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Showing posts with label Savior. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Savior. Show all posts

11/21/2017

All Nations Come to Your Light

I
You open up Your wide embrace
to caress mankind in its moaning,
You sway Your arms of strength and care,
and Your eyes of brightness are beaming!
And Your love and mercy hold us fast,
and Your glorious face appears.
In this world so long corrupted,
now Your rays of light are here.
And our world is dying, fallen and evil,
and she cries for the Savior to come again.
You bring hope to all mankind,
and an end of two millennia of waiting!

II
You open up Your wide embrace
to caress mankind in its moaning,
You sway Your arms of strength and care,
and Your eyes of brightness beam!
And our world is dying, fallen and evil,
and she cries for the Savior to come again.
And our world is dying, fallen and evil,
and she cries for the Savior to come again.
You bring hope to all mankind,
and an end of two millennia of waiting, of waiting!

III
Come, all nations, come to Your light,
freed from the subjugation of the evil one.
From the darkness, we’ll ever more be free,
free to shout “Your holy name be praised to eternity!”
Come, all nations, come to Your light,
freed from the subjugation of the evil one.
From the darkness, we’ll ever more be free,
free to shout “Your holy name be praised to eternity!”

And our world is dying, (Come, all nations, come to Your light.)
and she cries out to Savior to save us. (Freed from the subjugation of the evil one.)
(From the darkness, we’ll ever more be free,
free to shout “Your holy name be praised to eternity!”)
from Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs
The Church of Almighty God, Eastern Lightning, Almighty God,



Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was created because of the appearance and work of Almighty God, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, Christ of the last days. It is made up of all those who accept Almighty God's work in the last days and are conquered and saved by His words. It was entirely founded by Almighty God personally and is led by Him as the Shepherd. It was definitely not created by a person. Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. God's sheep hear God's voice. As long as you read the words of Almighty God, you will see God has appeared.

10/31/2017


What Is Gospel?

by Song Jiayin

“Gospel” means “good tidings.” It was written in Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.

10/28/2017

The Church of Almighty God, Eastern Lightning, Almighty God, Jesus,
Pictures of the Church of Almighty God

33. In the Bible it says, there is none other name under heaven given among men, the only Savior is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. But today why do you believe in Almighty God?

Bible Reference:
“Him that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God: and I will write on him my new name” (Rev 3:12).
The answer from God’s word:
God’s wisdom, God’s wondrousness, God’s righteousness, and God’s majesty shall never change. His essence and what He has and is shall never change. His work, however, is always progressing forward and always going deeper, for He is always new and never old.
from “The Vision of God’s Work (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
There are those who say that God is immutable. That is correct, but it refers to the immutability of God’s disposition and substance. Changes in His name and work do not prove that His substance has altered; in other words, God will always be God, and this will never change.
from “The Vision of God’s Work (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
“Jehovah” is the name that I took during My work in Israel, and it means the God of the Israelites (God’s chosen people) who can take pity on man, curse man, and guide the life of man. It means the God who possesses great power and is full of wisdom. “Jesus” is Emmanuel, and it means the sin offering that is full of love, full of compassion, and redeems man. He did the work of the Age of Grace, and represents the Age of Grace, and can only represent one part of the management plan. That is to say, only Jehovah is the God of the chosen people of Israel, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Moses, and the God of all the people of Israel. And so in the current age, all the Israelites apart from the tribe of Judah worship Jehovah. They make sacrifices to Him on the altar, and serve Him wearing priests’ robes in the temple. What they hope for is the reappearance of Jehovah. Only Jesus is the Redeemer of mankind. He is the sin offering that redeemed mankind from sin. Which is to say, the name of Jesus came from the Age of Grace, and existed because of the work of redemption in the Age of Grace. The name of Jesus existed to allow the people of the Age of Grace to be reborn and saved, and is a particular name for the redemption of the whole of mankind. And so the name Jesus represents the work of redemption, and denotes the Age of Grace. The name Jehovah is a particular name for the people of Israel who lived under the law. In each age and each stage of work, My name is not baseless, but holds representative significance: Each name represents one age. “Jehovah” represents the Age of Law, and is the honorific for the God worshiped by the people of Israel. “Jesus” represents the Age of Grace, and is the name of the God of all those who were redeemed during the Age of Grace. If man still longs for the arrival of Jesus the Savior during the last days, and still expects Him to arrive in the image He bore in Judea, then the entire six-thousand-year management plan would stop in the Age of Redemption, and would be incapable of progressing any further. The last days, furthermore, would never arrive, and the age would never be brought to an end. That is because Jesus the Savior is only for the redemption and salvation of mankind. I took the name of Jesus for the sake of all the sinners in the Age of Grace, and it is not the name by which I shall bring the whole of mankind to an end. Although Jehovah, Jesus, and the Messiah all represent My Spirit, these names only denote the different ages in My management plan, and do not represent Me in My entirety. The names by which people on earth call Me cannot articulate My entire disposition and all that I am. They are merely different names by which I am called during different ages. And so, when the final age—the age of the last days—arrives, My name shall change again. I shall not be called Jehovah, or Jesus, much less the Messiah, but shall be called the powerful Almighty God Himself, and under this name I shall bring the entire age to an end. I was once known as Jehovah. I was also called the Messiah, and people once called Me Jesus the Savior because they loved and respected Me. But today I am not the Jehovah or Jesus that people knew in times past—I am the God who has returned in the last days, the God who shall bring the age to an end. I am the God Himself that rises up at the ends of the earth, replete with My entire disposition, and full of authority, honor and glory. People have never engaged with Me, have never known Me, and have always been ignorant of My disposition. From the creation of the world until today, not one person has seen Me. This is the God who appears to man during the last days but is hidden among man. He resides among man, true and real, like the burning sun and the flaming fire, filled with power and brimming with authority. There is not a single person or thing that shall not be judged by My words, and not a single person or thing that shall not be purified through the burning of fire. Eventually, all nations shall be blessed because of My words, and also smashed to pieces because of My words. In this way, all people during the last days shall see that I am the Savior returned, I am the Almighty God that conquers all of mankind, and I was once the sin offering for man, but in the last days I also become the flames of the sun that burn all things, as well as the sun of righteousness that reveals all things. Such is My work of the last days. I took this name and am possessed of this disposition so that all people may see that I am a righteous God, and am the burning sun, and the flaming fire. It is so that all may worship Me, the only true God, and so that they may see My true face: I am not only the God of the Israelites, and am not just the Redeemer—I am the God of all creatures throughout heavens and earth and seas.
from “The Savior Has Already Returned Upon a ‘White Cloud’” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Could the name of Jesus, “God with us,” represent God’s disposition in its entirety? Could it fully articulate God? If man says that God can only be called Jesus, and may not have any other name because God cannot change His disposition, then such words are blasphemy! Do you believe that the name Jesus, God with us, can represent God in His entirety? God can be called many names, but among these many names, there is not one which can encapsulate all that God has, there is not one which can fully represent God. And so God has many names, but these many names cannot fully articulate God’s disposition, for God’s disposition is too rich, and extends beyond the knowledge of man. The language of man is incapable of fully encapsulating God. Man has but a limited vocabulary with which to encapsulate all that he knows of God’s disposition: great, honorable, wondrous, unfathomable, supreme, holy, righteous, wise, and so on. Too many words! Such a limited vocabulary is incapable of describing what little man has witnessed of God’s disposition. Later on, many people added more words to better describe the fervor in their hearts: God is too great! God is too holy! God is too lovely! Today, sayings such as these have reached their peak, yet man is still incapable of clearly expressing God. And so, for man, God has many names, yet He has no one name, and that is because God’s being is too bountiful, and the language of man is too inadequate. One particular word or name is powerless to represent God in His entirety. So can God take one fixed name? God is so great and holy, so why do you not permit Him to change His name in each new age? As such, in each age that God personally does His own work, He uses a name that befits the age to encapsulate the work that He does. He uses this particular name, one that possesses the significance of the age, to represent His disposition in that age. God uses the language of man to express His own disposition. … You should know that God originally had no name. He only took on one, or two, or many names because He had work to do and had to manage mankind. Whatever name He is called by, isn’t it freely chosen by Him? Does He need you, a creature, to decide it? The name by which God is called is according to what man can apprehend and the language of man, but this name cannot be encapsulated by man. You can only say that there is a God in heaven, that He is called God, that He is God Himself with great power, too wise, too exalted, too wondrous, too mysterious, too almighty, and you can say no more; that is all you know. In this way, can the name of Jesus alone represent God Himself? When the last days come, although it is still God who does His work, His name has to change, for it is a different age.
from “The Vision of God’s Work (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Some say that the name of God does not change, so why then did the name of Jehovah become Jesus? It was prophesied of the coming of the Messiah, so why then did a man by the name of Jesus come? Why did the name of God change? Was not such work carried out long ago? Cannot God this day do a new work? The work of yesterday can be altered, and the work of Jesus can follow on from that of Jehovah. Cannot then the work of Jesus be succeeded by another work? If the name of Jehovah can be changed to Jesus, then cannot the name of Jesus also be changed? This is not unusual, and people think so[a] only due to their simple-mindedness. God will always be God. Regardless of the changes to His work and His name, His disposition and wisdom remain forever unchanged. If you believe that God can only be called by the name of Jesus, then you know too little.
from “How Can Man Who Has Defined God in His Conceptions Receive the Revelations of God?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Footnotes:
a. The original text reads “which is.”
Read more: Is Eastern Lightning the Return of the Lord Jesus?
                   The brief introduction of the Church of Almighty God

