Inspirational Quotes by Watchman Nee
“For six nights I had high fever and could find no sleep. Then at length God gave me from the Scripture a personal word of healing, and because of this I expected all symptoms of sickness to vanish at once. Instead of that, not a wink of sleep could I get, and I was not only sleepless but more restless than ever. My temperature rose higher, my pulse beat faster and my headaches ached more severely than before. The enemy asked, "Where is God's promise? Where is your faith? What about all your prayers?" So I was tempted to thrash the whole matter out in prayer again, but was rebuked, and this Scripture came to mind: "Thy word is truth" (John 17:17). If God's Word is truth, I thought, then what are these symptoms? They must all be lies! So I declared to the enemy, This sleeplessness is a lie, this headache is a lie, this fever is a lie, this high pulse is a lie. In view of what God has said to me, all these symptoms of sickness are just your lies, and God's Word is to me is truth. In five minutes I was asleep, and I awoke the following morning perfectly well.”
― Watchman Nee ,
“Several days after Mary broke the alabaster box and poured the ointment on Jesus’ head, there were some women who went early in the morning to anoint the body of the Lord. Did they do it? Did they succeed in their purpose on that first day of the week? No, there was only one soul who succeeded in anointing the Lord, and it was Mary, who anointed Him beforehand. The others never did it, for He had risen. Now I suggest that in just such a way the matter of time may be important to us also, and that the whole question for us is: what am I doing to the Lord today?”
“Now the way of salvation for us was not in God making us good but in His saving us out of Adam and putting us in Christ. So that now, all which is of Christ flows into us. The Bible shows us that as soon as we are in Adam we sin, and that only as we are in Christ do we practice righteousness. May I remind ourselves that lurking in the secret place of many of our hearts lies an error: the thought of expecting God to change us. But God does not and never will do anything in us; instead, He will put us in Christ.”
― Watchman Nee ,
“Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake”—This is the selfdenial. and cross-bearing spoken of in the preceding verse. Losing the soul is the same as denying the self. The Lord concedes that if for His sake anyone is willing to forsake all the pleasures of the soul and to suffer according to the will of God, he will find the soul. It simply means that whoever is willing for the sake of the Lord to deny his own thoughts and desires so as not to be satisfied with the things of the world but instead to undergo much suffering, he will at another time be given by the Lord his heart desire with full blessing and joy.”
― Watchman Nee ,
“The perfect and genuine faith is that which daily acknowledges the works (i.e., facts) that the Lord has accomplished. The meaning of claiming is to acknowledge daily all that the Lord has accomplished for us, that is, to acknowledge that all these accomplishments are effective in us. Then,”
“God’s way of salvation is in Christ, not in your own self. Patience is in Christ, humility is in Christ, holiness is in Christ. All is in Christ. In you, yourself, there is always uncleanness and unholiness. If you live in Christ, you have everything. But if you live in your self, you remain unchanged. UNITED”
“As long as you are in Christ, what you are in yourself does not count. If only you are in the bottle, whatever happens to the bottle happens to you. This is the glad tidings. So we declare that the gospel is free grace. Basically, it does not depend on you. If you are in Christ, then all is yours. For all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places have been given to us in Christ Jesus. There is no way for God not to give all these spiritual blessings to us if we are in Christ. He himself has placed us in Christ; therefore, He cannot withhold any blessing from us. Nothing can be withheld.”
“Nuestra oración tiene estos tres aspectos: (1) nosotros mismos, (2) el Dios a quien oramos, y (3) nuestro enemigo, Satanás. Toda oración verdadera se relaciona con los tres aspectos. Cuando nos reunimos para orar, naturalmente oramos por nuestro propio beneficio. Tenemos necesidades, deseos y esperanzas, y por lo tanto oramos por todo eso. Oramos para lograr nuestras peticiones. No obstante, en la verdadera oración no debemos pedir simplemente las cosas que se refieren a nuestro bienestar, debemos también orar por la gloria de Dios y por el reinado celestial en la tierra.”
