Release of the Spirit - Ch. 8: What Impression do We Give?

In chapter 8 Watchman Nee teaches that what most impacts others about us is that which emanates or comes forth from within us: "What others sense in us is our most outstanding feature. If our mind has never been dealt with and is undisciplined, naturally we shall use our mind to contact people, and they will be struck by its forcefulness...Whatever our strongest characteristic is, it will stand out and impress others. We may be able to control our speech or action, but we are unable to restrain that which expresses our nature."

Nee illustrates this with the story of Elisha and how the Shunammite woman perceived that he was a holy man of God without hearing him preach or perform any miracles. He merely entered her house and ate with her and her husband.

He goes on to say that even though we may be good at giving spiritual teaching and preaching, if our natural life (strong points of our nature) haven't been dealt with by the Spirit, there is no spiritual impartation for the hearers. God will go to great lengths to break us in the area of our strength, and it can take years for His truth to become alive and real (though we may have heard it long before that).

This realization of what He is doing comes through His discipline as we have seen, and also through enlightenment when His light breaks through and we "see" as He sees. "The flesh, as we know, lives hidden in darkness...Once His light reveals the flesh to us we tremble, not daring to move...Pride seen in the light of revelation differs completely from the pride that we talk glibly about...Whatever is revealed 'in the light' is slain by it...light both reveals and slays.

"In that hour of unveiling, even noble deeds performed in His name and in love to Him will somehow lose their luster...What you considered as wholly for God now appears to be riddled with self. Self seems to permeate every vestige of your being, robbing God of glory."

How well I (Nita) remember such a time in my own life as a young servant of the Lord when I was around 30 years old. I was zealous for Him and wholehearted in wanting to serve Him fully. And yet at a critical point in my walk with Him as I sought His face during a 3-day fast, He wonderfully shed His light on me and showed me in an instant how I was filled with desire for glory and praise from humans in the ministry. Though I had not seen it before this, when the light came, I knew instantly that He was correct, and deep repentance was my response. And with the repentance and forgiveness came a sense that I was not to finish the 3 days of fasting (I was halfway through it), because He had accomplished what He wanted to do. The experience also affected how I walked out my service for Him after that because I had a holy fear of what I had seen in myself.

"At first He alone knows us, for we are always bare and naked before Him. But once God has disclosed to us the thoughts and intents of our heart, we are then laid bare before ourselves. How shall we ever lift up our head again?...Though we used to think we were better than others, now we know what we really are...

Chapter 8 concludes with Nee's contrasting between God's discipline and His enlightenment. His discipline is a slower process, repeated over and over again until the issue is finally dealt with. Enlightenment happens very quickly. God uses both to break the outward shell of our natural strengths. Most often His discipline comes to us through humans. Unfortunately, many of God's people don't recognize what God is doing through the hand of humans, and we can prolong the process by not recognizing the good hand of God in it (Psalm 66:10-12).

"When the (human) spirit is released, it supplies the needs of the world. No work is more important or thorough than this, and nothing can take its place. The Lord is not so much concerned with your teachings or sermons as He is with the impression you give...Do you impress people with yourself or with the Lord? Do you let people touch your teaching or your Lord?...Do not forget that every contact you make with another, there is something that comes out of you. It is either yourself or God flowing forth..."

Praise You, Lord, for Your loving and faithful and relentless work in our lives. Continue Your dealings with us so that what comes out from us to others is the pure life of Jesus...Amen.

Release of the Spirit - Ch. 7: Dividing and Revelation

In chapter 7 Watchman Nee deals with the importance of having a pure spirit; he emphasizes that purity of spirit is the greatest need in the servant of God: "...the first requirement in God's work is a pure, not a powerful spirit. Those who neglect this, though their work may be done in power, will find it destroyed due to the lack of purity. Though they may truly possess the power of God, yet because their spirit is mixed, they are destroying what they build."

When Nee speaks of mixture, he's referring to the mingling of the person's spirit and soul, so that when he or she ministers, what comes forth is a mixture of the person's cleverness or willfulness along with the gospel that he/she is presenting. I can remember specific instances as a young missionary in which I shared truth with others but it came forth from my soulish powers. In one particular experience, I was sharing truth with a small group; although what I shared was true and good, I sensed the soulish strength of will imposing the truth on my hearers. Later I repented and asked their forgiveness for speaking with mixture in my spirit. Nee says it well: "We are doing the will of God because it happens to coincide with ours. In standing firm for God we are merely expressing our strong personality."

