Bible Verses for Reference:
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour (1Pe 5:8).
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, Jehovah is my God (Zec 13:9).
Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him (Jas 1:12).
Relevant Words of God:
God works, God cares for a person, looks upon a person, and Satan dogs His every step. Whoever God favors, Satan also watches, trailing along behind. If God wants this person, Satan would do everything in its power to obstruct God, using various evil ways to tempt, harass and wreck the work God does in order to achieve its hidden objective. What is its objective? It does not want God to have anyone; it wants all those that God wants, to occupy them, control them, to take charge of them so they worship it, so they commit evil acts alongside it. Is this not Satan’s sinister motive? Normally, you often say that Satan is so evil, so bad, but have you seen it? You can only see how bad man is and have not seen in reality how bad Satan actually is. But have you seen it in this issue concerning Job? (Yes.) This issue has made Satan’s hideous countenance and its essence very clear. Satan is at war with God, trailing along behind Him. Its objective is to demolish all the work God wants to do, to occupy and control those whom God wants, to completely extinguish those whom God wants. If they are not extinguished, then they come to Satan’s possession to be used by it—this is its objective.
In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements, or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men, and the interference of men. Behind every step that God does in you is Satan’s wager with God—behind it all is a battle. … When God and Satan do battle in the spiritual realm, how should you satisfy God, and how should you stand firm in your testimony to Him? You should know that everything that happens to you is a great trial and the time when God needs you to bear testimony. Externally, they might not seem like a big deal, but when these things happen they show whether or not you love God. If you do, you will be able to stand firm in your testimony to Him, and if you have not put the love of Him into practice, this shows you are not someone who puts the truth into practice, that you are without the truth, and without life, that you are chaff! Everything that happens to people is when God needs them to stand firm in their testimony to Him. Nothing major has happened to you at the moment, and you do not bear great testimony, but every detail of your daily life relates to the testimony to God. If you can win the admiration of your brothers and sisters, your family members, and everyone around you; if, one day, the unbelievers come, and admire all that you do, and see that all that God does is wonderful, then you will have borne testimony.
from “Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
If many things come upon you that are not in line with your notions but you are able to put them aside and know God’s actions from these things, and in the midst of refinements you reveal your heart of love for God, this is standing witness. If your home is peaceful, you enjoy comforts of the flesh, no one is persecuting you, and your brothers and sisters in the church obey you, can you display your heart of love for God? Can this refine you? It is only through refinement that your love for God can be shown, and it is only through things occurring that are not in line with your conceptions that you can be perfected. It is through many negative things, many adversities that God perfects you. It is through many of Satan’s actions, accusations, and its expression in many people that God allows you to acquire knowledge, thus perfecting you.
from “Those Who Are to Be Made Perfect Must Undergo Refinement” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
As creatures, people should fulfill the duties that they ought to, and stand witness for God in the midst of refinement. In every trial they should uphold the witness that they should bear, and bear a resounding witness for God. This is an overcomer. No matter how God refines you, you remain full of confidence and never lose confidence in God. You do what man should do. This is what God requires of man, and man’s heart should be able to fully return to Him and turn toward Him at every single moment. This is an overcomer. Those who God refers to as overcomers are those who are still able to stand witness, maintain their confidence, and their devotion to God when under the influence of Satan and under siege by Satan, that is, when within the forces of darkness. If you are still able to maintain a heart of purity and your genuine love for God no matter what, you stand witness in front of God, and this is what God refers to as being an overcomer. If your pursuit is excellent when God blesses you, but you retreat without His blessings, is this purity? Since you are certain that this way is true, you must follow it until the end; you must maintain your devotion to God. Since you have seen that God Himself has come to the earth to perfect you, you should give your heart entirely to Him. No matter what He does, even if He determines an unfavorable outcome for you at the very end, you can still follow Him. This is maintaining your purity in front of God. Offering a holy spiritual body and a pure virgin to God means keeping a heart of sincerity in front of God. For mankind, sincerity is purity, and being able to be sincere toward God is maintaining purity. This is what you should put into practice. When you ought to pray, you pray; when you ought to gather together in fellowship, you do so; when you ought to sing hymns, you sing hymns; and when you ought to forsake the flesh, you forsake the flesh. When you perform your duty you do not muddle through it; when you are faced with trials you stand firm. This is devotion to God.
