[kisstheson]

Originally Posted by Oregon

I remember back in my 20's in the early 70's being in a small gathering and and Witness Lee told us about this event in China of the saints giving all....but he told us this should never be enforced and should only be done when it is a spontaneous move of the Lord.

Hello dear Oregon,

That is a most interesting testimony. Surely the Scriptural (and God-honoring) way to proceed with something like “handing over” is exactly as WL stated – never enforced and only done when it is a spontaneous move of the Lord. This certainly matches the marvelous record in Acts 4:32-37.

It seems that when such a move of the Lord is taking place, the supreme test for all the believers consists in how will they handle those brothers and sisters who do not feel led to participate. How to handle the ones who did not “hand over”? In this regard, the “handing over” movement in China in the late 1940’s was not as pure as WL described. The portion from LSM’s The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 51, Church Affairs, p. 121, shows that a kind of pressure was exerted downward by Watchman Nee himself regarding this matter of handing over:

Someone, who was either a co-worker of WN’s or an elder in one of the churches asked WN:

“Question: In a certain locality, not everyone has given up all. Some have given up all, and some have not. What shall we do about taking care of the practical affairs?

To this question WN replied:

“Answer: We cannot use people who have not been gained by God. As many people as God has gained, we will use. We have to be cautious of the rest of the people. We must endeavor to bring them over to God’s side. We need to continue working until that happens.”

This answer grieves me greatly. The details given in this answer are not Scriptural and are not God-honoring. The ones who had “handed over” were to be cautious about “the rest of the people”?! Those who did not “hand over” could not be used for the service of God?! Where is the spontaneous move of the Lord if you need to "endeavor" to bring "the rest of the people" over to God's side? This is certainly not the attitude that the apostle Peter had in his answer to brother Ananias in Acts 5:4. This answer by WN, sad to say, does not honor the Lord as the Head of His spontaneous movement; rather, this answer puts the hands of men all over the move of God.