Spiritual Battles | A Small Blade of Grass That Grew Among the Brambles | The Church of Almighty God
Yixin, Singapore
In November 2016 I became acquainted, through Facebook, with Brother Lin and Sisters Zhang and Xiaoxiao of The Church of Almighty God. They integrated some of the prophecies in the Bible, fellowshiped with me and bore testimony to God’s work of the last days. Their fellowshiping and testimonies made me understand that Almighty God is conducting the work of judging and cleansing people through words on the foundations of the work of redemption done by the Lord Jesus. Almighty God wishes to thoroughly save mankind from Satan’s power and rid us of our corrupt disposition so that we’ll no longer rebel against and resist God but instead will become people who truly obey and worship Him. From the words of Almighty God I came to understand that God’s work of the last days will reveal all of the wheat and tares, sheep and goats, wise virgins and foolish virgins, so that each will end up with its own kind and virtue will be rewarded while evil will be punished. I realized that Almighty God was the return of the Lord Jesus that I’d been waiting for and I joyously accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days.
One day, Sister Zhu from my original denomination asked me out of the blue what I’d recently been busy with, and so I told her that I’d been investigating Almighty God’s work of the last days. Sister Zhu had a lot of bad things to say about The Church of Almighty God and also blasphemed Almighty God. She urged me not to have anything to do with them. I said: “I’ve been in touch with some brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God for some time now and I’ve been fellowshiping really well with them. They have a fresh and clear way of fellowshiping truths and I’ve understood a lot of truths from listening to them. I’ve grown a lot, and benefited a lot, and they certainly aren’t like you’ve made them out to be. And Almighty God’s words are very practical and have resolved a lot of the bemusement I felt regarding some issues. Those words have given sustenance to my life and have indicated a way of practice for me …” On seeing that my attitude was unyielding, Sister Zhu changed the subject and asked me if I’d tell Sister Yun—who preached the gospel of the Lord to us—about my investigation into Almighty God’s work of the last days. I told her: “There are still many things that I don’t understand, but when I’ve finished looking into it I’ll tell everybody what I’ve discovered.” She agreed that I should have a clear picture before I said anything to Sister Yun.
So it was a surprise to me when 5 days later the boss of the salon I worked for came to me and said: “Yixin, Yun has asked me to pray for you. In fact, I don’t know how to pray but I’ll do my best …” On hearing this I immediately realized that Sister Zhu had already told Sister Yun about my investigation into Almighty God’s work of the last days. I felt that Sister Zhu hadn’t behaved very virtuously, and I was a bit annoyed with her. I felt that she’d deceived me and sold me out, and I started to feel that even my brothers and sisters in the Lord were untrustworthy … but just as I was thinking this my boss, without consulting me about anything, got the attention of the dozen or so colleagues in the salon and told them that I wasn’t a good Christian and that I was walking a deviant path. She went on to say many things in condemnation of The Church of Almighty God. This all happened so quickly that I didn’t know how to react, and I got very upset. So I prayed silently to myself: “Lord, they’ve heard that You have returned so why aren’t they at all interested in investigation? Why are they only listening to online rumors and saying all that stuff that opposes and condemns You? Almighty God has expressed so many truths, so doesn’t that prove that Almighty God is Your return? Why are they so opposed to my believing in Almighty God? Could it be me who’s wrong? Oh Lord, I don’t know what to do. Please lead me and guide me …”
At a later date, I told Brother Lin what had happened that day. Brother Lin found two passages of Almighty God’s words for me: “Satan is constantly devouring the knowledge that men hold of Me in their hearts, and constantly, with teeth bared and claws unsheathed, engaged in the last throes of its death struggle. Do you wish to be captured by its deceitful stratagems at this moment? Do you wish, at the moment that the last phase of My work is completed, to cut off your own life? Surely you are not still waiting for Me to dispense My leniency one more time? Seeking to know Me is the key thing, but neither should you neglect to pay attention to actual practice. I am revealing insights to you directly in My words, in hopes that you will be able to submit to My guidance …” (“The Sixth Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “When God is working in the flesh, He is actually doing battle with Satan in the flesh. When He works in the flesh, He is doing His work in the spiritual realm, and makes the whole of His work in the spiritual realm real on earth” (“Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Brother Lin fellowshiped about these passages in this way: “We can see from God’s words that what happened to you was a spiritual battle and you came up against Satan’s testing. In the last days, God has incarnated in human flesh in order to speak and save people. From God’s words we can understand truths, know God’s work, know God’s disposition, and totally forsake Satan and go back to God. We can attain salvation and be gained by God. Satan always follows behind God in order to try and disrupt and disturb God’s work. Satan uses whoever it can to create rumors to slander and condemn Almighty God, the Christ of the last days, and prevent us from coming before God. Religious leaders and atheists in positions of power are the embodiment of Satan, and every time that God incarnates on earth to do His work they resist and condemn Him, disrupt His work, and prevent people from following Him. When the Lord Jesus did His work, the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees of that time were charged by Satan to do everything they could to condemn and oppose His work. They spread false rumors, made false testimonies, and slandered and blasphemed Him. They claimed that the Lord Jesus was exorcising demons through Beelzebub; they