God’s Work and Man’s Work

God’s Work and Man’s Work

How much of the work of man is the work of the Holy Spirit and how much is man’s experience? Even now, it can be said that people still do not understand these questions, which is all because people do not understand the working principles of the Holy Spirit. The work of man that I speak of is, of course, referring to the work of those who have the Holy Spirit’s work or those who are used by the Holy Spirit. I am not referring to the work originating from the will of man but to the work of the apostles, workers or ordinary brothers and sisters within the scope of the Holy Spirit’s work. Here, the work of man does not refer to work of the incarnate God but to the scope and principles of the work of the Holy Spirit on people. While these principles are the principles and scope of the work of the Holy Spirit, they are not the same as the principles and scope of the work of God incarnate. The work of man has man’s substance and principles, and the work of God has God’s substance and principles.

The work in the stream of the Holy Spirit, no matter whether it is God’s own work or the work of men being used, it is the work of the Holy Spirit. The substance of God Himself is the Spirit, which can be called the Holy Spirit or the sevenfold intensified Spirit. Anyway, They are the Spirit of God. It is only that the Spirit of God is called differently during different eras. But Their substance is still one. Therefore, the work of God Himself is the work of the Holy Spirit; the work of the incarnate God is none less than the Holy Spirit at work. The work of men who are used is also the work of the Holy Spirit. It is only that the work of God is the complete expression of the Holy Spirit, and there is no difference, whereas the work of men being used is mixed with many human things, and it is not the direct expression of the Holy Spirit, let alone the complete expression. The work of the Holy Spirit is varied and not limited by any conditions. The work varies in different people, and conveys different working substances. Work in different eras also differs, as does work in different countries. Of course, although the Holy Spirit works in many different ways and according to many principles, no matter how the work is done or on what kind of people, the substance is always different, and the work He does on different people all has principles and all can represent the substance of the object of the work. This is because the work of the Holy Spirit is quite specific in scope and quite measured. The work done in the incarnate flesh is not the same as the work conducted on people, and the work also varies depending on the different caliber of people. Work done in the incarnate flesh is not done on people, and in the incarnate flesh He does not do the same work as that done on people. In a word, no matter how He works, work on different objects is never the same, and the principles by which He works differ in accordance with the state and nature of different people. The Holy Spirit works on different people based on their inherent substance and does not make demands on them beyond their inherent substance, nor does He work on them beyond their actual caliber. So, the work of the Holy Spirit on man allows people to see the substance of the object of the work. The inherent substance of man does not change; the actual caliber of man is limited. Whether the Holy Spirit uses people or works on people, the work is always in accordance with the limitations of people’s caliber so that they may benefit from it. When the Holy Spirit works on men being used, both their gifts and actual caliber are brought into play and are not reserved. Their actual caliber is all exerted to serve the work. It can be said that He works by using the available parts of men in order to achieve the working results. By contrast, work done in the incarnate flesh is to directly express the work of the Spirit and is not mixed with the human mind and thoughts, unreachable by man’s gifts, man’s experience or man’s innate condition. The myriad work of the Holy Spirit is all aimed at benefiting and edifying man. But some people can be perfected while others do not possess the conditions for perfection, which is to say, they cannot be perfected and can hardly be saved, and even though they may have had the work of the Holy Spirit, they are ultimately eliminated. That is to say that though the work of the Holy Spirit is to edify people, this does not mean that all those who have had the Holy Spirit’s work are to be completely perfected, because the path pursued by many people is not the path to being perfected. They only have the unilateral work of the Holy Spirit, and not subjective human cooperation or correct human pursuit. In this way, the work of the Holy Spirit on these people becomes work in service of those being perfected. The work of the Holy Spirit cannot be directly seen by people or directly touched by people themselves. It can only be expressed via the aid of men with the gift of working, meaning that the work of the Holy Spirit is provided to followers via expression by men.

