391. God created humans, He placed them upon earth and has led them ever since, later He saved them and served as a sin offering for humanity, and at the end, He still must conquer humanity, save humans entirely, and restore them to their original likeness. This is the work that He has been engaged from beginning to end—restoring humanity to their original image and likeness. God will establish His kingdom and restore the original likeness of human beings, which means that God will restore His authority upon earth and among all created beings. Humanity lost their God-fearing heart as well as the function created beings ought to have after being corrupted by Satan, thereby becoming an enemy rebellious against God. Humanity then lived under Satan’s power and was subject to Satan’s manipulation; thus, God had no way to work among His created beings, and became all the more unable to gain their fear. Humans were created by God, and ought to worship God, but they actually turned their backs on Him and worshiped Satan instead. Satan became the idol in their hearts. Thus, God lost His standing in their hearts, which is to say that the meaning behind His creation of humanity was lost. Therefore, to restore the meaning behind His creation of humanity, He must restore their original likeness and rid humanity of their corrupt dispositions. To reclaim humans from Satan, He must save them from sin. Only in this way can God gradually restore their original likeness and function, and finally, restore His kingdom. The complete destruction of those sons of rebellion in the end will also be for the sake of allowing humans to better worship God and better live upon the earth. Because God created humans, He will make them worship Him; because He wishes to restore humanity’s original function, He will restore it completely and without any adulteration. Restoring His authority means making humans worship Him and submit to Him; it means that God will make humans live because of Him and cause His enemies to perish as a result of His authority. It means that God will cause everything about Him to persist among humans without resistance from anybody. The kingdom God wishes to establish is His own kingdom. The humanity He desires is one that worships Him, one that submits to Him completely and which is possessed of His glory. If God does not save corrupt humanity, then the meaning behind His creation of humanity will be lost; He will have no more authority among humans, and His kingdom will no longer be able to exist upon the earth. If God does not destroy those enemies who are rebellious against Him, He will be unable to obtain His complete glory, nor will He be able to establish His kingdom upon the earth. These will be marks of the completion of His work and of His great accomplishment: to utterly destroy those among humanity who are rebellious against Him, and to bring into rest those who have been made complete. When humans have been restored to their original likeness, and when they can fulfill their respective duties, keep to their own proper places and submit to all of God’s arrangements, God will have gained a group of people upon the earth who worship Him, and He will also have established a kingdom upon the earth that worships Him.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together

392. Since you believe in God, you must submit to Him. If you are unable to do this, then it does not matter whether you believe in God or not. If you have believed in God for many years, and yet have never submitted to Him, and do not accept the entirety of His words, and instead ask that God submit to you and act according to your notions, then you are the most rebellious of all, you are a disbeliever. How could such people be able to submit to the work and words of God that do not conform to the notions of man? Most rebellious of all are those who intentionally defy and resist God. They are the enemies of God, the antichrists. Theirs is always an attitude of hostility toward the new work of God; they never have the slightest inclination to submit, nor have they ever gladly submitted or humbled themselves. They think themselves to be the most superior before others and never submit to anyone. Before God, they consider themselves the best at preaching the word, and the most skillful in working on others. Never do they discard the “treasures” in their possession, but treat them as family heirlooms for worship, for preaching about to others, and they use them to lecture those fools who idolize them. There are indeed a certain number of people like this in the church. It can be said that they are “indomitable heroes,” generation after generation sojourning in the house of God. They take preaching the word (doctrine) to be their highest duty. Year after year, generation after generation, they go about vigorously enforcing their “sacred and inviolable” duty. None dare touch them; not a single person dares openly reproach them. They become “kings” in the house of God, running rampant as they tyrannize others from age to age. This pack of evil demons seeks to join hands and demolish My work; how can I allow these living devils to exist before My eyes? Even those who are only half submissive cannot carry on until the end, much less these tyrants without the slightest submission in their hearts! The work of God is not easily gained by man. Even using all the strength they have, people can only gain a mere portion of it, ultimately allowing them to be made perfect. What, then, of the children of the archangel, who seek to destroy the work of God? Do they not have even less hope of being gained by God? My purpose in doing the work of conquest is not solely to conquer for the sake of conquest, but to conquer so as to reveal righteousness and unrighteousness, to obtain proof for the punishment of man, to condemn the evil, and, furthermore, to conquer for the sake of perfecting those who willingly submit. In the end, all will be sorted according to their kind, and the ones who are perfected will be the ones whose thoughts and ideas are filled with submission. This is the work that shall ultimately be accomplished. Those whose every action is rebellious, meanwhile, will be punished and sent to burn in the fires, and be the objects of eternal curse. When that time comes, those “great and indomitable heroes” of ages past will become the basest and most shunned “weak and impotent cowards.” Only this can reveal every aspect of God’s righteousness, and His disposition that is unoffendable by man, and only this can appease the hatred in My heart. Do you not agree that this is entirely reasonable?

