Almighty God's Word | God Himself, the Unique (IV) God’s Holiness (I) Part Three

God’s Holiness (I)   Part Three

Now that we have finished talking about Satan, let us return to talking about our God. During God’s six-thousand-year management plan, very little of God’s direct speech has been recorded in the Bible, and that which has been recorded is very simple. So let us start at the beginning. God created man and since then has ever led the life of mankind. Whether in giving mankind blessings, giving them the laws and His commandments, or stipulating the various rules for life, do you know what God’s intended aim is in doing these things? Firstly, can you say for sure all that God does is for the good of mankind? (Yes, we can.) You may think that this sentence is relatively broad and hollow, but specifically speaking, everything God does is to lead and guide man toward living a normal life. Whether it is so man keeps His rules or keeps His laws, God’s aim is for man not to worship Satan, not to be harmed by Satan; this is most fundamental, and this is what was done in the very beginning. At the very beginning, when man did not understand God’s will He took some simple laws and rules and made provisions that covered every conceivable aspect. These provisions are very simple, yet within them they contain God’s will. God treasures, cherishes and dearly loves mankind. Isn’t that the case? (Yes.) So can we say His heart is holy? Can we say His heart is clean? (Yes.) Does God have any ulterior intentions? (No.) So is this aim of His right and positive? (Yes.) It is positive. No matter what provisions God made, the effect of them all in the course of His work is positive for man, and they lead the way. So are there any self-serving thoughts in God’s mind? Does God have any additional aims where man is concerned, or does He want to use man in some way? Not at all. God does as He says, and He also thinks this way in His heart. There is no mixed purpose, no self-serving thoughts. He does not do anything for Himself, but does absolutely everything for man, without any personal aims. Although He has plans and intentions for man, He does not do anything for Himself. Everything He does is done purely for mankind, to protect mankind, to keep mankind from being led astray. So is this heart not precious? (Yes.) Can you see even the tiniest hint of this precious heart in Satan? (No.) Can you see it? Can you? We cannot see one hint of this in Satan. Everything God does is revealed naturally. By looking at the way God works, how does He work? Does God take these laws and His words and bind them tightly onto the heads of every person like the incantation of the golden hoop,[a] imposing them on each man? Does He work in this way? (No.) So in what way does God do His work? (He guides us.) Well, this is one aspect. Any others? God works on you in many ways, how can it be that you have run out of things to say after just one? (He advises and encourages.) There’s a second one. Any more? Does He threaten? Does He talk in circles to you? (No.) When you do not understand the truth, how does God guide you? (He shines a light.) Well, He shines a light on you, telling you clearly that this is not in keeping with the truth, and what you should do. So from these ways in which God works, what kind of relationship do you feel you have with God? Do they make you feel that God is beyond your grasp? (No.) So how do they make you feel? God is especially close to you, there is no distance between you. When God guides you, when He provides for you, helps you and supports you, you feel God’s amiability, His respectability, you feel how lovely He is, how warm. But when God reproaches your corruption, or when He judges and disciplines you for rebelling against Him, what way does God use? Does He reproach you with words? (Yes.) Does He discipline you through your environment and through people, affairs, and things? (Yes.) So what level does this discipline reach? (To a level that man can endure.) Does His level of discipline reach the same point where Satan harms man? (No.) God works in a gentle, loving, delicate and caring way, a way that is especially measured and proper. His way does not cause you to feel intense emotions, saying, “God will not let me do this” or “God must let me do that.” God never gives you that kind of intense mentality or intense feelings that make things unbearable. Is this not the case? (Yes.) Even when you accept God’s words of judgment and chastisement, how do you feel then? When you feel the authority and power of God, how do you feel then? Do you feel the unoffendable divinity of God? (Yes.) Do you feel distanced from God at these times? Do you feel frightened of God? (No.) Instead, you feel fearful reverence of God. Do people feel all these things only because of God’s work? (Yes.) So would they have these feelings if Satan worked on man? (No.) God uses His words, His truth and His life to continuously provide for man, to support man. When man is weak, when man is feeling down, God certainly does not speak harshly, saying: “Do not feel down. What are you down for? What are you weak for? What is there to be weak about? You are so weak, you may as well just die. You are always so down, what is the point in living? Just die!” Does God work this way? (No.) Does God have the authority to act this way? (Yes.) But does God act this way? (No.) The reason why God does not act this way is because of His essence, the essence of the holiness of God. His love for man, His treasuring and cherishing of man cannot be expressed clearly in just one or two sentences. It is not something that is brought about by man’s boasting but is something that God brings forth in actual practice; it is the revelation of God’s essence. Can all these ways in which God works allow man to see the holiness of God? In all these ways in which God works, including God’s good intentions, including the effects God wishes to achieve on man, including the different ways God adopts to work on man, the kind of work He does, what He wants man to understand—have you seen any evil or craftiness in God’s good intentions? (No.) You can’t see any evil, can you? (No.) So in everything God does, everything God says, everything He thinks in His heart, as well as all the essence of God that He reveals—can we call God holy? (Yes.) Has any man ever seen this holiness in the world, or in himself? Apart from God, have you ever seen it in any man or in Satan? (No.) From what we have talked about so far, can we call God the unique, holy God Himself? (Yes.) All that God gives to man, including the words of God, the different ways in which God works on man, that which God tells man, that which God reminds man of, that which He advises and encourages, it all originates from one essence: It all originates from the holiness of God. If there were no such a holy God, no man could take His place to do the work He does. If God took these people and completely handed them over to Satan, have you ever thought of what kind of condition those of you present here today would be in? Would you all be sitting here, complete and intact? (No.) So what would you be like? Would you also say: “From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it”? Would you so swagger, be so brazen and boast without shame before God, and speak in such a roundabout way? (Yes.) Yes, you would. You would one hundred percent! You absolutely would! Satan’s attitude toward man allows them to see that Satan’s nature is utterly different from God. Its essence is completely different to God. What essence of Satan is the opposite of the holiness of God? (Its evil.) Satan’s evil nature is the opposite of the holiness of God. The reason why the majority of people do not recognize that this expression of God’s represents the essence of God’s holiness is entirely because they live under the domain of Satan, within the corruption of Satan, within Satan’s living enclosure. They do not know what holiness is or know how to define holiness. Even when you perceive the holiness of God, you still cannot define it as being the holiness of God with any certainty. This is a disparity in man’s knowledge of the holiness of God.

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Almighty God's Word | God Himself, the Unique (IV) God’s Holiness (I) Part Two

God’s Holiness (I)   Part Two

Let us now look at what other words and expressions of Satan allow man to see its hideous countenance. Let us continue reading some scripture.

3. Dialog Between Satan and Jehovah God

(Job 1:6-11) Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said to Satan, From where come you? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the LORD said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God, and eschews evil? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Does Job fear God for nothing? Have not you made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he has on every side? you have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.

