How Must People Practice and Gain Entry in Order to Truly Turn to God and Satisfy God?
Truly turning to God is achieved by satisfying God; if you are truly able to satisfy God, then you will be most effective in turning to God, and so will truly turn to God. What state are people in when they truly turn to God? And how should they practice to satisfy God? These are critical issues. The theory of satisfying God is not difficult to understand: You practice the truth, act as God asks, and obey God—that’s how it is explained in theory. But how do you practice at the time? This relates to the principles of practice; understanding theory is useless, it has no effect, if you lack the principles of practice. So what is the principle of practice? To do everything with prayer. When you can truly pray to God, and depend on God, and obey God, how is all this achieved? By training yourself, problem-by-problem. And how do you train yourself? Bring your problem before God and pray, try to grasp God’s will, search for the truth, fellowship with God, and let God guide you, let Him enlighten and illuminate you. What effect is ultimately achieved? You grasp God’s will, and realize how to practice in order to satisfy God. From when you first bring your problem before God to pray, to when you are finally able to grasp God’s will, and know how to practice the truth in order to satisfy God, and put an end to the problem, at a minimum this process takes three or five days, at a maximum, a couple of weeks or a month. That’s how long it will take if it’s something normal; if it’s something really important like quitting your job to expend yourself for God full-time, then this is not something that will take a couple of weeks or a month, and you may have to pray and search for three or five months. Some people ask, “If it takes three or five months of searching and prayer, do I have to pray like this 24 hours a day?” You do not. During this period, there may be times when you do pray like that, there may be times when you await God, there may be times when you contemplate this aspect of the truth in the words of God, there may be times when you find someone to fellowship with about how to practice this aspect of the truth. When you do all of this, there will ultimately be an effect; you will grasp God’s will, you will know what to do, and you will depend on God in dealing with the problem. If, when dealing with it, from start to finish you search for God’s will and search for the truth with a prayerful heart, and in the end you find the path to practice, then have you not truly depended on God and obeyed God in this matter? What major problems have you truly solved by praying to God and depending on God? And how many times have you had such experiences? And were any of them complete experiences? If you truly did have a complete experience, what effect did it have on you? Did you behold the miraculous deeds of God? Did you see the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit? Did you feel the leadership and guidance of the Holy Spirit? If you gain confirmation of these things, then you have experienced this aspect; you have tasted the sweetness of the Holy Spirit’s work, you know what it means to be guided by the Holy Spirit, you know what it means to search for God’s will, you know how the Holy Spirit enlightens and illuminates people, you know how the Holy Spirit guided your actions in this matter, and ultimately, you are able to see the deeds of God, and you say, “On the outside there was no sound, and nothing supernatural, but I really did behold the deeds of God,” which is the effect of your dependence on God. And after experiencing such things many times, you know what it means to depend on God, you know what it means to act by God’s words, you know how to accept God’s scrutiny in all you do, and how to grasp God’s will, how to practice being mindful of God’s will, and you know what it means to live before God. If you have not the slightest experience of such things, then what you practice is but religious ceremony; after praying, you still follow your own will and think, “I’ll do as I please, I’ll do whatever is of benefit to me, I’ll do whatever seems right to me.” If you do that, your prayer is not genuine experience. In the hymn we just sang were the words, “The more you satisfy God, the more your heart can turn to Him.” If you have not experienced these words, you have never satisfied God, and you have never depended on God in anything, when you say you satisfy God, that is nonsense, you’re lying—you understand this, yes? Some people say, “In many matters I pray, but in none of them have I seen the deeds of God, nor have I seen God enlighten and illuminate me, or guide me.” This shows that you do not know how to depend on God, that you do not know how to await God, that you only know how to go through the motions. What is most people’s inclination at certain times? Straight after praying to God, they look to see if they will be enlightened or illuminated, whether they will be touched by the Holy Spirit, whether the Holy Spirit will reveal anything to them. Is it right to do that? You have not experienced; your imagination causes you to think that after you’ve prayed, the Holy Spirit will immediately reveal something to you, that He will go right ahead and speak to you—but you’re wrong, for the Holy Spirit does not act in this way. After praying, you feel at peace, and what does this “at peace” mean? That it’s good to do this, that it’s okay, that it’s right. If you are able to bring your problem before God to pray, then you’re already doing pretty well—but you still don’t know when God will allow you to understand, when He will enlighten you; it may be that one day you suddenly understand, and say to yourself, “I know what to do, my eyes have suddenly been opened to this matter, and I know what the right thing to do is.” See—was this not done by the Holy Spirit? It was. And do you know when the Holy Spirit acts? You can’t work it out. And what should you do