After my husband and I met and fell in love, we got married, and then I gave birth to an adorable son and a lovely daughter. I managed our marriage with my heart, but gradually, I found that it was not easy to do it well. Because of differences in our family backgrounds and life habits, my husband and I often quarreled and it got more and more bitter. We went so far as to even want a divorce. Just when my marriage was on the rocks, I accepted the Lord Jesus’s gospel. After I knew that the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross and shed His precious blood to redeem mankind, I was moved by His love. Later, from the Bible I saw that the Lord Jesus has patience and tolerance for man, so I resolved to follow the Lord Jesus’ example to be humble and patient. I discussed it with my husband and then became a Christian. Brothers and sisters often shared the Lord’s grace together, supported and helped each other, living in God’s love. I was filled with joy and peace.
As time went by, most of my brothers and sisters in the church began to become busy making money, and during the small group meetings, what they talked about had nothing to do with the faith in the Lord, but instead were eating, drinking, and playing. Additionally, the pastor’s sermons were the same old platitudes. I got no enjoyment out of listening to them, with my mind often being empty. Sometimes as soon as I attended meetings, my eyelids started fighting to stay open. In my daily life, I also involuntarily committed sins, my relationship with my husband didn’t improve, and I couldn’t live out the requirements of the Lord at all. I felt more and more like the Lord was not with me, and all I could do was pray to the Lord in my heart and ask Him not to abandon me. Meanwhile, I practiced spiritual devotions more and read the Bible more. However, my spiritual condition was without any improvement.
In June, 2017, I got acquainted with the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God. Through fellowshiping about the truths together with them several times, I understood: The reason why our church is desolate is that the Holy Spirit’s work has moved. Because now God has begun His new work, the work of the Holy Spirit has moved to those who have accepted it. I also understood: In the Age of Grace, in order to redeem us, the Lord Jesus personally became flesh and was crucified as the sin offering for man. When we confessed our sins to the Lord in His name and repented, the Lord would forgive us. But we haven’t escaped from the bonds and the restrictions of sin, so we still need God to do another stage of work of removing sins so that we can be purified. Then the brothers and sisters also fellowshiped about various truths, such as the three stages of God’s work and the formation of the Bible, and so forth. I felt what they fellowshiped was quite in line with the Bible and contained the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. Meanwhile, it solved many confusions and problems that I had in my belief in the Lord as well. Thereupon I decided to seek and study Almighty God’s work of the last days.
Once, when I was surfing online, I inadvertently clicked on a link, and found that it was all the negative propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party government and the religious world judging and convicting Almighty God. This struck cold to my heart at the time. I thought: The CCP government, an atheist party, has been persecuting religious beliefs all the time, and also has labeled the Bible as a cult book. For the sake of its dictatorship, the CCP is capable of doing any evil thing, such as falsifying, discrediting, smearing, and framing, this is a fact known to all. So what the CCP says cannot be relied upon. But why do so many prestigious pastors and elders in the religious world unite with the CCP government to judge and condemn The Church of Almighty God? What is really going on here?
Subsequently, when I came into contact with the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God, I started observing them secretly. After a period of time of contact, I found that they were sincere, behaved properly, and were moderate in their words and actions. When in gatherings, they would communicate the truths, such as how to be an honest person, how to live out a normal humanity, how to revere God and shun evil, and other aspects. Especially at the time that I encountered difficulties, the brothers and sisters all fellowshiped about the truths to me so that I could know God’s will. Attracted by the truths they shared in fellowship and moved by their sincerity, slowly, I no longer guarded myself against the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God. Afterward, as long as I had time, I would watch all sorts of videos and movies on The Church of Almighty God’s app. The more I watched the more spiritual nourishment I obtained, and I enjoyed the living water of life that flows from the throne. I confirmed that Almighty God is the appearance of the Lord Jesus, thus feeling even more at ease, and also happy to have contact with the brothers and sisters of the Church.
