Page 94 - The Christian Life and the Church Life_Government of God

Living under Authority and Representing God 93

with him—it might have been hundreds of us, only the Lord knows—seeking
Brother Lee’s fellowship, actually his guidance, and his answer was always
the same, “You need to pray.” He did not have the thought, “Well, I am the
leader, I am the man. You want me to tell you? Okay, go here. Do that. Do not
do that. Do this. Marry this person. Take this job. Buy this house.”—Never! I
mentioned in the first message because I had the leading, I sincerely believe,
to say it. The Lord is very merciful to us. He is a God of tenderheartedness,
of lovingkindness, of long-suffering, of forbearance. He in this training is
giving all of us to learn some crucial truths related to the Christian life and
the church life under the government of God, so that we may be saved from
living in such a way, or doing certain things in our work, that will bring in
the righteous judgement of God in His government. The Lord knows I’m not
aiming my word at any place or at anyone. My word is for every place and
everyone, and the first one to get the word is me. The Lord knows I mean this.
This has to become so clear to us.

The second part of this subject is representing God. And we come to
that in the outline starting with section three—and that is where the primary
burden will be. Representing God—only those who live under authority can
represent God. It is a very serious matter to misrepresent God to the saints,
to express feelings that are ours but not the Lord’s, to speak thoughts and
opinions that are ours but are not the Lord’s; even worse, we make serious
decisions involving persons, involving places, involving many things. Then
we may realize the Lord will come in and say, “I do not acknowledge your
decision! I do not agree with it. The source is yourself! Those who represent
Me are learning deeply not to trust themselves, not to be subjective, but to
deny the self in every way, and to receive severe and thorough discipline of
the Spirit until they are broken—the self is broken.” The Christ who lived
under authority, who was also the Christ with all authority, lives in this
person, yet, this brother, after he has been pursuing the Lord in this manner,
still will not trust himself, but will seek out thorough, genuine fellowship.
We are having this message because our Lord wants to make us this kind of
person. He did not bring us here to tell us, “You are not this. You are not that.
You are short. You are a failure.” The light must come so we are humbled and
we are opened, but the Lord’s heart is to reproduce Himself in us, to live in
us, to train us to live under authority, then to train us further to represent Him.