God's Words | Raising Caliber Is for the Sake of Receiving God’s Salvation
God's Words | Raising Caliber Is for the Sake of Receiving God’s Salvation
Raising people’s caliber means requiring you to improve your powers of comprehension, so that you can understand God’s words, and know how to act upon them. This is the most basic requirement of all. If you follow Me without understanding what I say, is your faith not muddled? No matter how many words I utter, if they are beyond your reach, if you cannot quite understand them no matter what I say, then this means you are of poor caliber. Without powers of comprehension, you understand nothing of what I say, which makes it very difficult to achieve the desired effect; there is much that I cannot say to you directly, and the intended effect cannot be achieved, thus necessitating additional work. Since your powers of comprehension, your ability to see things, and the standards by which you live are too deficient, the work of “caliber raising” must be carried out in you. This is inevitable, and unavoidable. Only thus can some effect be achieved; if not, all of the words I say would be for nothing. And would you not then go down in history as sinners? Would you not become the scum of the earth? Do you not know what work is being performed in you, and what is required of you? You ought to know your own caliber: It does not meet My requirements at all. And does this not delay My work? Based on your current caliber and the current state of your character, not one of you is fit to bear witness to Me, nor are any of you up to the task of shouldering the heavy responsibilities of My future work. Do you not feel deeply ashamed? If you go on like this, how can you satisfy Me in all My wishes? You should make your life full and rewarding. Do not let time pass in vain—there is no value in doing so. You should know what you ought to be equipped with. Do not think yourself a jack of all trades—you still have a long way to go! What more is there to say if you do not even possess the minimum common sense of humanity? Is it not all in vain? And as for the humanity and caliber I require, not a single one of you is fully qualified. It is extremely difficult to find someone who is fit for use. You believe yourselves capable of doing greater work for Me, and of being entrusted with greater things from Me; in fact, you do not even know how to enter into many of the lessons before your very eyes—so how could you possibly enter into deeper truths? Your entry should proceed systematically and by degrees. It must not be chaotic—that is no good. Start with the very shallowest entry: Read these words line by line until you achieve understanding and clarity. Each brother and sister should at least be able to read. Do not just skim through as if admiring flowers while galloping on horseback, and do not just go through the motions. You can also regularly read some reference books (such as books on grammar or rhetoric). Do not read anything too stimulating (romance novels, erotica, magazines, or biographies of great men); these are of no benefit, and can only cause harm. You must master all that you should enter into and understand. The purpose of raising people’s caliber is to give them an awareness of their own essence, identity, status and worth. What is most important for churches below to enter into? Today, is it not raising people’s caliber? It is imperative that you hold onto becoming educated as an entry point; you must not throw this away! You must understand why people’s caliber must be raised, how it should be raised, and which aspects to enter into. You must understand the significance of living out man’s proper humanity, why this work has to be done, and the part that man should play. For example, in becoming educated, you should understand which aspects should be studied, and how one should enter into them. You should all know what the goal of becoming educated is. Is it not to understand the words of God and to enter into the truth? What prevails throughout the churches today? Making people educate themselves causes them to forget about the enjoyment of God’s words, and they do nothing all day beyond getting educated. If you require them to live out proper humanity, they will attend only to tidying up their house, cooking, or buying kitchen utensils. These things will be their sole focus; they will even be unaware of how to lead an ordinary church life. If you find yourself in the current circumstances, you have gone astray in your practice. Then why are you asked to enter into the spiritual life? Simply learning those things will leave you incapable of achieving what is asked of you. Entering into life is still what is most important; the reason for doing that work, meanwhile, is to resolve the difficulties people encounter in their experiences. Raising your caliber gives you knowledge of human nature and the essence of man, the main purpose of which is so that people’s spiritual life can grow and their disposition can change. You may know how to dress up and make yourself look nice, you may be insightful and clever, and yet ultimately, when the day comes for you to go to work, you cannot. Thus should you be aware of what should also be done while raising your caliber. The goal is to change you; raising your caliber is supplemental. It will not do if your caliber is not improved, and if your disposition is not changed, that is even worse. Neither can be omitted. Possessing proper humanity does not mean that you have borne resounding testimony—what is required of you is not so simple.
