God’s Word Led Her to See Through Religious Leaders’ Substance

Gospel Testimonie| God’s Word Led Her to See Through Religious Leaders’ Substance

October 16, 2018 Leave a comment

By Wang Lin

I happily welcomed the returned Lord.

At the age of 36 I had hyperosteogeny. I had been to many hospitals, but my illness didn’t respond to treatment.

In the spring of 1996, I believed in the Lord, and then my illness was cured. After having enjoyed the Lord’s grace, I started to be zealous in my faith. Before long, I became a co-worker in the church and was in charge of teaching the sisters and brothers to sing hymns. In September of 1998, two sisters from other areas came to witness to us about the good news that the Lord had returned. After three days and three nights of fellowship, over 130 believers in our church all accepted God’s work of the last days. I couldn’t express how glad I was and never thought I could welcome the return of the Redeemer in my lifetime. Just as I was awash in the joy, I encountered all means of obstruction and trouble from the leaders and co-workers of my former denomination. I nearly fell into Satan’s cunning trap and departed from the true way. Right in the middle of the crises, it was God who timely sent brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God to fellowship about God’s words with me time and again, so that I could see through the leaders’ antichrist essence, break away from their bondage and stand firm on the true way.

A spiritual battle started to unfold.

worship GodAbout a week after I accepted God’s new work, the two sisters who preached the gospel of the last days came meet with us. There were fifteen sisters and brothers who were listening to sermons at my home that day. One of the two sisters fellowshiped, “We’ve just accepted God’s work in the last days, so we need to have a good read of God’s words. Only by reading more of God’s words can we have faith to stand firm. The work done by God during the last days is principally that of separating the wheat from the chaff, and classifying all people according to kind. Those who accept God’s work in the last days, believe in God with true hearts and love the truth, God will thoroughly save and perfect them; those who don’t accept God’s work in the last days, but instead resist and condemn it will be revealed as false believers, tares and evil servants and they will fall into disasters and be punished therein in the end. Now we’ve accepted God’s work in the last days. But in the spiritual world, Satan is not willing that we accept God’s salvation, so it will use the leaders of your former denomination to hinder and disturb us. This is a spiritual battle, and we must rely on God to stand firm. …”

Since I hadn’t believed in Almighty God for very long, I seemed to understand the sister’s fellowship but did not really understand it. But what she fellowshiped about were truths and mysteries that I had never heard of, so I thought that I must do my best to believe in Almighty God. While we were fellowshiping, two leaders of our former denomination suddenly came to my home with a face full of rage. When I saw them, my heart stopped and I felt a little afraid. I thought, “Why have they come? If they know that we all have accepted the new work of God and that so many sisters and brothers listen to sermons at my home, I don’t know how they will treat me.” As I was thinking these things, I greeted them hurriedly, “You’re here! Come in!” They stormed into the room and one of them fiercely pointed at the two sisters, saying with a very fierce look on his face, “What are you doing? Are you preachers of Eastern Lightning? Are you stealing our sheep?” Then he looked around and pointed at the brothers and sisters angrily, saying, “Do not listen to them anymore!” As I heard the way he spoke, I thought, “The Lord Jesus taught us to love other people as we love ourselves. But, where’s the love in that?!” Therefore, I boldly and confidently said, “What they preach is the return of the Lord Jesus and is the true way. Today you are here. Just the right time for you to listen and study it.” The other leader turned his nose up at me, saying, with his hands on his hips, “Humph, you want us to listen together? Every day several knots of preachers of Eastern Lightning came to my home to preach to me, but I turned them away. Their preaching was indeed very profound, but I just couldn’t listen to them. Humph! All of you really have no foundation, so you’ve been bewitched after you listen to them.” Then he fiercely shouted at the two sisters who were preachers, “You are adherents of Eastern Lightning. Even if it is the return of the Lord Jesus, we will not accept the gospel you are preaching!” Finally, he advised me, “The way of Eastern Lightning is different from the work the Lord Jesus did. Now you believe in Eastern Lightning. Isn’t it apostasy?” After hearing that, I felt somewhat miserable and thought to myself, “Is my faith wrong?” Just when I was hesitating, the young sister (one of the two sisters) said seriously, “We’re not committing apostasy. Think back to when the Lord Jesus arrived to do His work. When the Jewish Pharisees saw His work violated the laws, they condemned that departing from the Old Testament law to believe in the Lord was apostasy, departure from the way of Jehovah God and betrayal of Jehovah God. But in reality, the work the Lord Jesus did is a stage higher than that of the Age of Law and He freed people from the bindings of the law. Although the work has changed, it’s a different work done by the same God. This is a fact nobody can deny. Will we say those who followed the Lord Jesus in the Age of Grace were apostates? Definitely not. But instead, we say they were the wise virgins, kept up with God’s new work and enjoyed the presence of the Lord. Similarly, today following the work of Almighty God is keeping up with God’s footsteps—”

