By Shi Qi, Taiwan

I practiced faith in the Lord Jesus with my mother from an early age and enjoyed His abundant grace. This gave me a deep sense of Lord Jesus’ profound mercy and love for humanity. I was used to reaching out to ask Him for grace. Whenever I encountered problems, I’d pray to the Lord and when I’d sinned, I’d come before Him to confess. Because the Lord is merciful and loving, He would always pardon my sins.

One day in May of 2019, I met Sister Zhang and Sister Li on Facebook. We participated in a Bible study group together and I found Sister Li’s fellowship on the Bible was very insightful. One time, during a gathering, Sister Li said: “The Lord said that He would come again in the last days, so when will we be able to welcome Him? The Lord Jesus said, ‘My sheep hear My voice’ (John 10:27). ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears My voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me’ (Revelation 3:20). Also, ‘He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches’ (Revelation 2:7). From these passages, we can see that when the Lord comes in the last days, He will express His words. The key to welcoming the Lord in the last days is to listen closely for God’s voice. When we hear God’s voice, we can welcome the Lord just like the wise virgins.” I was so surprised when I heard Sister Li’s fellowship. I’d never heard such insightful words. She’d identified the key to welcoming the Lord. I had never realized this before. After that, Sister Li showed me a really lively hymn video. At the end of the video, I saw it said, “The Church of Almighty God,” and I became curious. When the Bible study concluded, I hurried online to search. I saw a lot of negative information and so I hurriedly contacted Sister Zhang to learn more. Sister Zhang said that welcoming the Lord is a really big deal and encouraged me not to be swayed by hearsay. I should first put aside my concerns and humbly seek to see if this was the true way. A few days later, Sister Zhang invited me to attend a gathering. I felt so conflicted: Should I go or not? Sister Li’s fellowship on the Bible really was insightful and I wanted to hear more, but I also worried that what she was preaching wasn’t the true way. In the midst of my hesitancy, I prayed to the Lord, asking for His guidance. After that, I attended the gathering.

During the gathering, Sister Li excitedly said to me: “Lord Jesus has already returned as Almighty God incarnate. Almighty God has concluded the Age of Grace and established the Age of Kingdom, has expressed millions of words and, on the foundation of Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, He’s performing the work of judgment starting from the house of God, to thoroughly purify and save mankind. The words Almighty God expresses are all the truth and they reveal the mystery of God’s incarnation, the three stages of His work, and the inside story of the Bible. His words also tell of the source of humanity’s sinfulness, how Satan corrupts mankind, how God saves mankind in progressive stages, and of the meaning of God’s work of judgment in the last days. God also has shown us the ways by which believers can attain salvation. For instance, God details how to experience the judgment of His words to shed our corruption, how to practice the truth and be honest people, how to fear Him and keep away from evil to become people who do His will, and so on. Almighty God’s words and work fulfilled the Lord Jesus’ prophecy: ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come’ (John 16:12–13). ‘He that rejects Me, and receives not My words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day’ (John 12:48). ‘For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God’ (1 Peter 4:17).” When I heard the sister say that the Lord Jesus had returned as Almighty God incarnate, I didn’t dare believe it and so I quietly prayed to God, and I thought of how God said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). I thought: “God’s return is a big deal, I can’t blindly jump to any conclusions. I should be a humble seeker and continue to listen.”

