135-B-4 Sermons and Fellowship About God’s Word “It Is Very Important to Establish a Normal Relationship With God” (IV)

What kind of process is it when people establish a normal relationship with God? First of all, we are certain that it is a process in which one obtains the work of the Holy Spirit. This process may continue for one, two, or three years, but once someone obtains the work of the Holy Spirit, what does this indicate? It means that henceforth they have entered into the right track of belief in God. Can these words be accepted? One comes to establish a normal relationship with God through prayer, reading God’s word and communing with God. If the relationship with God reaches a state of being normal, and if one has true communion with God, one will be able to obtain the work of the Holy Spirit. This way of obtaining the work of the Holy Spirit is not something occasional, and even more so is not a one-time thing, but happens when you frequently obtain the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit in the word of God. There is always the guidance, enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit in everything that you do, which allows you to understand and to see into how these things were arranged and dictated by God. You’ll say, “Oh, God is guiding me and is doing things for me in secret. I know that God wants to save me and that I am beloved by God.” If you discover this mystery in your experience, how great peace and joy you have! Isn’t this joy so much greater than when you come across a hundred dollars? People who have already had this feeling in their experience, raise your hands. There are several of the new believers, and these are the ones who truly believe in God.

135-B-1 Sermons and Fellowship About God’s Word “It Is Very Important to Establish a Normal Relationship With God” (IV)

Let’s start our meeting. Let’s first read a passage of God’s word, “It Is Very Important to Establish a Normal Relationship With God.”

“People believe in God, love God, and satisfy God by touching the Spirit of God with their heart, thereby obtaining the satisfaction of God; and when engaging with God’s words with their heart, they are therefore moved by the Spirit of God. If you wish to achieve a normal spiritual life and establish a normal relationship with God, you must first give your heart to God, and quiet your heart before God. Only after you have poured your whole heart into God can you gradually have a normal spiritual life. If, in their belief in God, people do not give their heart to God, if their heart is not in God, and they do not treat God’s burden as their own, then everything they do is cheating God, and is the actions of religious people, unable to receive God’s praise. God cannot get anything from this kind of person; this kind of person can only serve as a foil to God’s work, like a decoration in the house of God, filling the seats and taking up space, and is a good-for-nothing—God does not use this kind of person. In such a person, not only is there no opportunity for the work of the Holy Spirit, there is even more so no value of perfection; this type of person is the real “walking dead”—they have no components that can be used by the Holy Spirit—they have all been appropriated by Satan, corrupted to the extreme by Satan, who are the object of God’s elimination. Currently the Holy Spirit is not only using people by putting their virtues into play, but also perfecting and changing their shortcomings. If your heart can be poured into God, and keep quiet before God, then you will have the chance, the qualifications, to be used by the Holy Spirit, to receive the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit, and you will even more so have the opportunity for the Holy Spirit to make up for your shortcomings. When you give your heart to God, you can enter more deeply on the positive side, and be on a higher plane of understanding; on the negative side, you will have more understanding of your own faults and shortcomings, you will be more eager to seek to satisfy God’s will, and in a non-passive state, you will actively enter, and this will mean that you are a correct person. On the premise that your heart is calm before God, the key of whether or not you receive praise from the Holy Spirit, whether or not you please God, is whether you can actively enter. When the Holy Spirit enlightens a person, uses a person, it never makes him negative, and always makes him positive and eager to progress. Even though he has weaknesses, he is able to not live according to them, he is able to refrain from delaying his life growth, and he is able to continue to seek to satisfy God’s will. This is a standard which sufficiently proves that a person has obtained the presence of the Holy Spirit. If a person is always negative, and even after being enlightened to know himself, is still negative and passive, unable to stand up and act in concert with God, then this type of person just receives the grace of God, but the Holy Spirit is not with him. When a person is negative, this means that his heart has not turned to God, his spirit has not been touched by God’s Spirit, and this should be recognized by all.

136-A-6 Sermons and Fellowship About God’s Word “In Your Faith in God You Should Obey God” (I)

     Let’s go on reading God’s word: “If your motivations are not for the sake of obedience to God, and you have other aims, then all that you say and do—your prayers before God, and even your every action—will be in opposition to God. You may be soft-spoken and mild-mannered, your every action and expression may look right, you may appear to be one who obeys, but when it comes to your motivations and your views about faith in God, everything you do is in opposition to God, and evil.” God’s words are the truth. Each sentence conveys a facet of the truth, all the way from the first word to the last. These words of God are clearly spoken. Some people are soft-spoken and mild-mannered, and their every action and expression might seem right to others, and they might seem to be obedient to God, yet God’s word says, “but when it comes to your motivations and your views about faith in God, everything you do is in opposition to God, and evil.” In the eyes of God, these people are all evil-doers. On what basis does God determine that a person’s actions are evil? Does He base His reasoning on whether or not a person appears soft-spoken and mild-mannered? Does He judge whether a person’s behaviors are evil based on what people can see from the outside? Of course not. God makes His decision based on a person’s motivations and his views about faith in God! God’s word is the truth. Does this make sense now? People in the religious world think that they preach, cast out demons, and perform many miracles all in the name of the Lord.

