By Xinxin
I was born into an ordinary family in Burma. After finishing the fourth grade in primary school, I joined the Xuguang Christian School through the recommendation of one of my relations. In school, apart from regular courses, we also took a Bible course and attended the worship service on the Lord’s Day. Through the study of the Bible course, I acquired some knowledge of the Bible, and I believed that the words in the Bible were all true and that when man sinned, they could be forgiven through the Lord Jesus. Gradually I learned to pray and accepted the Lord Jesus as my Redeemer, and I became a Christian.
When I was seventeen, my mother passed away. At that time, my father was sick, my brothers and sisters were young, and we were poor. Facing all of this, I had to drop out and shoulder the heavy burden of my family. Every day I was worried about food and clothes and other family matters. I felt under a lot of pressure and very tired. In deep distress, I thought of the Lord Jesus and prayed to Him about many things, but I received no comfort from Him. I didn’t know where the Lord was and why He didn’t answer my prayers. Feeling empty and helpless in spirit, I often asked myself why I lived. Later, my whole family moved to Thailand. As I grew older, I gradually became integrated into society. Though a believer in the Lord, I pursued the same things as the unbelievers did, indulged in eating, drinking, and the pursuit of pleasure without aim in life. I felt pain and darkness within and that my life was empty and pointless. I often anesthetized myself with singing and drinking, and killed time by watching movies, TV, and playing games, drifting along with the social trends.
In the late November, 2016, one of my FB friends, Sister Wang, sent me two videos of recitation of God’s word “God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind” and “Knowing the Three Stages of God’s Work Is the Path to Knowing God.” After watching the first video, I felt its content was practical, and my heart became quite brightened. Thinking back, young as I was, I had experienced the frustrations of life and vicissitudes of the world. I felt that many things I encountered could by no means be changed by my will, and I could not control my own fate. I truly felt man’s destiny was preordained by Heaven, and that mankind was indeed under God’s command and dominion. When I watched the second video, it said that the three stages of God’s work were done by one God and are the entirety of God’s six-thousand-year management plan. Moreover, it testified that the Lord has already come back and done the work of salvation in the flesh. At that moment, I had doubts within. I had always believed that the Lord Jesus would return with clouds, for the Bible said: “Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him …” (Revelation 1:7). And every time I prayed, I would imagine the scene in this verse. “Will the Lord not come upon a white cloud? How could He come through incarnation?” I thought. So, I asked Sister Wang, “How did you find the videos? The Lord has come? Won’t He come upon a white cloud?” She said, “Sister Xingxing testified to me about the Lord’s return and I am investigating. She shared the two videos with me. I thought they are great, so I recommended them to you. I’m still not clear about the truth of the Lord’s return. Sister Xingxing is very nice. She knows the Bible well. We might as well fellowship with her about the questions puzzling us tomorrow.” I agreed with her, since I didn’t understand why the Lord didn’t descend upon a cloud and wanted to find out the mystery about His return.
On the following day, we reached out to Sister Xingxing online. At first, we discussed some verses about the Lord’s return together. I thought, “Sister Xingxing understands the Bible well. She must have a strong faith in God. I’d better first listen to her fellowship before raising my questions.” Then Sister Xingxing fellowshiped, “As the Bible says, ‘This same Jesus … shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven’ (Acts 1:11), people believe that the Lord will ride upon material clouds when He comes. In fact, God’s wisdom is unfathomable to man, and His words are deeply mysterious. Some verses can be taken literally, but the meaning of some verses goes beyond their literal meaning. If our understanding and knowledge of them goes no further than their literal meaning, that will inevitably contradict the real meaning of God’s words. For example, when the Lord Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about regeneration, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’ (John 3:3), He was predicting that man can’t enter God’s kingdom unless he gains the truth and casts away his corrupt satanic disposition and so lives out the likeness of a real man, that is, man is regenerated in the truth, in God’s work of judgment in the last days. However, Nicodemus’ understanding of regeneration was that a man must enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born. For another example, when the Lord talked with the Samaritan woman: ‘But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst’ (John 4:14), the water that the Lord Jesus gave to man referred to His word, His way, and the truth He, God incarnate, brought. However, the Samaritan woman misunderstood the water given by the Lord Jesus as drinking water. These show that the understanding of God’s words by our mind and thinking is not accurate. Today Almighty God has come and revealed the mystery of the ‘clouds.’ Let’s read Almighty God’s words: ‘Man believes that, following the crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus went back to heaven upon a white cloud, and took His place at the Most High’s right hand. Similarly, man conceives that Jesus shall descend, again upon a white cloud (this cloud refers to the cloud that Jesus rode upon when He returned to heaven), among those who have desperately yearned for Him for thousands of years, and that He shall bear the image and clothes of the Jews. After appearing to man, He shall bestow food upon them, and cause living water to gush forth for them, and shall live among man, full of grace and love, living and real. And so on. Yet Jesus the Savior did not do this; He did the opposite of what man conceived. He did not arrive among those who had yearned for His return, and did not appear to all men while riding upon the white cloud. He has already arrived, but man does not know Him, and remains ignorant of His arrival. Man is only aimlessly awaiting Him, unaware that He has already descended upon a white cloud (the cloud which is His Spirit, His words, and His entire disposition and all that He is), and is now among a group of overcomers that He will make during the last days.’ ‘From the creation of the world until today, not one person has seen Me. This is the God who appears to man during the last days but is hidden among man. He resides among man, true and real, like the burning sun and the flaming fire, filled with power and brimming with authority. There is not a single person or thing that shall not be judged by My words, and not a single person or thing that shall not be purified through the burning of fire. Eventually, all nations shall be blessed because of My words, and also smashed to pieces because of My words. In this way, all people during the last days shall see that I am the Savior returned, I am the Almighty God that conquers all of mankind, and I was once the sin offering for man, but in the last days I also become the flames of the sun that burn all things, as well as the sun of righteousness that reveals all things. Such is My work of the last days’ (‘The Savior Has Already Returned Upon a “White Cloud”’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Christ of the last days—Almighty God—has come into the flesh, and He has expressed millions of words to do the work of judging and purifying man. He has brought all the truths for the salvation of mankind, expressed His righteous, holy, majestic, and wrathful disposition, disclosed the mystery of God’s six-thousand-year management plan, and told them about God’s work in every age; this is the real meaning of the ‘clouds.’ From God’s words and His work of judgment, people know God, know God’s work, God’s disposition, God’s almightiness and wisdom, God’s unique authority and power, and other aspects of God—this is the meaning of seeing God coming upon the clouds.”
Through her sharing and communing the words of Almighty God, I came to understand: The “cloud” refers to God’s Spirit, God’s words, and God’s entire disposition and all that He is—all things from God. For me who was living in conception and imagination and seeing God’s words materially, it is indeed easy to misinterpret God’s words. Then I thought, “There are many other prophecies about the Lord’s coming in the Bible, and there must be mysteries in them. Xingxing knows the Bible better than I, and I’d better go on listening to her fellowship.”
The sister continued, “The Lord Jesus’ return to flesh in the last days has fulfilled these words: ‘Behold, I come as a thief’ (Revelation 16:15). ‘If therefore you shall not watch, I will come on you as a thief, and you shall not know what hour I will come on you’ (Revelation 3:3). ‘And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him’ (Matthew 25:6). ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me’ (Revelation 3:20). These verses tell us that when the Lord comes, He will descend in a hidden way; no man will know when He becomes flesh on earth, no angle will know it either, and even the incarnate Son of man will not know it before He begins to carry out His work. It is just as the Lord Jesus didn’t know that He Himself was the incarnate God before He performed His ministry. Wasn’t it that God had descended in a hidden way? But after He began to perform His ministry, some people came to know He is God Himself. Likewise, when Almighty God descended in a hidden way in the last days, no one knew it. This has fulfilled the prophecy ‘I come as a thief.’ But after Almighty God began to work and speak, people came to know from His work and words that God has come to earth, and then they started to testify about God’s work and words. This has fulfilled the prophecy ‘And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him.’ When Christ has accomplished His work on earth, He will appear to all nations and all peoples in public, and reward the good and punish the wicked. He will send great disasters to punish the evil world and punish all those who have condemned and resisted Him. This will fulfill the words ‘Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him’ (Revelation 1:7). From these we see that the Lord’s return is divided into two steps: Hidden descent and public appearance, which will fulfill all the prophecies about the way of the Lord’s coming. During the period of His hidden work, there are those who not only don’t accept God’s work but even oppose and condemn it. What are their outcomes? Let’s see Almighty God’s words. Almighty God says: ‘Many people may not care what I say, but I still want to tell every so-called saint who follows Jesus that, when you see Jesus descend from the heaven upon a white cloud with your own eyes, this will be the public appearance of the sun of righteousness. Perhaps that will be a time of great excitement for you, yet you should know that the time when you witness Jesus descend from the heaven is also the time when you go down to hell to be punished. It will herald the end of God’s management plan, and will be when God rewards the good and punishes the wicked. For the judgment of God will have ended before man sees signs, when there is only the expression of truth. Those who accept the truth and do not seek signs, and thus have been purified, shall have returned before the throne of God and entered the Creator’s embrace. Only those who persist in the belief that “The Jesus who does not ride upon a white cloud is a false Christ” shall be subjected to everlasting punishment, for they only believe in the Jesus who exhibits signs, but do not acknowledge the Jesus who proclaims severe judgment and releases the true way of life. And so it can only be that Jesus deals with them when He openly returns upon a white cloud. They are too stubborn, too confident in themselves, too arrogant. How could such degenerates be rewarded by Jesus? The return of Jesus is a great salvation for those who are capable of accepting the truth, but for those who are unable to accept the truth it is a sign of condemnation. You should choose your own path, and should not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and reject the truth. You should not be an ignorant and arrogant person, but someone who obeys the guidance of the Holy Spirit and longs for and seeks the truth; only in this way will you benefit’ (‘When You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus Will Be When God Has Made Anew Heaven and Earth’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh).” After reading Almighty God’s words, the sister fellowshiped much more with me.
