Chen Bo, China
One
day, I went to my sister’s house to check on our mom. Before leaving,
my sister gave me a book, urging me to be sure to read it carefully. I
thought to myself: This book that my sister gave me is certainly a
spiritual work. It just so happens that my spirit feels quite parched
right now, it does not feel like the Lord is with me, and I do not feel
illuminated from reading the Bible. When I get back, I ought to read
this book carefully. Perhaps it will give me something. After returning
home, I opened the book and started reading, and before I knew it I was
sucked in by the words in the book. The more I read it the more I
enjoyed it, the more I read it the more I felt there was light in these
words, that they were enlightened by the Holy Spirit, that there was no
way that these words could be spoken by a normal person. Since reading
this book, I’ve come to understand some truths that I did not understand
before from reading the Bible, and in my mind I feel clarity and joy.
I’m willing to pray to get close to the Lord, and my faith has grown. My
spiritual condition has gotten better and better. I thought: Only the
work of the Holy Spirit can provide man with faith and strength, and
provide for and nourish man’s spirit. The words in this book certainly
come from the Holy Spirit. As a result, the first thing I do every
morning when I wake up is read this book.
One day, I opened the book and read the following passage: “God
entering into rest means that He will no longer carry out His work of
humanity’s salvation. Humanity entering into rest means that all of
humanity will live within God’s light and under His blessings; there
will be none of Satan’s corruption, nor will any unrighteous things
occur. Humanity will live normally upon earth, and they will live under
God’s care” (“God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together” in The
Word Appears in the Flesh). I stopped there. My heart jumped, and I
thought to myself: In the future man is going to live upon the earth?
Didn’t the Lord Jesus promise that in the future we would live in
heaven? How are these words talking about being on the earth? How could
this be possible? Am I misreading this? So I carefully re-read the
passage, and the words really were saying that in the future man was
going to live upon the earth. Then what does that actually mean? This
wouldn’t do. I had to understand what this actually meant. So I
continued reading: “God has God’s destination, and man has man’s
destination. While resting, God will continue to guide all of humanity
in their lives upon earth. While in God’s light, man will worship the
one true God in heaven. … When humanity enters into rest, it means that
man has become a true creation; humanity will worship God from upon the
earth and have normal human lives. People will no longer be disobedient
to God or resist God; they will return to the original life of Adam and
Eve” (“God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together” in The Word
Appears in the Flesh). The more I read the more I felt confused: Man
will worship God from upon the earth? How is this going to happen? In
the Bible doesn’t it say this will happen in heaven? How could it be
upon the earth? I rushed over to my Bible, opening it to John 14:2-3,
and read where the Lord Jesus says: “In my Father’s house are
many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare
a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
The Lord Jesus clearly says that His resurrection and ascent into
heaven was to prepare a place for us, so our destination should be in
heaven. This is the Lord’s promise! I thought to myself: What this book
is saying is different from what the Lord says, so I cannot keep reading
it. After closing the book I was in a very confused state of mind, I
didn’t know what was right, so I persistently prayed to the Lord: “Oh
Lord, please guide me and lead me. What should I do? Should I read this
book or not? Oh Lord, please enlighten me, guide me….” After praying I
thought about how after reading this book I felt closer in my
relationship to the Lord, more enthusiastic about my faith in the Lord,
and that my spirit was being provided for. If I put down this book and
stopped reading it then I would go back to my previous condition where
my spirit felt parched. Since this book did so much for me, since I
could be sure that it came from the Holy Spirit, that it couldn’t be
mistaken as it came from the Holy Spirit, even though these words did
not conform to my conceptions I shouldn’t renounce them for this reason
and not read them. As I thought about this, I decided I better keep
reading before making up my mind.
