God Himself, the Unique I God’s Authority (I)

God Himself, the Unique I

God’s Authority (I)

My last several fellowships were about God’s work, God’s disposition, and God Himself. After hearing these fellowships, do you feel that you have gained an understanding and knowledge of God’s disposition? How great of an understanding and knowledge?Can you put a number to it? Did these fellowships give you a deeper understanding of God?

Could it be said that this understanding is a true knowledge of God? Could it be said that this knowledge and understanding of God is a knowledge of the entire substance of God, and all that He has and is? No, obviously not! That is because these fellowships only provided an understanding of part of God’s disposition, and what He has and is—not all of it, or the entirety of it. The fellowships enabled you to understand part of the work once done by God, through which you beheld the disposition of God, and what He has and is, as well as the approach and thinking behind everything that He has done. But this is only a literal, spoken understanding of God, and, in your hearts, you remain uncertain about how much of it is real. What mainly determines whether there is any reality to people’s understanding of such things? It is determined by how much of God’s words and disposition they have truly experienced during their actual experiences, and how much they have been able to see and know during these actual experiences. “The last several fellowships allowed us to understand the things done by God, the thoughts of God, and, moreover, God’s attitude toward mankind and the basis of His actions, as well as the principles of His actions. And so we have come to understand the disposition of God, and have known the entirety of God.” Has anyone said such words? Is it right to say this? It clearly isn’t. And why do I say that it isn’t? God’s disposition, and what He has and is, are expressed in the things that He has done and the words He has spoken. Man is able to behold what God has and is through the work that He has done and the words that He has spoken, but this is only to say that the work and words enable man to understand a part of God’s disposition, and a part of what He has and is. If man wishes to gain a more plentiful and profound understanding of God, then man must experience more of God’s words and work. Although man only gains a partial understanding of God when experiencing part of God’s words or work, does this partial understanding represent God’s true disposition? Does it represent the substance of God? Of course it represents the true disposition of God, and the substance of God, of that there is no doubt. Regardless of the time or place, or in what manner God does His work, or in what form He appears to man, or in what way He expresses His will, all that He reveals and expresses represents God Himself, God’s substance and what He has and is. God carries out His work with what He has and is, and in His true identity; this is absolutely true. Yet, today, people only have a partial understanding of God through His words, and through what they hear when they listen to the preaching, and so to a certain extent, this understanding can only be said to be a theoretical knowledge. In view of your actual states, you can only verify the understanding or knowledge of God that you have heard, seen, or known and understood in your heart today if each of you goes through this in your actual experiences, and comes to know it bit by bit. If I did not fellowship these words with you, would you be able to achieve true knowledge of God solely through your experiences? To do so, I’m afraid, would be very difficult. That is because people must first have the words of God in order to know how to experience. However many of God’s words people eat, such is the number that they can actually experience. God’s words lead the path ahead, and guide man in his experience. In short, for those who have some true experience, these last several fellowships will help them achieve a deeper understanding of the truth, and a more realistic knowledge of God. But for those who don’t have any true experience, or who have only just begun their experience, or have only just begun to touch upon the reality, this is a great test.

