The First Practice for Pursuing the Truth: Letting Go

We have fellowshipped on this topic of how to pursue the truth for quite a long time, and everything we have fellowshipped on has involved one aspect of practice regarding how to pursue the truth: letting go. That is, the content of our fellowship has all been about things that people should let go of in the process of believing in God and pursuing the truth, which are also things that people should let go of in their lives and on the life path that they walk. These are precisely some of the things that influence people’s pursuit of the truth. So what was the first item of our content on letting go? (Letting go of people’s various negative emotions.) And what was the second item? (Letting go of people’s pursuits, aspirations, and desires.) The first item of our content on letting go was letting go of various negative emotions, and the second was letting go of people’s pursuits, aspirations, and desires. Each item encompassed a fair few subtopics and details, right? (Yes.) Regardless of what we were fellowshipping on, or what categories and items there were within this content, and regardless of however many examples were given, or however many states and however many essences of problems were exposed, in short, all the content we fellowshipped on relates to the various problems that befall people in the process of believing in God and pursuing the truth or in their real lives, as well as the paths of practice that people should choose and the truth principles they should adhere to whenever they face these problems. The various facets that these problems involve are not hollow and do not exist solely in people’s thoughts or spiritual worlds. Rather, they exist in people’s real lives. So if you are willing to pursue the truth, then no matter what kind of problems befall you, I hope you can seek the truth and find the corresponding truth principles to take as your basis, discover the path of practice, and thereby have a path to follow whenever these problems befall you. This is a fundamental aim of fellowshipping on all this content. Even though we have finished fellowshipping on all these truths, it will take some time for people to enter into these truth realities. People should begin with fellowshipping on these truths, and they should take the various truth principles as their basis, and change their viewpoints on all kinds of things, as well as their life attitudes and means of existing. That way, in the process of believing in God or in the process of living and existing, by coming to accept these truth principles people will, without realizing it, manage to change their various fallacious thoughts, viewpoints, or attitudes and means for existing which were pre-existing, old, and stemmed from Satan, and they will manage to cast off their corrupt dispositions. Therefore, these words that we fellowshipped before and the words we will fellowship in the future are not a kind of knowledge, or a kind of scholarship, and they are certainly not a theory. Rather, they are used to guide, direct, and help people to resolve the various problems and difficulties they encounter in their everyday lives. Whenever you encounter a problem, or whenever you encounter a circumstance, or a person, event, or thing, you can look within the content of our fellowship for the truth criteria that you should abide by and put into practice, so that you can act with the truth as your basis and criterion, rather than practicing according to your corrupt dispositions and your old, incorrect viewpoints. The purpose of people believing in God is to pursue the truth, but the purpose of pursuing the truth is not to fill people’s empty lives, or to change their empty lives, or to enrich their spiritual worlds. What is the purpose of pursuing the truth? For people, the purpose is to cast off their corrupt dispositions in order to be saved; of course, casting off one’s corrupt dispositions is also in order to submit to God, and fear God and shun evil. But for God, the purpose and significance of people pursuing the truth are not so ordinary; it is not just about someone being saved. Instead, it is about God gaining a person who is no longer fooled by Satan’s corrupt dispositions, and of course, it is also about gaining a type of person who can be compatible with God; more importantly, it is about God being able to gain, from among created humankind, a type of person He wants, one that can manage all things and exist forever with all things. This significance is not as simple as just being saved, like it is for people. Therefore, whether it be for people or for God, pursuing the truth is very important. Since it is so important, the content of one aspect of practice regarding pursuing the truth—that of “letting go”—is crucial to everyone who wants to pursue the attainment of salvation. Since the practice of “letting go” is so important, the various truth principles related to “letting go,” as well as the various states, revelations of corrupt dispositions, and corrupt thoughts and viewpoints concerned with the practice of “letting go” that have been exposed, are things that people must understand thoroughly. Only when people examine and understand the fallacious thoughts and viewpoints that are often revealed in everyday life, as well as their corrupt dispositions and revelations of corruption, and thereby come to know themselves, and understand and accept an aspect of the truth, and then practice according to the corresponding truth principles, will they achieve the purpose of pursuing the truth. We have basically come to the end of our fellowship from this period of time on the two major items of “letting go” within how to pursue the truth. What was the first item? Letting go of people’s various negative emotions. What was the second item? Letting go of people’s pursuits, aspirations, and desires. Though we covered a lot of content in our fellowship on these two items, what’s more important is that you need to understand each of the specific truth principles involved in these topics. Only when people understand the truth principles can they conduct themselves and act according to these truth principles in their everyday lives and on their life path, gradually enter into the truth reality, and, in the process of pursuing the truth, gradually achieve the results of understanding and gaining the truth.

