Classic Words on How to Rely on and Look Up to God
56. Almighty God, the Head of all things, wields His kingly power from His throne. He rules over the universe and all things and He is guiding us on the whole earth. We shall often be close to Him, and come before Him in quietness; never shall we miss a single moment, and there are things to learn at all times. The environment around us as well as the people, matters and objects, all are permitted by His throne. Do not have a complaining heart, or God will not bestow His grace upon you.
from “The Sixth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
57. The life of the resurrected Christ is within us. We really lack faith in the presence of God, and may God put true faith within us. The word of God is sweet indeed! God’s word is potent medicine! Put to shame the devil and Satan! If we grasp God’s word we will have support and His word will quickly save our hearts! It dispels all things and sets all in peace.
58. You should know that all things in the environment around you are there by My permission, I arrange it all. See clearly and satisfy My heart in the environment I have given to you. Do not fear, Almighty God of hosts will surely be with you; He has your back and He is your Shield.
from “The Twenty-sixth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
59. Almighty God dominates all things and events! So long as our hearts look up to Him at all times and we enter into the spirit and associate with Him, then He will show us all the things we seek and His will is sure to be revealed to us; our hearts will then be in joy and peace, steady with perfect clarity. It is crucial to be able to act according to His words; being able to grasp His will and living in dependence on His words—only this is true experience.
from “The Seventh Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
60. It’s very simple now: Look upon Me with your heart and your spirit will immediately become strong, you will have a path to follow and I will guide your every step. My word shall be revealed to you at all times and in all places. No matter where or when, or how adverse the environment is, I will show you clearly and My heart shall be revealed to you if you look to Me with your heart; this way[a] you will run down the road ahead and never lose your way.
from “The Thirteenth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
61. You must now listen carefully and heed My words, fellowship more with Me and get closer to Me. I will teach you about anything you don’t understand, and I will lead you on the onward path. Don’t pay much attention to fellowshiping with other people as there are now many who preach letters and doctrines, and too few who genuinely possess My reality. Listening to their fellowship will make you confused and numb, not knowing how to progress. Even though you listen to them, you only end up understanding a little more about letters and doctrines. You must watch your step, protect your heart and live always before Me, communicate with Me, get close to Me and I will let you see that which you don’t understand. You must watch what you say, keep a close eye on your heart at all times and walk the path I walk.
from “The Twenty-sixth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
62. It is not that your faith is good or pure, but rather, My work is wondrous! Everything is due to My mercy! You must not have the slightest corrupt disposition of selfishness or arrogance, otherwise My work on you will not progress. You must understand clearly that whether men fall or stand strong is not because of them, it is because of Me. Today, if you do not clearly understand this step, you will fall short of entering the kingdom! You must understand that what is being done[b] today is the wondrous work of God; it has nothing to do with man. What do the actions of man count for? When they aren’t being selfish, arrogant, and prideful, they are interrupting God’s management and destroying His plans. Oh, the corrupt ones! You must come to rely on Me today; if you do not, today I shall tell you that you will never achieve anything! All shall be in vain and your undertakings shall be worthless!
from “The Thirty-eighth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
63. You must be proactive in cooperating with Me; be diligent and never lazy. Always be in fellowship with Me and have deeper intimacy with Me. If you do not understand, do not be impatient for quick results. It’s not that I won’t tell you; I want to see if you rely on Me when you are in My presence and whether you depend on Me with confidence. You must always remain close to Me and place all matters in My hands. Do not go back in vain. After unknowingly being close to Me for a period of time, My intentions shall be revealed to you. If you grasp them, then you will truly be face-to-face with Me, and you will have truly found My face. You will be quite clear and steady within and you will have something to rely on, and you will also have power as well as confidence. You will also have a path forward and everything will come easy to you.
from “The Ninth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
64. Have no scruples, don’t be disheartened or weak. Directly fellowship more with Me in your spirit, wait patiently and I will surely reveal to you according to My time. You really, absolutely must take care and not let My effort be wasted on you, and don’t lose a moment. When your heart is in constant fellowship with Me, when your heart lives constantly before Me, then no one and nothing, no husband, no son or daughter can disturb your fellowship with Me within your heart. When your heart is constantly restricted by the Holy Spirit and when you are fellowshiping with Me at every moment, My will will then surely be revealed to you. When you are constantly getting close to Me in this way, regardless of your surroundings or what occasion you are at, then you will not become muddled no matter who or what you encounter, and you will have a way forward.
