People who serve God all ought to know that if those who serve God are not people who have been perfected by God, then they are not suitable for being used by God. That’s because corrupt humanity all has the nature of resisting and betraying God, and they all have arrogant, conceited, self-important, and self-righteous dispositions. When they perform their duties, they are willing to do it according to their own will, but they are not willing to search for the will of God, and they are even more unwilling to seek fellowship. They do not have true obedience to God, yet they greedily enjoy the benefits of their positions without any reason at all. If they do a few days of work, they will start getting arrogant, and they will start asking God for crown and blessing, and they will prepare to rule together with God. Once they receive being pruned or dealt with or God’s elimination, they start complaining and are shamed into anger, thinking that serving God is like the perilous condition of serving a wild tiger. They have not recognized that God is righteous, good, and beautiful, but people are too corrupt and too lacking in humanity, deserving punishment for their crimes. In people’s hearts, God is not fair to humans, as if God has treated them wrongfully. This kind of people serve God for several years, but they become God’s enemies, openly resisting and judging God. How could this kind of people be suited to God’s use? If people who serve God are truly people who pursue the truth, they should recognize the source of corrupt humanity’s resistance of God, they should recognize their own nature of resisting God, they should recognize that when corrupt humanity serves God they ought to receive pruning and dealing, and especially they ought to receive God’s judgment and chastisement. If in their service they disrupt God’s work by mixing in human will or diverting the work onto their own paths, then they should even receive God’s punishments and curses and obey God’s work. Only in this way can people achieve changes in life disposition through service and walk on the right track of serving God.
Because corrupt humanity does not have truth, they do not have the slightest understanding of God’s will, and nor can they see through matters clearly. They cannot distinguish properly between God’s commission, God’s appointment, man’s practices, and what God permits, so they are especially lacking in reason. It is clearly the case that each level of leaders and workers in the church are selected by people, and God does not interfere with people’s work. If people’s selections are correct and suitable, then God approves of it; but nor does God make His concerns public if people choose incorrectly or unsuitably. Although God is not apparently opposed to how people do work, God wishes to reveal one thing, that is when the leaders and workers that people have selected are not correct, then the Holy Spirit does not do work. Actually, the Holy Spirit not working already reveals God’s will. The Holy Spirit not working shows God’s disagreement and disapproval. But how would numb and dull-witted people know this? They think that as long as people are promoted and used, even if they were not established by God, they have been approved by God. So, when people become leaders and workers, it is as if they received authority from God, and they start self-righteously doing their own work. From then on, people hold on to this duty as their private property, and they misuse and abuse the authority in their hands to do whatever they want to do. They don’t fellowship with others, nor do they report to or take orders from the above, they think that they have the authority to do this or that and that other people have no right to interfere, that what they do is completely within their duty and they do not need the above to worry at all. “I’ll do what I think is appropriate. Didn’t the house of God assign this job to me?” People have not realized at all that God’s permission for people to do this job does not mean that God establishes people to be leaders, nor does it mean that people have the stature to completely excel at this job. This is the aspect where people have no reason toward the work arranged by God’s household. Based on your understanding of the truth and your own caliber, you are all still unable to formally accept God’s commission, nor can you independently take on any work. To work in the house of God, this is the basic reason that ought to be possessed, and that is the reason that any person who serves God ought to have when they receive a commission from God. First, they should pray like this: “God! Although I am now working as a leader (a worker), I am truly unworthy. God, you know that I have been corrupted too deeply by Satan, and I also have the disposition of rebelling against and resisting God, nor do I possess the truth or have true understanding of God. I am entirely unworthy to do the work of the house of God. However, so that God’s will can be carried out, in order to complete God’s commission, I promise God that I shall not do God’s work based on my own will, because the work is God’s. I ought to do my utmost to rely on the work of the Holy Spirit, and do all things through prayers and seeking fellowship. I ought to work according to the requirements and work arrangements of the above, and I am willing to accept God’s inspection and people’s supervision. If I work according to my own will and act arbitrarily, or work in order to protect my personal position or fame and fortune, then I ought to receive any punishments and curses.” Only if people can treat God’s commission and the duties they ought to perform in this way and pray to God in this way, then they are people with reason. If people do the work of the church without praying to God and seeking fellowship, if they do not report to the above when facing important matters or difficulties, if they do what they want to do and completely treat God’s work as personal property, like managing their own household matters, if, regardless of whether they do well or poorly, they would rather affect church work than ask for instructions or give a report, this is a most irrational person.
