Excerpt 49

Man’s corrupt dispositions consist of nothing but absurd and evil things. The most serious of them is man’s arrogant disposition and the things that are revealed from it, that is, particular self-righteousness and self-importance, the belief that one is stronger than others, an unwillingness to submit to anyone, a constant insistence on having the final say, showing off in all matters, seeking flattery and praise in one’s actions, a constant desire to have others circle around oneself, and always being self-centered, always harboring ambitions and desires, and always wanting a crown and rewards, and to reign as a king—all these issues fall into the category of severe corrupt dispositions. The rest are just regular problems. For example, having some erroneous views, absurd thinking, crookedness and deceitfulness, jealousy, selfishness, being argumentative, and acting without principles, and so on, are the most common corrupt dispositions. There are many kinds of corrupt dispositions that are included within the disposition of Satan, but the one that is most obvious and that stands out the most is an arrogant disposition. Arrogance is the root of man’s corrupt disposition. The more arrogant people are, the more unreasonable they are, and the more unreasonable they are, the more liable they are to resist God. How serious is this problem? Not only do people with an arrogant disposition consider everyone else beneath them, but, worst of all, they are even condescending toward God, and they have no God-fearing hearts. Even though people might appear to believe in God and follow Him, they do not treat Him as God at all. They always feel that they possess the truth and think the world of themselves. This is the essence and root of the arrogant disposition, and it comes from Satan. Therefore, the problem of arrogance must be resolved. Feeling that one is better than others—that is a trivial matter. The critical issue is that one’s arrogant disposition prevents one from submitting to God, His sovereignty, and His arrangements; such a person always feels inclined to compete with God for power and control others. This sort of person does not have a God-fearing heart in the slightest, to say nothing of loving God or submitting to Him. People who are arrogant and conceited, especially those who are so arrogant as to have lost their reason, cannot submit to God in their belief in Him, and even exalt and bear testimony for themselves. Such people resist God the most and have absolutely no God-fearing hearts. If people wish to get to where they have God-fearing hearts, then they must first resolve their arrogant disposition. The more thoroughly you resolve your arrogant disposition, the more you will have a God-fearing heart, and only then can you submit to Him and obtain the truth and know Him. Only those who gain the truth are genuinely human.

Excerpt 50

Man’s corrupt dispositions such as arrogance, self-righteousness, and intransigence, are a kind of stubborn disease. They are like a malignant tumor growing in the human body and cannot be resolved without some suffering. Unlike temporary illnesses that pass in a few days, this stubborn disease is no minor affliction, and a formidable approach must be used on it. However, there is a fact that you must know—there is no problem that cannot be resolved. Your corrupt dispositions will progressively diminish as you pursue the truth, grow in life, and as your understanding and experience of the truth deepens. To what extent must corrupt dispositions diminish before they may be considered purified? When you are no longer constrained by them and you are able to discern and abandon them. Although they may sometimes show themselves, you are still able to perform your duty and practice the truth as usual, and remain conscientious and responsible, and you are not constrained by them. At that point, these corrupt dispositions no longer pose a problem for you, and you have already overcome and risen above them. That is what it means to have grown in life, where under normal circumstances, you are no longer constrained or bound by your corrupt dispositions. Some people, no matter how many corrupt dispositions they reveal, do not seek the truth to resolve them. As a result, even after believing in God for many years, their dispositions remain unchanged. They think, “Whenever I do something, I reveal my corrupt dispositions; if I refrain from doing anything, then I won’t reveal them. Doesn’t that resolve the problem?” Isn’t this abstaining from eating for fear of choking? What will the result of this be? It can only lead to starvation. If one reveals corrupt dispositions and does not resolve them, it is tantamount to not accepting the truth and dropping dead. What will be the consequences if you believe in God and do not pursue the truth? You will be digging your own grave. Corrupt dispositions are the enemy of your belief in God; they hinder your practice of the truth, your experience of God’s work, and your submission to Him. As a result, you will not attain God’s salvation in the end. Is that not digging your own grave? Satanic dispositions hinder you from accepting and practicing the truth. You cannot avoid them; you must confront them. If you do not overcome them, they will control you. If you can overcome them, you will no longer be constrained by them, and you will be free. At times, corrupt dispositions will still emerge in your heart and show themselves, giving rise to erroneous thoughts and ideas, and evil thinking within you, making you feel smug or high and mighty, revealing such thoughts; however, when you act, your hands and feet will no longer be bound by them, and your heart will no longer be controlled by them. You will say, “My intention is to consider the interests of God’s house, to do things to satisfy God, and to fulfill my duty and loyalty as a created being. Although I still reveal this kind of disposition sometimes, it has absolutely no influence over me.” This is enough. This kind of corrupt disposition will essentially have been resolved. Is the dispositional change of man vague and intangible? (It is not.) This is how practical it is. Some people say, “Even though I understand a little of the truth, I still have corrupt thoughts and ideas sometimes, and I still reveal corrupt dispositions. What should I do?” If you are really someone who pursues the truth, then whenever you have erroneous thoughts and ideas, or reveal corrupt dispositions, you should pray to God and seek the truth to resolve them. This is the most basic principle of practice; you wouldn’t forget that, would you? Furthermore, you should also know that when you have incorrect thoughts and ideas, you ought to reject them. You cannot be constrained and bound by them, let alone follow them. As long as you understand a bit of the truth, this should be easy to accomplish. If you reveal corrupt dispositions, you must put in the effort to seek the truth to resolve them. You cannot say, “Oh God, I have revealed a corrupt disposition again, please discipline me! I cannot control my corrupt dispositions.” If you pray like this, it shows that you are not someone who pursues the truth. It shows that you are negative and passive, and that you have given up on yourself—you might as well prepare a coffin and make your funeral arrangements. Tell Me, what kind of person makes such a prayer? Only a good-for-nothing would pray to God in such a manner. A person who loves the truth would never utter such words. If you are someone who loves the truth, you should choose the path of pursuing the truth, and you should also be clear about how to practice. If you do not know how to practice when these very ordinary problems befall you, then you are too useless. Resolving corrupt dispositions is a lifelong endeavor, not something that can be achieved in just a few years. Why do you harbor fantasies about attaining the truth and the life? Is that not being foolish and ignorant?

In the process of pursuing a change in life disposition, the constraints of corrupt dispositions pose the greatest difficulty for every person. When people reveal a bit of a corrupt disposition, or reveal it again and again, and when they feel unable to control it, they condemn themselves, determining that they are done for and cannot change. This is a confusion and a misconception that exists in most people. Right now, some who pursue the truth have realized that as long as corrupt dispositions exist within a person, they can frequently reveal them, affecting the performance of their duty and hindering their practice of the truth, and that if they cannot self-reflect to resolve the problem of their corrupt dispositions, they will not be able to perform their duty adequately. Therefore, those who always perform their duties in a negative and perfunctory manner should seriously reflect on themselves and dig out the root cause of their problem to resolve it. However, some people have a distorted understanding, and they think, “All those who reveal corrupt dispositions while doing their duties should stop and completely resolve them before continuing to perform their duties.” Is this a tenable view? It is a human imagining, and it is completely untenable. Actually, for most people, regardless of what corrupt dispositions they reveal while performing their duties, as long as they seek the truth to resolve them, they can gradually reduce the number of revelations of corruption, and ultimately perform their duties adequately. This is the process of experiencing God’s work. As soon as you reveal a corrupt disposition, you should seek the truth to resolve it, and discern and dissect your satanic disposition. This is the process of battling against your satanic disposition, and it is essential for your life experience. While experiencing God’s work and changing your disposition, you use the truths that you understand to compete against your satanic disposition, ultimately resolving your corrupt dispositions and triumphing over Satan, thus achieving a change in disposition. The process of changing one’s disposition is seeking and accepting the truth in order to supplant the human notions and imaginings, and the words and doctrines, and to supplant the philosophies for worldly dealings and various heresies and fallacies that come from Satan, gradually replacing these things with the truth and God’s word. This is the process of gaining the truth and of changing one’s disposition. If you want to know how much your disposition has changed, you need to see clearly how many truths you understand, how many truths you have put into practice, and how many truths you are able to live out. You must see clearly how many of your corrupt dispositions have been replaced with the truths that you have understood and gained, and to what extent they are able to control the corrupt dispositions within you, that is, to what extent the truths you understand are able to guide your thoughts and intentions, and your daily life and practice. You ought to see clearly whether, when things befall you, it is your corrupt dispositions that have the upper hand, or whether it is the truths that you understand that prevail and guide you. This is the standard by which your stature and life entry are measured.

