By Li Fang, China

In the fall of 2002, Sister Zhao from my denomination, the Church of Truth, brought her niece, Sister Wang, to my home to tell me the great news of the coming of the Lord. After a few days of reading the words of Almighty God and listening to Sister Wang’s detailed fellowship, I understood that, from the creation of the world until now, God has performed three stages of work in order to save mankind. Other truths that I also came to know were God’s adoption of a different name during each stage of His work, the significance of God’s name in each age, and the mystery of God’s incarnation, etc. These truths really came as big eye-openers for me, and I feasted my eyes upon them. I thought to myself: “This way sounds crystal clear, and Almighty God very probably is the returned Lord Jesus, so I’d better make sure I grasp this chance and read more of Almighty God’s words.” Before leaving, Sister Wang left some books of God’s words for me. Whenever I had time during the day, I read God’s words. The more I read them, the more I loved reading them and the more I felt that they were the words of God. After three days I became anxious. I thought: “My son, who is also a believer, and many brothers and sisters in my church still don’t know this great news about the return of the Lord. I’d better hurry up and tell them.”

The next day early in the morning, I went to my son’s home. I said happily to him, “This is such a great book. You should read it as soon as possible.” My son gave me a glance and asked, “What book? You seem pretty delighted. Just put it down there and I’ll take a look at it when I have time.” I thought that, as all believers looked forward to the Lord’s return, my son would be happy to learn that the Lord had already arrived.

I would never in a million years have imagined, however, that three days later my son would show up at my home at the head of six people. One of them was Pastor Xia from my denomination, and the others were pastors and preachers from my son’s denomination. I was a bit stunned to see them, as I couldn’t figure out what was up and why so many people had come to see me. A pastor surnamed Li looked closely at me for a moment and with a look of concern on his face he said, “Auntie, we’re all believers in the Lord, one big family. Your son tells me that someone has given you a book, but you really shouldn’t read it. Now it’s the last days, and the Lord Jesus said: ‘Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect’ (Matthew 24:23–24). We believe that these words of the Lord Jesus mean that anyone who says that the Lord has returned is a fraudster who we must guard against and refuse to listen to. Right now, throughout the whole world there is only Eastern Lightning that is publicly bearing witness to the Lord’s return, so, whatever you do, don’t have anything to do with them anymore. Don’t read any of Eastern Lightning’s books either. Their way is different from our faith, so don’t listen to them. You don’t understand the Bible very well, and you have small stature, so you’re easily deceived. We’ve been preaching for many years and we understand the Bible well. We’ve traveled all over China and we’ve seen a lot and we are more mature in life. We’ve come today specially to rescue you, so you’ve got to believe us and not try to have it your own way.” When I heard this, I thought to myself: “This pastor seems to be concerned about me and what he said isn’t wrong. I’m old and not very well educated, and I don’t understand the Bible that well. I certainly can’t discern as well as they do.” At this point, Pastor Xia said, “I’m a pastor, and the Lord has given me His flock to manage. So it’s my responsibility to make sure that you don’t stray from the true way. If I don’t look after the Lord’s flock, I won’t be able to render account to the Lord. Sister, don’t run around to other groups like this. If you get stolen from us by Eastern Lightning, then all these years that you’ve believed in the Lord will be wasted!” Looking at their tense faces and hearing the serious tone in which they were talking to me made me feel a bit frightened. I thought: “That’s right. If I start believing wrongly then won’t all those years of faith be wasted?” But then I thought: “The words in that book seemed so good, so right. These pastors and preachers haven’t read the words of Almighty God, so how could they say that it isn’t a true way?” So I said to them, “You may be right when you say this, but what I heard from them completely matches the words of the Lord in the Bible!” When they heard me say that, they all started talking at once, saying so many things to scare me that I became dizzy and confused and experienced a lot of emotional turmoil. I sat there, unable to say a single thing. Then they wanted me to pray with them and curse against Eastern Lightning, but I didn’t go along with it, and so they started to terrorize me again. Finally, my son said, “Let me deal with my mom now.” Then he took the two hymn books and the cassette tapes of Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs, as well as a book of God’s words named Judgment Begins With the House of God from the cupboard, and he gave them to the pastor to take away.

