I Was Saved by Almighty God During My Opposition to Him |
Handan City, Hebei Province
I was formerly a worker of the Way of Life Church, and was often sent to various places to preach. Later, I strayed into the way of the Pharisees, the way of opposing God. It was Almighty God who awakened my heart and so I was saved.
When I worked as a sent one in Datong City, Shanxi Province, I remember, whichever church I went to, the brothers and sisters there would tell me that some people had come to preach that God had done a new work, and they had also given them a book entitled The Lightning Shining from the East. After hearing it, I hated those people with all my soul, and thought, “The last days have truly come, as false Christs have come to deceive people. I must be a good ‘steward,’ and never let the flock be deceived.” Then, I began to seal off the churches by saying these words in them: “Brothers and sisters, none of you shall receive strangers. If anyone disobeys, he shall be expelled from the church.” In a co-workers’ meeting, our leader told us, “The most serious problem we are facing now is that there are people coming to our churches everywhere to preach Almighty God. They are heretics, cultists, and mafiosi, and they beat and harm people. They have a poisonous book. Once you read it, you’ll lose control of your mind and be hooked by it.” At these words, my heart throbbed with fear, because I had learned that my parents had accepted Almighty God and read that book. The more I thought about that, the more I was frightened, and I felt my heart so heavy, as if a big stone lay on it. Because of the rumors and my imaginations, I had more hatred for the work of Almighty God and felt more disgusted with those who preached it. Every day, in my prayers I asked the Lord Jesus to curse them. When I preached in the churches, I said many blasphemies against Almighty God. At that time, I could never figure out why my parents also accepted Almighty God, because they had believed in Jesus for many years, read through the Bible many times, led churches, and preached to others. In anger, I picked up a pen and wrote a letter to them: “Dad and Mom, you have believed in Jesus and read the Bible for so many years in vain. …” In the letter, I quoted Bible verses out of context and without considering the backgrounds of the ages to persuade them to turn back, and I also wrote many words of “admonition.” But they did not appreciate my “kindness” at all. I was so annoyed with them that I didn’t go home for over a year, during which I opposed God’s work of the last days all the time. Whenever I learned that someone had come to our Church preach the work of the last days, I wished he would die so that the hatred in my heart might be relieved. Such hatred all resulted from the rumors and my imaginations. In fact, I had never witnessed what was rumored, and even many of the rumors were fabricated by me according to what I imagined. For example, the “Eastern Lightning” will give you whatever you ask for; they will give you money if you ask for it, they will find a mate for you if you do not have one, and so on. I just spread the rumors against my conscience like this.
Later, I was transferred back to Hebei Province to work. There I also often heard some people in the church talk about my parents’ conversion to Almighty God. So, whenever the church talked about the “Eastern Lightening,” I was red-faced and upset, and I felt disgraced before the brothers and sisters. As my letter was to no avail, I was very angry and decided to go home to persuade my parents personally. I thought, “After I get home, first I will burn up all the books my parents are reading. Secondly, I will fellowship about the Bible with them and bring them round. Thirdly, I will try to win back all those who were in the church near my home but who now follow Almighty God, so that they will return to the Lord Jesus.”
Filled with boiling anger, I set off home with one of my co-workers. We first went to the Way of Life Church in my hometown and asked the brothers and sisters about my family. They told me, “Your parents are quite zealous in following Almighty God. They go out every day…” At those words, I felt both happy and sad. I was happy because my parents hadn’t been harmed as I had imagined and I could still see them, and I was sad because they were so deeply deceived by those people, which, like a knife, pierced my heart. I thought then, “Anyway, that isn’t my parents’ fault; it is all caused by those believers in Almighty God!” Then the misunderstandings in my heart intensified my inner opposition to Almighty God as fuel was added to the flames. So I was more determined to burn up all the books concerning Almighty God in my home to appease the hatred in my heart.
After I reached home with my co-worker, without saying anything, I immediately began to ransack the rooms for the book The Lightning Shining from the East, but I failed to find it. In angry frustration, I discussed with my co-worker what to do next. We decided to fellowship with my father first (my mother was not at home then). But before we spoke, my father asked a question: “What is God’s name?” Without hesitation, I answered, “Need you ask? It is written in Acts 4:12: ‘Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.’ So God’s name is, of course, Jesus Christ.” My father asked another question: “Then, in Exodus 3:15 God said: ‘The LORD God … is my name for ever, and this is my memorial to all generations.’ And, in Hosea 13:4, God also said, ‘Yet I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no god but me: for there is no savior beside me.’ How do you explain this?” This question left me at a loss for words, as I had never thought of such a question. But I said, “I don’t care about God’s name. Anyway, it’s wrong to depart from the Bible!” Following that, my father asked me many more questions, none of which I had ever considered. “How could he have so many ‘strange’ questions?” I thought. And so we two began to argue with him unreasonably. In the argument, I felt myself so powerless and indebted to the Lord Jesus. Even so, I resolutely held fast the way of life I had kept, and was determined not to forsake the true way. I believed that my father had been “entrapped” too deeply and was beyond salvation. “Let them die! Let them go to hell! I can do nothing more but to keep myself from abandoning the true way,” I thought. So I decided that my co-worker should go back first and I would wait for my mother to come back, and after seeing her, I would leave. Thanks to God’s wonderful arrangement, I stayed.