Excerpt 51

What is going on, when someone is given to making excuses when faced with reproach and pruning? This is a kind of disposition that’s very arrogant, self-righteous, and headstrong. Arrogant and headstrong people find it hard to accept the truth. They can’t accept it when they hear something that doesn’t align with their own perspectives, opinions, and thoughts. They don’t care about whether what others say is right or wrong, or who said it, or the context in which it was said, or whether it relates to their own responsibilities and duties. They don’t care about these things; what’s urgent to them is first to satisfy their own feelings. Isn’t this being headstrong? What are the losses which being headstrong will ultimately bring on people? It is difficult for them to gain the truth. Not accepting the truth is caused by man’s corrupt disposition, and the final outcome is that they can’t easily attain the truth. Anything that is naturally revealed from man’s nature essence is in opposition to the truth and has nothing to do with it; not one such thing aligns with or approaches the truth. Therefore, to achieve salvation, one must accept and practice the truth. If one cannot accept the truth and always wants to act according to their own preferences, that person cannot achieve salvation. If you want to follow God and perform your duty well, you must first avoid being impulsive when things do not go your way. Calm down first and be quiet before God, and in your heart, pray to Him and seek from Him. Do not be headstrong; submit first. Only with such a mindset can you bring better resolutions to problems. If you can persevere in living before God, and whatever befalls you, you are able to pray to Him and seek from Him, and face it with a mentality of submission, then it does not matter how many revelations there are of your corrupt disposition, or what transgressions you have previously committed—they can be resolved so long as you seek the truth. No matter what trials befall you, you will be able to stand firm. As long as you have the right mentality, are able to accept the truth, and submit to God in accordance with His requirements, then you are entirely capable of putting the truth into practice. Though you may be a little rebellious and resistant at times, and sometimes display defensive reasoning and are unable to submit, if you can pray to God and turn your rebellious state around, then you can accept the truth. Having done so, reflect on why such rebelliousness and resistance arose in you. Find the reason, then seek the truth to resolve it, and that aspect of your corrupt disposition can be purified. After several recoveries from such stumbles and falls, until you can put the truth into practice, your corrupt disposition will gradually be cast off. And then, the truth will reign inside you and become your life, and there will be no further obstacles to your practice of the truth. You will become able to truly submit to God, and you will live out the truth reality. During this period, you will have practical experience in and exposure to practicing the truth and submitting to God. When something happens to you later on, you will know how to practice in a way that is submissive to God and what kind of behavior is a rebellion against God. With these things clear in your heart, will you still be unable to fellowship on the truth reality? If you’re asked to share your experiential testimonies, you won’t feel it’s a problem because you will have experienced many things and know the principles of practice. However you talk, it will be real, and whatever you say, it will be practical. And if you’re asked to discuss the words and doctrines, you won’t be willing to—you’ll be averse to it at heart. Won’t you then have entered the truth reality? People who pursue the truth can gain experience of it with no more than a few years’ effort, then enter into the truth reality. For those who do not pursue the truth, it is not easy to enter the truth reality, even if they want to. This is because there’s too much rebelliousness in those who do not love the truth. Whenever they need to practice the truth in some matter, they always make excuses for themselves and have problems of their own, so it will be very hard for them to put the truth into practice. Although they may pray and seek, and be willing to practice the truth, when something happens to them, when they encounter difficulties, their muddledness surfaces, and their rebellious disposition comes out, quite clouding their minds. How severe their rebellious disposition must be! If it’s the lesser part of their heart that is muddled, and the greater part wants to submit to God, practicing the truth will present less of a difficulty for them. Perhaps they can pray for a while, or it may be that someone fellowships on the truth with them; as long as they understand it in that moment, it will be easier to put into practice. If their muddledness is so large that it occupies the greater part of their heart, in which rebelliousness is primary and submission is secondary, it won’t be easy for them to put the truth into practice, because they are too small of stature. And those who don’t love the truth at all are overwhelmingly or entirely rebellious, completely muddled. These people are muddlers who will never be able to put the truth into practice, so no amount of energy spent on them would be of any use. People who love the truth have a strong drive toward the truth; if that is the greater part or the great majority of what drives them, and the truth is clearly fellowshipped to them, they are sure to be able to put it into practice. Loving the truth is not a simple matter; having just a slight willingness does not make someone love the truth. They must reach a point where once they understand God’s word, they can strive and endure hardship and pay the price to put the truth into practice. That’s a person who loves the truth. A person who loves the truth can be persistent in their pursuit, no matter how many corrupt dispositions they reveal or how many transgressions they have committed. No matter what happens to them, they can pray to God, seek the truth, and accept the truth. After two or three years of such experience, their efforts can pay off, and ordinary difficulties won’t impede them. If they do encounter significant difficulties, then even if they fail, it’s normal, because they are too small of stature. As long as they can put the truth into practice under normal circumstances, there is hope. When they come to know God and have a God-fearing heart, even significant challenges are easy for them to resolve; no challenge is an issue for them. As long as people read more of God’s words and fellowship more on the truth, and if they can pray to God, no matter what difficulties befall them, and rely on the work of the Holy Spirit to resolve the issues, it will be easy for them to understand the truth and put it into practice, and their corrupt disposition will begin gradually to be cast off. With each act of practicing the truth, they cast off a bit of their corrupt disposition, and with more practice of the truth comes more casting off their corrupt disposition. This is a natural law. If people see that they are revealing a corrupt disposition and try to resolve it by relying on self-restraint and endurance, will they succeed? It won’t be easy. If they could resolve it that way, then there would be no need for God to do His work of judgment and chastisement. To resolve a corrupt disposition, one must rely on prayer to God and rely on Him, on seeking the truth and knowing oneself in self-reflection, and rely on the Holy Spirit to work. That is what can gradually resolve it. If people do not cooperate, don’t know how to reflect on themselves, cannot accept the truth, do not recognize their corrupt disposition, lack repentance, and do not hate the flesh and Satan, their corrupt disposition will not be cast off on its own. It is here that the work of the Holy Spirit is most marvelous; as long as people thirst for the truth and pursue a change in their disposition, God will enlighten and guide them. Without realizing it, people will simultaneously understand the truth and be able to know themselves, and at this point, they will begin to love the truth and yearn for it. They will be able to hate the nature and the disposition of Satan from their own hearts, making it easier for them to rebel against the flesh, and making it feel much easier for them to practice the truth. At that point, their corrupt disposition will change, bit by bit, and they will no longer have any rebelliousness against God; they will be able to submit completely to Him, without being constrained by any person, event, or thing. This is a complete transformation in their life disposition.

Excerpt 52

Some people never seek the truth while performing their duties. They merely do as they please, acting according to their own imaginings, and are ever arbitrary and rash. They simply do not walk the path of practicing the truth. What does it mean to be “arbitrary and rash”? It means to act however you see fit when you encounter an issue, without any process of thinking or searching. Nothing anyone else says can touch your heart or change your mind. You can’t even accept it when the truth is fellowshipped to you, you stick to your own opinions, not listening when other people say anything right, believing yourself right, and clinging to your own ideas. Even if your thinking is correct, you should take other people’s opinions into consideration as well. And if you don’t at all, is this not being extremely self-righteous? It is not easy for people who are extremely self-righteous and willful to accept the truth. If you do something wrong and others criticize you, saying, “You’re not doing it according to the truth!” you reply, “Even if I’m not, this is still how I’m going to do it,” and then you find some reason to make them think this is right. If they reproach you, saying, “You acting like this is disruptive, and it will damage the work of the church,” not only do you not listen, but you keep coming out with excuses: “I think this is the right way, so this is how I’m going to do it.” What disposition is this? (Arrogance.) It is arrogance. An arrogant nature makes you willful. If you have an arrogant nature, you will behave arbitrarily and rashly, heedless of what anyone says. How, then, do you resolve your arbitrariness and rashness? Say, for example, something happens to you and you have your own ideas and plans. Before determining what to do, you must seek the truth, and you should at least fellowship with everyone about what you think and believe about that matter, asking everyone to tell you if your thoughts are correct and in line with the truth, and to carry out checks for you. This is the best method for solving arbitrariness and rashness. First, you can shed light on your views and seek the truth—this is the first step of practice for solving arbitrariness and rashness. The second step happens when other people voice dissenting opinions—how can you practice in order to keep from being arbitrary and rash? You must first have an attitude of humility, set aside what you believe to be right, and let everyone fellowship. Even if you believe your way to be correct, you should not keep insisting on it. That is a kind of step forward; it shows an attitude of seeking the truth, of denying yourself, and of satisfying God’s intentions. Once you have this attitude, at the same time as not adhering to your own opinions, you should pray, seek the truth from God, and then look for a basis in God’s words—determine how to act based on God’s words. This is the most suitable and accurate practice. When you seek the truth and hold up a problem for everyone to fellowship and seek on together, that is when the Holy Spirit provides enlightenment. God enlightens people according to principles, He takes stock of their attitude. If you stubbornly stick to your guns regardless of whether your view is right or wrong, God will hide His face from you and ignore you; He will make you hit a wall to reveal you and expose your ugly state. If, on the other hand, your attitude is correct, neither insistent on your own way, nor self-righteous, nor arbitrary and rash, but an attitude of seeking and of accepting the truth, if you fellowship with everyone, then the Holy Spirit will begin to work among you, and perhaps He will lead you to understanding by means of someone’s words. Sometimes, when the Holy Spirit enlightens you, He leads you to understand the crux of a matter with just a few words or phrases, or by giving you an idea. You realize, in that instant, that whatever you have been clinging to is erroneous, and, in the same instant, you understand the most appropriate way to act. Having reached such a level, have you not successfully avoided doing evil, and at the same time avoided bearing the consequences of a mistake? Is this not God’s protection? (Yes.) How is such a thing achieved? This is only attained when you have a God-fearing heart, and when you seek the truth with a heart of submission. Once you have received the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit and determined the principles of practice, your practice will be in line with the truth, and you will be able to satisfy God’s intentions. What does you being able to practice the truth in such a manner crucially depend upon? Primarily, it depends on you having the right intentions and attitude. This is crucial. When the Holy Spirit works, He scrutinizes people’s intentions and attitudes, and He decides whether to enlighten or lead them based on these factors. If people can understand God’s work and see this matter clearly, they’ll know how to pray to God and seek the truth. Can you see this clearly? Often, people wish to avoid doing evil, and want to practice the truth and act with principles. But this depends on people’s attitude toward the truth and whether they have a heart that fears and submits to God. If you can let go of your personal intentions and have a mindset of submission to God, praying and seeking from God sincerely, it won’t take long for you to receive God’s enlightenment. God will use some methods to make you understand what the principles of the truth are and where the key points of the truth lie. When you pray and seek from God, as long as you have the right mindset and you are sincere, God will enlighten you. The only worrying thing is if people are not genuinely seeking the truth but merely going through the motions and formalities for others to see. In that case, they won’t be able to obtain God’s enlightenment. If your attitude is to stubbornly insist, to deny the truth, to reject anyone else’s suggestions, to not seek the truth, to only have faith in yourself, and to only do as you want—if this is your attitude regardless of what God does or asks, then what is God’s reaction? God pays you no heed, He sidelines you. Are you not willful? Are you not arrogant? Do you not always think you’re right? If you are devoid of submission, if you never seek, if your heart is utterly closed and resistant to God, then God pays you no heed. Why does God pay you no heed? Because if your heart is closed to God, can you accept God’s enlightenment? Can you feel it when God reproaches you? When people are intransigent, when their satanic nature and beastliness burst forth, they don’t feel anything God does, it is all to no avail—so God does not do useless work. If you have this kind of stubbornly antagonistic attitude, all that God does is to remain hidden from you, God will not do superfluous things. When you are this stubbornly antagonistic, and this closed, God would never forcibly do anything in you, or force anything upon you, He would never keep trying to move and enlighten you, over and over again—God does not act in this way. Why does God not act in this way? Mainly because God has seen a certain kind of disposition in you, a beastliness that is averse to the truth and impervious to reason. And do you think people can control a wild animal when its beastliness bursts forth? Does shouting and screaming at it do anything? Is reasoning with it or offering it comfort of any use? Do people dare to approach it? There is a good way of describing this: It is impervious to reason. When your beastliness flares up and you are impervious to reason, what does God do? God pays you no heed. What more does God have to say to you when you are impervious to reason? Saying any more is useless. And when God pays you no heed, are you blessed, or do you suffer? Do you gain some benefits, or suffer a loss? You will undoubtedly suffer a loss. And who caused this? (We caused it.) You caused it. No one forced you to act like this, and yet you still feel upset. Did you not bring this upon yourself? God pays you no heed, you cannot feel God, there is darkness in your heart, and your life is compromised—you brought this upon yourself, you deserve it.

When facing a matter, if people are too willful and insist on their own ideas without seeking the truth, this is very dangerous. God will spurn these people and set them aside. What will the consequence of this be? It can certainly be said that there is the danger of them being eliminated. However, those who seek the truth can obtain the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment and guidance, and as a result, gain God’s blessing. The two different attitudes of seeking and not seeking the truth can bring about two different states in you and two different results. Which kind of result do you prefer? (I’d prefer to obtain God’s enlightenment.) If people wish to be enlightened and guided by God, and to receive God’s graces, what kind of attitude must they have? They must often have an attitude of seeking and submission before God. Whether you are performing your duty, interacting with others, or dealing with some particular issue that you are faced with, you must have an attitude of seeking and submission. With this kind of attitude, it can be said that you have something of a God-fearing heart. Being able to seek and submit to the truth is the path to fearing God and shunning evil. If you lack an attitude of seeking and submission, and you instead cling to yourself, are stubbornly antagonistic, and you refuse to accept the truth, and are averse to the truth, then you will naturally commit a great deal of evil. You won’t be able to help it! If people never seek the truth to resolve this, the ultimate consequence will be that no matter how much they experience, no matter how many situations they find themselves in, no matter how many lessons God sets out for them, they still won’t understand the truth, and they will ultimately remain incapable of entering into the truth reality. If people do not possess the truth reality, they will be incapable of following the way of God, and if they are never able to follow the way of God, then they are not people who fear God and shun evil. People go on and on about wanting to perform their duties and follow God. Are things that simple? Absolutely not. These things are enormously important in people’s lives! It isn’t easy to perform one’s duty well to satisfy God, and achieve fear of God and shunning of evil. But I will tell you a principle of practice: If you have an attitude of seeking and submission when something happens to you, this will protect you. The ultimate goal isn’t for you to be protected. It is to make you understand the truth, and be able to enter into the truth reality, and attain God’s salvation—this is the ultimate goal. If you have this attitude in all that you experience, you will no longer feel that performing your duty and satisfying the intentions of God are empty words and slogans; it will no longer feel so taxing. Instead, before you realize it, you will come to understand quite a few truths. If you try to experience in this way, you will be sure to reap rewards. It doesn’t matter who you are, how old you are, how educated you are, how many years you have believed in God, or what duty you perform. As long as you have an attitude of seeking and submission, as long as you experience in this way, then ultimately, you will be sure to understand the truth and enter into the truth reality. However, if you do not have an attitude of seeking and submission in everything that happens to you, then you will not be able to understand the truth, nor will you be able to enter into the truth reality. Those who never understand the truth and can never enter into the truth reality think, “What is the truth and what are doctrines? What is the truth reality and what is not having the truth reality? Why don’t I understand it?” They often listen to sermons and fellowship about the truth, they get up early and go to bed late reading God’s words, listening more, learning more, and writing more. They take notes of the edifying things that they hear in their notebooks, filling up several whole books. They have put in a lot of effort, but, unfortunately, they never understand the truth. Consequently, they feel the truth is too profound. After listening for several years, they understand some doctrines, but why can’t they put them into practice? Why do they become confused when facing matters? They regard understanding the truth and entering into the truth reality as very abstract and feel that these things are very difficult to attain. In fact, they have misunderstood it. Believing in God and understanding the truth is not about playing word games, it is not being able to talk about some of the words and doctrines, and that’s it—that is not what it is about. What believing in God stresses most is practicing the truth and being able to grasp the principles in practicing the truth. Only by understanding what practicing the truth is, and what handling matters with principles is, can one be said to understand the truth and to have entered into reality. Being able to practice the truth and enter into reality is the most important thing.