said that the Lord Jesus was inciting local citizens to not pay taxes to Caesar; they bribed some soldiers to give false testimonies stating that the Lord Jesus had not resurrected and that His body had been secretly taken by His disciples. When God of the last days incarnated to do His new work, the Chinese Communist government, who are attempting to turn China into atheist territory, along with many pastors and elders who want to protect their own livelihoods and status, began to spread countless lies and false testimonies about Almighty God and The Church of Almighty God in order to deceive, frighten and prevent people from investigating and accepting God’s work of the last days. A lot of people who don’t understand the truth, and are unable to discern properly, blindly believe these rumors and do Satan’s bidding by spreading these fallacies that disturb others and prevent them from accepting the true way. Such people become evil accomplices of Satan who oppose God. So, we must see through the atheist Communist government, which is the enemy of God, and see through those pastors, elders, and wicked people who prevent people from investigating God’s work, as they are the Pharisees of our times. We must see that all the rumors on the Internet are part of Satan’s scheme to prevent us from returning to God. If we want to investigate the true way, then we should only listen to God’s words and definitely must not listen to Satan’s rumors. This is how we will be able to stand on God’s side during the spiritual battle and bear testimony for God, and not be grabbed by Satan …”
Brother Lin’s fellowshiping helped me to understand the origins of the rumors. I now understood that the purpose of Satan in spreading rumors and disrupting and putting obstacles in my way is to prevent me from gaining God’s salvation of the last days. After thinking more about it, I realized that these people who were attacking me had never read Almighty God’s words, had never investigated Almighty God’s work of the last days, and were merely blindly listening to rumors and resisting and condemning Almighty God. Their minds have been completely messed up by Satan and they are doing Satan’s bidding and resisting God without even knowing it. A wise person would first meticulously read Almighty God’s words and conduct a thorough investigation before coming to a conclusion. But faith in God is a big thing, and I also was afraid of taking the wrong path, so I still had some worries in my heart. After getting home from work, I prayed to the Lord with tears in my eyes: “Oh Lord, I am very lost and confused, but I don’t want to become a blind believer in what others say. I want to act according to Your intentions, so please lead me and guide me.” I fell asleep, and sometime in the middle of the night I had a vague, sleepy feeling that something was pressing down on me. I struggled to open my eyes but couldn’t. Realizing that struggling was pointless, I hurriedly shouted: “Save me Lord Jesus!” I shouted this twice but it didn’t work. I could still feel the thing pressing down on me. I was at a loss about what to do, and got very scared. Suddenly, I thought about Almighty God, and so shouted twice, “Almighty God! Almighty God!”, and then woke up immediately. After waking, I was still a bit shaken, and it took a while before I fully gathered my wits. I thought about why calling out the name of the Lord Jesus hadn’t worked while calling out “Almighty God!” had woken me up straight away. Then I remembered that Brother Lin had told me that God has a name for each era and after God does the new work for each era the Holy Spirit protects the name for the new era. So for believers to gain God’s commendation, care, and protection they must pray using the name of God for the new era. In this era, the Lord Jesus has already returned and is using the name Almighty God to end the Age of Grace and open up the Age of Kingdom. During the last days, God’s name is Almighty God, so when we pray we must use this name otherwise God won’t heed us. It was then that I realized that my nightmare hadn’t been spontaneous, but was God listening to my prayers and giving me proof that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus. Thank God! After realizing this, my heart swelled with strength and I now had the confidence to face the verbal attacks from my boss and colleagues.
The next day at work my boss once again told everyone that I was going down the wrong path and also said a lot of things that blasphemed Almighty God. Listening to her made me really angry, so I asked her: “What ‘evil’ are you talking about? We are believers in God. Why don’t you investigate the words and work of Almighty God and seek God’s intention instead of blindly condemning and blaspheming Him? Do you really fear and revere God in your heart?” After saying all this I left in a huff. A short while later my boss came looking for me and told me that I should not have lost my temper with her. I said: “I didn’t want to lose my temper but you shouldn’t have said those things. Words that blaspheme, resist, and condemn God are not things that we believers in God should ever say, because they offend Him. Looking from your angle, it may seem that you are doing a good deed by urging me to change my mind. But I’m an adult, and I think things through rationally. The issue of whether or not Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus is something that I’ve sought knowledge about and investigated. It’s not something that I just decided to believe in willy-nilly. Please respect my decision, and don’t try and restrict me or prevent me from seeking knowledge about and investigating God’s work of the last days.” My boss then asked me if I’d watched any of the TV programs or read any of the rumors on the Internet about the Church of Almighty God. I replied: “Negative stuff always comes from Satan. What I read are the words of Almighty God, and what I watch are the films, choir videos, and MVs produced by The Church of Almighty God. I don’t watch what you watch. The Church of Almighty God doesn’t allow its members to do wicked deeds, which is exactly the opposite of what you lot are saying. Almighty God demands that we become honest and rational people who have humanity and good consciences.” After listening to what I had to say my boss was at a loss for words, and so she left looking like she had no idea how to deal with me.
