These several fellowships have touched everyone greatly. Not until now have people truly felt God’s real existence and felt that God is really very near to man. Although people have believed in God for many years, they have never truly known about God’s mind and God’s thoughts as they do now, nor have they ever truly experienced God’s practical deeds as they do now. Whether in the aspect of knowledge or in the aspect of practice, most people have gained something new and got some heightened knowledge, realizing the errors in their former pursuit, realizing that their experience is too shallow and they are not after God’s heart in many aspects, and realizing that what they lack the most is the knowledge of God’s disposition. Such knowledge of theirs is only some perceptual knowledge. To upgrade it to rational knowledge, people have to deepen and improve it gradually in their experience. Before people truly know God, subjectively their heart believes in God’s existence. However, as to such specific issues as what kind of God God is, what God’s will is, what God’s disposition is like, what God’s attitude toward mankind is like, and so on, no one truly knows them. Thus their belief in God does not count for much, and it always falls short of purity or perfection. Even if you are face to face with God’s word or you have ever felt that you were face to face with God in your experience, it still cannot be said that you completely know God. Because you do not know God’s mind and do not know what God loves, what God hates, for what God is angry, or for what God is joyful, you do not have a true knowledge of God, and your belief is built upon vagueness, imagination, and subjective will and is still at a distance from the true belief and true following. Through my interpretation of these Bible stories, these cases, people can know God’s heart, know what God was thinking when doing each step of work and why he worked that way, know what was God’s original intention in doing it at that time and what his plan was, and know how God realized his thoughts and how he arranged and carried out his plan. Through these stories, we will know in a detailed and specific way God’s concrete will and his every true thought as well as his attitudes toward mankind in different periods and different ages during his six-thousand-year management work. When knowing what God was thinking in his heart, what God’s attitude was, and what disposition he expressed when he faced each thing, everyone can better sense God’s real existence and better feel God’s practicalness and realness. My purpose in telling these stories is not to let people learn about the history of the Bible or to let people familiarize the Bible verses and the biblical figures, much less to let people learn about some backgrounds of God’s working in the Age of the Law, but to let people know about God’s will, God’s disposition, and God’s bits and pieces, so that they will have a more real and accurate understanding and knowledge of God and thus their heart will be open to God and draw near to God bit by bit, and they can also further understand God, know God’s disposition, know God’s substance, and know the true God Godself.
The knowledge of God’s disposition and the knowledge of what God has and is can have a positive effect on people and help them have a greater faith in God and have a true obedience to and a true fear of God, so that they will not follow blindly or worship blindly. What God wants are not muddle-heads or crowd-followers, but a group of people who clearly know God’s disposition in their heart and can testify God and a group of people who will never leave or forsake God, because of God’s loveliness, what God has and is, and God’s righteous disposition. As a follower of God, if in your heart you are still very unclear, uncertain, and muddled about God’s real existence, God’s disposition, what God has and is, and God’s plan of saving mankind, then your belief cannot be approved by God. God does not like such people to follow him and does not like such people to come before him. Because they do not know God, they cannot give their heart to God, and their heart is closed to God. So their belief in God is full of mixtures, and their following God can only be said to be blind. Only if people have a true understanding and knowledge of God can they have a true belief and following. And at the same time, they will have a true obedience to and a true fear of God. Then, their heart will be given to God and be open to God. This is what God wants, because what they do and what they think can withstand God’s test and be a testimony for God. No matter whether I fellowship about the subject concerning God’s disposition or the subject concerning what God has and is or fellowship about the subject concerning God’s will and God’s mind and thoughts behind his doing each thing, and no matter from which aspect or which angle I fellowship about them, my purpose is to let people be more certain about God’s real existence, more truly know and feel God’s love for mankind, and more truly know and feel God’s concern for mankind and his sincerity in managing and saving man.