A few days later, my mother came back from performing her duty, but she would not hear of my leaving. She invited many brothers and sisters to our house to fellowship with me about the work of Almighty God during the last days, but because the rumors and my imaginations fully occupied my mind, I couldn’t take it in. I was indifferent to what they fellowshipped about, and did not make any response like a wood. However, they still patiently fellowshipped with me about the work of Almighty God in detail. They read me a passage of His word: “Some say that the name of God does not change, so why then did the name of Jehovah become Jesus? It was prophesied of the coming of the Messiah, so why then did a man by the name of Jesus come? Why did the name of God change? Was not such work carried out long ago? Cannot God this day do a new work? The work of yesterday can be altered, and the work of ‘Jesus’ can follow on from that of ‘Jehovah.’ Cannot then the work of ‘Jesus’ be succeeded by another work? If the name of ‘Jehovah’ can be changed to ‘Jesus,’ then cannot the name of ‘Jesus’ also be changed? This is not unusual, and people think so[a] only due to their simple-mindedness. God will always be God. Regardless of the changes to His work and His name, His disposition and wisdom remain forever unchanged. If you believe that God can only be called by the name of Jesus, then you know too little. Do you dare assert that Jesus is forever the name of God, that God will forever and always go by the name of Jesus, and that this will never change? Dare you assert with certainty it is the name of ‘Jesus’ that concluded the Age of Law and also concludes the final age? Who can say that the grace of ‘Jesus’ can conclude the age?” Hearing these words, I suddenly became clear about the answer to the question my father had asked. “Yes, since the name of Jehovah could be changed to Jesus, the name of Jesus can also be changed to Almighty God. Is this really God’s word?” A battle started in my heart. I said nothing to my parents that day. At night, after they went to sleep, I knelt before the Lord Jesus and prayed in tears, “O Lord! What shall I do? I am confused. Which way shall I take? Please guide me quickly! …” But on the following day, I remembered the “resolution” I had made before I came home, and I thought to myself, “I mustn’t be deceived by them.” So, I pondered how to leave my home. I thought, “Although I was born of my mother, we are not members of one family in spirit, and it is time for us to part.” So I secretly packed up all my belongings, for I thought that from then on the church would be my home and the brothers and sisters would be my family members. In the evening, I told my mother I was leaving tomorrow. At that, she said to me in tears, “Why do you believe in God? And why do you serve God? For what have you forsaken everything? Why can’t you seek, listen, and read before you make a decision? Are you willing to die ignorant like this? Think about it! …”
I Was Saved by Almighty God During My Opposition to Him |
In the past, I deeply admired the Way of Life Church, and I stayed there over seven years but didn’t gain any knowledge of God. After I accepted the work of Almighty God, I came to know that only God is the way of life, and one must accept Almighty God to receive the life supply. Almighty God says: “The way of life is not something that can be possessed by just anyone, nor is it easily obtainable by all. That is because life can only come from God, which is to say, only God Himself possesses the substance of life, there is no way of life without God Himself, and so only God is the source of life, and the ever-flowing wellspring of living water of life. From when He created the world, God has done much work involving the vitality of life, has done much work that brings life to man, and has paid a great price so that man might gain life, for God Himself is eternal life, and God Himself is the way by which man is resurrected.” “God Himself is life, and the truth, and His life and truth coexist. Those who are incapable of gaining the truth shall never gain life. Without the guidance, support, and provision of the truth, you shall only gain letters, doctrines, and, moreover, death. God’s life is ever-present, and His truth and life coexist. If you cannot find the source of truth, then you will not gain the nourishment of life; if you cannot gain the provision of life, then you will surely have no truth, and so apart from imaginations and conceptions, the entirety of your body shall be nothing but flesh, your stinking flesh. Know that the words of books do not count as life, the records of history cannot be feted as the truth, and the doctrines of the past cannot serve as an account of words presently spoken by God. Only that which is expressed by God when He comes to earth and lives among man is the truth, life, God’s will, and His actual manner of working.” “Christ of the last days brings life, and brings the enduring and everlasting way of truth. This truth is the path through which man shall gain life, and the only path by which man shall know God and be approved by God. If you do not seek the way of life provided by Christ of the last days, then you shall never gain the approval of Jesus, and shall never be qualified to enter the gate of the kingdom of heaven, for you are both a puppet and prisoner of history. Those who are controlled by regulations, by letters, and shackled by history will never be able to gain life, and will never be able to gain the perpetual way of life. That is because all they have is turbid water that has lain stagnant for thousands of years, instead of the water of life that flows from the throne. Those who are not supplied with the water of life will forever remain corpses, playthings of Satan, and sons of hell. How, then, can they behold God? If you only try to hold on to the past, only try to keep things as they are by standing still, and do not try to change the status quo and discard history, then will you not always be against God? The steps of God’s work are vast and mighty, like surging waves and rolling thunders—yet you sit and passively await destruction, sticking to your folly and doing nothing. In this way, how can you be considered someone who follows in the footsteps of the Lamb? How can you justify the God that you hold on to as a God who is always new and never old? And how can the words of your yellowed books carry you across the threshold of the new age? How can they lead you to seek the steps of God’s work? And how can they take you up to heaven? What you hold in your hands is the letters that can provide but temporary solace, not the truths that are capable of giving life. The scriptures you read are that which can only enrich your tongue, not words of wisdom that can help you know human life, much less the ways that can lead you to perfection. Does this discrepancy not give you cause for reflection? Does it not allow you to understand the mysteries contained within? Are you capable of delivering yourself to heaven to meet God on your own? Without the coming of God, can you take yourself into heaven to enjoy family happiness with God? Are you still dreaming now? I suggest, then, that you stop dreaming, and look at who is working now, at who is now carrying out the work of saving man during the last days. If you do not, you shall never gain the truth, and shall never gain life.” (from “Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh)
I was saved by Almighty God during my opposition to Him. If it had not been for His salvation, I would also be dry in spirit and have no way to go on, and would just fool myself and be a blind guide. I thank Almighty God for saving me so that I receive the supply of the living water from the throne. Glory and praise be to Almighty God, my Savior!
Source:How Was I Conquered by the Word of God
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