Her fellowship was well-founded, and according to her fellowship, the prophecies about the Lord’s coming were not contradictory. Previously, I drew a conclusion that the Lord would appear to us upon a white cloud when He came only according to the first part of the prophecy “Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him,” but I overlooked the fact in the last part: And every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. They which pierced Him referred to the people who resisted and attacked Him. How can those who resisted and attacked the Lord receive His approval? Only then did I truly understand the true meaning of the whole prophecy: Actually, when the Lord comes with clouds will be when He rewards the good and punishes the wicked and determines people’s outcomes. At that time all those who have resisted God will receive God’s punishment. That is why the Lord prophesied: “And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.” Then the sister read many more words of Almighty God to me. She fellowshiped about the truths concerning the significance of God’s name, the three stages of work in God’s six-thousand-year management plan, the significance of God’s incarnation, God’s work of judgment in the last days, and so on. Through Almighty God’s words, I was fully convinced that Almighty God was the Lord Jesus I had longed for. So I gladly accepted God’s work of the last days.
After that, the sister told me that I could install the app of the Church of Almighty God on my cellphone for the convenience of spiritual devotions. With the app on my cellphone, I could listen to the hymns, read God’s words, watch various videos testifying to God’s work at any time and any place, and read in time the words God spoke most recently. I didn’t have to wait to practice spiritual devotions on the computer until I returned home from work. I loved listening to the hymns. The words of these hymns are from Almighty God’s words and the brothers’ and sisters’ experiences. They were very helpful to me, and besides, they were very easy to remember so they could help me to contemplate God’s words, to review God’s words we had fellowshiped in the meetings, and to better put them into practice in my everyday life. I felt ease, peace and joy. One day, I heard a hymn of experience “If I Were Not Saved by God”:
If I were not saved by God, I would still be drifting in this world,
struggling hard and painfully in sin; every day gets bleak and hopeless.
If I were not saved by God, I’d still be crushed below the devil’s feet,
snared in sin and its enjoyments, ignorant of what my life would be.
If I were not saved by God, I’d be without my blessings here today,
much less know why we should live on or the meaning of our lives.
If I were not saved by God, I’d still be confused about my faith,
still in empty space passing the days, unaware in whom to put my faith.
I have finally understood God’s loving hands hold mine as we go.
I would never go and lose my way ’cause I’m on this brilliant course to stay.
I have finally understood God’s intent, earnest to man.
False impressions fully removed, I will give my flesh and soul to God.
………………………………
As I listened, I deeply felt it was telling the story of my past life. As a man living in this evil world, I had been bound up by Satan. While believing in the Lord, I sought eating, drinking, and carousing, and what’s more, I was controlled by TV shows and online games. I dragged out an ignoble existence without purpose. I acknowledged God’s name yet didn’t have any knowledge of Him, and what I believed in in my heart was a vague God. I didn’t know what the true life direction is, much less know why I should live on or the meaning of my life. Thank God for choosing me and bringing me to His family to receive His salvation in the last days. Now I no longer seek after the pleasure of sin but pursue the truth and fulfillment of my duty as a creation, and pursue to preach the gospel to testify about God’s work. I feel living in this way is meaningful and is walking the right path of human life. Thank God for leading me onto the bright path of human life. Amen!
