(1) It is necessary, in all matters, to submit to God and exalt Him as great. Become one who fears God and shuns evil, and perform your duty and serve Him as He demands;

(2) It is necessary to learn to bear witness for God’s work, showing others how Satan corrupts people and how God saves them, so that they may truly return to God;

(3) It is necessary to practice using the truth to resolve problems, which leads one to an understanding of the truth and to true repentance, that all may submit before God and worship Him;

(4) It is necessary to lead others to eat and drink of God’s words and to experience God’s judgment and chastisement, so that they know God’s holiness and righteousness and praise Him unto eternity.

Relevant Words of God:

Humans were created by God, and ought to worship God, but they actually turned their backs on Him and worshiped Satan instead. Satan became the idol in their hearts. Thus, God lost His standing in their hearts, which is to say that He lost the meaning behind His creation of humanity. Therefore, to restore the meaning behind His creation of humanity, He must restore their original likeness and rid humanity of their corrupt dispositions. To reclaim humans from Satan, He must save them from sin. Only in this way can God gradually restore their original likeness and function, and finally, restore His kingdom. The ultimate destruction of those sons of disobedience will also be carried out in order to allow humans to better worship God and better live upon the earth. Because God created humans, He will make them worship Him; because He wishes to restore humanity’s original function, He will restore it completely and without any adulteration. Restoring His authority means making humans worship Him and submit to Him; it means that God will make humans live because of Him and cause His enemies to perish as a result of His authority. It means that God will cause everything about Him to persist among humans without resistance from anybody. The kingdom God wishes to establish is His own kingdom. The humanity He desires is one that will worship Him, one that will submit to Him completely and manifest His glory. If God does not save corrupt humanity, then the meaning behind His creation of humanity will be lost; He will have no more authority among humans, and His kingdom will no longer be able to exist upon the earth. If God does not destroy those enemies who are disobedient to Him, He will be unable to obtain His complete glory, nor will He be able to establish His kingdom upon the earth. These will be marks of the completion of His work and of His great accomplishment: to utterly destroy those among humanity who are disobedient to Him, and to bring into rest those who have been made complete. When humans have been restored to their original likeness, and when they can fulfill their respective duties, keep to their own proper places and submit to all of God’s arrangements, God will have obtained a group of people upon the earth who worship Him, and He will also have established a kingdom upon the earth that worships Him. He will have eternal victory upon the earth, and all those who are opposed to Him will perish for all eternity. This will restore His original intention in creating humanity; it will restore His intention in creating all things, and it will also restore His authority upon earth, among all things, and among His enemies. These will be the symbols of His total victory. Thenceforth, humanity will enter into rest and begin a life that is on the right track. God will also enter into eternal rest with humanity, and commence an eternal life shared by both Himself and humans. The filth and disobedience upon the earth will have disappeared, and all the wailing will have dissipated, and everything in this world that opposes God will have ceased to exist. Only God and those people to whom He has brought salvation will remain; only His creation will remain.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together

