3 Principles for How to Meditate on the Word of God

Reading the Bible is a daily must for Christians, and it’s also indispensable on the path to gaining the truth and growing in our spiritual lives. The Lord Jesus said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Clearly, frequently reading God’s words in the Bible and holding them firmly in our hearts is something that every Christian ought to do. However, every one of us has had the following experience in our Scripture reading: Sometimes we’re able to gain the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment and illumination; our spirit is moved, we can understand God’s will and requirements and have the faith to put God’s words into practice in our daily lives.

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Do You Know How to Pray So That God Will Listen?

Brothers and sisters:

Peace to you in the Lord! Praying is an important way for us Christians to establish a normal relationship with God. This is especially the case during the morning and at night. That is why learning how to pray is extremely important. However, many brothers and sisters feel perplexed: Every single day, we pray both in the morning and at night; we also pray before we eat and after we finish eating as well as when we have gatherings; furthermore, each time we pray, we say a lot to the Lord and pray for a long time. However, we always feel as if God is not there; it feels as if we are just talking to ourselves when we pray, and our spirit does not feel peace or joy. Why does God not listen to our prayers? How should we pray so that we can receive God’s praise?

Actually, there are a few reasons why God may not listen to our prayers. I will share my personal understanding of this with everybody.

Picture of The Church of Almighty God | Pray to god

First, do we pray to God with a sincere heart?

The Lord Jesus said: “When the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him” (John 4:23). God’s words have shown us how we should pray to worship God in accordance with His intentions. What God focuses on the most is whether we have a sincere heart when we are before Him and whether we speak sincere and true words to Him. As long as we have a reverent heart toward God and have a sincere heart when we pray to God, God would find our prayers acceptable. However, when we pray to God, we often are unable to quiet ourselves before God and use a true heart to pray to God. Our lips move but our heart is thinking about family or work and filled with anxious thoughts. Sometimes, our lips move but our hearts do not move. We do not have an honest attitude, and we are simply going through the motions and going over old ground, doing it perfunctorily. We even frequently say some dignified, pompous and empty words, words that merely sound good or some diluted words to deceive God. For example, we love our parents more than we love the Lord or we love our career more than we love the Lord, yet when we pray, we say, “O Lord, I love You! I am willing to relinquish everything and expend for You with all my heart!” When our families encounter some unhappy incidents, our hearts become negative and we complain to the Lord. Yet, when we pray, we give thanks to the Lord and say words of praise to the Lord…. Basically, in prayers, if one is not sincere and only goes through the motions, using some big and empty words, false words or if one disguises oneself before God and only says some pleasant-sounding words, he is deceiving God. God will not listen to prayers that are not sincere.

Second, do we pray to God with rationality?

Much of the time, when we pray to God, we blindly demand things from God or we have all sorts of extravagant requests for God. For example: if we do not have a job, we ask God to provide us with work. If we do not have a child, we ask God to bestow a child to us. If we are sick, we ask God to cure our illness. If our families are experiencing difficulties, we ask God to help us out. Business people pray to God and ask Him to bless them so that they can make lots of money. Students ask God to bless them with intelligence and wisdom. Old people ask God to protect them from sickness and calamities so that they can spend their last years in peace. In life, regardless of what difficulties and trials we encounter, we are never able to submit to God’s arrangements. We always hope that God would save us from our troubles so that we would no longer suffer. We always ask the Lord to protect us so that we can be happy and peaceful. This type of prayer is not a prayer from one of God’s creations to God. Instead, it involves asking God for things and asking Him to do things in accordance with our own thoughts. When people believe in God, they hope that God will satisfy all their requests and desires. This is basically entering into a business deal with God and it is without a shred of conscience or rationality. These kinds of people do not have genuine faith and love for God nor do they genuinely obey or revere God. They are instead using God to attain their goals. This is precisely as God said, “This people draws near to me with their mouth, and honors me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8). Therefore, God does not listen to prayers that people make with improper intentions.

Third, does our church have the Holy Spirit’s work?

Recall the initial stage of the Age of Law when the temple contained the work of the Holy Spirit. When people committed sins, they received the Holy Spirit’s discipline. If the priests who were serving God broke the law, fire would come down straight from heaven and burn them to death. People were very afraid and they had hearts that revered God. However, during the latter period of the Age of Law when Jesus appeared and worked, the Jewish people could not keep the law, used the temple as a place to exchange money and sell livestock. They had turned the temple into a den of thieves. It no longer contained the Holy Spirit’s discipline. Since the Holy Spirit had already left the temple in order to defend the work of Jesus, those people who stayed in the temple and refused to accept the salvation of Jesus were eliminated by God’s work, falling into darkness. Even though they prayed in the name of Jehovah, God did not listen. Even more so, they were unable to obtain the Holy Spirit’s work.

