a superman is absurd. Seeking to become God is even more disgraceful; it is disgusting, and despicable. What is commendable, and what created beings should hold to more than anything else, is to become a true created being; this is the only goal that all people should pursue” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique I).) Since you know what God’s words require of people, are you able to stick to God’s requirements in your pursuit of human conduct? Do you always want to spread your wings and take flight, do you always wish to fly solo, to be an eagle rather than a little bird? What disposition is this? Is this the principle of human conduct? Your pursuit of human conduct should be based on God’s words; only God’s words are the truth. You have been too deeply corrupted by Satan, and always take traditional culture—the words of Satan—as the truth, as the object of your pursuit, which makes it easy for you to take the wrong path, to walk the path of resisting God. The thoughts and views of corrupt mankind, and the things they strive for are contrary to the will of God, to the truth, and to the laws of God’s sovereignty over everything, His orchestration of everything, and His control over mankind’s fate. So no matter how proper and reasonable this kind of pursuit is according to human thoughts and notions, from God’s perspective they are not positive things, and they are not in line with His will. Because you go against the fact of God’s sovereignty over mankind’s fate, and because you wish to go solo, taking your fate into your own hands, you are always hitting walls, so hard that blood flows from your head, and nothing ever works out for you. Why does nothing work out for you? Because the laws that God established are inalterable by any created being. God’s authority and power are above all else, inviolable by any created being. People think far too much of their abilities. What is it that makes people always wish to be free of God’s sovereignty, and always wish to grab hold of their own fate and plan their own future, and wish to control their prospects, direction, and life goals? Where does this starting point come from? (A corrupt satanic disposition.) What then does a corrupt satanic disposition bring to people? (Opposition to God.) What comes of people opposing God? (Pain.) Pain? It is destruction! Pain isn’t the half of it. What you see right before your eyes is pain, negativity, and weakness, and it is resistance and complaints—what outcome will these things bring? Annihilation! This is no small matter, and it is no game. People who do not have a God-fearing heart can’t see this.

Some people become negative and weak as soon as they encounter a bit of trouble, but when there isn’t any, they are full of ambitions and desires, always hoping to become a celebrity or some kind of expert. When people live with such a mindset they are simply being dominated by their satanic nature. When people are always full of ambitions and desires, will they be able to live happy lives? If you don’t cast these things off, your suffering will not abate. Suffering will always follow you; it will feel like a knife twisting in your heart. How can this problem be resolved? (By seeking and pursuing the truth.) You are all more or less able to speak about the broad concept of seeking the truth, and you are all aware of it. When faced with a problem, you must first seek the truth. Man’s corrupt dispositions can only be resolved by seeking, understanding, and gaining the truth. Only after resolving their corrupt dispositions can people experience true joy, peace, comfort, and happiness, and only then can they truly come before God. This solves the problem right from the root. Now, how should one set about seeking the truth? What particulars are involved? Who can explain? (When you sense that you are thinking about or actively pursuing status and reputation, do not ignore these thoughts and behaviors. Try to understand them and dissect them according to God’s word. Recognize that this is the harm brought on man by satanic, corrupt dispositions. Recognize the incorrect path that you have been walking, and then eat and drink the word of God, pray to God, and rely on Him to break this shackle that Satan uses to bind man.) (The most important part is recognizing the fallacious views that you harbor about what you should pursue, understanding the harm that satanic, corrupt dispositions cause people, and reversing your views on things. Then you must come before God in prayer more, get closer to Him, and gradually build a normal relationship with Him.) Anything else? (If you sometimes feel weak and negative, and can’t identify the cause or the corrupt disposition that those feelings come from, you should first pray to God, and ask Him to enlighten you. You can also lay yourself bare before some brothers and sisters and fellowship with them. By hearing their fellowship about their experiences, you can clarify your understanding of this state, after which you should look for relevant passages in God’s word with which to resolve it.) Keep going. (If, when something does not go the way you wanted it to, you always split hairs, analyzing who was right and who was wrong, then at these times you should first quiet your heart before God and submit to the situation—pray to God and seek from God with faith in His sovereignty. God will then enlighten you and allow you to understand His will. Then, when you reexamine the situation, you will understand what sort of corruption you were revealing and what God’s will is. This is how I entered into the truth.) You all need to practice fellowshipping on the truth—share your knowledge, experience, and ideas, and learn how to lay yourselves bare in fellowship. If you do so, you will gain more and more, and understand more and more. Some of you just shared your personal experiences and knowledge, and each