People with character do not walk based on feelings. From a young age, it has been my habit not to rely on feelings. For example, if I have a cut on my hand, does it hurt? No, it doesn't! But saying it doesn't hurt is a lie. Or, for example, if I work all day, squat down, and my muscles ache when I get up, is there a problem? No problem, I try my best to suppress that feeling. So, today, brothers and sisters must know one thing: people with character do not rely on feelings.

The Story of the Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains

The story of the Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains is a story I have quoted many times, a story that the Chinese people should be proud of. In front of the Foolish Old Man's house, there were two great mountains blocking his path. Ordinary people would think of moving. If this place is not good to live in, we'll move to another place. Immigration is a very common thing now. Throughout the country, people are immigrating; household registration is no longer important. But back then, perhaps due to household registration issues, the Foolish Old Man could not move away, so he had to chip away at the mountain bit by bit. Using today's technology to move the mountain would be too difficult. As a result, people came to ask him, When will you finish digging? The Foolish Old Man's character was particularly stubborn. If I can't finish digging, my son will dig. If my son can't finish digging, my grandson will dig. My descendants will keep digging, and I don't believe we can't remove this mountain. Some people think that after three or four generations, no one will dig anymore, but the Foolish Old Man didn't think that way. The Foolish Old Man had a certain character. This character doesn't feel good at all, does it? Does it feel good to chip away bit by bit? There's no end in sight. Where's the hope? Anyway, you can't see it; just let it go for a lifetime. Ordinary people would just let it go. As a result, the Foolish Old Man never stopped digging. After digging for a few days, God was moved. This is an ancient Chinese story. God was so moved that He sent two powerful angels to move the two mountains away. In other words, the Chinese have known since ancient times that faith can move mountains, so the core of this character is faith. You must know that the Foolish Old Man's feelings were not good at all. Did that feeling really feel good? I don't think anyone would feel good doing this work.

Individuality Makes You a Valuable Person

If you, like FF brother, stayed and did renovations with me, living on the construction site, isn't that also moving a mountain? But he doesn't want to just move a few bricks. That feeling isn't good; it's better to eat and drink well. There's a video I cry every time I watch it, called Never Give Up. I don't know if you've seen it. Wow...it's amazing! That death crawl, crawling forward step by step. Wow, carrying a 160-pound person forward while blindfolded, he just tells his coach: It hurts! It hurts! His coach just says: Keep going! Keep going! Completely ignore his pain. If ordinary people were to say, I know you're in a lot of pain, then it's over, it's troublesome. In the end, he crawled 110 yards. What made him overcome that feeling of pain? Pain is a very real thing; he was in great pain. But if a person has character, he will overcome. A person who pursues excellence, a person with character, a person with faith, will not give up. Giving up is not an option, so whether or not you can get out today is because character makes you a valuable person. A never-give-up character is very important. We get knocked down and get back up again, surrounded on all sides but not trapped. This is character, very strong character. Does it feel good?

The Importance of Character, the Core Value of Character

I tell you, the Apostle Paul in the Bible didn't feel good at all. When could he feel good? He was beaten many times with rods, not just rattan canes, but military rods. Thirty-nine lashes with the military rod, and his skin was torn open. Of course it hurt. I used to think that Jesus enjoyed being nailed to the cross. I thought that God had the power to overcome the pain, but it wasn't so. In fact, Jesus felt very painful on the cross. He felt pain even before being nailed to the cross; he felt very bad. He said, God, not my will, but your will be done. Very strong character! In this world, these amazing people are all people with character. Overcoming inner feelings, people's feelings can be infinitely magnified, and people's feelings can also be infinitely minimized, right? Feelings are very strange things. For example, yesterday TT fell down, got up quickly, and saw that no one paid attention to him, so it was nothing. If you paid attention to him, if you asked TT if it hurt, the feeling of pain would come back. It didn't hurt originally, but suddenly he cries endlessly, crying very sadly. So today we must overcome that feeling. You see, those who train children know this concept, to overcome that feeling. So today, brothers and sisters, we must know that character is very important. Character is your core value. The core value is to know that this person does not walk based on feelings. I have never seen a child who enjoys learning from birth. Learning is tiring, isn't it? Very tiring! When soldiers go to the barracks, no one thinks that being a soldier is enjoyable. We Chinese say, Good men don't become soldiers. Being a soldier is painful, but it shapes a person's character. The army doesn't care about your character, not at all! No one cares about your feelings. People say I can run ten laps. If you can't run ten laps, that's your problem! What others can do, you can do too. I carried thirty kilograms of equipment and ran twenty-five kilometers cross-country. Isn't that life-threatening? But I got through it. If people rely on that feeling, they can't go on at all. But by relying on faith, relying on responsibility, relying on perseverance, they can go on. In other words, today, don't ever rely on that feeling. How many feelings do we have in our lives? Pain, fatigue, fear, stress, entanglement, frustration. There are many kinds of feelings to talk about, many kinds of chaos. Recently, our church has been flooded with mental patients, and one by one they are being healed. How are they healed? In fact, they have no illness at all. You just think you have an illness. You know, we have this fear of heights.

