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The doctrine concerning the way of the church and concerning the ground of the church is clear to us. Furthermore, our experience in the past forty to fifty years proves that the way of the church and the ground of the church are right. Whether in Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Europe, or America, those among us who had problems with this way or this ground did not have a good ending.
I was saved in April of 1925. Less than three months after my salvation I came across articles written by Brother Nee. At that time, I was not yet twenty years old. Brother Nee was only two years older than I, but his articles were posted in a Christian publication called The Morning Star. Because of my love for the Lord and my appetite for spiritual books, I was attracted by Brother Nee’s articles. I felt that his articles were unique. When he published The Christian, I wrote to him and inquired about spiritual matters. That was when we began corresponding. Seven years later, in 1932, I recommended Brother Nee to the denomination where I used to meet. Because they had a good impression of me, they accepted my recommendation and invited Brother Nee. I also wrote Brother Nee personally and requested that he come. That was the first time we met in person. From that meeting I realized that Brother Nee knew the truth. Brother Nee led me to touch the spirit and helped me to receive the life supply.
At that time, I was at a turning point in life and in the Lord. Later, the Lord raised up the church in Chefoo, which was the first church in northern China. In July of 1932 we started the bread-breaking meeting in my living room. From the very beginning this meeting was under the Lord’s blessing. We began with a few people, but by the summer of the following year our number had increased to nearly one hundred, so we rented a building for our meeting place.
In April of 1933 Brother Nee visited Chefoo again, and we had more fellowship. At the time, I had the sense that the Lord wanted me to drop my job and serve Him full time. This was a heavy burden. However, I had little experience concerning such matters. Brother Nee was experienced, but he did not touch the matter directly. Those who have had interactions with Brother Nee know that he preferred for people to receive leading from the Lord. In August, while I was struggling with the Lord concerning whether I should drop my job, Brother Nee wrote me a letter that said, “Brother Witness, as for your future, I feel that you should serve the Lord with your full time. How do you feel? May the Lord lead you.” That letter was a great encouragement to me. By the end of August I had quit my job, and in October I went to Shanghai and stayed with Brother Nee for about four months. From that time onward, I was clear that I was not following Brother Watchman Nee as a man; rather, I saw the Lord in him. I saw clearly that the way he was leading us to take was the way that the Lord desired. Therefore, I made the decision to take this way. After nearly half a century I have no regrets. I thank the Lord for keeping me in this way until now.
During the past fifty years, I have seen much. Some people had a good beginning and admired this way, but after a while they caused trouble with their opinions and then deviated from this way. I can testify that those who had problems with the church did not receive the blessing. Eventually, they came to a spiritual dead end. This is history, not a criticism.
Let us consider the history of the churches in Taiwan. Over the years since 1957, those who have left have lost the blessing. Those who took the Pentecostal way and those who proclaimed that they had seen the vision of the “full” Christ are nowhere to be found.
In the United States many Christians who were zealous for the Lord were absolute when they came into the church. After a while, however, some of them had problems with the church and left. They were prominent men, eloquent speakers, and excellent writers, but they had no way to go on after they left, and they even realized this fact.
The law and principle of God in the universe are that He has only one way. The universe is monistic, not dualistic; everything is one. Hence, God ordained one husband and one wife. To have two husbands or two wives violates the law of God. The church is also monistic: one Body, one church. When the church is manifested in a locality, it is always one. Those who do not keep the principle of oneness will lose the Lord’s presence.
The churches in Malaysia have existed for more than thirty years. Those who had a problem with the church or who were dissenting and left the church lost the blessing. The brothers in Indonesia can testify that those who are honest and orderly in the church enjoy both peace and blessing and that those who had a problem and left lost the blessing eventually. In particular, those who were ambitious and then left lost the blessing.
