Outside of Christ, I am only a sinner, but in Christ, I am saved. Outside of Christ, I am empty; in Christ, I am full. Outside of Christ, I am weak; in Christ, I am strong. Outside of Christ, I cannot; in Christ, I am more than able. Outside of Christ, I have been defeated; in Christ, I am already victorious. How meaningful are the words, “in Christ.”
– Watchman Nee
Christ | Victory
Long-lasting victory can never be separated from a long-lasting stand on the foundation of the cross.
– Watchman Nee
Faithful | The Cross | Victory
If you perform your part, God will fulfill His.
– Watchman Nee
God
An unpeaceful mind cannot operate normally. Hence the Apostle teaches us to “have no anxiety about anything” (Phil. 4:6). Deliver all anxious thoughts to God as soon as they arise. Let the peace of God maintain your heart and mind (v. 7).
– Watchman Nee
Anxiety | Peace
He delights in having us cooperate with Him.
– Watchman Nee
God
God has supplied all my needs and has not failed me once.
– Watchman Nee
God | Needs
May the things of this world so lose their power over us that we do not in the slightest wish to be “worldly”; nay, we even delight in not remaining “in the world.”
– Watchman Nee
Apathy | Worldliness
A born-again person ought to possess unspeakable peace in the spirit.
– Watchman Nee
Peace
Self-pity, self-love, fear of suffering, withdrawal from the cross: these are some of the manifestations of the soul life, for its prime motivation is the self-preservation. It is exceedingly reluctant to endure any loss.
– Watchman Nee
Self-pity | The Cross | Self-love
The indwelling Spirit shall teach him what is of God and what is not. This is why sometimes we can conjure up no logical reason for opposing a certain teaching, yet in the very depth of our being arises a resistance.
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit
Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.
– Watchman Nee
Eternity | The Cross | Resurrection
People who cover their faults and excuse themselves do not have a repentant spirit.
– Watchman Nee
Repentance
It is a fact that the Lord Jesus has already died for you. It is also a fact that you have already died with the Lord Jesus. If you do not believe in your death with Christ, you will not be able to receive the effectiveness of death with Him – freedom from sin.
– Watchman Nee
Sin | Freedom | Salvation
When one tries to increase his knowledge by doing mental gymnastics over books without waiting upon God and looking to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, his soul is plainly in full swing. This will deplete his spiritual life. Because the fall of man was occasioned by seeking knowledge, God uses the foolishness of the cross to “destroy the wisdom of the wise.”
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit | The Cross | Knowledge
Many saints cannot distinguish inspiration from emotion. Actually these two can be defined readily. Emotion always enters from man’s outside, whereas inspiration originates with the Holy Spirit in man’s spirit.
– Watchman Nee
Just as the right relationship with Christ generates a Christian, so the proper relationship with the Holy Spirit breeds a spiritual man.
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit | Relationships
The Christian experience, from start to finish, is a journey of faith.
– Watchman Nee
Christianity | Faith
If the Lord’s people will humble themselves by admitting that deception is quite possible to them, they will be the less deceived.
– Watchman Nee
Humility
Never decide on anything or start to do anything while emotion is agitating like a roaring sea. Again, during that time even our conscience is rendered unreliable.
– Watchman Nee
Character | Conscience
Baptism is an outward expression of an inward faith.
– Watchman Nee
Faith | Baptism
Prayer is work. The experiences of many children of God demonstrate that it accomplishes far more than does any other form of work. It is also warfare, for it is one of the weapons in fighting the enemy. However, only prayer in the spirit is genuinely effectual.
– Watchman Nee
Prayer
Revelation is the first step to holiness, and consecration is the second. A day must come in our lives, as definite as the day of our conversion, when we give up all right to ourselves and submit to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ.
– Watchman Nee
Submission | Consecration
Carnal Christians crave works; yet amid many labors they are unable to maintain calm in their spirit. They cannot fulfill God’s orders quietly as can the spiritual believers… their hearts are governed by outward matters. Being “distracted with much serving” (Luke 10:40) is the characteristic of the work of any soulish believer. They have not yet entered the rest of God.