A few minutes later, Sister Yun arrived. I prayed silently to God: “Almighty God, I’m afraid that she’ll say something that blasphemes, resists, condemns and attacks You. I’m also afraid that she’ll hassle me. Please help and protect me, God.” At first, Sister Yun only talked about her business trip to Israel and how successful it had been. Eventually, however, she brought up the topic in a roundabout way: “During the last days there are lots of false Christs and false prophets who try to deceive people …” I didn’t want to hear her say anything that would blaspheme Almighty God so I interrupted her by saying: “Yes, the Lord reminded us in this way so we can guard against those false Christs who imitate the Lord Jesus by manifesting signs and miracles. But the Lord’s intention is to make us develop discernment, not to have us refuse to listen to all people who are spreading the gospel of the Lord’s return. The Lord Jesus said: ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me’ (Jhn 10:27). The Lord will lead us along the true path, so we shouldn’t just worry about being misled by the false Christs of the last days but also consider the Lord’s return during the last days. As long as we seek the Lord then we’ll find the manifestation of the Lord because He has told us that God’s sheep can hear God’s voice.” But Sister Yun didn’t pay any attention to what I said and just repeated the stuff about false Christs deceiving people during the last days and that I should be more careful. Then she said more things about how bad The Church of Almighty God is. I ignored her, and when she saw that I wasn’t going to reply she stopped talking.
But my boss still wasn’t happy about me believing in Almighty God and continued to pick on me and attack me in front of my colleagues. During this period, the brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God were always there to fellowship and share God’s words with me so that I could understand God’s intentions. They also told me that God is holy, and that when God created mankind He gave us free will, the freedom to choose. They said that God never forces anyone to do anything but only expresses truths that provide sustenance for us and help us to understand His intentions and differentiate good from evil. It’s similar to when God told Adam and Eve that they could eat fruit from any tree in the Garden of Eden except the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because if they did they would surely die! That showed that God is essentially benevolent in giving mankind the freedom to choose, and it is only Satan that controls and coerces people, because Satan is evil. So, accepting Almighty God’s work of the last days is each individual’s decision, and nobody is forced into it. The brothers and sisters found a passage of God’s words: “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements, or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men, and the interference of men. Behind every step that God does in you is Satan’s wager with God—behind it all is a battle. … When God and Satan do battle in the spiritual realm, how should you satisfy God, and how should you stand firm in your testimony to Him? You should know that everything that happens to you is a great trial and the time when God needs you to bear testimony” (“Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The communications with them helped me to understand this passage a little bit better. I now understood that no matter what happened to me, it was always sanctioned by God. God was using these situations to test me to see if I had real faith in Him and to make me develop discernment. God wanted me to see clearly what comes from Him and what comes from Satan, and the trials were to make me learn to rely on God and look up to Him, bear witness for God like Job, and thus humiliate Satan.
With the leadership from God’s words and the assistance of the brothers and sisters, I was able to build a clearer picture of the true way. I was certain that I wasn’t on the wrong path by following Almighty God but was following the footprints of the Lamb. The brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God were fellowshiping truths and God’s intentions with me. They were bearing witness to God’s work of saving mankind, and to all that God has and is. They never tried to force me to believe anything, but instead helped me to learn how to discern each kind of voice so that I could make my own decisions freely. But Sister Yun and my boss believed in all the online rumors, and didn’t hesitate to say anything that resisted and blasphemed God in order to coerce me and prevent me from accepting God’s work of the last days. When I didn’t accept their point of view they started to bully me, mock me, and verbally attack me. But I saw clearly that everything they said and did came from Satan, because bullying, coercing, and attacking people are actions that derive from Satan. I thanked God for giving me the ability to see at a glance who comes from God and who from Satan. I now felt that there was brightness in my life and that a heavy weight had been lifted from my heart. I was so grateful to God for incarnating in human form during the last days and expressing so many truths so that every time I was harassed I was able to turn to God’s words and understand His intentions and find a way of practice. I felt so fortunate that through the sustenance provided by God’s words I was able to grow, inch by inch!
At first, I thought that the whole affair had come to a conclusion, so I was surprised when a new round of attacks started. I had just finished giving a customer a beauty treatment when my boss came and took me to the room next door. As we got to the door she told me that Sister Yun was in there waiting for me. I went in, and when I saw that Sister Yun and Pastor Liu and his wife were there I immediately got a bit nervous as I didn’t know what they were going to do. I quickly said a silent prayer to God: “God, they’ve come to talk with me again. Please protect me and help me by giving me wise responses to what they say.” After praying, I no longer felt nervous, and I wondered if they had come to force me to leave Almighty God. And if I refused to, would I lose my job? But then I remembered that everything was in God’s hands and that God’s arrangements were always suitable, so even if I lost my job I wouldn’t leave Almighty God.
