Introduction

When we talk about being struck, it can be difficult to understand. The more you know God, the more you understand how striking and salvation are closely related. When Sister XF shares her testimony, she is actually talking about striking and salvation. When Sister WQ shares her testimony, she is also talking about striking and salvation. The testimony WQ shared was about her body covered in hives. Did you think that came from the devil? Actually, it came from God. So I encourage everyone to begin to recognize one thing: do not be ignorant! Ignorance brings a lot of suffering. If a person is ignorant and not struck, they will remain ignorant until death, and become even more ignorant after death. If you want to understand the key and essence of things, you must know that a wise person receives less striking.

God has to strike an ignorant person to save them! If you and I are often struck, for example, thinking, Oh, I'm so stupid, and then begin to wake up. What do you do when you wake up? Become a wise person! You need to know that God strikes once, strikes twice, strikes three times! When continuously struck, you must discard ignorance and carefully keep and follow God's word. So do not be ignorant people. Whether it's WQ, XF, or other brothers and sisters who give testimonies, I really thank God. The work God is doing in you is striking and salvation.

If you do not know that God will spare no effort to save humanity, if you do not know that God has such a determination, you will not know that God does not care how many people are struck. So everyone begins to summarize, after reading Isaiah 27, tell yourself: Be a wise person, do not be an ignorant person. When you see so many things happening around us, you will say, I will ascend the mountain of the Lord and enter the temple of the God of Jacob, constantly elevating my spiritual life. Constantly climbing the mountain of the Lord, to know God more. When you are constantly knowing God, it will be the most wonderful journey of your life.

Brothers and sisters, we have many choices in our lives. We can make very foolish choices, or we can make very wise choices. A sister shared with me while we were eating that her husband always likes to say, I'm just like this, so what? I'm just ignorant, I'm just a loser! Speaking like this, can't you change? I'm really surprised how a person can become like this. Among the five children in our family, I was the one who got hit the most. I loved to be this way, refusing to turn back no matter how much I was beaten, which infuriated my parents. They were so angry that they often said, I'll tear your mouth apart, I'll teach you to be stubborn! Where does this problem lie? It is indeed not good to be stubborn. Even people feel this way, how much more does God feel when faced with human ignorance!

Testimonies of Striking and Salvation

I do not think testimonies of striking and salvation are the best testimonies. The best testimonies are those of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. When did you ever see God strike Joseph? Never! When did you ever see God strike Jacob? Never! When did you ever see God strike Abraham? Even less! Therefore, our God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and the God of Joseph. You must have a character in your heart, emulating Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph in your bones, and you will be struck less, and you will become the salvation of your family.

What you desire in your heart is different from what people in this world desire. What people in this world desire is very foolish. We all feel that we come empty-handed and leave empty-handed, so what are you grabbing in this world? In this world, you must grab Mingding Destiny. Those who grab Mingding Destiny are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. If you grab Mingding Destiny, you will become a blessing to many people. If you become a blessing to many people, you do not need to be struck at all, and you can bear fruit for God. I hope many brothers and sisters can share their testimonies of striking and salvation and transform them into testimonies of Jacob and Joseph, and that will be a very wonderful life.

Understanding the Work of the Dragon

In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. (Isaiah 27:1)

Everyone needs to understand the work of the dragon. The Chinese translation has some issues here. It is not actually a crocodile. The English word for crocodile is crocodile. That thing is actually a very strange letter. When we translated it into Chinese, we could not translate it properly, so we translated it as crocodile. Later, I told the brothers and sisters that when I prayed for people, I saw a lizard or a crocodile lying on the person's back. I asked, What is this thing? Later, I realized it was a dragon. The appearance of a dragon is roughly like this: a four-legged reptile, from geckos to crocodiles. If you say that a dragon looks like a gecko, it would be very angry because a gecko is a very trash dragon. Also, skinks and chameleons have this shape. This kind of four-legged crawling thing with a head and a tail is the shape of a dragon. So we Chinese are very interesting, when we talk about a huge skeleton, we call it a dinosaur, no one calls it a dino-crocodile.

The great fish here are the sea monsters. Things in the spiritual realm are the spirit of the serpent and the spirit of the dragon. Why does God punish these things? Because these things play a key role in corrupting people, you will find that releasing a person from the spirit of the dragon is a difficult battle. If you have problems in these areas, whether it is any kind of skin disease, or hard lumps, or bumps, it is basically the spirit of the dragon. Some time ago, we had a member in our church with a mental illness. He went to the hospital for an examination, and his head was always tilted. Later, the doctor determined that it was caused by taking antipsychotic medication. The doctor's explanation was always the same, but it was actually the spirit of the dragon.