In order to accomplish this purifying work, the Lord must deal with our strong points. This is painful for us because it is in these very points that we are gifted and feel most confident in. But without His touching these natural strengths, we can easily do His work without Him in the energy of the flesh. (Prov. 3:5 contrasts leaning on the natural life with trusting in the Lord.)

God's primary instrument for the dividing of the soul life from the spirit life is the Word of God (Heb. 4:12). God's Word is both living and operative: "'living' refers to its nature, while 'operative' applies to its ability to fulfill the work on man." It is able to discern our innermost thoughts and motives. "You thought you loved sinners while preaching the gospel, but now the light has come, and you discover that your preaching stems mainly from your love of action, your delight in speaking, your natural inclination...Once you assumed that your thoughts and intents were of the Lord, but in this piercing light you know they are entirely of yourself...This unveiling of the real nature of things enlightens us to the true knowledge of what is of ourselves and what is of the Lord, how much is from the soul and how much is from the spirit.

"Deliverance comes from the light of God...So it is that even our denial of the outward man and our determination to reject it will not help...How foolish to imagine that we could expose our sin! Only in His light shall we 'see' and be exposed. It must be His work by the Spirit, not our efforts of the soul..." The soul cannot deal with the soul. Often when we hear truth such as this, we set out to cure ourselves by means of our soulish powers. If we are strong-willed, we determine to take control; if we are strong in our emotions, we feel that we can cure the problem with feeling a certain way; if we are strongly intellectual, we try to reason ourselves out of being ruled by our outward man. Only God by His Spirit with His Word can expose and deal exactly with the soul life; but we must desire Him to do it and ask for His help.

In the context of what Nee is teaching, he points out that we need "revelation" to be able to see ourselves as God sees us; in other words, we should be able to see what is soulish and what is of the spirit in ourselves. "Revelation enables us to see what God sees...Whenever you are enabled to discern the thoughts and intents of your heart, you can be sure your soul and spirit are being divided." Once you have revelation of this, you begin to have an inner knowing, and "on subsequent occasions, whenever it expresses itself we will instantly regret it and judge it...We will henceforth live before the Lord with our spirit released...the Word of God is effective, for it enlightens you to the casting off of the outward man."

I'll close this with the prayer that Nee suggests for one who reaches the point of wanting the light of God to shine and expose the truth of his/her condition:

"O God, I am absolutely unreliable. I do not know whom I am accusing, nor what sin I am confessing. Only in Thy light am I able to know..."

Come, Holy Spirit, and do the work that only You can do, for the sake of Jesus...thank You for Your faithfulness to do this!

Release of the Spirit - Ch. 6: Brokenness and Discipline

In this chapter Watchman Nee underscores the thoroughness of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives. Although the crisis of consecrating or surrendering oneself wholly to God is important, consecration is never a substitute for the follow-up work that He will do from then on.

"Consecration is merely an expression of our willingness to be in the hands of God...It is like entering the gate...It takes consecration plus the discipline of the Holy Spirit to make us vessels fit for the Master's use."

Nee goes on to point out that although our consecration is according to our limited spiritual understanding, the Spirit of God deals with us according to His perfect light, so His dealings with us transcend our consecration. In other words, even though our consecration to Him is weak, He takes it very seriously and does His perfect work with our imperfect understanding.

"Since the Holy Spirit works according to the light of God, His discipline is thorough and complete. We often wonder at things which befall us, yet if left to ourselves we may be mistaken in our very best choice. The discipline He orders transcends our understanding. How often we are caught unprepared and conclude that such a drastic thing is not what we need. Many times His discipline descends upon us suddenly without our having prior notice! We may insist that we are living in 'the light' but the Holy Spirit is dealing with us according to God's light..."

God's way of dealing with our soulish strength (the outward man) is through difficult outward circumstances. He wants the inner man (spirit) to be strong but His way of strengthening the inner man is to weaken the outer man (soul). Many believers struggle on their own trying to make things work without success until a moment comes in which, in desperation, he gives himself as fully as he knows how into the hands of God. "...Herein lies the importance of consecration: it allows the Holy Spirit to work without restriction."