The pastor asked me when I first started believing in the Lord, and then talked about many things to do with faith in the Lord. Then he asked me: “Do you know about The Church of Almighty God? Are you still in touch with them? …” Then he said many things that blasphemed Almighty God and falsely incriminated The Church of Almighty God. I got angry listening to him, and said: “Why is it that The Church of Almighty God that you are talking about is nothing like the one that I have been in contact with and know something about? We have all seen the stuff online. What I’ve seen are the words of Almighty God and the films and videos produced by The Church of Almighty God, as well as the written testimonies of the brothers and sisters. I’ve also looked at some of the negative propaganda, but all I saw was a lot of baseless rumors and lies. No matter which rumor it is they are unable to produce a shred of believable evidence to back it up. They either make things up from scratch or take an existing falsehood and embellish it and then spread it around more. These are all Satan’s lies, so I don’t believe them and have absolutely no interest in them. How is it that you only believe negative rumors but never even look at the words of God on The Church of Almighty God’s website? None of you read Almighty God’s words, nor do you investigate God’s work of the last days, but you just condemn it as you please. Is that the right thing to do?” The pastor didn’t answer my question directly but instead said: “The Church of Almighty God has expanded very quickly, and they’ve been actively going to other churches to steal their members. If you insist on believing in Almighty God, then we won’t be nice to you. We’ll tell all of the brothers and sisters in our church that you now believe in Almighty God, so the next time you come to our congregation they’ll think you’ve come to steal them away and they’ll give you the cold shoulder.” He then tried to use some false testimonies to scare me but nothing he said affected me. In fact, I felt even more emboldened and said: “This stuff that you’re talking about, did you personally see it happen? Or have you done a thorough investigation and got solid evidence? What proof do you have that the members of The Church of Almighty God did all this? Where’s the evidence? You’re just taking the rumors and false testimonies spread by the CCP and religious community to condemn Almighty God and falsely incriminate The Church of Almighty God. Aren’t you worried that you’ll be condemned by the Lord, just like the Pharisees were?”
I also said: “The Lord Jesus predicted this about His return, ‘But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation’ (Luk 17:25). What does this mean? At present, the whole religious community and the atheist Communist government of China are trying their best to resist and condemn Almighty God’s work of the last days. Doesn’t this fulfill the Lord’s prediction? Isn’t the resistance to and condemnation of Almighty God the same as the Jewish Pharisees’ resistance to and condemnation of the Lord Jesus? The Pharisees resisted the Lord Jesus and denied that He was the returning Messiah, but the Lord’s disciples were able to recognize that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah foretold in the prophecies and so they followed Him. In our time, we have the same situation. The pastors and elders don’t accept Almighty God’s work of the last days, and even resist and condemn Almighty God, but the good sheep in the various denominations are able to recognize the voice of God in the words of Almighty God. Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus, but how is it so? The Lord Jesus said that God’s sheep are able to hear God’s voice, and that God’s return would separate the sheep from the goats. I’ve only believed in the Lord for a short time, and I don’t understand the Bible all that well, so I don’t know how the Lord will separate the sheep from the goats. Pastor Liu, you’ve been to seminary and have been a pastor for many years now. Perhaps you’d be so good as to explain it to me?” Pastor Liu looked at me angrily, because he clearly didn’t know how to explain this to me. All he said was: “We believers gain eternal life because we have been baptized.” So I said: “What? Gaining eternal life is that easy?! So everyone who has come to your church and been baptized will enter the kingdom of heaven? Does that accord with what the Lord said? Are they all people who treat the Lord with true hearts? Do they all abide by the will of the heavenly Father? Every sermon in the church mentions giving offerings, but the Lord never said that giving offerings is the same as loving the Lord. So what is loving the Lord?” Pastor Liu replied: “Reading the Bible a lot, praying a lot is loving the Lord.” Although I didn’t know what truly loving the Lord meant, I knew that it was a load of baloney to say that reading the Bible and praying is loving the Lord. The Pharisees read the Bible and did plenty of praying, but can it be said that they loved the Lord? If they loved the Lord, then why did they blaspheme and condemn Him, and nail Him up on a cross? It seemed to me that the pastor didn’t understand what loving the Lord meant at all. Pastors may well understand biblical knowledge and theological theories but that doesn’t mean that they understand truths! But I could only blame myself for not previously having enough discernment and holding them in too high esteem.
