Almighty God Led Me Onto the Path of Obtaining Cleansing
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In August of 2015, we suspended business operations because the company was not doing well, and I returned home. At that time, I felt very depressed, and would get drunk and play cards all day. When my wife told me I should stop drinking, I would horribly abuse her by saying: “It’s my money, I earned it, and I’ll spend it however I want….” I cursed her so horribly, and my daughter didn’t dare to say anything, but just stood nervously on one side watching. My wife could do nothing to me but sit to the side and cry. After every time I hurt my own family like this, I regretted it but I just had no way to stop myself. In those days I had already completely lost the decency of a Christian, and my behavior and actions were just like those of an unbeliever.
When I was helpless and suffering, I went back to the church again. In that period, I constantly prayed to the Lord Jesus: “Lord! I did many things that I didn’t want to do, and said many hurtful things to people. Every time I committed this sin, I regretted it. I especially hated myself, but I could never control it. I prayed and confessed my sins in the evening, but during the day I repeated the same sins, and so I’ve ended up today as someone nobody wants to have anything to do with. Everyone has drifted away from me. Oh, Lord! I beg You to save me. What should I do to finally be free of sins?”
On New Year’s day of 2016, I set foot on American soil, having come to make a living in New York. Not long after that, I went in to church to take part in a spiritual study course, and it was there that I met Sister Qing Lian. One day, Sister Qing Lian gave me a phone call to say there was some good news she wanted to tell me. I said, “What’s the good news?” She said, “A missionary has come here. Do you want to go hear him speak?” I said, “Great! Where is it?” She then arranged a time for me to go to her house.
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On the day we had arranged, I went to Sister Qing Lian’s house, and Sister Zhao was there as well. I saw them using a television to play a segment of a speech: “And so I say that man’s sense has lost its original function, and that man’s conscience, too, has lost its original function.… Man’s disposition should be changed starting from the knowledge of his substance and through changes in his thinking, nature, and mental outlook—through fundamental changes. Only in this way will true changes be achieved in the disposition of man. Man’s corrupt disposition stems from his being poisoned and trampled upon by Satan, from the egregious harm that Satan has inflicted upon his thinking, morality, insight, and sense. It is precisely because these fundamental things of man have been corrupted by Satan, and are utterly unlike how God originally created them, that man opposes God and does not understand the truth. Thus, changes in man’s disposition should begin with changes in his thinking, insight and sense that will change his knowledge of God and his knowledge of the truth” (“To Have an Unchanged Disposition Is to Be in Enmity to God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I was very moved upon hearing these words. “Isn’t it me they are talking about? I always looked down on others, trying to teach them this or curse them for that, without any morality or reason, and have lost the decorum of the saints.” These words all pierced me to the core of my being. I had never before read words such as these, nor had I heard any preacher speak like that. All along, I was distressed because of often committing sins, but had never been able to break out of being controlled by sin. These words showed me the path to leaving sin behind, and it was very strange to me: These words were spoken so well, but who could have written them?
Sister Zhao told me that this was the word of God and that the Lord Jesus had already returned in the flesh, doing the work of judging and cleansing people through His word in the last days. When I heard this news, I could barely believe my ears. Who among the believers in the Lord does not expect for Him to return? Now I was unexpectedly hearing the news about the Lord’s return, and I was at a complete loss: Had the Lord truly returned? I had to get the sisters to quickly fellowship to me about this. Sister Zhao said, “The Lord Jesus has truly returned, and He is Almighty God incarnate. He has expressed the truth about purifying and saving people, and has started to do the work of judgmentbeginning with the house of God. His goal is to completely save us from the domain of Satan and have us be obtained by God. In the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus only completed the work of redemption, redeemed us from sin, and absolved our sins so that we would not be convicted under the law, but He did not eliminate our sinful nature. We are all able to learn from experience that although the Lord absolved our sins, we still suffer the chains of our sinful nature. We often sin and offend the Lord, and there is no way we can break free from the control of sin. In the past, we didn’t know why this was, and it was only by reading the word of Almighty God that we came to know it. After we were corrupted by Satan, we had already become full of the corrupt disposition of Satan, such as being arrogant, conceited, crooked, treacherous, selfish, contemptible, greedy, malicious, and so on. Controlled by these corrupt dispositions, people fight and scheme with each other and compete for wealth and fame, and are unable to live in harmony; they also commit sins often and resist God. In order to completely rescue people from sin, one still needs God to come and do the work of eliminating man’s sinful nature, and only then will we be able to be cleansed, saved, and obtained by God. After reading some sections of the word of Almighty God, we will understand.” Sister Zhao opened up the book of the word of God and began to read: “Though man has been redeemed and forgiven of his sins, it is only considered as God not remembering the transgressions of man and not treating man in accordance with man’s transgressions. However, when man lives in the flesh and he has not been set free from sin, he can only continue to sin, endlessly revealing the corrupt satanic disposition. This is the life that man leads, an endless cycle of sin and forgiveness. The majority of men sin in the day only to confess in the evening. As such, even if the sin offering is forever effective for man, it would not be able to save man from sin. Only half the work of salvation has been completed, for man still has corrupt disposition…” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).