What should you pursue now? Whether or not you are capable of bearing witness for God’s work, whether or not you are able to become a testimony and a manifestation of God, and whether or not you are fit to be used by Him—these are the things you should seek. How much work has God really done in you? How much have you seen, how much have you touched? How much have you experienced, and tasted? Regardless of whether God has tested you, dealt with you, or disciplined you, His actions and His work have been carried out on you. But as a believer in God and as someone who is willing to pursue being perfected by Him, are you able to bear witness for God’s work on the basis of your practical experience? Can you live out God’s word through your practical experience? Are you able to provide for others through your own practical experience, and expend your whole life to bear witness for God’s work? To bear witness to God’s work, you must rely on your experience, knowledge, and the price you have paid. Only thus can you satisfy His will. Are you someone who bears witness to God’s work? Do you have this aspiration? If you are able to bear witness to His name, and even more, to His work, and if you can live out the image that He requires of His people, then you are a witness for God. How do you actually bear witness for God? You do it by seeking and longing to live out God’s word, and, by bearing witness with your words, allowing people to know His work and to see His actions. If you truly seek all of this, then God will perfect you. If all you seek is to be perfected by God and be blessed in the very end, then the perspective of your faith in God is not pure. You should be pursuing how to see God’s deeds in real life, how to satisfy Him when He reveals His will to you, and seeking how you ought to bear witness to His wondrousness and wisdom, and how to bear witness for how He disciplines and deals with you. All of these are things you should now be pondering. If your love for God is solely so that you can share in God’s glory after He perfects you, then it is still inadequate and cannot meet God’s requirements. You need to be able to bear witness to God’s work, satisfy His demands, and experience the work He has done on people in a practical way. Whether pain, tears, or sadness, you must experience all of these things in your practice. They are meant to perfect you as one who bears witness for God. What is it, exactly, that now compels you to suffer and seek perfection? Is your present suffering truly for the sake of loving God and bearing witness for Him? Or is it for the sake of blessings of the flesh, for your future prospects and fate? All of your intentions, motivations, and the goals that you pursue must be rectified and cannot be guided by your own will. If one person seeks perfection to receive blessings and to reign in power, while another person pursues perfection to satisfy God, to bear practical witness to God’s work, which of the two means of pursuit would you choose? If you were to choose the first, then you would still be too far away from God’s standards. I once said that My actions would be openly known across the entire universe and that I would reign as King in the universe. On the other hand, what you have been entrusted with is to go out to bear witness to God’s work, not to become kings and appear to the whole universe. Let God’s deeds fill the cosmos and the firmament. Let everyone see them and acknowledge them. These words are spoken in relation to God Himself, and what human beings should do is to bear witness for God.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Those Who Are to Be Made Perfect Must Undergo Refinement

Do the duties that each of you now performs, whether they be filming a movie or singing hymns to testify to God, have any value to mankind? Where does their value lie? Their value is in bringing people to read God’s words and walk the right path, so that they all understand they are numbered among created beings and all come before the Creator. Do they not have many problems they do not understand? Do they not feel helpless? Do they not feel empty? Do they not feel that they live without spiritual support? Do they not feel that life is wearisome? What is the root of all this? The answer is within God’s words. You perform these duties in order to bring about this effect: to guide their thinking, to guide them to seek God, to seek the right path, to find the Creator, and to accept, obey, understand, and know the sovereignty and arrangements of the Creator. Only in this way will they understand what they are living for, what the value and the meaning are of their lives, and how they should live. Therefore, when you do your duties, you must redouble your prayer and exert yourselves; be diligent, not lazy; and fellowship together more often, acting according to the principles. Once God created this mankind, there was a management plan. Over the past several thousand years, this mankind bore no substantial responsibility or commission to bear witness to the Creator, and the work God did among mankind was relatively discreet and simple. In the last days, however, things are different—you bear a substantial responsibility! In what way is it substantial? Beyond spreading the words of God, it is even more important is that you bear witness for the Creator to every created human being. Furthermore, you must also bring every created human being who has heard God’s gospel before the Creator, so that they may understand why He created mankind and that, as a created human being, they should come back before the Creator and accept His sovereignty, arrangements and orchestration. Can you achieve this merely by dancing or singing a hymn? Merely doing a single aspect of work will not suffice. You must employ a variety of methods and forms to bear witness to the deeds of the Creator, and to the Creator’s sovereignty and arrangements. In this way, you will then be able to bring even more people before the Creator, so that they may accept and obey His sovereignty and arrangements.