(Job 2:1-5) Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. And the LORD said to Satan, From where come you? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the LORD said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God, and eschews evil? and still he holds fast his integrity, although you moved me against him, to destroy him without cause. And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yes, all that a man has will he give for his life. But put forth your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.

These two passages are a dialog between God and Satan, and they record what God said and what Satan said. Did God say very much? (No.) He did not speak much, and spoke very simply. Can we see the holiness of God in God’s simple words? Some will say “This is not easy.” So can we see the hideousness of Satan in its replies? (Yes.) So let us first look at what kind of question Jehovah God asked of Satan. (“From where come you?”) Is this a straightforward question? Is there any hidden meaning? It is just a question, pure, with no other purpose. If I were to ask you: “Where do you come from?” how then would you answer? Is it a difficult question to answer? Would you say: “From going to and fro, and from walking up and down”? (No.) You would not answer like this, so how then do you feel when you see Satan answering in this way? (We feel that Satan is absurd and crafty.) You feel this way? Can you tell what I am feeling? Every time I see these words I feel disgusted. Do you feel disgusted? (Yes.) Why disgusted? Because it talks without saying anything! Did it answer God’s question? (No.) Why? Its words were not an answer, they had no outcome, nor were they an answer directed at God’s question. “From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” Do you understand these words? Do you? So where on earth does Satan come from? Have you received an answer to where it has come from? (No.) This is the “brilliance” of Satan’s cunning, not letting anyone discover what it is actually saying. Having heard these words you still cannot discern what it has said, yet it has finished answering. Perhaps it believes it has answered perfectly. How then do you feel? Disgusted? (Yes.) Disgusted, right? Now you start to feel disgust with these words. Satan does not speak directly, rendering you unable to perceive its mind or the source of its words. It speaks deliberately, cunningly, and is dominated by its own essence, its own nature. Satan did not consider these words for a long period of time; it expressed them naturally. As soon as you ask it where it comes from, it uses these words to answer you. “Where on earth does it come from?” You feel very puzzled, never knowing where it is from. Are there any among you who speak like this? What kind of way is this to speak? What kind of words should we use to describe this way of speaking? It is diversionary and misleading, isn’t it? Some people speak this way. You ask someone: “I saw you yesterday. Where were you going?” They do not answer you directly to say where they went yesterday. They say “What a day it was yesterday. So tired!” Did they answer your question? That is not the answer you wanted. This is the “brilliance” of man’s artifice. You can never discover what they mean or perceive the source or intention behind their words. You do not know their heart because in their heart they have their own story—this is insidiousness. Do you also often speak this way? What then is your purpose? Is it sometimes to protect your own interests, sometimes to maintain your own position, your own image, to keep the secrets of your private life, to save your own reputation? Whatever the purpose, it is inseparable from your interests, linked to your interests. Is this the nature of man? So is not everyone with this kind of nature akin to Satan? We can say this, can’t we? Generally speaking, this manifestation is detestable and abhorrent. You also now feel disgusted, don’t you? (Yes.) This represents the craftiness and evil of Satan.

Looking again at the first passage, Satan responds again to Jehovah, saying: “Does Job fear God for nothing?” It starts to attack Jehovah’s assessment of Job, and this attack is colored by hostility. “Have not you made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he has on every side?” This is Satan’s recognition and assessment of Jehovah’s work on Job. Satan assesses it like this, saying: “you have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” Satan ever speaks ambiguously, but here it speaks with certainty. These words spoken with certainty are an attack, a blasphemy and a rivalry to Jehovah God, to God Himself. How do you feel when you hear it? Do you feel aversion? (Yes.) Are you able to see its intentions? First of all, it repudiates Jehovah’s assessment of Job—one that fears God and shuns evil. Then it repudiates everything Job says and does in fear of Jehovah. Is it accusatory? Satan is accusing, repudiating and doubting all Jehovah does and says. It does not believe, saying “If You say things are like this, how come I have not seen it? You have given him so many blessings, how can he not fear You?” Is this not a repudiation of all that God does? Accusation, repudiation, blasphemy—are its words not aggressive? Are they a true expression of what Satan thinks in its heart? (Yes.) These words are certainly not the same as the words we read just now: “From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” They are completely different from those. Through these words, Satan completely lays bare the attitude toward God and the loathing of Job’s fear of God that it holds in its heart. When this happens, its maliciousness and evil nature are completely exposed. It loathes those who fear God, loathes those who shun evil, and even more so loathes Jehovah for bestowing blessings on man. It wants to use this opportunity to destroy Job whom God raised with His own hand, to ruin him, saying: “You say Job fears You and shuns evil. I see it otherwise.” It uses various ways to provoke and tempt Jehovah, and uses various ways so that Jehovah God hands Job over to Satan to be wantonly manipulated, harmed and handled. It wants to take advantage of this opportunity to exterminate this man who is righteous and perfect in God’s eyes. Is its having this kind of heart a momentary impulse? No, it is not. It has been long in the making. God works, God cares for a person, looks upon a person, and Satan dogs His every step. Whoever God favors, Satan also watches, trailing along behind. If God wants this person, Satan would do everything in its power to obstruct God, using various evil ways to tempt, harass and wreck the work God does in order to achieve its hidden objective. What is its objective? It does not want God to have anyone; it wants all those that God wants, to possess them, control them, to take charge of them so they worship it, so they commit evil acts alongside it. Is this not Satan’s sinister motive? Normally, you often say that Satan is so evil, so bad, but have you seen it? You can only see how bad man is and has not seen in reality how bad Satan actually is. But have you seen it in this issue concerning Job? (Yes.) This issue has made Satan’s hideous countenance and its essence very clear. Satan is at war with God, trailing along behind Him. Its objective is to demolish all the work God wants to do, to possess and control those whom God wants, to completely extinguish those whom God wants. If they are not extinguished, then they come to Satan’s possession to be used by it—this is its objective. And what does God do? God says only a simple sentence in this passage; there is no record of anything more that God does, but we see there are many more records of what Satan does and says. In the passage of scripture below, Jehovah asked Satan, “From where come you?” What is Satan’s answer? (It is still “From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”) It is still that sentence. Tell Me, how has it become Satan’s motto, Satan’s masterpiece? Is Satan not hateful? Saying this disgusting sentence once is enough. Why does Satan always come back to this sentence? This proves one thing: Satan’s nature is unchanging. Its hideous face is not something it can keep hidden for long. God asks it a question and it responds in such a way, never mind how it treats people! It is not afraid of God, it does not fear God, and it does not obey God. So it dares to be unscrupulously presumptuous before God, to use these same words to whitewash over God’s question, to use this same answer to reply to God’s question, to attempt to use this answer to confound God—this is the ugly face of Satan. It does not believe in the almightiness of God, does not believe in the authority of God, and is certainly not willing to obey under the dominion of God. It is constantly in opposition to God, constantly attacking all God does, attempting to wreck all God does—this is its evil objective.

