Man has been living under the shroud of the influence of darkness, held in bondage to Satan’s influence with no escape. And the disposition of man, after it has undergone processing by Satan, is becoming increasingly corrupt. One could say that man has always lived with his corrupt satanic disposition, unable truly to love God. This being so, if man wishes to love God, he must be stripped of his self-rightness, self-importance, arrogance, conceit, and the like, all of which belong to Satan’s disposition. Otherwise, the love of man is an impure love, a love of Satan, and one which absolutely cannot receive the approval of God.
Without being directly perfected, dealt with, broken, pruned, disciplined, chastened, or refined by the Holy Spirit, no one is able truly to love God. If you say that a part of your disposition represents God and therefore you are able truly to love God, then you are one who speaks words of arrogance and are a preposterous man. And men like this are the archangel! The inborn nature of man is unable directly to represent God. Man has to cast off his inborn nature through the perfection of God and then, only by caring for God’s will, fulfilling God’s will, and furthermore undergoing the work of the Holy Spirit, can his living out be approved by God. No one who lives in the flesh is able directly to represent God, unless he be a man used by the Holy Spirit. However, even for a person like this, his disposition and what he lives out cannot be said completely to represent God; one can only say that what he lives out is directed by the Holy Spirit. The disposition of such a man cannot represent God.
Though the disposition of man is ordained by God—this is unquestionable and can be considered a positive thing—it has been processed by Satan. Therefore, the whole of man’s disposition is Satan’s disposition. Someone might say that God, by disposition, is straightforward in doing things, and that he too behaves in this way, he too has this sort of character, and so, he says, this disposition of his represents God. What kind of man is this? Is the corrupt satanic disposition able to represent God? Whosoever declares that his disposition is representative of God, that person blasphemes God and insults the Holy Spirit! From the perspective of the way in which the Holy Spirit works, the work that God does on earth is solely to conquer. This is why much of man’s corrupt satanic disposition has not yet been cleansed, and why what man lives out is still the image of Satan. It is what man believes to be good and represents the actions of man’s flesh, or, to put it more precisely, it represents Satan and absolutely cannot represent God. Even if a man already loves God to the extent that he is able to enjoy a life of heaven on earth, is able to make such statements as: “Oh God! I cannot love You enough,” and has reached the highest realm, you still cannot say that he lives out God or represents God, for the substance of man is unlike that of God. Man can never live out God, much less become God. What the Holy Spirit has directed man to live out is only in accordance with what God asks of man.
All the actions and deeds of Satan are manifested in man. Now all the actions and deeds of man are an expression of Satan and hence cannot represent God. Man is the embodiment of Satan, and the disposition of man is unable to represent the disposition of God. Some men are of good character; God may do some work through such men’s character, and the work they do is directed by the Holy Spirit. Yet their disposition is unable to represent God. The work God does upon them is just working with and expanding on what already exists within. Be it prophets or men used by God from ages past, no one can directly represent Him. All men come to love God only under the duress of circumstances, and not one strives on his own volition to cooperate. What are positive things? All that directly comes from God is positive. However, the disposition of man has been processed by Satan and cannot represent God. Only the incarnate God—His love, His will to suffer, His righteousness, submission, and humbleness and hiddenness—these all directly represent God. This is because when He came, He was without a sinful nature and came directly from God, without having been processed by Satan. Jesus is only in the likeness of sinful flesh and does not represent sin; therefore, His actions, deeds, and words, up to the time prior to His accomplishment of the work through crucifixion (including the moment of His crucifixion), are all directly representative of God. The example of Jesus is sufficient to prove that any man with a sinful nature cannot represent God, and the sin of man represents Satan. That is to say, sin does not represent God, and God is sinless. Even the work done in man by the Holy Spirit can only be considered to have been directed by the Holy Spirit and cannot be said to be done by man on behalf of God. But, as far as man is concerned, neither his sin nor his disposition represents God. From the perspective of the work done on man by the Holy Spirit today all the way back to the past, most was performed on man by the Holy Spirit. Because of this man has that which he lives out. However, this is only one-sided, and very few are able to live out the truth after being dealt with and disciplined by the Holy Spirit. That is to say, only the work of the Holy Spirit is present and cooperation on the part of man is absent. Do you see this clearly now? This being so, what should you do in order to give your utmost to working in concert with Him while the Holy Spirit is at work and thereby fulfill your duty?
from Utterances of Christ of the Last Days
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