Letting Go of the Barriers Between Oneself and God and One’s Hostility Toward God

The two items of practicing “letting go” within how to pursue the truth that we fellowshipped on before relate to people’s corrupt dispositions, their various thoughts and viewpoints, and the various problems that befall them in their everyday lives. But there is another more important or, it could be said, even greater item within “letting go” that we really must fellowship on. What is that item? It involves people’s attitudes toward God, their thoughts and viewpoints regarding God, and the principles of practice by which they treat God in their everyday lives. It can be said that this item is a bit more important than the first two. Because this item directly concerns people’s attitudes toward God, their thoughts and viewpoints regarding God, and the relationship between people and God, it is the last one we will talk about under this item of “letting go,” and of course it is also the most important one. Some of the topics within the two items that we previously discussed relate to certain attitudes and viewpoints that people harbor regarding God, or to the relationship between people and God, but in terms of the standpoint that we adopted in our fellowship, we basically dissected the various problems with people from a human standpoint—we dissected people’s various corrupt dispositions or fallacious thoughts and viewpoints within the context of their different kinds of problems. What we are going to fellowship on today concerns people’s attitudes toward God and their thoughts and viewpoints regarding God. These are the most important things that people must let go of in the process of pursuing the truth. This item is not so simple either, because no matter who they are, or which type of person they are, nobody has just one kind of attitude toward God or one kind of thought and viewpoint regarding God, and of course, the relationship between people and God is not just one kind of relationship, and it also does not only involve one kind of human state. Because of people’s various attitudes toward God, and because of the various thoughts and viewpoints that people harbor toward God’s identity, status, and image, as well as other reasons, various kinds of relationships arise between people and God. So, today we will fellowship on this item and see what serious problems or irreconcilable conflicts still exist between people and God, and exactly what else people need to let go of. After understanding this, if you are someone who pursues the truth, your relationship with God will improve, and your viewpoint regarding God will gradually come closer to being correct, positive, or consistent with the truth. The third item of the content on letting go should be to let go of the barriers between oneself and God and one’s hostility toward God—this is the third item of the things that people should let go of. Before we formally fellowship on this topic, let’s first briefly discuss which problems in everyday life involve barriers between people and God, and people’s hostility toward God. Besides some subjective issues to do with people themselves, are there not all sorts of problems with how people treat God in the process of them believing in God and pursuing the truth? People have all sorts of fallacious thoughts and viewpoints and incorrect principles of practice in how they treat various events and things, and in the same way, they have all sorts of fallacious thoughts and viewpoints and incorrect principles of practice in how they treat God. If, for all kinds of people, events, and things, you are able to treat them and practice based on the truth principles—that is, if you come to know the fallacious thoughts and viewpoints you harbor regarding all kinds of people, events, and things, and at the same time rectify and let go of these fallacious thoughts and viewpoints, and then face and resolve various problems according to the correct thoughts and viewpoints that God tells people—then your principles of practice for how you treat all kinds of people, events, and things will be relatively in line with the truth principles. Can this be considered a sign that someone is saved? Looking at it now, no, it can’t. If I hadn’t brought up the content of today’s fellowship, people might have thought, “When it comes to all kinds of things, I am able to view them and practice in accordance with the truth principles in God’s words, so I think I am a person who pursues the truth, a person who has achieved results in the pursuit of the truth, and a person who is saved.” Judging based on the topic I have brought up today—the various attitudes people harbor toward God—does this idea of theirs conform to the facts? (No, it doesn’t.) It very clearly doesn’t conform to the facts. You may have a certain basis and a certain positive attitude in how you treat all kinds of people, events, and things, but there are still all kinds of barriers between you and God, and your attitude toward