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c338c6c
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A drowning man cannot be saved until he is utterly exhausted and ceases to make the slightest effort to save himself.
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Watchman Nee |
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aeff4b7
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Our old history ends with the Cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.
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Watchman Nee |
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d3a6a1d
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I do not consecrate myself to be a missionary or a preacher. I consecrate myself to God to do His will where I am, be it in school, office, or kitchen, or wherever He may, in His wisdom, send me.
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ministry
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Watchman Nee |
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705c22a
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The Spirit is both a builder and a dweller. He cannot dwell where he has not built; He builds to dwell and dwells in only what he has built.
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Watchman Nee |
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64abfa1
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Man's thought is always of the punishment that will come to him if he sins. God's thought is always of the glory man will miss if he sins. God's purpose for redemption is glory, glory, glory.
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sanctification
sin
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Watchman Nee |
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8e307fe
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Lord, I am willing to break MY heart that I might satisfy THY heart.
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prayer
surrender
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Watchman Nee |
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d4bb2eb
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God will not give me humility, or patience, or holiness, or love as separate investments of His grace. He has given only one gift to meet our need, His Son Christ Jesus.
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prayer
spiritual-gifts
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Watchman Nee |
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5e30886
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Do you know, my friends, that the Spirit within you is very God? Oh that our eyes were opened to see the greatness of God's gift! Oh that we might realize the vastness of the resources secreted in our own hearts! I could shout with joy as I think, "The Spirit who dwells within me is no mere influence, but a living Person; He is very God. The infinite God is within my heart!" I am at a loss to convey to you the blessedness of this discovery,..
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Watchman Nee |
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238219b
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We must not pay attention just to reading and studying; rather, we should ask if we are open before the Lord. If we do not have an unveiled face, the glory of the Lord will not shine on us. If our heart is not open to God, God cannot give us any light.
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Watchman Nee |
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485349b
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It is a great thing when I discover I am no longer my own but His. If the ten shillings in my pocket belong to me, then I have full authority over them. But if they belong to another who has committed them to me in trust, then I cannot buy what I please with them, and I dare not lose them. Real Christian life begins with knowing this.
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Watchman Nee |
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fe5a1d0
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I must first have the sense of God's possession of me before I can have the sense of His presence with me.
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presence-of-god
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Watchman Nee |
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0ed4c3c
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Every true work is not done to the poor. Every true work is done to Me.
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ministry
social-gospel
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Watchman Nee |
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b61cf4a
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God does not blame me for being an individual, but for my individualism. His greatest problem is not the outward divisions and denominations that divide His church, but our own individualistic hearts.
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Watchman Nee |
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745719f
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We must be brought to a place where, naturally gifted though we may be, we dare not speak except in conscious and continual dependence on Him.
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Watchman Nee |
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f9dd138
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Attempting to follow Him without denying the self is the root of all failures.
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Watchman Nee |
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a99a086
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Why does God not declare himself as the God of Adam? For we know that Abraham sinned even as Adam did. Why then did He not call himself the God of Adam? Why did He not say the God of Abel, the seed of Adam? Why instead did He call himself the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob? Why according to the flesh was our Lord Jesus presented in the New Testament as having been born of the seed of Abraham? Why from among all men should God have c..
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Watchman Nee |
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63db07c
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If we throw ourselves open to God, He will reveal. The trouble comes when we have closed areas, locked and barred places in our hearts, where we think, with pride, that we are right.
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Watchman Nee |
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e85316e
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To be penitent, to feel sorry for sin, to shed tears, to even make decisions does not bring in salvation. Confession, decision, and many other religious acts can never be and are not to be construed as new birth. Rational judgment, intelligent understanding, mental acceptance, or the pursuit of the good, the beautiful, and the true are merely soulical activities if the spirit is not reached and stirred.
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Watchman Nee |
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3b43a99
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Do we impress people with ourselves, or with the Lord? Do we draw people to our teaching, or to the Lord? This is genuinely vital. It determines the value of all our work and labor.
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Watchman Nee |
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12e30a9
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The author nicely encapsulates Paul's overarching intent in his letter to Corinth, to impress upon those in the church infatuated with the gifts of the Spirit a greater awestruck awareness of His presence in and among them. The author then illustrates thusly: if we have but a few coins, we may carry them lightly with little concern as to whether we lose them. But if we are aware that we carry a great sum, we will carry it with great care. H..
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holy-spirit
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Watchman Nee |
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0fdcd8e
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We all have the same Christ dwelling within, but revelation of some new need will lead us spontaneously to trust Him to live out His life in in that particular.
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worship
spiritual-gifts
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Watchman Nee |
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f8c7e73
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The author tells a story wherein a missionary friend of his was invited by unbelievers on a train ride to play cards. The friend declined, saying that he did not bring his hands with him. He explained to the astonished group that the hands attached to what they saw as his body belonged to the Lord, and he was thereby able to explain the Gospel.
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sanctification
distraction
surrender
obedience
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Watchman Nee |
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55cc0dc
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Actually, only God can satisfy a Christian's heart; man cannot. The failure of many is to seek from man what can be found only in God. All human affection is empty; the love of God alone is able to fully satisfy one's desire. The moment a Christian seeks a love outside God his spiritual life immediately falls.
