Almighty God Saved Me, a Blind and Ignorant Person | Eastern Lightning

 Almighty God Saved Me, a Blind and Ignorant Person

 Almighty God Saved Me, a Blind and Ignorant Person

Li Jinzhi

Fuxin City, Liaoning Province

In May 1990, I accepted Jesus in the Three-Self sect because of illness. In 1993, I turned to the Church of Truth and later became a junior leader there.

In July 1999, our church leader told us at a meeting, “In recent years, a biggest ‘heresy,’ ‘cult,’ called ‘Eastern Lightning,’ has appeared in mainland China. They preach that God has come, and as a female. The spirit in them is very powerful. Once you talk with them, it will enter into you, and you will be controlled by them in spite of yourself and do whatever they say. … Co-workers, brothers, and sisters, none of you should come into contact with the people of ‘Eastern Lightning,’ nor receive them, lest you share in their sins….” Hearing the leader’s words, I firmly believed that “Eastern Lightning” was a “heresy,” a “cult.” And I thought, “This has fulfilled the words in the Bible. The end time has arrived, and false christs have appeared.” So, I made an inward resolution: I must be watchful and prepare myself, and even more, I must keep a good guard over the brothers and sisters so that no one will be taken captive by “Eastern Lightning.” Otherwise, I won’t be able to give an account to the Lord.

In the fall of 2000, a sister in our church accepted Almighty God’s new work. Later, she brought me a book of God’s word to read and asked me to make an investigation, but I said without thinking, “It’s not worth reading. No doubt it’s false.” As she kept pleading with me, I casually glanced through a few pages, and with hatred I wrote several big words on the book—“Where is the incarnated God?” And then I said to her seriously, “Return the book soon. This is not at all God’s word. It seems to be written by a third-grade pupil.”

One day in April 2001, on my way home from work, I met two sisters who preached Almighty God. They pled with me to have a fellowship with them, but I flatly refused and deliberately shouted out, “You’ve got a nerve, preaching wherever you go. I only believe in Jesus. Except for Jesus, I believe in no one….” As expected, my shouting drew many passersby. They stopped around the two sisters and looked on curiously, when I stole away.

In July 2001, two sisters came to my home many times to preach the new work of Almighty God, but each time I managed to shut them out. On Sunday, July 22, the heat was like a blow. At noon, my doorbell rang. I looked through the peephole and saw the two sisters again. The heat flushed them and beads of sweat kept rolling down their faces, but they seemed not to care about that at all. They anxiously watched the door, expecting it to be opened. Seeing this, I could not help feeling a spark of sympathy for them. When I was about to open the door, my mother-in-law, who had just come back from a meeting in the Three-Self church, stopped me and said, “Don’t let them in. Our pastor says that once the spirit in them enters into us, we cannot get rid of it.” Then, she cursed them away through the door. After they left, my unbelieving husband said to himself in puzzlement, “What on earth do they believe in? For what do they go from house to house and run upstairs and downstairs?” My mother-in-law heard that and said, “They do that for nothing. They are devils who come only to break up the churches.” My husband said seriously, “Could there be such faithful devils nowadays? Could they run around outside all day long for nothing but to break up the churches? What will they get by breaking up the churches? There must be something behind it.” His words started me thinking, “Yes! What on earth do they preach the end-time gospel for? In our church, the brothers and sisters grow cold in love and become weak and feeble; the co-workers raise envy and strife among themselves, unable to get along with each other. These people, however, run around persistently, despite intense heat or bitter cold, and undaunted by our abuses and sneers. Where do they get such great faith and love? What is it all about?” At that moment, I really wished to meet a believer in Almighty God so as to solve my puzzles.

