What we just fellowshipped were the most severe manifestations of bizarreness in those who are devils. These manifestations are somewhat easier for people to discern. There are also some manifestations that are only slightly less severe. That is, in daily life, they often have some extreme thoughts and views, and extreme behaviors and practices; their actions often exceed the range that normal humanity can tolerate. For example, if they say or do something wrong, they hate themselves, slap their own faces, and even punish themselves by not eating during the day and not sleeping at night. They often use extreme methods to punish their flesh, using this as a way to show their determination to correct their errors. Someone might advise them, “Doing this won’t solve the problem. You must first reflect on and come to know yourself based on God’s words, then find the principles and path of practice, and only then can gradual change occur. Changing any kind of corrupt disposition is not something that can happen in one or two days; it requires a certain amount of time, there needs to be a process.” This is an accurate statement, but they neither accept nor practice it. They do not approach various problems based on the truth principles but adopt extreme measures. How extreme are they? Well, they often use methods that harm their own flesh and methods that torment themselves, to solve problems. Isn’t that extreme? (Yes.) They treat others this way too, using extreme methods against them. They also use extreme methods to treat various matters as well. For example, say a woman often feels she is very busy with her duty and feels that spending time cutting and washing her hair is too much of a hassle, so she simply shaves all her hair off. To reduce the frequency of shaving, she even applies some chemical products to restrict normal hair growth. Isn’t this extreme? Seeing that she’s bald, people assume she’s a man, but judging by her voice and figure, they think she might be a woman—they just can’t tell if she’s male or female. Only after asking other brothers and sisters do they learn she is female and shaved her head to save trouble. Some undiscerning people even give a thumbs-up to this, admiring such a person: “Look, her determination to rebel against the flesh is truly beyond ordinary people. Her hatred for the flesh is real hatred; she really takes action when it comes to not cherishing the flesh! One day I’ll shave my head like her too.” Some even imitate her! Aren’t they of the same kind? They’ve met a kindred spirit; not only do they lack discernment toward this matter, but they also greatly praise it and want to emulate it. Aren’t these extreme people? (Yes.) Tell Me, don’t extreme people do everything with a deviant driving force? (Yes.) Where does this deviant driving force come from? Is there this deviant driving force in normal humanity? (No.) Then why isn’t there this deviant driving force in normal humanity? Because, if people have the thinking, conscience, and reason of normal humanity, they will consider matters in a relatively normal, positive, and practical way; thus, they absolutely will not engage in these extreme behaviors. That is, no matter what they do, whether it’s something they like or not, they will behave normally and rationally, and will not go to extremes. Can it then be said that there is something wrong with the thinking of this type of person who goes to extremes? (Yes.) There’s some problem with their comprehension, isn’t there? (Yes.) For example, God requires people to be loyal in doing their duty. They ponder how to achieve being loyal and come to the conclusion that they must suffer hardship, so they practice suffering hardship: They follow regulations for every meal, eating a set number of grains of rice and pieces of vegetable; when their clothes wear out, they patch them and continue wearing them, appearing like ascetics to others; while others sleep six to eight hours daily, they sleep only one or two. They feel they have the resolve to suffer hardship and that they are more loyal than anyone else. They always ponder on these extreme thoughts and behaviors, which normal people cannot understand. For example, if they say something incorrectly or misuse a word while talking to someone and are laughed at, they feel disgraced and ponder: “I will never use this word again in my life, and that’s not all—I will never see this person again in my life, and never speak to this person, so they can’t find fault with me!” And they can do it—they can adhere to this. They can adhere to any extreme behavior or thought and view for a lifetime, and refuse to be persuaded by anyone. They just adhere like this, and they even have reasons and bases for their adherence, believing this is a manifestation of submitting to the truth, a manifestation of loving God, and a manifestation of loyalty. Tell Me, aren’t such people troublesome? (Yes.) Are they easy to get along with? (No.) Then how do their behaviors arise? Aren’t they caused by a kind of extreme thinking? They regard these extreme behaviors and manifestations as practicing the truth and persist in doing so. Aren’t these extreme thoughts and views the root of these behaviors in this type of person? They believe that doing things in this way is practicing the truth and expressing loyalty to God, and moreover, they inwardly condemn and discriminate against anyone who doesn’t do the same, showing disdain. For example, consider the woman mentioned earlier who shaved her head; seeing others not shaving their heads, she thinks, “Humph, you