By Zhou Yun, China

In September of 2023, I was selected to serve as a preacher and was put in charge of work at several churches. After more than two months working with these churches, church life and newcomer watering work all improved, so my upper leader invited me to exchange ideas on good paths of practice. I was quite pleased with myself and felt that I was able to accomplish some real work. Yet, by the end of November, I noticed that there had been little progress in the gospel work, so I summarized some of the problems that existed in that work and then shared my ideas and suggestions regarding those problems with a few gospel team leaders. I also fellowshipped on God’s intention with them in order that they could enthusiastically preach the gospel. After I had delegated the work, I felt that I had done well enough, and that I was doing detailed work, so I soon became busy with other things. Several days later, when I asked the team leaders about their progress in the gospel work, some failed to respond, while others said it would be a few days before they would meet with gospel workers. Seeing that some of the team leaders were cooperating, I didn’t bother to look further into the matter and understand the specifics of the situation. Over ten days later, my upper leader wrote me a letter asking me about the gospel work progress, why it had been ineffective, how the gospel workers were cooperating and what real issues I had resolved. Because I hadn’t received letters from the team leaders, I was unclear about the specifics of the gospel work progress, so I responded to the upper leader saying I would give a full report once I had received letters from the team leaders. After that, I pressed the team leaders to report their results to me. However, after pressing them several times, they still didn’t respond to me and I became angry, believing that they were being incredibly irresponsible in their duties. As letter after letter came in from my leader asking about work progress, I became increasingly anxious, but I felt that there was nothing I could do given that the team leaders weren’t responding to my letters. I told my leader that the team leaders were not responding to my letters so that she would know the problem lay with the team leaders and not with me.

My leader quickly responded to me, asking if I understood the team leaders’ actual issues and difficulties and telling me that by checking in on my work through my letter, it seemed like I wasn’t putting enough thought and effort into my duty. When we failed to achieve results in our work, I just blamed other people and didn’t reflect on my own issues. She also said that if when following up on work, I only hastened the team leaders to get results and didn’t identify actual issues and give people specific paths of practice to help tackle their issues, there was no way we could achieve results in our work. I was a bit resistant when I read her letter, thinking, “I want to do work well, I’ve participated in the gospel work and have written letters and fellowshipped with the team leaders about their states, urging them to reach out promptly if they encountered any difficulties. If they don’t tell me what their issues are, what am I to do? There were work stoppages in these churches previously due to mass arrests, but just over two months after I arrived, there have been improvements in all aspects of the work. I think this shows I’m already doing quite well, but you want me to reflect? I just can’t accept this kind of fellowship.” At the time, I felt wronged, recalcitrant and argumentative. The more I thought, the more negative I became and I felt that I just wouldn’t be able to do that duty. I realized that I was in a wrong state, but I just couldn’t get myself out of it and didn’t know what I was supposed to learn from that situation. Later on, I prayed to God, asking Him to guide me to understand His intention. I found a passage of God’s words mentioned in an experiential testimony video that was very relevant to my current state. Almighty God says: “Some people encounter pruning as they do their duty, and they say: ‘With my limited abilities, how much can I really do? I do not understand much, so if I want to do this job well, will I not have to learn as I go? Will that be easy for me? God just doesn’t understand people; isn’t this like driving a duck onto a perch? Let someone who understands more than me do it. I can only do it like this—I can’t do any more than this.’ People regularly say and think such things, right? (Right.) Everyone can admit that. No one is perfect, and no one is an angel; people do not live in a vacuum. Everyone has these thoughts and revelations of corruption. Everyone is capable of revealing these things and living in these states frequently, and it’s not of their own volition; they can’t help but think this way. Before anything happens to them, people have a fairly normal state, but things are different when something happens to them—a negative state is naturally revealed very easily, without obstacle or restraint, and without the instigation or incitement of others; as long as the things they encounter are not in line with their own will, these corrupt dispositions are revealed at all times and places. Why are they able to be revealed at all times and places? This proves that people have this kind of corrupt disposition and corrupt nature inside them. People’s corrupt dispositions are not imposed upon them by others, nor are they instilled by others, much less are they taught, instigated, or abetted by others; rather, people themselves possess them. If people do not resolve these corrupt dispositions, then they cannot live in correct, positive states” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Only Resolving One’s Corrupt Disposition Can Bring About True Transformation). God says that when people aren’t faced with issues, they often have a normal state, but as soon as things don’t align with their notions, they can’t help but begin to reveal states of resistance, recalcitrance, and discontent. These are issues with people’s nature. After reading God’s words, I considered them in the light of my own state. When my leader pointed out my lack of effort and thought in the gospel work and my failure to do real work, I felt wronged and resistant and thought this was the best I could do. I had participated in the work and fellowshipped with the team leaders on their states and there was just nothing I could do since they didn’t report on their current situations. I felt that my leader just didn’t understand my situation at all. I was living in a state of recalcitrant argumentation, which showed that I didn’t accept the truth. Seeing how serious the nature of my problem was, I prayed to God, “Oh God, I know that no one is trying to give me a hard time by pruning me and it comes with Your permission. I know there are things that I should reflect upon and enter into, but I can’t quite grasp what they are at the moment. Please enlighten and guide me to understand myself and learn lessons in this matter.”

