What Is Faith and How to Have True Confidence in God

 By Shen Mingxin

What is faith? Many brothers and sisters in the Lord think that as long as they acknowledge God’s name, persist in reading the Bible, meeting and praying, and furthermore are able to sacrifice everything and labor, they are believers who have faith in God. But, this understanding is one-sided. In fact, true faith means that when our mind and body endure great suffering during refinement or adversity, we still don’t misunderstand or complain about God, but instead can obey God and persevere in believing in and following God.

From Biblical records we see: When Job was tempted by Satan, his livestock was robbed from him by bandits, his servants were killed, calamity befell his children, he got sore boils all over his body, and his wife laughed at him and asked him to forsake the name of God. Facing these sudden misfortunes, he endured pain in both his body and spirit. However, he didn’t complain about Jehovah God’s taking away from him, but said, “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah” (Job 1:21). He bore a strong and resounding testimony for God, which shamed and defeated Satan. Seeing Job’s faith in Him, God blessed Job doubly, bestowing upon him more cattle, sheep, and beautiful children. And finally Job died, full of days. Job is the model of faith and he is worthy of emulation by each of us believers in the Lord.

From the testimony of Job, we can see that when God blessed him, he believed that everything man has is due to God’s blessings, so he thanked God and worshiped God; when God’s trials befell him, though he didn’t understand and felt pain inside, he still obeyed God and didn’t have any complaints. Only this is true faith in God, and is also the sincere heart of man toward God. Just as God’s words say, “What does faith refer to? Faith is the genuine belief and the sincere heart that humans should possess when they cannot see or touch something, when God’s work is not in line with human notions, when it is beyond human reach. This is the faith that I speak of. People are in need of faith during times of hardship and refinement, and along with faith comes refinement. These are inextricable.”

Then, how can we develop true faith in God? This needs us to practically experience and appreciate God’s work in our daily life. When we are able to see God’s mastery, orchestrations and arrangements for our life and God’s authority and deeds, and have a genuine understanding of God through them, then no matter how God’s work doesn’t conform to our conceptions, we will still be able to maintain our faith in God. Just like Job: He only heard of God but he had never seen God. However, he could know God’s sovereignty and see God’s righteousness among all things. For example: Man’s fortune and misfortune, how much money one would possess, and how many children one would have in life—he knew all these were under God’s sovereignty, despite man’s own plans and calculations. He saw who were evil and punished by God, who were kindhearted and received God’s grace and blessings, and so on. Because of these understandings of God, he developed true faith in God. So when Satan’s temptations came upon him, although he was miserable, he knew all the things he enjoyed had come from God and had not been earned through his own hard work, and that if God wanted to take them back, he shouldn’t complain about or misunderstand God but should obey God. Thus, he made no demands of God, and accepted and obeyed God’s orchestrations and arrangements, giving a resounding testimony to God before Satan and being accepted by God. Another example is Moses. He stayed in the wilderness for forty years. There was nobody there, and his only companions were sheep during the day and stars at night. At last, he survived the forty difficult years by relying on God. Through his experiences, he truly appreciated that everything is orchestrated by the hand of God, and that there is nothing God cannot do. Such understanding of God helped him develop true faith in God. Thus, when God asked him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he prostrated before God and accepted His commission without hesitation. He didn’t worry about how to defeat the Egyptian army singled-handed but simply obeyed, because he believed that all things are in God’s hands and are orchestrated by God. In the end, by relying on his true faith in God, he succeeded in leading the Israelites out of Egypt.

Therefore, if we want to develop true faith in God as Job and Moses did, we must practically experience God’s work in our daily life. Especially when some hardships and distressing situations befall us, we should first intentionally obey, and then look to God, pray to God and seek God’s will. When we, through this, achieve true obedience to God, we will surely see His wondrous deeds and develop true faith in Him. At this point, I am reminded of a new sister’s experience. Not long after she accepted God’s new work, an illness befell her. Later, it got worse and worse, and she was even in danger of getting bell’s palsy. At that time she was very weak and in great pain. However, through praying and reading God’s words, she came to understand that Satan was using the illness to disturb her. That illness was Satan’s temptation and was also God’s test. After understanding God’s intention, she prayed to God, saying that she was willing to give herself to God and was determined to stand witness. After that, amazingly she recovered very quickly. Thus, she not only didn’t leave God because of that illness, but she actually strengthened her resolution of following God even more after seeing God’s marvelous deeds. There’s also a brother. When he first started believing in God, he was very passionate. However, later he was hunted by the CCP because of his faith in God, so he had to leave home and lead the life of vagabonds, of the homeless. That was extremely hard, so he became weak. Afterward, only through reading God’s words did he realize his own impurities in believing in God, and that his faith in God was in order to receive God’s blessings and grace. So, he turned his incorrect views on faith in God around. After that, because he, in harsh environments, relied on God at every moment to fulfill his duty spreading the gospel, so many times he managed to escape from under the CCP’s nose. From this, he personally experienced God’s marvelous protection and also saw God’s almightiness and wisdom. Hence, he had more and more faith in God.

