Then a young man named Watchman Nee rose up to expose the error of denominationalism. By ministering the truth of the Word, he demolished the divisive standing of the denominational churches built up by the missionaries. He declared that the denominational churches were wrong and that there should only be the church in a locality. Brother Nee said that he appreciated the missionaries bringing the Bible, the name of Christ, and the gospel to China, but he also said that they should not have come to build up their mission churches. He said that all the divisive names should be put aside, and that we should simply meet as the church, exalting only the name of Christ.

The circulation of his magazine, The Christian, went up to ten thousand subscriptions a month. Every month Brother Nee published ten thousand copies of this marvelous paper. This was why the missionaries attacked him so much. By being attacked, Brother Nee learned one lesson—to have his motive purified. He told me that when he was attacked by others, especially by the missionaries, he questioned himself. Since so many servants of the Lord attacked him, he considered that he might have been wrong. He appreciated that the missionaries had sacrificed so much to come to China to serve the Lord. By being attacked, he allowed himself to be checked by the Lord as to whether or not his motive was pure. He learned to deal with the Lord to be pure in motive.

One day he spoke to me concerning the purity of my motive. Whenever we were together, we never had loose talk or gossip. When he spoke to me concerning my motive, I believe he received the inspiration from the Lord to put me on the test. In the course of our fellowship, he suddenly asked me why I went to Hangchow. I was surprised and wondered why he asked me this since I had gone there a while before. I said, "I went there because I felt some of the brothers there needed my help. I went purposely to help them." He replied frankly to me, "You are just a politician." I told Brother Nee that I could not understand why he said this. I considered myself as a little servant who went there to serve the saints. How could he say that I was a politician? He replied, "Because you went to Hangchow with a purpose." I said, "My purpose was not bad. My purpose was to go there to help the saints." He said, "That is politics."

After Brother Nee said this, I wondered how I could serve the Lord again. Eventually, he helped me to understand that if one is going to a place, he should not have any purpose. Why do we go to a place? We go because the Lord leads us there. The Lord leads us to go, so we have to go. I may not be so clear what to do there, but the Lord knows. Thus, I am not going in a political way but in a pure way. Why am I going to a certain place? I am going because of the Lord's leading. What am I going to do there? I do not know, but He knows. This was a great lesson to me. I am still learning this lesson today. It is not easy to move in our service to the Lord without a purpose. Can we say that we move for the Lord without a purpose? According to Brother Nee, as long as you have a purpose, you are a politician. That was a hard lesson for me, but this helped me to always check my motive in my service. When we go somewhere it should be because of the Lord's initiation not ours. We should just follow the Lord's leading.

I received so much help from Brother Nee's fellowship with me that day. He paid a great price to learn such lessons, and he passed them on to us. When we were under his training, we did not learn mere doctrines. He told us all the time not to pick up mere doctrines but to learn some spiritual lessons. He helped us to realize that when we minister a teaching, that teaching must be full of reality according to our experiences.