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Showing posts with label The Salvation of the Soul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Salvation of the Soul. Show all posts

10/07/2017

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

The Significance of God's Two Incarnations

I
God began His work of salvation in the Age of Grace, after the end of the Age of Law. The first incarnation redeemed man from sin through the flesh of Jesus Christ. He saved man from the cross, but man's satanic dispositions lingered on. In the last of days, God judges to purify mankind. It's only when this is done will He end His work of salvation and enter into rest.

II
He lives among man, experiencing his suffering, and gifts to man His word. All man can touch is God's incarnate flesh. Through Him man can receive salvation and understand all words and truths. The second incarnation, enough to purify man, thus completing all the work and the meaning of His incarnation. The work of God in the flesh will now come to an end. He won't incarnate in flesh.

III
After this incarnation, His work in flesh and salvation will cease. For He'll have divided man and gained His chosen people. The second incarnation will deliver the forgiven ones. Dispositions will change and they'll be clean. Breaking free from Satan's influence, they'll return to God's throne. Yes, it's the only way to be fully sanctified.
from "The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)" in The Word Appears in the Flesh

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.

10/05/2017

The Church of Almighty God, Eastern Lightning, Musical Drama,
Fight Over Gold

Almighty God says, “When you are weary and when you begin to feel the desolation of this world, do not be perplexed, do not cry. Almighty God, the Watcher, will embrace your arrival any time. He is watching by your side, waiting for you to turn back. He is waiting for the day your memory suddenly recovers …” (The Word Appears in the Flesh). Xiaozhen used to be a pure, kind-hearted Christian, who always treated her friends sincerely. However, when it was to their benefit, her former friends became her enemies. After suffering this tragedy, Xiaozhen was forced to abandon her true heart and her former principles. She began to betray her own good conscience and good spirit, and wallowed in the mire of the evil world. … As she fell from grace and walked a path of depravity, she was trampled by the world and became riddled with scars and bruises. She had reached a dead end, and at her point of despair when she had given up all hope, Almighty God's sincere call finally awakened Xiaozhen's heart and spirit …

God Is Seeking Your Heart and Your Spirit

1. Mankind who left the life supply from the Almighty does not know why they exist, and yet fears death. There is no support and no help, but mankind is still reluctant to close their eyes, braving it all, drags out an ignoble existence in this world in bodies without the consciousness of souls. You live with no hope. He lives with no aim. There’s only the Holy One in the legend, there is only the Holy One in the legend who’ll come to save those who moan in suffering and long desperately for His arrival. In the people who are unconscious, this belief can’t be realized so far. The people however still yearn for it, yearn for it.
2. The Almighty has mercy on these who suffer deeply. At the same time, He’s fed up with these who are unconscious, ’cause He has to wait, has to wait too long for the answer from mankind, from mankind. He wants to seek your spirit and your heart. He wants to bring you food and water. He wants to wake you up. So that you are thirsty no more, hungry no more. And when you are feeling weary, and when you begin to feel the desolation, the desolation of this world, do not be perplexed, do not cry. Almighty God, the Watcher, will embrace your arrival any time. And when you are feeling weary, and when you begin to feel the desolation, the desolation of this world, do not be perplexed, do not cry. Almighty God, the Watcher, will embrace your arrival any time. And when you are feeling weary, and when you begin to feel the desolation, the desolation of this world, do not be perplexed, do not cry. Almighty God, the Watcher, will embrace your arrival any time.
3. He’s watching by your side, waiting for you to turn back. He’s waiting for the day your memory suddenly recovers, becoming conscious of that you came from God, the fact that you came from God. You once lost your way somehow and somewhere, O, falling unconscious on the roadside, and then unknowingly having a “father.” You further realize that the Almighty has been watching there. He has been waiting, waiting for your return all along, all along.
4. He longs bitterly. He has been waiting, waiting for a response without an answer. His watching’s beyond price and is for the heart, for the heart and the spirit of mankind. This watching maybe will last forever, or maybe this watching has come to its end. But you ought to know, where is your heart, and where is your, your soul. Where are they? This watching maybe will last forever, or maybe this watching has come to its end. But you ought to know, where is your heart, and where is your soul. O… This watching maybe will last forever, or maybe this watching has come to its end. But you ought to know, where is your heart, and where is your, your soul. This watching maybe will last forever, or maybe this watching has come to its end. But you ought to know, where is your heart, and where is your, your soul. This watching maybe will last forever, or maybe this watching has come to its end. But you ought to know, where is your heart, and where is your soul. O… Where are they?
from “The Sighing of the Almighty” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Recommendation: Is Eastern Lightning the Return of the Lord Jesus?, The brief introduction of the Church of Almighty God