Excerpt 53

When people take no responsibility toward their duties, do them in a perfunctory manner, act like people pleasers, and do not defend the interests of the house of God, what disposition is this? This is cunningness, it is the disposition of Satan. The most prominent aspect of man’s philosophies for worldly dealings is cunningness. People think that if they are not cunning, they will be liable to offend others and unable to protect themselves; they think that they must be cunning enough not to hurt or offend anyone, thereby keeping themselves safe, protecting their livelihoods, and gaining a firm foothold among other people. Nonbelievers all live by Satan’s philosophies. They are all people pleasers and do not offend anyone. You have come to the house of God, read the word of God, and listened to the sermons of God’s house, so why are you unable to practice the truth, speak from the heart, and be an honest person? Why are you always a people pleaser? People pleasers only protect their own interests, and not the interests of the church. When they see someone do evil and harm the church’s interests, they ignore it. They like to be people pleasers, and do not offend anyone. This is irresponsible, and that kind of person is too cunning and untrustworthy. To protect their own vanity and pride, and to maintain their reputation and status, some people are happy to help others, and to sacrifice for their friends no matter the cost. But when they need to protect the interests of the house of God, the truth, and justice, their good intentions are gone, they have completely disappeared. When they should practice the truth, they do not practice it at all. What is going on? To protect their own dignity and pride, they will pay any price and endure any suffering. But when they need to do real work and handle practical affairs, to safeguard the church’s work and positive things, and to protect and provide for God’s chosen people, why do they no longer have the strength to pay any price and endure any suffering? That is inconceivable. Actually, they have a kind of disposition that is averse to the truth. Why do I say that their disposition is averse to the truth? Because whenever something involves bearing witness for God, practicing the truth, protecting God’s chosen people, fighting against Satan’s schemes, or protecting the work of the church, they flee and hide, and don’t attend to any proper matters. Where is their heroism and spirit to endure suffering? Where do they apply these things? This is easy to see. Even if someone reproves them, saying that they should not be so selfish and base, and protect themselves, and that they ought to protect the work of the church, they don’t really care. They say to themselves, “I don’t do those things, and they do not have anything to do with me. What good would acting like that be for my pursuit of fame, gain, and status?” They are not a person who pursues the truth. They only like to seek fame, gain, and status, and they do not do the work that God has entrusted to them at all. So, when they are needed to do the work of the church, they simply choose to flee. This means that, in their hearts, they do not like positive things, and are not interested in the truth. This is a clear manifestation of being averse to the truth. Only those who love the truth and possess the truth reality can come forward when required by the work of God’s house and by God’s chosen ones, only they can stand up, bravely and duty-bound, to testify to God and fellowship the truth, leading God’s chosen ones onto the right path, enabling them to attain submission to God’s work. Only this is an attitude of responsibility and a manifestation of showing consideration for God’s intentions. If you do not have this attitude, and are nothing but careless in your handling of things, and you think, “I’ll do the things within the scope of my duty, but I don’t care about anything else. If you ask me something, I’ll answer you—if I’m in a good mood. Otherwise, I won’t. This is my attitude,” then this is a type of corrupt disposition, isn’t it? Only protecting one’s own status, reputation, and pride, and only protecting the things that relate to one’s own interests—is this protecting a just cause? Is it protecting the interests of God’s house? Behind these petty, selfish motives is the disposition of being averse to the truth. The majority of you frequently display these sorts of manifestations, and the moment you encounter something that relates to the interests of God’s house, you prevaricate by saying, “I didn’t see,” or “I don’t know,” or “I haven’t heard.” Regardless of whether you are truly unaware or just pretending to be, if you reveal this kind of corrupt disposition in crucial moments, then it is hard to say whether you are someone who truly believes in God; to Me, you’re either someone who is confused in their belief, or a disbeliever. You are absolutely not someone who loves the truth.

You may understand what it means to be averse to the truth, but why do I say that being averse to the truth is a disposition? A disposition has nothing to do with occasional, temporary manifestations, and occasional, temporary manifestations don’t qualify as a dispositional problem. Regardless of what kind of corrupt disposition a person has, it will often or even constantly be revealed in them; it will be revealed whenever that person is in the right context. Therefore, you cannot arbitrarily characterize a dispositional problem on the basis of an occasional, temporary manifestation. So, what is a disposition? Dispositions are related to intentions and motivations, they’re related to a person’s thinking and point of view. You seem to be able to sense that they are dominating and swaying you, but dispositions can also be hidden and concealed, and obscured by superficial phenomena. In short, as long as there is a disposition within you, it will interfere with you, constrain and control you, and give rise to many behaviors and manifestations in you—that is a disposition. What behaviors, thoughts, viewpoints, and attitudes does the disposition of being averse to the truth often give rise to? One of the main characteristics of being averse to the truth that people display is a lack of interest in positive things and the truth, as well as being disinterested in, having a listlessness of the heart, a lack of desire to reach for the truth, and thinking that all this is just fine whenever it comes to anything involves practicing the truth. I’ll give a simple example. A piece of common sense that people often talk about regarding good health is to eat more fruit and vegetables, to eat more light foods and less meat, and especially less fried food; this is a positive guide for people’s health and wellness. Everyone can understand and accept what to eat more of and what to eat less of, so is this acceptance based on theory or in practice? (Theory.) How is theoretical acceptance manifested? In a kind of basic recognition. It is thinking that this statement is right, and that this statement is very good through discernment that is based in your judgment. But do you have any proof to demonstrate this statement? Do you have any grounds for believing it? Without experiencing it yourself, without any grounds or basis to substantiate whether this statement is right or wrong, and certainly without drawing lessons from previous mistakes, and without any real-life examples, you just accepted this view—this is theoretical acceptance. Regardless of whether you are accepting it theoretically or practically, you must first confirm that the statement “eat more vegetables and less meat” is correct and a positive thing. So, how can your disposition of being averse to the truth be seen? Based on how you approach and apply this statement in your life; this shows your attitude toward that statement, whether you’ve accepted it theoretically and in terms of doctrine, or whether you’ve applied it in real life and made it your reality. If you’ve just accepted the statement in terms of doctrine, but what you do in real life completely contradicts this statement, or you show no practical application at all of this statement, do you love this statement, or are you averse to it? For example, when you eat and see some green vegetables, and think, “Green vegetables are good for one’s health, but they don’t taste good, and meat tastes better, so I’ll eat some meat first,” and then you only eat meat and no green vegetables—what kind of disposition does this show? One of not accepting correct statements, being averse to positive things, and only being willing to eat according to fleshly preferences. This kind of person who is gluttonous and greedy for pleasure has already become very averse to, resistant to, and repulsed by positive things, and this is a kind of disposition. Someone might acknowledge that this statement is quite right, but they can’t do it themselves, and although they can’t, they still tell others to do so; after saying it a lot, that statement becomes a kind of theory to them, and it has no effect on them. That person knows very well in their heart that eating more vegetables is right and that eating more meat is not good, but they think, “No matter what, I haven’t lost out, eating meat is taking advantage, and I don’t feel that it’s unhealthy.” Their greed and desires have made them choose an incorrect lifestyle, and made them constantly go against correct common sense and the right lifestyle. They have the kind of corrupt disposition that craves advantages and fleshly enjoyment, so will it be easy for them to accept correct statements and positive things? It will not be easy at all. Is their lifestyle not then governed by their corrupt disposition? It is a revelation of their corrupt disposition, and it is a manifestation of their corrupt disposition. What is outwardly manifested is these behaviors and an attitude, but, in fact, it is a disposition that is governing them. What disposition is this? It is being averse to the truth. This disposition of being averse to the truth is hard to discover; no one feels that they’re averse to the truth, but the fact that they’ve believed in God for several years and still don’t know how to practice the truth is enough to show that they’re averse to the truth. People listen to so many sermons and read so much of God’s word, and God’s intention is for them to accept His words in their hearts and to bring these words into their real lives to practice and use, so that they understand the truth and make the truth their lives. This requirement is difficult for most people to achieve, and that is why it is said that most people have the disposition of being averse to the truth.

When someone understands the truth, practicing the truth is not difficult for them, and once someone is able to practice the truth, they can enter into the truth reality. Is it really that difficult to turn the truths that one understands into the realities that one lives out? Let Me give you an example. Say that the weather is cold and you try to leave the house with sweat still on your brow, and your mom tells you to dry off your sweat before going out or you’ll catch a cold. You know that your mother wants the best for you, but you don’t take her advice seriously, and you ignore it even though you feel that her suggestion is right. You go out with sweat on your brow just the same, and sometimes you do catch a cold after going out like this, but you still continue to go against her advice the next time you leave the house. You obviously know that her advice is right and in your best interests, and that your mom’s motives and intentions are always for your own good, but you still turn a deaf ear to it and don’t listen—isn’t this a disposition? If you didn’t have this disposition, what would you choose to do? (Listen.) You would know the importance of this advice, and you would know the consequences and pain you might suffer from not listening to it, and you would comprehend and understand the meaning of this suggestion. You would be able to abide strictly by this advice and always carry it out, and then you wouldn’t be liable to catch a cold. This is just one example. It’s the same with believing in God, and reading and listening to God’s words, so how should people treat God’s words? This is the most crucial question. If a person speaks in accordance with the truth and is correct, people will benefit from accepting their words. God’s words are the truth, and if people are able to accept them, they will not only benefit, they will also gain the life. Many people cannot see this matter clearly, and are always disdainful of God’s words. No matter what God says, whether He is exhorting, rebuking, reminding, comforting, or earnestly entreating people, no matter how He speaks, He cannot awaken their hearts. They are unable to act according to His words, and after listening to them, they just turn a deaf ear. This is one of man’s dispositions—intransigence and being averse to the truth. If you can’t follow God’s words in how you approach the things that God tells you and commands you to do, then you will not be able to change this disposition. No matter how you acknowledge or say amen to every word that God says, no matter how you verbally praise God’s words as the truth, it is useless; you must be able to accept God’s words, and you must practice and experience God’s words, and make God’s words your life, and your reality, only that is useful. For example, if someone with a deceitful disposition resolves to be honest and speak truthfully, this is somewhat easy for them to achieve, but the most difficult thing to change is the disposition of being averse to the truth and intransigence. No matter what God says, people with this disposition don’t take it seriously in their hearts, and no matter what kind of attitude God takes, whether it is one of warning, reminding, exhorting, or earnestly entreating, presenting facts or reasoning things out, it does not move their hearts, and this is hard to deal with. It is hard for people to recognize the disposition of being averse to the truth, and they must frequently seek the truth and reflect on their own states, on why they cannot accept the truth, and on why they cannot practice the truths they understand. If they thoroughly understand this problem, they will know what it means to be averse to the truth.

