By Ma Ming
“Call your wife here to sign a guarantee that she will never again believe in God. As long as she does so, your son can get into the military school.” Li Lin’s husband repeated the words of the chief of police and anxiously waited for Li Lin’s reply. Facing the CCP’s unreasonable demand that she must give up her belief in God if she wanted her son to enroll in the military school, Li Lin found it hard to make a choice. A spiritual war then ensued within her family.
The CCP police demanded that she must give up her faith in God if she wanted her son to enroll in the military school.
In August 2015, Li Lin’s son tested into a military school and her family of three was very happy for that. Surprisingly, trouble started just when her husband went to the police station to do the last formalities for their son’s admission to the school. An employee there found that Li Lin was a believer in Almighty God, and that she was previously arrested for spreading the gospel, was detained for two days, and had had her information recorded. The employee said that the CCP had sent out the documents saying that the CCP will relax its policy on evil things such as prostitution, murder, and arson, but only wouldn’t let off anyone who believes in Almighty God, and that their children will not be allowed to get into military schools. Several employees criticized her husband with a foul mouth, and said that only after Li Lin signed a letter guaranteeing that she would never believe in God would they handle the formalities for her son’s admission to the military school.
Li Lin’s husband urged her, “Are you really willing to see that our child’s future is ruined because of your faith in God?” At that time, she felt furious at heart and thought, “My child has been taken on by the military school, and all he needs is to do the last formalities. But the CCP police are insisting on not handling them unless I sign a guarantee that I won’t believe in God, and only then can my son get into the military school. The CCP really goes to great pains to ban religious belief. However, facing my son’s future, should I sign or not?” At that point, she was caught in this dilemma. Then she thought of how she had gained so much from God in so many years. When she had breast cancer and was in the most pain, it was God’s words that gave her the faith, so that she overcame the devil of disease; in contrast, several patients who had the same disease all died. She knew that if it were not for God’s protection, she wouldn’t be alive today, and that once she signed the guarantee letter, it meant her betrayal of God. At that time, she felt a headache starting and became weak all over. She battled with herself for a long time. On the one side was her son’s future and on the other side was God, who gave her life; she was unwilling to give up God nor her son’s future. In her pain and helplessness, she kept praying to God in her heart, “O God! I can never repay You for Your salvation for me in my lifetime. If it weren’t for Your protection, I wouldn’t be alive today. I truly cannot leave You. But my son is my flesh and blood, and whether he can get into the military school relates to his fate. God, I’m very weak now. How should I choose? Please enlighten and lead me.”
God’s words showed the way to her, so that she understood that her son’s destiny would not be influenced by her.
After praying, Li Lin remembered God’s words, “Besides birth and childrearing, the parents’ responsibility in a child’s life is simply to provide him or her with a formal environment to grow up in, for nothing except the predestination of the Creator has a bearing on a person’s fate. No one can control what kind of future a person will have; it is predetermined long in advance, and not even one’s parents can change one’s fate. As far as fate is concerned, everyone is independent, and everyone has his or her own fate. So no one’s parents can stave off one’s fate in life or exert the slightest influence on the role one plays in life.” Under the timely enlightenment of God’s words, Li Lin suddenly had a direction and path. She came to know that parents’ responsibility was simply to give birth to and raise their children, and provide them with an environment to grow up in, but they could not control or decide their children’s fates. She also understood that her son’s fate was all part of the Creator’s orchestration and arrangements, and that it could not be influenced by his failure to get into the military school resulting from her belief. Just then, Li Lin was aware of God’s will, so she unhesitatingly said to her husband, “You know that I had breast cancer several years ago and underwent several operations. It was because of God’s protection that I pulled through. My life was granted by God. If I sign the guarantee letter, it will mean denying God. No matter what, I cannot ignore my conscience and betray God. Even if I were to die, I would not go to sign.” Seeing her resolve, her husband immediately fell feebly into a couch and became pale with anger. Thrusting his fingers into his hair and rubbing his forehead, he kept sighing and said nothing for over ten minutes. Li Lin felt the atmosphere at home became very tense. Suddenly, her husband said in a harsh tone of voice, “The government doesn’t allow people to believe in God. Stop believing. In China, the Communist Party is in control. These days they are frantically arresting believers in God. You wait until their suppression of religious beliefs isn’t harsh and then believe in God again.” Li Lin clearly knew that her husband must have been spurred on by the chief of police, or else he would not force her to give up believing in God. She thought, “At times like these, I should stand on God’s side and can’t submit to the forces of Satan.” Thus, she said firmly, “Do you know why the CCP doesn’t allow people to believe in God? It doesn’t want people to live a happy life but just wants them to listen to it and resist God along with it and so lose God’s salvation. You know that in my belief in God, all I do is read God’s words and that I don’t do anything illegal. But the CCP gets things completely backward, wanting to use our son’s attendance at the military school to pressure me into giving up my faith in God. It is too overbearing and vile! I won’t follow it in resisting God.”