God is still hostile when it comes to various issues. This problem is serious, and it is the biggest of all problems. In the period that you have been following God and doing your duty, your performance in all aspects seems quite decent to others, and outwardly appears consistent with the truth and the principles. However, there are many notions about God and barriers between you and God in your heart, and you even still harbor a hostile attitude toward God when you come up against many problems. These issues are very serious. If these issues do exist in your heart, this does not prove that you are a saved person. Because there are still many barriers between you and God, and you still harbor a hostile attitude toward God when it comes to key, significant issues, not only are you not a saved person, but you are also in danger. Even if you believe that you are able to act according to the truth principles when you encounter lots of issues in life, and that your actions are relatively consistent with the truth, it could be said that this is merely an outward appearance and it cannot prove that you have been saved. This is because you have not achieved compatibility in your relationship with God, and you do not yet submit to God or fear Him. Therefore, whenever various things befall you, your outward behavior or your thoughts and viewpoints can only show that you have adhered to doctrines, slogans, and regulations that you believe to be right in these matters, rather than adhering to the truth principles. This may be something of a relationship of inference here, and it may sound complicated, but after we have fellowshipped on the specific content of letting go of barriers between oneself and God and one’s hostility toward God, and people have engaged in careful examination, they will understand the meaning of My words.

Before formally fellowshipping on the topic of letting go of barriers between oneself and God and one’s hostility toward God, let us first discuss what barriers exist between people and God. What barriers between people and God, and hostility toward God are there that you’re able to sense and are aware of in your everyday life, or that occur in other people? These manifestations definitely exist. They happen around people every day, and they happen to you every day, so you don’t have to expend too much energy thinking—when you open your mouth, a list of these problems will come right out. Is this not the case? (Yes.) What exactly are the barriers between people and God? Let’s first talk about what the term “barriers” encompasses. It includes conflict, defiance, notions, misunderstandings, and the like, does it not? Tell Me more. (When someone is revealed or pruned while doing their duty, they may have some misunderstandings about God and become guarded toward Him, thinking that the more important a duty they do, the faster they will be revealed. Therefore, in their heart there will be some barriers between them and God, and they won’t be able to accept certain duties and commissions with a pure and open heart.) What is the barrier here? (Guardedness and misunderstandings.) Guardedness and misunderstandings. This is one kind of barrier. Who can add to that? Are there no barriers between the rest of you and God? Are your hearts clean and sanctified? Have you never had any negative thoughts about God? (God, I can add something. Whenever things are going quite smoothly in the circumstances that God orchestrates for me, the relationship between me and God seems to be relatively normal. But if I ever come up against adversity or something that doesn’t conform to my notions, I start to speculate about what God will do, and what will befall me next, and what the outcome will be. I do a lot of thinking, and I even produce complaints, and judge and misunderstand God in my mind, and that’s when my heart closes up. I also want to talk about something I’ve seen. When some people encounter undesirable circumstances, they feel resistant in their hearts and say, “Why is God making me encounter these circumstances? Why haven’t they befallen other people?” They cannot submit to the circumstances that God sets up for them, and conflict arises between them and God.) The issue you mentioned first was that there are barriers between people and God, that as a conditioned reflex to certain circumstances, people develop barriers between themselves and God, guardedness toward God, and misunderstandings about God. The second issue you mentioned was that people become hostile toward God because they are inwardly defiant. Who can add anything else? (Whenever I am pruned by the Above and my poor caliber is revealed, I pass verdicts on myself and think that I can’t be saved, and I have no motivation to pursue the truth even though I want to. This is a kind of misunderstanding about God. In addition, when some brothers and sisters become ill and are faced with death, they think, “Does God not remember all the running around and expending that I’ve done for