These experiences prove that God’s way is one and that the ground is the ground of oneness. This does not mean that we are perfect or that we do everything well. We have to admit that we have our shortcomings and mistakes, but these mistakes reflect a problem with ourselves, not with the truth. This way is still the way of the Lord, and this ground is still the ground of the Lord, both of which are in the principle of oneness. We thank the Lord for keeping us by His mercy in this way in spite of our mistakes.
The Lord has blessed us because we walk on this way. More than fifty years ago Brother Watchman Nee had a burden to work for the Lord and began publishing literature. Although he was very young at the time, he was greatly used by the Lord. He was a young Chinese man, whom the Western missionaries disregarded, but he brought a tremendous blessing to China. I have not seen another person whose work was as blessed by the Lord as Brother Nee’s.
Afterward, we left mainland China and came to Taiwan. I came to Taiwan with my family of ten plus two servants, whom we could not dismiss. In all, twelve people were crowded into a house that was the size of sixteen straw mats. At that time, I was extremely disappointed and felt that there was nothing to do in Taiwan. One day as I was lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling, I asked myself what I was doing here. I was frustrated. Then the Lord said to me, “Rise up and take a train from Taipei to Kaohsiung. Visit every place where there are brothers and sisters.” Hence, I traveled to every place from the north to the south. When I returned, I told the brothers that we should begin the work because there was work to be done in Taiwan. In spite of the political tension, our only concern was to preach the gospel. We posted gospel banners at every major intersection, at bus stations and train stations, and on the streets. We printed gospel tracts according to the population of Taipei and distributed them to every house, and we held gospel marches to spread the gospel. Many elders and deacons were brought in through that preaching of the gospel. In six years’ time, from 1949 to 1955, our number increased from about four hundred to more than thirty thousand.
The denominations and missionaries in Taiwan opposed us, but they admitted that our work was the most effective and was blessed. However, they also spoke of “a dead fly being in the fragrant ointment.” The “dead fly” was a reference to the ground of the church: one church in one city. They could not accept this.
At the end of 1961 I made a third visit to the United States, and the Lord led me to stay there permanently. Brother Nee was a young student when he was raised up in China, but the Lord used him greatly. I was nearly sixty years old when I went to the United States. I am a Chinese who learned English when I was young and had never received an education in the United States. What could I do there? But the Lord poured out His blessing. Currently, there are more than seventy churches throughout the United States. Not only so, the Lord’s recovery quickly spread from the United States to Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and even Africa. The Lord’s testimony is now on every continent.
My point is that we are not important figures, nor are we prominent people. We are nothing and nobody, but the Lord blesses His way. This way and this ground are of Him and are firm. Hence, the Lord has blessed us.
While we take this way and stand on this ground, the Lord has released His riches to us again and again. We worship the Lord, because we have the proper way, the proper ground, and the riches of the truth and of life. However, our urgent need is to live in our spirit. Our spirit needs to be strengthened, and the testimony of life needs to be shining. The saints in every locality must have a shining testimony so that the lampstand can shine among the people. In order for the lampstand to shine, our spirit must be strengthened. If our spirit is strengthened and we grow in life, the light of life will spontaneously shine.
Our way is right, the ground is proper, and the Lord has released His riches to us. But we must ask whether our spirit is strong and whether we are growing in life. The church life began in 1922. For the past fifty-seven years, more than half a century, we have passed through many tests and trials in China, Southeast Asia, Europe, America, and Africa. The tests, trials, attacks, and oppositions have proved that this way is right and proper, that this way cannot be defeated and cannot be denied, and that this way is under the Lord’s blessing. Hence, the Lord is still releasing His rich word every year. However, our present need is for the elders, co-workers, and leading brothers and sisters to be strengthened in the spirit and to exercise their spirit to apply these riches so that these riches may be assimilated into the churches for the saints to grow in life.
We must do a particular work. We must not turn our attention to other things but should focus on being strengthened in our spirit and on the growth of the divine life in the local churches. The truth and light in the Life-studies will continue to be released, and the riches will continue to be ministered. In practice, however, the churches must turn to the spirit. The saints must be strong in spirit and grow in life. This is what we lack. It is not a matter of the way being wrong or of the ground not being proper, nor is it that we do not have the riches. Rather, it is a matter of how much the leading ones apply these riches. In order to apply these riches, we must turn to the spirit. We need to be strong in our spirit and grow in life so that we will be rich in life.
