Utterances of Christ | Chapter 13

In your current condition you overly adhere to the conceptions of the self, and your religious interruption is rather serious. You are unable to act in the spirit, you can’t grasp the work of the Holy Spirit, and you reject the new light. You don’t see the sun in the daytime because you are blind. You do not understand people, you are unable to leave your “parents,” you lack spiritual discernment, you do not know the work of the Holy Spirit, and you have no idea how to eat and drink of My word. It is a problem that you do not know how to eat and drink on your own. The work of the Holy Spirit moves forward at an astounding speed day by day. There is new light every day, and there are new and fresh things every day, but you do not understand. Instead, you like to do research, and you look at things through the lens of your personal preferences without carefully considering them and you listen in a daze. You do not pray diligently in the spirit, do not look to Me or ponder My words more. So all that you have are letters, rules and doctrines. You must know how to eat and drink of My word and come before Me often with My word.

People nowadays can’t let go of themselves, they always think that they are the ones who are right. They are stuck in their own little world and they are not being correct people. If they persist in having an incorrect purpose then they will surely be judged, and if it is serious then they will be eliminated. You must put more effort into having a continuous fellowship with Me and not just fellowship with whoever you want. You must have an understanding of the people with whom you fellowship and fellowship about spiritual matters in life, only then can you supply life to others and make up for their inadequacies. You should not take a lecturing tone with them, which is fundamentally the wrong position to have. In fellowship you must have an understanding of spiritual matters. You must have wisdom and be able to understand what is in the hearts of other people. You must be a correct person if you are to serve others and you must fellowship with what you have.

The crucial thing now is for you to be able to fellowship with Me, to communicate closely with Me, to eat and drink on your own, and to become close to God. You must quickly understand spiritual matters and be able to see through to the environment and what is arranged in your surroundings. Are you able to understand what I am? It is crucial that you eat and drink to make up for[a] what you lack and live by My word! Recognize My hands and do not complain. If you do so and break away, you may lose the opportunity to receive God’s grace. Start with getting close to Me: What are you lacking, how should you get close to Me and understand My heart? It is difficult for people to come close to Me because they cannot let go of the self. Their disposition is always inconsistent, running hot and then cold, and they become conceited and satisfied with themselves the moment they get a little taste of sweetness. Some people have not yet awakened; how much of what you say contains what you are? How much of it is defending yourself, or imitating others or just following the rules? The reason you cannot grasp or understand the work of the Holy Spirit is because you do not know how to get close to Me. Externally you are constantly pondering things over, relying on the conceptions of the self and your mind; you secretly research and engage in some petty schemes, and you can’t even bring it out in the open. This shows that you do not truly understand the work of the Holy Spirit. If you truly understand that something does not come from God, why do you not dare to stand up and reject it? How many could stand up and speak for Me? You do not show any spine of the male child.

Everything that has been arranged now is for the purpose of training you so that you may grow in your lives, to make your spirit keen and sharp, to open your spiritual eyes and make you recognize the things that come from God. What comes from God enables you to serve with power and burden and be steadfast in spirit. The things that do not come from Me are all empty; they give you nothing, they cause your spirit to sink and make you lose your faith and put distance between you and Me, making you trapped in your own mind. You can now transcend everything in the secular world when you live in the spirit, but to live in your mind is to be taken in by Satan and this is a dead end. It’s very simple now: Look upon Me with your heart and your spirit will immediately become strong, you will have a path to practice and I will guide your every step. My word shall be revealed to you at all times and in all places. No matter where or when, or how adverse the environment is, I will show you clearly and My heart shall be revealed to you if you look to Me with your heart; this way you will run down the road ahead and never lose your way. Some people try to feel their way around[b] from the outside and never do so within their spirit. They often cannot grasp the work of the Holy Spirit. When they fellowship with other people, they just become more confused with no path to follow and they do not know what to do. Such a person does not know what ails them; they may have many things and they may appear internally fulfilled, but is that of any use? Do you really have a path to follow? Do you have any illumination and enlightenment? Do you have any new insights? Have you made progress or fallen back? Can you keep up with the new light? You have no obedience; the obedience you often talk about is nothing but talk. Have you lived out an obedient life?

How big is the obstacle of man’s self-righteousness, complacency, self-satisfaction and arrogance? Who is to blame when you cannot enter reality? You should examine yourself carefully to see whether you are a correct person. Are your goals made with Me in mind? Do your words and actions stand in My presence? I examine all your thoughts and ideas. Do you not feel guilty? You put on a false front for others to see and you calmly assume an air of self-righteousness; this is done to shield yourself. You do this to conceal your evil, and even look for ways to push that evil onto someone else. What treachery dwells in your heart! Think of everything you have said; wasn’t it for your benefit that you were afraid that your own soul would come to harm and so you concealed Satan, and then robbed your brothers and sisters of their eating and drinking? What do you have to say for yourself? Do you think that next time you will be able to make up for the eating and drinking that Satan has taken away this time? So you see it clearly now, is this something you can compensate for? Can you make up for the lost time? You must diligently examine yourselves to see why there was no eating and drinking in the last few meetings and who caused this trouble. You must fellowship one by one until it is clear. If such a person is not severely constrained, the brothers and sisters will not understand, and then it will just happen again. Your spiritual eyes are not open and too many of you are blind! And those who do see are careless about it. They do not stand and speak up and they, too, are blind. Those who see but do not speak up are mute. There are many here with handicaps.

