Relevant Words of God:
What internal state of people do trials aim at? They are aimed at their rebellious disposition which cannot satisfy God. People have a lot of adulterated things and hypocritical elements inside. Therefore, God needs to try man, and uses such trials to cleanse man. …
… God’s true love is God’s whole disposition, and when God’s whole disposition is made manifest to you, what does this bring to your flesh? When God’s righteous disposition is made manifest to you, your flesh must undergo much suffering. Without this suffering, you cannot be perfected by God, nor can you offer true love to God. For God to perfect you, His whole disposition must be made manifest to you. From the creation of the world until now, God’s disposition has never been entirely revealed to people, but in the last days God reveals His whole disposition to this group of people He has predestined and chosen. Moreover, God reveals His disposition through perfecting people, thereby making complete a group of people. This is God’s true love for man. To experience God’s true love for man requires people to experience enormous suffering and pay a high price before they can finally be gained by God, before they can finally return true love to God, and before God’s heart can be satisfied. To be perfected by God, carry out God’s will, and to completely offer true love to God, people must experience much suffering and many torments from the circumstances, to be taken within an inch of one’s life, before eventually they can all but return their true hearts to God. Whether or not a person has true love for God is revealed during the course of suffering and refinement. God purifies people’s love also through suffering and refinement.
from “Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Faced with man’s state and his attitude toward God, God has done new work, allowing man to possess both knowledge of and obedience toward Him, and both love and testimony. Thus, man must experience God’s refinement of him, as well as His judgment, dealing and pruning of him, without which man would never know God, and would never be capable of truly loving and bearing witness to Him. God’s refinement of man is not merely for the sake of a one-sided effect, but for the sake of a multi-faceted effect. Only in this way does God do the work of refinement in those who are willing to seek the truth, in order that man’s resolve and love are made perfect by God. To those who are willing to seek the truth, and who yearn for God, nothing is more meaningful, or of greater assistance, than refinement such as this. God’s disposition is not so easily known or understood by man, for God, in the end, is God. At the end of the day, it is impossible for God to have the same disposition as man, and thus it is not easy for man to know His disposition. The truth is not inherently possessed by man, and is not easily understood by those who have been corrupted by Satan; man is devoid of the truth, and devoid of the resolve to put the truth into practice, and if he does not suffer, and is not refined or judged, then his resolve will never be made perfect. For all people, refinement is excruciating, and very difficult to accept—yet it is during refinement that God makes plain His righteous disposition to man, and makes public His requirements for man, and provides more enlightenment, and more actual pruning and dealing; through the comparison between the facts and the truth, He gives man a greater knowledge of himself and the truth, and gives man a greater understanding of God’s will, thus allowing man to have a truer and purer love of God. Such are God’s aims in carrying out refinement. All the work that God does in man has its own aims and significance; God does not do meaningless work, nor does He do work that is without benefit to man. Refinement does not mean removing people from before God, nor does it mean destroying them in hell. It means changing man’s disposition during refinement, changing his motivations, his old views, changing his love for God, and changing his whole life. Refinement is a real test of man, and a form of real training, and only during refinement can his love serve its inherent function.
from “Only by Experiencing Refinement Can Man Truly Love God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
God can perfect man in both positive and negative aspects. It depends on whether you are able to experience, and on whether you pursue being made perfect by God. If you truly seek being made perfect by God, then the negative cannot take anything from you, but can bring you things that are more real, and can make you more able to know that which is lacking within you, more able to come to grips with your real state, and see that man has nothing, and is nothing; if you do not experience trials, you do not know this, and will always feel that you are above others and better than everyone else. Through all this you will see that all that came before was done by God and protected by God. Entry into trials leaves you without love or faith, you lack prayer, and are unable to sing hymns—and, without realizing it, in the midst of this you come to know yourself. God has many means of making man perfect. He employs all manner of environments to deal with the corrupt disposition of man, and uses various things to lay man bare; in one regard He deals with man, in another He lays man bare, and in another He reveals man, digging out and revealing the “mysteries” in the depths of man’s heart, and showing man his nature by revealing many of his states. God makes man perfect through many methods—through revelation, dealing, refinement, and chastisement—so that man may know that God is practical.
from “Only Those Who Focus on Practice Can Be Made Perfect” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
No matter what part of God’s work it is, all is unfathomable to man. Were you able to fathom it, then God’s work would be without significance or value. The work done by God is unfathomable, it is too at odds with your conceptions, and the more irreconcilable it is with your conceptions, the more it proves that God’s work is meaningful; were it compatible with your conceptions, then it would be without meaning. Today, you feel that God’s work is too wondrous, and the more wondrous it is, the more you feel that God is unfathomable, and you see how great are God’s deeds. If it only took some perfunctory work to conquer man, after which this work was finished, then man would be incapable of beholding the significance of God’s work. Although you have received a little refinement today, it is of great benefit to the growth of your life—and so such hardship is of the utmost necessity to you. Today, you have received a little refinement, but afterward you will truly be able to behold the deeds of God, and ultimately you will say: “God’s deeds are so wondrous!” Such will be the words in your heart. Having experienced God’s refinement for a while (service-doers and the times of chastisement), some people ultimately said: “Believing in God is really difficult!” This “difficult” shows that God’s deeds are unfathomable, that God’s work is possessed of great meaning and value, and highly worthy of being treasured by man. If, after I have done so much work, you had not the slightest knowledge, then could My work still have value? I will make you say: Service to God is really difficult, the deeds of God are so wondrous, God truly is wise! He’s so lovely! If, after experiencing for a while, you are able to say such words, then this proves that you have gained God’s work in you.
from “Those Who Are to Be Made Perfect Must Undergo Refinement” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
When God works to refine man, man suffers, his love of God becomes greater, and the more of God’s power is made plain in man. The less man’s refinement, the less his love of God, and the less God’s power is made plain in him. The greater his refinement and pain and the more his torment, the deeper his true love and faith toward God, and the deeper his knowledge of God. In your experiences you will see that those who suffer great refinement and pain, and much dealing and discipline, have a deep love of God, and a more profound and insightful knowledge of God. Those who have not experienced any dealing have but a superficial knowledge, and can only say: “God is so good, He gives people graces so that they can enjoy Him.” If people have experienced dealing and discipline, then they would be able to speak the true knowledge of God. So the more wondrous is God’s work in man, the more valuable and significant it is; the more impenetrable it is to you and the more incompatible it is with your conceptions, the more God’s work is able to conquer you, gain you, and make you perfect. The meaning of God’s work is so great! If He did not refine man in this way, if He did not work by this means, then God’s work would be ineffectual and without significance. This is the reason behind the extraordinary meaning of His selection of a group of people during the last days. Previously, it was said that God would choose and gain this group. The greater the work He carries out within you, the deeper and purer your love, and the greater the work of God, the more man is able to appreciate His wisdom and the deeper is man’s knowledge of Him.
from “Those Who Are to Be Made Perfect Must Undergo Refinement” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