– Watchman Nee
Carnality | Service | Rest
Faith looks not at what happens to him but at Him Whom he believes.
– Watchman Nee
Faith
Do not grow overconfident following a few victories. Should you not rely upon the Holy Spirit you will soon be thrown once more into a distressing experience. With holy diligence you must cultivate an attitude of dependency.
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit | Stress | Diligence
One thing is unmistakable: the soul is affected by outside influences, but not the spirit. For example, when the soul is provided with beautiful scenery, serene nature, inspiring music, or many other phenomena pertaining to the external world, it can be moved instantly and respond strongly. Not so the spirit. Hence those that are genuinely spiritual can be active whether or not their soul has feeling or their body has strength.
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit | Nature
To assure victory we need to watch even the sound of our speech. Immediately the evil spirit touches our spirit, our voice loses its softness. A harsh, hard, and shrill utterance does not spring from the Holy Spirit; it simply exhibits the fact that the one who speaks has been poisoned already by Satan.
– Watchman Nee
Satan | Victory
The mind suffers the onslaughts of the powers of darkness more than any other organ of the whole man.
– Watchman Nee
Satan
When a truth is unfolded by God it most naturally becomes a power in man, who then finds himself able to believe.
– Watchman Nee
Truth | Faith | Power
Fellowship means among other things that we are ready to receive of Christ from others. Other believers minister Christ to me, and I am ready to receive.
– Watchman Nee
Christ | Fellowship
A person who wholly follows the Lord is one who believes that the promises of God are trustworthy, that He is with His people, and that they are well able to overcome.
– Watchman Nee
Faith | Overcoming
Baptism is faith in action.
– Watchman Nee
Faith | Baptism
Do not be impatient for impatience is of the flesh. Do not try different methods because they are useful solely in helping the flesh. We must distrust the flesh entirely.
– Watchman Nee
Impatience | Humility
Satan’s fall came before man’s; we therefore can learn about our fallen state from Satan’s plunge. Satan was created as a spirit that he might have direct communion with God. But he fell away and became the head of the powers of darkness. He now is separated from God and from every godly virtue. Man’s spirit still exists but is separated from God, powerless to commune with Him and incapable of ruling. Spiritually speaking, man’s spirit is dead. Nonetheless, as the spirit of the sinful archangel exists forever so the spirit of sinful man continues too. Because he has a body his fall rendered him a man of the flesh (Gen 6:3). No religion of this world, no ethics, culture or law can improve this fallen human spirit. Man has degenerated into a fleshly position; nothing from himself can return him to a spiritual state. Wherefore regeneration or regeneration of the spirit is absolutely necessary. The Son of God alone can restore us to God, for He shed His blood to cleanse our sins and give us a new life.
– Watchman Nee
Rebellion | Atonement | Restoration
True humility is able to look at God and proceed on.
– Watchman Nee
Humility
Their quest for the presence of God, for the consciousness of His mercy and nearness, is not for God’s sake but for their happiness. By so doing they are not loving the Lord; rather, they are loving the feeling which refreshes them and affords them the glory of the third heaven. Their total life and labor elevate self as the center. They wish to enjoy themselves.
– Watchman Nee
Hypocrisy
If our brain is full of prejudice towards the truth or towards the preacher, truth will not enter it nor will it extend to our life. No wonder some believers derive no help already have they decided what they would like to read or hear.
– Watchman Nee
Reasoning | Truth
All regenerated ones should covet spiritual development.
– Watchman Nee
Humility
Many people think we become holy by the eradication of something evil within. No, we become holy by being separated unto God.
– Watchman Nee
Holiness
This is a work which must occur at the hour of new birth-and it does happen then in the form of repentance. The original definition of repentance is none else than “a change of mind.”
– Watchman Nee
Repentance
Each stage of the believer’s walk possesses its particular hazard. The new life within us wages a constant war against all which opposes its growth. During the physical stage, it is a war against sins; in the soulish phase, it is a battle against the natural life; and lastly, on the spiritual level, it is an onslaught against the supernatural enemy.
– Watchman Nee
Perseverance | Satan | Growth
This strife increases as the days go by. If the believers will proceed faithfully without giving in to despair, they will incur fiercer conflict until such time as they are delivered.