After they left, I was so upset that I couldn’t even eat my dinner, so I came before the Lord and prayed: “Lord Jesus, is what those pastors said true or not? It seems like they’re really concerned for my life. If I don’t listen to them, will I put my faith in the wrong place? Oh Lord, if You really have returned as Almighty God and I don’t accept You, then wouldn’t I be closing the door on You? Wouldn’t I just be like one of the foolish virgins? Oh Lord, through reading the words of Almighty God these last few days, I feel like my spirit has gained a lot of provision. I’ve truly and honestly felt this, but could I be wrong? Now that they’ve taken away my books and my cassette tapes of hymns, I feel really sad and I don’t know what to do. Please show me the way….” After praying, I suddenly remembered that Sister Wang had given me another book of Almighty God’s words and had asked me to hide it deep inside the cupboard. When I realized that I still had this book, I felt a little bit better. But then I thought about what those pastors had said, and I was still at a loss about what to do. Should I read that book or not? That night, I hardly slept at all, my mind in turmoil. Again and again I prayed to God in tears …

Early the next day, my son came to take me to a meeting at my former church. I was very much undecided, but my son dragged me down to the meeting place and even told a preacher that I’d been stolen by Eastern Lightning and he asked her to do her best to persuade me to stay. In an instant, the preacher and all of the brothers and sisters surrounded me. The preacher took hold of my hand, and in a gentle voice said, “Auntie, whatever you do, don’t listen to anyone else preaching. If you start believing wrongly, when the Lord comes to rapture the congregations then you’ll be left behind, won’t you? You have small stature, so if anyone gives you any kind of book to read it would be better for you to ask us first. Let us check on it for you….” The brothers and sisters also kept trying to persuade me to stay, and I was moved to tears by their “love.” When they saw how moved I was, they made their point once more: “If anyone from Eastern Lightning comes to visit you again, don’t let them in. Don’t have anything more to do with them!” I nodded in agreement.

It was only a few days later that Sister Wang came to see me again. I told her: “The pastor read this passage from the Bible to me: ‘Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect’ (Matthew 24:23–24). In the last days, false Christs shall appear and anyone who says that the Lord has returned is a fraudster. I don’t understand the Bible, and my stature is small, so I’m easily misled. I don’t dare to listen to any other way, so I’m not going to let you in. Don’t come again.” With great sincerity Sister Wang said: “The Lord Jesus said this to ensure that we would guard against false Christs during the last days, but He didn’t intend for us to also turn our backs on Christ. If there are false Christs it’s because the real Christ has already appeared, because without the real Christ the imposters have nothing to imitate. Those words of the Lord Jesus tell us that we have to learn how to discern; they aren’t saying that we should refuse to listen to the gospel of the Lord’s return just because false Christs will appear during the last days. Otherwise, how will we be able to welcome the Lord’s return? Actually, the Lord Jesus has already clearly described the characteristics of false Christs. The main ones include manifesting signs, performing miracles, healing the sick and exorcising demons, and copying the work that the Lord Jesus has already done in order to deceive people. So during the last days, anyone who impersonates the Lord Jesus to preach the way of repentance and who can manifest a few simple signs or heal the sick and exorcise demons is a false Christ. Almighty God, who is the Lord Jesus returned in the flesh in the last days, doesn’t repeat the work that the Lord Jesus has already done, but instead does new work on the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption. Almighty God has ended the Age of Grace and has opened the Age of Kingdom, and He expresses truths and performs the stage of work of judging and cleansing mankind. Almighty God will thoroughly save all those people who have been redeemed but who still live in sin by casting off the shackles of their sinful nature and removing them from Satan’s dark influence. He will then take mankind to their wonderful final destination. Only God Himself can do this work; none of the false Christs can.” Although what the sister was saying seemed reasonable, the things that the pastors had told me were still swirling around in my head. My mind was agitated and unable to focus and I didn’t want to hear any more of her fellowship. So I told her that I had something to do at my neighbor’s next door, which was a lie, in order to get away from her. Sister Wang came back to my home many times after that, but I always avoided her. My neighbor said to me, “She doesn’t look like a bad person. What are you afraid of?” In my heart I knew that Sister Wang was a good person, but as I was of small stature, I was afraid of misplacing my faith.