Rely on Faith

When you stand on a very tall building, you stand by the window and look down, it feels like you're being electrocuted. In fact, if that place is 50cm off the ground, you won't feel anything. That's because of feeling. If you don't know that place, and both sides are blocked, you won't feel anything. If it's a log 50cm off the ground, you can walk across it without any problem. But if it's one meter high, you'll wobble. If it's two meters high, you probably won't be able to walk across it. But in fact, you can. There's an activity called Adventure learning. It's a single-log bridge five stories high, and even though there's protection, it's still scary. The feeling is super intense. The first time, I forced myself to walk across. The second time, it felt a little better. One more time, and by the fifth time, it was easy, like strolling down the street.

In fact, we often have illusions. If you turn those illusions into real feelings, and then you live according to those feelings, that's fatal. In fact, the Bible never tells us to rely on feelings; it tells us to rely on faith. Faith and feeling are related. Your innate set of feelings will corrupt your faith, and your faith will create a good feeling. So today I ask you, is it easier for people who feel good to do things well, or for people who feel bad? Of course, people who feel good will do things well. Never rely on your own feelings. Today, we must all learn to walk out of bad feelings because those bad feelings come from our thoughts. And when we come from thoughts, it becomes a bad feeling, and that feeling is very real.

Fear Can Paralyze Our Abilities

Our inner thoughts are crucial. In fact, if we say in our hearts, If I walk across this log and fall, I will die, you will be afraid. But in fact, you won't fall, but if your heart tells you that you will fall, you won't be able to go across. But if you say in your heart, I can definitely get across, then you will go across. Fear can paralyze our abilities. Our feelings can limit our abilities. But if we change our thoughts, our abilities can be released. This is the key. So today, brothers and sisters, we must have a deep understanding that illusions and bad feelings come from wrong thoughts.

In July 1981, I took the college entrance exam. In May, my mother went to the hospital for a checkup and was diagnosed with cancer. At that time, I was very sad. After my mother was diagnosed with cancer in the hospital, she lay in bed completely unable to move. She lay in the hospital for two days. Later, the doctor said that the test report was wrong. It was that other person who had cancer, not my mother. My mother jumped out of bed and played two rounds of mahjong, and she was fine. So it is said that a large part of cancer patients are scared to death.

I once told a story about a witch who passed by a city and told someone that one person in the city would die tomorrow, just one person. As a result, that person went into the city and announced that one person would die tomorrow. The next day, more than 300 people died in that city. Then that person said, Hey, didn't you say one person would die? How did so many people die? The witch said that those people were scared to death. Those people thought it was them, and as a result, they were scared to death. So you see, these people were not supposed to die, but they were scared to death.

Your Judgment of the Future Will Affect Your Feelings

So we must know for sure that a judgment of the future, perhaps ten minutes or even five minutes into the future, will affect your feelings. If your judgment of the future is a feeling, when you despair of the future, that feeling is very bad. The most important feeling for a person is to fall into despair. So today we must learn to give people confidence, give people hope, and let them have confidence and hope in the future, and that feeling will be good.

Managing Our Feelings Is Managing Our Thoughts

Famous doctors know this, that a person's psychological state is very important. Someone did an experiment, taking a few vitamin pills and saying that this was a very good special medicine that had just been invented. If you take it, you will get better. In fact, it was just vitamin C. So you see, how important your thoughts are. So managing our feelings, or managing our illusions, is managing our thoughts.

There was an old doctor in my hometown who discovered something very strange. He said that he had reversed the test reports, so the report for the person who was not sick said they were sick, and the report for the person who was sick said they were not sick. He remarkably discovered that the person who was sick got better, and the person who was not sick died. So today I tell you, don't always get checked for no reason. The results that come out may not even be yours, and you will make yourself miserable. In fact, learning to manage your thoughts and manage your feelings will save a lot of medical expenses.