There is something hidden within people’s disposition that manifests itself in the attitude of being neither overbearing nor servile. They have their own way of thinking and of expressing themselves, and think that this is the most appropriate way. No matter what others say or do, they are not influenced by them; they insist on doing whatever they feel will make people look up to them, believing that this is the right thing to do; they don’t accept the truth in the slightest, they cannot correctly face the facts, and they are devoid of any truth principles. What kind of disposition is this? This is the disposition of arrogance and self-righteousness and being averse to the truth. Those who belong to Satan and are averse to the truth are deaf and blind to God’s words and deeds, no matter how much God speaks or does. Satan never treats God’s words as the truth, it ignores them, it doesn’t let people accept God’s words and the truth, and it also misleads people so that they submit to it—this is how Satan resists God. God expresses the truth to save, awaken, and purify mankind, and Satan tries its utmost to disturb and destroy God’s work; Satan’s objective in misleading mankind is to corrupt and plague mankind, and ultimately to devour and obliterate mankind. For example, God gave mankind all kinds of food, and He also created all kinds of grains and vegetables, as well as land suitable for growing them. As long as people work hard, they will have enough to eat and use, and can ensure that they have a healthy diet. But people are insatiable and always want to get rich, and they insist on researching methods of genetic modification to increase crop yields, which destroys the actual nutrition of grains, and turns organic food into food that is not organic. After people eat these things, all kinds of illnesses emerge in their bodies—isn’t this an act of Satan? People have been corrupted by Satan to a certain point, and they have all become living Satans and living devils. In the past, it was only Satan and evil spirits that resisted God, but now the entirety of corrupt mankind resists God. So, are corrupted human beings not devils and Satans? Are they not descendants of Satan? (They are.) This is the consequence wrought by Satan corrupting mankind for millennia. How can you know and discern a satanic disposition? Based on the things that Satan likes doing, as well as the methods and tricks by which it does things, one can see that it never likes positive things, that it likes evil, and that it always thinks itself competent and capable of controlling everything. This is Satan’s arrogant nature. That’s why Satan unscrupulously denies, resists, and opposes God. Satan is the representative and source of all negative things and all evil things. If you can see this clearly, then you have discernment of satanic dispositions. It is not a simple matter for people to accept the truth and practice the truth, because they all have satanic dispositions, and they all are constrained and bound by their satanic dispositions. For example, some people recognize that it is good to be an honest person, and they feel envious and jealous when they see others being honest, telling the truth, and speaking in a simple and openhearted manner, yet if you ask them to be honest people themselves, they find it difficult. They are unwaveringly incapable of speaking honest words and of doing honest things. Isn’t this a satanic disposition? They say nice-sounding things, but they don’t practice them. This is being averse to the truth. Those who are averse to the truth have a hard time accepting the truth and have no way to enter into the truth realities. The most obvious state of people who are averse to the truth is that they are not interested in the truth and positive things, they are even repulsed by them and loathe them, and they especially like to follow trends. They do not accept in their hearts the things that God loves and what God requires people to do. Instead, they are dismissive and indifferent toward them, and some people even often despise the standards and principles that God requires of man. They are repulsed by positive things, and they always feel resistant, opposed, and full of contempt toward them in their hearts. This is the primary manifestation of being averse to the truth. In church life, reading God’s word, praying, fellowshipping on the truth, performing duties, and resolving problems with the truth are all positive things. They are pleasing to God, but some people are repulsed by these positive things, don’t care for them, and are indifferent to them. The most hateful part is that they adopt a contemptuous attitude toward positive people, such as honest people, those who pursue the truth, those who perform their duties loyally, and those who safeguard the work of God’s house. They always try to attack and exclude these people. If they discover that they have shortcomings or revelations of corruption, they seize upon this, making a big fuss about it, and constantly belittle them for it. What kind of disposition is this? Why do they hold hostility toward positive people so much? Why are they so fond of and accommodating toward evil people, disbelievers, and antichrists, and why do they often fool around with such people? Where negative and evil things are concerned, they feel excitement and elation, but when it comes to positive things, resistance begins to appear in their attitude; in particular, when they hear people fellowshipping the truth or solving problems using the truth, they feel averse and dissatisfied in their hearts, and they vent their grievances. Isn’t this disposition being averse to the truth? Isn’t this the revelation of a corrupt disposition? There are many people who believe in God who like to do work for Him and run around enthusiastically for Him, and when it comes to putting their gifts and strengths to use, indulging their preferences and showing off, they have boundless energy. But if you ask them to practice the truth and act according to the truth principles, it takes the wind from their sails, and they lose their enthusiasm. If they are not allowed to show off, they grow listless and despondent. Why is it that they have energy for showing off? And why is it that they have no energy for practicing the truth? What is the problem here? People all like to distinguish themselves; they all covet empty glory. Everyone has inexhaustible energy when it comes to believing in God for the sake of gaining blessings and rewards, so why do they grow listless, why are they despondent when it comes to practicing the truth and rebelling against the flesh? Why does this happen? It proves that people’s hearts are adulterated. They believe in God entirely for the sake of gaining blessings—to put it plainly, they do so in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. Without blessings or benefits to pursue, people grow listless and despondent, and have no enthusiasm. This is all caused by a corrupt disposition that is averse to the truth. When controlled by this disposition, people are unwilling to choose the path of pursuing the truth, they go their own way, and they choose the incorrect path—they know full well that it is wrong to pursue fame, gain, and status and yet still cannot bear to do without these things or to put them aside, and they still pursue them, walking the path of Satan. In this case, they are not following God, but following Satan. Everything they do is in service of Satan, and they are servants of Satan.

Is it easy to change the corrupt disposition of being averse to the truth? Being averse to the truth is a characteristic of humankind’s deep corruption, and it is the most difficult to change. Because a change of disposition can only be achieved by accepting the truth. Someone who is averse to the truth cannot easily accept the truth, just like how a terminally ill person rejects food. This is very dangerous, and a person who is averse to the truth cannot easily be saved, even if they believe in God. If someone has believed in God for a few years but doesn’t know what the truth is, and what positive things are, and is not even clear about the life goal of pursuing the truth to achieve salvation, isn’t this a blind man who has lost his way? Therefore, being averse to the truth makes it impossible to accept the truth, and this kind of corrupt disposition is not easy to change. People who are able to choose to accept the truth and to follow the right path are those who love the truth, and people like this can easily change their corrupt dispositions. If someone has the disposition of being averse to the truth, but still hopes in their heart to be saved by God, where should they begin? What starting point will make this easier? What is the fastest route? (After understanding what positive things are, and what principles are, they should use the principles and standards as their measure while performing their duty, and if something goes against the principles and is not in accordance with God’s intentions, they should hold to the principles and not do it.) They should first grasp the principles of each truth—this is very important. Then what? (When they reveal a state of being averse to the truth, and their duty and the principles are involved, they must rebel against the flesh and practice according to the principles.) That’s right, they must have a path, and that goal and path should be clear. Right now, the crucial thing is that most people don’t know which aspect of their disposition is revealed in what context and at what time, and in what way it is revealed. If they knew all that, wouldn’t it be easy for them to change? Looking now, people’s various types of thinking or attitudes actually involve their dispositions; without the dominance of various dispositions, without being challenged or hobbled by their corrupt dispositions, it would be easy for people to correct their mistaken thoughts. For example, say that your mother tells you to dry off your sweat before leaving the house. If you’re an obedient, filial child, while sensing your mother’s good intentions, you can also comprehend the correctness of this advice, and know the advantage of it, and can acknowledge and accept it. If you don’t have a corrupt disposition that is acting up and pulling you back, it will be easy for you to accept this suggestion. Although this advice is very simple and easy to carry out, and you know that it is right, because you have a disposition that is averse to the truth and intransigent, this can lead you to knowingly go against it, and this can hurt your mother’s feelings and make her worry about you and suffer, that is the consequence. In short, how one deals with things when they befall them—how one deals with positive things, and also how one constantly fights and battles with their corrupt dispositions—this represents their resolve to pursue the truth. If you have this resolve and are willing to cast off your corrupt disposition, accept the truth, make God’s word your life, and live with human likeness, then you can change. However great your resolve to pursue the truth is, that is how great your change will be.

What does salvation mainly refer to? It refers mainly to a change of disposition. Only when a person’s disposition has changed can they cast off Satan’s influence and be saved. Therefore, for those who believe in God, dispositional change is a major issue. When a person’s disposition is changed, they will live out human likeness and completely attain salvation. It is possible that someone may not be very good-looking, gifted, or talented, they may speak clumsily and not be very articulate, or good at dressing up, and they may outwardly appear very ordinary, but they are capable of seeking the truth when something happens to them, rather than acting according to their own will or scheming for their own sake, and when God commands them to perform a duty, they are able to submit to Him and accomplish what He entrusts to them. What do you think of this kind of person? Though outwardly, they are not attractive or prepossessing in appearance, they have a heart that fears and submits to God, and in this their strengths are revealed. When people see this, they will say, “This person has a stable disposition, and when things happen, they can seek quietly before God without being careless or doing something foolish or stupid. They have a serious and responsible attitude; they are dutiful and can fully dedicate themselves to faithfully fulfilling their duty.” This person is restrained in how they speak and act, they have normal rationality, and based on what they live out and the disposition that they display, they have a God-fearing heart. If they have a God-fearing heart, are there principles to their actions? They certainly seek the principles and don’t recklessly engage in wrongful acts. This is the ultimate result achieved by practicing the truth and pursuing a change of disposition. Their speech is measured and accurate, they don’t speak carelessly, they act in a way that is reassuring and trustworthy, and they possess the realities of submission to God and of shunning evil. All these manifestations can be seen in this person. This is a person who has entered into the truth reality, and whose disposition has changed. These things can’t be faked. A person’s disposition is their life; whatever disposition a person has, that will be their behavior. People’s behavior and manifestations are governed by their dispositions, and what people consistently express are the revelations of their disposition, not their character. Being able to recognize dispositional problems and the revelations of various corrupt dispositions, and to then solve them by seeking the truth, is the most fundamental thing that one must achieve in pursuing a change of disposition.

