I Finally Believed in the Lord Jesus After a Few Setbacks
I was born in a small city in northern China. In 2010, I came to Brazil from China with my relatives. I made friends with a Christian here. He took me to a church to listen to sermons three times, but I did not hear. Later, I stopped going to church because I was busy with work. It was not until my friend took me to attend church again in June of 2015 that I gained some knowledge of the Lord Jesus being the Redeemer through others’ sharing. Especially when I first read Genesis, I felt that the Creator is really so wondrous. I learned from textbooks at school that man evolved from apes and that all things on earth took form on their own. Only after reading Genesis did I come to understand that humans and all things were made by God. I suddenly felt that I had been fooled for over 20 years and finally came to my senses at that point. Thereafter I believed in the Lord Jesus.
I Tasted the Lord Jesus’ Grace for the First Time
In late 2015, I returned to Brazil after five months in China. I decided to find a stable job and settle down. However, things backfired on me. I was frustrated with work and life, feeling upset and anxious. At night, I complained to my Christian friend on the phone. He said to me, “Calm down and pray to the Lord and see how the Lord arranges everything for you.” I then calmed my heart down to pray, “O Lord Jesus! I beg You to help me. I come across difficulties in work and I have no idea what to do. O Lord! I hope You can help me.” Against all expectations, four days later, my boss called me to return to work. I was very glad and I thanked the Lord Jesus for hearing my prayer. In later days, I received more grace from the Lord. In order to repay His love, I attended meetings every week and even asked for time off from work to perform service in the church.
A Video From the Church of Almighty God Shook My Heart
From June of 2016 on, I not only attended gatherings in the church but also shared scriptures with my friends and browsed on Facebook to know more of the Lord. I added many friends. They shared scriptures with me whenever they had time, which made me profit greatly. One day, I saw a video on Facebook with the headline God Descends With Judgment, which suddenly caught my eye. I clicked it with curiosity. I never expected that it was a nicely photographed video, and a spectacular performance. The sonorous singing and the striking lyrics as well as the engaged performances attracted me. I took a close look and discovered that the video was from the Church of Almighty God. I thought to myself: Everyone in the video is singing with their hearts and they seem to be offering this song up to God. The Church of Almighty God is really pretty good. This is the first time that I know this Church. I will learn more about it later.
To Distinguish Between Fact and Fiction
I sent the video to Sister Yang, who frequently shared scriptures with me on Facebook. She also felt good about it and wanted to learn more about the Church of Almighty God seriously. She found the Church very special and full of the work of the Holy Spirit. Then, I shared the video on my timeline. I never expected that one friend would make derogatory remarks about the Church of Almighty God and send me a lot of negative publicity after he saw the video. I was thunderstruck when I saw the words blaspheming Almighty God and resisting and condemning the Church. I thought: This is a good church. Why are there many criticisms about it? When I clicked another video of the Church, it struck me that false Christs would appear during the last days. Then I thought: If I forsake the Lord Jesus’ way and go the wrong way, won’t it be all over for me? What’s more, the flesh of the Lord Jesus was male, while the Church of Almighty God says God incarnate in the last days is female. How could it be possible? It appears that the issue could not be ignored. I’d better stop watching the video. Then I urgently informed Sister Yang about it. She said, “We shouldn’t establish fact from fiction based on one-sided statements, which is not in accordance with the teachings of the Lord. We are all expecting the Lord’s return when believing in Him. Now some people are preaching the coming of the Lord. We must investigate it instead of blindly condemning and resisting it. We’d better find the people of the Church of Almighty God to make an investigation.” I thought: What Sister Yang said makes sense. It is indeed my first time to hear the gospel of the Lord’s return. I don’t know whether the words on the Internet are true or not. I think the videos and movies made by the Church of Almighty God are pretty good. I should get the facts straight. It is rational to treat the Lord’s return in this way. Thus I promised Sister Yang to investigate the Church of Almighty God with her.
I Understood the True Meaning of the Appearance of False Christs During the Last Days
Sister Yang reached a brother from the Church of Almighty God in North America, Zhang Xiangyang. After exchanging greetings, Sister Yang and I asked the same question, “We all know that the Lord will come again in the last days. But it is recorded in the Bible, ‘Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect’ (Matthew 24:23-24). Please share your understanding of the issue that false Christs will appear to deceive people in the last days.”