9/18/2017

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

22. God Led Me to Overcome the Devil’s Affliction

Wang Hua    Henan Province
My daughter and I are the Christians of the Church of Almighty God. In following God, we two were arrested together and sentenced to hard labor by the CCP government. I was sentenced to three years and my daughter was sentenced to one year. Although I underwent the brutal and inhuman persecution and affliction of the CCP government, every time I was in despair and danger, it was Almighty God’s word that gave me the courage and power to live on and led me to go through the cruel tortures and the three-year hellish prison life victoriously. In that tribulation, I saw the love and salvation of Almighty God and tasted the authority and power of God’s word, and made a firm resolution to unswervingly follow God to walk the right way of human life….
Before I believed in God, I was a business woman. I managed the business well and earned some money. But while bustling about for a living, I fully experienced the fickleness of worldly relationship. Every day I not only had to rack my brains thinking of how to make money, but also had to deal with various inspections from the government departments. Speaking with tongue in cheek and getting along with others with a mask all day long, I felt so miserable and tired but had no other choice. Just when I was mentally and physically exhausted from rushing about for a living, I accepted the end-time gospel of Almighty God. I saw that in the word Almighty God expresses, there is the truth about human life, the disclosing of man’s corrupt substance, and the exposing of the root of man’s suffering, and also there is a bright way of human life pointed out to man. My heart was immediately attracted by God’s word and I firmly believed that this is the work of the true God and is a right way of human life. I was really so blessed that I could receive God’s end-time work today. Meanwhile, I also felt that too many people in the world who, like me, led an empty life and couldn’t find the direction of life needed the end-time salvation of Almighty God. I wished to preach the end-time gospel to more people who sought the truth, so that they could receive God’s salvation. Additionally, God moved me greatly and gave me faith and strength, so I always had endless words to say when talking about God’s work and salvation, and also brought over some people who truly sought the truth. I was so excited. At that time, my daughter just graduated from school. She saw that I was in a good mood every day after following Almighty God, and saw that the brothers and sisters who came to our house were all very simple and kind and it was particularly harmonious and joyful when we had meetings, talking heart to heart, sang hymns, and danced together. Therefore, she also longed for such a life and was willing to walk the way of believing in God. From then on, we did business at daytime and prayed, read God’s word, learned hymns, and fellowshipped about our knowledge of God’s word together at night. We lived a very happy life.
Just when we were immersed in God’s love and enjoying God’s warmth, unexpectedly, the CCP stretched out its talons to us, and brought us the nightmarish affliction, which is engraved on my heart. It was December 7, 2007. My daughter was washing clothes at home and I was ready to go out to perform duty when five or six undercover policemen suddenly broke in. One of them roared, “You are cultists! And you go out to preach to others!” Then he pointed at my daughter and said to another two evil policemen, “Take her away first!” Then, my daughter was taken away by the two evil policemen. The rest ones began to rummage through drawers and cabinets and even the pockets of the clothes. They made the bed and floor a complete mess and stomped and trampled on the bed wildly in leather shoes. In the end, they took away our books of God’s word, CDs, two CD players, two MP3 players, 2,000 yuan in cash, and one pair of gold earrings. Then, they pushed and shoved me into a police car. I asked them, “What law did we break in believing in God? Why do you arrest us?” Unexpectedly, they said brazenly before many onlookers, “We specially catch you, the believers in God.” I was very indignant in my heart: Are they the people’s police? They’re simply a gang of bandits, hoodlums, and gangsters who specially uphold the evil and bully the good and kind!
After arriving at the Public Security Bureau, the evil policemen handcuffed me and then dragged me into the interrogation room. Seeing their fierce manner, I couldn’t but feel afraid in my heart. Today I fall into the hand of these ferocious wolves and so many books of God’s word and CDs are searched out; they surely won’t let me off. If I can’t withstand their torture and become a Judas, I’ll be an eternal sinner who betrays God! So, I made a resolution to God: O God! It’s the time you test me. If I betray you and become a Judas, may your punishment come upon me and let me feel worse than death. Then, my heart calmed down. At that moment, a leader-looking evil policeman abused me, “You a woman, can’t you do anything else? Why must you lead your daughter to believe in God? She looks so pretty. If she goes to find a rich man, she can earn hundreds of thousands of yuan a year. Why fucking believe in God? Speak up! When did you begin to believe? Who preached to you? Where did you get the books?” Hearing his nonsense, I was extremely indignant. I never expected that a government official would actually speak out such base and shameless words. In their eyes, it becomes a proper thing to sell the body. They even instigate people to do these evil things. However, we who believe in God and worship God and try to be honest people are convicted as the criminals who do illegal things. And they even clamp down on and arrest us. Isn’t this bullying the good and kind and stifling justice? The CCP is really too evil and too dark! Seeing them ridiculous and unreasonable, I deeply knew that there was no way to reason with them, so I kept silent. As they saw that I said nothing the whole time, they forced me into the police car, threatening, “We’ve searched out so many things from your house. If you don’t confess honestly, we’ll shoot you outside!” Hearing such words, I couldn’t help fearing in my heart. They can do anything. If they really shoot me, I’ll never see my daughter again. The more I thought, the more I felt distressed. I kept calling to God in my heart, asking him to keep my heart and remove my fear and worry within. At that moment, God’s words came upon me, “Everything in the whole universe, without exception, is decided by me. Is there anything that is not in my hand?” (from “The First Piece of Word” of God’s Utterance to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh) “Faith is a single-plank bridge. Whoever fears death can hardly cross it. Whoever gives up his life can cross it securely. When man has the thought of timidity and fear, it is just the fooling of satan. It fears that we might pass the bridge of faith into God.” (from “The Sixth Piece of Word” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) At that time, my heart was suddenly enlightened. Yes, my daughter’s life and mine are both in God’s hand. It’s decided by God whether we’ll live or die. Satan the devil can’t control our destiny. Without God’s permission, nobody can take away our lives. Satan just uses my fatal spot to threaten and frighten me, trying to make me fall into its scheme and yield to it. I can never fall into its trap. Even if God permits me to bear a testimony of death, I’m willing to obey and I’d rather die than betray God. Thinking of that, I instantly had the determination to fight against satan to the end and was no longer timid and afraid.
The evil policemen drove me to the detention house. As soon as I entered the yard, the prison guards ordered me to strip down to my panties and take off my shoes. After searching me forcibly, they had me stand naked in the chilly yard for about a full half hour. I felt so cold that I couldn’t stand steadily and kept shivering all over, with my teeth chattering. Failing to search out anything, the guards took me to the cell and incited the head of the cell and the other prisoners, saying, “She’s a believer in Almighty God.” At these words, the prisoners rushed forward and forced me to take off my pants to my ankles and then pull them up over and over again. They kept laughing on the side. After I was made fun of and insulted, the head of the cell told me to learn to make goods with chicken feathers. As it was a delicate job, I still couldn’t do it the next day. Then the head took a bamboo rod and beat my hands hard. My hands were so swollen and painful that they couldn’t hold the chicken feather. When I was picking up the feather on the ground, she stomped on my hand and ground it hard. Instantly I felt sharp pain, as if my fingers were broken. But she still felt dissatisfied. She lashed my head with the bamboo rod several times, so that I became dizzy. In the end, she said ferociously, “You’ll stand watch tonight as punishment. Tomorrow you’ll be interrogated, so you must finish tomorrow’s work today. Otherwise, you have to stand the whole night tomorrow!” At the moment, I felt unspeakably oppressed and distressed. I thought to myself: These devils unite in afflicting me like this. I already can’t take it now; how can I pass the future days? Tears of sorrow and grievance ran down my cheeks. I poured out my grief to God inwardly, “O God! Facing these devils, I feel lonely, helpless, and frightened. I don’t know how to walk the future way. May you lead me so that I can become strong.” After the prayer, God’s words inspired me, “Dry your tears and do not be sad or distressed any more. Everything is manipulated by my hand. My purpose is to make you overcomers soon so that you can enter into glory together with me. Whatever comes along, you should have such thanks and praises to let my heart be satisfied.” (from “The Tenth Piece of Word” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) “The overcomer God speaks about is one who, under the influence of satan and the siege of satan, that is, in the forces of darkness, can still stand the testimony, and can still keep his original faith and keep his faithfulness to God. In any case, you can still keep your pure heart before God and keep your true love for God. Thus you have stood the testimony before God. This is the overcomer God speaks about.” (from “You Should Hold on to Your Faithfulness to God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) God’s words greatly comforted my heart and also made me understand God’s will: It is through satan’s siege and persecution that God perfects man, so that man can break away from satan’s influence and enter God’s kingdom. In such a dark and evil world ruled by the CCP, people are only allowed to walk evil ways rather than the right way. The CCP simply wants to corrupt people to an extent that they’ll confound right and wrong, advocate evil, and betray justice, so as to achieve its purpose of devouring people in the end. If I can still not yield, keep my faith, faithfulness, and love before God, and stand testimony for God when besieged by the influence of darkness, I’ll be a real overcomer and can shame satan and glorify God. So, I prayed, “God, thank you for your timely revelation and leading, making me see the light in darkness, understand your will, and know what you want to gain from me. O God! You perfect my faith through the service of these devils and satans, and it’s really your uplifting for me. I believe all these are in your manipulation. You’re searching and watching all these in secret. I wish to stand testimony to satisfy you in this trial. May you give me faith and strength and the will to suffer, so that I won’t stumble or get lost no matter what sufferings I undergo.”