However, I still could not understand why the religious leaders condemned The Church of Almighty God, so I raised this question in a meeting. Then a sister fellowshiped with me, “Let’s first look at some verses in the Bible. In 1 John 5:19 it says: ‘the whole world lies in wickedness.’ And in Luke 11:29: ‘This is an evil generation.’ We all know that since ancient times, the true way has always been suppressed. Just like in the Age of Grace, when the Lord Jesus did His work, He not only gave us man the way of repentance but also performed many signs and wonders, such as feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish, making cripples walk, making the blind see, resurrecting the dead, and so on. The scribes and Pharisees of that time all admitted that the Lord Jesus’ words and work had authority and power, yet in order to protect their own positions and livelihoods, they intentionally made up rumors and framed the Lord Jesus, did their utmost to block believers from following the Lord Jesus, and in the end even colluded with the Roman government to crucify the Lord Jesus on the cross. From the fact we can see that the true way will always suffer the rejection and condemnation of atheist regimes and religious world. In the last days, Almighty God has expressed the truth to do the work of judgment and chastisement, and all kinds of MVs, movies, and the books of God’s words have been posted on the internet to openly bear witness of Almighty God’s work of the last days. All those who love the truth and long for and await the appearance of the Lord have begun to return to Almighty God, one by one, whereas those who hate the truth and resist God have been revealed by God’s work. Like the Pharisees, today’s religious pastors and elders see that the words expressed by Almighty God are all the truth, yet because more and more believers have returned to Almighty God, to protect their status and livelihoods they fanatically resist and condemn The Church of Almighty God. From this we can see their nature and essence of hating the truth and resisting God. If we are not able to discern or seek the truth, but just blindly listen to the words of men, then we will lose the opportunity of God’s salvation. In fact, in the last days God uses the forces of Satan to do service for perfecting His chosen people, so that we can see through their essence, and then reject and betray them. This is precisely the wisdom of God’s work.” Through the sister’s communication, I came to know: The reason why these pastors and elders of the religious world condemn the work of Almighty God is because they know Almighty God’s words are the truth, and that as long as those who love the truth and thirst for God’s appearance hear these words of Almighty God they will follow Almighty God and reject them. So, for the sake of preserving their own positions and meal-tickets, they do everything possible to block people from coming before God, and they even spread various rumors, making people not dare to study Almighty God’s work of the last days. Being deceived by the rumors, untold numbers of people have lost this once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet the Lord. These religious pastors and elders are too despicable and too evil. If it weren’t for God pitying and saving me, I would also miss the chance to greet the Lord.
As I was awash in the joy of welcoming the return of the Lord, a spiritual battle secretly befell me. When my husband knew I believed in Almighty God, he searched for “The Church of Almighty God” on the internet, and saw a lot of words originating from the CCP and the religious world that resisted and condemned the Church. Deceived by the negative propaganda, my husband angrily said to me, “Do you know anything about The Church of Almighty God? Do you know there are many negative words online about The Church of Almighty God?” I replied to him, “I accept the work of Almighty God because I have read many Almighty God’s words. His words not only have solved lots of my problems in my real life, but also teach me to live out the normal humanity. The words of Almighty God are the truth and God’s voice. Almighty God is the appearance of the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, after this period of interacting with the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God, I can see they are all devout Christians.” At the moment, I remembered that the sister had fellowshiped with me: Since we believe in God we must have a heart that reveres God, otherwise we will become Satan’s accomplices and follow it to resist God. Just like when the Jewish people at that time blindly listened to the lies of the Pharisees, but didn’t investigate whether or not what they said was true; in the end, they followed the Pharisees to nail the Lord to the cross, walking the God-resisting path. This led to the destruction of Israel. At the thought of this, I told my husband that he couldn’t follow the herd and blindly believe the rumors on the internet, for they were all lies. But my husband didn’t listen to my words at all. He said to me: “From now on, you are not to attend meetings with them. I forbid it!”
Afterward, whenever my husband discovered that I still had gatherings, he would seem to change into another person, with a dangerous gleam in his eyes. Seeing him like this, I was very afraid in my heart, for during the years of our marriage, though sometimes we quarreled, I had never seen that kind of expression in his eyes. I recalled that in the past when I believed in the Lord, he never persecuted me, but now when it came to my believing in Almighty God, he seemed to completely lose his reason. No matter how I explained it to him, he didn’t listen to me, making me feel restrained in gathering with the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God. Later, a sister heard my situation and fellowshiped with me, “From the outside, what you have encountered today appears to be the obstruction from your family, but in reality this is a spiritual battle. God intends to save us, but Satan is unwilling to see that. Therefore, it thinks up every conceivable way to disturb us and use our weak points to attack us, attempting to make us stray from God. At the same time, this is also God’s trial of us. God wants to see whether we can maintain our faith in Him and stand witness for Him in persecution.” The sister also read me a passage of God’s words: “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men and the interference of men. Behind every step of work that God does in you is Satan’s wager with God—behind it all is a battle. ... When God and Satan do battle in the spiritual realm, how should you satisfy God, and how should you stand firm in your testimony to Him? You should know that everything that happens to you is a great trial and the time when God needs you to bear testimony.” Thank God for His enlightenment. Through the sister’s fellowship, I understood: In fact I am experiencing a spiritual battle. The thing that happens to me now is a wager Satan makes with God. From the outside it is my husband obstructing my belief in Almighty God, but actually, it is Satan using my husband to disturb me. Satan wants me to become negative and weak, blame and misunderstand God, and eventually leave my church life, betray God, and return under its domain. After knowing this, I was determined to bear witness for God and not to be used by Satan and become its captive anymore. However, I still felt some weakness in my heart, for every time when I was going to the meetings, my husband would make some sarcastic remarks. Once the meeting time came, I always felt very nervous, afraid that if in future we quarreled every day then life would be difficult for me.