After that, Sister Li had me read a passage of Almighty God’s words. “Christ of the last days brings life, and brings the enduring and everlasting way of truth. This truth is the path by which man gains life, and it is the only path by which man shall know God and be approved by God. If you do not seek the way of life provided by Christ of the last days, then you shall never gain the approval of Jesus, and shall never be qualified to enter the gate of the kingdom of heaven, for you are both a puppet and prisoner of history. Those who are controlled by regulations, by letters, and shackled by history will never be able to gain life nor gain the perpetual way of life. This is because all they have is turbid water which has been clung to for thousands of years instead of the water of life that flows from the throne. Those who are not supplied with the water of life will forever remain corpses, playthings of Satan, and sons of hell. How, then, can they behold God? If you only try to hold on to the past, only try to keep things as they are by standing still, and do not try to change the status quo and discard history, then will you not always be against God? The steps of God’s work are vast and mighty, like surging waves and rolling thunders—yet you sit passively awaiting destruction, clinging to your folly and doing nothing. In this way, how can you be considered someone who follows the footsteps of the Lamb? How can you justify the God that you hold on to as a God who is always new and never old? And how can the words of your yellowed books carry you across into a new age? How can they lead you to seek the steps of God’s work? And how can they take you up to heaven? What you hold in your hands are letters that can provide but temporary solace, not truths that are capable of giving life. The scriptures you read can only enrich your tongue and are not words of philosophy that can help you know human life, much less the paths that can lead you to perfection. Does this discrepancy not give you cause for reflection? Does it not make you realize the mysteries contained within? Are you capable of delivering yourself to heaven to meet God on your own? Without the coming of God, can you take yourself into heaven to enjoy family happiness with God? Are you still dreaming now? I suggest, then, that you stop dreaming and look at who is working now—look to see who is now carrying out the work of saving man during the last days. If you do not, you shall never gain the truth, and shall never gain life” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life). As I read, I started to feel like there was something different about these words and I couldn’t help but feel a certain reverence for them: These words sounded so stern, so cutting—each word and phrase was filled with authority and power. They didn’t seem like words that any mere mortal would utter. Only God could speak in this way. But then I also thought, “That’s not right, God is merciful and loving—His words are full of solace and tenderness. But these words are so severe, they’re like a curse or a condemnation of humankind.” I felt so conflicted: “Are these really the words of God? Given how full of authority these words are, they must be the words of God, right? But if Almighty God really is the returned Lord Jesus, He should speak in the same way as Him. He should be merciful and loving, and His words should be gentle and considerate. But Almighty God’s speech is so severe, could He really be the returned Lord Jesus?” I felt so confused.

After that, I told Sister Li about my doubts and she patiently fellowshiped with me, saying: “We’ve always believed that God is merciful and loving, that He speaks to us in a gentle and considerate way, and so if His words are severe, they are not the words of God. But does this idea really conform with the facts and the truth? Actually, in every age, God has not only spoken considerate and encouraging words, but also words that rebuke, judge, and curse people. It’s just that we haven’t paid attention to this. Let’s look at how this is recorded in the Bible: Jehovah God said, ‘His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yes, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter’ (Isaiah 56:10–11). And the Lord Jesus said, ‘You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?’ (Matthew 23:33). ‘Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you’ (Matthew 7:6). There are many more verses like this. From these verses, we can see that in the Age of Law and the Age of Grace, God rebuked, condemned, and cursed people. Though His words sounded severe and cut right to the quick, they were all true and all exposed people’s God-resisting and God-rebelling substance. In reality, no matter if God’s words are gentle or severe, they are all expressions of God’s disposition. If we don’t understand God’s disposition and delimit Him as merciful and kind, we’ll form certain opinions when He speaks severely, thinking that God only speaks in a gentle way and shouldn’t speak in such stern tones, and thus, such words couldn’t be those of God. Basing our determination on whether the words are gentle or stern is wrong and a consequence of our own notions and beliefs. For instance, if we only recognized our parents as being our parents when they spoke gently to us, but didn’t recognize them as our parents when they spoke sternly or scolded us for doing something wrong, wouldn’t that be silly?” After hearing the sister’s fellowship, I felt a lot clearer on this issue. I thought: “That’s right, no matter whether our parents speak to us gently or sternly, aren’t they always still our parents? Jehovah God and Lord Jesus have all spoken severely before, so why didn’t I notice this previously? I guess it really is wrong to determine whether these are God’s words based on if they’re gentle or stern.” After I’d realized this, I didn’t feel as resistant. But whenever I read passages of God’s words that exposed and judged humanity, I’d feel really distressed, as if I’d been condemned. I kept going back and forth: Lord Jesus is merciful and loving, so why is Almighty God so stern and always getting angry with people? One time during a gathering, I asked a sister my question: “I just can’t see Almighty God and Lord Jesus as the same God—their dispositions are just too different. When I envision Lord Jesus, I think of how God is merciful and loving, but Almighty God just seems so stern, and much of what He says is exposing and dissecting people. Why are Almighty God and Lord Jesus so different?”

