In our experience, we often fall into such a state as this: When encountering things, we only focus on knowing ourselves and dealing with our corruptions, with the result that we realize we are nothing, not worthy a penny, but even so we still have no strength to love God and sometimes even give up and completely lose confidence in ourselves. For example, after our leader points out many holes and errors in our work, we realize that we have performed our duty perfunctorily and deceitfully with much cheat and resistance and thus brought losses to the work of God’s family, so we feel indebted to God and to the brothers and sisters. However, we do not have many positive elements within, living in the shadow that “I am too corrupt to be worthy of this duty.” Sometimes when we are exposed in certain things and see that we are so arrogant by nature and so lacking in humanity, we consider that God loathes such people as us, so we become discouraged and disappointed, having no desire to pursue the truth and transformation anymore. Sometimes when we see our corruptions in a certain respect, we want to pursue the truth to get rid of them, so we consciously eat and drink the relevant words of God in light of our state and practice forsaking the flesh. But after a period of time, we find that we have not made much progress and our corrupt nature remains untransformed, thus we conclude that we will never be transformed, and even go so far as to write ourselves off as hopeless.

The fact that we can pay attention to knowing ourselves in our experience shows that God’s work and word have achieved certain results in us. But if we fall into a passive state and even lose our desire to make progress after knowing some corruptions and deficiencies in us, this is contrary to God’s intention. God’s word says: “No matter whether people experience God, know themselves, cast off their corrupt nature, or pursue growth in their life, it is for knowing God. If you only pursue to know yourself and deal with your corrupt nature but do not know anything about such things as what work God does on people, what a great salvation it brings, how you experience God, and how you see God’s deeds, then you are experiencing in a foolish way. If you only know that being able to practice the truth and be patient mean growing up in life, then you do not understand the real meaning of life or understand God’s purpose in working man.” “God expends so much painstaking effort to do the work personally through being incarnated the second time for the very purpose that people can know him and see him. People’s ‘knowing God’ is the ultimate result that God will achieve when he finishes his work and is his ultimate requirement for mankind. The purpose of doing this work is for God’s ultimate testimony and for mankind to completely return to God in the end.” From these words of God, we can see this: God, who is incarnated and comes among people today, has spoken many words and done many works, setting himself as an exemplar for us in every respect and arranging all kinds of circumstances for us to experience. His doing so is not only for us to know our corruption and disobedience but even more for us to know him while knowing ourselves. He hopes that we, through eating and drinking his word and experiencing his work, can see his salvation, his love for man, and his wonderful deeds, and can know his work and understand the purpose and significance of his work, so that we can testify about him and love him. This is also the goal we should pursue. Peter was just such a person who not only had known himself but also had known God in God’s word and work. God says: “From God’s word, on the one hand, Peter had truly known himself; on the other hand, from God’s word which expressed God’s righteous nature, what God has and is, the intention of God’s doing the work, and God’s requirements for mankind, Peter had fully known God, having known God’s nature and God’s substance, and having also known and understood what God has and is, God’s loveliness, and God’s requirements for man. Although at that time there were not as many God’s words as today, these several aspects of results were achieved in Peter. That was rare and commendable. Peter experienced hundreds of trials, yet he did not suffer in vain. In God’s word and work, Peter not only had known himself but also had known God.” From this passage of the word of God, we can see Peter’s successful experience: In God’s word and work and the trials that came upon him, Peter not only had known his disobedience and the things in him that were not after God’s heart, but more importantly, he had known God. Because the way of his experience was correct, God’s work and word achieved unparalleled results in him, and he thus became one made perfect by God.