Today let us first make a summary about God’s mind and thoughts and God’s every act and move since the creation of mankind, and glance through what works God did from the creation of the world till the formal beginning of the Age of the Grace, so as to find what mind and thoughts of God are unknown to man. By this, we may organize the order of God’s management plan and thoroughly know about the background, the origin, and the course of development of God’s management work and thoroughly know about the results God desires to achieve in his management work, that is, the kernel and purpose of God’s management work. To know about these, we have to go back to that distant and soundless age when there was no mankind. …
When God got up from his bed, he had the first thought: to create a living being, a living man, who will live with him and be his companion, accompanying him at his side; such a living being can listen to his speaking and listen to his pouring out and can also talk with him. So God for the first time personally picked up a handful of dust and created with his own hands the first living being in his mind. And then he for the first time gave such a living creature a name—Adam. When he had such a living man, what was God’s heart like? He for the first time felt the joy of having a dear one and a companion, for the first time felt the responsibility of being a father, and for the first time felt a sense of concern. It was this living man who brought God pleasure and joy. He made God feel comfort for the first time. That was the first thing God did with his own hands, instead of by his thought, much less by his word. When such a living creature, a living man, stood before God, and when such a man who had bones and flesh and had form and image and who could talk with God stood before God, God felt for the first time the joy he never had before, and he truly felt his responsibility. His heart was concerned for such a living creature, while at the same time he was moved and warmed by this living being’s every act and move. Moreover, when such a living creature stood before God, God for the first time had the thought of gaining more men like him. This was a series of things that happened since God had the first thought. To God, this series of things were all for the first time. However, when he did the series of things for the first time, no matter whether he felt joy over them, felt responsibility, or had concern for man, there was no one to share it with him. From that moment on, God for the first time truly felt the loneliness and sorrow that he never had before. This was because he felt that his love and his concern as well as his will for man could not be accepted and understood by man. Therefore, he still felt sorrow and distress in his heart. Although he did a series of things for man, man did not know or understand. In his happiness, the joy and comfort man brought to him very soon made him feel for the first time the sorrow and loneliness he had never felt before. This was God’s feeling and God’s mind at that time. During the course of God’s doing this series of things, his heart turned from joyful to sorrowful and from sorrowful to distressed, mixed with anxiety. He just wanted to speed up his pace to more quickly make such a man, such a mankind, know his heart and understand his will as soon as possible and then be his follower and be a man of one heart and one mind with him, and no longer be one who only heard him speak but had no response or who did not know how to cooperate with him when he did things, much less be a mankind who remained indifferent when facing God’s requirements. The whole series of things God did at the very beginning was very meaningful and valuable to God’s management plan and to the mankind of today.
After God created all things and mankind, he did not stop his footsteps. He was eager to carry out his management and also eager to gain from among men the ones he loved.
Then, not long after God created mankind came the destruction of the world by the flood, which we see in the Bible. In the record of the destruction of the world by the flood, Noah was mentioned. It can be said that Noah was the first man called by God to cooperate with him in accomplishing a work of his. Of course, that was the first time God called a man to do a thing on earth as he commanded. After Noah built the ark, God for the first time destroyed the world by the flood. When God destroyed the world by the flood, it was the first time God, after creating mankind, extremely loathed them. Thus, he for the first time made up his mind in bitterness to destroy such a mankind by the flood. After destroying the world by the flood, God for the first time established a covenant with mankind, saying that he would never destroy the world by a flood again. And this covenant was made with the rainbow as its token. Since it was the first covenant God made with mankind, the rainbow was the first token of God’s establishing a covenant with man. There is a physical object existing for it. This physical object is the rainbow. It is the existence of this rainbow that causes God to often feel the pain of losing the last mankind, and it is also the existence of this rainbow that constantly reminds God of the thing which happened among the last mankind. … God did not want to slow his steps, and he was eager to go on with the next step of his management. After that, God chose Abraham to be the first man through whom to do his work in the whole land of Israel, and he was the first man God chose. God decided to begin his work of saving mankind on this man and to carry out his work among the descendants of this man. That was what God did on Abraham, which we see in the Bible. Following that, God for the first time chose Israel and carried out his work of the Age of the Law among the chosen people of Israel. And among the Israelites, God for the first time stipulated in plain terms and specified the decrees and ordinances man should keep, and for the first time prescribed in a detailed and standardized way how people should offer sacrifices, how they should live, what they should do, what they should not do, or what festivals and days or principles of doing things they should observe. That was the first time God made the decrees and principles of living for mankind in such a specific and standardized way.
Once “it was the first time” or “for the first time” is mentioned, it means that God had never done such works before. The works were unprecedented, and even though God had created mankind before and even though God had created various kinds of creatures and living things before, God had never done such works. All these works have to do with the work of God’s managing man, and they are works related to man and related to God’s saving mankind and managing mankind. After Abraham, God for the first time chose Job to be the one who under the law could fear God and shun evil and stand testimony even in satan’s temptations. That was the first time God allowed satan to tempt a man, and the first time God made a wager with satan and finally God for the first time gained a man who could stand testimony for God and bear testimony for God before satan and put satan to utter shame. He was the first man God gained after the creation of mankind who could testify God. After God gained such a man, God’s heart was more eager to continue his management, to do the next step of work he intended to do, and to prepare the people and place for the next step of his work.