In God’s six-thousand-year management plan, particularly in the Book of Job, these two passages that Satan says and the things Satan does are representative of its resistance to God. Can we say this? (Yes.) This is Satan showing its true colors. Have you seen the deeds of Satan in the life we live now? When you do see them, you may not think them to be things spoken by Satan, but instead think them to be things spoken by man, right? What is represented, when such things are spoken by man? Satan is represented. Even if you recognize it, you still cannot perceive that it is really being spoken by Satan. But here and now you have unequivocally seen what Satan itself has said. You now have an unequivocal, crystal clear understanding of the hideous countenance and the evil of Satan. So are these two passages spoken by Satan valuable for the people of today to be able to recognize Satan’s nature? Are these two passages worth collecting in order for mankind today to be able to recognize Satan’s hideous face, to recognize Satan’s original, true face? Although saying this may not seem very appropriate, expressing it in this way can still be considered accurate. I can only put it this way and if you can understand it, then it is enough. Again and again, Satan attacks the things Jehovah does, throwing accusations about Job’s fear of Jehovah God. It attempts to provoke Jehovah by various methods, getting Jehovah to allow it to tempt Job. Its words are therefore highly provocative. So tell Me, once Satan has spoken these words, can God clearly see what Satan wants to do? (Yes.) Does God understand what it wants to do? (Yes.) In God’s heart, this man Job that God looks upon—this servant of God, that God takes to be a righteous man, a perfect man—can Job withstand this kind of temptation? (Yes.) Why does God say “Yes” with such certainty? Is God always examining the hearts of man? (Yes.) So is Satan able to examine the hearts of man? (No.) Satan cannot. Even though Satan can see that man has a God-fearing heart, its evil nature can never believe that holiness is holiness, or that sordidness is sordidness. The evil Satan can never treasure anything that is holy, righteous or bright. Satan cannot help but spare no pains to act through its nature, its evil, and through these methods it uses. Even at the cost of being itself punished or destroyed by God, it does not hesitate to stubbornly oppose God—this is evil, this is the nature of Satan. So in this passage, Satan says: “Skin for skin, yes, all that a man has will he give for his life. But put forth your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” What is it thinking? Man’s fear of God is due to man having obtained so many advantages from God. Man obtains advantages from God, so they say God is good. But it is not because God is good, it is only because man obtains so many advantages that he can fear God in this way: Once You deprive him of these advantages, he then abandons You. In its evil nature, Satan does not believe that man’s heart can truly fear God. Why? Because of its evil nature it does not know what holiness is, much less know what fearful reverence is. It does not know what it is to obey God, what it is to fear God. Because it does not fear God itself, it thinks, “Neither can man fear God. It is impossible.” Isn’t that so? (Yes.) Tell Me, is Satan not evil? (Yes!) Satan is evil. So excepting our church, whether it be the various sects and denominations, or religious and social groups, they do not believe in the existence of God, do not believe that God can do work and do not believe there is a God, so they think, “What you believe in is not God either.” Take a promiscuous man, for example. He looks and sees everyone else being promiscuous, just as he is. A man who lies all the time looks and sees no one honest, sees them all telling lies. An evil man sees everyone as evil and wants to fight everyone he sees. Those people with a little honesty see everyone as honest, so are always duped, always cheated, and there is nothing they can do about it. Is this not right? I say these few examples to make you more certain: Satan’s evil nature is not a temporary compulsion or something caused by its environment, nor is it a temporary manifestation brought about by any reason or background. Absolutely not! It can’t help but be this way! It can do nothing good. Even when it says something pleasant to hear, it just seduces you. The more pleasant, the more tactful, the more gentle its words are, the more malicious its sinister intentions become behind these words. What kind of face, what kind of nature have you seen Satan to have in these two passages? (Insidious, malicious and evil.) Its primary characteristic is evil, especially evil and malicious; malicious and evil.

from: "God Himself, the Unique IV" Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh

Recommendation: Eastern Lightning , The brief introduction of the Church of Almighty God

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Almighty God's Word | God Himself, the Unique (IV) God’s Holiness (I) Part One

God’s Holiness (I)   Part One

We have had some additional fellowship of God’s authority today, and we will not talk about God’s righteousness just now. Today we will talk about a whole new topic—God’s holiness. God’s holiness is yet another aspect of God’s unique essence, so there is great need to fellowship this topic here. This aspect of God’s essence that I will fellowship, along with the two aspects we fellowshiped before, God’s righteous disposition and God’s authority—are they all unique? (Yes.) God’s holiness is also unique, so the basis of this uniqueness, the root of this uniqueness, is the theme for our fellowship today. Understand? Repeat after Me: the unique essence of God—God’s holiness. (The unique essence of God—God’s holiness.) How do you feel in your hearts after repeating this phrase? Perhaps some of you have some misgivings, and are asking, “Why fellowship God’s holiness?” Don’t worry, I will talk you through it slowly. As soon as you hear it you will know why it is so necessary for Me to fellowship this topic.

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The Church of Almighty God | God’s Authority (I) Part One

God’s Authority (I)   Part One

My last several fellowships were about God’s work, God’s disposition, and God Himself. After hearing these fellowships, do you feel that you have gained an understanding and knowledge of God’s disposition? How great of an understanding and knowledge? Can you put a number to it? Did these fellowships give you a deeper understanding of God? Could it be said that this understanding is a true knowledge of God? Could it be said that this knowledge and understanding of God is a knowledge of the entire substance of God, and all that He has and is? No, obviously not! That is because these fellowships only provided an understanding of part of God’s disposition, and what He has and is—not all of it, or the entirety of it.

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Almighty God's Word | God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III (Part Eight)

God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III (Part Eight)

        13. Jesus Eats Bread and Explains the Scriptures After His Resurrection

(Luke 24:30–32) And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and broke, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

14. The Disciples Give Jesus Broiled Fish to Eat

(Luke 24:36–43) And as they thus spoke, Jesus himself stood in the middle of them, and said to them, Peace be to you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said to them, Why are you troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said to them, Have you here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them.

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Almighty God's Word | God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III (Part Seven)

God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III (Part Seven)

        Now let’s read the scripture passages below.

12. Jesus’ Words to His Disciples After His Resurrection

(John 20:26-29) And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the middle, and said, Peace be to you. Then said he to Thomas, Reach here your finger, and behold my hands; and reach here your hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to him, My LORD and my God. Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

(John 21:16-17) He said to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, love you me? He said to him, Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. He said to him, Feed my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, love you me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, Love you me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep.

