Our God is a God of measure, and in our service to God we need to not boast beyond our measure but according to the measure of the rule which the God of measure has apportioned to us, knowing the God of measure and allowing the measuring God to limit and restrict us in our function, testifying, and working according to His measure.
Lord Jesus, may we know You as the God of measure. May we know You, enjoy You, and experience You as the One who has apportioned to each one of us a certain measure according to Your economy. We open to You. We come to You. We want to function and work within the measure apportioned to us. May we be in Your economy, not going beyond our measure but functioning for God’s building! Amen, Lord, may Your Body be built up more today! Amen!
This week in our morning revival we come to the topic, The Measure of God’s Rule and Ministry on Spiritual Warfare.
We want to see and know God as the God of measure; we need to be open and unveiled to the Lord so that we may see something new and practical concerning what it means for us to live under God’s limitation.
Our God is a God of measure; He does not do things disorderly and without measure, and there is no human being who has no measure.
The more we know our measure, the more we know the measure that God has apportioned to us, the more we can function within our measure, and He can have a way to be expressed through us and build up His Body.
But if we don’t know our measure, if we go beyond our measure as many Christian workers do today and as the Judaizers did in the time of Paul, division and confusion come in.
Oh Lord, may we know our measure and may we see that God measures to us only a certain portion with certain limits!
We also want to see some ministry on spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare requires that we grow in life; only those who are mature by having adequate growth in life can participate in spiritual warfare.
We need to grow in life unto maturity and allow God to perfect us and train us for us to be ready and equipped to fight the spiritual warfare today.
We need to grow today so that, when the Lord comes back, He may have a way to rapture us and we may continue to fight the spiritual warfare one with the Lord to cast the enemy down and bring in the kingdom of God.
May the Lord bring us on with Him today so that we may grow unto maturity and be trained to be His army, fighting for His interest on earth today.
Paul’s Work and Boasting was According to the Rule Apportioned to Him by the God of Measure
In 2 Corinthians 10:13, the apostle Paul said, We will not boast beyond our measure but according to the measure of the rule which the God of measure has apportioned to us.
Our God is a God of measure. This has to be inscribed on our being so that we may know God in this way.
We need to know God not only as Christ our Saviour, God our Father, or the life-giving Spirit, but even more, as the God of measure.
The apostle Paul knew God as the God of measure. He was bold, but he was not bold without limit; this shows that he was under the restriction of the Lord.
He boasted, but he did not boast beyond his measure; rather, he boasted according to the measure of the rule which the God of measure, the ruling God, had apportioned to him.
He knew that his ministry to the Gentile world, including Corinth, was according to the measure of God (Eph. 3:1-2, 8; Gal. 2:8), and he did not boast beyond his limit.
He realised that the God who operated in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcision also operated in Paul for the Gentiles. So he did not boast beyond his limit.
The Judaizers, however, were without limit, coming into a place not assigned to them by God and spreading confusion and even division.
Our God is a God of measure; this has to be made clear to us in our Christian life, our Christian work, and in our Christian experience.
The fact that God has a rule means that He is like a carpenter who has a ruler according to which he measures all things. May we know God as the God of measure.
As we look at Paul’s ministry, we realise that, on the one hand, he was bold and went many places to spread the gospel and raise up local churches to be the local testimony of the universal Body of Christ.
But later in his life, we see that Paul was very much restricted, for he was in prison, and his outward ministry was interrupted, even stopped.
However, God apportioned to him certain churches, certain groups of saints, and certain localities, so he continued to write to them to both minister Christ to them and to perfect them to grow in life for the building up of the Body of Christ.
The Judaistic teachers, however, extended beyond their measure; God did not assign to them the church in Corinth, but they went there, and they also went to Galatia to trouble the saints there.
God assigned Corinth to Paul, for he was the first to go to Europe with the gospel. If the Judaizers had gone there first, probably the apostles would not have gone there, for that was a sign of this not being apportioned to them.
Paul wanted to boast in the Corinthian believers so that through them the gospel may spread and they would testify of Paul and his ministry.
In 2 Corinthians 10:15-16 Paul and the apostles with him were not boasting beyond their measure in others’ labors, but had the hope, as the saints’ faith was increasing, to be magnified in them according to their rule unto abundance, so that the apostles may announce the gospel unto those parts beyond the Corinthians.
God apportioned the Corinthian believers to Paul, and he was hoping that, as they grow in life and increased in faith, they would preach the gospel and enlarge the kingdom of God.
Paul hoped to be magnified in the Corinthians according to the limit of God’s measuring. Wow!
May we see this matter in Paul’s work and ministry, and may we realise that it is the same in our Christian life and work.
May we realise that our God is a God of measure, and He apportions to each one of us a certain measure according to His rule.
Lord Jesus, may we know God not only as our Creator and as our Father but even more, as the God of measure! Wow, our God is a God of measure, the measuring God! Amen, Lord, may we see that we are under the measure and restriction of the God of measure. May we learn not to boast beyond our measure but according to the measure of the rule which the God of measure has apportioned to us! Amen, Lord, may we be before You concerning our measure, our portion, and our function. Save us from extending ourselves beyond our bounds. May we see what God has apportioned to us as our measure and live and work under God’s rule and measuring. Hallelujah, we can be bold in the Lord, but we cannot be bold without limit! Praise the Lord, we have a certain function in the Body, but we are under the Lord’s restriction and can function only to a certain extent! Amen, Lord, may we see and know God as the God of measure and may we not go beyond our measure in our Christian life and work!