Nee continues by saying that God will not leave one area untouched. "You may even be ignorant of your affinity for a certain thing, but He knows and will deal with it most thoroughly ...Sometimes He will deal with you through others, arranging for you to be with someone whom you are angry with, or whom you despise or are jealous of; very often it is through those who you love."

He will deal with our thought life..."We feign to be wiser than others. Then it is that the Lord allows us to crash into a wall and hit the dust - all to show us that we dare not use our thoughts inordinately..."

He deals with our emotions..."Some people are extremely emotional. When they are elated, they cannot contain themselves; when they are depressed, they cannot be comforted...(God) places them in situations where they dare to be too happy when elated, nor too sad when depressed. They can only depend on the grace of God and live by His mercy..."

And He deals with the will..."the greatest and most prevalent difficulty is with the will...We may be able to mouth the words, 'Not my will but Thine be done,' but how often do we really allow the Lord to take over when things happen?...Only after being dealt with by God do we really see how hard we are and how ready we are to have our own opinion. God must deal with us to make our wills tender and docile. Strong-willed people are convinced that their feelings, ways and judgments are always right. God will allow us to make mistake after mistake until we realize that this will be our pattern for the future...We truly need the grace of the Lord."

Nee finishes this chapter by suggesting that we can know when the power of the outer man is beginning to be destroyed: "...when you dare no longer to trust yourself." To this I want to add that this should not be confused with unhealthy self-hatred. Some people don't trust themselves because of unhealed issues in their lives; some may be naturally reticent and less assertive in their personality, or silent in giving opinions. This doesn't mean that such people don't have strong opinions. The most silent person can have strong opinions burning in himself and even be ignorant of his own condition; but the Lord knows and deals with all that is hidden in His time. (I speak from experience.)

Lord, we praise You that You know us and love us enough to weaken our natural life so that we may live by the spirit. Thank You that, just as a good and loving parent disciplines his child in love because he knows the child will eventually be happier and fruitful as a result, so You care enough to allow us to suffer a little now for great abundance later on! We love you and we love Your ways...

Release of the Spirit - Ch. 5: The Church and God's Work

In chapter five Watchman Nee speaks of how intricately tied together the breaking of the outward man is to God's work.

"It is true to say that God is much restricted by man...There came a time when God committed Himself to human form in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Before the Word became flesh, God's fullness knew no bounds. However, once the incarnation became a reality, His work and His power were limited to this flesh. Will this Man, Christ Jesus, restrict or manifest God?...far from limiting God, He has wonderfully manifested God's fullness. ...The basic teaching of the Gospels is the presence of God in one Man, while that of the Epistles is God in the Church...God formerly dwelt in one Man Jesus Christ, but now God is only in the church, not in any other thing."

It's because of this, Nee says, that the discipline and dealing of the Holy Spirit with His people is critical so that God can have His way with us and have a way through us to the watching world.

Breaking - God's Way of Working
The breaking of the outward man (soul life) will affect how we read and relate to God's Word:

I. Reading the Bible - often we rely on our unrenewed and confused mind to understand the Word of God; the fruit of this is our own thoughts and we don't touch the spirit of the Scriptures. Our own intelligence is an obstacle if we have not been broken. There are two basic requirements for reading the Bible:

a. First, our thought must enter into the thought of the writer of the book (John, Paul, etc.); in other words, our thoughts must be geared into his thoughts. This helps keep us from interpreting the Word subjectively and reading into it what was never intended by the Spirit through the human writer. Without the breaking of the outward man, we cannot do this.

b. Even more importantly, "the Bible is more than words, ideas and thoughts. The most outstanding feature of the Bible is that God's Spirit is released through this Book." Not only does the thought of the writer come forth, but the spirit of the writer united with God's Spirit comes forth and it's only possible to touch that when our spirit has been released, in other words, when the outward man is broken and is no longer a hindrance to the operation of the the inner man (spirit). Nee illustrates this by saying it's like a naughty boy who deliberately breaks a neighbor's window. He is scolded by both the neighbor and then by his mother, but there is a vast difference in the scoldings; the one is ill-tempered and angry in spirit while the mother's scolding is full of love, hope and training. Without the breaking of the outer man, our spirit can't receive the correct spirit of the Word.