When she faced being expelled from her home because she did not sign the guarantee letter, she saw through Satan’s trick and had a path to follow.
To her surprise, her husband, contrary to his normal behavior, said angrily, “If our child cannot get into the military school, then you take him with you and get out of here.” With that, he stormed off. Seeing this, Li Lin felt very afraid. She never thought that due to listening to the CCP’s lies, her once considerate husband, in order to ensure their son get into the military school, would force her to sign a letter promising to give up her belief in God and even threaten her with their marriage, saying that if she did not do that she would be kicked out. At that time, she felt very weak and thought, “If we are forced out the door, how will my son and I manage?”
After a while, Li Lin heard her husband crying loudly in the garage. When her son heard that, he fell feebly into the couch and began to cry. At that point, Li Lin was beset by pain and despair, she felt so distressed, like a knife was stabbing at her heart, and tears gushed out like water from an opened sluice. Seeing that her husband and son were so upset and sad, and that her family would fall apart, she felt her heart was about to break. She could only keep praying to God in her heart, “O God! Facing this sort of situation, I really don’t know what to do. I’m unwilling to give up my child’s future, my loving family, and even more You, who granted life to me. O God, I don’t want to betray You, but I’m small in stature and too weak. Please give me faith so that I can stand witness.”
After the prayer, these words of God popped into her mind, “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements, or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men, and the interference of men. Behind every step that God does in you is Satan’s wager with God—behind it all is a battle.”
From these words, she understood that some things appeared on the outside to be interactions between people, but in the spiritual world, it was Satan making a wager with God. It was just like when Job was tempted by Satan. On the surface, his property was all taken away, his children were crushed to death, and his whole body was covered in sores, but they were actually Satan’s temptations and disturbances. Satan wanted to use this to make Job blame and deny God—this was Satan’s evil intention behind the things. At the same time, God was testing Job’s faith and was to prove that Job was a just man through this situation. As Satan harmed him, Job uttered no complaints against God, but still stood on God’s side and praised God’s name. In the end, he shamed Satan and caused it to fail, and he passed God’s test and received God’s approval. Coming to this realization, she knew that her son’s attendance at the military school was actually also a test from Satan coming upon her. On the surface, it seemed that the police refused to handle the formalities, but the truth was that Satan seized upon her weaknesses and used her son’s future and the breakup of her family to tempt and attack her. It wanted her to betray and deny God. Through this, God also tested whether or not she was a true believer of God. She realized that she must see through Satan’s tricks, could not fall into its temptations, and must stand on God’s side and bear firm witness.
Then she remembered another passage of God’s words, “What occupation one pursues, what one does for a living, and how much wealth one amasses in life are not decided by one’s parents, one’s talents, one’s efforts or one’s ambitions, but are predetermined by the Creator.” She knew from these words that God arranges everyone’s fate, and that what sort of school one will get into, whatever kind of work one will have, and whether one is rich or poor is not decided by his desires, talents, or efforts, but is determined by what the Creator has preordained. The guidance of God’s words made her wounded heart gradually calm down. She thought, “No matter what sort of school my son will get into, whatever kind of work he will find, whether my husband will drive me away, and whatever my future life will be, I accept that all of this is in God’s hands. I’m willing to pray to God and entrust all this to Him, and I no longer make plans myself.” With this in her mind, she then decided not to sign the guarantee letter.
After she stood witness, the war in her family was miraculously over.
