By Lily, the United States

A Chance Encounter in the Church

On a Sunday in March 2017, a sister of our church dragged an aunt passing by the church to attend our meeting, and I happened to know that she was my fellow villager through her introduction. It was the first time that I met a person from my hometown since I came to America three years ago, and moreover, she was a sister in the Lord. I fell into her arms and cried at once. After that, we always spent time together and we treated each other as family. And later the aunt recommended Brother Liu to study the Bible with us.

I remembered when we had our first Bible study, Brother Liu communicated with us about the work God had done in the Old Testament era and the New Testament era. After hearing that, I felt it was very fresh, and it allowed me to gain some new knowledge about God’s work. Because, in normal times, sermons I heard in the church were more about love, faith, and tolerance, but few about the knowledge of God’s work. I felt this fellowship was special, as it was what I didn’t understand before, and I had gained a lot after hearing that.

The Scroll Has Been Opened, and the Lord Jesus Has Come Back

Continually, Brother Liu communicated about the meaning of the verse, “… holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). He said that God’s will is making us get rid of sin and reach holiness. Only such people can enter the heavenly kingdom. He studied the related Bible verses: “But as he which has called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be you holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15–16). “These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God” (Revelation 14:4–5). He also provided examples and said: “God is holy, so God requires us to be holy. And the first fruits made by God are all without blemish. This is the standard of entering the heavenly kingdom. But now, we all haven’t reached that, we often sin and constantly betray the Lord’s teachings. For example, God told us to first seek for God’s kingdom and His righteousness, but we often pray to God for material blessings and family peace, which is totally adverse to God’s will. Also, in our life, we would only praise God when we encountered some good things, but we were able to complain about God and misunderstand God as soon as something bad befell us. In addition, in dealings with others, if something had to do with our own benefits, we often told lies or dealt with them depending on our hot blood.”

The brother read a passage of God’s words: “A sinner such as you, who has just been redeemed, and has not been changed, or been perfected by God, can you be after God’s heart? For you, you who are still of your old self, it is true that you were saved by Jesus, and that you are not counted as a sinner because of the salvation of God, but this does not prove that you are not sinful, and are not impure. How can you be saintly if you have not been changed? Within, you are beset by impurity, selfish and mean, yet you still wish to descend with Jesus—you should be so lucky! You have missed a step in your belief in God: You have merely been redeemed, but have not been changed. For you to be after God’s heart, God must personally do the work of changing and cleansing you; if you are only redeemed, you will be incapable of attaining sanctity. In this way you will be unqualified to share in the good blessings of God, for you have missed out a step in God’s work of managing man, which is the key step of changing and perfecting. And so you, a sinner who has just been redeemed, are incapable of directly inheriting God’s inheritance” (“Concerning Appellations and Identity”). After hearing these words, I was completely convinced because these manifestations were exactly that of mine in life. Even though our sin had been forgiven by the Lord Jesus, I couldn’t achieve not sinning. I haven’t reached holiness, so how can I enter the kingdom of heaven? Afterward, the brother showed us a movie clip “Does Salvation Mean Final Salvation?” I clearly saw that God is holy, and He will never bring a man with filthiness all over to His kingdom. Just accepting the name of Jesus Christ is not enough for us to enter the heavenly kingdom, we must also cast away our corrupt disposition.

Through several fellowships I came to know that the Lord Jesus has already come back, and He is Almighty God who is carrying out the judgment work of the last days. I eagerly wanted to read more of God’s words. Before I left, Brother Liu gave me a copy of The Scroll Opened by the Lamb, which gave me extreme joy. On my way home, I read it eagerly. I felt that Almighty God’s words are powerful, and meanwhile I saw that it exposes many corrupt truths of man’s realistic life, and that it also tells us how we should seek. The contents included in it are really too abundant!

Rumors Struck, the Lord’s Will Must Be Sought

One day, I picked up The Scroll Opened by the Lamb to read. Because I wanted to know more about the Church of Almighty God, then I searched “the Church of Almighty God” on the internet. Unexpectedly, there were so many words of slandering and attacking Almighty God, and they said that the Church of Almighty God was an underworld organization. I was stunned at once. How could it be this way?

