At present, in many of us there exists a state of looking up to man and adoring our leaders. For example, we exert ourselves and are conscientious in our duties, because we do not want our leaders to worry about us, because we want our leaders to receive fewer dealings, or because we want to win honor for our leaders. No matter what we do, we do it for our leaders, for our leaders’ good. When staying with our leaders, we carefully watch their every act and move and imitate them. When we fall into a bad state or encounter a difficulty, instead of coming before God to seek the truth, we immediately think of our leaders and feel that if our leaders can come and fellowship with us, our problem will certainly be resolved; we rely on man far more than on God. And what is even worse, some brothers and sisters wish they could be with the leader X when disaster comes, for they think that he will be able to help them whenever they become passive in the disaster and thus they will certainly be able to uphold testimony. … All these show that we look up to and adore man.

One reason why we look up to man is that we have not seen through man’s substance and are ignorant of the fact that all mankind, who have been corrupted by satan, are of satan and are hostile to God by nature, and that none of them has anything worthy to be looked up to. Just as God’s word says: “…man is living under the influence of satan’s evil and ugliness, not growing in a world of truth or in a holy environment, much less living in the light. So, no one can possibly possess the truth by nature, much less can anyone be born with the substance of fearing and obeying God. On the contrary, everyone possesses the innate nature of resisting God, disobeying God, and not loving the truth. This innate nature is the problem I want to speak about—betrayal.” “You must know that in man’s innate nature, there are certain commonalities. All people can betray God; this is a commonality…. Some manifest the corrupt nature somewhat severely, while others manifest it less severely. However, their substances are the same; this is a commonality.” “Among men, none can be an example to others, because all men are essentially the same and not different, and there are no distinctions between them. …” And in the man’s fellowship attached to The Summary of Christ’s Preachings and Conversations, it is said: “Suppose there is such a person who is truly admirable. We can make a dissection of him and will find that his corrupt nature is no different from ours, only he has received more inspiration and enlightenment from the Holy Spirit than us, and that there is no element of loveliness in him worthy of man’s love. If what he says is in conformity with the truth, we can accept it as from God and be grateful for God’s grace, for it has nothing to do with this person.” From these words we can see that all people, who have been deeply corrupted by satan, are full of satanic poisons in their blood and marrow and have nothing positive or of the truth, and that everyone’s innate nature is betrayal. No matter who they are, leaders or workers, their disobedient innate nature and corrupt substance are the same as ours. None of them is an exception. They can fellowship about the truth in a fairly clear way or achieve some results in their work, and that is all ascribable to the working of the Holy Spirit. As they have the commissions given by God’s family, God works on them to uphold his own work. Although there is also an element of their active cooperation in it, simply this element is added by the Holy Spirit. All positive things come from God, so if a person has anything positive, it is a result achieved by God’s working. Everyone is like this: When the Holy Spirit works on him, he behaves somewhat like a human; when the Holy Spirit does not work on him, he can do nothing but revert to his corrupt satanic status quo ante. Therefore, even though we do gain some knowledge of the truth through our leaders’ fellowship, we should accept it as from God and be grateful for God’s grace, for it has nothing to do with our leaders. God is the source of man’s life and is the expresser and supplier of the truth, while man is merely a channel. If we look up to and adore man so much that we put God aside, haven’t we taken the branch for the root? It is God who created us and gave us life, it is God who predestined us to be born in the end time and selected us, and it is God who has been caring for us, supplying us, and leading us onto the right path of human life. We can believe in God and follow God up to today, and that is all because of God’s great uplifting and salvation but not the result of any man’s leading. Therefore, if we, while believing in God, do not worship God or have a place for God in our heart but follow and worship man instead, we are ungrateful and guilty of worst offense, and we are the most blind, ignorant, and absurd ones.

