Believing in God is the most fundamental thing in our life. Of course, it should involve our entire living. Actually, believing in God includes four most fundamental things: reading God’s word, worshipping God, performing duty, and practicing the truth. Our whole spiritual living mainly consists of these four things. If you can practice these four things every day, it means that you have a normal Christian life and you are a true believer in God. If you have achieved the results required by God in all these four things, your belief has measured up to the standard and is commended by God. Of the four things in believing in God, none is dispensable, and none can be neglected. We can in no way be careless about them but should be serious with all of them. This requires us to have a devout heart and a heart that fears God. Whether a Christian practices these four things is the sole criterion for revealing whether he is a true Christian. Next, I will separately explain these four most fundamental things in believing in God.

The first fundamental thing is reading God’s word. How should we read God’s word? The most important thing is to sense the truth in every piece and every sentence of God’s word. If you can sense many truths and understand all kinds of mysteries in God’s word, you will achieve great results through reading God’s word. For you to achieve results in reading God’s word mainly means that through reading God’s word you gain the truth expressed by God to be your life. The more truths you understand and gain from God’s word, the better you are doing in your belief in God. This is because as you gain more and more truths, your viewpoints on things will change accordingly, and at the same time, you will know your corruption and disobedience as well as the substance of your innate nature. Thus your life nature will be progressively transformed. In his experience of life, everyone who understands some truths will realize his former pitiable conditions of being corrupt, foolish, ignorant, blind, and naked. As he has a deeper and deeper understanding of the truth, he will gradually feel this: “How pitiable I was before! How could I have done those disobedient and resistant things before?” He will begin to hate his innate nature and will not want to talk about his past. A person who has such a strong feeling definitely has gained some truths, for he has gained some transformation in his life nature. In the end, he will become an entirely different person from before. This is the transformation of life nature God speaks about. Of course, such a result can only be achieved through reading God’s word and receiving God’s judgment, chastisement, pruning, and dealing. So, reading God’s word is the first fundamental thing in believing in God. It can surely change your life and determine your destiny.

The second fundamental thing is worshipping God. Of course, one begins to worship God only after he understands the truth through reading God’s word. Before one understands the truth, that is, before he has a true knowledge of God, his prayer to God, his looking up to God, and even his praise to God cannot be truly worshipping God. Only when he understands the truth, that is, only when he gains a true knowledge of God, will his prayer and praise be sincere and from the bottom of his heart. Only if one’s prayer, fellowship with God in spirit, thirst for God, looking up to God, and praise to God are all based on his having a knowledge of God, will his worship be true and will his heart feel enjoyment. God’s ultimate purpose in doing the work is for people to truly worship him. If we do not pursue the truth, we cannot possibly have a true knowledge of God, and thus we cannot possibly worship God truly. As we have the innate nature of disobeying and resisting God and do not understand God’s intention, how can we possibly obey God truly? The main manifestation of truly worshipping God is truly obeying and praising him. Only truly obeying and praising God means that one truly loves and thirsts for God. To reach such a state is not an easy matter. If one has only believed in God for two or three years and only lives church life, he is still far from achieving such a result. Those who do not pursue the truth will never possibly worship God truly. Many people think that if they know how to pray and can say some words of praise to God, they know how to worship God. This cannot be more wrong. Praying like a beggar is not worshipping God, saying some empty words of praise to God is even less worshipping God, and saying a few mindless words to God out of reluctant obedience is not worshipping God either. If one has believed in God for many years but does not have any true knowledge of God, his praying and looking up to God cannot be truly worshipping God. So, worshipping God has much to do with having a true knowledge of God. If one does not spend much effort reading God’s word to gain the truth, he cannot possibly worship God. True worshipping means one’s praising of God because of knowing God, his true obeying of God because of understanding God’s intention, and his fearing of God because of being inspired and enlightened by the Holy Spirit. It has nothing to do with religious rituals or knowledge based on religious doctrines or regulations. So one cannot learn to worship God merely through believing in God for several years. You may think back: When have you ever truly worshipped God? In which matter have you ever truly worshipped God? This is a very serious thing. If you have not gained the truth, you probably cannot see this clearly.