In May 1990, I accepted Jesus in the Three-Self sect because of illness. In 1993, I turned to the Church of Truth and later became a junior leader there.

In July 1999, our church leader told us at a meeting, “In recent years, a biggest ‘heresy,’ ‘cult,’ called ‘Eastern Lightning,’ has appeared in mainland China. They preach that God has come, and as a female. The spirit in them is very powerful. Once you talk with them, it will enter into you, and you will be controlled by them in spite of yourself and do whatever they say. … Co-workers, brothers, and sisters, none of you should come into contact with the people of ‘Eastern Lightning,’ nor receive them, lest you share in their sins….” Hearing the leader’s words, I firmly believed that “Eastern Lightning” was a “heresy,” a “cult.” And I thought, “This has fulfilled the words in the Bible. The end time has arrived, and false christs have appeared.” So, I made an inward resolution: I must be watchful and prepare myself, and even more, I must keep a good guard over the brothers and sisters so that no one will be taken captive by “Eastern Lightning.” Otherwise, I won’t be able to give an account to the Lord.

In the fall of 2000, a sister in our church accepted Almighty God’s new work. Later, she brought me a book of God’s word to read and asked me to make an investigation, but I said without thinking, “It’s not worth reading. No doubt it’s false.” As she kept pleading with me, I casually glanced through a few pages, and with hatred I wrote several big words on the book—“Where is the incarnated God?” And then I said to her seriously, “Return the book soon. This is not at all God’s word. It seems to be written by a third-grade pupil.”

One day in April 2001, on my way home from work, I met two sisters who preached Almighty God. They pled with me to have a fellowship with them, but I flatly refused and deliberately shouted out, “You’ve got a nerve, preaching wherever you go. I only believe in Jesus. Except for Jesus, I believe in no one….” As expected, my shouting drew many passersby. They stopped around the two sisters and looked on curiously, when I stole away.

In July 2001, two sisters came to my home many times to preach the new work of Almighty God, but each time I managed to shut them out. On Sunday, July 22, the heat was like a blow. At noon, my doorbell rang. I looked through the peephole and saw the two sisters again. The heat flushed them and beads of sweat kept rolling down their faces, but they seemed not to care about that at all. They anxiously watched the door, expecting it to be opened. Seeing this, I could not help feeling a spark of sympathy for them. When I was about to open the door, my mother-in-law, who had just come back from a meeting in the Three-Self church, stopped me and said, “Don’t let them in. Our pastor says that once the spirit in them enters into us, we cannot get rid of it.” Then, she cursed them away through the door. After they left, my unbelieving husband said to himself in puzzlement, “What on earth do they believe in? For what do they go from house to house and run upstairs and downstairs?” My mother-in-law heard that and said, “They do that for nothing. They are devils who come only to break up the churches.” My husband said seriously, “Could there be such faithful devils nowadays? Could they run around outside all day long for nothing but to break up the churches? What will they get by breaking up the churches? There must be something behind it.” His words started me thinking, “Yes! What on earth do they preach the end-time gospel for? In our church, the brothers and sisters grow cold in love and become weak and feeble; the co-workers raise envy and strife among themselves, unable to get along with each other. These people, however, run around persistently, despite intense heat or bitter cold, and undaunted by our abuses and sneers. Where do they get such great faith and love? What is it all about?” At that moment, I really wished to meet a believer in Almighty God so as to solve my puzzles.

Although my hostile attitude toward “Eastern Lightning” had somewhat changed since then, I dared not do anything “rash,” for I saw our church was resisting it as fiercely as before. Once, I could not help asking our church leader, “Everybody says that the spirit in the people of ‘Eastern Lightning’ is very powerful, but the Lord Jesus we believe in is almighty. Do we have to be afraid of them? Why not find an opportunity to fellowship with them and see what they actually preach and what it is all about?” Hearing this, the leader was very unhappy and said to me stiffly, “They are devils. If you come into contact with them, your spirit will go wrong.” “I’ve met them but felt no spirit enter into me,” I said, unconvinced. “I feel everything is all right with me.” Thereafter I was regarded as a dangerous person in our church. At co-worker meetings, all the brothers and sisters looked askance at me. I felt extremely distressed at that. And I hardly dared think of going to have a fellowship with those who preached the end-time gospel, for I was really afraid of getting myself into trouble, fearing that the brothers and sisters in my church might reject me and say I had accepted a “heresy,” a “cult,” and that I would be attacked by such rumors as “The believers in Almighty God are extremely filthy.” In order to clear up the brothers’ and sisters’ misunderstandings of me so that they would regard me as highly as before, I tried my best to prove that I was “innocent” and that I had not been “deceived” by “Eastern Lightning.” In my sermons, I made use of those rumors to vehemently blaspheme Almighty God and slander his believers, and I kept warning the brothers and sisters, “You must take strict precautions against those from ‘Eastern Lightning.’ If they come to your home, never let them in.” During that period, I drove away many brothers and sisters who came to preach the end-time gospel to me.

Because of my disobedience and resistance, God’s discipline came upon me. On the morning of April 5, 2002, I, a quite healthy person, suddenly felt dizzy and sick to my stomach when I got up. Then, I went to have my blood pressure checked, only to find it perfectly normal. From then on, I often felt dizzy. Though I took some medicines, my condition had not improved, but rather worsened. Sometimes, I was so dizzy that I could not even open my eyes, and was sick as if a knife were piercing my heart; I felt like I was dying. At the time, I became much more “well-behaved.” I could neither attend to our church affairs nor take care of the weak brothers and sisters in the rural areas. The only thing I could do was to keep praying to God to heal me and to reveal his intention to me so that I could know why this sudden illness came upon me. One morning at past five o’clock, I was praying when a verse jumped into my mind: “…seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). I felt my heart miss a beat. “Isn’t it that God is inspiring me?” I hastily opened the Bible and happened to turn to John 14:6: “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” I pondered this verse over and over again, but I could not understand its meaning. However, I was well aware in my heart that one day the Lord would guide me into understanding it.