“Since you have sworn an oath, you should practice according to it. If you have sworn an oath but do not practice according to it, you will be destroyed.” In the past, I never dared swear to meet God’s requirements. Especially in the gospel work, I dared not swear for fear of being punished by God.

At one meeting, we read this in The Manual of the Principles for the Church Work: “First, we should realize that preaching the gospel is God’s commission and is God’s command. For the spread of the work of God, should we not offer up ourselves? For carrying out the will of God, should we not risk our lives? Are our lives even more important than carrying out the will of God? For carrying out the will of God, it is worthy even to lay down our lives….” After reading these words, I examined myself. I never took the gospel work seriously. I just assigned the work to my subordinates but never planned how to carry it out specifically. Nor had I ever made a resolution before God to meet God’s requirements by all means. I only knew to preserve myself. I never risked my life to do the will of God. I am truly a selfish and contemptible person! God wishes everyone to stand up to cooperate with him in his gospel work, so that more brothers and sisters who have been earnestly awaiting God’s coming can soon be brought back to God’s family to be saved. But I always practiced deception in the gospel work. I have really failed to meet God’s ardent expectations for me. Having thought of this I felt very sad. I resolved not to live for myself anymore, but put the word of God into practice, carry out the work arrangement, and risk my life to satisfy God and care for God’s grief.

After we talked about the work arrangements, I came before God together with other brothers and sisters and swore an oath: “O God! For your will to proceed smoothly, I’m willing to commit myself totally to your hand. All along I did the gospel work deceitfully and without any burden, thus hindering your will from being carried out. But today, you haven’t put me in hell according to my actions so that I can still live before you. This is your great tolerance and endurance for me. Today, I’m willing to swear before you that I will carry out your will and accomplish the gospel quota, even at the expense of my life. If I fail to achieve it, may you curse and punish me and let me never be forgiven in this age or the next age. Today, since I have laid my oath upon your altar, may you treat me according to my oath. I believe you are righteous and faithful….” After taking the oath, I seemed to have an enormous power pushing me so that I dared not be slothful in the gospel work. I had a true burden for the evangelization clues, the preaching ways and methods, the watering of the new believers, and the subordinates. I also planned how to carry out the gospel work effectively. However, I underwent refining in fulfilling the quota of winning 150 people within a month. Half a month had passed, but we had only won 37 people, which was far from the quota. Then the words of God rang in my ears: “In your experience, no matter what refining you may receive from God’s word, God wants you to have faith. By doing so, he wants to perfect your faith and your will. He will cause you to sense nothing and see nothing. In the situation when you cannot sense or see anything, you need to have faith.” Encouraged by God’s words, though refined in my heart, I dared not give up or withdraw because I had understood God’s intention to perfect people and sworn an oath before God. By the 30th of the month, we won 155 people. At that time, I felt very excited and couldn’t help shedding tears. I saw God’s righteousness and that God has the substance of faithfulness.

Although I underwent a lot of refining in fulfilling the quota that month, I gained some knowledge of the significance of swearing. By swearing, I saw God’s wisdom and was kept from committing sin and doing evil. By swearing, I saw God’s salvation for me, removed my timidity and fear, and developed more hate for my crafty, selfish, and contemptible innate nature. By swearing, I understood God’s intention: God wanted to add to me the “belief” that he has the substance of faithfulness and his work will surely be accomplished, so that I am willing to resolve to carry out God’s will and not to plan or prepare for my future anymore; and thus, I will have clearer goals and directions for my pursuit and can turn my heart to God more completely. Swearing is of great benefit to my life.

Kang Xiaoxin

Fuxin City, Liaoning Province