The sister fellowshiped saying: “People often have this confusion and it’s mainly because they don’t understand God’s disposition. Let’s have a look back at God’s previous work. Once we have some understanding of God’s righteous disposition, this problem will resolve itself. We all know that when God noticed the evildoing of the people of Sodom and Nineveh, His disposition was enraged and He decided to destroy these two cities. Before destroying them, God sent two angels to Sodom and Lot was the only one that hosted them. The other inhabitants not only didn’t welcome the angels, they wanted to kill them. God saw their evildoing and was enraged. After the angels had saved Lot and his family, God rained fire down from the heavens, obliterating all the people, livestock, and plant-life in the city. Now let’s look at Nineveh. God also planned to destroy this city and so He sent Jonah to convey His message: ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown’ (Jonah 3:4). When the king of Nineveh heard these tidings, he led the people of his city in changing into sackcloth, sitting in ashes, fasting, praying, casting off the evil they espoused, and repenting to God. When God saw this, He withdrew His wrath, and mercifully spared them from destruction. From God’s differing attitudes towards Nineveh and Sodom, we can see that God’s disposition is real and vivid. He is not only loving and merciful, but also majestic and wrathful. When people sin, God gives them a chance to repent, displaying to them His loving and merciful disposition. When people are stubborn and don’t want to repent, when they even obstinately resist God and cry out against Him, God unleashes His rage on them, displaying His righteous and majestic disposition. This allows us to see that God’s righteous disposition is not only loving and merciful, but also majestic and wrathful. Both of these aspects are contained in God’s inherent disposition.

Let’s now consider the Age of Grace in which Lord Jesus did His work. When people sinned and came before the Lord to confess and repent, He would absolve them of their sins and bestow upon them abundant grace, therefore many people believe that the Lord’s disposition is just loving and merciful and not wrathful and cursing. In reality, these are just people’s notions and imaginings. Regarding the Pharisees that condemned and resisted the Lord and even openly protested Him, the Lord Jesus was full of wrath. He condemned and cursed them and pronounced seven woes upon them. He didn’t have the slightest bit of mercy for them. From this, we can see that from the time of creation until the present, God has always expressed His righteous disposition to humankind. God is loving and merciful, but also majestic, wrathful, cursing, and punishing. Just as Almighty God says, ‘The mercy and tolerance of God do indeed exist, but God’s holiness and righteousness when He unleashes His wrath also show man the side of God that brooks no offense. When man is fully capable of obeying the commands of God and acts in accordance with God’s requirements, God is abundant in His mercy toward man; when man has been filled with corruption, hatred and enmity for Him, God is profoundly angry. To what extent is He profoundly angry? His wrath will last until God no longer sees man’s resistance and evil deeds, until they are no longer before His eyes. Only then will God’s anger disappear. … He is tolerant and merciful toward things that are kind and beautiful and good; toward things that are evil, sinful, and wicked, He is profoundly wrathful, such that He is unceasing in His wrath. These are the two principal and most prominent aspects of God’s disposition, and, moreover, they have been revealed by God from beginning to end: abundant mercy and profound wrath’ (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself II). Through God’s words, we can see that ‘abundant mercy and profound wrath’ are the two aspects of God’s disposition that He continually displays to humankind. These two aspects of His disposition are not contradictory. They are all a part of His inherent disposition. We mustn’t delimit God as only being capable of bestowing mercy and not inflicting wrath based on the fact we’ve enjoyed His grace in the past. This kind of understanding is too one-sided.” Upon hearing this, I realized that God is not only loving and merciful, but also majestic, wrathful, and cursing. All these are aspects of God’s inherent disposition. It was because I understood too little of God’s disposition that I espoused the one-sided belief that God is only merciful and loving. These really were my notions and imaginings and didn’t line up with reality. I realized I had to listen to more fellowship to deepen my understanding.

