Spiritual Authority by Watchman Nee

Author:Watchman Nee
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Spirituality, Religion, Christian Theology, General
ISBN: 9780935008357
Publisher: Christian Fellowship Pub.
Published: 1971-12-31T22:00:00+00:00

The Manifestations of Man’s Rebellion

101

many thoughts; but now I have no more argument for I have been

captured. A captive has no freedom; who would pay any attention to the opinion of a slave? A slave is to accept other’s thoughts, not to offer his own opinion. Consequently we who are captured by Christ are ready to accept God’s thoughts and not to offer any counsel of our own.

Warnings to the Opinionated

1. PAUL.

In the natural, Paul was a clever, capable, wise, and rational

person. He could always find a way to do things, he had confidence, and he served God with all his enthusiasm. But while he was heading a group of people on their way to Damascus to seize the Christians there, he was smitten to the ground by a great light. Then and there all his intentions, ways, and ability were dissolved. He neither returned to Tarsus nor went back to Jerusalem. He had not only

abandoned his task in Damascus but he had also cast away all his reasons for it.

Many when they encounter difficulty change their direction,

trying first this way and then that; but no matter what they do they are still going on according to their own ways and ideas. They are so foolish as not to fall after they have been smitten by God. Though God has prostrated them in that particular thing, they will not be smitten as to their reasonings and thoughts. Thus, many may indeed have their road to Damascus blocked, yet they still retain their ways to Tarsus or to Jerusalem.

Not so with Paul. Once he was smitten, he lost everything. He

could neither say nor think of anything. He knew nothing at all.

“What shall I do, Lord?” he asked. Here we find one whose thoughts had been taken captive by the Lord and who obeyed from the depth of his heart. Formerly, no matter what the circumstance, Saul of 102 Spiritual

Authority

Tarsus always took the lead; but now, having met the authority of God, Paul lost his opinions. The primary evidence that one has met God is in the disappearing of one’s opinions and cleverness. May we honestly ask God to grant us the bewilderment of light. Paul seemed to say: “I am a man recaptured by God and thus a prisoner of the Lord. It is now the time for me to listen and obey, not to think and decide.”

2. KING SAUL.

King Saul was rejected by God not because of stealing but

because of sparing the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord. This was something which came from his own

opinion—his own thoughts of how to please God. His rejection was due to his thoughts being uncaptured by God. No one could say that King Saul was not zealous in serving God. He did not lie, since he actually had spared the best of the cattle and sheep. But he had made his decision according to his own thought. (See 1 Sam. 15)

The inference is clear: all who

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