Then, I read another passage of God’s word: “In fact, no matter how lofty man’s ideals are, no matter how realistic man’s desires are or how proper they may be, all that man wants to achieve, all that man seeks for is inextricably linked with two words. These two words are vitally important to the life of every person, and these are things Satan intends to instill in man. Which two words are these? One is ‘fame’ and one is ‘gain’: They are fame and gain. Satan uses a very subtle kind of way, a way very much in concert with people’s notions; it is not any kind of radical way. In the midst of unawareness, people come to accept Satan’s way of living, its rules of living, establishing life goals and their direction in life, and in doing so they also unknowingly come to have ideals in life. No matter how high-sounding these ideals in life seem, they are just a pretext that is inextricably linked to fame and gain. Any great or famous person, all people in fact, anything they follow in life relates only to these two words: ‘fame’ and ‘gain.’ Is this not so? (Yes.) People think that once they have fame and gain, they can then capitalize on them to enjoy high status and great wealth, and to enjoy life. Once they have fame and gain, they can then capitalize on them in their pleasure-seeking and unscrupulous enjoyment of the flesh. People willingly, albeit unknowingly, take their bodies, minds, all that they have, their futures and their destinies and hand them all over to Satan in order to attain the fame and gain they desire. People do this without ever a moment’s hesitation, ever ignorant of the need to recover it all. Can people still have any control over themselves once they go over to the side of Satan in this way and become loyal to it? Certainly not. They are completely and utterly controlled by Satan. They are also completely and utterly unable to free themselves from the quagmire they have sunk down into. … So Satan uses fame and gain to control man’s thoughts until all they can think of is fame and gain. They struggle for fame and gain, suffer hardships for fame and gain, endure humiliation for fame and gain, sacrifice everything they have for fame and gain, and they will make any judgment or decision to both maintain and obtain fame and gain. In this way, Satan binds man with invisible shackles. These shackles are borne on people’s bodies, and they have not the strength nor courage to throw them off. So people trudge ever onward in great difficulty, unknowingly bearing these shackles. For the sake of this fame and gain, mankind becomes estranged from God and betrays Him” (“God Himself, the Unique VI” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh).
These words of God made me understand this: The reason why I wanted to pursue greater wealth when I led a life comparatively rich in material comforts was that I was driven by “fame” and “gain.” The fame and gain are things from Satan. During the course of my learning knowledge in my childhood, in me were instilled the erroneous thoughts that “Man’s fate is controlled by his own hands” and “Let us build a beautiful homeland by our own hands.” So I established a wrong life goal when I was young. I have struggled for my ideal for decades. When I achieved a fair amount of success and won the admiration of many people, I was not contented with it. In order to win the admiration and adoration of more people, I frantically looked for opportunities to be the best of the best, dreaming that one day I would be in the limelight and attract the attention of all. But my investments brought financial ruin to me, which made me fall to the lowest point in my life. When I longed to receive help from my relatives and friends, they ruthlessly deserted me. The cruel reality broke my heart, and meanwhile compelled me to have a stronger and more determined desire to fulfill my wish in my future life. Yet the repeated struggles left me broken and bleeding, and exhausted in both body and mind. After I believed in God, thanks to God’s grace, my business became brisk, but I was greedy of gain. In order to further fulfill my ideal and win greater admiration of the world, I set up another company together with my former classmate. But I still ended up with bitter failure…. Did I not do all these in order to achieve success and win the admiration of others? Was I not pursuing my own fame and gain in doing so? For decades, I have regarded fame and gain as the only objective to strive toward in my life, and unknowingly I have sunk down into the quagmire of fame and gain step by step. I have been bound by the shackles of fame and gain and completely taken captive by Satan, so that I have resisted and betrayed God in all my words and deeds. Fame and gain are indeed traps Satan uses to entice man to become estranged from God and betray God.
At that moment, I felt very remorseful, and I couldn’t help but fall prostrate before God and prayed, “O Almighty God! I thank You for working on me this way today. Through Your words I came to realize that for so many years I have been actually driven by the erroneous thoughts of Satan and pursued fame and gain for others to think highly of, esteem, and look up to me. Your purpose in creating men was for them to live in harmony on earth, submit to the guidance of Your words, and live out the real likeness of man, to be equal without the distinction of high and low, but I have always pursued to stand high among people. O God! I am too arrogant. I have been corrupted so deeply by Satan that I am devoid of the conscience and sense of a normal man. O God! Now I only want to truly repent before You, and I don’t want to pursue to be the best of the best anymore. I only want to be a small creature and submit to Your sovereignty….” After the prayer, these words of God occurred to me: “… Those who seek to know God are able to set aside their desires, are willing to submit to God’s sovereignty and God’s arrangements; they try to be the kind of people who are submissive to God’s authority and satisfy God’s desire. Such people live in light, live in the midst of God’s blessings; they will surely be commended by God” (“God Himself, the Unique III” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words allowed me to understand that a man who is willing to seek to know God can give up the interests of his flesh, set aside his intentions and desires, accept God’s sovereignty, willingly submit to all of God’s arrangements, pursue to perform the duty of a created being properly, and live to satisfy God and bear witness to God. Only such a man is one after God’s heart and commended by God! After understanding God’s will, I began to conduct myself and do things in a down-to-earth manner, deal with my debts soberly, and face up to the crisis calmly. While doing so, I, under the guidance of God’s words, also made up my mind that I would never again walk my former way—raise fund to establish a new company in order to be exceedingly wealthy and illustrious.