10/27/2017

The Church of Almighty God, Eastern Lightning, Almighty God,
Pictures of the Church of Almighty God
Like hundreds of millions of other followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we abide by the laws and commandments of the Bible, enjoy the abundant grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and gather together, pray, praise, and serve in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ—and all this we do under the care and protection of the Lord. We are often weak, and often strong. We believe that all of our actions are in accordance with the teachings of the Lord. It goes without saying, then, that we also believe ourselves to walk the path of obedience to the will of the Father in heaven. We long for the return of the Lord Jesus, for the glorious arrival of the Lord Jesus, for the end of our life on earth, for the appearance of the kingdom, and for everything as it was foretold in the Book of Revelation: The Lord arrives, and brings disaster, and rewards the good and punishes the wicked, and takes all those who follow Him and welcome His return into the air to meet Him. Every time we think of this, we can’t help but be overcome with emotion. We are thankful that we were born in the last days and are lucky enough to witness the coming of the Lord. Though we have suffered persecution, it is in return for “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”; what a blessing that is! All of this longing and the grace bestowed by the Lord make us often sober unto prayer, and bring us together more often. Maybe next year, maybe tomorrow, or maybe even sooner when man does not expect it, the Lord shall suddenly arrive, and shall appear among a group of people who have been attentively waiting for Him. We are all contending with each other, none wanting to fall behind, in order to be the first group to behold the appearance of the Lord, to become one of those who shall be raptured. We have given everything, regardless of the cost, for the coming of this day. Some have given up their jobs, some have abandoned their families, some have renounced marriage, and some have even donated all of their savings. What selfless devotion! Such sincerity and loyalty must be beyond even the saints of ages past! As the Lord bestows grace upon whomever He wishes, and has mercy on whomever He wishes, our devotion and spending, we believe, have already been beheld by His eyes. So, too, have our heartfelt prayers already reached His ears, and we trust that the Lord will reward us for our devotion. Moreover, God was graceful toward us before He created the world, and none shall take away God’s blessings and promises to us. We are all planning for the future, and take it for granted that our devotion and spending are bargaining chips or stock for our rapture into the air to meet the Lord. What’s more, without the slightest hesitation, we place ourselves on the future throne, presiding over all nations and all peoples, or ruling as kings. All this we take as a given, as something to be expected.
We disdain all those who are against the Lord Jesus; in the end, they will all be annihilated. Who told them not to believe that the Lord Jesus is the Savior? Of course, there are times when we learn from the Lord Jesus and are compassionate toward the world, for they do not understand, and we should be tolerant and forgiving of them. Everything that we do is in accordance with the words of the Bible, for everything that does not conform to the Bible is heresy, and an evil cult. Such belief is deeply embedded in each of our minds. Our Lord is in the Bible, and if we do not depart from the Bible we shall not depart from the Lord; if we abide by this principle, then we shall be saved. We spur each other on, and support each other, and every time we gather together we hope that everything we say and do is in accordance with the will of the Lord, and can be accepted by the Lord. Despite the severe hostility of our environment, our hearts are filled with joy. When we think of the blessings that are within such easy reach, is there nothing we cannot forsake? Is there nothing we cannot bear to part with? All of this is implicit, and all of this is looked upon by the eyes of God. We, the handful of the needy who have been lifted from the dunghill, are the same as all ordinary followers of the Lord Jesus: We dream of rapture, and of being blessed, and of ruling all the nations. Our corruption is laid bare in the eyes of God, and our desires and greed are condemned in the eyes of God. Yet all of this happens so unremarkably, so logically, and none of us wonder whether our longing is right, much less do any of us doubt the accuracy of all that we hold to. Who can know God’s will? We do not know to seek, or explore, or even concern ourselves with the path that man walks. For we only care about whether we can be raptured, whether we can be blessed, whether there is a place for us in the kingdom of heaven, and whether we shall have a share of the water of the river of life and the fruit of the tree of life. Do we not believe in the Lord, and are we not followers of the Lord, for the sake of gaining these things? Our sins have been forgiven, we have repented, we have drunk the bitter cup of wine, and we have put the cross upon our back. Who can say that the price we have paid will not be accepted by the Lord? Who can say that we have not prepared enough oil? We don’t want to be those foolish virgins, or one of those who are forsaken. Moreover, we pray often, and ask the Lord to keep us from being deceived by false Christs, for it is said in the Bible that “Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:23-24). We have all committed these verses of the Bible to memory, we know them back to front, and we see them as precious treasure, as life, and as the credentials for our rapture and salvation …
For thousands of years, the living have passed away, taking their longings and dreams with them, and no one truly knows whether they have gone to the kingdom of heaven. The dead return, and they have forgotten all the stories that once occurred, and still follow the teachings and the paths of the forefathers. And so, as the years pass and the days go by, no one knows whether our Lord Jesus, our God, truly accepts all that we do. We simply look forward to an outcome and speculate about all that will happen. Yet God has kept His silence throughout, and has never appeared to us, or spoken to us. And so we willfully judge God’s will and disposition according to the Bible and the signs. We have become accustomed to the silence of God; we have become accustomed to measuring the rights and wrongs of our behavior using our own way of thinking; we have become accustomed to using our knowledge, conceptions, and moral ethics to replace God’s demands of us; we have become accustomed to enjoying the grace of God; we have become accustomed to God providing assistance whenever we need it; we have become accustomed to holding out our hands to God for all things, and to ordering God about; we have also become accustomed to following doctrine, not paying attention to how the Holy Spirit leads us; moreover, we have become accustomed to days in which we are our own master. We believe in a God such as this, whom we have never met. Questions such as what His disposition is like, what His possessions and being are, what His image is like, whether or not we will know Him when He comes, and so on—none of these are important. What’s important is that He is in our hearts, that we all await Him, and that we are able to imagine what He is like. We appreciate our faith, and treasure our spirituality. We consider everything as dung, and tread all things underfoot. Because we are the followers of the glorious Lord, no matter how long and arduous the journey, no matter what hardships and dangers befall us, nothing can halt our footsteps as we follow the Lord. “A pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeded out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. On either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bore twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:1-5). Every time we sing these words, our hearts brim with surpassing joy and satisfaction, and tears flow from our eyes. Thanks be to the Lord for choosing us, thanks be to the Lord for His grace. He has given us a hundredfold now in this time, has given us eternal life in the world to come, and if He asked us to die now, we would do so without the slightest complaint. Lord! Please come soon! Do not delay a minute longer, for we desperately yearn for You, and have forsaken everything for You.