What these passages recount are some things that the Lord Jesus did and said to His disciples after His resurrection. First, let’s take a look at any differences between the Lord Jesus before and after the resurrection. Was He still the same Lord Jesus of past days? The scripture contains the following line describing the Lord Jesus after the resurrection: “then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the middle, and said, Peace be to you.” It’s very clear that the Lord Jesus at that time was no longer a flesh, but a spiritual body. This was because He had transcended the limitations of the flesh, and when the door was closed He could still come into the midst of the people and allow them to see Him. This is the greatest difference between the Lord Jesus after the resurrection and the Lord Jesus living in the flesh before the resurrection. Even though there was no difference between the appearance of the spiritual body of that moment and the appearance of the Lord Jesus from before, Jesus in that moment had become a Jesus that felt like a stranger to the people, because He had become a spiritual body after being resurrected from the dead, and compared to His previous flesh, this spiritual body was more puzzling and confusing for people. It also created more distance between the Lord Jesus and the people, and people felt in their hearts that the Lord Jesus in that moment had become more mysterious. These understandings and feelings on the part of the people suddenly brought them back to an age of believing in a God that could not be seen or touched. So, the first thing that the Lord Jesus did after His resurrection was to allow everyone to see Him, to confirm that He exists, and to confirm the fact of His resurrection. In addition, it restored His relationship with the people to the relationship He had with them when He was working in the flesh, and He was the Christ they could see and touch. This way, one outcome is that the people had no doubt that the Lord Jesus had been resurrected from death after being nailed to the cross, and there was no doubt in the Lord Jesus’ work to redeem mankind. And another outcome is that the fact of the Lord Jesus appearing to people after His resurrection and allowing people to see and touch Him firmly secured mankind in the Age of Grace. From this time on, people could not return to the previous age, the Age of Law, because of the Lord Jesus’ “disappearance” or “desertion,” but they would continue forward, following the Lord Jesus’ teachings and the work He had done. Thus, a new phase in the work in the Age of Grace was formally opened up, and the people who had been under the law formally came out from the law from then on, and entered into a new era, with a new beginning. These are the manifold meanings of the Lord Jesus’ appearance to mankind after the resurrection.

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Almighty God's Word | God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III (Part Six)

God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III (Part Six)

10. The Pharisees’ Judgment on Jesus

(Mark 3:21-22) And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself. And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He has Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casts he out devils.

11. Jesus’ Rebuke to the Pharisees

(Mat 12:31-32) Why I say to you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven to men. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

(Mat 23:13-15) But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore you shall receive the greater damnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

There are two separate passages above—let’s first take a look at the first one: The Pharisees’ Judgment on Jesus.

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Almighty God's Word | God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III (Part Five)

God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III (Part Five)

        Next, let’s look at the following passages of scripture.

9. Jesus Performs Miracles

1) Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

(John 6:8-13) One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, There is a lad here, which has five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above to them that had eaten.

2) The Resurrection of Lazarus Glorifies God

(John 11:43-44) And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus said to them, Loose him, and let him go.

Among the miracles performed by the Lord Jesus, we have selected only these two because they are adequate to demonstrate what I’d like to speak about here. These two miracles are really astonishing, and they are very representative of the Lord Jesus’ miracles in the Age of Grace.

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Almighty God's Word | God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III (Part Four)

God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III (Part Four)

Next let’s read the following passages.

6. The Sermon on the Mount

1) The Beatitudes (Matt 5:3-12)

2) Salt and Light (Matt 5:13-16)

3) Law (Matt 5:17-20)

4) Anger (Matt 5:21-26)

5) Adultery (Matt 5:27-30)

6) Divorce (Matt 5:31-32)

7) Vows (Matt 5:33-37)

8) Eye for Eye (Matt 5:38-42)

9) Love Your Enemies (Matt 5:43-48)

10) Instruction About Giving (Matt 6:1-4)

11) Prayer (Matt 6:5-8)

7. The Parables of the Lord Jesus

1) The Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:1-9)

2) The Parable of the Tares (Matt 13:24-30)

3) The Parable of the Mustard Seed (Matt 13:31-32)

4) The Parable of the Leaven (Matt 13:33)

5) The Parable of the Tares Explained (Matt 13:36-43)

6) The Parable of the Treasure (Matt 13:44)

7) The Parable of the Pearl (Matt 13:45-46)

8) The Parable of the Net (Matt 13:47-50)

8. The Commandments

(Matt 22:37-39) Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like to it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Let’s first look at each part of “The Sermon on the Mount.” What are all of these related to? It can be said with certainty that these are all more elevated, more concrete, and closer to people’s lives than the regulations of the Age of Law. To speak in modern terms, it’s more relevant to people’s actual practice.

Let’s read the specific content of the following: How should you understand the beatitudes? What should you know about the law? How should anger be defined? How should adulterers be dealt with? What is said, and what kind of rules are there about divorce, and who can get divorced and who cannot get divorced? How about vows, eye for eye, love your enemies, instruction about giving, etc.? All of these things have to do with every aspect of the practice of mankind’s belief in God, and of their following God. Some of these practices are still relevant today, but they are more rudimentary than the current requirements of people. They are fairly elementary truths people encounter in their belief in God. From the time the Lord Jesus began working, He was already beginning to work on the life disposition of humans, but it was based on the foundation of the laws. Did the rules and the sayings on these topics have anything to do with the truth? Of course they did! All of the previous regulations, principles, and the sermon in the Age of Grace were all related to God’s disposition and what He has and is, and of course to the truth. No matter what God expresses, in what way He expresses it, or using what kind of language, its foundation, its origin, and its starting point are all based on the principles of His disposition and what He has and is. This is without error. So even though now these things He said seem a little shallow, you still can’t say that they’re not the truth, because they were things that were indispensable for people in the Age of Grace in order to satisfy God’s will and to achieve a change in their life disposition. Can you say that any of the things in the sermon are not in line with the truth? You can’t! Each one of these is the truth because they were all God’s requirements for mankind; they were all principles and a scope given by God for how to conduct oneself, and they represent God’s disposition. However, based on the level of their growth in life of that time, they were only able to accept and comprehend these things. Because mankind’s sin had not yet been resolved, the Lord Jesus could only issue these words, and He could only utilize such simple teachings within this kind of scope to tell the people of that time how they should act, what they should do, within what principles and scope they should do things, and how they should believe in God and meet His requirements. All of this was determined based on the stature of mankind at that time. It was not easy for people living under the law to accept these teachings, so what the Lord Jesus taught had to stay within this scope.

Next, let’s take a look at what’s in “The Parables of the Lord Jesus.”