Immediately, I felt a little scared and directly called the aunt: “Aunt, I just searched The Church of Almighty God, and something’s not right.” After the aunt knew what had happened, she said: “We shouldn’t decide before we make it clear, much less say the blasphemous and slanderous words. Let’s ask Brother Liu to explain to us.” I agreed on my lips, but in my heart, I determined not to see Brother Liu anymore. Later on, when the Brother phoned me, I didn’t answer it and when he sent me messages, I didn’t reply too. I was driven to distraction by this matter every day. For a while I thought about the brother’s communication about “… holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” and felt it was very reasonable; for a while I thought about the negative information on the Internet; for a while I remembered the words in The Scroll Opened by the Lamb, feeling that they are extreme realistic. I turned it over in my mind and considered, feeling that my head was spinning, but I was still unclear about how to treat it. At last, I had to pray to the Lord: O Lord, You know my present situation, I really hope that what I seek is the truth, but I don’t have discernment, what should I do? Lord, I hope I can find the answer when I go to church this Sunday.

The Lord’s Wondrous Orchestrations Made Me Have a Direction

The next evening, I went home by bus after work. After I got off the bus, a foreigner suddenly shouted “Excuse me!” behind me. I didn’t notice whom he shouted to, just caring about walking home quickly. But he still shouted loudly “Excuse me!” I looked back and then he said: “Do you know the Lord Jesus? He has come back! Are you going to church tomorrow?” “Yes.” I replied. And then, he opened his phone’s Bible app and turned to Revelation 22:17, reading: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is thirsty come. And whoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” He also told me that the Lord comes from the East. Listening to his words, I felt very puzzled: Brother Liu told me that the Lord has come back, but before I figured it out, a foreigner came to tell me the matter of the Lord’s return. What is really going on? Back at home, I immediately prayed to the Lord: “O Lord, my mind is really in turmoil. I know now is the end of the last days, and I also believe that You will come again, but have You truly come back? Why do I meet those who preached to me the gospel of the Lord’s return? Lord, may You keep me and make sure I seek the way that is compatible with the truth. May You help me and lead me.”

Sunday is coming soon. Before going to the church, I prayed to the Lord again, hoping that pastors could solve my confusion. That day, I was the first one to arrive at the church. When a pastor came, I asked: “Pastor, how should we interpret the verse ‘… holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord’ (Hebrews 12:14). We often live in the cycle of sinning and repenting, if we can’t reach holiness, can we still see the Lord’s face?” The pastor explained: “It does not mean that we can’t see the Lord’s face if we are not holy. As long as one accepts Jesus Christ, he can enter the heavenly kingdom.” The pastor also reminded me to take precaution against being misled by others’ expositions. “I see.” I replied. But I obviously felt that what the pastor said was unpersuasive, while what Brother Liu said was more in line with God’s will. I agreed with the word that if a man is not holy, he can never see the Lord’s face.

Through these two things, I decided to continue my investigation of Almighty God’s work, seeing whether Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus. Since I had listened to the communication of Brother Liu before and had also read so many words of Almighty God, I felt that they were very realistic, so I couldn’t deny all God’s words just because a little rumor on the Internet. If I miss God’s salvation of the last days, then the one who suffers loss is only myself! And so, holding all kinds of questions in my thoughts, I began to have meetings with Brother Liu and others again.

Seeing Through the Source of Rumors and Satan’s Schemes

At a meeting, Brother Liu communicated a lot on the matter of rumors. He first read a passage of God’s words to me: “Those who truly follow God are able to withstand the test of their work, whereas those who do not truly follow God are incapable of withstanding any of God’s trials. Sooner or later they will be expelled, while the overcomers will remain in the kingdom” (“God’s Work and Man’s Practice”). Then, he said: “Every person who follows God’s work of the last days must go through the rumors. This is a spiritual battle. Those who follow God with a true heart can see things according to God’s words and facts, and can have discernment of Satan’s rumors and schemes. But those who follow God without a true heart are unable to seek God’s will in various environments. What they will do is blindly believing Satan’s rumors and fallacies. As a result, they fall into Satan’s schemes, and finally are forsaken by God’s realistic work for not knowing the truth.for not knowing the truth.