The sister continued her fellowship, saying: “The disposition that God manifests during each age, is based upon the requirements of God’s work of salvation, as well as the needs of corrupted humankind. These two passages of Almighty God’s words can help clear this up for us: ‘The work Jesus did was in accordance with the needs of man in that age. His task was to redeem humanity, to forgive them their sins, and so His disposition was wholly one of humility, patience, love, piety, forbearance, mercy, and lovingkindness. He brought to humanity abundant grace and blessings, and all the things that people could possibly enjoy, He gave to them for their enjoyment: peace and happiness, His tolerance and love, His mercy and lovingkindness. At the time, the abundance of things to enjoy that people were faced with—the sense of peace and security within their hearts, the feeling of reassurance within their spirits, and their dependence on Jesus the Savior—was all down to the age in which they lived’ (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The True Story Behind the Work of the Age of Redemption). ‘In His final work of concluding the age, God’s disposition is one of chastisement and judgment, in which He reveals all that is unrighteous, in order to publicly judge all peoples, and to perfect those who love Him with a sincere heart. Only a disposition such as this can bring the age to an end. The last days have already arrived. All things in creation will be separated according to their kind, and divided into different categories based on their nature. This is the moment when God reveals humanity’s outcome and their destination. If people do not undergo chastisement and judgment, then there will be no way of exposing their disobedience and unrighteousness. Only through chastisement and judgment can the outcome of all creation be revealed. Man only shows his true colors when he is chastised and judged. Evil shall be put with evil, good with good, and all humanity shall be separated according to their kind. Through chastisement and judgment, the outcome of all creation will be revealed, so that the evil may be punished and the good rewarded, and all people become subject to the dominion of God. All this work must be achieved through righteous chastisement and judgment. Because man’s corruption has reached its peak and his disobedience become exceedingly severe, only God’s righteous disposition, one that is principally compounded of chastisement and judgment and is revealed during the last days, can fully transform and complete man. Only this disposition can expose evil and thus severely punish all the unrighteous. Therefore, a disposition such as this is imbued with the significance of the age, and the revelation and exhibition of His disposition is made manifest for the sake of the work of each new age. It is not that God reveals His disposition arbitrarily and without significance. Supposing that, in revealing the outcome of man during the last days, God were still to bestow upon man infinite compassion and love and continue to be loving toward him, not subjecting man to righteous judgment but rather showing him tolerance, patience, and forgiveness, and pardoning man no matter how grave his sins, without any jot of righteous judgment: when then would all of God’s management ever be brought to a close? When would a disposition such as this be able to lead people into mankind’s appropriate destination? Take, for example, a judge who is always loving, a judge with a kindly face and a gentle heart. He loves people irrespective of the crimes they may have committed, and he is loving to and forbearing with them whoever they may be. In that case, when will he ever be able to reach a just verdict? During the last days, only righteous judgment can separate man according to their kind and bring man into a new realm. In this way, the entire age is brought to an end through God’s righteous disposition of judgment and chastisement’” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Vision of God’s Work (3)).

