Christian Testimonies - The Transformation of an Only Child

Christian Testimonies - The Transformation of an Only Child

Last winter I saw one of the young brothers (a 19-year old only child) rent a house by himself so that he could repair mp5 devices for free for the brothers and sisters. He also often went to help look after the poorer brothers and sisters. I heard one of the sisters say that he too was once a spoiled “little prince” who often spent many hours at a time in cyber cafes and wouldn’t go home, causing his parents to worry about him a lot. But then his mother found faith in God, and converted him, too. He then started going to youth meetings at the church and became a totally different person: One who listened to others, knew how to act, and started to love positive things.

A few days ago I met another only child, this time a 25-year old sister. After graduating from university she began to carry out duties in the church. I saw how good she was at caring for and looking after the new brothers and sisters, and I thought: “This young sister is an only child but she’s not spoiled at all. She’s a lot better than I was.” At a later date, I was able to fellowship with her, and she told me: “I wasn’t much to begin with, either. My mother used to do everything for me, and I believed that that was how it should be. After going to university, I still called my mother every time I encountered a problem, and would say to her indignantly: ‘Mom, where are you when I need you? Why aren’t you here when I’m sad?’ My mom would say helplessly: ‘I’m your old servant!’” The young sister then told me about how she had undergone the judgment and chastisement of God’s word after believing in God, and the process of how she’d gone from being an extremely selfish person to being saved and transformed by God. That’s when I understood that God had worked on her, that it was God’s judgment and punishment that had so thoroughly transformed her. Not long ago, I also met 3 young brothers and sisters—one 17 years old, two 19 years old—who were fulfilling their duties earnestly and were even working late into the night sometimes. I even saw a 7-year old child talking about truths to pursue transformation of disposition while we were fellowshipping truths! Where is such strength from? Besides God’s power and authority, what else could transform my generation of useless degenerates?

It made me sigh when I thought about how my generation of “deformed children”—the product of family planning, over-indulgent parents, and the CCP’s damaging education system—were so lacking in talent or skills. We still all thought highly of ourselves, however, and all wanted to do great things, but whenever we encountered the smallest difficulties we crumpled. We were so weak, so lacking in perseverance, but were still so very stroppy. I always wondered how the communist party could say that their system of education was producing “miraculous results” when it was clear that each generation of students was worse than the previous one! Our parents had no control over us, and the teachers were even more powerless to change us. Only Almighty God’s words have the power to thoroughly transform the deeply corrupted, degenerate, and aimless youth of my generation. As Almighty God said: “Though the word ‘word’ is simple and ordinary, the word from the mouth of God become flesh shakes the entire universe; His word transforms the heart of man, the notions and the old disposition of man, and the old appearance of the entire world. Through the ages, only the God of this day works in such a manner, and only He speaks and saves man thus. Thereafter, man lives under the guidance of the word, shepherded and supplied by the word; they live in the world of the word, live within the curses and blessings of God’s word, and even more live under the judgment and chastisement of the word. These words and this work are all for the sake of man’s salvation, achieving God’s will, and changing the original appearance of the world of old creation” (“The Age of Kingdom Is the Age of Word” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The transformations that we have undergone highlight the power of God’s words.

I have been following Almighty God for 14 years already, and in these 14 years I have continuously been fulfilling duties in the church. I really feel that these years have been of immense significance and value to me, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart. I used to complain that I was giving the best years of my life to the church, and that I wasn’t able to enjoy all the tasty foods, the fun and games, and all the other pleasures of youth. But now I deeply feel the love that God has for me. God saved me from being a selfish, despicable, arrogant, self-important and self-righteous “invalid.” Although I have many corrupt dispositions that have yet to be rid of—and there is more of God’s judgment, chastisement, cleansing, and transformation that I must undergo—I won’t leave God or The Church of Almighty God. Even if I had to be the most junior member of the church, I would still follow God to the end! Even if I knew I would suffer harm and persecution at the hands of the CCP, I still wouldn’t leave my God! That’s because I’ve seen God’s work on myself and my team of co-workers, and although nothing miraculous has happened, the power of God’s words indeed surpasses that of miracles. God’s words have brought about life-changing transformations in us, and this is work that absolutely no one else can do! From the bottom of my heart I have pledged to God: “Almighty God, thank you for saving this team of young people that I’m a part of. We’ll always follow You and will never abandon You!”

Dear friends, I don’t know if you have discovered this yet but the difficulty of managing young people has become one of the most serious problems that our society faces. Children are getting more and more selfish, as seen in the way they order their parents around like slaves. They have lost conscience and humanity, and have got to the point where they can’t even take care of their most basic needs. China’s government is making a big public show of its policy of cleaning up the Internet for the sake of the health of young people but at the same time they are quietly developing new online games that trap people in a world of virtual reality in order to make big bucks. What these online games promote is violence, pornography, war and trickery. After the youth of today have been fooled and poisoned by these tricks of Satan’s they inevitably fall victim to one or more disastrous outcomes: Some spend all their time in cyber cafes; some fall in love too early in life; some start getting into fights; some just live for pleasures of the flesh and don’t do anything meaningful. Their parents are usually worried sick by these kids but the kids themselves are never even aware of it, or couldn’t care less anyway. There have even been cases of young people killing their parents—parents who spent so many years dutifully bringing them up— because the parents tried to restrict their access to the Internet! Some parents get so saddened by seeing their offspring tormented by soul-destroying online games that they pay large sums of money to send them to schools that specialize in rescuing kids addicted to Internet stuff. But high-pressure management doesn’t always work, and many kids go straight back to playing the games whenever they can. The parents end up mentally and physically exhausted, and there’s nothing that they or the school staff can do. And of course the national government and social organizations are even less effective at dealing with the problem because they only know how to corrupt people and not how to save people!

Almighty God asks us: “Can you really educate your descendants to become ‘human beings’?” (“The Purpose of Managing Mankind” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The facts show that we men don’t have the ability to do this, neither do teachers nor school staff, and national governments or social organizations have even less capability. Only God, the Creator of all things, has this ability. That’s because God created us and thus God understands everything about us with total clarity and He knows how to save us! Almighty God said: “Since the day man came into existence, God has been steady in His work, managing this universe and directing the change and movement of all things. … The heart and spirit of man are held in the hand of God, and all the life of man is beheld in the eyes of God. Regardless of whether or not you believe this, any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

One of the older sisters has a son who got addicted to drugs. Even being locked up in a drug rehabilitation center a number of times couldn’t cure his addiction. The sister couldn’t eat or sleep well from worrying about him, and was at her wit’s end about what to do. At a later date, she started to believe in God. She prayed to God, entrusted her son to God, and begged God to save him. That’s when she saw, with her own eyes, a miracle happen to her son: He not only quickly gave up his drug habit but even found a steady job. Now he has a wife and children, and leads a normal life. There are many other examples of this kind of thing happening….

Friends, are you troubled by seeing your children sink into degeneracy? You’re living in a world of endless suffering, so it would be better to hurry up and bring your family before Almighty God and see whether or not a miracle will happen to you! We believers in God have witnessed first hand how He works, so we will follow Him with hearts of steel no matter what happens to the world around us. We are telling the truth when we bear witness to God’s ability to save people and the wonder therein to you, and hope that you can be like us and gain God’s salvation and blessings and walk onto the bright, right path of life!

From Gospel of The Descent of The Kingdom：The Transformation of an Only Child