One day, we several main co-workers discussed our church affairs at a host home, and Yin Luming made some rational suggestions. At that time, I asked confusedly, “Luming, you have been in our church for a period of time. Brothers and sisters say your fellowship edifies them very much. But I feel so strange: We all similarly believe in the Lord and read the same Bible, but why is your understanding much higher than ours? In addition, something that you have fellowshipped about isn’t in the Bible. How do you gain these understandings?” Qin Shu also said, “Yes, Brother Yin, how do you know so much? What spiritual books have you read?”

Yin Luming smiled and said to us, “Do you remember what the Lord prophesied, ‘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’ (John 16:12-13). Frankly speaking, the reason why I know these is that the Spirit of truth has come and He has expressed many words. It is just under the guidance of God’s words that I can speak out those understandings.” Hearing that, I straightened my back immediately and asked surprisingly, “What? The Spirit of truth has come? Do you mean the Lord has come back?” Yin Luming nodded and said, “That’s right. Our Lord has already returned and does His new work of chastisement and judgment with the word.” I said, “Haven’t our sins been forgiven by the Lord? Why does God do a new stage of work?” Everyone looked at him surprisingly and wanted to know more about it.

Yin Luming fellowshipped with us calmly, “Brothers and sisters, is man whose sins were forgiven by the Lord in need of God’s further salvation? The truth concerning this aspect is intimately linked with God’s plan of managing mankind at the creation of the world. This mystery has been sealed for thousands of years. Today Almighty God comes and opens up the mystery to us. Let’s have a look at God’s word!” While talking, he took out a book titled “The Word Appears in the Flesh” from a bag, opened it and began to fellowship, “Almighty God says, ‘The purpose of God’s management is to gain a group of people who worship God and submit to Him. Although these people have been corrupted by Satan, they no longer see Satan as their father; they recognize the repulsive face of Satan and reject it, and they come before God to accept God’s judgment and chastisement. They come to know what is ugly and how it contrasts with that which is holy, and to recognize the greatness of God and the evil of Satan. A mankind such as this will no longer work for Satan, or worship Satan, or enshrine Satan. This is because they are a group of people who have truly been gained by God. This is the significance of God’s work of managing mankind.’ ‘Do you believe that all He can do is redeem the whole of humankind through His crucifixion, and that’s it? And after that, you will follow Him up to heaven to eat of the fruit from the tree of life and drink from the river of life? … Could it be that simple? Tell Me, what have you accomplished? Do you have the life of Jesus? You were indeed redeemed by Him, but the crucifixion was the work of Jesus Himself. What duty have you fulfilled as a human being? You have only outward piety, but you do not understand His way. Is that how you manifest Him? If you have not attained the life of God or seen the entirety of His righteous disposition, then you cannot claim to be one that has life, and you are not worthy to pass through the gate of the kingdom of heaven’ (The Word Appears in the Flesh). From the words of Almighty God, we know God doesn’t manage or save mankind arbitrarily but does it in steps and according to His plan and by principles. Since the beginning when God created mankind, God has been expecting to gain a group of people who are of the same mind with Him and can obey, manifest, and glorify Him. Such mankind is the pure one who has true knowledge of God’s disposition and what God has and is, can discern the ugliness and evil of Satan, and receive God’s life as their reality. The Bible also records, ‘Be you holy; for I am holy’ (1 Peter 1:16). But how about us now? It is simply that we have got the sin offering bestowed by God and our sins were forgiven. In other words, God no longer treats us according to our sins. But what about our living out? Can we manifest and glorify God? Considering each and every detail we exposed in our life carefully, we can easily find how our living out is. Sometimes, we outwardly give sermons and do work godly, but once there are some effects, we feel self-contented and self-appreciated, look down on others, and steal God’s glory. Sometimes when we do something good, we boast about it in any way, for fear that others would not know. Sometimes, in order to protect our face and position, we tell lies at any time and disguise ourselves to deceive others. In addition, we always say we should love God and satisfy God, but our hearts stray away from God, and we always misunderstand and harbor doubts about Him…. With such a living out, how could we become the ones who are capable of manifesting God? Are we worthy to enter God’s kingdom?” Not knowing why, I felt my face went somewhat hot, and thought: Is Luming talking about me? I truly have such performance in my real life. From that, I realized I fell far short of the Lord’s requirements.