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No matter what sort of duty you perform or profession you study, you should become more proficient the more you study, and strive for perfection; your performance of your duty will then get better and better. Some people aren’t conscientious in the performance of any duty, and do not seek the truth to resolve any difficulties they encounter. They always want others to guide and assist them, going so far as to ask others to teach them hand in hand and do things for them, without putting in effort of their own. They constantly rely on others and cannot do without their help. They’re junk for doing so, aren’t they? No matter what duty you are performing, you need to put your heart into studying things. If you lack professional knowledge, then study professional knowledge. If you do not understand the truth, then seek the truth. If you understand the truth and acquire professional knowledge, you will be able to put them to use while performing your duty and get results. This is a person of true talent and real knowledge. If you do not study any professional knowledge at all during your duty, do not pursue the truth, then your laboring will be subpar; so, how can you speak of performing your duty? To perform your duty well, you must study a lot of useful knowledge and equip yourself with many truths. You must never stop learning, never stop seeking, and never stop improving on your weaknesses by learning from others. No matter what other people’s strengths are, or in what way they are stronger than you, you must learn from them. And all the more should you learn from anyone who understands the truth better than you. By performing your duty this way for several years, you will understand the truth and enter its realities, and your performance of your duty will also be up to par. You will have become a person who possesses truth and humanity, a person who possesses the truth reality. This is achieved by pursuing the truth. How could you achieve such results without performing a duty? It is God’s exaltation. If you do not pursue the truth while performing your duties and are satisfied merely with laboring, what will the consequences be? In one regard, you will not perform your duties adequately. In the other, you will lack genuine experiential testimony and will not gain the truth. Without anything to show in either of these regards, could you gain God’s approval? It would be impossible. Therefore, one absolutely cannot gain God’s approval by being satisfied with laboring. To think that you can be rewarded and enter the kingdom of heaven merely by laboring is wishful thinking! What kind of attitude is that? Wanting to obtain blessings by simply laboring is clearly bargaining with God, an attempt to trick God. God does not approve of such laborers. What dispositions govern a person when they are perfunctory, or when they engage in deceit, in the performance of their duties? Arrogance, intransigence, and not loving the truth—are they not governed by these things? (Yes.) Do you have such manifestations? (Yes.) Frequently, occasionally, or only in certain matters? (Frequently.) Your attitude in acknowledging such states is quite sincere, and you have honest hearts, but merely acknowledging them is not enough; it won’t change them. So, what must be done to change them? When, in the performance of your duties, you are perfunctory, reveal an arrogant disposition, or have an irreverent attitude, you must quickly come before God in prayer, self-reflect, and recognize what manner of corrupt disposition you are revealing. Moreover, you must understand how that kind of disposition comes about and how it can be changed. The purpose of understanding this is to bring about change. So, what should one do in order to achieve change? One must come to know, through the exposure and judgment of God’s words, the essence of their corrupt dispositions—how ugly and fiendish it is, no different from that of Satan or devils. Only then can they hate themselves and hate Satan; only then can they rebel against themselves and rebel against Satan. It is in this way that one can put the truth into practice. When one sets their mind to practicing the truth, they must also accept God’s scrutiny and His discipline. There must then be an element of active cooperation on their part. How should they cooperate? When performing a duty, as soon as one has the thought of “that’s good enough,” they must correct it. One must not entertain such thoughts. When an arrogant disposition arises, one must pray to God, acknowledge their corrupt disposition, quickly reflect on themselves, seek out God’s word, and accept His judgment and chastening. In this way, one will be able to have a repentant heart, and their internal state will have changed. What is the purpose of doing this? The purpose is to have you genuinely turn around, and be able to perform with loyalty, and submit to and accept God’s reproach and discipline without reservation. In doing so, your state will be reversed. When you are about to be perfunctory again, and treat your duties with an irreverent attitude again, if you can promptly turn around due to God’s discipline and reproach, will you not then have avoided committing a transgression? Is this a good thing or a bad thing for your growth in life? It is a good thing. When you practice the truth and satisfy God, your heart is at ease, joyful, and free from regrets. That is genuine peace and joy.

It is easy for people to rebel against and resist God when they have corrupt dispositions, but this does not mean that they have no hope of salvation. God has come to do the work of saving people and has expressed many truths; it comes down to whether people can accept these truths. If one can accept the truth, they can attain salvation. If they do not accept the truth and can deny and betray God, they are entirely done for—they can only wait to be destroyed amid disaster. No one can escape this fate. People must confront this fact. Some people say, “I constantly reveal corrupt dispositions, and I can never change. What should I do? Is this just how I am? Does God not like me? Does He detest me?” Is this the right kind of attitude? Is this the right way to think? (No.) When a person has corrupt dispositions, they will naturally reveal them. They cannot curb them, though they’d like to, and so they feel that there is no hope for them. In fact, this is not necessarily the case. It depends on whether the person can accept the truth, on whether they can rely on God and look up to Him. That people frequently reveal a corrupt disposition proves their life is controlled by the corrupt disposition of Satan, and that their essence is the essence of Satan. People should acknowledge and accept this fact. There is a difference between the nature essence of man and the essence of God. What should they do after acknowledging this fact? When people reveal a corrupt disposition; when they indulge in pleasures of the flesh and grow distant from God; or when God works in a way that is at odds with their own ideas, and complaints arise within them, they should make themselves aware at once that this is a problem, and a corrupt disposition; it is rebellion against God, opposition to God; it does not accord with the truth, and is loathed by God. When people realize these things, they should not complain, or become negative and slack off, and much less should they be upset; instead, they should be able to know themselves more deeply. In addition, they should be able to come before God proactively and accept God’s reproach and discipline, and they should immediately turn their state around, such that they are able to practice according to the truth and the words of God, and can act according to the principles. In this way, your relationship with God will grow increasingly normal, as will the state within you. You will be able to identify corrupt dispositions, the essence of corruption, and the various ugly states of Satan with increasing clarity. No longer will you utter such foolish and childish words as “it was Satan interfering with me,” or “it was an idea Satan gave me.” Instead, you will have accurate knowledge of corrupt dispositions, of the human essence that resists God, and of the essence of Satan. You will have a more accurate way of treating these things, and these things will not constrain you. You will not become weak or lose faith in God and in His salvation because you have revealed a bit of your corrupt disposition, or transgressed, or have done your duty perfunctorily, or because you often find yourself in a passive, negative state. You will not live amid such states, but will face your own corrupt disposition correctly, and be capable of a normal spiritual life. When one reveals corrupt dispositions, if they can reflect on themselves, come before God in prayer, seek the truth, and discern and dissect the essence of their corrupt dispositions, such that they are no longer controlled and constrained by their corrupt dispositions, but can put the truth into practice, they will have embarked on the path to salvation. With this kind of practice and experience, one can then cast off their corrupt dispositions and break free from Satan’s influence. Have they not then come to live before God and obtained freedom and liberation? This is the path of practicing and obtaining the truth, as well as the path to salvation. Corrupt dispositions are deeply rooted in humans; the essence of Satan and its nature control people’s thoughts, behavior, and minds. However, all of this pales before the truth, before God’s work, and before God’s salvation; it presents no obstacles. No matter what corrupt dispositions a person may have, nor whatever difficulties they face, nor whatever their constraints are, there is a path that may be taken, a method to resolve them, and corresponding truths to resolve them. In this way, is there not hope for people’s salvation? Yes, there is hope for people’s salvation.

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Whether one is performing their duty or learning professional knowledge, one must be diligent, and come to handle things according to the principles. Do not approach these things perfunctorily or merely go through the motions. The purpose of studying professional knowledge is to perform one’s duty well, and one must put effort into this—this is something people should cooperate with. If a person is unwilling to perform their duty well and always finds reasons and excuses not to study professional knowledge, it shows that they are not sincerely expending themselves for God, and that they do not want to perform their duty well to repay His love. Is this not a person who lacks conscience and reason? Is a person with such a character not troublesome? Are they not extremely difficult to manage? Although one is studying a profession, they must also seek the truth and do things in accordance with the truth principles. One must not go beyond this scope, and one cannot be muddleheaded, like a nonbeliever. What attitude do nonbelievers have toward work? Many of them just drift through their days and waste their time, muddling through each day just for their daily wage, and doing things in a perfunctory way whenever they can. They do not care about efficiency, or acting based on conscience, and they lack a serious and responsible attitude. They do not say, “This has been entrusted to me, so I must take responsibility for it until it is done, I must handle this matter well, and shoulder this responsibility.” They lack this conscience. Moreover, nonbelievers have a certain kind of corrupt disposition. When they teach other people a piece of professional knowledge or a skill, they think, “Once a student knows everything the master knows, the master will lose his livelihood. If I teach everything I know to others, then no one will look up to me or admire me anymore and I will have lost all my status as a teacher. This will not do. I can’t teach them everything I know, I must hold something back. I’ll teach them only eighty percent of what I know and keep the rest up my sleeve; this is the only way to show that my skills are superior to those of others.” What sort of disposition is this? It is deceitfulness. When teaching others, assisting them, or sharing with them something you studied, what attitude should you take? (I should spare no effort and hold nothing back.) How does one hold nothing back? If you say, “I don’t hold anything back when it comes to the things that I’ve learned, and I have no problem telling all of you about them. I am of a higher caliber than you anyway, and I can still comprehend more elevated things”—that is still holding back and it is quite calculating. Or if you say, “I’ll teach you all the basic things I’ve learned, it’s no big deal. I still have higher knowledge, and even if you learn all of this, you still won’t be as advanced as me”—that’s still holding something back. If a person is too selfish, they will be without God’s blessing. People should learn to be considerate of God’s intentions. You must contribute the most important and essential things that you have grasped to God’s house, so that God’s chosen ones can learn them and master them—that is the only way to attain God’s blessing, and He will bestow upon you even more things. As it is said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Devote all of your talents and gifts to God, displaying them in the performance of your duty so that everyone can benefit, and achieve results in their duties. If you contribute your gifts and talents in their entirety, they will be beneficial to all those who do that duty, and to the work of the church. Do not just tell everyone some simple things and then think that you’ve done quite well or that you have not held anything back—this will not do. You only teach a few theories or things that people can understand literally, but the essence and important points are beyond the grasp of a novice. You only give an overview, without elaborating or going into detail, all the while still thinking to yourself, “Well, anyway, I’ve told you, and I haven’t intentionally held anything back. If you don’t understand, it’s because your caliber is too poor, so don’t blame me. We’ll just have to see how God leads you now.” Such deliberation contains deceit, does it not? Is it not selfish and despicable? Why can’t you teach people everything in your heart and everything you understand? Why do you withhold knowledge instead? This is a problem with your intentions and your disposition. When most people are first introduced to some specific aspect of professional knowledge, they can only comprehend its literal meaning; it takes a period of practice before the main points and essence can be grasped. If you have already mastered these finer points, you should tell them to others directly; do not make them take such a roundabout path and spend so much time groping around. This is your responsibility; it is what you should do. You will only not be withholding anything, and not be selfish, if you tell them what you believe to be the main points and essence. When you teach skills to others, communicate with them about your profession, or fellowship about life entry, if you cannot resolve the selfish and despicable aspects of your corrupt dispositions, you won’t be able to perform your duties well, in which case, you are not someone who possesses humanity, or conscience and reason, or who practices the truth. You must seek the truth to resolve your corrupt dispositions, and reach the point where you are devoid of selfish motives, and only consider God’s intentions. In this way, you will have the truth reality. It is too tiring if people do not pursue the truth and live by satanic dispositions like the nonbelievers. Competition is rife among nonbelievers. Mastering the essence of a skill or a profession is no simple matter, and once someone else finds out about it, and masters it themselves, your livelihood will be at risk. In order to protect that livelihood, people are driven to act in this way—they must be cautious at all times. What they’ve mastered is their most valuable currency, it’s their livelihood, their capital, their lifeblood, and they mustn’t let anyone else in on it. But you believe in God—if you think this way and act this way in God’s house, there is nothing to distinguish you from a nonbeliever. If you do not accept the truth at all, and continue to live according to satanic philosophies, then you are not someone who truly believes in God. If you always have selfish motives and are petty-minded while performing your duty, you will not receive God’s blessing.