God is silent, and has never appeared to us, yet His work has never stopped. He looks upon all lands, and commands all things, and beholds all the words and deeds of man. His management is conducted in steps and according to His plan. It proceeds silently, without dramatic effect, yet His footsteps advance ever closer to mankind, and His judgment seat is deployed in the universe at the speed of lightning, immediately followed by the descent of His throne among us. What a majestic scene that is, what a stately and solemn tableau. Like a dove, and like a roaring lion, the Spirit arrives among us all. He is wise, He is righteous and majestic, He quietly arrives among us possessed of authority and filled with love and compassion. No one is aware of His arrival, no one welcomes His arrival, and, moreover, no one knows all that He will do. Man’s life remains unchanged; his heart is no different, and the days go by as usual. God lives among us like an ordinary person, as a most insignificant follower and an ordinary believer. He has His own pursuits, His own goals, and, moreover, He has divinity not possessed by ordinary men. No one has noticed the existence of His divinity, and no one has perceived the difference between His substance and that of man. We live together with Him, unconstrained and unafraid, for we see Him as nothing more than an insignificant believer. He watches our every move, and all of our thoughts and ideas are laid bare before Him. No one takes an interest in His existence, no one has any imagination of His function, and, moreover, no one has any suspicion about who He is. We merely continue our pursuits, as if He has nothing to do with us …
By chance, the Holy Spirit expresses a passage of words “through” Him, and though it feels very unexpected, we recognize that this is the utterance of God, and we readily accept it from God. That is because, regardless of who expresses these words, as long as they come from the Holy Spirit we should accept them, and cannot deny them. The next utterance could be through me, it could be through you, or it could be through him. Regardless of who it is, all is the grace of God. Yet no matter who the person is, we should not worship them, for regardless of anything else, they cannot possibly be God; we can by no means choose an ordinary person such as this to be our God. Our God is so great and honorable; how could He be represented by someone so insignificant? What’s more, we are all awaiting the arrival of God to take us back to the kingdom of heaven, and so how could someone so insignificant be qualified for such an important and arduous task? If the Lord comes again, it must be upon a white cloud, visible to all. How glorious that will be! How could He quietly hide among an ordinary group of people?
And yet it is this ordinary person hidden among people who is doing the new work of saving us. He does not clarify anything for us, nor does He tell us why He has come. He merely does the work He intends to do in steps, and according to His plan. His words and utterances become ever more frequent. From consoling, exhorting, reminding, and warning, to reproaching and disciplining; from a tone that is gentle and kind, to words that are fierce and majestic—they all instill both compassion and trepidation in man. Everything that He says hits home at the secrets hidden deep within us, His words sting our hearts, sting our spirits, and leave us ashamed and humiliated. We begin to wonder whether the God in this person’s heart really loves us, and what exactly He intends to do. Perhaps we can only be raptured after enduring such pain? In our heads we are calculating … about the destination to come, and about our future fate. Still none of us believes that God has assumed flesh and works among us. Even though He has been with us for so long, even though He has already spoken so many words face to face with us, we are still unwilling to accept someone so ordinary as the God of our future, much less are we willing to entrust control of our future and fate to someone so insignificant. From Him we enjoy an unending supply of living water, and thanks to Him we live face-to-face with God. We are only thankful for the grace of the Lord Jesus in heaven, and have never paid any attention to the feelings of this ordinary person who is possessed of divinity. He still does His work humbly hidden in the flesh, expressing His heart’s voice, seemingly insensible to mankind’s rejection of Him, apparently eternally forgiving of man’s childishness and ignorance, and forever tolerant of man’s irreverence toward Him.
Unbeknownst to us, this insignificant man has led us into step after step of God’s work. We undergo countless trials, are subjected to innumerable chastenings, and tested by death. We learn of God’s righteous and majestic disposition, enjoy, too, His love and compassion, come to appreciate God’s great power and wisdom, witness the loveliness of God, and behold God’s eager desire to save man. In the words of this ordinary person, we come to know the disposition and substance of God, come to understand God’s will, come to know the nature and substance of man, and see the way of salvation and perfection. His words cause us to die, and cause us to be reborn; His words bring us comfort, yet also leave us wracked with guilt and a sense of indebtedness; His words bring us joy and peace, but also great pain. Sometimes we are as lambs to the slaughter in His hands; sometimes we are like the apple of His eye, and enjoy His love and affection; sometimes we are like His enemy, turned to ashes by His wrath in His eyes. We are the mankind saved by Him, we are the maggots in His eyes, and we are the lost lambs that He thinks of finding day and night. He is merciful toward us, He despises us, He raises us up, He comforts and exhorts us, He guides us, He enlightens us, He chastens and disciplines us, and He even curses us. He worries for us night and day, He protects and cares for us night and day, He never leaves our side, and He devotes all His care to us and pays any price for us. Among the words of this small and ordinary flesh, we have enjoyed the entirety of God, and beheld the destination that God has bestowed upon us. Yet despite this, vanity still stalks within our hearts, and we are still unwilling to actively accept a person such as this as our God. Though He has given us so much manna, so much to enjoy, none of this can usurp the Lord’s place in our hearts. We honor this person’s special identity and status only with great reluctance. If He does not speak up to make us acknowledge that He is God, then we will never take it upon ourselves to acknowledge Him as the God that is soon to arrive yet has been working among us for so long.
