The Return of a Prodigal Son (Part 2)

February 26, 2018

Ruth, United States

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

Mother’s words made me feel as if I was awakening from a dream, and I couldn’t help but reflect on them: She’s right, why did I blindly believe the negative news online without having read the word of Almighty God and without inspecting it? This world has been corrupted by Satan to the point where it’s brimming with lies and deception, and there is treachery everywhere, making it impossible for people to defend against it effectively. I didn’t do any kind of research into the information online, I just blindly believed it, I just went along with what everyone else was saying and was drawing arbitrary conclusions. Wasn’t this so careless and ignorant of me? Is this not following wicked individuals and making arbitrary judgments? Mother saw that I wasn’t saying anything, so she handed over a copy of The Word Appears in the Flesh to me, and calmly said to me: “This book contains words spoken by God in the last days, I hope you will be able to set aside your conceptions and inspect it carefully. If you have any questions, bring them forward, and we can fellowship about them together.” I took the book and started reading it without saying a word. But I wasn’t really reading it with an attitude of seeking the truth, instead, I had the mentality of a researcher, and I wanted to rely on my grasp of knowledge to measure God’s word and approve God’s word, and I even wanted to refute God’s word. It was precisely because of this kind of irreverent and resisting attitude I treated God’s word with that I was unable to attain the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit, so much so that the entire time I was not getting acquainted with the work being carried out by Almighty God, but nevertheless, I continued holding on to my erroneous conceptions, not wanting to accept God’s new work. I talked it over with my mother: “Ma, before, I believed all of the rumors I heard online and thought you had been forced to believe in Almighty God, but in reality it was I who was blind and ignorant. Starting from today, I will not oppose your faith in Almighty God, but there is no way that I can pray with you in the name of Almighty God, because I called on the name Lord Jesus to test into my dream school and receive a full-ride scholarship to pursue my studies abroad. I received such great grace, how could I abandon the Lord Jesus? Wouldn’t this be forgetting favors and violating justice?” Mother gave me a passage from the word of Almighty God to read that was directed at my conception: “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. All those who separate these three stages stand in opposition to God. 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” (“The Vision of God’s Work (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Mother fellowshiped to me, saying: “You think that accepting Almighty God’s name is to betray the Lord Jesus, but this is entirely your own conception and imagination. In fact, Jehovah God, Lord Jesus and Almighty God are all one God. In the Age of Law, God was called by the name Jehovah, and He issued laws to guide mankind’s life on earth and made man follow the laws and commandments in order to restrict him and guide him. Toward the end of the Age of Law, mankind had been corrupted by Satan to the point that it could no longer abide by the laws, and all of mankind was living within the condemnation and cursing of laws. God became flesh using the name Jesus to carry out the work of the Age of Grace, and in order to redeem mankind He was nailed to the cross, as an eternal sin offering for man, and from that point on, as long as we come before God to confess our sins and repent, then our sins will be absolved, and man is no longer condemned and cursed by laws. In addition, we also received the Lord’s boundless blessings and mercy. However, even though our sins are able to be absolved and we enjoy the Lord Jesus’ abundant grace, still our sinful nature and corrupt disposition have not been eliminated, we still live in a vicious cycle of committing sins and then confessing them, unable to free ourselves. In the last days, God once again has become flesh using the name of Almighty God to express the truths that will judge man and cleanse man, allowing man to come to an understanding of the truth and obtain the truth through God’s judgment, throw off Satan’s corrupt disposition, be thoroughly cleansed by God and live out the likeness of a real man, so that in the end man will be qualified to inherit God’s promise and be brought into His kingdom. So, the Lord Jesus and Almighty God are the incarnated fleshes of God in different ages, and they are one God.”

Mother’s fellowship was reasonable, and there was nothing I could refute, but my conceptions were still manifold, so I immediately replied: “Since Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus, then whether I call Him by the name Jesus or the name Almighty God it’s all the same, either way it is the God that bestows grace.” Mother said: “Jehovah God, Lord Jesus and Almighty God are one God, this is undoubtedly true, but we must understand one truth: God has come to carry out different kinds of work based on His name in each age. It’s like how in the Age of Law God used the name Jehovah to carry out work, and people prayed in the name of Jehovah, and God listened to and blessed man. Then, in the Age of Grace God used the name Jesus to carry out work, and at this time people needed to pray in the name of Jesus, otherwise their sins wouldn’t be able to be absolved, nor would they receive the Lord’s grace and blessing, just like those Israelites in the temple who cried out for Jehovah God and did not have God’s presence and did not obtain the Lord Jesus’ salvation because they did not accept the Lord Jesus’ name. Now it is the Age of Kingdom, and God is using the name Almighty God to carry out new work, and only by praying in the name of Almighty God can you receive the work of the Holy Spirit and attain God’s salvation. If you hold on to the name Jesus and do not accept the name Almighty God, then you are actually believing in God’s past work and resisting God’s present work, which in essence is resisting God and betraying God. This kind of faith exists in name only, it is an empty eggshell, and it is self-deception. The Holy Bible says: ‘You have a name that you live, and are dead’ (Rev 3:1). Only by accepting God’s new name and submitting to the present word and work of God will we have the reality of belief in God. Do you understand what I am saying?”

I felt everything that my mother was saying was reasonable, and also very practical, but in my heart I still could not let go of the name Jesus, because the Lord had given me such great grace. The prospects I have today were all given to me by the Lord Jesus, and I couldn’t not follow my original promise: to properly practice my faith in the Lord and follow the Lord. And as a result I continued to refuse the gospel of Almighty God.

After my summer vacation ended and I returned to America, my busy studies and fast-paced life very quickly brought me back into the real world. Whenever I went back to church assemblies, I discovered that regardless of whether it was pastors in a Chinese church or an English-speaking church, none of the sermons being preached had any new conceptions, it was all just the same old songs and platitudes. Church life was tedious, and my life didn’t seem to be being provided for in the least bit. Co-workers, in order to keep the flock, would often organize trips, outings, parties and other activities for all of us to take part in. There were all kinds of people within the church, including many people who weren’t really religious investigators, but rather people looking for a boyfriend or girlfriend, a roommate, someone to travel with, someone to eat together with, etc., and I realized that the church was no longer a place where I could find peace of mind, which brought pain and suffering to my heart. Later on, I stopped participating in meetings, which gave me a constant feeling of anxiety. I felt like a desperate child who had lost its way and was just passing through life in a daze.

To be continued    

Source The Internet