Watchman Nee Quotes

128 Sourced Quotes

God will answer all our questions in one way and one way only. Namely, by showing us more of his Son.

Watchman Nee
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
We may infer from any defeat of ours that it is due either to lack of faith or failure to obey. No other reason can suffice.

Watchman Nee
Frequently the enemy entices Christians to harbor an unforgiving spirit - a very common symptom indeed among God's children. Such bitterness and fault-finding and enmity inflict a severe blow upon spiritual life.

Watchman Nee
The cross grants us position, the Holy Spirit gives us experience.

Watchman Nee
Nothing is wrong with the inlet: It is the outlet that is obstructed. The water of life does not spring forth because the flow has no way through. Were the outlet cleared, the water of life would flow unceasingly. What a child of God needs is not more life but more flow of life.

Watchman Nee
The Christian life from start to finish is based upon this principle of utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus.

Watchman Nee
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
A spiritual Christian therefore is one whose spirit is led by God's Spirit... Perhaps their speech does convey truth, but without the quickening of the Holy Spirit even truth is of small advantage.

Watchman Nee
Only as they cease to seek anything by themselves and only as they take the position of the teachable shall they be taught by the Spirit truth which they are able to digest.

Watchman Nee
The clerical system of church management is exceedingly popular, but the whole thought is foreign to Scripture. In a church all the members are active. He [God] appointed some to take oversight of the work so that it might be carried on efficiently. It was never His thought that the majority of the believers should devote themselves exclusively to secular affairs and leave church matters to a group of spiritual specialists.

Watchman Nee
A Christian ought to realize what the weights laid on his spirit are. If he encounters it in the morning and does not deal with it at once, he experiences defeat the whole day long.

Watchman Nee
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
It is highly dangerous to receive the truths of the Bible with human wisdom, for this is a hidden and subtle method which invariably causes a believer to perfect with his flesh the work of the Holy Spirit.

Watchman Nee
True spiritual life depends not on probing our feelings and thoughts from dawn to dusk but on 'looking off' to the Savior!

Watchman Nee
For God to reveal His Son in us is not the result of research or searching; it is entirely a matter of mercy and revelation. It is an inward seeing, an inner knowing.

Watchman Nee
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
Prayer is the acid test of the inner man's strength. A strong spirit is capable of praying much and praying with all perseverance until the answer comes. A weak one grows weary and fainthearted in the maintenance of praying.

Watchman Nee
Nowadays Christians appear to treat prayer as a means to accomplish their aims and ideas. If they possessed just a little deeper understanding, they would recognize that prayer is but man uttering to God what is God's will.

Watchman Nee
I must first have the sense of God's possession of me before I can have the sense of His presence with me.

Watchman Nee
One gains by losing self for others and not by hoarding for oneself.

Watchman Nee
Negligence in prayer withers the inner man. Nothing can be a substitute for it, not even Christian work. Many are so preoccupied with work that they allow little time for prayer. Hence they cannot cast out demons. Prayer enables us first inwardly to overcome the enemy and then outwardly to deal with him.

Watchman Nee
Our old history ends with the Cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.

Watchman Nee
Because the Lord Jesus died on the Cross, I have received forgiveness of sins; because the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, I have received new life; because the Lord Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of the Father, I have received the outpoured Spirit. All is because of Him; nothing is because of me.

Watchman Nee
God asks for men who are totally broken and who will follow Him even to death to work for Him....

Watchman Nee
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 greatest negative in the universe is the Cross, for with it God wiped out everything that was not of Himself: the greatest positive in the universe is the resurrection, for through it God brought into being all.

Watchman Nee
If you would test the character of anything, you only need to enquire whether that thing leads you to God or away from God.

Watchman Nee
Frequently the burden or concern in the spirit is for prayer.

Watchman Nee
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