Books of The Church of Almighty God- Principles of Being Wise in Your Belief in God
1. You must know the essential differences between wisdom and deceit. Being wise is in order to properly perform your duty and carry out God’s will; it is something positive.
2. You must adopt wise means toward the great red dragon and all other satanic forces, taking upholding God’s work and not causing any harm to the work of the house of God as the principle.
3. You must be honest, and you must be loving and wise toward others, taking being of benefit to others and the work of God as the principle.
4. In spreading the gospel and saving others, you must search for those who are able to accept the truth. Making sure your methods are judicious means taking the effectiveness of salvation as the principle.
Relevant Words of God:
One must use wisdom in every aspect and use wisdom to walk My perfect way. Those who conduct themselves by My word are the wisest of all and those who conduct themselves in accordance with My word are the most obedient. What I say goes and you need not debate with Me or try to reason with Me. Everything I say I say with you in mind (no matter if I am strict or gentle), if you focus on being obedient that will be fine, and this is the way of true wisdom (and it’s the way[a] to avoid the judgment of God befalling you).
At that time when Jesus worked in Judea, He did so openly, but now, I work and speak among you in secret. The unbelievers are completely unaware of it. My work among you is isolated from others. These words, these chastisements and judgments, are known only to all of you and no other. All of this work is carried out among you and opened up only to you; none of those unbelievers knows this, for the time has not yet come. These men are near to being made complete after enduring chastisements, but those on the outside know nothing of this. This work is much too hidden! To them, God become flesh is secretive, but to those in this stream, He can be considered to be open. Although in God all is open, all is clear and all is released, this is only true with those who believe in Him, and nothing is made known to those unbelievers. The work being carried out here now is strictly isolated to keep them from knowing. Should they become aware, all that awaits is condemnation and persecution. They will not believe. To work in the nation of the great red dragon, the most backward of places, is no easy task. If this work was to be made known, then it would be impossible to continue. This stage of work simply cannot progress in this place. How could they tolerate it if such work were carried out openly? Would this not bring even greater risk? If this work were not concealed, and rather continued as in the time of Jesus when He spectacularly healed the sick and cast out demons, then would it not have long ago been “seized” by the devils? Could they tolerate the existence of God? If I were to now enter into the halls to preach and lecture man, then would I not have long ago been dashed to pieces? And if so, how then could My work continue to be carried out? The reason that signs and wonders are not manifested openly is for the sake of concealment. So My work can neither be seen, known or discovered by unbelievers. If this stage of work were to be done in the same manner as that of Jesus in the Age of Grace, it could not be so steady. So, the work to be concealed in this way is of benefit to you and to all work.
from “The Mystery of the Incarnation (2)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
You must have My courage within you and you must have principles when facing relatives who do not believe. But for the sake of Me, you must also not yield to any of the dark forces. Rely on My wisdom to walk the perfect way; do not allow the conspiracies of Satan to take hold.
from “The Tenth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
When they bring God into their real lives, God primarily requires that people worship God, pursue the knowledge of God, and perform the duty of a creature of God amid normal humanity. … They are not asked to abide by doctrine. Each should act according to their individual stature: If your husband does not believe, treat him as an unbeliever, and if he believes, treat him as a believer. Focus not on love and patience, but on wisdom.
from “Practice (2)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
To fellowship with others you must understand matters of the spirit. You must have wisdom, and know their hearts. To serve people you must be a correct person yourself and fellowship what you have.