135-B-3 Sermons and Fellowship About God’s Word “It Is Very Important to Establish a Normal Relationship With God” (IV)

Above, we have mentioned a total of six kinds of people. Each of them has a different method of believing in God that constitutes a relationship with God that is not normal. This has now been defined. Now, when it comes to these six types of people, regardless of how many years they have believed in God, are they able to obtain the Holy Spirit’s work? Can they enter the kingdom of heaven? We all say that they cannot. They cannot obtain the Holy Spirit’s work but they still want to enter the kingdom of heaven. Isn’t this delusional? Therefore, if you believe in God but you are unable to obtain the Holy Spirit’s work, then all is empty talk, you will not be able to obtain anything. This sentence is very accurate! Now, why do we need to establish a normal relationship with God? It is so that we can obtain the Holy Spirit’s work, obtain the truth in order to achieve an understanding of God and become perfected by God. Once we become perfected by God, we will become people who truly obey and worship God and we will obtain God’s promise. Now, if we have this kind of intention and this kind of goal, would we be able to establish a normal relationship with God? If our intentions are correct, then our goals can be achieved. Since our intentions are correct, we will be able to receive God’s blessings. When we receive God’s blessings, the Holy Spirit will start working on us. Isn’t this the case?

136-A-5 Sermons and Fellowship About God’s Word “In Your Faith in God You Should Obey God” (I)

Let’s continue communicating. “If your motivations are truly thus, then God will surely raise you up, and will surely be gracious toward you. No one can doubt this.” If man is truly motivated to obey God, seek the truth, thirst for God’s words, eat and drink God’s words and put God’s words into practice, then God will raise him up! “Then God will surely raise you up and will surely be gracious toward you.” Have we experienced the way in which God raises us up and treats us with grace? Sometimes God raises us up and gives us the opportunity to perform some duties. He treats us with grace when He puts us in important positions to fulfill duties. He allows us to be people with responsibilities, group leaders, people who take the initiative and people who take the lead. This is God raising us up and treating us with grace. Another way of saying this is that God lets us encounter bigger environments, obtain the truth, experience deeper breaking and greater discipline, obtain more truth and obey Him more. These are all examples of God raising us up and treating us with grace. Does everyone understand what I said? Are there any people who think like this, “If the duties I fulfill are more and more important, don’t I have to endure more and more dealings? Isn’t the bitterness that I have to suffer even greater?” Are there people who think these thoughts? There are definitely people who think like this.

135-B-2 Sermons and Fellowship About God’s Word “It Is Very Important to Establish a Normal Relationship With God” (IV)

Let’s start this fellowship now. “It Is Very Important to Establish a Normal Relationship With God.” We have communicated this piece of God’s word three times. I’m not sure if the majority of brothers and sisters have much of a grasp or understanding of these words of God. Perhaps someone will say, “Why are we still talking about this piece of God’s word? If we believe in God, then just let us believe. Why must we establish a normal relationship with God?” These are the thoughts of some new believers. So we must continue our fellowship to make it clear. Why is it that having faith in God involves establishing a normal relationship with God? This is a subject that every believer must understand clearly in their hearts. We are all clear about how the Lord Jesus did redemption work during the Age of Grace. He was nailed on the cross and died for us. We received the Lord Jesus’ salvation, and our sins were forgiven before we started to pray to God and had a connection with God. Who opened up the road to having a connection with God? It was God who personally established this path when He became flesh during the Age of Grace. If we hadn’t had Jesus’ redemption, would we sinners have had the qualifications to pray to God? Would we be qualified to have a connection with God? Perhaps someone will ask, “Now, if we believe in God and pray to God, God will forgive our sins. We are able to offer ourselves to God and expend for God. Isn’t that all there is to this? Why is it that we still need to establish a normal relationship with God?” Would you say that there is a mystery here? There is a mystery here inside. There is truth that must be sought. You will need to figure it out, “God, what is the importance of establishing a normal relationship with You? I still do not understand. From the Age of Grace until now, we have been praying like this for 2,000 years and You did not say these things. Why do You say these things now during the last days? What kind of meaning is there to this? Where is the mystery? God, may You enlighten and illuminate me.” This is a truth-seeking prayer. After you have finished reading God’s words, you must understand God’s intentions. Why does He require us believers to establish a normal relationship with Him? There is meaning to this! The things that God does, the requirements He has of man, the things He must accomplish, all of these are the most meaningful of matters. Let’s look back at Adam and Eve. In the Garden of Eden, what was it that caused them to leave God? Someone said, “It was because of Satan’s corruption that God chased them out of the Garden of Eden.” Now, why is it that man got corrupted by Satan? What is the reason that man got corrupted by Satan? It is because man did not have an understanding of God and did not have the truth. If we have the truth and we understand God, would Satan be able to corrupt us? Why is Satan unable to corrupt Christ? It is because Christ is the truth and He cannot be corrupted. Satan’s evil teachings and fallacies can confuse mankind but they cannot confuse Christ. Isn’t this the case? What is the end result that we want to achieve through establishing a normal relationship with God? We want to achieve an understanding of the truth and of God. If we understand the truth and God, would Satan be able to corrupt us? Would we be confused by all the different kinds of evil teachings and fallacies of this wicked world? Would all the different kinds of poison of the great red dragon poison us? It cannot poison us. Why is this? It is because we understand God, we have the truth as our life. This is how we can thoroughly distance ourselves from Satan’s influence and be completely obtained by God.