[NeitherFirstnorLast]

Originally Posted by Igzy

He (Witness Lee) was a very impressive person. Not in the way of being charismatic or physically striking. You would just really sense the presence of God when you were around him....

Anointed just means full of the presence of the Holy Spirit. It means a real sense that the words are bringing you closer to God. They don't seem empty or dry but rich with the water of life. It's an experiential thing.

Good morning brother,

Thank you for answering those questions - I appreciate your honesty, and your testimony. If you would permit me, I would now like to offer some of those answers of mine that you asked about... and in doing that I want to reiterate that I wasn't there with you - any of you - who were with Witness Lee in the flesh. To my mind, that should not detract from what I have to say about his teachings, as I think they've been very faithfully relayed both here and in the published LSM literature. I also have the experience of being a part of Lee's legacy, of seeing both damaged saints and those who are still a part of the group. I have spoken to them, worshipped with them, and lived with them.

Igzy, I want to start with your quote above. You can see that I have italicized and bolded what I would say are your "key words" in defining an "anointing" or "anointed leader." Such a thing, you say, should be sensed.

I would like to share with you some quotes from a book Watchman Nee published in Chinese earlier in his ministry, about such things as these senses.

"....Satan's first work as deceiver... (is) working upon an innocent creature's highest and purest desires, and cloaking his own purpose of ruin, under the guise of seeking to lead a human being nearer to God."

"Caught with the bait of being 'wise' and 'like God', Eve is blinded to the principle involved in obedience to God, and is DECEIVED (1 Timothy 2:14)"

"The keenest way in which the Devil deceives the world, and the Church, is when he comes in the guise of somebody, or something, which apparently causes them to go God-ward"

"The arch-deceiver is not only the deceiver of the whole unregenerate world, but of the children of God also; with this difference, that in the deception he seeks to practice upon the saints, he changes his tactics, and works with acutest strategy, in wiles of error, and deception concerning thing of God (Matthew 24:24, 2nd Cor 11:3,13-15)"

"When he (the formerly fleshy or carnal Christian) emerges into the heavenly places, described by Paul in the Epistle to the Ephesians, he will find himself in the very keenest workings of the wiles of the deceiver, where the deceiving spirits are actively at work attacking those who are united to the Risen Lord."

"The believers highest experience of union with the Lord, and in the "high places" of the spiritual maturity of the Church, will the keenest and closest battle be fought with the deceiver and his hosts."

"The peril of the Church at the close of the age is, therefore, from supernatural beings who are "hypocrites", who pretend what they are not, who give "teachings" which appear to make for greater holiness, by producing ascetic severity to the "flesh", but who themselves are wicked and unclean and bring those they deceive into contact with the foulness of their presence."

"Working in the line of teaching, deceiving spirits will insert their "lies" spoken in hypocrisy, into "holiness" teaching, and deceive believers about sin, themselves, and all other truths connected with the spiritual life."

"texts are aptly picked out from over a wide field, and so netted together as to appear to give a full revelation of the mind of God; but the intervening passages, giving historical setting, actions and circumstances connected with the speaking of the words, and other elements which give light on each separate text, are skillfully dropped out."

"truth alone dispels the deceptive doctrines of the teaching spirits of Satan: the truth of God, not merely "views of truth".

"dependence upon a Christ within... is really a resting upon an inward experience, and a turning from the Christ in Heaven, which actually blocks the avenue for the inflow of His life, and disassociates the believers from co-operation with Him by the Spirit."

"The counterfeit "presence" of God is nearly always manifested as "love", to which the believer opens himself without hesitation, and finds it fills and satiates his innermost being, but the deceived one does not know that he has opened himself to the activity of evil spirits in the deepest need of his inner life".

Igzy, Watchman Nee considered these words so anointed and true that he translated them into Chinese for his people, and taught them in his Little Flock. Many years later, Witness Lee would refute all of the teachings in this book,and openly castigated it and it's original author - as well as Nee's "misdirected" acceptance of such a work.... but that's because it blows Lee's theology out of the water, and it does that with Biblical teaching, Biblical truth. Feelings, senses, and experiences are not to be trusted.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9

"For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." Matthew 15:19


Can God allow His people, His chosen, to be deceived? Absolutely. Even the disciples, at the Last Supper, when Christ told them that one among them was about to betray Him, did not turn their eyes to Judas. Even when Christ exposed him, by saying that "he who dips his bread into the bowl with me" was the one, they did not believe it. Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve, he was sent out to preach the gospel, to cast out evil spirits and to heal the sick... and apparently, he did all those things - why else was he never suspected? ...And yet it were better for that man had he never been born.

Paul said, in 2nd Corinthians 11:12-16 "I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us (apostles) in the things they boast about. For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve."

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Interesting you should mention the Keswick Revival, as the quotes above were from a member of the Body whom the Lord raised up in that very place in time. Jesse Penn Lewis, and her book "War on the Saints". Nee was right to translate this work and teach it. The truths expose and cut to the quick, and that can be painful... but the truth also sets free... Praise the Lord!