Since I accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days, I have often had meetings and fellowshiped God’s words with my brothers and sisters. Thus, in my heart I felt much excitement and happiness I had never had before. Through meetings, I understood some truths, and had a little knowledge of God’s six-thousand-year management plan as well as God’s will of saving man. I felt very joyful and fulfilled in my heart. But, at the same time, Satan’s disturbance befell me quietly …

One day, I suddenly got a call from my younger sister. She said: “Sister, a church appeared on the Internet recently, and our pastors declared it as an evil cult. I heard you are having meetings on the internet too. Could it be that your church is just what our pastors called ‘evil cult’?” I was afraid she would misunderstand and worry about me, so I told her frankly: “The meetings I attend belong to The Church of Almighty God. It’s a true church with the work of the Holy Spirit, and it’s a church ruled by Christ and the truth. Don’t worry about me. I have discernment.” She continued: “I’m just worried about your safety, maybe it’s my mistake.” Then she hung up the phone. And I thought nothing more about it.

A few days later, my younger sister called me again and said: “Sister, I heard our pastors said many words of resisting and condemning The Church of Almighty God. I also heard that the Christ they believe in is the returned Lord Jesus, and that the Bible they read is called The Word Appears in the Flesh, which is very attractive. Moreover, what they preach is very profound, and we will be easily deceived once we listen to it. Our pastors told us neither to read that book nor to contact them. Sister, you know the Bible very well, how come that you are stolen by them? How can you prove that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus? Don’t be deceived. Please stop attending their meetings quickly.” Hearing her words, I knew she was deceived by rumors from her pastors, and I felt very distressed. Therefore, I prayed to God to calm myself down. Then I fellowshiped with her: “About whether Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus, we should not follow the herd but should maintain a heart that reveres God to seek and investigate. Otherwise, we will lose God’s salvation. Just like the people of Judaism at that time, because they blindly listened to the chief priests and scribes, they followed them to nail the Lord Jesus to the cross. Finally, they committed a heinous crime and offended God’s righteous disposition …” Before I finished my words, she hung up the phone under the pretext of being busy. After I put the phone down, I pondered over how to fellowship with her next time. In my search, I thought of God’s words that a sister had read to me before: “First, He is able to open up a new age; second, He is able to supply the life of man and show man the way to follow. This is sufficient to establish that He is God Himself. At the very least, the work He does can fully represent the Spirit of God, and from such work it can be seen that the Spirit of God is within Him. As the work done by God incarnate was mainly to usher in a new age, lead new work, and open up a new realm, these alone are sufficient to establish that He is God Himself” (“The Difference Between the Ministry of God Incarnate and the Duty of Man”). “He who is God incarnate shall possess the essence of God, and He who is God incarnate shall possess the expression of God. Since God becomes flesh, He shall bring forth the work He intends to do, and since God becomes flesh, He shall express what He is, and shall be able to bring the truth to man, bestow life upon him, and point the way for him. Flesh that does not have the essence of God is decidedly not the incarnate God; of this there is no doubt. If man intends to inquire into whether it is God’s incarnate flesh, then he must corroborate this from the disposition He expresses and the words He speaks. Which is to say, to corroborate whether or not it is God’s incarnate flesh, and whether or not it is the true way, one must discriminate on the basis of His essence. And so, in determining whether it is the flesh of God incarnate, the key lies in His essence (His work, His utterances, His disposition, and many other aspects), rather than external appearance. If man scrutinizes only His external appearance, and as a result overlooks His essence, this shows that man is benighted and ignorant” (“What It Means to Truly Believe in God”).