Learn to be under God’s Restriction in our Work and Testifying for God, for our God is a God of Measure
May we know God as the God of measure, may we know our measure, and may we accept what God has apportioned to us, not going beyond it.
God has apportioned to each one of us a certain measure in our growth in life, our function in the Body, our work for God, and our function in all aspects of our daily life. God has allotted us just so much for our work and experience.
We may want to gain more, accumulate more, work more, and go to more places to do this and that; God, however, is a God of measure, and we cannot spread and do more than what God has apportioned to each one of us.
From 2 Corinthians 10:13-15 we can see that, although we expect the Lord’s work to spread, we must learn how to be under God’s restriction.
We shouldn’t expect a spread that is without measure; that kind of spread would certainly not be within the limit of a walk according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:4-5, 14).
Our walk must be by the Spirit and according to the Spirit; this is a limited walk, a regulated walk. There is One who is ruling and measuring – the God of measure, the God who rules.
We must stay within the limits of God’s ruling, of God’s measuring. Just because right now God apportions to us a certain portion of the work does not mean that we should extend beyond that and take over more work, go to more places, and do more for God; we need to know God as the God of measure.
There are many reports in the Christian world today that are exaggerations; those reports go beyond measure, beyond limit, and they are without any restriction.
When we testify to others concerning our experience of Christ and enjoyment in the Word, we must stay within the measure that God has given to us.
We shouldn’t boast beyond our measure or without measure. We need to see that there is One who is ruling and measuring, and this One is in us; He rules in us and He measures us.
The Lord may assign us a certain portion of HIs work, or He may entrust us with a portion of the service in the church life; we should not go beyond our measure, we should not try to get involved in all the services, and we should not reject the rule that God has placed upon use.
When it comes to our service for the Lord, our work for Him, and our testifying for the Lord, we need to see that God has apportioned to each one of us a certain measure.
Others may have a larger measure, even a different measure than ours, but we have a particular measure assigned to us.
It is not the sky that is the limit; it is the God of measure who limits us. God wants to spread through us, He wants to gain more believers, and He wants to bring in His kingdom on the earth to fill the whole earth; however, He does not do this without measure.
He gives us both an inward consciousness regarding the limitation of the work we do for God and He also gives us some outward indications to limit the work.
Inwardly, we have a consciousness that the Lord wants us to work for Him only to a certain extent. Outwardly, we see that the environment is used by God to restrict our work for the Lord to a certain limit.
Inwardly, we have the peace to go only to a certain extent, and outwardly, the environment does not allow us to go beyond a particular boundary line.
The younger we are in the Lord, the more we want to cast off any restraint and have no limits.
But the more mature we are in the Lord, the more we realise that our God is a God of measure, and He is apportioning to each one of us a certain measure; therefore, we need to be under God’s restriction.
Life grows by regulation and restriction, and God’s work spreads according to the measure that the God of measure gives to each one.
If we go beyond our measure, God will come in to limit us not with anger but in a firm way, for our measure needs to be limited to a certain extent.
We need to realise that it is God who is in charge. He is on the throne.
We need to settle in our being that it is not any person that limits us or restricts us but it is God. He is a God of measure. He sets certain boundaries.
He apportions us a certain measure in our working for the Lord, serving Him, experiencing Him, and growth in life.
We want to cooperate with Him to the fullest extent, we want to be produced as His overcomers, and we want to serve Him faithfully in the church for the building up of His Body, but He is the God of measure.
May we take heed to the Lord’s word and allow the God of measure to operate in us, even be under God’s restriction so that we may function in our measure for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, grant us to learn to be under God’s restriction in our experience of Christ and in our work for God. Save us from being without any measure or limitation. May we not expect the work to spread without measure but rather, learn to be under God’s restriction in all things. Amen, Lord, we want to walk according to the Spirit today. We take the Spirit as the rule for our daily walk so that we may be in the kingdom of God in reality. We open to You and we want to know You as the God of measure. May we take heed to the inward sense of life and peace, and may we not go beyond the sense of life and peace in our work for God and testifying for Him. Amen, Lord, may we pay attention to the environment You placed us in and not go beyond a particular boundary line. We want to function in our measure for the building up of the church and the spread of the kingdom of God! Amen, Lord Jesus, grant us to know God as the God of measure and grant us to be under God’s restriction in our testifying for God and working for the Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of 2 Corinthians, msg. 51, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Ministry of the Word and God’s Dispensing for God’s Economy (2026 March ITERO), week 4, “The Measure of God’s Rule and Ministry on Spiritual Warfare” – day 1.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Oh, how we need the churches, / All of them, great or small! / We need their many portions / To profit us withal. / Yes, Lord, enlarge the churches; / We love their needs to bear. / Enlarge our hearts, Lord Jesus, / In fellowship and prayer. (Hymns #1265 stanza 2)
– Serve and work within the Body, / This the Lord doth signify; / For His purpose is the Body, / And with it we must comply. / Serve and work within the Body, / Never independently; / As the members of the Body, / Functioning relatedly. (Hymns #913 stanza 1 and chorus)
– Limit, Lord, my independence, / Let me to Thy Body turn; / Not just seeking light from heaven, / But the church’s sense to learn. / May we be the stones for building / Not the formless, useless clay, / Gain in us Thy heart’s desire / Corporately Thyself display. (Hymns #1225 stanza 4)
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