Him?” In their hearts, they argue with God, clamor against Him, and fight against Him. This kind of state is quite common.) In terms of barriers between oneself and God and hostility toward God, the problems that most people manifest are more or less guardedness and misunderstandings, as well as the defiance and dissatisfaction that people reveal when they encounter certain things, which, in other words, are hostility toward God. That’s basically all of it. The various problems with people’s inner attitudes toward God actually go far beyond the scope of the issues you have fellowshipped on. There are some problems that you are not aware of. In one respect, this is because people do not examine what problems exist in themselves whenever they experience various circumstances. In another respect, people have never carefully considered exactly what their relationship with God is like, or what the correct attitudes and viewpoints are that people should have toward God. So, based on people’s different manifestations and these statuses which currently really do exist in people, we will fellowship specifically today on different manifestations of the barriers between people and God and people’s hostility toward God. The goal of fellowshipping on these different manifestations is to enable people to proactively let go of the barriers between themselves and God, and the hostility they harbor toward God whenever these things arise in them in their everyday lives, attain a harmonious relationship with Him, and ultimately come to be fully compatible with Him. In this way, they will have completely removed the barriers between themselves and God, and their hostility toward God, and have come to fear God and truly submit to Him. Only this is a normal relationship between people and God, and only people like this are true created beings.

I. Letting Go of One’s Notions and Imaginings About God: Letting Go of One’s Notions and Imaginings About God’s Work

A. People’s Imagining That God’s Work Is Particularly Supernatural and Fanciful

When it comes to letting go of the barriers between themselves and God and their hostility toward God, the first thing that people should let go of is their notions and imaginings. This is a very important piece of content, isn’t it? (Yes, it is.) Don’t notions and imaginings about God exist in every person? (Yes, they do.) No person lives in a vacuum, and no person is a robot. Every person has free will, and harbors various thoughts and viewpoints that they have gotten from the outside world; of course, every person also has various notions and imaginings about God which have developed within their subjective will based on their own needs, preferences, and desires. The fact that they are called “notions” and “imaginings” means that they are definitely not consistent with the truth or the facts; at the very least, they are not consistent with God’s intentions, God’s identity, and God’s essence. Therefore, these notions and imaginings are the first major thing that people should let go of. So what does the content that relates to notions and imaginings about God mainly include? In one respect, they include the pre-existing notions that people have about God before they come to believe in Him. In another respect, they include the new notions that people develop about God after they start believing in Him, and these new notions are more specific and realistic notions and imaginings. Before people come to believe in God, their hearts are full of imaginings about God, and these imaginings can also be said to be notions that are common to all human beings. It’s like how the Chinese call God “the Old Man in the Sky,” despite not believing in Him, and how Westerners—of whom a higher proportion do believe in God—call Him “the Lord.” Although many people don’t believe in God, most people believe that there is a God and are full of imaginings about Him, thinking that God exists among everything and towers over everything, and that He is omnipresent, omnipotent, and possesses great, incredible powers. So who exactly is this God? No one knows, but in any case, they know that God is the greatest and that He rules over everything. What is the specific image of God then? Every person, in their mind, harbors an idea of the appearance and image of God which they’ve imagined and determined. We have discussed these universal human notions and imaginings before, and they are not the main content of today’s fellowship. What we are going to fellowship on today are the various kinds of notions and imaginings that are opposed to God and inconsistent with His essence, which people ought to let go of, within all the different sorts of notions and imaginings that relate to the barriers between people and God and their hostility toward God. We will not talk about those hollow, unreal and inscrutable notions and imaginings. It could be said that, given your current stature, those things are basically not a problem and will not affect your pursuit of the