THE WAY TO BE TRANSPARENT
A. Not Trusting in the Mind or the Thoughts,
but Exercising the Spirit to Contact God
We must always learn to touch God in our spirit. We can never touch Him in our soul. A piece of wood can never conduct electricity; only metal will conduct electricity. Today, God is Spirit, and we have to learn to reject our own thoughts and to exercise ourselves to live in the spirit. If our minds are too strong and our thoughts too active, we will not be able to touch the spirit. Some may wonder if this is a kind of strategy to fool ourselves. But this is absolutely not a kind of strategy to fool ourselves. Only through the spirit can a person touch God. If you try to touch God with your head, you will not touch Him even if you break your skull.
I have met a few people who are not as intelligent and clever as I am. Although they are not as clever as I am, and although their minds are not as intelligent as mine is, they have learned to touch the Spirit with their spirit. The ugliest thing there is for a person to do is to touch the things of God with his own cleverness. What does it mean to use our mind, and what does it mean to use our spirit? For example, before you go to see a brother, you should learn to have some fellowship with the Lord within you. When that brother speaks in his spirit, you should listen quietly and prayerfully before God. But the trouble with us is that many times when we meet the brothers, we exercise our mind without exercising our spirit. If you go to see a brother and you prepare a speech first before you go, your speaking will surely be from the mind. This kind of speaking from the mind will damage you and will damage others. You are not being wise by doing that. Only those who live in the spirit are the truly wise ones.
If a man lives in his soul, he will not be able to see God’s revelations. What is a babe? A babe is one who has a simple mind. Perhaps a man should be weeping when he touches his spirit. But because his mind is too clever, he ends up laughing instead of weeping. Everything that comes from the mind is deceitful. A child does not act from his mind, but from his feelings only. Hence, everything that he expresses is true and not false. Do not think that you can deceive a spiritual person. Although a spiritual person may look simple, he can read what is in your innermost being. A spiritual person discerns all things (1 Cor. 2:15).
All those who have smart ears and bright eyes are deceitful ones. Some people are very good at talking, but will good answers justify what a person does? The church is not a law court; it is not a place where we arbitrate cases. Today, we cannot touch others with our mind. We have to learn to touch others with our spirit. Even in reading the Bible, we have to learn to exercise our spirit. We cannot read the Bible with our mind. Day before yesterday I received two letters. Both of them were written from the mind. Today, all our problems arise from our mind. What we need to do is to put our spirit in the forefront and our mind at the back.
(Messages Given During the Resumption of Watchman Nee's Ministry (2 volume set), Chapter 77, by Watchman Nee/Witness Lee)