The utterance of God continues, and He employs various methods and perspectives to admonish us what to do and express His heart’s voice. His words carry life power, and show us the way we should walk, and allow us to understand what the truth is. We start to be drawn to His words, we begin to focus on the tone and manner of His speaking, and subconsciously begin to take an interest in the heart’s voice of this unremarkable person. He makes painstaking efforts for us, loses sleep and appetite for us, weeps for us, sighs for us, groans in sickness for us, suffers humiliation for the sake of our destination and salvation, and His heart bleeds and sheds tears for our numbness and rebelliousness. Such being and possessions of His are beyond an ordinary person, and cannot be possessed or attained by any of the corrupted. He has tolerance and patience possessed by no ordinary person, and His love is not possessed by any created being. No one apart from Him can know all of our thoughts, or have such a grasp of our nature and substance, or judge the rebelliousness and corruption of mankind, or speak to us and work among us like this on behalf of the God of heaven. No one except for Him can possess the authority, wisdom, and dignity of God; the disposition of God and what He has and is are issued forth, in their entirety, from Him. No one apart from Him can show us the way and bring us light. No one apart from Him can reveal the mysteries God has not disclosed from creation until today. No one apart from Him can save us from Satan’s bondage and our corrupt disposition. He represents God, and expresses the heart’s voice of God, the exhortations of God, and the words of judgment of God toward all mankind. He has begun a new age, a new era, and brought a new heaven and earth, new work, and He has brought us hope, and ended the life we led in vagueness, and allowed us to fully behold the path of salvation. He has conquered our whole being, and gained our hearts. From that moment onward, our minds become conscious, and our spirits seem to be revived: This ordinary, insignificant person, who lives among us and has long been rejected by us—is He not the Lord Jesus, who is ever in our thoughts, and whom we long for night and day? It is He! It’s really Him! He is our God! He is the truth, the way, and the life! He has allowed us to live again, to see the light, and has stopped our hearts from wandering. We have returned to the home of God, we have returned before His throne, we are face-to-face with Him, we have witnessed His countenance, and have seen the road ahead. At the time, our hearts have been completely conquered by Him; we no longer doubt who He is, and no longer oppose His work and word, and we fall down, completely, before Him. We wish for nothing except to follow the footprints of God for the rest of our lives, and to be made perfect by Him, and to repay His grace, and repay His love for us, and to obey His orchestrations and arrangements, and to cooperate with His work, and to do everything we can to complete what He entrusts to us.
Being conquered by God is like a martial arts contest.
Each of God’s words strikes at our mortal spot, and leaves us sorrowful and afraid. He reveals our notions, reveals our imaginations, and reveals our corrupt disposition. Through all that we say and do, and every one of our thoughts and ideas, our nature and substance are revealed by His words, leaving us humiliated and trembling with fear. He tells us of all of our actions, our aims and intentions, and even the corrupt disposition that we have never discovered, making us feel we are thoroughly exposed, and even more feel completely convinced. He judges us for our opposition to Him, chastises us for our blasphemy and condemnation of Him, and makes us feel that in His eyes we are worthless, and we are the living Satan. Our hopes are dashed, we no longer dare to make any unreasonable demands and attempts upon Him, and even our dreams vanish overnight. This is a fact that none of us can imagine, and which none of us can accept. For a moment, our minds become unbalanced, and we do not know how to continue on the road ahead, do not know how to continue in our beliefs. It seems like our faith has gone back to square one, and that we have never met and been acquainted with the Lord Jesus. Everything before our eyes perplexes us, and makes us feel as if we have been cast adrift. We are dismayed, we are disappointed, and deep in our hearts there is insuppressible anger and disgrace. We try to vent, try to find a way out, and, what’s more, we attempt to continue waiting for our Savior Jesus, and pour our hearts out to Him. Though there are times when we are neither haughty nor humble on the outside, in our hearts we are afflicted with a sense of loss like never before. Though sometimes we may seem unusually calm on the outside, inside we endure rolling seas of torment. His judgment and chastisement have stripped us of all our hopes and dreams, have left us without our extravagant desires, and unwilling to believe that He is our Savior and capable of saving us. His judgment and chastisement have opened up a deep gulf between us and Him and no one is even willing to cross. His judgment and chastisement are the first time that we suffer such a great setback and such great humiliation. His judgment and chastisement have allowed us to truly appreciate God’s honor and intolerance of man’s offense, compared to which we are so lowly and impure. His judgment and chastisement have made us realize for the first time how arrogant and pompous we are, and how man will never be the equal of God, or on a par with God. His judgment and chastisement have made us yearn to no longer live in such a corrupt disposition, and have made us long to rid ourselves of such nature and substance as soon as possible, and no longer be detested by Him and disgusting to Him. His judgment and chastisement have made us happy to obey His words, and no longer willing to rebel against His orchestrations and arrangements. His judgment and chastisement have once more given us the desire to seek life, and have made us happy to accept Him as our Savior…. We have walked out of the work of conquest, stepped out of hell, stepped out of the valley of the shadow of death…. Almighty God has gained us, this group of people! He has triumphed over Satan, and defeated all of His enemies!
We are just such an ordinary group of people possessed of corrupt satanic disposition, we are the ones predestined by God before the ages, and we are the needy whom God has lifted from the dunghill. We once rejected and condemned God, yet now we have been conquered by Him. We have received life and have received the way of eternal life from God. No matter where we are on earth, despite persecution and tribulation, we cannot be apart from the salvation by Almighty God. For He is our Creator, and our only redemption!
The love of God extends forth like the water of a spring, and is given to you, and to me, and to him, and to all those who truly seek the truth and await the appearance of God.
Just as the moon always follows the sun, the work of God never ceases, and is carried out upon you, upon me, upon him, and upon all those who follow the footprints of God and accept the judgment and chastisement of God.
Expressed on March 23, 2010
from The Word Appears in the Flesh
Read more: Is Eastern Lightning the Return of the Lord Jesus?
                   The brief introduction of the Church of Almighty God

