To know God’s work in these times is, for the most part, to know what the principal ministry of the incarnate God of the last days is, and what He has come to do on earth. I have previously mentioned in My words that God has come to earth (during the last days) to set an exemplar before departing. How does God set this exemplar? He does so by speaking words, and by working and speaking throughout the land. This is God’s work during the last days; He only speaks, so that the earth becomes a world of words, and so that every person is provided for and enlightened by His words, and thus sees the light within their spirit and gains clarity about the visions. In the last days, God has become flesh and come to earth chiefly in order to speak words. When Jesus came, He preached the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, and He accomplished the work of redemption of the crucifixion. He brought an end to the Age of Law and abolished all that was old. The arrival of Jesus ended the Age of Law and ushered in the Age of Grace; the arrival of God incarnate of the last days has brought an end to the Age of Grace. He has come chiefly to speak His words—using words to make man perfect, to illuminate and enlighten man—and thus removes the place of the vague God within man’s heart. When Jesus came, He did not perform this stage of work. When He came, He performed many miracles, He healed the sick and cast out demons, and He did the work of redemption of the crucifixion. As a consequence, in people’s notions, they believe that this is how God should be. For when Jesus came, He did not do the work of removing the image of the vague God from man’s heart; when He came, He was crucified, He healed the sick and cast out demons, and He preached the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. In one regard, the incarnation of God during the last days removes the place held by the vague God in the notions of man, so that there is no longer the image of the vague God in man’s heart. Through His practical words and work, His visits to different places, and the exceptionally practical and normal work that He does among man, He causes man to know the practicality of God, and removes the place of the vague God in man’s heart. In another regard, God uses the words spoken by His flesh to make man complete, and to accomplish all things. This is the work that God will accomplish during the last days.

What you must know:

1. The work of God is not supernatural, and you should not harbor notions about it.

2. You must understand the principal work that God incarnate has come to do this time.

He has not come to heal the sick, or to cast out demons, or to perform miracles, and He has not come to preach the gospel of repentance, or to grant man redemption. That is because Jesus has already done this work, and God does not repeat the same work. Today, God has come to bring an end to the Age of Grace and abolish all the practices of the Age of Grace. The practical God has come chiefly to reveal His practicality. When Jesus came, He did not speak too much; He primarily displayed miracles, performed signs and wonders, and healed the sick and cast out demons, or else He spoke prophecies, all in order to make people believe in Him with total conviction and see that He really was God and had no fleshly feelings. Ultimately, He completed the work of the crucifixion. The God of today does not display signs and wonders, nor does He heal the sick and cast out demons. When Jesus came, the work He did represented one part of God, but this time God has come to do the stage of work that is due. God does not repeat the same work, He is the God that is always new and never old, and so all that you see today is the words and work of the practical God.

