At that time when Jesus worked in Judea, He did so openly, but now, I work and speak among you in secret. The unbelievers are completely unaware of it. My work among you is isolated from others. These words, these chastisements and judgments, are known only to all of you and no other. All of this work is carried out among you and opened up only to you; none of those unbelievers knows this, for the time has not yet come. These men are near to being made complete after enduring chastisements, but those on the outside know nothing of this. This work is much too hidden!
To them, God become flesh is secretive, but to those in this stream, He can be considered to be open. Although in God all is open, all is revealed and all is released, this is only true with those who believe in Him, and nothing is made known to those unbelievers. The work being carried out here now is strictly isolated to keep them from knowing. Should they become aware, all that awaits is condemnation and persecution. They will not believe. To work in the nation of the great red dragon, the most backward of places, is no easy task. If this work was to be made known, then it would be impossible to continue. This stage of work simply cannot progress in this place. How could they tolerate it if such work were carried out openly? Would this not bring even greater risk? If this work were not concealed, and rather continued as in the time of Jesus when He spectacularly healed the sick and cast out demons, then would it not have long ago been “seized” by the devils? Could they tolerate the existence of God? If I were to now enter into the halls to preach and lecture man, then would I not have long ago been dashed to pieces? And if so, how then could My work continue to be carried out? The reason that signs and wonders are not manifested openly is for the sake of concealment. So My work can neither be seen, known or discovered by unbelievers. If this stage of work were to be done in the same manner as that of Jesus in the Age of Grace, it could not be so steady. So, the work to be concealed in this way is of benefit to you and to all work. When God’s work on earth comes to an end, that is, when this work in secret concludes, this stage of work will blow wide open. All will know that there are a group of overcomers in China; all will know that God become flesh is in China and that His work has come to an end. Only then will it dawn on man: Why is it that China has yet to show decline or collapse? It turns out that God is personally carrying out His work in China and has perfected a group of people into overcomers.
God become flesh only manifests Himself to some people who follow Him as He personally carries out His work, and not to all creatures. He became flesh only to complete a stage of work, not to show man His image. However, His work must be carried out by Himself, thus it is necessary for Him to do so in the flesh. When this work concludes, He will depart from earth; He cannot remain for the long term among mankind for fear of standing in the way of work to come. What He manifests to the multitude is only His righteous disposition and all His deeds, and not the image of His body when He twice became flesh, for the image of God can only be shown through His disposition, and not replaced by the image of His incarnate flesh. The image of His flesh is only shown to a limited number of people, only to those who follow Him as He works in the flesh. This is why the work being carried out now is done so in secret. It is just as Jesus only showed Himself to the Jews when He did His work, and never publicly shown to other nations. Thus, once He completed His work, He promptly departed from man and did not stay; in the time that followed, He did not manifest the image of Himself to man, but rather the work was carried out directly by the Holy Spirit. Once the work of God become flesh completely finishes, He departs from the mortal world, and never again does work similar to that from the time when He was in flesh. The work that follows is all done by the Holy Spirit directly. During this time, man would hardly be able to see His image in flesh; He does not show Himself to man at all, and forever remains hidden. There is limited time for the work of God become flesh, which must be carried out in a specific age, time, nation and among specific people. Such work represents only the work during the time of God become flesh, and is particular to the age, representing the work of the Spirit of God in one particular age, and not the entirety of His work. Therefore, the image of God become flesh will not be shown to all peoples. What is shown to the multitude is the righteousness of God and His disposition in its entirety, rather than His image when He twice became flesh. It is neither the single image that is shown to man, nor the two images combined. Therefore, it is imperative that God’s incarnate flesh depart the earth on completion of the work that He needs to do, for He comes only to do the work He ought to do, and not to show people His image. Though the significance of incarnation has already been fulfilled by God twice becoming flesh, still He will not openly manifest Himself to any nation who has never before seen Him. Jesus will never again show Himself to the Jews as the Sun of righteousness, nor will He ascend the Mount of Olives and appear to all peoples; all the Jews see is the picture of Him during His time in Judea. This is because the work of Jesus become flesh long ended two thousand years ago; He will not return to Judea in His previous image, much less show His image from that time in any Gentile nations, for the image of Jesus become flesh is merely the image of a Jew, and not the image of the Son of man that John had seen. Though Jesus promised His followers that He would come again, He will not simply show Himself in the image of a Jew to all those in Gentile nations. You ought to know that the work of God become flesh is to open up an age. This work is limited to a few years, and He cannot accomplish all the work of the Spirit of God. This is identical to how the image of Jesus as a Jew can represent only the image of God as He worked in Judea, and He could only do the work of crucifixion. During the time Jesus was in flesh, He could not do the work of bringing an age to an end or destroying mankind. Therefore, after He had been crucified and concluded His work, He ascended on high and forever concealed Himself from man. From then on, those faithful believers in Gentile nations could see only the picture of Him that they pasted to the walls, and not the manifestation of the Lord Jesus. This picture is but one drawn by man, and not the image that God Himself showed to man. God will not openly show Himself to the multitude in the image from when He twice became flesh. The work He does among mankind is to allow them to understand His disposition. This is all accomplished by showing man through the work of the different ages, as well as the disposition He has made known and the work that He has done, rather than through the manifestation of Jesus. That is to say, the image of God is not made known to man through the incarnate image, but rather through the work carried out by the incarnate God of image and form; and through His (Her) work, His image is shown and His disposition is made known. This is the significance of the work He wishes to do in the flesh.
