Introduction

Good day to all. Today, I will share a topic titled “God is the God of the Living.” This is a good topic indeed! If God were the God of the dead, He would not care much about us when we are alive. Because God is the God of the living, He cares about everything we do while we are alive, which is excellent!

We have a brother who pastors a sister, and she recently shared something with us. Her mother contracted an illness during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, developing many tumors in her breast. Why did she develop so many tumors in her breast? Because her mother loved money very much. During the COVID-19 period, she was anxious and distressed about her store being closed. As a result, she developed many tumors in her breast and became frightened.

Previously, when we invited her to pray with us, she refused, even when her child offered to lead her in prayer. Now that she had tumors, she became afraid and started to follow our prayers on our website, though she was too embarrassed to tell us. We often invited her to gatherings to pray and live well, emphasizing that God is the God of the living and cares about her affairs. However, she didn't believe and insisted on struggling on her own, resulting in her developing tumors. Tumors that are round, like eggs, duck eggs, or goose eggs, are not so scary and are usually benign. But if they grow like a bunch of grapes or have internal structures like intersecting lines or resemble cauliflower, they are generally malignant.

However, her mother was clever! She was not completely ignorant. She had listened to our teachings quite a bit. She went to our website to listen to my prayers and prayed along with me for two hours each morning and evening, praying fervently. Before long, the tumors disappeared. Our brother was very excited when he heard this sister share about her mother's experience. He said, Teacher, your prayer recordings are too miraculous! She was healed after listening to them! I wondered what kind of person I am. I have become a divine person. She listened to my prayer recordings online, prayed along, and was healed.

Following that, a sister next to me shared that the family member of a sister she was pastoring also followed the prayers on the website, and two large patches of psoriasis on their leg dried up, began to peel, and the skin improved significantly! I thought, what grace this is! Can everyone ask a question: What did they do for God after receiving healing or grace from God? They did nothing! People say there is no such thing as a free lunch, but isn’t this a free lunch? They listened to the recordings on the website and were healed.

The question today is, why did God heal them when they did nothing for Him? Don't you find it strange? If they gave something to God and then God gave them something in return, we could understand that as an exchange. But they did nothing for God; they just prayed along with my recordings and were healed. It turns out that our God is the God of the living, and everything we do while we are alive is closely related to Him. It's not that God only loves me and not you; God loves each of us. As long as we turn back to God and begin to seek Him, He will turn around and heal us! Because God cares about us and loves us. What grace this is! After hearing these things, I prayed, God! May they also make the wise choice to love You with all their heart, soul, and strength, just as I have chosen.

I remember when I first believed in the Lord and started knowing God, I was in despair, not knowing which way to go in life. I am not a stupid person! I am not a useless person. I was a top student since I was young! I studied very well and was very sensible. But the problem is, we cannot control many things in life! Although I tried hard, I had no power to face despair in life, and I had no hope of living.

I went to church to know this God, and He gave me a very good job. Before I did anything for God, He gave me a free lunch. Then I knew that God is the God of the living, He cares about me, and the answers to everything I do while I am alive are in His hands! Today, many of our brothers and sisters have received grace through my ministry! So I am very grateful to my God, grateful to the God I serve with all my heart!

You know what grace this is! How much love and comfort it is when we clearly know that God cares about us! So today, when we encounter helplessness and sadness, haven't we come through by relying on this God? So everyone must know that God is the God of the living, and we must not believe that God is the God of the dead.

Some time ago, a brother said that your church is very good, but I cannot come. I asked why he couldn't come. He said that after he dies, no one will hold a funeral for him! I thought, is a funeral that important? After death, it's just a piece of rotten meat! So I think the things people care about are very strange. When he is alive, doesn't he need to be a victorious Christian in a victorious church like ours? That way, he can live out the glory of God the same as the glory of man, and live out the image of God! Why care so much about what happens after death? What can a person do after death?

My mother sometimes tells me to arrange things this way and that way after she dies. I say okay, I promise you, but after you die, you can't control what I do, and you can't climb out of the coffin and shout, Why didn't you listen to me? That's how I arranged it! I said, forget it, you arrange it today, you tell me, and I say okay. Actually, I don't care about funerals. What can a funeral solve? It can't solve anything.

A brother came to me, and I prayed with him, but this brother was quite stubborn. Even after getting cancer, he was still stubborn in his heart. He just couldn't understand what life is all about! He cared about many things in this world and died miserably in front of me. I thought he just died like that, but I am an internet church, and I cannot fly over to hold a funeral for you! And it doesn't matter how that funeral is held! As a result, the local church held the funeral very enthusiastically.

