How to Gain the Truth in Environments That God Sets Up

Once people understand the principles and purpose of God’s salvation of people and God’s sovereignty over everything, won’t their notions and imaginings about God in this regard be resolved to some extent? (Yes.) What should people understand in this regard? It is that, whether it is in all kinds of matters or one specific matter that God holds sovereignty over, people’s cooperation accounts for 80 or even 90 percent, and their thoughts and views, and their attitudes toward the matter in question are very important in the eyes of God. Don’t think that if you say nothing and don’t show your stance when things befall you, then God will pay no heed to you and ignore you. If you would like God to ignore you, then you’d be better off not believing in God. Since you are in God’s house and since God has selected you, God will absolutely not ignore you. All things are scrutinized in God’s eyes, all the more so you, a tiny person. Even if you were an ant, if you were selected by God, God would still constantly scrutinize you and lead you. Since God scrutinizes you, you just have to accept the things that befall you. Don’t avoid them—avoidance is not a wise choice. You must face them. Only when you face them and have a clear attitude will you have the opportunity, in the environments that He has set up for you, to gain the truths that God lets you understand, whereas avoiding them will not enable you to understand truths in your silence. Apart from truths regarding visions, other truths—namely all kinds of truths concerning human life and existence—are expressed through an environment or through the context of the behavior of a kind of person playing out. People can only truly comprehend the realities of these truths after they have gained real experience and understanding. Most people cannot see this point clearly, and their attitude toward the various kinds of truths is lukewarm, and they also constantly want to avoid these environments, and they do not wish to seek the truth regarding real problems. They neither learn to discern different types of people and events based on the truth, nor do they train at applying the truth to resolve various problems. No matter what befalls them, they have no attitude or views, and they don’t participate in fellowship and discussions. They are satisfied with just praying to God, reading God’s words, learning hymns, and fulfilling their duties every day, and that’s it. I will tell you one thing, which is that the characteristics of a laborer are that they are only willing to exert effort, and they are not interested in any aspect of truth or willing to be earnest regarding any aspect of the truth, and find doing so troublesome—this is a laborer. If you are not a servant of Satan, or some evil person or antichrist, then at best you can only be a laborer. But it is different for God’s people who can achieve salvation. They are not satisfied with merely laboring and exerting a bit of effort, but learn and understand various truths in all types of people, events, and things, and then view and deal with the various types of people and events based on these truths. In this way, the various truths are gradually worked into them, and gradually become their life and the principles for their actions and self-conduct. Only when the truth becomes your life will you be able to submit to God and fear God and shun evil; otherwise, this effect cannot be achieved. Don’t be afraid to experience things, and don’t be afraid to discern people. It’s not a bad thing that all kinds of events occur, and God holds sovereignty over this. With God holding sovereignty and making the arrangements, what do you have to fear? With God holding sovereignty and making the arrangements, then for you, the occurrence of an event is at the very least not malicious or a temptation. Rather, it is in order for you to learn lessons, to be edified and to benefit, and in order to make you perfect. If you can submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements, approach what happens to you as positive teaching materials, and seek the truth and learn the lessons you ought to learn, then the truth will naturally and imperceptibly be worked into you and become your life. Therefore, it is wrong for most people to adopt an attitude of indifference, avoidance, non-participation, and non-engagement, and to not express views or fellowship, when they are faced with various events—this is inadvisable. Why do I say it is wrong and inadvisable? This attitude shows God that you are not interested in His salvation or His good intentions, and that you are not interested in being made perfect by God, and pay no heed to it and reject it. When God sees that this is your attitude, will He still want to save you? And even if God does want to save you, how can He save you if you don’t cooperate? As the saying goes, “It’s a hopeless case,” and this saying refers to precisely this type of person.

