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Margaret Barber was a great example to Watchman Nee in the one matter of paying more attention to life than to work. He realized that God cares for what we are more than what we do, and his work was according to this principle. He observed how Miss Barber continually stressed the matter of life, paying almost no attention to her work.
From time to time, he and Miss Barber would go together to listen to a Christian speaker. He always admired either the speaker's eloquence, knowledge, zeal, ability, or natural power of persuasion. Then Miss Barber would point out to him that what he admired was neither of life nor of the Spirit. What he admired might be able to stir people up and motivate them to perform certain works, but it could never minister life to people. Through such spiritual diagnosis, he was educated to discern and distinguish the difference between life and work. He began to realize that most of the sermons given by preachers and Christian teachers were not grains of life but flakes of chaff. He also observed that in most Christian work, supposedly carried out for Christ, there is very little life ministered to people.
Watchman Nee pointed out to his co-workers that according to the four Gospels, the Lord in His ministry did not care for popularity; rather, He frequently withdrew when a crowd was seeking Him. Brother Nee often said that the Lord Jesus sowed Himself as a seed of life (Matt. 13:3) and fell into the ground as a grain of wheat, that the life within Him might be released to bring forth many grains (John 12:24).
He told me that when his co-worker, who was five years older than he, was traveling through the country conducting evangelistic meetings, Margaret Barber, realizing the peril of popularity, warned him by saying, "If you continue to travel for evangelistic work, I will not pray for you any longer." She had the foresight to realize that such work would bring shipwreck to his spiritual life. Eventually, that is exactly what happened. That other co-worker was distracted from spiritual life to popular work.
Watchman Nee was afraid of being popular. He was fearful of making a name for himself and of being highly praised and uplifted by people. He looked upon such popularity as an instrument of seduction to tempt the young co-workers away from the right track of life in following the Lord. He was never bothered by the depreciation, opposition, rejection, and accusation of others. Rather, he considered these things a sort of safeguard to preserve him in life and cause him to grow more in the Lord. Such a vision made it easier for him to be one with the Lord in His work and to obey the Lord's leading. He carried out the revelation he received from the Lord, not in the way of work, but in the way of life.
Watchman Nee saw through 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 that the important thing regarding our work is not its quantity but its quality. Gold, silver, and precious stones are always small in quantity but high in quality, whereas wood, hay, and stubble are always high in quantity and low in quality. Wood, hay, and stubble cannot stand the test of fire, but gold, silver, and precious stones can. We will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ not according to the quantity but according to the quality of our work.
When he would hear that a certain preacher had successfully gained a large following or that a certain Christian worker was doing a big work, he would frequently tell us, his trainees, that the real work is the outflow of life.
With the gifts, knowledge, and ability he had, he could easily have acquired a large following in Christianity. Watchman Nee, however, did not misuse his gifts and knowledge in this way. He always took pains to restrict himself in the function of his gifts and the use of his knowledge in order to insure that his work was fully in life, of life, with life, and was life itself. As long as he had the assurance that his ministry was the outflow of life, he was satisfied.
His ministry began from the year 1922, and the church in Shanghai, which was fully under his ministry, was raised up in 1927. By the end of 1933, when I first visited him in Shanghai, the number of saints meeting there in the Lord's recovery was slightly over one hundred. In February 1928 he held an overcomer conference in Shanghai. The attendants at this conference included all the co-workers and seeking ones throughout the country. The attendance was a little over three hundred. After he had been in his ministry for over six years, the number of saints in the Lord's recovery at that time was still so small. However, he was not disappointed; rather, he was strongly encouraged because he realized that that small number was the issue of his ministry. Praise the Lord! Because Watchman Nee was not interested in the outward work, the life-issue of his ministry has flowed throughout the whole earth. That part of his ministry which has flooded today's Christianity through his books was not his work but rather the very life that issued from his work. To him work did not mean much; life meant everything. In my whole life, he is the only person I have known who paid more attention to life than to work.
The following is an excerpt from his open letter in the fourth issue of The Present Testimony, published in July 1928:
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We firmly believe that God is not seeking a great work which would shock heaven and shake earth. Men only care for what is seen, but God is not so near-sighted. We do not trust in the kind of work which publishes photos and issues reports. It is a sad thing that while the children of God realize that God is not in excitement, they still are bent on having excitement. Hence, we have to be careful that we do not consider everything that sounds good as from God. I feel that the unprecedented need today is to discern between the work of the spirit and that of the soul.
