As a Christian Believing in God, Regularly Attending Gatherings Cannot Be Neglected! (Part 2)
June 17, 2018
If we do not participate in church life, if we occasionally pray to God ourselves and read God’s words, our attainment of the Holy Spirit’s work will be very limited. Without the Holy Spirit’s work, we will not be able to understand the truth, nor will we be able to enter into the reality of the truth. When we encounter difficulties or problems, since we do not understand God’s intentions, we will frequently not know what to do nor how to put the truth into practice. If we occasionally rely on our own notions and imaginations to do things, we will do things that violate God’s intentions and even offend God’s disposition. We will lose the Holy Spirit’s presence, not to mention God’s salvation.
God’s words say: “If your spiritual life is not normal, you cannot understand God’s current work; you always feel that it is completely incompatible with your own notions, and you are willing to follow Him, but you lack internal drive. So no matter what God is currently doing, people must cooperate. If people don’t cooperate the Holy Spirit can’t do His work, and if people do not have a heart of cooperation, they cannot attain the work of the Holy Spirit. … If people do not cooperate with God and do not pursue deeper entry, God will take away what they once had. Inside, people are always greedy for ease and would rather enjoy what is already available. They want to gain God’s promises without paying any price at all. These are the extravagant thoughts within mankind. Gaining life itself without paying a price—what has ever been so easy? When someone believes in God and seeks to enter into life and seeks a change in their disposition, they must pay a price and achieve a state where they will always follow God no matter what He does. This is something that people must do. Even if you follow all of this as a rule, you must stick to it, and no matter how great the trials, you cannot let go of your normal relationship with God. You should be able to pray, maintain your church life, and stay with brothers and sisters. When God tries you, you should still seek the truth. This is the minimum for a spiritual life” (“You Ought to Maintain Your Devotion to God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words, we can see that a normal spiritual life is very important to us. Praying, reading God’s words and attending gatherings are all a part of a spiritual life. If we are unable to adhere to these, we will be unable to attain the Holy Spirit’s work. Even though our hearts want to follow God, we will not have faith. Therefore, regardless of how busy our work lives are and how tired our physical bodies are, we must not lose our normal relationship with God. At the minimum, we must maintain a normal spiritual life. We must live before God and seek the truth and put the truth into practice when we encounter situations. Only if we do this will our spiritual life become unyielding. Only then will we have a path that we can take when we encounter situations.
God’s words say: “If your spiritual life is not normal, you cannot understand God’s current work; you always feel that it is completely incompatible with your own notions, and you are willing to follow Him, but you lack internal drive. So no matter what God is currently doing, people must cooperate. If people don’t cooperate the Holy Spirit can’t do His work, and if people do not have a heart of cooperation, they cannot attain the work of the Holy Spirit. … If people do not cooperate with God and do not pursue deeper entry, God will take away what they once had. Inside, people are always greedy for ease and would rather enjoy what is already available. They want to gain God’s promises without paying any price at all. These are the extravagant thoughts within mankind. Gaining life itself without paying a price—what has ever been so easy? When someone believes in God and seeks to enter into life and seeks a change in their disposition, they must pay a price and achieve a state where they will always follow God no matter what He does. This is something that people must do. Even if you follow all of this as a rule, you must stick to it, and no matter how great the trials, you cannot let go of your normal relationship with God. You should be able to pray, maintain your church life, and stay with brothers and sisters. When God tries you, you should still seek the truth. This is the minimum for a spiritual life” (“You Ought to Maintain Your Devotion to God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words, we can see that a normal spiritual life is very important to us. Praying, reading God’s words and attending gatherings are all a part of a spiritual life. If we are unable to adhere to these, we will be unable to attain the Holy Spirit’s work. Even though our hearts want to follow God, we will not have faith. Therefore, regardless of how busy our work lives are and how tired our physical bodies are, we must not lose our normal relationship with God. At the minimum, we must maintain a normal spiritual life. We must live before God and seek the truth and put the truth into practice when we encounter situations. Only if we do this will our spiritual life become unyielding. Only then will we have a path that we can take when we encounter situations.
Additionally, since we have been corrupted very deeply by Satan, inside, we are filled with Satan’s poison. We love wealth, fame, status and fleshly enjoyment, etc. We do not like positive things. If we do not frequently become intimate with God, it is very easy for us to get caught in Satan’s net, follow the world’s evil trends and become wantonly unrestrained to the point where we do somethings that violate God’s intentions and cause God to detest us. Gatherings are our opportunity to become intimate with God. They close the distance between us and God and allow us to frequently live before God, accept God’s examination and receive God’s care and protection. Once our relationship with God has become normal, our spirits will become sharp, and we will be able to distinguish the matters that God hates and God likes. When we encounter situations, we will be able to stand on God’s side, and we will not follow our fleshly preferences and do something that contradicts or resists God. As a result of this, we will receive even more of God’s blessings. Therefore, a church life is very important in regard to whether we can obtain God’s approval and salvation.
Living Before God and Receiving God’s Protection
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| Picture of The Church of Almighty God |
The Lord Jesus said: “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mat 11:30). The Lord hopes that we can live effortlessly and freely. He does not want to see us being wrapped up with the secular world and suffer. So why is it that we are not willing to attend gatherings due to feeling too tired from working? Actually, such ideas originate from Satan. They contain Satan’s evil schemes within. God says: “What God wants to do in man is just what Satan wants to destroy, and what Satan wants to destroy is expressed through man without being hidden at all. … Satan’s destruction in mankind is also clearly represented—they are more and more depraved and their conditions are sinking lower and lower. If it’s dire enough, they could be captured by Satan” (“Interpretation of the Fifteenth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Satan is God’s enemy. It opposes God in all respects and it frequently targets and attacks our weak points. It causes us to become engrossed in the flesh and trapped in our fleshly entanglements. It disturbs our normal relationship with God and makes us distance ourselves from God, betray God and in the end, its objective is to swallow us whole. If we always yield to ourselves and satisfy our fleshly desires, we will grow further and further from God. At that moment, Satan’s plot will have prevailed. Therefore, when our faith is weak and our state is abnormal, we must come before God more, pray more to God and rely on God. We must not leave the church life. At the same time, we must set our resolve before God to satisfy Him. When we cooperate with God in this way, Satan’s schemes will not have any effect upon us and in a panic, it will flee. Once our relationship with God is normal, we will not feel that attending gatherings is constraining. On the contrary, we will feel that attending gatherings is a way for us to become intimate with God and enjoy God’s love.
Thank God for His guidance! Sister An Jing, this is where we will end our fellowship today. I hope the understanding that was shared today is of benefit to you. If you have any questions, let’s discuss them together.
Spiritual Q&A
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