These practical experiences allow us to see that in our real environment, as long as we carefully experience God’s guidance, support, help, or chastening and discipline, we will understand that what God does in us is all His love and salvation for us. Then we will have true understanding of Him, appreciate His almightiness and wisdom, and even more know that His righteous disposition is inviolable by man. When that time comes, we will have a heart of reverence for God and subsequently we will develop true faith in God.

Walking Down the Bright Path of Life

Xieli, America

I used to be someone who would chase after the trends of the world, I wanted to abandon myself to a life of pleasure, and I just cared about the pleasures of the flesh. I would often go with my friends to KTV all night long, I would go for joyrides in the middle of the night, would go fishing out on the ocean, and travel all around in search of fine foods. I’d see others around me, and they too were all striving to eat well, wear nice things, and enjoy good things. I felt that these were the things that a man must work for in his life, that this is why a man must work hard to earn money, that this is the goal in life that everyone should have. Only with these things would life not be in vain. In order to obtain these things, I didn’t care what distance I had to travel, so I crossed the ocean to come to America, and after struggling for several years, I opened my own business. I had my own car and my own house. I was living the blessed life that I had dreamed about. Every day I would eat, drink and pursue pleasures until I was full and my heart was content. I thought that it was only by living in this way that life had any meaning, and that is until I received the work of Almighty God in the last days. Only after experiencing the judgment and chastisement of God did I become aware of what a truly significant life is, and then I set out walking down the bright path of life.

Q&A About the Way of Eternal Life-Question 3

Question 3: You say only those who obey the will of the Father in heaven receive the way of everlasting life. Since we believed in the Lord, we’ve suffered much and paid much to spread the Lord’s gospel. We’ve shepherded the Lord’s flock, taken up the cross and followed the Lord, practiced humbleness, patience, and tolerance. Are you saying we haven’t been following God’s will? We know that if we continue, we will become holy and be raptured to the kingdom of heaven. Do you mean our understanding and practice of God’s word is wrong?

Q&A About the Way of Eternal Life-Question 2

Question 2: The Lord Jesus and Almighty God are one God, but do different work in different ages. Jesus did the work of redemption and preached the way of repentance. But now, Almighty God does the work of purifying mankind and brings the way of everlasting life. Here I have another question: What is the difference between the way of repentance and the way of eternal life?

Answer: There is but one God, and His work of saving mankind cannot be done in one or two stages, because there are three stages of work in God’s management plan. The truth expressed by God in each stage is different, and gradually deepens so that it reaches perfection in the end. God does different work across the ages based on the needs of man at the time, so the way God gives to man in every each age is in fact different. What’s the difference between the way of repentance and the way of eternal life, which is a crucial question. It is a truth every true believer in God must understand, because it’s related to how man knows the truth and gains eternal life.

Q&A About the Way of Eternal Life-Question 1

Question 1: When I read the words of Almighty God, “Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life,” I remember what the Lord Jesus once said, “But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). We already know the Lord Jesus is the source of the water of life and the way of everlasting life. Could it be that Almighty God and the Lord Jesus are the same source? Are Their work and words both of the Holy Spirit? Are they done by the same God?

Q&A About Why the True Way Is Persecuted-Question 5

Question 5: I used to think that the CCP’s days were numbered and that it should collapse soon, so wouldn’t it save a lot of trouble if I waited for it to collapse before I believed? But now I see that the purpose of the CCP persecuting and arresting us is so that we will be sent to hell! If we wait until the CCP perishes before we believe in Almighty God, would we still be able to receive God’s salvation in the last days and enter God’s kingdom? Would we miss our chance at salvation?