—“Only by Performing the Duty of a Created Being Well Does One’s Life Have Value” in Records of Talks of Christ of the Last Days

Having experienced God’s refinement for a while (the trial of the service-doers and the time of chastisement), some people ultimately said: “Believing in God is really difficult!” The fact that they used the words, “really difficult,” shows that God’s deeds are unfathomable, that God’s work is possessed of great significance and value, and that His work is highly worthy of being treasured by man. If, after I have done so much work, you had not the slightest knowledge, then could My work still have value? It will make you say: “Service to God is really difficult, the deeds of God are so wondrous, and God truly is wise! God is so lovely!” If, after undergoing a period of experience, you are able to say such words, then this proves that you have gained God’s work in you. One day, when you are spreading the gospel abroad and someone asks you: “How is your faith in God going?” you will be able to say: “God’s actions are so marvelous!” They will feel that your words speak of real experiences. This is truly bearing witness. You will say that God’s work is full of wisdom, and His work in you has truly convinced you and conquered your heart. You will always love Him because He is more than worthy of mankind’s love! If you can speak to these things, then you can move people’s hearts. All of this is bearing witness. If you are able to bear resounding witness, to move people to tears, that shows that you truly are one who loves God, for you are able to testify to loving God, and through you, God’s actions can be borne out in testimony. By your testimony, others are made to seek out God’s work, to experience God’s work, and in any environment they experience, they will be able to stand firm. This is the only genuine way of bearing witness, and this is exactly what is required of you now.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Those Who Are to Be Made Perfect Must Undergo Refinement

As leaders and workers in the church, if you want to lead God’s chosen people into truth reality and to serve as God’s witnesses, most importantly, you must have a deeper understanding of God’s aim in saving people and the purpose of His work. You must understand the will of God and His various requirements of people. You must be practical in your efforts; practice only as much as you understand and communicate only on that which you know. Do not boast, do not exaggerate, and do not make irresponsible remarks. If you exaggerate, people will detest you and you will feel reproached afterward; this is just too inappropriate. When you provide the truth to others, you don’t necessarily have to deal with them and scold them in order for them to attain the truth. If you yourself don’t have the truth and only deal with and scold others, they will fear you, but that doesn’t mean they understand the truth. In some administrative work, it’s fine for you to deal with and prune others and discipline them to a certain degree. But if you cannot provide the truth and know only how to be overbearing and to chide others, your corruption and ugliness will be revealed. With the passage of time, as people are unable to obtain the provision of life or practical things from you, they will come to detest you and feel disgusted by you. Those who lack discernment will learn negative things from you; they will learn to deal with and prune others, to get angry, and to lose their temper. Isn’t that tantamount to leading others onto the path of Paul, onto a path toward perdition? Is that not an evildoing? Your work should focus on communicating the truth and providing life to others. If all you do is blindly deal with and lecture others, how will they ever understand the truth? As time goes by, people will see you for who you really are, and they will abandon you. How can you expect to bring others before God in this way? How is this doing the work? You will lose everyone if you keep working in this way. What work do you hope to accomplish anyway? Some leaders are incapable of communicating the truth to resolve problems. Instead, they just blindly deal with others and flaunt their power so that others come to fear them and obey them—such people are of the false leaders and antichrists. Those whose disposition has not changed are incapable of performing church work, and are unable to serve God.

—“Only Those With Truth Reality Can Lead” in Records of Talks of Christ of the Last Days