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Those Who Submit to God With a True Heart Shall Surely Be Gained by God

393. The work done by God differs from age to age. If you submit well to God’s work in one phase, but in the next phase your submission toward His work is poor, or you are incapable of submission, then God shall desert you. You keep pace with God as He takes this step, and you must continue to keep pace when He ascends the next; only then will you be someone who is submissive to the Holy Spirit. Since you believe in God, you must remain constant in your submission. You cannot simply submit when you please and do not submit when you do not. This kind of submission is not approved of by God. If you cannot keep pace with the new work I fellowship, and continue to hold on to the former sayings, then how can there be progress in your life? God’s work is to supply you through His words. When you submit to and accept His words, the Holy Spirit shall surely work in you. The Holy Spirit works exactly as I speak; do as I have said, and the Holy Spirit will promptly work in you. I release a new light for you to behold, bringing you into the light of the present, and when you walk into this light, the Holy Spirit shall immediately work in you. There are some who may be recalcitrant, saying, “I simply will not practice what You say.” In which case, I tell you that you have now come to the end of the road; you are dried up, and you are without life. Thus, in experiencing the transformation of your disposition, nothing is more crucial than keeping pace with the present light. The Holy Spirit not only works in certain people who are used by God, but, furthermore, in the church. He could be working in anyone. He may work in you during the present time, and you will experience this work. During the next period, He may work in someone else, in which case you must hasten to follow; the more closely you follow the present light, the more your life can grow. No matter what manner of person someone is, if the Holy Spirit works in them, then you must follow. Take in their experiences through your own in a practical manner, and you will receive even higher things. Through this kind of practice, you will progress more quickly. This is the path of perfection for man and a means by which life grows. The path to being made perfect is reached through your submission to the work of the Holy Spirit. You do not know through what kind of person God will work to perfect you, nor through what person, event, or thing He will allow you to gain or see things. If you can set foot upon this right track, it shows that there is great hope for you to be perfected by God. If you cannot, it shows that your future is bleak, devoid of light. Once you embark upon the right track, you will gain revelation in all things. No matter what the Holy Spirit reveals to others, if you proceed on the basis of their knowledge to experience things on your own, then it will become a part of your life, and you will be able to supply others out of this experience. Those who supply others by parroting words are people who have not had any experiences; you must learn to find, through the enlightenment and illumination of others, a way of practice before you can begin to speak of your own actual experience and knowledge. This will be of greater benefit to your own life. You should experience thus, submitting to all that comes from God. You should seek the intentions of God in all things and learn the lessons in all things, that your life may grow. Such practice affords the fastest progress.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Those Who Submit to God With a True Heart Shall Surely Be Gained by God

394. Submission to the work of God must be real and actual, and it must be lived out. Superficial submission alone cannot receive God’s approval, and merely submitting to the superficial aspects of God’s word, without seeking change in one’s disposition, is not in line with God’s intentions. Submission 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 submissive, much less 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 people truly submit to God. Such people are able to gain new knowledge, and undergo new changes, from new work. Only these people are approved of by God, only these people are perfected, and only these are the ones whose dispositions have changed. Those who are approved of by God are those who gladly submit to God, and to His word and work. Only such people are right people, only such people sincerely want God, and sincerely seek God.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Those Who Submit to God With a True Heart Shall Surely Be Gained by God