The first one is the parable of the sower. This is a really interesting parable; sowing seeds is a common event in people’s lives. The second is the parable of the tares. As far as what tares are, anyone who has planted crops and adults will know. The third is the parable of the mustard seed. All of you know what mustard is, right? If you don’t know, you can have a look through the Bible. For the fourth one, the parable of the leaven, most people know that leaven is used for fermentation; it’s something that people use in their daily lives. All of the parables below, including the sixth, the parable of the treasure, the seventh, the parable of the pearl, and the eighth, the parable of the net, are all drawn from people’s lives; they all come from people’s real lives. What kind of picture do these parables paint? This is a picture of God becoming a normal person and living alongside mankind, using the language of a normal life, using human language to communicate with humans and to provide them with what they need. When God became flesh and lived among mankind for a long time, after He had experienced and witnessed people’s various lifestyles, these experiences became His textbook for transforming His divine language into human language. Of course, these things that He saw and heard in life also enriched the Son of man’s human experience. When He wanted to get people to understand some truths, to get them to understand some of God’s will, He could use parables similar to the ones above to tell people about God’s will and His requirements of mankind. These parables were all related to people’s lives; there was not a single one that was out of touch with human lives. When the Lord Jesus lived with mankind, He saw farmers tending their fields, He knew what tares were and what leavening was; He understood that humans like treasure, so He used the metaphors of both the treasure and the pearl; He frequently saw fishermen casting their nets; and so on. The Lord Jesus saw these activities in mankind’s lives, and He also experienced that type of life. He was the same as every other normal person, experiencing humans’ three meals a day and daily routines. He personally experienced the life of an average person, and He witnessed the lives of others. When He witnessed and personally experienced all of this, what He thought of wasn’t how to have a good life or how He could live more freely, more comfortably. When He was experiencing an authentic human life, the Lord Jesus saw the hardship in people’s lives, He saw the hardship, the wretchedness, and the sadness of people under the corruption of Satan, living under the domain of Satan, and living in sin. While He was personally experiencing human life, He also experienced how helpless people were who were living amongst corruption, and He saw and experienced the misery of those who lived in sin, who were lost in the torture by Satan, by evil. When the Lord Jesus saw these things, did He see them with His divinity or His humanity? His humanity really existed—it was very much alive—He could experience and see all of this, and of course His essence, His divinity saw it as well. That is, Christ Himself, the Lord Jesus the man saw this, and everything He saw made Him feel the importance and the necessity of the work He had taken on this time in the flesh. Even though He Himself knew that the responsibility He needed to take on in the flesh was so immense, and how cruel the pain He would face would be, when He saw mankind helpless in sin, when He saw the wretchedness of their lives and their feeble struggles under the law, He felt more and more grief, and became more and more anxious to save mankind from sin. No matter what kind of difficulties He would face or what kind of pain He would suffer, He became more and more resolute to redeem mankind living in sin. During this process, you could say that the Lord Jesus began to understand more and more clearly the work He needed to do and what He had been entrusted with. He also became increasingly eager to complete the work He was to take on—to take on all of mankind’s sins, to atone for mankind so that they no longer lived in sin and God would be able to forget man’s sins because of the sin offering, allowing Him to further His work of saving mankind. It could be said that in the Lord Jesus’ heart, He was willing to offer Himself up for mankind, to sacrifice Himself. He was also willing to act as a sin offering, to be nailed to the cross, and He was eager to complete this work. When He saw the miserable conditions of human’s lives, He wanted even more to fulfill His mission as quickly as possible, without the delay of a single minute or second. When He had such a feeling of urgency, He was not thinking of how great His own pain would be, nor did He think any longer of how much humiliation He would have to endure—He held just one conviction in His heart: As long as He offered up Himself, as long as He was nailed to the cross as a sin offering, God’s will would prevail and He would be able to commence new work. Mankind’s lives in sin, their state of existing in sin would be completely changed. His conviction and what He was determined to do were related to saving man, and He had only one objective: to carry out God’s will, so that He could successfully begin the next step in His work. This was what was in the Lord Jesus’ mind at the time.

Living in the flesh, the incarnate God possessed normal humanity; He had the emotions and the reasoning of a normal person. He knew what happiness was, what pain was, and when He saw mankind in this type of life, He deeply felt that merely giving people some teachings, providing them with something or teaching them something could not lead them out from sin. Neither could just having them obey the commandments redeem them from sin—only when He took on humanity’s sin and became the likeness of sinful flesh could He exchange it for mankind’s freedom, and exchange it for God’s forgiveness for mankind. So after the Lord Jesus had experienced and witnessed men’s lives in sin, there was an intense desire that manifested in His heart—to allow humans to rid themselves of their lives of struggling in sin. This desire made Him feel more and more that He must go to the cross and take on humanity’s sins as soon as possible, as quickly as possible. These were the thoughts of the Lord Jesus at that time, after He had lived with people and seen, heard, and felt the misery of their lives in sin. That the incarnate God could have this kind of will for mankind, that He could express and reveal this kind of disposition—is this something an average person could have? What would an average person see living in this type of environment? What would they think? If an average person faced all of this, would they look at problems from a high perspective? Definitely not! Although the appearance of God incarnate is exactly the same as a human, He learns human knowledge and speaks human language, and sometimes He even expresses His ideas through mankind’s means or expressions, the way He sees humans, the essence of things, and the way corrupt people see mankind and the essence of things are absolutely not the same. His perspective and the height at which He stands is something unattainable for a corrupt person. This is because God is truth, the flesh that He wears also possesses the essence of God, and His thoughts and that which is expressed by His humanity are also the truth. For corrupt people, what He expresses in the flesh is all a provision of the truth, and of life. These provisions are not just for one person, but for all of mankind. For any corrupt person, in his heart there are only those few people who are associated with him. There are only those several people who he cares about, who he is concerned about. When disaster is on the horizon he first thinks of his own children, spouse, or parents, and a more philanthropic person would at most think of some relative or a good friend; does he think of more? Not ever! Because humans are, after all, humans, and they can only look at everything from the perspective and from the height of a person. However, God incarnate is entirely different from a corrupt person. No matter how ordinary, how normal, how lowly God’s incarnate flesh is, or even how much people look down on Him, His thoughts and His attitude toward mankind are things that no man could possess, and no man could imitate. He will always observe mankind from the perspective of divinity, from the height of His position as the Creator. He will always see mankind through the essence and the mindset of God. He absolutely cannot see mankind from the height of an average person, and from the perspective of a corrupt person. When people look at mankind, they look with human vision, and they use things such as human knowledge and human rules and theories as a measure. This is within the scope of what people can see with their eyes; it’s within the scope that corrupt people can achieve. When God looks at mankind, He looks with divine vision, and He uses His essence and what He has and is as a measure. This scope includes things that people cannot see, and this is where God incarnate and corrupt humans are entirely different. This difference is determined by humans’ and God’s different essences, and it is these different essences that determine their identities and positions as well as the perspective and height from which they see things. Do you see the expression and revealing of God Himself in the Lord Jesus? You could say that what the Lord Jesus did and said was related to His ministry and to God’s own management work, that it was all the expression and revealing of God’s essence. Although He did have a human manifestation, His divine essence and the revealing of His divinity cannot be denied. Was this human manifestation truly a manifestation of humanity? His human manifestation was, by its very essence, entirely different from the human manifestation of corrupt people. The Lord Jesus was God incarnate, and if He had truly been one of the regular, corrupt people, could He have seen mankind’s lives in sin from a divine perspective? Absolutely not! This is the difference between the Son of man and regular people. Corrupt people all live in sin, and when anyone sees sin, they don’t have any particular feeling about it; they are all the same, just like a pig living in the mud that doesn’t feel at all uncomfortable, or dirty—it eats well, and sleeps soundly. If someone cleans the pigsty, the pig actually won’t feel at ease, and it won’t stay clean. Before long, it will once again be rolling around in the mud, completely comfortable, because it is a filthy creature. When humans see a pig, they feel it’s filthy, and if you clean it up, the pig doesn’t feel better—this is why no one keeps a pig in their house. The way humans see pigs will always be different from how pigs themselves feel, because humans and pigs are not of the same kind. And because the incarnate Son of man is not of the same kind as corrupt humans, only God incarnate can stand from a divine perspective, and stand from the height of God to see mankind, to see everything.