Why does the spirit of the dragon come back after being released, and then get released again? Because the spirit of the dragon is particularly fond of releasing lies, and it is difficult for us not to be deceived. If a person is deceived by the spirit of the dragon, they will follow the spirit of the dragon. Even Adam and Eve were deceived, let alone us? And we still live in sin, so we must constantly know God, and knowing God is the key to solving the problem of being deceived by the dragon. A person's ignorance of the spiritual realm and ignorance of God will definitely lead to being deceived. The dragon will use the most rational logical system in the world to deceive you. As long as it takes you to the most rational logical system in the world, you are finished and will be powerless to resist.

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (Matthew 13:1-9)

The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.” In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ (Matthew 13:10-15)

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. (Matthew 13:16-17)

Why is it said this way? Because this is the work of the spirit of the dragon. The work of the spirit of the dragon has two aspects. One is to snatch away the seed of the gospel in your heart, causing you to lose the seed of the gospel, and then you live in the original logical system. The other is to sow it among thorns, and the thorns grow up and trap the seed, which is to be entangled by the anxieties of the world, and then people have no way to bear fruit. Now we must be especially careful about these things, which is to recognize that the dragon works by deception and lies. It will not say, Go, take a knife and kill him, get rid of him! Its words will make you feel very reasonable.

Read Genesis 4, Cain killed Abel, and Cain lived even worse, living in fear. This is the work of the spirit of the dragon. The spirit of the dragon made Cain think it was right, and this is called the knowledge of good and evil. Brothers and sisters, if you think you are doing the right thing, and then say, No, you have to apologize to so-and-so! Like one of our sisters, who asked our district pastor to apologize to one of the sisters, but the sister who was supposed to receive the apology is no longer among us. What is this doing? I harshly rebuked her. But the person still refused to repent, and then I continued to rebuke her. Thank God! She turned back to God step by step.

People always think they are right, and this is how the spirit of the dragon works. If a person often thinks they are right, they are not far from mental illness. The most fatal thing about mentally ill patients is that they think they are always right. Those of us who are normal often feel that we are wrong, but the mentally ill always think they are perfect and that everyone else is wrong. Think about whether you think you are particularly right, and then ask yourself, Am I mentally ill? People who think they are right are actually particularly painful. They always feel that the whole world is wrong, and only they are right. Everyone is wrong, only I am awake. Boom! They jump off the bridge. Mental illness torments people, and the problem arises because they always think they are very right.

What my mother told me that day was shocking. She lived with mental illness for more than 20 years. My mother has a deep understanding and knowledge of mental illness. My mother said a sentence: Putting one's own interests as the highest priority is mental illness. My mother's summary is more insightful than mine. My mother has lived with mental illness for so many years, the spirit of the dragon will make people fall into lies, their vision will be short-sighted, and not knowing God will lead them to be entangled by the anxieties of this life. They think every day about whether they can live, and whether they can live a little longer? Actually, even if you do not think about it, you are still alive. It is no exaggeration to say that you will live better if you do not think about it. The more you think about it, the worse you will live.

Some time ago, I received a message that shocked me. The person who sent the message used to be in our group. His daughter in Germany wrote me a letter asking me to pray for his uncle who had terminal lung cancer. He was in great pain, and he asked our church to pray for him. I said okay. What is the problem? How does cancer come about in the end? It is another way out of recognizing good and evil to the fullest extent. One way out of recognizing good and evil is mental illness, and the other way out is cancer.

We need to know that a person's ignorance of the spiritual realm can lead to deep suffering. I encourage everyone to have a deeper understanding of the spirit of the dragon. I was very surprised that when Rick Joyner wrote The Final Quest, the first book he wrote was The Harvest. He did not advertise the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but the book sold well. It is a pity that it was the first book he wrote in the 1980s. If you search for knowledge of good and evil online now, probably only our church website has it. Other churches do not talk about the knowledge of good and evil. Do not you think it is strange? Where did the knowledge of good and evil go? The information on the knowledge of good and evil was stolen and replaced by the dragon. How should this church go? We need to have a deep understanding of the spirit of the dragon, starting from the knowledge of good and evil.