I don't quite understand why people believe God to be the God of the dead. Why is the funeral so important? It's just a piece of meat! You say, how can you think that way? I said, you have to forgive me! Because I just believe that God is the God of the living, not the God of the dead! What is so great about doing funerals this way and that way after death? Today, everyone must begin to remove many of the myths in our faith! The key is in living.

Some time ago, I listened to a sharing from a monk, and some of the monks' sharings are also very good. He said that the master had a disciple who asked if we could save someone by reciting scriptures after they die. The master picked up a stone and threw it into the lake. They circled the lake and recited scriptures. After reciting, he asked them, did the stone float up? They said no. Then he threw a dried nut, which floated on the water, and they circled the lake and recited scriptures again. Then he asked, did the dried nut sink? They said no.

What is this talking about? It means that whatever you are like when you are alive, that is what you will be like when you die. A funeral cannot solve anything. As Christians, we cannot still practice deliverance rituals. We must grasp the key, which is to live out God's thriving will when we are alive. This is the key to Chinese Mingding Destiny. Chinese Mingding Destiny does not talk about where people go after they die. I don't know, and I haven't been there. What we care about is living out the glorious image of God while we are alive. Whether we live well or not is very important.

Recently, I have had many cases of ministry, and I have found that many people like to look for trouble for no reason and look for suffering for no reason. Isn't it good to look for enjoyment? Isn't it good to enjoy life like I do? You have to look for trouble for no reason and look for suffering. Brothers and sisters must begin to understand the matter of living. God is the God of the living, and God knows all your affairs. Trust in God, and your needs are not difficult to meet.

So love God alone. Remember, this is a very wise choice. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and serve Him alone. All our problems can be satisfied. Our God is the God of the living, the God who cares for us. Our God is a good God. The thoughts He has toward us are not thoughts of disaster, but thoughts of blessing. Today, you and I will make such a wise choice, so that when we are alive, we can walk with God.

Scripture

But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. (Matthew 22:31-32)

Prayer

Lord Jesus, the words you speak to us today are engraved on our hearts, let us know that the God we believe in is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God we believe in is the God of the living. If we today imitate Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the blessings that fell on Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will also fall on us. Lord, arise us today, remove the filth within us and the myths in our faith. May your glory be manifested through us when we are alive, may you be with us, may you personally lead us to live in your will, to become the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob of this generation, to be the blessing of this generation, may you raise us up in this generation, let us enter into your heart, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

Scripture Background

The background of this passage is that Jesus discussed a theological question with a group of Sadducees, and the questions they raised were very strange. They asked: “Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right up to the seventh. Finally, the woman died too. So in the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them had married her?”

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” (See Matthew 22:25-32)

The question asked by the Sadducees was very strange. Today's Christians also like to ask this kind of question, but only in a different way. Today, Christians say that after death, they go to heaven, or hell, or something like that? In fact, the question we are discussing is meaningless. When the relatives of our brothers and sisters pass away, they come to me and ask, Pastor, do you think my family member went to heaven or hell?

So I told a kind lie, because I said I didn't know he might fall, so I said that God has abundant grace and mercy, and God will give your family member because of His grace. But what I said is useless, the problem is that the question itself is not very useful. We care about going after death, and there is no use in caring. The problem is whether he lived very enjoyably, lived very happily, and lived very well, living like a person. In fact, what God cares about is the affairs of the living.

When I first believed in the Lord, I received a lot of things like this in the church. At that time, my idea was that the affairs of the living were more important. At that time, I still felt that I was more worldly and loved the world. Actually, it was not. I had such confusion, so I read the Bible, and what I read was all about the affairs of the living. The things recorded in the Bible about Abraham are not about what happened after Abraham's death. It wasn't said what happened after death. After Abraham died, it wasn't said anymore. Abraham's affairs are all about what he did and what he chose to do when he was alive.

In the end, Abraham lived to be the most honorable prince of that era, very honorable. Among the Canaanites, everyone respected Abraham very much. When it came to Isaac, it was also recorded about what happened when Isaac was alive. Abraham and Isaac were also very troubled when they were alive, and it happened about Jacob even more when he was alive. It is very interesting to record about Jacob, he had 4 wives, and his family was very troubled. It's all about these things, and things after death are not recorded.

