I

God's words carry life power, show us the way we should walk, and enable us to understand what the truth is. We begin to be drawn by His words, we begin to focus on the tone and manner of His speaking and subconsciously take an interest in this unremarkable person's innermost feelings. He spits up His heart's blood in working on our behalf, and He loses sleep and appetite on our account; He weeps for us, sighs for us, and groans in sickness for us. He suffers humiliation for the sake of our destination and salvation, and our numbness and rebelliousness draw tears and blood from His heart. This way of being and having belongs to no ordinary man, nor can it be possessed or attained by any corrupt man. He shows tolerance and patience possessed by no ordinary man. His love is not something with which any created being is endowed.

II

No one apart from Him can know all of our thoughts, or have such a clear and complete grasp of our nature and essence, or judge the rebelliousness and corruption of mankind, or speak to us and work on us like this on behalf of God in heaven. No one apart from Him is endowed with the authority, the wisdom, and the dignity of God; God's disposition and what God has and is are brought forth in Him in their entirety. No one apart from Him can show us the way and bring us light. No one apart from Him can reveal the mysteries that God hasn't disclosed since creation until today. No one apart from Him can save us from Satan's bondage and our own corrupt disposition.

III

He represents God. He expresses God's inmost heart and God's exhortations. He expresses God's words of judgment toward all mankind. He has begun a new age, a new era, and ushered in a new heaven and earth and ushered in new work; He has brought us hope, ending the life we led in vagueness, and He has enabled our whole being to behold the path to salvation in total clarity. He has conquered our whole being and gained our hearts. From that moment onward, our minds have become conscious, and our spirits seem to be revived: This ordinary, insignificant person, who lives among us and has long been rejected by us—is this not the Lord Jesus, who is ever in our thoughts, waking or dreaming, and for whom we long night and day? It is He! It really is He! He is our God! He is the truth, the way, and the life!

from The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Appendix 4: Beholding the Appearance of God in His Judgment and Chastisement