Date: April 17, 1948, 3:00 p.m.Place: Hardoon Road, Shanghai
Question: Should the receiving of a person for the Lord's table be based on asking him questions, or should it be based on touching his spirit?
Brother Nee: It is right to ask him questions. But it is not enough simply to listen to his words. When a person opens his mouth, whether he speaks three or five sentences or three or five minutes, you can find out right away where he is. If a person does not open his mouth, you will not touch his spirit. A man can say nice words, rash words, or evil words. No matter what he says, his spirit does not change. Today no one can know another person's spirit, except through his words.
Once a person opens his mouth, he gives away his spirit. The disciples said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?'' Immediately the Lord said, "You do not know of what kind of spirit you are'' (Luke 9:54-55). As soon as the disciples opened their mouths, the Lord pointed out the condition of their spirit. We must never just listen to others' words. Instead, we must know their spirit through their words. The receiving of a person for the Lord's table is not simply a matter of asking questions, but a matter of the condition of his spirit.
If a person requests to be received at the Lord's table, and you feel that his spirit is not right, you should deal with the matter. Whoever has such feelings has the responsibility to deal with the matter. All the dealings should only be directed toward the person concerned. If a person should not be received, we just need to tell him; there is no need to pass this word to another person.
Question: What is the difference between the minister in 2 Corinthians 3 and that in the other places?
Brother Nee: The minister spoken of in this chapter is different from the ministers we speak of in these days. The minister here is of the New Testament ministry. There is a difference between the nature of the New Testament ministry and the Old Testament ministry. The focus of the New Testament ministry is the beholding of the glory of the Lord with an unveiled face as recorded in 2 Corinthians 3:18.
Second Corinthians 4 tells us the result of having this ministry and of our relationship with the Lord. This relationship is described in verse 7, which says, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels.'' This is a very crucial verse in the New Testament. The reason we have this ministry is because we have the treasure in the earthen vessel. Outwardly we may be an earthen vessel, but inwardly we have the treasure. We are not only giving the treasure to others, but we are giving the treasure that is hidden in the earthen vessel to others. The problem is that today men only want to improve their earthen vessel; they do not want to show the treasure that is hidden in the earthen vessel. Some people hold on to themselves too much. As a result, the treasure is not able to be shown forth. The principle of the spiritual life is that the treasure is hidden in the earthen vessel. It is not a mending of the earthen vessel, nor an artificial way of improving the natural man. We are not trying to cause the earthen vessel to cease to be an earthen vessel. It does not mean that when a person no longer tries to say anything, hear anything, see anything, and do anything, he becomes spiritual. An earthen vessel is still an earthen vessel. The earthen vessel will never be worth much. If the Lord arranges for you to be a student, simply be a student. If the Lord arranges for you to be a housewife, simply be a housewife. Being a student or a housewife will not cover up the treasure within you. The ministry of the New Testament is a matter of how much treasure the Lord has given you. It is not a matter of how much you have washed the earthen vessel.
Today men are not natural enough before God; they want to be "improved'' earthen vessels. But it does not matter how much an earthen vessel is improved, because improvement produces only one result, that of drawing others' attention to oneself. The ministry of Paul was quite extraordinary in its manifestation. Paul himself, however, was quite an ordinary person. Today men do not have a strong ministry, yet they themselves are strong. We need to learn the lessons before God to be smitten and dealt with by Him. What we need today is not outward, human endeavor or any work of improvement. Our problem lies in the fact that we do not know how to differentiate between the outward earthen vessel and the inward treasure.
Miss Barber was a person who truly waited for the Lord's return. She waited daily and yearly. Hymn #377 is a deep hymn written by her. It shows the kind of person she was. Whenever a person came into her presence, he would sense Christ. She was a person who earnestly waited for the Lord's return. One day I went into her study room and found her wastebasket filled with wastepaper. She told me that she was working on a letter that morning and that she had felt something wrong within and had to throw the letter away before she finished. After this she wrote a second one, only to find that she still did not have the peace, and she had to throw that one away as well. In this way she filled up her wastebasket with wastepaper, and the letter was still not finished. This little incident proves that she was a person who lived in the presence of the Lord.
Outward godliness cannot help a person become a good Christian. Only the part which the Lord has wrought into us counts, and only that part is worthwhile. It is useless to try to be a Christian in an outward way; a person has to drop all such endeavors. A Christian is one who learns to live in an inward way, not by any outward means. Second Corinthians 4 speaks of the death of Jesus. This death of Jesus is the killing of Jesus (v. 10). This killing is not an outward killing but an inward one.
