The First Practice for Pursuing the Truth: Letting Go

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

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

For a while now, we have been fellowshipping on the topic of pursuing the truth. The content involved in this topic is quite broad, but no matter how broad the content is, it is inseparable from some issues that people encounter in their daily lives that relate to how they view people and things, and how they conduct themselves and act, isn’t it? (Yes.) These are real issues in people’s lives. They are not divorced from people’s daily lives, nor are they divorced from people’s normal humanity. These issues include people’s attitudes and views toward various things, as well as all sorts of major matters that people encounter in their existences and on their life journeys. The content of our last fellowship concerned one aspect of practice within “letting go” in “How to Pursue the Truth”—letting go of the barriers between oneself and God and one’s hostility toward God. What does this practice involve? It involves the relationship between people and God, doesn’t it? (Yes.) The content of the past few fellowships concerned how one should view all kinds of people and all kinds of things according to the principles and standards that God requires, and how to handle all kinds of people and all kinds of things. The content of our last fellowship concerned the relationship between people and God, and informed people how they should let go of the various notions and imaginings that do not accord with God’s intentions, do not accord with God’s requirements, and do not accord with the truth principles. These are real problems that exist between people and God on the journey of believing in God and in the process of existing. We divided this big topic of “letting go of the barriers between oneself and God and one’s hostility toward God” into four aspects: The first is notions and imaginings, the second is unreasonable demands, the third is guardedness and suspicion, and the fourth is scrutinizing and prying. We began our fellowshipping with notions and imaginings. The first point within notions and imaginings relates to God’s work—that is, what notions and imaginings people have about God’s work. We did some fellowshipping on this. Our fellowship on this point was concerned with how people view God’s work, and what deviations, notions, and imaginings people have in their knowledge and ideas about God’s work; these notions and imaginings are something that people should let go of. If people let go of these notions and imaginings and seek the truth, they will be able to know God’s work and have a pure comprehension of God’s words. When God’s work does not conform to people’s notions and imaginings, they should reflect upon and try to know themselves, and they should also let go of their own notions and imaginings, rather than relying on them to gauge what God’s work should be like, or what the effect is that God intends to achieve in people with His work. People’s notions and imaginings about God’s work have a direct impact on people’s life entry and their attitude toward God, so these notions and imaginings are also something that people must let go of. For example, we fellowshipped that God does not change people’s inherent caliber, personality, instincts, and so on, that the innate attributes that people are born with and the instincts of their flesh are not the targets of God’s work, and that His work targets people’s corrupt dispositions, and the things within people that rebel against God and are incompatible with God. If people imagine that God’s work aims to change their caliber, their instincts, and even their personality, habits, living patterns, and so on, then every single aspect of their practice in daily life will be influenced and swayed by their own notions and imaginings, and there will inevitably be many distorted parts or extreme things. These distorted parts and extreme things are not in line with the truth principles and will cause people to deviate from the conscience and reason of normal humanity, and to disengage from the trajectory of normal humanity. Say, for example, that in your notions and imaginings, you believe that God wants to change people’s caliber, abilities, and even their instincts; if you think these are the things that God wants to change, what kind of pursuits will you have? You will have distorted and tightly-held pursuits—you will want to pursue superior caliber, and you will focus on learning various kinds of skills and mastering various kinds of knowledge so that you come to have superior caliber and superior abilities, and superior insight and self-cultivation, and even some capabilities that are superior to those of ordinary people—in this way, you will pay attention to outward abilities and talents. What, then, are the consequences of such pursuits on people? Not only will they fail to embark on the path of pursuing the truth, but they will instead take the path of the Pharisees. They will compete with each other to see who has superior caliber, who has superior gifts, who has superior knowledge, who has greater capabilities, who has more strengths, who has higher prestige among people and is looked up to and esteemed by others. In this way, not only will they be unable to practice the truth and act according to the truth principles, but they will instead head down a path that leads away from the truth.

