Who is watchman nee

Watchman Nee became a Christian in mainland China in at the age of seventeen and began writing in the same year. Throughout the nearly thirty years of his ministry, Watchman Nee was clearly manifested as a unique gift from the Lord to His Body for His move in this age. In he was imprisoned for his faith; he remained in prison until his death in His words remain an abundant source of spiritual revelation and supply to Christians throughout the world.

For a young man with such capacity and such dreams as Nee, this realization created great inner turmoil. Not long after hearing the gospel preached that day, however, Nee was alone in his room and recognized that he had no peace. Troubled, he was unable to sleep, so he knelt down to pray. One after another, his sins came before him. He saw that he was a sinner. He also saw a wounded Savior on the cross, with open arms waiting to receive him.

Overwhelmed by such love, Nee wept. He confessed his sinfulness to the Lord and immediately felt the burden of sin lifted. For the first time in his life he felt real peace and joy. His immediate and willing response was to consecrate himself to the Lord for His service for the rest of his life. After his salvation, Watchman Nee immediately sought to know the Lord Jesus in the Word of God and through classic Christian books and the spiritual writings of other believers.

Nee Shu-tsu was exceptionally intelligent. From his entrance into elementary school through his graduation from the Anglican Trinity College in Foochow, he ranked first in his class as well as in his school.

With many grand dreams and plans for his future, he could have been a great success in the world. In at the age of seventeen and after considerable struggle, Nee Shu-tsu was dynamically saved while in high school. At the moment of his salvation, his plans for his future were entirely abandoned. Watchman Nee did not attend theological schools or Bible institutes.

Watchman Nee received revelation through his diligent study of the Word. Many of his practices are included in his book How to Study the Bible. In the early days of his ministry, he spent a third of his income on his personal needs, a third on helping others, and the remaining third on spiritual books. He acquired a collection of more than three thousand of the best Christian books, including nearly all the classical Christian writings from the first century forward.

He had a phenomenal ability to select, comprehend, discern, and memorize relevant material, and he could quickly grasp and retain the main points of a book. Thus, he was able to glean from these books the important scriptural truths and spiritual principles that the Lord has made known throughout church history and also to incorporate them into his Christian life and church life experience.

Watchman Nee received much enlightenment and help from the following Christian writers related to the points of truth:. Early in his Christian life, he also received much spiritual edification and perfection from Margaret E. Barber, an Anglican missionary in China. Through her shepherding, he learned to pay more attention to the operation of the divine life within him than to mere outward work Phil. Watchman Nee received a wealth of revelation from the Word; he truly saw the content of the divine revelation.

The core of the revelation he received involved the living of a crucified life and a resurrected life for the church life.

Watchman Nee realized that we, as believers, have been crucified with Christ and that the normal Christian experience involves Christ living in us through our experience of bearing the cross in our practical human situations Gal.

Watchman Nee saw that we, as believers, had not only died with Christ but were also raised with Him Rom. Through his experience of the resurrection life of the indwelling Christ, Watchman Nee was able to bear the cross and to participate in the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death Phil.

In the resurrection life of Christ, he was empowered to abandon the world, forsake his future, and deny himself in order to be freed from sin and to overcome Satan. In the resurrection life of Christ, he also served the Lord, worked for Him, and carried out His commission. In delivering messages, contacting people, writing articles, corresponding with the believers, and even in taking care of small matters, he endeavored to live according to the resurrection life of Christ.

With such a living as his constitution, he was able to pass through his extended imprisonment and eventual martyrdom. Watchman Nee also saw that the church as the Body of Christ was simply the enlargement, expansion, and expression of the resurrected Christ. His vision of the church as the Body of Christ in resurrection was far advanced.

His ministry concerning the crucified and resurrected Christ was a stewardship of grace that ministered the resurrected Christ into the believers for the building up of His Body.