The sister fellowshiped, saying: “In the Age of Law, Jehovah God expressed Himself with dispositions dominated by curses, burning, and wrath. During that time, people had a profound lack of understanding. They didn’t know what sin was, how they should live, or how to worship God, so based on their needs at that time, God issued laws and commandments to guide people in their lives. Those who obeyed God’s laws received His mercy, but those that violated the law were scorched by God’s heavenly fire or stoned to death. However, towards the end of the Age of Law, as people became more and more corrupted and would sin and violate the law in spite of themselves, they would all have been put to death under the law if their actions were judged by the law of the time. So, during the Age of Grace, God Himself became flesh to redeem humankind according to their needs, displaying His merciful and loving disposition and bestowing people with abundant grace. He treated them with boundless mercy and love, tolerated and forgave their sins, and ultimately was crucified to redeem all people of their sins. He pardoned them of their sentences and allowed them to keep on living. In the Age of Grace, if God had continued to express His disposition in the form of curses, burning, and wrath, people’s sins would never have been pardoned, people under the law would never be redeemed, and mankind would’ve been reduced to nothing and wouldn’t be where it is today. So God expressed His merciful and loving disposition in the Age of Grace. As long as people came before Him and accepted His redemption, He would pardon them of their sins. In the last days, people have become more and more corrupted. Despite having received the Lord Jesus’ redemption and being pardoned of our sins, our sinful nature, such as arrogance, treachery, evil, intransigence, and viciousness, are all still rooted deep within us. Our satanic disposition still hasn’t been thoroughly eradicated, and so we still often lie, sin, rebel against, and resist God. We are still not qualified to enter into God’s kingdom. To save humankind and completely rid us of sin, God has incarnated once again, is performing the work of judgment and purification on the foundation of Lord Jesus’ work to thoroughly uproot our satanic dispositions, purify us of sin, and allow us to truly submit to and revere God, and ultimately lead us into His kingdom. Due to the necessities of His work, God no longer expresses His merciful and loving disposition, and instead opts to manifest His righteous, majestic, and wrathful disposition to judge and expose man’s corrupt dispositions. Only in so doing, can He transform and purify humanity. Though the disposition that God manifests in each age is different, but God’s essence never changes. God does His work and reveals His disposition in accord with the needs of corrupt humanity, allowing people to better understand and know God, so that they don’t delimit Him and His disposition. We shouldn’t think that Almighty God and Lord Jesus are not the same God just because they express different dispositions.”

Only after hearing the sister’s fellowship did I realize that God decides what kind of disposition to manifest in each age based on the requirements of His work of salvation and the needs of corrupt humanity. In His work of judgment in the last days, Almighty God manifests His righteous and majestic disposition to purify and save mankind—even though the disposition He expresses is different from Lord Jesus’, it is still manifested to address the needs of corrupt humanity. Almighty God and the Lord Jesus are one and the same God. The sister’s fellowship was very clear and dispelled all of my confusion.

In the next gathering, Sister Li read another passage of Almighty God’s words to me: “By what means is God’s perfection of man accomplished? It is accomplished by means of His righteous disposition. God’s disposition primarily consists of righteousness, wrath, majesty, judgment, and curse, and He perfects man primarily by means of His judgment. Some people do not understand, and ask why it is that God is only able to make man perfect through judgment and curse. They say, ‘If God were to curse man, wouldn’t man die? If God were to judge man, wouldn’t man be condemned? Then how can he still be made perfect?’ Such are the words of people who do not know the work of God. What God curses is the disobedience of man, and what He judges are the sins of man. Although He speaks harshly and relentlessly, He reveals all that is within man, revealing through these stern words that which is substantive within man, yet through such judgment, He gives man a profound knowledge of the substance of the flesh, and thus man submits before God. The flesh of man is of sin and of Satan, it is disobedient, and it is the object of God’s chastisement. Thus, in order to allow man to know himself, the words of God’s judgment must befall him and there must be employed every kind of refinement; only then can God’s work be effective” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only by Experiencing Painful Trials Can You Know the Loveliness of God). That’s just what Sister Li said in her fellowship. She said: “In the last days, God’s work of judgment is the last step of work in His salvation of mankind and it is the tail end of His 6,000-year management plan. In expressing His righteous and majestic disposition, He is bringing the entire age to a close, and sorting each according to their kind, the good with the good and the evil with the evil. If God only expressed His merciful and loving disposition, always tolerating, forbearing, and forgiving us no matter how many sins we committed, then we would never be rid of our sinfulness, and we would be forever subject to Satan’s dominion and ravages. Also, God’s work of salvation would never be completed and good and evil would never be properly distinguished. So, in the last days, God expresses His righteous, majestic, and wrathful disposition in His work, and exposes people’s satanic natures with His severe language. Those that love the truth come to know themselves and they accept the judgment of God’s words, understand God’s righteous disposition that tolerates no offense, and thus, develop reverence for God and shun evil, ultimately achieving dispositional change. As for those that are fed up with the truth and reject God’s judgment and chastisement, they are exposed and cast out by God. In this way, all are sorted according to their kind.”