When I realized this, I didn’t see the point of continuing to debate with Pastor Liu, so I stopped talking. But the pastor had more to say: “Do you know that they say that the Lord has returned incarnated as a female to do the work?” On hearing this I felt that I had to reply: “What form the Lord takes when He returns and incarnates to do the work is God’s business. We are just tiny, tiny beings created by God, so how can we make rules for God’s work? In the Bible it says: ‘or who has been his counselor?’ (See Rom 11:34). Almighty God’s words say: ‘Man should not define the work of God; moreover, man cannot define the work of God. In the eyes of God, man is smaller than an ant, so how can man fathom God’s work?’ (Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh). God is the Creator of all things and God’s wisdom exceeds everything, so however God does His work He doesn’t need to check in with us humans first!” Seeing that they didn’t have the slightest interest in seeking and investigating God’s work of the last days, but only wanted to nitpick and look for chances to attack and blaspheme God and prevent me from accepting God’s work of the last days, I decided not to continue the conversation. My final question to them was: “Did you ever think about how your coming to the salon today would affect my work here?” To my utter surprise, the pastor lied to my face: “Your boss doesn’t know what this conversation is about.” If I’d heard him say that before I would have been very shocked that this pastor—a man who preaches and instructs people and knows the Bible so well—could tell such bare-faced lies. But after having just heard them make up lies that blasphemed God, I wasn’t at all surprised. It was obviously quite normal for them to tell lies. I couldn’t help but think of the Lord Jesus’ words: “You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stayed not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (Jhn 8:44). In my heart I said these words to God: “Thank You, God! You have allowed this event to happen to me today so that I can see that they have no understanding of the truths. You have let me see that they are liars who brazenly spread falsehoods and deceive people. They’re hypocritical Pharisees.” I had nothing more to say to them and wanted to leave immediately.
Seeing that I was in no mood to continue the conversation, Sister Yun said to me: “Yixin, you should think about your children and parents.” I replied: “They are all doing well and we all feel peaceful and secure. I believe in the one true God, the Creator of all things. Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus. God is the God that loves and saves people, and with God’s blessings and leadership my family will do better and better.” The pastor and Sister Yun wanted to pray for me, but I refused. So Pastor Liu finished off with a warning: “If you don’t leave The Church of Almighty God then you’ll be ostracized from our church!” I thought: “And what is the church like these days? It’s like the temple when the Lord Jesus first started His work: a den of thieves. The gatherings don’t provide any spiritual sustenance, so what is there for me to miss?” I’ve already accepted God’s work of the last days, and I’ve followed the footprints of the Lamb and come before God’s throne. I’m being provided with the living water of life issued by Christ and I’m enjoying face-to-face nurturing and shepherding from God. Nobody is more fortunate than me, and The Church of Almighty God is now my true home.
Almighty God’s words say: “Everything that has been arranged now is for the purpose of training you so that you may grow in your lives, to make your spirit keen and sharp, to open your spiritual eyes and recognize the things that come from God” (Utterances and Testimonies of Christ in the Beginning). I’m grateful to God for taking pity on me and using the disturbance of religious forces to make me develop discernment. I saw how full of lies those pastors are, how they resist and condemn God’s work of the last days, how they don’t have a shred of fear or reverence for God. I saw how their congregations cling to their sinful ways, how they blindly follow the trends and fashions of the material world, how they deceive each other, and how lacking in piety they are. All this convinced me that the religious community no longer had the work of the Holy Spirit, that it was smothered in darkness and under Satan’s control. At the same time, I was able to see that the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God are seeking truths and knowledge of God through the guidance in God’s words. When they encounter difficulties, they seek to use God’s words to resolve their problems and then it is wholly the truth, God’s words, and the Holy Spirit wielding power. Almighty God’s words cannot be taken back, and what is said will be done. Nobody can stand in the way of what God wants to accomplish, and this is an undeniable fact! Almighty God’s words are indeed truths, and Almighty God is the manifestation of the Lord of creation. I’m now willing to follow Almighty God for the rest of my life!
Brother Lin’s fellowshiping helped me to understand the origins of the rumors. I now understood that the purpose of Satan in spreading rumors and disrupting and putting obstacles in my way is to prevent me from gaining God’s salvation of the last days. After thinking more about it, I realized that these people who were attacking me had never read Almighty God’s words, had never investigated Almighty God’s work of the last days, and were merely blindly listening to rumors and resisting and condemning Almighty God. Their minds have been completely messed up by Satan and they are doing Satan’s bidding and resisting God without even knowing it. A wise person would first meticulously read Almighty God’s words and conduct a thorough investigation before coming to a conclusion. But faith in God is a big thing, and I also was afraid of taking the wrong path, so I still had some worries in my heart. After getting home from work, I prayed to the Lord with tears in my eyes: “Oh Lord, I am very lost and confused, but I don’t want to become a blind believer in what others say. I want to act according to Your intentions, so please lead me and guide me.” I fell asleep, and sometime in the middle of the night I had a vague, sleepy feeling that something was pressing down on me. I struggled to open my eyes but couldn’t. Realizing that struggling was pointless, I hurriedly shouted: “Save me Lord Jesus!” I shouted this twice but it didn’t work. I could still feel the thing pressing down on me. I was at a loss about what to do, and got very scared. Suddenly, I thought about Almighty God, and so shouted twice, “Almighty God! Almighty God!”, and then woke up immediately. After waking, I was still a bit shaken, and it took a while before I fully gathered my wits. I thought about why calling out the name of the Lord Jesus hadn’t worked while calling out “Almighty God!” had woken me up straight away. Then I remembered that Brother Lin had told me that God has a name for each era and after God does the new work for each era the Holy Spirit protects the name for the new era. So for believers to gain God’s commendation, care, and protection they must pray using the name of God for the new era. In this era, the Lord Jesus has already returned and is using the name Almighty God to end the Age of Grace and open up the Age of Kingdom. During the last days, God’s name is Almighty God, so when we pray we must use this name otherwise God won’t heed us. It was then that I realized that my nightmare hadn’t been spontaneous, but was God listening to my prayers and giving me proof that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus. Thank God! After realizing this, my heart swelled with strength and I now had the confidence to face the verbal attacks from my boss and colleagues.
