Cheng Yi
One evening, I was very happy I saw Brother Liu log onto Skype. I remembered that Brother Liu had believed in the Lord for many years and that in the past he was always doing service work in the church. But in the past few years the church had grown increasingly desolate and the faith of the brothers and sisters had chilled. He was passive and feeble, just busying himself with his engineering projects, and concerned only with his physical self. He had not come to church for a long time. It was something rare to come across him that day, so we quickly started chatting …
Without realizing it we got to talking about our own recent spiritual condition. I was going to tell him just like I used to about how my spirit was withered and dark, but something Brother Liu shared with me took me by surprise. He had a unique explanation for why the church had grown desolate, and what he said had lots of light. I hadn’t heard anything like it before. I was so impressed to see how much he had gleaned in such a short amount of time!
Seeing me so surprised, Brother Liu then took it upon himself to talk about what he had experienced during that time. He said: “Before, I had seen the situation in the church getting worse and worse, the faith of the brothers and sisters in general growing cold and weak, and most of the people following worldly trends, and that there were even some people who had left the Lord behind. As a person in the service of the Lord, I was powerless and unable to help or support my brothers and sisters. Much of the time I myself was even living in the cycle of sinning and repenting with no way to get myself out of it. My spirit had grown dark and weak, and there was nothing I could do. I had already sought everywhere, but had seen that every denomination was just as desolate as the next. I too slowly became trapped in mundane concerns and was busy with work every day, and no longer even thought about attending gatherings…. Later, from various signs I saw that the prophecies of the Lord’s second coming had been fulfilled one after the other. Especially with the appearance of the four blood moons, it was clear that the great disasters are about to come, yet we have still not welcomed the Lord. My heart full of anxiety and confusion, I suddenly thought of what the biblical prophecy says: ‘And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city: one piece was rained on, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered’ (Amo 4:7). I thought about a problem: ‘In the past few years, our spirits have grown dark and withered, the pastors sermonize about nothing but stale truisms, and there is no new light. It is evident that the church has already grown desolate, and not just one church which is in this condition but each and every denomination alike. What could the ultimate reason be for this? I couldn’t help but be reminded of the end of the Age of Law. People were unable to uphold the law and deviated from the way of Jehovah. For mankind’s salvation, the Lord Jesus launched His new work in the Age of Grace, after which the temple became desolate, lost the work of the Holy Spirit, and turned into a den of thieves. Could the desolation now appearing in the churches really be God leaving us to begin His new work?’ I quickly got online to see the exact place of the Lord’s appearance to do the new work. By chance, I discovered that in the entire world only The Church of Almighty God was bearing witness that the Lord has already returned and was publicly distributing on the internet the truth expressed by Almighty God. They have all kinds of videos, movies, hymns of praise, and other ways of spreading and bearing witness to God’s work in the last days. I saw that Almighty God’s words hold power, authority, and they are so heart-shaking. The debate sessions in all the movies produced by The Church of Almighty God were intense and they fellowshiped about the truth in an illuminating way to give people great benefit. They really have the guidance and work of the Holy Spirit! Seeing that what The Church of Almighty God provided for people’s lives was abundantly rich and all-encompassing, yet we were as if living in the darkness with withered spirits, I felt how vast a gulf there was between us! I then remembered the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you’ (Mat 7:7). The Lord tells us to seek in all things that if we seek the Lord will enlighten us. I thought of how I had prayed so earnestly to the Lord recently, and He had guided me to The Church of Almighty God. Could the Lord’s will be found in this? I therefore resolved to actively seek and investigate The Church of Almighty God in accordance with the word of the Lord.”
When I heard what Brother Liu had shared, I felt that it came from the guidance and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. I asked him to share without delay a method for investigating the work of Almighty God in the last days.
