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!