When God becomes flesh and lives among mankind, what suffering does He experience in the flesh? Does anyone truly understand? Some people say that God suffers greatly, and although He is God Himself, people do not understand His essence and always treat Him like a person, which makes Him feel aggrieved and wronged—they say that God’s suffering truly is great. Other people say that God is innocent and without sin, but He suffers the same as mankind and suffers persecution, slander, and indignities along with mankind; they say He also endures the misunderstandings and the disobedience of His followers—God’s suffering truly cannot be measured. It seems that you don’t truly understand God. In fact, this suffering you speak of does not count as true suffering for God, because there is suffering greater than this. Then what is true suffering for God Himself? What is true suffering for God’s incarnate flesh? For God, mankind not understanding Him does not count as suffering, and people having some misunderstanding of God and not seeing Him as God does not count as suffering. However, people often feel that God must have suffered a great injustice, that the time God is in the flesh He cannot show His person to mankind and allow them to see His greatness, and God is humbly hiding in an insignificant flesh, so it must have been tormenting for Him. People take to heart what they can understand and what they can see of God’s suffering, and impose all sorts of sympathy on God and often will even offer a little praise for it. In reality, there is a difference, there is a gap between what people understand of God’s suffering and what He truly feels. I’m telling you the truth—for God, no matter if it’s God’s Spirit or God’s incarnate flesh, that suffering is not true suffering. Then what is it that God actually suffers? Let’s talk about God’s suffering only from the perspective of God incarnate.

When God becomes flesh, becoming an average, normal person, living among mankind, side-by-side with people, can’t He see and feel people’s methods, laws, and philosophies for living? How do these methods and laws for living make Him feel? Does He feel loathing in His heart? Why would He feel loathing? What are mankind’s methods and laws for living? What principles are they rooted in? What are they based on? Mankind’s methods, laws, etc. for living—all of this is created based on Satan’s logic, knowledge, and philosophy. Humans living under these types of laws have no humanity, no truth—they all defy the truth, and are hostile to God. If we take a look at God’s essence, we see that His essence is exactly the opposite of Satan’s logic, knowledge, and philosophy. His essence is full of righteousness, truth, and holiness, and other realities of all positive things. God, possessing this essence and living among such a mankind—what does He feel in His heart? Isn’t it full of pain? His heart is in pain, and this pain is something that no person can understand or realize. Because everything that He faces, encounters, hears, sees, and experiences is all mankind’s corruption, evil, and their rebellion against and resistance to the truth. All that comes from humans is the source of His suffering. That is to say, because His essence is not the same as corrupt humans, the corruption of humans becomes the source of His greatest suffering. When God becomes flesh, is He able to find someone who shares a common language with Him? This cannot be found among mankind. No one can be found who can communicate, who can have this exchange with God—what kind of feeling would you say God has? The things that people discuss, that they love, that they pursue and long for all have to do with sin, with evil tendencies. When God faces all of this, isn’t it like a knife to His heart? Faced with these things, could He have joy in His heart? Could He find consolation? Those who are living with Him are humans full of rebelliousness and evil—how could His heart not suffer? How great really is this suffering, and who cares about it? Who takes heed? And who could appreciate it? People have no way of understanding God’s heart. His suffering is something that people are particularly unable to appreciate, and humanity’s coldness and numbness makes God’s suffering even deeper.

There are some people who often sympathize with Christ’s plight because there is a verse in the Bible that says: “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has not where to lay his head.” When people hear this, they take it to heart and believe that this is the greatest suffering that God endures, and the greatest suffering that Christ endures. Now, looking at it from the perspective of the facts, is that the case? God does not believe that these difficulties are suffering. He has never cried out against injustice for the difficulties of the flesh, and He has never made humans repay or reward Him with anything. However, when He witnesses mankind’s everything, the corrupt lives and the evil of corrupt humans, when He witnesses that mankind is in Satan’s grasp and imprisoned by Satan and cannot escape, that people living in sin do not know what the truth is—He cannot bear all of these sins. His loathing of humans increases by the day, but He has to endure all of this. This is God’s great suffering. God cannot fully express even His voice or His emotions among His followers, and no one among His followers can truly understand His suffering. No one even tries to understand or to comfort His heart—His heart endures this suffering day after day, year after year, time and time again. What do you see in all of this? God doesn’t require anything from humans in return for what He has given, but because of God’s essence, He absolutely cannot tolerate mankind’s evil, corruption, and sin, but feels extreme loathing and hatred, which leads to God’s heart and His flesh enduring unending suffering. Could you see all of this? Most likely, none of you could see this, because none of you can truly understand God. Over time you can gradually experience it for yourselves.

from: "God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III" in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh

Recommendation: Eastern Lightning , Know more of the Church of Almighty God

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Almighty God's Word | God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III (Part Three)

God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III (Part Three)

Next we’ll take a look at a parable told by the Lord Jesus in the Age of Grace.