I am an engineer. When I solve problems, I like to find the root cause, not solve the surface problem. For example, if there are water stains on the ceiling, does painting over them solve the problem? In a few days, more water stains will appear, and if you keep painting over them, the ceiling will eventually fall down. Because not solving the source of the leak and only solving the superficial phenomenon is foolish and not fundamental, so engineers often look for the root cause. In our faith, I have also found the root cause. The root of all human problems is the knowledge of good and evil. The knowledge of good and evil is the root of all problems in a person's life. Brothers and sisters must know that God strikes people at all costs to release them from the control of the dragon. God punishes the monsters in the sea because they play a key role.

Understanding God's Work

We have the image of God, and we work according to God's way of working. There is nothing wrong with understanding God's way of working, but working in a way that is not God's way of working is a serious problem. The dragon and the knowledge of good and evil are the root of the problem. The way to solve the problem is to understand and know God's way of working. First, learn to punish the dragon, to strike the dragon. We strike together with God. I went to a bookstore, and the bookstore owner was a friend of mine. He pointed to a book and said, You must read this book. It's a very good book. I flipped through the book and read a passage to him, and he said that the main enemy of humans is not the devil. The Bible tells us to fight against the devil. Ephesians is about fighting against the rulers of the air, the powers of darkness.

He says we cannot be compared with the devil at all, and we are not qualified to fight against the devil. What nonsense is this? This is the spirit of the dragon releasing lies. Striking the devil is the most important responsibility of Christians. The devil cannot stand before God at all. It is easy for God to destroy the devil. The devil serves God because people have the right to choose, so God allows the devil to tempt people to make the right choices and the wrong choices. If they make the wrong choices, He will burn them as garbage, thorns, weeds, and devils. The devil is fulfilling its mission, and its mission is to clear garbage. Are you garbage in the church? In the past, I have personally seen how the devil helps the church clean up garbage. It's really too amazing! Thank God for creating the devil!

The church must be holy, and the work of holiness is done by God through these created angels. Some are fallen angels, and some are not. Whether fallen or not, they are all ministering spirits. They are doing one thing for God: separating the good from the bad. So we must know that fighting the devil is the most important work of Christians. Why do you have to fight the devil? If you don't fight the devil, you will be with the devil. If you fight off the devil, you will be with God. God can easily defeat the devil, but He wants to defeat the devil through people.

The Bible clearly states that women and the devil will be enemies of each other. The Bible is also very interesting. Sisters are very powerful. Where are sisters powerful? God wants to defeat the devil through sisters. It is shameful for the devil to be defeated by women. The Chinese say that a good man does not fight with a woman. I encourage the aunties among us, these sisters, that God has good intentions for you to fight against the dark forces of the devil, and brothers are no exception.

I, the Lord, watch over it; I continually water it. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it. (Isaiah 27:3)

Fighting the devil is God's work. Our God is a responsible keeper of the vineyard. God watches over the vineyard so well. In any case, if you have the image of God, according to God's way, first fight the devil; second, watch over your vineyard; third, do not think that our God is Santa Claus. Our God does not care if one more is burned. If only briers and thorns confronted me! I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire. This is the third way God works: God wants to completely clear away and burn the bad things.

We must never tolerate thorns and weeds in the middle of building a church. Tolerating thorns and weeds is not the right thing to do. Some people will say that Jesus said to let the weeds and wheat grow together, but what will happen once the grains are produced? They will still be burned. If the church is controlled by the spirit of the dragon, it will tolerate weeds and thorns. Raising thorns and weeds is like burning the heart. This is the way we work. We must also do our best to watch over the vineyard. If thorns and weeds grow, then burn them mercilessly with fire. Those who build the church must have an attitude that if thorns and weeds are not burned, everything will be squeezed out. Therefore, in the church, it is like farmers farming. It is impossible for farmers to farm without weeding. We must learn God's way of working no matter what.

God wants people to actively restore our relationship with Him, not for God to restore our relationship with Him. Because God does not owe us anything, we owe God. We actively come before God to restore our relationship with Him. Even if you are born destined to be a weed, if your mind is transformed, the Lord is willing to restore your relationship with you. Even weeds will become wheat. We should repent when we turn to God. We must hold on to the power of God, then be reconciled to God, turn to God, and restore our relationship with God. We also do this when we serve God. As a pastor, do not be humble, as this will not solve the problem. If you think you are humble, you will definitely not be able to help your pastoral care. We must turn to God, and the people we lead must also turn to God, instead of reluctantly waiting for God to turn to him.

