Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 17:9-16; 2 Cor 11:23-28

I. Learning to Live a Life of Faith through Poverty. —Acts 3:6; 1 Kings 17:9-16

A. He saw that he should not be hired by any mission, denomination, or person. He exercised a pure and single faith in God for his living.

B. Although this was very difficult, He learned the faithfulness of the Lord.

II. Learning to Depend on the Lord and Live by the Resurrection Life through Ill Health. — 2 Cor 12:9

A. He contracted tuberculosis in 1924, and by 1929 he was dying from this disease. Eventually, he received a word from Lord, he stood on that word, and he was healed.

B. He had heart disease. Eventually in 1972 he died of his heart disease while he was in the communists’ prison.

III. The Spiritual Lessons Learned through Persecution from Christianity. — 2 Cor 11:24

A. Learning to go outside the camp to bear the Lord’s reproach through being despised.

B. Learning to deal with the flesh through being criticized.

1. He was criticized because he repudiated and renounced the entire unscriptural system of Christianity.

2. He never reacted to criticism in a fleshly way. He learned to dealt with flesh.

C. Learning to be pure in motive through being opposed.

1. By ministering the truth of the Word, he demolished the divisive standing of the denominational churches built up by the missionaries. He declared that the denominational churches were wrong and that there should only be the church in a locality.

2. By being attacked, he allowed himself to be checked by the Lord as to whether or not his motive was pure. He learned to deal with the Lord to be pure in motive.

D. Learning not to vindicate ourselves through evil report from the opposers and persecutors.

1. He learned never to say anything to vindicate himselves.

IV. The Focus of Brother Nee’s Ministry—Christ as Life for The Church. — Col 3:4; Eph 4:11-12

A. Brother Nee’s ministry was clearly of two aspects—Christ and the church. His ministry was a fully, properly, and adequately balanced ministry.

B. The ministry produced by revelation and suffering.

C. Many in Christianity accept Brother Nee’s ministry on Christ, but they reject his ministry on the practicality of the church.

D. His ministry was not the ministry of Christ only. His ministry was the ministry of Christ for the church. Christ and the church—this is our vision, this is what we are suffering for, and eventually this becomes our ministry.