The main content of the last several fellowships concerned “God’s disposition, God’s work, and God Himself.” What did you see in the key and central parts of everything that I spoke of? Through these fellowships, are you able to recognize that He who did the work, and revealed these dispositions, is the unique God Himself, who holds sovereignty over all things? If your answer is yes, then what leads you to such a conclusion? Through what aspects do you reach this conclusion? Can anyone tell Me? I know that the last fellowships affected you deeply, and provided a new start in your hearts for your knowledge of God, which is great. But although you have made a great leap in your understanding of God compared to before, your definition of God’s identity has yet to progress beyond the names of Jehovah God of the Age of Law, the Lord Jesus of the Age of Grace, and Almighty God of the Age of Kingdom. Which is to say that, although these fellowships about “God’s disposition, God’s work, and God Himself” gave you some understanding of the words once spoken by God, and the work once done by God, and the being and possessions once revealed by God, you are incapable of providing a true definition and accurate orientation of the word “God.” Neither do you have a true and accurate orientation and knowledge of the status and identity of God Himself, which is to say, of the status of God among all things and throughout the entire universe. That is because, in the previous fellowships about God Himself and God’s disposition, all the content was based on God’s previous expressions and revelations that are recorded in the Bible. Yet it is difficult for man to discover the being and possessions that are revealed and expressed by God during, or outside of, His management and salvation of mankind. So, even if you understand God’s being and possessions that were revealed in the work He once did, your definition of God’s identity and status is still a long way from that of the unique God, the One who holds sovereignty over all things, and is different from that of the Creator. The last several fellowships made everyone feel the same way: How could man know the thoughts of God? If someone really were to know, then that person would most certainly be God, for only God Himself knows His own thoughts, and only God Himself knows the basis and approach behind everything that He does. It seems rational and logical for you to recognize God’s identity in such a way, but who can tell from the disposition and work of God that this really is the work of God Himself, and not the work of man, work which cannot be done on God’s behalf by man? Who can see that this work falls under the sovereignty of the One who has the substance and power of God? Which is to say, through what characteristics or substance do you recognize that He is God Himself, who has the identity of God, and is the One who holds sovereignty over all things? Have you ever thought about that? If you haven’t, then this proves one fact: The last several fellowships have only given you some understanding of the piece of history in which God did His work, and of God’s approach, manifestation, and revelations during that work. Although such understanding makes each of you recognize beyond doubt that the One who carried out these two stages of work is the God Himself whom you believe in and follow, and the One whom you must always follow, you are still incapable of recognizing that He is the God who has existed since the creation of the world, and who shall exist for eternity, nor are you able to recognize that He is the One who leads and holds sovereignty over all mankind. You’ve surely never thought about this problem. Be it Jehovah or the Lord Jesus, through which aspects of the substance and manifestation are you able to recognize that not only is He the God whom you must follow, but also the One who commands mankind and holds sovereignty over the fate of mankind, who is, moreover, the unique God Himself who holds sovereignty over the heavens and earth and all things? Through which channels do you recognize that the One whom you believe in and follow is God Himself who holds sovereignty over all things? Through which channels do you connect the God you believe in to the God who holds sovereignty over the fate of mankind? What allows you to recognize that the God you believe in is the unique God Himself, who is in heaven and on earth, and among all things? This is the problem that I shall solve in the next section.

The problems that you have never thought about or cannot think of could well be those which are most crucial to knowing God, and in which can be sought truths unfathomable to man. When these problems come upon you, and must be faced by you, and require you to make a choice, if you are unable to fully resolve them because of your foolishness and ignorance, or because your experiences are too superficial and you lack a true knowledge of God, then they shall become the greatest obstacle and the greatest hindrance on the path of your belief in God. And so I feel it is highly necessary to fellowship with you regarding this subject. Do you know what your problem is now? Are you clear about the problems I speak of? Are these the problems that you shall face? Are they the problems that you don’t understand? Are they the problems that have never occurred to you? Are these problems important to you? Are they really problems? This matter is a source of great confusion to you, which shows that you don’t have a true understanding of the God whom you believe in, and that you don’t take Him seriously. Some people say, “I know He is God, and so I follow Him, because His words are the expression of God. That is enough. What more proof is needed? Surely we don’t need to raise doubts about God? Surely we aren’t supposed to test God? Surely we don’t need to question God’s substance and the identity of God Himself?” Regardless of whether you think in this way, I do not put forward such questions in order to make you confused about God, or to make you test Him, much less to give you doubts about God’s identity and substance. Rather, I do so to encourage in you a greater understanding of God’s substance, and a greater certainty and faith about God’s status, so that God may become the only One in the heart of all those who follow God, and so that the original status of God—as the Creator, the Ruler of all things, the unique God Himself—may be restored in the hearts of every creature. This is also the theme I’m going to fellowship about.