of you had something different to say. Great job, you all shared something very practical. After listening to your fellowship, I can see that you have all grown and had some life entry over the past few years of performing your duties. You have some knowledge and experience regarding matters of belief in God, not just simple declarations, and you have laid down a foundation. This is excellent. It seems that believing in God is not that difficult: So long as one is sincere, listens to God’s words, and does whatever God says, and so long as they are able to practice the truth, they will be able to fulfill God’s demands. In conclusion, there is one fact you should understand in your faith in God above all others: Belief in God does not merely mean believing in God’s name, much less is it having faith in the vague God of your imagination. Believing in God means you must believe that God is real; you should believe in God’s essence, in His disposition, and in what He has and is; you must believe in the fact that God holds sovereignty over the destiny of mankind, and that He holds sovereignty over your destiny. So what does it mean to believe? Does it not mean that people need to actually cooperate and put it into practice? For example, when some people encounter an unfavorable situation, they’ll start complaining and blaming other people. They never consider that they might have brought it upon themselves, and instead always push the responsibility onto someone else. Then, they feel content and at ease, and they think, “Problem solved. Believing in God this way is so pleasant and easy!” What do you think of this method of solving problems? Can one gain the truth by practicing in this way? Does it show an attitude of submission to God? With what perspective, and by what means, do such people believe in God? Have they applied the words “God holds sovereignty over the destiny of mankind, all events and all things are in His hands” to their everyday lives? When they analyze the problem using the mind of man, when they address the matter using human means, are they believing in God’s sovereignty? Are they submitting to God’s sovereignty over and arrangement of people, events, and things? Obviously not. Firstly, they do not submit; this is already a mistake. Secondly, they are unable to accept from God the situation, people, events, and things He arranges for them; they do not look beyond the surface. They look only at how the situation appears from the outside, then analyze it using their human mind and try to resolve it with human methods. Is this not another mistake? Is it a big mistake? (It is.) How is it so? They do not believe that God holds sovereignty over everything. They think everything happens randomly. In their eyes, not a single thing is ruled by God, and most things happen because of the actions of men. Is this believing in God? Do they have true faith? (No.) Why not? They do not believe that God holds sovereignty over everything. They do not believe that God holds sovereignty over all matters and all objects—that God holds sovereignty over every situation. If something does not go as they imagined, they are unable to accept it from God. They do not believe that God can orchestrate these situations. Because they cannot see God, they think these situations happen randomly as a result of the actions of men, rather than being orchestrated by God. They do not believe in God’s sovereignty. Then what is the essence of their belief? (They are nonbelievers.) That is right, they are nonbelievers! Nonbelievers do not accept anything from God. Instead, they rack their brains trying to deal with things using human perspectives, minds and methods. This is the behavior of nonbelievers. When you run into this kind of person in the future, you should develop some discernment regarding them. Nonbelievers are good at engaging their brains and coming up with ideas when issues arise; they constantly study the matter at hand, and try to resolve it using human methods. They always view people and things using human reasoning and satanic philosophies, or based on the law, not believing that God’s word is the truth or that God’s sovereignty encompasses everything. Everything that happens is allowed by God, but nonbelievers are not able to accept these things from God, and they always view things based on human notions and imaginings. Though nonbelievers usually say they believe that a person’s fate is in God’s hands, and that they are willing to submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangement, when things actually befall them, they are unable to accept those things from God and they develop notions about God. This is the behavior of nonbelievers. Are there any people like this in your life? Do you yourselves ever behave this way? (Yes.) You behave like nonbelievers, but are you actually nonbelievers? Do you believe that God is sovereign over everything? Do you acknowledge the fact that every person, event, thing, and situation is in God’s hands? How many things can you accept from God? How many matters have you resolved using human methods? And how often do you live according to a corrupt disposition? How often are you able to submit to God? Ponder on these questions, you surely know the answers to them in your hearts. Is it easy to accept things from God? (There will be an internal struggle.) It is true that there will be a struggle, but what is the result of that struggle? Is it success or failure? (Sometimes failure, sometimes success.) If it’s an even split, then there is still hope for you, but if you fail often and rarely succeed, it proves that you are not someone who loves the truth. Failure is normal—do not be afraid of failure, do not be discouraged, do not become negative or back down, and keep trying hard. Failure is not a bad thing; people can, at the very least, benefit from failure, which is a good thing!