395. During God’s time in the flesh, the submission He requires of people does not involve refraining from making judgments or resisting, as they imagine; rather, He requires that people use His words as their principle to live by and the foundation of their survival, that they absolutely put the essence of His words into practice, and that they completely satisfy His intentions. One aspect of requiring people to submit to God incarnate refers to putting His words into practice, while another aspect refers to being able to submit to His normality and practicality. These must be both absolute. Those who can achieve both of these aspects are all those who harbor genuine God-loving hearts. They are all people who have been gained by God, and they all love God as they love their own lives. …

The group of people whom God incarnate wants to gain today are those who align with His intentions. They need only submit to His work, and stop constantly concerning themselves with the wishes of God in heaven, living in vagueness, and making things difficult for God in the flesh. Those who are able to submit to Him are those who absolutely listen to His words and obey His arrangements. Such people pay no mind at all to what God in heaven might really be like or what kind of work God in heaven might currently be doing on man; they fully give their hearts to God on earth and they place their entire beings before Him. They never give any consideration to their own safety, nor do they ever make a fuss over the normality and practicality of God in the flesh. Those who submit to God in the flesh can be perfected by Him. Those who believe in God in heaven will gain nothing. This is because it is not God in heaven, but God on earth, who bestows promises and blessings upon people. People should not always honor God in heaven as great while seeing God on earth as a mere average person; this is unfair. God in heaven is great and wonderful with marvelous wisdom, yet that God in heaven does not exist at all; God on earth is very average and insignificant, and is also very normal. He does not have an extraordinary mind or perform earth-shattering acts; He simply works and speaks in a very normal and practical manner. While He does not speak through thunder or summon the wind and the rain, He truly is the incarnation of God in heaven, and He really is the God living amongst humans. People must not regard the one whom they are able to understand and who corresponds to their own imaginations as God, or honor that one as great, while seeing the one they cannot accept and absolutely cannot imagine as being lowly. All of this comes from people’s rebelliousness; it is all the source of mankind’s resistance to God.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Those Who Truly Love God Are Those Who Can Submit Absolutely to His Practicality

396. The key to submitting to God is accepting the new light, and being able to accept it and put it into practice. This alone is true submission. Those who don’t have the resolve to yearn for God are incapable of intentionally submitting to Him, and can only oppose God as a result of their satisfaction with the status quo. That man cannot submit to God is because he is possessed by what came before. The things that came before have produced all manner of notions and various imaginings about God in man, and these have become the image of god in his mind. Thus, what he believes in is his own notions, and the standards of his own imagination. If you measure the God who does practical work today against the god of your own imagination, then your faith comes from Satan, and is tainted by your own preferences—God does not want this kind of faith. Regardless of how lofty their credentials, and regardless of their dedication—even if they have devoted a lifetime of efforts to His work, and have martyred themselves—God does not approve of anyone with faith such as this. He merely bestows upon them a little grace and allows them to enjoy it for a time. People such as this are incapable of putting the truth into practice. The Holy Spirit does not work within them, and God will eliminate each of them in turn. Young and old alike, those who do not submit to God in their faith and have the wrong intentions are those who oppose and disrupt, and such people will unquestionably be eliminated by God. Those who are without the slightest submission to God, who merely acknowledge His name, and have some sense of God’s kindness and loveliness, yet do not keep pace with the steps of the Holy Spirit, and do not submit to the present work and words of the Holy Spirit—such people live amid the grace of God, and will not be gained or made perfect by Him. God makes people perfect through their submission, through their eating, drinking, and enjoying of God’s words, and through the suffering and refinement in their lives. Only through faith such as this can people’s dispositions change, and only then can they possess the true knowledge of God. Not being satisfied with living amid God’s grace, actively yearning for and seeking the truth, and pursuing being gained by God—this is what it means to consciously submit to God and this is precisely the kind of faith that He wants. People who do nothing more than enjoy God’s grace cannot be made perfect or changed; and their submission, piety, love, and patience are all superficial. Those who only enjoy God’s grace cannot truly know God, and even when they do know God, their knowledge is superficial, and they say things like “God loves man,” or “God has mercy on man.” This does not represent the life of man, and does not show that people truly know God. If, when God’s words refine them, or when His trials come upon them, people are unable to submit to God—if, instead, they become doubtful, and fall down—then they are not in the least bit submissive. Within them, there are many rules and restrictions about faith in God, old experiences that are the result of many years of faith, or various regulations based upon the Bible. Could people such as this submit to God? These people are full of human things—how could they submit to God? Their “submission” is according to personal preference—would God want submission like this? This is not submission to God, but adherence to regulations; it is the satisfaction and appeasement of themselves. If you say that this is submission to God, do you not blaspheme against Him?

