Since I believed in the Lord, I have looked forward to His coming again to bring us to the kingdom of heaven at every moment for He ever said, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3). And the Lord also taught us to be able to hear the voice of God and joyfully welcome the return of the Lord Jesus like the wise virgins. Therefore, I was responsible and serious in every piece of service in the church. In order to attend the worship on the Lord’s Day, I always put aside all the pleasure of the flesh to devote all of my mind and body to the service. I led my brothers and sisters to worship God together on the Lord’s Day, received them and prepared meals for them. I did all the things I could with all my strength. Because of my zealous service, both the old and the young in the church all praised me for being devout, and I was also proud of these, thinking that I would surely be taken into the kingdom of heaven when the Lord comes back.

Insistence represents persistence, means waiting, and even more is spiritual yearning…. But if the direction of our insistence is wrong, then won’t we go astray?

—Notes

One afternoon in June, it was stifling, without a breath of wind. At that time, I was resting on a bamboo chair at home.

Suddenly I heard someone call “Auntie.” I saw that it was my nephew Xiaofang, who was accompanied by one of his friends who dressed elegantly and looked affable. Then I welcomed them into the room. As I poured some water, I said, “Do you have reasons for coming here on such a hot day?” Xiaofang happily said, “I have a piece of good news to tell you. The Lord Jesus we’ve long yearned for has returned.” Upon hearing this, I was dumbfounded and thought, “Only Eastern Lightning is testifying that the Lord has returned. Could it be that they have believed in it? I often heard my pastor say that right now, there are some people who are saying that the Lord Jesus has returned and done the work of judgment and chastisement. He asked us not to listen to them and told us that it was enough to only believe that the Lord would come with a cloud.” So I said to him warily, “You say that the Lord Jesus has returned. Where is He? How come I haven’t seen Him? The Bible says, ‘Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him’ (Revelation 1:7). ‘Why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven’ (Acts 1:11). Therefore, I think the Lord will return on a cloud and will be seen by us.” Then he said, “Auntie, we shouldn’t just rely on these verses to believe that the Lord will certainly come in this way. Actually, many parts of the Bible contain prophecies about the Lord’s arrival …” But before he could even finish speaking I immediately said, “Xiaofang, I’ve believed in God for longer than you have, and I know more than you do. So how could I not know the method of the Lord’s arrival? All right, you can come to see me, but if you try to get me to believe in Eastern Lightning, you should go back. If who they testify to is not the Lord Jesus who will descend with clouds, I won’t accept Him.” After that, his friend also fellowshiped to me, but I still did not listen, choosing to intentionally ignore him and began to do housework. Seeing that, they had to leave.

Several months later, Sister Liu and Sister Wang from my church also started to believe in Almighty God, and they also came to my house to preach the gospel of the Lord’s return. But no matter what they said to me, I still stubbornly insisted that the Lord would descend upon the clouds to take us into the kingdom of heaven, and afterward send the great disasters to destroy this old world. Holding on to my notions, when my nephew and my sisters from my church preached the gospel of the kingdom to me, I refused them all.

I began to believe in the Lord Jesus in 1992, and I read this in the Bible: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). In order to redeem mankind from our sins, the Lord Jesus was crucified upon the cross as a sin offering. Whenever I thought of that, my heart would feel much stirred. After I began to believe in the Lord, I enthusiastically attended church gatherings, and would read the Bible and pray whenever I had the time.

One day, my little sister brought two sisters I’d never met before to my home. As we talked, they said that God had returned in the flesh, and had appeared and was working in the form of a woman. When I heard this, I immediately refuted it, saying, “How can that be? It states clearly in the Bible, ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16). This only begotten Son mentioned in the Bible was surely male. So surely the Lord must return as a man as well? How can you say that God has returned as a woman?” Although they saw that I had adopted such an oppositional attitude, they were still full of compassion toward me and they said, “Sister, although God incarnating as a woman does not tally with our notions, we must know that God’s work does not change by our own will and we must not judge God’s actions by our own thoughts. When the Lord Jesus came to perform His work, for example, this surpassed man’s notions and imaginings; He was not born in a palace, but was instead born in a manger. Nor did He lead the Jews to overthrow the Roman authorities, but instead taught people to love their enemies and show tolerance and patience. Did not the Pharisees of that time resist and condemn the Lord Jesus because His work did not tally with their notions?” At that point, the door to my heart was closed, and no matter what they said, I would not listen to any of it. Instead, I just got up and went to do something else …