10/13/2017

10/08/2017

The Church of Almighty God, Eastern Lightning, Jesus,
Pictures of the Church of Almighty God
Nowadays, all the believers in the Lord are expecting the Lord Jesus’ second coming to bring man into the kingdom of heaven. Especially when people reading the scripture Acts 1:11, “Which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.”, they think that the Lord left on a white cloud, so he will surely return on a white cloud. Thus most people just wait for the second coming of Jesus passively.

9/19/2017

The Church of Almighty God, Almighty God, Eastern Lightning,
Pictures of the Church of Almighty God

Chapter 1 You Must Know That Only Almighty God Is the One True God Who Created the Heavens and the Earth and Everything in Them

2. Almighty God Is the Returned Jesus.

Relevant Words of God:

God is incarnated in the Chinese mainland, what the compatriots in Hong Kong and Taiwan call the inland. When God came from above to the earth, no one in heaven and earth knew about it, for this is the true meaning of God returning in a concealed fashion. He has been in the flesh working and living for a long time, yet no one has known about it. Even to this day, no one recognizes it. Perhaps this will remain an eternal riddle. God’s coming into flesh this time is not something anyone is able to be aware of. No matter how large-scale and powerful the Spirit’s work, God always stays composed, never giving Himself away. One can say that it is as if this stage of His work is taking place in the heavenly realm. Even though it is perfectly obvious to everyone, no one recognizes it. When God finishes this stage of His work, everyone will awake from their long dream and reverse their past attitude.[a] I remember God once saying, “Coming into flesh this time is like falling into the tiger’s den.” What this means is that because this round of God’s work has God coming into flesh and being born in the dwelling place of the great red dragon, His coming to earth this time is accompanied even more so with extreme dangers. What He faces are knives and guns and clubs; what He faces is temptation; what He faces are crowds wearing murderous looks. He risks being killed at any moment. God did come with wrath. However, He came in order to do the work of perfection, meaning to do the second part of His work that continues after redemption work. For the sake of this stage of His work, God has devoted utmost thought and care and is using every conceivable means to avoid the assaults of temptation, concealing Himself humbly and never flaunting His identity. In rescuing man off the cross, Jesus was only completing redemption work; He was not doing perfection work. Thus only half of God’s work was being done, and finishing the redemption work was only half of His whole plan. As the new age was about to begin and the old one about to recede, God the Father began to deliberate the second part of His work and started preparing for it. In the past, this incarnation in the last days may not have been prophesied, and therefore that laid a foundation for the increased secrecy surrounding God’s coming into flesh this time. At the break of dawn, unbeknownst to any, God came to earth and began His life in the flesh. People were unaware of this moment. Maybe they were all fast asleep, maybe many who were watchfully awake were waiting, and maybe many were praying silently to God in heaven. Yet among all these many people, not one knew that God had already arrived on earth. God worked like this so as to more smoothly carry out His work and achieve better results, and it was also to avoid more temptations. As man’s spring slumber breaks, God’s work will have long been finished and He shall depart, bringing to a close His life of roaming and sojourning on earth. Because God’s work requires God to act and speak personally, and because there is no way for man to help, God has endured extreme pain to come to earth to do the work Himself. Man is unable to stand in for God’s work. Therefore God risked dangers several thousand times greater than those during the Age of Grace to come down to where the great red dragon dwells to do His own work, to put all His thinking and care into redeeming this group of impoverished people, redeeming this group of people mired in a heap of manure. Even though no one knows of God’s existence, God is not troubled because it greatly benefits God’s work. Everyone is atrociously evil, so how can anyone tolerate God’s existence? That is why on earth God is always silent. No matter how excessively cruel man is, God does not take any of it to heart, but just keeps doing the work He needs to do so as to fulfill the greater commission that the heavenly Father gave Him. Who among you has recognized God’s loveliness? Who shows more consideration for God the Father’s burden than His Son does? Who is able to understand the will of God the Father? God the Father’s Spirit in heaven is often troubled, and His Son on earth prays frequently over God the Father’s will, worrying His heart to pieces. Is there anyone who knows of God the Father’s love for His Son? Is there anyone who knows how the beloved Son misses God the Father? Torn between heaven and earth, the two are constantly gazing after each other from afar, side by side in Spirit. O mankind! When will you be considerate of God’s heart? When will you understand God’s intention? Father and Son have always depended on each other. Why then should They be separated, one in heaven above and one on earth below? The Father loves His Son as the Son loves His Father. Why then should He have to wait with such longing and long with such anxiety? Although They have not been separated for long, does anyone know that the Father has already been anxiously yearning for so many days and nights and has long been looking forward to His beloved Son’s quick return? He observes, He sits in silence, He waits. It is all for His beloved Son’s quick return. When will He again be with the Son who is wandering on earth? Even though once together, They will be together for eternity, how can He endure the thousands of days and nights of separation, one in heaven above and one on earth below? Tens of years on earth are like thousands of years in heaven. How could God the Father not worry? When God comes to earth, He experiences the many vicissitudes of the human world just as man does. God Himself is innocent, so why let God suffer the same pain as man? No wonder God the Father longs so urgently for His Son; who can understand God’s heart? God gives man too much; how can man adequately repay God’s heart? Yet man gives God too little; how could God not therefore be worried?
Scarcely one among men understands God’s urgent heart because people’s caliber is too low and their spiritual sensitivity quite dull, and because they all neither notice nor heed what God is doing. So God keeps worrying about man, as if man’s beastly nature could break out at any moment. This further shows that God’s coming to earth is accompanied by great temptations. But for the sake of completing a group of people, God, laden with glory, told man of His every intention, hiding nothing. He has firmly resolved to complete this group of people. Therefore, come hardship or temptation, He looks away and ignores it all. He only quietly does His own work, firmly believing that one day when God has gained glory, man will know God, and believing that when man has been completed by God, he will fully understand God’s heart. Right now there may be people tempting God or misunderstanding God or blaming God; God takes none of that to heart. When God descends into glory, people will all understand that everything God does is for the well-being of mankind, and people will all understand that everything God does is so that mankind can better survive. God’s coming is accompanied by temptations, and God also comes with majesty and wrath. By the time God leaves man, He will have already gained glory, and He will leave fully laden with glory and with the joy of return. The God working on earth does not take things to heart no matter how people reject Him. He is just doing His work. God’s creation of the world goes back thousands of years, He has come to earth to do an immeasurable amount of work, and He has fully experienced the human world’s rejection and slander. No one welcomes God’s arrival; everyone merely regards Him with a cold eye. In the course of these several thousand years’ worth of hardships, man’s conduct has long ago shattered God’s heart. He no longer pays attention to people’s rebellion, but is instead making a separate plan to transform and cleanse man. The derision, the slander, the persecution, the tribulation, the suffering of crucifixion, the exclusion by man, and so on that God has experienced in the flesh—God has tasted enough of these. God in the flesh has thoroughly suffered the miseries of the human world. The Spirit of God the Father in heaven long ago found such sights unbearable and threw His head back and shut His eyes, waiting for His beloved Son to return. All He wishes for is that people all listen and obey, are able to feel great shame before His flesh, and not rebel against Him. All He wishes for is that people all believe that God exists. He long ago stopped making greater demands of man because God has paid too high a price, yet man is resting easy,[b] not at all taking God’s work to heart.