– Watchman Nee
Faithful
Unless believers appreciate their own weakness, that is, know how incompetent they are in themselves to encounter the supernatural, they shall be deceived.
– Watchman Nee
Humility | Weakness | Deception
Our rest lies in looking to the Lord, not to ourselves.
– Watchman Nee
FaithRest
The God Who can change a sinner into a Christian by giving him His life can equally transform the fleshly Christian into a spiritual one by giving him His life more abundantly.
– Watchman Nee
Holiness | Conversion | Transformation
God’s people must not love their soul life even to the point of death. Unless self-love or self-pity is committed to the cross they shall surely be defeated by the adversary.
– Watchman Nee
Self-pity | The Cross | Self-love
If one believes in the death of the Lord Jesus as his substitute he already has been united with the Lord Jesus in His death. For me to believe that in the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus is to believe that I already have been punished in the Lord Jesus. The penalty of my sin is death; yet the Lord Jesus suffered death for me; therefore I have died in Him.
– Watchman Nee
Salvation
Human feelings change as the world changes. Their easy excitement can occasion a saint to lose his spiritual balance. Their constant disturbance can affect a believer’s peace in his spirit.
– Watchman Nee
Feelings | Change
Never adopt an attitude of indifference, for if you do you will suffer for it. The weight will grow heavier and heavier.
– Watchman Nee
Apathy | Attitude
To secure one’s freedom the Christian must experience God’s light which is God’s truth.
– Watchman Nee
Truth | Light
Some seek the gifts of the Holy Spirit with genuine earnestness. Yet often what they crave is but some joy, for the “I” is hidden behind their quest.
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit | Gifts
God takes no pleasure in our repenting over and over again as though this were sufficient; rather does He wish us to live in perpetual contrition.
– Watchman Nee
Repentance
Love flows from the denial of the self life. Blood shedding is the source of blessing.
– Watchman Nee
Blessings
Whatever conscience condemns is condemned by God. Can the holiness of God pursue a lower standard than our conscience?
– Watchman Nee
Conscience
Many confuse understanding with believing.
– Watchman Nee
Faith | Believing
One gains by losing self for others and not by hoarding for oneself.
– Watchman Nee
Greed
He must wholeheartedly oppose the work of the adversary in both his soul and body.
– Watchman Nee
Satan
We can serve God only with a clear conscience. An opaque one shall surely cause us to shrink back intuitively from God.
– Watchman Nee
Conscience | Service
Take this as the secret of Christ’s life in you: His Spirit dwells in your innermost spirit. Meditate on it, believe in it, and remember it until this glorious truth produces within you a holy fear and wonderment that the Holy Spirit indeed abides in you!
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit | Meditation
However sweet the word may sound, any sectarian boasting is but the babbling of a babe. The divisions in the church are due to no other cause than to lack of love and walking after the flesh.
– Watchman Nee
Selfishness | Boasting
Overcoming sin, blessed though it surely is, is but the bare minimum of a believers experience. There is nothing astonishing in it. Not to overcome sin is what ought to astonish us.
– Watchman Nee
Sin | Overcoming
God aims first to renew man’s darkened spirit by imparting life to it, because it is this spirit which God originally designed to receive His life and to commune with Him. God’s intent after that is to work out from the spirit to permeate man’s soul and body.
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit | Renewal
Many may boast in the depth of their Bible knowledge and in the excellency of their theological tenets, but those with spiritual discernment are aware that it is dead.
– Watchman Nee
Theology | Boasting | Discernment
The devil abhors light and truth because these remove the ground of his working.
– Watchman Nee
Satan | Truth | Light
With fear and trembling we must rely upon God for guidance in the inner depths. This is the sole way to walk according to the spirit.
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit
If whatever men know comes through their brain without the Holy Spirit regenerating their spirit, then their knowledge will help them not one whit. If their belief rests in man’s wisdom and not in God’s power, they are merely excited in their soul.
