Eastern Lightning | I Have Finally Seen the Way of Being a True Person

I Have Finally Seen the Way of Being a True 

Person

Xiaoli Henan Province

  I Have Finally Seen the Way of Being a True Person

Since I was small, my desire for reputation was always very strong, and when I interacted with people I paid particular attention to my own image, my status in other people’s eyes, and their assessment of me. So I always allowed other people to have any convenience, any benefits, and I just buried difficulties or grievances in my heart. I didn’t express those things to anyone, and when other people experienced difficulties I would always think of ways to help them. So in my parents’ eyes, I was a good girl; I was a real delight. In my neighbors’ and friends’ eyes, I was warm and generous. After getting married, I also got along very well with my husband’s family. When my sister-in-law and brother-in-law found partners and got married, I was running around like crazy. I contributed both money and effort, and I shared the burden with my parents-in-law. Before long I had become the good daughter-in-law and the good big sister. In reality, at that time I was exhausted every day and I was worn out to my very core because I was always tiptoeing around to maintain my relationships with other people and taking care of everyone else’s feelings; I would monitor their expressions and then speak accordingly. I was afraid of hurting someone else and leaving them with a bad impression, and damaging my own reputation. After gaining these “good names,” in my heart I felt proud, and that the price I had paid was worth it. I felt that I was very successful as a human being. I frequently thought to myself: If someday I encounter any difficulties, my friends, family, and neighbors will definitely extend a helping hand to me and help me out of my troubles. But just as I was basking in my “accomplishments” as a human being, a disaster came out of nowhere—it completely destroyed my fantasy and changed my views.

Eastern Lightning | Spiritual Awakening of a “White Angel” (Part 1)

Spiritual Awakening of a “White Angel” (Part 1)

Miaoxiao

Introduction

I am a retired obstetrics and gynecology attending physician. Most of my life was spent in an overworked void. I racked my brains to pursue status, fame and fortune and was unscrupulous in my efforts to make money, busy rushing around for several decades. I even betrayed my own conscience and personality and lost my humanity and rationality, living without any meaning. Until one day when I read the word of Almighty God and saw the truth that I had been corrupted by Satan I gradually had a spiritual awakening….

Yearning for a Strong Pillar

I was born in the city of X. My father was a veteran cadre, honest and loyal, with no real power in his work place and my mother did not work. In 1972, when graduating from high school, I took universal examinations and after many selections, I was assigned to a large hospital in X city for training and studies. Here I discovered that opportunities for promotion are not determined by one’s medical ethics and skill, but depend upon one’s connections and money. Again and again I saw people around me obtain material benefits through their connections and no matter how well I worked, because I did not have money or connections, nothing good happened to me and I was always discriminated against by others. To this end, I did not feel good-tempered and I thought if only I could have a solid pillar, it would be much better and I would be able to bring about an upswing to my situation.

The Fame and Fortune Which a “Behind-the-scenes Backer” Brought Me

One time, I inadvertently heard my father mention to my mother that his friend had become vice mayor in our city. Suddenly my eyes lit up. It was an unmissable opportunity that would not occur again! I hurriedly asked my father about his family’s situation, thinking: My family also had a “behind-the-scenes backer” after all. I underhandedly set my aspirations that I must make my mark through this connection. So I recommended my dean to the deputy mayor and kept sending my dean some small gifts. Afterward, the dean gave me the green light and arranged many opportunities for me to show my talents. After all kinds of examinations and assessments, I became an obstetrics and gynecology physician with rich clinical experience and a certain reputation. In this way, for several consecutive years, I got the city merit award and the honorary title of the outstanding medical staff member and gave lectures in the technical personnel classes of many hospitals. This completely satisfied my vanity.