The work of the Holy Spirit is accomplished and completed through many types of people and many different conditions. Although the work of God incarnate can represent the work of an entire era, and can represent people’s entry in an entire era, work on the detailed entry of people still needs to be done by men used by the Holy Spirit and not by God incarnate. So, God’s work, or God’s own ministry, is the work of God’s incarnate flesh and cannot be done by man in His stead. The work of the Holy Spirit is completed through many different types of people and cannot be fulfilled by just one particular person or fully clarified through one particular person. Those who lead the churches also cannot completely represent the work of the Holy Spirit; they can only do some leading work. In this way, the work of the Holy Spirit can be divided into three parts: God’s own work, the work of men being used, and the work on all those in the stream of the Holy Spirit. Among the three, God’s own work is to lead the entire era; the work of men who are used is to lead all the followers of God by being sent or receiving commissions after God’s own work, and these men are the ones who cooperate with God’s work; the work done by the Holy Spirit on those in the stream is to maintain all His own work, that is, to maintain the entire management and to maintain His testimony, while at the same time perfecting those who can be perfected. These three parts are the complete work of the Holy Spirit, but without the work of God Himself, the entire management work would stagnate. The work of God Himself involves the work of all of mankind, and it also represents the work of the entire era. That is to say, God’s own work represents the movement and trend of all of the work of the Holy Spirit, whereas the work of the apostles follows God’s own work and does not lead the era, nor does it represent the working trend of the Holy Spirit in the entire era. They only do the work man ought to do, which does not at all involve the management work. God’s own work is the project within the management work. Man’s work is only the duty of men being used and bears no relation to the management work. Due to different identities and representations of the work, despite the fact that they are both the work of the Holy Spirit, there are clear and substantive differences between God’s own work and the work of man. Moreover, the extent of the work done by the Holy Spirit on work objects with different identities varies. These are the principles and scope of the work of the Holy Spirit.

The work of man represents his experience and his humanity. What man provides and the work that man does represent him. Man’s seeing, man’s reasoning, man’s logic and his rich imagination are all included in his work. In particular, the experience of man is more able to represent his work, and what a person has experienced will be the components of his work. Man’s work can express his experience. When some people are experiencing in a passive state, most of their fellowship consists of negative elements. If their experience is positive and they particularly have paths on the positive side, what they fellowship is very encouraging, and people will be able to obtain positive supply from them. If a worker becomes passive at this time, his fellowship will always carry negative elements. This kind of fellowship is depressing, and others will unconsciously be depressed following his fellowship. The state of the followers changes depending on that of the leader. What a worker is like inside is what he expresses, and the work of the Holy Spirit often changes with man’s state. He works according to man’s experience and does not force man but makes demands of man in accordance with the normal course of his experience. This is to say that man’s fellowship differs from the word of God. What man fellowships conveys their individual seeing and experience, expressing what they see and experience on the foundation of God’s work. Their responsibility is to find out, after God works or speaks, what they ought to practice or enter into, and then deliver it to followers. Therefore, man’s work represents his entry and practice. Of course, such work is mixed with human lessons and experience or some of human thoughts. No matter how the Holy Spirit works, whether He works on man or in God incarnate, it is always the workers expressing what they are. Although it is the Holy Spirit who works, the work is founded on what man inherently is, because the Holy Spirit does not work without foundation. In other words, the work is not done out of nothing, but is always in accordance with actual circumstances and real conditions. It is in this way only that man’s disposition can be transformed, that his old notions and old thoughts can be changed. What man expresses is what he sees, experiences and can imagine. Even if it is doctrines or notions, these are all reachable by man’s thinking. Regardless of the size of man’s work, it cannot exceed the scope of man’s experience, what man sees, or what man can imagine or conceive. What God expresses is what God Himself is, and this is beyond the reach of man, that is, beyond the reach of man’s thinking. He expresses His work of leading all of mankind, and this is not relevant to the details of human experience, but is instead concerned with His own management. Man expresses his experience while God expresses His being—this being is His inherent disposition and is beyond the reach of man. Man’s experience is his seeing and knowledge acquired based on God’s expression of His being. Such seeing and knowledge are called man’s being. They are expressed on the foundation of man’s inherent disposition and his actual caliber; hence they are also called man’s being. Man is able to fellowship what he experiences and sees. What he has not experienced or seen or his mind cannot reach, that is, the things he does not have inside him, he is unable to fellowship. If what man expresses is not his experience, it is his imagination or doctrine. In a word, there is not any reality in his words. If you have never contacted the things of society, you would not be able to clearly fellowship the complex relationships in society. If you have no family but other people are talking about family issues, you cannot understand the majority of what they were saying. So, what man fellowships and the work he does represent his inner being. If someone fellowships about his understanding of chastisement and judgment, but you have no experience of it, you dare not deny his knowledge, much less dare to be one hundred percent certain about it. This is because what he fellowships about is something that you have never experienced, something you have never known, and your mind cannot imagine it. You can only take from his knowledge a future path relating to chastisement and judgment. But this path can only serve as understanding based on doctrine and cannot replace your own understanding, much less your experience. Perhaps you think that what he says is quite correct, but when you experience, you find it is impracticable in many things. Perhaps you feel that some of the knowledge you hear is completely impracticable; you