This world is constantly changing,
and you must seek ways to survive in the midst of change.
The only constant in this world is change
Survival requires knowledge; do not think that you can survive by living casually, as casual living makes survival difficult. Because everything is changing, but the only thing that doesn't change is change itself. A well-known figure said: The only constant in this world is that it is always changing, and this is unchanging. In Hangzhou, there was a taxi driver who was in a dire situation because a license plate cost over 800,000 RMB, but with the arrival of Uber, it dropped to 200,000 RMB. Suddenly, with the advent of Uber, taxi drivers' business halved. Whose fault was it? It was the fault of change. Jack Ma once said: What does it matter to me if a thousand physical stores close down! Whose fault was it? It was not Jack Ma's fault, but the fault of change; if you want to blame someone, blame the moon.
Today, you must realize that the world is constantly changing. If you do not change, who can you blame? Why blame the moon? Because it is the inevitable law of historical development, revolving in the sky like the moon. Therefore, today we must understand the inevitable laws of the development of things. Human history has its laws of development, and all changes have their laws of development. If someone tries to stop the train of history, they will be crushed to pieces by it. Don't think that driving a taxi will allow you to escape the shock of change. No matter what you do, you must endure a shock called change today.
Learning to Survive in Change
Today, I will tell you what I do: I am the one who brings change. I hope that the changes I bring will impact this era. I impact this era, and the world will not impact me. If I cast out demons, demons will not come to cast me out because if you fear demons, they will not fear you. If you do not fear demons, they will fear you. What kind of person do you want to be?
So, today, surviving in change is a critical matter. Many people do not realize that the world is constantly changing. Today, I issue a challenge: How many parents among us understand that education must change in this era? Children are simply made to study and go to university, but after graduating, they cannot find a job because they have picked up many bad habits in university. As the entire era is changing, if you cannot follow the natural laws of historical development, you will be crushed by the wheels of history. The only constant in this era is that the old education system will be completely replaced by a new one.
When I was young, it was during the educational reform, and who carried out that reform? It was Mao Zedong, who said that education must be revolutionized and the school system shortened. Now, when I think about it, my generation was particularly fortunate. First, we did not encounter natural disasters; second, we did not have to go to the countryside; third, university was free; and fourth, the school was responsible for job assignments after graduation.
But brothers and sisters must understand: This world is constantly changing, and you must seek ways to survive in the midst of change. In the change of the church system, can you have a prescient ability? In fact, even fools know today that there are problems with the church system. Children who just came to church a few years ago learn a lot of useless things. What exactly are you doing? Many parents still want to push their children in, failing to recognize the essence of things!
Believing in the Lord Solves Many Problems
Today, I tell everyone that if a person has a prescient ability, knowing in advance that the education system is undergoing reform, just like physical stores, knowing in advance the impact of e-commerce, they will make changes early. Who will benefit? They themselves will benefit. Do not sit there resisting stubbornly. Not only is education being changed, but e-commerce and physical businesses are also changing, especially the impact of the internet in the era we live in, which is far from over.
Therefore, you must have foresight because the faith of Jesus Christ is a faith of foresight. In 2000, when I was a department manager, the Holy Spirit told me in prayer to study IT outsourcing, called doing the core business yourself and outsourcing non-core business, which are the core ideas of outsourcing. At that time, I thought I had never understood the outsourcing industry, so I took out all the information related to outsourcing and studied it. After studying for two years, I applied for a job, and the interview questions were all about IT outsourcing. If you wait until you are asked before preparing, it is really embarrassing. However, after two years of accumulation, you can study very thoroughly and also gain great benefits from it.
So, can the faith of Jesus Christ solve the problems in our lives? Definitely, because it is a faith of foresight, solving problems in a very miraculous way. It depends on whether you believe it or not, and whether you want to believe it. That's your problem. We must know that believing in the Lord well will not delay work because it is foresight. Revelation speaks of future events, and the Bible speaks of prophecies, which are like a lamp shining in our darkness.
Whether Your Future Can Be Good Depends on Your Attitude Towards Believing in the Lord
Revelation speaks entirely of future events, and the Bible speaks of the prophecies of the prophets, what will happen in the future. Prophecy is the lamp of our lives, illuminating our darkness, so the faith of Jesus Christ can illuminate the darkness in your life. Whether you have a future depends entirely on your attitude towards believing in the Lord. Some people live well today but will be gone tomorrow. In the changes of this era, it is usually thirty years east of the river and thirty years west.
In my era, when I came to Singapore, my salary immediately became twenty times that of China. In our era, when students went to the United States, if you saw a group walking on the highway, they were all Chinese. Today, that is no longer the case. In just two or three decades, how much has China changed, and how much has the world changed. Can you see a trend of development today? You must learn to observe the trend of the development of things.
We have a sister among us who used to work in the Science and Technology Bureau of Singapore. Her parents advised her to continue working there, but continuing to work there has no future at all. Why? Because that trend has been clearly demonstrated. Which things will decline and which things will prosper. Today, we must adopt a prescient attitude to look at the future.