I realized that, if Almighty God did His judgment work in the last days in the same way that Lord Jesus did His work of redemption, only showing mercy and love for people and not being stern and judging them, He’d be unable to sort each according to their kind, our sinful and God-resisting nature would never be resolved, and we’d never be saved or enter into God’s kingdom. So there is a deep meaning to God expressing a disposition characterized by righteousness, majesty, judgment, and chastisement in the last days!

Later on, we read two passages of Almighty God’s words, which gave me an even better understanding of Almighty God’s work and the disposition He expresses in the last days. “Today God judges you, chastises you, and condemns you, but you must know that the point of your condemnation is for you to know yourself. He condemns, curses, judges, and chastises so that you might know yourself, so that your disposition might change, and, moreover, so that you might know your worth, and see that all of God’s actions are righteous and in accordance with His disposition and the requirements of His work, that He works in accordance with His plan for man’s salvation, and that He is the righteous God who loves, saves, judges, and chastises man. … God has not come to kill or destroy, but to judge, curse, chastise, and save” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. You Should Put Aside the Blessings of Status and Understand God’s Will to Bring Salvation to Man). “Though My words may be stern, they are all said for man’s salvation, as I am only speaking words and not punishing man’s flesh. These words cause man to live in the light, to know that the light exists, to know that the light is precious, and, even more so, to know how beneficial these words are to them, as well as to know that God is salvation. Though I have uttered many words of chastisement and judgment, what they represent has not been done unto you in deed. I have come to do My work and to speak My words, and though My words may be strict, they are spoken in judgment of your corruption and your rebelliousness. The purpose of My doing this remains to save man from Satan’s domain; I am using My words to save man. My purpose is not to harm man with My words. My words are stern in order to achieve results in My work. Only through such work can man come to know themselves and break away from their rebellious disposition” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. You Should Put Aside the Blessings of Status and Understand God’s Will to Bring Salvation to Man). Sister Li fellowshiped, saying: “Through God’s words, we can see that in the last days, God uses His words to judge and purify people. No matter how harsh and cutting His words may be, they are all aimed at helping us recognize the truth of our corruption, break free from Satan’s dark influence, and receive God’s salvation. We all know that God’s disposition is righteous and holy, whereas we humans, who have been so deeply corrupted by Satan, pursue evil worldly trends, and fight with and scheme against each other in the pursuit of money and individual profit, without even the slightest semblance of a real person. Even those that believe in the Lord are unable to practice what God demands and often demand grace and blessings from God. Any contributions they do make are just to enter heaven and gain eternal life, not because they love the Lord and seek to satisfy Him. It is all done just to use the Lord to accomplish their despicable aims. Some religious leaders outwardly seem like humble, patient, and enthusiastic servants of God, but in their sermons, they often exalt and testify to themselves to win the admiration and respect of others. When God reincarnated and appeared to perform His work, no one welcomed Him, and the entire religious world partnered with the atheist government to condemn and resist His return, wantonly spreading lies to discredit The Church of Almighty God and prevent people from investigating the true way. That is to say, all of humanity has been condemning and resisting God, and rejecting His coming. Just as the Bible says, ‘And the whole world lies in wickedness’ (1 John 5:19). Corrupted humankind opposes God in every way. They’re all of an ilk with Satan and poisonous snakes. When God expresses His severe words to expose the reality of humankind’s corruption, only those that love the truth are able to truly recognize their God-resisting and God-betraying satanic nature, and realize that they don’t seek to know God in their faith, and that they only have base intentions like gaining blessings and making deals with God. They clearly see the ugly truth of their deep corruption by Satan, sincerely repent to God, swear to act according to God’s requests, and finally gain some human likeness. From this, we can see that no matter how harsh and cutting God’s words are, they all expose the reality of our corruption, and are all meant to help us revive our numbed spirits, recognize our corrupt essences, fully break free from the fetters of sin, and become purified. God’s severe words of exposition and judgment are very beneficial in our process of coming to know ourselves and being saved!”

