Spiritual Reality or Obsession by Watchman Nee

Author:Watchman Nee
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Religion, Christian Life, General
ISBN: 9780935008418
Publisher: Christian Literature Crusade
Published: 1970-07-14T22:00:00+00:00

Spiritual Reality: Its Relationships

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touching the reality of the body as well as on the experience of the cross.

Let us realize too that the supply of words is also based on the life we have already given to the church. Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit will bear witness to what you express if what you say is what you already have given the church in life. But He will not bear witness to what you utter if it does not represent what you have received before God. People receive help from your words only if you have first supplied them with your life. Otherwise the help which words give is merely a bit of clarification for the mind, since such help is but the produce of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The food of the church, though, is life. The supply of life is the one and only food of the church. The question is not what you can give, but how much you already have given to the church. What have you given of reality to the church? When you stand before the church, what is it that you have already supplied to her? If you have not touched reality, you will have nothing to supply the people. Only what is spiritual, which has reality behind the word, can supply the church.

Some Christians deem “the body of Christ” to be only a parable.

They have not seen the reality of the body, and therefore have no way to supply it. There is no possibility of supplying the body if one has not seen it. It is with the body in view that the eating of the mouth is the eating of the body, the seeing of the eyes is the seeing of the body, and the hearing of the ears is the hearing of the body. What a member receives, the body receives. No matter which brother or sister it is, whatever he or she receives is also received by the body.

We need to understand that body life is not only a corporate living but a corporate life as well. If we fail to touch this reality, the church is but a doctrine and the body a parable; accordingly, we have no way to supply the need.

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Spiritual Reality or Obsession

Brothers and sisters, do not forget that you are not an independent entity but a member in the body. “And whether one member suffereth,” says Paul, “all the members suffer with it, or one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Cor. 12.26). Is this

empty word or fact? Paul is a man who has body-consciousness. If he had not touched the reality of the body, he would not be able to utter such a word. Let us therefore ask God to cause us to touch the root, which is the reality, that we may spontaneously supply the church.

(3) Question and Reality

If we have not seen spiritual reality we will obviously have many questions. Suppose, for example, you hear things said about a person whom you have never met.

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