God said: “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.” Though I haven’t believed in God for a long time, I can understand from God’s words that behind this world which appears tranquil, there is a spiritual battle, which is hidden and unknown to man. Satan is trying to find ways and means to compete with God for people, attempting to keep us human under its control forever and make us betray God and forsake God so that we will lose His salvation in the last days. Especially in China where atheists hold the power, Satan’s sinister tricks hide everywhere and we are surrounded with danger when believing in God.

When I first went to the high school, we fresh students would have a major exam. It was related to our placings and the classes we would be sorted into. And even our future might be affected. So I expected to get a good result in the exam. The day of the examination finally came. Every examination room was so quiet that we could only hear the scratching of our pens on the papers. Bending our heads and frowning in concentration, all of us were thinking about the questions. And we were so tense. For the sake of placings and glitz, we were striving with all our might, struggling hard, thinking, and competing. After we finished one examination, we nervously waited for the next one to come. However, when the politics examination came, a debate question came into my sight, which made me almost catch my breath. It showed a dialogue between A and B, which was a slander on The Church of Almighty God, and we were asked to discuss it according to the theory of dialectical materialism. If it were a usual debate question, it would take me a short while because answering the debate question was in my element. However, at that moment, I was stunned and thought: The full marks of the politics paper are 70, yet this question takes 12. I am a believer in The Church of Almighty God, and I clearly know the dialogue is the words fabricated by Satan to frame and discredit God, and is the lies used by Satan to refute God’s existence with the theory. So I cannot answer it. The pen in my hand was trembling … At that moment, I felt uneasy in my heart and couldn’t make a decision. I thought: What should I do? It is a question on which I can get a high score. We students compete so fiercely in our placings and scores that sometimes the placing will drop a lot when the total points were only 0.5 less. Therefore, if I do not answer this question, my placing will be several dozen lower. Then I will be sorted into a poor class, and my future will be…. Thinking about this, I twirled my pen and prepared to answer it. Just at that very moment, a word flashed in my mind continually: God sees deep into the heart of man. God’s timely enlightenment made my heart suddenly awaken. I stopped writing and thought: No, I cannot do it. A man may dig his grave with his teeth. If I write those words on the paper, won’t this allow Satan to take advantage of the situation? If I write those words on the paper, that is the same as someone’s signing the “three statements” in the prisons of CCP, which is a betrayal of God, and then I will be imprinted by the mark of the beast. It is a sin that will never be washed off from my soul. The sin of blaspheming God shall never be forgiven.

Just when I was at a loss, God enlightened me to a passage of His words: “Understanding your nature is actually analyzing the depth of the soul; it is what is in your life. It is the logic of Satan and the many viewpoints of Satan that you had been originally living by, that is, the life of Satan that you have been living by. Only by uncovering the deep things of your soul can you understand your nature.” The passage of God’s words suddenly waked me up. I thought it over and over and realized: I have been living in the corrupt disposition of Satan. In the depths of my soul I have been led by the nose by honor and glitz. Satan tempts me by fame and gain, and makes me almost betray God and blaspheme God in exchange for the so-called placing. I, believing in God, have been enjoying the watering and feeding of His words, yet for the sake of my fame and future, I almost slander God. If I betray God merely for a front ranking, my faith in God will end up in vain. God is now inspecting my thoughts and choice, if I cannot stand testimony for Him while enjoying the provision of His words, am not I turning against Him? I’m really too conscienceless! I looked into my heart and asked myself once and again. Regret filled the depths of my soul, and my tears kept flowing down. At that moment, I thought of another passage of God’s words: “‘Normal sense’ refers to obeying and being faithful to God, to yearning for God, to being unequivocal toward God, and to having a conscience toward God. It refers to being of one heart and mind toward God, and not deliberately opposing God.” God’s words struck my conscience once and again. In front of fame I became an obsequious slave. I even wanted to distort the fact and quit my integrity of being a man. I didn’t hold on to my loyalty and faith to God. If God hadn’t called me strenuously, I would have been devoured by Satan. My thoughts were filled with regret and remorse, which made me feel humiliated. Then, the videos of the brothers and sisters suffering cruel tortures because of believing in God and preaching the gospel came into my mind. In the video, the CCP used tortures and despotic power to force the brothers and sisters to sign the “three statements” and betray God. Today the CCP stretched out its dark hand toward us students. It used fame, gain, and future to bind us and forced us to betray God. Moreover, it attempted to brand its fallacies of materialism on our hearts by other means, making us follow it to oppose the Heaven, and in the end be destroyed by God’s wrath. How hateful the demons and Satan were! They should be cursed and hated! The more I thought about it, the more my heart was filled with anger. I resolutely quitted the question which was full of traps and made me angry. Then the exam was over, in which I had been thinking and struggling. Though I lost a dozen marks and my grades might be affected, I felt very easy and free in my heart. I was very glad to comfort God with my only conscience.

