What is the influence of darkness?
What is referred to as the influence of darkness is the bondage of Satan, the influence of Satan, and it is an influence that has an aura of death.
After you have sincerely prayed to God, you turn your heart to Him completely. At this point, your heart is moved by God’s Spirit, you are willing to give yourself completely, and in this moment, you have escaped from the influence of darkness. If all that man does is pleasing to God and fits with His requirements, then he is someone who lives inside God’s words, and he is someone who lives under the care and protection of God. If men are unable to practice God’s words, always fooling Him, acting in a perfunctory manner with Him, and not believing in His existence, such men are all living under the influence of darkness. Men who have not received the salvation of God are all living under the domain of Satan, that is, they all live under the influence of darkness. Those who do not believe in God are living under the domain of Satan. Even those who believe in the existence of God may not necessarily be living in the light of God, because those who believe in Him may not necessarily be living inside God’s words, and they may not necessarily be men who are able to obey God. Man only believes in God, and due to his failure to know God, he is still living within the old rules, living within dead words, living in a life that is dark and uncertain, not fully purified by God or completely gained by God. Therefore, while it goes without saying that those who do not believe in God are living under the influence of darkness, even those who believe in God may still be living under its influence, for the Holy Spirit has not performed work on them. Those who have not received the grace of God or the mercy of God, and those who cannot see the work of the Holy Spirit, are all living under the influence of darkness; those who only enjoy the grace of God yet do not know Him are also living under the influence of darkness most of the time. If a man believes in God yet spends most of his life living under the influence of darkness, then this man’s existence has lost its meaning, not to mention those who do not believe in the existence of God.
All those who cannot accept God’s work and therefore are unable to meet His demands are living under the influence of darkness; only those who seek the truth and are able to meet God’s demands will receive blessings from Him, and only they will escape from the influence of darkness.
Men who have not been released, who are always controlled by certain things and unable to give their hearts to God, are men who are under the bondage of Satan, and who are living under an aura of death.
Those unfaithful to their own duties, unfaithful to God’s commission, and those not performing their function at the church are living under the influence of darkness.
Those who deliberately disturb the church life, who deliberately destroy relationships between the brothers and sisters, or assemble their own gangs are living even deeper under the influence of darkness; they are living within the bondage of Satan.
Those who have an improper relationship with God, who always have extravagant desires, who always want to gain an advantage, and who never seek transformation in their disposition are men living under the influence of darkness.
Those who are always sloppy, are not serious in their practice of the truth, and who do not seek to meet the desires of God but only satisfy their own flesh are also men who are living under the influence of darkness and shrouded in death.
Those who engage in crookedness and deception when performing work for God, who deal with God in a perfunctory manner, cheat God, and who always think for themselves are men living under the influence of darkness.
All those who cannot sincerely love God, who do not seek the truth, and who do not focus on transforming their disposition are living under the influence of darkness.
If you want to be praised by God, you must first escape from Satan’s influence of darkness, open your heart to God, and turn it to God completely. Are the things that you are now doing praised by God? Have you turned your heart to God? Have the things that you have done been what God has required of you? Do they fit with the truth? You must examine yourself at all times, concentrate on eating and drinking God’s words, lay out your heart before Him, love Him with sincerity, and devotedly expend yourself for God. Such men will surely receive God’s praise.
Those who do not live their life with honesty, who behave one way in front of others but another way behind their backs, who give an appearance of humility, patience, and love while in essence they are insidious, cunning, and have no loyalty to God—these people are the typical representatives of those living under the influence of darkness. They are the ilk of the serpent.
Those whose belief in God is always for their own gains, who are self-righteous and haughty, who show themselves off, and protect their own status are those who love Satan and oppose the truth. They resist God and belong completely to Satan.
Those who are not attentive to God’s burdens, who do not wholeheartedly serve God, who are always concerned with their own interests and the interests of their family, who are unable to abandon everything to expend themselves for God, and never live by His words are living outside of God’s words. Such men cannot receive God’s praise.
