Only when you have cast off your corrupt dispositions and achieved the living out of normal humanity will you be made perfect. Although you will be unable to speak prophecy, nor of any mysteries, you will be living out and revealing the image of a human. God created man, but then man was corrupted by Satan, such that people became “dead men.” So, after you have changed, you will no longer be like these “dead men.” It is the words of God that set people’s spirits alight and cause them to be reborn, and when people’s spirits are reborn, then they will have come to life. When I speak of “dead men,” I am referring to corpses that have no spirit, to people whose spirits have died within them. When the spark of life is lit in people’s spirits, then people come to life. The saints that were spoken of before refer to people who have come to life, those who were under Satan’s influence but defeated Satan. The chosen people of China have endured the cruel and inhumane persecution and trickery of the great red dragon, which has left them mentally ravaged and without the slightest bit of courage to live. Thus, the awakening of their spirits must begin with their essence: Bit by bit, in their essence, their spirits must be awakened. When they one day come to life, there will be no more obstructions, and all will proceed smoothly. At present, this remains unachievable. Most people live in a way that brings forth many deathly currents; they are shrouded in an aura of death, and there is so much that they lack. Some people’s words carry death, their actions carry death, and almost everything they bring forth in the way they live consists of death. If, today, people publicly bear testimony to God, then they will fail in this task, for they have yet to come fully to life, and there are too many dead among you. Today, some people ask why God does not show some signs and wonders so that He can quickly spread His work among the Gentiles. The dead cannot bear testimony to God; that is something only the living can do, and yet most people today are “dead men”; too many live under a shroud of death, under the influence of Satan, and are unable to gain victory. This being so, how could they bear testimony to God? How could they spread the work of the gospel?

All those who live under the influence of darkness are those who live amid death, those who are possessed by Satan. Without being saved by God and judged and chastised by God, people are unable to escape the influence of death; they cannot become the living. These “dead men” cannot bear testimony to God, and nor can they be used by God, much less enter the kingdom. God wants the testimony of the living, not the dead, and He asks that the living, not the dead, work for Him. “The dead” are those who oppose and rebel against God; they are those who are numb in spirit and do not understand God’s words; they are those who do not put the truth into practice and have not the slightest loyalty to God, and they are those who live under the power of Satan and are exploited by Satan. The dead manifest themselves by standing in opposition to the truth, by rebelling against God, and by being lowly, contemptible, malicious, brutish, deceitful, and insidious. Even if such people eat and drink the words of God, they are unable to live out the words of God; though they are alive, they are just walking, breathing corpses. The dead are totally incapable of satisfying God, much less of being utterly submissive to Him. They can only deceive Him, blaspheme against Him, and betray Him, and all that they bring forth by the way they live reveals the nature of Satan. If people wish to become living beings and to bear testimony to God, and to be approved of by God, then they must accept God’s salvation; they must gladly submit to His judgment and chastisement and must gladly accept the pruning of God. Only then will they be able to put all of the truths required by God into practice, and only then will they gain God’s salvation and truly become living beings. The living are saved by God; they have been judged and chastised by God, they are willing to devote themselves and are happy to lay down their lives for God, and they would gladly dedicate their whole lives to God. Only when the living bear testimony to God can Satan be shamed; only the living can spread the gospel work of God, only the living are in line with God’s intentions, and only the living are real people. Originally the man made by God was alive, but because of Satan’s corruption man lives amid death and lives under the influence of Satan, and so, in this way, people have become the spiritless dead, they have become enemies who oppose God, they have become the tools of Satan, and they have become the captives of Satan. All the living people created by God have become dead people, and so God has lost His testimony, and He has lost mankind which He created and which is the only thing that has His breath. If God is to take back His testimony and take back those who were made by His own hand but who have been taken captive by Satan, then He must resurrect them so that they become living beings, and He must reclaim them so that they live in His light. The dead are those who have no spirit, those who are numb in the extreme and who oppose God. They are foremost those who do not know God. These people have not the slightest intention of submitting to God; they only rebel against Him and oppose Him and have not the slightest loyalty. The living are those whose spirits have been reborn, who know to submit to God, and who are loyal to God. They are possessed of the truth, and of testimony, and these people alone are pleasing to God in His house. God saves those who can come to life, who can see God’s salvation, who can be loyal to God and who are willing to seek God. He saves those who believe in God’s incarnation and in His appearance. Some people can come to life, and some people cannot; this depends on whether their nature can be saved or not. Many people have heard a lot of God’s words yet do not understand God’s intentions, and are still incapable of putting them into practice. Such people are incapable of living out any truth and also deliberately disturb God’s work. They are incapable of doing any work for God, they cannot devote anything to Him, and they also secretly spend the church’s money and eat in the house of God for free. These people are dead and they will not be saved. God saves all those who are amid His work, but there is a portion of people who cannot receive His salvation; only a small number can receive His salvation. This is because most people have been corrupted too deeply and have become the dead, and they are beyond salvation; they have been totally exploited by Satan, and they are too malicious in their nature. That minority of people is also unable to submit to God fully. They are not those who have been absolutely faithful to God since the beginning, or who have had the utmost love for God since the beginning; rather, they have become submissive to God because of His work of conquest, they see God because of His supreme love, there are changes in their disposition because of God’s righteous disposition, and they come to know God because of His work, His work which is both practical and normal. Without this work of God, no matter how good these people are, they would still be of Satan, they would still be of death, and they would still be dead. The fact that these people can today receive God’s salvation is purely because they are willing to cooperate with God.

Because of their loyalty to God, the living shall be gained by God and live amid His promises, and because of their opposition to God, the dead shall be spurned by God and live amid His punishment and curses. Such is the righteous disposition of God, which is unchangeable by any man. Because of their own seeking, people receive God’s approval and live in the light; because of their cunning schemes, people are cursed by God and descend into punishment; because of their evildoing, people are punished by God, and because of their yearning and loyalty, people receive God’s blessings. God is righteous: He blesses the living, and curses the dead so that they are always amid death and will never live in God’s light. God will take the living into His kingdom and into His blessings, to be with Him forever. But for the dead, He will smite them and deliver them into eternal death; they are the object of His destruction and will always belong to Satan. God treats no one unjustly. All those who truly seek God will surely remain in the house of God, and all those who are rebellious against God and incompatible with Him will surely live amid His punishment. Perhaps you are unsure about God’s work in the flesh—but one day, God’s flesh will not directly arrange man’s end; instead, His Spirit will arrange man’s destination, and at that time people will know that God’s flesh and His Spirit are one, that His flesh cannot commit error, and that His Spirit is even more incapable of error. Ultimately, He will surely take those who have come to life into His kingdom; not one more nor one less. As for the dead, who have not come to life, they will be tossed into the lair of Satan.