The next day, the test paper was handed down. A big 55 was marked on my paper and I could hardly believe my eyes. The full marks of the paper were 70, and I got 55 even though I hadn’t answered that 12-mark question. I thanked God unceasingly in my heart. Soon, my politics teacher and class adviser released the placings of the class according to the transcript of records. Unexpectedly, I ranked second in my class. I constantly thanked God in my heart: How could I be worthy to enjoy such grace of You? I merely got a conscience under Your words of admonitions, and You blessed me like this. How could I be worthy of it! Then the teacher came to me and asked, holding my test paper and pointing at the question, “Hey, Jiahui, you always do well in politics. Why didn’t you answer this debate question?” Thinking that the CCP government always asked teachers to get the information whether the students’ parents believed in Almighty God or not, I prayed to God silently in my heart: May God give me the words I should say to answer the teacher’s question, and protect me from falling into Satan’s tricks. Dangers hide everywhere while we believe in God in China, so I must be careful and couldn’t let Satan get anything on me, or else I would bring some trouble to the church. I looked at the question on my test paper and found that my answer was written a bit hastily and that I just made up some unrelated words, then an idea occurred to me and I replied in wisdom, “I had a stomachache during the examination, and didn’t know how to answer it right then. Look, how scrawly my answers to the latter part of the questions are!” Seeing his expression, I knew that he had believed my words. I knew more clearly that it was God’s protection and care that let me see through Satan’s tricks again.

Afterward, I read God’s words: “Such a king of devils it is! How could we tolerate its existence? It will not rest until it has disturbed the work of God and left it in tatters and a complete shambles, as if it wants to oppose God until the end, until either the fish dies or the net breaks. It deliberately opposes God and moves ever closer. Its odious face has long ago been completely unmasked and is now bruised and battered, in a terrible plight, yet it does not relent in its hatred of God, as if it wishes it could devour God entirely at one mouthful to relieve the hatred in its heart.” “Why put up such an impenetrable obstacle to the work of God? Why employ various tricks to deceive God’s folk? Where is the true freedom and legitimate rights and interests? Where is the fairness? Where is the comfort? Where is the warmth? Why use deceitful schemes to trick God’s people? Why use force to suppress the coming of God? Why not allow God to freely roam upon the earth that He created? Why hound God until He has nowhere to rest His head?” “When Satan corrupts people, it does so in a deceitful and treacherous way: When Satan does its work on people, it does not directly tell people how to refuse and oppose God. When Satan tempts God, it does not come out and say, ‘I am tempting You, I am going to attack You,’ so what method does Satan use? (Seduction.) It seduces, tempts, attacks, and sets its traps, and even by quoting the scriptures. Satan speaks and acts in various ways to achieve its sinister motives.” God’s words reveal that this world is filled with Satan’s tricks everywhere, and Satan is so sinister and treacherous that its intentions of devouring man, harming man, and deceiving man hide behind its various tricks. To seduce man to depart from God and walk toward destruction, Satan sets its traps everywhere. Nowadays, to control people and set up a region without God in China, the CCP takes various means and tricks to deceive people. It reports various rumors and fallacies on the internet without restraint to deceive people. To arrest those who believe in Almighty God, it uses money to buy people over, claiming that a bounty has been put out for those who report believers. It even stretches out its dark hand to the ignorant students, using candies to trick schoolchildren into taking the leaflets of blasphemy home and asking their parents to sign, so that it can get some information of believers. After it knows something, it begins to monitor those who believe in Almighty God secretly, arrest them, and even cruelly torture them. What’s more, their children won’t be allowed to go to school and they will lose their jobs if they continue their belief. Besides, it takes advantage of fame, gain, and other things we like to deceive us and entice us to betray God, so that we will commit the sin of blaspheming God that shall never be forgiven, and walk toward destruction unwittingly. This is Satan’s sinister and malicious face hidden behind the scenes. Under the dark regime of the CCP, outwardly it claims freedom of religious belief, while actually dark clouds descend everywhere. People can easily become the outlet of Satan, betraying God and walking toward destruction. This is the true evil and baseness of Satan.

Thinking that I almost walked on the path of resisting God due to Satan’s tricks, I felt more gratitude to God’s timely inspiration and guidance, which protected me and made me escape Satan’s schemes, trickery, and harm. At the same time, I also experienced God’s authority, just as God’s words says: “Regardless of how ‘powerful’ Satan is, regardless of how audacious and ambitious it is, regardless of how great is its ability to inflict damage, regardless of how wide-ranging are the techniques with which it corrupts and lures man, regardless of how clever are the tricks and schemes with which it intimidates man, regardless of how changeable is the form in which it exists, it has never been able to create a single living thing, has never been able to set down laws or rules for the existence of all things, and has never been able to rule and control any object, whether animate or inanimate. Throughout the vast expanse of the universe, there is not a single person or object that was born from it, or exists because of it; there is not a single person or object that is ruled by it, or controlled by it. On the contrary, it not only has to live under the dominion of God, but, moreover, must obey all of God’s orders and commands … Regardless of how malicious its nature, and how evil its substance, the only thing it can do is to dutifully abide by its function: being of service to God, and providing a counterpoint to God. Such is the essence and position of Satan. Its substance is unconnected to life, unconnected to power, unconnected to authority; it is merely a plaything in God’s hands, just a machine in service to God!” There is authority in the words of God. No matter how insidious and despicable Satan is, and whatever means it uses to entice man, and no matter how clever its tricks are, it is still under God’s rule. God controls all mankind’s fate and future, and controls the entire universe and all things. The CCP government is merely a tool used by God, and a service to perfect those who follow God and bear witness for God.

After I experienced this unforgettable battle, I have experienced God’s sovereignty. When I was falling into Satan’s temptation, the timely inspiration and enlightenment of God’s words stopped me from doing evil. When I lived before God and saw through Satan’s tricks, I tasted the comfort of practicing the truth and saw God’s wondrous deeds and finally came out of Satan’s temptation. I am really so lucky! All the glory be to Almighty God!