The process of people gaining the truth is like a brave warrior stepping onto the battlefield, ready to fight against all manner of enemies at any moment. The enemies of those pursuing the truth are the various corrupt dispositions of Satan. These people are fighting with their corrupt flesh; in essence, they are battling with Satan. And what weapon is used to fight with Satan? Of course, it’s the truth, it’s following the word of God. To defeat Satan, what aspect of the truth must one first practice? It’s submitting to God, to His word, and to the truth. This is the lesson that one must enter into first when battling Satan. If you are unable to accept things that befall you from God, you won’t be able to submit before God, and therefore you won’t be able to quiet yourself before God to pray or to seek the truth. If you can’t pray to God or seek the truth, you will not understand the truth, or why God would place you in those situations, with those people, events, and things—you will be mired in confusion. If you cannot seek the truth, you cannot overcome your corrupt disposition. Only by defeating your corrupt disposition and your corrupt flesh may you humiliate Satan and devils of the spiritual realm. Battling Satan mostly depends on seeking the truth; if you do not understand the truth, then any problem or notion that arises in you can make you weak and negative. If your revelations of corrupt dispositions are never resolved, you are likely to fall down and fail, and it will be hard for you to stand up again. Some stumble when they encounter temptation, some become negative when faced with a painful illness, and some fall flat on their face when met with a trial. These are the consequences of never pursuing the truth, and of not seeking the truth to resolve the corrupt dispositions that one reveals. What do you think: Do satanic dispositions cause people a lot of trouble? (Yes.) How much trouble? (They hinder people from coming before God, and render them unable to submit to God.) If people cannot submit to God, what will they live by? (They will live by satanic, corrupt dispositions.) When people live by satanic, corrupt dispositions, they often reveal notions and become hot-headed. For instance, if you do something wrong and a brother or sister exposes you or prunes you, how should you submit to God and seek the truth? There’s a lesson to be learned here. Perhaps you start pondering on this, thinking: “That person usually looks down on me, and this time they’ve found something to use against me. They’re targeting me, so I’m not going to play nice. I’m not to be messed with!” Is this not hot-headedness? (It is.) What is hot-headedness? (It is when a person’s satanic disposition bursts forth when their interests are hurt or their fame, gain and status are harmed, and they say something or do something impulsively. That is my understanding of what hot-headedness means.) That understanding is basically correct. Who can add to that? (When something befalls a person, and they don’t seek the truth, and instead release those things that naturally exist within them, that is hot-headedness.) The word “naturally” she used is very apt. After people were corrupted by Satan, when their most natural, most primitive disposition that comes from their very root is exposed, it’s called hot-headedness. It’s the thing that doesn’t go through thought, mental processing, pondering, or packaging, but just comes out. That is hot-headedness. Hot-headedness is what pours forth from people who live within corrupt dispositions. So why is it the things that are naturally revealed from man’s nature are not in line with the truth? Why do people reveal hot-headedness? What’s the reason? It is caused by man’s satanic nature. Man’s innate disposition belongs to hot-headedness. When damage is done to a person’s interests, vainglory, or pride, if they do not understand the truth or have the truth reality, they will let their corrupt disposition dictate their treatment of that damage, and they will be impulsive and act rashly. What they manifest and reveal then is hot-headedness. Is hot-headedness a positive thing or a negative thing? It is obviously a negative thing. For a person to live in a hot-headed manner is no good thing; it is liable to bring about disaster. If someone’s hot-headedness and corruption are exposed when things befall them, is that a person who seeks the truth and submits to God? Obviously, it is certain that such a person is not submissive to God. As for the various people, events, things, and environments that God arranges for people, if someone cannot accept them from God, instead coping with them and resolving them in a human way, what will result from that in the end? (God will spurn that person.) God will loathe that person, so will that be edifying for people? (No, it won’t.) They will not only lose out in their own life but will also be of no edification to others. More than that, they will humiliate God and have Him spurn them. Such a person has lost their witness and is unwelcome wherever they go. If you are a member of God’s house, yet you are always hot-headed in your actions, always expose what is natural in you, and always reveal your corrupt disposition, doing things with human means and with a corrupt, satanic disposition, the final consequence will be your doing evil and your resisting God—and if you remain unrepentant all the while and cannot tread upon the path of pursuing