After that, I saw this passage of God’s words: “Regardless of the circumstances that cause someone to be pruned, what is the most crucial attitude to have toward it? First, you must accept it. No matter who is pruning you, for what reason, no matter whether it comes across as harsh, or what the tone and wording, you should accept it. Then, you should recognize what you have done wrong, what corrupt disposition you have revealed, and whether you acted in accordance with the truth principles. First and foremost, this is the attitude you should have. And are antichrists possessed of such an attitude? They are not; from start to finish, the attitude they exude is one of resistance and repulsion. With an attitude like that, can they be quiet before God and modestly accept pruning? No, they cannot. So, what will they do, then? First of all, they will vigorously argue and offer justifications, defending and arguing against the wrongs they have done and the corrupt disposition they have revealed, in hopes of winning people’s understanding and forgiveness, so that they need not take any responsibility or accept words that prune them. What is the attitude they evince when faced with being pruned? ‘I haven’t sinned. I’ve done nothing wrong. If I made a mistake, there was a reason for it; if I made a mistake, I didn’t do so on purpose, I shouldn’t have to take responsibility for it. Who doesn’t make a few mistakes?’ They seize on these statements and phrases, but they do not seek the truth, nor do they acknowledge the mistakes they have made or the corrupt dispositions they have revealed—and they certainly do not admit what their intent and goal were in doing evil. … No matter how the facts bring their corrupt disposition to light, they do not acknowledge or accept it, but go on with their defiance and resistance. Whatever others say, they do not accept it or acknowledge it, but think, ‘Let’s see who can outtalk whom; let’s see who is a better speaker.’ This is one sort of attitude with which antichrists treat being pruned” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Nine (Part Eight)). Through God’s words, I realized that when faced with pruning, help and advice, no matter what kind of attitude and tone they took with me, and no matter how much what they said did not accord with my notions, I had to accept it from God, submit and reflect on my issues. This is the kind of attitude that people should have. Antichrists are resistant, argumentative, defiant and even pass the blame when faced with pruning, advice and help. They don’t have an attitude of accepting truth in the least. Reflecting on this in the light of my own behavior, when my leader pointed out my issues, I was resistant and continually argued in my heart, thinking that I had paid a price and the leader was pruning me without understanding the situation. I felt incredibly wronged and thought that I could only do as much as I had done. I felt antagonistic, recalcitrant and was revealing the disposition of being averse to the truth. I thought of how despite delegating some work at first, after that I had failed to actually participate and follow up on the work, only hastening people to get results without bothering to understand the gospel workers’ difficulties or states. Carrying out my work in this way, I was failing to fulfill my responsibility. I also failed to resolve actual issues—this was failing to do real work. The leader was pruning me for the issues I was having, but I didn’t accept the pruning and was even resistant, argued and put off responsibility onto other people. In essence, I was failing to accept the truth and opposing God. If I didn’t repent and continued to live in this intransigent disposition, I would ultimately cause God to detest and eliminate me.

