My family is all Christians. After I grew up, because of my work I came to France. Afterward, I met my husband. His family is all Catholics. At that time, because our belief was different, I didn’t go to the Catholic church to attend meetings. After we got married, my husband began to lose himself online, and all the difficult burdens of household life were placed upon my shoulders. In the midst of my pain, my mother-in-law asked me to go to the Catholic church to attend meetings. I thought to myself: Catholics also believe in the Lord Jesus, so it doesn’t matter which church I go to. From then on, I started attending meetings of the Catholic church and every Sunday I would go to the church for Mass. But after a period of time, I found that the priest had nothing to preach and only emphasized on leading believers to engage in rituals when having meetings. We had not ceased to attend meetings all the year round but we didn’t have any rewards. The believers didn’t talk about belief at all and their words, actions and clothes did not have the likeness of a Christian at all; sometimes, the priest would also engage in recreational activities and parties in the church. … Seeing these actions, I felt very confused within: Is this the church of the Lord? Why can’t I feel the Lord’s presence? In confusion, I prayed to the Lord, “Lord Jesus, I don’t know whether I should go to this church to attend meetings or not. I don’t feel Your presence. O Lord, may You guide me.”

One day, a sister gave me a call and invited me to listen to sermons. After we met, the brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God witnessed God’s work of the last days to us. Through fellowshiping Almighty God’s words, I understood: The desolation in the churches is mainly because the work of the Holy Spirit has been transferred, and God has already performed a new stage of work. That is, the work of judging and purifying man in the last days. Just like when the Lord Jesus came to work, the temple where people had worshiped Jehovah God once became a den of thieves for money changers and sellers of cows, sheep and doves. This was because the Lord Jesus concluded the Age of Law and began the Age of Grace and the work of the Holy Spirit had transferred to uphold the work of the Lord Jesus. All those who could keep up with the work of the Lord Jesus could receive the Holy Spirit’s work. Similarly, the Holy Spirit has left the churches during the Age of Grace and starts to uphold the work done by Christ of the last days. Those who accept God’s new work will be accompanied by the work of the Holy Spirit; those who don’t accept will have no work of the Holy Spirit and then their churches will become the same as the temple at the end of the Age of Law. Later, they also fellowshiped with us about the substance and inside truth of each stage of God’s three stages of work, as well as the effect achieved through them; their fellowship was based on the Bible. After hearing them, I was totally convinced and then joyfully accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days.

As I constantly attended meetings and read Almighty God’s words, I saw that His words had authority and power and that this was the voice of God, so I believed firmly that Almighty God was the returned Lord Jesus. I was very excited because I had never thought that I would welcome the Lord’s appearance in my lifetime. I wanted to tell my relatives and friends close to me this excellent piece of information. Therefore, I first told my husband, but I didn’t expect that he not only wouldn’t believe but also would tell my parents who were in China that I had accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days. Not long after, my little brother and my dad called me to obstruct me from believing in Almighty God.

One day, my brother had a video call with me and asked, “Have you believed in Eastern Lightning? People in the religious world have believed in the Lord for a long time and they understand the Bible better than you do; if Eastern Lightning is the true way, then why do none of them accept it?” What my brother said reminded me of a passage of God’s word, “What is the most basic principle in seeking the true way? You have to look at whether or not there is the work of the Holy Spirit in this way, whether or not these words are the expression of the truth, who is testified to, and what it can bring you. Distinguishing between the true way and the false way requires several aspects of basic knowledge, the most fundamental of which is to tell whether or not there is the work of the Holy Spirit.” Distinguishing between the true way and the false way shouldn’t be based on the number of believers; instead, it should be based on whether there is the Holy Spirit’s work, whether there is the expression of truth and whether it can bring us benefit and make us know God better and better. I thought: Although I haven’t accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days for very long , I have understood many truths in the words of Almighty God, such as the causes of desolation in religion, the three stages of work in God’s 6000-year management plan, the mysteries of God’s incarnation, how to tell the difference between the true Christ and false Christs, the difference between following man and following God, and so on. These truths could not have been uttered by any great or famous man. I was sure in my heart that Almighty God was the Spirit of truth prophesied to come in the last days in the Bible. At the same time, I also understood that all of mankind has been deeply corrupted by Satan and all of them do not love the truth but instead chase fame and fortune. People who truly thirst for the truth and have a love for justice are continually decreasing, so there are few people who accept and study the true way. I knew that the reason why my brother didn’t study the work of Almighty God in the last days was because he didn’t understand these truths, so I wanted to fellowship with him.