from “Work and Entry (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
The first time that God became flesh was through conception by the Holy Spirit, and it was related to the work He intended to do. Jesus’ name marked the start of the Age of Grace. When Jesus began to perform His ministry, the Holy Spirit began to testify to the name of Jesus, and the name of Jehovah was no longer spoken of, and instead the Holy Spirit began the new work principally under the name of Jesus. The testimony of those who believed in Him was borne for Jesus Christ, and the work they did was also for Jesus Christ. The conclusion of the Old Testament Age of Law meant that the work principally conducted under the name of Jehovah had come to an end. After this, the name of God was no longer Jehovah; instead He was called Jesus, and from here on the Holy Spirit began the work principally under the name of Jesus. So today, when you still eat and drink the words of Jehovah, and still apply the work of the Age of Law, are you not following regulation? Are you not stuck in the past? Today, you know that the last days have arrived. When Jesus comes, will He still be called Jesus? Jehovah told the people of Israel that a Messiah would come, yet when He arrived, He was not called Messiah but Jesus. Jesus said that He would come again, and that He would arrive as He had departed. These were the words of Jesus, but did you witness how Jesus departed? Jesus left on a white cloud, but would He really personally return among man on a white cloud? If that were so, would He not still be called Jesus? When Jesus comes again, the age will have already changed, so could He still be called Jesus? Is God only known by the name of Jesus? Could He not be called by a new name in a new age? Can the image of one person and one particular name represent God in His entirety? In each age, God does new work and is called by a new name; how could He do the same work in different ages? How could He cling to the old? The name of Jesus was taken for the work of redemption, so would He still be called by the same name when He returns in the last days? Would He still do the work of redemption? Why is it that Jehovah and Jesus are one, yet They are called by different names in different ages? Is it not because Their work in these ages is different? Could a single name represent God in His entirety? In this way, God must be called by a different name in a different age, must use the name to change the age and represent the age, for no one name can fully represent God Himself. And each name can only represent God’s disposition during a certain age and needs only to represent His work. Therefore, God can choose whatever name befits His disposition to represent the entire age. Regardless of whether it is the age of Jehovah, or the age of Jesus, each age is represented by a name. After the Age of Grace, the final age has arrived and Jesus has already come. How could He still be called Jesus? How could He still assume the form of Jesus among man? Have you forgotten that Jesus was just the image of a Nazarene? Have you forgotten that Jesus was only the Redeemer of mankind? How could He take on the work of conquering and perfecting man in the last days? Jesus left on a white cloud, this is fact, but how could He return on a white cloud among man and still be called Jesus? If He really did arrive on a cloud, wouldn’t He be recognized by man? Wouldn’t people all over the world recognize Him? In that case, wouldn’t Jesus alone be God? In that case, the image of God would be the appearance of a Jew, and would be the same forever. Jesus said that He would arrive as He had departed, but do you know the true meaning of His words? Could He really have told you? You only know He will arrive as He left on a cloud, but do you know exactly how God Himself does His work? If you were truly able to see, then how are the words of Jesus to be explained? He said, “When the Son of man comes in the last days, He Himself will not know, the angels will not know, the messengers in heaven will not know, and all of the people will not know. Only the Father will know, that is, only the Spirit shall know.” If you are capable of knowing and seeing, then are these not empty words? Even the Son of man Himself does not know, yet you are able to see and know? If you have seen with your own eyes, were those words not said in vain? And what did Jesus say at the time? “But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. … Therefore be you also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes.” When that day comes, the Son of man Himself will not know it. The Son of man refers to the incarnate flesh of God, who shall be a normal and ordinary person. Even He Himself does not know, so how could you know? Jesus said that He would arrive as He had departed. When He arrives, even He Himself does not know, so could He inform you in advance? Are you able to see His arrival? Is that not a joke? Each time God arrives on earth, He shall change His name, His gender, His image, and His work; He does not repeat His work, and He is always new and never old. When He came before, He was called Jesus; could He still be called Jesus when He comes again this time? When He came before, He was male; could He be male again this time? His work when He came during the Age of Grace was to be nailed to the cross; when He comes again will He still redeem mankind from sin? Will He still be nailed to a cross? Would that not be a repetition of His work? Did you not know that God is always new and never old? There are those who say that God is immutable. That is correct, but it refers to the immutability of God’s disposition and substance. Changes in His name and work do not prove that His substance has altered; in other words, God will always be God, and this will never change. If you say that the work of God always stays the same, then would He be able to finish His six-thousand-year management plan? You merely know that God is forever unchanging, but do you know that God is always new and never old? If the work of God never changed, then could He have brought mankind to today? If God is immutable, then why is it that He has already done the work of two ages? His work is always progressing forward, and so His disposition is gradually revealed to man, and what is revealed is His inherent disposition. In the beginning, God’s disposition was hidden from man, He never openly revealed His disposition to man, and man had no knowledge of Him, so He used His work to gradually reveal His disposition to man, but this does not mean that His disposition changes in each age. It is not the case that God’s disposition is constantly changing because His will is always changing. Rather, because the work of God is carried out in different ages, His inherent disposition in its entirety is gradually revealed to man, so that man is able to know Him. But this is by no means proof that God originally has no particular disposition and His disposition has gradually changed with the passing of the ages—such belief is nonsense. God reveals to man His inherent, particular disposition, what He is, according to the passing of the ages. The work of a single age cannot express the entire disposition of God. And so, the words “God is always new and never old” are in reference to His work, and the words “God is immutable” are in regard to what God inherently has and is. Regardless, you cannot define the six-thousand-year work in one point, or portray it with mere static words. Such is the stupidity of man. God is not as simple as man imagines, and His work will not stop in one age. Jehovah, for example, will not always stand for the name of God; God also does His work under the name of Jesus, which is a symbol of how God’s work is always progressing forward.