“How many of us know that, because Christ is risen, we are therefore alive “unto God” and not unto ourselves? How many of us dare not use our time, or money, or talents as we would, because we realize they are the Lord’s, not ours? How many of us have such a strong sense that we belong to Another that we dare not squander a shilling of our money, or an hour of our time, or any of our mental or physical powers?”
― Watchman Nee ,
“The temptation to so many of us when we try to approach God is to think that because God has been dealing with us—because He has been taking steps to bring us into something more of Himself and has been teaching us deeper lessons of the Cross—He has thereby set before us new standards, and that only by attaining to these can we have a clear conscience before Him. No! A clear conscience is never based upon our attainment; it can only be based on the work of the Lord Jesus in the shedding of His Blood.”
― Watchman Nee ,
“How many of Gods servants are used by Him, as we say in China, to build 12 feet of wall, only when they have done so to undo it all by themselves pulling down 15 feet!”
― Watchman Nee ,
“How many of Gods servants are used by Him, as we say in China, to build a 12 feet of wall, only when they have done so to undo it all by themselves pulling down 15 feet!”
― Watchman Nee ,
“Every true spiritual experience means that we have discovered a certain fact in Christ and have entered into that. Anything that is not from Him in this way is an experience that is going to evaporate very soon.”
― Watchman Nee ,
“The whole question is; "How precious is he to us now?" If we do not think much of him, then of course to give him anything at all, however small will seem to us a wicked waste. But when he is really precious to our souls nothing will be too good, nothing too costly for him; everything we have, our dearest, our most priceless treasure, we shall pour out upon him, and we shall not count it a shame to have done so.”
― Watchman Nee ,
“She is doing this for Me." Real satisfaction is brought to the heart of God only when we are really, as people would think, "wasting" ourselves upon him. It seems as though we are giving too much and getting nothing—and that is the secret of pleasing God.”
― Watchman Nee ,
“The soul is the seat of the affections, and what a great part of our decisions and actions is influenced by these! There is nothing deliberately sinful about them, mind you. It is just that there is something in us which can go out in natural affection to another person, and which, ungoverned by the Spirit, can influence wrongly our whole course of action.”
― Watchman Nee ,
Group of Brands
© 2026 Bibleportal.com All rights reserved.
Watchman Nee (1903 - 1972)
Was a church leader and Christian teacher who worked in China during the first half of the 20th century. In 1922, he initiated church meetings in Fuzhou that may be considered the beginning of the local churches. During his 30 years of ministry, Nee published many books expounding the Bible, including The Normal Christian Life and The Normal Christian Church Life. He established churches throughout China and held many conferences to train Bible students and church workers.Following the Communist Revolution, Nee was persecuted for his faith. He spent the last 20 years of his life in prison. Nee was honored by Christianity Today magazine as one of The 100 Most Influential Christians of the Twentieth Century.
Watchman Nee was a Chinese Christian author and church leader during the early 20th Century. He spent the last 20 years of his life in prison and was severely persecuted by the Communists in China. Together with Wangzai, Zhou-An Lee, Shang-Jie Song, and others, Nee founded the The Church Assembly Hall, later which would be also known as the "Local churches."
Watchman Nee became a Christian in 1920 at age 17 and began writing in the same year. In 1921, he met the British missionary M. E. Barber, who was a great influence on him. Through Miss Barber, Nee was introduced to many of the Christian writings which were to have a profound influence on him and his teachings. Nee attended no theological schools or Bible institutes. His knowledge was acquired through studying the Bible and reading various Christian spiritual books. During his 30 years of ministry, beginning in 1922, Nee traveled throughout China planting churches among the rural communities and holding Christian conferences and trainings in Shanghai. In 1952 he was imprisoned for his faith; he remained in prison until his death in 1972.
Watchman Nee became a Christian in mainland China in 1920 at the age of seventeen and began writing in the same year.
Throughout the nearly thirty years of his ministry, Watchman Nee was clearly manifested as a unique gift from the Lord to His Body for His move in this age.
In 1952 he was imprisoned for his faith; he remained in prison until his death in 1972. His words remain an abundant source of spiritual revelation and supply to Christians throughout the world.