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit | Wisdom
Because the carnal are greatly talented – active in thought, rich in emotion – they readily arouse people’s interest and stir the latter’s hearts. Consequently, soulish Christians usually possess magnetic personalities. They can quickly win the acclamation of the common people. Yet the fact remains that they actually are lacking in spiritual power. They do not contain the living flow of the power of the Holy Spirit.
– Watchman Nee
Carnality | Hypocrisy
Even in a time of desperation the flesh continues to scheme and to search for a loophole. It never has the sense of utter dependency. This alone can be a test whereby a believer may know whether or not a work is of the flesh.
– Watchman Nee
Rebellion
Since the enemy focuses particular attention on the spirit, how necessary for spiritual believers to keep their own spirit in its normal state and frequently exercise it as well. Their mind must be kept perfectly calm without any disturbance; their physical senses too must be maintained in a quiet balance without agitation.
– Watchman Nee
Perseverance | Satan
Satan can only attack us from the outside in. He may work through the lust and sensations of the body or through the mind and emotion of the soul, for those two belong to the outward man.
– Watchman Nee
Satan | Lust
In order for the inner man to be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit, the children of God must discharge their responsibility. They need to yield specifically to the Lord, forsake every doubtful aspect in their life, be willing to obey fully God’s will, and believe through prayer that He will flood their spirit with His power.
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit | Responsibility | Power
They spend more time in analyzing, in collecting materials, and in hard thinking than on prayer, on seeking God’s mind, and on waiting for the power from above.
– Watchman Nee
Prayer | Waiting | Power
Equally in the Christian life, to stumble and fall and then to flounder in the dust is sin, certainly. It calls for repentance and it needs God’s forgiveness. For it is not necessary for me to walk with the Lord like that, hiding behind the excuse that “I must fall once in a while; it is inevitable!
– Watchman Nee
Repentance
The first condition is repentance, which means a change of mind. Formerly I thought sin a pleasant thing, but now I have changed my mind about it; formerly I thought the world an attractive place, but now I know better; formerly I regarded it a miserable business to be a Christian, but now I think differently. Once I thought certain things delightful, now I think them vile; once I thought other things utterly worthless, now I think them most precious. That is a change of mind, and that is repentance.
– Watchman Nee
Repentance
Eternal life means more than mere future blessing to be enjoyed by believers; it is equally a kind of spiritual ability.
– Watchman Nee
Eternal Life | The Future | Blessings
The right attitude is this: that I have my own will, yet I will the will of God.
– Watchman Nee
Obedience | Attitude
Everyone who believes in God must have His revelation in his spirit, or else what he believes is not God but mere human wisdom, ideals or words. Such faith cannot endure the test.
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit | Faith | Endurance
To remove warfare from a spiritual life is to render it unspiritual. Life in the spirit is a suffering way, filled with watching and laboring, burdened by weariness and trial, punctuated by heartbreak and conflict. It is a life utterly outpoured for the kingdom of God and lived in complete disregard for one’s personal happiness.
– Watchman Nee
Prayer | Trials
Irrespective of how we physiologically are made, even possessing special weaknesses, we can overcome our sins through the Lord.
– Watchman Nee
Weakness | Overcoming
Before a saint arrives at the stage of spirituality he is sure to be dwelling in a mixed condition. Not content with a quietude in his spirit, he will seek a joyous feeling.
– Watchman Nee
Character | Joy
His spirit shall remain forever dead unless he confesses that everything pertaining to man is useless and unless he stands in the place of death with the Lord Jesus and accepts His life.
– Watchman Nee
Conversion
God’s means of delivering us from sin is not by making us stronger and stronger, but by making us weaker and weaker.
– Watchman Nee
Obedience
A believer can make no genuine spiritual progress if he is reluctant to have his evil conscience judged in God’s light and clearly dealt with.
– Watchman Nee
Conscience | Judging
Were our spirits hardy we would be able to meet the most disturbing situation with peace and rest.
– Watchman Nee
Peace | Rest
Unspeakable sorrow usually follows upon hilarious joy, great depression after high excitement, deep withdrawal after burning fervor. Even in the matter of love, it may commence as such but due to some emotional alteration it may end up with a hatred whose intensity far exceeds the earlier love.