truth, you will have to be revealed and cast out. Is the problem of living in reliance on a satanic disposition and not seeking the truth to resolve it not a grave one? One aspect of the problem is that one does not grow or change in their own life; beyond that, one will adversely influence others. They will not serve any good purpose in the church, and in time, they will bring great trouble to the church and to God’s chosen people, like a stinking fly that flies back and forth above a dining table, courting disgust and loathing. Do you want to be this kind of person? (No.) Well then, how should you act in order to please God, and edify others? Regardless of what corrupt disposition you have revealed, you must first calm yourself down, hurry before God in prayer, and seek the truth to resolve it. You absolutely must not continue to reveal corruption by following your own will and hot-headedness. In every second of every minute of every day of your life, whatever you do and whatever you’re thinking, God is scrutinizing and watching you. What is God observing? (What a person thinks and how they respond when they encounter the people, events, or things that God has arranged for them.) That’s right, and what is God’s objective in observing these things? (To see if this person is someone who fears God and shuns evil.) That is part of the reason. What is the main reason? Ponder on this carefully. (To see if they have a heart for seeking the truth and submitting to God.) Whether it’s fearing God and shunning evil, or seeking the truth and having a heart that submits to God, these things all touch on the question of what path one has chosen to walk. Why is God constantly scrutinizing people? It’s to see what sort of path you are walking, what your life goals and direction are, whether you’ve chosen the path of pursuing the truth or the path of the hypocritical Pharisees. It’s to see which of these paths you are on exactly. If you’ve chosen the right path, God will guide you, enlighten you, supply you and support you. If you’ve chosen the wrong road, it shows that you’ve completely turned your back on God, so He will naturally abandon you.

There are people who always preach the words and doctrines and violate the truth principles in everything they do, even doing things that hurt the interests of the house of God, but why are they not disciplined or reproached? Some people cannot understand this issue. Let Me tell you, God has already given up on people like this. No matter how many years a person has been a believer, if God decides to abandon this person, then that is a gravely serious matter! What is God’s will and desire, regarding the sort of path He hopes people will walk? When God puts people in certain situations, does He hope they will submit or rebel? Does He hope that they will seek and gain the truth, or ignore it and come to a standstill? What is God’s attitude toward this? What does He expect of people? He hopes that they will be able to submit and actively cooperate with His work, without becoming negative, slacking off, or ignoring it. Some people are lukewarm in their duties: When they are assigned a task, they will do it as they see fit, but they will not seek the truth or God’s will. They feel that there is nothing wrong with this approach—since they are not violating any administrative decrees, offending God’s disposition, or disrupting or disturbing the church’s work, and they are still doing their duty, they feel that they will not be condemned. What do you think of this sort of attitude? (It’s not good. It’s a negative, passive, lukewarm attitude, which God detests.) What is a lukewarm attitude? Why does God detest it? What is the essence of this kind of attitude? (I can share a little bit of my experience of this. In my duty recently, I was following my own will and violating the principles. After being pruned, I didn’t self-reflect, and I misunderstood God and guarded against Him. My heart was closed off to God, I didn’t want to get close to Him, and I didn’t pray to Him. My attitude was lukewarm, and it made me negative, passive, and miserable during that time. Because once my heart was closed to God, it was as if the most important pillar of my life had crumbled and I was left feeling miserable. From the outside, I appeared to be doing my duty without engaging in any clearly rebellious behavior, but I received no enlightenment from the Holy Spirit and I did not have a mindset of actively cooperating with God. Maintaining this lukewarm, negative, and unmotivated attitude was the same as slowly killing myself. People who turn away from God are like a tree whose roots have died. With its life-supply cut off, the branches and leaves gradually wither away until the entire tree is dead.) That was very well explained. Perhaps the majority of people are in this state: They do whatever is asked of them, without causing trouble, or doing evil, or disturbing things—they are just lukewarm. Why does God detest this kind of attitude? What is the essence shown by such an attitude? It’s negative, defiant, and a rejection of the truth. Would you say it’s God who renounces people first, or people who first renounce God? (People do it first.) If you renounce God first, your heart becomes closed off to God, which is a serious problem. “Closed off” is one way of putting it. What’s really happening is people sealing off their hearts, locking God out, which means: “I don’t want