I was formerly a church pillar in the Three Grades of Servants Church. After several setbacks, I finally kept up with God’s end-time new work in May 1999. Thinking back to my past actions and behavior, I really feel too ashamed to show my face and feel indebted to God’s love and to brothers and sisters. But at the same time, I am also full of gratitude, because God stretched out his hand of salvation to me at the time when I was most distressed and lost, so that my spirit received supply and got revived. I finally knew God’s end-time work, realized that Almighty God was the returned Jesus, and returned to God’s family. The following is my personal experience. I hope that all the brothers and sisters who are waiting for the Lord’s return and the brothers and sisters who are hesitating at the crossroads can draw inspiration from it and come before God as soon as possible. For I was once one of you and also one of those who were deceived.

“In Dreams,” I Only Knew to Resist….

In 1998, Maidservant Zhao in our Church accepted Almighty God’s work. The servant used this matter to whip up public opinion and said to us, “Maidservant Zhao has become an apostate and joined a new sect—‘Eastern Lightning.’ After she became an apostate, she lost the working of the Holy Spirit and was possessed by the ‘evil spirit.’ She has lost her mind and goes to every church to snatch people. That ‘spirit’ is very powerful. Whoever comes into contact with it will be ‘possessed’ by it, and then will listen to it in spite of himself. Now many people have been taken captive by it. We must be on our guard! The host families she knows and those she is familiar with especially need to be careful.” At these words, I was very afraid, because Maidservant Zhao not only knew me but also knew where my home was. Although I didn’t see these things with my own eyes, I believed them without thinking, because they were said by the servant. Afterward, he said the same things in the churches. The brothers and sisters felt the same way as I did and also believed them to be true. From then on, the servant, the maidservants, and the co-workers often preached this “way” in the meetings, so these words gradually became the “facts” in the brothers’ and sisters’ mind. Because many people of our Church accepted Almighty God’s work that year, we explicitly stipulated: “Don’t receive strangers. Don’t receive anyone who is not brought by the ones who water the churches in that area. Don’t receive anyone of your church who suddenly disappeared with his whereabouts unknown and later came back to the church.”

In the second half of 1998, I went to Xingtai City to water the churches because of the need of the work. One day, a sister and I went to water a church. The elderly sister of the host family said to us, “Yesterday, two people came and said that God has done a new work and there are books and new songs about it, all really good, and that we won’t be able to be saved if we do not accept it. My family-brother was swayed by them and also wanted to read their books. They said they would bring us the books tomorrow and would like to meet the ones who water our churches.” Immediately, I scolded the elderly brother, saying that he was too curious and didn’t listen to the servant and the maidservants, that he couldn’t even learn to sing our songs but wanted to learn so called new songs, and that what they said was all to deceive people. At my words, he was so frightened that he dared not want their books anymore. I worried the elderly sister would not be able to drive them away the next day, and I thought that if they listened more and were deceived, things would be worse. So I said to her before leaving, “We’ll come tomorrow, but don’t let them know who we are, and don’t keep them again.” The next day after breakfast, I went to her home. Shortly after I got there, the people who brought the books came. The elderly sister drove them away without even letting them in. Out of my “conscientiousness” to the church, I repeated the words by which I closed the churches to outsiders before and emphasized, saying, “What we believe in is the true way. We will not be saved if there are not the servant or the maidservants and if we leave the Three Grades of Servants Church.” The elderly sister repeatedly assured me that she would never receive anyone who was not brought by us. Then I felt relieved and left.

In Spring Festival when I went back to my home town, I met at a host home the sisters who preached God’s end-time work. They testified about Almighty God’s work to me, but soon I recognized that they preached the way of “Eastern Lightning.” So I said to them, “There is only one true way. Only our way is the true way, and yours is false….” After I said that, I left in a huff.

On the Wrong Path, the Light Lighted Me Up….

In March 1999, our church decided to send a sister and me to Shijiazhuang City, where we would do hosting secretly and preach the gospel under the pretext of mending shoes. At that time, the churches were in utter chaos: Several senior co-workers were arrested; many co-workers disappeared; the servant was put in prison; most of the directors of the several factories run by our church were arrested, and the factories were forced to stop production; and the rest didn’t submit to each other and each of them lorded it over a district. So, out of our faithfulness to the Lord, we submitted to the church’s arrangement and came to Shijiazhuang City, determined to find a proper place for the church. It was the first time for us two countrywomen who had never traveled far from home to come to the city, so everything here was strange to us and we were at a loss what to do. We were so friendless that we felt the days wore on like years, and we did not know how to carry out the plan we had made. Before we came here, the co-workers said they would come to see us once a week. However, after two weeks had passed, there was still no one coming. By then, we had run out of food, not earned any money, and also lost contact with the church. We preached the gospel but gained no fruit, read the Bible but received no light, and prayed but had no words, feeling that God had already left us. We were bathed in tears when we prayed in the morning and evening, and even when we cried “O Lord” at usual times, we couldn’t help shedding tears. In our hearts, there was only the word “God will not abandon you” sustaining us. The distress in our hearts was beyond expression, and we always felt ourselves like a kite with its string broken, having no goal or support at all. During that period of time, I had enough time to examine myself. What I thought most was the matter that I usually dared not think about: “The brothers and sisters have no love for each other. The co-workers have nothing to preach but only know to close the churches to outsiders. The believers are whipped every now and then. (In our Church, the leaders often whip the believers with a triangular belt, saying that ‘those they discipline are beloved sons and those they don’t discipline are illegitimate children.’) There is no love that a believer in Jesus should have at all.” Thinking back to those things, I increasingly felt that there was something wrong with the servant’s practices. “We have already had nothing to preach in the meetings, but he still doesn’t allow us to listen to others’ preaching, saying that he fears that we would be deceived. If we believe in the true way, will we be afraid of being deceived? As the saying goes, ‘Evil will never prevail over good.’ Evil spirits are always afraid of Jesus. What are we afraid of since we have the Lord? Besides, we have believed in the Lord for so many years. Do we really not have any discernment? …” A train of doubts crossed my mind. “Also, today’s churches are quite different from before. In the past our hearts burned like fire toward God, but now they have frozen like ice. The brothers and sisters are all extremely weak, whereas those of ‘Eastern Lightning’ are all full of enthusiasm. …” After I turned it over and over in my mind, I decided that I would listen first if I was given an opportunity. The situation was such that we felt we shouldn’t stay here any longer, so we decided to contact the church again. If we failed to contact them, we would go home. I dialed the number. The one who answered the phone was not the person I wanted but a sister I was very familiar with. She comforted me, saying that she would bring some people to see us. Hearing the voice of a family member in such a hopeless situation, I couldn’t help bursting into tears.