In the last days, God has become flesh chiefly in order to speak His words, to explain all that is necessary to the life of man, to point out that which man should enter into, to show man the deeds of God, and to show man the wisdom, almightiness, and wondrousness of God. Through the many ways in which God speaks, man beholds the supremacy of God, the greatness of God, and, even more so, the humility and hiddenness of God. Man sees that God is supreme, but that He is humble and hidden, and can become the least of all. Some of His words are spoken directly from the perspective of the Spirit, some directly from the perspective of man, and some from a third person perspective. In this, it can be seen that the manner of God’s work varies greatly, and it is through words that He allows man to see it. God’s work during the last days is both normal and practical, and thus the group of people in the last days is subjected to the greatest of all trials. Because of the normality and practicality of God, all people have entered amid trials; that man has descended into the trials of God is because of the normality and practicality of God. During the age of Jesus, there were no notions or trials. Because most of the work done by Jesus accorded with man’s notions, people followed Him, and they had no notions about Him. The trials of today are the greatest ever faced by man, and when it is said that these people come out of the great tribulation, this is the tribulation that is referred to. Today, God speaks to build up faith, love, acceptance of suffering, and submission in these people. The words spoken by God incarnate of the last days are spoken in accordance with the nature essence of man, the behavior and manifestations of man, and that which man should enter into at present. His words are both practical and normal: He does not speak of tomorrow, nor does He look back on yesterday; He speaks only of that which should be entered into, put into practice, and understood today. If, during the present day, there is to emerge a person who is able to display signs and wonders, cast out demons, heal the sick, and perform many miracles, and if this person claims that they are Jesus who has come, then this would be an impersonation by an evil spirit, it would be the act of an evil spirit imitating Jesus. Remember this! God does not repeat the same work. Jesus’ stage of work has already been completed, and God will never again undertake that stage of work. The work of God does not conform to the notions of man; for example, the Old Testament foretold the coming of a Messiah, and it turned out that it was Jesus who came. It would thus be wrong for another Messiah to come. Jesus has already come once, and it would be wrong if “Jesus” were to come again this time. There is one name for every age, and each name contains a characterization of that age. In the notions of man, God must always perform signs and wonders, must always heal the sick and cast out demons, and must always be just like Jesus. Yet this time, God is not like that at all. If, during the last days, God still performed signs and wonders, and still cast out demons and healed the sick—if He did exactly the same as Jesus—then God would be repeating the same work, and the work of Jesus would have no significance or value. Thus, God carries out one stage of work in every age. Once each stage of His work has been completed, evil spirits immediately try to imitate it, and after Satan begins to follow on the heels of God, God changes to a different method. Once God has completed a stage of His work, evil spirits try to imitate it. You must be clear about this. Why is the work of God today different from the work of Jesus? Why does God today not perform signs and wonders, not cast out demons, and not heal the sick? If Jesus’ work had been the same as the work done during the Age of Law, could He have represented the God of the Age of Grace? Could He have completed the work of the crucifixion? If Jesus had joined the temple and kept the Sabbath as in the Age of Law, being persecuted by none and embraced by all, could He have been crucified? Could He have completed the work of redemption? What would be the point if God incarnate of the last days performed signs and wonders, like Jesus did? Only if God does another part of His work during the last days, one that represents part of His management plan, can man gain a deeper knowledge of God, and can God’s management plan be completed.

During the last days, God has come chiefly to speak His words. He speaks from the perspective of the Spirit, from the perspective of man, and from a third person perspective; He speaks in different ways, using one way for a period of time, and He uses these ways of speaking to change the notions of man and remove the image of the vague God from man’s heart. This is the main work done by God. Because man believes that when God comes He will heal the sick, cast out demons, perform miracles, and bestow material blessings upon man, God carries out this stage of work—the work of chastisement and judgment—in order to remove such things in man’s notions, let man know the practicality and normality of God, and remove the image of Jesus as He is in man’s heart, allowing the new image of God to occupy man’s heart instead. Once the image of God within man becomes old, then it becomes an idol. When Jesus came and carried out that stage of work, He did not represent the entirety of God. He performed some signs and wonders, spoke some words, and was ultimately crucified. He represented one part of God. He could not represent all that is of God, but rather He represented God in doing one part of God’s work. That is because God is so great, and so wondrous, and He is unfathomable, and because God only does one part of His work in every age. The work done by God during this age is chiefly the provision of the words of life for man; the exposure of man’s nature essence and his corrupt disposition; and the elimination of his religious notions, feudal thinking, outdated thinking, and knowledge and culture. These things must all be cleansed through being exposed by God’s words. In the last days, God uses words, not signs and wonders, to make man perfect. He uses His words to reveal man, to judge man, to chastise man, and to make man perfect, so that in the words of God, man comes to see the wisdom and loveliness of God, and comes to understand the disposition of God, and so that through the words of God, man beholds the deeds of God. During the Age of Law, Jehovah led Moses out of Egypt with His words, and spoke some words to the Israelites; at that time, part of the deeds of God were revealed, but because the caliber of man was limited and nothing could make his knowledge complete, God continued to speak and work. In the Age of Grace, man once more saw part of the deeds of God. Jesus was able to show signs and wonders, to heal the sick and cast out demons, and be crucified, three days after which He was resurrected and appeared in the flesh before man. Of God, man knew no more than this. Man knows as much as is revealed to him by God, and if God were to reveal nothing more to man, then such would be the extent of man’s delimitation of God. Thus, God continues to work, so that man’s knowledge of Him may become deeper, and so that man may gradually come to know the essence of God. In the last days, God uses His words to make man perfect. Your corrupt disposition is exposed by the words of God, and your religious notions are replaced by the practicality of God. In the last days, God has become flesh chiefly to fulfill the words “the Word becomes flesh, the Word comes into the flesh, and the Word appears in the flesh,” and if you do not have a thorough knowledge of this, then you will be unable to stand fast. During the last days, God primarily intends to accomplish a stage of work in which the Word appears in the flesh, and this is one part of the work of God’s management plan. Thus, your knowledge must be thorough; regardless of how God works, God does not allow man to delimit Him. If God did not do this work during the last days, then man’s knowledge of Him could go no further. You would only know that God can be crucified and can destroy Sodom, and that Jesus can rise from the dead and appear to Peter…. But you would never say that God’s words can accomplish all, and can conquer man. Only through experiencing God’s words can you speak of such knowledge. The more of God’s work you experience, the more thorough your knowledge of Him will become, and only then will you not delimit God within your own notions. Man comes to know God by experiencing His work; there is no other correct way to know God. Today, there are many people who do nothing but wait to see signs and wonders and the time of the great disasters. Do you believe in God, or do you believe in the great disasters? When the great disasters arrive it will be too late, and if God does not send down the great disasters, is He then not God? Do you believe in signs and wonders, or do you believe in God Himself? Jesus did not display signs and wonders when He was mocked by others, but was He not God? Do you believe in signs and wonders, or do you believe in the essence of God? Man’s views about belief in God are wrong! Jehovah spoke many words during the Age of Law, but even today some of them have yet to be fulfilled. Can you say that Jehovah is not God?