After coming to believe in God, you have eaten and drunk the words of God, and accepted the judgment and chastisement of God’s words, so have you reflected on your corrupt dispositions and come to know them? Have the principles by which you speak and act, your outlook on things, and the principles and goals of your conduct changed? If you are still no different than a nonbeliever, then God will not recognize your belief in Him. He will say that you are still a nonbeliever, and that you are still walking the path of a nonbeliever. Therefore, whether it is in your conduct or the performance of your duty, you must practice based on God’s words, and according to the truth principles, use the truth to resolve problems, resolve the corrupt dispositions that you reveal, and resolve your erroneous thoughts, outlooks, and practices. In one respect, you must discover problems through self-reflection and self-examination. In another respect, you must also seek the truth to resolve problems, and when you discover corrupt dispositions, you must promptly resolve them, rebel against the flesh, and abandon your own will. Once you have resolved your corrupt dispositions, you will no longer act based upon them, and you will be able to let go of your own intentions and interests, and practice in accordance with the truth principles. This is the truth reality that a genuine follower of God must possess. If you can self-reflect, know yourself, and seek the truth to resolve problems in this way, then you are someone who pursues the truth. Belief in God requires such cooperation, and being able to practice in this way is most blessed by God. Why do I say this? Because you are acting for the sake of the church’s work, for the interests of God’s house, and for the benefit of the brothers and sisters, and at the same time, you are practicing the truth. This is exactly what God approves of; these are good deeds, and by practicing the truth in this way, you are bearing witness for God. However, if you do not do this, and are no different to a nonbeliever, acting according to the nonbelievers’ principles for handling things, and their methods of conduct, is this bearing witness? (No.) What consequences does this bring? (It humiliates God.) This humiliates God! Why do you say that this humiliates God? (Because God has chosen us, expressed so many truths, personally guided us, provided for us, and watered us, yet we do not accept or practice the truth, and we still live based on satanic things, and do not bear witness before Satan. This humiliates God.) (If a believer in God has heard Him fellowship about so many truths and paths of practice, yet when they act, they still live according to nonbelievers’ philosophies for worldly dealings, and are particularly deceitful and self-serving, they are even worse and more evil than nonbelievers.) You may all understand a bit about this matter. People eat and drink the words of God, enjoy all that God provides, yet they still follow Satan. No matter what things or difficult environments befall them, they are still not able to listen to God’s words or submit to God, they do not seek the truth, and they do not stand firm in their testimony. Is this not betraying God? This is indeed betraying God. When God needs you, you do not listen to His call or to His words, but instead follow the trends of nonbelievers, heeding Satan, following Satan, and practicing according to Satan’s logic, and its principles and methods for living. This is betraying God. Is betraying God not blaspheming and humiliating God? Consider Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden—God said, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Whose words are these? (God’s words.) Are these ordinary words? (No.) What are they? They are the truth, they are what people should abide by, and the way that people should practice. God told humans how to treat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The principle of practice was not to eat of it, and He then told humans the consequence—they would surely die on the day they ate of it. Humans were told the principle of practice and what was at stake. After hearing this, did they understand it or not? (They understood it.) They did, in fact, understand God’s words, but later they heard the serpent say, “God said that you will surely die on the day that you eat of that tree, but you shall not surely die. You can try it,” and after Satan spoke, they heeded its words, and they ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was betraying God. They did not choose to heed God’s words and practice according to them. They did not do as God commanded, but instead believed and accepted Satan’s words, and acted according to them. What was the result of this? The nature of their behavior and approach was betraying and humiliating God, and the result was that they were corrupted by Satan and degenerated. People now are the same as Adam and Eve were then. They hear God’s words but do not practice them, even understanding the truth but not practicing it. The nature of this is the same as Adam and Eve not heeding God’s words or His commandments—it is betraying and humiliating God. When people betray and humiliate God, the result of this is that they continue to be corrupted and controlled by Satan, and to be controlled by their satanic dispositions. Therefore, they can never break free from Satan’s influence, or escape Satan’s enticement, temptations, attacks, manipulations, and devouring. If you can never break free from these things, your life will be especially painful and troublesome, and there will be no peace and joy in it. You will feel that everything is hollow, and you may even want to seek death to end it all. This is the pitiful condition of those who live under Satan’s power.

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When some people serve as leaders or workers, they are always fearful of doing something wrong and being revealed and eliminated, so they often say to others, “You shouldn’t become a leader. As soon as something goes wrong, you’ll be eliminated, and there’ll be no turning back!” Is this statement not a fallacy? What does “there’ll be no turning back” mean? What kind of leaders and workers are eliminated? They are all evil individuals who, despite repeated warnings, run amok disrupting and disturbing the work of the church. If someone only makes a mistake because their stature is small, or because they have low caliber, or because they lack experience, provided they can accept the truth and genuinely repent, will God’s house eliminate them? Even if that person can’t do any real work, they will merely have their duty adjusted. So, are the people who say those things not distorting the facts? Are they not spreading notions to mislead others? The leaders and workers in God’s house are elected democratically, it is not as if anyone who wants these roles can have them. God’s house treats leaders and workers based on the truth principles; only those false leaders who do not accept the truth at all, and the antichrists who pursue fame, gain, and status, and who adamantly refuse to repent, will be eliminated. Those who can accept the truth, who accept being pruned, and who truly repent, will not be eliminated. Those who spread the notion that “being a leader is too risky” have intentions and goals. They aim to mislead people, to stop others from becoming leaders, and to exploit the opportunity this presents. Is this not having an ulterior motive? If you are worried about being eliminated, you should be cautious, pray to God and repent to Him, and accept the truth so that you can rectify your mistakes. Won’t this then resolve the problem? If someone makes a mistake, and, when faced with being pruned, they do not accept the truth, and have no intention of genuinely repenting, and they continue to be perfunctory, and to run amok, they should be eliminated. When some people serve as leaders or workers, they become bold and audacious, they speak and act without any scruples at all, and want to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. Not only do they fail to use the truth to resolve problems, but they also track down and isolate those who report problems to the Above. When the Above finds out about this issue and holds them accountable, they become as timid as mice, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge what they have done. They think that if they refuse to acknowledge it, they can get away with it and God’s house won’t pursue the matter. Is it really that simple? God’s house will verify the matter clearly, and then handle it based on the principles; whoever is responsible will not be able to escape. When people don’t seek the truth in the things they do, and act arbitrarily, recklessly, and according to their own whims, resorting to sophistry and pretense, and adamantly refusing to acknowledge their mistakes when things go wrong, what kind of problem is this? Is this the correct attitude? Can adopting sophistry and pretense, and stubbornly refusing to acknowledge their actions resolve the problem? Does this attitude align with the truth? Is there genuine submission in it? They fear making mistakes and being exposed and reported, they are afraid that God’s house will hold them responsible, and they fear being judged, condemned, and eliminated. Is there a problem with this fear? This fear isn’t a positive thing; where does it come from? (Their corrupt satanic dispositions.) That’s right. So, what exactly is in this fear? Let’s dissect it. Why are they afraid? Their fear comes from the concern that once things are exposed, they will be dismissed and replaced, losing their status and livelihood. Therefore, they resort to lying and sophistry, and stubbornly refuse to acknowledge their actions. Based on this attitude, whether or not they are people who accept the truth, whether or not they are arrogant and self-righteous people, and whether or not they are deceitful people, is here revealed. Are they not devils? They have finally shown their true nature. At what times are people revealed the most? When things befall them, and particularly when their misdeeds are revealed, look at what their attitude is—these moments reveal them the most. Their small-mindedness, deceitfulness, trickery, and stubborn refusal to acknowledge their mistakes, and so on—all of these corrupt dispositions burst forth all at once. Isn’t this the easiest time to discern people? Some people do not believe that God’s house can treat people fairly. They do not believe that God reigns in His house, and that the truth reigns there. They believe that no matter what duty a person performs, if a problem arises in it, God’s house will handle that person immediately, stripping them of their right to perform that duty, sending them away, or even clearing them out of the church. Is that really how things work? It certainly is not. God’s house treats every person according to the truth principles. God is righteous in His treatment of every person. He does not look only at how a person behaves in a single instance; He looks at a person’s nature essence, at their intentions, at their attitude, and He looks in particular at whether a person can reflect on themselves when they make a mistake, whether they are remorseful, and whether they can penetrate the essence of the problem based on His words, come to understand the truth, hate themselves, and truly repent. If someone lacks this correct attitude, and they are entirely adulterated by personal intentions, if they are filled with cunning schemes and revelations of corrupt dispositions, and when problems arise, they resort to pretense, sophistry, and self-justification, and stubbornly refuse to acknowledge their actions, then such a person cannot be saved. They don’t accept the truth at all and have been completely revealed. People who aren’t right, and who can’t accept the truth in the slightest, are disbelievers in essence and can only be eliminated. How can disbelievers who serve as leaders and workers not be revealed and eliminated? A disbeliever, regardless of what duty they perform, is revealed most quickly of all, because the corrupt dispositions that they reveal are too numerous and too obvious. Moreover, they don’t accept the truth at all and act recklessly and arbitrarily. In the end, when they have been eliminated, and have lost the opportunity to perform their duty, they start to worry, thinking, “I’m done for. If I’m not allowed to perform my duty, I can’t be saved. What should I do?” In reality, Heaven will always leave a way out for man. There is one final path, which is to genuinely repent, and to hurry to spread the gospel and gain people, making up for their faults by doing good deeds. If they don’t take this path, then they are truly done for. If they possess some reason and know that they don’t have any talent, they should properly equip themselves with the truth and train to spread the gospel—this is also performing a duty. This is entirely feasible. If someone acknowledges they were eliminated because they didn’t perform their duty well, yet they still do not accept the truth and don’t have the slightest heart of remorse, and instead abandon themselves to despair, isn’t that foolish and ignorant? Tell Me, if a person has made a mistake, but they are capable of true understanding and willing to repent, would God’s house not give them a chance? As God’s six-thousand-year management plan draws to a close, there are so many duties that need to be performed. But if you have no conscience or reason, and don’t attend to your proper work, if you have gained the opportunity to perform a duty but do not know to treasure it, do not pursue the truth in the least, letting the best time pass them by, then you will be revealed. If you are consistently perfunctory in performing your duty, and you do not submit at all when faced with being pruned, will God’s house still use you to perform a duty? In God’s house, it is the truth that reigns, not Satan. God has the final say over everything. It is He who is doing the work of saving man, it is He who holds sovereignty over everything. There is no need for you to analyze what is right and wrong, you just need to listen and submit. When faced with being pruned, you must accept the truth and be able to correct your mistakes. If you do, God’s house will not strip you of your right to perform a duty. If you are always afraid of being eliminated, always giving excuses, always justifying yourself, that is a problem. If you let others see that you do not accept the truth in the least, and that you are impervious to reason, you are in trouble. The church will be obliged to handle you. If you do not accept the truth at all in performing your duty and are always afraid of being revealed and eliminated, then this fear of yours is tainted with human intent and a corrupt satanic disposition, and with suspicion, guardedness, and misapprehension. None of these are attitudes that a person should have. You must begin by resolving your fear, as well as your misunderstandings of God. How do a person’s misunderstandings of God arise? When things are going well for a person, they certainly do not misunderstand Him. They believe that God is good, that God is honorable, that God is righteous, that God is merciful and loving, that God is right in everything that He does. However, when they are faced with something that does not conform to their notions, they think, “It seems God is not very righteous, at least not in this matter.” Is this not a misunderstanding? How is it that God is not righteous? What was it that gave rise to this misunderstanding? What was it that made you form this opinion and understanding that God is not righteous? Can you say for sure what it was? Which sentence was it? Which matter? Which situation? Say it, so that everyone can work it out and see if you have a leg to stand on. And when a person misunderstands God or faces something that does not conform to their notions, what attitude should they have? (One of seeking the truth and submission.) They need to submit first and consider: “I do not understand, but I will submit because this is what God has done and not something that man should analyze. Moreover, I cannot doubt God’s words or His work because God’s word is the truth.” Is this not the attitude a person should have? With this attitude, would your misunderstanding still pose a problem? (It would not.) It would not affect or disturb your performance of your duty. Who do you think is capable of loyalty—a person who harbors misunderstandings while performing their duty or one who does not? (A person who does not harbor misunderstandings in performing their duty is capable of loyalty.) So, firstly, you must have a submissive attitude. What’s more, you must at least believe that God is the truth, that God is righteous, and that everything God does is right. These are the preconditions that determine whether you can be loyal in performing your duty. If you meet both of these preconditions, can the misunderstandings in your heart affect the performance of your duty? (No.) They can’t. This means that you won’t bring these misunderstandings into the performance of your duty. Firstly, you should resolve them from the outset, ensuring they remain only in their embryonic state. What should you do next? Resolve them at the root. How should you resolve them? Read several relevant passages of God’s words with everyone regarding this matter. Then, fellowship about why God acts in such a way, what God’s intention is, and what results can be achieved from God working in this way. Fellowship thoroughly on these matters, then you will have an understanding of God and be able to submit. If you don’t resolve your misunderstandings about God and carry notions into the performance of your duty, saying, “In this matter, god acted incorrectly, and I will not submit. I’ll contest this, I’ll argue things out with god’s house. I don’t believe this is god’s doing”—what disposition is this? This is a typical satanic disposition. Such words should not be uttered by humans; it is not the attitude that a created being should have. If you can oppose God in this way, are you worthy of performing this duty? You are not. Because you are a devil, and you lack humanity, you are not worthy of performing a duty. If a person possesses some reason, and misunderstandings about God arise in them, they will pray to God, and they will also seek the truth in God’s words, and sooner or later, they will see the matter clearly. This is what people should do.