The sister once fellowshiped: “From God’s words we can see that the incarnate God can bring the old age to an end and open up a new age, and also can bring us the truths and ways we should practice in the new age. As the Lord Jesus came to work, He concluded the Age of Law and started the Age of Grace. The Lord Jesus brought the gospel of the kingdom, performed many miracles, and bestowed abundant grace upon man. Meanwhile, He also taught people to forgive others seventy times seven and love the Lord with our heart and soul. At last, He became man’s sin offering, and brought man out of the dangerous situation of being condemned by the law. Likewise, when Almighty God descended in the last days, He concluded the Age of Grace and started the work of the Age of Kingdom. He does a stage of work of the word upon the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ redemption work. In other words, He expresses words to judge and cleanse man, to purify and transform the corrupt disposition of us who are redeemed by the Lord Jesus, and to take us to a wonderful destination. God uses word to reveal our corrupt nature, dissect our words and deeds, letting us know our own nature and see our own filth, unrighteousness. In our actual experiences, God’s word leads us to use our practice of the truth to replace our previous corruption and disobedience. When God’s word gradually works inside us and becomes our life, our corrupt disposition will be changed, cleansed by God day by day. God’s word and work have opened a brand-new age for us, freeing us from the cyclical old life of ‘sinning, confessing, confessing, sinning’ in the Age of Grace, giving us a way of practice in the new age, and allowing us to gain higher truth and enter a new realm. So, to investigate whether Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus, we should discern His substance, work, words, and so on. We should see whether the words expressed by Almighty God are the truth, whether they are the expression of what God has and is, whether they can relieve our confusion about believing in God, whether they can save us from corrupt satanic dispositions and allow us to attain God’s salvation. Only on these bases can our discernment be accurate.”

Right! God’s words had made it very clear that as long as we had a heart of seeking the truth, we could find answers in God’s words. But, why did we resist and condemn God’s work instead of seeking and investigating? I opened the book of God’s word to seek the related truth. I saw God’s word say: “Those who did not know the Messiah were all capable of opposing Jesus, of rejecting Jesus, of slandering Him. People who do not understand Jesus are all capable of rejecting Him and reviling Him. Moreover, they are capable of seeing the return of Jesus as the deceit of Satan, and more people shall condemn Jesus returned to flesh. Does not all of this make you afraid?” (“By the Time You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus, God Will Have Made Heaven and Earth Anew”). From God’s words I knew that the root cause of our believing in God but resisting God is that we don’t know God. Recalling the Pharisees at that time, they were all people who had a strong knowledge of the Bible, labored hard for years, and waited for the coming of Messiah. But when the Lord Jesus came to work, they resisted and condemned Him, and even crucified Him. The reason was that they didn’t recognize the work of the Holy Spirit as well as the way of truth spoken by the Lord Jesus. The other reason was that they had arrogant nature, keeping the words of the Bible but not seeking the truth and God’s will, so that they became the ones who served God but resisted God. Clearly, if we didn’t maintain a heart of revering God when seeking and investigating God’s work of the last days, we would repeat the historical tragedy. When thinking of this, I prayed to God: “Oh, Almighty God. Through the words expressed by You, I am certain that You are the second coming of the Lord Jesus. But my younger sister, who blindly believes the pastors’ rumors, isn’t willing to seek and investigate Your work, nor is she willing to accept the truth. Oh, God, I see that we will resist You if we believe in You but do not know You. The consequence is really too terrifying! I am grateful to You for leading me to know these truths. I will never be disturbed by my younger sister again.” Afterward, I sent the truth that I had understood to my sister, and often shared with her the testimonies of my experiencing God’s work. Then she didn’t disturb and hinder me from believing in Almighty God any longer.

A few days later, my mother was coming to my home, so I went to pick her up. When she met me, she said angrily: “You have believed in the Lord for years in the church, why don’t you serve the Lord faithfully in the church but have meetings on the internet? Now, the pastor talks about how to guard against The Church of Almighty God in his report every week. He also teaches us how to distinguish which ones are the believers of The Church of Almighty God, and tells us not to contact them on the internet, not to watch their movies and videos of singing, and moreover, not to casually add friends. None of the believers in our church dare to listen or watch, but you turn a deaf ear to the pastor’s words. Do you know that sister of a branch church accepted Almighty God, then the pastor went to every church to tell brothers and sisters to abandon her? If you accept Almighty God’s work of the last days, then you will surely be expelled by them. At that time, don’t blame me for not warning you.” With these words, she got out of my car furiously. I had never seen my mother was so angry and fierce before, so I was frightened. At the same time, I was also very scared. I couldn’t help thinking: In the past days, I was in charge of the gospel work in the church, and everyone knew me well. If the pastor announces my name in the church, how will brothers and sisters look at me? They must isolate me. The more I thought about it, the more anxious I was. Therefore, I immediately prayed to God: “Almighty God, I feel scared and weak. Please watch over me and give me strength so that I can stand testimony to You.” When I stood up after my prayer, suddenly the wall calendar in my house dropped down. When picking it up, I found printed on it was the obvious verse: “Be not afraid, only believe” (Mark 5:36). At that moment, I felt I became stronger in faith at once, as if I were given an injection of cardiac stimulant. I felt that the Lord was right by my side, encouraging and comforting me, so I felt very warm in my heart.

