As the saying goes, “A wise man doesn’t believe in rumors.” The unfounded rumors are unworthy of our attention. So, when rumors reach us, how should we treat them? Especially when investigating the true way, how should we Christians seek the truth in the face of rumors?

From a fortuitous opportunity I heard the gospel of God’s kingdom. After several meetings with the brothers and sisters, I came to know many aspects of the truths, such as the origin of mankind, the root of mankind’s degeneration, the inside truth of God’s three stages of work, the mystery and significance of the incarnation. I also gained some understanding of God’s work to save man. The more I listened to their fellowships, the more enjoyment I felt in my heart. Later in a meeting, Brother Deng fellowshiped, “The Lord Jesus has returned and long ago been incarnated in China and carried out a new work, and His work of the last days has spread from the East to the West.” After hearing this, I felt so excited: It turned out that God has already carried out His work on earth! I never thought that I’d be so blessed to welcome the Lord. Thanks be to the Lord! No wonder their fellowships make so much sense—they have followed God’s new work. Because every meeting I could gain a lot and I felt joy when I was with the brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God, I became increasingly fond of attending meetings. One time, at the end of a meeting, Sister Li led us to pray to God. When I heard her say in her prayer, “Thank God for choosing this sister from the vast sea of humanity…,” I felt as if a gentle warmth was flowing into my heart, and I couldn’t help shedding tears. Although we didn’t know each other, they treated me as if they were my relatives and they spoke honestly to me, which made me feel the warmth of a family. Only God can lead man to live out love. Thanks be to God! Thinking of this, I felt extremely grateful to God for His love: He had chosen me from the vast sea of humanity, giving me the good fortune of coming before Him.

About one month later, I called my daughter and told her this good news, hoping she could believe in Almighty God together with me. Against my expectations, on hearing my words, she searched The Church of Almighty God online. The moment she saw the negative news, she told me, “Mom, you’ve gone astray, you should give up your faith. You’ll know what I mean if you look at the information on the internet.” Hearing this, I was astonished and couldn’t believe it. I thought,“ The brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God are all decent and graceful. At meetings, they fellowshiped about God’s words, and their fellowships were illuminating.” So I told her my thoughts. Then my daughter said on the phone, “Just look at it on the internet for yourself!” Then, she sent me a website. I clicked on the link and the words of slandering and attacking Almighty God said by the religious world and the CCP government came into my sight. Especially when I saw the “May 28 Shandong Zhaoyuan Case,” I felt somewhat at a loss and thought, “What is going on? Is my faith really wrong? But the brothers and sisters are kind to me, and the church has so many wonderful dance and song videos. Aren’t these the effect of the Holy Spirit’s work? But the information on the internet seems reasonable, and it may be right. If my faith is incorrect then I would be in big trouble.” The more I thought, the more anxious I felt, I was afraid that I would take the wrong path because I couldn’t distinguish the true way from false ways. And then I decided not to go to The Church of Almighty God to attend meetings anymore.

The next day was Sunday, and my neighbor asked me to go to church with her. When I thought of the negative rumors on the internet, I began to doubt in my heart. In order to know the difference between the sermon of The Church of Almighty God and this church, I went there with her. But all that the pastor preached about was biblical theory and theological knowledge, which couldn’t resolve our practical difficulties at all. The more I listened, the more bored I felt, and I couldn’t get any enjoyment. Especially when hearing the pastor say at the end, “When the Lord Jesus returns…,” I felt quite bewildered, I thought, “The brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God witnessed that God had already appeared on earth in the flesh and worked for many years and expressed lots of words in the last days. I felt that those words have authority and power and sound like God’s voice, so the Lord is very likely to have returned. Why are you still waiting for the Lord’s return? Aren’t you falling behind?” During the meeting, a worker walked to the believers one by one with a bag to collect money on two different occasions. I disliked that action very much: Giving offerings should be voluntary, but their behavior seems like forcing us to do it. After the meeting, I felt that I couldn’t gain anything from going to church, so I didn’t go there any longer.

However, affected by rumors, I didn’t have the courage to go to The Church of Almighty God to investigate. When the sisters invited me to attend meetings, I declined them using the excuse of taking care of my relative’s child. However, after refusing them, I didn’t feel happy. In that half a month, from time to time, I thought of the scenes of having meetings with them and their sincere faces. When such thoughts came I felt a little sad. I couldn’t help wondering to myself: Is the negative information on the internet true? If Almighty God really is the returned Lord Jesus, will I not miss the opportunity to welcome the Lord? Just when I was at a loss, Sister Li sent me a message inviting me to take a walk in the park. Having been worrying about this matter during these days, I thought I could use this opportunity to ask for her opinion. At the park, I told her my confusion. She fellowshiped with me about her experience and how she shook off rumors after she accepted God’s work of the last days. She also told me that to investigate the true way, we should learn to listen to God’s voice because God is the truth, the way and the life. I felt her fellowship made sense, but after returning home, I recalled the rumors again and still felt a little afraid. Two days later, the sisters came again and invited me to attend meetings. Though I had refused them many times, they still patiently helped and supported me. Their sincerity moved me very much and I agreed to attend meetings.