In the process of experiencing God’s work, there are many things that people can’t understand or come to terms with. Provided that they have submissive hearts, these issues will gradually be resolved, and they will find answers to them in God’s words. Even if they cannot obtain results at the moment, they will naturally come to understand these things after several years of experience. If, when faced with problems, one can never figure them out, and sets themselves against the leaders and workers, or argues with God’s house, is this a person who possesses reason? To follow God, one should at least possess the reason of normal humanity and basic faith, only then will it be easy for them to submit to God. If you always oppose God and set yourself against Him, and afterward you do not seek the truth or have a repentant heart, then you are not fit to perform a duty or to follow God, and you are not fit to accept His commission. If you do not have genuine faith, but you still perform a duty and follow God, you will not be able to gain a solid foothold, and you will certainly be eliminated. Isn’t this just causing trouble for yourself? This is called embarrassing oneself. Therefore, to resolve misunderstandings about God, the attitude people should have is to first submit, and to believe that whatever God does is right. Don’t trust your own eyes and judgment—if you always trust your own judgment and eyes, that spells trouble. You are not God; you do not have the truth. You are a person with corrupt dispositions; you can make mistakes, and you still don’t understand the truth. If you don’t understand the truth, does God condemn you? God doesn’t condemn you, but you must seek the truth. God gives you the opportunity and the time to seek, and He is waiting. Waiting for what? Waiting for you to seek the truth during this time. Once you understand and submit, everything will be fine, and God will neither remember this nor condemn you. However, if you continue to commit the same old mistakes, then you are truly finished and beyond redemption.

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You now have some discernment of the corrupt disposition that you reveal. Once you can clearly see which corrupt things you are still liable to reveal on a regular basis, and what things you are still likely to do that are at odds with the truth, cleansing your corrupt disposition will be easy. Why, in many matters, can people not get a hold of themselves? Because at all times, and in every regard, they are being controlled by their corrupt dispositions, which constrain and disturb them in all things. When everything is going well, and they have not stumbled or become negative, some people invariably feel themselves to have stature, and think nothing of it when they see an evil person, a false leader, or an antichrist being revealed and eliminated. They will even boast in front of everyone that, “Anyone else could stumble, but not me. Anyone else might not love God, but I do.” They think that they can stand firm in their testimony in any situation or circumstance. And the result? A day comes when they are tested and they complain and grumble about God. Is this not failing, is this not stumbling? Nothing reveals people more than when they are tested. God scrutinizes man’s innermost heart, and people must not brag at any time. Whatever they brag about, that is where they will stumble one day, sooner or later. When they see others stumbling and failing in certain circumstances, they think nothing of it, and even think that they themselves can do no wrong, that they will be able to stand firm—but they, too, end up stumbling and failing in the same circumstances. How can this be? It is because people do not thoroughly understand their own nature essence; their knowledge of the problems with their own nature essence is still insufficiently deep, so putting the truth into practice is very strenuous for them. For example, some people are very deceitful, and dishonest in their words and deeds, yet if you ask them in what regard their corrupt disposition is most severe, they say, “I am a little deceitful.” They merely say they are a little deceitful, but they do not say that their nature itself is deceitful, and they do not say that they are a deceitful person. Their knowledge of their own corrupt state is not that deep, and they do not look at it as seriously, nor as thoroughly, as others do. From the perspective of other people, this person is so deceitful and so crooked, and there is trickery in everything they say, and their words and actions are never honest—but that person is unable to know themselves that deeply. Any knowledge they happen to have is merely superficial. Whenever they speak and act, they reveal some part of their nature, yet they are unaware of this. They believe that their acting thus is not a revelation of corruption, they think that they have already put the truth into practice—but to observers, this person is quite crooked and deceitful, and their words and actions are very dishonest. That is to say, people have a very superficial understanding of their own nature, and there is a huge discrepancy between this and God’s words that judge and expose them. This is not a mistake in what God exposes, but rather that humans lack an adequately profound understanding of their own nature. People do not have a fundamental or essential understanding of themselves; instead, they focus on and devote their energy to coming to know their actions and outward revelations. Even if some people are occasionally able to say a bit about their self-knowledge, it will not be very profound. No person has ever thought that they are a certain type of person or that they have a certain type of nature because they did a certain type of thing or revealed a certain thing. God has exposed the nature and essence of man, but what people understand is that their ways of doing things and their ways of speaking are flawed and defective; as a result, it is a relatively strenuous task for them to put the truth into practice. People think that their mistakes are merely momentary manifestations that are revealed carelessly, rather than revelations of their nature. When people think in this way, it is very difficult for them to truly know themselves, and very difficult for them to understand and practice the truth. Because they do not know the truth and do not thirst after it, when putting the truth into practice, they merely follow regulations in a perfunctory way. People do not view their own nature as being very bad, and believe that they are not bad to the extent that they should be destroyed or punished. Yet according to God’s standards, people are too deeply corrupted, they are still far from the standards for salvation, because they merely possess some approaches that do not outwardly appear to violate the truth, and in fact, they do not practice the truth and are not submissive to God.

Changes in people’s behavior or conduct do not imply a change in their nature. The reason this is the case is that changes in people’s conduct cannot fundamentally alter their original appearance, much less can it alter their nature. Only when people understand the truth, have knowledge of their own nature essence, and are able to put the truth into practice, will their practice be adequately profound and something other than adherence to a set of regulations. The way people practice the truth today is still not up to standard, and it cannot fully achieve all that the truth requires. People practice only a portion of the truth, and only when they are in certain states and circumstances can they put a little of the truth into practice; it is not the case that they are able to put the truth into practice in all circumstances and all situations. When, on occasion, a person is happy and their state is good, or when they are fellowshipping with others and they have a path to practice in their heart, they are temporarily able to do some things that are in line with the truth. But when they live with people who are negative and who do not pursue the truth, and they are influenced by these people, in their heart they lose their path, and they are incapable of practicing the truth. This shows that their stature is too small, and that they still do not really understand the truth. There are some individuals who, if they are guided and led by the right people, are able to put the truth into practice; however, if they are misled and disturbed by a false leader or an antichrist, not only are they incapable of practicing the truth, they are also liable to be misled into following those people. Such people are still at risk, are they not? People like this, with this kind of stature, could not possibly be able to practice the truth in all matters and situations. Even if they do practice the truth, it would only be when they are in a good mood, or guided by others; without someone good to lead them, at times they would be capable of doing things that violate the truth, and they would deviate from God’s words. And why is this? It is because you have only come to know a few of your states, you do not have knowledge of your own nature essence, and you have yet to attain the stature of rebelling against the flesh and practicing the truth; as such, you have no control over what you will do in the future, and cannot guarantee that you will be able to stand firm in any circumstances or trial. There are times when you are in a state and you can put the truth into practice, and you seem to have changed a little, and yet, in different circumstances, you are incapable of putting the truth into practice. This is something involuntarily. Sometimes you can practice the truth, and sometimes you cannot. One moment, you understand, and the next, you are confused. Right now, you aren’t doing anything bad, but perhaps you will in a little while. This proves that corrupt things still exist inside of you, and if you are unable to truly know yourself, these things will not be easy to resolve. If you cannot attain a thorough understanding of your own corrupt disposition, and are ultimately capable of doing things that resist God, then you are in danger. If you can see through to your nature and hate it, then you will be able to control yourself, rebel against yourself, and put the truth into practice.

People today don’t prioritize practicing and entering into the truth, they only focus on understanding and speaking the words and doctrines, they think that it’s enough to satisfy their own psychological needs, and to not feel upset or negative. No matter how much fellowshipping on the truth helps you at the time, you don’t put the truth into practice afterward—what’s the problem here? It is that you only pay attention to understanding or listening to the truth, but you don’t focus on putting it into practice. Have any of you summarized how to practice an element of the truth, or how many states that element of the truth relates to? No! How can you summarize these things? You must have experienced them yourself to summarize these things; it isn’t any good just fellowshipping on a few words and doctrines. This is the greatest of all man’s difficulties—not being interested in practicing the truth. Whether or not a person can practice the truth depends on their pursuits. Some people equip themselves with the truth in order to spread the gospel, other people equip themselves with the truth in order to tell others about it and show off, not in order to practice the truth and change themselves. People who pay attention to these things struggle to practice the truth. This is another one of man’s difficulties. Some people say, “I feel that I am now able to put some truths into practice; it’s not as if I’m absolutely incapable of practicing any truths. In some circumstances, I can do things in accordance with the truth, which means that I count as a person who practices and possesses the truth.” Compared to before or when you first started believing in God, your state has changed a little. In the past, you did not understand anything, nor did you know what the truth was or what a corrupt disposition was. Now you have come to know some things about them, and you have some good approaches, but this is only a small part of you that has changed; it is not a genuine transformation of your disposition, because you are unable to put into practice greater and deeper truths that touch on your nature. In contrast to your past, you have indeed changed somewhat, but this transformation is only a small change in your humanity; when compared with dispositional change, you are falling far short. That is, you have not hit the mark for putting the truth into practice. Sometimes, people are in a state where they are not negative, and they have energy, but they feel that they have no path for knowing and practicing the truth, and they are not interested in finding out how to practice the truth. How does this happen? Sometimes you can’t grasp the path, so you just follow regulations, and think that you are practicing the truth, and as a result you’re still unable to solve your difficulties. You feel in your heart that you’re practicing the truth and showing your loyalty, and you wonder why problems are still appearing. This is because you’re acting based on your good intentions, and using your own subjective efforts—you do not seek out God’s intentions, you do not act according to the requirements of the truth, or abide by the principles. As a result, you always feel far below God’s standards, your heart feels uneasy, and you become negative without realizing it. An individual’s subjective desires and subjective efforts are far removed from the requirements of the truth, and they are also different in nature. People’s outward approaches cannot replace the truth, and they are not carried out fully in accordance with God’s desires, whereas the truth is the true expression of God’s intentions. Some people who spread the gospel think, “I have suffered quite a lot and paid a price, and I’m busy all day preaching the gospel. How can You say that I’m not practicing the truth?” Then let Me ask you: How many truths do you hold in your heart? How many things do you do that are in accordance with the truth when you are preaching the gospel? Do you understand God’s intentions? You can’t even say yourself whether you’re just doing things or practicing the truth, because you only focus on using your actions to satisfy God, and to gain God’s favor, and you don’t use the standard of “satisfying God by seeking His intentions in order to conform to the truth in all things” to measure yourself. If you say that you are practicing the truth, how much has your disposition changed during this period? How much has your love for God grown? By measuring yourself in this way, your heart will be clear on whether or not you are practicing the truth.

