THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD
Our God is the God of government. Sometimes when He is offended, He does not immediately move His governmental hand. He just lets you get by. But once He moves His governmental hand, there is nothing you can do except to humble yourself. There is no way for you to escape; He is not like man who will easily allow you to get away. To have your sin forgiven and your fellowship with God restored is quite easy. But you cannot remove the discipline God gives you in your environment—your home, your business, or your physical body.
The only thing you can do is learn to subject yourself to the mighty hand of God. The humbler we are under His mighty hand and the less we resist, the easier it will be to have the governmental hand of God removed from us. If we are not submissive and patient, if we murmur and fret within, let me tell you, it will be harder for God’s governmental hand to be removed. This is a most serious matter. Twenty years ago you did something according to your own idea.
Today you meet the same thing again and you have yet to eat that fruit of your earlier action. That thing has come back and found you out. What should you do when this happens? You should bow your head, saying: “Lord, it is my fault!” You should humble yourself under God’s hand and not resist. The more you resist, the heavier the hand of God. So I always say that you must subject yourself to the mighty hand of God. The more you resist God’s governmental hand, the more things will happen to you.
As soon as the governmental hand of God is upon you, you must humble yourself and gladly acknowledge that you deserve it, for the Lord cannot be wrong. You should be in subjection. You must not think of rebelling; you must not even murmur or fret.
If you are insubordinate and think of escaping from God’s hand, remember, it is not an easy thing to do. Who can escape God’s hand? Do you not realize that it is what you did before that has caused you to fall into today’s situation? For example: In his childhood a brother liked to eat candy. He ate so much candy that his teeth suffered much decay. One day he became conscious of his indulgence and its effect.
He asked God to forgive him the sin of indulging himself too much in candy. He easily got forgiveness from God for this sin, but this did not stop his teeth from decaying. God’s government was upon him. Too much candy causes tooth decay. If you confess your sin, your fellowship may be restored but that will not cause you to grow good teeth. It is God’s government and you should learn to submit yourself to it.