Just then, her son came over and said to her, crying, “Mom, in fact, I don’t want to get into the military school. But in these couple of years, my dad has owed millions of RMB because of his gambling; even though I graduate from a college, there will be no money at home to help me make connections to find a good job. I want to save money for our family, and if I get into the military school, I don’t need to fret over finding a job.” Hearing this, although Li Lin knew that this was a practical difficulty at home, she believed that the things of the future were in God’s hands and that it would be of no use to make plans herself. At that moment, she no longer felt as overwhelmed as she had been, and with tears in her eyes, she took her son’s hand and said, “Son, let’s rely upon God. Our destinies are all under God’s rule. What job and life you will have in the future is up to God. Son, since you were born, you’ve experienced many times God’s care and protection. You also know that I once had breast cancer. If it were not for God’s protection, I would not be alive today. In the world, if someone shows us kindness, we should repay him. If we’re ungrateful, we will be despicable villains and will be spurned by others. Are you willing to let me be someone who acts treacherously for personal interests in God’s eyes? The God I believe in is the one and only true God who created the universe and all things—the Creator, and we are merely tiny little creations. Worshiping the Creator is a heavenly law.” Hearing her say this, her son stopped crying, then stood up, patted her arm and declared on the spot, “Mom, don’t cry. I would rather not get into the school than have you go to sign. It’s not a big problem to come back to our hometown….” Hearing this, Li Lin was very excited. She never thought that there could be such a major change in her son’s attitude. She gave thanks to God in her heart! Then she said calmly, “Let’s discuss it with your dad when he returns.”
After her husband came back, her son directly said to him, “Dad, stop forcing my mom. I won’t get into the military school. I’m preparing to repeat my last year of school and test into a college.” Although my husband was not happy after hearing this, he still said to our son, “Since you’ve made the decision, I respect your choice. I’ll send you when you go to school.” Hearing them say this, Li Lin once again saw God’s deeds. She thought, “My husband has exerted over ten years of effort on our son, and every day was hoping for him to test into a military school. Now our son did it, so how could my husband give up easily? Without God’s work, whatever I said he couldn’t change his mind.” At that moment, she came to vividly appreciate that the thoughts and ideas of her husband and son were in God’s hands. And she thought of God’s words, “Man’s heart and spirit are held in the hand of God, everything of his life is beheld in the eyes of God. Regardless of whether or not you believe this, any and all things, whether living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear in accordance with God’s thoughts. Such is the way in which God presides over all things.” She genuinely experienced that this spiritual battle was so intense. When she let go of everything and satisfied God with a true heart, Satan retreated in shame. Her husband and son totally changed their attitudes. She thanked God for His protection and leading from her heart.
Two days later, her husband and she drove their son to school.
She brought her son before God, obeyed God’s sovereignty, and thus embarked upon the happy path.
During the time that her son repeated his last year of school, in order to relieve his study stress, Li Lin often read God’s words to him and told him that people’s fates were in God’s hands and that he should learn to rely on God. One day, they read a passage of God’s words together, “If you reject the call of God for the sake of status and your own goals, all that you do shall be cursed and even despised by God. Maybe you are a president, or a scientist, a pastor, or an elder, but no matter how high your office, if you rely on your knowledge and ability in your undertakings, then you shall always be a failure, and shall always be bereft of the blessings of God, because God accepts nothing that you do, and He does not grant that your career is a righteous one, or accept that you are working for the benefit of mankind. He will say that everything you do, is to use the knowledge and strength of mankind to divest man of the protection of God, and to deny the blessings of God. He will say that you are leading mankind toward darkness, toward death, and toward the start of an existence without limits in which man has lost God and His blessing.”