I said to him, “I accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days after seeking and investigating The Church of Almighty God repeatedly. I can see that the words expressed by Almighty God are all truth and God’s voice. Examining the true way is related to our ending and destination, so we should have a heart to humbly seek and not judge it solely by the number of people who have accepted it. In the time of Noah, when God was about to destroy the world by flooding the earth, only Noah accepted God’s gospel and finally his whole family was blessed by God and survived….” But before I could even finish speaking, he impatiently interrupted me and said angrily, “If you continue to believe, I will delete your phone number and Wechat account and shut myself off from you. Think about it and make a choice today.” Hearing his words, I felt very miserable, thinking, “We have believed in the Lord for so many years and have so desperately longed for His return. Now, He has returned, but why do you blindly refuse without seeking or studying and even want to cut off all ties with me?” I explained to him as I cried but he didn’t listen to my words in the slightest. Later, I could only fall silent. Seeing that I was not speaking, he started to question me again, “Will you still believe or give it up? Just make a choice.” I thought to myself: In the past, he was quite reasonable. Why is he like this today? At that moment, I remembered the truth about the spiritual war that a sister fellowshiped with me before, so I realized that this was a spiritual war and that I had to stand witness for God. Therefore, I said, “Almighty God is the Lord Jesus appearing and working. I have welcomed the Lord’s appearance and followed the footsteps of the Lamb. No matter how you object, I won’t give up.” Right after that, he hung up the call. I thought: “Maybe he just said it to vent his anger. It’s impossible that he will really delete me.” But I had never thought that he would really do that. No matter how hard I tried to add him, I failed. My heart was broken. I thought: “The feelings between him and me had always been very good since we were little. Whatever he lacked, I would try my best to help him. Now I am just trying to keep up with God’s new work, but he is so cruel.” I was very negative and weak by this. I saw my stature was very small and my understanding of the truth was too shallow.

After knowing my situation, a sister from The Church of Almighty God fellowshiped with me about God’s words, “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. Behind every step that God does in you is Satan’s wager with God—behind it all is a battle.” “Do not be discouraged, do not be weak, I will reveal to you. The road to the kingdom is not that smooth, nothing is that simple! You want blessings to come easy, right? Today everyone will have bitter trials to face, otherwise the loving heart you have for Me will not grow stronger and you will not have true love for Me. Even if it is just minor circumstances, everyone must get through them, it’s just that they differ to some degree. The circumstance is one of My blessings…. Those who share in My bitterness shall certainly share My sweet. That is My promise and My blessing to you.”

She fellowshiped, “Through God’s words we can see: From the outside, what happened to you today seems as if your family abandoned you, but in reality, there is a war going on in the spiritual world. God wants to gain a person but Satan is unwilling. So it uses our families at our side to disturb us and uses our weak points such as emotions to attack us, making our spirit negative and depressed. Its purpose is to make us stray far from God and betray Him, so we need to see through Satan’s tricks, look at things according to God’s word and go before God more often to pray to Him and ask Him to guide us to stand witness. Besides, the path of believing in God is not smooth sailing but full of frustrations. Since we have believed that this is the true way, then no matter what difficulties and obstacles we will encounter, we should follow God. This is what we should adhere to as Christians. God also uses this kind of practical situation to test and perfect our faith in Him. For example, when Job was faced with trials—after losing a mountain of sheep and cattle and his sons and daughters, he was more willing to curse the day of his birth than to complain about and reject God and stood witness for God under that kind of situation. We should follow the example of Job.”

Hearing her fellowship and reading God’s words again, I understood God’s will: The situation befalling me today is Satan’s disturbance and a spiritual war. From the outside, it was my brother preventing and obstructing me from following Almighty God, but actually behind the scenes there was Satan’s sinister motives. It wanted to use this thing to destroy my relationship with God and break my will to follow God, so it first caused me to be negative and weak and complain about God and finally it will cause me to betray God, leave God. Having known Satan’s base intentions, I had the determination to resist the control of Satan’s dark influences and stand witness for God. I thought: “No matter how they threaten or persecute me in the future, I will follow God and must not give up the opportunity to pursue the truth just because my flesh suffers a little bit, much less miss the rare opportunity of God’s salvation of man during the last days for the sake of fleshly emotions.” At that time, I felt a great release in my heart and was no longer under the rule of my brother blocking me, and felt that I had gained confidence and strength. Later, my father also often sent me messages to obstruct me from believing in God. At that time, I realized that these were Satan’s tricks and I thought I could not be negative but should rise up and bear witness to God. Therefore, no matter what points of views he expressed, I fellowshiped with him about the truth and bore witness to him about God’s work of the last days. Afterward, seeing that the words I fellowshiped about were all truths, he no longer obstructed me. I had thought that I could believe in God with peace of mind. But, unexpectedly, other circumstances came upon me.

To Be Continued …

Part Two: In Spiritual Wars, God’s Words Guided Me Onward (II)