from “The Thirteenth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
The Man’s Fellowship:
That deceitful people practice deceit is an exposure of their nature. That honest people use wisdom is God’s demand, it is a necessity in work as well, and still more is it necessary to possess it in fulfilling one’s duty. If honest people are foolishly ignorant they are not suitable for being used by God, because without wisdom they cannot accomplish results in their work. What is wisdom? It is being able to use all sorts of ways and means to carry out God’s will and practice the truth. Wisdom is among the things that are positive and it is what is employed to attain proper goals, so using wisdom is what God praises. In any matter involving carrying out God’s will and completing what God has entrusted to us, no matter what ways or means we adopt to accomplish the goal, that is wise, and if people can use ways and means to get things done that is wise. Deceit, however, is among the things that are negative, and among the methods that people of Satan adopt to achieve their reactionary aims and individual ambitions. Sometimes the means used out of wisdom and out of deceit may look the same in how they appear, but because the meaning of each and the aims that are to be achieved are different, they are different by nature. The deceitful people commit misdeeds by adopting all sorts of methods in order to achieve individual aims that are despicable, which cannot be called wise, and can only be called deceitful or scheming. God’s people use wisdom to defeat the foe, to support God’s work, and to achieve satisfying God’s intentions, this is among the things that are altogether positive. That is wisdom. And using wisdom is right. If someone says that it is scheming, that’s denigrating what is positive and confusing right and wrong, as well as an absurdity of foolish, ignorant people without any discernment. In judging something you must see into its essence and feel out its source before you reach a fitting conclusion. You can’t just judge by external appearances and spout some nonsense.
from “Difference Between Wisdom and Deceit” in Records of Christ’s Talks With Leaders and Workers of the Church
In interacting with others it is impossible to avoid many difficulties, and besides possessing a loving heart, wisdom is indispensable. The principle of using wisdom is for the sake of allowing people to gain benefits and not causing harm to others, oneself, or the church. Some problems are not easily resolved without wisdom. For example, you should consider thoroughly what kinds of consequences something that you want to do will generate, how to go about it in a way that won’t bring trouble with it, or what sort of disposition the person you are interacting with has, what you should pay attention to in interacting with him or her, how to go about things in a way that benefits them and does not harm them, what sorts of things you should let them know, what sorts of things you should not say to them, what will be the consequences for saying these things, or if you must say them what is the best approach to adopt. These all refer to using wisdom.
from “Principles of Practice That We Should Have in Establishing Normal Interpersonal Relationships” in Records of Christ’s Talks With Leaders and Workers of the Church
The fourth characteristic is dealing with people with wisdom. Some people say: “Does getting along with brothers and sisters require wisdom?” Yes, it does, because using wisdom provides even greater benefits for your brothers and sisters. Some will ask: “Isn’t being wise with brothers and sisters being cunning?” Wisdom is not cunning. Rather, it is the complete opposite of cunning. To use wisdom means paying attention to the way you talk to brothers and sisters when they have small stature, in case they won’t be able to accept what you say. Also, for people with small stature, especially those who are not possessed of the truth and who reveal some corruption and have some corrupt disposition, if you are too simple and open and tell them everything, it can sometimes be easy for them to have something on you or for you to be used. This is not good either. Since humans have corrupt disposition, you must more or less take some precautions and have some technique when speaking. But being cautious against people doesn’t mean not helping them or not having love for them. It just means not telling them some of the important things about God’s household right away, and simply communicating the truth to them. If they need spiritual assistance in life and the truth to be supplied to them, we have to do everything in our ability to satisfy them in this regard. But if they are inquiring about this and that about God’s household, or this and that about its leaders and workers, then there’s no need to tell them. If you tell them, they are likely to leak this information and this will affect the work of God’s household. In other words, if it is something they shouldn’t know or something they have no need to know, then don’t let them know about it. If it is something they ought to know, then do all you can to let them know about it, concretely and without reservation. So what are things they ought to know? The pursuit of truth is what they should know; what truth they should be equipped with, what aspects of the truth they should understand, what duties they should fulfill, what duties they are suited to fulfill, how they should fulfill those duties, how to live out normal humanity, how to live the church life—these are all things people should know. On the other hand, the rules and principles of God’s household and the work of the church cannot be divulged to outsiders, nor can the situations of your brothers and sisters be disclosed to outsiders or non-believers in your family. This is the principle that must be abided by when we use wisdom. The names and addresses of your leaders, for example, are things you should not talk about. If you talk about these things, you never know when this information might fall into the ears of outsiders, and things could get very troublesome if it then gets passed on to some evil spies or secret agents. You must be wise about these things. That is why I say wisdom is very necessary. Moreover, when you are being simple and open, you cannot just tell anyone certain private things. You have to judge the stature of your brothers and sisters to see if, after you tell them, they might be ungodly and joke about what you say. It will be a problem if they let it get out there; it will damage your character. So being simple and open also requires wisdom.