harbor notions about it at the time, and although you accept it, you do so only reluctantly. But when you experience, the knowledge that gives you notions becomes your way of practice. And the more you practice, the more you understand the true value and meaning of his words. After you have had the experience, you can then talk about the knowledge you should have about the things you have experienced. In addition, you can also distinguish between those whose knowledge is real and practical and those whose knowledge is based on doctrine and is worthless. So, whether the knowledge that you are talking accords with the truth largely depends on whether you have practical experience. Where there is the truth in your experience, your knowledge will be practical and valuable. Through your experience, you can also gain discernment and insight, deepen your knowledge, and increase your wisdom and common sense in conducting yourself. The knowledge spoken by people who do not possess the truth is doctrine, no matter how high. This type of person may well be very intelligent when it comes to matters of the flesh but cannot make distinctions when it comes to spiritual matters. This is because such people have no experience at all in spiritual affairs. These are people who are not enlightened in spiritual affairs and do not understand the spirit. Regardless of which aspect of knowledge you talk about, as long as it is your being, then it is your personal experience, your real knowledge. What those who speak only doctrine, that is, those who do not possess the truth or reality, talk about can also be said to be their being, because their doctrine is only arrived at from deep contemplation and is the result of their mind pondering deeply, but it is only doctrine, it is nothing more than imagination! The experiences of different kinds of people represent the things within them. All those with no spiritual experience cannot talk about knowledge of the truth, or correct knowledge about different kinds of spiritual things. What man expresses is what he is inside—this is certain. If one wishes to have knowledge of spiritual things and the truth, he must have real experience. If you cannot talk clearly about common sense relating to human life, how much less will you be able to talk about spiritual things? Those who can lead churches, supply people with life, and be an apostle to the people, must have actual experiences, must have a correct understanding of spiritual things, a correct appreciation and experience of the truth. Only such men are qualified to be workers or apostles leading the churches. Otherwise, they can only follow as the least and cannot lead, much less be an apostle able to supply people with life. This is because the function of apostles is not to run or to fight; it is to minister life and to lead changes in human disposition. It is a function performed by those who are commissioned to shoulder heavy responsibility and not something which every person can do. This kind of work can only be undertaken by those with life being, that is, those who have experience of the truth. It cannot be undertaken by everyone who can give up, can run or is willing to spend; people who have no experience of the truth, who have not been pruned or judged, are unable to do this type of work. People with no experience, that is, people without reality, are unable to see reality clearly because they themselves do not possess being in this aspect. So, this type of person not only is unable to do leadership work, but will be the object of elimination if they have no truth for a long period of time. The seeing that you speak of can prove the hardships you have experienced in life, over what matters you have been chastised and in what issues you have been judged. This is also true in trials: The things in which one is refined, the things in which one is weak, these are the things in which one has experiences, the things in which one has ways. For example, if one suffers frustrations in marriage, he will most of the time fellowship, “Thank God, praise God, I must satisfy God’s heart’s desire and offer up my entire life, place my marriage entirely in God’s hands. I am willing to pledge my whole life to God.” Through fellowship, everything within man, what he is, can be represented. The pace of a person’s speech, whether he speaks loudly or quietly, such matters which are not matters of experience cannot represent what he has and is. They can only tell whether his character is good or bad, or whether his nature is good or bad, but cannot be equated with whether he has experiences. The ability to express oneself when speaking, or the skill or speed of speech, are just a matter of practice and cannot replace his experience. When you talk about your individual experiences, you fellowship that which you attach importance to and all the things within you. My speech represents My being, but what I say is beyond the reach of man. What I say is not that which man experiences, and it is not something that man can see, it is also not something that man can touch, but it is what I am. Some people only acknowledge that what I fellowship is what I have experienced, but they do not recognize that it is the direct expression of the Spirit. Of course, what I say is what I have experienced. It is I who have done the management work over six thousand years. I have experienced everything from the beginning of the creation of mankind until now; how would I not be able to talk about it? When it comes to man’s nature, I have seen it clearly, and I have long since observed it; how would I not be able to talk about it clearly? Since I have seen the essence of man clearly, I am qualified to chastise man and judge him, because all of man came from Me but has been corrupted by Satan. Of course, I am also qualified to assess the work that I have done. Although this work is not done by My flesh, it is the direct expression of the Spirit, and this is what I have and what I am. Therefore, I am qualified to express it and to do the work that I ought to do. What man says is what they have experienced. It is what they have seen, what their minds can reach and what their senses can feel. That is what they can fellowship. The words spoken by God’s incarnate flesh are the direct expression of the Spirit and express the work that has been done by the Spirit. The flesh has not experienced or seen it, but still expresses His being because the substance of the flesh is the Spirit, and He expresses the work of the Spirit. Even though the flesh is unable to reach it, it is the work already done by the Spirit. After incarnation, through the expression of the flesh, He enables people to know God’s being and allows people to see God’s disposition and the work that He has done. The work of man enables people to be more clear about what they should enter into and what they should understand; it involves leading people toward understanding and experiencing the truth. Man’s work is to sustain people; God’s work is to open up new paths and open up new eras for humanity, and to reveal to people that which is not known by mortals, enabling them to know His disposition. God’s work is to lead all of humanity.