After I returned to attend a meeting at my former church, I heard the preachers still saying things in the sermon that they’d said before. They always talked about how to guard against Eastern Lightning, or donating to the church, or they repeated a lot of boring old stuff about how much they had worked and suffered for the Lord and how much of the Lord’s grace they had enjoyed…. They could not even say the tiniest bit of something with new light. I quickly grew fed up of listening to them, and I started to doze off. On one occasion, a brother from another church came to give a sermon, but it was more of the same stuff about how he’d gone uphill and down dale to do the Lord’s work, about how much he’d suffered, how many people he’d converted through spreading the gospel and how many churches he’d set up. He just kept blowing his own trumpet. Listening to him made me feel very uncomfortable, and I came to the opinion that he wasn’t bearing witness for the Lord but just bearing witness for himself. On another occasion, I’d just arrived at the meeting place when one of the sisters said to me, “Today we’ve got a 20-something female theology student giving the sermon.” I was very happy to hear that and I told myself that I was going to pay special attention on this occasion, because she would definitely give a better sermon than our preachers did. But the student started her sermon with how to guard against Eastern Lightning, and then went on to talk about how she’d given up her regular studies at the age of 16 to enter the seminary to study theology, how she’d worked and suffered outdoors in spite of the rain, how many places she’d been to…. The more I listened, the more fed up I got. I thought to myself: “This is all just old wine in new bottles! Why do they keep on trotting out the same old boring stuff? None of this has got anything to do with their experience or knowledge of the Lord’s words, nor is it leading us in following the Lord’s way or practicing and entering into His words.” I’d already been back at the meetings for over a month, but I hadn’t gained anything from them. The more I listened to these sermons, the more withered my spirit became, and I thought that I would die of spiritual thirst and hunger if I carried on believing like this. Where could I go to find a bit of life? The more I thought about it, the more upset I got.

After the meeting, I walked home with a heavy heart. I thought about the book Judgment Begins With the House of God that Sister Wang had given me, which stated that people shouldn’t be arrogant and shouldn’t exalt themselves but should honor God as great and exalt God. But these preachers were all bearing witness for themselves, honoring themselves above all else, and getting others to look up to them and idolize them. It seemed to me that what the book said was right! So that evening, when I was alone at home, I took out the copy of Judgment Begins With the House of God and read some of it. The more I read, the more my heart soared, and I really felt that these words could be sustenance for my life. I was puzzled as to why our pastor wouldn’t let us read such a good book. Our pastor often said that he was responsible for our life and yet he only seemed to know how to bear witness for himself in his sermons. He never told us how to gain life. I remembered a period when I was very weak and didn’t want to go to church meetings. The pastor never came to visit me or offered me any support. So then how come, as soon as I started getting some spiritual nourishment from reading Almighty God’s words, he showed up and dragged me back to my old church to listen to them repeating the same old stuff? That wasn’t taking responsibility for my life! I suddenly realized just how wrong I’d been, and I blamed myself bitterly: Almighty God’s words could supply my life, and so that meant that they very probably came from God. How could I have been so stupid and blind as to believe what the pastor had said and give up investigating the true way? I also thought about how Sister Wang had always given me loving support and had borne witness to God’s work of the last days for me so that I had the chance to gain God’s salvation of the last days. But I hadn’t been all that nice to Sister Wang, and had even avoided seeing her on a number of occasions. I shouldn’t have treated her like an enemy. When I thought of this, I felt extremely sad. So I came before the Lord and tearfully said a prayer of repentance: “Lord, I treated that sister who brought me the book of God’s words as an enemy and turned my back on her. This wasn’t me turning my back on a person, but was actually me refusing Your salvation! Lord, now I know that I shouldn’t have listened to those pastors and given up investigating God’s work of the last days. I wish to repent to You, but I don’t know how to find Sister Wang. Please help me….” After praying, I picked up the book again and read it late into the night. The more I read it, the more I felt that the content was good, and the more I came to despise the pastors for preventing me from reading the words of Almighty God.

