Principles for Interacting With God

Which principles should one possess for interacting with God? The first is to be pure and open, and to be able to tell God about one’s own wrongdoings, transgressions and true understanding of oneself. Man is bare and open before God at all times. Remember, all of God’s created beings are bare and open before Him. You may hide, but in God’s presence, all is bare and open and God sees clearly, does He not? Being able to tell God about one’s own wrongdoings, transgressions and true understanding of oneself is the most truthful and the most critical stage of interacting with God. This is the meaning of entrusting oneself to God. When you have entrusted yourself to God, you tell God all about whatever difficulties you have faced today, whatever transgressions you have had and your understanding of your own corrupt essence. Then isn’t your interaction with God truthful? It is truthful. So the first and most basic principle of interaction with God is to be pure and open and to tell Him about one’s own wrongdoings, transgressions and true understanding of oneself. This must be put into practice before God. Do you do this now? Are your prayers and interactions with God pure and open? If you do not do this, then the principles of practice you have before God are wrong and you do not possess the principles of an honest person. If you are not an honest person before God, how can you interact with Him? No wonder some people are never able to touch the work of the Holy Spirit when they pray. If they have not been pure and open before God or entrusted themselves to God, how can they receive the work of the Holy Spirit? The second principle is to give one’s heart to God. That is, to entrust God with one’s thoughts, ideas, views and plans on whatever you are facing, and to interact with Him. This is the most practical part of interacting with God. For example, if you have committed a transgression on one matter, tell God and give an account to Him of how this transgression occurred, where the root cause of this transgression lies, and what your intentions and objectives were. If you do not make an account of this to God but suppress a great deal of your rebellious intentions and then continue to pray to God, is this not trying to fool Him? Is this not trying to deceive Him? Does God listen? … If people interact with God while harboring this kind of mentality, will God be happy? What is meant by giving your heart to God? These are not empty words. Some people think that “giving your heart to God” is just a phrase; they come before God and pray, “God, I give You my heart today. How much does it weigh? Is it one pound or two pounds?” Is this what it means? No. God does not want your physical heart. God is asking you to give Him the things that are inside of your heart, to give Him your heart’s plans, views, and the things you want to do. You follow this form and say, “God, I give You my heart” and God says, “Is this how you give your heart to Me? Why do you not say what plans are in your heart? Why do you hide things from Me? Why are you so deceitful? Why do you try to cheat Me so? There’s no authenticity in just saying things but not putting them into practice.” So giving one’s heart to God is a principle of being an honest person. The third principle is to be able to seek the truth and seek to grasp God’s will in His presence no matter what one encounters, to understand the heart of God and understand how God likes people to act, how God views things, and how to do things to satisfy God. Gain clarity on these things and act according to God’s will—this is the main principle of the practice of being an honest person. You give your heart to God and then you must act according to God’s intentions, not according to your own intentions. This is the manifestation of practicing the truth. On what basis is practicing the truth established? It is established on the basis of being able to understand God’s will and requirements. When you understand God’s will and know how God likes people to act and how people should act to satisfy God, if you continue to practice the truth at this time, you will know whether or not there is any value in what you do and whether or not it is in line with God’s will. This will become clear. So this is also a principle of being an honest person. The fourth principle for being an honest person is living in God’s presence. That is, no matter what happens, if you do not understand the truth and do not understand God’s will, you should unconditionally act according to the words of God and according to God’s requirements. Do not be passive. You cannot pray to God and say, “God, I do not know how to do this, nor do I know Your will, so I will do it according to my own intentions.” This is contrary to God’s intentions. So, this principle of being an honest person is this: When we do not understand the truth or God’s will, we can fellowship with brothers and sisters and then unconditionally act according to the words of God. In our practice, by praying, seeking to grasp God’s will, seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit and His enlightenment and illumination—perhaps after experiencing this once or twice—we will be able to understand the truth and be in line with God’s will. In this way, the next time we encounter this kind of thing, we will know the path of practice. Some people may ask, “When we do not understand the truth and God’s will, how do we practice acting unconditionally according to His will?” For example, you are a servant of God and something happens, but you do not know God’s will. You think: “Why has this befallen me? This is so painful, so tortured for me….” When you cannot grasp God’s will, what should you do? You should obey when you ought to. You can practice to satisfy God depending on your previous experiences and understanding, and you can practice according to this principle this time. This is what it means. When a number of disasters or trials occur and people cannot grasp God’s will, they say, “Why is this happening to me? I have not offended God. This is like a curse. It seems like a penalty and a punishment!” You cannot grasp God’s will, but however you satisfied and obeyed God in the past, put that into practice again today. That cannot be wrong! People have always had the conception: “I serve God and do my duty, so everything should be good for me and I should only be blessed with benevolence. Bad things cannot happen to me.” Is this not a mistake? This is a human conception. … The main principles for being an honest person are the four principles above. If these four principles are followed, then interactions with God will be entirely proper. If these four principles are not followed, then your interactions with God will be incomplete and will not be proper. Your interactions will not be up to standard, and will not meet God’s requirements. That proves that you have not been successful in being an honest person, and that you do not possess much of reality. This should be clear now.