The work of the Holy Spirit is all about enabling people to obtain benefits; it is all about edifying people; there is no work that does not benefit people. No matter whether the truth is deep or shallow, and no matter what the caliber of those who accept the truth is like, whatever the Holy Spirit does, it is all beneficial to people. But the work of the Holy Spirit cannot be done directly; it must go through the men who cooperate with Him. It is only in this way that the results of the work of the Holy Spirit can be obtained. Of course, when it is the direct work of the Holy Spirit, it has not been adulterated at all; but when it uses the medium of man, it is much mixed and is not the original work of the Holy Spirit. In this way, the truth changes to differing degrees. Followers do not receive the original meaning of the Holy Spirit but a combination of the work of the Holy Spirit and the experience and knowledge of man. The part of the work of the Holy Spirit that is received by followers is correct. The experience and the knowledge of man which are received vary because the workers are different. Once workers have the enlightenment and guidance of the Holy Spirit, they subsequently experience based on this enlightenment and guidance. Within these experiences are combined man’s mind and experience, as well as the being of humanity, after which they gain the knowledge or seeing that they should. This is the way of practice after man has experienced the truth. This way of practice is not always the same because people have different experiences and the things that people experience are different. In this way, the same enlightenment of the Holy Spirit results in different knowledge and practice because those who receive the enlightenment are different. Some people make minor mistakes during practice while some make major mistakes, and some make nothing but mistakes. This is because people’s abilities to understand differ and because their actual caliber also differs. Some people understand it this way after hearing a message, and some people understand it that way after hearing a truth. Some people deviate slightly; and some do not understand the true meaning of the truth at all. Therefore, however one understands it is how he will lead others; this is exactly true, because his work is just expressing his being. People led by those who have a correct understanding of the truth will also have a correct understanding of the truth. Even if there are people who have errors in understanding, there are very few of them, and not all the people will have errors. People led by those who have errors in understanding of the truth will undoubtedly be erroneous. These people will be erroneous in every sense of the word. The degree of understanding of the truth among followers largely depends on the workers. Of course, the truth from God is correct and without error, and is absolutely certain. But, the workers are not completely correct and cannot be said to be completely reliable. If workers have a way to practice the truth which is very practical, then followers will also have a way of practice. If workers do not have a way to practice the truth but have only doctrine, followers would not have any reality. The caliber and nature of followers are determined by birth and are not associated with workers. But the extent to which followers understand the truth and know God depends on the workers (this is only so for some people). Whatever a worker is like, this is what the followers that he leads will be like. What a worker expresses is his own being, and without reservation. The demands he places on his followers are what he himself is willing to achieve or what he is able to achieve. Most workers make demands on their followers based on what they do themselves, despite there being many that people cannot achieve at all. What people cannot achieve becomes an obstacle to their entry.

There are much fewer mistakes in the work of those who have undergone pruning and judgment. The expression of their work is much more accurate. Those who rely on their naturalness to work make quite major mistakes. There is too much naturalness in the work of unperfected people, which poses a major obstacle to the work of the Holy Spirit. Even those who inherently have the conditions for work must also have experienced pruning and judgment to be able to carry out God’s work. If they have not undergone such judgment, however well they do, it cannot accord with the principles of the truth and is entirely naturalness and human goodness. In doing God’s work, the work of those who have undergone pruning and judgment is more accurate than the work of those who have not been judged. Those who have not undergone judgment express nothing but human flesh and thoughts, mingled with a lot of human intelligence and innate talents. It is not man’s accurate expression of God’s work. The people who follow them are brought before them by their innate caliber. Because they express too many seeings and experiences of man, which are almost disconnected from God’s original meaning, and deviate too far from it, the work of this type of person is unable to bring people before God, but before him. So those who have not undergone judgment and chastisement are unqualified to carry out God’s work. The work of a qualified worker can bring people to the right way and allow them to go deeper into the truth. The work he does can bring people before God. In addition, the work he does can vary from individual to individual and is not bound by rules, allowing people release and freedom. Moreover, they can gradually grow in life, go progressively deeper into the truth. The work of an unqualified worker falls far short; his work is foolish. He can only bring people into rules; what he demands of people does not vary from individual to individual; he does not work according to the actual needs of the people. In this type of work, there are too many rules and too many doctrines, and it cannot bring people into reality or into normal practice of growth in life. It can only enable people to stand by a few worthless rules. This kind of guidance can only lead people astray. He leads you to become what he is like; he can bring you into what he has and is. For followers to discern whether leaders are qualified, the key is to look at the path they lead and the results of their work, and look at whether followers receive the principles in accordance with the truth, and whether they receive ways of practice suitable for them to be transformed. You should differentiate between the different work of different types of people; you should not be a foolish follower. This impinges on the matter of your entry. If you are unable to distinguish which person’s leadership has a path and which does not, you will easily be deceived. All these have a direct bearing on your own life. There is too much that is natural in the work of unperfected people; too much of human will is mixed in it. Their being is naturalness, what they are born with, not the life after undergoing dealing or the reality after being transformed. How can this type of person support those who are pursuing life? The original life of man is his innate intelligence or talent. This kind of intelligence or talent is quite far from God’s exact demands for man. If a man has not been perfected and his corrupt disposition has not been pruned and dealt with, there will be a wide gap between what he expresses and the truth; it will be mixed with vague things such