Answer: Today, because we believe in God, seek the truth and walk the right path of life, we face the CCP’s furious oppression and persecution. This is a meaningful thing! This is because God is using the CCP satanic regime to do service for perfecting a group of overcomers, while at the same time revealing and eliminating those who don’t sincerely believe in God and don’t love the truth. The true overcomers are those who, living under the authoritarian regime of the CCP, can experience God’s word with true faith, and through experiencing the CCP’s wild suppression and cruel persecution, thoroughly see the true colors of the devil Satan, and can then hate Satan, forsake Satan, and sincerely turn to God, achieving salvation and being perfected! Overcomers are made in the special environment of the CCP satanic regime’s resistance against God and persecution of God’s chosen people. Without the harsh environment created by the evil CCP’s oppression and persecution, true overcomers cannot be created. For those who sincerely want God, no matter how the CCP persecutes, or how harsh the environment gets, they will still follow God, perform their duty, risk everything to pursue the truth, and have more and more faith in God! They see through the CCP’s crackdown of justice, support of evil, and its lawless, perverse and evil, reactionary essence. They see clearly that the CCP is Satan, the demon that corrupts, afflicts, and devours mankind, thus they hate the great red dragon even more, rebel against it, and genuinely turn to God. Through the contrast brought out by the CCP satanic regime, people have also gotten to know God’s righteousness and holiness, His beauty and goodness. All God does is love and salvation to mankind! The faith and love people have in God have grown greater, and their hearts have become even closer to God. These people have thoroughly broken through the CCP satanic regime’s dark influence and have borne overcoming testimony. They are the overcomers made by God amid the great tribulation, and also the group of people who have a part in Christ’s “tribulation, kingdom, and patience.” They are Christ’s true witnesses, the 144,000 overcomers stated in the Book of Revelation, the ones who will enter God’s kingdom and receive eternal life! That is why our experiencing the CCP’s persecution for belief and pursuit of truth is so meaningful! As the Lord Jesus said: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake” (Matthew 5:10-11). Almighty God says, “Perhaps you all remember these words: ‘For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ In the past, you have all heard this saying, yet none understood the true meaning of the words. Today, you know well the real significance they hold. These words are what God will accomplish in the last days. And they will be accomplished upon those cruelly afflicted by the great red dragon in the land where it lies. The great red dragon persecutes God and is the enemy of God, so in this land, those who believe in God are subjected to humiliation and persecution. That is why these words will become reality in you group of people” (“Is the Work of God So Simple as Man Imagines?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Now is the golden time for God to perfect the overcomers. When the CCP collapses, these overcomers will rise up among the masses to bear witness to God’s victory! When their witness to God reaches the peak, the kingdom of God will officially be realized on earth! God’s work of saving mankind will be concluded by then. Those who will be saved and be perfected will already be set. If we wait until then to believe, we will miss out on the opportunity to be made overcomers by God. Such people will not have borne the overcoming testimony and cannot enter God’s kingdom. Even if they survive, they merely count as a “service-doer,” and cannot be a member of God’s kingdom.

God is almighty and God’s wisdom is always exercised based on Satan’s scheming. Almighty God’s work in the last days cannot be stopped by any hostile forces. Though religious leaders collude with the devilish CCP to frenziedly resist and condemn God’s work in the last days, God’s kingdom gospel has still spread through all of Mainland China, reaching an unprecedented extent with tens of thousands of churches being established all over the country and millions of people coming under Almighty God’s name. Almighty God has gained a group of people who are of the same mind with Him. The gospel website of Almighty God has already been opened to various nations and places around the world. The words of Almighty God are being accepted and spread by more and more people. The expanding of the kingdom gospel completely reveals God’s almightiness and wisdom!