Let’s take a look at our church today. The pastors and elders’ sermons are dull. There is no new light. Brothers and sisters do not receive life nourishment, and their spirits become more and more withered and dark and unable to feel the Holy Spirit’s presence. They would even start to lust for flesh and the pleasures of life as well as seek status and power. Conflicts would erupt between co-workers. Their transgressions would frequently claim victory over them and they would not feel indebted to the Lord. They do not follow the Lord’s words, nor do they keep His commandments. They have totally violated God’s will, becoming the ones who resist God…. What is the difference between this kind of church and the temple that existed in the later period of the Age of Law? This completely fulfills the prophecy in the Bible, “And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city: one piece was rained on, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered to one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have you not returned to me, said Jehovah” (Amos 4:7–8). Actually, God has left the church of the Age of Grace. There are many brothers and sisters who clearly feel that the church no longer has the Holy Spirit’s work and that God has already covered His face from us. So how is it possible that our spirits do not become withered? How could God listen to our prayers?

The three circumstances mentioned above are the main reasons why the Lord does not listen to our prayers. All we can do is come before the Lord, seek His intentions and reflect upon these issues. We must also seek how to pray to the Lord so that He would listen. This is a truth that we urgently need to enter. Now, I will share with everybody three methods of implementation so that you will know how to pray in accordance with God’s intentions. As long as we are able to put them into action and practice every day with our heart, I believe that the Lord will listen to our prayers.

First, we must pray in spirit, pray sincerely and say true things that come from our hearts.

We all know that God is faithful. With God, there is no treachery, no hypocrisy and no lies. God is sincere with each and every one of us. God also hopes that we will pray sincerely and honestly to Him. This is just as Jesus said: “But let your communication be, Yes, yes; No, no: for whatever is more than these comes of evil” (Matthew 5:37). Therefore, when we pray, we should speak frankly to God. If we are weak, we should say that we are weak. Whatever thoughts, ideas, pain, difficulties, or things that we have done which are not in accordance with God’s intentions, we should completely open up our hearts and tell God about them. There are some words and some matters that we would feel embarrassed to admit to other people. However, we cannot hide these things from God. We must open up our hearts to God and tell God about them honestly. When God sees that our hearts are wide open to Him and that we are not concealing anything from Him and furthermore, we are saying things that come straight from our hearts and that we are speaking very honestly to God, God will guide us to understanding His intentions and understanding all aspects of the truth. This will give us a path to walk.

Additionally, when we pray, we must quiet ourselves before God. We must pray to God with a concentrated heart. We must not be half-hearted or have words without a heart. When we speak with our parents, we are able to respect them. Our attitude toward them is sincere. Is it not because they are our elders and have raised us? God created us, bestowed life upon us, provided us with everything we need to live and He has bestowed the truth upon us. Shouldn’t it then be even more important that we pray to God with a reverent heart? Regardless of what we pray to God about, we must have a devout heart and seek God’s intentions and tell Him with honesty about our own thoughts, difficulties and we should patiently wait for God’s time. Only in this way will we obtain God’s enlightenment and guidance, and understand His intentions. Then our difficulties will be resolved in time.

Second, we should stand in the place of a created being and have no demands for God; we must pray with a heart that submits to God.

When we pray, we must be clear that we are creations and God is our Creator. God holds all things and events in His hands. Our all is controlled by God. Whatever we encounter each and every day, regardless if it is a major matter or a minor matter, all of it is due to God’s arrangements. When we pray to God, we should stand firm in our position as creations, and seek God’s will with a devout and submissive attitude before God. We should not have any demands for God. For example, when we encounter difficulties and we do not know what to do, we can pray like this: “God! I do not understand the truth in regard to this matter. I do not know how I should do things in accordance with Your intentions. However, I am willing to seek in Your words and do things in accordance with Your requests and to satisfy Your intentions. Please enlighten and guide me. Amen!” When our hearts have a place for God and when we can stand in the place of a creation and pray, prostrate, give worship to our Creator, and when we can obey His work and put His words into action, only then will we build a normal relationship with God and obtain the Holy Spirit’s work. We all know Job was a man that feared God and shunned evil. When he lost all his livestock, sons and daughters, was covered with sores from head to toe and was enduring a great deal of pain, he believed that God was the ruler of everything and that without God’s permission, these things would not have befallen him. Furthermore, he also knew that everything that he had including his life was given to him by God. Regardless of when God wants to collect, it is natural and proper. Therefore, he did not complain to God nor did he have any demands for God. As a result, he bent over and worshiped and with a heart of submission he prayed to God. He said these words: “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah” (Job 1:21). “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). Job stood firm and bore witness for God. His sense and his submission to God obtained God’s praise. If we are also able to address God in the way that Job did, if we have a place for God in our hearts and if we are able to pray to God with a heart that submits to God regardless of what trials we encounter, God will guide us and enlighten us so that we will understand the truth. Our spirits will become more and more sharp and our thoughts will be more and more clear. When we reveal some corruption or have some bad situations, it will be even easier for us to be conscious about it and resolve it in time. Then, our relationship with God will become more and more close and our life will grow faster and faster.