F. God’s Work Does Not Change People’s Innate Conditions; It Aims to Change Their Corrupt Dispositions

1. God’s Work Does Not Change People’s Innate Conditions

God’s work is to transform people’s corrupt dispositions, and their various fallacious thoughts and views that violate the truth, within the scope of their normal humanity, so that their conscience and reason can be restored and optimized. In other words, the more you understand the truth, the more normal your conscience and reason will become, and they will also continue to develop in a beneficial direction; this is not supernatural at all. What do I mean by this word “normal”? If people have an awareness of conscience and a sense of justice, they will become kind—to put it in the words of man, they will be understanding, upright, reasonable, and not obstinate and prone to distortions. This is the effect that God intends to achieve with respect to people’s humanity. As people understand the truth more and more, one incidental effect is that their humanity becomes more and more normal. However, if people pursue according to their own notions and imaginings, these notions and imaginings will exert a great deal of negative influence and negative guidance on their pursuits, and will lead them onto all kinds of distorted and obstinately followed, extreme, and fallacious paths. For example, in people’s notions and imaginings, they believe that God’s work intends to elevate people’s humanity, and to enable people to transcend human instincts, human caliber, and even human age and gender. When people have notions like these, they will pursue, endeavor, and grope along in this direction. What things will they focus on then? In one regard, they will focus on knowledge, abilities, skills, gifts, and talents; in another regard, they will focus on supernaturalness. Do you know what the manifestations of supernaturalness are? (Does it mean that, in some things, people will directly undergo qualitative changes without paying a price?) It’s like when someone doesn’t usually read God’s words, but something happens to them, and God’s words suddenly appear in their mind, or when someone has never been able to sing or dance, but after being inspired they can suddenly sing and dance, and even dance pretty well, or when someone has never learned a foreign language, but suddenly they can speak a foreign language. Are these things supernatural? (Yes.) For example, suppose that you have to go out for an urgent matter, but you don’t know how to drive, and in desperation you pray, and immediately you feel all fired up, and suddenly you know how to drive, and you even drive as steadily as an experienced driver. Someone asks you, “How do you drive so well?” You say, “I don’t know either. This is all done by God; I was moved by the Holy Spirit. Look, these hands of mine are not my own hands anymore; they are being held by the Holy Spirit!” In actual fact, the Holy Spirit is not doing this; instead, another kind of spirit has entered into you and is manipulating you, such that you have become a different person and cannot control yourself. Is this not transcending one’s intrinsic capabilities? This is supernatural, isn’t it? (Yes.) What does supernatural mean? Is this a good phenomenon? (No, this makes a person abnormal.) If you can suddenly know a language, have a skill, or understand some knowledge without studying for a period of time or being guided by any expert, that is supernatural. If a person’s life disposition has changed without them needing to pursue the truth, seek, wait, or experience things, isn’t this a frightful matter? (Yes.) If there are still many things of notions and imaginings in your mind and in your subconscious, then you should let go of them and not pursue them, because they are not true knowledge of God’s work, and they do not align with the methods and principles of God’s work. God’s work absolutely will not transcend your normal humanity, and the effect achieved by God’s work in you absolutely is not that of transforming your normal humanity into an elevated, supernatural humanity. What’s more, God would not transform you from a normal person into an unusual person. Say that, in the process of experiencing God’s work, your conscience becomes increasingly sensitive, and you develop a greater sense of shame. You become kind, able to be considerate of God’s intentions, and able to safeguard the church’s work and the interests of God’s house. Furthermore, your words and actions do not go against your conscience and reason, you gradually become able to act in accordance with the truth principles, and you can identify all kinds of people, events, and things based on God’s words. This proves that the path you are walking in your belief in God is correct. But suppose that you still focus on listening out for some voice when you pray, and await some inspiration, flash of light, or supernatural revelation when you seek from God and beseech God. Moreover, your conscience and reason have not been restored or corrected in any way, and you have not come to possess a sense of justice or to submit to God. This proves that there are problems with your pursuit and the path you are walking, and it could also be said that you have not embarked on the path of pursuing the truth at all. You often also subconsciously seek to become a supernatural person, and often feel that you should transcend the flesh—not feeling hungry if you don’t eat, and not feeling tired or sleepy if you don’t sleep or rest for several days—and you even seek to suddenly understand and master things that you don’t understand or haven’t learned in the process of doing your duty when you urgently need them. These imaginings about supernatural things all come from human notions and imaginings. Because people haven’t experienced God’s work, they are naturally full of imaginings about His work. In fact, God’s work is the most real and practical of things. God never acts according to people’s notions and imaginings; He never performs this kind of work on people. He only does a bit of supernatural work under very special circumstances and on very few people, but this work is merely temporary and something that’s needed in special situations—it is not a method of work that is often manifested in people within God’s salvation. In His management work, God intends to save people, to enable them to cast off their corrupt dispositions and attain salvation, and the basic method by which God works is to provide people with the truth, so that they can practice according to the truth principles after they understand the truth. Therefore, no matter what notions and imaginings you have in your mind and in your subconscious, no matter how logical your notions and imaginings are or how much they meet your spiritual needs—no matter what the reasons are, they will always be notions and imaginings, and you should let them go and not cling onto them. No matter to what extent God’s work is done, and no matter how long it goes on, people will always be people and they will never become angels. Even if you turn white from head to toe, with white hair, a white painted face, and a white top and white pants, and you also put on two wings, you cannot become an angel—people will always be people. Moreover, “people” here refers to people with the conscience and reason of normal humanity, not extraordinary people, and even less so unusual people. These people are not supernatural at all, but they are clearly different from the nonbelievers who do not believe in God, in that they do not commit evil, they can put the truth into practice once they understand it, and they understand how to view people and things, and conduct themselves and act based on God’s words, and according to God’s requirements and the truth principles, rather than living by their corrupt dispositions and by the various thoughts and views that Satan instills in people. No matter how long people have pursued according to their own notions and imaginings in the process of believing in God, and no matter how much they feel they have gained, it does not count in the eyes of God, and God does not remember any of it. What am I referring to when I say this? Namely that if you, based on your notions and imaginings, restrain all the various normal needs of your flesh, or try hard to change your instincts, caliber, abilities, personality, living patterns, and life habits, then no matter how hard you try to restrain and change these things, even if you are able to get some results, it does not mean that you have already gained anything on the path of practicing the truth, and even more so, it does not mean that you are already someone who pursues the truth—God does not remember these things. Have you understood? (Yes.)