We must never lead the brothers and sisters into the wrong way. We must not be like the Catholics, who teach people to imitate the conduct of their "saints.'' To do this is useless as far as helping anyone to know God is concerned. Where there is an imitation, reality will not come. As long as anything artificial remains, nothing out of God can come in. The imitation things must go away before the real things will come. The greatest principle today is the principle of the treasure in the earthen vessel. Never waste time to improve yourself. It is wrong to indulge oneself, but it is equally wrong to improve oneself. God has no intention for us to improve our earthen vessels. His intention is for the treasure to be expressed through the earthen vessel.
Many people do not realize how much they make pretensions and imitations before men. One year during Christmas, Brother T. Austin-Sparks was lying on the lawn playing with his son and dog. That was a most unpretending and beautiful picture. Many people seem to have burned-up earthen vessels; they appear unnatural to others and give others an uneasy feeling. No one can remain in their presence for more than three minutes. Some act in such a way that even their voices change and their speaking becomes different. None of these outward pretensions will accomplish anything.
The goal of Christ's salvation is to manifest Christ before men. It is to present the Lord within to others. We are not drawing others' attention to the earthen vessel. If we do this, it will only damage ourselves. We are drawing others' attention to the Christ within us. Only He is the treasure. When the Son of Man came, He ate and drank (Matt. 11:19), but the principle some practice today is not to eat or drink. Man always thinks that in order to be spiritual, he has to be somewhat extraordinary or mysterious. A prophet has no honor in his own country (John 4:44) because he is no longer mysterious. Because men knew the Lord's brothers and sisters, they did not respect Him (Matt. 13:54-58).
However, the real ministry is inward. God can do a deep work in a man, and yet at the same time that person can still be a very approachable person. Evan Hopkins was a leader in the Keswick movement. He specialized in the teaching of sanctification by consecration. He had a talent for drawing rabbits' ears. Often he drew all kinds of rabbits' ears for his children and grandchildren. Humanly speaking, this was not spiritual at all. Yet God used him to spread the teaching of sanctification. God did not send angels to preach the teaching of sanctification; He used an ordinary man to preach such words. In the Gospels, the Lord taught the disciples to turn and become as little children (Matt. 18:3; Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17). A child never pretends. We should never pretend to be what we are not. All pretending Christians are those who cry for help in private. They say to themselves, "What a suffering and burden it is to be a Christian!'' Even bystanders feel sorry for them. God does not want us to be this kind of Christian. A Christian is not one who forces himself to behave in a certain kind of way.
Natural naivety and spiritual simplicity are two different things. The more a person knows the Lord, the simpler he is. But human methods always lend themselves to further complications. A fleshly person does not have much within him, and what he has outwardly is more than what he has inwardly. When a person does not have anything inside him, but tries to assume something on the outside, he is deceiving himself. Neither a capable mind nor a strong emotion is of any use. The only kind of person who is of use is one with a weighty and strong spirit.
A man's head occupies one-seventh of the length of his body. If his head took up one-third of his body, he would look ugly. Some people have a good mind, but if their mind is too strong, they look ugly. However, if such a one matches his strong mind with a strong spirit, he will not look ugly. The most outstanding part of a person is his nose. When a man bumps into a wall or a door, the first thing that hits it is his nose. The most outstanding part of our being should be our spirit. We need a large spirit, a strong spirit, a spirit that has been dealt with. If we have this kind of spirit, when others meet us, they will meet our spirit. If others touch only our knowledge or our disposition, we are completely useless.
Brother Witness Lee: Is the coordination among the co-workers just based on the ministers in the Body, or is it based on some other things?
Brother Nee: Yes, there are other things. In the coordination there is also the question of arrangement. On the one hand, coordination is based on the Holy Spirit. The Acts of the Apostles can also be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. The reason it can be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit is that the Spirit has the highest authority. The Holy Spirit is like the nerves in the whole body. It is true that the Body is under the direction of the Head. However, the Head rules the Body through the Holy Spirit. Today the practical outworking of authority lies in the Holy Spirit. The Lord is directing His Body through the Holy Spirit. Authority is not a thing; the Lord did not give Peter a bundle of authority and ask him to come back for more when he used up that bundle. Authority is the Lord Himself. The authority that was manifested in Paul, John, and Peter was something given by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit coordinated these men together in different places. Authority is a matter of being one with the Lord. The principle underlying authority is oneness with the Lord. The Scriptures clearly state that the work that went out from Antioch was initiated by the commissioning of the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:2, 4). Only those chosen by the Holy Spirit have the authority.
The individual work of a worker before the Lord is based on his ministry in the Body. But the overall operation in the Lord's work is based on the Holy Spirit.