Thereupon I picked up the book again and continued reading: “Man’s place of rest is on earth, and God’s place of rest is in heaven. While man rests, he will worship God and also live upon earth, and while God rests, He will lead the remaining portion of humanity; He will lead them from heaven, not from earth …”
(“God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together” in The Word Appears in the
Flesh). I kept pondering this over in my mind: This passage now says
that God’s place of rest is in heaven, and that while man rests he will
worship God upon the earth. Could it be that man’s place of rest really
is upon the earth like these words are saying? That’s impossible! The
Lord Jesus has already said that we will be wherever the Lord is, and
that the Lord Jesus was resurrected and ascended up to heaven, so we
will also surely ascend to heaven! I thought back on years past, how I
had gone down so many roads for the Lord, how I had endured so much
suffering. Was it not so that I would ascend up to heaven and no longer
endure the suffering on earth? If it’s really like what this book is
saying, that in the future man will still be living upon the earth, then
won’t my hopes come to nothing? I lay paralyzed upon my kang bed. I
felt weak from head to toe. The more I thought about this the more I
couldn’t quiet down. So, in order to figure this out, I rushed over to
my sister’s house.
When I arrived at my sister’s
house, I met a middle-aged woman, and through my sister introducing us I
learned that this was Sister Li. Before long, I talked with them about
my thoughts after reading this book. After listening, Sister Li
fellowshiped with me, saying: “Sister, all of us who believe in the Lord
think that the Lord Jesus has promised to prepare a place for man, and
that wherever He is He will ask for us to come there. The Lord has
ascended to heaven, so in the future when the Lord returns He certainly
will welcome us in heaven to live together with Him. But have any of us
thought about whether this kind of imagining and reasoning is tenable?
If it was how we imagine it that the Lord would come and bring us to
live in heaven, then wouldn’t the words in the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven’ (Mat 6:10) and the prophesy in the Revelation ‘And
I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of
God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his
people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God’
(Rev 21:3) come to naught? How could these things come about as
predicted? If the final destination that God gives us was in heaven,
then when God originally created man, what was the significance of Him
having us live upon the earth?” I was not convinced in the least, and
retorted: “Even though these sacred texts say these things, the Lord
Himself said: ‘I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself;
that where I am, there you may be also’ (Jhn 14:2-3). After the
Lord Jesus was resurrected, He ascended to heaven, and here the Lord is
saying that He will go prepare a place for us. He says that where He
is, we may also be. So this proves that God promised us that we will
ascend to heaven to obtain eternal life, not that we will obtain eternal
life upon the earth. This is something that no one can deny!” Sister Li
continued to speak patiently: “Sister, it is true that the Lord is
preparing a place for those who believe in Him, but is this place
actually upon the earth or in heaven? The Lord does not say so in these
words, so what are we basing it on when we say that the place He is
preparing for us is in heaven? Is this actually the Lord’s promise or is
it our own conception and imagination? For those of us who believe in
God, all things should be based on the word of the Lord, our own
conceptions and imaginations should not be mixed in with the word of the
Lord, and then we say that this is the meaning of the Lord. Is this not
relying on our own ideas to explain the word of the Lord? Is this not
distorting the word of the Lord? So, we cannot rely on the imaginations
in our heads and our own thoughts and preferences to explain the word of
the Lord. If so, we will make a mistake. In Genesis 2:7-8 it says: ‘And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.’
It’s clear that in the beginning God created man on the earth, and
before God created man He first created all things in order to prepare a
good environment for man to exist in. So we can see that it is the will
of God to have us live upon the earth. In addition, in the Lord’s
Prayer, the Lord has us pray to God that His kingdom come to earth. It
is prophesied in the Book of Revelation, ‘The kingdoms of this world are become
the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ’ (Rev 11:15). ‘Behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them’
(Rev 21:3). From these lines of Scripture and prophesy we can see that
the place that God is preparing for us is on the earth, and that our
final destination in the future is on the earth not in heaven….” Sister
Li’s fellowship went completely against my conceptions. I simply did not
listen to what she said. I stood up and said to her angrily: “Stop
talking! Over the years I have run, expended and suffered for the Lord
so that I can ascend to heaven! All along I have been looking forward to
the Lord bringing me back to the heavenly home, so that I would no
longer suffer on earth. You say that our final destination is on earth. I
cannot accept this.” After saying this I turned around to leave. My
younger sister rushed over to try to talk to me: “Lisa, how can you be
so stubborn? Is this standpoint you hold on to correct? The Lord says ‘go to prepare a place for you,’
you do not know the true meaning of these words, and you are
maintaining your own thoughts. Isn’t that being foolish? This is not the
kind of attitude people who seek the truth should have! The Lord Jesus
that we look forward to has already returned, Almighty God is the return
of the Lord Jesus! That book that I gave you to read is the personal
utterances and words of God! The Lord who every day we have expected to
come to take us has now returned. We must listen carefully. We
absolutely must not mess up this extremely rare opportunity!”