You have deviated in your summing up the truth; after you do all this summing up, it has yielded only rules. Your “summing up the truth” is not done so that people gain life or attain changes in their dispositions from the truth. Instead, it causes people to master some knowledge and doctrines from within the truth. They appear to have understood the purpose behind God’s work, when actually they have only mastered some words and doctrines. They do not understand the intended meaning of the truth; it is no different from studying theology or reading the Bible. You compile these books or those materials, and so people become in possession of this aspect of doctrine and that aspect of knowledge. They are first rate speakers of doctrines—but what happens when they are done speaking? They are incapable of experiencing, they have no understanding of God’s work, nor do they have any understanding of themselves. Ultimately, all they will have gained are formulas and rules, and they can talk about those few things but nothing else. If God did something new, would you be able to match up all the doctrines that you know with that? Those things of yours are just rules and you are just having people study theology, not allowing them to experience the word of God or the truth. Therefore, those books that you compile can bring others only into theology and knowledge, into new formulas, and into rules and conventions. They cannot bring people before God or allow them to understand the truth or God’s will. You are thinking that by raising those questions one after another, which you then answer and for which you write down outlines and summaries, brothers and sisters will find it easy to understand, and you think that apart from being easy to remember, these issues are clear at a glance, and that this is a great way of doing things. But what people are understanding is not the real intended meaning of the truth and does not match up with reality—it is just words and doctrines. So it would be better if you did not do these things at all. Doing this is leading people to understand and master knowledge. You bring others into the doctrines, into religion, and have them follow and believe in God within religious doctrines. Isn’t that being just like Paul? You think that mastering knowledge of the truth is particularly important, and so is learning by heart many passages of God’s words. But how people understand the word of God is not important at all. You think it is extremely important for people to be able to memorize many of God’s words, to be able to speak much doctrine and to discover many formulas within God’s words. Therefore, you always want to systematize these things so that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet, saying the same things, and talking about the same doctrines, so they have the same knowledge and keep the same rules—this is your objective. Your doing this appears to be for the sake of people gaining understanding, when on the contrary you have no idea that this is bringing people into the midst of rules that are outside of God’s word the truth. To allow people to have a real understanding of the truth, you must link it up with reality and with the work, and solve practical problems according to God’s word the truth. Only in this way can people understand the truth and enter into reality, and only achieving such a result is really bringing people before God. If all you talk about are spiritual theories, doctrines, and rules, if you only put effort into the literal words, all you can achieve is getting people to say the same things and follow rules, but you will not be able to guide people to understand the truth. You will be particularly unable to have people better understand themselves, and achieve repentance and transformation. If being able to talk about spiritual theories could substitute for people’s entering truth reality, then you would not be needed to lead the churches.

—“Without the Truth, One Is Liable to Offend God” in Records of Talks of Christ of the Last Days

The more truths you understand, the greater your understanding of how to perform your duty well and enter truth reality. As your understanding grows, so, too, does your life grow; as your life grows, the state within you becomes increasingly normal, and the people and things that used to disturb you, control you, and restrict you are no longer a problem for you. In this way, your relationship with God gradually becomes more and more normal. You know how to depend on God, how to seek His will, where your place is, what you should and should not do, what you should and should not be mindful of, and does your state not become increasingly normal as a result? And is it not easier to live like this? In living the easy life, does your heart not become bright and spacious, and are you not then happy more of the time? When you are happy more of the time, people enjoy your entire mental outlook; you become able to invisibly edify others. At such times, your words and actions are measured and principled, and when you see someone who is negative and weak, you are able to provide some essential help. You do not lecture people or restrain them, but use your own real experiences to help and benefit them. And so you are no longer just someone who exerts themselves in the house of God, but someone who is useful, who can bear a burden, who is able to do something more meaningful in God’s house. Are such people not liked and welcomed by others? And how does God look upon such people? (He takes joy in them.) Why does He take joy in them? If you have achieved life entry, if you are someone who often lives before God and the truth, and who also guides others in acting thus, then do you not lead them before God? If you are not possessed of these truths, of such experiences, can you lead others before God? If you yourself are incapable of living before God, you will be unable to lead others before God. If you merely exert yourself, most of the time only doing so for the sake of it, then you are not someone who lives before God. Can those who do not live before God accept God’s scrutiny? Can they bear up under His tests? Can they stand firm amid His trials? (No.) So can such people bear testimony on behalf of God? Can they testify to God? (No.) Are those who cannot testify to God people who truly believe in God? At the very least, they have yet to enter the doorway of the house of God! That is because they have believed in God for years, but have achieved no life entry, nor are they able to testify to God, or testify of Him to other people. Such people are not God’s witnesses!

—“Life Entry Must Begin With the Experience of Performing One’s Duty” in Records of Talks of Christ of the Last Days