Why does the Bible write like this? Because God is the God of the living, the meaning that Jesus wants to express is that our God is the God of the living, the things we do when we are alive are very important, and God cares for and has mercy on everything we do when we are alive. What a great comfort this is. Therefore, in our church, I don't talk much about heaven and hell, or what happens after death. I don't talk much about what happens after people die. What I care more about is whether you can live out the glorious image of God.

In fact, Chinese Mingding Destiny has greatly changed the traditional theological system, such as what is called Evangel and Salvation. Some people think that salvation is going to heaven after death, but they don't know what to do in heaven. Today, I can tell everyone for sure that salvation is that people can live out the image of God when they are alive, and God will help us live out the image of God.

If you have been a Christian for many years, and you still live like neither a person nor a ghost, and you don't have the appearance of Jesus at all, but you have a lot of the appearance of the devil, then aren't you in trouble? Some people even like to ask me what kind of people can go to heaven? Can he go to heaven after he dies? In fact, this is quite fatal, because whoever a person is like when he is alive will go to whoever's place after he dies.

Live like God when you are alive, and walk with God when you are alive, and return to God's place; live like a ghost when you are alive, and go to the ghost's place in the future. As for where he went, I didn't see it. Don't ask this kind of question in the future, because this kind of question is not a smart question. If you want comfort, I can give you comfort and say that he went to heaven. But that is nonsense and cannot guarantee you, and I don't know where he went. The question is what exactly is the thing that we are concerned about in our hearts?

Chinese Mingding Destiny is to focus on whether we walk with God when we are alive, whether we live out the glorious image of God, and whether we are like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, eager to become a blessing to many people. Like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they understood the matter of living very well, because they affirmed that there was no great meaning in the matter of living. The only meaning of living is to be like God, to obtain God's grace, and to obtain God's blessings. This is the meaning that Jesus wants to express.

You and I read the same Bible, but have we really understood it? If we haven't understood it, let us think carefully today. The sentence “God is the God of the living” must be engraved on your heart!

God Cares About Our Affairs When We Are Alive

God cares about our affairs when we are alive: This is my interpretation. It doesn't matter if you don't believe it, you can think that God cares about our affairs after we die. I think God cares about our affairs when we are alive, because I read the Bible very carefully. Deuteronomy 28 is very important, and the entire book of Deuteronomy talks about being careful to keep and do the words of God when people are alive, be careful to keep and do God's statutes, ordinances, and commandments, and you will surely be blessed.

In fact, many Christian beliefs are very problematic, and the most hateful of these is to call God's blessing Success Theology. There is no Success Theology or Failure Theology in the Bible, but there is indeed a thing called Mingding, and Abraham's desire to become a blessing to all nations is Mingding.

Let us read a passage from the Bible:

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you. The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.（Deuteronomy 28:1-14 NIV)

Which of the blessings in here say that you will be at the top, not the tail, after you die? No! It is when you are alive that you are at the top, not the tail, and it is when you are alive that you are blessed in the field. These are not things after death. When we are alive, we need blessing very much. God cares about our affairs when we are alive, what great comfort we have!

Before I believed in the Lord, I was looking for a belief that concerned our affairs when we were alive. Aren't the testimonies we give every week all about the things we do when we are alive? Don't live this life without living well or understanding it, and want to live well in the next life. In this life, we will love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.

Whether it is blessing or curse, it all concerns the affairs of people when they are alive. All affairs of the living are spiritual affairs! Reading Deuteronomy 1-14 is all words of blessing, and 15-68 is all words of cursing.

The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him. The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has consumed you from the land you are entering to possess. The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the heavens until you are destroyed. (Deuteronomy 28:20-24 NIV)

If you read it carefully, people are cursed, and bad things happen in everything you do, there is also disease, you get defeated, you are also poor and downcast, anyway, it is hard work, in hunger and lack, aren't these all fatal things? We must know that it is very important to be blessed when we are alive, and it is also very fatal to be cursed when we are alive! Today, the affairs of the living are all spiritual affairs.

A sister from Australia left a message for me through a little assistant. She wanted to know what curses are all about, and whether Jesus in the New Testament could remove these curses? A myth in our Christianity is that once you believe in Jesus, all curses are removed. The root of solving the problem is that we did not know God in the past, violated God's words, and suffered curses. Jesus has smeared your transgressions with His precious blood, but if you still deliberately sin and deliberately violate God's words after believing in Jesus, curses will surely be added to you again!