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“Though Jesus did much work among man, He only completed the redemption of all mankind and became man’s sin offering, and did not rid man of all his corrupt disposition. Fully saving man from the influence of Satan not only required Jesus to take on the sins of man as the sin offering, but also required God to do greater work to completely rid man of his disposition, which has been corrupted by Satan” (Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh).
“The sins of man were forgiven because of the work of God’s crucifixion, but man continued to live in the old, corrupt satanic disposition. As such, man must be completely saved from the corrupt satanic disposition so that the sinful nature of man is completely cast away and never again develops, thus allowing the disposition of man to be changed. This requires man to understand the path of growth in life, the way of life, and the way to change his disposition. It also needs man to act in accordance with this path so that the disposition of man can gradually be changed and he can live under the shining of the light, and that he can do all things in accord with the will of God, cast away the corrupt satanic disposition, and break free from Satan’s influence of darkness, thereby emerging fully from sin. Only then will man receive complete salvation” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Sister Zhao fellowshiped in this way: After we have read these words of God, we are clear about it, right? Though we have believed in the Lord for many years, we are unable to break free of the bondage of sin. The reason is that in the Age of Grace God only did the work of redemption, but not the work of eliminating sin. So no matter how much we confess our sins and repent, and overcome our own selves, or fast and pray, we will not be able to attain a condition of not sinning. That means if we want to break free of the bondage of our sinful nature, only experiencing the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption is still not enough. We need to accept the work of judgment done by the returned Lord Jesus because only God’s work of judgment in the last days can expose the origin of the sins people commit and show people the path of breaking free of their sinful nature and of gaining purity. When we act in accordance with what God is saying today, the corrupt disposition within us will gradually be cleansed, and we will break free of the bondage of sin, and only then can we obtain true release and freedom. So the “atonement for sin” in the Age of Grace and God’s “eliminating sin” in the last days are two different kinds of work. “Atonement for sin” was just the Lord Jesus standing in for man’s sins, and exempting people from the punishment they should have suffered for the sins they committed. But it does not mean that people are without sin, nor that people will no longer commit sin and will be completely cleansed. Rather, “eliminating sin” means removing the source of people committing sins, causing them no longer to sin and to attain a transformation in their life disposition, and being completely cleansed. So, only by accepting the work of judgment of God in the last days can we receive salvation, be brought into the kingdom of God, and obtain God’s promise and blessing.
Hearing the word of God and what the sisters fellowshiped, I felt that it corresponded very closely with the truth and was very realistic. Thinking back on all those years when I was arrogant and uninhibited, the people in my work unit being afraid of me and keeping their distance from me, my wife and daughter at home also being afraid of me, nobody wanting to be friends with me. I am even unable to find anyone to speak intimately with, and I felt a deep sense of pain and that I was a failure as a person. I also hated myself but had no way to change. We indeed need the Lord Jesus to return and do the work of salvation and cleansing. Hearing today about the Lord Jesus returning to express the truth and do the work of cleansing and transforming people, I really was fortunate! That day, when I was leaving for home, the sister gave me a copy of the book of God’s word “God’s Sheep Hear the Voice of God” and said that at first she had lived in sin and had been unable to extricate herself from it just like me. Later, after she read the words in this book, she finally found the way to practice. I happily took the book and determined to have good faith in Almighty God!
—This article from The Church of Almighty God Gospel Testimonies Perception of Life Almighty God Led Me Onto the Path of Obtaining Cleansing
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