II. The ministry of the Word - not only does God want us to understand His Word but He wants to put it as a burden in our spirit to minister to the Church. "In Acts 6:4 we read, 'But we will give ourselves up to prayer and the ministry of the word.' 'Ministry' means serving. So the ministry of the Word means serving people with the word of God." The ability to receive this burden from God and then to deliver it to others comes with the breaking of the outward man.

"Many have the erroneous notion that clever (intelligent) people are best able to be used. How wrong! No matter how clever you are, the outward can never substitute for the inward man...The shell of the outward man must be smashed by God. The more it is shattered, the more the life in the spirit is released...Unless your inward man is released, people can only hear your voice; they cannot touch life..."

III. Preaching the Gospel - we often think that people believe the gospel because they have been mentally convinced of the truth or emotionally stirred by it, but those who respond for either of these reasons alone don't last long. "Intellect and emotion need to be reached, but these alone are insufficient. Mind may reach mind and emotion may reach emotion, but salvation probes much deeper. Spirit must touch spirit. Only when the spirit of the preacher blossoms forth and shines do sinners fall down and capitulate to God."

May the tender mercies of God rest on you this week as you live and walk in Him by faith!

Release of the Spirit - Ch. 4 "How to Know Man"

In chapter four, Watchman Nee teaches about the need to be able to discern the condition of a person's spirit in order to minister effectively. Before going into his teaching on this, I want to make an observation about this as it relates to one of the gifts of the Spirit (the word of knowledge) that the Apostle Paul teaches on in I Corinthians 12. A "word of knowledge" can be given to the believer in a particular moment by the Spirit, enabling him to know something that he doesn't have information about and that would help him minister the grace of God to a person. I believe that what Watchman Nee is speaking about in this chapter is different from that and that the "knowing" or discerning of a person's spirit that he refers to is something we grow into as we submit to the breaking work of the Spirit in our lives. Both ways of knowing are of the Lord and both are intended for the purpose of loving and serving others in the Lord.

Nee starts the chapter saying, "Our effectiveness in service is closely related to our discernment of man's spiritual condition. If God's Spirit enables us through our spirit to know the condition of the person before us, we can then impart the appropriate word. In the Gospels we find that whenever men came to our Lord, He always had a right word...The Lord did not talk to the Samaritan woman about new birth, nor did He tell Nicodemus of living water. The truth of the new birth was for Nicodemus, while the truth of the living water was for the Samaritan woman...Our Lord's words were most appropriate for He knew all men."

We are His Instrumentality
Because it is through His servants that the Lord works, we must go through the discipline of the Spirit. "We must undergo thorough training and strict discipline, for whatever is untouched in us will be left untouched in others...A proud person cannot deal with another with the same condition...The worker is himself first a patient."

Our Own Preparation for Knowing Man
Nee goes on to say that it takes many breakings in many areas of our life for God to be able to use us fully to bless others with His life. "The more one is broken, the more sensitive he is. The more loss one has suffered, the more he has to give...The measure of your service is determined by the degree of discipline and brokenness. Be assured that human emotion or cleverness cannot help."

God's Spirit is given to all believers; however, it's very important that the believer continue to learn from Him throughout life. The more we learn, the more we can discern. (This is not referring to mere mental knowledge but to that knowledge and understanding that comes through obedience and submission to His hand in my life.) Many followers of Jesus are unable to discern the difference between what is of the Lord in a person and what is of human nature.

And so God will touch many different areas of our life so that we can understand and touch the spirit of another person and relate accordingly.

The chapter ends with Nee's giving a primary way by which we discern the real condition of another person and that is through hearing how he talks. "To touch man's spirit we must wait till he opens his mouth and talks. Few ever arrive at the place where they can touch man's spirit without first hearing what he has to say...Matthew 12:34." So no matter what his words are, the spirit behind his words can be discerned by hearing him. "Do not merely pay attention to what he says but especially note his spirit's condition...When you are listening to a conversation, do not allow the topic under discussion to distract you from the spirit."

An example of this from my own life is when I was in conversation with a gentleman who used correct religious language as he talked about God and even about Jesus, but somehow I discerned that there was something amiss. Eventually it came into the open that he was into the new age movement; but I also sensed that he had gotten into that because he was very hungry for the living God and was able to minister into that reality of his life. (When discerning something amiss, it helps to be praying in the Spirit and asking Him for the word that is appropriate for the person.)

Blessings on your week and grace to you as you walk with the Spirit through the various experiences that come by His hand. He is for us!