Although my hostile attitude toward “Eastern Lightning” had somewhat changed since then, I dared not do anything “rash,” for I saw our church was resisting it as fiercely as before. Once, I could not help asking our church leader, “Everybody says that the spirit in the people of ‘Eastern Lightning’ is very powerful, but the Lord Jesus we believe in is almighty. Do we have to be afraid of them? Why not find an opportunity to fellowship with them and see what they actually preach and what it is all about?” Hearing this, the leader was very unhappy and said to me stiffly, “They are devils. If you come into contact with them, your spirit will go wrong.” “I’ve met them but felt no spirit enter into me,” I said, unconvinced. “I feel everything is all right with me.” Thereafter I was regarded as a dangerous person in our church. At co-worker meetings, all the brothers and sisters looked askance at me. I felt extremely distressed at that. And I hardly dared think of going to have a fellowship with those who preached the end-time gospel, for I was really afraid of getting myself into trouble, fearing that the brothers and sisters in my church might reject me and say I had accepted a “heresy,” a “cult,” and that I would be attacked by such rumors as “The believers in Almighty God are extremely filthy.” In order to clear up the brothers’ and sisters’ misunderstandings of me so that they would regard me as highly as before, I tried my best to prove that I was “innocent” and that I had not been “deceived” by “Eastern Lightning.” In my sermons, I made use of those rumors to vehemently blaspheme Almighty God and slander his believers, and I kept warning the brothers and sisters, “You must take strict precautions against those from ‘Eastern Lightning.’ If they come to your home, never let them in.” During that period, I drove away many brothers and sisters who came to preach the end-time gospel to me.

Because of my disobedience and resistance, God’s discipline came upon me. On the morning of April 5, 2002, I, a quite healthy person, suddenly felt dizzy and sick to my stomach when I got up. Then, I went to have my blood pressure checked, only to find it perfectly normal. From then on, I often felt dizzy. Though I took some medicines, my condition had not improved, but rather worsened. Sometimes, I was so dizzy that I could not even open my eyes, and was sick as if a knife were piercing my heart; I felt like I was dying. At the time, I became much more “well-behaved.” I could neither attend to our church affairs nor take care of the weak brothers and sisters in the rural areas. The only thing I could do was to keep praying to God to heal me and to reveal his intention to me so that I could know why this sudden illness came upon me. One morning at past five o’clock, I was praying when a verse jumped into my mind: “…seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). I felt my heart miss a beat. “Isn’t it that God is inspiring me?” I hastily opened the Bible and happened to turn to John 14:6: “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” I pondered this verse over and over again, but I could not understand its meaning. However, I was well aware in my heart that one day the Lord would guide me into understanding it.