If we are those who truly follow God, we should have a heart of seeking the truth. First, we shall see through the root of rumors. We all know that lies come from Satan, making us stray away from God and betray God. Let’s look back at Adam and Eve, the ancestors of man, in the beginning they lived in the Garden of Eden and lived a happy life. Just because they believed Satan’s lies and betrayed God’s will, they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. At that time, God gave orders to them: ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die’ (Genesis 2:16–17). God’s words are earnest and sincere, and they showed God’s meaning straightforwardly. God told Adam and Eve what they could eat and what they couldn’t; what would happen if they disobeyed God’s words, and everything was was very clear. But Satan told lies to bewitch the people, making man confused, have conceptions and doubt God’s words. The serpent said to the woman: ‘You shall not surely die: For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil’ (Gen 3:4–5). Satan uses some ambiguous words to sow discord between God and man, and its purpose is to make man believe its fallacies and betray God. Because we mankind don’t know the value of God’s words, nor do we understand what the intention is when God speaks; therefore, when we encounter the temptation of Satan, we can’t distinguish right from wrong, easily being a pawn of Satan’s hands and being used by it, and in the end, we will pay a heavy price. During the time when God saves man in the last days, if we believe rumors but can’t keep up with God’s new work, then we are going to be the subjects eliminated by God. Won’t you say so?” After hearing Brother Liu’s fellowship, I suddenly understood: It turns out that what I experienced was a spiritual battle. I almost lost God’s salvation for easily believing rumors. At that time, a few of us frequently nodded, saying, “Right! That’s right! We don’t understand the truth, and as a result, we’ve been tricked by Satan. Aren’t we being sold to others but still helping them count their money?” Everyone smiled embarrassedly. Brother Liu said with a smile: “Now, we’ve known the source of rumors and realized its damage on us, so can we still easily believe the rumors?” We also replied with smiles: “No, we really can’t! No matter what we encounter, we should get to the bottom of exactly what happened. Brother, you use so practical examples to fellowship with us, it is easy to understand. Thanks be to God.”

And then, I asked another question: “Brother Liu, now I know that rumors are schemes of Satan. But there are so many words of slandering and attacking Almighty God, and they said that The Church of Almighty God was an underworld organization. I want to know what it is all about.” The Brother read another passage of God’s words: “The work of every age is initiated by God Himself, but you should know that, whatever the way in which God works, He does not come to start a movement, or to hold special conferences, or to establish any sort of organization in your behalf. He comes solely to carry out the work that He ought to do. His work does not suffer the constraint of any man. He does His work however He wishes; no matter what man thinks or knows of it, He is concerned only with carrying out His work. From the creation of the world to the present, there have already been three stages of work; from Jehovah to Jesus, and from the Age of Law to the Age of Grace, God has never convened a special conference for man, nor has He ever assembled all mankind together in order to convene a special global working conference and thereby extend the domain of His work. All He does is to carry out the initial work of an entire age at an appropriate time and in an appropriate place, thereby ushering in the age and leading the human race to live their lives” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (3)”).

Brother Liu said, “This question asked by sister is also a question that many brothers and sisters will encounter after they accept God’s work of the last days. If we want to understand this matter, we should first be able to distinguish what The Church of Almighty God is and what underground underworld is. In God’s words we can see that God’s work is done by God Himself. From when Jehovah God gave the law to tell man how to live, to when the Lord Jesus ended the Age of Law and began the Age of Grace until the Lord Jesus’ name has been spread to the very ends of the universe, all these works can only be done by God Himself, can’t they? Including The Church of Almighty God today, they can spread the gospel of the kingdom and God’s words and God’s name to countries all over the world even with various rumors and persecutions and tribulations, also can spread God’s words in various methods on the Internet, and many brothers and sisters seek and investigate God’s work of the last days after they read God’s words. From these phenomena, we can see the fact: ‘What comes from God shall increase;’ also, the work done by God is not restricted by any man, matter, thing, time, and geographical environment, but instead, God does His work in a very orderly manner according to His own plan, leading us followers of God to walk the way to salvation. In a word, we can see God never established any sort of organization, He just has His plan. But as for underworld organizations, they are human organizations. Once underworld organizations are mentioned, the people all clearly know that these people commit murder, arson, and loot, that they are capable of doing all sorts of evil things. Who dares to contact them? Who won’t circumvent the path when seeing them? From the facts that brothers and sisters endure the brutal persecution, we can see who the victims are. If The Church of Almighty God is an underworld organization, would these vulnerable, kind brothers and sisters endure persecution? Nevertheless, from these rumors we can clearly see that they are making wild accusations and playing the trick of a thief yelling ‘Stop thief.’ From the facts of their evil deeds, we can see God’s wisdom: God uses these negative things to allow us to distinguish right and wrong. Isn’t that right?” We nodded firmly. Because when I heard the news of underworld organizations, I also worried about my family and children, and didn’t dare to contact brothers and sisters. Now I finally saw that the true intention of Satan’s rumors is to damage our relationship with God, making us stray far away from God and lose God’s salvation of the last days. This is exactly its sinister motive.