keep such long hair, even styling it in various ways. You’re all so vain; you don’t love god! Look at me, I’ve been bald for so many years and never feared being laughed at; I’m not vain. You keep your hair so long and have to wash it often—what a waste of time! With all that time, wouldn’t it be great to read more of god’s words and do a bit more duty?” She even condemns others! This type of person listens to so many of God’s words and listens to sermons for so many years, yet still doesn’t understand what the truth is. They still have many extreme thoughts, and under the guidance of these many extreme thoughts, they exhibit many extreme behaviors, practices, and styles, then define themselves as the ones who love God the most and are the most loyal. Isn’t this another manifestation of deviance? (Yes.) Going to extremes in everything is deviant. Tell Me, these extreme manifestations don’t harm others, so why do we say they’re deviant? (These manifestations do not conform to the thinking of normal people; they are not behaviors and practices normal people should have.) These extreme manifestations have no relation whatsoever to the thinking and manifestations of normal people; they are detached from reality, detached from the objective, practical lives that people with normal humanity should have. They adopt a radical approach to various matters, then define these extreme, radical thoughts, views, and behaviors as positive things, while defining the truth as a negative thing. Isn’t this confusing right and wrong, turning black into white? (Yes.) Confusing right and wrong, turning black into white, deceptively substituting concepts—this is deviance. No matter how you fellowship about normal humanity, conscience and reason, the thinking of normal people, or the thoughts and views normal people should have toward various matters, they cannot take it in, and inwardly they simply don’t accept it. Besides not accepting it, they even formulate some ridiculous and bizarre practices, behaviors, and even thoughts and views that are detached from the track of normal humanity, implement them in themselves, and simultaneously use this as the standard for measuring all people, events, and things, believing that whatever doesn’t conform to their extreme thoughts, views, and behaviors is wrong, while whatever conforms to their extreme thoughts, views, and behaviors is correct and conforms to the truth. Isn’t this confusing right and wrong? Isn’t this turning black into white, isn’t it deceptively substituting concepts? This is another manifestation of deviance in those reincarnated from devils. That is, they never accept positive things, but instead pass non-positive or negative things off as positive things for people to emulate and imitate, thereby achieving the goal of distancing people from God. This is also a kind of extreme behavior.

Those who are devils have another manifestation of deviance: They do not love the truth in the slightest. They like to pursue abnormal, supernatural things, always wanting to formulate a set of absolutely spiritual theories and sayings, even wanting to research the basis of these supernatural matters. They treat these things as truth, as guides, directions, and goals for actions in daily life, using them to deal with and judge all kinds of people, events, and things. For example, when things don’t go smoothly for them, they recall what dreams they had the previous night, whether any abnormal phenomena occurred around them, or if there were any inauspicious signs, trying to seek a basis therein to determine their fortune; these are the kinds of things they always pursue. Especially when encountering people with serious illnesses, they consider them inauspicious, believing that contact with such people will drain their own vital energy and bring bad luck. So, after contact with such people, they often look in the mirror to see if their forehead has darkened or if they have an air of misfortune about them. Ordinarily, they are always pondering just what their fortune will be like. Whenever they have an idle moment, they flip through the old almanac or search online for fortune-telling sayings. A dream they had, or a superstitious saying heard from others—they can take all these as a basis for judging whether their fortune is good or bad. Although they believe in God, they never use God’s words as a basis for treating the people, events, and things around them, nor do they use the truth as a basis for treating every event that happens around them. Instead, they always look for some unusual feelings. For example, if they feel a bit unwell while singing one day, they think, “Is god stopping me? Does god not want me to sing?” If they are going out to preach the gospel one day, even though they have clearly arranged the time and place with someone, they still have to pray to grasp the feeling in their spirit. After praying, they wait a few minutes, but feel nothing. Then they look to see if there are any abnormal phenomena with the sun that day, or if there are magpies chirping or crows crowing outside, using these to judge what their fortune will be like that day, whether going out to preach the gospel will be smooth, and whether they will gain people. If these methods don’t work, they will even toss a coin to decide whether to go or not. If it lands heads up, to them it means things will go smoothly and they’ll be able to gain people; if it’s tails up, it means things will not go smoothly and they won’t gain people. They decide whether to go out based on these things. No