I have a good friend who has a particularly good eye for investing in real estate. He asked me: Pastor Liu, if a coin is tossed fifty times and it is always heads, what do you guess will be the outcome of the fifty-first toss? I almost guessed tails. I said: What do you say? He said: I guess it will still be heads. Why still heads? Because that is the trend. The past fifty times have been heads, and the fifty-first will still be heads. That is the trend. It is also possible that both sides of the coin are the same, so no matter how you toss it, it will be the same. That is the trend.
Today, brothers and sisters must begin to have foresight and then begin to observe the trends of the development of this era. I bluntly say that the next twenty years will be twenty years for China to move towards becoming a developed country. The past two or three decades were two or three decades for China to move towards becoming a moderately prosperous society. Many people are not optimistic about China.
That big trend has clearly proven that this era is the era of us Chinese people. I am fortunate to be Chinese. Going back four thousand years, Joseph was sold to Egypt four thousand years ago and later became the prime minister of Egypt because God was with him. If Joseph is buying grain, you quickly buy grain; if Joseph is selling grain, you quickly sell grain; then you will definitely be very wealthy.
Some people will say: Pastor, why do you always talk about this? What else should I talk about if I don't talk about this? You may want to live a poor life, but I don't want to live a poor life. If everyone else is buying, and you also rush to buy, you need to be careful. Don't think that just because everyone is buying grain, you also buy grain. That is not the trend. The trend is in the hands of Joseph, so you need to be careful. Sometimes people get trapped in this way. Everyone is rushing to buy stocks, and you also rush to buy, and then you get trapped.
The Number of People Determines Economic Problems
Everyone must understand economic problems. How do you look at economic problems? Today, I will share with you a basic concept of how to invest. If you want to invest, I will tell you, what is the economy? The economy is about people. A group of pigs cannot form an economy, and a group of monkeys cannot form an economy, but a group of people there forms an economy.
In the past twenty years in Singapore, why has the economy grown? Not because of Singapore's economy or science and technology; it is because Singapore has introduced nearly two million new immigrants, transforming from a population of three million to five million, with two million new people coming. Do these two million people need food, clothing, housing, and transportation? Do they need to buy houses? All of a sudden, the economy is pushed up. The additional consumption of these two million people alone has brought enough growth, which may not necessarily be an essential growth, but the growth brought about by the population alone is enough to support Singapore in the past twenty years.
So today, brothers and sisters, you must understand one thing. If you want to invest, observe the population of that place. The economic problem is a population problem. The increase or decrease in population determines the economic situation of that place. Singapore, because of its internal political mechanisms, has some opposition to foreign immigrants. Although the government is still persisting, there is still great political pressure because of elections, universities, and other issues. Therefore, there is no way to continue to increase the population. If there is no way to continue to increase the population, a problem will arise, which is that the population will stagnate. Anything that stagnates cannot develop and will cause serious problems. That is to say, solving problems depends on development, and solving development problems still depends on development.
Today, will there be economic development in places where the population is no longer increasing? In the three northeastern provinces of China, Heilongjiang ranks about first or second from the bottom in the country. Why is it ranked first or second from the bottom? Because all of China is full of northeasterners. Northeasterners have become new immigrants in China. There are northeasterners everywhere. In the Northeast, the population is declining significantly. Last year, I saw data that nearly two million people leave the Northeast every year, going to the south and all parts of China. It is said that there are many northeasterners in Weihai and Hainan, and northeasterners are in many places, nearly two million each year. The economy of the Northeast will have problems. If you want to buy property, never buy property in the Northeast because that place will have severe problems.
So today, I tell everyone that population problems determine economic problems. What will happen to the population in Singapore, Japan, South Korea, the United States, and Europe? The economic problems will become very obvious. Why is Silicon Valley in the United States so developed? Because that place attracts many foreign talents. IT talents from all over the world flock there. So, you need to start looking at this trend.
Start Training Your Eyesight and Surviving in Change
The second most important thing is that you must start seeing where God is working. Where God is working, there will be prosperity. Where there is prosperity, the population will increase. Today, brothers and sisters, can you start training your eyesight? Training your eyesight is very important. It is very important for a poor person to get out of poverty early and for a wealthy person to enter financial freedom early. You must train your eyesight and survive in change.
Any change brings opportunity, and those who do not change will complain. If you are a complaining person, you cannot see opportunities because, in change, you find you cannot keep up with the change, and as a result, the change overwhelms you because change is eternal. The Bible says: Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
Originally, God deliberately created the laws of historical development and the laws of the development of things and then allows things to constantly change so that you can examine what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. If you are a person who grasps change, you will be above and not below, the head and not the tail.
