Page 129 - The Christian Life and the Church Life_Government of God

The Recovery of the Church as the Israel of God 128

geography. “I am on this territory physically. It is our realm. I do not need to
fellowship with co-workers anywhere else, because we are the ones here.”
This is total ignorance and disregard of the Body. If they knew the Body
they would consider seriously, “If we do this, if we take this action, how will
the whole recovery feel about it? How will the truly mature serving ones
feel about this? How will the other churches feel about this?” But some are
reckless; they do not know the Body; their growth in life stopped years ago.
Instead, what has grown has been the self, the disposition, and peculiarity.
The second characteristic is that those who truly know the Body can
discern whether or not a certain one is in the Body or knows the Body. For
instance, to use a parallel illustration, if a person is not consecrated – he has
never consecrated himself to the Lord – then he cannot recognize someone
who has consecrated himself or someone who has not consecrated himself
to the Lord. But someone who has truly, seriously, absolutely consecrated
himself spontaneously can recognize, by caring for this dear brother, that
he has not yet taken this step of consecration. So you do not judge him; you
care for him. To the workers, wherever they are throughout the earth, who
take actions contrary to the Body – they are oblivious. In their spiritual world
there is no such thing as “Body-conscious” and they do not know what to do
when they learn that there are brothers and sisters who truly know the Body,
live in the Body, and honor the Body. It is crystal clear to these brothers and
sisters who are Body-conscious that you do not know the Body, live in the
Body or honor the Body.
The third indicator, or proof, that one truly knows the Body is that he
recognizes authority. He recognizes it. Brother Lee never, to my knowledge,
ever referred to himself as an apostle. He never spoke about having authority
himself. But anyone with any sense, spiritually speaking, would recognize
the divine authority represented by this brother and flowing through this
brother. So some workers – the ones causing the problem – do not recognize
authority, and they are not in fellowship. So, the problems come, and they
may take certain actions and reach the point that they will insist that everyone
everywhere agrees with these actions. “We are the workers. We are over all
the churches. What we say goes. We tell some brothers, ‘Remove that one
from the Lord’s table. He did something we do not like; remove him.’” Those
who do not know the truth blindly follow because he is a worker. This is