matter how long such people believe in God, they never use the truth as their basis or as their principle of practice. Instead, they always rely on those superstitious sayings or abnormal feelings and phenomena to judge people, events, and things, to deal with the various matters that happen around them, or to determine the principles by which they should practice. They always seek these baseless, bizarre, weird, supernatural feelings, and always act and live based on them. Some people, upon seeing a black cat as they go out, believe it represents bad luck, and would rather delay matters than go out. Some might have their car break down on the way to handle something, and they believe that it’s God stopping them, that their luck is bad that day, and that they shouldn’t have gone out. Some who see a coffin when going out believe they’ll get lucky with money that day. When doing anything, this type of person always seeks a basis in some sort of superstitious saying; they don’t have accurate principles of practice based on the truth. No matter how others fellowship or how God’s house carries out the work, they never learn to live and work according to the truth principles. If some abnormal phenomena occasionally occur at home, like a faucet suddenly breaking and leaking, they suspect it’s a bad omen. If a gust of wind occasionally blows open a window and the glass breaks, they feel, “This gust of wind isn’t normal; it seems like a sign of disaster. Is god stopping me from going out?” If it snows when they go out, they say, “Look, it snowed as soon as I went out. People often say, ‘Distinguished people attract wind and snow when they go out.’ It seems I’m a distinguished person!” Isn’t this nonsense? They use these weird and strange sayings as the basis for judging and deciding everything. For example, if the strap of their backpack gets caught on a doorknob when going out, they believe there’s a saying for and a significance to it. They quickly consult the almanac and see that this is the saying for going out to get things done at this time: “All matters unfavorable; not suitable for going out.” They ponder, “All matters unfavorable—that means I can’t do anything, I must stay at home. This is God letting me enjoy ease and comfort; it is God’s protection!” They even find a basis for this. Isn’t this ridiculous? No matter the situation, they feel there’s some saying for it. Isn’t this bizarre? Everything happening around them is seen as a bizarre phenomenon, and the basis for their handling of these “bizarre phenomena” is all sorts of bizarre sayings. They use these various bizarre sayings to treat everything that happens around them. Therefore, if you live with this type of person, you often feel they are particularly bizarre. They might suddenly say something that makes your heart pound, giving you the creeps. For example, hearing a dog bark late at night is very normal, but to them, it’s a major event. They must search for information, turn to divination and fortune-telling, to figure out what saying explains a dog barking at that hour. What will you feel after interacting and associating with them for a while? You will certainly be frequently disturbed by some absurd sayings. Will you have peace and joy in your heart? (No.) Without peace and joy, you will become ill at ease like them, needing to find a saying for everything. As you search and search, God will disappear from your heart, and your heart will be left with only those superstitious sayings. This means you are being disturbed by evil spirits, devils and Satans, to the point that your thoughts are agitated, your heart has no peace or joy, your thinking is chaotic, and you lose the manifestations of normal humanity. The normal order and patterns of people’s lives are thrown into complete disorder by these chaotic thoughts and chaotic sayings. No matter what happens, this type of person can explain it with some bizarre saying, and ultimately treat it in a ridiculous, weird way. This is deviance. There are even some people who, after being pruned by a leader, ponder: “This morning I felt something wasn’t right with my body. When washing my face, I noticed my forehead was dark. Sure enough, I got pruned today. See, there are signs. So, I must look in the mirror every day whenever I have a free moment. If I find my forehead is dark, I need to be careful—maybe I’ll get pruned, maybe I’ll run up against a wall or be frustrated in something.” When some people go to preach the gospel and see that the potential gospel recipient is a pretty good person with a heart that yearns and seeks, and can accept the truth when it’s fellowshipped, in addition to thanking God, they also ponder: “Yesterday I dreamed I was washing my feet in a spring. That spring represents wealth, and gaining wealth represents gaining someone through preaching the gospel. So, for gaining this person today, I must also thank god; god already gave a sign!” No matter what they encounter or what they feel, they always want to trace the root cause and always need to find a basis. Some people believe the superstitious saying, “Twitching on the left eye forecasts fortune but twitching on the right eye forecasts disaster,” and use this as a basis to judge the things that happen to them. They never put effort into the truth, nor do they seek the truth and use it as a basis to judge various matters. Their hearts are entirely filled with various bizarre, ridiculous, weird, and even supernatural sayings, thoughts and views, and heresies and fallacies; they are consumed by these things.

