“God does the work of the word in the last days, and such words are that of the Holy Spirit, for God is the Holy Spirit and can also become flesh; therefore, the words of the Holy Spirit, as spoken of in the past, are the words of the incarnate God today. … For God to speak utterances to carry out work, He must become flesh, else His work cannot accomplish His goal” (from “How Can Man Who Has Defined God in His Conceptions Receive the Revelations of God?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).
For two thousand years, the greatest hope of the Lord's faithful has always been to welcome His return and be raptured into the kingdom of heaven. What, then, is the most important practice with regard to welcoming the Lord? The Lord Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice" (John 10:27), "[W]hen He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13). What do these verses have to do with our welcoming of the Lord? What can we do to enable ourselves to welcome the Lord? The crosstalk We Have Welcomed the Lord provides the answers to these questions through the story of two believers from the religious world who welcomed the Lord …
Many people in religion think that they have admitted their sins and repented of them after believing in the Lord, so they have been redeemed, and been saved by grace. When the Lord comes, He will lift them up directly into the kingdom of heaven, and He cannot possibly do the work of purification and salvation. Does this view tally with the reality of God's work? It is said in the Bible: "Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). God says: "You have missed a step in your belief in God: You have merely been redeemed, but have not been changed. For you to be after God’s heart, God must personally do the work of changing and cleansing you; if you are only redeemed, you will be incapable of attaining sanctity. In this way you will be unqualified to share in the good blessings of God" (The Word Appears in the Flesh).
Almighty God says, "Since Jesus departed, the disciples who followed Him, and all of the saints who were saved thanks to His name, have been desperately pining for Him and awaiting Him. All those who were saved by the grace of Jesus Christ during the Age of Grace have been longing for that joyful day during the last days, when Jesus the Savior arrives on a white cloud and appears among man. …Yet Jesus the Savior did not do this; He did the opposite of what man conceived. He did not arrive among those who had yearned for His return, and did not appear to all men while riding upon the white cloud. He has already arrived, but man does not know Him, and remains ignorant of His arrival. Man is only aimlessly awaiting Him, unaware that He has already descended upon a white cloud (the cloud which is His Spirit, His words, and His entire disposition and all that He is), and is now among a group of overcomers that He will make during the last days."
The Lord Jesus has become flesh again to carry out the work of judging and purifying man, and He has achieved various results. Do you know that?
Chen Peng was a pastor in a house church. He had burden for the church work, and ministered to the believers year after year. But in recent years, the church became overwhelmingly desolate. More and more believers became passive, weak, and no long attended the church services. Meanwhile, Pastor Chen felt dry in spirit and had nothing to preach…. He tried many ways to revive the church, but all his efforts ended up in vain…. By chance, he heard Almighty God’s end-time gospel. After an intense debate, he finally found the cause why the church became desolate—God has been incarnated and does a new work. Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus. Only those who follow the Lamb’s footsteps can get the watering and supply of the living water of life.
As we all know, the Jews were God’s chosen people, Israel was the birthplace of God’s work, the Old Testament predicted that the Messiah would lead the lives of the Israelites, and thus the Jews had eagerly yearned for the coming of the Messiah. But why was it that when the Messiah—the Lord Jesus—truly came to work, they didn’t accept Him, yet opposed Him and even crucified Him? This is what we will talk about today. May the Lord guide us.