Some people do not understand what the truth is, what the life is, what the way is, and they do not understand the spirit. They consider My word as nothing more than a formula, and this is too rigid. They do not understand what true gratitude and praise is. Some people are unable to grasp the crucial and primary things, instead, they only grasp the secondary. What does it mean to interrupt the management of God? What does it mean to demolish the building of the church? What does it mean to interrupt the work of the Holy Spirit? What is a lackey of Satan? These truths must be clearly understood and not just vaguely glossed over. What is the reason there was no eating and drinking this time? Some people feel that they should praise God out loud today, but how should they praise Him? Should they sing hymns and dance to praise Him? Do other methods not count as praise? Some people come to the meetings with the notion that jubilant praise is the way to praise God. People have these notions, and they do not pay attention to the work of the Holy Spirit, the end result being that there are still interruptions. There was no eating and drinking in this meeting; all have said that they would be considerate of God’s burden and defend the testimony of the church. Who has really been considerate of God’s burden? Ask yourself: Are you someone who has shown consideration for God’s burden? Can you practice righteousness for God? Can you stand up and speak for Me? Can you steadfastly put the truth into practice? Are you bold enough to fight against all of Satan’s deeds? Would you be able to put your emotions aside and expose Satan for the sake of My truth? Can you allow My will to be fulfilled in you? Have you offered up your heart when the crucial time comes? Are you someone who does My will? Ask yourself and think about it often. Satan’s gifts are inside of you and you are to blame for that as you do not understand people and fail to recognize Satan’s poison; you are leading yourself to death. Satan has thoroughly deceived you to the point where you are completely puzzled; you are drunk on the wine of promiscuity and you sway back and forth unable to hold a firm viewpoint and with no path of practice. You do not eat and drink properly, you fight and quarrel wildly, you do not know right from wrong and follow whoever leads—do you have any truth? Some people defend themselves and even engage in deception, they fellowship with others but that leads them to a dead end. Is it from Me where these people get their intentions, goals, motivations, and source? Do you think you can compensate the brothers and sisters for their eating and drinking being taken away? Find a few people to fellowship with and ask them, and let them speak for themselves: Have they been provided with anything? Or have they drunk a belly full of dirty water and been filled with trash and now they have no path to follow? Wouldn’t that demolish the church? Where is the love among brothers and sisters? You secretly research who is right and who is wrong, but why do you not bear a burden for the church? Ordinarily you do well in yelling out catchphrases, but when things happen in reality you are equivocal about them. Some people understand but only murmur quietly while others speak up what they understand but no one else says a word. They do not know what comes from God and what the work of Satan is. Where are your internal feelings about life? You simply can’t grasp the work of the Holy Spirit and do not recognize the work of the Holy Spirit and it is hard for you to accept new things. You only accept religious and secular things, which conform to people’s conceptions. Therefore, you fight wantonly. How many people can grasp the work of the Holy Spirit? How many have truly carried a burden for the church? Do you grasp it? Singing hymns is one way to praise God, but you do not clearly understand the truth of praising God and you are rigid in the way you go about praising Him. Isn’t that your own notion? You always cling unrelentingly on to your own notions and you are unable to focus on what the Holy Spirit will do today, unable to feel what your brothers and sisters are feeling, and unable to seek the will of God in a quiet manner. You do things blindly and sing the songs well, but the result is a complete mess. Is that truly eating and drinking? Do you see who is actually causing the interruptions? You fundamentally do not live in the spirit, but instead hold on to various notions—how is that any way to carry a burden for the church? You shall see that the work of the Holy Spirit is advancing even faster now, so aren’t you being blind if you clutch tightly to your own notions and resist the work of the Holy Spirit? Isn’t that like a fly banging into walls and buzzing around? If you persist in this way you will be cast aside.

Those who are made complete before the disaster are obedient to God. They live reliant on Christ, witness Christ, and exalt Him. They are the victorious male children and the good soldiers of Christ. It is crucial now that you calm yourself and come close to God and fellowship with Him. If you are unable to come close to God, you run the risk of being captured by Satan. If you are able to come close to Me and fellowship with Me, all truths will be revealed to you, and you will have a standard to follow for your life and actions. Because you are one who is close to Me, My word will never leave your side, and you will not stray from My word in your life; Satan will have no way to take advantage of you, and instead it will be shamed and flee in defeat. If you look outside for what is missing inside you, there may be times when you find some of it, but much of it will be rules and it may not be something you need. You must let go of yourself and eat and drink of My word more and know how to ponder My word. If you do not understand something, come close to Me and often fellowship with Me; this way, what you understand will be real and true. You must start by being close to Me. This is crucial! Otherwise, you will not know how to eat and drink. You cannot eat and drink by yourself—your stature is indeed too small.

Footnotes:

a. The original text does not contain the phrase “to make up for.”

b. The original text does not contain the phrase “their way around.”

From : The Word Appears in the Flesh

source : Chapter 13

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