“Brainwashing” by Corporate Cheats

       In the past, I often thought that the hospital was a place to save lives and help the injured and that the profession of doctors was sacred. People called doctors “white angels.” But when I really became a doctor, once I had some understanding of the inside story of hospitals, I knew that this wasn’t in fact the case. There is infighting amongst doctors. It is a case of if you fight, I will struggle. They are all smiling tigers—outwardly kind, but inwardly cruel, privately attacking and excluding each other. Hospital management introduce pharmacists to the hospitals for profit. In addition, hospital management take a cut from them; even the Minister for Health and ministers from other industries send people selling drugs to the hospitals and the hospital management ask us to prescribe whichever drug has the highest cut. The most detestable thing is that they actually invite corporate crooks (people who do not understand medicine) to give us medical staff lectures. They taught us how to welcome and wave off people with smiles, deceitfully gain the trust of patients and their family and find ways and means to get patients’ money. They also asked us to do things which compromise our integrity, such as: invent an illness where there is none; treat a small illness as a big one; just use half the dose for infusions (but charge according to a full dose), because in this way, the patient’s illness will reduce, but will not get better as quickly and once the patient has spent almost all their money, the dosage that should be given can be used and in doing so, we can charge higher treatment and other fees. In short, they told us that we must steal all of the patient’s money and that this counts as being skilled. The cost of a day’s fees for these corporate cheats was as much as tens of thousands of yuan and the dean even referred to these liars’ absurd theories as industry secrets.

I Was Assimilated

After hearing this theory, at the time I felt very angry: Patients who have an illness are already suffering a lot. If we further “extort” money from them, then what will happen to them? I did not want to join them in their evil deeds doing such unconscionable things. But later I saw colleagues eating luxury food and wearing luxury clothes, who had bought cars and built buildings and who were living a high-quality lifestyle. I looked again at my meager monthly salary, which was just enough to cover living costs and felt somewhat unbalanced inside. This coupled with colleagues coming to see me personally to show me the way to enrich my family fortunes gradually distorted my outlook on life and I could not help joining the ranks of those “extorting” patients. Since then, I, like other doctors, prescribed large prescriptions and randomly prescribed drugs. At first, I still had some sense of conscience, but in the face of huge monetary profits, the little compassion I felt was all gone. Gradually, I became more and more fraudulent and learned how to size people up, making huge profits for the hospital and filling my pockets too. Money became my lifeblood and I saw patients as money. I made money for pleasure and enjoyment. At this time, I changed from a conscientious doctor into a ruthless “executioner.”

In addition to making bad money from the hospital, I also extended my reach to outside the hospital. From 1996, I spent my spare time visiting township hospitals seeing patients and even stole medical equipment from hospitals to carry out operations outside, like other doctors. In addition, I also abused my position to prescribe more drugs and took them to sell outside when practicing medicine. In this way, I was busy running around making money. My income from outside the hospital was three to four-times my normal salary. I was driven by interests for seven years. Not until SARS occurred in 2003 did I finally stop the external work.

Does Money Equal Happiness?

No longer visiting patients outside, my spare time increased. When the quiet of night came, I often asked myself: What has so many years of running around actually brought me? I always used to think that by having money, my family would be happy and safe, but actually this was not the case at all. Thinking back on my life so far, my husband saw I could make money and hadn’t worked for almost thirty years; he spent full days gambling in mahjong dens and also had an affair. He would usually return home at three or four in the morning and I was so angry that I would quarrel with him the whole day and even come to blows. After arguing, tears bathed my cheeks. My daughter saw that I could make money and from a young age, she was accustomed to eating well, wearing designer clothes and using luxury cosmetics. From a young age, she never cared about other people. When my daughter got married, I bought a new apartment for her and she later yearned for an apartment with an elevator and disliked the car that she drove and wanted to replace it for a new one…. My daughter and son-in-law desired more and more. When I could not meet their demands, they cursed me behind my back…. Is this really the life that I want? What has money actually brought me? Happiness? Security? Family happiness? None of these things! And all these years I had done so many unforgivable things and there was always a sense of fear in my heart, afraid that a medical incident would occur one day. These invisible pressures made me unable to breathe.

I do not know how many times I had sighed: O Heaven, what is the point of people living? What is the meaning of life? Surely I cannot be a money making machine? Money could only bring momentary happiness, but it could not bring me real happiness. It only brought me emptiness of the soul, a guilty conscience, degenerate humanity and family disharmony. I was living in a particularly painful and helpless way, but I was unable to rid myself of my endless desires and even less able to rid myself of the laws of survival of this evil society. I did not know which direction I would take, nor did I know how long I could prop myself up for. I felt particularly lonely and there was always an unprecedented sense of loss in my heart. I do not know how many times I wanted to find a place where there was no one else to cry….