Third, if our church does not have the Holy Spirit’s work, we must have prayers of seeking.

We all know, in the later period of the Age of Law, man was corrupted more and more deeply by Satan. Man lived within sin and he faced the danger of being convicted by the law and put to death. Then, God, under the name of Jesus, ended the Age of Law, started the Age of Grace and did the work of redeeming the human race. From then on, Judaism completely lost God’s glorious presence. For all those who did not accept the Lord Jesus’ name and work, regardless of what circumstances they encountered and regardless of how they prayed and appealed to Jehovah God, God would not listen to them and they would not obtain the Holy Spirit’s work. However, all those who accepted Jesus’ new work and prayed in the name of Jesus would enjoy the nourishment of God’s living water fountain. When they called on the Lord they would be able to see God’s deeds and they would have the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit’s work.

Nowadays, regardless of how we pray in the Lord’s name, we do not feel the Holy Spirit’s work, and we cannot sense His presence. We cannot obtain nourishment for our lives and we commit sins but do not receive discipline. It is very possible that the Holy Spirit’s work has once again been diverted. The Bible says, “And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:47–48). “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). From these verses we can see that, in the last days, God will return once more to do the stage of judgement work. The Lord is faithful. What He says will happen, will happen. As for us, we should seek and pray, asking God to guide us to the fountain of life so that we can obtain watering and nourishment and follow the footsteps of our Lord. I believe that as long as we have a heart that thirsts and seeks, we will obtain God’s guidance. This is because God has promised us, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).

Thank the Lord for His guidance. I hope that the content that was shared today in regard to how to pray will benefit everybody. Prayer is an important step in establishing a normal relationship with God. It is also a key path through which we can obtain the Holy Spirit’s work. When we understand how to pray to obtain the Lord’s response and have a practical path to follow and when we practice it often, only then will the Lord hear our prayers. May our prayers soon be in accordance with God’s intentions.

May all the glory be unto God!

Source From: Eastern Lightning

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Diary of a Christian: Learning the Lesson of Obedience

Friday, January 5, 2018 Sunny

Today was a day I’ll never forget. The person in charge told me that the church urgently needed a sister to perform hosting duties and asked if I’d be willing. When I heard this, my heart was in turmoil and I couldn’t calm myself down. I never thought I would be asked to perform this duty, and the discontent I felt inside came straight out: “How can you arrange for me to do hosting duties? Elderly brothers and sisters are suited to do that kind of duty.

Though my caliber may be lacking, it’s not so poor that I’m only fit to do hosting duties! I’ve been a leader for years and wherever I go, brothers and sisters host me and revolve around me, and yet now I’m actually expected to host others in turn? Don’t you know anything about how to use people? Won’t this be like using a huge crane to move chicken feathers, or putting fine timber to some trivial use? If my brothers and sisters back at home know that, even though I’ve worked really hard for years for my belief in God, I haven’t become a leader but instead am doing hosting duties, what will they think of me? Won’t they think that I’m not pursuing the truth, or that my caliber is too poor? If they really thought that, where could I ever show my face again?”

Thinking these thoughts, I couldn’t find it in myself to accept this commission. And yet I’d believed in God for so many years, and if I couldn’t even obey this one arrangement, then my faith would be meaningless. For the sake of face, I grudgingly accepted the duty.

Wednesday, January 10, 2018 Overcast with light rain

Today was my fifth day at doing hosting duties, and I felt in a very low mood right from the start. These last few days, watching the sisters sitting at their computers every day, finalizing articles, and listening to the “tap tap tap” sound of their fingers on the keys, I felt so envious. I thought of how every article they were finalizing could serve the function of testifying to God in terms of spreading the gospel; this duty is so meaningful and good! It isn’t too tiring and it’s an impressive duty to do. Especially when I see some sisters talking about work and fellowshiping the truth together, talking and smiling, whereas I’m out busy getting meals ready, with only pots and pans to greet me all day, washing and rinsing, doing housework, I feel like I’m just serving them every day like a housekeeper. I feel like I’m a disgraced lowly servant, and my heart feels very uncomfortable. I really don’t want to stay in this situation …

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

Thursday, January 25, 2018 Moderate rain

Recently, the CCP’s persecution and arrests of Christians are getting worse and worse, and our neighborhood committee in our residential area has again started to check every family and every household for any stranger staying with them. The sisters I’m hosting can’t easily go out, and they’re afraid of any telephone call they make being monitored by the CCP. So normally, whenever they need to communicate something with the church, I’m the one who takes the letters. But today, as I was handing the letters over to the person responsible, I realized that I’d left one letter back at home, and while I was on my way back home I realized that I’d forgotten to bring a letter that I had to give to a sister. I forgot to take something to the church, and then forgot to bring something back when I came home, so I’ve made two errands today for nothing and caused delays to my sisters’ normal performance of their duties.