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. In Your Faith in God You Should Submit to God

397. All those who do not seek submission to God in their faith are people who oppose God. God asks that people seek the truth, that they thirst for His words, eat and drink His words, and put them into practice, all so that they may achieve submission to God. If that is your true intention, then God will surely exalt you, and will surely be gracious toward you. This is undoubtable and unchangeable. If your intention is not to submit to God, and you have other aims, then all that you say and do—even your prayers before God, and going even further, your every move—will be in opposition to Him. Even if your words are gentle and you are mild-mannered, even if your every move and expression seem proper to others, as if you were a submissive person, when it comes to your intentions and your views about faith in God, every one of your actions is in opposition to God, it is doing evil. People who appear as obedient as sheep, but whose hearts harbor evil intentions, are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They directly offend God, and God will not spare a single one of them. The Holy Spirit will reveal each and every one of them and show everybody that all those who are hypocrites will, with certainty, be spurned by the Holy Spirit. Worry not: God will reckon with and dispose of every last one of them in turn.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. In Your Faith in God You Should Submit to God

398. In measuring whether or not people can submit to God, the key is whether or not they have any extravagant desires or ulterior motives toward Him. If people are always making demands of God, it proves that they are not submissive to Him. No matter what happens to you, if you do not accept it from God, and you do not seek the truth, and you are always arguing for yourself and always feeling that only you are right, and if you are even capable of doubting that God is the truth and righteousness, then you will be in trouble. Such people are the most arrogant and rebellious to God. People who always make demands of God cannot truly submit to Him. If you make demands of God, this proves that you are trying to make a deal with God, that you are choosing your own will, and acting according to it. In this, you are betraying God, and you lack submission. To make demands of God is in and of itself lacking in reason; if you truly believe that He is God, then you will not dare to make demands of Him, nor will you feel qualified to make demands of Him, whether you think them reasonable or not. If you have true belief in God, and believe that He is God, then you will only worship and submit to Him, there is no other choice. People today not only make their own choices, they even ask God to act according to their own will. Not only do they not choose to submit to God, they even ask God to submit to them. Isn’t this so lacking in reason? Therefore, if there is no true faith within a person, and no substantial belief, they can never obtain God’s approval. When people are able to make fewer demands of God, they have more true faith and submission, and their reason is comparatively normal. It is often the case that the more inclined to argue people are, and the more justifications they have, the harder they are to deal with. Not only do they have many demands, but if you give them an inch, they’ll want a mile. When they are satisfied in one respect, they’ll then make demands in another. They have to be satisfied in all respects, and if they are not, they start complaining, and write things off as hopeless and act recklessly. Afterward, they feel indebted and remorseful, and they weep bitter tears, and want to die. What is the use in that? Are they not being unreasonable and relentlessly vexatious? This series of problems has to be resolved from the root. If you have a corrupt disposition and don’t resolve it, if you wait until you get into trouble or cause a disaster to resolve it, how can you make up for this loss? Won’t this be a bit like locking the barn door after the horse has already bolted? Therefore, to completely resolve the problem of your corrupt disposition, you must seek the truth to resolve it when it first arises. You must solve the corrupt disposition in its budding state, thereby ensuring that you will not do anything wrong and preventing future troubles. If a corrupt disposition takes root and becomes a person’s thoughts or viewpoint, it will be able to direct a person to do evil. Therefore, self-reflection and self-knowledge is mainly about discovering one’s corrupt dispositions, and quickly seeking the truth to resolve them. You must know what things are in your nature, what you like, what you pursue, and what you want to obtain. You must dissect these things according to God’s words to see if they are in line with God’s intentions, and in what way they are fallacious. Once you understand these things, you must resolve the problem of your abnormal reason, which is to say, the problem of your unreasonable and relentless vexatiousness. This is not only the problem of your corrupt disposition, it also touches on your lack of reason. Especially in matters where their interests are concerned, people who get carried away by self-interest do not possess normal reason. This is a psychological problem, and this is also people’s Achilles’ heel. Some people feel that they have a certain caliber and some gifts, and they always want to be leaders and to stand out, so they ask God to use them. If God doesn’t use them, they say, “How can God not look favorably upon me? God, if You use me to do something important, I promise I’ll expend for You!” Is this kind of intention correct? It is a good thing to expend for God, but there are motivations behind their willingness to expend for God. What they love is status, and this is what they focus on. When people are capable of true submission, following God wholeheartedly regardless of whether God uses them or not, and expending for God regardless of whether they have status or not, only then can they be considered to possess reason and to be submissive to God.

