The Church of Almighty God | Personal devotionals
For several thousand years, man
has longed to be able to witness the arrival of the Savior. Man has
longed to behold Jesus the Savior on a white cloud as He descends, in
person, among those who have pined and yearned for Him for thousands
of years. Man has longed for the Savior to return and be reunited
with the people, that is, for Jesus the Savior to come back to the
people from whom He has been apart for thousands of years. And man
hopes that He will once again carry out the work of redemption that
He did among the Jews, will be compassionate and loving toward man,
will forgive the sins of man, bear the sins of man, and even bear all
of man’s transgressions and deliver man from sin. They long for
Jesus the Savior to be the same as before—a Savior who is lovable,
amiable and venerable, who is never wrathful toward man, and who
never reproaches man. This Savior forgives and bears all of man’s
sins, and even dies upon the cross for man once more. Since Jesus
departed, the disciples who followed Him, and all of the saints who
were saved thanks to His name, have been desperately pining for Him
and awaiting Him. All those who were saved by the grace of Jesus
Christ during the Age of Grace have been longing for that joyful day
during the last days, when Jesus the Savior arrives on a white cloud
and appears among man. Of course, this is also the collective wish of
all those who accept the name of Jesus the Savior today. Throughout
the universe, all those who know of the salvation of Jesus the Savior
have been desperately yearning for the sudden arrival of Jesus
Christ, to fulfill the words of Jesus when on earth: “I shall
arrive just as I departed.” Man believes that, following the
crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus went back to heaven upon a white
cloud, and took His place at the Most High’s right hand. Similarly,
man conceives that Jesus shall descend, again upon a white cloud
(this cloud refers to the cloud that Jesus rode upon when He returned
to heaven), among those who have desperately yearned for Him for
thousands of years, and that He shall bear the image and clothes of
the Jews. After appearing to man, He shall bestow food upon them, and
cause living water to gush forth for them, and shall live among man,
full of grace and love, living and real. And so on. Yet Jesus the
Savior did not do this; He did the opposite of what man conceived. He
did not arrive among those who had yearned for His return, and did
not appear to all men while riding upon the white cloud. He has
already arrived, but man does not know Him, and remains ignorant of
His arrival. Man is only aimlessly awaiting Him, unaware that He has
already descended upon a white cloud (the cloud which is His Spirit,
His words, and His entire disposition and all that He is), and is now
among a group of overcomers that He will make during the last days.
Man does not know this: Although the holy Savior Jesus is full of
affection and love toward man, how could He work in “temples”
inhabited by filth and impure spirits? Though man has been awaiting
His arrival, how could He appear to those who eat the flesh of the
unrighteous, drink the blood of the unrighteous, wear the clothes of
the unrighteous, who believe in Him but do not know Him, and who
constantly extort Him? Man knows only that Jesus the Savior is full
of love and compassion, and is the sin offering filled with
redemption. But man has no idea that He is also God Himself, who is
brimming with righteousness, majesty, wrath, and judgment, and
possessed of authority and full of dignity. And so even though man
eagerly yearns for and craves the return of the Redeemer, and even
Heaven is moved by the prayers of man, Jesus the Savior does not
appear to those who believe in Him but do not know Him.
“Jehovah” is the name that I took
during My work in Israel, and it means the God of the Israelites
(God’s chosen people) who can take pity on man, curse man, and
guide the life of man. It means the God who possesses great power
and is full of wisdom. “Jesus” is Emmanuel, and it means the sin
offering that is full of love, full of compassion, and redeems man.
He did the work of the Age of Grace, and represents the Age of
Grace, and can only represent one part of the management plan. That
is to say, only Jehovah is the God of the chosen people of Israel,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of
Moses, and the God of all the people of Israel. And so in the
current age, all the Israelites apart from the tribe of Judah
worship Jehovah. They make sacrifices to Him on the altar, and serve
Him wearing priests’ robes in the temple. What they hope for is
the reappearance of Jehovah. Only Jesus is the Redeemer of mankind.
He is the sin offering that redeemed mankind from sin. Which is to
say, the name of Jesus came from the Age of Grace, and existed
because of the work of redemption in the Age of Grace. The name of
Jesus existed to allow the people of the Age of Grace to be reborn
and saved, and is a particular name for the redemption of the whole
of mankind. And so the name Jesus represents the work of redemption,
and denotes the Age of Grace. The name Jehovah is a particular name
for the people of Israel who lived under the law. In each age and
each stage of work, My name is not baseless, but holds
representative significance: Each name represents one age. “Jehovah”
represents the Age of Law, and is the honorific for the God
worshiped by the people of Israel. “Jesus” represents the Age of
Grace, and is the name of the God of all those who were redeemed
during the Age of Grace. If man still longs for the arrival of Jesus
the Savior during the last days, and still expects Him to arrive in
the image He bore in Judea, then the entire six-thousand-year
management plan would stop in the Age of Redemption, and would be
incapable of progressing any further. The last days, furthermore,
would never arrive, and the age would never be brought to an end.