Today, God’s work and man’s work are both practical. God is on earth, and man is on earth. Why would you not ask for instructions or give a report, but instead do as you will? Do you think such an important work in God’s house belongs to your own personal work? Did God truly entrust it to you directly? I see that people’s understanding of God’s commission is too fallacious. They have not grasped God’s will at all. Fulfilling duties that one ought to fulfill is proper, but the work must be done in accordance with God’s requirements and the work arrangements of the above. If one could disobey the arrangements of the above and do their new tricks, can this still be called performing their own duties? If, when a problem is discovered and difficulties are encountered, they do not report to the above for a solution in a timely manner, who gave them this right? Could it be that they are not performing their duties when they report to the above when facing difficulties and problems that they cannot resolve alone? Does this reveal their own incompetence and bring them shame? Is this being disloyal to God? People’s reasons are truly ridiculous! People who serve God cannot use various excuses and reasons to affect the work of God. Seeking fellowship and reporting to the above when encountering difficulties is a proper expression of responsibility. If they treat God’s commission as their own private property and neither fellowship nor ask for instructions when facing problems and instead think that this is within their duty, then this is truly an expression of irrationality as well as an irresponsible way of acting. How could they not affect the carrying out of God’s will if they work and perform their duties in this way? Only arrogant, conceited, self-important, and self-righteous people are capable of doing such foolish things. Completely working by their own will, not seeking fellowship, and not asking the above for instructions and even using “within my duty” as an excuse, how selfish and despicable this is! Smart people know themselves well enough. They know that they ought to properly and primly perform their own duties when serving God or performing the work of the house of God. They know that they are average and not that great. It is like slaves working for their masters. This work does not belong to the slave, it is the master’s. When slaves perform work given to them by their master, how should they understand this? With what sort of attitude should they work? If the slave treats his master’s work as his own matter, then he is working in the position of the master. This is against principles. What attitude a slave ought to have when doing work entrusted to them by their master is a question that relates to man’s reason. How should we people who serve God do work entrusted by the house of God properly? What sort of attitude should we have? What kind of reason should we be possessed of? This is a very important question. When corrupt people serve God, after a few days of work they start becoming arrogant. So we especially need God’s judgment and chastisement to accompany our service. When God’s house arranges work for us, we ought to receive responsibility, not authority or status. If we focus on authority and status, then we are not worthy to serve God. Even if we did, we would definitely resist God and betray God. If we are able to be like loyal slaves who only know to loyally serve God, if we do not feel we have authority or status, if we assert ourselves to forever be slaves and forever be loyal to God, then this is qualified, and we would completely have the likeness of man. Have you learned this point through your experiences? Do you possess a bit of human reason?
What is the reason that those who serve God ought to possess? First, you should know that God’s house promoting or selecting you is not God directly entrusting you to do the work of God’s house. It is simply a temporary trial period from the house of God to train you or develop you. It is only a temporary trial period from the house of God, which is of course approved by God. It cannot be proven that you are established by God or used by God, nor can it be proved that God is relieved about you. If you do not pursue the truth, there is always the danger of being eliminated. Second, you should be clear that now the people used by the house of God are all corrupt humans who have not yet been perfected. Because people have a limited understanding and shallow experiences of the truth, they do not possess the independent work ability of using the truth to solve problems. Now, the house of God’s use of people is only on the stage of training, developing, and perfecting people. Whether they can be perfected is related to the path they walk on. Third, it should be realized that, when the house of God assigns you work, it is not because they trust you can independently do this work well. Rather, it is so you can rely on the Holy Spirit, rely on the above, to seek in all things, and fellowship and ask for instructions often if there are points you do not understand. Moreover, you need to accept God’s inspection and man’s supervision, and learn to practice the truth and submit to God’s work. Aside from working to the best of your ability, you must also meet these requirements in order to have the right to serve God. Otherwise, you are not eligible. This is the hope and exhortation with which the house of God arranges people’s work. This is what people with reason must recognize.
Now, most people have a fallacious understanding of the house of God’s arrangement, promotion, and use. They think that if the house of God uses you, that is God directly appointing you to do the work of the house of God, that is God believing you and God selecting you, and from now on you are a servant of God in accordance to God’s will. This is a huge mistake. The main reason that many people who serve God fail is this. They only do work according to their own will, but abandon the requirements of God. This destines them to a fate of failure. How could they be perfected if they do not work in accordance with God’s requirements? Corrupt humans are truly lacking in reason. From accepting the work of the house of God, it is as if they received authority from God and could do as they will in God’s house. They don’t even want to listen to the words of the above, and it is as if they are on the same level as God, they do not have to ask for instructions or report about work, and if they face difficulties they can wait for an opportune moment. The ruler is as far away as the heavens, and they can do whatever they want freely. Corrupt humanity acts like this when they have position. Even people cannot accept this, so how could God be relieved? If they have no reason at all in accepting matters the house of God arranges, how could they properly do the work of the house of God? Though they have clearly taken a commission from people’s hands, they insist that God has entrusted them. Though obviously they have been arranged work by God’s house, they insist that it is God using them. Although it is clear that God barely gives His approval and is not assured, they even think that God likes them and would only select them. Where is the normal reason of man? Looking at the stature of people now, they can just do some incidental, external work. They are not capable of doing fundamental and substantial work. Without the guidance of the above, they are all capable of straying from the true way and go on the road of antichrists, serving in a religious way. We can clearly see that people who are not equipped with the truth and whose life disposition has not changed cannot do the work of witnessing God, are not people perfected by God, and cannot attain being suitable for God’s use.
If people who serve God do not possess truth, how could they lead people into truth? If when they meet new things or strange things, they are spun around and don’t know what to do, if they only know how to abide by rules but do not know what it is to go against principles, isn’t this lacking too much? When going about doing superficial things and new tricks, they might be as twice as good as others, but in providing the truth and solving problems with the truth they find it difficult to progress one step forward, so how could they be suited for God’s work like this? Can God directly entrust work to this kind of people? Those who serve God ought not to forget: If they do not pursue truth while believing in God, they cannot be perfected. People who do not truly submit to God are not suitable for being used by the house of God. How could people testify God without being equipped with the truth? If people without reason serve God, would they not be loathed by Him? How people who serve God should receive God’s judgment and chastisement, how they should receive being pruned and dealt with, this is so important to people’s service. Because people’s transgressions are many, if in the process of serving God they cannot properly work in accordance with God’s requirements, there is the possibility of receiving punishment. So, it is very dangerous to serve God without having a heart that reveres God. If people who serve God could accept the truth, accept being pruned and dealt with, and accept God’s inspection and the supervision of the house of God, only through this could their life disposition change, could they become perfected by God, and become someone after God’s heart.
From Selected Annals of the Work Arrangements of The Church of Almighty God
April 20, 2005
