I hope that all of us would practice this principle. If we have a real concern about a certain matter involving a certain person, we should firstly pray. Then we may have some frank, open fellowship in love. If we realize that the by-product, the result, of our touching this matter will not be profitable, then we should exercise our wisdom not to touch it. We can leave this matter to the sovereignty of the Lord. If we have a burden, we can simply pray. Then we will never create any problems or any different speaking in the churches. I may have the best heart for the Lord’s recovery, but I may come with the best heart to a brother and say something that can still be misunderstood by him. We all have to learn from now on to say things carefully and to do things carefully in every way.

Question: When the leading brothers come together to pray for the church, am I understanding correctly that you do not bring up any of the problems that you see in the saints?

Even with what we say to our wives, we must exercise our wisdom in order to have a marriage life with a peaceful and sweet feeling. We must exercise our wisdom what to say and what not to say to our wives. We also have to be careful how much we say. If we are a little careless in talking to our wives, we can create trouble. I know of some cases where a careless word from the husband to the wife resulted in a problem for their entire marriage life. We need to exercise our wisdom.

If there are three elders in a certain locality, these brothers also need to exercise their wisdom in what they say to one another. If you, as one of the three elders, see some problems with the saints, do not talk to the other two brothers right away. You have to bring this matter to the Lord and pray for it. You can ask the Lord, “Lord, what I feel about this matter may be wrong. Show me the real situation.” In prayer you can follow the Lord step by step. Then you will have the leading of the Lord with some amount of assurance that the Lord is with you. In this kind of spirit and with this kind of atmosphere, you can go to the other two brothers. You also may ask the Lord, “Should I go to both brothers or should I just go to one? Which one should I go to?” Maybe the Lord would tell you to go to a certain brother and not to the other one. Wait for awhile. This is wisdom, this will help the situation, and this will never create any kind of trouble.

The elders should also be careful about letting their wives know the things concerning the church. This is risky and dangerous. Some saints told me things in confidence and charged me not to tell anyone. One dear saint opened up something to me and charged me not to let anyone know. He has gone to be with the Lord, but I have kept what he told me in confidence for over thirty years. I never made this matter known to my wife. Some day all of us will give an account to the Lord, so we must not be loose in what we say or tell others. Whatever we say and do really concerns the Lord’s recovery, the Lord’s interest, and it is not a small thing. If we would exercise this kind of wisdom, many troubles would be and could be avoided.

We must do our best to avoid trouble and do our best to say the same thing. All of us are assured that there is no heresy among us, and I do not believe that anyone of us has a bad feeling toward another brother. We should not form parties among ourselves or join any parties. We should not have a different attitude toward some brothers. To one brother you may be nice, but to another brother you are a different person. This is not proper. We should be the same toward everyone. We are in the Lord’s recovery and in the church life. To have any preference for certain saints is wrong.

Question: Some of the saints may hear some rumor or some gossip. They may not become negative themselves or cause some trouble, but the symptom in many cases is that they become discouraged. They lose their heart for the church life. They lose their confidence in the Lord’s recovery. There are many cases where this causes them to question the leadership in their church or the ministry among us. This last training on Leviticus was a real medicine, a real balm, and a real help. But I am concerned that many of us may have certain cases in our church where brothers or sisters are not negative, but they heard some gossip or rumor which may be totally unfounded. There may be some element in what they heard which causes them to question. They themselves are not opposing, and they do not form a party. But they lose all their enjoyment, they lose all their heart, and they lose all their confidence. In many cases, they do not even express what they heard, but there is a kind of withdrawing from the church life and a withdrawing from the service. This is a real weakening to these saints. How can we help this kind of brother or sister either in a public way or a personal way?

In 1942 there was a big turmoil in the church in Shanghai. That caused the church in Shanghai to close its doors and also caused Brother Nee to stop his ministry for six years. When that turmoil occurred, I was not in Shanghai. After the war in 1946, I went back to Shanghai, and the church there opened its doors. But there was a very small number of saints meeting together compared to their number before 1942. There were only about eighty or ninety saints at the Lord’s table. Many saints were offended in this turmoil, and all the arrows were being shot at Brother Nee. He was the target of the attacks. Because I was not there and I am not a person who wants to hear negative things, I am still not fully clear concerning all the problems in the church in Shanghai at that time. When I returned to the church in Shanghai in 1946, I had just recovered from a very serious illness. During the two and a half years of my sickness and recovery, I learned a lot. Mainly I learned about the two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Some of the saints in Shanghai had been very dear to me in the Lord for years. They came to me and checked with me in this way: “Brother Lee, do you believe that Brother Watchman Nee has never made any mistake?” What should my answer have been? Yes or no?

I was not bothered about this question because I learned in my sickness some lessons concerning the two trees. I checked with the saints who came to me in this way: “Before you condemned Brother Nee as being wrong in certain things, how was your spiritual life?” They responded in a very positive way that their spiritual life was wonderful. They were living and absolutely for the church. Then I asked, “How about now?” Many times they would weep and tell me that they felt lost and that they had lost their heart. They said that the Lord was still with them but that they had lost interest. In other words, their experience after condemning Brother Nee was altogether negative. Then I responded, “Brother, if your saying that Brother Nee is wrong and your condemning of him is something proper, your spiritual life should be better than it was before. Why is it that after condemning him and saying negative things about him, your spiritual life has become so poor?” This kind of fellowship was able to rescue a great number of saints in Shanghai. The saints there came to me one by one in this way. I simply checked with them how their spiritual life was before this negative speaking and how it was afterwards. They all saw that there was a great difference, and they repented.

I think we can help the saints in the same way. We can ask them if what they heard helped them in their spiritual life. If it helps them, they should take it. If it does not help them, it must be something of the enemy. Whether the thing you heard is true or not, as long as your hearing has a negative influence on your spiritual life, you should not take it. It was not the saints’ business to judge whether Brother Nee was wrong or not wrong. Even if what they did was right, what was the result of their doing? The result was to deaden people. Even a little talk about something negative will deaden you. We must help the saints to go along with their inner life and to keep their spiritual life from becoming deadened, hurt, or poisoned by anything. We should help the saints to avoid anything that would deaden, hurt, or poison their spiritual life. This kind of fellowship I had with the saints in Shanghai from 1946 to 1948 issued in the repentance of hundreds of saints. Hundreds repented and came back to the church life. Many went to Brother Nee and repented to him directly.
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