Spiritual Warfare: The Experience of Overcoming the Temptation of Satan

From: The Church of Almighty God - Church Life

by Qianbei, Indonesia

I come from Indonesia. Seven years ago, my marriage broke up. My husband left me. At that time, the neighbors all looked at me with peculiar eyes. I was under great pressure and had no courage to face my family, relatives and friends. Besides, not having my husband and child at my side, I was very worried about my future. From then on, I always lived under pressure and in pain. Until April of 2017, I got to know Brother Joe on Facebook. He sent me God’s words regarding marriage, the fourth life-juncture, which I had never heard before. By reading the word of God, I understood that I shouldn’t worry about my future regardless of my failed marriage, because God long ago arranged the life course for me and my whole future is in His hand. God’s words made my heart especially free and gave me some comfort. Afterward, the brother told me that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus, the Christ of the last days, and that He is doing the work of judgment and chastisement to purify His chosen people. That was great news for me. I was really excited and curious to know more. Just as I was preparing to investigate further, something unexpected happened.

At 3 p.m. on April 17, a violent typhoon ripped off the roof of my house. With the rain bucketing down all the time, my house quickly became like a swimming pool. Furniture and all other things were damaged. It took us a week to repair the damaged house and clear up all the odds and ends. Actually, when believing in the Lord Jesus, I knew no matter what happens, I should offer thanks to God. But the fact of the matter was that I didn’t know why such a thing happened to me and that I felt very sad and confused. I thought: “Why did my house happen to be damaged? Am I going the wrong way? Or maybe I made a mistake. Could it be that God stops me from investigating and accepting the gospel?” I was a little scared. When Brother Joe invited me to attend meetings again, I had a very uncomfortable feeling and was no longer willing to gather together. I refused his invitations or made excuses to avoid meetings many times. I was afraid that if I continued attending meetings, other unforeseen things would happen. So I ignored his messages and several times I didn’t want to answer him. Then one day, I read his message. He apologized to me sincerely, saying that whether he did something wrong to hurt me and that he wanted to know why I became unwilling to fellowship with him. After reading his message, I felt so guilty. Later, I also apologized to him and then we began to talk about the disaster I had encountered.

Brother Joe sent me a passage of God’s words, “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 possess 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?” (“God Himself, the Unique IV”). Then he fellowshiped, “When God wants to save us, Satan will use all sorts of methods to obstruct God and evil means to let us distance from and betray God, thereby stopping us from seeking the true way, and making us never receive God’s salvation of the last days. In this way we will forever live under its domain and do evil to resist God with it. Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus and the appearance of our one true God. He has done the work of judgment and chastisement, which is based upon the work of redemption the Lord Jesus did, in order to thoroughly transform us and save us from sins. To hinder you from investigating the true way, Satan made the disaster befall your family. We should see through its scheme, seek and investigate further by faith.” After hearing the fellowship of Brother Joe, I understood that Satan’s goal hiding behind the disaster was to cause me to lose faith in God and misunderstand Him, and thus to obstruct me from investigating Almighty God’s work of the last days. Only then did I know the disaster didn’t come from God but Satan. And I thanked God in my heart. Fortunately, I wasn’t at home at that time. If I had been, I would probably have gotten hurt. I realized that it was God’s protection. It was God who saved me and my family from the disaster. Then, I decided to investigate further.

We had many meetings together, during which brother bore witness to me about God’s three stages of work I had never heard. When I believed in the Lord, I was bound by sins, sinning every day and confessing every day. I was always doubting in my heart: We are not sanctified; how can we enter the kingdom of heaven? For the Bible says, “Be you holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). Subsequently, Brother Joe said to me, “Almighty God comes to do the work of judgment and chastisement precisely to resolve our sinful nature. Only if we accept His work of judgment in the last days and examine and understand ourselves according to His word can we break free from the bondage of sins, be saved by Him, and enter the kingdom of heaven.” After his fellowship, my doubt was solved and I accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days.

However, Satan’s temptation did not end there. On July 11, I had an accident. A lorry passed me at high speed from behind, sideswiping my motorcycle. It caught me by surprise, so I tumbled off my motorcycle, with my cheek and left wrist being hurt. Meanwhile, the motorcycle was knocked to other side of the street, and its outside was damaged. I was quite terrified and thought in my heart: Why is this happening to me? Then I started to doubt God’s love. At that time, the lorry driver ran away and did not bear the blame for the accident. Later on, passers-by came around me and took me to the nearest clinic. After giving me an examination and some treatment, the doctor said I was fine, so I went home.

spiritual warfare

After arriving home, I still did not understand why it happened to me. So I sought out a sister to fellowship with. By then, I was a little unhappy. I told her in a grave tone that I had an accident today. After hearing my words, she shared with me a passage in a fellowship from the above, “So for all the people who belong to the first group to have accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days, in all walks of life in all countries, you need to pursue the truth; God has given you a great commission. Those who have first accepted, and who first obtain the truth, certainly will be used by God, to water, to shepherd their own people, the chosen of God in their country. You first accept the work of Almighty God in the last days and if you in fact are pursuers of the truth, God will entrust you with a task, He will train you, and you will face trials; God will test your faith, to see how truly you believe, to see if you can be certain about God’s word, be certain about the appearance of God. For example, with some people, as soon as they believe, someone in their family falls ill; with others, when they believe, unbelievers rise up to persecute them and oppress them; with yet others, as soon as they believe, their family suffers a serious problem. “What is this? The true God comes, but as soon as I believe something bad happens, bad luck, a disaster? Is this really the true God?” Some people doubt, and don’t pray. Think about it, you believe in the true God, won’t the devils and Satan hate this? Will they just let it go? They will want to snatch you! They will create this or that sort of situation to create difficulties for you, to make you back off and leave Almighty God. Aren’t there people who face these kinds of trial? I dare say there are everywhere, whether in America or in Taiwan, or the Philippines, or Malaysia, there are people who face these trials. Because demons and Satan prowl everywhere seeking victims to devour, if you believe in Jesus they don’t respond to you, but if you believe in Almighty God this is critical in the spiritual world. This is an ideological war between the truth and falsehood! So when you face a trial do not doubt God; stand by your testimony. Everything is in the hands of God; all you have to do is stand by your faith.”

Through this fellowship, I understood that God used Satan’s temptation to try me and test my faith in Him, and that this was a spiritual war. At that moment, I thought of Job’s experience. During Satan’s test, Job could understand God and never complained against God. After he shunned evil, Satan no longer disturbed him. I thought: I should imitate Job, see through Satan’s scheme and stand firm in my testimony to God. In addition, God will entrust me with an important task: spreading the gospel. I should understand His will. Whatever happens, I should stand firmly and not complain against Him. I couldn’t imagine that after I stood testimony, my injuries healed quickly. In two days, I didn’t feel pain. Extremely excited, I thanked God in my heart and resolved to live for Him.

In only four short months, through the sufferings, tribulations and trials I had experienced, I knew a little of the loveliness of God: He uses trials to perfect our obedience and faith in Him. Had He not allowed me to go through the sufferings, I would never truly understand Him forever. If we only enjoy God’s grace, a peaceful family life and material blessings, we will probably not be gained by Him. Now it is already the last days. Satan uses various means to tempt man and stop man from coming before God. It is looking for those whom it can devour. Only when we stand firm without doubt and bear witness to God by faith will Satan be ashamed and not approach us again. When we come across some difficulties in our lives, we shouldn’t be discouraged. No matter how great the suffering is, we should follow God to the end. Thank God for allowing me to understand His will through the sufferings and tribulations. All the glory be to Almighty God! Amen!

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