After we have fellowshipped these, what do you truly know about God’s will? God considers the thing of managing mankind and saving mankind this time as more important than anything else. God did those things not just by his thought or by his word, much less did he do them casually. Rather, he has been doing all the things with his will in a planned, purposeful, and standardized way. It can be seen that the work of God’s saving mankind this time is of so great significance to God and to man. No matter how difficult this work is, no matter what great hindrances there are in doing this work, and no matter how weak mankind is and how disobedient mankind is, they are nothing difficult to God. God has been busying himself and has been spending his painstaking effort and price, managing the work he aims to do, arranging everything, and ruling over all the men he aims to work and all the works he aims to do. All this is unprecedented. God for the first time carries out a great project in such ways and at so much price to manage mankind and save mankind. While doing all the works, he expresses and releases to mankind his painstaking care and price, what he has and is, his wisdom and almightiness, and his disposition of various aspects bit by bit without any reserve. The expressions and release in these ways are also unprecedented. So, in the entire universe, except for the men God aims to manage and save, no created being has ever been so close to God, and no created being has so intimate a relationship with God. In God’s heart, the mankind he aims to manage and save is most important, and he considers such a mankind to be more important than anything else. Although he has paid a lot of price for such a mankind and although he has been constantly hurt and rebelled against by such a mankind, he has no complaint or regret and never leaves or forsakes man, but keeps doing his work without stopping, for he knows that one day sooner or later man will be awoken by the calling of his word, will be moved by his word, and will recognize that he is the Creator, thereby returning to him. …
After hearing these words today, you may feel that all this God does is very normal. All along man seems to have felt some of God’s will for mankind in God’s word and God’s work, but man’s feeling or some of his knowledge is always at some distance from what God thinks in his heart. So I think it is necessary to fellowship with everyone why God created mankind at that time and against what background God wanted to gain the mankind he expects. It is very necessary to tell all these to everyone, so that everyone can be clear about them and know them in his heart. God’s every idea and thought and his work in every phase and every period are related to his entire management work, very closely related, so if you know about God’s ideas and thoughts and God’s will in every step of work, it means that you know the origin of the work of God’s management plan. On this basis, you will have a deeper knowledge of God. Although all the things God did at the beginning of the creation of the world, which I mentioned above, are only some “messages” to man, and they seem to have nothing to do with man’s pursuit of the truth, yet when you experience to a certain day, you will think that these things I say are not so simple as to be one or two messages only or to be some mysteries only. When you grow in life, when you have some place for God in your heart, or when you have a clearer and deeper knowledge of God’s will, you will truly feel the importance and necessity of my speaking these words today. No matter to what extent you can understand now, it is necessary for you to know and understand these things. Whether God does things and works with his mind or with his own hands, for the first time or for the last time, he has his plan for it, and there are his purposes and his thoughts in it. These thoughts and purposes represent God’s disposition and also express what God has and is, and such disposition of God and what God has and is are what everyone must know. After knowing these, men will gradually understand why God has done so and why God has said so, so that they will have more faith to follow God and to pursue the truth and pursue the transformation of their disposition. Therefore, man’s knowledge of God and man’s faith in God, these two are inseparable.
Although what man hears or knows is God’s disposition and is what God has and is, what man gains is the life from God. Once such a life is wrought into you, you will have more and more fear of God, which is the result produced naturally. If you do not want to understand or know about God’s disposition and God’s substance, or you do not even want to ponder over or pay attention to these things, then I can say for sure that pursuing and believing in God in such a way as you do now, you can never satisfy God’s heart’s desire or be approved by God, much less be truly saved. This is the ultimate consequence. If man does not know God or understand God’s disposition, his heart will not truly be open to God. When man knows God, he will have the interest and faith to consider God’s heart and savor God’s heart. While you consider and savor God’s heart, step by step and little by little your heart will be open to God. When your heart is open to God, you will feel how shameful and contemptible your bargain with God, your demand on God, or your extravagant desires are. When your heart is truly open to God, you will see what a gigantic world God’s heart is, and meanwhile you will enter into a realm that you have never experienced. In this realm, there is no cheat, no craftiness, no darkness, and no evil, but only sincerity and faithfulness, light and uprightness, and righteousness and kindness. He is full of love and care, and full of mercy and tolerance; he makes you feel the happiness and joy of living. This is what God will reveal to you when your heart is open to God. This gigantic world is full of God’s wisdom, full of God’s almightiness, filled with God’s love, and filled with God’s authority. There you will see what God has and is in every aspect, and see for what God is pleased, for what God is worried, for what God is sorrowful, for what God gets angry…. These are what everyone can see who can open his heart and let God come in. Only when your heart is open to God can God enter into your heart; only when God enters into your heart can you see what God has and is and see God’s will for you. At that time, you will find that God’s everything is so precious and what God has and is is so worthy to be treasured by man, and by comparison, the people, matters, and things around you, even your relatives, your spouse, and the things you love, are so unworthy of being mentioned and are so insignificant and low to you. You will feel that no material thing can attract you anymore or cause you to pay any price for it anymore. You will see God’s loftiness and God’s supremacy in God’s humbleness, and even more you will see God’s infinite wisdom, see God’s tolerance, and see God’s patience, forbearance, and consideration for you in a thing done by God which you regarded as very small, and thus you will have adoration for God. When that day comes, you will feel that men live in so dirty a world, that both the people around you and the things going on around you, even the people you love, their love to you, and their so-called “protection” for you or concern for you, are unworthy of being mentioned, and that only God is your most beloved and is your priceless treasure. I believe on that day some people will say: God’s love is so great, God’s substance is so holy, God has no craftiness, no evil, no jealousy, and no strife, but only righteousness and only truthfulness, and all that God has and is is what man should thirst for and is what man should pursue and long for. On what basis can people achieve these? On the basis of man’s knowing God’s disposition and God’s substance. So, to know God’s disposition and know what God has and is is the lesson everyone has to learn in his whole life and is the goal everyone who pursues the transformation of his disposition and the knowledge of God has to pursue in his whole life.