as his imagination and one-sided experience, etc. Moreover, regardless of how he works, people feel there is no overall goal and no truth that is suitable for the entry of all people. The majority of the demands placed on people require they do what is beyond them, driving a duck onto a perch. This is the work of human will. Man’s corrupt disposition, his thoughts and notions pervade all parts of his body. Man is not born with the instinct to practice the truth, nor does he have the instinct to directly understand the truth. Taken together with man’s corrupt disposition, when this kind of natural person works, is it not an interruption? But a man who has been perfected has experience of the truth that people should understand, and knowledge of their corrupt disposition, so that the vague and unreal things in his work gradually diminish, which means that the truth expressed by him becomes more accurate and also realistic. The thoughts in man’s mind in particular block the work of the Holy Spirit. Man has a rich imagination and reasonable logic and old experience in dealing with affairs. If these do not undergo pruning and correction, they are all obstacles to work. Therefore man’s work cannot reach the most accurate level, especially the work of unperfected people.

The work of man has a range and limitations. One person is only able to do work of a certain phase and cannot do the work of the entire era—otherwise, he would lead people into rules. The work of man can only be applicable to a particular time or phase. This is because man’s experience has a scope. One cannot compare the work of man with the work of God. Man’s ways of practice and his knowledge of the truth are all applicable to a particular scope. You cannot say that the path that man treads is completely the will of the Holy Spirit, because man can only be enlightened by the Holy Spirit and cannot be completely filled with the Holy Spirit. The things that man can experience are all within the scope of normal humanity and cannot exceed the range of thoughts in the normal human mind. All those with practical expression experience within this range. When they experience the truth, it is always an experience of normal human life under the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, not experiencing in a way which deviates from normal human life. They experience the truth enlightened by the Holy Spirit on the foundation of living their human life. Moreover, this truth varies from person to person, and the depth of it is related to the state of the person. One can only say that the path they walk is the normal human life of a man pursuing the truth, and that it is the path walked by a normal person who has the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. You cannot say that the path they tread is the path taken by the Holy Spirit. In the normal human experience, because the people who pursue are not the same, the work of the Holy Spirit is also not the same. In addition, because the environments they experience and the ranges of their experience are not the same, because of the mixture of their mind and thoughts, their experience is mixed to different degrees. Each person understands a truth according to their individual different conditions. Their understanding of the real meaning of the truth is not complete and is only one or a few aspects of it. The scope by which the truth is experienced by man is always based on the different conditions of individuals and is therefore not the same. In this way, the knowledge expressed of the same truth by different people is not the same. That is to say, man’s experience always has limitations and cannot completely represent the will of the Holy Spirit, and the work of man cannot be perceived as the work of God, even if what is expressed by man corresponds very closely to God’s will, even if the experience of man is very close to the perfecting work to be performed by the Holy Spirit. Man can only be God’s servant, doing the work that God entrusts to him. Man can only express the knowledge under the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit and the truths gained from his personal experiences. Man is unqualified and does not have the conditions to be the outlet of the Holy Spirit. He is not entitled to say that man’s work is the work of God. Man has man’s working principles, and all men have different experiences and possess varying conditions. Man’s work includes all his experiences under the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. These experiences can only represent man’s being and do not represent the being of God or the will of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the path walked by man cannot be said to be the path walked by the Holy Spirit because the work of man cannot represent the work of God and man’s work and man’s experience are not the complete will of the Holy Spirit. Man’s work is prone to falling into a rule, and the method of his work is easily confined to a limited scope and is unable to lead people into a free way. Most followers live within a limited scope, and their way of experiencing is also limited in its scope. Man’s experience is always limited; the method of his work is also limited to a few types and cannot be compared with the work of the Holy Spirit or the work of God Himself—this is because man’s experience, in the end, is limited. However God does His work, there are no rules to it; however it is done, it is not limited to one way. There are no rules whatsoever to God’s work, all His work is released freely. No matter how much time man spends following Him, they cannot sum up any laws of the ways of His working. Although His work is principled, it is always done in new ways and always has new developments, which is beyond man’s reach. During one period of time, God may have several different types of work and different ways of leading, allowing people to always have new entries and new changes. You cannot find out the laws of His work because He is always working in new ways. Only in this way do followers of God not fall into rules. The work of God Himself always avoids the notions of people and counters their notions. Only those who follow and pursue Him with a true heart can have their dispositions transformed and are able to live freely without being subject to any rules or restrained by any religious notions. The demands that the work of man makes of people are based on his own experience and what he himself can achieve. The standard of these requirements is limited within a certain scope, and the methods of practice are also very limited. Followers thus unconsciously live within this limited scope; as time passes, they become rules and rituals. If the work of one period is led by a person who has not undergone God’s personal perfecting and not received judgment, his followers will all become religionists and experts in resisting God. Therefore, if someone is a qualified leader, the person must have undergone judgment and accepted perfecting. Those who have not undergone judgment, even though they may have the work of the Holy Spirit, express only vague and unreal things. With time, they will lead people into vague and supernatural rules. The work that God performs does not accord with the flesh of man; it does not accord with man’s thoughts but counters man’s notions; it is not mixed with vague religious color. The results of His work cannot be achieved by a man who has not been perfected by Him and are beyond the reach of man’s thinking.

