35 I Woke Up in God’s Punishment
Zhang Min
Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province
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| Picture of The Church of Almighty God | I Woke Up in God’s Punishment |
Before I accepted the work of Almighty God, our leader told us, “Sister X has joined ‘the Kingdom Sect.’ That’s deceptive, a false Christ. None of you should receive her without my permission. We should believe in the Bible, because the Bible is our life.” What the leader said was planted deeply in my heart. At that time, I was really afraid that someday she would come to me…
One day in October 2000, the thing I had been most afraid of happened. The sister came to my house joyfully and invited me to hers. I immediately remembered what my leader had said. So I roared at her fiercely, “You have joined ‘the Kingdom Sect.’ Do you think I don’t know it? I won’t be fooled today. You were a Catholic, but now you have converted to ‘the Kingdom Sect.’ You are really a great whore. Go away!” Just like this, I drove her away without giving her a chance to speak.
After she left, my cold, which I had caught not long ago, became more and more serious. I prayed constantly at home but it didn’t get better. So I hurried to the church and asked the leader to pray for me, and I also told her that the sister had been to my house. But she threw a fierce look at me and said, “I’ve told you not to receive her but to drive her away and call the police if she doesn’t go. You would get over your illness in the past after you prayed yourself. Look at you now. You have to come to the church to pray even when you have a cold. You are bewitched!” After prayer, I went home. I thought the cold would be surly gone. Little did I expect that it got worse. I vomited all that I ate or drank every time. And in the end even the saliva I spat was bitter. I was tortured so much that I was listless. At that time, my six-year-old son was ill too. Ay! It never rains but pours. I felt so bad in my heart that I took out all my resentments upon the sister who preached the gospel of Almighty God. “It’s all the fault of those preachers of ‘the Kingdom Sect.’ The ‘evil spirit’ they believe in is indeed powerful, and it makes me upset and restless and my family lose peace. If they come to preach to me again, I will never receive them. I hate their guts.”
It hadn’t occurred to me that after a week the sister came again with another sister. At the sight of them, I became more irritated, and I turned angrily and sat down to do my work without speaking to them, thinking, “You alone couldn’t drag me away, and today you find a helper. Fie! Haven’t you caused me enough trouble already? I haven’t recovered from my illness, yet you come again to deceive me.” However, they didn’t care about my attitude toward them, and came over with a smile to help me with the work. And they said to me, “The One we preach is still Jesus. It’s only that God has taken a different name and has done a different work…” Before they finished the words, I suddenly stood up and forcibly pushed them out of my home. From then on, when they came again, I simply kept them out of the door and didn’t allow them to get into my house. I, ignorant and foolish, rejected God’s salvation time after time like this.
After the Spring Festival, I suffered a heart disease. As I couldn’t afford to go to hospital, I felt very sad. Facing that situation, my stubborn heart not only didn’t wake up but harbored more hatred for those preachers of “the Kingdom Sect.” “Why are these people so thick-skinned and hard to shake off? It’s rotten luck to meet them.”
One day in August 2002, a sister came to me again to preach God’s gospel of the last days. She said, “God has come the second time. He is called Almighty God. He has done a new work. And He is incarnated as a female.” Hearing these words, I got furious and interrupted her at once, “You are too bold. How dare you blaspheme God while believing in God, saying that Christ is a female? I don’t believe it! You say God has come. Where is she? I’ll go and meet her with you. I must see her! Otherwise, you are talking nonsense.” However, she said composedly, “We are still filthy and are not worthy to see God. The Bible says that without holiness no one shall see the Lord.” I said with a cold smile, “Don’t deceive me with such word. I’d rather die than accept it. Go home! Quickly, don’t get in the way here!”
In the two months that followed, no one came to preach the gospel to me because of my stubbornness. I was very pleased with myself, thinking, “The leader is right. As long as I refuse to listen all along, they can do nothing with me, and I have stood ‘testimony’ for Jesus.” Unexpectedly, God’s punishment came upon me again. I began to feel a dull pain in my stomach. As time went on, it became more and more serious. I prayed to Jesus but it didn’t work, so I went to see a doctor for medicine, but the medicine still didn’t relieve my pain. One day, I met my leader on my way to the doctor’s. Bearing the pain, I hurried toward her happily and asked her to pray for me. However, she pulled a face and said coldly, “You have offended God. You deserve it.” With that, she turned and left even without a backward glance. I stood there and stared at her receding figure, tears of grievance falling down like beads off a string. I thought to myself, “How come the leader I’ve been respecting becomes so merciless?” Since she said I had offended God, I reflected on my doings. But I thought that every time I did as she told me, and every time I stood “testimony” for God. I really didn’t know how I had offended God! Full of grievances, I went home. Everything in my home was an offence to my eye, so I vented all my grievances on my husband. He also felt bad to see that I was distressed, so he told it to a brother in our village who believed in Almighty God.