It’s night and I’m lying on my bed, and all outside is pitch black. I can only hear the rain. When it came time to go to bed, I couldn’t sleep at all. I kept thinking of the mistakes I made today, and I realized that it was because I didn’t want to do hosting duties. Carrying such resistance and dissatisfaction all day long, I’ve ended up not being able even to do such a simple duty well, forgetting this and not doing that. Oh, I really can’t do anything right. I can’t even render service, so what will my sisters think of me? The more I thought like this, the more discredited I felt, and I felt an oppression that I couldn’t free myself from.

I thought also of how I haven’t been able to find words to say to God when I’ve prayed these last few days, and I find no light when I read God’s words. Every day I feel muddleheaded and feel like my situation has reached such a terrible level. In my pain, I came before God and prayed: “O God! I know that this duty was not given to me by any one person but is rather by Your sovereignty and arrangements. But I just can’t bring myself to obey in this situation. I always feel like this duty is causing me to lose face in all respects and my heart is very unwilling and resistant. O God! The more unwilling I am to obey, the darker and more painful my heart becomes. I ask that You guide me out of this state so that I can truly understand Your will. Amen!”

Friday, February 2, 2018 Very cloudy

Yesterday, my leader Sister Wang came, and I opened up to her about my states. As she had other urgent business to attend to, Sister Wang didn’t fellowship much with me, but she did say something that gave me pause for thought. She said, “We think too highly of ourselves. We think that we are leader material, so when these situations befall us we feel as though our prestige and status are taking a knock, and therefore we feel pained.” I began to reflect on myself with the sister’s words. It seemed as though this was the state I’d been living in during this time, and I had been stuck in ideas of status, unable to get free. As I sought the answers, I read in Sermons and Fellowship: “People who always have extravagant desires, who always want to be on top, who always want to realize their individual goals, who are always making excessive demands of God and who always want to do this or that do not have a heart that reveres God. Therefore, the more people have a heart that reveres God, the more they will know their place and the more they will satisfy God in the position they are given. For example, God has His arrangement and ordainment for everything that He has created. If a person is a blade of grass, a flower or a plant, he does not have any desires, and he does not want to be a large tree. He is willing to do all he can to satisfy God no matter what he is; he does not have any other desires. So, no matter what place God has for us in His house, what duty we are required to perform, we should satisfy God all the same, we should still pursue the truth and do our duty well. You can see that some people always want to be at the top and always want to put themselves above others. They always want to be something, to be the master or the teacher of others. These people do not have a heart that reveres God. They do not know themselves and are not clear about who they are in the very least. ‘I am a common person, an ordinary one, and all I should do is worship God.’ A person who lives this way will not get tired, isn’t it so? If God uplifts me, that is His business. If God uplifts me, I will satisfy God. No matter how God manipulate, I will satisfy Him. I have no individual desires. These people live so happily and are so relaxed. Heathens call this knowing how to live; in the house of God it is being able to submit to God. Only people who submit to God truly know how to live. Only people who allow themselves to be at the mercy of God know how to live” (“How to Achieve a Change in Life Disposition” in Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life (I)). After reading these words, I became even more certain that my state was exactly as my leader had said. Thinking back to when I was performing my duty as a leader, wherever I went, brothers and sisters would think highly of me and look up to me, they would all revolve around me in their actions, my desire for reputation and status was greatly satisfied and I was willing to suffer anything in the performance of my duty. After starting to do hosting duties, however, I spend all day cooking and doing housework, running errands here and there as the sisters’ duties require, unable to stand out or be looked highly upon by anyone. I felt like my reputation had hit rock bottom and that I’d become someone who was beneath notice, working amongst the brothers and sisters. In my heart, I felt wronged and upset, all day long I was bound by thoughts of prestige and status, and I lived such an oppressed life that I was unable to escape. My desire for status is so strong!

Only after pondering this passage from Sermons and Fellowship did I realize that God requires people to fulfill their duty as created beings well, to take their proper place, and submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements. Grass by the side of the road harbors no unreasonable expectations and doesn’t vie for position with the tall tree, nor does it compete in beauty with the flower. It is there only to play its own role and is interspersed across the earth together with flowers and trees. I am a tiny created being in the hand of God; why am I unable to submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements and play my own role well and stay in my own place? I believe in God and yet I don’t obey Him at all. When I perform my duty, I don’t seek His will and I don’t obey His words. Instead, I always consider my own interests first and protect my own prestige and status. I haven’t a God-fearing heart at all, so am I not rebelling against God by being this way? No wonder I’ve been so negative and pained lately, and it’s all been because I’m not seeking the truth and because my ambitions and desires are too strong!