In the meeting, based on my confusion, the sisters fellowshiped with me about the truth concerning how to distinguish the true way from false ways. God’s words say, “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 the work of the Holy Spirit is present therein. For the essence of people’s belief in God is the belief in the Spirit of God, and even their belief in God incarnate is because this flesh is the embodiment of the Spirit of God, which means that such belief is still belief in the Spirit. There are differences between the Spirit and the flesh, but because this flesh comes from the Spirit, and is the Word become flesh, thus what man believes in is still the inherent essence of God. So, in distinguishing whether or not it is the true way, above all you must look at whether or not it has the work of the Holy Spirit, after which you must look at whether or not there is truth in this way. The truth is the life disposition of normal humanity, which is to say, that which was required of man when God created him in the beginning, namely, normal humanity in its entirety (including human sense, insight, wisdom, and the basic knowledge of being man). That is, you need to look at whether or not this way can lead people into a life of normal humanity, whether or not the truth that is spoken of is required according to the reality of normal humanity, whether or not this truth is practical and real, and whether or not it is most timely. If there is truth, then it is able to lead people into normal and real experiences; people, furthermore, become ever more normal, their human sense becomes ever more complete, their life in the flesh and the spiritual life become ever more orderly, and their emotions become ever more normal. This is the second principle. There is one other principle, which is whether or not people have an increasing knowledge of God, and whether or not experiencing such work and truth can inspire a love of God in them and bring them ever closer to God. In this it can be measured whether or not this way is the true way. … If it is the work of the Holy Spirit, people become ever more normal, and their humanity becomes ever more normal. People gain an increasing knowledge of their corrupt satanic disposition, and of the substance of man, and they also gain an ever greater longing for the truth. That is to say, the life of man grows and grows, and the corrupt disposition of man becomes more and more capable of change—all of which is the meaning of God becoming the life of man. If a way is incapable of revealing those things that are the substance of man, is incapable of changing the disposition of man, and, moreover, is incapable of bringing people before God or giving them a true understanding of God, and even causes their humanity to become ever more lowly and their sense ever more abnormal, then this way must not be the true way, and it may be the work of an evil spirit, or the old way. In short, it cannot be the present work of the Holy Spirit.”

A sister fellowshiped with me, “We can see from God’s words that the key to distinguishing between the true way and the false way is to tell whether there is the work of the Holy Spirit. As to whether there is the work of the Holy Spirit, it depends on whether we can gain the provision of life and keep gaining a new understanding of God. If we always have no new knowledge of God, and our spirits were never provided for, and if our lives cannot grow and our practical problems cannot be resolved, there is no work of the Holy Spirit. The true way comes from the work personally done by God. Since it is the work of God Himself, there will be the expression of the truth and the work of the Holy Spirit. Nowadays, Almighty God has expressed all truths required for mankind to achieve knowledge of God and salvation, and opened up all the mysteries of God’s management plan for mankind. For instance, the aim of God’s six-thousand-year management plan, the principle of God’s work, the truth of the Bible, the significance of God’s names, and so forth, are all mysteries that mankind cannot fathom! The word of Almighty God fully exposes mankind’s corrupt essence and the root of our corruption. Through the judgment of God’s words, we come to have a true knowledge of our own corruption and ugliness, such as arrogance, conceit, selfishness and baseness. Meanwhile, we also come to have a true knowledge of God’s righteous disposition, and generate a God-fearing heart. Our life disposition has all changed to different extents, and we gradually break away from the depraved situation of sinning in the day and confessing at night. This fully proves that Almighty God’s work is the true way, and that Almighty God’s word is the truth, the way, and the life, full of authority and power, and can thoroughly purify and save mankind.”

The sister’s fellowship enabled me to suddenly see the light. It turns out that the principle of distinguishing the true way and the false way is so simple. That’s right! After reading God’s words, listening to some hymns and watching some dance videos produced by The Church of Almighty God, I have gained some knowledge of God’s work; besides, I especially feel released and joyful. This is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s work.

Then, the sister continued to fellowship, “To distinguish the true way from false ways, we should tell whether the way can lead man to live out a more and more normal humanity and have an increasing knowledge of God. When spreading the gospel in China, though the brothers and sisters face the persecution of the CCP, under God’s leadership, they are not fearful of difficulties and dangers and continue to cooperate with God while facing the danger of being arrested; sometimes, they are forsaken and insulted by gospel targets while preaching the gospel, but as long as the targets truly believe in God, they will still fellowship with them with love and patience. It is God’s work and the guidance of God’s words that make them have such faith, perseverance and love.”

