The Secret Place of Watchman Nee

Watchman Nee was born on November 4, 1903 in Fuzhou in Fujian Province to parents shaped by the early Protestant mission in China. His mother was a devoted believer who prayed that her son would love the Lord above all things. As a schoolboy he was serious and searching, but it was in 1920 that the claims of Christ broke upon him with undeniable light. During meetings associated with the Chinese evangelist Dora Yu he was convicted of sin and surrendered to Jesus with an inward certainty that reordered every affection and plan. He took the English name Watchman because he understood his calling to be a sentinel on the walls of a city at night, warning, comforting, and pointing the way to the Lord.

From the beginning he lived simply so that prayer and the Word might have first place. He devoured Scripture, kept notebooks of insights and prayers, and sought out mentors who could deepen his walk with God. Among the strongest influences was the English missionary M E Barber whose hidden life of consecration and intercession formed a pattern for him. She pressed upon him the necessity of the cross in the inner life, the beauty of a quiet spirit that yields to the Holy Spirit, and the privilege of prevailing prayer that does business with God. Nee learned to wait in silence until the witness of the Spirit came, and then to act without hesitation. He was still a teenager when he began to gather small meetings in homes where believers broke bread, read Scripture, and prayed with single hearted intensity.

In the nineteen twenties the Lord enlarged his ministry beyond Fuzhou. He began to travel, teach, and write. He launched a periodical called The Christian to strengthen believers and to call the church back to New Testament simplicity. He wrote early chapters that would later be gathered in books such as The Spiritual Man and The Normal Christian Life. The heartbeat of his message was plain. Christ has accomplished a finished work. We do not work for victory. We work from victory. The Christian life is Christ living in the believer through the Spirit. The church is a local expression of the body of Christ where believers gather to the name of the Lord, love one another, and labor together in prayer and witness. He did not strive to build an organization. He sought a recovery of spiritual reality under the headship of Christ.

The thirties brought wider influence and deeper trials. He taught in Shanghai and traveled across China training workers and strengthening local assemblies often nicknamed the Little Flock because of a hymnbook that bore that title. He met T Austin Sparks and other teachers whose emphasis on the indwelling life of Christ resonated with his own convictions. At the same time ill health and exhaustion began to trouble him, and the cost of leadership increased. During the war years he entered business for a season to support co workers and to keep the church from dependency upon foreign funds. The decision created misunderstandings and pain. Nee accepted the inward cross again, stepped away for a time, waited upon the Lord, and emerged with a deeper humility. In the late nineteen forties he resumed wider leadership with a fresh burden to prepare the church for coming pressures.

When the political order changed in 1949, many urged him to leave. He believed the Lord had planted him among the Chinese believers and that his place was to stay. In 1952 he was arrested. In 1956 he was tried and sentenced, and for the rest of his life he remained in prison and in labor camps. Witnesses who were able to communicate at intervals testified that he guarded his spirit in those years with Scripture and prayer. He wrote what small notes he could and sent encouragements when possible. He prayed for the churches, for the workers, for his wife Charity, and for the people of China. In May 1972 he went to be with the Lord. A note later found by a family member repeated the confession that had ordered his life, that Christ is the Son of God who died for sinners and rose again and that he believed in Him to the end.