Page 111 - The Christian Life and the Church Life_Government of God

God’s Building 110

the end of Exodus after the giving of the law. You cannot put the building
first. Even in our application in the New Testament, we cannot jump to the
building. The underlying reason for the lack of building among us is that
we have not entered into the first six points in a thorough way. We have not
learned how to live under the government of God in a thorough way. So when
we come to the matter of building, we wonder why there are difficulties being
built up together. Now we should understand why.
I am not going to review all of the six points, but I am just going to
point out the sequence. I deeply hope that you will spend some time to get
into these messages. We cannot thoroughly enter into it in this short amount
of time. Brothers, we need this word. Do you agree that this word matches
our need? We are not just having a study here. We are not just expounding
the Bible or expounding 1 and 2 Peter; rather, we are here under the Lord’s
ministry to receive the word that we need. I genuinely feel that this is the
word that we need.
In 2 Corinthians 13, the Corinthians were questioning Paul’s apostleship.
Paul spoke a very interesting word to them in verse 3. He said, “Do you want
proof that Christ is speaking in me? The proof that Christ is speaking in me
is that when I speak, Christ is powerful in you!” That is the proof. The proof
that we are under the genuine ministry is that it touches our inner being. It
does not merely interest our intellects, but it touches our being. As I was
listening to the messages yesterday, I want to testify to you that Christ was
powerful in me. Was He powerful in you? I hope so. Let us consider this
sequence briefly.
An Overview of the Christian Life and Church Life
under the Government of God
We began with message 1 on the universal government of God. We
realized that in the universe, there is a government. It is invisible; people
cannot see it. People may not even believe in it, but it is real. Apparently,
human beings are ruling over other human beings. That is what it looks like,
but in reality, the heavens rule and will rule for eternity. Eventually, every
human being will have to come to the realization that the heavens are ruling.
Every human ruler will have to come to that realization. King Nebuchadnezzar
was probably the most powerful man on the earth at his time. But he came
face to face with the government of God, and then he said, “I thought I had