Work in the mind of man is too easily achieved by man. Pastors and leaders in the religious world, for example, rely on their gifts and positions to do their work. People who follow them for a long time will be infected by their gifts and be influenced by some of what they are. They focus on people’s gifts, abilities and knowledge, and they pay attention to some supernatural things and many profound unrealistic doctrines (of course, these profound doctrines are unattainable). They do not focus on changes to people’s disposition, but rather they focus on training people’s preaching and working abilities, improving people’s knowledge and rich religious doctrines. They do not focus on how much people’s disposition is changed or how much people understand the truth. They do not concern themselves with the substance of people, much less try to know people’s normal and abnormal states. They do not counter people’s notions or reveal their notions, much less mend their deficiencies or corruptions. Most of the people who follow them serve by their natural gifts, and what they express is knowledge and vague religious truth, which are out of touch with reality and are completely unable to confer people with life. In fact, the substance of their work is nurturing talent, nurturing a person with nothing into a talented seminary graduate who later goes on to work and lead. With six thousand years of God’s work can you find out any laws of it? There are a lot of rules and restrictions in the work that man does, and the human brain is too dogmatic. So what man expresses is some knowledge and realization within all his experiences. Man is unable to express anything apart from this. Man’s experiences or knowledge do not arise from his innate gifts or his instinct; they arise because of God’s guidance and God’s direct shepherding. Man has only the organ to accept this shepherding and not the organ to directly express what divinity is. Man is unable to be the source, he can only be a vessel that accepts water from the source; this is the human instinct, the organ that one should have as a human being. If a person loses the organ to accept God’s word and loses the human instinct, that person also loses what is most precious, and loses the duty of created man. If a person has no knowledge or experience of God’s word or His work, that person loses his duty, the duty he should perform as a created being, and loses the dignity of a created being. It is God’s instinct to express what divinity is, whether it is expressed in the flesh or directly by the Spirit; this is God’s ministry. Man expresses his own experiences or knowledge (that is, expresses what he is) during God’s work or afterward; this is man’s instinct and man’s duty, it is what man should achieve. Although the expression of man falls far short of what God expresses, and there are a lot of rules in what man expresses, man must fulfill the duty he should fulfill and do what he must do. Man should do everything humanly possible to fulfill his duty, and there should not even be the slightest reservation.