Brother Zhang said, “The Lord Jesus spoke those words to admonish us to gain discernment about the appearance of false Christs when He comes to earth during the last days. His purpose is not to allow us to reject all news preaching the Lord has returned or that Christ has appeared without exception, let alone to judge or condemn it. From the words of the Lord Jesus we can see that the defining features of false Christs are to work wonders, to perform miracles and to heal and cast out demons. Almighty God’s words have clearly stated the manifestations of false Christs. He says, ‘If, during the present day, there is to emerge a person who is able to display signs and wonders, cast out demons, heal the sick, and perform many miracles, and if this person claims that they are Jesus who has come, then this would be a counterfeit produced by evil spirits which imitate Jesus. Remember this! God does not repeat the same work. Jesus’ stage of work has already been completed, and God will never again undertake that stage of work. … Thus, God carries out one stage of work in every age. Once each stage of His work has been completed, it is soon imitated by evil spirits, and after Satan begins to follow on the heels of God, God changes to a different method. Once God has completed a stage of His work, it is imitated by evil spirits. You must be clear about this’ (“Knowing God’s Work Today” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words, we know that those false Christs follow on the heels of the true Christ to imitate His work and can never bring forth new work. So they can only imitate the work the Lord Jesus did in the past. There are some who are possessed by evil spirits and claim to be the second coming of the Lord Jesus, to be Christ; they also heal and cast out demons, perform miracles and spread the way of repentance and forgiveness. They are false Christs, which is totally correct. This is because God’s work is always new and never old and He comes not to repeat the old work in the past. For example, when the Lord Jesus came to work, He concluded the Age of Law and ushered in the Age of Grace. He didn’t repeat the work of decreeing the laws and leading man in their lives done by Jehovah God. Rather, He did the work of redemption upon the foundation of the work in the Age of Law. The Lord Jesus brought man the way of repentance and forgiveness. As long as man came before Him to confess his sins and repent, God would forgive his sins and not remember his transgressions, and then he would be qualified to enjoy God’s abundant grace and blessings. This was a new work and couldn’t be done by any man. Likewise, the return of the Lord Jesus in the last days—Almighty God—has brought the Age of Grace to an end and begun the Age of Kingdom. He does not repeat the work of redemption done by the Lord Jesus. Rather, He has expressed the truth and done the work of judging and purifying man based upon the foundation of the redemptive work. As long as we accept and obey the judgment of God’s words, we can understand and gain the truth, break free of our corrupt disposition, and no longer commit sins to rebel against or resist God, becoming ones who possess truth and humanity. So that we can be brought into God’s kingdom and inherit His promises. All the work is new and any false Christ cannot do it.”
I reaped great benefits from Brother Zhang’s fellowship. He drove the point home that false Christs can only repeat the old work done by God previously and cannot bring man new paths or carry out new work. His fellowship also made me fully understand the true meaning of what the Lord Jesus said, “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” It turned out that false Christs could only perform some signs and wonders and heal and drive out demons to deceive man. Sister Yang also said she gained a lot. Therefore, we made an appointment to go on listening to Brother Zhang’s fellowship the following evening.
I Blocked the Brother and Sister Because Rumors Entered My Mind Again
I thought Brother Zhang of the Church of Almighty God gave a good fellowship, but I still had some misgivings because of the online rumors. I went back to my church and asked an old brother if he had heard of the Church of Almighty God. He told me that our pastor asked us to keep away from the Church and repeated some words of our pastor to judge, attack and condemn Almighty God. I quickly told Sister Yang that the Church of Almighty God couldn’t be contacted and urged her never again to get in touch with it. However, she seemed to be determined to investigate the Church and said, “I will follow the Lamb wherever He goes.” When my persuasion was in vain, I blocked her and Brother Zhang on Facebook and stopped my contact with them.
I Was Deeply Moved While Watching Another Video
However, soon afterward, I did zero business, having nothing to do all day but cook. Moreover, my sleep became poor. I watched movies on YouTube when I was idle. Curiously, there would appear many movies, MVs, choir videos and so on from the Church of Almighty God whenever I opened YouTube. I thought: The videos of the Church are springing up and it’s different from what the rumors say. What is of God will increase. Could it be that the Church of Almighty God is from God? Brother Zhang’s fellowship last time was in line with the truth. Perhaps I should learn more about the Church of Almighty God rather than listen to others and condemn it. But I shrank back as soon as I thought of the online condemnation and the pastor’s warning that we must not contact the Church. So I searched for other videos on YouTube, but the videos of the Church of Almighty God were always there no matter how I searched. That made me feel frustration. In the end, my curiosity was aroused. I thought: No matter what was put on the websites or what the pastor said, I cannot rely solely on those words in finding the truth. I’d better make an investigation for myself. I believe the Lord will be with me and enlighten me. After thinking of it, I clicked the video “God’s Call and Salvation.” It was a portrait of today’s society and the very picture of our life, so practical and real. I was attracted and empathized with it. I cried and smiled along with the plot development of the video, deeply moved and inspired with a desire to see all the videos of the Church of Almighty God at once. From that time on, I watched the videos of the Church every day and finished watching all the Chinese choir videos from episode one to seventeen in one week. The more I watched them, the better I felt about them. It seemed that a power within was urging me to watch the videos and investigate the Church of Almighty God. I thought to myself: I’ve seen so many videos. No word in them is negative but all is positive. Some reveal the darkness of the world, and some bear witness to God and guide people to return to God. They are untainted by fleshly things or worldly things. The Church of Almighty God is nothing like what the rumors say. It is very pure and worthy of my investigation.