From these words, Li Lin knew that if people did not submit to God’s sovereignty but relied on their own wild ambitions and desires to work hard, even though they gained some high status, such as president, scientist, priest, or elder, they were still detested and cursed by God and were losers who did not have God’s blessing, and in the end they could only walk toward destruction. Only by walking the path of believing in God and worshiping God and by obeying God’s sovereignty could people have a good fate. At the thought of this, Li Lin could not help but feel happy for her decision not to sign the letter promising to stop believing in God back then. She thought that if she signed it, even though her son got into the military school, he would still be cursed and hated by God and wouldn’t be blessed by God. She understood that as a mother, she should lead her son to walk the path of believing in God, and this was truly responsible for his life and was the most appropriate. Following that, her son’s words made her feel even more gratified as he said with emotion, “It turns out that only people who believe in God and obey God’s sovereignty can obtain God’s approval and be blessed by God. Thinking back on that time, if I had gotten into the military school, during the four years that followed, it would be as if I was serving in the military and thus I could not have come back home to visit my relatives, and could not have believed in God or read God’s words.” Seeing that her son did not feel regret for losing the opportunity to get into the military school but instead was happy for having the chance to believe in God, Li Lin could not help but thank God and saw that God’s arrangements were truly wonderful. Although her son failed to get into the military school through the CCP’s obstruction, he came before God and received God’s salvation of the last days. This blessing was great.
The next year, her son’s college entrance test results were published, and he tested into a university of finance and economics.
She saw clearly the inside story of the spiritual war and appreciated that only after experiencing temptations could her faith in God be increased.
Li Lin later read these words from God, “God works, God cares for a person, looks upon a person, and Satan dogs His every step. Whoever God favors, Satan also watches, trailing along behind. If God wants this person, Satan would do everything in its power to obstruct God, using various evil ways to tempt, harass and wreck the work God does in order to achieve its hidden objective. What is its objective? It does not want God to have anyone; it wants all those that God wants, to occupy them, control them, to take charge of them so they worship it, so they commit evil acts alongside it. Is this not Satan’s sinister motive? … Satan is at war with God, trailing along behind Him. Its objective is to demolish all the work God wants to do, to occupy and control those whom God wants, to completely extinguish those whom God wants. If they are not extinguished, then they come to Satan’s possession to be used by it—this is its objective.”
God’s words enabled Li Lin to realize that nowadays God has come to work and save people, but Satan doesn’t want God to gain them, so it disturbs and tempts them in all things. This is an attempt to have people betray God and resist God alongside it, and end up being destroyed by God. The CCP is the embodiment of Satan and is a satanic regime that most resists God. It not only madly arrests and persecutes believers in God, but also spreads rumors and employs all sorts of tactics to disturb them. The CCP once arrested Li Lin because of her belief in God, wanting to force her to give up her faith. This time, it used her son’s attendance at the military school to corner her and urged her husband to oppose her and force her to sign a guarantee letter and thereby betray God. The CCP’s motives truly are sinister and evil. Through her practical experiences, Li Lin was able to truly see that the fight being waged in the spiritual world was an intense one: God wants to save mankind, and so Satan does everything possible to damage and disturb them, thereby achieving its goals of devouring them. Thinking of this, Li Lin thanked God for His leading. When she firmly believed in God and entrusted her son’s future to God, her family no longer stopped her, her son gave up getting into the military school and believed in God. In the end, the CCP’s plot did not prevail.
Li Lin saw more of God’s word, “This is the means God uses to allow people to see the wickedness, ugliness, and contemptibility of Satan amid Satan’s temptations and attacks, thus causing people to hate Satan and be able to know and recognize that which is negative. This process allows them to gradually free themselves from Satan’s control, and from Satan’s accusations, interference, and attacks—until, thanks to God’s words, their knowledge and obedience of God, and their faith in God and fear of Him, they triumph over the attacks of Satan, and triumph over the accusations of Satan; only then will they have been completely delivered from the domain of Satan.”
From these words, Li Lin understood that God allows Satan to tempt people in order to make all those who follow God able to develop discernment of Satan’s evil and deplorable ways and recognize all the trickeries of Satan, and thus abandon Satan and return before God. Although the path of following God was filled with the temptations and disturbances of Satan and every time she underwent them she would suffer a great deal and feel weak, with the timely leading and guidance of God’s words, Li Lin not only saw through Satan’s tricks and overcame its attacks by relying on God, but also witnessed God’s mightiness in ruling over everything, and saw that God’s wisdom was exercised based on Satan’s schemes. After experiencing Satan’s temptations, Li Lin’s faith and obedience toward God increased, and she firmly believed that only following God was the right path in life.
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