Principles for Establishing a Church and Accepting New Believers

Principles for Establishing a Church and Managing Church Life

I. Principles for Establishing a Church and Accepting New Believers

1. Principles for Establishing a Church

The principles for establishing a church are: So long as there is a group of people (around 20) who have truly accepted God’s work, who request to formally join the church, and who are willing to fulfill their duties, then a church can be established. If there are around 10 new believers who ask to have gatherings, a gathering group can first be set up, but a church cannot be established.

Principles of Loyally Performing One’s Duty

5. Principles of Loyally Performing One’s Duty

1. You are able to perform all the duties that you ought to perform. You treat God’s commission as a moral imperative, and you are able to take responsibility for God.

2. You perform your duty only so that you may give every care to God’s heart, repay God’s love, and satisfy God. You do this without the adulteration of motivations, aims, or trades.

3. In performing your duty, you should not be perfunctory and mess around. You are diligent and earnest, you put the truth into practice as asked by God, and are able to pay a price in order for your duty to bear fruit.

4. In performing your duty, you are capable of achieving loyalty to God, and are not governed by any person, matter, or thing. You allow God to observe you, and have the utmost loyalty toward God.

The Principles of Upholding a Normal Relationship With God

4. The Principles of Upholding a Normal Relationship With God

1. You must first of all give your heart to God and allow God to take charge, frequently have real prayer and association with God, and obtain the guidance of the work of the Holy Spirit;

2. You must frequently eat and drink of God’s words, fellowship the truth, practice the truth and fulfill your duty in order to repay God’s love;

3. In all things, you must harbor right intentions, accept God’s scrutiny, put the interests of God’s family first. You must not make plans for yourself, and you must obey God’s arrangements;

4. You must seek the truth in all things, seek to love God in your heart and practice loving God, and allow God to take charge and hold power in all things.

The Principles of Pursuing to Know God

3. The Principles of Pursuing to Know God

1. You must eat and drink all of God’s words to reach an understanding of the truth, and to know the significance and purpose of the three stages of God’s work;

2. You must obey God’s judgment and chastisement, and trials and refinement, to reach a knowledge of God’s righteous disposition and life essence;

3. You must obtain the guidance of the work of the Holy Spirit and walk Peter’s path of pursuing the truth and being perfected, and be able to seek a true love of God;

4. You must practice exalting God and bearing witness for God according to God’s words and the truth, and you must use the truth to resolve problems in order to bring people before God.

The Principles of Experiencing and Obeying God’s Work

2. The Principles of Experiencing and Obeying God’s Work

1. Accept and obey all the judgment and chastisement, the pruning and dealing, and the trials and refinement of God; never try to escape them, be slipshod, or let it be in vain;

2. Accept and obey all the truths God expresses, so that God’s words and the truth may become the reality of your life;

The Principles of Belief in God

1. You must experience and obey God’s work on the basis of the belief that God created all things and holds sovereignty over all things;

2. You must prioritize the eating and drinking of God’s words, and obey all the judgment and chastisement, the trials and refinement, and the pruning and dealing of God’s words;

3. As you experience God’s work, you must fulfill the duty of a created being, in order to reach an understanding of the truth and enter into reality;

4. You must pursue the truth in order to reach salvation, and to obtain the guidance and perfection of the work of the Holy Spirit.

With the Grace of God I Found a True Home

Mar 4, 2019

By Xiaolin, United States

I Hate Dad—He Ruined Our Family

Crash … Bang …

“Dammit, say that one more time and I’ll make you sorry! …”

The clamor of fighting broke through the peaceful silence of the night, startling my sister and I awake. We realized our parents were fighting again. Since our mom found out that our dad was seeing another woman, she smiled less, and at any mention of him her eyes filled with discontent and sorrow. From then on they never stopped fighting—I couldn’t even remember how many times they had argued. When my sister and I ran into their room crying, we just saw dad reaching out to hit mom. Crying, I dragged at dad’s arm as hard as I could, but he was too strong and I couldn’t hold him back. That night, he broke two of her ribs. She couldn’t withstand such a life of suffering any longer, so after she healed she left home and got a job in another area.

God Exposes Man in Order to Perfect Man

Liu Jie Liu’an City, Anhui Province

In the course of performing our duty, we are often exposed by God because of not knowing ourselves. For example, some of us are exposed in position, some in money, some in emotion, some because of performing their duty perfunctorily and deceitfully, some because of being arrogant and self-conceited and testifying themselves, some because of being crooked and crafty and practicing deceit, some because of being selfish and being poor in humanity, and some because of being cowardly and having no will. When being exposed, mostly we show passive resistance, become discouraged and disappointed, refuse, escape, and even write ourselves off as hopeless and act recklessly. This not only shows that we are not good at pursuing the truth, but also exposes our arrogant, hypocritical, and crafty nature of being unable to face up to true facts, and it even more shows that we still do not know the purpose of God’s exposing man and the ways of God’s perfecting man.

