Witness Lee’s Impressions of Contact with Watchman Nee: 1925 - 1950

Witness Lee was deeply impressed with a number of Watchman Nee’s characteristics over the course of their twenty five-year relationship (from 1925 to 1950).

Absolute toward the Lord
Well-balanced
All-inclusive
Knowing the Bible
Knowing the Lord
Knowing Life
Knowing the Church
A Gift of the Age

Witness Lee stated that “Through all the twenty-five years I knew Watchman Nee, from 1925 to 1950, I was deeply impressed with certain characteristics.” This section records what Witness Lee said about Watchman Nee regarding these characteristics.

A. Absolute toward the Lord

Watchman Nee loved the Lord as his first love. To him the Lord came first in everything. He never compromised regarding the Lord’s interest, nor did he sacrifice any truth for the sake of convenience. He also did not follow the Lord halfway. His commitment to the Lord was absolute.

B. Well-balanced

In knowing the Bible and in his church practice, he was very well balanced. Watchman Nee did not follow any teaching or any practice in an unbalanced way as so many Christians in denominations do. He would frequently compare one view of a certain thing with other views that he might be kept from falling into some extreme. In his daily Christian life, he practiced the same principle.

C. All-inclusive

From reading many classical Christian books, Watchman Nee picked up all the good scriptural points of many different Christian groups, gathering them all into the practice of the church life. He never rejected a good scriptural point simply because it came from the wrong source. He even picked up some good items from extreme Pentecostalism. In this way he was able to bring into the present practice of the church all the riches which Christ had given His Body in the past centuries. Through him we are now able to participate in all these riches in the local churches, not in a narrow way, nor in a sectarian way, but in an all-inclusive way.

D. Knowing the Bible

In Witness Lee’s entire life he have never met another person who knew the Bible as deeply as Watchman Nee. Watchman Nee received much help from many of the finest Christian writers of past centuries, but he also stood upon their shoulders, seeing more things from the Scriptures than they did. He not only knew the letter of the Bible, but he also knew the Spirit of the Bible. He probed into the depths and touched the Spirit of the Scriptures. His knowledge of the Bible was filled with light and saturated with life. He had not only the objective view of the Scriptures but also the subjective experience of God’s Word.

E. Knowing the Lord

Watchman Nee was truly a man of God, knowing the Lord in a full way. He knew the Lord in His acts as well as in His ways. He knew the Lord not only according to His love, mercy, grace, righteousness, and holiness, but also according to His eternal purpose and His present economy. He had both the full, objective knowledge and the living, subjective realization of the Lord. He knew the Lord personally, as well as in the church, His Body.

F. Knowing Life

Watchman Nee knew that the Lord as the living Spirit lived in his spirit, and he knew how to exercise his spirit. He practiced rejecting the mind, emotion, and will of his soul, and he also practiced behaving and acting in the spirit. In this way he lived by the Lord as his life. He cared little for work; he continually cared for life more than work. He said repeatedly that the work should be the outflow of life. His ministry was not one of work but one of life, carried out by life. He paid much more attention to what he was than to what he did. He was truly a man of life.

G. Knowing the Church

Watchman Nee saw clearly that the church as the Body of Christ was Christ’s expression with Him as its life and content. He also saw that the church could only be practical with the existence of local churches. He saw too that only churches in localities could carry out God’s eternal purpose to have the church built up in a way which the gates of Hades could not prevail against. He thoroughly realized that to recover the proper church life on the proper ground is God’s present economy. He did not teach mere doctrines concerning the church. He received a full revelation from the New Testament, not only regarding the content and reality of the church, but also regarding the practicality of the church. Through the years in his ministry, he not only stressed the experience of Christ but also emphasized the practice of the church life. His vision was not only Christ, but Christ and the church. Christ was his life, and the church was his living. He suffered for the church more than for Christ. The persecutions which came upon him from the denominations came mostly because of his emphasis on the church. He was burdened to carry out his vision concerning the practicality of the church life. He desired to see a local church in every city in China.

H. A Gift of the Age

Witness Lee considered Watchman Nee to be a unique gift given by the Head to His Body for His recovery in this age. Witness Lee fully respected him as such a gift. He had the full confidence and assurance that it was absolutely of the Lord that he followed this gift for the Lord’s interest in His present move on this earth. Witness Lee felt no shame whatsoever in saying that he followed a man-a man that was the unique gift and the seer of the divine visions in this age. Witness Lee was more than grateful to the Lord that immediately after being saved he was brought into such a profitable relationship with Watchman Nee and put into the closest relationship with him in the work of His recovery through so many events over a long period of time. The revelations concerning Christ, the church, the spirit, and life which Witness Lee saw through Watchman Nee, the infusions of life which he received from him, and the things concerning the work and the church which he learned from him will require eternity to evaluate their true worth.