That is because Jesus the Savior is only for the redemption and
salvation of mankind. I took the name of Jesus for the sake of all
the sinners in the Age of Grace, and it is not the name by which I
shall bring the whole of mankind to an end. Although Jehovah, Jesus,
and the Messiah all represent My Spirit, these names only denote the
different ages in My management plan, and do not represent Me in My
entirety. The names by which people on earth call Me cannot
articulate My entire disposition and all that I am. They are merely
different names by which I am called during different ages. And so,
when the final age—the age of the last days—arrives, My name
shall change again. I shall not be called Jehovah, or Jesus, much
less the Messiah, but shall be called the powerful Almighty God
Himself, and under this name I shall bring the entire age to an end.
I was once known as Jehovah. I was also called the Messiah, and
people once called Me Jesus the Savior because they loved and
respected Me. But today I am not the Jehovah or Jesus that people
knew in times past—I am the God who has returned in the last days,
the God who shall bring the age to an end. I am the God Himself that
rises up at the ends of the earth, replete with My entire
disposition, and full of authority, honor and glory. People have
never engaged with Me, have never known Me, and have always been
ignorant of My disposition. From the creation of the world until
today, not one person has seen Me. This is the God who appears to
man during the last days but is hidden among man. He resides among
man, true and real, like the burning sun and the flaming fire,
filled with power and brimming with authority. There is not a single
person or thing that shall not be judged by My words, and not a
single person or thing that shall not be purified through the
burning of fire. Eventually, all nations shall be blessed because of
My words, and also smashed to pieces because of My words. In this
way, all people during the last days shall see that I am the Savior
returned, I am the Almighty God that conquers all of mankind, and I
was once the sin offering for man, but in the last days I also
become the flames of the sun that burn all things, as well as the
Sun of righteousness that reveals all things. Such is My work of the
last days. I took this name and am possessed of this disposition so
that all people may see that I am a righteous God, and am the
burning sun, and the flaming fire. It is so that all may worship Me,
the only true God, and so that they may see My true face: I am not
only the God of the Israelites, and am not just the Redeemer—I am
the God of all creatures throughout heavens and earth and seas.
When the Savior arrives during the
last days, if He were still called Jesus, and were once again born
in Judea, and did His work in Judea, then this would prove that I
only created the people of Israel and only redeemed the people of
Israel, and that I have nothing to do with the Gentiles. Would this
not contradict My words that “I am the Lord who created the
heavens and earth and all things”? I left Judea and do My work
among the Gentiles because I am not merely the God of the people of
Israel, but the God of all creatures. I appear among the Gentiles
during the last days because I am not only Jehovah, the God of the
people of Israel, but, moreover, because I am the Creator of all My
chosen ones among the Gentiles. I not only created Israel, Egypt,
and Lebanon, but also created all the Gentile nations beyond Israel.
And because of this, I am the Lord of all creatures. I merely used
Israel as the starting point for My work, employed Judea and Galilee
as the strongholds of My work of redemption, and use the Gentile
nations as the base from which I will bring the entire age to an
end. I did two stages of work in Israel (the two stages of the work
of the Age of Law and the Age of Grace), and I have been carrying
out two further stages of work (the Age of Grace and the Age of
Kingdom) throughout the lands beyond Israel. Among the Gentile
nations I will do the work of conquering, and so conclude the age.
If man always calls Me Jesus Christ, but does not know that I have
begun a new age during the last days and have embarked upon new
work, and if man always obsessively awaits the arrival of Jesus the
Savior, then I shall call people such as this the ones who do not
believe in Me. They are people who do not know Me, and their belief
in Me is a sham. Could such people witness the arrival of Jesus the
Savior from heaven? What they await is not My arrival, but the
arrival of the King of the Jews. They do not yearn for My
annihilation of this impure old world, but instead long for the second coming of Jesus, whereupon they will be redeemed; they look
forward to Jesus once more redeeming all of mankind from this
defiled and unrighteous land. How can such people become those who
complete My work during the last days? The desires of man are
incapable of achieving My wishes or accomplishing My work, for man
merely admires or cherishes the work that I have done before, and
has no idea that I am the God Himself who is always new and never
old. Man only knows that I am Jehovah, and Jesus, and has no inkling
that I am the Last, the One who shall bring mankind to an end. All
that man yearns for and knows is of his own conception, and is
merely that which he can see with his own eyes. It is not in line
with the work I do, but in disharmony with it. If My work were
conducted according to the ideas of man, then when would it end?
When would mankind enter rest? And how would I be able to enter the
seventh day, the Sabbath? I work according to My plan, according to
My aim, and not according to the intention of man.
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