To diligently keep and follow God's word is imperative. Even if heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of God's word will disappear. If one insists on walking the path of curses, it is simple: disobey God's word, and one inevitably lives under a curse. Jesus cannot become your fig leaf, nor a rag to wipe things away. How can deliberate sin be erased?

Observe carefully today, and you will see the truth in what I say. The fermentation of curses is alarmingly prevalent among Christians today, so we must be vigilant. An old Christian, following his pastor, believed only in the New Testament, dismissing talk of curses. He gave thanks to God in all circumstances, yet he recently suffered excruciating eye pain. I had ministered to him before; he was riddled with illness, yet he clung to a flawed theological system. Is this not strange?

We read the same Bible, whether in English or Chinese. We mostly use the Chinese Union Version, and the content is largely the same. Why do some read it and find a god of the dead, while others find a living God? It is because they do not respond to God's word. We have not read God's word carefully and rigorously.

If you say today, I inadvertently violated God's word due to ignorance, will ignorance prevent destruction? God says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Understand that God truly cares about what we do while we are alive. If you diligently keep and follow His word, you will be blessed while you are alive. If you do not, you will be cursed while you are alive. This is not about after death, though what you are in life naturally leads to where you go after death.

So today, we must dispel the myths within us. Christians today suffer more from the tribulations brought on by curses than from those endured for the sake of Jesus Christ. The tribulations brought on by curses are painful and unbearable, endured with false faith and resilience, but without any effect. But the tribulations suffered for the Lord, for God, for destiny, are hardly tribulations at all, for in these tribulations, there is joy.

One with Mingding Destiny cannot have their inner joy taken away. One without Mingding Destiny lives only to live, laboring strenuously, caring too much for worldly things. How can they escape curses? Neglecting God's affairs while clinging tightly to worldly matters, superficially religious and constantly thanking the Lord, is of no use. Our bodies react – an failing eye, a weak stomach – these are real signs of trouble. Today, we can bring repentant people to healing, but a stubborn person cannot be brought to healing. We may not know why, because the healing is in their heart.

God's Word: A Discipline for the Living

If you want to live well, you must understand God's word – it is a matter of life and death. If you say, I don't want to read God's word; I want to read a book called 'To Live', by Yu Hua, Yu Hua wrote a philosophical line: Man lives for the sake of living itself, not for anything beyond it. Living seems like a dynamic process, but it is essentially static. Because living itself has no meaning, it only has meaning if man gives it meaning. To live is to live. Try living by that statement. Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea, depicting a tenacious will to fight, but he eventually committed suicide by gunshot. Though his writings are philosophical, they are still human. Man's words cannot enable one to live out God's glorious image, nor to live well.

What do you glean from reading that passage? You might conclude that if life is viewed that way, a dog could say, A dog lives for the sake of being a dog, not for anything beyond it. Living seems like a dynamic process, but it is essentially static. Because a dog's life itself has no meaning; the dog gives it meaning. A dog lives to live. You could apply that to horses, cows, donkeys, monkeys—wouldn't that be living like beasts? Reacting to threats to our lives like beasts.

Recently, because we have been reading God's word, studying the Bible, and praying, many miracles and wonders have occurred in our lives, and many people's lives have experienced miraculous transformations. Why? Because we have simplified God's word, and as a result, we are living well. I have found that some people stubbornly refuse to live by God's word, relying instead on their own words. How can one live well by relying on one's own words?

Some people are simply unable to love the Lord your God with all their heart, soul, and strength. Why? They have many excuses, such as I have three children, or I have to work. Many excuses obscure the choice to love the Lord our God with all their heart, soul, and strength. These are not insurmountable matters. Some say, I can't be like you; I am just like this. Recently, a colleague told me, Teacher, why don't you offer a course called 'Living Studies'? There are studies of national culture, literature, and philosophy, but the world lacks a discipline for living, which is Living Studies.

I read God's word extensively and carefully, and I believe what it says, so I live very well. Last night, a sister called me. She had been in a traditional church for many years, which had released much corruption. She said her husband wanted to invest in this and that, to do many things. She said, People are about to die; Jesus is coming soon. Why would I do these things? This in itself is very religious. Does the impending end of the world mean we should eat, drink, and wait to die? That is not what God's word says.