The next day at work my boss once again told everyone that I was going down the wrong path and also said a lot of things that blasphemed Almighty God. Listening to her made me really angry, so I asked her: “What ‘evil’ are you talking about? We are believers in God. Why don’t you investigate the words and work of Almighty God and seek God’s intention instead of blindly condemning and blaspheming Him? Do you really fear and revere God in your heart?” After saying all this I left in a huff. A short while later my boss came looking for me and told me that I should not have lost my temper with her. I said: “I didn’t want to lose my temper but you shouldn’t have said those things. Words that blaspheme, resist, and condemn God are not things that we believers in God should ever say, because they offend Him. Looking from your angle, it may seem that you are doing a good deed by urging me to change my mind. But I’m an adult, and I think things through rationally. The issue of whether or not Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus is something that I’ve sought knowledge about and investigated. It’s not something that I just decided to believe in willy-nilly. Please respect my decision, and don’t try and restrict me or prevent me from seeking knowledge about and investigating God’s work of the last days.” My boss then asked me if I’d watched any of the TV programs or read any of the rumors on the Internet about the Church of Almighty God. I replied: “Negative stuff always comes from Satan. What I read are the words of Almighty God, and what I watch are the films, choir videos, and MVs produced by The Church of Almighty God. I don’t watch what you watch. The Church of Almighty God doesn’t allow its members to do wicked deeds, which is exactly the opposite of what you lot are saying. Almighty God demands that we become honest and rational people who have humanity and good consciences.” After listening to what I had to say my boss was at a loss for words, and so she left looking like she had no idea how to deal with me.
A few minutes later, Sister Yun arrived. I prayed silently to God: “Almighty God, I’m afraid that she’ll say something that blasphemes, resists, condemns and attacks You. I’m also afraid that she’ll hassle me. Please help and protect me, God.” At first, Sister Yun only talked about her business trip to Israel and how successful it had been. Eventually, however, she brought up the topic in a roundabout way: “During the last days there are lots of false Christs and false prophets who try to deceive people …” I didn’t want to hear her say anything that would blaspheme Almighty God so I interrupted her by saying: “Yes, the Lord reminded us in this way so we can guard against those false Christs who imitate the Lord Jesus by manifesting signs and miracles. But the Lord’s intention is to make us develop discernment, not to have us refuse to listen to all people who are spreading the gospel of the Lord’s return. The Lord Jesus said: ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me’ (Jhn 10:27). The Lord will lead us along the true path, so we shouldn’t just worry about being misled by the false Christs of the last days but also consider the Lord’s return during the last days. As long as we seek the Lord then we’ll find the manifestation of the Lord because He has told us that God’s sheep can hear God’s voice.” But Sister Yun didn’t pay any attention to what I said and just repeated the stuff about false Christs deceiving people during the last days and that I should be more careful. Then she said more things about how bad The Church of Almighty God is. I ignored her, and when she saw that I wasn’t going to reply she stopped talking.
But my boss still wasn’t happy about me believing in Almighty God and continued to pick on me and attack me in front of my colleagues. During this period, the brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God were always there to fellowship and share God’s words with me so that I could understand God’s intentions. They also told me that God is holy, and that when God created mankind He gave us free will, the freedom to choose. They said that God never forces anyone to do anything but only expresses truths that provide sustenance for us and help us to understand His intentions and differentiate good from evil. It’s similar to when God told Adam and Eve that they could eat fruit from any tree in the Garden of Eden except the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because if they did they would surely die! That showed that God is essentially benevolent in giving mankind the freedom to choose, and it is only Satan that controls and coerces people, because Satan is evil. So, accepting Almighty God’s work of the last days is each individual’s decision, and nobody is forced into it. The brothers and sisters found a passage of God’s words: “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements, or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men, and the interference of men. Behind every step that God does in you is Satan’s wager with God—behind it all is a battle. … When God and Satan do battle in the spiritual realm, how should you satisfy God, and how should you stand firm in your testimony to Him? You should know that everything that happens to you is a great trial and the time when God needs you to bear testimony” (“Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The communications with them helped me to understand this passage a little bit better. I now understood that no matter what happened to me, it was always sanctioned by God. God was using these situations to test me to see if I had real faith in Him and to make me develop discernment. God wanted me to see clearly what comes from Him and what comes from Satan, and the trials were to make me learn to rely on God and look up to Him, bear witness for God like Job, and thus humiliate Satan.
