I Have Received Almighty God’s Great Salvation
Wang Shouzhen
Qixia City, Shandong Province
My name is Wang Shouzhen. I had followed the Lord Jesus for more than ten years and was once a co-worker in the “Local Church.” Before I accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days, I often heard my leaders say, “The ‘Eastern Lightning’ is from a false Christ, a deceiver. They preach the gospel for money.
If one is deceived and joins them, he has to sell his house and land and submit to them…” I had no doubt about the leaders’ words at all because I admired them much. So I sealed off the three churches under my charge and warned the brothers and sisters at every meeting, “Never accept the ‘Eastern Lightning.’ It is from Satan, an evil spirit, a deceiver. If you join them, there’s no chance for you to turn back. Keep away from them, and drive them off when they come!”
By 2000, the brothers and sisters had come more than one hundred times to my home to preach God’s work of the last days. Every time they came, I would beat them away and curse, “You Satans, evil spirits! Get out here quickly!” And sometimes I even drove them to the highway far from my home. Despite this, they kept on coming, whether in scorching summer or cold winter. But I rudely drove them off each time. Not only I myself refused to accept the work of Almighty God, but I also sealed off the churches and fiercely disturbed the brothers and sisters from accepting it. On March 4, 2002, after hearing that a brother in our village accepted God’s new work, I called several believers together and went to the brother’s home that very evening. I said to him, “They are Satans, deceivers. You mustn’t believe them. Once you join them, you will never get out!” The brother was frightened and handed us the book of God’s word the next day.
On another occasion, a sister who preached the gospel came to our meeting place when we were having a co-workers’ meeting. Without giving her any chance to speak, we several people pulled her out of the meeting room and gave her a good beating. And I beat her hand swollen with my fist and then punched her in the chest until I was tired. But after that, my conscience was greatly troubled, and I felt bad and couldn’t eat or sleep well for more than ten days. So I couldn’t but pray to the Lord Jesus, “O Lord, I have felt bad and no peace in my heart since I beat the sister. Was I wrong? Is what they preached really Your work of the last days? If so, please lead me to the right way…” After I prayed, I thought of the living out of those brothers and sisters and realized that they were indeed very different from the brothers and sisters in our church. Then, my heart became softened, and I thought, “Why do they have such great love? Who could do it except those who believe in the true God?” After much consideration, I finally decided to quiet my heart to hear their fellowship.
After I heard the fellowship about God’s work of the last days, I felt it quite reasonable, but I still had some misgivings and was hesitant to accept it, because the work was beyond the Bible, which contradicted my notion that God couldn’t do His work outside the Bible. So the sister patiently fellowshipped with me about it, “John 5: 39-40 says, ‘Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me, that you might have life.’ From these verses, we can know that the Bible is only the testimony of God and the record of God’s first two stages of work but not of all God’s work and words. God’s work is always new and never old, and it keeps progressing. We can’t confine God to the Bible, much less make demands on and restrict God according to the Bible, for God is the Ruler of all things, and He has the right to decide the way of His working. As men, only if we keep up with God’s new work and accept His present word can we gain life and be after His heart. Now let’s read God’s word and then you’ll be clear about it.” So saying, she took out a book of God’s word and began to read: “The Bible is a history book. If during the Age of Grace you were to eat and drink the Old Testament, practicing the requirements of the Old Testament age, then Jesus would forsake you, condemn you. … And so today, if you eat and drink and practice the Old and New Testaments, then the God of today will condemn you; you cannot keep pace with the work of the Holy Spirit today. If you eat the Old and New Testaments, then you are one outside the stream of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ day, He led the Jews and all those who followed Him according to the work of the Holy Spirit in Him. He did not look to the Bible for evidence, but spoke as His work dictated. He did not concern Himself with what the Bible said, did not lead His followers down a path found in the Bible. From the very beginning, He preached the way of repentance, and the word ‘repentance’ was not mentioned at all in all the prophecies in the Old Testament. Not only did He not follow the Bible, He brought forth a new path and did a new work. He did not make reference to the Bible when He preached, and the miracles He worked—healing the sick, casting out demons—had never been