Page 44 - The Christian Life and the Church Life_Government of God

Living under the Direct Rule of God 43

people, is to enter into them. The King comes into the kingdom. He lives
in the kingdom; He lives in the people whom He rules. This is His way of
governing, and it is very effective. We can never escape; we can run away
from human government. But we cannot run away from the government that
is in our spirit. Wherever we go, that government goes with us. This is God’s
way and we want to speak about it in a more subjective way.

The universal government of God has an objective aspect. Right now, at
this very moment God is sitting on the throne administrating and governing
the entire universe. We cannot see it for it is invisible, but it is very real.
Whether we see it or not, whether we believe it or not, there is a God who rules
the universe - the heavens rule. Most men believe that man is ruling the earth.
This is not true. Every human government is under the divine government
and is authorized by the divine government. This is the teaching of the Bible.
This is why we respect human government because God determines who will
rule and it is not often according to our own thought. We have some examples
in the Bible like Pharaoh. The Bible tells us very clearly that God raised up
Pharaoh. If you and I had lived in Egypt, we would not vote for Pharaoh.
We would never elect Pharaoh. We would say that Pharaoh is a terrible man.
But let us be careful because God raised him up for His economy. Another
example in the Bible is Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2. No one would vote for
Nebuchadnezzar but God raised him up for His purpose, for His economy.
Brothers, let us not get involved in the realm of human politics. We do not
care about man’s view of human government; we care for God’s interests. So
even when we pray for human government we can say, “Lord, put the person
in office who would be the best one for the church life, for the gospel, for the
spread of the truth, and for Israel.” When we pray this way, we are praying
according to God’s intention. We do not pray from an earthly view saying,
“Oh, we want this person and not that person.” If we do that, we are living the
same way as the unbelievers.
We do not only want to understand God’s government as something
objective. There is an objective aspect but there is also a very subjective
aspect, which is living under the direct rule of God. In the beginning when
God created Adam and Eve, they were in the garden of Eden. Before the
fall, they were innocent. Even the conscience that God created within them
was not activated yet. They actually had no awareness of sin nor of their