With the leadership from God’s words and the assistance of the brothers and sisters, I was able to build a clearer picture of the true way. I was certain that I wasn’t on the wrong path by following Almighty God but was following the footprints of the Lamb. The brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God were fellowshiping truths and God’s intentions with me. They were bearing witness to God’s work of saving mankind, and to all that God has and is. They never tried to force me to believe anything, but instead helped me to learn how to discern each kind of voice so that I could make my own decisions freely. But Sister Yun and my boss believed in all the online rumors, and didn’t hesitate to say anything that resisted and blasphemed God in order to coerce me and prevent me from accepting God’s work of the last days. When I didn’t accept their point of view they started to bully me, mock me, and verbally attack me. But I saw clearly that everything they said and did came from Satan, because bullying, coercing, and attacking people are actions that derive from Satan. I thanked God for giving me the ability to see at a glance who comes from God and who from Satan. I now felt that there was brightness in my life and that a heavy weight had been lifted from my heart. I was so grateful to God for incarnating in human form during the last days and expressing so many truths so that every time I was harassed I was able to turn to God’s words and understand His intentions and find a way of practice. I felt so fortunate that through the sustenance provided by God’s words I was able to grow, inch by inch!
At first, I thought that the whole affair had come to a conclusion, so I was surprised when a new round of attacks started. I had just finished giving a customer a beauty treatment when my boss came and took me to the room next door. As we got to the door she told me that Sister Yun was in there waiting for me. I went in, and when I saw that Sister Yun and Pastor Liu and his wife were there I immediately got a bit nervous as I didn’t know what they were going to do. I quickly said a silent prayer to God: “God, they’ve come to talk with me again. Please protect me and help me by giving me wise responses to what they say.” After praying, I no longer felt nervous, and I wondered if they had come to force me to leave Almighty God. And if I refused to, would I lose my job? But then I remembered that everything was in God’s hands and that God’s arrangements were always suitable, so even if I lost my job I wouldn’t leave Almighty God.
The pastor asked me when I first started believing in the Lord, and then talked about many things to do with faith in the Lord. Then he asked me: “Do you know about The Church of Almighty God? Are you still in touch with them? …” Then he said many things that blasphemed Almighty God and falsely incriminated The Church of Almighty God. I got angry listening to him, and said: “Why is it that The Church of Almighty God that you are talking about is nothing like the one that I have been in contact with and know something about? We have all seen the stuff online. What I’ve seen are the words of Almighty God and the films and videos produced by The Church of Almighty God, as well as the written testimonies of the brothers and sisters. I’ve also looked at some of the negative propaganda, but all I saw was a lot of baseless rumors and lies. No matter which rumor it is they are unable to produce a shred of believable evidence to back it up. They either make things up from scratch or take an existing falsehood and embellish it and then spread it around more. These are all Satan’s lies, so I don’t believe them and have absolutely no interest in them. How is it that you only believe negative rumors but never even look at the words of God on The Church of Almighty God’s website? None of you read Almighty God’s words, nor do you investigate God’s work of the last days, but you just condemn it as you please. Is that the right thing to do?” The pastor didn’t answer my question directly but instead said: “The Church of Almighty God has expanded very quickly, and they’ve been actively going to other churches to steal their members. If you insist on believing in Almighty God, then we won’t be nice to you. We’ll tell all of the brothers and sisters in our church that you now believe in Almighty God, so the next time you come to our congregation they’ll think you’ve come to steal them away and they’ll give you the cold shoulder.” He then tried to use some false testimonies to scare me but nothing he said affected me. In fact, I felt even more emboldened and said: “This stuff that you’re talking about, did you personally see it happen? Or have you done a thorough investigation and got solid evidence? What proof do you have that the members of The Church of Almighty God did all this? Where’s the evidence? You’re just taking the rumors and false testimonies spread by the CCP and religious community to condemn Almighty God and falsely incriminate The Church of Almighty God. Aren’t you worried that you’ll be condemned by the Lord, just like the Pharisees were?”
I also said: “The Lord Jesus predicted this about His return, ‘But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation’ (Luk 17:25). What does this mean? At present, the whole religious community and the atheist Communist government of China are trying their best to resist and condemn Almighty God’s work of the last days. Doesn’t this fulfill the Lord’s prediction? Isn’t the resistance to and condemnation of Almighty God the same as the Jewish Pharisees’ resistance to and condemnation of the Lord Jesus? The Pharisees resisted the Lord Jesus and denied that He was the returning Messiah, but the Lord’s disciples were able to recognize that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah foretold in the prophecies and so they followed Him. In our time, we have the same situation. The pastors and elders don’t accept Almighty God’s work of the last days, and even resist and condemn Almighty God, but the good sheep in the various denominations are able to recognize the voice of God in the words of Almighty God. Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus, but how is it so? The Lord Jesus said that God’s sheep are able to hear God’s voice, and that God’s return would separate the sheep from the goats. I’ve only believed in the Lord for a short time, and I don’t understand the Bible all that well, so I don’t know how the Lord will separate the sheep from the goats. Pastor Liu, you’ve been to seminary and have been a pastor for many years now. Perhaps you’d be so good as to explain it to me?” Pastor Liu looked at me angrily, because he clearly didn’t know how to explain this to me. All he said was: “We believers gain eternal life because we have been baptized.” So I said: “What? Gaining eternal life is that easy?! So everyone who has come to your church and been baptized will enter the kingdom of heaven? Does that accord with what the Lord said? Are they all people who treat the Lord with true hearts? Do they all abide by the will of the heavenly Father? Every sermon in the church mentions giving offerings, but the Lord never said that giving offerings is the same as loving the Lord. So what is loving the Lord?” Pastor Liu replied: “Reading the Bible a lot, praying a lot is loving the Lord.” Although I didn’t know what truly loving the Lord meant, I knew that it was a load of baloney to say that reading the Bible and praying is loving the Lord. The Pharisees read the Bible and did plenty of praying, but can it be said that they loved the Lord? If they loved the Lord, then why did they blaspheme and condemn Him, and nail Him up on a cross? It seemed to me that the pastor didn’t understand what loving the Lord meant at all. Pastors may well understand biblical knowledge and theological theories but that doesn’t mean that they understand truths! But I could only blame myself for not previously having enough discernment and holding them in too high esteem.