On August 5, 2002, my condition had gotten somewhat better. At a sister’s invitation, I went to a rural meeting place to visit the brothers and sisters there. At the host home, I met two brothers, and we began to fellowship with each other. Soon I was absorbed in their fellowship. They, according to the Bible, explained in detail to me the two stages of God’s work: the work of the Age of the Law and the work of the Age of the Grace. I had never heard of these things before, so I felt them so fresh that I received much supply. Then I asked one of the brothers, “How did you know all this?” He took out a book and said, “This is the second incarnated God’s own utterance. What I’ve fellowshipped about is all from this book.” When I heard this, my heart could not help beating faster, as I realized that I had encountered believers in “Eastern Lightning.” At that moment, I felt both happy and afraid. Happy because God now lay before my eyes what I had expected for a long time and yet not dared to face, and afraid because if the brothers and sisters in my church knew I had fellowshipped with the brothers who believed in “Eastern Lightning,” I would be finished, for they would stay away from me, slander me, and even reject me. I cried out in my heart, “O Lord! May you give me faith and courage. I don’t want to be kept in the dark anymore. If what they preach is really your work, may you guide and inspire me to know. I am willing to obey and accept it. If they are false christs, evil spirits, may you give me discernment and keep me from being harmed by them.” After the prayer, my heart calmed down. So, I asked the brother, “You say that God has come. Who has seen him? I won’t believe it unless I see him.” The brother said mildly, “Sister! You say that you won’t believe it unless you see him, but have you seen the Lord Jesus? Since you’ve not seen him, how have you believed that he is God? Do you mean that only after people have seen God’s flesh can they accept and believe the fact that God has come? At that time, those Pharisees had seen the Lord Jesus, but they denied and condemned him and eventually nailed him onto the cross because his outward appearance was not in accordance with their notions. Their ‘seeing’ did not lead to their ‘believing.’ Besides, if we believe God has come only after we ‘see’ him, such a belief is not true and cannot be commended by the Lord. The event recorded in Genesis that God destroyed the world with a flood is a typical example. At that time, God told Noah that he would send rain on the earth and destroy the world with a flood, and he instructed Noah to build the ark. Noah believed God’s words and did God’s will before he saw ‘a heavy rain poured down.’ Therefore, the eight members of Noah’s family survived, whereas those who wouldn’t believe unless they saw it were all destroyed by the flood. So, we must never make the same mistake as ‘only seeing is believing’; otherwise we will miss God’s salvation. Well, by what can we accurately know that God has indeed come? Let’s look at the word of Almighty God.” With that, the brother opened the book of God’s word and read: “Since a flesh is God’s incarnated flesh, he has God’s substance; since a flesh is God’s incarnated flesh, he has God’s expression. Since God is incarnated, he will bring the work he wants to do; since a flesh is God’s incarnated flesh, he will express what God is; since a flesh is God’s incarnated flesh, he can bring man the truth, bestow to man the life, and show man the way. If a flesh does not have God’s substance, he is certainly not the incarnated God. This is beyond doubt. If people want to investigate whether a flesh is God’s incarnated flesh, they have to ascertain that from the disposition and the word he expresses.” “When Jesus came to the world, he brought the Age of the Grace and ended the Age of the Law. In the end time, God is incarnated again. The incarnation this time ends the Age of the Grace and brings the Age of the Kingdom. All those who can accept the second incarnation will be brought into the Age of the Kingdom and can personally receive God’s leading. When Jesus came among men, he did many works. But he only accomplished the work of redeeming all mankind and was only man’s sin offering, and he did not rid men of all their corrupt disposition. To completely save men from satan’s influence, it not only requires Jesus to be the sin offering to bear men’s sins, but also requires God to do a greater work to completely rid men of their disposition corrupted by satan. So, after men’s sins were forgiven, God has again returned in the flesh to lead men into the new age and begin the work of chastisement and judgment. This work has brought mankind into a higher state. All those who submit under his dominion will enjoy higher truth, receive greater blessings, truly live in the light, and receive the truth, the way, and the life.” “…since we want to search for God’s footsteps, we have to search for God’s will, search for God’s word, and search for God’s utterance. This is because where there is God’s new word there is God’s voice, where there are God’s footsteps there are God’s deeds, where there is God’s expression there is God’s appearing, and where there is God’s appearing there exists the truth, the way, and the life. When you search for God’s footsteps, you all neglect this word, ‘God is the truth, the way, and the life.’ So, although many people have received the truth, they do not think that they have found God’s footsteps, much less acknowledge that it is God’s appearing. What a serious mistake this is!” God’s words woke me as if from a dream, and I came to realize this: “I should not judge whether God has appeared or whether Christ has come by whether I have seen God’s flesh, but should seek it in God’s work and word. In the past I believed the Lord Jesus is God because I read his words and saw his deeds in the Bible, not because I saw him. Today, on the basis of the redemptive work in the Age of the Grace, God has done the work of the new age and expressed the new word, bringing people the truth, the way, and the life. Isn’t this the best concrete evidence that God has come? If I deny and reject the truth expressed by God but stick to my notion that I won’t believe God has come unless I see his flesh, am I not obviously rejecting God Godself? Thank God for inspiring me so that I have recognized his voice and seen his appearing from his utterance.” At that time, I fully understood the meaning of John 14:6 and gained a deeper knowledge of the meaning of the word “God is the truth, the way, and the life”: God is the truth, his truth and life coexist, and his word and his appearing coexist, so whoever finds the truth finds God’s footsteps, and whoever sees God’s utterance sees God’s appearing.

Then, I asked the brother, “God is obviously a male, so how could he be incarnated as a female?” He opened the book of God’s word and passed it to me, and these words came into view: “Every stage of work God does has practical significance. At that time when Jesus came, he was a male; this time when God comes, he is a female. From this you can see that God’s creating both man and woman can be for his work and that with God there is no distinction of gender. When his Spirit comes, he can put on any flesh as he likes, and this flesh can represent him. Whether this flesh is male or female, he can represent God as long as he is God’s incarnated flesh. … With God there is no distinction of gender. He works in whatever way he likes, and he works without any restrictions and in a very free way, but each stage of his work has practical significance. God has been incarnated twice. Needless to say, his incarnation in the end time is the last one, and he has come to manifest all his deeds. If in this stage God were not incarnated to personally work for people to see, then in their notions they would forever believe that God is only male and not female.” God’s words are as clear as crystal, so I found the answer right away: God is a Spirit, and with him there is no gender difference at all. God took the image of a male or a female only because of the need of his work and because of his incarnation. But no matter whether God is incarnated as a male or a female, he or she is God Godself and can represent God. It is precisely because God has returned in the flesh as a female this time that the erroneous knowledge “God is a male and not a female,” which has stored up in people’s heart for years, has been removed. If God had not done so, people would live by this notion forever. In the past I concluded according to my notion that God could not be a female. How ignorant I was!