if you can’t work it out? After praying, you bear this in your mind, and when there’s nothing else to preoccupy you, you think about what to do about it and what is the right thing to do. It could be that after contemplating this three or five times, you still don’t have an answer. If you cannot find the path, then stop thinking about it; a time may well come when you suddenly do understand, which is because, after praying, you searched in your heart and waited in your heart, and God knew. God does not delay, for He is God; and at some unknown time He made you understand, He awakened you. At that time you felt as if your heart had been lit up, and you said: “Ah! Now I understand. I know what to do.” And is this not the work of the Holy Spirit? This is the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly, there is a light, and it occurs at a time unbeknownst to you: It could be that one day you understand the problem as soon as you wake up, or that one day you suddenly understand it as you’re thinking of something else. And so, when you truly have a problem and pray to God, at some unknown time—a day or half a day after you’ve prayed, or two or three days, or a couple of weeks—you will understand what to do, and this is the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit. All that involves the enlightenment and illumination is the Holy Spirit guiding you, and making you perfect, and when you see that this comes from the Holy Spirit, you think to yourself that God is love, and your faith grows even greater. Remember: From now on, when you pray, you must pray in this way, and wait thus, and a time will come when you understand, for God does not delay. If, in many things, you pray thus and depend on God when you act, then in this, “The more you satisfy God, the more your heart can turn to Him.” You have satisfied God, you have experienced a certain problem, and you have gained the knowledge of God, and you say, “God listens to people’s prayers, He acts! Who says that when people pray, the Holy Spirit does nothing? Now I know that He does act.” But people have to wait! He does not follow the rules of man. Sooner or later, He will allow you to understand, and it matters not if you are stupid; suddenly, you will see the light, your eyes will be opened. God truly does not delay, and thus the more your heart turns to God, the more willing you are to depend on God, and to pray to God, and you will say, “I pray to God in everything. I can do no wrong when God guides my actions, it is absolutely better than following my own will, a hundred times better.” And in this, has your heart not fully returned to God? You have tasted the sweetness, and it is proper that you have experienced these words thus. When you have experienced this, and have such knowledge, then the words of “The more you satisfy God, the more your heart returns to God” are confirmed. And when your heart turns to God, are you able to love God? You undoubtedly are—for you have seen that “God is so lovely, God truly does listen to prayers, and He never delays. I didn’t have this faith before, but now after experiencing these few things I understand. God is almighty!” You need only wait; when your heart truly does leave things to God, if you are truly able to wait for God, then God will surely not delay. None is more trustworthy than God, all that He does to man is love, He truly cares for man. When you have such knowledge of God in your heart, you will feel that God is lovely, and dependable, and worthy of veneration. So each time you experience in this way, your love for God grows a little more, and the next time you experience, it grows a little more again; your love for God grows ever greater, and your love finally reaches the extent that you say, “I must do all things with God’s approval, I must first pray, and search for God’s will, and act under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and I must do nothing according to my own will.” Thus is the path of loving God taken; thus is the love of God produced. Have a go at experiencing these words of God—the more you experience them, the better. In “When you reach a point, when your heart turns toward God,” what is it “when your heart turns toward God” referring to? One aspect of turning to God is that you have an ever greater sense that God is lovely, dependable, and worthy of veneration. After your heart has turned to God, if you have a deeper knowledge of God, you belong to God, and have been gained by God. When you have just turned to God, you have yet to be gained by God—but when you turn to God for longer, and experience more, praying thus in many matters, you will be able to see that the Holy Spirit enlightens you in this way, and will behold the miraculous deeds of God. There will be no words, nothing supernatural, no sounds, but God truly is acting; He is awakening our stupid minds, He is allowing us, we who are slow and stupid in speech, to understand God’s will, He is allowing us, these most ignorant of all beings, to know how to act in accordance with God’s will. God is so lovely. And in this, have you not come to know God? The more people know God, the closer their hearts are to Him, and the more compatible they are with Him. When your knowledge of Him has reached the point that you can never again be apart from Him, could you still oppose God? Could you still be willing to defy God? Could you still want to eschew God? What you will feel is this: “I am unwilling no matter what. I will not do it no matter how much money you give me. I want only to expend myself for God, and to obey God, and I’d be happy to do that even if I earned not a single cent from it or had to give my life. Being an official, status, money—they’re worthless, a heap of dung. I earn nothing for expending myself for God, but I enjoy some of God’s love, and gain a little knowledge of God, and this is my everlasting happiness, my everlasting comfort, my everlasting enjoyment.” In the end, you are so greatly blessed by God that words do not suffice.