When I realized this, I didn’t see the point of continuing to debate with Pastor Liu, so I stopped talking. But the pastor had more to say: “Do you know that they say that the Lord has returned incarnated as a female to do the work?” On hearing this I felt that I had to reply: “What form the Lord takes when He returns and incarnates to do the work is God’s business. We are just tiny, tiny beings created by God, so how can we make rules for God’s work? In the Bible it says: ‘or who has been his counselor?’ (See Rom 11:34). Almighty God’s words say: ‘Man should not define the work of God; moreover, man cannot define the work of God. In the eyes of God, man is smaller than an ant, so how can man fathom God’s work?’ (Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh). God is the Creator of all things and God’s wisdom exceeds everything, so however God does His work He doesn’t need to check in with us humans first!” Seeing that they didn’t have the slightest interest in seeking and investigating God’s work of the last days, but only wanted to nitpick and look for chances to attack and blaspheme God and prevent me from accepting God’s work of the last days, I decided not to continue the conversation. My final question to them was: “Did you ever think about how your coming to the salon today would affect my work here?” To my utter surprise, the pastor lied to my face: “Your boss doesn’t know what this conversation is about.” If I’d heard him say that before I would have been very shocked that this pastor—a man who preaches and instructs people and knows the Bible so well—could tell such bare-faced lies. But after having just heard them make up lies that blasphemed God, I wasn’t at all surprised. It was obviously quite normal for them to tell lies. I couldn’t help but think of the Lord Jesus’ words: “You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stayed not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (Jhn 8:44). In my heart I said these words to God: “Thank You, God! You have allowed this event to happen to me today so that I can see that they have no understanding of the truths. You have let me see that they are liars who brazenly spread falsehoods and deceive people. They’re hypocritical Pharisees.” I had nothing more to say to them and wanted to leave immediately.
Seeing that I was in no mood to continue the conversation, Sister Yun said to me: “Yixin, you should think about your children and parents.” I replied: “They are all doing well and we all feel peaceful and secure. I believe in the one true God, the Creator of all things. Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus. God is the God that loves and saves people, and with God’s blessings and leadership my family will do better and better.” The pastor and Sister Yun wanted to pray for me, but I refused. So Pastor Liu finished off with a warning: “If you don’t leave The Church of Almighty God then you’ll be ostracized from our church!” I thought: “And what is the church like these days? It’s like the temple when the Lord Jesus first started His work: a den of thieves. The gatherings don’t provide any spiritual sustenance, so what is there for me to miss?” I’ve already accepted God’s work of the last days, and I’ve followed the footprints of the Lamb and come before God’s throne. I’m being provided with the living water of life issued by Christ and I’m enjoying face-to-face nurturing and shepherding from God. Nobody is more fortunate than me, and The Church of Almighty God is now my true home.
Almighty God’s words say: “Everything that has been arranged now is for the purpose of training you so that you may grow in your lives, to make your spirit keen and sharp, to open your spiritual eyes and recognize the things that come from God” (Utterances and Testimonies of Christ in the Beginning). I’m grateful to God for taking pity on me and using the disturbance of religious forces to make me develop discernment. I saw how full of lies those pastors are, how they resist and condemn God’s work of the last days, how they don’t have a shred of fear or reverence for God. I saw how their congregations cling to their sinful ways, how they blindly follow the trends and fashions of the material world, how they deceive each other, and how lacking in piety they are. All this convinced me that the religious community no longer had the work of the Holy Spirit, that it was smothered in darkness and under Satan’s control. At the same time, I was able to see that the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God are seeking truths and knowledge of God through the guidance in God’s words. When they encounter difficulties, they seek to use God’s words to resolve their problems and then it is wholly the truth, God’s words, and the Holy Spirit wielding power. Almighty God’s words cannot be taken back, and what is said will be done. Nobody can stand in the way of what God wants to accomplish, and this is an undeniable fact! Almighty God’s words are indeed truths, and Almighty God is the manifestation of the Lord of creation. I’m now willing to follow Almighty God for the rest of my life!
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