from “How to Build Church Life and the Meaning of Building Church Life” in Fellowship and Preaching About Life Entry (I)
The purpose of evangelism is to bring all those who are able to believe in God and accept the true way before God to experience His work and receive salvation and enter into God’s kingdom. This is the purpose and meaning of preaching the gospel. The principles and methods of evangelism are of course determined based on the goals and meaning of preaching the gospel. If people’s practicing principles and methods cannot achieve the purpose and meaning of evangelism, then this proves that such principles and methods are wrong and that there is a deviation. Why are wisdom and technique used in preaching the gospel? It’s because the nation of the great red dragon is under the domain of Satan, the devil. This gang of devils do all they can to resist God and destroy His work and seek to ban His work. Against such a backdrop of darkness, some practicing principles and wise methods must be adopted in order to achieve the purpose of saving mankind.
In this current world of evil and darkness, even in countries with religious freedom, all religious communities are being controlled by antichrists and demons and are condemning and resisting God’s work. Therefore, carrying out God’s will and spreading God’s kingdom gospel all over the world requires adopting smart techniques. This is the practicing principle of evangelism. The house of God has been spreading the gospel for more than 10 years. God’s chosen people have accumulated a lot of experience and lessons. The practicing principles and intelligent methods of evangelism confirmed in the house of God are all effective. Due to the persecution, suppression and pursuit by Satan’s forces, it is not easy to preach the gospels given that God’s chosen people have to achieve gaining people on the one hand while also protecting themselves on the other. If intelligent methods are not used then it will be easy to fail—not only are people not gained, they might end up being captured by the great red dragon or various religious antichrist forces instead. There have been too many such lessons. So if one is to gain people while also protect themselves, they must use smart techniques. It is not easy to achieve results by being too straightforward. Some evangelists don’t have principles or wisdom and merely observe rules—it is also not easy for them to achieve results. Regardless of the environment, a person may go preach the gospel if they can guarantee the gaining of others and that they themselves won’t be captured by Satan.
from “12 Problems All Churches Need to Resolve Urgently” in Annals of the Fellowship and Arrangements of the Work of the Church (II)
For example, sometimes when you’re spreading the gospel, you commune the truth and God’s work to the other person with great solemnity—but the corrupt are too depraved, they have no interest in the truth, and so would you say you ought to employ a little wisdom? Sometimes, you have to use a little wisdom. Though there are some methods that are somewhat improper, such methods are often effective, whereas those methods that some people see as proper often aren’t. Do such dilemmas not exist? And so, do not abide by doctrine. It is better to seek results according to the environment and context at the time. Is this not a principle? For instance, the house of God forbids the use of underhand tricks, but although some methods are not particularly dignified or proper, and also feel somewhat like trickery, they are not underhand. If you employ such methods, people will end up as believers; and if you do not, and use positive techniques, they will have no interest in the truth, and will not come to believe in God. And so what should be done under such circumstances? Concentrate on results, and be flexible. As long as it is not a crime or underhand, then fine; you are not condemned by the law. And so, sometimes when you’re spreading the gospel, and you see that a person is good, you must think of ways to gain them. Concentrate on results: As long as your methods are not underhand, as long as they do not break the law or harm the person, and you can gain this person and will not lead to any investigations, there’s no problem. If you do not gain the person, and if you use underhand tricks and are reported to the police, then you get what you deserve, and you are foolish. This all depends on whether you have brains, and whether or not you are wise. Some matters can be handled flexibly, but some can’t. If some things are against the law and put your life in danger, then you shouldn’t do them. Some things don’t entail any risk, they just involve a little cunning, and are not underhand tricks. These can be brought to bear as and when they are needed, and the house of God won’t interfere. And so, when some things don’t count as crimes, and do not break the law, what should be done? Concentrate only on results. And what if some people do interfere? Ignore them, that’s all.
from The Preaching and Fellowship of the Above
Footnotes:
a. The original text omits “and it’s the way.”
Source from：The Church of Almighty God
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