By Chengcheng, China

Guided by God’s Words, I Saw Through Satan’s Schemes

The next day, Sister Liu and Sister Chen from The Church of Almighty God came to visit me, and as soon as I saw them I told them the thing that happened the day before. After hearing this, the sisters read a passage of God’s words to me, “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements, or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men, and the interference of men.”

Then Sister Liu fellowshiped, “From God’s words, we can see that although on the outside it is your sister obstructing you from believing in God, in reality, it is a spiritual battle taking place. It is Satan interrupting and disturbing God’s work of saving man. Because we don’t understand the truth and have not built a foundation, Satan uses family ties to destroy our relationship with God, trying to make us shun God and betray God and lose God’s salvation. Take Job for example; when he was tried, lost all his possessions and children, and his body became covered with sores, his wife attacked him, saying, “Do you still retain your integrity? curse God, and die” (Job 2:9). From the outside, it was his wife attacking him, but behind the scenes it was Satan in the spiritual realm using his wife to disturb him and destroy his faith in God. However, Job honored God as great in his heart. Not only was he not influenced by the words of his wife, but he also rebuked her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). Job relied on his faith in God to stand witness to Him and finally attained God’s approval and blessings. So, sister, in the matter of your sister’s disturbing you, you can’t be fooled by Satan or fall for Satan’s cunning schemes. God’s wisdom is exercised based on Satan’s tricks. God is using this environment to test whether or not we have true faith in and love for Him. As long as we stand firm in our position, Satan will naturally retreat in humiliation, and our faith will be perfected by God. This is the wondrousness and wisdom of God.”

After listening to Almighty God’s words and Sister Liu’s fellowship, I understood that Satan used family ties to disturb my belief in God. If I stopped following Almighty God because of considering the fleshly emotions, I would be too foolish. I absolutely couldn’t be tricked by Satan. My sister had neither read Almighty God’s words nor understood God’s work, and she tried to obstruct me from believing in Almighty God just due to listening to the religious leaders’ one-sided story. Actually, she was a victim who was deceived. When I understood these, my heart became peaceful and I was no longer negative. I resolved to lean on God to preach the gospel to my sister and bring her before God, so that she could no longer be deceived by the pastor and elder. The two sisters also told me that Almighty God’s word is the powerful weapon with which we defeat Satan and that I should read more of God’s words. I nodded happily.

When I Suffered the Pain of Being Rejected, God’s Words Gave Me Strength

After that, I read God’s words and equipped myself with the truth at home, planning to preach the gospel to the brothers and sisters from my original church. One day, I went to Sister Li’s house wanting to have a chat with her. I greeted her with a smile, yet she scowled and said to me fiercely, “Leave at once!” Then she shut the door on me.. Her husband who believed in the Lord told me that the elder had asked all brothers and sisters in the church not to speak to me or be in contact with me. I never imagined that my belief in Almighty God would cause such a stir in the church. They actually mobilized all brothers and sisters to reject me. They’ve gone too far! In the past, Sister Li and I attended meetings and preached the gospel together every day, and she was like a real sister to me. I never thought that she would turn hostile to me. After I came out of Sister Li’s house, my legs felt dead, and I didn’t know how I walked home. From then on, many brothers and sisters from my original church didn’t speak to me anymore when seeing me. Before, they often came to my house, and our meetings were so lively that people around were all envious of us. But now they treated me as an enemy. At the thought of this, my heart was in torment and I could not help but think: “It is easier to believe in the Lord Jesus, and I will not suffer such rejection. Now I am lonely and miserable, feeling tormented every day. How could I live in the future?”

One day, I opened God’s utterances and saw the following: “You must be awake and waiting at every moment, and you must come before Me more. You must recognize the various plots and cunning schemes of Satan, know the spirit, know people and be able to discern all kinds of people, matters and things; you must eat and drink more of My words and, more importantly, you must be able to eat and drink them by yourselves. Equip yourselves with all the truth, come before Me so that I may open your spiritual eyes and allow you to see all the mysteries that lie within the spirit…. When the church enters its construction phase, a battle of the saints against Satan ensues. Satan’s various hideous features are set before you; do you stop and backslide, or do you stand up and walk onward, relying on Me? Thoroughly expose Satan’s corrupt and ugly features, spare no feelings and show no mercy! Fight Satan to the death!”

God’s words reminded me that this was another spiritual war. When Satan saw that I didn’t leave God because of my sister’s rejection, it carried out a ruse again. It took advantage of my being isolated by all brothers and sisters of the church to try and make me yield to it and return to the religion because of being unable to bear the pain of being rejected. Satan was really too despicable and too vicious! Pondering God’s words, “You must … know the spirit, know people and be able to discern all kinds of people, matters and things,” “Satan’s various hideous features are set before you,” I gradually understood: God’s arranging this environment for me is to give me more wisdom and insight and allow me to learn how to discern various kinds of people. In the past, I got along well with the leaders and the brothers and sisters from my original church, regarding them as my family. But today, through Almighty God’s work, I had some discernment of which people love the truth, which people are hypocritical, which people seek bread to satisfy hunger, and which people are following men. I even more saw clearly that the pastor and elder I respected and adored before didn’t truly want to welcome the Lord’s return. Facing God’s new work, they didn’t care at all about the life of our brothers and sisters, but only focused on protecting their own status and livelihood, fearing that they would lose the source of donations if all brothers and sisters followed Almighty God. Learning that I had accepted God’s new work, they spread religious conceptions and fallacies to me, and even used the rejection of my relatives and brothers and sisters to force me to betray God. They were exactly stumbling blocks to us entering into the kingdom of heaven. I resolved that however they rejected me and obstructed me, I would never compromise with them.

Afterward, I cooperated with my brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God and, after many twists and turns, eventually brought my sister before Almighty God. After accepting God’s work, my sister said to me in remorse, “Every sentence of Almighty God’s words is the truth. I was too muddleheaded. I shouldn’t have listened to the leader’s rumors and fallacies. I not only misunderstood you and wounded your heart, but also offended God. From now on, we two will sincerely follow Almighty God to the end.” Seeing that my sister, who used to be so hardened, could turn back to God, I had confidence to preach the gospel to my neighbors. Unexpectedly, one of them no longer shunned me, and after listening to my fellowship, said “Xiaocheng, your belief in God has always been better than ours and you know more than us. Yet the leader said that your belief is mistaken and asked us to reject you. But through a short period of observation, I feel that you are not like what the leader said; instead, you understand more and have some new knowledge of the Bible now, which is what I have never heard before. What’s more, it doesn’t conform to the Lord’s teachings that we reject you. I will not reject you anymore.” Hearing her words, I felt very comforted. I knew that this was God’s work and I repeatedly thanked God in my heart.

I Made a Resolution to Follow God to the End

After accepting Almighty God’s work, I frequently attend gatherings with my brothers and sisters, read God’s words, sing hymns in praise of God, and perform my duty. I live a very enriched and happy life. Through gathering and fellowshiping God’s words, I’ve understood many truths. At the same time, I saw that when God expresses the words to save mankind, Satan is unwilling to admit defeat. So it uses various tricks to disturb man, vainly attempting to devour man and cause man to be destroyed by God along with it in hell. However, God’s wisdom will forever be exercised based on Satan’s schemes. Regardless of how Satan disturbs man, those who truly believe in God will finally rely on God to see through Satan’s tricks and come before God. No matter what difficulties and obstacles, or persecution and tribulations I may encounter in the future, I will follow God until the end. All the glory be to God!

The End.

Part One: What Happened After I Was Disturbed by the Pastor and Rejected by My Family?(II)