Within God’s whole management plan, especially within this final stage of His work, He has expressed a great number of truths, and you have heard them all. No matter how many of them you have experienced or understood, at the very least you know them, so God will not do any additional work of intervention and facilitation. God just awaits your attitude, as well as your cooperation in everything that befalls you—He wants to see your attitude, your views, your pursuits, and the path you take. If, every time you face people, events, or things, God records that you have no attitude and no views, and that you always have nothing to say, then tell Me, are you not a fool? What people always have nothing to say? Isn’t it those who are deaf, mute, halfwits, or idiots? What God records is that you have no attitude, so when He ultimately gives you a score, zero points is what you will get. When something befalls you, God asks, “Are you willing to pay a price?” and you say, “Yes, I am!” and He asks, “Do you have resolve? Have you sworn an oath?” and you reply, “Yes!” If you only have this resolve, but when asked what you have gained from experiencing this environment, you have nothing to say, and you’ve gained nothing from every environment you have experienced, then in the end, when God gives you a score, it will only be two points. Why two points? It is because of that little bit of resolve of yours that you will have gained two points. Tell Me, will you not then be done for? Will you still have hope of salvation? Hope of salvation is obtained through you striving for it yourself. It is the fruit that you get in exchange for choosing to walk the path of pursuing the truth. So no matter what befalls you, don’t be afraid of it or avoid it, and don’t cover your head with your hands and retreat into your shell like a tortoise—instead, face it positively and proactively. If you are timid and afraid of things, and do not dare to give an assessment of anything—no matter who it relates to—for fear of getting exposed and being seen through by others if you say something wrong, and you are always afraid and never participate, this means you are forfeiting your chance! You may have put a lot of energy into doing your duty, but the fact is that you have already determined your own outcome long ago. In the end, you will only get two points, so are you not a two-bit fool? Isn’t getting two points the same as being a two-bit fool? And since you will only get two points, won’t your belief in God during this lifetime have been in vain? This is the final stage of God’s work, if your faith has been in vain this time, then your outcome will be set. God will never again do the work of saving human beings. This is the last chance—if you still do not strive for it and you let it slip by, and you cannot attain salvation, that will be such a pity! No matter how many years you have experienced God’s work, you must at least get a passing score, then there will still be hope of you surviving. If your labor isn’t even up to standard, and you have also caused many disruptions and disturbances, then you will not have reaped any fruit at all, and your hope of attaining salvation will have become zero. In every environment that God sets up, don’t be an onlooker; be a participant, be a part of it. But there is one principle that you must adhere to at a minimum: Don’t cause disturbances. You can participate and express your own opinions and assessments, and even if you speak like a layman and just speak words and doctrines, it doesn’t matter. However, you must participate in every matter with the principle and intention of seeking the truth, practicing the truth, and submitting to the truth—only then is there hope of your salvation. On what basis is the hope of salvation established? It is established on the basis of you being able to strive toward the truth, ponder on the truth, and put effort into the truth when each matter occurs. Only on this basis can you understand the truth, practice the truth, and attain salvation. However, if you are always an onlooker when matters occur—not giving any assessments or characterizations, and not expressing any personal opinions—and you have no views on anything, or, even if you do have views, you do not express them, and you do not know whether they are right or wrong, but just keep them under lock and key in your mind and think about them, then you will end up not having gained the truth. Think about it, this is like starving while sitting at a great feast. Are you not pitiful? In God’s work, if you have believed for ten years and have been an onlooker for all of that time, or you have believed for 20 or 30 years and been an onlooker for all of that time, then in the end, when it’s time to determine your outcome, the score God assigns to your record will be two points, and so you will be a two-bit fool, and your chance to gain the truth and your hope of being saved will have been completely ruined by yourself. In the very end, you will be labeled as a two-bit fool, and it will serve you right, won’t it? (Yes.) What’s the secret to not being a two-bit fool? (The secret is to not be an onlooker.) Don’t be an onlooker. You believe in God, so then you must experience God’s work in order to gain the truth. Some may ask, “So, are You asking me to participate in everything? But people say, ‘Do not comment on what is not your concern.’” Asking you to participate means asking you to seek the truth and learn lessons from the things you encounter. For example, when you encounter a certain type of person, you must gain discernment through their manifestations and the things they do. If they violate the truth, you must discern what it is they did that violates the truth. If others say that this person is an evil person, you must discern what