3. The Parable of the Lost Sheep

(Mat 18:12-14) How think you? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains, and seeks that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

This is a metaphor—what kind of feeling do you get from this passage? The way this metaphor is expressed utilizes a figure of speech in human language; it’s something within the scope of human knowledge. If God had said something similar in the Age of Law, people would have felt that it wasn’t really consistent with who God was, but when the Son of man delivered this passage in the Age of Grace, it felt comforting, warm, and intimate to people. When God became flesh, when He appeared in the form of a man, He used a very appropriate metaphor to express His voice in humanity. This voice represented God’s own voice and the work He wanted to do in that age. It also represented an attitude that God had toward people in the Age of Grace. Looking from the perspective of God’s attitude toward people, He compared each person to a sheep. If a sheep is lost, He will do whatever it takes to find it. This represents a principle of God’s work among mankind this time in the flesh. God used this parable to describe His resolve and attitude in that work. This was the advantage of God becoming flesh: He could take advantage of mankind’s knowledge and use human language to speak to people, to express His will. He explained or “translated” to man His profound, divine language that people struggled to understand in human language, in a human way. This helped people understand His will and know what He wanted to do. He could also have conversations with people from the human perspective, using human language, and communicate with people in a way they understood. He could even speak and work using human language and knowledge so that people could feel God’s kindness and closeness, so that they could see His heart. What do you see in this? That there is no prohibitiveness in God’s words and actions? The way people see it, there’s no way that God could use human knowledge, language, or ways of speaking to talk about what God Himself wanted to say, the work He wanted to do, or to express His own will; this is erroneous thinking. God used this type of metaphor so that people could feel the realness and the sincerity of God, and see His attitude toward people during that time period. This parable awakened people from a dream who had been living under the law for a long time, and it also inspired generation after generation of people living in the Age of Grace. By reading the passage of this parable, people know God’s sincerity in saving mankind and understand mankind’s weight in His heart.

Let’s take another look at the last sentence in this passage: “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” Was this the Lord Jesus’ own words, or the words of His Father in heaven? On the surface, it looks like it’s the Lord Jesus that’s speaking, but His will represents the will of God Himself, which is why He said: “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” People at that time only acknowledged the Father in heaven as God, and this person that they saw in front of their eyes was merely sent by Him, and He could not represent the Father in heaven. That’s why the Lord Jesus had to say that as well, so that they could really feel God’s will for mankind, and feel the authenticity and the accuracy of what He said. Even though this was a simple thing to say, it was very caring and it revealed the Lord Jesus’ humility and hiddenness. No matter whether God became flesh or He worked in the spiritual realm, He knew the human heart best, and best understood what people needed, knew what people worried about, and what confused them, so He added this one line. This line highlighted a problem hidden in mankind: People were skeptical of what the Son of man said, which is to say, when the Lord Jesus was speaking He had to add: “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” Only on this premise could His words bear fruit, to make people believe their accuracy and improve their credibility. This shows that when God became a regular Son of man, God and mankind had a very awkward relationship, and that the Son of man’s situation was very embarrassing. It also shows how insignificant the Lord Jesus’ status among humans was at that time. When He said this, it was actually to tell people: You can rest assured—this doesn’t represent what’s in My own heart, but it is the will of the God who is in your hearts. For mankind, wasn’t this an ironic thing? Even though God working in the flesh had many advantages that He did not have in His person, He had to withstand their doubts and rejection as well as their numbness and dullness. It could be said that the process of the work of the Son of man was the process of experiencing mankind’s rejection, and the process of experiencing mankind competing against Him. More than that, it was the process of working to continuously win mankind’s trust and conquer mankind through what He has and is, through His own essence. It was not so much that God incarnate was waging an on-the-ground war against Satan; it was more that God became an ordinary man and began a struggle with those who follow Him, and in this struggle the Son of man completed His work with His humility, with what He has and is, with His love and wisdom. He obtained the people He wanted, won the identity and status He deserved, and returned to His throne.

Next, let’s look at the following two passages of scripture.

4. Forgive Seventy Times Seven

(Mat 18:21-22) Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus said to him, I say not to you, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

5. The Lord’s Love

(Mat 22:37-39) Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like to it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Of these two passages, one speaks of forgiveness and the other speaks of love. These two topics really highlight the work the Lord Jesus wanted to carry out in the Age of Grace.

When God became flesh, He brought along with that a stage of His work—He brought along the specific work of this age and the disposition He wanted to express. In that period, everything that the Son of man did revolved around the work that God wanted to carry out in this age. He would do no more and no less. Every single thing He said and every type of work that He carried out was all related to this age. Regardless of whether He expressed it in a human way with human language or through divine language—no matter which way, or from which perspective—His goal was to help people understand what He wanted to do, what His will was, and what His requirements of people were. He might use various means from different perspectives to help people understand and know His will, understand His work of saving mankind. So in the Age of Grace we see the Lord Jesus frequently using human language to express what He wanted to communicate with mankind. Even more, we see Him from the perspective of an ordinary guide speaking with people, supplying their needs, helping them with what they had requested. This way of working was not seen in the Age of Law that came before the Age of Grace. He became more intimate and more compassionate with mankind, as well as more able to achieve practical results in both form and manner. The expression to forgive people “seventy times seven” really clarifies this point. The purpose achieved by the number in this expression is to allow people to understand the Lord Jesus’ intention at the time that He said this. His intention was that people should forgive others—not once or twice, and not even seven times, but seventy times seven. What kind of idea is this “seventy times seven”? It is to get people to make forgiveness their own responsibility, something they must learn, and a way they must keep. Even though this was just an expression, it served as a crucial point. It helped people deeply appreciate what He meant and find the proper ways of practice and the principles and standards in practice. This expression helped people understand clearly and gave them an accurate concept that they should learn forgiveness—to forgive without conditions and without limitations, but with an attitude of tolerance and understanding for others. When the Lord Jesus said this, what was in His heart? Was He really thinking of seventy times seven? He wasn’t. Is there a number of times God will forgive man? There are many people who are very interested in the “number of times” mentioned, who really want to understand the origin and the meaning of this number. They want to understand why this number came out of the Lord Jesus’ mouth; they believe that there is a deeper implication to this number. In fact, this was just God’s expression in humanity. Any implication or meaning must be taken along with the Lord Jesus’ requirements for mankind. When God had not become flesh, people did not understand much of what He said because it came out of complete divinity. The perspective and context of what He said was invisible and unreachable to mankind; it was expressed from a spiritual realm that people could not see. For people who lived in the flesh, they could not pass through the spiritual realm. But after God became flesh, He spoke to mankind from the perspective of humanity, and this dialogue came out of and surpassed the scope of the spiritual realm. He could express His divine disposition, will, and attitude, through things humans could imagine and things they saw and encountered in their lives, and using methods that humans could accept, in a language they could understand, and knowledge they could grasp, to allow mankind to understand and to know God, to comprehend His meaning and His required standards within the scope of their capacity, to the degree that they were able. This was the method and principle of God’s work in humanity. Even though God’s ways and His principles of working in the flesh were mostly achieved by or through humanity, it truly did achieve results that could not be achieved by working directly in divinity. God’s work in humanity was more concrete, authentic, and targeted, the methods were much more flexible, and in form it surpassed the Age of Law.