Yin Luming continued fellowshipping, “Because man hasn’t broken free from Satan’s influence of darkness completely and can’t manifest God, they need God’s further salvation. The Lord Jesus knew it clearly, so He told His disciples two thousand years ago that He ‘would surely return’ in the last days of the world and save man from sin thoroughly. In order to understand the truth concerning this aspect better, let’s read a passage of Almighty God’s words.” He opened the book and began to fellowship, “Almighty God says, ‘At the time, Jesus’ work was the work to redeem all mankind. The sins of all who believed in Him were forgiven; as long as you believed in Him, He would redeem you; if you believed in Him, you were no longer a sinner, you were relieved of your sins. This is what it meant to be saved, and to be justified by faith. Yet in those who believed, there remained that which was rebellious and opposed God, and which still had to be slowly removed. Salvation did not mean man had been completely gained by Jesus, but that man was no longer of sin, that he had been forgiven his sins. Provided you believed, you would never more be of sin.’ ‘The sins of man were forgiven through the agency of the incarnate God, but this did not mean that man no longer had sin within him. The sins of man could be forgiven through the sin offering, but as for just how man can be made to sin no more, and how his sinful nature may be extirpated completely and transformed, he has no way of solving this problem. The sins of man were forgiven, and this is because of the work of God’s crucifixion, but man continued to live within his corrupt satanic disposition of old. This being so, man must be completely saved from his corrupt satanic disposition, so that his sinful nature may be completely extirpated, never to develop again, thus enabling the disposition of man to be transformed. This would require man to grasp the path of growth in life, to grasp the way of life, and to grasp the way to change his disposition. Furthermore, it would require man to act in accordance with this path, so that his disposition may gradually be changed and he may live under the shining of the light, so that all that he does may be in accord with the will of God, so that he may cast away his corrupt satanic disposition, and so that he may break free from Satan’s influence of darkness, thereby emerging fully from sin. Only then will man receive complete salvation’ (The Word Appears in the Flesh). From the words of God, we know although man has been saved by the grace through Jesus’ redemption, the sinful nature is still deeply rooted in man’s heart and hasn’t been got rid of. And it is the sinful nature that drives man to commit sins. So even if man has good behavior outwardly, it is just temporary but can’t be persistent and it is not the natural expression of man’s life. It seems like what the world often say, ‘It’s easy to do one good thing, but not easy to do good things the whole life.’ So, people can still often be defeated by transgressions, can often sin and resist God. They can’t overcome themselves and fall deeply into sin, unable to extricate themselves. Therefore, such people can’t attain sanctity and aren’t gained by God, and they are likely to be deprived by Satan and die in sins at any time. Because of God’s true love and care for man, He couldn’t bear man’s being damaged and trampled by Satan again and falling deeper into the nether world. So God does the work of judging, chastising, and purifying man on the foundation of His work in the Age of Grace. Through reading God’s utterances, we will have some knowledge and discernment about those Satan’s poisons within. And then in Almighty God’s words, we can find the way of transforming our disposition. Thus we can use the truth to replace the previous satanic rules of living in us, cleansing Satan’s poisons within us little by little. At last we will be fully gained by God. Only in this way can we receive God’s complete salvation.”

When he fellowshipped about this, I nodded and said, “Luming, through your fellowship, I understand we are indeed still living in the state of committing sins and then making confession, and always feel miserable because of committing sins. I don’t know how to solve it. We truly need God to do a new stage of work to save us.” Wang Jie sighed with emotion and said, “Who except for God can have such pity on us? Only from God could such salvation come. It is indeed the Lord’s new work.” Qin Shu also said, “Right. Only God can save man from sin.” Zhou Hou said dissatisfiedly, “As you say, are our sufferings for the Lord in vain? We think: As long as we follow the Lord, work, run, suffer and spend for Him, He won’t treat us poorly when He returns, and we will surely be raptured to His glorious throne and sit with Him, reigning and ruling alongside the Lord.”

Seeing that Zhou Hou still held on to the view of reigning and ruling, I turned to him and said, “Brother Zhou, Brother Yin has fellowshipped that it’s our duty to work for the Lord as servants. And we shouldn’t ask for rewards or blessings, because it’s not rational or pleasing to the Lord. Besides, ‘…holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.’ Those who haven’t been made clean are unworthy to enter God’s kingdom, much less reign and rule. I think it’s the most practical thing to pursue how to be purified by God. Let’s continue listening to Brother Yin’s further fellowship.” Then Zhou Hou reluctantly sat down to listen to Luming’s fellowship.

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The Word of God Is a Lamp to My feet, and a Light to My Path (I)

The Word of God Is a Lamp to My Feet, and a Light to My Path (Ⅲ)