it is they said and did and what manifestations of evildoing they have for them to be characterized as an evil person. If others say that this person doesn’t defend the interests of God’s house and helps outsiders at its expense, then you should make inquiries about what it is this person has been doing. And after making inquiries, it’s not enough just to know these things. You also have to ponder: “Could I do such things? If no one reminded me, I might do the same things too, and would I not then have the same outcome as that person? Wouldn’t this be dangerous? Fortunately, God set up this environment to give me a heads-up, which is the greatest protection for me!” After pondering on it, you realize one thing: You cannot follow the path which that type of person is following, you cannot be that type of person, and you must admonish yourself. No matter what things you encounter, you must learn lessons from them. If there are things you don’t fully understand and that you feel in your heart are odd, you should ask questions about them and find out about them, and ascertain the true state of affairs by seeking the truth. This is not curiosity; it is being earnest. Being earnest doesn’t mean going through the motions or following the herd—it is an attitude of taking responsibility. By gaining clarity about problems and then seeking the truth to resolve them, only then, when faced with the same kind of situation in the future, will you have a path of practice, be able to practice accurately, and have a feeling of being at peace and at ease. You are being earnest based on the principle of trying to understand the true state of the facts and from them gain the truth and learn how to view people and things, rather than following other people and going with the flow in all matters. Only by being earnest in your actions can you come to practice the truth and act based on the principles. Those who aren’t earnest are liable to follow other people and go with the flow, and in this way, they are likely to violate the truth principles. Say, for example, that someone consistently does their duty in a perfunctory way and so is disqualified from doing their duty. You say, “They seemed fine on the surface. How did I not notice that they were being perfunctory? Was I misled by them? In what ways were they muddling through their duty? What things did they do in a perfunctory way?” When someone else tells you a few of the ways in which that person behaved perfunctorily, you say, “That person really is good at pretending! They seemed fine on the surface, and they said really nice things. They said, ‘God has given us so much grace—we cannot be without conscience, we must do our duties properly!’ When I heard them say that, I thought they were doing their duty loyally; I never imagined that they were so perfunctory! Have I not been misled? I lacked discernment of people, I didn’t view people and things or treat people based on the truth principles. I just went by how nicely that person spoke, without looking at the results they got in their duty, or their specific behavior and manifestations, or their essence—in this matter I made a mistake. It turns out that people who outwardly appear to be good may not necessarily be truly good, and though they say nice-sounding things, they may not really do what they say, and they may not necessarily be people with conscience and humanity. From now on, I must view people based on God’s words, and learn to discern people. I cannot be fooled again!” You see, no matter what happens, as long as you are somewhat earnest and you seek the truth, and then draw conclusions, you will gain something. If you do reap these gains, isn’t that a good thing? (Yes.) You will have learned something and benefited somewhat in the matter of discerning people—this is what you gain from being earnest and putting in effort with regard to the truth. Suppose that you aren’t earnest in this way. When you hear that someone has been sent away because they were always perfunctory in doing their duty, you don’t ask, “Why were they perfunctory? Why were they sent away?” Instead you just think to yourself, “What’s the big deal about being perfunctory? In any case, I haven’t been sent away, so everything is fine.” In that case, will you have received a bit of a warning, learned a bit of a lesson, or developed a bit of discernment from this matter? No. Why won’t you have? Because you are not interested in or serious about such things, and you bear no burden at all for your own life entry or pursuit of the truth, and you are not interested in and don’t participate in other people’s fellowship on matters of pursuing the truth and of life entry, and at most, you just perfunctorily utter some words of agreement and that is all. Are there many people of this type? When things befall them, they particularly like to be perfunctory and go through the motions, and bear no burden at all for their own life entry or pursuit of the truth. Besides liking to gossip a bit when interacting with others, they have no interest whatsoever in things like those involving life entry or the lessons people should learn in the environments that God sets up. After they finish the little work they have at hand, they sit there staring off into space, just wanting to doze off or rest for a while, and they do not bear any burden at all for their own life entry. Aside from the bit of resolve and the few wishes they have, these people will ultimately gain no truths, and in the end, their total score can only be two, they will not be able to get rid of their two-bit foolishness, and so, in this lifetime they will be finished. If you are finished this time, then you really will be finished, and there will be no hope of you being saved, because your outcome will have been set. The