After working for years, man will sum up some experience of these years of work, as well as the wisdom and rules accumulated. He who works for a long time knows how to sense the movement of the work of the Holy Spirit, knows when the Holy Spirit works and when He does not; he knows how to fellowship when carrying a burden, he is aware of the normal state of the Holy Spirit’s work and the normal state of people’s growth in life. Such is a person who has worked for years and knows the work of the Holy Spirit. Those who have worked for a long time speak assuredly and unhurriedly; even when they have nothing to say they are composed. Inside, they can keep praying to seek the work of the Holy Spirit without restlessness or anxiety; they are experienced in working. A person who has worked for a long time and has a lot of lessons and experience has a lot inside that obstructs the work of the Holy Spirit; this is a defect of his long-term work. A person who has just started working has not brought in human lessons or experience, particularly at a loss about how the Holy Spirit works. However, during the course of work, he gradually learns to sense how the Holy Spirit works and becomes aware of what to do to have the Holy Spirit’s work and what to do to touch the vital spots of others. He comes to know such common knowledge that those who work should possess. Over time, he gets to know such wisdom and common knowledge about working almost like the back of his hand, and seems to use them easily when working. However, when the Holy Spirit changes the way He works, he still sticks to his old working knowledge and old working rules and knows very little about the new working movement. Years of work and being full of the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit give him more and more working lessons and experience. Such things fill him with a self-confidence that is not pride. In other words, he is quite pleased with his own work and very content with the common knowledge he has obtained about the work of the Holy Spirit. In particular, those things that other people have not obtained or realized give him even more confidence in himself; it seems that the work of the Holy Spirit within him can never be extinguished, while others do not qualify for this special treatment. Only people of his kind who have worked for years and have considerable use value are qualified to enjoy it. These things become a great hindrance to his accepting the new work of the Holy Spirit. Even if he can accept the new work, it is not an overnight thing. He is sure to go through several twists and turns before accepting it. This situation can only be turned around gradually after his old notions are dealt with and his old disposition is judged. Without going through these steps, he does not give up and easily accept the new teachings and work that are not in harmony with his old notions. This is the most difficult thing to deal with in man, and it is not easy to change. If, as a worker, he is able to both achieve an understanding of the Holy Spirit’s work and sum up the movement of it, as well as be able to not be restricted by his working experience and be able to accept new work in light of old work, he is a wise man and a qualified worker. Men often work for several years without being able to sum up their working experience, or become hindered from accepting the new work after summing up their working experience and wisdom and cannot properly understand or correctly treat the old and new work. Men really are difficult to handle! Most of you are like this. Those who have experienced years of the Holy Spirit’s work find it hard to accept the new work, always full of notions which they find difficult to let go of, while a man who has just started working lacks working common knowledge and does not even know how to handle some of the simplest matters. You people are really difficult! Those with some seniority behind them are so proud and conceited that they have forgotten where they came from. They always look down on younger people, yet they are unable to accept the new work and unable to let go of the notions they have collected and kept over the years. Although those young ignorant people are able to accept a little of the Holy Spirit’s new work and they are quite enthusiastic, they always become muddled and do not know what to do when problems are encountered. Though enthusiastic, they are too ignorant. They have only a little knowledge of the Holy Spirit’s work and are unable to use it in their lives; it is just doctrine that is of no use at all. There are too many people like you; how many are fit for use? How many are there who can do work that is fit for the Holy Spirit? It seems that you have been very obedient up to now, but in fact, you have not given up your notions, you are still seeking in the Bible, believing in vagueness, or wandering in notions. There is no one who carefully investigates today’s actual work or goes deep into it. You are accepting today’s way with your old notions. What can you gain with such a belief? It could be said that in you are hidden a lot of notions that have not been revealed, and it is just that you are making a supreme effort to hide them and do not reveal them easily. You do not accept the new work sincerely and do not plan to give up your old notions; you have too many, too grievous life philosophies. You don’t give up your old notions and reluctantly deal with the new work. Your hearts are too sinister, and you simply do not take the steps of the new work to heart. Can such wastrels as you do the work of spreading the gospel? Are you able to undertake the work of spreading it to the entire universe? These practices of yours are stopping you from transforming your disposition and knowing God. If you go on like this, you are bound to be eliminated.

You have to know how to differentiate God’s work from the work of man. What can you see from the work of man? There are a lot of elements of man’s experience in the work of man; what man expresses is what he is. God’s own work also expresses what He is, but what He is is different from what man is. What man is is representative of man’s experience and life (what man experiences or encounters in his life, or life philosophies that he has), and people living in different environments express different beings. Whether or not you have social experiences and how you actually live and experience in your family can be seen in what you express, whereas you cannot see from the work of God incarnate whether or not He has social experiences. He is well aware of the essence of man, He can reveal all kinds of practices pertaining to all kinds of people. He is even better at revealing human corrupt disposition and rebellious behavior. He does not live among the worldly people, but He is aware of the nature of the mortals and all the corruptions of the worldly people. This is what He is. Though He does not deal with the world, He knows the rules of dealing with the world, because He fully understands human nature. He knows about the Spirit’s work that man’s eyes cannot see and that man’s ears cannot hear, both of today and of the past. This includes wisdom that is not a life philosophy and wonder that people find hard to fathom. This is what He is, made open to people and also hidden from people. What He expresses is not what an extraordinary person is, but the inherent attributes and being of the Spirit. He does not travel around the world but knows everything of it. He contacts the “anthropoids” who have no knowledge or insight, but He expresses words that are higher than knowledge and above great men. He lives among a group of obtuse and numb people who do not have humanity and who do not understand the human conventions and lives, but He can ask mankind to live out normal humanity, at the same time revealing the base and low humanity of mankind. All of this are what He is, higher than what any flesh-and-blood person is. For Him, it is unnecessary to experience a complicated, cumbersome and sordid social life to do the work that He needs to do and thoroughly reveal the essence of corrupt mankind. The sordid social life does not edify His flesh. His work and words only reveal man’s disobedience and do not provide man with the experience and lessons for dealing with the world. He does not need to investigate society or man’s family when He supplies man with life. Exposing and judging man is not an expression of the experiences of His flesh; it is to reveal man’s unrighteousness after long knowing man’s disobedience and abhorring mankind’s corruption. The work He does is all to reveal His disposition to man and express His being. Only He can do this work, it is not something that a flesh-and-blood person could achieve. With regard to His work, man cannot tell what kind of person He is. Man is also unable to classify Him as a created person on the basis of His work. What He is also makes Him unable to be classified as a created person. Man can only consider Him a non-human, but does not know which category to put Him in, so man is forced to list Him in the category of God. It is not unreasonable for man to do this, because He has done a lot of work among people that man is unable to do.