Then I sent a message to Sister Zhang and told her about my situation. She sent me a passage of God’s word: “God does His work, God cares for a person, looks upon this person, and all the while Satan dogs His every step. Whomever 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 ploys to tempt, disrupt and wreck the work God does, all in order to achieve its hidden objective. What is this objective? It does not want God to gain anyone; all those that God wants it wants for itself, it wants to occupy them, control them, to take charge of them so they worship it, so they join it in committing evil acts. Is this not Satan’s sinister motive? You often say that Satan is so evil, so bad, but have you seen it? You can only see how bad man is. You have not seen in reality how bad Satan actually is. But have you seen Satan’s evil in this issue concerning Job? (Yes.) This issue has made Satan’s hideous countenance and essence very clear. In warring with God, and trailing along behind Him, Satan’s objective is to demolish all the work God wants to do, to occupy and control those whom God wants to gain, to completely extinguish those whom God wants to gain. If they are not extinguished, then they come to Satan’s possession, to be used by it—this is its objective” (“God Himself, the Unique IV”). Sister Zhang said, “This is a battle in the spiritual realm. Where there is the work of the Holy Spirit, there is Satan’s disturbance too. Satan tries to destroy God’s work, so it uses various methods to disturb people who follow God, and to hinder us from seeking and investigating the true way, attempting vainly to make us become its sacrifices and be destroyed with it. This is Satan’s treacherous intention. So, we should see through its schemes, intentions, and purposes, and abandon it. We should never be disturbed and deceived by it but should come before God, and receive God’s salvation.”

Immediately, we saw another passage of God’s word: “People can be abandoned by other people, but if they are abandoned by God, then no one is more devoid of status, no one is of lower worth. For a creature of God, being possessed by Satan or being abandoned by people is something that feels very painful—but for a creature to be forsaken by the Creator means that they could have no lower status” (“God Is the Lord of All Creation”). Sister Zhang continued to fellowship: “Man is just a creature, he can’t save and perfect man no matter his status is high or low. Just as religious leaders and pastors, no matter how much biblical knowledge they have, no matter how high status they possess, no matter how outwardly pious they are, they are not the truth, and they can’t determine whether we can enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, the Lord Jesus has come back, and He is doing the work of judgment beginning with the house of God. If pastors don’t have a heart that thirsts and searches, they are not able to welcome the Lord’s appearance and work, much less can they take man before God and allow man to know God. If we choose to betray God and follow man because we are afraid of being abandoned and isolated by man, finally we will be brought onto the way of resisting God by them and get ruined, thus losing the opportunity of being saved by God. God is the Creator: Only God is the truth, the way, and the life, only God can save us mankind from Satan’s affliction and corruption, and only God knows how to lead us into the beautiful destination. Only if we obey God’s work and accept God’s guidance, can we attain God’s salvation and come before Him. So, we should not be disturbed by anyone, but should follow Almighty God firmly.

Thanks be to God! Through the enlightenment of God’s words and the sister’s fellowship, I have seen that it is a battle in the spiritual realm. Satan tries to use my mother to disturb my belief in Almighty God. If I am weak and pessimistic for fear that I will be abandoned and isolated by man, then I will fall into its scheme. Now, I have recognized: It doesn’t matter that we are abandoned by people, because man can’t give us life, can’t save us, much less can he determine our ending and destination. But if we are eliminated and forsaken by God’s work, then that is an eternal regret and tragedy, because only God can give man life and determine our future and fate. In this final age, nothing is more important than following the work of the Holy Spirit, gaining the truth, and attaining God’s salvation. If we choose to follow man for fear of their rejection and thus are forsaken by God in the end, it will bring us tragic ending and terrible consequences. After knowing God’s will, I was no longer disturbed and restrained by this matter. I was free and liberated in my heart and walked forward with full confidence. Afterward, when I drove my mother to purchase vegetables every week, I fellowshiped with her about the truth, and testified about God’s work of the last days to her, such as, the causes behind the desolation in the religious world, how to distinguish between the true way and the false way, and how to distinguish between the true church and the false church, and so on. After hearing that, she agreed with me, and her perspectives also changed. When my mother saw me seek the truth and do my duty actively, and that my mental outlook also became better and better, she wasn’t worried about me anymore.

