Page 93 - The Christian Life and the Church Life_Government of God

Living under Authority and Representing God 92

of Man in glory. He may gain us and train us in such a way that His authority
may be expressed through us. It may flow through us but it is not us. And He
may constitute us into God-men who can represent Him with His authority,
yet, we realize that we do not have any authority. This needs to be clear.
In relation to authority, I want to bring in the thought of the Body of
Christ being the principle that governs the church, the ministry, and the
work. The three—church, ministry, and work—are inseparable, but they are
significantly different. Because the Body is the principle that governs the
church, the church is directly under the authority of the Head of the Body,
who is the Lord of all, who has all the authority, and the elders are directly
under this throne. But the church cannot overstep and try to exercise any kind
of influence over the work or over the ministry. Those in the ministry also
are under the headship of Christ directly and whatever is to be ministered,
especially to the Lord’s recovery, must originate with the Man on the throne,
and then it flows out. The work or the co-workers cannot say, “We do not
agree that you are having this subject. We should do that subject.” They are
overstepping, if the church says, “No, we want this to be the subject.” The
ministry is for the church as the Body of Christ, and the work is the Body
seeking increase.
We know from the illustration in Acts 13 that five men were ministering
to the Lord, then the Holy Spirit spoke. This is the Lord’s Spirit directly
leading “Separate unto Me Barnabas and Saul unto the work to which I have
called them.” Once again, the work is not controlled by the church, it is not
controlled by the ministry; it is directly under the authority of the Head.
But there is an aspect of this truth that must now be clearly defined—and
anything in your being that disagrees with this, then be honest, go to the Lord
personally, and just work this out in fellowship. The work, the co-workers,
have no right or ground to exercise authority over the local churches—There
is no such thing! The purpose of the work is to gain increase for the building
up of the church as the Body of Christ. This needs to be clear.

We lived for decades under a pattern of a brother who lived under
authority and represented God. If anyone was the leading worker, it was
Brother Lee. If anyone had the ministry of this age and the vision of the age, it
was Brother Lee. He never overstepped, on behalf of the ministry or the work,
to control anyone, or any church. Many of us, when we sought fellowship