我們看到神的作為其中一個最令人感到驚訝的特點，就是祂有時會使用最奇怪的工具來管教祂的百姓。這事實不單在哈巴谷的生命中出現，它也顯明在人類的整個歷史裡面。所以我們不能不注意，祂也許會在我們的生命中做類似的工作。

讓我們一起來思考一下教會當前的境況。雖然某些國家或某些地區有屬靈復興的證據，但總的來說，教會一般的情況都很糟糕，它們呆滯、怠惰、缺乏禱告、不悔改並且抗拒聖靈的管治。

神可以做些甚麼讓教會能符合祂的旨意呢？唔，神可以做的事情很多，但是最能夠令教會留意祂的其中一個方法，就是容許教會受到敵對力量的壓迫。這說法聽起來令人難過，可是教會確實是在奮力作戰的時候，才能夠處於最好的狀態。

我們現在要問一個較為深入和尖銳的問題：如果神認為需要藉著敵對力量壓迫教會，來作為對教會的管教，那麼神會採用甚麼管道？無神論的共產主義是其中的一個可能；人本主義是另一個可能。不過現在世界上最敵對基督教的力量是伊斯蘭教。我不是先知，但是我認為除非教會願意迅速悔改，否則伊斯蘭教也許便是主用以教導祂的百姓的其中一種工具。

We are seeing that one of the surprising features of God's ways with us is that He sometimes uses the strangest instruments to discipline His people. This is a fact which is illustrated not just in the life and times of Habakkuk but throughout the whole of history. And we must not miss the point that He might well be doing the same in our own day and age.

Consider with me for a moment the state of the Church right now. Though there are evidences of spiritual advance in certain quarters and in certain countries, generally speaking, the Church is in a bad way. It is lethargic, indolent, prayerless, unrepentant and resistant to the Holy Spirit's control.

What can God do to bring it to the place of conformity to His will? Well, He can do many things, but one sure way of getting the Church's attention is to allow it to come under pressure from hostile forces. It is a sad admission to have to make, but the Church has always been at its best when fighting with its back to the wall.

We must now ask ourselves this piercing and pointed question: If God saw it necessary to discipline His Church by allowing hostile forces to put it under pressure, what could He use? Atheistic communism could be one possibility; humanism another. But one of the most hostile forces to Christianity in the world at the moment is that of Islam. I am not a prophet, but I suspect that this is one of the instruments the Lord will use to refine His people unless the Church moves quickly to repentance.