If we do not participate in church life, if we occasionally pray to God ourselves and read God’s words, our attainment of
the Holy Spirit’s work will be very limited. Without the Holy Spirit’s work, we will not be able to understand the truth, nor will we be able to enter into the reality of the truth. When we encounter difficulties or problems, since we do not understand God’s intentions, we will frequently not know what to do nor how to put the truth into practice. If we occasionally rely on our own notions and imaginations to do things, we will do things that violate God’s intentions and even offend God’s disposition. We will lose
the Holy Spirit’s presence, not to mention God’s salvation. God’s words say: “
If your spiritual life is not normal, you cannot understand God’s current work; you always feel that it is completely incompatible with your own notions, and you are willing to follow Him, but you lack internal drive. So no matter what God is currently doing, people must cooperate. If people don’t cooperate the Holy Spirit can’t do His work, and if people do not have a heart of cooperation, they cannot attain the work of the Holy Spirit. … If people do not cooperate with God and do not pursue deeper entry, God will take away what they once had. Inside, people are always greedy for ease and would rather enjoy what is already available. They want to gain God’s promises without paying any price at all. These are the extravagant thoughts within mankind. Gaining life itself without paying a price—what has ever been so easy? When someone believes in God and seeks to enter into life and seeks a change in their disposition, they must pay a price and achieve a state where they will always follow God no matter what He does. This is something that people must do. Even if you follow all of this as a rule, you must stick to it, and no matter how great the trials, you cannot let go of your normal relationship with God. You should be able to pray, maintain your church life, and stay with brothers and sisters. When God tries you, you should still seek the truth. This is the minimum for a spiritual life” (“You Ought to Maintain Your Devotion to God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words, we can see that a normal spiritual life is very important to us. Praying, reading God’s words and attending gatherings are all a part of a spiritual life. If we are unable to adhere to these, we will be unable to attain the Holy Spirit’s work. Even though our hearts want to follow God, we will not have faith. Therefore, regardless of how busy our work lives are and how tired our physical bodies are, we must not lose our normal relationship with God. At the minimum, we must maintain a normal spiritual life. We must live before God and seek the truth and put the truth into practice when we encounter situations. Only if we do this will our spiritual life become unyielding. Only then will we have a path that we can take when we encounter situations.