Break Down Rigid Thinking
We want to bless this generation, so we give our books away for free. We have found that people in Zhejiang love to read, love to read spiritual books, and also love to read books about the changes in this era. What is sold in the bookstores is what people in that place like to read. The Spirit of God is at work in Zhejiang, and God wants to bless that place. Renewing the mind and being transformed is a must to break down rigidity. Rigid thinking is unacceptable. If your parents have rigid minds, change them, break down the rigid systems within them, and challenge their rigid attitudes. No one likes rigidity, and even communists do not like rigidity. Don't think that corrupt officials have a very bad impact on society. In fact, rigid people have an even worse impact on society. If we go back to the time when Deng Xiaoping promoted reform and opening up, rigid people were obstructing it. If those people were not removed, China would not have reached where it is today.
Rigid dogma is deadly. Petty farmer mentality, narrow-mindedness, seeking comfort, and empty talk are all terrible. If you want to be a Christian, you must have a renewed mind and be transformed, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect, because God wants us to be above and not below, the head and not the tail. Things are developing and changing. If you cannot keep up with the changes and still want to obstruct them, if everyone agrees with my views, it will have a profound impact on you. Look at things to see their essence, and you will see change. If the only constant in this world is change, then we will change along with it.
Seize Opportunities in Change
The key is whether your mind is renewed, and whether your knowledge, concepts, and attitudes are renewed. Among all concepts, I hate the petty farmer mentality the most: one acre of land, two cows, a wife, and children by a warm bed, thinking that living this life is pretty good, but in the end, you don't live well. Living and living, you become the White-Haired Girl and Yang Bailao. A petty farmer mentality cannot promote world development, nor will there be personal or family development. Break down all of that, which is renewing the mind and being transformed. When you break down all of this, you will seize opportunities in change. Whether you can win depends entirely on your ability to seize opportunities. There are many opportunities in this era. Opportunities arise in the changes of any industry. Now there are Alibaba, WeChat, and Tencent, which did not exist before. Some people say that the changes in the past twenty years are equivalent to the changes in the past five thousand years. There are opportunities in change. If others have bigger muscles than you and run faster than you, that's useless. Complaining about that is a loser mentality.
The Bible says that the strong do not necessarily win, the swift do not necessarily prevail, the wise do not necessarily have food, and the discerning do not necessarily have wealth, but everything depends on timely opportunity. People like Jack Ma, Ma Huateng, and Robin Li are not necessarily smarter than some people; they seized opportunities. Be good at surviving in change. Opportunities are everywhere. Being clever and smart is very important. Teach the brothers and sisters in the church to be clever, learn to constantly seize opportunities in change, and be vigilant at all times. Such people are very powerful. Maybe someone among us will become the next Jack Ma in twenty years. Opportunities are everywhere. Do not complain or be negative. Change is tiring, but change makes you be above and not below, the head and not the tail. Why oppose God's words? God created change to benefit those who love Him.
I encourage everyone to be like loaches, able to live whether there is water or not. The change that God creates is an opportunity. God lets you be above and not below, the head and not the tail. I like to use the story of Joseph to encourage everyone. Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt, which was an opportunity. As long as there is change, there is opportunity. Find opportunities in slavery. You may be struggling to survive today, but what does it matter? In the end, you will see God's work in you. Do you have such faith?
The way to survive in change is this: If the world does not change, then there is no problem in doing the same thing all the time. If the world is changing, there will be more than just the first, second, and fourth industrial revolutions. Our God likes to bring about change very much. The opportunity I see is that the education system must be reformed. I hope to create a new education system in change. A new education system can shape people into talents. I think that's great. The key is to change the existing education system. Don't learn what you shouldn't, and learn well what you should. The essence of education is character building. Jack Ma's success has nothing to do with the university he attended; it is his character. If education can shape character, that would be amazing. The core of character is faith. If you have faith, you can endure. If a person without faith is about to dig up a treasure and gives up, who can they blame?
I have worked in the education industry for the past twenty years, and God has given me great grace. First, I did well in IT, and I drove a lot of innovation within my work scope. Second, the positions I worked in were all good educational institutions. I have an in-depth study of education systems and education methods. I want to implement these in life so that people can live abundantly, starting with education and starting with shaping people's character. I no longer impart knowledge but skills, such as learning skills, analysis skills, and the ability to seize opportunities in change. I don't know how to train, but I'm still exploring.
There is a team exploring how to cultivate survival in change. If we are people who create change, then we will enter into foresight. We are people who bring change and are people of foresight. In the church, I also see opportunities to put God's love into practice and serve at a cost. If you also want to become such a person, what grace it is! Creating a new paradigm church that is more in line with the Bible, surviving in change, being able to seize opportunities, and still being able to create change, promote change, and have the ability to foresee is opening a new era, opening a new system. This is the characteristic of our church and also my personal characteristic. I like original things. The hymns we sing are our original ones. To restore such a way of life, surviving in change, seizing opportunities in change, you can also create a change that affects this generation, with the ability to foresee. I think we are to become such people.