Thanks to God, this passage in Sermons and Fellowship really turned my state around. I no longer wish to live in a state of resistance; I wish to obey and serve my function in my current duty. Only after more contemplation did I understand that God meticulously arranges this kind of situation just to purify and change me and to deal with me for desiring status. Otherwise, I would have no knowledge whatsoever of my corrupt disposition or the truth about my rebelliousness to God, and neither would I be able to achieve true repentance and change. This situation is so beneficial to my life entry—it’s what I need in my life! I wish to submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements and fulfill my hosting duties well to bring comfort to God’s heart!

Wednesday, February 7, 2018 Sunny

Over these past few days, thanks to the enlightenment and guidance of God’s words, my state has seen a dramatic improvement. After breakfast, I opened my laptop and listened to a sermon. It said: “We now understand that, before time began, God predestined that we would be born into the last days and would accept His work; accepting God’s work is our God-given mission, and in this stage of work of the last days, God arranges what duty we do, what our responsibilities are and what commissions we shall accomplish—this is our mission as human beings. … God gives every single person a different gift and different strengths, and according to these gifts and strengths He arranges different duties for people. By performing your duty, you are accomplishing a commission God has given to you, and so you spread testimony of God. … Every single one of us is part of the ‘machine’ that spreads testimony of God; each one of us bears a different responsibility and undertakes different duties and different obligations. Every single person is like a cog or a screw in this machine—it must have every one of us in order to operate and it cannot be without even one of its functions. Combined together we make this machine, and when we turn together, we perform the work of spreading the testimony of God. Isn’t that right? When each one of us fulfills our duty well, the cogs in the machine turn, and every duty is absolutely necessary! Therefore, no matter which duty we do, each one is arranged by God; do not look down on one duty and think highly of another duty, for these are the notions of man and they are prejudices—they are so vulgar! Right? Every duty is important in God’s eyes and each one is essential. God values each one highly, and no matter what duty you do, as long as you pursue the truth, then the reward you will obtain in the end will be the same, the blessings you get from God will be the same, and the promises God fulfills for you will be the same. Isn’t that the case? Although we all have our different gifts and our responsibilities differ, the rewards and blessings we obtain are the same, and this is God’s fair and righteous treatment of every single person; God does not favor one person over another. So, you really mustn’t be so picky with your duties, looking highly upon this one and disparaging that one, for that makes you vulgar and so lacking in insight! Understand? (Yes.) So God has predestined what our responsibilities shall be and what duty we shall perform in the church and in His family, and this is His commission, right? This is our mission, right? (Right.)” (“Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life, Volume 153). After listening to this sermon, I felt both moved and ashamed as I realized that, no matter what duty someone does, it is predestined by God and every duty is a mission bestowed on man by God. Our duties are the commissions God gives to us, and regardless of the kind of duty we do, each one is necessary to spread God’s kingdom gospel, and each one is essential; in God’s eyes, there is no differentiation between great or small, lofty or lowly. I had not paid attention to pursuing the truth or fulfilling my duty to satisfy God, but had valued only reputation and status, thinking only about how I could stand out to people. I always thought that by finalizing articles, my sisters were able to testify God, that others could look up to them, and only that kind of duty was impressive to others. As a leader, wherever one went, one received the endorsement of all brothers and sisters, and I thought that only that kind of duty was meaningful. Therefore, in my heart I looked down upon hosting duties, and completely going by my corrupt disposition, I divided duties into several grades of worthiness. I didn’t regard things in the light of the truth, and my outlook really was so absurd! Only now do I understand that all the church’s duties are important, that all are done to extend the gospel work, and that we all need each other. For example, if I didn’t perform my hosting duties well, then that would directly impact the sisters’ duties. Moreover, God arranges environments and different duties for people in accordance with their statures and the need for change in their life dispositions, and as long as we can pursue the truth in whatever duty we perform, then we will certainly reap the rewards. As for me now, although I don’t have high status, I have gained some knowledge about my incorrect views on pursuit and my corrupt essence through the judgment and chastisement of God; I am also able to hate myself and forsake myself, submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements, and fulfill my duty in accordance with what God has predestined for me, and this is most meaningful.

Right now, I can’t help but recall all the years I spent serving as a leader and enjoying the esteem and attention of brothers and sisters, and yet I didn’t pursue the truth and I gained no entry into life whatsoever; I’ve believed in God for so many years and yet I haven’t gained any reality of the truth. I think of those false leaders and antichrists who gained position and power but who, because they didn’t pursue the truth, and did all manner of evil in the church going by their satanic corrupt dispositions, and disturbed and interrupted God’s work, were ultimately exposed and sifted out by God, and even expelled from the church. I can’t help but ask myself: What meaning is there to pursuing status, and what exactly can status do for me? The only thing status can do is to temporarily satisfy my vain desires. Pursuing status cannot allow me to gain the truth, nor enable me to cast off the restraints and bonds of my corrupt dispositions, much less make me obey God, love God, and revere God. Blindly pursuing reputation and status has brought me only pain, and has even caused interruptions and disturbances to my duty. The more I think about it, the more I perceive the emptiness and wickedness of pursuing reputation and status, and the more I feel how crucial it is to be able to submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements, peaceably pursue the truth and fulfill my duty well. No matter whether the duty I perform is great or small, it is the mission and the responsibility laid on me by the Creator, it is the commission given me by God, and I should put my heart into it, and satisfy God and comfort God’s heart with all my heart and mind!