In order to help us understand more clearly about this aspect of the truth, the brother read a passage of the fellowship and sermons from the above: “Some people study the work of God, they first look at whether the world welcomes and agrees with The Church of Almighty God, Eastern Lightning, whether the religious circle welcomes and agrees with it. ‘If the world welcomes it, and especially, if the Chinese Communist Government declares that it is the true way, only then can we believe in it. If all the pastors and elders from the religious circle declare that this is the true way, that this is the return of the Lord Jesus, only then can we accept it.’ There are many confused people like this. … They are very careful in their examination, doing so in two steps: First examine the words of Almighty God, and see if they are the words of God. If they have accepted that these words are truly the words of God, then they further examine if The Church of Almighty God is a real church. If The Church of Almighty God should be a criminal organization, while the words of Almighty God are real, doesn’t that still spell trouble for them? Is this possible? If this should be the case, then The Church of Almighty God is not a real church, but a criminal organization. Then who is preaching and bearing witness to God’s words? Who is bearing witness for Almighty God? If things are as they imagined, that The Church of Almighty God that is preaching God’s words and bearing witness for Almighty God is an organization of men, who are not of God, then isn’t the work of Almighty God just a sham? How could God allow people from a criminal organization, an organization of man, to exalt Him and bear witness for Him? Is this not a humiliation of God? Can God humiliate Himself? Some people are unable to see through this matter. They have acknowledged the words of God, yet they are unable to see clearly what type of a church The Church of Almighty God is, and they do not dare to believe in it. People from The Church of Almighty God say: ‘Can we meet and talk with you? Let us fellowship.’ ‘No, I am busy at the moment, I do not have time,’ while they are thinking: ‘I do not want to come into contact with you. What am I going to do if the people from your church should kidnap me after I come into contact with you?’ These people cannot come close to compare with those saints who have martyred themselves for the Lord through the ages. When the Lord Jesus sent them to preach, it was as if throwing lambs into the midst of wolves, and those people dared to martyr themselves for the Lord. Now these people view The Church of Almighty God as a criminal organization. They have become timid and afraid. Is God disappointed by this? People are of little belief and they listen to the devil Satan, this is a tragedy of man.”

After Brother Liu finished reading, he fellowshiped about his understanding: To make sure whether it is the true way, the most important point is to depend on God’s words. Since they are God’s words, they shall be the truth and shall be able to supply our life and solve our practical problems, and only God can do that. Additionally, the brother shared his experience of how he broke free from the rumors after accepting God’s work of the last days. I felt the same way so much. I found that I myself also belong to those who follow the majority. Even though I believed that the words in The Scroll Opened by the Lamb are God’s words, which can supply my life and felt that what Brother Liu said was enlightening and was in line with the Lord’s will, I still wanted to see whether the religious world and the government supported God’s work of the last days, and whether they follow God or whether the majority accept or acknowledge God before I make a choice. So, I closed my heart, I neither read God’s words, nor contacted brothers and sisters when I saw the rumors on the Internet say that The Church of Almighty God is an organization of men and an underworld organization. From this thing, I saw my pitiful situation after being corrupted by Satan: I had lost the ability of discerning good and evil, that was why I could easily believe the rumors and forsake the truth. I also saw that Satan is very evil. It takes advantage of the Internet to fabricate all kinds of rumors and lies to deceive us, and it just wants to prevent us from seeking the true way and keeping up with the footsteps of the Lamb, so that we’ll lose God’s salvation of the last days.

Getting Past the Rumors and Joyfully Welcoming Jesus’ return

With the supply and help of Brother Liu, I crossed the threshold of rumors and came back to God’s family again, living a church life with brothers and sisters. In The Church of Almighty God, I felt that brothers and sisters are all sincere. In the meetings, we no longer gossiped about things of the flesh, about life and work, instead we communicated God’s words together, solved our practical needs, and sought how to practice God’s words. That allowed me to taste the feeling of truly worshiping and praising God. Besides, on the website of The Church of Almighty God, there are a lot of gospel movies and songs and some new hymns that are often uploaded regularly, which makes me taste the supply of the wellspring of living water of life. Under the water and supply of God’s words, I am certain that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus. At the same time, I am grateful to God for His wondrous orchestrations time and again. God has arranged so many people in order to guide me to come before Him. I enjoyed so much grace from God. Therefore, I spread this great good news to my husband and a sister in the church. Through investigating, both of them were convinced and accepted God’s work of the last days, and they were willing to spread gospel to repay God’s love. All the glory be to Almighty God!

Source: Walk in the Light

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