The Experience Article “Finding the Salvation of the Last Days on Facebook” Enlightened Me
One day, while browsing Facebook, I saw an article of experiential testimony “Finding the Salvation of the Last Days on Facebook.” The sister in the article had a similar experience with me: When she first came into contact with the Church of Almighty God, she was much troubled by the rumors about the Church sent by her online friend. I could not wait to keep on reading. The sister prayed to the Lord and asked Him to lead her. After prayer, she felt that it was an error to rely solely on the statements of one side. Only through practical investigation on the Church of Almighty God could truth and falsity be distinguished. It was irrational to refuse to investigate the Lord’s return because of blindly listening to one-sided statements. So she decided to make certain whether it was true that the Lord has returned. I felt her opinion was right. Then I read on. Everything she had learned when she investigated the Church of Almighty God was completely different from what her online friend had told her. Moreover, she hosted two sisters of the Church of Almighty God at home. The sisters offered help and care to her, and communicated Almighty God’s words with her, without any harm or deception. Her practical experience told me that I should not continue to be confounded by the rumors or listen to hearsay lest I miss the salvation. Instead, I should get in contact with the Church of Almighty God to make an investigation.
Contacting Sister Yang and Seeking From Brother Zhang of the Church of Almighty God
At night, I lay awake tossing and turning, thinking: I must find Sister Yang who was blocked by me. If I can find her, I’ll definitely find Brother Zhang of the Church of Almighty God. What’s more, Sister Yang truly believes in God and has been investigating, so she must have understood a lot. I will ask her how the investigation is going. With the help of other friends, I finally managed to find her on Facebook two days later. When I contacted her, I was elated that she was not mad at me because of being blocked. She told me that she was convinced through investigation that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus. Then she put me in touch with Brother Zhang happily.
When Brother Zhang, Sister Yang and I were having a voice chat online, I said, “Through my recent experiences, I see that the Lord has been leading me and I’m willing to seek and investigate Almighty God’s work of the last days. But I have many questions. The most puzzling is that, since the Lord Jesus was incarnated to do His work as a male, how could He return to flesh as a female to do His work today? Brother Zhang, could you please explain it properly?”
I Understood That the Incarnate God Is in Essence Genderless
Regarding my question, Brother Zhang said, “Yes. God’s incarnation involves mysteries. Its significance is very deep and great and cannot be easily understood by man. But we must first maintain a heart of reverence for God. We cannot pass judgment on His work casually regardless of how incompatible it is with our conceptions. To put it seriously, judging God at will is a blasphemy against God. The sin of blaspheming God shall not be forgiven, either in this age or the age to come. Almighty God comes in the last days and reveals all the mysteries, which fulfills the very prophecy of the Lord Jesus, ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come’ (John 16:12-13). We will understand it after reading Almighty God’s words. Almighty God says, ‘Back then, when Jesus came, He was male, and when God comes this time, He is female. From this, you can see that God created both male and female for the sake of His work, and with Him there is no distinction of gender. When His Spirit comes, He can take on any flesh He pleases, and that flesh can represent Him; whether male or female, it can represent God as long as it is His incarnate flesh. If Jesus had appeared as a female when He came, in other words, if an infant girl, and not a boy, had been conceived by the Holy Spirit, that stage of work would have been completed all the same. If that had been the case, then the present stage of work would have to be completed by a male instead, but the work would be completed all the same. The work done in either stage is equally significant; neither stage of work is repeated, nor does it conflict with the other. At the time, Jesus, in doing His work, was called the only Son, and “Son” implies the male gender. Why is the only Son not mentioned in this current stage? Because the requirements of the work have necessitated a change in gender from that of Jesus. With God there is no distinction of gender. He does His work as He wishes, and in doing His work He is not subject to any restrictions, but is especially free. Yet every stage of work has its own practical significance.’ ‘In the beginning, when Jehovah created humankind, He made two kinds of human being, both male and female; and so there is the division of male and female in His incarnate fleshes. He did not decide His work based on the words He spoke to Adam and Eve. The two times He has become flesh have been determined entirely according to His thinking at the time He first created humankind; that is, He has completed the work of His two incarnations based on the male and the female before they were corrupted’ (“The Two Incarnations Complete the Significance of the Incarnation” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘In gender, one is male and the other female, so completing the significance of God’s incarnation, and dispelling man’s notions of God: God can become both male and female, and in essence, the incarnate God is genderless. He made both man and woman, and to Him, there is no division of gender’ (“The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).”