I was touched by those words. Looking at these sisters and brothers, I thought, “All of them are honest and plain. They treat others sincerely, and are up front in their words. Moreover, they exalt God and bear witness to God in their fellowships. They are nothing like what the online rumors described.” At that time, I felt I was so ignorant because I believed in all the online rumors before investigation, and refused God’s work once and again. However, God didn’t abandon me and still took mercy on me. The sister’s fellowship about the principle of distinguishing the true way and the false way was very clear, now I knew how to distinguish them. Thanks be to God!

Afterward, the sister played for me the movies The Truth Exposed Behind the Shandong Zhaoyuan Case and Lifting the Veil: The Truth About the Evil Chinese Communist Party’s Show Trial. When I came to know the fact that the CCP government spread rumors about The Church of Almighty God and that they cruelly torture the Christians of The Church of Almighty God, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I never imagined that they would be so evil and inhumane, and that they would treat Christians like that. I felt unspeakably sad in my heart and couldn’t help blurting out, “If we lived in China, how could we have known the things that the CCP government did? China blocks the bad news of its government so we won’t be able to see the vile and evil acts that they did in private. We are cheated and deceived by the CCP government.”

Hearing my words, the sister fellowshiped with me, “As we all know, China is a country ruled by an atheist party. Since coming to power, the Chinese Communist Party has unceasingly oppressed religious beliefs. It even calls the Bible cult literature. If we measure and define a church according to the CCP government’s words, isn’t it too ridiculous? The CCP government extremely hates the truth and God. It is afraid of people turning to God after hearing His voice, because then no one will follow it. In order to achieve its ambition and desire of forever ruling and controlling people, it wantonly convicts and smears The Church of Almighty God, attempting to hinder the expansion of God’s gospel and ban God’s work of the last days. From this we can see the CCP is Satan the devil that is in enmity to God and resists God. We all know the true way has been persecuted since ancient times. When the Lord Jesus appeared to perform His work, He was subjected to the frenzied persecution and condemnation of the religious world and the Roman government. Now God becomes flesh again and has been doing His work among man, and yet not only do the leaders of all religious denominations not seek and investigate, but, on the contrary, they wildly judge, condemn, and malign The Church of Almighty God. They even collude with the CCP to slander and attack The Church of Almighty God. It is evident that this is a wicked and dark generation and people resist God. If we investigate the true way according to whether or not the CCP government and religious world approve of it, we will be susceptible to being deceived and lose God’s salvation and finally be eliminated by God. This fulfills the prophecy in the Bible, ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’ (Hosea 4:6).

In fact, where there is the work of God, there is Satan’s disturbance. If we can’t see through Satan’s schemes, we will be deceived and captured by it. God’s words say, ‘God does His work, God cares for a person, looks upon this person, and all the while Satan dogs His every step. Whomever God favors, Satan also watches, trailing along behind. If God wants this person, Satan would do everything in its power to obstruct God, using various evil ploys to tempt, disrupt and wreck the work God does, all in order to achieve its hidden objective. What is this objective? It does not want God to gain anyone; all those that God wants it wants for itself, it wants to occupy them, control them, to take charge of them so they worship it, so they join it in committing evil acts. Is this not Satan’s sinister motive?’ God wants to save mankind, yet Satan uses online rumors to disturb and deceive us—this is a spiritual war. If we don’t pray to God or seek the truth, nor use the truth to see through Satan’s schemes and its evil substance and sinister intentions, we will be easily caught in Satan’s schemes and in the end miss the opportunity of being saved by God.”

Having listened to the sister’s fellowship, I came to a sudden realization: Those online rumors originate from Satan. It attempts to deceive me using them and make me dare not investigate Almighty God’s work, lose the opportunity to be saved and finally be devoured by it. Satan is indeed so base and evil. Thanks be to God. Through sisters asking me to attend meetings many times and fellowshiping with me about the truth patiently, I came to have discernment of Satan’s schemes, being able to come before God again. After experiencing the disturbance of Satan, I had some knowledge of God’s work of saving mankind, and I became more certain that Almighty God is the appearance of the Lord Jesus. I made up my mind to follow Him to the end.

Later, I returned to God’s family and lived the church life. I felt very happy and released when having meetings and fellowshiping with the sisters and brothers. When I began attending meetings, though I couldn’t remember the content of the fellowships due to my bad memory, not only did they not shun me but they patiently fellowshiped with me till I understood it, from which I felt God’s love for me. I became increasingly fond of attending meetings and sharing experience and God’s love with my sisters and brothers. It was because of God’s uplifting and grace that I could come before Him. I was full of gratitude to God and resolved to try my best to pursue the truth and repay God’s love. Later, after I testified to the gospel of the kingdom of Almighty God to my daughter many times, she also saw through the rumors, and returned before God. Thanks be to God!