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Watchman Nee |
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f973be7
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There is nothing stereotyped about God's dealings with His children. Therefore, we must not by our prejudices and preconceptions make watertight compartments for the working out His Spirit, either in our own lives or in the lives of others. We must leave God free to work as He wills and to leave what evidence He pleases of the work He does.
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unity
individuality
spiritual-gifts
holy-spirit
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Watchman Nee |
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2fbdbcf
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The Law requires much, but offers no help in the carrying out of its requirements. The Lord Jesus requires just as much, yea more (Matt. 5:21-48). But what He requires from us, He Himself carries out in us. The Law makes demands and leaves us helpless to fulfill them; Christ makes demands, but He Himself fulfills in us the very demands He makes.
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Watchman Nee |
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220c293
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Jesus] said, "Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill....For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matt. 9:10-13). Jesus opened up God's heart to men."
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jesus
god-s-love
christian
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Watchman Nee |
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d34590e
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If you have not experienced the death of self, your spiritual life will have little real progress.
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Watchman Nee |
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fb9331f
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The Christian life from start to finish is based upon this principle of utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus.
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Watchman Nee |
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7dbc0d3
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The knowledge of Christ which is produced by man's own cleverness and wisdom is not a rock that can stand firm.
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reason
wisdom
revelation
knowledge
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Watchman Nee |
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4358c6d
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That which they have need of . . . let it be given them day by day without fail. Ezra 6:9 If we really trust God, we shall expect to bear unaided the spiritual burden both of our own needs and of those of the work. We must not secretly hope for support from some human source. Our faith is not to be in God plus man but in God alone. If brethren show their love, thank God; but if they do not, let us thank Him still. For God's servant to have ..
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Watchman Nee |
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d11c033
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The Lord continued His teaching on the matter of authority. He called His disciples together and instructed them about future things in glory. He said that, among the Gentiles, men seek for authority in order that they may rule over others. It is good for us to seek for the future glory, but we ought not have the thought of ruling or lording it over God's children. To do so would cause us to fall into the state of the Gentiles. To exercise ..
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Watchman Nee |
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5d16a55
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We think in terms of apostolic journeys. God dares to put His greatest ambassadors in chains.
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limitation
sovereignty-of-god
ministry
weakness
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Watchman Nee |
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ad34e8e
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If any person desires to think, he must possess memory, imagination and reasoning power; but the Christian has presently lost these powers, hence is unable to think. He cannot create, deduce or recollect, nor can he compare, judge and apprehend. Therefore he cannot think. And should he attempt to do so he experiences a kind of dazed sensation which stifles any productive thought.
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Watchman Nee |
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c5ed093
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It is so easy to become more attached to the gifts of God than to the Giver--and even, I should add, to the work of God than to God Himself.
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Watchman Nee |
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c4caba3
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Lord, I do not know fully what the value of the blood is, but I know that the blood has satisfied Thee; so the blood is enough for me, and it is my only plea.
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Watchman Nee |
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c0f4d5a
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The soul seeks to retain its authority and move independently, while the spirit strives to possess and master everything for the maintenance of God's authority.
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Watchman Nee |
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ca2459a
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They are trying to look within, to differentiate, to discriminate, to analyze, and in doing so are bringing themselves into deeper bondage. Now this is a situation which is really dangerous to Christian life, for inward knowledge will never be reached along the barren path of self-analysis.
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Watchman Nee |
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5e560e0
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The reason for so many defeats in the spiritual realm is because this sector of the soul has not been dealt with drastically.
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Watchman Nee |
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07a87f3
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The daily life of the Christian can be summed up in one word: receive.
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Watchman Nee |
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b449174
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But Christianity is a queer business! If at the outset we try to do anything, we get nothing; if we seek to attain something, we miss everything. For Christianity begins not with a big DO, but with a big DONE.
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Watchman Nee |
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2a6a60a
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The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him. 1 Corinthians 2:14 It has pleased God to say many things which leave room for misunderstanding, and not to explain them. Often in the Bible there seem to be conflicting statements or statements that seem to violate the known facts of life, and it has pleased Him to leave them there. There are many scriptures we cannot clearly explain. Had we be..
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Watchman Nee |
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5650798
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Brothers, if God brings us to the point of seeing that everything in God's work depends upon His blessing, it will bring about a basic change in our labor for God. We would not consider how many people, how much money, or how much bread we have. We would say we do not have enough, but the blessing is sufficient. The blessing meets the need that we cannot meet. Although we cannot measure up to the size of the need, the blessing is greate..
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Watchman Nee |
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b735764
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Andrew Murray once said that what the church and individuals have to dread is the inordinate activity of the soul with its power of mind and will. F. B. Meyer declared that had he not known about the dividing of spirit and soul, he could not have imagined what his spiritual life would have been. Many others, such as Otto Stockmayer, Jessie Penn-Lewis, Evan Roberts, Madame Guyon, have given the same testimony.
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Watchman Nee |
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0d9ad31
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Only if we completely acknowledge that what man requires today is God's life: the quickening of the spirit: will we then perceive how vain is any work performed by ourselves.
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Watchman Nee |