From the point of view of government, man’s fall was a fall from God’s rule to self-rule, and then from self-rule to man’s rule. The more one is ruled by God, the nobler he becomes, but the more one is ruled by man, the more base he becomes. Today, man’s condition is a complete rejection of God’s rule. There are possible minorities who are under self-rule, being controlled by their conscience; however, the impact of their conscience is very weak. The majority are living under human rule and never conform unless they are being ruled by someone. Yet many still fail in this dispensation of human government. They not only disobey, but also endeavor to escape and even overthrow man’s rule. Today what is set before our eyes is a rebellious and disorderly condition. Thus, man is a total failure whether under the ruling of God, self, or man.

Since man has been degraded from God’s rule to human rule, God, in saving man, must recover him from human rule to divine rule, that man may once more live before God in simplicity and under His direct authority. However, this kind of recovery cannot be realized in a moment of time. As man became degraded by falling from divine rule to human rule, passing through the stage of self-rule in between, so in God’s plan of recovery he must retrace his steps from human rule to God’s rule, passing through self-rule in between. Since self-rule is the step between human rule and God’s rule, when a man is saved, he must first be delivered from human rule and return to self-rule.

All those who live under human rule are living before man. They dare not do many things because of the fear of man. Whenever they are not under man’s jurisdiction and observation, they do as they please. However, those who are under self-rule are not so. They live by the feelings of their own conscience. Being controlled by their conscience, they do not need to be ruled by others. They are restrained in all their utterances and behavior, not because of their fear of man, but because of the ruling of their conscience. They are free to act only when their conscience approves. Outwardly, they appear to be still subject to the rule of man, yet practically, this rule is unnecessary, because their conscience is sufficient to rule and control them.

Sadly, the condition of many Christians today is not so. Their behavior still requires the rule of man. Students must be controlled by their teachers, children by their parents, and business personnel by their supervisors. Often they care only for those who are around them outwardly, but care not for the conscience within. This proves to a great degree that they are still living in the fallen condition of being ruled by man. Therefore, only severe dealings with our conscience will deliver us from the fallen condition of human rule to that rule by the conscience. Then in all things we can live and act according to the feelings of our conscience.

However, the final goal of dealing with the conscience is not simply to restore us to self-rule. If we remain only in the feelings of conscience, we are still in a half-fallen situation and fall short of God’s will. Therefore, dealing with the conscience is not just to cause man to return from human rule to self-rule, from the eye of man unto the conscience, but even more to cause man to pass through self-rule and attain to God’s rule, to pass through the conscience and live in the presence of God. To deal with the conscience so that we are brought back to the conscience is still a negative objective; the positive objective is that we be recovered to God Himself. Therefore, the final goal of dealing with the conscience is to bring us back to God’s rule.

Self-rule and God’s rule differ greatly. Self-rule means that man lives by the feelings of his conscience, being responsible to his conscience; whereas God’s rule means that man lives by the intuition of the spirit, being responsible to the intuition, that is, being responsible to God. We know that God through the Holy Spirit lives in our spirit. Therefore, we can say that the intuition in our spirit is the feeling of God. Hence, when we live by the intuition and are controlled by the intuition, we are living in the presence of God and ruled by Him. The conscience has only the feeling of right and wrong. It condemns all that is wrong and evil and justifies all that is right and good. But the intuition is above right and wrong, good and evil. It is above wrong and also above right; it is above evil and also above good. It condemns all that is wrong and all that is evil, but it does not necessarily approve all that is right and all that is good. It accepts only that which is of God, of the Spirit, and of life.

For example, lying is condemned by the conscience while truthfulness is approved. If we live by the conscience, all is well as long as we do not lie, but tell the truth. However, if we live by the intuition, walking according to the feeling of God, then not only can we not tell lies, but also we cannot always tell the truth. We have to ask: Are these words of God or of myself? God does not want us to lie, neither does He want us to speak the truth. What God desires is that we speak His words, words that are of Him, of the Spirit, and of life. Therefore, when a brother ministers, whether he is speaking the truth or not will be attended to by the conscience. But as to what he should minister, what subject he should choose, what God has in mind for him to speak-these are not within the limit of right and wrong, good and evil. The feeling of the conscience is unable to do anything in this respect. Only through the intuition can one touch the mind of God and be led by God to speak His words. These differences between the conscience and the intuition are also the differences between self-rule and God’s rule.

Today there are too few that are living completely under the ruling of God! Many brothers and sisters are living in a condition which is a combination of the three kinds of government. The greater part of their being is under human rule; they still need to be ruled by man. Another part of their being is under self-rule, the rule of the conscience. But only a small part of their being is under God’s rule so that they are controlled by God directly. This is a very abnormal condition. Therefore, there is the need to deal with the conscience more thoroughly so that we can, on the negative side, be delivered from human rule and, on the positive side, enter into God’s rule to be directly under His control.
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