Although people’s notions and imaginings are invisible and outwardly do not seem to force people to say or do anything, or to walk any kind of path, they tightly control people’s thoughts and inner selves, deep in their hearts and in their subconscious. Why is this the case? It is because the things that people love and pursue fit with their notions and imaginings all too well, and these things also pander to the needs of the human flesh and satisfy all manner of human desires and curiosities. For example, in people’s notions and imaginings, they believe that God’s work intends to transform them into extraordinary beings who are different from ordinary people, and that, when they are moved by the Holy Spirit, they will be able to speak several languages. This obviously transcends people’s intrinsic capabilities and the scope of normal humanity, but to a very great extent it satisfies their vanity, curiosity, and competitiveness. In other words, before people have gained the truth, they like some supernatural things, and these things make them feel important and superior to and different from ordinary people—this is exactly what corrupt humankind loves and yearns for. Everyone hopes to be a standout among the human race, to be different from everyone else, to be unique and one-of-a-kind, and to be looked up to and admired by others. For example, there is a phenomenon among corrupt humankind that if only one item of something is produced, those people who are rich and prominent will feverishly compete to buy it. To what extent will they do this? To the extent that this product ends up being sold at a price that is several or even over ten times higher than its original price. The person who manages to buy it thinks, “Look, I snagged this thing that’s the only one in the world. I’m really powerful, aren’t I? I’m better than others, aren’t I? No one else is as capable as I am!” In their own mind they feel pleased with themselves, and feel that they are special, extraordinary, and highly capable. What kind of disposition is this? (Arrogance.) This is caused by an arrogant disposition. Some people feel uncomfortable when they wear the same item of clothing as another person. If they wear an item of clothing that other people can’t afford and have never seen before, and everyone who sees it is envious, how do they feel? (Pleased with themselves.) They feel particularly pleased with themselves, and they think that they are like no other and a cut above the rest. What kind of disposition causes this? (Arrogance.) This is also caused by an arrogant disposition. You see, almost 100% of people have this mentality: If they have mastered a technical or professional skill, they think they are better than others and that no one is as good as them. If someone else also masters the same technical or professional skill, they will be jealous of that person and desperately wish that no one could match them. Why do they have such a mentality? (They want to become like no other.) If they are the only one who masters this professional skill, they are superior to the average person in their group. Having knowledge of this technical or professional skill, they fear that others will learn it from them. If others seek help from them, will they teach them? (No, they won’t.) They will only teach you some simple things; as for the most important and crucial things, they will not teach those to anyone, and they will leave you to figure them out yourself. What are they actually thinking? “If I teach it to you, then how can I stand out? If everyone could do it, then wouldn’t I become just a regular person? If none of you know how to do this, then I’m the most superior person here, and you all have to curry favor with me—that way I get to feel important, don’t I? Am I not the one with the highest status and the most capable among you? I’m the top dog among you, am I not?” Having some knowledge of a professional or technical skill, they are deeply afraid that others will learn it from them, and don’t want others to be the same as them. They will feel upset if anyone has the same professional or technical skill or specialty as them, so they are always thinking up ways to learn something in order to surpass others. They want to be superior to others and always want to outshine others to feel important. Is this the correct pursuit? (No.) Precisely because corrupt humankind has such yearnings and pursuits, they naturally develop all sorts of notions and imaginings about God’s work, and seek to be a cut above other people, to have status and prestige, to feel important, to become like no other, and even to become superhuman or extraordinary people in the eyes of others. Therefore, people should let go of these notions and imaginings about God’s work. In terms of specifics, how should this be practiced? Do not pursue superior gifts or talents, and do not pursue changing your own caliber or instincts, but rather, under your inherent conditions—such as caliber, abilities, and instincts—do your duty according to God’s requirements, and do each thing according to what God asks. God does not demand what is beyond your abilities or caliber—you should not make things difficult for yourself either. It is fine if you just do your utmost based on what you understand and what you can achieve, and practice according to what your own conditions allow. For example, if your caliber and talents only allow you to be suitable for the role of team leader, then do a good job as a team leader, sorting out whatever jobs and professional skills are within the scope of this role, tackling them one by one, and implementing them according to the methods and principles that God has taught you—in this way, you will