WATCHMEN NEE

His life still speaks, quietly with a seed that continues to grow

It was in the silence of early-twentieth century China that God reached down and grabbed ahold of a young man’s heart. Christ had found him in the quiet, and never after would the world be able to contain him. He did not walk in robes of status. He did not seek platforms of power. But through his voice, thousands of sleepers were awakened.

Through his suffering, generations were strengthened. And through his life of hiddenness, the beauty of the cross became made visible. Such was the life of Watchman Nee. Nee Shu-tsu was born in 1903 in Foochow, a coastal city in southeastern China. He grew up in an educated Christian household. He was sharp, intense, and intellectually gifted from a young age. Religion swarmed all around him, but it had not yet struck deep within.

Then, at the age of seventeen, as sin became unveiled and Christ’s beauty was displayed through the ministry of evangelist Dora Yu, he knelt in submission and gave his heart to Christ. It was as if Christ had replaced his name that day. For Nee laid down his name, his ambition, and his future, and took up a name straight from the mouth of God: “Watchman.”

WATCHMAN NEE QUOTES

“A drowning man cannot be saved until he is utterly exhausted and ceases to make the slightest effort to save himself.”

“Man's thought is always of the punishment that will come to him if he sins. God's thought is always of the glory man will miss if he sins. God's purpose for redemption is glory, glory, glory.”

“Lord, I am willing to break MY heart that I might satisfy THY heart.”

“He who is able to accept everything gladly from the Lord - including darkness, dryness, flatness - and completely disregard self is he who lives for Him."

Watchman watched and saw a nation slumbering and compassionately cried out to God to awaken them. He drank in the words of Scripture and godly men with great hunger. He read Madame Guyon. He studied Andrew Murray. He digested T. Austin-Sparks, as well as others. But Nee wasn’t content to simply read their books. He knelt at the feet of Jesus until he was changed by what he read. He never went to seminary. He had no earthly training. But men and women were transformed by the fire that poured out of his mouth.

At twenty-five years old, Watchman Nee began hosting house churches. Small groups would meet in tiny rooms to hear Christ revealed. He planted his life into their hearts: stressing not denomination, but union with Christ. Not ministry or miraculous gifts, but dying to self and the resurrection that follows. But Christ in you…was the anthem of his life and the message of his ministry.

Everything he did splintered strongholds: That Jesus Christ lives in you. That the cross penetrates deeply. That the Christian life is a dying-to-live. He wrote: There will come a day when God will answer all our questions, but not until then. We will know all about Him by knowing more of Jesus Christ.

Watchman Nee believed that God shattered us to make us more like His Son. Where there is nothing, Christ can be everything. Nee’s churches were not built upon the bricks of Western academia that he had so heavily studied. They were natural, organic and built not on programs, but intimate fellowship. And grow they did.

But by man’s standards, Watchman Nee’s influence in China should have died when he did. After emerging victorious over communism in places like Russia and Spain, Christianity threatened the new Communist leaders of China. So in 1952, they arrested Watchman Nee on false charges. Though sentenced to fifteen years in prison, he would never leave his inland prison. For the next twenty years, Watchman Nee would rot in darkness. Though he wrote very little, he never penned a greater words than those scratched on the paper behind his cell door when he was arrested. Christ is the Son of God…who died for the redemption of sinners and rose again… This is the greatest truth in the universe. I die believing in Christ. There is victory in Jesus!

Though no one will read it, he continued to write until his death in 1972. The life that had been increasingly hidden in Christ was now completely spent for Him. Silent in China, Watchman Nee spoke volumes into people's life. He reminds us that the cross is not only our ticket of entry into faith, it is also our journey.

Brokenness is not the antichrist of ministry, but the very womb that births it. And often it i not the loud voice that pleases God, but the humble heart that He uses. He quietly points to Calvary and reminds us that authority comes not when we’re lifted up, but when we are laid low. And though it may seem that God has forgotten your name, let the life of Watchman Nee remind you that if we die hidden in Christ, we will live to shake the nations.

Let us run the race set before us, forgetting those things which are behind and pressing on toward those things which are ahead. Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hidden in Christ, we will shake the world.

FAITHFUL SERVANT

Major Books & Publications

• The Normal Christian Life (1938–1939): Arguably his most famous work, this book focuses on Romans 5-7, covering the blood of Christ, the cross, and how to get victory over sin.

• The Spiritual Man (屬靈人, 1928): A comprehensive three-volume work outlining the trichotomistic view of man (spirit, soul, and body) and the path of spiritual maturity.

• Sit, Walk, Stand (坐行站, 1957): An analysis of the Epistle to the Ephesians, focusing on the believer's position in Christ.

• Spiritual Authority (1941): Deals with the nature of God's authority, submission, and delegation in the context of the church.

• Love Not the World (1951): Addresses the believer’s relationship with the world and the dangers of worldliness.

• The Breaking of the Outer Man and the Release of the Spirit (1950): Focuses on the necessity of breaking the natural life to allow the spirit to be released.

• The Song of Songs (1945): An allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs regarding the individual believer's relationship with God.

• The Normal Christian Church Life (1938): Discusses the principles of establishing local churches.

• A Table in the Wilderness (Daily Devotional): A collection of 365 daily meditations.

Key Collections

• The Collected Works of Watchman Nee (62 Volumes): Published by Living Stream Ministry, this is a comprehensive collection of his messages, books, and articles from 1922 to 1952.

• Notes on Scriptural Messages: A series of pamphlets focusing on the edification of new believers. 

Key Magazines Published

• The Christian (基督徒報)

• The Present Testimony (復興報)

• The Open Door 

Prominent Themes

• Christ Our Life: Nee stressed that Christianity is not just behavior modification, but Christ living through the believer.

• Spirit, Soul, and Body: A deep emphasis on distinguishing between the soul (personality/mind) and the spirit.

• The Local Church: Advocated for churches to be organized only by their locality (city) rather than denomination.

• Spiritual Warfare: Viewed warfare as a corporate battle carried out by the church as the Body of Christ.

Key Biographical Works on Nee

• Against the Tide by Angus Kinnear: A well-known biography detailing his life and ministry.

• Watchman Nee: A Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age by Witness Lee.