Reunion with God | Reunited With the Lord
After listening to Almighty God’s words and Brother Wang’s fellowship, I recalled what the priest in our church had said about “When the Lord comes the good will be separated from the bad” and realized that this notion is just too vague, too impractical, and doesn’t match the reality of God’s work at all. We all live in sin, we continue to commit sins and then confess but can’t escape from this cycle, so who are the truly good people? When the Lord returns, if we haven’t been cleansed of our sins, will we be allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven? Thinking of this was like turning on a light in my heart, and I thanked the Lord for His leadership. I hadn’t gone to that gathering in vain, because I then understood that God distinguishes good from evil according to how people approach the truth. In other words, people are good or evil depending on whether or not they accept and obey the judgment and chastisement of God’s words, and this is God’s righteousness being wholly manifested. Through His words and work, God separates the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats, the wise virgins from the foolish virgins, the true believers from the false believers, and the lovers of the truth from the haters of the truth. God is so incredibly wise! However, I also recalled the priest saying that when the Lord returns to judge people He does it one by one, and each individual’s sins are also listed and judged one by one before He decides if that person will go to heaven or to hell. But now Almighty God is saying that God’s work of judgment of the last days is being done through His words, so just how are these words being used to judge people?
I then raised this question and Brother Zhang answered it by reading two passages of Almighty God’s words to me: “Some believe that God may sometime come to earth and appear to man, whereupon He shall personally judge the whole of mankind, testing them one by one without anyone being omitted. Those who think in this way do not know this stage of work of incarnation. God does not judge man one by one, and does not test man one by one; to do thus would not be the work of judgment. Is not the corruption of all mankind the same? Is not the substance of man all the same? What is judged is mankind’s corrupt substance, man’s substance corrupted by Satan, and all the sins of man. God does not judge the trifling and insignificant faults of man. The work of judgment is representative, and is not carried out especially for a certain person. Rather, it is work in which a group of people are judged in order to represent the judgment of all of mankind. By personally carrying out His work on a group of people, God in the flesh uses His work to represent the work of the whole of mankind, after which it is gradually spread. The work of judgment is also thus. God does not judge a certain kind of person or a certain group of people, but judges the unrighteousness of the whole of mankind — man’s opposition to God, for example, or man’s irreverence against Him, or disturbance of the work of God, and so on. What is judged is mankind’s substance of opposition to God, and this work is the work of conquest of the last days” (“Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “In the last days, Christ uses a variety of truths to teach man, to expose the essence of man, and to dissect the words and deeds of man. These words comprise various truths, such as man’s duty, how man should obey God, how man should be loyal to God, how man ought to live out normal humanity, as well as the wisdom and the disposition of God, and so on. These words are all directed at the essence of man and his corrupt disposition. In particular, the words that expose how man spurns God are spoken in regard to how man is an embodiment of Satan, and an enemy force against God. In undertaking His work of judgment, God does not simply make clear the nature of man with a few words; He exposes, deals with, and prunes over the long term. These methods of exposure, dealing, and pruning cannot be substituted with ordinary words, but with the truth of which man is utterly bereft. Only methods such as these can be called judgment; only through judgment of this kind can man be subdued and thoroughly convinced into submission to God, and moreover gain true knowledge of God” (“Christ Does the Work of Judgment With the Truth” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).
Brother Zhang then fellowshiped this with me: “We have the notion that during God’s work of judgment in the last days He will call each and every person to come before His white throne in order to judge them. Every person will have to kneel on the ground and then confess to every single one of the sins they’ve committed throughout their lifetime, and then God will decide whether they will go to heaven or to hell depending upon the severity of their sins. We think that God judges people according to sins such as physically or verbally abusing people, not being filial to their parents, or stealing from or robbing others. But in fact, God’s work of judgment in the last days is not concerned with these external behaviors or flaws of ours, but is instead aimed at judging mankind’s satanic nature of resisting God and each one of our corrupt dispositions. These include our arrogance and self-importance, our crookedness and craftiness, our selfishness and baseness, our greed and evil, and so on. We also have many viewpoints that are not compatible with God, many outdated religious notions and feudal ideas. These things are all sources of our resistance to God, they are all problems that are shared by all of corrupt mankind, and so are the things that God’s work of judgment aims to purify and transform. So, the words that God expresses reveal mankind’s nature and essence and every corrupt member of humanity on earth is a part of this, without exception. Or to put it another way, God’s words of judgment are directed at the whole of mankind and so there is no need to judge people individually. By reading the words of Almighty God and accepting the judgment and chastisement of God’s words we can understand many truths and clearly see the essence, nature and truth of our being corrupted by Satan. Doing this will also allow us to recognize God’s righteous disposition and develop hearts of reverence for God, and we can start to despise ourselves so that we’ll be willing to betray our flesh and practice the truth. In this way, our corrupt satanic disposition will gradually be purified and our viewpoints and outlook on life will also change. When we start to live by God’s words, when we cease to oppose and resist God, instead truly obeying and revering Him and shunning evil, then we will gain God’s salvation and become people who are compatible with God’s will. This is the reality of and the purpose of God expressing truths to do the work of judgment during the last days.”
Listening to Brother Zhang’s fellowship left me with a sense of just how practical and realistic God’s work of judgment is! I was able to accept what he said — it resonated with me deep in my heart. Yes, people are arrogant, they seek fame and fortune and status, and they live mired in their various corrupt dispositions. God uses the judgment of His words to rid us of all of the filth and corruption inside of us. Our nature of resisting God can thus be resolved and our corrupt disposition transformed, and then we can become truly good people. Looking at it this way, I could see that when the priest had spoken of people being judged one by one and each one of their sins being judged when the Lord returns to judge mankind is nothing but human notions and imaginings. It has nothing to do with the way God actually does His work. Almighty God’s words really do contain truths; they really are the voice of God! I then decided to thoroughly examine the work of Almighty God.
While I was looking into this, I watched a number of gospel movies produced by The Church of Almighty God, including The Days of Noah Have Come, The Mystery of Godliness, and Caught the Last Train, as well as some hymnal videos of God’s word such as How Important God’s Love for Man Is. I also read a lot of Almighty God’s words and listened to brothers and sisters fellowshiping on a number of aspects of the truth. This helped me determine that Almighty God is indeed the returned Lord Jesus, and that Almighty God is the one true God and is the returned Lord that we have been awaiting! I very happily accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days.
Since believing in Almighty God I’ve been frequently gathering with other brothers and sisters or listening to sermons with them. Every day is filled with joy for me and I feel that I’m gaining spiritual sustenance. I’m enjoying the comfort that comes from the work of the Holy Spirit, and I’m starting to understand more and more truths. In The Church of Almighty God, the brothers and sisters are all very warm and honest with each other, and nobody tries to deceive anyone else or keeps their guard up. Everybody is simple, open and sincere, and even when they reveal their corrupt dispositions they are each able to know themselves through God’s words and seek the truth to resolve their corrupt dispositions. I feel that this is the only kind of true brotherhood and sisterhood in Christ. I’m particularly impressed by the hymnal videos, music videos, dance and song videos, and gospel movies produced by The Church of Almighty God, which all hold the truth on high and bear witness to God and His work of the last days. This is all so that people may submit to and worship God, and the church really does feel like a place where God does His work! Having seen, heard, and experienced all of this is proof within my heart that The Church of Almighty God is a true church where God personally nurtures and shepherds His flock. The fact that I’ve been able to enter God’s house and live a life face-to-face with God is being exceptionally exalted by God. I really am so fortunate! Thank You, Almighty God!
Source From: Eastern Lightning