come to satisfy God. Suppose that you go by your notions and imaginings, and think, “Since I am capable of being a team leader, if I strive more to do better, endure a bit of hardship and pay a bit of a price and the Holy Spirit does great work on me, then won’t I be able to become a church leader or the leader of a decision-making group? People may think that I don’t have it in me, but I will beseech God—nothing is difficult for God to achieve! I don’t want to be a team leader. I will pray to God, asking Him to let me shoulder greater work, to let me become a leader or worker.” Is this kind of pursuit right? (No, it’s wrong.) Why do you say that it’s wrong? (Such people always want to do things that are beyond their own caliber and abilities, and aren’t able to stick to doing their own work based on their own caliber and talents, keeping to their proper place.) It is not appropriate to always want to be superhuman; this is not what a normal person should pursue.

Some people often say, “Nothing is difficult for God”; this saying is a fact, and everyone can understand that. But some people have distorted comprehension, they believe that anything which is impossible for people to do can be accomplished for them by God if they just pray to Him, and that by relying on God in this way, people can transcend their own instincts and become superhuman. Is this really the case? (It’s not.) The saying “Nothing is difficult for God” obviously refers to God’s power and essence, God’s almightiness, and also to God’s sovereignty over all things—there is nothing God cannot accomplish. However, it does not mean that people must transcend normal humanity and become supernatural; no matter how almighty God is, the work He does on people is based on their normal humanity and is done within the scope of normal humanity. God orchestrates and maneuvers all things, He maneuvers people, events, and things, so that they render service to His accomplishment of all kinds of things, accomplishing the facts that He is about to accomplish. During the period in which God accomplishes all kinds of things, people are still in normal humanity—nothing has changed about them, and they are still people. No matter how almighty God is, and no matter what methods God uses to exercise sovereignty over something or to accomplish something, created humans are always created humans; they still live in normal humanity and are not supernatural in any way. Would you all say that these are facts? (Yes.) What does “not supernatural” mean? It means that, when God orchestrates people, events, and things, people cannot help but live, survive, do each thing, and live in the present moment under God’s orchestration. But when you live in the present moment, is your consciousness fuzzy? (No.) You are still clear-headed. So, has your caliber instantly improved or changed? (No.) It remains the same as it was originally. Have your instincts instantly changed, then? No, they haven’t either. Under God’s sovereignty, orchestrations, and arrangements, no matter how many things you experience, there is no change whatsoever in your personality, habits, living patterns, and in the caliber, abilities, and various functions of your normal humanity. It is just that, when people experience God’s work, they experience all types of things and people in their own respective environments, with the end result being that, during the process of experiencing God’s work, they gain insight and learn some lessons. If they are people who pursue the truth, then they are able to reap a harvest in terms of the truth and knowing God. In the process of experiencing God’s work, people’s thinking is normal, their consciousness is not fuzzy, and their caliber, abilities, and instincts remain the same as they originally were, without any change. Therefore, “Nothing is difficult for God” refers to God’s almightiness and God’s orchestration of all things. It does not refer to making people supernatural or changing the essence of created humans. God does not change people’s essence; humans are still humans, and no matter if you are male or female, there is no change whatsoever in this respect. God orchestrates everything, and God is omnipotent; this is what God has and is, and this is what God possesses. “Nothing is difficult for God” does not mean that people have become supernatural, nor does it mean that people are omnipotent. Even if some individuals can sometimes achieve certain things that are beyond their own caliber or beyond their bodily instincts, it is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is God who has given them this gift; it is not that they were born with this ability. This is because created humans do not have the ability to change all of this which God has ordained. I will provide a simple example regarding the matter of human instinct. When people hear a frightening sound, for instance, they will feel afraid and instinctively cower. No matter how old you are, you have been like this since childhood, and you will still be like this until you meet your death—this is instinct. What does “instinct” mean? It is an inherent function of the physical body and it will never, ever change. Only by possessing inherent instincts can a normal person maintain the life and survival of normal humanity, so human instincts are not something that God intends to change. Have you understood this? (Yes.) What does “God is omnipotent” refer to? (It refers to God’s own authority and God’s almightiness.) Does it have anything to do with people? (It has nothing to do with people, and it doesn’t mean that people can do supernatural things.) It doesn’t mean that under God’s control, people are omnipotent; even when people are under God’s