To Pursue to Be an Honest Person We Must First Know Our Crafty Nature

Xiao Qiong Jinan City, Shandong Province

After reading the two fellowships from the above “The Four Indices One Has to Grasp in Pursuing the Truth to Attain the Transformation of His Disposition” and “Only Being an Honest Person Is True Repentance,” most brothers and sisters feel that they have become much clearer about the truth concerning being an honest person, and they also feel that they have had ways to practice and enter into it. So they all begin to practice being an honest person. However, while pursuing to be an honest person, we neglect an important matter, that is, we do not have true knowledge of our crafty nature.

Only If We Know God’s Work Can We Follow God to the End

Xiaoli Weihai City, Shandong Province

Now, some brothers and sisters, when encountering some environments of sufferings or painful trials, often utter these complaints: Why is it that we believe in God but what we encounter are all things painful to the flesh? It is said that God loves man, but where is God’s love? Just look at us these believers in God: We have left our families and given up our careers; we rush about all day; we are rejected by our relatives, slandered by the world, and persecuted by the great red dragon; and we also have to experience God’s chastisement, judgment, dealing, and pruning, and the trials and refining of all kinds of sufferings. What we undergo are all sufferings! Those gentiles who do not believe in God, however, eat well, dress well, and enjoy well, and also they do not need to suffer or be refined. Because of these, they always have complaints and often live in passive states. Some of them even feel they are unable to follow any further, and they start to write themselves off as hopeless and act recklessly.

It Is Most Important to Pursue to Know God

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

Meiyu Benxi City, Liaoning Province

Whenever the subject of knowing God is mentioned, some people will say, “When I believe in God, I will just believe in God, and I will do whatever God asks me to do and do it just as God requires me. Then won’t I satisfy God? Besides, in my daily life I will pay attention to examining what corruptions I have expressed, and when I find any, I will pay attention to having it transformed. Won’t this be enough? Why should I pursue to know God?” And other people will say, “I have never seen the incarnated God; then how should I know him?” In a word, in our experience, we either do not pursue to know God or have no idea how to know God.

Only Those Who Pursue to Know God and Satisfy God Can Bear Testimony for God

Xiyue Jinan City, Shandong Province

Although at present, we all say that since we believe in God, we should live for the truth and for satisfying God and testifying God, and we are also all eager to bear a strong and resounding testimony for God in the future great trials, nevertheless, we do not pay attention to our practice and entering in in the real life. In everything we encounter daily or in cooperating in any work of God’s family, we are careless and incautious and often act according to our own will, not paying attention to seeking God’s will, not pursuing to know God, and much less having the willingness to practice rebelling against the flesh to satisfy God in everything. In this case, what we say that we will bear a good testimony for God in the great trials will become an empty word without reality.

Only Possessing the Reality of the Truth Means Having Gained the Truth

Only Possessing the Reality of the Truth Means Having Gained the Truth

Xiao Liu Hefei City, Anhui Province

It is only right for people to pursue to gain the truth when believing in God, but to truly gain the truth is not so easy a matter. Some think that they have gained the truth because they can preach some messages and resolve some difficulties of the brothers and sisters. Some think that they have gained the truth because they can receive some revelation and enlightenment when reading God’s word and have gained some knowledge of the truths of a certain aspect. Some think that they have gained the truth because now they can fellowship three or four days without running out of words when having a meeting, while in the past they would have nothing to say after fellowshipping only one day. Still others think that they have gained the truth because they are very familiar with God’s word and can immediately find in the book of God’s word any words they speak about when preaching or fellowshipping. Then, do such states and manifestations prove that they have gained the truth? What are the states of having truly understood the truth and gained the truth?

A Brief Talk on “What Having Reality Is”

Picture of The  Church of Almighty God

Si’en Fuxin City, Liaoning Province

Many times God has required us to be a person who has reality. Then, what are the manifestations of “having reality”? Some leaders or workers think that they have reality because they have meetings with the brothers and sisters every day fellowshipping about the truth and have resolved many of their passive states and many difficulties in the church. Some of the brothers and sisters who preach the gospel think that they have reality because they can speak about the three stages of God’s works quite clearly and have caused many people to accept God’s new work.