God will always be God, and will never become Satan; Satan will always be Satan, and will never become God. God’s wisdom, God’s wondrousness, God’s righteousness, and God’s majesty shall never change. His substance and what He has and is shall never change. His work, however, is always progressing forward, always going deeper, for God is always new and never old. In every age God assumes a new name, in every age He does new work, and in every age He allows the creatures to see His new will and His new disposition. If people do not see the expression of God’s new disposition in the new age, would they not forever nail Him to the cross? And by doing so, would they not define God? If God was only incarnated as a male, people would define Him as male, as the God of men, and would never believe Him to be the God of women. Then, men would believe that God is of the same gender as men, that God is the head of men—and what of women? This is unfair; is it not preferential treatment? If this were the case, then all those whom God saved would be men like Him, and there would be no salvation for women. When God created mankind, He created Adam and He created Eve. He did not create only Adam, but made both male and female in His image. God is not only the God of men, He is also the God of women. God has new work to do during the last days. He shall reveal more of His disposition, and it shall not be the compassion and love of the time of Jesus. Since He has new work, this new work shall be accompanied by new disposition. So if this work is done by the Spirit—if God does not become flesh, and instead the Spirit speaks directly through thunder, so that man has no contact with Him, would man know His disposition? If only the Spirit does the work, then man would have no way of knowing His disposition. People can only behold God’s disposition with their own eyes when He becomes flesh, and reveals His words in the flesh, and expresses His entire disposition through the flesh. God truly lives among man. He is tangible; man can truly engage with His disposition and what He has and is; only in this way can man truly know Him. At the same time, God has also completed the work of God being the God of both men and women, and has achieved the entirety of His work in the flesh. God does not duplicate His work in each new age. Since the last days have arrived, He will do the work of the last days, and reveal His entire disposition in the last days. The last days are a separate age, one in which Jesus said you must suffer disaster, and be subjected to earthquakes, famines, and plagues, which will show that this is a new age, and is no longer the old Age of Grace. If, as people say, God is forever unchanging, His disposition is always compassionate and loving, and He loves man as Himself, and He offers every man salvation and never hates man, then would He ever be able to complete His work? When Jesus came, He was nailed to the cross, and He sacrificed Himself for all sinners by offering Himself upon the altar. He had already completed the work of redemption and already brought the Age of Grace to an end, so what would be the point of repeating the work of that age in the last days? Wouldn’t doing the same thing be a denial of the work of Jesus? If God does not do the work of crucifixion when He comes in this stage, but He remains loving and compassionate, then would He be able to bring the age to an end? Could a loving and compassionate God conclude the age? In His final work of concluding the age, God’s disposition is one of chastisement and judgment, which reveals all that is unrighteous, and publicly judges all peoples, and perfects those who truly love Him. Only a disposition such as this can bring the age to an end. The last days have already arrived. All things will be classed according to kind, and will be divided into different categories based on their nature. This is the time in which God reveals the end and the destination of man. If man does not undergo chastisement and judgment, then there will be no way of revealing the disobedience and unrighteousness of man. Only through chastisement and judgment can the end of all things be revealed. Man only shows his true colors when he is chastised and judged. Evil shall return to evil, good shall return to good, and man shall be classified according to kind. Through chastisement and judgment, the end of all things shall be revealed, so that the evil shall be punished and the good shall be rewarded, and all people shall become subject under the dominion of God. All the work requires righteous chastisement and judgment to be achieved. Because man’s corruption has reached its peak and his disobedience has been too serious, only God’s righteous disposition, which is principally one of chastisement and judgment, and is revealed during the last days, can fully transform and complete man. Only this disposition can expose evil and thus severely punish all the unrighteous. Therefore, a disposition such as this possesses the significance of the age, and the revelation and exhibition of His disposition is for the sake of the work of each new age. God does not reveal His disposition arbitrarily and without significance. If, when the end of man is revealed during the last days, God still bestows upon man inexhaustible compassion and love, if He is still loving toward man, and He does not subject man to righteous judgment, but shows him tolerance, patience, and forgiveness, if He still pardons man no matter what serious sins he commits, without any righteous judgment, then would there ever be an end to all of God’s management? When would a disposition such as this be able to lead mankind into the right destination? Take, for example, a judge who is always loving, kindhearted and gentle. He loves people irrespective of the sins they have committed, and he is loving and tolerant of people whoever they are. Then when will he be able to reach a just verdict? During the last days, only righteous judgment can classify man and bring man into a new realm. In this way, the entire age is brought to an end through God’s righteous disposition of judgment and chastisement.
from “The Vision of God’s Work (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
In each age and each stage of work, My name is not baseless, but holds representative significance: Each name represents one age. “Jehovah” represents the Age of Law, and is the honorific for the God worshiped by the people of Israel. “Jesus” represents the Age of Grace, and is the name of the God of all those who were redeemed during the Age of Grace. If man still longs for the arrival of Jesus the Savior during the last days, and still expects Him to arrive in the image He bore in Judea, then the entire six-thousand-year management plan would stop in the Age of Redemption, and would be incapable of progressing any further. The last days, furthermore, would never arrive, and the age would never be brought to an end. That is because Jesus the Savior is only for the redemption and salvation of mankind. I took the name of Jesus for the sake of all the sinners in the Age of Grace, and it is not the name by which I shall bring the whole of mankind to an end. Although Jehovah, Jesus, and the Messiah all represent My Spirit, these names only denote the different ages in My management plan, and do not represent Me in My entirety. The names by which people on earth call Me cannot articulate My entire disposition and all that I am. They are merely different names by which I am called during different ages. And so, when the final age—the age of the last days—arrives, My name shall change again. I shall not be called Jehovah, or Jesus, much less the Messiah, but shall be called the powerful Almighty God Himself, and under this name I shall bring the entire age to an end. I was once known as Jehovah. I was also called the Messiah, and people once called Me Jesus the Savior because they loved and respected Me. But today I am not the Jehovah or Jesus that people knew in times past—I am the God who has returned in the last days, the God who shall bring the age to an end. I am the God Himself that rises up at the ends of the earth, replete with My entire disposition, and full of authority, honor and glory. People have never engaged with Me, have never known Me, and have always been ignorant of My disposition. From the creation of the world until today, not one person has seen Me. This is the God who appears to man during the last days but is hidden among man. He resides among man, true and real, like the burning sun and the flaming fire, filled with power and brimming with authority. There is not a single person or thing that shall not be judged by My words, and not a single person or thing that shall not be purified through the burning of fire. Eventually, all nations shall be blessed because of My words, and also smashed to pieces because of My words. In this way, all people during the last days shall see that I am the Savior returned, I am the Almighty God that conquers all of mankind, and I was once the sin offering for man, but in the last days I also become the flames of the sun that burn all things, as well as the sun of righteousness that reveals all things. Such is My work of the last days. I took this name and am possessed of this disposition so that all people may see that I am a righteous God, and am the burning sun, and the flaming fire. It is so that all may worship Me, the only true God, and so that they may see My true face: I am not only the God of the Israelites, and am not just the Redeemer—I am the God of all creatures throughout heavens and earth and seas.
from “The Savior Has Already Returned Upon a ‘White Cloud’” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