But before she could even finish speaking, a leader said angrily with a wave of his hand, “Don’t say anymore! We don’t want to hear it!” Then he turned to me, “At our meetings, we’ve more than once told you not to receive strangers. This is all for your benefit. However, you don’t listen but believe in what they preach. You’re straying from the Lord’s way and being an apostate! How can you face the Lord when He returns? …”  pray to GodAfter hearing these fallacies disseminated by him and threatening words, I felt a little bit afraid and thought, “If I really take the wrong path and lead so many believers to the same wrong path, how can I face the Lord?” At that moment, my heart was in turmoil and I couldn’t calm myself. Later, I recalled slowly the days when I made contact with the two sisters from Eastern Lightning, and sensed that their fellowship was very enlightening. Right after that, I remembered a passage from the word of God: “From the work of Jehovah to that of Jesus, and from the work of Jesus to that of this current stage, these three stages cover in a continuous thread the entire gamut of God’s management, and are all the work of one Spirit. Since the creation of the world, God has always been at work managing mankind. He is the Beginning and the End, He is the First and the Last, and He is the One who begins an age and the One who brings the age to an end. The three stages of work, in different ages and different locations, are unmistakably the work of one Spirit. … Now, it behooves you to understand that all the work from the first stage until today is the work of one God, the work of one Spirit. Of this there can be no doubt.” With the timely enlightenment of God’s words, I understood: Right! The three stages of work are done by the same God. This isn’t wrong. In thinking of this, my heart was somewhat at ease. I said to them, “I think what they fellowshiped about is right. It is the same God that does the work of the three ages. Today that we believe in Almighty God isn’t apostasy, but instead, is keeping up with God’s footsteps and His new work. As it says in Revelation 14:4, ‘These are they which follow the Lamb wherever he goes.’—” But before I could even finish what I was saying, he said in an exasperated tone, “It’s no use even if what you say is true. As long as you don’t listen to us, we’ll expel you from the church, warn the entire church you’ve believed in Eastern Lightning and let all believers forsake you.” After saying that, they left panting in rage.

Hearing that they would expel me, I felt somewhat miserable. I thought: If I, a believer of God, am expelled from the church, when my brothers and sisters know it, what will they think of me? How can I face them when we meet? Seeing that I had some worries in my heart, one of the two sisters hurriedly found a passage of God’s words and read it to me: “In My plan, Satan has ever snapped at the heels of every step, and, as the foil of My wisdom, has always tried to find ways and means to disrupt My original plan. But could I succumb to its deceitful schemes? All in heaven and on earth serves Me—could the deceitful schemes of Satan be any different? This is precisely the intersection of My wisdom, it is precisely that which is wondrous about My deeds, and it is the principle by which My entire management plan is carried out.” Then she started to fellowship, “From God’s words, we see that in this stage of work, Satan always tails God from behind and tries all kinds of tricks to cause havoc to destroy God’s work of saving people. It can be said that where there is God’s work there is Satan’s disturbance. Now the leaders block us from turning to God. This is Satan’s trick and is God and Satan battling with each other over mankind. It’s fair to say, this is an intense spiritual battle. So we must rely on God to stand firm and can’t fall for Satan’s tricks.” After I listened to what the sister fellowshiped and to the word of God, some light began to shine in my heart. Only then did I realize that this was a spiritual fight and that Satan was using the fallacies disseminated by the leaders to disturb me so as to seize me from the presence of God. I would not fall for Satan’s tricks and must keep up with God’s footsteps. At this thought, I slowly calmed down. As it was getting late, we appointed the time for the next gathering and then they dispersed to their homes.