Meeting the Lord Again (Part 2)

Meeting the Lord Again (Part 2)

February 26, 2018

Jianding, USA

After listening to Almighty God’s words and Brother Wang’s fellowship, I recalled what the priest in our church had said about “When the Lord comes good people will be separated from the bad people” and realized that this notion is just too vague, too impractical, and doesn’t match the reality of God’s work at all. We all live in sin, we continuously commit sins and repent without being able to escape from this cycle, so who are the truly good people?

When the Lord returns, if we haven’t been cleansed of our sins, will we be allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven? Thinking of this was like turning on a light in my heart, and I thanked the Lord for His leadership. My visit hadn’t been in vain, because now I understood that God distinguishes good from evil according to how people treat the truth. In other words, people are good or evil depending on whether or not they accept and obey the judgment and chastisement of God’s words, and this is God’s righteousness being wholly manifested. God employs words and work to separate the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats, the wise virgins from the foolish virgins, the true believers from the fake believers, and the lovers of the truth from the haters of the truth. God is so incredibly wise! However, I also recalled the priest saying that when the Lord returns to judge people He does it one by one, and each individual’s sins are also listed and judged one by one, before He decides if the individual will go to heaven or to hell. But now Almighty God is saying that God’s work of judgment of the last days is being done through His words, so just how are these words being used to judge people?

So I raised this question with the group and Brother Zhang answered it by reading two passages of Almighty God’s words to me: “Some believe that God may sometime come to earth and appear to man, whereupon He shall personally judge the whole of mankind, testing them one by one without anyone being omitted. Those who think in this way do not know this stage of work of incarnation. God does not judge man one by one, and does not test man one by one; to do thus would not be the work of judgment. Is not the corruption of all mankind the same? Is not the substance of man all the same? What is judged is mankind’s corrupt substance, man’s substance corrupted by Satan, and all the sins of man. God does not judge the trifling and insignificant faults of man. … but judges the unrighteousness of the whole of mankind—man’s opposition to God, for example, or man’s irreverence against Him, or disturbance of the work of God, and so on. What is judged is mankind’s substance of opposition to God, and this work is the work of conquest of the last days” (“Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “In the last days, Christ uses a variety of truths to teach man, expose the essence of man, and dissect his words and deeds. These words comprise various truths, such as man’s duty, how man should obey God, how man should be loyal to God, how man ought to live out the normal humanity, as well as the wisdom and the disposition of God, and so on. These words are all directed at the essence of man and his corrupt disposition. In particular, those words that expose how man spurns God are spoken in regard to how man is an embodiment of Satan and an enemy force against God. In undertaking His work of judgment, God does not simply make clear the nature of man with just a few words; He exposes, deals with, and prunes it over the long term. These methods of exposure, dealing, and pruning cannot be substituted with ordinary words, but with the truth that man does not possess at all. Only methods of this kind are deemed judgment” (“Christ Does the Work of Judgment With the Truth” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

Brother Zhang then fellowshiped this with me: “We have the notion that during God’s work of judgment of the last days He will call each and every person to come before His white throne and then will judge them. Every person will have to kneel on the ground and then confess to every single one of their sins committed throughout their lifetime. Then God will decide whether each person will go to heaven or to hell depending upon the severity of their sins. We think that God judges people according to sins such as physically or verbally abusing people, not being filial to parents, stealing and robbing, etc. But in fact God’s work of judgment of the last days is not concerned with these external behaviors or character flaws that we have but instead is aimed at judging mankind’s satanic nature of resisting God and each of the corrupt dispositions. These include our arrogance and self-conceit, our crookedness and craftiness, our selfishness and baseness, our greed and evil, etc. We also have many viewpoints that are not compatible with God, many outdated religious notions and feudal thinking. These things are all sources of our resistance to God. They are problems that are common to all of corrupt mankind, and so are the things that God’s work of judgment aims to purify and transform. So, the words that God expresses reveal mankind’s nature and essence and every corrupt person on earth is a part of this, without exception. Or to put it another way, God’s words are directed at the whole of mankind and so there is no need to judge people individually. By reading the words of Almighty God and accepting the judgment and chastisement of God’s words we can understand many truths and clearly see our nature, substance, and real situation of our being corrupted by Satan. Doing this will also allow us to recognize God’s righteous disposition and develop hearts that revere God and despise ourselves so that we’ll be willing to betray our flesh and practice truths. In this way, our corrupt satanic disposition will gradually be purified and our viewpoints and outlook on life will also change. When we start to live by God’s words, when we cease to oppose and resist God and instead really obey and revere God and shun evil, then we will gain God’s salvation and become people who are compatible with God’s intentions. This is the actual situation with, and purpose of, God expressing truths to do the work of judgment during the last days.”

After listening to Brother Zhang’s fellowship, I came to feel that God’s work of judgment is just so practical and based in reality! I was able to accept what he said, and it resonated with me deep in my heart. Yes, people are arrogant, they seek fame and fortune and status, and they live in their various corrupt dispositions. God uses the judgment of His words to rid us of all of the filth and corruption inside of us. Our nature of resisting God is thus resolved and our corrupt disposition is transformed, and we become truly good people. Looking at it this way, I could see that this idea that the priest talked about of people being judged individually and sins being judged one by one when the Lord returns to judge mankind is just human notions and imaginings and has nothing to do with the way God actually does His work. Almighty God’s words really do contain truths; they really are the voice of God! What I heard on that day made me decide to thoroughly examine the work of Almighty God.

During my investigations, I watched a number of gospel movies produced by The Church of Almighty God, including The Days of Noah Have Come, The Mystery of Godliness, and Caught the Last Train, as well as some hymn videos of God’s word such as How Important God’s Love for Man Is. I also read a lot of Almighty God’s words and listened to the brothers and sisters fellowshiping about all aspects of the truth. This helped me to verify that Almighty God is indeed the returned Lord Jesus! Almighty God is the one true God and is the returned Lord that we have been waiting for! I was so happy to accept Almighty God’s work of the last days.

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

Since believing in Almighty God I’ve often been getting together with the brothers and sisters or listening to sermons with them, and now every day I feel happy and feel that I’m gaining spiritual sustenance. I’m enjoying the comfort that comes from the work of the Holy Spirit, and I’m starting to understand more and more truths. In The Church of Almighty God, the brothers and sisters are all familiar and honest with each other, and nobody tries to deceive anyone else or keeps their guard up. Everybody is simple, open and sincere, and even when they reveal their corrupt dispositions they are each able to know themselves through God’s words and seek truths to resolve their corrupt dispositions. To me, they are true Christian brothers and sisters. What especially impresses me are the hymn videos, music videos, dance and song videos, gospel movies, etc. produced by The Church of Almighty God, which all hold the truth in the highest esteem and bear witness to God and God’s work of the last days. The purpose of all these productions is to help people to submit to God, worship God, and the church really does feel like a place where God does His work! What I’ve seen, heard, and experienced is proof for my heart that The Church of Almighty God is a true church where God personally nurtures and shepherds His flock. The fact that I’ve been able to enter God’s house and live a life face-to-face with God means that I’ve been exceptionally exalted by God. I really am so fortunate! Thank You, Almighty God!

Source The Internet