Another reason why we look up to and adore man and have no place for God in our heart is that we have no knowledge of God’s substance and being. In fact, only God is beautiful and good, only God is great, and only God is worthy to be looked up to and worshipped by man. When we have really gained some true knowledge of what God has and is, we will no longer adore any man ignorantly but will develop the fear of and the adoration for God; we will be willing to let God occupy our heart and our whole being. The word of God says: “God has no element of disobedience. God is essentially good. He is an expression of all beauty and good and an expression of all love. Even though he is the God in the flesh, he will not do anything of disobeying God the Father. And even if he has to lay down his life, he will be willing and will not make any other choice. God has no element of self-rightness or self-importance, has no element of arrogance or self-conceit, and has no element of crookedness. All the things of disobeying God originate with satan. Satan is the source of all ugliness and evil. Man has the same attributes as satan because he has been corrupted and processed by satan. Christ is not corrupted by satan, so he only has God’s attributes but does not have satan’s attributes. When God lives in the flesh, no matter how difficult his work is or how weak his flesh is, he will not do anything that frustrates his own work, much less give up and disobey the will of God the Father. He would rather suffer in his flesh than go against the will of God the Father….” “So man and God are never comparable. God is forever supreme and honorable, whereas man is forever low and worthless. This is because God is forever devoting and expending himself for mankind, whereas man is forever making demands and exerting efforts for himself. God is forever laboring for the sake of mankind’s existence, whereas man never offers up anything for the sake of righteousness and light. Even if man sometimes exerts some efforts, they cannot withstand any difficulty, because man’s efforts are always for his own sake and not for others’ sake. Man is forever selfish, whereas God is forever selfless. God is the source of all righteousness, beauty, and good, whereas man is the inheritor and expresser of all ugliness and evil. God will never change his substance of being righteous and beautiful, whereas man can rebel against righteousness and stay away from God at any time and in any place.” From these words of God we can see that God is completely different from man in essence. God is the Creator, while man is only a tiny created being; man and God are never comparable. God is holy, while man has been corrupted by satan. God has no element of arrogance, self-conceit, self-rightness, or self-importance, and he never considers himself to be someone of high standing. Man, however, becomes arrogant and conceited and looks down upon others once he has something; and he pursues position when he does not have it, and once he has it, he stands in a high place and lords it over others and indulges in the enjoyment of position. God is so supreme, great, and honorable, but he is incarnated and born in the filthy land to save us, the most debased people whom everyone despises and dislikes, living with and spending his daily life with us. Man, however, with snobbish eyes, thinks highly of, fawns on, and adulates those who have position, and looks down upon, ignores, and belittles those who have no position, unable to regard all as equal. God works hard selflessly so that mankind can have a better life, while man always makes arduous efforts selfishly for his own interests. God is always devoting and expending himself for mankind, and even though he receives nothing in return, he still loves man. Man, however, demands rewards from God after he expends himself a little, and once he receives nothing in return, he turns his shame into anger. God is full of love and mercy for man, and when man misunderstands, rejects, hurts, disobeys, or resists him, he makes no account of it but tolerates man with patience, loves man while being hurt, and supplies man with the truth, never stopping his work of saving man. Man, however, once misunderstood or hurt by someone, feels it is unfair, returns a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye, complains everywhere, or falls out with that person and becomes his enemy. When God lives in the flesh, no matter how difficult his work is or no matter how weak his flesh is, he never gives up the will of God the Father. When man suffers a little, he becomes passive, draws back, performs his duty perfunctorily and deceivingly, and can even throw up the commission given by God’s family. God has perseverance, and no matter how foolish man is or how impossible man is, he never gives up saving man. Man, however, when encountering some frustration, shrinks back and can yield to the forces of darkness at any time. God has the substance of faithfulness, and whatever he has said, he does it, and he practically pays the price as he has said. Man, however, makes resolutions and breaks them, always talking slickly to cheat God and having no actual actions. … When we are able to differentiate the substance of God from that of man, we will not go so far as to blindly look up to man anymore. Rather, we will be willing to let God’s image be firmly established in our heart and take root in the depth of our heart, and we will sincerely feel that God alone is worthy to be loved by man and deserves to be loved by man and that God alone is the only One whom we can rely on and look to. Hope that we all can make more effort to pursue knowing God and can see God’s loveliness, supremeness, and greatness from God’s work, so that God can become the most holy, the most honored, and the most high single object of worship in our heart.