I’m so grateful to the Lord for listening to my prayer! The next day at noon, when I was eating lunch, Sister Wang came to my house. I told her about everything that had happened since I last saw her. When she heard that I’d been unable to gain sustenance within religion, she read out a passage of Almighty God’s words for me: “God will accomplish this fact: He will make all people throughout the universe come before Him and worship the God on earth, and His work in other places will cease, and people will be forced to seek the true way. It will be like Joseph: Everyone came to him for food, and bowed down to him, for he had things to eat. In order to avoid famine, people will be forced to seek the true way. The entire religious community will suffer severe famine, and only the God of today is the wellspring of living water, possessed of the ever-flowing wellspring provided for the enjoyment of man, and people will come and depend on Him” (“The Millennial Kingdom Has Arrived” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Then the sister fellowshiped this with me: “God is the wellspring of living water, and only God can supply people’s lives. When people leave God, all becomes dark and withered, just like a branch that has broken off from the tree trunk. In our faith in God, we must closely follow the footsteps of the Lamb, accept God’s present work, and come before God, for only then can we gain the work of the Holy Spirit and the nourishment and supply of God’s living water of life. Why is it that we can’t get sustenance from listening to those pastors and elders in religion? There are two reasons for this. One is that those pastors and elders don’t abide by the Lord’s commandments and don’t put the Lord’s words into practice. They don’t have real life experience and have no real knowledge of God, much less have hearts that fear God. They don’t at all exalt God or bear witness to Him in their work and preaching. They always blow their own trumpets and bear witness to themselves. By completely deviating from the Lord’s way, they have turned into typical false shepherds who deceive people. This is why they are loathed and rejected by the Holy Spirit and never obtain His enlightenment and guidance. And this is the main reason why the religious community is so desolate. The other reason is that the Lord Jesus has already returned to do the work of the new age. The Holy Spirit’s work on people of the Age of Grace has already been withdrawn and is now being done on the group of people who are up to speed with God’s new work. But the pastors and elders do not at all investigate God’s new work, and they do not follow God’s footsteps or accept His leadership. On the contrary, all they do is crazily resist and condemn God’s work of the last days, and slander and blaspheme Almighty God, the Christ of the last days. They do whatever they can to prevent believers from investigating the true way and returning to God, and thus have become just like the Pharisees who nailed the Lord to the cross. They have already been condemned and weeded out by God, so there is no way the Holy Spirit could work on them. So, if we want to receive life sustenance, we must keep up with the Holy Spirit’s current work, accept the words that God is currently expressing, and accept the leadership, supply, and shepherding of Almighty God, the Christ of the last days. This is the only way for us to gain truth and life. This fulfills what the Lord Jesus said: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6). ‘But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life’ (John 4:14).”