We do not need to make the gospel so cheap. Do not think that Isaiah's era was a very desolate era. He said, “Who has believed our message?” Not many people followed Isaiah’s preaching of the gospel in his lifetime. I admire people like Isaiah very much. When Isaiah wrote this book, his preaching of the gospel was basically ineffective, not because God was not with him, but because the people of that era were hard-hearted. So Isaiah wrote like this, he said:

In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit. (Isaiah 27:6)

So I say that in the future the root of Jacob will bear fruit. The root of Jacob is faith. Why do I say that faith is the root? Because Jacob is a person who is based on faith. This is Jacob in the Old Testament, Abraham's grandson, Isaac's son. Jacob is a person of faith. How will Jacob bear fruit in the future? It is Jacob who bears fruit based on faith.

Has the Lord struck her as he struck those who struck her? Has she been killed like those she killed? By warfare and exile you contend with her— with fierce blasts he drives her out in the day of the east wind. By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full result of the removal of his sin: (Isaiah 27:7-9)

Let me explain these sentences to you. They are talking about God wanting to strike and God wanting to drive away with wind. Why does God want to strike and drive away? Why is Jacob’s guilt atoned for after striking and driving away? Is the effect of the removal of their sins due to this? Can you connect them together? Let me connect the process. The most fatal thing for a person is to put all his hope in the world. If a person puts all his hope in the world, that is, I have to marry a rich, handsome, and tall man, find a rich, beautiful, and fair woman, and prosper in the world, and then fall into hell empty-handed, this is a sad result, definitely not a successful person’s story, but a sad story.

If your hope is all in the world, then God has to strike you so that your worldly hope is completely shattered. Only when your worldly hope is completely shattered can you bear the fruit of Jacob, because Jacob sees through worldly affairs. If you do not understand this , God will let you see through it. How to see through it? Let you be beaten, blown away by the wind, and be extremely painful. That’s probably how I came through it. Before I believed in the Lord, God let me believe in the Lord through pain. When I completely lost hope in these things in the world. If there is still hope in the world, you will be more pitiful than the people in the world. God will completely destroy all your worldly hopes.

Jacob destroyed his worldly hopes. Did he lose anything? He is still a wealthy person. But if a person desires to become a wealthy person in the world, God will have to make you a poor person. God will strike down anything that is worldly. So when God strikes, you will find that people are still not awake. Even if you ask me to pray, even if I heal those who are carsick, I still cannot heal your worldly hope. If your hope is all in the world, it is useless to ask Jesus to pray. Even if Jesus descends on you, it is useless. Because your hope is in the world, it must be shattered.

So how do I serve those who are in debt and bankrupt? When you talk to him, he still has worldly hopes, still hoping to pay off all his debts, but he is not willing to break the worldly hopes in his heart. You cannot serve him, nor can I serve him. That cancer patient was screaming in pain, asking me to serve him. I finally wrote this passage: I said that cancer is when people plant all the seeds of good and evil, and when it is time to harvest the fruit, you have to eat it whether you want to or not. I serve only to reduce his pain. If he could not turn around when he did not have cancer, do you think we will have a chance to turn around when he has cancer and it is time to bear fruit? The chances are not great.

I began to have a deeper understanding of God. I began to see how corrupt the worldly hope in people is. If you want to understand the world more deeply, you must understand the spiritual world. If you understand the spiritual world, and then look at the things in the world, they are all vanity of vanities. If you don’t think it is vanity, then you should be beaten well. I think when we are lying in the coffin, we have to be empty even if we don’t want to be. What can you take away? Maybe bring a few pieces of ghost money. The ghost money in our era is wrapping paper. When people lose hope in worldly affairs, they will seek God and seek eternal life. A person who does not seek eternal life is very pitiful.

Today, if you want me to baptize you, I can baptize you, but do you believe in eternal life? If your hope is still in the world, it is useless for you to be baptized, which is probably similar to taking a bath. Repent and then be baptized in the name of Jesus and receive the promised Holy Spirit. If you do not repent and still follow worldly logic, it is useless to be baptized many times. Even if John the Baptist baptizes you, it is useless. We must have insight into worldly affairs. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

What is Assyria? Assyria is a tool of persecution. What is Egypt? Egypt is a tool of slavery. If you are in Egypt or Assyria and see through everything in the world, you will think of what is said here: In that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. People will begin to seek eternal life. The Lord Jesus will burn it, the branches will be withered and broken off, and you will take them and burn them. For this is a people without understanding. Do you want to be an ignorant person, a foolish and ignorant person?