score that a created being ultimately receives is directly linked to their outcome. If you receive a passing score, then your outcome will be that you are saved. If you do not receive a passing score, then you won’t have a good outcome. This is the time when people’s outcomes are finally determined, and once an outcome is set, it is permanent and will not change. There will not be another chance to strive for a good one and no chance to change it—your fate will be determined once and for all. Have you understood? Is this meant to frighten you? (No.) Think about it—God is doing the work of managing and saving humankind, and He is providing people with the various truths that they should possess—how many times can God do this kind of work? (Only this one time.) It has never been done before, and will never be done again. This is the only time, and once it is completed, God’s great work will be fully accomplished. What does “fully accomplished” mean? It means that He will not do it again, and has no plans to. Therefore, whatever the ultimate outcomes of people are this time, they will be finalized and will not change. God will not give people the opportunity to perform again or to live their lives again. The time that has passed will never come back, and there will not be any changes. So if you don’t seize this opportunity, you will lose the chance to be saved. If you ignore the various environments and the various people, events, and things that God has set up, are numb and dull-witted when it comes to them, and treat them indifferently, then you are a two-bit fool. Even you don’t take your own outcome and destination seriously, so who will pay any heed to you? You have been told this so many times but you don’t take it seriously, so what are you if not a two-bit fool? Nothing is so important as the matter of being saved. Is that not the case? (Yes.) Of course, as I just said, a person’s ultimate outcome is determined by their overall manifestations in the various environments that God holds sovereignty over, so people should pay attention to their overall manifestations in daily life. The intention here is not to ask you to gossip and get drawn into disputes, but to get you, on the basis of your existing environment and conditions, and to the greatest extent possible, to come to understand the truth and enter into the truth, to embark on the path of pursuing the truth, and to strive to more or less enter into the three items of “letting go” that we have fellowshipped on, before God’s work is finished—then you will have passed with a score of 60 or more, and you will be a saved person. However, if you don’t even get close when it comes to any of these three items, or if you don’t pass in any of them, and if you have no actual entry into any of them, then you will not get a passing score, and you will not be an object of salvation. Have you understood? (Yes.)

What should you all focus on putting into practice now? Seeking the truth and learning lessons in the environments that God sets up. If every day you are content to just exert effort and perform work without pursuing the truth at all, then you are just a laborer. If you have exerted effort, experienced the various environments set up by God, and understood some truths; and regardless of how many truths you’ve gained, you have ultimately made gains, whether they be big or small, many or few; and even if it took you a very long time to gain these things and your progress was slow, you are at the very least in the stream of God’s work, and you are someone who has made gains; then you will have a chance of being saved. What is the most basic thing you should do now? You should step out from all the various kinds of complicated and meaningless affairs and set your heart on pursuing the truth; you should strive to, within a short period of time, get a handle on your various states, to come to know your Achilles’ heel, your weaknesses, and your problems, and to then seek the truth to resolve them, so that you have a path to follow and a goal to pursue, and clear truth principles to abide by in the duty you do. You should have a clear goal and direction to pursue with regard to your own deficiencies, your own duty, and your own environment, instead of running around like a headless chicken, ending up wherever your legs blindly take you, which is dangerous. You have to get rid of the state and the present situation of your life whereby you only exert effort but do not gain the truth. Don’t be an onlooker, and don’t get drawn into all sorts of disputes. If you don’t want to get drawn into them, you must learn to put effort into the truth principles. If you understand each of the truth principles, you will be able to escape these sorts of disputes. Why do I say that? Only when you have understood the various truths can you enter into them and have hope of entering into the truth reality. Then when you participate in various things, you will have principles and know how to face these things. If you just stop being an onlooker, but are completely muddled about every truth, and do not understand any truths, and all you understand are doctrines and a few words, and you don’t know how to discern different kinds of people, and when you encounter issues you only talk about the course of events, and make a judgment on who was right and who was wrong and nothing more, and in the end you do not gain the truth, then your participation in any matter is worthless. What does this kind of participation turn into? It turns into provoking disputes. Therefore, you must learn to put effort into the truth principles, and once you become increasingly clear on applying them—and you do so with increasing accuracy—you will have hope of entering into the truth, and then you will also have hope of being saved.

