Top 100 Watchman Nee Quotes
#1. Mere mental assimilation of these truths cannot withstand temptation, however. The revelation of God is positively essential. The Spirit of God must reveal how we are in Christ and how we are united with Him in one.
Watchman Nee
#2. It does not matter what your personal deficiency, or whether it be a hundred and one different things, God has always one sufficient answer, His Son Jesus Christ, and he is the answer to every need.
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#3. 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.
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#4. We recognize already that regeneration of the spirit is the paramount need of man.
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#5. Fellowship means among other things that we are ready to receive of Christ from others. Other believers minister Christ to me, and I am ready to receive.
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#6. An affection which is not inspired by the Lord will soon be transformed into lust. Samson is not alone in the history of man in failing in this regard. Delilah is still cutting the hair of man today!
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#7. 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.
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#8. 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.
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#9. Any action which lacks in obedience is a fall, and any act of disobedience is rebellion.
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#10. Not until we take the place of a servant can He take His place as Lord.
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#11. It is so easy to become more attached to the gifts of God than to the Giver - and even, I should add, to the work of God than to God Himself.
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#12. We should not open our mouths too hastily upon approaching God. On the contrary, we first must ask God to show us what and how to pray before we make our request known to Him. Have we not consumed a great deal of time in the past asking for what we wanted? Why not now ask for what God wants?
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#13. They spend more time in analyzing, in collecting materials, and in hard thinking than on prayer, on seeking God's mind, and on waiting for the power from above.
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#14. True spiritual life depends not on probing our feelings and thoughts from dawn to dusk but on 'looking off' to the Savior!
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#15. If you perform your part, God will fulfill His. And once you put off specifically, you should just as thoroughly believe that God will renew your mind, despite the fact you know not how.
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#16. True revelation of the fact of the Spirit's indwelling will revolutionize the life of any Christian.
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#17. All satanic works are performed from the outside inward; all divine works from the inside outward.
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#18. Without this heart attitude it is exceedingly difficult for us to accept the circumcision of the flesh. Every affection, desire, thought, knowledge, intent, worship, and work of the flesh must go to the cross.
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#19. To secure one's freedom the Christian must experience God's light which is God's truth.
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#20. Our bread is not only the Word of God, our meat is not only to do His will, our bread is also ... the difficulties that are in our way.
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#21. Whenever man touches God's delegated authority he touches God within that person; sinning against delegated authority is sinning against God.
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#22. The reason for so many defeats in the spiritual realm is because this sector of the soul has not been dealt with drastically.
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#23. If any person desires to think, he must possess memory, imagination and reasoning power; but the Christian has presently lost these powers, hence is unable to think.
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#24. The cross grants us position, the Holy Spirit gives us experience.
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#25. 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.
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#26. It is because we know God's will that we may say to Him: God, we want You to do this thing, we are determined that You do it, You cannot but do it.
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#27. Learn to recognize God's sovereignty. Learn to rejoice in God's pleasure. This was Abraham's first lesson, namely that God, not himself, was the Source.
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#28. Many Christians are unaware how drastically the cross must work so that ultimately their natural power for living may be denied.
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#29. 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.
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#30. The idea of waste only comes into our Christianity when we underestimate the worth of our Lord.
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#31. A spiritual Christian should welcome any burden which the Lord brings his way.
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#32. Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God. Therefore he that resisteth the power, withstandeth the ordinance of God: and they that withstand shall receive to themselves judgment.
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#33. At times it seems we require more grace to lose our wealth than to lose our life!
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#34. So we can say, reverently, that God never gave us the Law to keep: he gave us the Law to break! He well knew that we could not keep it.
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#35. The glory which God had in the beginning, even the unapproachable glory of God, was also the Son's glory. The Father and the Son exist equally and are equal in power and possession.
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#36. Do we not realize that the basic condition for a spiritual walk is to fear our self and its wisdom and to rely absolutely upon the Spirit?
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#37. 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.
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#38. One gains by losing self for others and not by hoarding for oneself.
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#39. Man may think human intellect and reasoning are almighty, that the brain is able to comprehend all truths of the world; but the verdict of God's Word is, vanity of vanities.
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#40. [Jesus] said, "Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill. ... For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matt. 9:10-13). Jesus opened up God's heart to men.
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#41. The more spiritual a child of God becomes, the more conscious he is of the significance of walking according to the spirit and the dangers of walking according to the flesh.
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#42. Eternal life means more than mere future blessing to be enjoyed by believers; it is equally a kind of spiritual ability.
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#43. If Christ lives in us, we will rejoice in everything, and we will thank and praise the Lord. We will say, 'Hallelujah! Praise the Lord' forever.
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#44. Towards himself a Christian should have a broken spirit, but towards God it should be one of rejoicing always in Him. He rejoices not for its own sake nor because of any joyful experience, work, blessing or circumstance, but exclusively because God is his center.
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#45. Never adopt an attitude of indifference, for if you do you will suffer for it. The weight will grow heavier and heavier.
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#46. Oh, Lord, you have indeed been gracious to me.
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#47. The burden imparted by God is lifted once we have prayed, but the heaviness from the enemy cannot be raised unless we fight and resist in prayer.
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#48. May the things of this world so lose their power over us that we do not in the slightest wish to be 'worldly'; nay, we even delight in not remaining 'in the world.'
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#49. Every true spiritual experience means that we have discovered a certain fact in Christ and have entered into that. Anything that is not from Him in this way is an experience that is going to evaporate very soon.
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#50. Do not be impatient for impatience is of the flesh. Do not try different methods because they are useful solely in helping the flesh. We must distrust the flesh entirely.
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#51. Just as the right relationship with Christ generates a Christian, so the proper relationship with the Holy Spirit breeds a spiritual man.
