Page 20 - The Christian Life and the Church Life_Government of God

The Universal Government of God 19

The Disciplinary Judgment in the Government of God
Beginning from the House of God

The disciplinary judgment in the government of God begins from the
house of God. We should not view this just abstractly. In practicality, it begins
with the house of God, your local church. You should not have the thought,
“We are exempt. We don’t need any of this.” Only God knows the real situation
and He has a way to deal with it. After many years of fellowship under the
wise direction of Brother Lee, and after he went to be with the Lord, the Lord
led us about 12 years ago to address a certain situation, and none of us did
this lightly. My point is that starting with that event, I have observed the Lord
dealing with many situations in churches in His sovereign government where
there were serious problems, especially among the leaders. I am just in awe.
I realize that the God in grace and in mercy, is long-suffering and forbearing.
But He is the righteous God with a government, and when He decides to
act, nothing will stop Him. This is what we pray for. We would not dare to
presume to take some kind of action. Who are we? We are nothing. We are
nobody. He is God, He has a government, and He will exercise this.

God judges everything that does not match His government. Maybe
some of us will have the leading from the anointing to be with the Lord
even this weekend and ask Him, “Lord, am I doing anything contrary to Your
government? If so, please let me know. Please deal with it now. Not only for
my sake, but for the sake of the church.” Brothers, we must have no trust and
confidence in ourselves. Be humble ourselves and say, “Lord, search me. Is
there anything that does not match the government in the way I’m taking, the
way I speak, or the way we are leading the church? Lord, it is clear that it has
to be judged sooner or later. Lord, act now before it is too late for me.” In this
age we, the children of God, are under the daily judgment of God.

God uses fiery ordeals to deal with the believers in the judgment of His
governmental administration, which begins from His own house. The purpose
of this judgment is that we would live according to God in spirit. This is His
goal, that we would live according to God. I am thinking of 1 Peter 5 where
Peter is speaking to the elders because he himself was one, and he emphasized
shepherding. I treasure this phrase he used: “shepherd…according to God.”
In caring for saints, I have been made quite aware of how saints have suffered
when leading ones “shepherded” them according to themselves — their self,