Today we need to consider afresh the principle of Jerusalem. God's work began from Jerusalem (Acts 1:4, 8). The word of the Lord was that the gospel should spread from Jerusalem. In the Bible Jerusalem represents God's work. God set up Jerusalem as the center of the work. In God's eyes all the apostles were to remain in Jerusalem (Acts 1:4; 8:1, 14, 25). We will not take back a single word of what we have said in Hankow before. No doubt the church is local. But in God's eyes there are centers in His work. What we spoke of in Hankow was the condition of the local churches when they are matured. The failure of our work in these years is that we pass on the authority to the local churches before they are matured. According to God's order, there is first Jerusalem, and then the local churches. Our failure today lies in the fact that we have the local churches first without having a Jerusalem. The order of the Lord's way is first Jerusalem, then Samaria, and then the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). Jerusalem came first, then came the local churches. In the past we did not see this. This is why we did not learn coordination even though we had so many small churches, and why the local churches became little kingdoms under the hands of one worker with two or three responsible brothers. The problem with the Lord's testimony in the past is that we did not begin from Jerusalem.
Today we have to learn first to stand on the position of oneness and begin from Jerusalem. If we do not go back to the principle of Jerusalem, we will not have a proper way to go on.
Some Bible expositors say that it was wrong for the apostles to remain in Jerusalem. They say that the apostles should not have remained in Jerusalem. But in the Bible, we do not see the Lord asking them to leave Jerusalem. It was right for the apostles to remain in Jerusalem. When they went out, it was not because of persecution, but because there were those who called on the name of the Lord. Something happened in Samaria. Therefore, Jerusalem sent John and Peter out. After they went out for a little while, they came back to Jerusalem (Acts 8:14, 25). God needs a Jerusalem also in China. The way of the work is that there must first be a Jerusalem. In Jerusalem there were many co-workers, and there was the church. There was much opportunity to learn the lessons. First there was Jerusalem, and then there was Antioch. Even Paul had to go first to Jerusalem to learn the lessons (Acts 9:26-29). It is true that Jerusalem was a church, but it was different from an ordinary local church. In Jerusalem there were apostles and elders (Acts 15:2). But in Philippi there were only elders and deacons (Phil. 1:1). It seems that in Jerusalem the local church and the center of the work were at the same place.
Today, whether we are driven from our city by outward persecutions or whether some go out because they decide to migrate or spread out, we have to remember that there is the principle of Jerusalem. The Lord's word says that the gospel is to be preached from Jerusalem unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). This is a continuous principle; it continues until the uttermost part of the earth is reached. If we want a new start, we have to have a Jerusalem. Unless we have a Jerusalem, there is no way to go on in the work.
Practically speaking, how should we go on? If we are clear about the principle just mentioned, there will be no problem with the practice. If the co-workers will first drop their personal works and come together in Jerusalem, the Lord will have a way. Although Paul was in Antioch, when a problem arose, he brought it back to Jerusalem (Acts 11:25-26; 15:1-2). Antioch can be considered the center of the gospel. As far as evangelistic works are concerned, it is right to have an Antioch. But if we want others to see a model, we have to bring them to a Jerusalem.
Today there are a few dozen meetings in Fukien province with over thirty co-workers. Because the attendance in every meeting is large, the workers only know that their own place needs men. Everyone wants to work from the uttermost part of the earth to the center. When we had our meetings in Foochow, some came without mosquito nets or even toothbrushes; they thought that they were coming only for a very brief time and were going to go back right away. Their hearts were all in their own places. Presently, over a thousand people have accepted the Lord in Foochow. There are not enough workers. In Jerusalem they needed one hundred twenty workers to take care of three thousand and five thousand (Acts 1:15; 2:41; 4:4). Today we have only twenty workers. These twenty workers are only a fraction of one hundred twenty. How can we meet the need? Today we cannot drop the Lord's basic principle. If we do, the Lord's work will suffer loss.
The proper way is to first save men in Jerusalem. After these men are sent out, the apostles are sent out after them. Then Antioch is produced. Today the way of consolidation is better than the way of scattering. Jerusalem is not a matter of geography but a matter of principle. When I mentioned this matter in Foochow, the brothers there responded at the beginning by saying, "Let us wait and see.'' But by the time I left, they agreed that this is the right way.
Antioch cannot come before Jerusalem. We cannot work from outside to inside. Brothers, is not the word of God clear enough? God is waiting before us. We hope that God would give us a blueprint for the work in China. How should the way in China be in the coming days? Should we for now maintain the works in the different inland places or temporarily drop them? We have to catch up with what God is doing wherever it may be. Today we have too few co-workers. During the past years we have lost one whole generation; we do not have anyone to come after us. Presently, I think the first place we have to take care of is Shanghai. I cannot say how many places the Lord has to begin along the coastal provinces, but I do hope that there can be a little beginning along the coast. I hope that some brothers would rise up in Hong Kong. Something must first begin to move in the localities, before the workers will have works to do. We do not know what God will do, whether He will have a beginning in two or three places at the same time, or whether He will start with one place first. At any rate, we need a Jerusalem.