At 9 a.m. on the third day, the evil policemen took me to the interrogation room. One of them held my daughter’s cellphone and questioned, “You sent the message, right? You told your daughter that you would buy a house. It seems that you have lots of money.” Those evil policemen were really base. In order to squeeze my money, they didn’t miss any clue. I said, “I was joking with my daughter.” The evil policeman changed color. He took a notebook and lashed my head and face violently. I was beaten dizzy and my face felt painfully hot. He said through gnashing teeth, “Speak up! Where’s the money? If you don’t confess honestly, I’ll shoot you outside! Or sentence you to eight or ten years!” I said that I didn’t know. A big and tall evil policeman flew into a rage. He came up to seize me by the clothes on my back and threw me over two meters away. Then he kicked my head, back, and legs fiercely. As he kicked, he said, “How dare you not confess honestly! You said you didn’t know. Save that for the suckers! If you don’t tell, I’ll beat you to death today!” I clenched my teeth and fought the pain, and kept calling to God in my heart, “O God! These devils are too ferocious. Please give me strength and help me overcome their beating, and keep me so that I can stand testimony for you.” At that time, I thought of God’s words, “The good soldiers of Christ should be brave, get strong in spirit by relying on me, strive to be valiant warriors, and fight satan to the death.” (from “The Twelfth Piece of Word” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) “As long as you have one breath left, God will not let you die.” (from “The Sixth Piece of Word” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) God’s words gave me faith and strength, so that I overcame the bondage of death, felt God’s love for me, and saw that God was keeping me at every moment. When I was weak, helpless, distressed, and in despair, he gave me faith and strength, making me overcome satan’s temptation. At that moment, I thought to myself: The more you torture me like this, the more I see clearly your true face of being hostile to God. Even if I have to die, I’ll never give in to you. Me betray God! Not a chance! I felt much relieved at once. They beat me and interrogated me in the morning, and made me kneel on the icy-cold floor in the afternoon, torturing me till dark. In the end, I was beaten so much that I ached unbearably all over and couldn’t stand. Failing to get anything from the interrogation, the evil policemen sent me back to the detention house.
In the detention house, the prison guards were as vicious as scorpions. They never let me have a full meal but gave me an excessive workload, making me work over fifteen hours every day. If I couldn’t finish it, they would ask the head of the cell to torture me. As I was raw to the work at the beginning, the head hit my head with an iron hammer used for work. Right then, my head got a bump. Then she punched and kicked me, so that my whole body ached unbearably and my mouth and nose bled once again. Suffering such brutal torture, I couldn’t help thinking of my daughter. Since she was arrested, I didn’t know how the devils afflicted her, much less know how she passed her days in prison at that time. At the moment, I suddenly heard screams from the male cell next door. One of my cellmates said, “Here killing a person is just like killing a chick. Once, a male prisoner couldn’t bear the tortures and escaped to the back hill. After the guards found him, they beat him to death. Then, they told his family that he killed himself. And that case just ended up that way.” Hearing that, I was filled with horror and even more worried about my daughter in my heart. She was only nineteen years old. Since childhood, she hadn’t undergone any suffering, much less experienced any frustration. Those devils that killed without blinking an eye could do anything base. I didn’t know what tortures and afflictions my daughter would undergo. Being uncertain whether she was alive, I was greatly tormented in my heart. Even my dreams at night were all the terrible scenes that my daughter was being afflicted by the devils. I often jerked awake from dreams and couldn’t fall asleep afterward due to the refining.
The next day, the prison guards gave the order. Immediately, five or six prisoners came and cut my hair raggedly. Then, they pressed me to the floor and put on me the most terrible torture device in the prison, the “Iron Girl.” After that, the guards kept me standing from 5 a.m. to midnight (for nineteen hours on end), and told the head of the cell, “Watch her closely. If she wants to sleep, kick her!” So the head watched me every day. Whenever I closed my eyes, she would kick me. When it was time to sleep at night, four prisoners got me onto the table used for work at daytime, and carried me down the next morning. The snowstorms just happened those days and it was extremely cold. To torture me, the hateful guards had me wear that device for seven days and nights. I couldn’t eat, drink, defecate, or urinate by myself. When I needed to use the commode, I had to ask the prisoners who failed to finish the task to help me. The prisoners were busy with work every day. Every time, they just fed me perfunctorily and seldom gave me water. I really felt hungry and cold and it was so difficult to spend every second. Every morning when they lifted me off the table, I felt very miserable. I didn’t know how to pass through such a day and only hoped that it could get dark immediately and that the day would never break. Because that kind of torture device was too heavy, the next day my hands were swollen and purple, almost festering, and my whole body swelled like a balloon. (The swelling didn’t go down even after ten months.) At the time, I was tortured so much that I felt worse than death. I was distressed to a degree, so I made demands on God in my heart, “O God! I really can’t bear such torture anymore. Now I’m hovering between life and death. Please take away my breath sooner. I don’t want to live a minute longer.” When I made unreasonable demands on God, wanting to die to get free from the misery, I remembered a passage of his words, “Now you can’t die. You should clench your fists and live on. You should live for God once. If one has the truth, he will have this resolution and will no longer think of death. When death threatens you, you will say, ‘O God, I’m not willing to die. I still haven’t known you! I still haven’t repaid your love! I should try my best to know you before dying.’ … Aren’t the sufferings you encounter today the sufferings God undergoes? You are suffering with God, and God is accompanying man in the suffering; isn’t it so? Today you all have a part with Christ in his tribulation and kingdom and patience, and only thus will you gain glory in the end!” (from “How to Know Man’s Nature” in Christ’s Talks with Church Leaders and Workers) God’s words, like sweet dew, moistened my thirsty heart. Yes! Now is just the time God wants me to bear testimony for him. Won’t I humiliate God if I die now? To save us, God has been incarnated twice and undergone great humiliations and sufferings. In the Age of the Grace, he suffered the opposition, rejection, insult, scourging, and mocking of the whole Jewish nation, and in the end, he was crucified alive. In the end time, God again comes to work with a greater risk and temptation. God has been silently enduring the hunting and persecution and rumoring and smearing of the CCP government and the slander and rejection and condemnation and blasphemy of the entire religious world, without any complaint. Consider the sufferings Christ has undergone. What reason do I, a corrupt person who has enjoyed God’s salvation, have to avoid suffering? Today I can suffer with Christ and share with him in his kingdom, tribulation, and patient endurance; this is God’s grace and uplifting. However, now I only consider how to get free from the sufferings but don’t care for God’s will in the slightest. I really fail God’s thoughtful kind intention. God endures so many humiliations and sufferings and pays so much price on men just to regain them from satan’s hand and make a group of men who can bear testimony for him before satan. This is what God has been expecting since the creation of the world. I’ve enjoyed so much grace and blessing from God. Today God lets me bear testimony for him before satan; this is my honor. No matter how painful and difficult it is, I’ll live tenaciously to satisfy God’s heart. God’s words aroused my heart and soul, making me understand his will and no longer think of dying. I only wished to endure all sufferings and submit to God’s manipulation and arrangement. Due to the seven days and nights of physical punishment, I was tortured within an inch of my life. The skin on my feet all peeled off and my lips peeled layer after layer. Later, I heard a male prisoner next door say, “A strong male prisoner over thirty years old died from it.” At that word, I kept thanking God in my heart, because I knew it wasn’t out of my good luck but was out of God’s leading and keeping. It was God’s words with life force that supported me to pull through it. Otherwise, I, a frail woman, had long died from that kind of torture device.