With regard to how people can gain the truth in the environments that God has set up for them, how many principles of practice did we just fellowship on in total? Don’t be an onlooker, and what else? (Don’t just exert effort.) Get rid of the kind of state in which you are satisfied with just exerting effort but unwilling to pursue the truth. What else is there? (Don’t get drawn into all kinds of disputes.) Don’t get drawn into all kinds of disputes, don’t get caught up in all kinds of complicated affairs—don’t replace abiding by the truth principles with these things. You should abide by all of these principles. If you hold fast to them, you will not be far from pursuing the truth and will soon be able to enter into the reality of pursuing the truth. Is this easy to put into practice? I have interacted with people in the church for so many years, but very few people ask Me questions about life entry or questions involving the truth principles, and very few people talk about their personal states and then seek paths of practice. Instead, some people ask questions that have nothing to do with the truth, and they even use words such as “seek.” When I hear the word “seek,” I listen very attentively and seriously, giving them My full attention, but when it turns out they are asking about a trivial external matter, I feel disgusted. I say, “The matter you are asking about has nothing to do with the church’s work or life entry. Don’t use the word ‘seek.’ You are insulting the word ‘seek.’” Can the word “seek” be used improperly? (No, it can’t.) Someone even asked Me, “My child has a mole on his back. Some people say that this mole means that he is ill-fated, and others say that there may be a potential risk of illness in the area where the mole is growing. Anyhow, I don’t care if he is ill-fated or not, but if it really is harmful to his health, do You think this mole should be removed?” If you were asked this, how would you answer? Do you think this relates to the truth? Does it relate to the church’s work? (No, it doesn’t.) It doesn’t relate to either of these things, so am I obliged to concern Myself with this matter? (No.) I am under no such obligation. So I said, “The fact that your son has a mole on his body has nothing to do with the truth. Don’t ask Me about it, go and ask a doctor. I am not your family doctor.” Do you think I should concern Myself with this matter? (No, You shouldn’t.) No matter who you ask, no one would be willing to concern themselves with this matter. It’s not that they are afraid of taking responsibility. Rather, it’s that they have no obligation to concern themselves with such things. Would removing or not removing your son’s mole affect the church’s work? Would it affect your own performance of your duty? This matter has nothing to do with Me. Don’t ask Me about it, this is a pointless matter. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the truth, and yet you still use the word “seek.” You defile the word “seek”—it’s disgusting! Someone also asked: “A turtle has gotten into my yard, should I catch it or not? I want to seek from You.” He put forward this question to seek an answer from Me—do you think I should answer him? (No.) He said, “What if I am breaking the law by catching it? If I am breaking the law and You don’t stop me, You’ll be responsible!” What would you say? (You decided to catch it of your own free will—you breaking the law has nothing to do with me.) Whether you break the law or not is your business, and has nothing to do with Me. You can ask Me questions about things such as the principles of the church’s work and the truth principles, but when it comes to legal matters, go find a lawyer—consult a lawyer in whichever country you live. I am not a lawyer, so don’t ask Me about such matters. I am here to express the truth and do the work of saving humankind. I only provide the truth and fellowship on the principles. As for whether you can be saved or not, that has nothing to do with Me; that is your own business. And that is to say nothing of the private matters in your own life—you even more so should not ask Me about them, and I am under no obligation to answer you. That’s how it is, right? (Yes.)

This topic pertaining to God’s work is inextricably linked to people’s final outcomes, so people cannot carry notions and imaginings with them when they accept and experience God’s work; they should let go of these notions and imaginings from the root and they should not allow them to exist between themselves and God. Only by approaching God’s work with correct thoughts, views, and attitudes can people have the opportunity to understand and gain the truth; only by approaching God’s work with correct attitudes and correct thoughts and views can people truly understand and experience God’s work, and ultimately, from within God’s work, gain the truths they ought to gain. Therefore, no matter what you let go of, in sum, it is all to enable you to get on the right track and embark on the path of pursuing the truth, the final result and purpose being none other than to enable you to understand the truth principles and gain the truth. This is the ultimate purpose of our fellowshipping on this content. Whatever we have fellowshipped on, the ultimate purpose is to enable people to enter into the truth reality. If you understand the truth, and you have the truth principles as your basis in many matters, and you are no longer directionless, aimless, or lost in doing things, this does not mean that your caliber has improved, but that you have God’s truth, God’s words, as the criteria for your actions and self-conduct. That is, on the basis of your inherent caliber, abilities, and talents, you have understood the truth and you have criteria for your self-conduct, and so you are a created human being who can live independently in this world and among all things. Only such a human being is truly up to standard as a created human being—this is a standard created human being. Have you understood? (Yes.) Then here ends our fellowship for today. Goodbye!

July 15, 2023