In the past we had one great failure concerning our work in the local churches. During the years 1928, 1934, and 1936, we made some advances in our testimony. Yet we missed many opportunities to educate the brothers and sisters. We did not educate our own brothers and sisters well. These brothers and sisters were born into our midst, yet they do not know why we are meeting as we are. To them, everything is more or less the same. This is because we lacked some fundamental arrangements, and we have not provided these ones the proper education.
The co-workers should know that the edification of new believers is a work that goes on perpetually. Among us, some have been saved for over ten years. Yet they have not confessed their sins once since that time, and they have not made any recompense. Now we have to select thirty to fifty topics, and we should repeat these topics year round. These topics do not need to be improved. Every year we preach the same topics. In this way we will be able to build up a firm foundation.
Today we need to take care of the whole gospel from its very foundation on. There is a difference between preaching the gospel and teaching the gospel. In the former case, one can change the methods. In the latter case, methods do not have to change. In the matter of preaching the gospel, no two persons have the same kind of footsteps, and no two persons have the same kind of testimonies. But after a person is saved, the teachings they receive should be the same. In the future we will all have to receive the same basic teachings before we move out. All the co-workers have to receive the same kind of training before the Lord.
The kind of Christian a person is, is based on the kind of education he receives. In the Anglican Church a person is taught only to recite the Lord's Prayer. Such a one does not even know the meaning of "amen.'' I believe we have to spend half a year to a year for our work. If we do not put in this effort now, we will still have to make it up in the future. If we do not do this work now, I am afraid that the future generations will blame us for it. We need to have the same footsteps before we can have the same testimony. Today we are short of standard Christians. By doing this everyone will receive the same teachings. All the brothers and sisters among us must take care of these make-up lessons.
In putting this into practice, we must be persons who are living, and we must have an adequate measure of life. Otherwise, the topics we cover will become dead teachings. If we practice this in a dead way, what we produce will become another tradition, and it will result in another hindrance that we will have to deal with eventually. If we speak in life, others will receive our speaking in a living way, whether the subject is spoken for the first time or whether it has been spoken for over ten years.
I hope that the co-workers would be in one accord and would pray for the way of Jerusalem. This matter touches our future and our family. Perhaps we will need some kind of arrangements. There need to be some arrangements concerning who should go where and do what. Perhaps some brothers have been staying in one place for too long; they need to be reassigned. After a person lives in a place for three to five years, he becomes settled and comfortable in that place. It is like a tree having taken root in a place; it is difficult to cut it down after the roots are established.
The principle of the work is not to replace others, but to work along with three or five others. If we want to see the work in Shanghai built up, we have to put all the brothers and sisters here into function.
In addition the church must pay attention to the matter of caring for the poor. No servant of God can hold back his money. Every item that was in the early churches has to be recovered. If one item is missing, the church will suffer great loss. Caring for the poor was one item of practice in the early churches (Gal. 2:10). If we want to match God's heart, we have to be recovered in this matter. Contacting the poor always enlarges one's heart. We should do everything we can to contact the poor and to help them. A church that is separated from the poor will not be a prospering church. We have to learn to go along with the lowly (Rom. 12:16). We have to learn to humble ourselves, as the Lord humbled Himself (Phil. 2:5-8). Giving to the poor is not performing charity toward them. It is only when a person has learned some lessons, has touched something, and has some kind of wound as a result of this touch that his help to the poor is proper. When I was living in Shanghai, one time I invited a street boy to eat dumplings with me. We must look for opportunities to contact the poor. There are always people around us who are poorer than we are. When the Lord was on earth, He never separated Himself from the poor. Many people are wrong in their dispositions; they have never been trained. We have to learn to "step down,'' to humble ourselves. The more people are saved among us, the more we should give away our money.
In order to do this, many saints may need to change their jobs. Some who are in business need to change their way of earning money. Some need to change the place they live. Those who are in school have to realize that even their studying has to be related to the gospel. The gospel has to be the center of everything. If it is not, whatever we do will be out of order.
The Body of Christ demands our whole life. When we listen to a message, we may nod our heads or smile. But when we put the words into practice, it will make us cry and scream. However, we must turn back to God's ordained principles before we can have His blessing.
We hope that our conference here will end in May, after which some will remain in Shanghai, while others will go to Fukien. Still later others may go to other places. In the end they should still return to Shanghai. Shanghai must be strong. If we can have a proper testimony in one place, the work in the other places will be easy. Otherwise, we will not have a model to show others.
We can make mistakes. But we do not want to make mistakes. It is not easy to make decisions before God. We really hope that the authority of the Holy Spirit can be manifested among us. In the coming days we hope to look back to find that we did not made a mistake today. The whole work today must be carried out according to the principle of the Body. It must be carried out in coordination, not in a scattered way.