Then I read with them several more pieces of God’s word, such as “Concerning ‘God,’ What Do You Know?” “Knowing the Three Stages of Works Is the Way to Know God,” and so on. The more I read, the more I got interested, feeling that every word of God was what my life needed. Then I knew why the rumors said, “Once you talk with them, you cannot but join them.” Actually, that was not because they had an evil spirit in them, but because what they preached was God’s work of the new age and was the truth of life expressed personally by Almighty God, the returned Lord Jesus. Who could refuse to accept it after hearing the truth and seeing the appearing of the true God? In God’s word, I also read such a passage: “God is searching for men who thirst after his appearing, searching for men who can listen to his word, searching for men who do not forget his commission and offer up their body and heart for him, and searching for men who obey him and have no resistance toward him like a baby before him. … If you have a high position, have a high reputation, have a lot of knowledge, have a lot of property, or have the support of many people, but you still come before God to accept God’s calling and commission without being bothered by these things … then the things you do will be the cause which is the most meaningful in the world and the most just among mankind. If you refuse God’s calling for the sake of your position or your own aims, then everything you do will be cursed by God and even more be loathed by God.” From these words, I saw God’s eager intention to save men. God hopes that they can drop themselves, be responsive to his calling, and accept his salvation. If one rejects God’s calling to safeguard his interests, he not only cannot be commended by God but will be loathed by God and thus become one cursed by God. The outwardly splendid and dazzling things, such as fame, position, and vanity, cannot bring people before God; on the contrary, they will resist God because of clinging to these worthless things that have nothing to do with the truth of life, with the result that they will be punished by God, that is, be destroyed in the hell and become satan’s grave objects. Examining myself according to the words of God, I realized this: “I am not a person who truly thirsts after God’s appearing, much less a person who seeks the truth and obeys God. In the past, for fear of suffering humiliations, I dared not accept Almighty God but intentionally blasphemed the name of Almighty God and resisted the work of Almighty God to preserve my fame and my face. Recalling such evil deeds, I feel extreme remorse and hate myself for being so contemptible, sordid, and devoid of humanity. I am simply worse than swine and dogs. God’s word is undoubtedly the truth, but I, disobedient and ignorant, criticized it at will, saying that it seemed to be written by a third-grade pupil. I am really as blind as a bat and arrogant to the extreme. However, Almighty God has not abandoned me because of what I have done, but inspired me with his words and brought me back to his family, so that I come to know the true God and gain the true way.” In grateful tears, I made a resolution before God: O Almighty God! You have not treated me according to my evil deeds but given me an opportunity to be saved. I am willing to drop my face and my vanity, follow you all my life, and dedicate myself to your gospel work, bringing before you those brothers and sisters who are deceived by the rumors.

After I accepted Almighty God’s new work, I cooperated with the brothers and sisters who preached the gospel and successively brought before Almighty God the eighteen believers of my church. When our leader learned that, he immediately went to close the churches in various places to us. He said that I was a devil, worthy to die, to perish, so no one should come into contact with me. In the face of the brothers’ and sisters’ rejection, I felt very sad, but I did not lose heart, much less regretted bringing those believers before Almighty God, for I knew that the path I was walking was the right path of life and that the cause I was engaged in was the most just cause of mankind.

It has been two years since I accepted the new work of Almighty God, and I have long since recovered from my illness. Now I am doing my utmost to perform my duty. Dear brothers and sisters, I sincerely hope that you can draw some lessons from my experience. Don’t be fooled by satan and reject God’s salvation to preserve your fame as I did. The seven trumpets of God have been sounded, the seven thunders have been sent forth, and the seven bowls have been prepared. There is indeed not much time left. The door of God’s salvation is about to be closed! Brothers and sisters, break free from being bound by the rumors, drop all your misgivings, and accept the salvation of Almighty God!

Recommendation: The Church of Almighty God was founded by Almighty God personally