Brother Nee also suffered from the brothers' ambition for position. Among the first three brothers to come into the church in Shanghai in the very beginning, one was very ambitious to be a leader. Due to his ambition he caused a great deal of trouble. Eventually, in 1948, after being in the church for twenty years, he left. He began a meeting in his home with a traveling preacher. That traveling preacher later wrote a long article against Watchman Nee. This also caused him to suffer.
That was just one case. A number of Chinese preachers throughout the past fifty years passed through the church life. They came to the meetings expecting to be placed in some position. But Watchman always made it clear that the church was not an organization and that no positions were available. When asked concerning position he would say, "Who would give me a position? There is no position. The church is an organism." Some came and met with the church for a time, expecting to receive some post in the work. Eventually, however, when they discovered that they could not obtain what they were after, they left and became opponents.
Rebellion of the brothers and sisters was another source of suffering to Watchman Nee. A brother co-worker committed immorality. Watchman assisted the church in that co-worker's locality to excommunicate him. He in turn rebelliously attacked Brother Nee. During World War II, after the Japanese army occupied Shanghai, that co-worker sent mail to Watchman of such a nature that if the contents had been disclosed or discovered by the censors it would have caused much trouble. What an evil attack that was!
Through the years a number became rebellious and attacked him. The most serious case centered around his involvement in business and involved the saints in Shanghai in 1942. Most of the brothers and sisters, including the co-workers and elders, rebelled against him and attacked him. This was the greatest cause of suffering to him and forced him to discontinue his ministry for six years. That was a severe and long suffering.
Through all these sufferings, however, he learned the lessons. These sufferings not only assisted him in trusting the Lord; they also worked for him in dealing with his flesh, his self, his soul, and his natural life. In my own personal knowledge of him, the final experience he learned through his sufferings, when his ministry was terminated for six years, was that of the breaking of the outer man. He never passed on mere teachings and doctrines; his messages contained the reality he acquired through the experience of suffering. The experience he acquired through suffering served as a great help to all of us and became a rich heritage to all the churches in the Lord's recovery. This rich heritage was acquired by him at a high price.
His sufferings also helped him to receive revelations from the Lord. Often through a certain kind of suffering, he received a certain kind of revelation. His sufferings often became the Lord's revelation. He was purified, dealt with, torn down, and constituted by the Holy Spirit with the divine life through his sufferings. Through such experience of suffering, he was equipped and positioned to receive the Lord's revelation.