Later on, I came across another passage of God’s words: “In the church, there are those who think that making a big effort or doing a few risky things means they have accrued merit. In fact, according to their actions they are indeed worthy of commendation, but their disposition and attitude toward the truth are loathsome and repugnant. They have no love for the truth, but are averse to the truth. This alone makes them abhorrent. Such people are worthless. When God sees that people are of poor caliber, that they have certain failings, and have corrupt dispositions or an essence that opposes Him, He is not repulsed by them, and does not keep them away from Him. That is not God’s intention, and it is not His attitude toward man. God does not loathe people’s poor caliber, He does not loathe their foolishness, and He does not loathe that they have corrupt dispositions. What is it that God most loathes in people? It is when they are averse to the truth. If you are averse to the truth, then because of that alone, God will never find delight in you. This is set in stone. If you are averse to the truth, if you do not love the truth, if your attitude toward the truth is uncaring, contemptuous, and arrogant, or even repulsed, resistant, and rejective—if this is how you behave—then God is utterly disgusted with you, and you are dead in the water, beyond saving. If you really do love the truth in your heart, and it’s just that you are of somewhat low caliber and lacking in insight, a bit foolish, and you often make mistakes, but you do not intend to do evil, and have simply done a few foolish things; if you are willing at heart to hear God’s fellowship on the truth, and you long at heart for the truth; if the attitude you take in your treatment of the truth and God’s words is one of sincerity and longing, and you can treasure and cherish God’s words—this is enough. God likes such people. Even though you may be a bit foolish at times, God still likes you. God loves your heart, which longs for the truth, and He loves your sincere attitude toward the truth. So, God has mercy on you and is always granting grace to you. He does not consider your poor caliber or your foolishness, nor does He consider your transgressions. Because your attitude toward the truth is sincere and eager, and your heart is true, then—considering the trueness of your heart and this attitude of yours—He shall be ever merciful toward you, and the Holy Spirit shall work on you, and you shall have hope of salvation. On the other hand, if you are intransigent in your heart and self-indulgent, if you are averse to the truth, never heedful of God’s words and everything that involves the truth, and antagonistic and scornful from the depths of your heart, then what is God’s attitude toward you? Loathing, revulsion, and unceasing wrath” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. To Fulfill One’s Duty Well, Understanding the Truth Is Most Crucial). God says that He takes people’s attitudes toward the truth very seriously. Some people usually seem like they are able to pay a price and are fairly effective in their duties, but when faced with issues, they do not accept and are even averse to the truth. God is disgusted by this. Thinking back on the past two months when I had paid some price and achieved some results in my duty, I felt that I was already doing real work and so my leader shouldn’t be pointing out my issues. I realized, however, that God doesn’t just look to see how much someone has suffered, how much work they’ve done or what results they’ve achieved, He also looks to see what attitude they have toward the truth and if they accept the truth. If, when faced with pruning, I was continually resistant and didn’t accept it, and argued and acted in opposition against God, God would be disgusted with me and I wouldn’t receive the work of the Holy Spirit. I saw that living in the disposition of being averse to the truth was truly very dangerous. It was just the truth that the gospel work was currently ineffective, so I should accept the advice of my leader and actually resolve the problems existing in the gospel work.