Saturday, February 10, 2018 Very Cloudy

“God allows you to live, and if you can live for God and live to perform the duties of a created being, then you are living confidently in righteousness” (“Nothing Is More Meaningful Than Living Thus” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). After dinner, I did the housework whilst singing this hymn of God’s words, feeling so relaxed and free!

Once the housework was done, I sat at my desk to write my diary, as I usually did. Thinking of these past days under the enlightenment and guidance of God’s words, I finally understand God’s will. I know that my duty is my commission that God has given to me, that it is what I am supposed to do, and that I should perform it without sparing any effort. When I began to think like this, my state of mind when performing my duty became totally different! When my sisters are busy doing their duty at their computers and I have to go out to prepare food, I no longer feel like I’m serving others, but rather that I’m carrying out the duty of a created being to satisfy God, and in my heart I feel calm and proud! When associating with the sisters, I still reveal my corrupt disposition concerning reputation and status sometimes, but I realize it immediately and then pray to God and forsake myself. I also speak openly to them about it and we fellowship together and help each other, and we benefit each other’s entry into life. I’ve also begun to learn how to do my duty with heart. I clean and tidy our rooms every day to provide the sisters with a comfortable environment in which to perform their duties; I’ve noticed a younger sister who hasn’t quite gotten used to our life here, so before I make meals, I take the initiative to ask her what she’d like to eat and I do my best to make meals that she’d like. And when she feels weak and negative, I offer up prayers for her, and I rely on God to do all in my power to help her so that she can soon leave her negative state behind. The more I practice like this, the more incredibly free I feel in my heart. I may not be able to do important jobs, but I do what I can in my duty, and this amounts to dedicating my meager abilities for the sake of God’s work! Only when my mindset about doing my duty underwent this transformation did I discover that all my sisters were so nice to me. They often have heart-to-heart with me and fellowship with me, and they make time to help me wash the dishes. They don’t look down on me or belittle me at all, much less disparage the hosting duty that I do; we get along so well. By experiencing and practicing in this way, I feel how great it is not to live by my satanic corrupt dispositions, but instead to submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements!

Picture of The Church of Almighty God | Praise God

Sunday, February 18, 2018 Very Cloudy

Today, my leader came to tell me that the church now needs someone to perform the duty of handling routine business. They’d considered it at length and believed that I would be quite suited to it, and so the church wanted to appoint me to this new duty. As I listened, my heart couldn’t help but beat faster, and I thought: “Doing the duty of handling routine business is not as good as doing hosting duties. If the brothers and sisters who know me well find out about this, won’t they say that I’m not pursuing the truth because the duties I perform seem to be getting less and less important?” No sooner had this thought come to me than I realized that my desire for reputation and status was once again starting to make mischief, and so I hurriedly prayed to God and forsook my own wrong thoughts and ideas. I thought of God’s words which say: “In fact, everyone is the same. They live for the sake of God’s sovereignty and His arrangements. People are all like chess pieces. Where you are, what you do, how long you stay in a place and where you go are all orchestrated by God. So, looking from the perspective of God’s orchestrations, who does mankind live for? Mankind actually lives for God’s sovereignty and arrangements, and they live for God’s management; they do not live of their own free will. … That is, no matter what kind of family you are born into, and no matter what your quality, mind, thinking or any other aspect is like in society or amongst other people, your destiny, your all, is held within God’s orchestrations and is not up to you. The path you should choose is to understand how God arranges and leads everything about you, and how God will lead you in the future. You should seek to understand God’s intention and His will, and then live your life, go live in accordance with the direction of the destiny that the Creator orchestrates and rules for you. Living in this way is right and proper; it is not to vie, to rob, to seize, to oppose or to scrutinize the Creator’s intention, or to scrutinize and oppose everything that God arranges for you. You are not to scrutinize or oppose these things. Is it not right and proper for people to live this way? … No matter what it is that mankind seeks or what they desire, only those who return before the Creator and dutifully fulfill and complete what they are supposed to do and the commission which they have accepted, will live with an easy conscience and will live in a way that is right and proper, without any pain. This is the meaning and the value of life” (“Only Fulfilling the Duty of a Created Being is a Life Worth Living” in Records of Christ’s Talks). Thanks to God’s enlightenment and guidance, I now understand that what duty someone does and when they do it is always determined by God’s sovereignty, arrangements and predestination. Faced with God’s orchestrations and arrangements, I should accept them from God and obey them first of all, for only this is the sense a created being should have before God. Thinking back to when I performed hosting duties in pursuit of reputation and status, I was unable to seek the truth in the environment God had arranged for me, and I was in such pain living in the deceptions of Satan. At that time, I found the resolution to forsake Satan and obey God. I am a created being and my duty is to obey God. The church asked me to do hosting duties, so I should fulfill my hosting duties well; now it is asking me to handle the routine business of the church, so I should do the decent thing and obey, and complete my mission performing the duty of handling routine business, and perform it well.