Some people may have the wrong understanding that the strengthening of the spirit refers to speaking and praying with a loud voice in the meetings. Loudly proclaiming is not the meaning of being strong in our spirit. To be strengthened in our spirit means that we live and walk according to the spirit in everything, both great and small, at every time and in every place. If we are not in our spirit, we should not act or move. We must act and move by our spirit. This is what pleases the Lord.
If we want to live in our spirit, we must love the Lord. We must always tell Him, “Lord, I love You. Because I love You, I care for Your heart and take You as my life. Lord, You are the Spirit living in my spirit. I am willing to live and walk in the mingled spirit to satisfy the desire of Your heart.” This is what pleases the Lord, but it is also what we are lacking.
Being in the spirit is a matter of life, a matter of our living. Daily we need to learn to live in the spirit of prayer and to touch the spirit whenever we pray. However, we often do not touch the spirit when we pray, because we do not have the habit of praying in our spirit. Instead of praying in our spirit, we pray in our mind, according to our memory, and with the excitement of our emotions. Thankfully, however, although we often do not begin praying in the spirit, we eventually pray ourselves into the spirit to touch the Lord and enjoy Him, and we are joined to Him as one spirit. This is the way for us to live in an atmosphere of prayer. We should live in an atmosphere of prayer while we are praying, and we should also live in an atmosphere of prayer in our daily life, even if we are not praying outwardly. In other words, we need to pray all day long. To pray unceasingly does not mean that we pray for many things from morning to evening but that our whole being is in the spirit of prayer. Whether we are giving a message, fellowshipping with the saints, taking care of business matters, working, or handling various affairs, we should live and walk by touching the Lord in our spirit. However, this is our lack. This is what the Lord has desired to gain for over two thousand years. It is not easy to attain to such a living, because there are too many things that replace our living in the spirit.
It is natural for us to live in the replacements, because we are born in the replacements, raised up in the replacements, and are accustomed to living in the replacements. We have been nurtured, educated, cultivated, and influenced in a way that enables us to live without God. We can live as proper and good persons apart from God and apart from the Spirit. However, to live apart from God is the greatest sin and is even an act of rebellion. It is a sin for unsaved persons not to believe in the Lord. It is also a sin for saved persons not to live the Lord and not to live by the Lord. God has given the unbelievers a commandment: “Believe on the Lord Jesus” (Acts 16:31). This is the only commandment to unbelievers. God has also given believers a commandment: “Walk...according to the spirit” (Rom. 8:4). To live and walk according to the spirit is to live Christ and to live out Christ. Regrettably, we violate this commandment every day, because we still do not live and walk according to the spirit in all things, at every time, and in every place. We understand this truth, we agree with it, and we have been touched by it. However, we still have all kinds of “replacements” for the spirit in our practical living.
If we would live and walk according to our spirit, the problems, defects, and shortcomings of our natural constitution would be resolved, because the problems, defects, and shortcomings of our natural constitution are in our self, not in our spirit.
Our natural constitution has many problems, shortcomings, and defects. Whether a church is under the Lord’s blessing does not depend on eloquent speakers or capable persons. I told the saints in the United States that we should thank the Lord because two kinds of persons have left the churches in the United States: “donkeys” and “monkeys.” The church is a flock of sheep; we are all sheep. However, donkeys are taller than sheep, and they jump and kick wildly. Monkeys are clever and good at playing tricks. Everyone suffers when there are donkeys and monkeys in the church. The church receives blessings because it is a flock of sheep, not because there are big donkeys and clever monkeys. As long as we are a flock of sheep, there will be the blessing.