Later, my husband changed his attitude toward me. He suddenly treated me very well and said that we should work on our relationship. Then, every day he would actively accompany me to do exercises in the morning, and invite me to watch TV and chat with him at night. On holidays, he asked me to take our children to my former church, and he also said that he was gonna believe in the Lord with me. Previously, I looked forward to living such a life, but now, faced with my husband’s attention, I just couldn’t feel happy anyhow, for in my heart I knew it was also a trick of Satan. Satan used various tricks to entice and deceive me, didn’t it want me to give up believing in God and ultimately lose the opportunity of God’s salvation? Satan is too despicable and too evil! Then I thought of some God’s words: “You must not throw away the truth for the sake of a peaceful family life, and you must not lose your life’s dignity and integrity for the sake of momentary enjoyment. You should pursue all that is beautiful and good, and you should pursue a path in life that is more meaningful. If you lead such a vulgar life, and do not pursue any objectives, do you not waste your life? What can you gain from such a life? You should forsake all enjoyments of the flesh for the sake of one truth, and should not throw away all truths for the sake of a little enjoyment. People like this have no integrity or dignity; there is no meaning to their existence!” Yeah, I cannot lose the opportunity to gain the truth for the sake of coveting the comforts of the flesh. Now that Almighty God’s work is the true way, I should walk the path without hesitation. At the moment, I thought of Job. He had principles in treating any person, event, and thing, and he treated his wife, sons and daughters, and friends all based on the principles of truth instead of emotions. I should follow Job’s example and be a person who acts with principles. So, I said to my husband, “As your wife, I can accompany you, but when it is time for me to attend meetings I must go.” To my surprise, this time my husband didn’t say a single word, and I felt that his attitude toward my faith was slowly changing.
Not long after that, my husband tried another trick—he asked me to give a call to the pastor’s wife of my former church in Taipei. I did not think it was necessary to do so, yet he insisted, and in the next few days he kept asking me whether I had called her or not. Unable to bear that, finally I called her telephone. At first, when we made small talk my pastor’s wife spoke to me in a gentle tone; however, when I asked what she thought about The Church of Almighty God, her tone suddenly changed, and she said many words that opposed and blasphemed against God. At the moment, my heart leapt into my throat, because my phone’s speaker was turned on and my husband could hear every word she said. I worried that after he finished hearing these words, he would prevent me from believing in Almighty God even more. Very nervous, I silently prayed to God in my heart: “Oh God, in the face of such an environment, I don’t know what to do. I ask You to give me Your wisdom.” At this time, some God’s words occurred to me, “Almighty God, the Head of all things, wields His kingly power from His throne. He rules over the universe and all things, and He is in the act of guiding us on the whole earth. We shall at every moment be close to Him, and come before Him in quietness, never missing a single moment, and with lessons for us to learn at all times. Everything, from the surrounding environment to people, affairs, and things, all exist by permission of His throne. Do not on any account let grievances arise in your heart, or God will not bestow His grace upon you.” God’s words made me understand: Almighty God is the one true God who created heaven and earth and all things and rules over all things. All matters and things are in His hands. The environment I encounter today is authorized by God, and within this is His good will. Now what the pastor’s wife says is resisting God and blaspheming Him, I should stand up and bear witness to God so as to shame Satan. So, I asked her, “Is there any factual basis for your words?” She hesitated a bit and said, “No. I just heard this from others.” Hearing her words, I said to her, “Without any factual basis, you’d better not speak randomly. If it is so, say it is so. If it isn’t so, say it isn’t so. We, as a Christian, must have a heart of reverence for God; otherwise, we will resist God easily.” When I finished my words, the atmosphere became embarrassed, and then we closed our talk hastily. After hanging up the phone, I had an unspeakable joy within. Meanwhile, I also saw that God’s wisdom is exercised based on Satan’s scheme. Through this call, I gained some discernment about the essence of the pastors and elders. These shepherds did not have a shred of reverence for God nor a heart of seeking the truth, and toward God’s new work, they took a convicting, resisting, and blasphemous attitude. From this I saw their truth-hating and God-hating nature. I said to my husband, “Thank you for asking me to make this call. If not, I wouldn’t be able to discern these false shepherds.” My husband found it quite unbelievable, saying, “How could your pastor’s wife be like this? Without knowing the truth, she actually shot her mouth off. As a shepherd, she is too irresponsible.”
Since then, my husband didn’t obstruct me from attending meetings any longer. Moreover, he told me that since I believed in Almighty God, he had felt my changes—I could tolerate and understand others, no longer lost my temper easily, and also wasn’t in a high position suppressing our children anymore. Now he has installed the new network on the third floor of our house, and told me that only in this way could I attend meetings in peace. I know behind all of these things it is God who has opened up the way for me. I also have felt God is by my side, and that when Satan’s tricks come upon me, as long as I rely on and look up to God, He will guide me to get through every difficulty.
After experiencing the twists and turns of these days, I have understood some truths, and gained some discernment about the schemes carried out by Satan in the spiritual world. All of these are the most precious wealth God has granted me. In retrospect, it is God’s hand that has led me along the way. Thank God for allowing me to hear His voice and return before Him. All the glory be to Almighty God! Amen!