Table Of Content

The Communion of the Holy Spirit W N ATCHMAN EE Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc. New York Copyright ©1994 Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc. New York All Rights Reserved ISBN 0-935008-79-9 Available from the Publishers at: 11515 Allecingie Parkway Richmond, Virginia 23235 PRINTED IN U.S.A. TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE The apostle Paul ends his second letter to the Corinthians with the divine salutation—“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all” (13.14). We as Christians come to know the fullness of the Godhead through the love, the grace and the communion which proceed from the triune God. It is the love of God the Father that purposes all. It is the grace of God the Son that provides all. And it is the communion of God the Spirit that performs all. Love, grace and communion are all equally essential. What would love be without grace? It would have no expression. What would grace be without communion? It would be unattainable. This present volume is a compilation of messages given by God’s servant Watchman Nee at various times and places. They all relate to the communion of the Holy Spirit. The first part consists of two messages on Resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the Church. A proper perspective on the marvelous work of the Holy Spirit is therein given. The second part, entitled “The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit,” is composed of six messages on the Outpouring, one message on the Holy Spirit, and the Law, and two messages on the Anointing Oil. And the third part presents four messages on Spiritual Judgment, which is the fruit of the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Such discipline gives spiritual discernment for service. May the blessed Lord who released these messages to the Church use them for the building up of the body of Christ in love. CONTENTS Part ONE: RESURRECTION, THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND THE CHURCH 1 Resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the Church (1) 9 2 Resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the Church (2) 21 Part TWO: THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 1 Outpouring of the Holy Spirit Explained 29 2 Conditions for the Spirit’s Outpouring—and Important Matters to Watch 35 3 Symptoms and Evidence of Receiving the Spirit’s Outpouring 41 4 Work of the Holy Spirit and the Benefits of Having His Outpouring 45 5 Further Talk on the Spirit’s Outpouring 61 6 Still More on the Spirit’s Work and His Outpouring 69 7 The Holy Spirit and the Law 77 8 The Function of the Anointing Oil 87 9 The Body Being Anointed 95 Part THREE: SPIRITUAL JUDGMENT (DISCERNMENT) 1 The Principles of Spiritual Judgment 105 2 Spiritual Judgment: Using Our Spirit 115 3 Spiritual Judgment: the Basis Of Diagnosis And Judgment 125 4 Spiritual Judgment: Healing 133 Scripture quotations are from the American Standard Version of the Bible (1901), unless otherwise indicated. P A R T O N E RESURRECTION, THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND THE ∗ CHURCH ∗ Part One consists of two messages that cover this multi-faceted subject. They were delivered in Chinese by the author at two successive Lord’s Day gatherings of his fellow- workers on 13 June and 20 June 1948. These two gatherings, which met at the Conference Center on Mount Kuling just outside Foochow in southern China, were but two of many meetings that were held as part of the months-long First Workers Training Session which had its beginning in June and concluded in October of 1948. The contents of these two messages to follow have been derived from extensive notes taken down in Chinese by participants present at the Workers Conference, and have now been translated into English—Translator 1 Resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and 1 the Church (1) In the Bible can be found three main subjects: resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the Church. These three cannot be understood with the human mind because they are far beyond its comprehension. Nor can they be explained by human words. These three depend wholly on whatever the Spirit of the Lord gives us to see. In order to know them we must begin with Genesis. We know that when man was created by the hand of God he was perfect and yet incomplete. All other created things were both perfect and complete. Man alone was perfect but not completed. The very fact that after God had created man He placed him before the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to let him choose between them proved that God’s creation of man was still unfinished. In the eyes of God man was incomplete, for he could not yet distinguish between right and wrong. He still needed God’s life as represented by the tree of life. Once man was made out of dust he still needed to add on God’s life. Indeed, when man was created, he was living and yet he did not have God’s life. This final step must be taken on by man himself. By taking in the life of God, as represented by the tree of life, he would then be completed. However, instead of eating of the tree of life, he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man had made the wrong choice, thus delaying the work of his completion. For this reason, man did not attain to his highest level. In God’s eyes, man was altogether wanting. Therefore, the entire Old Testament—from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Malachi—speaks of the extended work of God’s creation. For however good Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and others might be, in the eyes of God they were all incomplete because they did not attain 10 The Communion of the Holy Spirit to His original plan of creation. Though they had God’s likeness, they did not have His image (likeness is outward appearance, whereas image is inward nature and character.) Hence during the ensuing four thousand years God continues on with His work of the creation of man. At the same time God makes no further improvement on all his other created things. He has not thereafter created any superior flowers, birds, horses and other things, for these were created perfect and complete from the very beginning. On them there can be no more improvement, only man remains incomplete. In Genesis God is recorded as saying: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (1.26a). Man was created in God’s image and according to His likeness. “Likeness” refers to external form; it does not refer to internal quality. Adam, when created, became a living soul. He did not have God’s Spirit in him. Hence, at this stage he was unfinished and incomplete. Adam was still in need of God himself to be his inward nature as was represented by the tree of life. From the beginning of Genesis to the time of the Lord Jesus, no one had ever before attained to God’s required standard of man. Adam looked like God in appearance, but he was not like God in character. The effect of his fall was to “fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3.23), thus forfeiting God’s image. And so has it been with all who have followed Adam. Before the birth of our Lord Jesus there was not one typical or normal person in this world. No matter how the sages of the past disciplined and improved themselves, they failed to attain this goal. All fell short before God. It is by this, therefore, that we may understand the difference between the New and Old Testaments. The Old Testament shows that man has not attained to God’s purpose, while the New Testament tells us that God’s desired man is completed. Thank God that the man whom He had longed for but had never before seen on earth is now seen and presented in the New