We may think that we have been under the blessing because we are not big donkeys or clever monkeys. However, even though we may not be big donkeys or clever monkeys, we still need to bow down and confess that we have the temper of a donkey and the cleverness of a monkey. In the church we often are wild and still play tricks.
There is a church in North America that could not go on for many years. In recent years the Lord raised up an environment that forced the donkeys and monkeys to leave. Now there are no more donkeys and monkeys; there is only a flock of little sheep in that locality. Outsiders have asked, “How can there be any blessing when no one is left to take the lead?” But that church is now under the Lord’s blessing. The brothers do not have the gift of speaking, nor are they capable of administrating; hence, they always fellowship with the Lord and with one another. There are no conflicts among them, nor are there peculiar tempers. As a result, the Lord’s blessing is with them.
The Lord has enlightened us to see the way that matches His heart concerning the ground of oneness. We know that other ways do not work, so we must take this way. However, we must take this way together; we cannot walk on it alone. It is not easy to walk with others. If there is only one person, he can decide how to walk, but it is not easy for four people to carry a palanquin, because of differences in their height, pace, and temperament. When four people work together, their peculiarities will immediately be manifested.
For example, suppose there are younger and older elders in a locality. These elders should open to one another and should have equal consideration for one another. It is not acceptable for one elder to think that the other three are under him, nor should he say, “I am the only one taking the lead. The other three must listen to me.” In such a situation there will be no blessing, even if the way and the ground are right. As long as there are some who depend on their seniority and take pride in their seniority, the Spirit will have no way to work. Whether the elders are old or young, strong or weak, if they are bearing responsibility together, they should stand on equal footing, fellowshipping with one another and being open to one another in all things. A situation in which the elders merely tolerate one another to avoid arguments may seem to be fine, but it will not yield results in the spirit.
People can succeed in society by clever maneuvering, but such maneuvering does not work in the church. Clever maneuvering involves playing tricks and can be likened to burying a corpse in the snow. The corpse will be hidden for a few months. However, when spring comes and the snow melts, the corpse will be exposed. Those who do things by clever maneuvering and tricks are deceiving others as well as themselves. After a while the saints in the church will know that such a person is not genuine, sincere, or faithful. The church life is a long-term matter; hence, our heart and condition cannot be hidden. The wisest way is to be open and to not hide things. If we agree, we should say that we agree, but if we disagree, we should say that we disagree. We should not insist on our opinions, nor should we pretend to be polite. We should be fully open and present ourselves without playing politics or clever maneuvering. When saints coordinate together, nothing should be hidden, but everything should be open. We will have genuine fellowship and prayer when we are only little sheep without clever maneuvering or peculiar temperaments. If we are not sheep, we will merely go through the motions of praying, but our prayer will be a pretense. If we do not fellowship in the spirit, are not in harmony, and do not have genuine one accord, it will be hard for us to receive the blessing.
When we live in the spirit, we will not maneuver, nor will we be foolish. Our spirit is sober and can be likened to the sense of smell. If we live in our spirit, we will know the true condition of those whom we contact. In the Lord’s work, in the administration of the church, and in the shepherding and perfecting of the saints, human wisdom and cleverness are useless and only spread death. Clever maneuvering involves deceiving people. If we use clever maneuvering in our dealings with the saints, we will eventually offend them. We must deal with others in truthfulness, that is, in spirit, without tricks and maneuvering. May we all be faithful to live in the spirit. If the Lord leads us to do something, we should do it, but if the Lord does not lead us, we should not do anything. We should not do things in order to please others. We do not speak to please others. If we do not speak, it is not because we are maneuvering but because we are in the spirit. If the Spirit guides us not to speak, we should not speak, but if the Spirit guides us to speak, we should speak. I do not hide things from the brothers. I do not use human wisdom or clever maneuvering with the brothers, nor do I insist on my opinions. I am open, and I treat others equally. If we are open and treat others equally, the Spirit will have a free way among us, and the blessing will come. Furthermore, the responsible brothers will gain the respect and trust of the saints. Our only way is to live in the spirit.