After listening to Sister Wang’s fellowship about God’s words I had a sudden realization as to why the pastors, elders and theology students had nothing worthy to preach: They don’t have truth! They resist God, and the Holy Spirit left them long ago. When they preach, they only have intellectual knowledge to rely on, but they don’t have the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, and that’s why their preaching does not benefit anyone. But there was still something that I didn’t understand, so I asked Sister Wang, “All those pastors and elders say that they’re very familiar with the Bible, that they’ve been to seminary school and have much life. I don’t understand the Bible that well and I believed that they were really more mature than me in life, so that’s why I listened to them. So now I can’t decide whether they really have much life or not. Sister, do you think that they really have much life?” Sister Wang replied, saying, “No one can testify themselves that they have life. This is all decided according to God’s words. What does it mean to have life? What things specifically should be manifested? The Lord Jesus said: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6). And Almighty God said: ‘Whether you are in possession of reality is not based on what you say; rather, it is based on what you live out. Only when God’s words become your life and your natural expression can you be said to have reality, and only then can you be counted as having gained true understanding and actual stature. You must be able to withstand examination over long periods of time, and you must be able to live out the likeness that is required by God. This must not be mere posturing; it must flow from you naturally. Only then will you truly possess reality, and only then will you have gained life’ (“Only Putting the Truth Into Practice Is Possessing Reality” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘Why is it said that many people have no life? Because they do not know God, and thus it is said that they have no God in their hearts, and have no life’ (“Only Those Who Know God Can Bear Testimony to God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words we can see that Christ is the truth, the way and the life. Truth can act as people’s life, so gaining truth is the same as gaining life, and having life indicates that someone has gained truth and knows God. Someone who doesn’t understand truth and doesn’t know God will not have a heart that fears God and will be unable to live out the reality of God’s words. This means that they have no life. If someone doesn’t have God’s words as their life, then they will still live by Satan’s poisons that are inherent within them. They often reveal their corrupt dispositions—arrogance, conceit, selfishness, despicableness, crookedness, cunningness, and so on. And even if they believe in God, they are still unable to fear God and stay away from evil. They often lie, cheat, commit sins, and resist God. How could they ever be called people who have life? If they say they have life, it’s just the same fleshly life, the satanic life that is full of corrupt dispositions that are in opposition to God, and not the new life, which comes from experiencing God’s words and gaining the truth. So, though the pastors and elders may be familiar with the Bible, and possess knowledge of the Bible and theological theories, that doesn’t mean that they know God and fear God and that they understand truth and have the work of the Holy Spirit. And it certainly doesn’t mean that they practice the Lord’s words or obey Him. Instead, what we see is that they usually exalt and bear witness to themselves, and generally try to get believers to worship them. What they reveal and live out is the likeness of Satan—being arrogant and conceited, lacking fear for God, and being hypocritical in order to fool people. Neither in their work nor in their preaching can they speak of any real knowledge of the Lord’s words or any practical experience that is beneficial to other people. No matter how many years you listen to them you will never understand any truth and your life will never grow. They have no knowledge of God or of His work, and when God returns in the flesh in the last days to express truths and do His work of judgment, they frenziedly resist, condemn, and blaspheme Him without the tiniest bit of fear for God in their hearts. What kind of life do they have? They totally have the life of Satan. They’re just like the Pharisees who knew the Bible well and thought that they had sincere faith in God and had life but who didn’t know God and even resisted and condemned the Lord and nailed Him to the cross. This tells us that just because someone knows the Bible well, it doesn’t mean that they have truth and life. The only people who have life are those who understand and practice truth and who know God, have a heart that fears Him, and can live by God’s words. Those pastors and elders say that they have much life, and this is only fooling believers and deceiving themselves.”

After listening to Almighty God’s words and the fellowship of Sister Wang, everything became perfectly clear in my mind: Just because someone knows the Bible well and can expound on the Bible, it doesn’t mean that they understand truth, know God or have life. I used to think that people in high positions or who had studied theology or had Bible knowledge all had much life. But now I see that my viewpoint was totally absurd. It seems that people who don’t have truth are unable to discern, and so are easily fooled. I then asked Sister Wang a question: “Almighty God speaks so well. All we have to do is read His words carefully and we’ll realize that these are the words of God and are God’s voice. So how come the pastors and elders don’t accept this and even do their utmost to resist and condemn Him?” Sister Wang replied, “Now in the last days, Almighty God has come and expressed all of the truths that are necessary for corrupt mankind to be cleansed and saved. These truths are the way of eternal life that God has bestowed upon us. As long as people seriously read God’s words, they will admit that these words are the truth, the life, and the way and are the foundation and the guide for mankind’s survival. This is a fact. Although most pastors and elders resist and condemn God’s work of the last days and try to prevent people from reading Almighty God’s words, this doesn’t mean that they can’t hear the authority and power in them. Some pastors and elders can’t preach anything useful, so they steal Almighty God’s words and preach them to their congregations, claiming that they are enlightenments that the Holy Spirit offered to them. But why do they still frenziedly resist and condemn Almighty God? This has to do with their nature and substance of hating the truth. If we think back to when the Lord Jesus first started doing His work, He manifested many miracles, especially the resurrection of Lazarus and the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish, which were more astonishing for the people throughout the land of Judea. So, many of the common people in those days recognized from the Lord’s words and work that He was the coming Messiah. But the leaders of the Jews didn’t accept the Lord Jesus, and instead resisted and condemned Him and, in the end, conspired with the Roman government to crucify the Lord. Why did this happen? Was it because they couldn’t hear the authority and power in the Lord Jesus’ words? No! It was because they saw that more and more people were accepting the Lord Jesus’ way. They were afraid that if all of the ordinary folk believed in the Lord Jesus then no one would follow or worship them, and they would lose their status and their livelihood. They clearly knew the Lord Jesus was God and yet they purposefully resisted Him; this revealed their antichrist essence, which was resistant to God and which hated the truth. The Lord Jesus bitterly rebuked them when He said: ‘But now you seek to kill Me, a man that has told you the truth, which I have heard of God’ (John 8:40). ‘Why do you not understand My speech? even because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stayed not in the truth, because there is no truth in him’ (John 8: 43–44). In present times, the words of Almighty God have revealed with crystal clarity the nature and essence of the current leaders of the religious community. Almighty God said: ‘There are those who read the Bible in grand churches and recite it all day long, yet not one among them understands the purpose of God’s work. Not one among them is able to know God; still less can any one among them accord with God’s will. They are all worthless, vile people, each standing on high to lecture God. They willfully oppose God even as they carry His banner. Claiming faith in God, still they eat the flesh and drink the blood of man. All such people are devils that devour the soul of man, head demons that deliberately get in the way of those trying to step onto the right path, and stumbling blocks impeding those who seek God. They may appear of “sound constitution,” but how are their followers to know that they are none other than antichrists who lead people to stand against God? How are their followers to know that they are living devils dedicated to the devouring of human souls?’ (“All People Who Do Not Know God Are People Who Oppose God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). These leaders of the religious community today are just like the Pharisees of old: Although they know the Bible well, they know absolutely nothing about God’s work. They see that the words of Almighty God are being accepted by more and more people who long for and seek God’s appearance, and they’re afraid that if the believers all believe in Almighty God then no one will follow them anymore or donate money to them. So in order to protect their status and their livelihoods, under the banner of being loyal to the Lord and protecting His flock, they have manufactured all kinds of vicious rumors to frenziedly resist and condemn God’s work of the last days, and they do their best to prevent believers from seeking and investigating the true way. We can therefore see that religious leaders are in fact Pharisees who are sick of the truth and hate the truth. They are living demons who devour people’s souls, and they are antichrists who are being revealed by God’s work of the last days.”