God says:

Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. (Matthew 24:40-41)

This passage does not speak of waiting to die on a hilltop, shouting Hallelujah as Jesus returns. It speaks of working diligently: grinding if you must grind, farming if you must farm. Another example: a master, upon leaving, gave his three servants one talent, two talents, and five talents, instructing them to do business, invest, and manage the money. The servants with two and five talents each doubled their amounts. None of these servants said, Since the master is returning, let's just leave the money where it is!

That is not God's intention. His intention is for two to become four, five to become ten, ten to become twenty, and twenty to become forty. Why? Because it is painful to remain idle. How can one enjoy life if one remains idle? So, God's word is a discipline for the living, and it is very painful for a lazy person to do nothing. I have personally experienced this. If I do nothing all day but eat and sleep, after two days, I feel dizzy.

I feel like a dog, a pig, or a beast, living a very boring life. Therefore, I enjoy working. I improve my living space a little each day. They watch me constantly tinkering, but I like to do things. It makes me enjoy life! How can I enjoy life? By enjoying the fruit of our labor. Working is very important.

God created man on earth not to eat and excrete, but to manage all things on earth: the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, and everything on earth. What is management? Investing and managing finances is managing wealth, making wealth grow. Managing the whole earth is making the things on the earth grow and flourish!

Don't imagine that God will take us to heaven, and we will spend all our time there, Hallelujah, Holy, Holy, Holy. Some people use that phrase to talk with me. Does the Bible mention Holy, Holy, Holy? Yes, it does! But we do not remain in a perpetual state of Holy, Holy, Holy”. But it's not supposed to be all the time. Because later Jesus Christ came to earth, reigning with tens of thousands of saints for 1,000 years, exercising dominion over all things on earth.

After the 1,000 years, the new holy city, New Jerusalem, will be a square city of 4,000 kilometers by 4,000 kilometers by 4,000 kilometers. The city will be filled with God's glory, and we will manage the things God entrusts to us. If you are faithful in small matters, God will entrust you with more to manage, perhaps giving you a city or two to manage, because management is our responsibility as Christians.

Management is for the living. The dead have no work in the afterlife. So, enjoy your work while you are on earth. For some, work is hard, and studying is hard, and they live a hard life. That is not what they want; it is how the devil makes them live. Today, in our Chinese Mingding Destiny, we must restore the truth that our faith in Christ Jesus is a living faith, a faith for the living. Our God is a God of the living. We can live out God's glorious image while we are alive. In the future, God will send us to manage more of what He wants us to manage.

This is a sound theory, because I have tightly grasped God's heart, so I live like a man of God. Even my prayers, posted on websites, heal many people. They often leave messages or send information on the website. I feel somewhat like Elisha. That is fine, but who are you like? It is very painful for someone to do no work. That is why, when that sister called me, I told her this passage, and she agreed.

Happily do your work, joyfully eat your meal, and cheerfully drink your wine. Is it better to live a life of enjoyment or a life of pain? You know the answer, and I know the answer. But what are our choices? Do we often make the wrong choices?

God Delights in Our Enjoyment; God Delights in Our Prosperity

What I say has scriptural basis. Open the book of Genesis: Noah came out of the ark, and God said, Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. God created Adam and Eve and said, Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. God never delights in decline. Our God does not delight in decline. God delights in our enjoyment. If you read Ecclesiastes, understand that you are to enjoy your labor.

I am very good at living. I am very good at the rhythm of life, and my life is very ritualistic. I also enjoy what I do; I enjoy all that I do. You ask me why. Is there a better choice? It is painful not to enjoy! It is easy to choose pain, and it is easy to choose enjoyment. Today, remember that God delights in our enjoyment. Many Christians have flawed belief systems, leading to unnecessary suffering and guilt.

We must know that God's will is for us to prosper. I am clear in my actions, and no one can rob me of that joy. Enjoyment is a blessing from God. My days on this earth are not long, seventy, eighty, or ninety years. If I have even one miserable day in this brief life, I lose one day of enjoyment. If every day is miserable, that is a life of misery, entanglement, and depression. After much effort, I have come to this world for a visit. Isn't it better to enjoy every day? As a student, enjoy learning; as a worker, enjoy working, even in office politics.

Living is very simple. I like to work. I tell myself that even if I die tomorrow, I must work hard, until my God takes me away, and then I can go to God, and God will say, He is a faithful and good servant.” Doing things is very enjoyable. I like to do carpentry and write programs, and I am committed to both. Although I am not very familiar with the code, I am very familiar with managing the whole thing, and I enjoy being an architect. Sometimes, I like to take on more challenging tasks. I do things like God and live like a god. How wonderful!