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#52. And it is through conflict that God induces the believer to seek and to grasp total triumph in Christ.
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#53. We may be weak, but looking at our weakness will never make us strong.
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#54. If the mind is open the individual will soon perceive the preciousness of a truth which initially appeared rather dull to him but now is illumined by the spirit's light.
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#55. Outside Christ, I am empty; in Christ, I am full.
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#56. A mistaken thought may be corrected easily, but an errant affection is nearly unmanageable.
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#57. The Spirit is both a builder and a dweller. He cannot dwell where he has not built; He builds to dwell and dwells in only what he has built.
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#58. As God's child advances spiritually be shall discover that the Lord's time is as important as the Lord's will. Do not rashly beget an Ishmael lest he become the greatest enemy to Isaac.
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#59. The Christian experience, from start to finish, is a journey of faith.
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#60. Faith in Christ makes one a regenerated believer; obedience to the Holy Spirit makes him a spiritual believer.
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#61. With complete consecration comes perfect peace.
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#62. Genuine spiritual knowledge lies not in wonderful and mysterious thoughts but in actual spiritual experience through union of the believer's life with truth.
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#63. 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.
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#64. 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.
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#65. It is not only the proclamation of the whole truth that is needed today; it is the release of the spiritual reality which the truth expresses, and that can only be realized as we allow ourselves to be caught into the mighty on-flowing tide of the Spirit.
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#66. God does not blame me for being an individual, but for my individualism. His greatest problem is not the outward divisions and denominations that divide His church, but our own individualistic hearts.
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#67. Victory is the normal experience of a Christian; defeat should be the abnormal experience.
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#68. Henceforth we are dead to everything pertaining to ourselves and alive to His Spirit alone. This requires our exercising faith.
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#69. Do not be taken in or flattered by your own success or fame. Take not only as to whether or not the old creation, including everything which comes by birth, has gone through the cross.
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#70. The soul seeks to retain its authority and move independently, while the spirit strives to possess and master everything for the maintenance of God's authority.
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#71. God will not give me humility, or patience, or holiness, or love as separate investments of His grace. He has given only one gift to meet our need, His Son Christ Jesus.
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#72. God's ways with us are all designed to establish in us this other principle, namely, that our work for Him springs out of our ministering to Him. I do not mean that we are going to do nothing; but the first thing for us must be the Lord Himself, not His work.
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#73. May we always be possessed by the consciousness that we are not our own.
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#74. I want nothing for myself; I want everything for the Lord.
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#75. 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.
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#76. Most soulish believers assume an attitude of self-righteousness, though often it is scarcely detectable. They hold tenaciously to their minute opinions we ought to lay aside the small differences and pursue the common objective.
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#77. We must not pay attention just to reading and studying; rather, we should ask if we are open before the Lord. If we do not have an unveiled face, the glory of the Lord will not shine on us. If our heart is not open to God, God cannot give us any light.
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#78. Separation to God, separation from the world, is the first principle of Christian living.
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#79. Let us not argue over our being labeled as either spiritual or carnal. If we are not governed by the Holy Spirit what profit will the mere designation of spiritual be to us? This is after all a matter of life, not of title.
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#80. It is not a matter of how many loaves we have in our hands, but whether or not God has blessed them.
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#81. Prayer does not alter that which God has determined; it never changes anything. It merely achieves what He has already foreordained.
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#82. We may love to say many things, but if these are not uttered in the Holy Spirit it is better to say nothing. The flesh can conjure up many plans and methods and be full of expectations. The righteousness of the flesh is as abhorrent as its sin we must always maintain God's view of the flesh.
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#84. The life of faith can be called the life of the will since faith is impervious to how one feels but chooses through volition to obey God's mind.
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#85. The electric bulb cannot give light without electricity. Likewise, you cannot change yourself if today you are cut off from Christ. If there be any change or difference in you, it is not because you yourself have changed, for all is in Christ. Such is the way of God's salvation.[2]
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#86. When the fruit of your service is out of all proportion to the gifts you possess, THAT is Blessing!
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#87. Only those who are spiritual perceive the reality of the spiritual foe and hence engage in battle. Such warfare is not fought with arms of the flesh. Because the conflict is spiritual so must the weapons.
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#88. 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.
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#89. The book of Acts is the best aid in approaching our work. We do not find there anyone consecrating himself as a preacher nor anyone deciding to do the Lord's work by making himself a missionary or a pastor. What we do see is the Holy Spirit Himself appointing and sending men out to do the work.
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#90. Irrespective of how we physiologically are made, even possessing special weaknesses, we can overcome our sins through the Lord.
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#91. If we just had more revelation of what we already have, there would be far less prayers and far more praise.
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#92. The Blood deals with what we have done, whereas the Cross deals with what we are. The Blood disposes of our sins, while the Cross strikes at the root of our capacity for sin.
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#93. On at least four separate occasions and recorded in the four Gospels the Lord Jesus called His disciples to deny their soul life, deliver it to death, and then to follow Him.
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#94. The first and foremost sign of new birth in anyone is that he knows God intuitively, for his spirit has been quickened.
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#95. None who are shod with fleshly shoes can stand on the holy ground of God's service. Many failures and much waste and confusion which have resulted are due to men's coming to work, instead of being sent out to work.
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#96. Frequently the burden or concern in the spirit is for prayer.
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#97. To keep our hand on the plow while wiping away our tears
THAT is Christianity!
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#98. God will answer all our questions in one way and one way only. Namely, by showing us more of his Son.
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#99. A person who wholly follows the Lord is one who believes that the promises of God are trustworthy, that He is with His people, and that they are well able to overcome.
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#100. Lord, I do not know fully what the value of the blood is, but I know that the blood has satisfied Thee; so the blood is enough for me, and it is my only plea.
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