—The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. People Make Too Many Demands of God

399. When confronting real-life problems, how should you know and understand God’s authority and His sovereignty? When you are faced with these problems and do not know how to understand, handle, and experience them, what attitude should you adopt to demonstrate that you have the intention and the desire to submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements, and the reality of this submission? First you must learn to wait; then you must learn to seek; then you must learn to submit. “Waiting” means waiting for the time of God, awaiting the people, events, and things that He has arranged for you, waiting for His intentions to be gradually revealed to you. “Seeking” means examining and understanding God’s painstaking intentions through the people, events, and things that He has orchestrated, understanding the truths related to them, understanding what humans must accomplish and the ways they must adhere to, understanding what results God means to achieve in humans and what accomplishments He means to attain in them. “Submitting,” of course, refers to accepting the people, events, and things that God has orchestrated, accepting His sovereignty and, through it, experiencing how the Creator holds sovereignty over man’s fate, how He supplies man with His life, how He works the truth within man. All things under God’s arrangements and sovereignty obey natural laws, and if you resolve to let God arrange and hold sovereignty over everything for you, you should learn to wait, you should learn to seek, and you should learn to submit. This is the attitude every person who wants to submit to God’s authority should adopt, and it is also the most basic quality every person who wants to accept God’s sovereignty and arrangements should possess. To hold such an attitude, to possess such a quality, you must work harder. Only then can you enter into the true reality.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique III

400. When Noah did as God instructed, he did not know what God’s intentions were. He did not know what God wanted to accomplish. God had only given him a command and instructed him to do something, and without much explanation, Noah went ahead and did it. He did not try to secretly figure out God’s desires, nor did he resist God or show insincerity. He just went and did it accordingly with a pure and simple heart. Whatever God had him do, he did, and submitting and listening to God’s word was the belief that underpinned his actions. That was how straightforwardly and simply he dealt with what God entrusted. His essence—the essence of his actions was submission, not second-guessing, not resisting, and moreover, not thinking of his own personal interests or his gains and losses. Further, when God said He would destroy the world with a flood, Noah did not ask when or ask what would become of things, and he certainly did not ask God how He was going to destroy the world. He simply did as God instructed. However God wanted it to be made and made with what, he did exactly as God asked and also commenced action immediately. He acted according to God’s instructions with an attitude of wanting to satisfy God. Was he doing it to help himself avoid the disaster? No. Did he ask God how much longer it would be before the world was to be destroyed? He did not. Did he ask God or did he know how long it would take to build the ark? He did not know that either. He simply submitted, listened, and acted accordingly.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself I