What I do not understand is why some people insist on being miserable. For example, one of our sisters with stomach cancer, I used to minister to her, but then I handed her over to a colleague to shepherd her. Not long ago, she was miserable again, bitter and unhappy. She still hasn't learned her lesson. Her husband sold the house and gave the money to others, which made her angry, and she divorced her husband. Shouldn't she be happier, whether the house is sold and whether there is money? Why do people insist on finding misery when they have nothing better to do? If a person is living under a curse, even if they get wealth, they are still miserable. Without wealth, they are miserable; with wealth, they are miserable. That is a curse!

People living under a curse, like Cain and Lamech in the Bible, are miserable. Cao Cao in ancient China was paranoid, thinking, “I would rather betray the world than let the world betray me. So, whenever he suspected someone, he would kill them, and as a result, he developed a headache that tormented him for life.

What fills our minds: God's words or our own thoughts? Do you trust the money from selling the house, or do you trust our God? Do you want to enjoy life, or do you want to suffer through it? A life of suffering is very hard. If our minds are filled with worldly logic, we will be miserable. The worldly system makes it difficult to see through what it means to be alive, and if people cannot see through it, they will be miserable and entangled.

Today, if we trust in a worldly logical framework, we will eat excrement as if it were rice candy. This story is true. My mother had Alzheimer's disease, and the devil tricked her into seeing excrement as rice candy. Later I asked my mother, Did you eat it? She said, It seems like I did. Alas! To eat excrement as if it were rice candy – that is the way of the world!

Therefore, today we must learn to love God and to know that God's word is a discipline for the living, a course called Living Studies. If you want to live well, you must live according to God's word. You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. Keeping and following His word is not difficult; you live in blessing, and all that we do we enjoy. Observe carefully: if you are not enjoying life and prospering, it is a curse.

Today, whatever you do, do it happily; happily eat your meal, joyfully drink your wine, happily do your work, and joyfully do your service! That is, in our days on this earth, we are determined to live according to God's word, even in tribulation, even sacrificing our lives for our ministry and our service, we can still rejoice in tribulation. You say, Can anyone do that? I tell you, if you cannot do it, God will help you do it, because heaven and earth will pass away, but God's word will not pass away.

Heaven and Earth Will Pass Away, but God's Word Will Not

Heaven and earth will pass away, but God's word will not pass away. This is what Jesus said. What did Jesus say? In Matthew 5:17:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17-20)

God's will for us is good, but the choice is ours. Therefore, today we must begin to make intelligent choices, choosing the choice of Abraham, choosing the choice of Isaac, choosing the choice of Jacob, choosing the choice of Abraham, choosing the choice of Joseph! God says, I will surely bless you.

I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, (Genesis 22:17)

Why does God say this? Because God wants Abraham to give Him his most precious thing: his son Isaac. When Abraham was truly willing to offer his only son Isaac to God, God said, I know your heart. I was only testing you. Now that I know you are serious, take your son back. I have already provided a ram for myself to be sacrificed in his place.”

Today, God has provided a lamb, that is our atoning lamb, Jesus Christ. God has prepared His Son, His only Son, the Lord Jesus. God does not want our sons; He gives us His Son. God wanted Abraham's son, his most precious possession, but only to test him. Because God's thoughts toward us are good, God wants us to prosper; God wants us to enjoy; God wants us to walk the path of life; God wants us to receive great grace! Because He is God, He freely gives us all good things. This is a free lunch, but it is priceless, you cannot buy it with money!

Brothers and sisters, should we respond to God? Should we say to God, I want to emulate Abraham. I want to offer you my most precious thing. I will no longer cling to what I think is most precious. I will cling to you, because you have given us your only Son, Jesus Christ, as an atoning lamb, to bear all our curses and take on our transgressions. Today, let us make another choice. Shouldn't we choose to love you with all our heart, soul, and strength? Today, the meaning of our life is to obtain the destiny that Abraham obtained! I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.

Today, God wants to raise us up, to raise up Chinese Mingding Destiny. Let the pure gospel preached by Chinese Mingding Destiny, which is what God has revealed to us in the Bible, become a blessing to many! God, we want to receive the destiny that Abraham received, to become a blessing to many like Abraham! God, remember us. We long to be the Abrahams, Isaacs, and Jacobs of this generation. We want to receive destiny; we want to live out Your good will for us!

May God bless everyone!