The work that God does does not represent the experience of His flesh; the work that man does represents man’s experience. Everyone talks about his personal experience. God can directly express the truth, while man can only express the corresponding experience after experiencing the truth. God’s work has no rules and is not subject to time or geographical constraints. He can express what He is at anytime, anywhere. He works as He pleases. Man’s work has conditions and context; otherwise, he is unable to work and unable to express his knowledge of God or his experience of the truth. You just have to compare the differences between them to tell whether it is God’s own work or man’s work. If there is no work done by God Himself and there is only the work of man, you will know that men’s teachings are high, beyond the capacity of anyone else; their tones of speaking, their principles in handling things and their experienced and steady manner in working are beyond the reach of others. You all admire these people with high humanity, but you cannot see from God’s work and words how high His humanity is. Instead, He is ordinary, and when working, He is normal and real but also immeasurable to mortals, which therefore makes people feel a kind of reverence of Him. Perhaps a person’s experience in his work is particularly high, or his imagination and reasoning are particularly high, and his humanity is particularly good; these can only gain people’s admiration, but not arouse their awe and fear. People all admire those who have the ability to work and who have particularly deep experience and can practice the truth, but they can never elicit awe, just admiration and envy. But people who have experienced God’s work do not admire God, instead they feel that His work is beyond human reach and is unfathomable to man, and that it is fresh and wonderful. When people experience God’s work, their first knowledge of Him is that He is unfathomable, wise and wonderful, and they unconsciously revere Him and feel the mystery of the work He does, which is beyond the reach of man’s mind. People just want to be able to meet His requirements, to satisfy His desires; they do not wish to exceed Him, because the work that He does goes beyond man’s thinking and imagination and cannot be done by man instead. Even man himself does not know his own inadequacies, while He has opened up a new path and come to bring man into a newer and more beautiful world, so that mankind has made new progress and had a new start. What man feels for Him is not admiration, or rather, is not only admiration. Their deepest experience is awe and love, their feeling is that God is indeed wonderful. He does work that man is unable to do, He says things that man is unable to say. People who have experienced His work always experience an indescribable feeling. People with deeper experiences particularly love God. They always feel His loveliness, feel that His work is so wise, so wonderful, and this thereby generates infinite power among them. It is not fear or occasional love and respect, but deep feeling of God’s compassion and tolerance of man. However, people who have experienced His chastisement and judgment feel Him to be majestic and inviolable. Even people who have experienced a lot of His work are also unable to fathom Him; all people who truly revere Him know that His work is not in line with people’s notions but always goes against their notions. He does not need people to have full admiration or give the appearance of submitting to Him, but rather to have true reverence and true submission. In so much of His work, anyone with true experience feels reverence for Him, which is higher than admiration. People have seen His disposition due to His work of chastisement and judgment, and they therefore revere Him in their hearts. God is meant to be revered and obeyed, because His being and His disposition are not the same as those of a created being, and they are above those of a created being. God is a non-created being, and only He is worthy of reverence and submission; man is not qualified for this. So, all people who have experienced His work and truly known Him feel reverence toward Him. However, those who do not let go of their notions about Him, that is, those who simply do not regard Him as God, do not have any reverence toward Him, and even though they follow Him they are not conquered; they are disobedient people by nature. He does this work to achieve the result that all created beings can revere the Creator, worship Him, and submit to His dominion unconditionally. This is the final result that all His work aims to achieve. If people who have experienced such work do not revere God, even slightly, if their disobedience of the past does not change at all, then these people are sure to be eliminated. If a person’s attitude toward God is only to admire or show respect from a distance and not to love in the slightest, this is what a person without a heart for loving God reaches, and that person lacks the conditions to be perfected. If so much work is unable to obtain a person’s true love, this means that the person has not gained God and does not genuinely pursue the truth. A person who does not love God does not love the truth and thus cannot gain God, much less receive God’s approval. Such people, regardless of how they experience the work of the Holy Spirit, and regardless of how they experience judgment, are still unable to revere God. These are people who cannot change their nature, who have extremely wicked disposition. All those who do not revere God are to be eliminated, to be the object of punishment, and to be punished just like those who do evil, suffering even more than those who have done unrighteous things.

from The Word Appears in the Flesh

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