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Watchman Nee’s Salvation and Calling
In another place, Watchman Nee himself relates the
details of his calling by the Lord:
During the period between 1921 and 1923, revival
meetings were held to lead people to the Lord. At that time preaching the
gospel was believed to be the unique work for God. But God opened my eyes to
see that His purpose requires that those who have been saved by grace stand
upon the ground of oneness in local churches to represent and maintain God’s
testimony on earth. Some of my co-workers had different views of the truth
concerning the church. But when I carefully studied the book of Acts, I
realized that God’s wish is to establish local churches in every city. At that
time the light shone upon me so clearly that I recognized that this is His
purpose.
At the same time I received this light, a problem
arose with some co-workers who held different views regarding important points
of our work. This resulted in friction among us. They felt that we should be
zealous in revival and gospel preaching work and that the fruit of such work
could be easily seen. My view, however, was to establish local churches with
less stress on the revival and preaching side. When an older co-worker went
out to hold gospel meetings, as he frequently did, I was at times tempted to
secretly hold revival gospel meetings of my own. However, instead of doing
this, when he was away, I immediately acted according to the vision I had
received. Upon his return, he would undo what I had done and work according to
his concept. But when he was again absent, I would go back to my previous way.
Consequently, we oscillated back and forth on this matter all the time. Since
the light each of us had received in respect to the work was different, our
ways of working were also different. One way was that of revival and
evangelism, while the other way was that of establishing local churches. What
the Lord revealed to me was extremely clear: Before long He would raise up
local churches in various parts of China. Whenever I closed my eyes, the
vision of the birth of local churches appeared. [Editor’s note: By 1949, there
were about four to five hundred local churches being raised up all over
China.]…
When the Lord called me to serve Him, the prime
object was not for me to hold revival meetings so that people might hear more
scriptural doctrines, nor for me to become a great evangelist. The Lord
revealed to me that He wanted to build up local churches in other localities
to manifest Himself, to bear testimony of unity on the ground of locality so
that each saint might perform his duty in the church and live the church life.
God wants not merely individual pursuit of victory or spirituality, but a
corporate, glorious church presented to Himself.
(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 2, Vol.
26, 479)
MORE QUOTES...
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