In the midst of my seeking, I recalled a passage of God’s words and looked it up. God says: “They do not participate in any real work, do not follow up or provide direction, and they do not conduct investigations or research to resolve problems. Do they fulfill the responsibilities of a leader? Can the church work be done well this way? When the Above asks them about how the work is going, they say, ‘The church work is all normal. Each item of work has a supervisor handling it.’ If further questioned about whether there are any problems in the work, they respond, ‘I don’t know. There probably aren’t any problems!’ This is the attitude of false leaders toward their work. As a leader, you show complete irresponsibility for the work assigned to you; it’s all delegated to others, with no follow-up, inquiries, or assistance in solving problems from your end—you just sit there like a hands-off taskmaster. Aren’t you being derelict in your responsibility? Aren’t you acting like an official? Not doing any specific work, not following up on the work, not solving real problems—aren’t such leaders merely pieces of decoration? Aren’t they false leaders? This is the epitome of a false leader” (The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (4)). God’s words exposed my current state: The gospel work is one of the main tasks that leaders follow up on and was my responsibility, but after delegating work, I came to think that the gospel work was the team leaders’ responsibility. I thought I could just sit back and wait for them to get results and didn’t focus on understanding the states of the team leaders or what problems cropped up while they were doing their duties. Yet, when my leader asked about our work progress, I said the team leaders hadn’t gotten back to me yet. It was clearly me who was in charge of that work, but I didn’t involve myself in checking in on work progress in detail and adopted a hands-off approach. Was this not the behavior of a false leader? At that point, I was finally able to accept the leader’s advice in my heart. I then saw a passage of God’s words that said: “What does supervision mean? Supervision involves inspecting and providing direction. It means specifically asking about the work in detail, learning about and grasping the progress of the work and weak links in the work, understanding who is responsible in their work and who is not, and who is and isn’t capable of performing the work, among other things. Supervision sometimes requires consulting, understanding, and inquiring about the situation. Sometimes it requires face-to-face questioning or direct inspection. Of course, more often it involves having direct fellowship with the people in charge, asking about the implementation of the work, the difficulties and problems encountered, and so on. While conducting supervision, you can discover which people only outwardly apply themselves to their work and just do things superficially, which people do not know how to implement specific tasks, which people know how to implement them but do not do the real work, and other such issues. If these discovered problems can be resolved in a timely manner, that is best. What is the purpose of supervision? It is to better implement the work arrangements, to see if the work you have arranged is appropriate, if there are any oversights or things you haven’t considered, if there are any areas that are not in line with principles, if there are any distorted aspects or areas in which mistakes have been made, and so on—all these issues can be discovered during the process of conducting supervision. But if you stay at home and do not perform this specific work, can you discover these problems? (No.) Many problems need to be asked about, observed, and understood on-site to be known and grasped” (The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (10)). Through God’s words, I learned that overseeing work does not consist of just delegating work to other people and then waiting for them to get results, but rather actually participating in the work and finding out what actual problems exist in the work’s progress. Is the work assigned not suitable for people, are the brothers and sisters in poor states, or do people have poor attitudes about doing their duties? Leaders must understand and grasp these things in detail and fellowship the truth to resolve them in a timely manner. This is what doing real work consists of. I reflected on how I had just delegated work to the team leaders and then continually pressed them to get results—I hadn’t carried out my responsibility as a leader in the slightest. I was no different from the officials of the great red dragon that just sit back in their position of status but never do any real work. No matter what job an official is working on, they only ever recite slogans, pass instructions from superiors to inferiors and do work that makes them look good. In my own case, I was just checking in on the work in order to be able to report to my leader and not to resolve actual problems and difficulties existing in the gospel work. God is disgusted by this kind of work attitude. If I didn’t rectify my attitude, I would cause damage to the church’s work and would thus be doing evil in my duty. After that, I began acting according to God’s words and hurriedly worked to rectify my deviations. Through gaining an actual understanding, I found out that some of the churches were short on gospel workers, some of the team leaders weren’t assigning work at a fast enough pace, which led to slow progress, and some brothers and sisters were unable to do their duty normally due to the CCP’s arrests and monitoring. Due to this and many other issues, the gospel work had become ineffective. I then fellowshipped on and resolved these issues one by one. I stopped looking for excuses to pass off responsibilities onto others and stopped focusing on what other people were or were not doing, instead opting to focus on doing my duty according to principle and doing more real work. After a period of cooperation, the gospel work began to improve. I was extremely happy—I never imagined that after rectifying my state and actually working, I would witness God’s guidance.

Through this experience, I learned that pruning, advice and help come from God and are positive things that help us rectify deviations in our duties and allow us to do our duties in a way that is up to standard. They also help us to know and resolve our corrupt dispositions. God’s good intentions are behind all of this. As a result of this experience, I learned firsthand about the benefits of accepting pruning, advice and help and also came to know how to check in on and oversee work. Thanks be to God for His guidance!