performed by men during the Age of Law. No one in the Age of Law did the work He did, taught those lessons, had that authority. … The work of Jesus was to bring forth a new path; He did not deliberately set out to ‘wage war’ against the Bible or abolish the Old Testament, but simply performed His ministry, bringing the new work to those who thirsted for Him and sought Him out. … In people’s eyes His work was not based on a shred of evidence, and in many ways it ran counter to what was recorded in the Bible. Were they not grossly in the wrong? Must God’s work obey any rules? Does He need to follow the words of prophets? Which is greater, the Bible or God? Why must God’s work be in line with the Bible? Is it really not within His right to stand above the Bible? Can He not depart from it and do other work? … You must know which came first, God, or the Bible? As He is the Lord of the Sabbath, can’t He also be the Lord of the Bible?” (from “Concerning the Bible (1)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) “The Jewish Pharisees used the law of Moses to condemn Jesus. They did not seek compatibility with the Jesus of that time, but diligently followed the law to the letter, to the extent that they ultimately nailed the innocent Jesus to the cross, having charged Him with not following the law of the Old Testament and not being the Messiah. … And what of people today? Christ has come to release the truth, yet they would rather expel Him from among man in order to gain entry into heaven and receive grace. They would rather completely deny the coming of the truth in order to safeguard the interests of the Bible, and would rather nail the Christ returning to flesh the second time to the cross in order to ensure the everlasting existence of the Bible.” (from “You Should Seek the Way of Compatibility with Christ” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) After hearing these words, I woke up as if from a dream. “That’s right. How can I, a man less than an ant, have any qualification to ask God to work in this or that way?” I was completely convinced by these explicit words of God! “Actually, the One I desperately resisted is the Lord Jesus I have eagerly expected for years. I, like the Pharisees, believed in God but didn’t know God. I confined God to the Bible and to my imagination and notions without any intention to seek. O God, I was too disobedient! You have sent so many brothers and sisters and expended so much effort to save me. But I was so arrogant and blind that I only believed in the rumors from the leaders and broke Your motherly heart. O God, Your love is higher than the sky and deeper than the sea. Were it not for Your mercy, I should have long died under Your wrath!” Then I thought of what I did to the sister at that co-workers’ meeting. I felt so regretful about it that I beat my chest and wanted to slap my face. I really wanted to find the brothers and sisters whom I had abused and beat to apologize and confess my faults to them to make up for the harm I did to them…
After I accepted Almighty God’s work, I discerned many things through my personal experience. I realized that what our leaders said against the “Eastern Lightning” were all deceitful lies! They slandered that the brothers and sisters preached the gospel for money, but I witnessed that they had never asked others for a cent and no one had ever given them a cent. They never wasted money on food and clothes. When they were away from home preaching the gospel and unable to get back in time, they ate battercakes or cold steam buns and drank cold water they took along with them and spent the night in a hayrick. They didn’t preach the gospel for money, and on the contrary, they saved money to help those brothers and sisters who had financial difficulties. They wouldn’t waste a cent on themselves. If they preached the gospel for earning money as the rumors said, why didn’t they go to a restaurant or stay in a hotel after getting money? Didn’t they know to enjoy a comfortable life? The leaders also said, “One will be forced to sell his house and land after he accepts the ‘Eastern Lightning’…” This is even more nonsense. Since I accepted Almighty God, I’ve never seen that the church asked anyone to sell his house or land. Now I have seen clearly that these rumors were made up by the evil servants with ulterior motives. Because they were afraid of losing their position and their source of income, they did everything they could to threaten and bind the flock, hindering them from accepting God’s new work. They are the real false Christs or antichrists who deceive people!
Brothers and sisters of all denominations, God’s work in China is about to end. Disasters have begun to fall, and the day of punishment is near. Wake up quickly! Don’t be stubborn, foolish, or blind like me, much less adore any man. Hasten to seek! God’s day is at hand, and His work is coming to an end. Although God saves man as far as possible, His work will end sooner or later. If you miss this opportunity, you will regret bitterly all your life!
Source: How Was I Conquered by the Word of God
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