After hearing Sister Li’s fellowship, I finally realized that God has expressed so many severe words in the last days to expose our true selves. This is His salvation, not condemnation. I thought of how I only believed in God to gain blessings and grace, and even delimited God as merciful and kind, and how I failed to recognize Him when He spoke severely. I was so irrational! From then on, I was able to accept God’s severe and judgmental words and I was even more willing to read Almighty God’s words. I became sure that Almighty God was the returned Lord Jesus.

After confirming Almighty God’s work in the last days to be true, I actively attended gatherings and read Almighty God’s words every day. One day, I saw a passage of God’s words. “If people remain stuck in the Age of Grace, then they shall never be rid of their corrupt disposition, let alone know the inherent disposition of God. If people always live in the midst of an abundance of grace, but do not have the way of life that allows them to know God or to satisfy Him, then they will never truly gain Him in their belief in Him. This type of belief is pitiful indeed. When you have finished reading this book, when you have experienced each step of the work of God incarnate in the Age of Kingdom, you will feel that desires you have had for many years have finally been realized. You will feel that only now have you truly seen God face to face; only now have you gazed upon His countenance, heard His personal utterances, appreciated the wisdom of His work, and truly sensed how real and almighty He is. You will feel that you have gained many things that people in times past had never seen nor possessed. At this time, you will clearly know what it is to believe in God, and what it is to conform to God’s will. Of course, if you cling to views of the past, and reject or deny the fact of the second incarnation of God, then you will remain empty-handed, acquiring nothing, and ultimately you will be pronounced guilty of opposing God. Those who are able to obey the truth and submit to the work of God shall be claimed under the name of the second incarnate God—the Almighty. They will be able to accept God’s personal guidance, gaining more and higher truths, as well as real life. They shall behold the vision never seen before by people of the past: ‘And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the middle of the seven candlesticks one like to the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; And His feet like to fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth went a sharp two edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shines in its strength’ (Revelation 1:12–16). This vision is the expression of God’s entire disposition, and the expression of His entire disposition is also the expression of the work of God in His present incarnation. In the torrents of chastisements and judgments, the Son of man expresses His inherent disposition by means of utterances, allowing all those who accept His chastisement and judgment to see the true face of the Son of man, which is a faithful depiction of the face of the Son of man seen by John. (Of course, all of this will be invisible to those who do not accept the work of God in the Age of Kingdom.) The true face of God cannot be fully articulated using human language, and so God uses the means by which He expresses His inherent disposition to show His true face to man” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Preface). Through God’s words, I realized that the vision John had in Revelation foreshadowed how Almighty God’s words of judgment in the last days are like the flame of fire or a trenchant sword and are full of God’s righteous disposition. Only those that accept the work of Almighty God in the last days can truly understand God’s righteous disposition, and appreciate His earnest intention in using His words to judge and save humankind. I couldn’t help but feel deeply moved by my realization: “Almighty God! Through the exposition and judgment of Your words, I’ve come to see that You are not only loving and merciful, but also majestic and wrathful. These are all aspects of Your inherent righteous disposition. Almighty God! Your words are truly precious. I desperately need to accept the judgment and chastisement of Your words to know myself. From now on, I will diligently drink and eat Your words, accept the judgment and chastisement of Your words and walk on the path of truth-seeking!”