I
was amazed to hear my sister say these words. I simply could not dare
believe what I just heard: The Lord has returned? Is this true? Then my
sister said: “Weren’t you the one that said before that the words in
this book come from the Holy Spirit? When you read it, you felt you had
been provided with a lot, you had the work of the Holy Spirit, and your
relationship with the Lord grew closer. Now think about it: Apart from
the word of the Lord, who else speaks in a way that achieves this kind
of effect? Now the Lord has returned to carry out work and express new
words, and we are able to enjoy the sweetness of the words of God. If we
don’t seek and examine, if we just blindly hold on to our own
conceptions and imaginations, and hold on to the literal meaning of the
Bible without letting go, then eventually we will ruin ourselves. In
their time, Pharisees who were proficient in the Bible blindly held on
to words in the Bible, they didn’t try at all to question whether or not
their own understanding of the Bible was correct, or whether or not it
conformed to God’s will. Rather they thought that man not called the
Messiah was not the Savior that was going to come, they simply did not
examine whether or not the way of the Lord Jesus could supply the life
of man, or if it could show man a path to practice. They just stubbornly
held on to their conceptions and imaginations and blindly refused the
salvation of the Lord Jesus, ultimately committing the heinous crime of
nailing the Lord to the cross. We cannot follow in the footsteps of the
Pharisees and go down their path of resisting God!” After listening to
my sister’s words I thought to myself: What my sister is saying is
reasonable. The Lord’s word is the only solution when a man’s spirit is
parched. I thought back to how ever since I read the words in this book
the condition of my spirit really has gotten better and better, how it
has given me faith in God, and how it makes me feel that God is in my
presence. I even feel like I understand some truths. Could it be that
the words in this book really are the Lord returning to speak? The Lord
returning is a big deal. I had best not blindly refuse and judge, I must
make an effort to examine and seek, I cannot be like those Pharisees
who did not seek the truth, who held on to their conceptions in
resistance to God! In this moment I felt both pleasantly surprised and
scared. I was pleasantly surprised because I believed in the Lord and
looked forward to Him returning to accept me into the kingdom of heaven,
where I could live a life free of worries, no longer needing to
experience hard times upon the earth, and today I heard the news of the
Lord returning. This truly is an enormous and joyous occasion. I was
scared because if Almighty God is the return of the Lord then my dream
of waiting on the Lord and being accepted into the kingdom of heaven
would be shattered…. In my heart I felt all kinds of mixed emotions, I
didn’t know how to feel. I felt helpless. All I could do was turn to the
Lord in prayer: “Oh Lord! Every day I have looked forward to you coming
to bring me into your heavenly home, but they are saying that the place
you have prepared for my final destination is here upon the earth. I
really am incapable of confronting this fact. I really do not want to
experience these kinds of hard times upon the earth. Oh Lord! I feel
such a suffering in my heart now, please help me, and guide me on the
path ahead.” After praying I thought about the Lord Jesus’ words where
He says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
(Mat 5:3). It’s true! The Lord likes and only allows those who are poor
in spirit and who seek the truth to enter the kingdom of heaven. I
should be someone who is poor in spirit. Only by carefully listening to
their fellowship will I conform to the will of the Lord.