Only when people’s caliber has been raised to the extent that they attain the sense and the lifestyle of people with proper humanity, and have also entered into life—only then will they have changes and witnesses to speak of. When the day comes for you to bear witness, you must also speak of changes in your human life, and the knowledge of God within you. Only the combination of these two aspects is your true testimony and harvest. It is not enough for your humanity to change on the outside but for you to have no understanding on the inside, nor will it do if you have an understanding and truth on the inside but you wind up neglecting to live out your proper humanity. The work done on you today is not for show, but to change you. All you need do is focus on changing yourself. Writing and listening every day, with nothing else in your life, will not do; you should have entry in every aspect. You should have the proper life of a saint. Many sisters dress like young ladies and brothers like nobility or big shots, utterly bereft of the decorum of the saints. It is one thing to raise a person’s caliber—this is achieved incidentally. It is another thing to eat and drink God’s words—this is what is key. If your caliber was raised but wound up not being put to use because you did not eat and drink God’s words, would you not have wasted your efforts in learning? Both aspects must be combined. Why bring up the knowledge of God when discussing what is required of you? Is it not for the sake of the results of the work to come? After you have been conquered, you must be able to bear testimony from your own experiences. It will not do if your outward appearance is one of proper humanity, but you end up unable to put your experiences into words. At the same time as having a proper spiritual life, you should achieve proper humanity, many aspects of which will come to be learned incidentally. Would you say that even sweeping the floor requires a bit of practice? Even worse is spending an hour practicing how to hold your chopsticks when eating! What aspects does proper humanity include? Insight, sense, conscience, and character. If you can achieve normality in each of these aspects, your humanity will be up to par. You should have the likeness of a proper human being, you should resemble a believer in God. You do not have to achieve too much, or get involved in diplomacy; you just have to be a proper human being, with a proper person’s sense, to be able to see through things, and at least look like a proper human being. That will be enough. Everything required of you today is within your capabilities; this is not a case of trying to shoo a duck onto a perch. No useless words or useless work will be performed upon you. All the ugliness expressed or revealed in your life must be gotten rid of. You have been corrupted by Satan and brim with Satan’s venom. All that is asked of you is to get rid of this corrupt satanic disposition. You are not being asked to become some high-ranking figure, or a famous or great person. There is no point in that. The work that is done in you takes into account what is inherent in you. There are limits to what I ask of people. If people today were all asked to behave like government officials—to practice speaking in the tone of voice of government officials, train to speak in the manner of high-ranking government officials, or practice expressing themselves in the tone and manner of essayists and novelists—this would not do, either; it cannot be done. Given your caliber, you should at least be able to speak with wisdom and tact and explain things in a clear and comprehensible manner. That is all it takes to meet the requirements. If, at the very least, you gain insight and sense, then that will do. What is most important right now is casting off your corrupt satanic disposition. You must cast off the ugliness that is manifested in you. How can you touch upon supreme sense and supreme insight, if you do not cast these off? Seeing that the age has changed, many people lack any humility or patience, and they might as well not have any love or saintly decorum, either. How absurd such people are! Do they have even an ounce of proper humanity? Do they have any testimony to speak of? They are utterly without insight or sense. Of course, some aspects of people’s practice that are deviant and erroneous need to be corrected; their rigid former spiritual lives and their benumbed and imbecilic appearance, for example—all of these have to be changed. Change does not mean letting you become dissolute or indulge in the flesh, saying whatever you want. You must not shoot your mouth off. To have the speech and comportment of a proper human being is to speak coherently, saying yes when you mean yes, and no when you mean no. Stick to the facts and speak appropriately. Do not cheat, do not lie. The limits that a proper person can reach regarding a change of disposition must be understood. If not, you will not be able to enter into reality.
Source：The Church of Almighty God
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