People believe in God, love God, and satisfy God by touching the Spirit of God with their heart, thereby obtaining His satisfaction; when engaging with God’s words with their heart, they are therefore moved by the Spirit of God. If you wish to achieve a proper spiritual life and establish a proper relationship with God, you must first give your heart to Him, and quiet your heart before Him. Only after you have poured your whole heart into God can you gradually develop a proper spiritual life. If people do not give their heart to God in their belief in Him, if their heart is not in Him and they do not treat His burden as their own, then everything they do is cheating God, and it is all the behavior of religious people—this cannot receive God’s praise. God cannot get anything from this kind of person; this kind of person can only serve as a foil to God’s work, like a decoration in the house of God, taking up space, and is a good-for-nothing—God does not use this kind of person. In such a person, not only is there no opportunity for the work of the Holy Spirit, but even more, there isn’t any value of perfection. This type of person is the real “walking dead.” They have no components that can be used by the Holy Spirit—they have all been appropriated by Satan, corrupted to the extreme by Satan, and they are the object of God’s elimination. Currently the Holy Spirit is not only using people by putting their virtues into play, but also perfecting and changing their shortcomings. If your heart can be poured into God and keep quiet before Him, then you will have the opportunity and the qualifications to be used by the Holy Spirit, to receive the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit, and even more, you will have the opportunity for the Holy Spirit to make up for your shortcomings. When you give your heart to God, you can enter more deeply into the positive aspect and be on a higher plane of insight; in the negative aspect, you will have more understanding of your own faults and shortcomings, you will be more eager to seek to satisfy God’s will, and you will not be passive, and will actively enter in. This will mean that you are a correct person. On the premise that your heart is calm before God, the key to whether or not you receive praise from the Holy Spirit and whether or not you please God is whether you can actively enter in. When the Holy Spirit enlightens a person and uses a person, it never makes him negative, but always makes him actively progress. Even though he has weaknesses, he is able to not live according to them, he is able to refrain from delaying his growth in life, and he is able to continue to seek to satisfy God’s will. This is a standard which sufficiently proves that you have obtained the presence of the Holy Spirit. If a person is always negative, and even after being enlightened to know himself he is still negative and passive, unable to stand up and act in concert with God, then this type of person just receives the grace of God, but the Holy Spirit is not with him. When a person is negative, this means that his heart has not turned to God and his spirit has not been moved by God’s Spirit. This should be recognized by all.
It can be seen from experience that one of the most important issues is quieting one’s heart before God. It is an issue that concerns people’s spiritual life, and the growth of their life. Only if your heart is at peace before God will your pursuit of the truth and of changes in your disposition bear fruit. Because you come burdened before God and you always feel that you are lacking too much, that there are many truths that you need to know, much reality that you need to experience, and that you should give every care to God’s will—these things are always on your mind, and it is as if they are pressing down on you so hard that you can’t breathe, and thus you feel heavy of heart (but not in a negative state). Only people such as this are qualified to accept the enlightenment of God’s words and be moved by the Spirit of God. It is because of their burden, because they are heavy of heart, and, it can be said, because of the price they have paid and the torment they have suffered before God that they receive His enlightenment and illumination, for God does not give anyone special treatment. He is always fair in His treatment of people, but He is also not arbitrary in His provision to people, and does not give to them unconditionally. This is one aspect of His righteous disposition. In real life, most people have yet to attain this realm. At the very least, their heart has yet to completely turn to God, and thus there has still not been any great change in their life disposition. This is because they only live amid God’s grace, and have yet to gain the work of the Holy Spirit. The criteria for God’s use of people are as follows: Their heart turns to God, they are burdened by the words of God, they have a heart of yearning, and they have the resolve to seek the truth. Only people such as this can gain the work of the Holy Spirit and frequently gain enlightenment and illumination. The people God uses appear from the outside to be irrational and seem to not have proper relationships with others, though they speak with propriety, don’t speak carelessly, and can always keep a quiet heart before God. But it is just this kind of person who is sufficient to be used by the Holy Spirit. This “irrational” person God speaks of looks like they don’t have proper relationships with others, and they don’t have outward love or superficial practices, but when they are communicating spiritual things they can open their heart and selflessly provide others with the illumination and enlightenment they have acquired from their actual experience before God. This is how they express their love for God and satisfy God’s will. When others are all slandering and ridiculing them, they are able to not be controlled by outside people, occurrences, or things, and can still be quiet before God. Such a person seems to have their own unique insights. Regardless of others, their heart never leaves God. When others are chatting cheerfully and humorously, their heart still remains before God, contemplating God’s word or praying in silence to the God in their heart, seeking God’s intentions. They never make the maintenance of their proper relationships with other people the main focus. Such a person seems to have no philosophy of life. On the outside, this person is lively, adorable, and innocent, but also possesses a sense of calmness. This is the likeness of a person God uses. Things like the philosophy of life or “normal reason” cannot get through to this type of person; this type of person has devoted his whole heart to God’s word, and seems to only have God in his heart. This is the type of person who is what God refers to as a person “without reason,” and is just the person that is used by God. The mark of a person who is being used by God is: No matter when or where, his heart is always before God, and no matter how dissolute others are, how much they indulge in lust, indulge in the flesh—his heart never leaves God, and he doesn’t follow the crowd. Only this type of person is suited for God’s use, and is exactly the one who is perfected by the Holy Spirit. If you are unable to reach this point, then you are not qualified to be gained by God, to be perfected by the Holy Spirit.