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What do you know about changes in disposition? Changes in disposition are different in essence from changes in behavior, and they are also different from changes in practice—they are all different in essence. Most people place special emphasis on behavior in their belief in God, as a result of which certain changes occur in their behavior. After they have begun to believe in God, they stop smoking and drinking, and they no longer contend with others, preferring to exercise patience when they suffer a loss. They undergo some behavioral changes. Some people feel that once they believe in God they understand the truth by reading God’s word; they’ve experienced the work of the Holy Spirit, and they have true enjoyment in their hearts, making them particularly fervent, and there is nothing that they cannot forsake or suffer. Nevertheless, after having believed for eight, ten, or even twenty or thirty years, because there has been no change in their life dispositions, they end up sliding back into old ways; their arrogance and conceit grow more pronounced, they begin to compete for power and gain, they covet the church’s money, they envy those who have taken advantage of God’s house. They become parasites and vermin within God’s house, and some are even revealed and eliminated as false leaders and antichrists. And what do these facts prove? Mere behavioral changes are unsustainable; if there is no alteration in people’s life dispositions, then sooner or later, they will show their true colors. This is because behavioral changes have their source in fervor, and coupled with some work by the Holy Spirit at the time, it becomes extremely easy for them to be fervent or to have good intentions for a short time. As the nonbelievers say, “Doing one good deed is easy; what’s hard is doing a lifetime of good deeds.” Why are people incapable of doing good deeds throughout their entire lives? Because by nature, people are wicked, selfish, and corrupt. One’s behavior is directed by their nature; whatever one’s nature is, so is the behavior that one reveals, and only that which is revealed naturally represents one’s nature. Things that are fake cannot last. When God works to save man, it is not to adorn man with good behavior—the purpose of God’s work is to transform people’s dispositions, to make them reborn into new people. God’s judgment, chastisement, trials, and refinement of man all serve to change their disposition so that they may achieve absolute submission and loyalty to God, and come to worship Him normally. This is the aim of God’s work. Behaving well is not the same as submitting to God, much less does it equal being compatible with Christ. Changes in behavior are based on doctrine and born of fervor; they are not based upon true knowledge of God or upon the truth, much less do they rest upon guidance from the Holy Spirit. Even though there are times when some of what people do is enlightened or guided by the Holy Spirit, this is not a revelation of their life. They have not yet entered into the truth realities, and their life disposition has not changed at all. No matter how good a person’s behavior is, it does not prove that they submit to God or that they put the truth into practice. Behavioral changes do not represent changes in life disposition and they cannot be counted as revelations of life. So, when you see some people able to do something for the church during their periods of fervor, and even able to give up some things, don’t praise or flatter them, don’t say they are people who possess truth reality or people who love God. To say so is wrong, misguiding, and harmful to them. But also, don’t dampen their spirits; only guide them toward the truth and the path of pursuing life. Those who are often fervent usually have the desire to advance and determination. Most of them long for the truth and are the ones God has preordained and chosen. Those with a fiery heart who willingly expend for God are mostly sincere believers in God. Those who are not sincere in expending for God and are not willing to do their duty are not sincere believers in God. Those who are lukewarm in their faith and easily become negative mostly cannot stand firm. When encountering a bit of difficulty, they retreat, and when facing persecution and tribulation, they flee and renounce their faith. Only those with great faith and fervor can persevere for a long time, seek the truth to solve problems, and gradually enter onto the right track of believing in God. But those with little faith and lack of fervor find it hard to follow God until the end.

If a person has many good behaviors, it does not mean they possess the truth realities. Only by practicing the truth and acting according to principles can you possess the truth realities. Only by fearing God and shunning evil can you possess the truth realities. Some people have enthusiasm, can speak doctrine, follow the regulations, and do many good deeds, but all that can be said about them is that they possess a little humanity. Those who can speak doctrine and always follow regulations cannot necessarily practice the truth. Although what they say is correct and sounds like it is free of problems, they have nothing to say in matters concerning the essence of the truth. Therefore, no matter how much doctrine someone can speak, it doesn’t mean they understand the truth, and no matter how much doctrine they understand, they can’t solve any problems. Religious theorists can all explain the Bible, but in the end, they all fall, because they do not accept the whole truth that God has expressed. People who have experienced a change in their dispositions are different; they have understood the truth, they are discerning on all issues, they know how to act in accordance with God’s intentions, how to act in accordance with the truth principle, and how to act to satisfy God, and they understand the nature of the corruption they reveal. When their own ideas and notions are revealed, they are able to be discerning and rebel against the flesh. This is how a change in disposition is manifested. The main manifestation of people who have undergone a change in disposition is that they have come to clearly understand the truth, and when carrying things out, they put the truth into practice with relative accuracy and they do not reveal corruption as often. Generally, those whose dispositions have transformed appear to be particularly reasonable and discerning, and due to their understanding of the truth, they do not reveal as much self-righteousness or arrogance. They can see through and discern much of the corruption that has been revealed in them, so they do not give rise to arrogance. They are able to have a measured grasp on what place they should take and what things they should do that are reasonable, on how to be dutiful, on what to say and what not to say, and on what to say and what to do to which people. Thus, people whose dispositions have changed are relatively reasonable, and only such people truly live out a human likeness. Because they understand the truth, they are able to speak and see things in accordance with the truth, and they are principled in everything they do; they are not subject to the influence of any person, event, or thing, and they all have their own views and can uphold the truth principles. Their dispositions are relatively stable, they do not blow hot and cold, and no matter what their circumstances, they understand how to do their duties properly and how to behave to God’s satisfaction. Those whose dispositions have changed are not focused on what to do externally to make others think well of them; they have gained internal clarity on what to do to satisfy God. Therefore, from the outside, they may not seem to be so enthusiastic or to have done anything important, but everything they do is meaningful, is valuable, and yields practical results. Those whose dispositions have changed are certain to possess a lot of truth realities, and this can be confirmed by their perspectives on things and their principles of action. Those who have not obtained the truth have absolutely not achieved any change in life disposition. How exactly is a change in disposition achieved? Human beings have been deeply corrupted by Satan, they all resist God, and they all have the nature of resisting God. God saves people by turning those who have the nature of resisting God and who can resist God into those who can submit to and fear God. This is what it means to be someone whose disposition has changed. No matter how corrupt a person is or how many corrupt dispositions they have, as long as they can accept the truth, accept God’s judgment and chastisement, and accept various trials and refinements, they will have a true understanding of God, and at the same time they will be able to clearly see their own nature essence. When they truly know themselves, they will be able to hate themselves and Satan, and they will be willing to rebel against Satan, and completely submit to God. Once a person has this determination, they can pursue the truth. If people have true knowledge of God, if their satanic disposition is purified, and God’s words take root within them, and have become their life and the basis of their existence, if they live by God’s words, and have completely changed and become new people—then this counts as change in their life disposition. A change in disposition does not mean having a mature and seasoned humanity, nor does it mean that people’s outer dispositions are meeker than before, that they used to be arrogant but now can communicate reasonably, or that they used to listen to no one but now can listen to others a bit; such external changes cannot be said to be transformations in disposition. Of course, transformations in disposition do include such manifestations, but the most crucial ingredient is that internally, their life has changed. This is entirely because God’s words and the truth have taken root inside them, rule within them, and have become their life. Their views on things have also changed. They can see straight through what is going on in the world and with mankind, how Satan corrupts humankind, how the great red dragon resists God, and the essence of the great red dragon. They can hate the great red dragon and Satan in their hearts, and they can completely turn to and follow God. This means their life disposition has changed, and they have been gained by God. Changes in life disposition are fundamental changes, while changes in behavior are superficial. Only those who have achieved changes in life disposition are those who have obtained the truth, and only they have been gained by God.

All corrupt humans live for themselves. Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost—this is the summation of human nature. People believe in God for their own sake; when they forsake things and expend themselves for God, it is in order to be blessed, and when they are loyal to Him, it is still in order to be rewarded. In sum, it is all done for the purpose of being blessed, rewarded, and entering the kingdom of heaven. In society, people work for their own benefit, and in the house of God, they do a duty in order to be blessed. It is for the sake of gaining blessings that people forsake everything and can endure much suffering. There is no better evidence of man’s satanic nature. People whose dispositions have changed are different, they feel that meaning comes from living by the truth, that the basis of being human is submitting to God, fearing God and shunning evil, that accepting God’s commission is a responsibility that is perfectly natural and justified, that only people who fulfill the duties of a created being are fit to be called human—and if they are not able to love God and repay His love, they are unfit to be called human. They feel that living for oneself is empty and devoid of meaning, that people should live in order to satisfy God, to perform their duties well, and live lives of meaning, so that even when it is their time to die, they will feel content and not have the slightest regret, and that they have not lived in vain. In comparing these two different situations, one can see that the latter is one of people whose dispositions have transformed. If a person’s life disposition has transformed, their outlook on life has certainly changed, too. Now having different values, they will never again live for themselves, and they will never again believe in God for the purpose of gaining blessings. Such a person will be able to say, “Knowing God is so worthwhile. If I die after having gotten to know God, then that would be great! If I can know God and submit to God, and I can live a meaningful life, then I will not have lived in vain, nor will I die with any regrets; I will have no complaints.” This person’s outlook on life has transformed. The main reason for a change in one’s life disposition is because one possesses the truth reality, one has gained the truth, and has knowledge of God; one’s outlook on life is therefore changed, and one’s values are different from before. The transformation starts from within one’s heart, and from within one’s life; it is certainly not an external change. Some new believers, after they have begun to believe in God, leave the secular world behind. When they later encounter nonbelievers, these believers have little to say, and they rarely contact their nonbelieving relatives and friends. The nonbelievers say, “This person has changed.” The believers then think, “My life disposition has transformed; these nonbelievers are saying I’ve changed.” Has such a person’s disposition actually transformed? No, it hasn’t. What they manifest are merely external changes. There has been no real change in their life, and their satanic nature remains rooted within their heart, completely untouched. Sometimes, people are gripped by fervor because of the work of the Holy Spirit; some external changes might occur, and they might do a few good deeds. However, this is not the same as achieving a transformation of disposition. If you do not possess the truth and your view of things has not changed, even to the point of being no different from that of nonbelievers, and if your outlook on life and your values have not altered, either, and if you do not even have a God-fearing heart—which is the very least that you should possess—then you are nowhere close to having achieved a change in disposition. To achieve a change in disposition, the most key thing is that you must pursue understanding of God and have a true understanding of Him. Take Peter for example. When God wanted to hand him over to Satan, he said, “Even if You give me to Satan, You are still God. You are almighty, and everything is in Your hands. How can I not praise You for the things You do? But if I could know You before I die, wouldn’t that be better?” He felt that in people’s lives, knowing God was most important; after knowing God any kind of death would be fine, and any way God handled it would be fine. He felt that knowing God was the most critical thing; if he didn’t obtain truth, he could never be satisfied, but neither would he complain against God. He would only hate the fact that he didn’t pursue the truth. Given Peter’s spirit, his earnest pursuit to know God shows that his view of life and values had changed. His deep longing to know God proves he truly had known God. Hence, from this statement, one can see that his disposition had changed; he was a person whose disposition had transformed. At the very end of his experience, God said that he was the one who knew God the most; he was the one who truly loved God. Without the truth, one’s life disposition can never truly change. If you can truly pursue the truth and enter the truth reality, only then can you achieve a change in your life disposition.