After experiencing that cruel torture, I saw God’s almightiness and even more realized my incompetence: In the trial, I even can’t take care of myself but worry that my daughter can’t stand firm. Isn’t this unnecessary worry? Her destiny is in God’s hand. My worry can’t help her at all but can only let satan take the opportunity to fool and afflict me. All matters and things are under God’s manipulation and arrangement. I should commit my daughter to God and look to God. I believe that since God leads me in the tribulation, he will also lead her to pass through the hurdle. So I prayed to God and thought of God’s words, “In which aspect man should undergo sufferings or frustrations has been predestined by God and is not demanded by man; this is absolutely true. Being able to accept the trial of God’s word and suffer in God’s word is what every believer in God should have. Have you seen this clearly?” (from “A True Love for God Is Spontaneous” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) God’s words completely turned around my state. Yes, what hardship one should experience and what sufferings one should undergo were predestinated by God. The sufferings my daughter undergoes are also out of the permission of God’s throne. Although I can’t see it clearly or know it, I’m sure there is God’s love in it, for God’s love for man is most practical and true. I’m willing to commit my daughter to God, let God rule over and arrange for her, and obey everything from God. Just when I dropped all those and was willing to obey God’s manipulation, I finally saw my daughter in court. She secretly told me that she saw God’s blessing after she underwent some sufferings and tortures under God’s leading. God maneuvered the rich prisoners in the cell to help her. Some gave her clothes and some bought her food and drink; when the head of the cell picked on her, trying to bully her, someone sprang to her defense; and so on. Through such experience, my daughter had some knowledge of God’s wonderful and wise work and realized that God’s love couldn’t be described by any words. Hearing what she said, I was so happy, with my eyes full of tears of gratitude to God. Through her, I saw God’s wonderful deed and God’s almightiness and sovereignty once again, and saw that it was God who had been leading and keeping the two of us to get through the tribulation and persecution. Therefore, I had more faith in God.
In the days that followed, the prison guards still forced me to work, regardless of my swelling and aching all over. Not long afterward, I was so tired that my old wounds weren’t healed but fresh wounds appeared. My lumbar vertebrae were too painful to be straightened, which made me unable to get to sleep at night. Even so, the prison guards still didn’t let me off. They asked the head of the cell to pick on me in every aspect. As I had no money to buy them food, the head kicked my private parts fiercely. I dodged instinctively. She flew into a rage and kicked and stomped on my body wildly. Because there was no oil in the vegetables we ate, I often had constipation. Once I stayed a little longer in the washroom, they abused me and had me dump excrement and urine for half a month as punishment. Sometimes it wasn’t my turn to stand watch, but they made me stand watch at night with a random excuse. And they tried to fine me fifty yuan, saying that I used more raw materials when working. One of the guards took the opportunity to take me to the office, tempting me, “If you can tell me with whom you believe in God, I’ll speak to the court for your lighter sentence, and the fifty yuan needn’t to be fined.” Those evil policewomen were full of wiles and adopted hard and soft means, forcing me to betray God by every possible means. It was really a vain idea! I firmly turned her down.
On August 25, 2008, the CCP government, on the charge of “taking part in a cult and disrupting the enforcement of the law,” sentenced me to three years of hard labor and sent me to the provincial women’s labor camp to serve my sentence. My daughter was sentenced to one year of hard labor and served her sentence in the local detention house.
After I stayed in the prison for half a month, the prison guards would rearrange our cells. I heard that the work in the older team was lighter. Afflicted severely in the detention house, I already broke down, without strength to do heavy work anymore. So I prayed to God about this matter, asking him to make a way out. If I needed to continue to experience that environment, I was willing to obey. I thanked God for hearing my prayer. I was assigned to the older team smoothly. Others all said it was beyond expectation. I knew clearly in my heart that it was God who was manipulating everything and was sympathizing with my weakness. There the prison guards said very nice words, “Whoever works well and earns more points will get a reduced sentence. We won’t show partiality to anyone….” I believed their words, thinking that the guards there would be better than those in the detention house, so I worked overtime. In the team consisting of nearly three hundred prisoners, I usually ranked the top ten in working. However, when it came to remission, the guards only gave it to those who often fought or those who bought them gifts, while my sentence wasn’t reduced even by one day. In order to get a remission, one prisoner sweated her guts out working. However, a guard said to her, “You’re so able; how come you haven’t been sentenced to life imprisonment?” Hearing those words, I really hated myself for being too blind to see clearly the CCP’s substance of being fierce and atrocious, thus being deceived by their lies. Actually God has said, “For the sky above the whole mankind is turbid and dark and not at all clear, the world is in total darkness, and living in this world, men ‘cannot see their hand when they stretch it out’ and cannot see the sun when they look up….” (from “What Is a Real ‘Man’?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) Through the disclosing of God’s word and by comparison with the fact, I saw that the CCP government is in total darkness from top to bottom, without any fairness or justice. The evil policemen only knew to cheat and fool us with lies and simply didn’t treat us as humans. The prisoners were the money-making tools in their eyes. The harder one worked, the less chance they would give him a commuted sentence. They wanted the prisoners to serve all along, being their oxen and horses to squeeze more money. To let us finish the work quickly, those evil policemen even didn’t allow us to go to the washroom. Several times, I really couldn’t hold on and urinated into my pants. As I was excellent in working, after knowing it, the main team tried to transfer me there to be a “role model.” I already saw clearly their ugly face, knowing that if I was transferred there, they would certainly intensify their efforts to force me to work. Fearing that I would be transferred, I kept praying to God, “O God! I know it’s the devil’s trap. But I have no way to get free from it. May you make a way out for me.” To my surprise, I couldn’t climb up the stairs after praying. In the hot weather, my hands were cold and curled up, even unable to be opened with force, and they were black and blue. The officer of the main team said that I was pretending to be ill, and ordered two prisoners to carry me to the upstairs to work. I could only call to God desperately. Then, I fell headfirst from the third floor to the second floor. Seeing that, they were scared and then let me back on the older team. Afterward, my body wasn’t injured at all. I saw God’s keeping for me again.
In prison, the believers in Almighty God were convicted as political offenders. The CCP devils monitored us in all aspects. We even had no right to talk. If I said a word with someone, the prison guards would question what I had said when seeing that. And they asked the head of the cell to watch me at night, checking if I told others things about believing in God. Every time my family came to see me, the guards would force me to follow them to say words of slandering God; otherwise they would intentionally disturb me from talking with my family. (There was a time limit for talking with one’s family.) Because I knew it was offending God to say those words, whenever I met such situation, I would pray to God silently, “God! Today it is satan’s temptation that comes upon me. Please keep my mouth from saying words that offend your disposition.” As I never said them, they could do nothing about it in the end.
The three years of prison life made me see clearly the CCP government’s true face. It acts one way in public and another in private, persecutes and disturbs God’s work in every possible way under the camouflage of “freedom of belief,” cruelly tortures and brutally mistreats believers in God, and uses all base means to force people to reject and betray God and yield to its power, so as to achieve its sinful purpose of occupying and controlling people forever. Man was created by God and ought to worship God. However, the CCP government does its utmost to banish God’s coming, which truly exposes its evil essence of running counter to right principles and acting against Heaven. After experiencing that persecution and tribulation, although I underwent some physical sufferings, I didn’t regret, because I didn’t undergo that suffering in vain. Through experiencing that environment, I saw more clearly satan the devil’s substance of being hostile to God and hated it more deeply and more thoroughly. Meanwhile, I had some knowledge of God’s wonderful deed and God’s love and salvation for mankind, practically tasted Christ’s beauty and good and humbleness and the sufferings Christ undergoes for saving man, and had deeper faith and love for God. When I was weak and feeble, God gave me faith and strength time and again, so that I could fight against satan to the end. When I was distressed and dispirited, God comforted me with his word. When I was in misery and despair, God encouraged me with his word. When I was on the verge of death, God’s word gave me the power and courage to live. Every time I was in danger, it was God who stretched out his hand of salvation in time and kept me. After I got out of prison, due to the CCP devil’s sowing discord, my relatives and friends all rejected and kept away from me, but the brothers and sisters were concerned about and took care of me and brought me all daily necessities, which was the warmth I couldn’t taste in any other place. Thank God for his salvation for me. No matter how difficult the future way is, I’ll follow God to the end and pursue to live out the meaningful life to repay God’s love.
Recommendation: Eastern Lightning

