God's Will and God's Glory

"When the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward." - Exodus 40:36

Just as all God's speaking to His people in those far-off days was from between the cherubim of glory, so all His leading of them onward was by means of that same glory. In the cloud by day and the fire by night the glory of God appeared, and by it they moved. For us, too, all revelation of God's will issues from His glory. See the glory of God in relation to any matter and we have discovered God's leading in regard to it. You ask me 'Is this His will?' I reply by asking in turn, 'Is God's glory resting there?' Discern that, and you need wait for nothing further. For the divine glory itself expresses the divine will. Guidance is thus simply a matter of correspondence to that. Where God's glory rests we need not ask the way.

The Joyful Heart (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)

Read the Scriptures: Exodus 40

Fear is Satan's Calling Card

"Neither give place to the devil." - Ephesians 4:27

Without some foothold in us, Satan cannot operate. Hence, his first tempting of us will be aimed at securing some ground; the next will be an assault from the ground he has secured. One very large territory, perhaps the largest, that he operates from is fear.

'Fear is Satan's calling card,' a beloved counselor used to say to me. Whenever you accept his calling card, you will receive a visit from him. Fear him and he comes; fear not and he is held at a distance. No child of God need be fearful of Satan, even though he roar as a lion and his teeth are drawn. Within us is One who by demonstration is greater than he.

The Joyful Heart (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)

Read the Scriptures: Ephesians 4

Enlargement Through Pressure

"Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace." - Daniel 3:17

How does the Church reach her goal? Only by traveling the pathway from pressure to enlargement, from poverty to enrichment. You ask: What do we mean by enlargement through pressure? When three are shut into a furnace and the three become four, that is enlargement through pressure. Some find a furnace rather close quarters for three, so they seek a way of escape; others accept the limitation, and in accepting it, make room for a Fourth. Not to let difficulties shut us out from God, but to let them shut us in to Him, that is enlargement through pressure. Some, through pressure, reach God's end; others come to an end in the pressure. Some die in straitness; others, through straitness, find fullness of life. Some murmur when trials befall, finding in them only restraint, limitation and death; others praise God for the trials, and in doing so discover the pathway to enlargement, liberation and abundance of life.

A Table In The Wilderness (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)

Read the Scriptures: Daniel 3

When I am Weak

"When I am weak, then I am strong." - 2 Corinthians 12:10

This paradox lies at the heart of true Christian experience. I came to see this in the course of a personal trial of my own, in which, like Paul with his thorn in the flesh, I had received the answer 'No' to my prayer for relief. The thought came to me then of a river-boat that could not pass a deep narrows because of a boulder in the stream, jutting five feet or so up from the river bed. In my trial I had been asking the Lord to remove the boulder. Now within me the question arose: Would it be better to have the five-foot boulder out of the way, or to let Him raise the level of the water by five feet? To Paul's appeal the answer had been 'My grace is sufficient.' Of course it would be better to have the water-level raised! My problem was gone. For Christianity is not a matter of removing boulders, but of having deeper water!

A Table In The Wilderness (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)

Read the Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 12