At this moment, Sister Li said: “The Lord said: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God’
(Mat 5:8). We ought to listen to the word of the Lord, and act as
people who are pure of heart as we welcome the return of the Lord.
Although the work that God carries out today does not conform to our
conceptions and imaginations, still everything that God does is good, it
is all for man, and among it all is the will of God, where the truth
can be sought. If we don’t understand it thoroughly then we must first
set aside ourselves and make an effort to seek the truth, so that we can
receive the enlightenment of God and understand God’s will. Sister,
open up your heart and speak about the things you still don’t
understand, and we can seek together through fellowshiping.” I felt like
what Sister Li had said made sense, I ought to calm down and seek, so, I
said: “Sister, there’s one thing I don’t understand. Why is it that our
final destination is not in heaven but rather here on earth?” Sister Li
found John 3:13: “And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven,” and Isaiah 66:1 “The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool”
and gave me these two passages to read. Then she fellowshiped on the
meaning of these two passages. Through the sister’s fellowship I felt my
mind was all of a sudden clear. I also knew these passages from
Scripture, so why was it that I never pondered over them before? The
Lord clearly says that except for the Son of man who came down from
heaven no man can ascend up to heaven, for heaven is God’s throne and
earth is God’s footstool, so how could man deserve to ascend up to
heaven? God created man on earth, and had him live on earth. From the
day that God created man, man has inhabited the earth generation after
generation, gradually increasing in number. All work that God has
carried out to save man has also been on earth. This was something that
God predestined long ago. It is something that no man can change. It
seems that God’s kingdom is actually upon the earth, and that mankind’s
final destination is on the earth and not in heaven! This whole time I
had been living within my own conceptions and imagination, I delimited
that God would return to bring me to heaven to live, but this really
does not conform to the will of the Lord, this does not conform to the
facts! However, I was still not willing to live this kind of life on
earth where I was afflicted by Satan. So shortly after, I explained the
thoughts I was having to Sister Li.
After listening to me, Sister
Li opened up the book of The Word Appears in the Flesh, and read to me a
passage from the word of Almighty God: “The life in rest is one
without war, without filth, without persisting unrighteousness. This is
to say that it lacks Satan’s harassment (here ‘Satan’ refers to hostile
forces), Satan’s corruption, as well as the invasion of any force
opposed to God. Everything follows its own kind and worships the Lord of
creation. Heaven and earth are entirely tranquil. This is humanity’s
restful life. … After God and man enter into rest, Satan will no longer
exist, and like Satan, those wicked people will also no longer exist.
Before God and man enter into rest, those wicked individuals who once
persecuted God upon earth and the enemies who were disobedient to Him
upon earth will have already been destroyed; they will have been
destroyed by the great disasters of the last days. After those wicked
individuals have been completely destroyed, earth will
never again know Satan’s harassment. Humanity will obtain complete
salvation, and it will only be then that God’s work ends completely.
These are the prerequisites for God and man to enter into rest” (“God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).
Through
reading the words of Almighty God I came to understand that, although
in the future our lives are still on earth, once God finishes His final
stage of work in saving mankind Satan will be destroyed, and our lives
upon the earth will never again be harassed by Satan, nor will we worry
or toil, or shed tears, or let out sighs. It will be just like the time
when Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden. We will be free to
worship God, living a beautiful and blessed life where God is with man.
This is mankind’s final destination, and this is the final thing that
God will accomplish in His work in the last days. It truly is great! At
that very moment I released a sigh: “Who could speak with such a clear
way about mankind’s final destination? Who could arrange mankind’s end?
Only God could do this!” Within the word of Almighty God I recognized
God’s voice, and saw that the work of Almighty God is God appearing to
carry out work! I had finally gotten rid of the conceptions in my mind,
and happily accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days, returning
before God’s throne. All the glory be to Almighty God!
from The books of The Church of Almighty God How I Turned Back to Almighty God
Recommendation：
The Eastern Lightning—The Light of Salvation
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