Some people do healing and deliverance, and I pray for them. After praying, I ask them if it still hurts. They make this expression, not saying anything for a long time, trying to find the feeling. If it hurts, it hurts. If it doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt. Why try to find that feeling again? Some people have a feeling, but they can ignore that feeling, and they get better quickly. If they don't have a feeling, they insist on creating one, and when asked if they are better, they say they are not. When asked how much better they are, they say they are mostly better. You see, the language in their thoughts is very damaging. Feelings that come from the flesh are all illusions. Even if that feeling is very real, you can use your willpower to kill it. That is, bad feelings all come from wrong thoughts.

The Crucial Importance of Thoughts and Intentions

If I say it hurts, it hurts. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Don't go searching for a feeling there. What good does it do you to bring back a feeling when you have nothing else to do? I just wonder about some people. Actually, some people have a feeling but they can disregard it, and they get better quickly. Some have no feeling but insist on creating one, and then after a long time, they tell me they're not better yet. I ask, How much better? and they say, A lot better. I say, Look at your language, the language in your thoughts and intentions is critical. The language of 'not better yet' is vastly different from saying 'a lot better.' So this kind of intention is crucial. Feelings from the flesh are illusions. Even if the feeling seems real, you can kill it, you can kill it through your willpower. Bad feelings come from wrong intentions.

Faith Can Create Good Feelings

But let me share another concept: feelings that come from faith can create good feelings. You know, when Li Rui was sharing her testimony today, she mentioned that her boss said something quite harsh. The words were heavy, but she had faith inside. She didn't use logic; she didn't have those wrong intentions. She had faith supporting her, and as a result, she had a feeling of peace and stability. This is why many Christians with faith steadily rise in their careers and get better and better. So what is faith? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) That's what faith is. Meaning we have faith inside, our judgment of the future is a good one, nothing is a big deal. Then your feelings will be good. Actually, Li Rui mentioned a very important thing. If we answer the question of why we live—I live for God, and my God controls my life—this kind of faith, regardless of whether that God is real or not, is not very important. Such faith already solves many problems, and you'll take your work less seriously. If you take your work less seriously, then I tell you, your work will get better and better.

Take Chinese football as an example. I've used this example many times. China wants to improve its football, wants to improve it. Then the Chinese football players lose as soon as they play. Why do they lose? They lose because when they go to play, they're told, 1.3 billion people are watching you play! Don't lose face for 1.3 billion Chinese people! Done. 1.3 billion Chinese people are all on their backs. The feeling's not good at all, and the result is a terrible game. They really do lose face. So there's something very interesting here. If you take something too seriously, if you think you're done for if you don't do it well, then you really won't do it well. If you're sure you'll do well, if you think it's no big deal, you don't live for this thing anyway. What does it matter if this thing falls apart? You'll perform very well with ease. Recently, you know why I don't sing off-key anymore? Because I don't care anymore! I used to be afraid of singing it wrong. I felt I would lose face. Now I'm letting go, and it feels great to sing. I only care if I feel good. If you don't want to listen, cover your ears. Sorry, I don't care either, and the result is that I sing better and better. What is it? That thing is faith. If you sing off-key, so what if you do? Is it a big deal? Is it? If you lose face, so what if you do? It really doesn't matter.

Faith Determines Everything

Nothing will fall apart. This is why people with faith are really powerful when they do things. That thing won't become your bondage. Actually, with faith, you'll find that nothing will fall apart, and the future will become better. No environment can determine my destiny; my destiny is in God's hands. That's a Christian's declaration. So feelings that come from faith are very good. Isn't it? The future will be better, so you feel good today. If the future is going to get worse and worse, you'll feel bad today even though that worsening hasn't happened yet. So your judgment of the future determines how you feel now, doesn't it?

The Essence of Life Is Feeling

So let me talk about the next point: the essence of life is feeling, not having a rich family. The essence of life is feeling. Many people haven't grasped this essence. Meaning if you feel good, you'll live a good life, isn't that right? If you say I'm joyful, joyful, joyful, it doesn't matter what I have or don't have then it's very good. If you feel bad, you'll live a bad life, and it doesn't have much to do with what you have or don't have. Look at Jack Ma he said that he felt best when he had a million. He said he lived the most carefree when he had a million. Because you don't have to worry about food and drink; you have a million. He said when he had ten million, he started worrying about investment portfolios, and when he had a hundred million or more, he started walking on thin ice. These are Jack Ma's words. The decisions he made were a huge burden. So today we need to know that if people don't understand the essence of things, they'll tighten the noose around their necks and end up feeling trapped in the world, unable to do what they want. How hard is that! Isn't it? People can live very freely, can't they? People can live very freely.