Some people appear quite normal on the outside; their life, work, and interactions with others show no extreme, supernatural, or bizarre manifestations. However, after associating with them for a long time, one discovers that their minds and hearts are entirely filled with all sorts of ridiculous, weird, and distorted superstitious sayings that originate from evil trends, and they use these sayings as a basis to judge the various matters that happen around them. Even when they recognize that things are under God’s sovereignty, arrangements, and protection, they still seek some sort of superstitious saying as a basis to explain such matters, interpreting God’s sovereignty and arrangements with superstitious sayings. Isn’t this deviance? (Yes.) After hearing so much truth, how is it that they still cannot understand the truth, cannot view problems with the truth, and cannot say a single thing that conforms to the truth? How can their hearts be devoid of truth, and instead be occupied by and filled with those heresies, fallacies, and superstitions? Isn’t this deviance? (Yes.) Some people even say, “You mustn’t step on ants! An ant is a living thing too. If you step on one and kill it, and it returns to the spiritual realm and reports you to the old man in the sky, you will suffer retribution.” “If you kill a fish, and its mouth is open facing you, that means it’s accusing you! You can’t eat that fish; if you eat it, you’ll suffer retribution! Killing chickens, dogs, oxen, pigs—that’s all taking life; you’ll suffer retribution for it!” Where do they get these heresies and fallacies? Don’t they hear them from this evil mankind? They pick up a saying here and a saying there, accepting all of them, and even treat these sayings as supreme commands, regarding them as highly as God’s will. Some people, after believing in God for several years, still say things like, “You can’t kill chickens. If you kill chickens in this life, you’ll become a chicken in the next life and be killed by someone. So, you can’t take life; you’ll suffer retribution for taking life!” They say this, but when it comes to eating chicken, they themselves can eat a whole one in a single meal. Isn’t this being deviant? Others say, “You can’t wear animal skins. After animals die, their souls can still feel. If you wear animal skins, it’s like draping yourself in the animal’s soul. If this animal died unjustly, it might find you and hound you, and once it starts hounding you, you’ll have no peace.” Tell Me, aren’t these sayings bizarre? (Yes.) Still others, seeing someone else wearing a hairpiece, also have something to say: “The original owner of that hairpiece you have might have died unjustly; their soul is still in the hair. If you wear their hair, their soul will follow you.” All sorts of bizarre, weird, and absurd sayings become things this type of person treasures in the heart; they are their supreme directives. They abide by these absurd and ridiculous sayings as if they were truth, and yet they believe they are following God’s way. Not only do they abide by them themselves, but they also tell others to do so. If others don’t comply, they even use terrifying, hair-raising sayings to threaten and intimidate them, forcing them to comply. Those who don’t understand the truth are intimidated by them. These weird and ridiculous sayings are some baseless rumors and fallacies spread by devils and Satan in the human world. For one thing, they interfere with and control people’s normal thinking and free will; for another, devils and Satan use these heresies and fallacies to occupy some people, making these people render service for them in this human world and become their outlets, the implementers of their various weird and bizarre thoughts. Therefore, judging by any manifestation of these bizarre people, their nature essence is wicked. They do not accept the truth in the slightest; they revere deviant things the most. This is exactly what the issue is. When people don’t understand the truth and lack discernment, they are often inadvertently influenced and misled by these bizarre and weird sayings. However, after people understand the truth, they know to determine what they should and shouldn’t do based on the judgment of normal reason and normal thinking, as well as how to act, what to uphold, and what to forsake when things happen to them. This is what people with normal humanity should understand and uphold, rather than using these weird and ridiculous sayings to discern, judge, and decide how to treat people, events, and things. After gaining discernment of this type of bizarre person, do you see their essence clearly? What is their essence? It is one of deviance. They do not honor God as great but honor Satan as great. Even when they want to speak about an aspect of the truth, thank God, or accept the environments God sets up, they search out a bizarre, weird, ridiculous, or absurd saying as their basis. For them, these weird and ridiculous sayings and views are above the truth and above God’s sovereignty. Therefore, the nature essence of this type of person is unquestionably a deviant essence. Because what they live by is the life of Satan, what they exalt, advocate, and admire is not the truth but Satan’s heresies and fallacies. Even if what you see is their personal behavior, the driving force behind these personal behaviors is the various thoughts and views of devils and Satan. Although they appear human on the outside, they are an outlet for, an inheritor of, and a witness for the various heresies and fallacies of devils and Satan. What they bear witness to and advocate are Satan’s heresies and fallacies, not the truth. This is the manifestation of their deviant nature essence.

