Therefore, brothers, the first thing we should do is to try our best to obey the Lord. May the Lord be merciful and gracious to us, and may He keep us from falling into His governmental hand. However, if we should fall into His governmental hand, we should not try to get out hastily. Do not resist and do not flee. Do not give up on one basic principle—to obey God at any cost. I am not asking you to obey by yourself, because you cannot obey by yourself. We must ask the Lord to have mercy on us and to enable us to obey. Only when the Lord has mercy on us will we be able to get through in this matter. "Lord, have mercy on me, or I will not be able to get through in this." We must always ask the Lord to grant us mercy to get through and to not fall into His governmental hand. If God's governmental hand is already upon us and we are already sick or in the midst of some dire experiences or difficulties, we must remember to not resist God's government with our fleshly hand. As soon as His governmental hand is upon us, we should learn to humble ourselves under His mighty hand. We must say, "Lord, this is Your work! This is Your arrangement! I gladly yield myself to it. I am willing, and I accept it!" When God's governmental hand was upon Job (whom God could easily have spared), the more that Job accepted it, the better it was for him. The more he talked about his own righteousness, the worse his condition became.
Thank God! God's governmental hand often does not remain upon a person all the time. Personally, I believe that when God's governmental hand is upon a person, it can easily be removed by the prayer of the church. This is the precious lesson we find in James 5, which tells us that the elders of the church can lift God's governmental hand. James said that the prayer of faith can cause a person to rise up. If he has committed any sin, his sin can be forgiven. If a brother is enlightened concerning this matter, and the church prays for him, very often God will lift His governmental and disciplining hand.
Once when I was talking to Miss M. E. Barber, she related an interesting story to me. A brother had done something terrible. Later, he repented and came to Miss Barber. She said to the man, "You have repented and have turned back, have you not? Now you must go to the Lord and tell Him, `I was once a vessel in the hand of the potter. Now the vessel is broken.' Do not force the Lord to do anything by saying, `Lord, You must make me another kind of vessel.' You must humble yourself and pray, `Lord, be merciful to me. Let me be a vessel again! I can no longer insist on being a vessel by myself.' The Lord can make you a vessel unto honor, or He can make you a vessel unto dishonor." Many people still want to be the same kind of vessel. They insist that the Lord make them glorious all the time, but sometimes blessing can come out of a curse. However, I can tell you this: We have all passed through many dealings. I have fallen into God's hand many times; God's governmental hand has been upon me. We must admit that we often get to know God's will even more through His governmental hand. There is no way to dodge it; we can only humble ourselves. We can do nothing except humble ourselves. As time goes by, we will see that it is impossible to avoid or dodge any issue. We have to humble ourselves under God's will. We can only say, "Lord! What You have arranged for me is always the best. I can only humble my heart before You!"
We must not be careless or loose about these matters. I know of a sister who came to see me about marrying a certain man. I told her that as far as I knew, she should not marry him because he did not seem to be a trustworthy Christian. She said that she was confident that the marriage would work. Seven or eight months after her marriage, she wrote a very long letter to me and said, "I know now I was wrong. I did not listen to your word. I know now that it was a great mistake! What should I do?" I replied, "From now on, you have only one way—humble yourself under God's mighty hand. Even though you tell me about your problem, I cannot help you. No one can help you. You have already fallen into God's governmental hand. If you struggle and rebel, your vessel will only break, and you will only sacrifice your own future." I warned her in a strong way in the letter that she should not even try to write another letter to me. We must remember that God's government is most serious!
A thought often comes to me: What can I compare the present condition of the church to? The church is like a potter's house with many broken vessels, broken tubs, and broken vases strewn everywhere. One finds broken vessels everywhere. This is the situation among Christians today. This is a very serious matter. I say again, we must learn to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand.