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Date:February 27, 1950 Place:Jordan Road, Hong Kong
Both Brother Lee and I have felt that many brothers and sisters are lacking in spiritual consciousness. In order for God to have a way through the church, His children must recognize the authority of the Holy Spirit. Whether or not a man knows the authority of the Holy Spirit depends on his spiritual consciousness. If he is lacking in spiritual consciousness, he will not know anything about the authority of the Holy Spirit. Even if he speaks and acts in the most sincere way, he cannot be truly spiritual. Something may appear spiritual outwardly but not be so in reality. We must learn to discern this matter clearly. We can see men as trees, and we can see a piano as an organ. However, no tree can walk, and no organ will play like a piano.
If we are lacking in spiritual consciousness, we will never be submissive in our heart. Many people believe too much in their own eyes. They do not see, but they think that they have seen clearly. They cherish their own subjectivity. It is hard to say the same thing twice to such a person. If none of the responsible brothers and sisters have any spiritual discernment and if they merely coordinate by assigning works to the different groups, they may think that they have a spiritual consciousness and that they are sincere in their coordination, but in reality they are in big trouble. Today both Brother Witness and I have the same feeling that there is a lack of spiritual consciousness among the brothers and sisters. I hope that all the brothers and sisters will learn to touch their spirit's feeling. They should learn to know what spiritual consciousness is. We can explain red to a blind man all we want, but he will still not understand it. Even if the entire population of Russia explains red to a blind man, he still would not know it because he has never seen it. There are certain laws in the spiritual pathways. The operation of the Holy Spirit can only be realized by those with spiritual consciousness. This is like saying that the Bible is God's breathing. But the entire Bible can also become letter and form. Once spiritual consciousness is absent, the Bible becomes letter and form.
What is spirit, and what is the letter? What is the difference between the feeling of the spirit and the knowledge derived from the mind or from one's judgment? In the Bible the letter is not a good thing. The letter that Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians is the Old Testament Scripture. Although the Old Testament is part of the Bible, it is nothing but letter if one does not touch it in spirit. Something as good as the Bible can become letter. For something to be letter means that it was worked on by the Holy Spirit once, but the Spirit is no longer present when applied again. This makes it letter. For example, yesterday Brother Lee read two verses from the book of Romans. You might have felt the voice of the Holy Spirit in that reading. But when you explain the same verse to another person, it is not under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and it becomes nothing but letter.
A man can be in the book of Romans every day of the year. He can understand all the objective truths, but he cannot tell you when the Holy Spirit speaks or moves in him. To him, the book of Romans is the letter. He may wake up early every morning to read the Bible. He may set aside time every day to pray. But if these are merely rituals, he possesses nothing but the letter. Although outwardly the spiritual shell is still present, inwardly nothing of the spirit is present. This is the letter. We must have a consciousness of the spirit within before we can release something of the spirit. Only then will our words not be the letter. Suppose Brother Lee read Romans 2:18-19 on the Lord's Day afternoon. There might have been the spirit within Brother Lee, but there was not the consciousness of the spirit within me. I listened with my mind. As a result, I only received the letter. If I want to touch the spirit, I must have the spirit myself. Brother Lee had the spirit and the word. When I listened, I had to have the spirit and the word as well. Only spiritual organs can realize spiritual things. The objective letter that Brother Lee read, when mingled with the spirit, became God's word. Subjectively, I have to understand his word with my mind, but I must also touch the spirit behind Brother Lee's word with my spirit. If I do not touch the spirit behind the word, his word will only be letter to me. Hence, this has nothing to do with whether or not a man's mind understands. It is a matter of whether or not we are touching the Spirit with our spirit. We may expound God's word clearly, and others may understand it perfectly. But if we do not touch the spirit of God's word with our spirit, we have merely the letter. If a doctor operates on a patient in the way of letter, the sick man may turn into a corpse. This is more true in the spiritual realm.
When Brother Lee gives a message, the first thing I notice is not how well he expounds the Bible or how appropriate his illustrations are. In listening to him, I first touch his spirit with my spirit. The main question is whether or not the spirit is released. Whether a message can supply others depends on the release of the spirit of the speaker. It has to do with whether or not the message touches others' spirit. This has nothing to do with whether or not the message is well delivered and whether the explanations are clear. Often I hear young people boasting: "If Brother Lee can say ten things about this topic, I can say twenty things about it." You may have a loud voice, balanced logic, and a clear mind. But if you do not have the spirit, what you have amounts to nothing but the letter. Hebrews 5:12-14 says that in order to discriminate between the divine words of righteousness and the elementary words of the beginning, one's faculties have to be exercised. He also has to be experienced in the practice. In order for a person to run fast, he must not only be able to walk well but must practice the skill of running all the time. In order to develop spiritual consciousness, one must not only use his spirit but must touch the feeling of his spirit all the time. Only then will he be experienced in his practice.
Everything of the church must be conducted in the spirit. It is not a matter of getting things done and establishing right procedures. Even if the church in Hong Kong copies Taipei's mode of service, it will only be letter if the spirit is ignored. My main concern all these years in the church is not sin, but the letter. Many spiritual things look alike from the outside, but within there is no spiritual reality at all.
In Shanghai a brother once said that a certain person's message is not bad. But others do not touch life when they hear him. The same can be said of our spiritual service. It is not enough to do things well outwardly; there must also be spiritual reality. Others must receive life inwardly; they must be edified. A church can have zeal. It can have good doctrines. Outwardly everything may be in very good order. But if there is no spirit, everything is letter. The church cannot just have an outward show of spirituality; it must live in the spiritual reality.
In 2 Corinthians 3:6 Paul said that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Paul was opposed to the letter, which is the Old Testament Scripture. We can say the same thing today. We must realize that everything is letter without the Spirit. This does not mean that we are spiritual as long as we can give a spiritual message. Being spiritual means that we have touched the spiritual reality. In order for the church to remain in the reality of the spiritual realm, we must first learn to pick up a kind of spiritual consciousness.
In the meetings, in listening to a message, in prayer, and in preaching the gospel, we have to train our spirit to be sensitive. If others have a spirit and our spirit does not respond, it means that there is something wrong with us. If we cannot use our spirit, our spiritual life will surely wilt away. John 3:6 says, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." We do worldly things by our flesh. When a man cannot exercise his flesh, his life comes to an end. In the same way if a Christian cannot use his spirit, he falls to a very low point.
I do not say this because I have any desire to rebuke you. I am merely trying to share something more related to the matter of spiritual consciousness. We are releasing a burden concerning spiritual consciousness. Paul's quotation of the Old Testament was different from the Pharisees' quotation of the Old Testament. Paul had the spirit, but the Pharisees did not have it (John 5:39-40). In spiritual matters, sameness is not a matter of having common doctrines; there is also a matter of inward reality. Sameness is not merely being the same in everything. Similarity is not the same as to be fully identified with something. There is a world of difference between sameness and similarity. One person can imitate another in voice, tone, and doctrine. All these things can be similar. But without the spirit, all that one has is the letter. The foundation of Christianity lies in the presence of the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 7 the Lord says that before the judgment seat, some will claim that they prophesied, cast out demons, and performed works of power in His name. But the Lord will tell them, "I never knew you" (vv. 22-23). We can be zealous for the Lord's work. We can even cast out demons and perform works of power by exercising authority, but the basic question is not how much we have done, but whether we are born of the flesh or of the Spirit. Only by knowing and cultivating a spiritual consciousness will our action be something born of the Spirit. Only this will be accepted by the Lord.
Hence, outward sameness does not necessarily mean that we have the same thing. Many people come to Hong Kong and have many things to say about the church. I know that these criticisms are wrong. They are mainly reasonings and opinions. It is absolutely useless to argue about outward practices; there is no spirit in it. One brother came to Hong Kong and criticized the practice here; he considered it inferior to the practices in Shanghai and Taipei. But the real question is whether or not there is the spirit. If there is the spirit, we have the sameness, and everything is well. Today in Hong Kong everything is good, but there is a great shortage in spiritual consciousness. We must thoroughly learn our lessons here. Some may think that this is a very hard lesson to learn. Actually, this is not hard at all. It may not be that easy to discern the proper pathway from the positive side, but we can at least discern our mistakes from the negative side.
Brother Chu: How do we exercise ourselves to develop a spiritual consciousness?
Watchman Nee: In order to answer this question we have to come back to the starting point — regeneration. Suppose we try to explain the colors white and red to a man who is born blind. We may tell him that something that looks white is white or something that looks red is red. But He will not understand what we are saying. Even if the blind man is very intelligent, he will not understand what color is. Intelligence and color are things that belong to two different worlds.
In John 3 the Lord Jesus said that unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God (v. 3). He meant that in order to know the things of God's kingdom, that is, in order to know the spiritual things, one must be born again. The things related to God's kingdom, the things of the spirit, cannot be understood by a man of flesh. One can only understand it as his spiritual consciousness develops. In order to have spiritual consciousness, one has to begin from regeneration. After a man is regenerated, the Lord plants a spiritual consciousness within him.
Second, you must have a thorough consecration. This is what Romans 12:1-2 speaks of in presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice, being transformed by the renewing of the mind, and then proving God's will. Some people are indeed saved. In fact they have been saved for many years already. But we cannot get through with them concerning any spiritual thing. They are like a piece of wood or stone when it comes to spiritual things. They have no spiritual feeling at all. This is because they have a problem with their consecration. In the church we can find brothers and sisters who experience a sudden opening of their understanding. If we trace the cause of this opening, we will discover that these ones have made a thorough consecration before the Lord. To a Christian, consecration is the necessary step after regeneration. We can talk to some people about any worldly matter from music to politics to philosophy. They may be good at them all, but when you talk to them about spiritual things, they may not understand anything. Only spiritual ones can discern spiritual things. Worldly wisdom and human cleverness cannot discern spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:8, 10).
The word mind in Romans 12 is nous in Greek. It can be translated as understanding. Formerly, our spirit was dead. Through the quickening of the Holy Spirit, it is now able to communicate with God. But we still need the renewing of our understanding before we can know the good, well pleasing, and perfect will of God revealed to us in our spirit. Our understanding needs to be renewed all the time. The spiritual consciousness of the brothers and sisters in Hong Kong is weak because their understanding is not renewed.
Please forgive me for saying a frank word. A person is dull in his spiritual consciousness because his understanding is not renewed, and his understanding is not renewed because he has a problem with his consecration. I have not seen a man who is truly and thoroughly consecrated who has a dull spirit. A thoroughly consecrated person is one who is a living sacrifice all the time. The stronger the consecration, the more the understanding opens up. Only consecration will give the Holy Spirit the proper ground He owns in the church. Once we hold back anything in our consecration, the Holy Spirit is frustrated from gaining the full ground in the church. Hence, consecration is an indispensable step in removing the negative hindrances.
After one has a renewed understanding, he must still have his faculties exercised. He must be able to touch the spirit's feelings. Hebrews 5 says that the faculties must be exercised for discriminating between both good and evil. To be exercised means to learn to follow the feeling of the Holy Spirit. Romans 12 speaks of the renewing of the understanding, while Hebrews 5 speaks of the exercising of the faculties. This means to learn to respond to the sense of the Holy Spirit within us. This is analogous to the growth of a child. In the process of his growth, he learns different things, and he develops different sets of feelings. When he is young, he has one set of feelings. When he grows up, he has another set of feelings. A brother or sister starts his or her learning from the time he or she is regenerated. A young man of twenty years old must be very careful about how he develops his emotion and mind. He has to grow in the right direction. By forty years old, he can be considered a grown up and mature person. The same can be said of our spiritual consciousness; we have to exercise ourselves to develop it as early as possible. You have to know what is the restraining of the Spirit, what is the urging of the Spirit, the leading of the Spirit, and the forbidding of the Spirit. If you do not know these things, you are still a child as far as being a Christian is concerned. You are like a forty-year-old man with a sensitivity of a ten-year-old boy.
A Christian is different from a person in the world. You cannot live by the set of feelings you acquired in your physical growth. You have to acquire a new set of feelings, the spiritual feelings you received at the time of your regeneration. Let me repeat this word again and again to the elders: If the leading ones are not quick and sharp enough in spiritual consciousness, the whole church will be led astray; there will not be the manifestation of the authority of the Holy Spirit. If you do not know the activities of the Holy Spirit within you individually, there is no way for the Holy Spirit to get through in the church. A blind man has one set of feelings. However, once his eyes are opened, he will have another set of feelings. The set of feelings a Christian acquires after regeneration is very special. If you do not learn to exercise them, you will not be able to help the brothers and sisters develop a spiritual consciousness. There are many feelings which are hard to explain; you can only acquire them through practice. If you do not practice, you will not be conscious of anything even when your feelings go astray. This is like a blind man whose consciousness of everything is black.
We have to pray to the Lord that He would maintain our consecration. This is a lesson that goes on for the rest of our life. No one can say that he has graduated in the matter of consecration. We cannot make any mistake in our consecration. We have to maintain its freshness. After this we have to learn to exercise our spirit and acquire spiritual feelings. We should not try to touch things with our mind. A blind man is very exercised in his auditory faculty. He exercises his ears not only to listen to the radio but to everything around him. But once his eyes are open, he will try to see everything; he will exercise his seeing faculty. He will even try to examine the radio receiver with his eyes. Before a person is saved, he pays much attention to his mind, emotion, and will. He uses these faculties a great deal. But after he is saved, he can no longer be carried away by the vain mind, the old emotion, and the weak will in discerning the spiritual things. Instead, he has to exercise his spirit.
The responsible brothers in a district should only bear responsibility for spiritual matters. They should step forward only when the other brothers and sisters cannot fulfill their functions. Even then they should not monopolize everything. The meetings should be under the control of the Holy Spirit. Whether they act or not, they have to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. For this reason the elders must have spiritual feelings and must be able to direct the meetings in the right direction. All the other brothers and sisters should be trained and taught how to meet. In the meetings the sisters cannot teach, but they can call hymns and testify. In the prayer meetings and bread-breaking meetings, the sisters should pray in the middle of the meeting. They should not initiate or conclude the meetings with their prayers. They should also avoid calling hymns as much as possible, unless they are clear they have the prompting of the Spirit. If anyone makes a mistake in the meeting, there is no need to correct him immediately unless, of course, the mistake is very serious. After the meeting those who made the mistakes should be given some fellowship in love. If a brother does something wrong in the meeting, it is improper for others to keep silent in the meeting yet speak behind his back after the meeting. We should speak to the erring one. But it is not love when we speak behind his back, not to his face. It is inevitable for some to make mistakes in the meetings. The only way we can be sure that everything is right is if we call the hymns, pray, and do everything ourselves. But then we will monopolize the entire meeting. On the one hand, we have to allow the brothers and sisters to function. On the other hand, all of them need to be adjusted and perfected. Otherwise, they will never learn. All the responsible ones in all the "homes" (i.e., districts) should meet once a week. At other times there should be many love feasts in the small groups. The number in each group should not be too large.
The sixth "home" has too few saints because the brothers and sisters there were somewhat separated from the church in the past. In the future we need many gospel meetings in this district. The brothers and sisters must also bring new ones to the meetings. Do not ask people to sign in all the time. The districts in Chan's home and Shen's home should take care of the new immigrants as soon as possible. They should arrange visits to these new arrivals within the shortest possible time.
