The Experiences of Peter: His Knowledge of Chastisement and Judgment

When he was being chastised by God, Peter prayed, “O God! My flesh is disobedient, and You chastise me and judge me. I rejoice in Your chastisement and judgment, and even if You do not want me, in Your judgment I behold Your holy and righteous disposition. When You judge me, so that others may behold Your righteous disposition in Your judgment, I feel content. I only wish that Your disposition may be shown forth so that Your righteous disposition may be seen by all creatures, and that I can love You more purely through Your judgment and attain the likeness of one who is righteous. This judgment of Yours is good, for such is Your gracious will. I know that there is still much in me that is rebellious, and that I am still not fit to come before You. I wish for You to judge me even more, whether through a hostile environment or great tribulations; no matter what You do, to me it is precious. Your love is so profound, and I am willing to lay myself at Your mercy without the slightest complaint.” This is Peter’s knowledge after he experienced the work of God, and is also a testimony to his love of God. Today, you have already been conquered—but how is this conquest expressed in you? Some people say, “My conquest is the supreme grace and exaltation of God. Only now do I realize that the life of man is hollow and without significance. Man spends his life rushing about, producing and raising generation after generation of children, and is ultimately left with nothing.

Only by Experiencing Refinement Can Man Truly Love God

How should man love God during refinement? Having experienced refinement, during refinement people are able to truly praise God and to see just how much they are lacking. The greater your refinement, the more you are able to renounce the flesh; the greater their refinement, the more people’s love for God. This is what you should understand. Why must people be refined? What effect does it aim to achieve? What is the significance of God’s work of refinement in man? If you truly seek God, then having experienced His refinement to a certain point you will feel that it is so good, and that it is of the utmost necessity. How should man love God during refinement? By using the resolve to love God to accept His refinement: During refinement you are tormented inside, as if a knife were being twisted in your heart, yet you are willing to satisfy God using your heart, which loves Him, and you are unwilling to care for the flesh. This is what is meant by practicing the love of God.

Know the Newest Work of God and Follow the Footsteps of God

Now, you are to pursue becoming the people of God, and shall begin the entire entry onto the right track. To be the people of God means entry into the Age of Kingdom. Today, you officially begin to enter into the training of the kingdom, and your future lives shall cease to be as slack and sloppy as they were before; such lives are incapable of attaining the standards required by God. If you do not feel any urgency, then this shows that you have no desire to improve yourself, that your pursuit is muddled and confused, and you are incapable of fulfilling God’s will. Entry into the training of the kingdom means beginning the life of the people of God—are you willing to accept such training? Are you willing to feel a sense of urgency? Are you willing to live under God’s discipline? Are you willing to live under God’s chastisement? When God’s words come upon you and test you, how will you act? And what will you do when faced with all manner of facts? In the past, your focus was not on life; today, you must enter into the reality of life, and pursue changes in your life disposition. This is what must be achieved by the people of the kingdom. All those who are the people of God must possess life, they must accept the training of the kingdom, and pursue changes in their life disposition. This is what God requires of the people of the kingdom.

Concerning the Practice of Prayer

You pay no attention to prayer in your daily life. People have always overlooked prayer. In their prayers before they were simply going through the motions and playing around, and no one has ever fully given their heart before God and truly prayed to God. People only pray to God when something happens to them. Throughout all this time, have you ever truly prayed to God? Have you ever wept tears of pain before God? Have you ever come to know yourself before God? Have you ever had a heart-to-heart prayer with God? Praying is practiced gradually: If you don’t ordinarily pray at home, then you will have no way of praying in church, and if you don’t normally pray during small assemblies, then you will be incapable of praying during large assemblies. If you do not ordinarily draw near to God or reflect upon the words of God, then you will have nothing to say when it is time to pray—and even if you do pray, you’ll just be paying lip service; you won’t be truly praying.

Eastern Lightning | How to Know Reality

God is a practical God: All of His work is practical, all of the words He speaks are practical, and all of the truths He expresses are practical. Everything that is not His words is vacuous, non-existent, and unsound. Today, the Holy Spirit is to guide people into the words of God. If people are to pursue entry into reality, then they must seek reality, and know reality, after which they must experience reality, and live out reality. The more that people know reality, the more they are able to tell whether the words of others are real; the more people know reality, the fewer conceptions they have; the more people experience reality, the more they know the deeds of the God of reality, and the easier it is for them to break free from their corrupt, satanic dispositions; the more reality people have, the more they know God, and the more they detest the flesh and love the truth; and the more reality people have, the closer they come to the standards of God’s requirements.