Brother Liu said that the first time he came into contact with The Church of Almighty God, he had no understanding of Almighty God’s work in the last days. Still, something touched his heart and he felt an urge to read the word of Almighty God so as not to miss his chance to welcome the Lord. But just then, a project that Brother Liu was in charge of was about to get underway, and he had to travel to another state to oversee the operations site. He was very busy every day, there were a lot of people where he was staying, the internet connection was not working, and he couldn’t use his computer at all, so Brother Liu had no way to read the word of God. Amid the anxiety Brother Liu was feeling about this, the brothers and sisters recommended the mobile app of The Church of Almighty God. He learned that he could use app to read the word of God online, listen to hymns praising God and recitations of the word of God, and download materials for offline access. He was excited to hear that, so he quickly downloaded and installed it. From then on, whenever Brother Liu had a free moment he would find somewhere to listen to recitations of the word of Christ of the last days, and enjoyed the watering and supply of the living water of life. In a short time, Brother Liu had understood many truths and mysteries from the word of Almighty God that had been unclear to him before. He understood things such as the reason the churches had grown desolate, the three stages of God’s work in saving mankind, how God carries out the work of judgment and purification in the last days, humanity’s outcome and destination, the beauty of His kingdom, and so on. As he listened to Almighty God’s word more and more, the confusion and difficulties that he had faced for years were all resolved and his parched spirit was alleviated …
Brother Liu spoke with great excitement, and I could feel that his spiritual condition was completely different from how it had been. Because before Liu’s faith had been weak and he was busy with work and occupied with the mundane world, he wasn’t able to bear the temptations of Satan and would always just watch TV, sometimes until very late at night, and his relationship with the Lord had grown more and more remote. Through examining the work of Almighty God in the last days, in such a short amount of time Brother Liu understood so much of the truth that had eluded him before. He had regained his faith and become strong in spirit. I was jealous at all Brother Liu had gained.
Not much later, Brother Liu said with genuine emotion that, since he installed the app from The Church of Almighty God, the best thing he had experienced had been getting his regular spiritual life back. His spirit was no longer dark and withered, and he had regained the feeling of being in the Lord’s presence. He said that from time to time when he encounters some difficulties or temptations in his life or work, and doesn’t know what to do, he opens up the app to read the word of Almighty God or experiences and testimonies shared by the brothers and sisters. When he does so, he gains a flash of insight and is able to emerge from whatever confusion and difficulty he is facing. In his heart, he affirms that the Holy Spirit is at work in The Church of Almighty God, that the word of Almighty God is the truth, and that it can solve mankind’s practical problems. The app then became a tool for spiritual devotion that he couldn’t live without. He felt how convenient and quick it was to use the app, and the more he used it the more benefit he saw. His spirit became tranquil, his mind was at peace, and he was enthusiastic in his work. What Brother Liu found even more exciting was that through a short period of investigating and the fellowship and testimony of the brothers and sisters, he had become completely certain that the word of Almighty God is the voice of the Holy Spirit. Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus. He has caught up with the footsteps of the Lamb and attained God’s salvation in the last days. Smiling, he said that it had really been the app that had helped him the most. If not for installing it, he would never have read so much of the word of Almighty God or affirmed as true the work of Almighty God in the last days.
Brother Liu now always uses the app whenever and wherever to listen to recitations of the word of God and hymns, and to watch all kinds of gospel video programs such as movies and A Cappella music videos. Brother Liu was especially happy when he told me that the app from The Church of Almighty God has a spiritual devotion planning feature, so he won’t have to struggle to find some good content when it’s time for spiritual devotion. The personalized spiritual devotion planning feature is especially rich with classic selections from the word of God directed at the aspects of the truth that one should understand in belief in God. It also has movies, recitations of the word of God, and videos of hymns, and the experiences and testimonies of the brothers and sisters are heartfelt and moving. Those mainly describe how they experienced the judgment and chastisement of the word of God, how they gradually came to understand the truth and to know themselves, how they threw off their corrupt disposition and entered upon the road to salvation, and so on. This provision of truth allowed Brother Liu to gain a lot of new enlightenment and illumination from his spiritual devotion, something that was unobtainable and invisible in the religious world. Brother Liu rejoiced that he was able to welcome the second coming of the Lord by using the app. In his new church life, he enjoyed the word of Almighty God and obtained sustenance directly. For Brother Liu, every day is now fulfilling. As his understanding of the truth gradually increases, his relationship with God becomes more and more normal, the spirit grows stronger, and, most importantly, he has caught up with the new work of the Holy Spirit. He has gained sustenance and guidance from God Himself and is on the path to obtaining salvation. In his heart and spirit, he is becoming more and more free.
When I heard what Brother Liu shared, I was very excited, and I wanted to obtain this abundant sustenance as well.
On my way to work the next morning, I took out my phone, put my headphones on, opened the app from The Church of Almighty God, selected a hymn, and as I walked I listened to music in praise of the Creator with an incomparably sweet and joyful feeling in my heart …
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