The work done at present has pushed forward the work of the Age of Grace; that is, the work in the entire six-thousand-year management plan has moved forward. Though the Age of Grace has ended, the work of God has progressed further. Why do I say time and again that this stage of work builds upon the Age of Grace and the Age of Law? This means that the work of this day is a continuation of the work done in the Age of Grace and an uplifting of that done in the Age of Law. The three stages are closely interconnected and linked one to the next. Why do I also say that this stage of work builds on that done by Jesus? If this stage did not build on the work done by Jesus, then in this stage the crucifixion, the work of redemption done previously, would still need to be carried out. This would be meaningless. Therefore, it is not that the work has completely finished, but that the age has moved forward, and the work has become even higher than before. It could be said that this stage of work is built on the foundation of the Age of Law and the rock of the work of Jesus. The work is built stage by stage, and this stage is not a new beginning. Only the combination of the three stages of work can be deemed the six-thousand-year management plan. This stage is done on the foundation of the work of the Age of Grace. If these two stages of work are unrelated, why is there no crucifixion in this stage? Why do I not bear the sins of man? I do not come through the conception by the Holy Spirit nor will I be crucified to bear the sins of man. Rather, I am here to directly chastise man. If I did not chastise man following the crucifixion, and now I do not come through the conception by the Holy Spirit, then I would not be qualified to chastise man. It is precisely because I am one with Jesus that I come directly to chastise and judge man. This stage of work builds entirely on the previous stage. This is why only such work can bring man to salvation stage by stage. Jesus and I come from the same Spirit. Though Our fleshes have no relationship, Our Spirits are one; though what We do and the work We bear are not the same, We are alike in essence; Our fleshes take different forms, and this is because of the change in era and the need of Our work; Our ministries are not alike, so the work We bring forth and the disposition We reveal to man are also different. That is why what man sees and receives this day is unlike that of the past; this is so because of the change in era. Though the gender and form of Their fleshes are different, and though They were not born of the same family, much less in the same time period, Their Spirits are one. Though Their fleshes share no blood or physical relationship in any way, this does not deny that They are the incarnate fleshes of God in two different time periods. It is an undeniable truth that They are the incarnate fleshes of God, though They do not share the same bloodline or a common human language (one was a male who spoke the language of the Jews and the other is a female who speaks only Chinese). It is for these reasons that They do the work They ought in different countries, and in different time periods as well. Despite the fact that They are the same Spirit, possessed of the same essence, there are no absolute similarities at all between the outward shells of Their fleshes. They merely share the same humanity, but the appearance and birth of Their fleshes are not alike. These have no impact on Their respective work or the knowledge that man has of Them, for, after all, They are the same Spirit and none can separate Them. Though They are not related by blood, Their entire beings are directed by Their Spirits, so that They undertake different work in different time periods, with Their fleshes not sharing a bloodline. Similarly, the Spirit of Jehovah is not the father of the Spirit of Jesus, much as the Spirit of Jesus is not the son of the Spirit of Jehovah. They are the same Spirit. Just like the incarnate God of this day and Jesus. Though They are not related by blood, They are one; this is because Their Spirits are one.
from “The Two Incarnations Complete the Significance of the Incarnation” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Though the work of the two incarnate fleshes is different, the essence of the fleshes, and the source of Their work, are identical; it is just that They exist to perform two different stages of the work, and arise in two different ages. No matter what, God’s incarnate fleshes share the same essence and the same origin—this is a truth no one can deny.
from “The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
The first time I came among men was during the Age of Redemption. Of course I came among the Jewish family; therefore the first to see God coming to earth were the Jewish people. The reason I did this work personally was because I wanted to use My incarnate flesh as a sin offering in My redemption work. So the first to see Me were the Jews of the Age of Grace. That was the first time I worked in the flesh. In the Age of Kingdom, My work is to conquer and perfect, so I again do shepherding work in the flesh. This is My second time working in the flesh. In the last two stages of work, what people come into contact with is no longer the invisible, untouchable Spirit, but a person who is the Spirit actualized as flesh. Thus in the eyes of man, I again become a person with none of the look and feel of God. Moreover, the God that people see is not only male, but also female, which is most astounding and puzzling to them. Time and time again, My extraordinary work shatters old beliefs held for many, many years. People are stunned! The so-called God is not only the Holy Spirit, that Spirit, the sevenfold intensified Spirit, the all-encompassing Spirit, but also a person, an ordinary person, an exceptionally common person. He is not only male, but also female. They are similar in that They are both born to humans, and dissimilar in that one is conceived by the Holy Spirit and the other is born to a human but derived directly from the Spirit. They are similar in that both incarnate fleshes of God carry out God the Father’s work, and dissimilar in that one does the work of redemption and the other does the work of conquering. Both represent God the Father, but one is the Lord of redemption filled with lovingkindness and mercy, and the other is the God of righteousness filled with wrath and judgment. One is the Supreme Commander to launch the redemption work, and the other is the righteous God to accomplish the work of conquering. One is the Beginning, the other the End. One is sinless flesh, the other is flesh that completes the redemption, continues the work, and is never of sin. Both are the same Spirit, but They dwell in different fleshes and are born in different places. And They are separated by several thousand years. Yet all Their work is mutually complementary, never conflictual, and can be spoken of in the same breath. Both are people, but one is a baby boy and the other is an infant girl.
from “When It Comes to God, What Is Your Understanding” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Not only is God a Spirit but He can also become flesh; moreover, He is a body of glory. Jesus, though you have not seen Him, was witnessed by the Israelites, that is, the Jews at the time. He was at first a flesh, but after He was crucified, He became the body of glory. He is the all-encompassing Spirit and can do work in all places. He could be Jehovah, Jesus and the Messiah; in the end, He can become Almighty God. He is righteousness, judgment, and chastisement, is curse and wrath, but also mercy and lovingkindness. All the work done by Him can represent Him.
from “The Two Incarnations Complete the Significance of the Incarnation” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
From the work of Jehovah to that of Jesus, and from the work of Jesus to that of this current stage, these three stages cover the entire breadth of God’s management, and are all the work of one Spirit. From when He created the world, God has always been managing mankind. He is the Beginning and the End, He is the First and the Last, and He is the One who begins an age and the One who brings the age to an end. The three stages of work, in different ages and different locations, are surely carried out by one Spirit. All those who separate these three stages oppose God. Now, you must understand that all the work from the first stage until today is the work of one God, the work of one Spirit, of which there is no doubt.
from “The Vision of God’s Work (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
I believe that our generation is blessed to be able to take up the path unfinished by the people of previous generations, and to be able to behold the reappearance of God from several thousand years ago—God who is here among us, and also fills all things. You would never have thought that you could walk upon this path: Can you do it? This path is led directly by the Holy Spirit, it is led by the sevenfold intensified Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is the path that has been opened up for you by the God of today. Even in your wildest dream you couldn’t have imagined that the Jesus of several thousand years ago would appear once again before you. Do you not feel gratified? Who is able to come face-to-face with God? I often pray for our group to receive greater blessings from God that we might be favored by God and gained by Him, but there have also been countless times when I have shed bitter tears for us, asking that God enlighten us, and allow us to behold greater revelations.
from “The Path… (7)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Footnotes:
a. “Reverse their past attitude” refers to how people’s conceptions and views about God change once they know God.
b. “Resting easy” indicates that people are unconcerned about God’s work and don’t see it as important.
Recommendation: Eastern Lightning