After Andrew Murray, Jessie Penn-Lewis was raised up. She received help from Andrew Murray and became very prevailing. She stressed the subjective death of Christ. Her message was not on the objective cross but on the subjective cross. Some portions concerning the cross in Brother Watchman Nee's book The Spiritual Man mostly were translated from Mrs. Penn-Lewis's writings. Mrs. Penn-Lewis was also very strong in teaching concerning spiritual warfare. This teaching is in a book entitled War on the Saints. The section in The Spiritual Man concerning spiritual warfare is fully a translation from this book. Thus, Mrs. Penn-Lewis was very famous in two things: in the subjective death of Christ and in the spiritual warfare.

Following her, one of her co-workers by the name of T. Austin-Sparks was raised up by the Lord. He became prevailing in the teaching of the principles and life of Christ's resurrection. Thus, Sister Penn-Lewis, in the first quarter of this century, emphasized the death of Christ, and Brother Austin-Sparks, in the second quarter of this century, emphasized the resurrection of Christ. Both of them were strongly against Pentecostalism. If you read Brother Nee's The Spiritual Man carefully, you can realize that the writer of the section on spiritual warfare was a strong opposer of Pentecostalism. Mrs. Penn-Lewis considered Pentecostalism altogether as a demonic work. Brother Austin-Sparks was also absolutely against Pentecostalism.

They were both against Pentecostalism, but they also were very strong in the Spirit. Brother Austin-Sparks would not recognize any meeting as a church meeting unless that meeting was initiated by long prayer for the leading of the Spirit. He told me that every local church should be established by the leading of the Spirit through much prayer.

Because the Spirit is abstract and mysterious, many disregard and neglect the truth concerning the Spirit and the experience of the Spirit. The Southern Baptist denomination, the biggest and most fundamental denomination in the United States, discourages their preachers from speaking concerning the Spirit. They stress the Word, not the Spirit.

By this we can see that the bona fide, fundamental, real seekers of Christ all have problems related to the Spirit. The divisive factor among the fundamental, spiritual, and seeking Christians is not mainly related to doctrines. The divisive factor is nearly altogether due to the apprehension, comprehension, and realization of the Spirit.

There are different concepts concerning the Spirit because the Spirit is so mysterious and deep. God is a mystery, God's mystery is Christ (Col. 2:2), and Christ's mystery is the church (Eph. 3:4). The Spirit is also a great mystery. If this message concerning the compound Spirit could be understood, comprehended, and apprehended by us, the problems concerning the Spirit would spontaneously be solved. In order to receive the fellowship in this chapter properly, we not only need to exercise our spirit but also need to exercise our sober mind.