God’s Gospel Arrives and My Soul Awakens

I do not know when my daughter started to believe in God, but one day she left a copy of a book, The Scroll Opened by the Lamb in my home. I picked it up and flicked through it and suddenly saw a passage: “There is an enormous secret in your heart. You never become aware of it because you have been living in a world without light shining. Your heart and your spirit have been taken away by the evil one. Your eyes are covered by darkness; you cannot see the sun in the sky, nor the twinkling star in the night. Your ears are clogged with deceptive words and you hear not the thunderous voice of Jehovah, nor the sound of the rushing waters from the throne. You have lost everything that should have belonged to you and everything that the Almighty bestowed upon you. You have entered an endless sea of bitterness, with no strength of a rescue, no hope of survival, left only to struggle and to bustle about…. From that moment, you are doomed to be afflicted by the evil one, kept far away from the blessings of the Almighty, out of reach of the provisions of the Almighty, and you embark on a road of no return. A million calls can hardly rouse your heart and your spirit. You sleep deeply in the hands of the evil one, who has lured you into the boundless realm, with no direction, with no road signs. Henceforth, you have lost your original purity, innocence, and started to hide from the care of the Almighty. The evil one steers your heart in every matter and becomes your life. You no longer fear him, no longer avoid him, no longer doubt him. Instead, you treat him as the God in your heart. You begin to enshrine him, worship him, be inseparable like a shadow of his, and mutually commit to each other in life and death.”

“The Almighty has mercy on these people who suffer deeply. At the same time, He is fed up with these people who have no consciousness, because He has to wait too long for the answer from humans. He desires to seek, seek your heart and your spirit. He wants to bring you food and water and to awaken you, so you are no longer thirsty, no longer hungry. When you are weary and when you begin to feel the desolation of this world, do not be perplexed, do not cry. Almighty God, the Watcher, will embrace your arrival any time. He is watching by your side, waiting for you to turn back. He is waiting for the day your memory suddenly recovers: becoming conscious of the fact that you came from God, somehow and somewhere once lost, falling unconscious on the roadside, and then, unknowingly having a father. You further realize that the Almighty has been watching there, awaiting your return all along. He longs bitterly, waiting for a response without an answer. His watching is priceless and is for the heart and the spirit of humans. Perhaps this watching is indefinite, and perhaps this watching is at its end. But you should know exactly where your heart and spirit are now” (“The Sighing of the Almighty” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

These words spoke of the pain in my heart and were full of God’s clarion call to me. These warm words comforted my heart and made me feel like I had found a father who had been lost for many years. I was moved to tears. I thought about this lifetime of striving for fame and fortune by any means and destroying my own conscience to make money. But when I got these things, my soul was empty and in pain, sad and helpless. I had taken so many risks to make money and my conscience had gone in my striving for profit. I lived more and more painfully and was often under high mental pressure, resulting in frequent insomnia at night. The many years of hard work had not brought happiness, but had been exchanged for a broken family and distrust from loved ones…. At this moment, holding the book in my hands, thinking back to the scenes of affliction that I have felt from this world, the tears flowed uncontrollably…. At that time, I suddenly remembered that this book was left by my daughter and hurriedly called my daughter and asked her to come and talk to me. My daughter came back and saw the book in my hands and my red eyes, it seemed like she knew what I was thinking and she said: “Mom, I know you are in a lot of pain. I can understand how you feel now. Believe in God. Only God can resolve all our pain. I have just started to believe in God too. I originally intended to read the word of God and understand some truths and then talk to you, but since you saw God’s words today, this is the time that God has prepared for us….” My daughter then shared with me God’s last days’ work. Through my daughter’s fellowship, I knew that God came in the last days to utter truths to save people, that is, to change people’s corrupt disposition, to completely save people from Satan’s afflictions and to let people live under God’s care and protection…. Thinking back to this period of time when my daughter had not asked for money from me and on the contrary, was more considerate and caring toward me, I saw that only God could make her change in this way and I was sure that this was the voice of the true God and happily accepted the last days’ work of Almighty God.

Eastern Lightning | I Found the True Light (Audio Essay)

I was born in a Catholic family. Since I was little, I attended Mass at church with my grandparents. Due to the influence of my environment and my belief in God, I learned to chant many different scriptures and practice various rituals.