You anymore. I am severing all ties with You, and putting a stop to all contact between us.” When a created being has this kind of attitude toward their Creator, how does God handle this? What is His attitude? When He sees people in such a state, does He feel joy, detestation, or sadness? First, He feels sadness. When He sees people become too numb and utterly unwilling to accept the truth, God feels disappointed, and then He detests them. When a person’s heart is sealed off from God, how will He approach this? (God will orchestrate some situations that allow them to understand His will and open their heart to Him.) Yes, this is one of God’s active approaches, He sometimes does things like that, but sometimes He does not. Sometimes, He will hide His face and bide His time, waiting for you to open your heart to Him. When you have admitted Him into your heart and are able to accept the truth, He will continue to have mercy on you and enlighten you. However, in general, if you have this sort of attitude, with your heart fully sealed off from God, rejecting a normal relationship with Him, rejecting all contact with Him, then you are rejecting God’s sovereignty over you and His guidance. This is the same as rejecting Him as your God, and not wanting Him to be your Lord. If you reject Him as your God and Lord, can He still work on you? (No.) Then all He can do is desert you. Only after you understand what has happened, and realize the error of your ways, and know to repent can God’s work on you begin again. So, when faced with a lukewarm attitude like this, God will certainly not work, He will set people like this aside. Do you have any experience of this? Is such a condition peaceful and joyous, or unbearable and miserable? (Unbearable and miserable.) How miserable? (It’s like being a walking corpse. It’s a thoughtless, soulless existence like that of a beast.) If God is not in someone’s heart, then their heart is empty; it is the same as them having no spirit. Doesn’t this mean that they have become a spiritless dead person? How terrifying! A person can betray God anywhere and at any time. With a little bit of carelessness, they can deny God in their heart, after which their condition immediately changes: The state of their spirit immediately declines, they no longer feel God’s presence, and their dependence on God and relationship with Him disappear entirely, just like a heart that has stopped beating. This is a dangerous situation. What can be done with such a state? You need to have the right attitude and promptly pray to God and repent. If a person always lives in a negative, defiant state, a state in which they have been completely deserted by God and cannot reach Him, that is dangerous! Have you realized what undesirable consequences this danger can lead to? It’s not only a matter of the losses one may experience—what other consequences might there be? (They might be possessed by evil spirits.) That is one. There are many other possibilities. (They might commit a grave evil and be revealed and cast out by God.) This is also possible. Anything else? (They may become more and more distant in their relationship with God.) Now, if this condition persists, do you think this person will eventually consider not believing in God anymore? (They will.) Isn’t that terrifying? (It is.) If a person has this evil desire to abandon their belief, that is the most terrifying thing, because they have already betrayed God in their heart, and God will not save a person like this.

As a believer, one must maintain a normal relationship with God; this is very important. When a person’s relationship with God is normal, they will be in a good state; when their state is bad, their relationship with God will not be normal. A person’s heart will be in two completely different situations depending on whether they are in a good state or a bad state. When a person is in a good state, they will feel a certain strength in their heart, a strength that drives them to never marry, to follow God to the end no matter how much they suffer, and to remain loyal to God until the end, until death. How does this kind of resolve come about? (It comes from a sort of zeal that people possess.) Does God find this zeal acceptable? Is this sort of resolve a positive or negative thing? (Positive.) Does God find positive things acceptable? (Yes.) God scrutinizes people’s hearts. He scrutinizes what people think deep in their hearts and what their state is like there. So, when you express this kind of desire and resolve in your heart, God scrutinizes this too. Where does this resolve come from? Does it come from a person’s naturalness and hot-headedness? (No, it’s instilled in people by the work of the Holy Spirit.) That’s right. When people live in the correct state, the Holy Spirit gives them this kind of power, which allows them to have that resolve. This is a positive thing, and it is given to people by the Holy Spirit because of their cooperation and sacrifice. Do people ever happen to have this kind of faith on their own? Of course not, right? When people have just a bit of resolve to cooperate, the Holy Spirit gives them such powerful motivation! From this, what do you now see? (People must stay with God. Without God, there is only death.) “People must stay with God,” that is true. This is knowledge gained from experience. If you open your heart to God, if you have that small bit of resolve, and are able to lay your heart