9/14/2017

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26. The Dark Prison Life Made Me Love God More Resolutely

Meng Yong    Shanxi Province
I’m honest by nature and always bullied by others. So I tasted all the coldness of the human world and felt life was empty and meaningless. After I believed in Almighty God, through reading God’s word and living the church life, I enjoyed the peace and happiness I had never had and saw that the brothers and sisters in the Church of Almighty God love each other and are close as family members. This made me know that only God is righteous and only in the Church of Almighty God, there is light. Through personally experiencing the work of Almighty God for several years, I truly tasted that Almighty God’s word can indeed change and save man and Almighty God is love and salvation. In order that more people could enjoy God’s love and pursue to receive God’s salvation, the brothers and sisters and I rushed to cooperate in the gospel work. Unexpectedly, we were arrested and persecuted by the CCP government.
On January 12, 2011, I drove to a place to preach the gospel with several brothers and sisters. However, we were reported by an evil man. Not long after, the County government sent the police force from several law enforcement departments, such as the Criminal Police Team, the National Security Team, the Narcotics Team, the Armed Police Team, the Police Station, and so on, to arrest us in more than ten police cars. When I was just about to drive away with a brother, we saw seven or eight policemen wielding iron sticks beating a brother violently. Then, four policemen quickly ran to us and stopped our car. One of them pulled out the car key without a word and ordered us to stay in the car and not move. At that time, I saw that brother sitting on the ground and unable to move because of their beating, so I was filled with indignation and hurriedly got out of the car to stop their savage act. But the evil policemen seized my arms and pushed me aside. I tried to reason with them, “You can talk if there’s anything wrong. Why beat him?” They roared at me ferociously, “Get back into your car quickly! There will be more for you in a while!” Later, they took us to the police station and forcibly seized our car.
A bit past 9 p.m., two criminal policemen came to interrogate me. Getting no valuable clues from my mouth, they were exasperated and cursed me while gnashing their teeth, “Damn you! We’ll fix you later!” Then, they shut me in the waiting room. At 11:30 p.m., the two of them took me to a room without a monitor. I had a feeling that they would get violent with me, so I kept praying to God in my heart, asking God to keep me. Then, a policeman surnamed Jia came to question me, “Did you ride in a Jetta these days?” I said no. He roared angrily, “Others have seen you. You still deny it?” As he said that, he slapped my face fiercely. I felt hot pain in my face. He roared, “I’ll see how tough you are!” While saying that, he took a wide leather belt and whipped my face violently countless times. I screamed in spite of myself. Seeing that, they gagged my mouth with the leather belt. Then, several evil policemen covered my body with a quilt and beat me wildly with iron bars until they were out of breath. I was beaten senseless and my bones ached so much as if they were falling apart. At that time I didn’t know why they treated me that way. Later, I knew that they covered me with a quilt for the purpose that no marks of broken skin and flesh would be left. They put me in a room without a monitor, gagged my mouth, and covered me with a quilt, because they were afraid that their evil acts would be known. Never did I expect that the dignified “people’s policemen” were actually so sinister and diabolic! When the four of them were tired from beating me, they used another way to torture me. Two evil policemen twisted one of my arms backward and lifted it up with force. Another two evil policemen raised my other arm, twisted it backward over my shoulder, and pulled it down hard. But they just couldn’t pull my two hands together. So they pushed my arms with their knees violently. With a snap, my arms felt as if they were broken. The pain made me almost lose my breath. They called this way of handcuffing “Erlang (a man’s name) shouldering the mountain.” Normally one can’t bear it at all. Not long afterward, my hands lost feeling. Even so, they still didn’t stop, and they ordered me to squat to increase my misery. I broke out in a cold sweat with pain. My head buzzed and my mind began to become unclear. I thought: Although I have been always sick since young age, I have never had such feeling of being unable to control my consciousness; am I going to die? Later, I really couldn’t bear it anymore, so I wanted to die to seek release…. Then, God’s words inspired me within, “Now most people have not realized this. They think that it is worthless to undergo sufferings…. Some of them feel so distressed that they even think of dying. This is not truly loving God. Such people are cowards without willpower and are weak and useless ones!” (from “Only After Experiencing Painful Trials Will One Know that God Is Lovely” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) God’s words woke me up suddenly. I realized: My thought isn’t after God’s heart and can only grieve and disappoint God. This is because in such sufferings and tribulations, God doesn’t want to see me seek death, but expects me to endure the humiliation and pain, rely on his leading to fight against satan, and stand testimony for him to shame and defeat satan. If I seek death, I just fall into satan’s scheme, and I can’t bear testimony and I will become a sign of shame instead. After I understood God’s will, I prayed to God silently, “O God! The fact has showed that I’m too cowardly by nature, and I don’t have the will and courage to suffer for you. I wanted to die after undergoing only a little physical suffering. Now I know that I cannot do things that bring shame to your name, and that no matter how great the suffering, I should stand testimony to satisfy you. But my flesh is extremely painful and weak now. I know it’s very hard to withstand the devils’ cruel beating and affliction by myself. May you give me faith and strength, so that I can rely on you to overcome satan and will not betray you or sell out the brothers and sisters even if I have to die.” I prayed to God over and over again. Gradually I felt secure in my heart. Seeing that I was on the verge of death, the policemen were afraid that they had to take the consequences if I died, so they came to unlock my handcuffs. But my arms had become stiff, and the handcuffs got my wrists fully stuck and were hard to unlock. If they used more strength, my arms would be broken. The four evil policemen spent quite a few minutes unlocking my handcuffs and then dragged me back to the waiting room.
The next afternoon, the police forcibly convicted me of “committing a criminal offense,” and escorted me to my house to conduct a search. Afterward, they sent me to the detention house. As soon as I was taken there, four prison officers confiscated my cotton jacket, cotton pants, leather boots, watch, and 1,300 yuan in cash that I had with me, and ordered me to put on the prison clothes they distributed. They also forced me to pay 200 yuan to buy a quilt from them. Then, they locked me up with robbers, murderers, rapists, drug traffickers, and other prisoners with severe punishment. As soon as I entered the cell, I saw in front of me twelve prisoners shaved bald, glaring at me fiercely. The atmosphere was very ghastly and terrifying. My heart flew up into my mouth at once. Two heads of the cell came over and asked me, “What got you in here?” I said, “Preaching the gospel.” Without a word, one of them slapped me twice and said, “You are the ‘founder’ of your religion, aren’t you?” Other prisoners all laughed hideously and mocked me, “Why don’t you ask your God to get you out of here?” Amid the jeering, the head slapped me several more times. Since then, I was nicknamed “Founder” by them, and they often humiliated and mocked me. The other head saw the slippers on my feet and shouted arrogantly, “You aren’t sensible at all. Are the slippers for you to wear? Take them off quickly!” With his words, he forced me to take them off and put on a pair of their worn slippers and gave my quilt to the other prisoners. Those prisoners scrambled for my quilt, and finally gave me a thin, shabby, dirty, and stinky quilt. At that time, the scene of the Lord Jesus being flogged and mocked by the soldiers arose in my mind. I was greatly encouraged in my heart: The Lord has long undergone the sufferings I’m undergoing today. I should undergo the sufferings the Lord underwent and I should drink the bitter cup the Lord drank. All these are sufferings I should undergo. Thinking of these, I calmed down. At the instigation of the person in charge of the detention house, those prisoners picked