from “The Eighth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
65. How should you live before God today? How should you cooperate actively with Me? Get rid of your own conceptions, dissect yourself, take off your masks, clearly see your own true colors, loathe yourself, have a heart that searches with a hunger and a thirst for righteousness, believe that you yourself genuinely amount to nothing, be willing to relinquish yourself, be able to stop all your ways of doing things, quiet yourself before Me, offer up prayers more, lean on Me sincerely, look up to Me, and do not stop getting close to Me and fellowshiping with Me—this is key. People often get caught up in themselves and are not before God.
from “The Fourteenth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
66. Regardless of how many truths people understand, how many duties they do, how many things they experience while performing their duties, no matter how great or small their stature is or what their personal environment is like, something that they cannot be without is looking to God and relying on God in all things; this is the greatest wisdom.
from “Young People Should See Through the Evil Trends of the World” in Records of Christ’s Talks
67. No matter what you do, you should first understand why you are actually doing it and what the nature of the matter is. If it is categorized as fulfilling your duty, then you should ponder: How should I do this? How should I fulfill my duty well so that I am not doing it perfunctorily? This is a matter in which you should draw close to God. Drawing close to God is seeking the truth in this matter, it is seeking the way to practice, it is seeking the will of God, and it is seeking how to satisfy God. These are the methods for drawing close to God while doing things; it is not performing a religious ceremony or an outward action; it is done for the purpose of practicing in accordance with the truth after seeking God’s will. If you always say “Thank God” when you are not doing anything, but when you are doing something, you still do it according to your own will, this type of thanks is an outward action. When fulfilling your duty or working on something, you should always think: How should I fulfill this duty? What is God’s intention? Through matters, you draw close to God, and through drawing close to God, you seek the principles and truths to do things, you seek God’s will from within and do not leave God in all that you do. This is a person who truly believes in God.
from “Seeking God’s Will and Putting Truth Into Practice to the Greatest Extent Possible” in Records of Christ’s Talks
68. When you encounter difficulties, hurry up and pray to God: “O God! I wish to satisfy You, I wish to endure the final hardship to satisfy Your heart, and regardless of how great the setbacks I encounter, still I must satisfy You. Even if I have to give up my whole life, still I must satisfy You!” With this resolve, when you pray thus you will be able to stand firm in your testimony. Each time they put the truth into practice, each time they undergo refinement, each time they are tried, and each time God’s work comes upon them, people endure extreme pain. All of this is a test for people, and so within all of them there is a battle. This is the actual price that they pay.
from “Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
69. For example, when you encounter some issue, you don’t know how the truth relevant to this issue should be practiced or how it should be applied. So what should you do at times like these? No matter how much practical experience you have, you cannot be in possession of the truth in all situations. No matter how many years you have believed in God, how many things you have experienced, how much pruning and dealing you have experienced or how much disciplining you have experienced, are you the source of the truth? Some people say: “I know the book The Word Appears in the Flesh by heart, and can memorize those well-known words and passages. I don’t need to rely on God or look to God. When the time comes, I will be fine just relying on these words of God.” Those words are static, yet the environments people encounter and their states are dynamic. Isn’t that the case? Having a grasp of the literal words does not amount to an understanding of the truth. Nor does having a grasp of the literal words amount to you completely understanding God’s will in every situation. So there is a very important lesson to be learned here. What is this lesson? It is that people need to look to God in all things and, by looking to God, they achieve a reliance on God. Only by relying on God do people have a path to follow. Otherwise, they can do something correctly and in conformity with the principles of the truth, but if they don’t rely on God, then what they do is just man’s deed, and it does not necessarily satisfy God. Because people receive the truth in such a shallow way, they are likely to follow rules and cling obstinately to letters and doctrines by using the same truth when facing different situations. Many matters are completed generally in conformity with the principles of the truth, but God’s guidance is not present, nor is the work of the Holy Spirit. There is a serious problem here, which is that people do many things in dependence on their experience and the rules they have understood, and on some human imagination. They can barely achieve the very best result, which comes through understanding God’s will by them looking to God and praying to God, and then through relying on God’s work and guidance. So I say: The greatest wisdom is to look to God and rely on God in all things.