– Watchman Nee
Character | Hatred | Depression
We must have a spirit of power towards the enemy, a spirit of love towards men, and a spirit of self-control towards ourselves.
– Watchman Nee
Discretion | Power | Self-control
The book of Acts is the best aid in approaching our work. We do not find there anyone consecrating himself as a preacher nor anyone deciding to do the Lord’s work by making himself a missionary or a pastor. What we do see is the Holy Spirit Himself appointing and sending men out to do the work.
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit | Preaching | Missions
If we know that the aim of the Holy Spirit is to lead man to the place of self-control, we shall not fall into passivity but shall make good progress in spiritual life. “The fruit of the Spirit is self-control”
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit | Self-control
The attitude of saints toward their possessions most assuredly signifies whether they continue to preserve their self life or whether they have consigned it to death.
– Watchman Nee
Holiness | Attitude
Though all Christians possess a regenerated spirit, not all Christians are spiritual. Many are still fleshly. Their carnal mind is still full of wandering thoughts, reasons and plans; their emotion runs wild with many carnal interests, desires and tendencies; and their will formulates many worldly judgments, arguments and opinions. They are so occupied in following the flesh that they have neither time nor inclination to listen to the voice of intuition. Since the voice of the spirit is usually very soft, it cannot be heard unless it is listened to attentively with everything else quieted.
– Watchman Nee
The Holy Spirit | Christians | Carnality
Numerous Christians do not know how to glorify God in their eating and drinking. They do not eat and drink simply to keep their body fit for the Lord’s use but indulge to satisfy their personal desires. We should understand that the body is for the Lord and not for ourselves; hence we should refrain from using it for our pleasure. Food ought not hinder our fellowship with God since it is to be taken purely to preserve the body in health.
– Watchman Nee
Health
Now is the hour we should humbly prostrate ourselves before God, willing to be convicted afresh of our sins by the Holy Spirit.
– Watchman Nee
Sin | The Holy Spirit | Conviction
Often Satan injects pride into the believer’s spirit, evoking in him an attitude of self-importance and of self-conceit. He causes him to esteem himself a very outstanding person, one who is indispensable in God’s work. Such a spirit constitutes one of the major reasons for the fall of believers.
– Watchman Nee
Satan | Pride | Attitude
We may be forced to consume considerable time before the spirit cooperates. For example, God would like to enlarge the scope of our prayer to include the nations in order to defeat all the behind-the-scene works of Satan. Or He may want us to intercede for all sinners worldwide for the entire church.
– Watchman Nee
Prayer | Intercession
The reason for our hurt feelings lies in the fact that we are not amenable to being treated as our Lord was and are loathe to submit ourselves to the will and ordering of God. Were we to deliver our natural energies to death and capitulate entirely to the Lord, our soul, though so nervously sensitive, would rest in the Lord and not misunderstand Him.
– Watchman Nee
Submission | Feelings | Rest
But how much self-reliance obtains in Christian service. More effort is exerted in planning and arranging than in waiting upon the Lord. Double is the time expended on preparing the division and conclusion of a sermon than on receiving the power from on high because there is so much trust in the flesh.
– Watchman Nee
Preaching | Waiting | Power
Most soulish believers assume an attitude of self-righteousness, though often it is scarcely detectable. They hold tenaciously to their minute opinions we ought to lay aside the small differences and pursue the common objective.
– Watchman Nee
Self-righteousness | Attitude
In the matter of fellowship God looks not at how much we apprehend of His will but rather at what our attitude towards His will is. If we honestly seek and wholeheartedly obey His desires, our fellowship remains unbroken, even though there should be many unknown sins in us. Should fellowship be determined by the holiness of God, who among all the most holy saints in the past and the present would be qualified to hold a moment’s perfect communion with Him?
– Watchman Nee
Obedience | Attitude | Fellowship
Not until the work in hand has failed and we are despised and rejected shall we begin to discern the intent of our heart.
– Watchman Nee
Discernment | The Heart
Knowing the truth concerning the deep workings of the evil spirit helps the individual not only to overcome sins but to eliminate unnecessary afflictions as well.
– Watchman Nee
Truth | Affliction | Overcoming