When God created men, it was to have them enjoy His richness and genuinely love Him; in this way, men would live in His light. Today, all those who are unable to love God, are not attentive to His burdens, are unable to fully give their hearts to God, are unable to take God’s heart as their own, are unable to shoulder God’s burdens as their own—God’s light is not shining upon any such men, therefore they are all living under the influence of darkness. They are on a path that goes against God’s will, all that they do has not a shred of truth, and they are in collusion with Satan. Such people are living under the influence of darkness. If you can always eat and drink God’s words as well as be attentive to His will and practice His words, then you belong to God, and you are someone living inside God’s words. Are you willing to escape from Satan’s domain and live in the light of God? If you live inside God’s words, then the Holy Spirit will have an opportunity to perform His work; if you live under Satan’s influence, then the Holy Spirit will have no opportunity to perform any work. The work that the Holy Spirit performs on men, the light that He shines on men, and the confidence that He gives to men last for only a moment; if they are not careful and do not pay attention, the work performed by the Holy Spirit will pass them by. If men live inside God’s words, then the Holy Spirit will be with them and perform work on them; if men are not living inside God’s words, then they are living within the bondage of Satan. Men living in a corrupt disposition do not have the presence or the work of the Holy Spirit. If you are living within the sphere of God’s words, if you are living within the state required by God, then you belong to Him and His work will be performed on you; if you are not living within the sphere of God’s requirements but instead are living under Satan’s domain, then you are certainly living under Satan’s corruption. Only by living within God’s words and giving your heart to Him, can you meet His requirements; you must do as God says, you must make God’s words the foundation of your existence and the reality of your life, and only then will you belong to God. If you sincerely practice in accordance with God’s will, He will perform work on you and then you will live under God’s blessings, live in the light of God’s countenance, grasp the work that the Holy Spirit performs, as well as feel the joy of God’s presence.
To escape from the influence of darkness, you must first be loyal to God and have the eagerness to seek the truth—only then will you have a correct state. Living in the correct state is the precondition for escaping from the influence of darkness. Not having the correct state means that you are not loyal to God and that you do not have the eagerness to seek the truth. Then, escaping from the influence of darkness is out of the question. Man’s escape from the influence of darkness is based on My words, and if man cannot practice in accordance with My words, they will not escape from the bondage of the influence of darkness. To live in the correct state is to live under the guidance of God’s words, to live in the state of being loyal to God, to live in the state of seeking the truth, to live in the reality of sincerely expending for God, to live in the state of genuinely loving God. Those who live in these states and within this reality will gradually transform as they enter more deeply into the truth, and they will transform with the deepening of the work, until eventually they will certainly be gained by God, and they will come to genuinely love God. Those who have escaped from the influence of darkness will be able to gradually grasp God’s will, gradually understand the heart of God, and eventually become intimate with God. Not only will they have no notions of God and no rebellion against Him, but they will come to detest even more the notions and rebellion that they had before, engendering genuine love for God in their hearts. Those who are unable to escape from the influence of darkness are occupied with their flesh, and they are full of rebellion; their hearts are filled with human notions and philosophies of life as well as their own intentions and deliberations. God requires the singular love of man, and He requires man to be occupied by His words and man’s love for Him. To live within God’s words, to discover that which man should seek from within His words, to love God as a result of His words, to run around for the sake of God’s words, to live for God’s words—these are all things that man should achieve. Everything must be built on God’s words, and only then will man be able to meet God’s requirements. If man is not equipped with God’s words, he is nothing but a maggot who is possessed by Satan. Weigh it in your own heart—how many words of God have taken root inside of you? In which things are you living in accordance with God’s words? In which things have you not been living in accordance with God’s words? If they have not fully taken hold of you, then to what extent have they taken hold of you? In your everyday life, are you being controlled by Satan, or are you being guided by God’s words? Are your prayers initiated from His words? Have you come out of your negative state through the enlightenment of God’s words? To take God’s words as the foundation of your existence, this is what everyone should enter into. If God’s words are not present in your life, then you are living under the influence of darkness, you are rebellious against God, you are resisting God, and you are dishonoring His name—such men’s belief in God is purely mischief and disturbance. How much of your life has been lived in accordance with His words? How much of your life has not been lived in accordance with His words? How much of what God’s words have required of you has been fulfilled in you? How much has been lost in you? Have you closely examined such things?
To escape from the influence of darkness, one aspect is that it requires the work of the Holy Spirit, and another aspect is that it requires dedicated cooperation from man. Why do I say that man is not on the right track? In the first place, if a man is on the right track, he will be able to give his heart to God, which is a task that requires a long period of time to enter into because humankind has always been living under the influence of darkness and has been under Satan’s bondage for thousands of years. Therefore, this entry cannot be achieved in a day or two. I brought up this issue today so that men can have a grasp of their own state; regarding what is the influence of darkness and what it is to live within the light, entry becomes possible when man is able to discern these things. This is because you must know what Satan’s influence is before you can escape from it, and only then will you have the path for gradually ridding yourself of it. As to what to do thereafter, that is a matter for humans themselves. You must always enter in from a positive aspect and you must never wait passively. It is only this way that you can be gained by God.
from The Word Appears in The Flesh
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