from “Young People Should See Through the Evil Trends of the World” in Records of Christ’s Talks
70. When you look to God, it’s possible that He doesn’t give you any feeling or any clear ideas, much less any clear directions, but He allows you to understand something. Or maybe this time you haven’t understood anything, but is it then right to look to God? Is it wrong? No, it isn’t wrong. People practicing in this way is not done to follow rules, but rather it is the needs of their hearts and is how man should practice. It’s not that you can obtain enlightenment and guidance every time you look to God and call on God. The spiritual states in life are normal and natural and looking to God is people’s normal contact with God in their hearts.
Sometimes, looking to God doesn’t mean speaking clearly when people pray to God for something, or for God to guide them in some way, or for God to protect them; rather it is that, when they encounter some issue, they are able to call on Him sincerely. So, what is God doing there? When someone’s heart stirs, and they have this idea: “Oh God, I can’t do this myself, I don’t know how to do it, and I feel weak and negative,” when these thoughts arise in them, does God not know about it? When these thoughts arise in man, are people’s hearts sincere? When they call on God sincerely in this way, does God assent to help them? Despite the fact that they may not have spoken a word, they show sincerity, and so God assents to help them. When someone encounters an especially thorny difficulty, when they have no one to turn to, when they feel especially helpless, they trust in God as their only hope. What are their prayers like? What is their state of mind? Is it sincere? Do they have any mixed purpose at that time? When you trust God as though He were the last straw that you clutch onto to save your life, when you hope God will help you, only then is your heart sincere. Though you may not have said much, your heart has already stirred. That is, you give your true heart, your sincere heart to God, and God listens. When God listens, He sees your difficulties, and He guides you, enlightens you and helps you. … So when looking to God you should possess a certain heart and be in a certain state. What kind of state? Your heart should at the very least be sincere, not perfunctory, and you must stir your heart, not just move your lips. If you just say some words in a perfunctory manner, but your heart is not stirred, then this means that you have already had a plan, that you just notify God of what you are about to do and you will do it whether He gives you His consent or not, and that by doing this you are just going through the motions. This will only bring trouble.
People spend most of their time living in an unconscious state. They don’t know whether it’s right to rely on God or on themselves. Then most of the time they choose to rely on themselves, to rely on the beneficial conditions and environments around them, as well as the people, events and things around them that are beneficial to them. This is what people are best at. What people are worst at is relying on God and looking to God, because they feel that looking to God is too much bother. They can’t see Him or feel Him, and they feel it is vague and not realistic to do so. So people perform the worst with this lesson, and their entry into it is the shallowest.
from “Young People Should See Through the Evil Trends of the World” in Records of Christ’s Talks
71. If you don’t learn how to look to God and rely on God, you will never see the work God does on you, or the guidance and enlightenment He gives to you. If you can’t see these things, then the matter of whether or not God exists, whether or not He guides everything in the life of mankind will, in the depths of your heart, end with a question mark and not with a period or exclamation mark. “Does God guide everything in the life of mankind?” “Does God observe the depths of man’s heart?” This will be troublesome. For what reason do you make this a question and add a question mark? If you do not truly rely on God or look to Him, you will not be able to generate a true belief in God. If you can’t generate a true belief in God, then the question marks will forever be there with everything God does, and there will be no periods.
from “Young People Should See Through the Evil Trends of the World” in Records of Christ’s Talks
72. If you rely on your knowledge and ability in your undertakings, then you shall always be a failure, and shall always be bereft of the blessings of God, because God accepts nothing that you do, and He does not grant that your career is a righteous one, or accept that you are working for the benefit of mankind. He will say that everything you do, is to use the knowledge and strength of mankind to divest man of the protection of God, and to deny the blessings of God. He will say that you are leading mankind toward darkness, toward death, and toward the start of an existence without limits in which man has lost God and His blessing.
from “God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Footnotes:
a. The original text omits “this way.”
b. The original text omits “what is being done.”
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