Remove the Place for Man from Our Heart and Let It Be Occupied by God

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

Bai Jie Liaoyang City, Liaoning Province

At present, in many of us there exists a state of looking up to man and adoring our leaders. For example, we exert ourselves and are conscientious in performing our duties, because we do not want our leaders to worry about us, because we want our leaders to receive fewer dealings, or because we want to win honor for our leaders. No matter what we do, we do it for our leaders, for our leaders’ good. When staying with our leaders, we carefully watch their every act and move and imitate them. When we fall into a bad state or encounter a difficulty, instead of coming before God to seek the truth, we immediately think of our leaders and feel that if our leaders can come and fellowship with us, our problem will certainly be resolved; we rely on man far more than on God. And what is even worse, some brothers and sisters wish they could be with the leader X when disaster comes, for they think that he will be able to help them whenever they become passive in the disaster and thus they will certainly be able to stand the testimony. … All these manifestations show that in us there exists a state of looking up to man and adoring man.

On How to Achieve Results in Reading God’s Word

Lu Ming Nanyang City, Henan Province

When God is incarnated in the end time, he does the work of the word, and through the word, he conquers man, perfects man, and gains man. If we want to be saved and gained by God, the most fundamental thing is to read God’s word. However, now most brothers and sisters are still unable to achieve the due results in reading God’s word, so they are slow in life entering in. Although they have believed in God for several years, they have not understood much truth, even less gained the transformation of their life disposition. Then, how can we achieve results in reading God’s word?

We Should Know the Significance of God’s Raising Up the Man Used by the Holy Spirit

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

He Yi Zhuanghe City, Liaoning Province

In “Ten Administrative Decrees God’s Chosen People Must Keep” it is stipulated: “In the work or the church affairs, apart from obeying God, you should take orders from the man used by the Holy Spirit in everything and should not disobey any of them but should obey them absolutely. Do not analyze whether they are right or wrong. Whether they are right or wrong has nothing to do with you. You should just obey them absolutely.”

We Should Truly Accept the Chastisement and Judgment of God’s word

We Should Truly Accept the Chastisement and Judgment of God’s word

Danchun Luoyang City, Henan Province

We all know that what God does in the end time is the work of chastising and judging by the word, and that only if one truly accepts the chastisement and judgment of God’s word can he gain the transformation of his disposition and be saved by God. Then, what does it mean to truly accept the chastisement and judgment of God’s word? Some people think: Now I have no notions about God’s word. Whatever God’s word says is right, and I have no opinions about it; whatever God says I acknowledge. This means that I have accepted the chastisement and judgment of God’s word. Some think: Now I can know in God’s word that I am arrogant, crafty, and devoid of conscience and sense, and that I have been too deeply corrupted by satan. This means that I have accepted the chastisement and judgment of God’s word. Still some think: I can know in God’s word what kind of people God likes, what kind of people God hates, what kind of people God perfects, and what kind of people God eliminates. This means that I have accepted the chastisement and judgment of God’s word. Actually, these are only our own imagined standards and are not in accordance with the truth.

It Is Most Crucial to Pursue the Truth While Believing in God

It Is Most Crucial to Pursue the Truth While Believing in God

Kang Rong Anqing City, Anhui Province

 It Is Most Crucial to Pursue the Truth While Believing in God

Now, brothers and sisters generally have such states: Those who lead the church only care to go around the church without being idle; those who preach the gospel only pay attention to gaining people; those who do general affairs only busy themselves with doing them properly; those who do hosting only think of hosting the brothers and sisters properly; those who cannot perform duties just keep attending meetings regularly without leaving God’s family. In short, those who perform duties only desire to get things done, and those who cannot perform duties are content merely with attending meetings; none pays attention to eating and drinking God’s word, to pursuing the truth, and to their personal life entering in. People all think in their notions that pursuing the truth is not important, and that as long as they perform their duty properly and do not leave God’s family, they can be saved and left.

One Cannot Step Onto Peter’s Path Only by Willing to Take It

Yang Jing Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province

After Almighty God revealed to men the outcomes of Peter and Paul, a lot of people thought in their heart: I must take the way of Peter and never take the way of Paul. And they believed that as long as they were willing in their heart to take the way of Peter they could step onto it. Therefore, many of them took the good aspect of what they did as the sign of their having stepped onto the way of Peter. For example, some people thought that their having followed Almighty God and gained some knowledge of themselves meant they had stepped onto the way of Peter. Some thought that their having practiced some truths meant they had stepped onto the way of Peter. Some thought that their having some good behavior outwardly and often calling upon God in imitation of Peter’s prayers meant they had stepped onto the way of Peter. Others thought that their reading God’s word every day and being able to speak a little knowledge of it and know themselves in light of it meant they had stepped onto the way of Peter. Still others thought that, because they shed tears whenever God’s love was talked about, they had had love for God and had stepped onto the way of Peter. Furthermore, there were those who thought that as long as they ate and drank God’s word diligently at home without working or running around outside, they were walking the way of Peter. Up to today, however, no real manifestations of Peter’s pursuing the truth and life can be seen in us. What we live out is still our oldness and our naturalness. Then, how can we say that we are walking the way of Peter? Actually, truly stepping onto the way of Peter is not as simple and easy as we have imagined and thought.