truth, much less your following of God, and that even if some individuals still have some fanciful imaginings in their minds, these will not affect their following of God, and are therefore not that big a problem. The human notions and imaginings that we are going to fellowship on relate to people’s attitudes toward God in their everyday lives, as well as people’s performance of duties, the paths people take, and of course, they relate even more so to people’s pursuits. Among the various notions and imaginings that people have about God, first of all, people have a great deal of notions and imaginings about His work, which are much more realistic than the various imaginings that nonbelievers have about God, and are neither hollow nor inscrutable. They are things that exist in the mind of every person while they follow God. That is to say, people are filled with many fanciful and unrealistic notions and imaginings about God’s work. For example, people imagine that His work is full of miracles, and full of wonders that humans cannot foresee or achieve. Of course, people’s biggest notions and imaginings in this regard are that God’s work may be able to instantaneously make a person complete, or that, just by saying a few words or performing a miracle or wonder, God can transform a person in an instant and make them into someone who has broken free from the life of the flesh and the various practical difficulties of the flesh. This person, they imagine, neither eats nor drinks, and has no physical needs like a robot; furthermore, they believe that this person thinks in a pure way, with no selfish considerations, and that they are extremely holy within. They imagine that for this to be achieved, it’s not necessary to pursue the truth, or to fellowship on the truth or accept being pruned for years on end; instead, God can achieve all this with just a few words, because whatever God says will be accomplished and whatever He commands will stand fast. Especially in the beginning, when people had just accepted the third stage of God’s work, they were even more so full of all kinds of notions and imaginings about His work. When some people heard that “God’s work will soon end,” they didn’t know which year, month, or day it would end, and yet they felt anxious and even forsook their jobs and families. Some farmers stopped growing crops, and others stopped raising cattle and sheep. Some people even sold their properties and cars, withdrew all the money they had in the bank, gathered up their assets, and started to carry their gold, silver, and valuables on them, ready to follow God. This was because people thought that God’s work was ending, and that they no longer needed to live their lives, and they believed that God had broken up families and marriages, and that they should give up their marriages, jobs, and futures, and abandon all worldly pleasures to follow God. If someone asked them, “Where are you going with that suitcase and your whole family in tow?” they would say, “I’m going to the kingdom of heaven.” If they were then asked, “Where is the kingdom of heaven?” they would reply, “I don’t know yet, I’ll go wherever God takes me.” Regardless of whether they were acting on impulse or had thought it through, in any case, these manifestations reveal one fact, which is that people have a great deal of imaginings about God’s work. They don’t know how God will work to save them, or how they will feel or what kind of state and environment they will live in after He saves them. And as for what God’s intentions are exactly, or what result God wants to achieve through His work on people, they don’t know any of this either. So what do they know? They just remember one sentence: The day of God is near, the disasters have descended, God’s work will soon end, and we should forsake everything and follow God. This is the source and basis for the formation of all their notions and imaginings, and it is through these notions and imaginings that they have made all sorts of choices and decisions. What choices and decisions have they made? They have chosen to abandon the world, abandon their studies, abandon their careers, abandon their marriages, abandon their families, and even abandon fleshly, familial love, and so on, and having let go of all of these things, they are waiting for God’s work to end. What is their aim in waiting for God’s work to end? It is to be caught up and follow God. Caught up to where exactly? They think that no matter where they are caught up to, or exactly on which day they are going to be caught up, in any case, they won’t be going to hell. They believe that even if it isn’t heaven, they are going to a higher place, and that even if it isn’t heaven, or a physical kingdom, they can’t go wrong by following God, and that they’ll probably be caught up to wherever God is. Although these notions and imaginings that people have are consummate, can they come true? Has the moment they have been waiting for—the end of God’s work—arrived yet? (No.) And