After listening to God’s words and the sister’s fellowship, I suddenly saw the light. I nodded my head a few times and said, “Now I finally get why those pastors and elders, on hearing that there are people bearing witness to God’s return, don’t seek or investigate it but instead persistently condemn Him. Now I understand why those pastors and elders claim loudly to be protecting me and that they are concerned about my life, when in fact they are doing their utmost to hold me back and prevent me from reading God’s words and gaining the life sustenance from God. It is all because everything they do is to protect their own interests. They’re afraid that if people start following Almighty God, then they won’t listen to their sermons or donate money to them, and that’s why they prevent people from investigating the true way. They really are despicable, and they almost ruined my chance to attain true salvation. Now that I know how to discern better, I’m going to refuse to have anything to do with them. No matter what they do to disturb me, I’m going to stand firm and follow Almighty God.” After that, I never went back to my old church meetings again.

Not long after, two preachers from my old church came to my house. One of them, Preacher Zhang, said to me, “Auntie, why haven’t you been to the meetings? Have you been in contact with the people from Eastern Lightning again? Whatever you do, don’t switch to their faith. If you follow their faith, you’re done for!” With a firm voice I replied, “I gained nothing from attending meetings with you recently, I grew ever darker in my spirit and I wasn’t able to feel the Lord’s presence. But since I started reading Almighty God’s words, my spirit has been uplifted, and now I’m starting to understand truths and my life is nourished. I feel that God is with me and that the Holy Spirit is working on me. Now I’m sure that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus and that the truths expressed by Almighty God are the living water of life. Only Almighty God’s words can give me sustenance, and wherever I can gain life, that is where I shall go.” The other of them, Preacher Song, then said, “We worry about you. We worry that you’ll deviate from the right way. You’re immature in life….” I said to her, “I may be immature in life, but God will lead me anyway. Thanks for your concern, but you should think about your own lives. My life is in God’s hands….” After they heard what I had to say, they left in a huff. As I watched them disappearing into the distance, I felt a huge sense of relief like I’d never felt before. Afterward, they came back twice more, but seeing that I was totally unmoved by their exhortations they never returned again. Thanks to God’s guiding me, I saw through to the true faces and the wicked motives of those religious leaders, and I saw through Satan’s tricks and found my way out of the confusion and back to God. I’m now being supplied with the living water of life, and I will always follow and worship Almighty God!