The divine revelation that Watchman Nee saw resulted in a twofold burden and commission from the Lord: First, to bear the testimony of the Lord Jesus and, second, to establish local churches. The Lord specifically burdened and commissioned him to bear testimony to this truth. The "Little Flock" began in with a few members and in less than 20 years grew to become more than congregations with 70, members. At that time some estimated that out of the ,,, member Protestant church community in China, the "Little Flock" had , members.

Regardless of the numbers, this year-old Christian movement proved to itself to be a tremendous achievement. Even under Communist oppression and persecution during the 50's and 60's, the "Little Flock" continued to grow. And today, the movement is still active throughout China. Moreover, the distinctive "Little Flock" theology, practice and spirituality is rooted in many Chinese Christian circles whether in China or overseas.

During the early decades of Protestant missions in China, Western colonialism and imperialism coincided with the work of the gospel. Christianity was identified with opium due to the fact that many missionaries traveled along the coast on opium carrying merchant ships. As western aggression increased, anti-foreign sentiments rose.

Nationalistic sentiments surfaced to form a series of anti-imperial aggression movements. By the s, even though the Protestant Church had missionary growth, the anti-foreign and anti-Christian disposition was aroused by the growing Communist movement.

It is during this time that the rise of indigenous church movements in China was prominent. This movement was an expression of a nationalistic yearning to be independent from Western missionary domination. The time until was significant for the development of higher education, church organization and for the rise and increasing importance of Chinese leaders.

Up until the victory of the Communist in Christianity seemed to be increasingly influential. Subsequently, Christian churches and institutions were taken over by the state. Churches were forcibly closed and Christians were forced to conform to the requirements and teachings of Communism. Those who disobeyed the 'Communist doctrines' were persecuted or fled. It is with this political and social background that shaped Watchman Nee's life, ministry and martyrdom.

Nee was the third child of nine, but the first male child. Since Chinese tradition favors sons, relatives despised families with no male children. When Nee's mother was expecting the third child she prayed to God earnestly asking for a son and dedicated this third child to God similar to Hannah in 1 Samuel God heard her prayer. Nee later changed his name to "Duo Sheng" "Watchman" in English meaning, "sound of the gong," or a watchman to raise the people of God for service.

And in all areas he showed extraordinary intellectual promise. When he was 18 years of age, Nee dedicated his life to Christ through the preaching of Miss Dora Yu, an ex-medical student, who forfeited a lucrative occupation and dedicated her life to the preaching of the word of Christ.

Nee, at that time, knew it was all or nothing. When he was baptized, he declared, "Lord, I leave my world behind. Your cross separates me from it forever, and I have entered into another. I stand where you have placed me in Christ! They set up their own meetings and engaged in vigorous street evangelism. Between the years , Nee published the magazines Revival and Christian , as well as the book The Spiritual Man. Nee was instrumental in the spiritual revival among students at that time.

During that time, he had a good measure of disdain for denominational churches of that day. In the magazine, Revival , he expressed that he believed the church was hindering the purpose of God. According to Nee, many ministries done "for the Lord," "in the name of God," "for the kingdom of God," "for the Church of Christ" were being done in the flesh. People are not seeking for God's will but the will of their own 2.

He was seeking "an answer to the imported problem of denominational divisions whose history and value were, he felt, nearly impossible for a new convert to appreciate.

By afflicting the potential Church in China with their sectarian differences, the missions were tending only to divide it. He saw that churches in China should be self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating This "three-self" concept was reminiscent of a missions strategy adopted by Henry Venn and Rufus Anderson in the 19th century which later was used by the Chinese Communist Party.

It was at this time Nee set up the first independent assembly at Hardoon Road in Shanghai. He was the main speaker at the first Shanghai conference of this new movement, which was later known as the "Little Flock. Thus, the movement acquired the name the "Little Flock.

By , there were 30 assemblies. As believers moved to new communities, their homes became Christian centers. However, Nee also commissioned full-time workers, he called 'apostles', to move about without restraint to evangelize as well as establish new churches.