Today, it should be clear to all of you that, in the last days, it is principally the fact of “the Word becomes flesh” that is accomplished by God. Through His practical work on earth, He allows man to know Him and to engage with Him, and to see His practical deeds. He allows man to clearly see that He is able to perform signs and wonders and that there are also times when He is unable to do so; this depends on the age. From this, you can see that God is not incapable of performing signs and wonders, but instead changes His way of working according to the work to be done and according to the age. In the current stage of work, He does not perform signs and wonders; He performed some signs and wonders in the age of Jesus because His work in that age was different. God does not do that work today, and some people believe Him incapable of performing signs and wonders, or they think that since He does not perform signs and wonders, then He is not God. Is that not a fallacy? God is able to perform signs and wonders, but He is working in a different age, so He does not do such work. In different ages and according to the different stages of His work, God manifests different deeds. Man’s belief in God is not the belief in signs and wonders, nor the belief in miracles, but the belief in His practical work during the new age. Man comes to know God through the manner in which God works, and this knowledge produces in man the belief in God, which is to say, the belief in the work and deeds of God. In this stage of work, God mainly speaks. Do not wait to see signs and wonders; you will not see any! This is because you were not born during the Age of Grace. If you had been, you could have seen signs and wonders, but you were born during the last days, and so you can see only the practicality and normality of God. Do not expect to see the supernatural Jesus during the last days. You are only able to see the practical God incarnate, who is no different from any normal human being. In each age, God manifests different deeds. In each age, He manifests part of His deeds, and the work of each age represents one part of the disposition of God, and one part of the deeds of God. The deeds that He manifests vary with the age in which He works, but they all allow man’s knowledge of God to deepen, and allow man to have a truer and more solid belief in God. Man believes in God because of all of the deeds of God, because God is so wondrous, so great, and almighty, and because He is unfathomable—that is why man believes in God. If you believe in God because He is able to perform signs and wonders and can heal the sick and cast out demons, then your view is wrong, and some people will say to you, “Are not evil spirits also able to do such things?” Does this not constitute confusing the image of God with the image of Satan? Today, man’s belief in God is because of His many deeds and the great amount of work He does and the many ways in which He speaks. God conquers man and makes him perfect through His words. Man believes in God because of His many deeds, not because He is able to show signs and wonders; people only get to know God by witnessing His deeds. Only by knowing the practical deeds of God, how He works, what wise methods He uses, how He speaks, and how He makes man perfect—only by knowing these aspects—can you comprehend the practicality of God and understand His disposition, knowing what He likes, what He loathes, and how He works upon man. By understanding what God likes and what He loathes, you can differentiate between that which is positive and negative, and through your knowledge of God there is progress in your life. In short, you must gain a knowledge of God’s work, and you must rectify your views about believing in God.