The Church of Almighty God | God's word | Chapter 12. God’s Will Is to Save People to the Greatest Extent Possible
1. Don’t Just Be Concerned With Whether or Not You Have Been Predestined by God, but Be Concerned With Your Pursuit
Many people don’t understand the will of God; they think that everyone who is predestined by God will inevitably be saved and they think that everyone who is not predestined by God will not be saved even if they do things better. They think that God will not determine people’s outcome based on their performance and behavior. If you think this way, then you greatly misunderstand God. If God really did this, then would God be righteous? God determines people’s outcome based on a principle: Ultimately people’s outcome will be determined according to their personal performance and behavior. You don’t see God’s righteous disposition, and you always misunderstand God and distort His intentions, which causes you to always be pessimistic and lose hope. Is this not self-inflicted? In fact, do you really understand, and are you sure of God’s intentions? You have always used “God’s predestination” to delineate and deny God’s words. This is a serious misunderstanding of God! You do not understand God’s work and you don’t understand God’s will at all; even more so, you don’t understand the good intentions God has put into His 6,000 years of management work! You give yourself up to despair, second-guess and doubt God; you are deeply afraid of being a service-doer, thinking, “There is nothing great about me; why am I being promoted to do this work? Is God using me? Is it that He is making me do service and then He will get rid of me when I am no longer useful?” Is not this view of God categorizing Him with those in power? You have always misunderstood God; you have thought ill of God and despised Him. You have never believed God’s words and frankness, you have taken the initiative to seek to be a service-doer, you have taken the initiative to walk on the path of the service-doers, but you have not sought to change your disposition nor have suffered hardships in order to put truth into practice. Ultimately, you have pushed your responsibilities onto God, saying that you had not been predestined by God, and that God has not been sincere with you. What is the problem? You misunderstand God’s intentions, you do not believe God’s words, you are not putting truth into practice nor devoting yourself while fulfilling your duties. How can you satisfy God’s will? With this course of action, you are not qualified in the least to be a service-doer, so how can you be qualified to negotiate with God? If you think that God is not righteous, then why do you believe in Him? You have always wanted God to say to you, “You are of the people of the kingdom and this will never change” before you exert yourself for God’s family. If God didn’t say this, then you would never give your true heart to God. How rebellious is this kind of person! I have seen so many people who have never focused on transforming their dispositions, much less focused on putting truth into practice. They only pay attention to asking about whether they will obtain a good final destination, how God will treat them, whether He has a predestination for them to be His people, and other hearsay matters. How can these people who are not engaged in honest work obtain eternal life? How can they remain in God’s family? Now I solemnly tell you: If a predestined person does not put the truth into practice, then he will ultimately be eliminated; and a person who sincerely expends himself and does his best to put truth into practice—even if people view him as a person who is not predestined to remain—will have a better final destination than those so-called predestined people who have had no devotion, because of God’s righteous disposition. Do you believe these words? If you are not able to believe these words and you continue going about things in the wrong way, then I say to you that you certainly will not be able to survive, because you do not truly want God and are not fond of the truth. Since it is this way, God’s predestination of people is not important. The reason I say this is because in the end, God will determine people’s outcomes by their performance and behavior; however, objectively speaking, God’s predestination only plays a small role and does not play a leading role. Do you understand these words?