401. In his belief in God, Peter sought to satisfy God in everything, and sought to submit to all that came from God. He was able to accept chastisement and judgment, as well as refinement, tribulation, and going without in his life, all the while not uttering a single complaint. None of this could alter his God-loving heart. Was this not the ultimate love for God? Was this not the fulfillment of the duty of a created being? Whether it be in chastisement, judgment, or tribulation, you are capable of achieving submission unto death, and this is what should be achieved by a created being, this is the purity of the love for God. If man can achieve this much, then he is a created being who is up to standard, and there is nothing which better satisfies the intentions of the Creator. Imagine that you are able to work for God, yet you do not submit to God, and are incapable of truly loving God. In this way, not only will you not have fulfilled the duty of a created being, but you will also be condemned by God, for you are someone who does not possess the truth, who is incapable of submitting to God, and who rebels against God. You care only about working for God, and not about putting the truth into practice or knowing yourself; you do not understand or know the Creator, you do not submit to or love the Creator, and you are someone who is innately rebellious against God. It is for these reasons that such people are not liked by the Creator.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Success or Failure Depends on the Path That Man Walks

402. Bearing a resounding witness for God primarily relates to whether or not you have an understanding of the practical God, and to whether or not you are able to submit before this person who is not only ordinary, but normal, and submit even unto death. If, by way of this submission, you truly bear witness for God, that means you have been gained by God. If you can submit unto death and, before Him, be free of complaints, not make judgments, not slander, not have any notions, and not have any ulterior motives, then in this way God will gain glory. Submission before a regular person who is looked down upon by man, and being able to submit unto death without any notions—this is true testimony. The reality that God requires people to enter into is that you are able to submit to His words, put them into practice, bow down in front of the practical God and know your own corruption, open up your heart in front of Him, and, ultimately, be gained by Him through these words of His. God gains glory when these utterances conquer you and make you fully submissive to Him; through this, He shames Satan and completes His work. When you do not have any notions about the practicality of God incarnate—that is, when you have stood firm in this trial—then you have borne this witness well. If there comes a day when you have a full understanding of the practical God and can submit unto death like Peter did, then you will be gained and perfected by God. Anything God does that is not in line with your notions is a trial for you. If God’s work were in line with your notions, it would not require you to suffer or be refined. It is because His work is so practical and not in line with your notions that it requires you to let go of such notions. This is why it is a trial for you. It is because of God’s practicality that all people are in the midst of trials; His work is practical, not supernatural. By fully understanding His practical words and His practical utterances without any notions, and being able to genuinely love Him as His work grows ever more practical, you will be gained by Him. The group of people whom God will gain are those who know God; that is, those who know His practicality. Furthermore, they are those who are able to submit to God’s practical work.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Those Who Truly Love God Are Those Who Can Submit Absolutely to His Practicality

403. Before humanity enters into rest, whether each sort of person is punished or rewarded will be determined according to whether they have sought the truth, whether they know God, and whether they can submit to the visible God. Those who have labored for the visible God, yet neither know Him nor submit to Him, don’t have truth. Such people are evildoers, and evildoers will undoubtedly be objects of punishment; furthermore, they shall be punished according to their evil deeds. God is for humans to believe in, and He is also worthy of their submission. Those who only have faith in the vague and invisible God are people who do not believe in God and are unable to submit to God. If these people still cannot manage to believe in the visible God by the time His work of conquest is finished, and continue to rebel against and resist the visible God who is in the flesh, then these “vagueists” will, without a doubt, become objects of destruction. It is just like some among you—all those who verbally acknowledge God incarnate, yet cannot practice the truth of submission to God incarnate, are ultimately to be eliminated and destroyed. Moreover, all those who verbally acknowledge the visible God and eat and drink of the truth expressed by Him, and yet pursue the vague and invisible God, even more so will be the objects of destruction. None of these people will be able to remain until the time of rest that will come after God’s work has finished, nor can a single individual similar to such people remain until that time of rest. People who are of demons do not practice the truth; their essence is one of resistance and rebelliousness to God, and they do not have the slightest intention of submitting to Him. Such people will all be destroyed.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together