control, they cannot achieve omnipotence. Why is that? (Because people are not God; people are just created beings, whereas God is unique.) That’s right, that is how it is. People will always be people. They will not become another species, and, of course, they even more so will not become God; people’s attributes will not change. People’s attributes will not change, so will their instincts change? (No, they won’t.) People’s instincts will not change, nor will their life habits and living patterns, or the inherent personalities that are given by God. Take living patterns, for example. Humans, like most creatures, work after the sun rises and rest after the sun sets. When they get up in the morning, and their brains are well rested and their bodies feel comfortable, they start work; at night, when their bodies start to become tired, and they are yawning and their brains are exhausted, they start to enter a resting state—this is a very normal living pattern. This is a common trait of humans, and it is also a human instinct, and of course it is also a living pattern that God has established for humankind. This pattern is determined according to the rotation of the sun, moon, and stars, and the rising and setting of the sun. If you break this living pattern, in the short term there may not be any major problems—when you occasionally feel tired and want to sleep, you can exercise self-restraint and drink some tea or coffee, and your physical fatigue will be somewhat relieved—but over the long term, your body will develop problems. Why will it develop problems? Because you have violated the living pattern that God has established for people. When your body develops problems and you go to see a doctor, they will say, “You must go to bed early at night, resting by 10 o’clock, and getting up at 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning; in a few months, you will be well again.” After three months of following the doctor’s advice, all your symptoms of bodily discomfort will basically disappear, so you will think to yourself, “It turns out that the problems with my body weren’t some serious illness, but were caused by me not following this normal pattern in my life.” See, wouldn’t you say that people’s living patterns cannot be broken? (Yes.) This living pattern of humans is the same as that of other creatures; they all work after the sun rises and rest after the sun sets. Of course, there are some creatures, like owls, that rest during the day and come out and become active at night; their living pattern is different from that of humans and other creatures, but if you wanted to break this pattern of theirs, that would be impossible. In addition, some creatures hibernate in winter. Do human beings have this pattern? (No.) No, humans don’t need to hibernate. The life of humans has a pattern—they rest for one or two days per week, they work after the sun rises and rest after the sun sets, and constantly maintain this normal pattern of work and rest, and in this way their lives can be safeguarded and their survival maintained. Human beings have their own living patterns, and these living patterns were established by God. They are all meaningful and they are all for the purpose of maintaining the normal life and survival of humankind. Therefore, God’s work absolutely will not break the patterns of human life and survival as people imagine that it will, and you should also let go of this notion and imagining. If humans were to forcibly break these patterns that God has established for them, or if humans were to constantly want to change them due to being governed by some ideas about supernatural things, then that would be stupid. If you think that changing them will elevate your life and improve your humanity, then try changing them and see how long you are able to live, see how things change in the days that follow, and whether your normal humanity is elevated, and whether you become a superhuman, or an angel. If you believe that God’s work should have a supernatural element to it, and that it should change your living patterns, and you also want to forcefully change them to make yourself become transcendent, then you can give it a try. It may be that after trying for several years, you really do change the patterns of your life and survival. There is only one situation where this could happen, which is that your physical body will no longer exist, at which point you will truly be supernatural and turn into a puff of smoke, and you will turn into a “celestial being” and become immortal. If you want to keep your physical body normal and healthy, and to be able to accept God’s work and His words while in a normal state, then you should not seek to become a so-called superhuman or pursue a so-called raised-up humanity based on your own notions and imaginings; rather, you should live in normal humanity, maintain the pattern of life and survival of your normal humanity, and also maintain the instincts of your normal humanity. Don’t make unreasonable demands of God; these unreasonable demands all come from your imaginings and notions. Your instincts, living patterns, and so on are not what God intends to change, nor are they things that He intends to change with His work. A saved person is definitely not someone who is full of notions and imaginings, and even less are they a superhuman or an unusual person. Rather, they are a person with normal humanity, and conscience and reason, a person who is able to heed God’s words, and to view people and things, and conduct themselves and act according to the truth principles; they are a person who can submit to God in all things, who is not supernatural at all, and whose humanity is particularly normal and practical.