on me and tortured me in various ways. The light in the cell was always on during the night. A head of the cell said to me with an insidious smile, “Turn off the light for me.” As I couldn’t make it (there was no switch at all), they began to ridicule and mock me again. The next day, several young prisoners forced me to stand in the corner and recite the prison regulations, and they threatened, “If you can’t memorize them in two days, you’ll be fixed.” I couldn’t help fearing in my heart and I thought of the experience of those days. The more I thought, the more I became scared, so I could only call to God incessantly, asking God to keep me so that I could stand firm. Then, a hymn of God’s word inspired me, “Whether you are imprisoned or ill, whether others sneer at or slander you, sneer at or slander you, or whether you come to a dead end, you can still love God. This means that your heart, your heart has turned to God.” (from “Has Your Heart Turned to God” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs) God’s words gave me strength and showed me the way of practice—pursuing to love God and turning my heart to God! My mind immediately became clear as crystal, “Today God permits such suffering to come upon me not for the purpose of torturing me or deliberately making me suffer. But instead, he expects that I can, in such an environment, exercise to turn my heart to him, be free from the bondage of satan’s forces of darkness, draw near to him and love him in my heart, make no complaints at any time, and accept and obey his manipulation and arrangement.” Thinking of that, I wasn’t afraid any more. No matter how satan might treat me, I would just commit myself to God, do my best to pursue to love God and satisfy God, and never yield to satan.
The life in prison is simply the life in hell on earth. The prison guards tortured me by different kinds of means: I was squeezed together with several prisoners when sleeping at night, and even had difficulty turning over. As I was the last one to come, I had to sleep beside the commode. Since I was arrested, I hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep for days. When I was too sleepy to hold on and wanted to sleep for a while, the prisoner on guard would come to harass me by flicking my head purposefully and wouldn’t stop until I was woken up. One day, a little past 3 a.m., a prisoner deliberately woke me up to see what size my sweatshirt was and whether he could wear it. He brought a dirty and ragged thin sweatshirt to exchange for mine. Those days were the coldest of the year. But those prisoners even wanted to take the only sweatshirt on me. The people there were savage like beasts. They were cruel and diabolic in their disposition, without any human feeling. They were just like the evil demons in hell that take delight in torturing man. The food there was even worse than that for pigs and dogs. The first time I was given half a bowl of rice porridge, and I saw many black specks in it, not knowing what they were. The porridge looked dark, and I could hardly eat it. At that time, I really wanted to fast, but God’s words inspired me, “…in the last days, you should bear testimony for God. No matter how great the sufferings, you should walk to the end. Even if you have just one breath left, you should be faithful to God and submit to God’s manipulation. This is truly loving God, and this is a strong and resounding testimony.” (from “Only After Experiencing Painful Trials Will One Know that God Is Lovely” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) God’s words, full of mercy and love like a mother’s comfort, stirred up my courage to face the sufferings. God hoped that I would do my best to live. However, I was too cowardly, and I easily had the thought of dying to get released. I didn’t cherish myself. It was God who loved me most. Immediately a wave of warmth swept over me. I was so moved that my tears gushed out and fell into the porridge. Moved by God’s love, I had strength once again. Whether the food was good or bad, I must eat it. I finished the porridge in one mouthful. After breakfast, a head of the cell ordered me to scrub the floor. There was no hot water in those coldest days of the year, so I had to wash the rag with cold water. He told me to scrub the floor like that every day. Then several robbers required me to recite the prison regulations. I failed remembering them, so they hit and kicked me. It was even more common for them to slap me. Facing such an environment, I always thought in my heart that how I could satisfy God’s heart’s desire. At night, I covered my head with the quilt and prayed silently, “God! You permit this environment to come upon me and there must be your good purpose in it. May you reveal your will to me.” Then God’s words inspired me, “The flowers and grass spread all over the mountains and plains. However, they can add luster to my glory on earth before spring comes. Can men do this? Can they bear a testimony for me on earth before I return? Can they dedicate themselves for my name in the country of the great red dragon?” (from “The Thirty-fourth Piece of Word” of God’s Utterance to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh) Yes! The grass and I are both created beings. The meaning of God creating us is that we can manifest and glorify him. The grass can add luster to God’s glory on earth before spring comes. It fulfills its duty as a created being. Today, my duty is to obey God’s manipulation and bear testimony for God before satan, so that all people can see clearly that satan is the living ghost that afflicts and devours man, while God is the only true God who loves man and saves man. Today I undergo these sufferings and humiliations not because I have committed a crime but because of God’s name. It is honorable to undergo these sufferings. The more satan humiliates me, the more I will stand on God’s side and love God. Thus, God will gain glory, and I will have fulfilled the duty I should perform. As long as God is happy and pleased, my heart will be comforted. I’m willing to undergo the last suffering to satisfy God and submit to God’s manipulation in everything. When I thought so, I felt very moved in my heart. Again, I couldn’t hold back my tears, “God! You are so lovely! Having followed you for so many years, I have never tasted your love and mercy and have never felt so close to you as I do today.” I completely forgot my pain and was immersed in that moving for a long, long time….
On my third day in the detention house, the prison officers took me to their office. There, a dozen or so people stared at me with strange eyes. One of them stood to my left front with a camera and was ready to record. Another walked to me with a microphone and asked, “Why do you believe in Almighty God?” Then I knew it was an interview from reporters. So I answered boldly, “Since childhood, I was often bullied by others and got the cold shoulder from others. I saw people cheat and make use of each other, and felt that this society was too dark and dangerous and that people lived in emptiness and helplessness, without hope or life goals. Later, someone preached to me the gospel of Almighty God, so I believed. After believing in Almighty God, I feel that believers in God treat me as family. No one in the Church of Almighty God schemes against me. We all understand, care about, and look after one another, and dare to speak heartfelt words to one another. In the word of Almighty God, I’ve found the goals and values of man’s living. I think it’s very good to believe in God.” The reporter continued to ask, “Do you know why you are here?” I answered, “Since I believed in Almighty God, I found that I didn’t care about personal gain and loss and honor and disgrace any more. I was more and more willing to do good turns and be a good person. I saw God’s word can really change a person and make him become a good man. Then I thought if all mankind came to believe in God, the order of the country would become much better and the crime rate would decrease. So I told this good news to others. However, I didn’t expect that such a good thing is illegal in China. So I was arrested and taken here.” Seeing that my answer was disadvantageous to them, the reporters immediately stopped the interview and turned away. Then the vice-captain of the National Security Team stomped his feet in anger and gave me a fierce look. He said in a low voice through his gnashing teeth, “You just wait!” But I didn’t fear his threat at all. On the contrary, I felt greatly honored that I could testify God in such a circumstance and I gave glory to God for his name being exalted and satan being defeated.