After reading God’s words, Brother Zhang fellowshiped, “The principle of God’s work is that He absolutely will not do anything without value or meaning. So there is always a significance to God’s work. It is said in the Bible, ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them’ (Genesis 1:27). From this we can see that in the beginning God made both male and female in His image. Therefore, God twice became flesh with two different genders to complete the meaning of creating male and female in the beginning and meanwhile to eliminate the erroneous knowledge from man’s heart that God incarnate could only be male. So that man can know that God can appear as either a male or a female and that He is indeed almighty and is unfathomable to man, no longer judging or defining God at will. Furthermore, God is Spirit, and with Him there is no distinction of gender; gender is in regard to man of creation. In order to redeem and save man, God has no alternative but to become flesh. In other words, the Spirit of God wears a flesh. As such, God in the flesh has both a normal humanity and a complete divinity. Thus, gender is only suitable for the incarnate God during His work. Once the work of God in the flesh on earth completely finishes, God returns to the spiritual world. At that time, the distinction of gender with God won’t exist at all. Therefore, if some people say that God has a certain gender, they are blasphemous in the extreme toward God. …”
Through Almighty God’s words and Brother Zhang’s fellowship, I experienced a sudden revelation. I finally understood the reason why God became flesh twice with two different genders. It turns out that there is His original intention in creating man and His earnest consideration. If the two incarnate fleshes of God both worked as a male, people would define God as male forever and would never know Him. Thus, that God becomes flesh as a female to do His work in the last days reflects God’s justice and righteousness. It is so meaningful that God incarnate this time works as a female. God’s first incarnation was male, and He is incarnated once again in the last days as a female. Indeed, the two incarnations complete the significance of God’s incarnation. Thanks be to God! The work of God is so wise.
I Accepted Almighty God’s Work in the Last Days and Returned to God
Sister Yang and Brother Zhang felt gratified that I could break free from the deception of rumors. They were even moved to the point of weeping by the work of salvation that God visited upon me. Afterward, we communicated with each other three times. Thanks be to God. I came to understand more and more truths, such as the mysteries of God’s incarnation and of the three stages of His work, the differences between God’s work and man’s work, the differences between the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of Satan, and other aspects of truth. I truly felt that Almighty God is the coming of the Lord Jesus, is the truth, the way and the life. On a Saturday night, Sister Yang sent me the latest released MV, Love the Practical God With All Our Heart: “God’s will has been revealed—to perfect the true lovers of God. Lively and innocent people all offer up praises to God, and dance beautiful dances around the true God together. People are called back by God’s voice from different places. Words of life are bestowed upon us. We are purified by the judgment of God’s words. …” While listening to this song, I was very inspired and moved to tears. I reached out to Sister Yang online, repeatedly saying these words, “Praise God! Thank you! Thank Brother Zhang! …”
When my mind was calmed, I shared many of my innermost thoughts with Brother Zhang and Sister Yang. I thanked Almighty God that He had never given up saving me and didn’t punish me for my resistance and rebelliousness. Praise Him! I said to them from my heart, “I fully accept Almighty God as my Savior, because He is the second coming of the Lord Jesus, is the One who once bestowed much grace upon me, is the Redeemer of mankind.”
Looking Back, I Felt Remorse Due to My Opposition to God
In retrospect, I believed the rumors and was filled with resistance toward God’s work of the last days, and even passed judgment on God. I was too rebellious and had let God down too much. But Sister Yang told me, “When people don’t know God, they can be easily blinded by lies. As long as they genuinely repent, God won’t take note of it.” I saw that God is full of compassion and forgiveness and that His love is too great. I continuously offered my gratitude to Him. Through my engagement with the brothers and sisters of the Church of Almighty God during this period, I have seen that the rumors about the Church aren’t even faintly true. It’s actually the complete opposite. The Church is the most pure place in the world. At the gatherings in the Church of Almighty God, nobody talks about eating, drinking, fun, cars, money or houses. What they read are Almighty God’s words; what they fellowship about are their experience and knowledge of Almighty God’s words; what they put into practice and abide by are also the words of Almighty God. The Church of Almighty God works under the authority of the truth and God’s words, and is full of fairness and righteousness. Looking back, the rumors were entrapping and damaging, nearly making me lose God’s salvation in the last days. Thank God for His guidance. The various films and videos made by my brothers and sisters under Almighty God’s leadership allowed me to gain some knowledge about God’s work, have the heart to seek the truth, and finally come before God. I thank God for saving me. To Almighty God be the glory!