from “You Ought to Maintain Your Devotion to God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
The Man’s Fellowship:
For all the people who belong to the first group to have accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days, in all walks of life in all countries, you need to pursue the truth; God has given you a great commission. Those who have first accepted, and who first obtain the truth, certainly will be used by God, to water, to shepherd their own people, the chosen of God in their country. You first accept the work of Almighty God in the last days and if you in fact are pursuers of the truth, God will entrust you with a task, He will train you, and you will face trials; God will test your faith, to see how truly you believe, to see if you can be certain about God’s word, be certain about the appearance of God. For example, with some people, as soon as they believe, someone in their family falls ill; with others, when they believe, unbelievers rise up to persecute them and oppress them; with yet others, as soon as they believe, their family suffers a serious problem. “What is this? The true God comes, but as soon as I believe something bad happens, bad luck, a disaster? Is this really the true God?” Some people doubt, and don’t pray. Think about it, you believe in the true God, won’t the devils and Satan hate this? Will they just let it go? They will want to snatch you! They will create this or that sort of situation to create difficulties for you, to make you back off and leave Almighty God. … Because demons and Satan prowl everywhere seeking victims to devour, if you believe in Jesus they don’t respond to you, but if you believe in Almighty God this is critical in the spiritual world. This is an ideological war between the truth and falsehood! So when you face a trial do not doubt God; stand by your testimony. Everything is in the hands of God; all you have to do is stand by your faith.
from Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life, B7 Volume 131
During God’s work in the last days, even more trials befall man. Why does man have to encounter trials? It is because Satan has corrupted mankind. It wants to bear mankind away from God’s hands in order to destroy God’s management plan—this is Satan’s goal; God wants to save mankind, to take mankind back from Satan’s grasp, to make man complete, and to bring them back to God once again. In this way, the battle of the spiritual world seems unusually fierce. The focus of the battle is on man, so it appears normal for man to undergo trials as part of God’s work. God wants to save man, and Satan wants desperately to corrupt man and is unwilling to lose. So what can God do to save man? God must allow the temptations of Satan to befall man and, through the temptations of Satan, God exposes Satan’s deceptions and allows man to see through them, making them able to accept God’s words and to stand on the side of God so that they turn to God and obey God. Only in this way can corrupt mankind be truly saved; this is the way in which God saves mankind. Because God saves mankind in this way, as corrupt mankind accepts God’s work, they come across all manner of Satan’s temptations (that is, all manner of temptations that God permits to befall man), and this is normal, this is the natural order. Some people say: ‘Would it be okay if we didn’t have to encounter these temptations?’ Maybe some people cannot see through this matter and, for this, they need to thoroughly understand the facts about the battle of the spiritual world.
from “Sermons and Fellowship About God’s Word ‘God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself II’ (II)” in Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life (X)
You will encounter all kinds of trials. If you have not encountered any today, you shall encounter them tomorrow; if you shall not encounter any tomorrow, eventually you shall encounter them one day. In short, God requires that you encounter them. Why? There is no bearing of witness without trials. Your loyalty will not reveal itself if you have not been placed in tribulations, your true heart will not be revealed. Your true heart has to be revealed, your loyalty has to be revealed, your obedience also has to be revealed, and then this shall be the end. God demands such things from everyone. We are examined thus during the Age of Kingdom, we are examined thus when appearing before the seat of Christ, every one of us must pass this examination. If you do not pass this examination, if you should be captured by Satan at any stage and be imprinted with the “mark of the beast,” you will never be qualified to enter the kingdom of God. Because to accept Christ of the last days, to be taken up in front of God, this shall be the key moment to enter the kingdom, therefore we must encounter major battles and great tribulation. There will be many difficulties on this path to enter the kingdom, and it requires the offering of one’s life to reach the destination. In Revelation, look at those who believe in Almighty God, “These are they which follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Revelation 14:4), “of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” (Revelation 7:9), “These are they which came out of great tribulation” (Revelation 7:14). Look upon these words, they are all referring to those who believe in Almighty God. These people follow Christ without deviating one single step, they are loyal until their death; these are the overcomers.
from Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life, A6 Volume 132
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