Only when I became willing to obey did I find out from my leader that I was being transferred to this other duty because a certain brother or sister who had been doing it before was being tailed by the CCP police, and they urgently needed someone to take their place—the situation had become quite pressing. Hearing this news, I felt even more that a heavy burden was being placed on me, and that, in times of hardship, I should more so take a stand to uphold the work of the church. If I refused the commission for the sake of my own personal reputation and status without thinking about the church’s interests, then that would be so selfish and deplorable, and so lacking in humanity! I could not waste all the price that God has paid for me so painstakingly all these years. Just then, my heart became even more resolved and motivated to practice the truth and obey God, and I quickly agreed to do this new duty.

I silently made a resolution: I will definitely fulfill my duty well to satisfy God! Afterward, I took the initiative to ask my leader what principles I should grasp and what things I needed to pay attention to in this duty, and after we fellowshiped, I then had a path to practice. After the leader had left, I prayed to God: “O Almighty God! My behavior before when I was performing my hosting duties caused You pain, and yet You still showed me mercy and gave me another chance to do my duty. O God! I don’t want to disappoint You again. No matter what difficulties may arise in this new duty, or what dangerous situations may befall, I ask only that You give me faith and stamina, and make me not back out or complain, but be able to fulfill this duty well in accordance with Your requirements. I wish to accept Your scrutiny. Amen!”

Having experienced God’s judgment and chastisement in this way, I no longer look down on any duty. I wish, in the days ahead, to fulfill my duty well in accordance with God’s requirements, and to learn even better the lesson of obedience.

Know more :20 Articles Will Tell You--Concerning Spiritual Growth--Christians Must Grasp

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Christian Diaries: Falling into Temptation and Finding Victory Through God

Thursday, February 1, Sunny

This morning right after breakfast, even before I had finished my devotionals, my little sister came to my house and told me excitedly: “It’s really easy and fast to start an online business these days. I have a friend who’s been doing really well in her micro-business. Why don’t you give it a try?” She saw that I wasn’t saying a word, so then said: “Hey, give it a shot! There aren’t many barriers to entry and you don’t need to invest much money. Besides, your time would be really free.

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God Is by My Side

I was born into a Christian family, and when I was one year old, my mom accepted the new work of the Lord Jesus returned—Almighty God—though my grandma was strongly opposed to it. I remember when I was little, my grandma would most often say to me, “If you don’t feel well or you can’t do your homework, just pray to the Lord Jesus. He’ll give you intelligence and wisdom, and He’ll keep you safe.” My mom, though, would often tell me, “God created this world and He created mankind. He’s always with us.

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Best Christian Movie | "Stay Out of My Business" | The Spiritual Awakening of Christians

Best Christian Movie | "Stay Out of My Business" | The Spiritual Awakening of Christians

Li Qingxin is a preacher in a house church in China who has been faithful to the Lord for many years. Always she enthusiastically does the Lord's work of spreading the gospel, vigilantly awaiting the Lord's coming to bring her up to the heavenly kingdom. In recent years, Li Qingxin has seen that assorted sects and churches have become ever more desolate.

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How is dispositional change manifested?

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

Relevant Words of God:

Whether or not your disposition can be transformed depends upon whether or not you keep up with the Holy Spirit’s current word and whether or not you have genuine understanding. This is different from what you understood before. The transformation in your disposition that you understood before was that you, who are quick to judge, have ceased to speak thoughtlessly by God’s discipline; but this is just one aspect of the change. Right now the most critical point is following the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

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What are the differences between doing one’s duty and rendering service?

Relevant Words of God:

   There is no correlation between the duty of man and whether he is blessed or cursed. Duty is what man ought to fulfill; it is his bounden duty and should not depend on recompense, conditions, or reasons. Only then is that doing his duty. A man who is blessed enjoys goodness upon being made perfect after judgment. A man who is cursed receives punishment when his disposition remains unchanged following chastisement and judgment, that is, he has not been made perfect.

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What is an honest person? Why does God like honest people?

