[Trapped]

Originally Posted by JJ

Today’s quote from Watchman Nee: “How true it is that without the guidance of the Holy Spirit intellect not only is undependable but also extremely dangerous, because it often confuses the issue of right
and wrong.”

Where did this quote come from, Unto Him?

I don’t want to say anything about it without context.

I'll go ahead and say something about it without context because it reminded me of a section in A Timely Word that I came across recently that I really revolted about:

Question: Some of the saints may hear some rumors or some gossip. They may not become negative themselves or cause some trouble, but the symptom in many cases is that they become discouraged. They lose their heart for the church life. They lose their confidence in the Lord’s recovery. There are many cases where this causes them to question the leadership in their church or the ministry among us. This last training on Leviticus was a real medicine, a real balm, and a real help. But I am concerned that many of us may have certain cases in our church where brothers or sisters are not negative, but they heard some gossip or rumor, which may be totally unfounded. There may be some element in what they heard that causes them to question. They themselves are not opposing, and they do not form a party. But they lose all their enjoyment, they lose all their heart, and they lose all their confidence. In many cases they do not even express what they heard, but there is a kind of withdrawing from the church life and a withdrawing from the service. This is a real weakening to these saints. How can we help this kind of brother or sister either in a public way or a personal way?

Answer: In 1942 there was a big turmoil in the church in Shanghai. That caused the church in Shanghai to close its doors and also caused Brother Nee to stop his ministry for six years. When that turmoil occurred, I was not in Shanghai. After the war in 1946, I went back to Shanghai, and the church there opened its doors. But there was a very small number of saints meeting together compared to their number before 1942. There were only about eighty or ninety saints at the Lord’s table. Many saints were offended in this turmoil, and all the arrows were being shot at Brother Nee. He was the target of the attacks. Because I was not there and I am not a person who wants to hear negative things, I am still not fully clear concerning all the problems in the church in Shanghai at that time. When I returned to the church in Shanghai in 1946, I had just recovered from a very serious illness. During the two and a half years of my sickness and recovery, I learned a lot. Mainly, I learned about the two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Some of the saints in Shanghai had been very dear to me in the Lord for years. They came to me and checked with me in this way: “Brother Lee, do you believe that Brother Watchman Nee has never made any mistake?” What should my answer have been? Yes or no?

I was not bothered about this question because I learned in my sickness some lessons concerning the two trees. I checked with the saints who came to me in this way: “Before you condemned Brother Nee as being wrong in certain things, how was your spiritual life?” They responded in a very positive way that their spiritual life was wonderful. They were living and absolutely for the church. Then I asked, “How about now?” Many times they would weep and tell me that they felt lost and that they had lost their heart. They said that the Lord was still with them but that they had lost interest. In other words, their experience after condemning Brother Nee was altogether negative. Then I responded, “Brother, if your saying that Brother Nee is wrong and your condemning of him are something proper, your spiritual life should be better than it was before. Why is it that after condemning him and saying negative things about him, your spiritual life has become so poor?” This kind of fellowship was able to rescue a great number of saints in Shanghai. The saints there came to me one by one in this way. I simply checked with them how their spiritual life was before this negative speaking and how it was afterward. They all saw that there was a great difference, and they repented.

I think that we can help the saints in the same way. We can ask them if what they heard helped them in their spiritual life. If it helps them, they should take it. If it does not help them, it must be something of the enemy. Whether the thing you heard is true or not, as long as your hearing has a negative influence on your spiritual life, you should not take it. It was not the saints’ business to judge whether Brother Nee was wrong or not wrong. Even if what they did was right, what was the result of their doing? The result was to deaden people. Even a little talk about something negative will deaden you. We must help the saints to go along with their inner life and to keep their spiritual life from becoming deadened, hurt, or poisoned by anything. We should help the saints to avoid anything that would deaden, hurt, or poison their spiritual life. This kind of fellowship that I had with the saints in Shanghai from 1946 to 1948 issued in the repentance of hundreds of saints. Hundreds repented and came back to the church life. Many went to Brother Nee and repented to him directly.

I know saints who would read something like that and do the audible groaning thing that shows they are really touched about something, whereas I read it and see a big dancing game with smoke and mirrors trying to get saints to be distracted away from a real problem. "Whether the thing you heard is true or not, as long as your hearing has a negative influence on your spiritual life, you should not take it."?? Excuse me? If something immoral or improper happens, the logical impact of it would be to affect you and often as a side effect affect your spiritual life and send you spinning. To tell people they should not take anything negative REGARDLESS OF IF IT IS TRUE OR NOT is just an insane statement that makes me grieve for everyone reading this stuff who don't see the reality of what they are reading. Argh!!