One day, I went to church on the Lord’s day. The moment I entered into the church, the chairman gave me several negative handbills directed at The Church of Almighty God. The pastor walked onto the pulpit and said: “Now, the believers of The Church of Almighty God have come here to steal sheep. One sister has believed in Almighty God, and she can’t be brought back, no matter what. So, we should be watchful. Please don’t contact them, don’t receive strangers, and moreover don’t go to hear the message of the Eastern Lightning. Especially don’t “friend” them. If you don’t know how to distinguish, then delete all your Christian friends.” Upon hearing that, I thought: Brothers and sisters are all God’s sheep. Now God has come back and is searching for His sheep. God’s sheep hear His voice; it is right and proper for His sheep to come before His throne. How can the pastor say He is stealing sheep? Don’t they keep God’s sheep for themselves? Besides, it is written in the Bible: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2). If all believers act as the pastor’s words not receiving any strangers, then how can the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ be spread from the west countries to our country? Hasn’t it been done by the preachers of the West? For us, aren’t those preachers strangers? What the pastor said is not in line with the teachings of the Bible. Later, the pastor said many extreme things to terrify people. After hearing his words, I was greatly indignant. Since I believed in Almighty God, I have understood many truths which I didn’t understand before. I have gained some knowledge of God’s disposition, substance, and name, the mystery of God’s incarnation, and so on, and I also have found the path of how to extricate myself from the bondage of sin and enter the kingdom of heaven. The fact proves that Almighty God is exactly the second coming of the Lord Jesus! And this is the reason why so many people can follow Almighty God firmly after they read the book—The Word Appears in the Flesh. But why doesn’t the pastor seek and investigate, but spreads rumors wildly on the pulpit to hinder brothers and sisters from seeking God’s work?

After the meeting, I contacted the sister of The Church of Almighty God, and she sent me two passages of God’s word: “There are those who read the Bible in grand churches and recite it all day long, yet not one among them understands the purpose of God’s work. Not one among them is able to know God; still less can any one among them accord with God’s will. They are all worthless, vile people, each standing on high to lecture God. They willfully oppose God even as they carry His banner. Claiming faith in God, still they eat the flesh and drink the blood of man. All such people are devils that devour the soul of man, head demons that deliberately get in the way of those trying to step onto the right path, and stumbling blocks impeding those who seek God. They may appear of ‘sound constitution,’ but how are their followers to know that they are none other than antichrists who lead people to stand against God? How are their followers to know that they are living devils dedicated to the devouring of human souls?” (“All People Who Do Not Know God Are People Who Oppose God”). The sister fellowshiped: “From God’s words we can see: Most religious leaders are arrogant people. Regarding the Lord Jesus’ return, they arbitrarily condemn God’s work according to their notions and imaginations. They have no heart that reveres God at all, and no heart of seeking and investigating. They themselves don’t accept, but also impede and restrict brothers and sisters from seeking and investigating the true way; even more, they attempt vainly to keep God’s sheep under their control firmly. Brandishing the name of God, they indulge in the blessings of status. They use the offerings from brothers and sisters for their food, clothing, shelter, and travel, but they can’t give them supply of life. Moreover, in order to keep their status and livelihood and control people forever, they contrive rumors and say some extreme things to terrify people, so that believers don’t dare to seek and investigate the true way, thus losing the opportunity of being saved, and follow them to resist God, do evil, and go to hell together with them in the end. Aren’t they the devils who devour our souls?” From God’s words and sister’s fellowship, I have had some discernment of the substance of pastors and elders. I realize that we will be easily deceived if we believe in God but worship and follow man blindly. For example, my sister and my mother have been harmed deeply. They clearly know the truth that I fellowshiped with them is good, but they worship pastors too much and have no stance and idea on their way of believing in God; as a result, they lose their opportunities of gaining God’s salvation. This makes me truly see that religious pastors really are obstacles to us accepting the true way, and are even antichrists who are against God.

Thanks be to God. After experiencing these environments created by God, I have realized that God’s wisdom is exercised based on Satan’s plots. Through experiencing Satan’s disturbance, I have gained discernment and also clearly seen the substance of pastors serving God yet resisting God. I am willing to abandon them from the bottom of my heart, and follow Almighty God firmly to walk the right way of human life in the future.