Over a year later, because my company did not receive enough payments and faced many difficulties, I was overburdened. A good friend of mine, one of my former classmates, visited me, and he said, “You have so many debts now, and I feel worried for you. Now I have a way to make money. Be sure to seize this opportunity! One of my friends has a big sum of idle money in hand, and he is on good terms with some banks. As long as you agree to cooperate with us, we will go to the banks to grease the wheel. Within a few years, you will be able to pay off all your debts, and then you can gather in the profits of the two companies. When you have more money in your hand, you can also better expand your enterprise. …” I was somewhat swayed by his words, and thought, “My company is about to face bankruptcy for failing to repay the loans. If I cooperate with them, won’t I be able to come out of the crisis and again lead a life admired by others? If I miss this opportunity, my company may go bankrupt in the end for failing to repay the loans. In that case, won’t I have to live a poor life again?” But I then called to mind my past experience of struggling against my fate time and again and ending up with total failure every time because of not believing in God’s sovereignty. So I had to carefully consider before making a decision whether to cooperate with them or not. He added, “Do think it over these days. Success or failure hinges on the decision made in a moment. Be sure to seize this good opportunity!” These words reminded me. “Right! Success or failure hinges on the decision made in a moment. Wasn’t the reason I met with so many failures before because I didn’t believe in God’s sovereignty and chose to struggle against my fate? Isn’t the very reason why I am heavily in debt that I didn’t have God in my heart and did things according to my own will?” So I immediately came before God and prayed, “O Almighty God! There was Your good purpose in allowing my former classmate to visit me today. Faced with his persuasion, I was in a quandary about what to choose. O God, please guide me so that I can learn lessons in such an environment.” After the prayer, I felt somewhat peaceful in my heart. Then a passage of God’s word occurred to me: “If some of you are still dissatisfied with things as they stand, believing that you have some special skill or ability, and still thinking you can get lucky and change your present circumstances or else escape them; if you attempt to change your own fate by means of human effort, and thereby stand out from others and win fame and fortune; then I say to you, you are making things hard for yourself, you are only asking for trouble, you are digging your own grave! One day, sooner or later, you will discover that you made the wrong choice, that your efforts were wasted. Your ambition, your desire to struggle against fate, and your own egregious conduct, will lead you down a road of no return, and for this you will pay a bitter price” (“God Himself, the Unique III” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words made me suddenly see the light: My success or failure in career is not determined by my own ability, but by God’s ordination. Even if I try to draw on someone’s influence to resolve the crisis of my company and achieve success and win fame and fortune, my efforts will be wasted. For if one cannot submit to God’s sovereignty and ordination, whatever he does will not be commended by God. At that moment, I felt that God’s love and salvation for me were so real. When I was in a tight corner and faced with temptation, God reminded me promptly through a man around me, and when I prayed to God and asked Him to guide me, He guided me through His words so that I could understand His will and turn back in time. God is truly omnipotent, and He rules over and knows everything!
Afterward, I read these words of God: “As someone who is normal, and who pursues the love of God, entry into the kingdom to become one of the people of God is your true future, and a life that is of the utmost value and significance. No one is more blessed than you—and why do I say this? Because those who do not believe in God live for the flesh, and they live for Satan, but today you live for God, and live to carry out the will of God. That is why I say your lives are of the utmost significance. Only this group of people, who have been selected by God, are able to live out a life of the utmost significance: No one else on earth is able to live out a life of such value and meaning” (“Know the Newest Work of God and Follow the Footsteps of God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Having read these words, I felt extremely excited, as I finally came to understand this: A real man is a man who loves God, and a man such as this does not live for fame and fortune but lives for God. Thanks to God’s predestination and selection, I have come before God today. So I should no longer live to pursue fame and fortune according to the desires for material things, but should live to perform the duty of a creature. I should allow God to be the Lord of my life and arrange my life, should only desire to submit to God’s orchestration, and should pursue to love and satisfy God and become a man who truly worships God. This is a life of the utmost value and significance!
The next day, I resolutely picked up the phone and told my former classmate, “Thank you for your kindness! Though I am in great difficulty, I don’t want to take my old path again. I believe that all this shall pass.” When I had easily forgone all those things by relying on God, I saw God’s wonderful deed. Two months later, I must pay a debt of 500,000 yuan. After I brought this difficulty before God and prayed for it, my wife called me up and said, “One of our relatives learned about our present difficulty, and he insists on transferring 900,000 yuan into our account, for he received a large sum of money as the compensation for the demolition of his house. …” At the news, my eyes brimmed with tears. I truly felt God’s care and mercy for me at that moment. Later, several of my friends and former classmates came to ask me to cooperate with them. I refused all of them under the guidance of God’s words. When I satisfied God, I felt incomparably peaceful and secure. Also, I saw more of God’s wonderful deeds when I forwent all that by relying on God’s words. I truly experienced that God’s word is the truth, the way, and the life and is the lamp to light up man’s path in life!
In the past, although I was ignorant of God’s sovereignty all along, God never left me, and He protected me by my side all the time, so that I could come back to Him safely and know His almightiness and wisdom. In order to awake me, a man afflicted by fame and gain, God allowed me to encounter those people, events, and things; His purpose was for me, an obstinately rebellious son, to realize the truth and no longer be afflicted by Satan. If it had not been for God’s love and salvation for me, I wouldn’t have seen through my arrogant nature today. As I, who used to seek to be exceptional and above others, have experienced some of God’s work, my former wrong outlook on life has been corrected, and I have truly understood that when a man is alive, he should submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements and pursue the truth so that he can live out a meaningful life. In the remaining days, I will allow God to rule over every day of my life, and submit to whatever environment God arranges for me, and I will take His words as the principles of my actions, and be a man who fears God and shuns evil!
The End.
source from: Find the Shepherd
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