Dealing with Bad Feelings

So, learning to deal with bad feelings is very important and the educational philosophy I've pioneered is an educational philosophy of managing feelings. I want every student I'm responsible for to have good feelings. I ask you, is someone with good feelings more efficient at doing things, or is someone with bad feelings more efficient? Obviously, someone with good feelings is more efficient. So in business management, you also need to make your employees feel good. How do you make them feel good? On the one hand, you build faith and on the other hand, you break down carnal habits because carnal habits will corrupt people's faith.

If you give me money, $100,000, and I make you feel good and fill you with hope for the future, of course people would be willing to pay that money. If you want to have a promising future, then pay the money today. Why are people willing to go to the hospital and willingly give money to the hospital? It's because they're full of hope for the future and for the doctor. As for whether the treatment is good or not, that's another matter. Traditional education actually corrupts many people's feelings. Every year during the college entrance exam season, there's a rise in suicide rates. Where does suicide come from? It's because they think they didn't do well on the college entrance exam and will have no future; if they have no future, they'll feel bad; and if they feel bad, sometimes they'll choose suicide. But do they really have no future? Many people actually have bright futures even if they didn't do well on the college entrance exam.

For example, my younger brother's grades in middle school were terrible, but isn't he living well now? So it has nothing to do with that. Sister GY found a job with a junior high school diploma, and isn't she living well, getting better and better? So what's going on? It's because I gave her hope. When she was looking for a job, she showed me her resume. I said, Let me revise it for you. Change junior high school to college. She said, Pastor, how can you change it like that? How can you tell lies?” I said, Can't I say I'm self-taught? Where's the diploma? The diploma isn't in my hand, I'm self-taught. Although I don't have a diploma, I have the level of a college education. This is very characterful.

Current Education Often Corrupts People's Faith

Current education makes people tightly link their future with the college entrance exam and with academic performance. But it's really not like that. The education I've pioneered should return to an essential thing called character. Character can manage your feelings, and the core of character is faith. So today you need to know that if you're full of faith in the future, you'll have a future. If you're full of faith in the future, you'll have a bright future. It has nothing to do with your education level or with your current conditions or circumstances. Many years ago Sister YX sitting next to me confirmed this. Back then her grades weren't very good, but it didn't matter, slowly they all became O.

Hope for the Future – Someday the Tide Will Rise

If you have hope for the future, you'll feel good, and your life will be good. As for whether that hope is true or false, it's actually not very important. If you believe it will come to pass, then it will definitely come to pass. I encourage those among us whose environment isn't as good as others, whose conditions aren't as good as others, and whose parents aren't as strong as others' parents that it doesn't matter. I have the most important thing: character. Carnegie had a painting. When he was poor, he bought a painting of a stranded ship on a beach, the ship stuck in the sand, unable to move. Underneath the painting was a sentence: Someday the tide will rise. Actually, this painting was painted by an unknown artist. Carnegie carried this painting with him wherever he went. Wherever his office was, he hung this painting on the wall. Later, when he became the steel magnate of America, that painting was still hanging on his wall, very important. When he was poor, he saw this painting and said, Someday the tide will rise. That was his judgment of the future. Today, although I am a large ship, I am stranded and I cannot fully utilize my potential. Actually, his background wasn't good either. He started out selling newspapers but someday an opportunity would come, someday the tide would rise.

Conclusion: Create the Future Through Faith

So today, no matter what your circumstances are, it doesn't matter. Don't follow your feelings; instead, create your feelings through your faith and create a good future for yourself. Your feelings cannot create your future; it is your faith that can. So start learning, grab this faith and start running forward. So today, brothers and sisters, we need to know for sure that in the Bible and in our world there are people who believe in God and people who don't believe in God. People with faith are really great. Don't follow your feelings anymore. Never sing that song Follow Your Feelings again. Change the lyrics to Never Follow Your Feelings. Rely on your own good judgment of your future, and you will all become extraordinary people. Amen!