Once the work when He twice became flesh comes to an end, He begins to show His righteous disposition across the Gentile nations, allowing the multitude to see His image. He wishes to manifest His disposition, and through this make clear the end of the various kinds of man, thereby bringing the old age entirely to an end. His work in the flesh does not extend a great expanse (just as Jesus worked only in Judea, and today I work only among you) because His work in the flesh has boundaries and limits. He is merely carrying out a short period of work in the image of an ordinary and normal flesh, instead of doing the work of eternity or doing the work of appearing to all the peoples of Gentile nations through this incarnate flesh. This work in the flesh must be limited in scope (such as working only in Judea or only among you), then expanded on through the work carried out within these boundaries. Of course, the work of such expansion is carried out by His Spirit directly and would not be the work of His incarnate flesh. For the work in the flesh has boundaries and does not extend to all corners of the universe. This, it cannot accomplish. Through the work in the flesh, His Spirit carries out the work that follows. So, the work done in the flesh is one of initiation carried out within boundaries; His Spirit subsequently carries on with this work, and expands on it.
God comes to this earth only to do the work of leading the age; to open up a new age and bring the old to an end. He has not come to live out the course of a man’s life on earth, to experience for Himself the joys and sorrows of life as a man, or to perfect a certain person by His hand or personally watch someone as he grows. This is not His work; His work is merely to open up the new age and bring an end to the old. That is, He will open up an age, bring the other to an end, and defeat Satan by carrying out work in person. Each time He carries out work in person, it is as if He is putting a foot onto the battleground. In the flesh, He first defeats the world and prevails over Satan; He gains all glory and raises the curtains on the work of all two thousand years, giving all man on earth the right path to follow, and a life of peace and joy. However, God cannot live with man on earth for long, for God is God, and unlike man after all. He cannot live the lifetime of a normal man, that is, He cannot reside on earth as a man that is nothing out of the ordinary, for He has only a minimal part of the normal humanity of ordinary men to sustain His life as such. In other words, how could God start a family and raise children on earth? Would this not be a disgrace? He possesses the normal humanity only for the purpose of carrying out work in a normal manner, not to enable Him to start a family as an ordinary man would. His normal sense, normal mind, and the normal feeding and attire of His flesh are sufficient to prove He has a normal humanity; there is no need for Him to start a family to prove that He is furnished of a normal humanity. This is completely unnecessary! God comes to earth, meaning the Word becomes flesh; He is simply allowing man to understand His word and to see His word, that is, allowing man to see the work carried out by the flesh. His intention is not for people to treat His flesh in a certain way, but only for man to be obedient to the end, that is, to obey all words that issue forth from His mouth, and to submit to all the work that He does. He is merely working in the flesh, not intentionally asking for man to exalt the greatness and holiness of His flesh. He is simply showing man the wisdom of His work and all the authority He wields. Therefore, even though He has an outstanding humanity, He makes no announcements, and focuses only on the work that He should do. You should know why it is that God became flesh yet does not boast of or testify to His normal humanity, and instead simply carries out the work that He wishes to do. This is why you see only the being of divinity in God become flesh, simply because He never proclaims His being of humanity for man to emulate. Only when man leads man does he speak of his being of humanity, so that he can achieve leadership of others through impressing and convincing them. In contrast, God conquers man through His work alone (that is, work unattainable to man). He does not impress man or make all mankind adore Him, but simply instills in man a feeling of reverence for Him or makes man aware of His inscrutability. There is no need for God to impress man. All He needs is for you to revere Him once you have witnessed His disposition. The work God does is His own; it cannot be done by man in His stead, nor can it be accomplished by man. Only God Himself can do His own work and usher in a new age to lead man into new lives. The work He does is to enable man to receive a new life and enter a new age. All the other work is handed over to those men of normal humanity and who are admired by others. Therefore, in the Age of Grace, He completed the work of two thousand years in just three and a half years during His thirty-three years in the flesh. When God come to earth carries out His work, He always completes the work of two thousand years or of an entire age in just a few brief years. He wastes no time, and He does not delay; He simply condenses the work of many years so that it is completed in just a few short years. This is because the work He does in person is simply to open up a new way out and to lead the new age.
From : The Word Appears in the Flesh
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