Below, let’s talk about loving the Lord and loving your neighbor as yourself. Is this something that’s directly expressed in divinity? Clearly not! These were all things that the Son of man said in humanity; only people would say something like “Love your neighbor as yourself. Loving others is the same as cherishing your own life,” and only people would speak in this manner. God has never spoken that way. At the very least, God does not have this type of language in His divinity because He doesn’t need this kind of tenet, “Love your neighbor as yourself” to regulate His love for mankind, because God’s love for mankind is a natural revealing of what He has and is. When have you ever heard that God said anything like “I love mankind as I love Myself”? Because love is in God’s essence, and in what He has and is. God’s love for mankind and the way He treats people and His attitude are a natural expression and revealing of His disposition. He does not need to deliberately do this a certain way, or deliberately follow a certain method or a moral code to achieve loving His neighbor as Himself—He already possesses this type of essence. What do you see in this? When God worked in humanity, many of His methods, words, and truths were all expressed in a human way. But at the same time God’s disposition, what He has and is, and His will were expressed for people to know and understand them. What they knew and understood was exactly His essence and what He has and is, which represent the inherent identity and status of God Himself. That is to say, the Son of man in the flesh expressed the inherent disposition and essence of God Himself to the greatest extent possible and as accurately as possible. Not only was the Son of man’s humanity not a hindrance or a barrier to man’s communication and interaction with God in heaven, but it was actually the only channel and the only bridge for mankind to connect to the Lord of creation. At this point, don’t you feel that there are many similarities between the nature and methods of the work done by the Lord Jesus in the Age of Grace and the current stage of work? This current stage of work also uses a lot of human language to express God’s disposition, and it uses a lot of language and methods from mankind’s daily life and human knowledge to express God’s own will. Once God becomes flesh, no matter if He is speaking from a human perspective or a divine perspective, much of His language and methods of expression are all through the medium of human language and methods. That is, when God becomes flesh, it is the best opportunity for you to see God’s omnipotence and His wisdom, and to know every real aspect of God. When God became flesh, while He was growing up, He came to understand, learn, and grasp some of mankind’s knowledge, common sense, language, and methods of expression in humanity. God incarnate possessed these things that came from the humans that He had created. They became tools of God in the flesh for expressing His disposition and His divinity, and allowed Him to make His work more pertinent, more authentic, and more accurate when He was working amidst mankind, from a human perspective and using human language. It made it more accessible and more easily understood for people, thus achieving the results that God wanted. Isn’t it more practical for God to work in the flesh this way? Isn’t it God’s wisdom? When God became flesh, when God’s flesh was able to take on the work that He wanted to carry out, it is when He would express His disposition and His work on the ground, and this was also the time that He could officially begin His ministry as the Son of man. This meant that there was no longer a gulf between God and man, that God would soon cease His work of communicating through messengers, and that God Himself could personally express all the words and work in the flesh that He wanted to. It also meant that the people God saves were closer to Him, and that His management work had entered new territory, and that all of mankind was about to be faced with a new era.

Everyone who has read the Bible knows that many things happened when the Lord Jesus was born. The greatest among those was being hunted by the Devil, even to the point of all the children two years old and under in that area being slaughtered. It is evident that God assumed great risk by becoming flesh among humans; the great price that He paid for completing His management of saving mankind is also evident. The great hopes that God held for His work among mankind in the flesh are also evident. When God’s flesh was able to take on the work among mankind, how was He feeling? People should be able to understand that a bit, right? At the very least, God was happy because He could start developing His new work among mankind. When the Lord Jesus was baptized and officially began His work to fulfill His ministry, God’s heart was overwhelmed with joy because after so many years of waiting and preparation, He could finally wear the flesh of an average man and begin His new work in the form of a man of flesh and blood that people could see and touch. He could finally speak face-to-face and heart-to-heart with people through the identity of a man. God could finally be face to face with mankind in human language, in a human way; He could provide for mankind, enlighten them, and help them using human language; He could eat at the same table and live in the same space with them. He could also see human beings, see things, and see everything the way humans did and even through their own eyes. For God, this was already His first victory of His work in the flesh. It could also be said that it was an accomplishment of a great work—this of course was what God was happiest about. Starting then was the first time that God felt a sort of comfort in His work among mankind. All of these events were so practical and so natural, and the comfort that God felt was so authentic. For mankind, each time a new stage of God’s work is accomplished, and each time God feels gratified, is when mankind can come closer to God, and when people can draw nearer to salvation. To God, this is also the launch of His new work, when His management plan progresses one step further, and, moreover, when His will approaches complete accomplishment. For mankind, the arrival of such an opportunity is fortunate, and very good; for all those who await God’s salvation, it is momentous news. When God carries out a new stage of work, then He has a new beginning, and when this new work and new beginning are launched and introduced among mankind, it is when the outcome of this stage of work has already been determined, and it has been accomplished, and God has already seen its final effects and fruit. This is also when these effects make God feel satisfied, and His heart, of course, is happy. Because, in God’s eyes, He has already seen and determined the people He is looking for, and has already acquired this group, a group that is able to make His work successful and bring Him satisfaction, God feels reassured, He puts aside His worries, and He feels happy. In other words, when the flesh of God is able to embark upon new work among man, and He begins to do the work He must do without obstruction, and when He feels that all has been accomplished, He has already seen the end. And because of this end He is satisfied, and of a happy heart. How is God’s happiness expressed? Can you imagine that? Would God cry? Can God cry? Can God clap His hands? Can God dance? Can God sing? What would that song be? Of course God could sing a beautiful, moving song, a song that could express the joy and happiness in His heart. He could sing it for mankind, sing it for Himself, and sing it for all things. God’s happiness can be expressed in any way—all of this is normal because God has joys and sorrows, and His various feelings can be expressed in various ways. This is His right and it is the most normal thing. You should not think anything else of it, and you should not project your own inhibitions onto God, telling Him He shouldn’t do this or that, He shouldn’t act this way or that, to limit His happiness or any feeling He has. In people’s hearts God can’t be happy, He can’t shed tears, He can’t weep—He can’t express any emotion. Through what we have communicated these two times, I believe you will no longer see God this way, but will allow God to have some freedom and release. This is a very good thing. In the future if you are able to truly feel God’s sadness when you hear about Him being sad, and you are able to truly feel His happiness when you hear about Him being happy—at the least, you are able to clearly know and understand what makes God happy and what makes Him sad—when you are able to feel sad because God is sad, and feel happy because God is happy, He will have fully gained your heart and there will no longer be any barrier with Him. You will no longer try to constrain God with human imagination, conceptions, and knowledge. At that time, God will be alive and vivid in your heart. He will be the God of your life and the Master of everything of you. Do you have this kind of aspiration? Do you have confidence you can achieve this?

from: "God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III" in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh

Recommendation:  Eastern Lightning , The brief introduction of the Church of Almighty God 

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