Almighty God says, “Today, God has returned to the world to do His work. His first stop is the grand assemblage of dictatorial rulers: China, the staunch bastion of atheism. God has gained a group of people by His wisdom and power. During the period, He is hunted by China’s ruling party in every means and subjected to great suffering, with no place to rest His head and unable to find a shelter. Despite this, God still continues the work He intends to do: He utters His voice and spreads the gospel. None can fathom the almightiness of God. In China, a country that regards God as an enemy, God has never ceased His work. Instead, more people have accepted His work and word, for God does all He can to save each and every member of mankind. We trust that no country or power can stand in the way of what God wishes to achieve. Those that obstruct God’s work, resist the word of God, disturb and impair the plan of God shall ultimately be punished by God” (“God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

“The kingdom is expanding in humanity’s midst, it is forming in humanity’s midst, it is standing up in humanity’s midst; there is no force that can destroy My kingdom. … I am now walking abroad in the midst of My people, I live in the midst of My people. Today, those who bear genuine love toward Me, people like these are blessed; blessed are those who submit to Me, they will surely stay in My kingdom; blessed are those who know Me, they will surely wield power in My kingdom; blessed are those who seek after Me, they will surely escape from Satan’s bonds and enjoy blessing in Me; blessed are those who are able to forsake themselves, they will surely enter into My possession, and inherit My kingdom’s bounty. Those who run around for My sake I will commemorate, those who go to expense for My sake I will joyfully embrace, those who make offering to Me I will give enjoyments. Those who find enjoyment in My words I will bless; they will surely be the pillars that hold up the ridgepole in My kingdom, they will surely have matchless bounty in My house, and no one can compare with them. Have you ever accepted the blessings that you were given? Have you ever sought the promises that you were made? You will surely, under the guidance of My light, break through the stranglehold of the forces of darkness. You will surely not, in the midst of darkness, lose the light guiding you. You will surely be the master of all creation. You will surely be an overcomer before Satan. You will surely, at the downfall of the kingdom of the great red dragon, stand up amid the myriad throngs to bear witness to My victory. You will surely be resolute and unwavering in the land of Sinim. Through the sufferings you endure, you will inherit the blessing that comes from Me, and will surely irradiate all within the universe with My glory” (“The Nineteenth Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

Q&A About Why the True Way Is Persecuted-Question 4

Question 4: Under the rule of the CCP government, people can be arrested, persecuted, and even executed for accepting the true way! I don’t understand, why is the CCP so afraid of the work of Almighty God?

Answer: The CCP government is now going all over the country to fully suppress the Church of Almighty God, furiously hunting Christ and capturing and persecuting God’s chosen people. To believe in the true God and perform our duties in China indeed carries great dangers, but people in religious circles and unbelievers don’t understand: Why do we still believe in Almighty God when the government is persecuting and condemning us like this? It’s because Almighty God is the true God, the reappearance of the Redeemer. Only Almighty God can save us from Satan’s influence, set us free from sin, grant us a wonderful destination. In the final age, whether or not man believes in Almighty God will determine their ending, their fate. The Bible says, “the whole world lies in wickedness.” This means that the whole world is under Satan’s control, that all of mankind lives under Satan’s domain, corrupt to the core, with no likeness of humanity. The arrival of Almighty God in the last days is to save man from Satan’s influence, so they can truly return before God, achieve salvation, live out a true life, and receive a wonderful destination. That’s the meaning of our faith in Almighty God. Additionally, we also have to see through why the CCP hates Almighty God and suppresses and persecutes the Church of Almighty God. What is its purpose? Most people see it very clearly. The evil CCP is doing all it can to discredit, frame, and condemn the Church of Almighty God, wantonly arresting and persecuting God’s chosen people and attempting to make China a region without God, all so it can preserve its dark regime and forever control the Chinese people, sit on their heads and abuse its power. In the end, they will torment all Chinese people to death and pull them toward hell. The evil CCP is the most truth-hating, God-hating satanic regime. It knows now that Almighty God is the only One in the world who can express the truth, that He is currently performing His judgment, cleansing, and salvation work of the last days. Almighty God’s words have already been published on the Internet, so it can be sought and investigated by all mankind. The CCP devil is extremely terrified that once Almighty God’s words spread out among the people, all those who love the truth and justice will turn to Almighty God. Then its truth-hating, God-resisting demonic face will be thoroughly exposed in the light, and all of humanity will reject it, strike it down, trample it beneath their feet, letting it leave a stink for ten thousand years, so that it will never again have a place to stand in China, so that it will never again be able to corrupt and harm the people of the world. That is why the CCP extremely hates all the truth expressed by Almighty God, hates the Church of Almighty God, and does everything it can to prevent people from accepting the true way and turning to Almighty God. If we cannot see through Satan’s scheme, and continue to be deceived, bound, and controlled by the CCP, then we are foolish beyond salvation.