bare in prayer to God, He will give you this power. This power will last your entire life and allow you to have such deep resolve, and to say, “I offer my entire life to God, I will spend it all expending myself for Him and living for Him!” It’s a fact; this is how people think, and what they want to do. However, if someone follows God and does their duty relying on their own mind, their own thoughts, and their own caliber and gifts, then how much strength will they have? If you don’t have the will to pursue the truth, then no amount of hard work will cut it. This inner strength cannot be achieved by man; it is given by God. How do people lose this strength? What causes this? When God is no longer in their hearts, this power disappears. When people have this strength, it is the work of the Holy Spirit, it is power given to people by God—it is all God’s doing. If your heart is sealed off from God, if you say “no” to God, and you reject His sovereignty over and orchestration of your life, as well as all the environments, people, events, and things that He has arranged around you, then you will not even have the heart to pursue the truth. When people lose God, it is indeed this terrible; this is a fact. Those who have lost God are nothing. If a person seals off their heart from God, they may even have second thoughts about believing in God, which they can reveal at any time and in any place. The most terrible part of this is that these thoughts of theirs will become stronger and stronger, to the extent that they may even regret all that they renounced and expended, and regret the resolve that they once possessed and the suffering that they endured. Their condition will be entirely different to how it was, as if they were a different person altogether. How does this happen? If a person can submit to the people, events, things, and environments that God has set out for them, they can live a peaceful and happy life. If they always try to escape the people, events, and things that God has set out, and are unwilling to submit to the environments they find themselves in, over which God has sovereignty, what condition will result from this? (Misery and darkness.) They will experience darkness, misery, agitation, constant anxiety, and sadness. Is this not a stark difference? (It is.) When people live in a good state, it’s like living in heaven, right before God. When they are in a bad state, their state grows ever darker, and God remains out of their reach. Living in a dark state is no different than living in hell. Have you ever felt the suffering of hell? Is it pleasant or unbearable? (Unbearable.) How would you describe it, in one sentence? (It’s worse than death.) Right, it’s worse than death. Dying would be much more pleasant than living, it is so torturous. You put it very well; that is the way that it is.

All of the difficulties that people face, and all of their negativity and weakness, directly relate to their corrupt dispositions. If their corrupt dispositions can be resolved, it can be said that all of the difficulties in their faith will be more or less resolved: There will be nothing holding them back from seeking the truth, they will encounter no difficulties in practicing the truth, and nothing will prevent them from submitting to God. So, resolving one’s corrupt dispositions is crucial. God asking people to pursue the truth and to be honest is related to resolving corrupt dispositions and to achieving dispositional change. The goal of seeking the truth is to resolve the problem of a corrupt disposition, and pursuing the truth is done to achieve dispositional change. So how does one seek the truth? How can one gain the truth? What did I say a while ago? (Have faith that God is sovereign over everything, and submit to the environments that He has laid out.) Yes, have faith, submit, try to learn lessons, seek the truth, and hold to your duty in the environments that God has created. If you can learn lessons from the environments that God has created, will it not be easy for you to submit? (It will.) When you seek the truth and learn your lessons, isn’t it true that you will avoid revealing a corrupt disposition and prevent yourself from exposing your hot-headedness? During this process, will you not avoid using human methods and human thinking to deal with the people, events, and things that God has set out for you? This way, will you not be in a normal state? And when you are in a normal state, will you not be able to live constantly before God? Then you’ll be safe. If you can come before God often, constantly live before Him, seek His will frequently in the environments that He has laid out for you, and submit to all the people, events, and things that He has arranged, then will you not always be living under the eyes of God, and under His care? (Yes.) When your fate is under God’s sovereignty, and being watched over and managed by Him, when you enjoy God’s protection every day, will you not be the happiest person? (That’s right.) That’s the end of our fellowship on this topic. Going forward, you can all fellowship on it together, and summarize and share your understanding of it. Figure out how to live a happy life and how to earn God’s acceptance, like Job did, so that God will hold you in His heart and say that you are a person that He loves; find out how to step onto the right path in life, like Job did, which is that of fearing God and shunning evil.

January 25, 2017