The next day, the brother’s wife came to visit me. She said to me, “God’s love has come upon you. Don’t be foolish. Accept God’s new work quickly! God’s disposition in the last days is righteousness, majesty, and wrath, which is holy and not to be offended.” Hearing these words, I bowed my head and kept silent, not knowing what to do. She talked with me about the signs of God’s coming in Matthew 24. Hearing what she said, I felt it was time for God to come. And my mind began to be swayed. Suddenly the leader’s words came to my mind, “Harden your heart, and don’t be taken in by them.” So I said to her immediately, “You go! I don’t believe it.” Just then, another sister in my village who believed in Almighty God came. She said to me, “Seeing you, I recall what I was like before. At that time, I also disobeyed and resisted God and refused to accept Him. Then my whole family suffered from scabies. We spent all our money but the disease wasn’t cured. In the end, I realized that it was because I had resisted Almighty God. After I accepted Almighty God, my husband persecuted me all along because I went out to perform my duty, and he even burned up the book of God’s word. Later, he was punished and nearly lost his life while working out of the town. (I knew about that matter too.) You should know that in the last days the disposition of Almighty God is majesty, not to be offended. His disposition is no longer like Jesus’, like a sheep, allowing man to lead or kill, but is like a lion. Because now is the last days, and it’s no longer the time God bestows grace upon men but the time God rewards the good and punishes the evil and divides men into their kinds. When believing in Jesus, if we offend God in speaking and doing things, the Lord’s precious blood will forgive us. But, ‘And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but to him that blasphemes against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.’ So, as a believer in God, don’t judge anything about God at will or heed and trust only one side lest we fall into Satan’s trap. This is because it’s not a terrible thing to offend a person, but it’s terrible to offend the God in heaven. God has His dignity. How can He allow men to judge and condemn Him at will?” At these words, I couldn’t help shivering. “Have I really offended God? Is it because I offended the true God that my illness didn’t get better but got worse and worse? …” I didn’t dare to go on thinking. At that time, the sister took out a book named The Word Appears in the Flesh, and read these words: “The Pharisees in the Old Testament believed in God from generation to generation. When the Age of Grace came, they did not know Jesus and resisted Jesus. Thus, all that they had done was wasted and was in vain, and God did not accept it. If you see this clearly, you will not easily commit sins. Maybe many people have competed against God. What does resisting God taste like, sweet or bitter? You should know this. Do not pretend you do not know. Maybe some people are not convinced in their hearts. Then I advise that you had better try and see what it tastes like. Otherwise, many people always have doubts about that. While reading God’s word, many people resisted secretly in their hearts. Didn’t you feel as if a knife were being twisted in your heart after you resisted like that? Either your family had no peace, or you felt unwell physically, or your children suffered misfortunes. Although your flesh was spared from death, God’s hand never left you. Do you think this is a simple thing?” “You have touched My anger many times, and I have sent down My burning fire. As a consequence, many have ‘suffered tragedy’ and their happy homes have become desolate graves.” “… you believe in Jesus with your lips but dare to blatantly resist the One whom God has testified. Aren’t you foolish? The God today may overlook your transgressions or do not condemn you. You say that you believe in Jesus. Then can your Lord Jesus Christ let you go? Do you think that God is where you vent your spleen and lie? When your ‘Lord Jesus Christ’ appears again, He will decide whether you are righteous or evil according to what you have done today.” Hearing these words, I bowed my head. The sister saw that my attitude changed somewhat, and she sang a song for me affectionately: “How many times have people seen God’s hands and seen God’s kind countenance and smiling face; and how many times have they seen God’s majesty, seen God’s wrath. Though humanity has never known God, God does not seize upon their weakness to ‘make unnecessary trouble.’ Experiencing humanity’s hardships, God thus sympathizes with man’s weakness. It is only in response to men’s disobedience, their ingratitude, that God metes out chastisements in varying degrees. Rather than putting humans to death, God allows them to repent and make a fresh start. When men suffer famine, God wrests them from death.” While I was listening, I couldn’t help shedding tears. Only then did I realize that the One I frenziedly resisted and blasphemed and slandered was God Himself!
Later, the sister brought me a book named Typical Cases of Punishment for Resisting Almighty God. When I saw the tragic end of those evil followers, who frenziedly resisted, condemned, and blasphemed God’s work of the last days, my heart tightened. That was close! I resisted God’s work and blasphemed God’s flesh time after time, and I drove the sisters who preached the gospel out of the door many times, without any humanity. Yet, God did not remove my flesh after I had done so many evil things, but He let me see His hand and His righteousness and majesty through the illnesses, and thus let me know Almighty God. I really have received Almighty God’s great forbearance and exceptional uplifting. Thinking of these, I deeply felt that God is so kind and lovely…
Source: "I Woke Up in God’s Punishment" in How Was I Conquered by the Word of God
Recommendation: Eastern Lightning , The brief introduction of the Church of Almighty God
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