«　WEEK 6　DAY 4　»

　　Matt. 8:9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my slave, Do this, and he does it.

　　16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

　　In order to be God’s deputy authority, a person must fulfill three fundamental requirements (in addition to knowing God’s authority and submitting to His authority).

　　A deputy authority must [first] remember that all authorities come from God…If there is any authority in a man at all, that authority comes from God. There is no inherent authority in a person, and no one can appoint himself to be an authority. Our personal opinions cannot become others’ law, and our own ideas, views, and proposals do not deserve others’ esteem…We can only ask the brothers and sisters to submit to the authority in us which comes from God. A deputy authority can only be a deputy to God’s authority…All deputy authorities must remember that they are merely God’s representative authorities; they have no authority in themselves.

　　A person becomes an authority because of his knowledge of God’s will, God’s mind, and God’s thoughts. (CWWN, vol. 47, “Authority and Submission,” pp. 209-210)

　　The second basic requirement of a deputy authority is to deny himself. Before one is clear about God’s will, he should not open his mouth and should not exercise any authority. God’s deputy authority must not only know His authority on the positive side, but must learn to deny himself on the negative side. Please remember that neither God nor the brothers and sisters treasure your opinion…If you think your opinion is the best, that God treasures your opinion, and that the brothers and sisters honor your idea, you are living in a dream. Do not be so foolish as to unilaterally impose your opinion upon others.

　　Those who are God’s deputy authorities should possess a third qualification—they must have a constant and intimate fellowship with the Lord. There must not only be a communion, but a communication. Some are loaded with opinions throughout the day. These ones must learn to give up their opinions. Every time one has an opinion, he has to bring it to the Lord and find out if such an opinion is of the flesh or of God. In this way God will gradually reveal His heart’s desire to him.

　　In order to be a deputy authority, we must fulfill the condition of spirituality as well as the condition of humility. The qualification of an authority is based on one’s consciousness of his inability and unsuitability. One thing is sure: None of the persons that God used in the Old and New Testaments were proud. I can tell you frankly that as soon as a person becomes proud, God will put him aside. As a worker for over twenty years, I have never seen a proud man who was used by the Lord. Even if a man is just a little proud in private, his words will sooner or later expose him, because a person’s words always disclose the hidden state of his heart. Even a humble person will be greatly surprised at the judgment seat. The surprise that awaits the proud, however, will surely be many times more than that of the humble! We must be conscious of our unprofitableness all the time, because God can only use the unprofitable slaves. We are not saying this to be polite. We honestly should feel that we are unprofitable slaves. We may have tended sheep or plowed the field, but when we come in from the field, we should still acknowledge that we are unprofitable slaves. We should always stand in the position of a slave (Luke 17:10). God never entrusts His authority to the self-confident and self-assured. We have to reject pride and learn humility and meekness. (CWWN, vol. 47, “Authority and Submission,” pp. 212, 215, 286)

　　Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 47, “Authority and Submission,” ch. 12