On January 17, the temperature was very low, and I had only a sweatshirt on because the evil policemen confiscated my cotton jacket. So I caught a cold, running a high fever and coughing constantly. I wrapped myself tightly in the shabby quilt and endured the torment of illness, and I thought of the endless abuse and humiliations from the prisoners. Then I felt very desolate and helpless…. Just when I was distressed to a degree, a hymn of God’s word resounded in my ears, “If you give me disease and deprive me of my freedom, deprive me of my freedom, I can live. But if your chastisement and judgment leave me, I cannot, cannot live. If I have no chastisement and judgment, I lose your love. Your love is too deep, and I cannot express it. If I lose your love, I will live under satan’s domain. …” (from “Peter’s Knowledge of Chastisement and Judgment” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs) It was Peter’s sincere and earnest prayer before God. Peter never cared for his flesh but treasured and valued God’s chastisement and judgment. As long as God’s chastisement and judgment didn’t leave him, it was the greatest comfort to his heart. Today, I should also imitate Peter in his pursuit and knowledge. The flesh is corrupt and rotten. Even if I have illness and lose my freedom, they are the sufferings I should undergo. But if I lose God’s chastisement and judgment, it means that I have lost God’s presence and love and lost the opportunity of being purified. That will be the most miserable thing. Under God’s revelation, I once again tasted God’s love and hated myself for being spineless and worthless. I saw I was too selfish by nature and never cared for God’s grief. The next day, my high fever was gone miraculously while several prisoners in the cell became ill. I experienced God’s care and keeping for me and also saw God’s wonderful deed. In those days, the steamed buns we ate, which were not big to start with, became even smaller. Several prisoners complained, “Since ‘Founder’ came here, we first suffered plague and then famine.” They all said that it was my fault and it was reasonable to give me a death sentence. One evening, someone came to sell food at the window. A head of the cell bought a lot of ham, dog meat, chicken drumsticks, and so on, and ordered me to pay the money in the end. I said I had no money. He said ferociously, “If you have no money, I’ll torture you little by little!” The next day, he asked me to wash his sheet, clothes, and socks. The prison officials also asked me to wash their socks. In the detention house, I was beaten almost every day. Whenever I couldn’t hold on, God’s words guided me within, “You should perform your last duty for God in your remaining days. In the past Peter was crucified upside down for God, while you should satisfy God in the end and exhaust all your energies for God. What can a created being do for God? So you should offer up yourself in advance to submit to his manipulation. As long as God is happy and pleased, just let him do it. What qualifies man to make complaints?” (from “The Interpretation of the Forty-first Piece of Word” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) God’s words gave me inexhaustible strength. Although I was often attacked, abused, condemned, and beaten by the prisoners, my heart gained comfort and joy. God’s love, like a powerful warm current, drove me to walk on courageously. I truly experienced that God’s love is so great.
One morning, a prison officer handed us a newspaper purposely. Laughing hideously, the prisoners read the words of slandering and blaspheming Almighty God in the newspaper in a sarcastic tone. I gnashed my teeth with hatred. They came to ask me about those words. I said loudly, “They are the CCP’s slanders!” Hearing those prisoners repeating what was said and echoing the devils in slandering the truth and blaspheming Heaven, I seemed to see that their end was coming, for the sin of blaspheming God won’t be forgiven in this age or in the age to come, and anyone who offends God’s disposition will receive the most severe punishment and retribution! The CCP did that simply to lead the Chinese people into the land of death, and it completely exposed its true face as the devil that devours people’s souls! Later, the policeman in charge of my case interrogated me again. This time, he didn’t interrogate me by cruel torture but changed into an “amiable” countenance. He asked me, “Who is your leader? I’ll give you another chance. If you confess, you’ll be all right, and I’ll be lenient to you. You are actually innocent. Others have already sold you out. Why do you still shield them? You are so honest. Why risk your life for them? If you confess, you can go home. Why suffer here?” These double-faced “hypocrites” resorted to soft tactics after the hard ones didn’t work. They are really full of tricks and are shrewd and crafty! Looking at his hypocritical face, I hated this gang of demons bitterly. I said to him, “I’ve said all I know. I know nothing else.” Seeing my firm attitude, he knew he couldn’t get anything from me, so he left in frustration.
After I was detained for half a month in the detention house, the police had my family pay 8,000 yuan bail and then released me. However, they warned that I mustn’t go anywhere and must stay at home and be within call. On the day when I was released, the prison officer deliberately gave me no food. The prisoners said, “Your God is really powerful. We were all healthy, but we become sick here. You came with illnesses, but have no illness when you leave. You are really something!” Then, I thanked and praised God in my heart all the more! My uncle is a prison guard. He always thought the reason why I could be released was that my father has a very special relationship with someone. Otherwise, if someone is detained in the severe punishment section, he couldn’t possibly come out in half a month. He would have to stay there for at least three months. All my family knew clearly that it was God’s almightiness and sovereignty and God revealed his wonderful deed on me. I clearly saw that it was a contest between God and satan, and no matter how rampant and malicious satan is, it’s forever God’s defeated opponent. In the days that followed, I firmly believed that all environment coming upon me was God’s arrangement. In late May 2011, the CCP police sentenced me to one year of hard work on the charge of “disturbing the social order.” It was executed outside the prison, so my sentence was suspended for two years.
After experiencing that tribulation of persecution, I have gained knowledge and discernment of the evil substance of the CCP, the atheistic party, and have had a profound hatred for it. It maintains its ruling position by means of violence, fights and suppresses all just causes, and extremely hates the truth. It’s God’s greatest enemy. In order to achieve its purpose of controlling man forever, it unscrupulously hinders and disturbs God’s work on earth, and frenziedly suppresses and persecutes believers in God. It combines hard tactics with soft, murders with a borrowed knife, plays a double game, and hides schemes and intrigues in everything. With it as a setoff, I have even more seen that in tribulation only God’s word can be man’s life. When man is in greatest despair and on the verge of death, God’s word nourishes his thirsty heart like living water, and cures the wound in his heart like miraculous medicine. It saves man from danger, gives him the faith and courage to live, and brings him infinite strength, so that in suffering he can enjoy the sweetness of God’s word, be comforted in his heart, and feel that the life power of God’s word is endless and unceasing. In the half a month’s prison life, if God hadn’t been with me and hadn’t warned, inspired, and encouraged me with his words, how could I, cowardly by nature, have stood firm in such tribulation. Without God’s care and keeping, how could I, thin and weak, have withstood the cruel tortures and mistreatment of the evil policemen? Even if I wouldn’t be tortured to death by them, I would be left with wounds and diseases all over. However, God miraculously kept me so that I passed through those darkest and hardest days and he even cured my former disease. God is really so almighty! His love for me is indeed so deep and great! I really don’t know how to express my gratitude to him. I’d like to say one word from the bottom of my heart, “God! I’m willing to love you more deeply! No matter how rugged and rough the road under my feet will be in future, and no matter how great sufferings I’ll undergo, I’ll obey your manipulation and resolutely follow you to the end!”
Although that experience made me suffer a little physically, it benefited me a lot. It’s a turning point as well as a new start on my way of believing in God. I deeply feel that having believed in God for ten years, I have never, as I do today, tasted God’s love so deeply and truly experienced that the value and meaning of believing in God, following God, and worshiping God are so great. Much less have I ever, as I do today, been so willing to pursue to love God and devote my remaining days to God to repay his love. Here, I will offer my heartfelt thanks and praises to God. May all the glory and praises be to Almighty God!
Recommendation: Eastern Lightning

8/15/2017

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

16 God Is the Power of My Life

Xiaohe    Henan Province
How time flies! Fourteen years have flashed by since I followed Almighty God. In these years, although I have undergone various trials and hardships and frustrations, with the company of God’s word and God’s love and mercy, I’ve been especially enriched in my heart.

8/10/2017


Su Mingyue was a preacher of a house church in mainland China. For many years, she had been godly in her service to the Lord, unremittingly working and preaching for the Lord and much burdened for the church work. Based on Paul's words in the Bible, she thought that believers in the Lord have already been justified through faith and saved through grace. Despite the fact that they still sin often, she believed that the Lord has forgiven the believers of their sins and that the Lord at His return will transfigure and sanctify them, and rapture them to the kingdom of heaven. But in recent years, the desolation of the church became greater, negativity and weakness prevailed among the believers, and their faith and love grew cold. In this situation, some co-workers began to doubt the truth of the view "man will be transfigured in a moment and taken into the kingdom of heaven when the Lord returns" on the basis of the Lord Jesus' words: "Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven." They thought as man can still lie and sin after believing in the Lord, they are far away from purification, not to mention doing God's will. So they wonder how people like this could be raptured into the kingdom of heaven when the Lord returns. After fellowship and debates about the truth, Su Mingyue felt that Paul's words about "change in a moment" truly contradict the Lord Jesus' words. But which view is correct? Su Mingyue felt conflicted in her heart and the confusion was born. In order to find the church with the work of the Holy Spirit and the solution to their practical confusion in case they be abandoned by the Lord Jesus, Su Mingyue decided to investigate the Eastern Lightning. Through a fellowship and debate with the witnesses from the Church of Almighty God, Su Mingyue and some others finally understood the only path to entering the kingdom of heaven….

8/06/2017


Songs of Choir:
1.The Sorrow of Corrupt Mankind
2.Man’s True Condition of Being Corrupted by Satan
3.The Practical God Saves Men in Obscurity
1.The Sorrow of Corrupt Mankind
Man walked through the ages with God, yet man knows not that God rules the fate of all things and living beings or how God orchestrates and directs all things. This is something that has eluded man since time immemorial to the present day. As for the reason why, it is not because the ways of God are too elusive, or because the plan of God has yet to be realized, but because the heart and spirit of man are too distant from God. Therefore, even as man follows God, he unknowingly remains in the service of Satan.
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None actively seek out the footsteps or appearance of God, and none wish to exist in the care and keeping of God. Rather, they are willing to rely on the corrosion of Satan and the evil one in order to adapt to this world and to the rules of life the wicked mankind follows. At this point, the heart and spirit of man are sacrificed to Satan and become its sustenance, and moreover, become a place in which Satan can reside and a playground for it. In this way, man unknowingly loses his understanding of the principles of being human, and of the worth and purpose of human existence. The laws from God and the covenant between God and man gradually fade away in man’s heart until man no longer seeks or pays heed to God, no longer seeks or pays heed to God. As time passes, man no longer understands why God created man, nor does he understand the words that come from the mouth of God or realize all that is from God. Man begins to resist the laws and decrees from God; the heart and spirit of man become deadened. …God loses the man of His original creation, and man loses the root of his beginning. This is the sorrow of this mankind, this is the sorrow of this mankind. Woo … woo … woo … woo….
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from “God is the Source of Man’s Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
2. Man’s True Condition of Being Corrupted by Satan
For so many years, the thought man lives by has corrupted man’s heart, man’s heart. So man becomes crafty, cowardly, and base. Man has no perseverance or resolution, and is greedy and frail and willful. He does not have the will to transcend himself at all, much less have any courage to break away from the bondage of the influence of darkness. Man has a depraved mind and leads a depraved life. Man’s viewpoint of believing in God is still awful, and it is even intolerable to the ear, intolerable to the ear once it is spoken of. All men are cowardly, powerless, base, and fragile. They do not feel loathing for the force of darkness, and do not love the light and the truth, but they do their possible to drive them out. All men are cowardly, powerless, base, and fragile. They do not feel loathing for the force of darkness, and do not love the light and the truth, but they do their possible to drive them out.
from “Why Are You Not Willing to Be a Setoff?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
3. The Practical God Saves Men in Obscurity
God has become flesh this time to do the work that He has yet to complete, to judge this age and bring it to a close, to save man from the sea of affliction, to utterly conquer man and transform their life disposition, and to free man from the suffering and oppression of dark forces that are black as night. Many are the sleepless nights that God has endured for the sake of the work of mankind. He comes from up high to the lowest depths and lives in the living hell. Ah! He passes His days with man, and has never complained of the shabbiness among man. He never asks too much of man, but endures the greatest humiliation as He personally carries out His work. For the whole of mankind to find rest sooner, He has endured humiliation and suffered injustice to come to earth, and personally entered into the tiger’s den to save man. How many times has He faced the stars, how many times has He departed at dawn and returned at dusk, enduring great agony, enduring the attacks and “breaking” of man. God has come to this filthy land, and quietly accepts the ravages of man, accepts oppression of man.
from “Work and Entry (9)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh 
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.