Tell Me, is it a good thing for a person to be able to see angels? If one can truly see angels, that is of course a good thing. But if that angel is not a true angel but one impersonated by Satan, then seeing it is very dangerous. If Satan impersonates an angel and lets you see it, is this a good thing or a bad thing for you? (A bad thing.) Why do you say it’s a bad thing? Under normal circumstances, can mortal flesh see angels? (No.) Do humans have this faculty? (We do not.) To be precise, humans do not have the faculty to see Satan or angels, which are of the spiritual realm. But if you do see them, what’s going on? Doesn’t it mean that the faculty of your flesh has changed somewhat? (Yes.) That’s exactly what it is. When a preternatural phenomenon has occurred with the faculty of the flesh, was it changed by God, by something else, or by yourself? (It was probably changed by something else.) Then would God change it for you? (No, God doesn’t do such work.) While people are alive, would God, in order to make their faith firmer, change their faculties, allowing them to see angels or some things from the spiritual realm? Would God do these things? (No.) We can say with certainty that He would not. Before a person attains salvation, God absolutely will not do these things; this is certain beyond doubt. Then, if the faculty of your flesh suddenly changes and a preternatural phenomenon occurs—and it wasn’t changed by God, nor could you change it yourself—what’s going on? God wouldn’t do such a thing, and you couldn’t change it yourself. The only possibility is that Satan and evil spirits have been working on you; that is, Satan and evil spirits have misled and controlled you, making it so that you engage in supernatural practices, allowing you to see things normal people cannot see and hear words normal people cannot hear. This is absolutely not a good thing. If Satan lets you see things others cannot see, what is its purpose? Is it to broaden your horizons, to make you believe in the existence of the spiritual realm, or to give you faith in God? (No.) When Satan does this to you, does it have good intentions or good motives? (No.) Definitely not. Satan uses this preternatural faculty of yours to let you see some things you normally cannot see, thereby enticing you and making you more interested in matters of the spiritual realm. It gives you this little benefit, this little taste, and then lures you into accepting what it will do next. And what will that be? Will Satan bestow truth upon you? Will it supply you with life? No, it will corrode you, destroy the various innate faculties of your flesh, then take possession of you, snatch you away from God’s side, and make you forsake God. Whether Satan lets a person see angels or any phenomena from the spiritual realm, tell Me, is it a good thing? (No.) If someone can often see things others cannot see, or says they often see angels flying around on their rooftop, and says the angels are fair and clean, and often converse with them, what should you do upon encountering such a person? (Quickly stay away.) You must quickly stay away from such a person; don’t discuss anything with them. If you are interested in this matter and discuss it with them, that’s dangerous. Don’t say to them, “You’re in danger; you can always see things others can’t. You’re being deviant, I won’t associate with you anymore.” You don’t need to say these things; just be aware in your heart—that is enough. Devils and Satan have already targeted them, or this person is naturally a devil, not human. Humans cannot associate with devils. There is only one ultimate outcome for humans who associate with devils: being devoured by devils. When you encounter this type of person who experiences supernatural phenomena, no matter what weird or bizarre things they say, you absolutely mustn’t be curious. Quickly stay away from such people; do not observe them, study them, or try to change them, much less preach the gospel to them and have them believe in God. If you do that, you are too stupid. Even God doesn’t want people who are devils; yet you would bring a devil into God’s house and have them do duty. Can this benefit the church’s work? Not only will it bring no benefit, but it will also bring disturbance and disruption to the church’s work. Although you do this with good intentions, God will not remember it and will even condemn you; this is an evil deed. So you must never do such things. Whether it’s someone you are familiar with or not, whether it’s your family, closest relatives, or friends, or brothers and sisters you cooperate with—if they often see someone strolling in their yard or someone always peeking at them through the crack of the door, and they also frequently say they can converse with angels, that they can hear what God says to them, that they already feel they are victorious male children, that they are a firstborn son, someone who’ll be caught up—can you still treat such a person as a brother or sister? (No.) You must be clear in your hearts; do not mistake such people for brothers and sisters, don’t be foolish. If you are foolish and, upon seeing such people, think, “They are overcomers, firstborn sons, people who are perfected; they have the truth, I must get close to them,” then you are not just in danger, you will also be easily misled by them, which will be troublesome. You cannot discern people or see through to their nature essence. Would God do that kind of work? God does not save devils and Satans. The work God does is to supply people with the truth, allowing them, by understanding, practicing, and submitting to the truth, to achieve having the truth as their life, and to gain true knowledge and true fear of God, thereby completely breaking free from Satan’s influence and attaining salvation. This is the work God does. Only the truth can save people, not any strange sayings, heresies, or fallacies. These heresies and fallacies have no relation whatsoever to the truth; they can only mislead and corrupt people, and absolutely cannot enable people to attain salvation. For people to attain salvation, to achieve submission to God and shunning of evil, the only path is to accept the truth and practice the truth; there is no other path. Don’t try to pass some extreme methods or sayings, or ridiculous and weird sayings, off as the truth or replace the truth with them to attain salvation. None of these paths work; they are not from God.