2. God’s Work in the Last Days Is Not for the Purpose of Condemning People, but Rather for Saving People
Some people say: “My nature is not good, so let nature take its course!” Are you not able to forsake the flesh? Do you not have a heart and a mind? How do you pray every day? “Flesh, come out! Let nature take its course, God has predestined it; I don’t need to do anything.” Is this your prayer? No! Then why do you not work with God? Some people who have committed a small transgression will suppose: Will I be struck down by God? God did not come this time to strike people down, but rather to save people to the greatest extent possible. Who is entirely free from errors? If everyone is struck down, then how could it be called salvation? Some transgressions are done on purpose and other transgressions are done involuntarily. With involuntary matters, you can change after you recognize them, so would God strike you down before you change? Is this how God saves people? It is not like that! Regardless of whether you transgress involuntarily or out of a rebellious nature, just remember: Hurry and wake up to reality! Press onward; no matter what situation arises, you must press onward. God is working to save people and He will not randomly strike the people He wants to save. Regardless of your degree of transformation, even if God struck you down in the end, then God would certainly do it in righteousness; when that time comes, He will let you understand it. Right now your only responsibility is to press onward, seek a transformation and seek to satisfy God; you should only care about fulfilling your duty according to God’s will. There is no mistake in this! Ultimately, no matter how God treats you, it is always done in righteousness; you should not doubt this or worry about it; even if you can’t understand God’s righteousness right now, there will be a day when you will be convinced. God is certainly not like a government official or the king of devils! If you carefully try to understand this aspect, then you will eventually firmly believe that God’s work is saving people and transforming people’s dispositions. Since it is the work of transforming people’s dispositions, if people don’t reveal their dispositions, then nothing can be done and there will be no results. But after you have revealed your disposition, continuing on will be troublesome, it will offend the administrative decrees and offend God. God will inflict different degrees of retribution, and you will pay the price for your transgressions. Occasionally you unconsciously become dissolute and God points it out to you, prunes you, and deals with you; if you do better, God will not hold you accountable. This is the normal process of transformation; the true significance of the work of salvation is manifest in this process. This is the key! Take for example the boundaries between men and women; today you act on the impulse to hold someone’s hand, but when you return you ponder: Is this not immoral behavior? Is this not a sin? Is it not a dishonor to God when the boundaries between men and women are not kept? How could I do this kind of thing? Then you come before God and pray: “Oh God! I have sinned again; this thing is not in conformity with truth and I despise the corrupt flesh.” Afterward, you establish a resolution to not touch or get too close to them. Is this not transformation? If you have this kind of transformation, will God still condemn you for holding their hands? If you held their hands and didn’t feel right about it, and you don’t admit your sin to God, thinking that it wasn’t a shameful thing, and you don’t despise yourself, stay on the alert, or set a resolution, then thereafter you won’t just hold their hands, you will embrace them! Things will become more and more serious and will lead you to commit sin, and in so doing, God will condemn you for your sins; you will sin over and over again, it is incurable. If you truly involuntarily revealed a little bit of a corrupt disposition, if you can repent, then God won’t condemn you and you can still be saved. God wants to save people, and it is impossible for people’s natures to not be revealed in some degree; however, you should pay attention to repenting and changing speedily. Would this not satisfy God’s will? Some people don’t believe this and always develop a precautious attitude toward God; this kind of person will suffer sooner or later.
It has been mentioned before: Events of the past can be written off by the stroke of a pen; the future can be used to replace the past; God’s tolerance is boundless. But these words do have principle in them; it is not the case that no matter how big of a sin you have committed in the end, God can write it off in one stroke; all the work of God has principle. In the past there was this kind of administrative decree: He who committed a certain sin before accepting God’s name, let him join in; if he commits that sin again after entering in, deal with him in a certain way; if he commits that sin repeatedly, then expel him. God has always forgiven people to the greatest extent possible in His work; from this standpoint, it can be seen that this work is truly the work of saving people. But in this final stage if you still commit some unpardonable sins, you will not be able to be cured or be able to change. God has a process for changing people’s dispositions and for saving people. Through the process of people revealing their dispositions, God will transform them; through the process of people continually revealing and transforming their dispositions, God obtains His purpose of salvation. Some people think: Since it is my nature, then I will expose it as much as possible! Afterward, I will recognize it and put truth into practice. Is this process necessary? If you are truly a person who puts truth into practice, and if you see that you also have some problems that others have, then you will do your best to avoid doing those things. Is this not an indirect transformation? Sometimes, you think to do it that way, but before you do it, you become aware and forsake it. Does this not obtain the outcome of salvation? There is a process for putting every truth into practice; it is impossible for you to be perfect and not have adulterated thoughts when you first begin practicing. There are still several things in which you completely rely on your own thoughts, but after being dealt with and pruned, you will ultimately act in complete accordance with God’s intentions and words. This is change and transformation.
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