If you want to have a proper relationship with God, your heart must turn to God, and on this foundation, you will also have a proper relationship with other people. If you don’t have a proper relationship with God, no matter what you do to maintain your relationships with other people, no matter how hard you work or how much energy you exert, it will still belong to a human philosophy of life. You are maintaining your position among people through a human perspective and a human philosophy so that they will praise you. You do not establish proper relationships with people according to the word of God. If you don’t focus on your relationships with people but maintain a proper relationship with God, if you are willing to give your heart to God and learn to obey Him, very naturally, your relationships with all people will become proper. This way, these relationships aren’t established on the flesh, but on the foundation of God’s love. There are almost no interactions based on the flesh, but in the spirit there is fellowship as well as love, comfort, and provision for one another. This is all done on the foundation of a heart that satisfies God. These relationships aren’t maintained by relying on a human philosophy of life, but they are formed very naturally through the burden for God. They don’t require human effort—they are practiced through the principles of the word of God. Are you willing to be considerate toward the will of God? Are you willing to be a person “without reason” before God? Are you willing to completely give your heart to God, and not consider your position among people? Of all the people you have contact with, with which of these do you have the best relationships? With which of these do you have the worst relationships? Are your relationships with people proper? Do you treat all people equally? Are your relationships with others maintained according to your philosophy of life, or are they built on the foundation of God’s love? When one does not give his heart to God, his spirit becomes obtuse, it becomes numb and unconscious. This kind of person will never understand God’s words and will never have a proper relationship with God; this kind of person will never change their disposition. Changing one’s disposition is the process of one giving his heart completely to God, and of receiving enlightenment and illumination from the words of God. God’s work can allow one to actively enter in, as well as enable him to get rid of his negative aspects after gaining knowledge. When you are able to give your heart to God, you will be able to perceive every subtle moving within your spirit, and you will know every enlightenment and illumination received from God. Hold onto this, and you will gradually enter into the path of being perfected by the Holy Spirit. The quieter your heart can be before God, the more sensitive and delicate your spirit will be, and the more your spirit will be able to perceive the moving of the Holy Spirit, and then your relationship with God will become more and more proper. A proper relationship between people is established on the foundation of giving their heart to God; it is not achieved through human effort. Without God in their hearts, interpersonal relationships between people are merely relationships of the flesh. They are not proper, but are indulgent of lust—they are relationships that God detests, that He loathes. If you say that your spirit has been moved, but you always want to have fellowship with people who appeal to you, with whoever you think highly of, and if there is another seeker who does not appeal to you, who you hold a bias against and will not engage with, this is more proof that you are an emotional person and you do not have a proper relationship with God at all. You are attempting to deceive God and cover up your own ugliness. Even if you can share some understanding but you carry wrong intentions, everything you do is good only by human standards. God will not praise you—you are acting according to the flesh, not according to God’s burden. If you are able to quiet your heart in front of God and have proper interactions with all those who love God, only then are you fit for God’s use. This way, no matter how you associate with others, it will not be according to a life philosophy, but it will be living in front of God, considerate of His burden. How many people like this are there amongst you? Are your relationships with others really proper? On what foundation are they built? How many life philosophies are there within you? Have they been cast off? If your heart cannot completely turn to God, then you are not of God—you come from Satan, and in the end you will be returned to Satan. You are not worthy of being one of God’s people. All of this requires your careful consideration.
from The Word Appears in the Flesh
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