   Relevant Words of God:

   Honesty means to give your heart to God; never to play Him false in anything; to be open with Him in all things, never hiding the truth; never to do that which deceives those above and deludes those below; and never to do that which merely ingratiates yourself with God. In short, to be honest is to refrain from impurity in your actions and words, and to deceive neither God nor man.

from “Three Admonitions” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

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3 Principles on How Christians Can Get Along With Others

The Lord Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one to another” (John 13:34–35). “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9). The Lord Jesus requires of us that we get along well with others and that we love one another.

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3 Ways to Defeat Temptation in Spiritual Warfare

Jingxing, South Korea

Brothers and sisters,

I wish you peace in the Lord! Not infrequently, all sorts of spiritual warfare will occur throughout our time of faith in and following God. There are temptations regarding money, status and name, and temptations between men and women, as well as slander by unbelievers, obstruction and suppression from loved ones, as well as being hunted down and persecuted by a satanic regime. Sometimes completely unexpected calamities befall us. The Bible says: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). God’s words say: “On earth, all manner of evil spirits are endlessly on the prowl for a place to rest, are ceaselessly searching for the corpses of men to eat up” (“The Tenth Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

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Breaking Through Satan’s Tight Encirclement

Picture of The Church of Almighty God|God's words

My wife told the sisters what Brother Guan had said to us when he came to our house, and Sister Zhang asked me how I felt about this whole thing. So I told the sisters about the weakness that I was feeling and about the knowledge that I had just come across. Sister Zhang smiled, saying: “Thanks be to God! This is such a pure understanding, this is God’s guidance!” My wife asked, confused, “Since we haven’t made any missteps, why is Brother Guan saying those things?

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Breaking Through Satan’s Tight Encirclement

It was bitterly cold this past November in Northeast China, none of the snow that fell to the ground melted away, and many people who walked outside were so cold that they stuffed their hands into their armpits and walked along cautiously, bodies bent over. The other day in the early morning the winds were blowing from the northwest, when I, my brother-in-law and his wife and about a dozen brothers and sisters were sitting in my home on the warm kang (a heatable brick bed).

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Competing in This Way, I Benefit Tremendously

Since my husband was not engaged in honest work, frequently drank alcohol and showed no concern for family matters, I would often sink into bitterness and pain. At a time when I did not have the strength to struggle on, a relative delivered Almighty God’s kingdom gospel to me. Through reading God’s word, I understood: God expresses the truth and does the judgment work of the last days in order to save the human race from the hands of Satan. He instructs man to understand, obey and return to Him so that he can receive His protection and care.

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Breaking Through Satan’s Tight Encirclement(Part 2)

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

My wife told the sisters what Brother Guan had said to us when he came to our house, and Sister Zhang asked me how I felt about this whole thing. So I told the sisters about the weakness that I was feeling and about the knowledge that I had just come across. Sister Zhang smiled, saying: “Thanks be to God! This is such a pure understanding, this is God’s guidance!” My wife asked, confused, “Since we haven’t made any missteps, why is Brother Guan saying those things?

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Breaking Through Satan’s Tight Encirclement(Part 1)

It was bitterly cold this past November in Northeast China, none of the snow that fell to the ground melted away, and many people who walked outside were so cold that they stuffed their hands into their armpits and walked along cautiously, bodies bent over. The other day in the early morning the winds were blowing from the northwest, when I, my brother-in-law and his wife and about a dozen brothers and sisters were sitting in my home on the warm kang (a heatable brick bed). Everyone had a copy of the Bible beside them and in their hands everyone was holding a copy of the book Judgment Begins With the House of God.

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Competing in This Way, I Benefit Tremendously

Eastern Lightning | Competing in This Way, I Benefit Tremendously

Since my husband was not engaged in honest work, frequently drank alcohol and showed no concern for family matters, I would often sink into bitterness and pain. At a time when I did not have the strength to struggle on, a relative delivered Almighty God’s kingdom gospel to me. Through reading God’s word, I understood: God expresses the truth and does the judgment work of the last days in order to save the human race from the hands of Satan. He instructs man to understand, obey and return to Him so that he can receive His protection and care.

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God’s Word Leads Step by Step to Victory

I was born in a Chinese Christian family, and my grandmother always used to take me to the church for gatherings and to sing hymns in praise of God when I was young…. After I grew up I obtained some grace of the Lord and experienced some of the Lord’s deeds, and I felt even more that the Lord is trustworthy. The Lord’s love for people is the truest, and the Lord’s word has authority and power and can give people hope. Whenever I would sing hymns, pray to the Lord, and read the word of the Lord, I would feel especially steady and tranquil in my heart. I came to the USA in 2007, and was baptized at church in October of 2010, when I began my service.

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The Tranquility of Victory and the Calm of Defeat —Obeying God Is Best

During a person’s life, facing success and failure is unavoidable. There are many people who are happy when they have success, and who are frustrated and pained when they face failure. There are even many people who stake all their efforts in wanting to reach a point at which all their hopes are fulfilled, but things are often not how people would like them to be. Because of this, many people think that this life is not as they want it to be.

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