since God’s work has not yet ended, do people feel disappointed or anxious? Do they feel regretful? Some people are disappointed, right? Some people become negative when they encounter difficulties while doing their duty, or they feel regretful when they experience tribulation in their home life or when they suffer persecution and have no way out. Of course, it hasn’t been easy for some people to endure up to the present moment, but in their hearts they are indeed very anxious. What are they anxious about? They think, “Why hasn’t God’s work ended yet? How much longer will God’s work take? Should I go home and get on with my life? Should I go back to work and seek a future for myself in the world? Should I buy back my house? God doesn’t respond to us or give us a clear answer about this! Shouldn’t we be told when God’s work will end, and what other work He will do, so that we can be prepared? God doesn’t tell us these things, He just keeps expressing truths, fellowshipping truths, and talking about salvation. He never talks about what will come later, or about the future, or when humankind will enter a beautiful destination, or when the life of the flesh will end; He just makes us wait indefinitely.” People do not have knowledge of God’s work. More specifically, they are not clear on how God saves people, what methods He uses to save people, what specific work God carries out within all His work to enable people to be saved, and so on. Instead, they always live within their own notions and imaginings, and regard God’s work as a formality or as a fantastical kind of magic. It’s as if His work is just rhetoric and doesn’t have any specific content to it—God only has to say a few words and whatever He says will be accomplished, and whatever He commands will stand fast, and afterward people will change, and become just as predicted in the Book of Revelation, turning into holy ones and becoming sanctified. Regardless of what fanciful and hollow ideas people have about God’s work, whether they be specific or non-specific, in sum, people are full of notions and imaginings about His work, and they always live within hollow notions and imaginings in how they approach God’s work, and in how they approach every specific piece of work that God does and every specific thing He says to save humankind. Of course, the majority of people have only one notion and imagining about God’s work, which is that once God’s work is finished, people will have finally made it through, and as long as they can wait until His work is finished and survive at that time, then they will have won, and everything they have forsaken and offered up, and the hardships they have suffered, and the prices they have paid, will all have been worth it. Judging based on this, in one respect, people are full of all sorts of imaginings about God’s work. In another respect, people are not pursuing the truth in their belief in God; instead, there is gambling quality to their faith—they are betting their life and all their possessions, their future, their marriage, and everything they have, and they think that they just need to endure until God’s work is finished, and that as long as they are still alive when God proclaims that His work is finished, they then will have profited, and gotten back everything that they paid out. Isn’t that the way people think? (Yes.) Now that we’ve spoken so much about this, what are people’s main notions and imaginings about God’s work? (People believe that God’s work is full of miracles, and that God can cleanse people with just a few words, and they can enter the kingdom of heaven without needing to pay any price or pursue the truth.) These are notions and imaginings that people have about God’s work. What other notions and imaginings are there? (People don’t know exactly what result God wants to achieve through His work on people, and they think that as long as they can endure until God’s work is done, they will have hope of entering the kingdom of heaven.) This is also a notion and imagining—people think God’s work is just a formality and a procedure. What else is there? (In their belief in God, people are not pursuing the truth, instead there’s a gambling quality to their faith.) Is this a notion and imagining? This is the essence of people’s belief in God and the essence of their pursuit. What notions and imaginings are there within this? Isn’t it that people think that as long as they forsake everything and do a duty while following God, they will be changed, as if by magic? (Yes.) People’s thoughts are extremely hollow, concerned with supernatural things, and fanciful. People think that they don’t need to accept chastisement, judgment, or pruning, or the provision of God’s words, that they merely need to follow God in this way, doing whatever duties they are asked to, and that as long as they follow to the end, they will be changed, and ultimately enter the kingdom of heaven once God’s work is finished. Aren’t these people’s notions and imaginings? (Yes.)