Eastern Lightning | God’s Disposition Is Righteousness and, Even More, Love

God’s Disposition Is Righteousness and, Even More, Love

Fang Xin, Beijing

Ever since 2007, when I accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days, although I have appeared on the surface to be very busy fulfilling my duties, I have not given my heart to God, and have often felt bound to the point of suffocation by trifling family issues. Every time I think about the fact that my daughter is already thirty years old, yet still hasn’t found a suitable partner, I complain to God; my son only cares about having a good time, and despite not earning any money, he spends profligately, so I complain; and my own old spouse goes to work, but his foreman doesn’t pay him—and I complain about this as well…. I complain left and right, and often misunderstand God. It seems as though God has been overly unfair to me. As a result, I have been living in darkness and suffering. However, I have not known that I should seek God, and have been profoundly ignorant of how dangerous my state is. I have merely struggled helplessly amidst my suffering. Nevertheless, God knows my state inside out. He uses unique methods to call out to me and save me, causing me to awaken from dream and escape Satan’s harm and affliction.

The Secret to Saving a Marriage (Part 1) —Almighty God Saved My Marriage

The Secret to Saving a Marriage (Part 1) —Almighty God Saved My Marriage

Li Quan

 The Secret to Saving a Marriage (Part 1) —Almighty God Saved My Marriage

When I was young, my mom and dad often argued, and my mom frequently suffered beatings and abuse at the hands of my dad. She carried so much rancor in her heart that she died quite young. Thereafter I promised myself: When I grow up and start a family, I will be good to my wife and create a happy and peaceful family. I would not repeat the failures of my mother and father’s marriage.

The Secret to Saving a Marriage (Part 2) —Almighty God Saved My Marriage

The Secret to Saving a Marriage (Part 2) —Almighty God Saved My Marriage

Li Quan

 The Secret to Saving a Marriage (Part 2) —Almighty God Saved My Marriage

However, when I shared the gospel with my wife, she would not accept it. Then, I asked the brothers and sisters from the church to come and share the gospel with my wife, but she still wasn’t willing to listen and she didn’t want to have them as guests. In light of these circumstances, I could only entrust my eager hopes for my wife to God. One day, I read this passage of God’s word: “Your practice and revelations in real life are the testimony of God, they are man’s living out and the testimony of God, and this is truly enjoying God’s love; when you have experienced to this point, the due effect will have been achieved. You are possessed of actual living out and your every action is looked upon with admiration by others. Your appearance is unremarkable, but you live out a life of the utmost piety, … admired by others—and these are the people who have testimony, and are the manifestation of God” (“Those Who Love God Will Forever Live Within His Light” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “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” (“Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s word had shown me the road I needed to take, and that was that one must use God’s word to change one’s old disposition and change one’s own depraved lifestyle. The only way for me to witness God and for me to bring my wife benefit and edification was that I let her see these changes in me and see the work God has done upon me. I thought back to the time before I had faith in God when I lived a life based on Satan’s rules. I had been preoccupied with hedonism and acting arrogant to make my wife wait on me. I was so out of touch I wasn’t being how a person should be. It was all the demonic image of Satan who had harmed my wife and children so much. Now, my wife harbored resentment against me and had this set idea that I needed to make allowances for her. What’s more, I had faith in God now and I had to conduct myself based on God’s word and live like a genuine person. I should live out the reality of the truth to testify God.

Eastern Lightning | My Life Principles Left Me Damaged

My Life Principles Left Me Damaged

Changkai Benxi City, Liaoning Province

The common phrase “All lay loads on the willing horse” is one with which I am all too personally familiar. My husband and I were all particularly guileless people: When it came to matters that involved our own personal benefit or loss, we weren’t the type to haggle and fuss with others. Where we could be forbearing we were forbearing, where we could be accommodating we also did our best to be accommodating. As a result, we often found ourselves cheated and abused by others. It really seemed that in life, “All lay loads on the willing horse”—if you have too much kindness in your heart, if you’re too accommodating and modest in your affairs, you’re very liable to be cheated. With these thoughts in mind, I resolved to not subject myself to all this abuse and live in frustration anymore: In future matters and in dealings with others, I vow not to be too accommodating. Even after I accepted Almighty God’s work, I still applied this principle in conducting my behavior and interactions with others.