Therefore their Maker will show them no compassion, and their Creator will show them no favor. (Isaiah 27:11)

Do you want to receive God’s grace? Do you want to be a dry branch? Do you want to bear fruit? When we see people who are broken off and burned as dry firewood, we must wake up and say: Oh, so that’s how it is. I want to be a person who receives God’s compassion and grace. Then bear the fruit that Jacob bore in the world. What is Jacob’s faith? It is the faith to see through life. If it is not the faith to see through life, you will never be able to walk the path of Jacob, nor will you be able to walk the path of Abraham. If you do not see through the things of this life, Isaac will never be willing to put himself on the altar and completely dedicate himself to God.

If some of us are sick, do not despair! Start to completely defeat some worldly hopes in your mind. When you completely see through the life and death of people, and then let go of all your worries, I will tell you what will happen. Even if you do not pray, you can be healed. Because that is God’s wonderful grace. When we come out of Assyria and come out of Egypt, we begin to climb the mountain of the Lord, and pursue knowing God on the mountain of the Lord, not on the mountains of the world. The mountains of this world are the mountains of the knowledge of good and evil; the mountains of the Lord are based on faith. When you keep climbing, constantly knowing God, you will enter the temple of the God of Jacob and admire His beauty.

Climbing the mountain of the Lord is the mountain of achievement. Wise people, spiritual people will see through all things. However, the people of this world cannot see through what climbing a mountain means? It is to constantly increase the height of your spiritual life. I started climbing the mountain of the Lord in October last year. When I started praying to God in despair, God asked me to read The Final Battle. I bought ten copies of The Final Battle to give to those of us who are going to be district pastors. Those of you who are already district pastors can download the electronic version yourself. Later, when I read this book, I made a decision in April last year to climb the mountain of the Lord.

I could never see victory in my previous battles because I was fighting the devil on the battlefield of the knowledge of good and evil. Wasn't I being beaten when I was fighting the devil on the devil's battlefield? I was really beaten black and blue and wanted to cry but had no tears. Thank God! When God asked me to read The Final Battle carefully, I found that this book is the secret to building a church and the clearest revelation from God in this generation. When we climb the mountain of the Lord and enter the temple of the God of Jacob, when your life is constantly improving, the power to fight the devil will become stronger and stronger.

The fact that YX and the others were vehiclesick made me surprisingly discover that I am a treasure and a treasure to ward off evil. Carsickness is a spiritual matter. I didn’t know that Sister YX was seriously carsick, but her carsickness was completely cured. What is the relationship between this kind of thing happening? It is related to my climbing the mountain of the Lord and entering the temple of the God of Jacob. I encourage everyone to start constantly knowing God. The wonderfulness of life is all in climbing the mountain of the Lord. When I went to Taipei, I met a person with a big dragon lying on him. After I drove it away, his shoulders relaxed all over. I always thought it was not a dragon, but a big lizard. I also found it very interesting myself. You ask me what happened? I have only been climbing the mountain of the Lord for a few months. By June, I started fighting in the church, and it was really fun to drive them away one by one, screaming. In the process of climbing the mountain, do not treat me as a master. I am just a little master, that's all.

I encourage everyone to climb the mountain of the Lord and enter the temple of the God of Jacob, which is the most important pursuit in our life. Can you start to know that this is the key to a wonderful life? It is meaningless to climb the mountains of the world. It is meaningless even if the feng shui of Zhangjiajie is good, and it is meaningless even if Jiuzhaigou is good. When you climb the mountain of the Lord and enter the temple of the God of Jacob, this clay jar of yours will become a treasure. This treasure in our clay jar will show great power. This great power is amazing. This is the most wonderful journey of our life. Knowing the Most High is wisdom. Do not miss the opportunity. Missing the opportunity is too tragic and you will become thorns and weeds.

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, (Hebrews 6:1)

Do you understand? The foundation of faith in the Old Testament is to strive for complete progress. The complete stage is to climb the mountain of the Lord and enter the temple of the God of Jacob. Keep climbing.

and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. (Hebrews 6:6-8)