Those who go out in gospel teams to visit people may have experienced the problem of opinions. On the one hand, when I worked with the co-workers in mainland China, I did not have any opinion. On the other hand, I had to “swallow” my opinion. I realized that if I expressed my opinion, I would be finished with the work. I might as well go into the world to find a job because the co-workers would not be able to work with me. If I would have been opinionated, the brothers above me in the work would not have used me, and the brothers under me would not have worked with me.

Apparently, the Christian life is an individual matter. Nevertheless, how much we grow in life also depends upon our opinion. How much growth we have had since we were saved has depended upon how we have dealt with our opinion. Opinion is a great matter. It is within us like the marrow in our bones. If the Lord tells us to go see a certain sister, we may say that we are not ready. This is our opinion. In Matthew 16:21 the Lord Jesus told His disciples that He was about to be crucified. Peter began to rebuke Him and said, “God be merciful to You, Lord; this shall by no means happen to You” (v. 22). This was Peter’s opinion. To the Lord, Peter was like a mask hiding the source of the opinion. The source was not Peter but Satan. The Lord turned to Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan!” (v. 23). Opinion is a great and terrible problem, frustrating the Lord’s way, will, plan, and economy.

I have been in the church and the work in the Lord’s recovery for fifty-seven years. During this time, I have seen a number of turmoils in the church. A turmoil is like a storm. Since the Lord’s recovery came to this country over twenty-five years ago, we have had only two major “storms.” The factors causing the storms were ambition and opinion. A typhoon is a storm which is associated with hot climates. An earthquake, on the other hand, comes from a build-up of pressure within the earth that has no outlet. The “heat” and “pressure” which cause the turmoils in the church life are ambition and opinion. However, we should not be bothered by the storms. No storm comes that will not go away quickly, and the bigger storms pass even more quickly. Even the storms in the church life soon pass away.

All the turmoils in the church life are the same in principle. They are caused by people who seek for position but are not useful because of their opinion. A certain person may desire to be an elder. This is ambition. However, he may be an opinionated person, unable to control his opinion. This opinion spoils him for the eldership. In 1933 Brother Nee asked me to remain in Shanghai to work with him. One of the brothers with us desired to be an elder in the church. He “hunted” for the eldership for many years. However, he was opinionated and not suitable for the Lord’s work, and his opinionated talk often damaged the work. Eventually, he set up a meeting in his home and hired a traveling preacher who knew many of our teachings. Under the direction of this brother, the traveling preacher wrote a long article defaming Brother Nee. This storm came from one person with ambition who sought for the eldership but did not get it because he was spoiled by his opinion.

The “gopher” of ambition and the “creeping thing” of opinion always join together to cause turmoil. It is even the same in the national and international political situation. The troublemakers are the ambitious ones who did not get what they strived for because they were not useful. Whether or not we are useful in the hand of the Lord depends upon the matter of our opinion.

The world and sin may not frustrate us from the growth in our spiritual life, but the ever present obstacle and frustration to our growth in our spiritual life is our opinion. Sometimes we do not express our opinion, but it is still there. Opinion is the expression of our disposition, and our disposition is the greatest problem for our growth in the divine life. In the Far East and in America, I have come to know a number of saints. They are lovely, they are very much for the Lord, and they mean business with the Lord. However, after many years, they have had little growth in life. Their unique problem is their opinion.

Our disposition is our self. Every human being has a disposition. It is in us and it is us. Our disposition makes it hard for us to release our spirit. From 1942 to 1948 Brother Nee passed through a long turmoil in which he was prevented from ministering. After the turmoil passed, one of the first messages he gave was on the breaking of the outer man and the release of the spirit. From that time on, the center of Brother Nee’s speaking was almost always on the breaking of the outer man. The breaking of the outer man is the breaking of our disposition. I am still learning the lesson of how to deal with my disposition. Brother Nee warned us that if we do not learn the lesson of the breaking of the outer man before we are fifty years old, we will have a difficult time in the church life. It is easier to deal with our disposition when we are young.
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