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Testimonies
It Changed my Life!
As an unbeliever I lived life to what I thought was the fullest, because when you die—that’s it.
At the age of 23 I received Christ as my life. I was so happy to find
out that Christ could now be the center of my life and spontaneously I
began to love Him and enjoy Him. All I thought about was how wonderful
my Lord was. It was as though I was on fire and had a burning love for
the Lord. I strongly desired fellowship with believers and sought to
surround myself with Christians. As a result of my desire I quit my job
to take on a new job to be in the center of a Christian activity.
Within a few months I was fully disappointed with where I found myself.
In the midst of Christian brothers and sisters—some strong, some weak,
some leaders, some not—I found no fellowship to feed my inner desire for
more of Christ Himself. Nothing fed me inwardly to help me to love the
Lord more or to grow in His life more—and actually the burning desire I
had inside was now gone.
At this juncture I turned away from Christ in extreme disappointment and began to live my old way of life.
Shortly after this time I started a new job and worked with some sisters
in the Lord who invited me to a meeting of the church in Spokane. I
was very reluctant to go and become involved with something that could
eventually be disappointing again—but I did go.
It changed my life! I began to love the Lord again, just like I had
experienced at my salvation. The Lord was and still is my first love,
the Bible was so full of reality and light, and I was brought into
deeper and fuller experiences of Christ Himself.
So here I am now, 20 years later, and I’ve never been so happy. My
Christian life is more than fulfilling because day by day my growth in
Christ is increasing through an intimate touch with Him and through
living, practical fellowship with the Body of Christ.
J.S.
God’s Heart’s Desire: the Church Life in My Locality
I was born in Beijing, China and became a Christian when my family moved
to Hong Kong. There I was saved through a minister of a Baptist
denomination. At the time I got baptized the minister told me that my
destiny was to go to Heaven, even if I did not behave myself and do good
things. Eventually, because I did not know the true meaning behind
being a Christian, nor the purpose of God, I drifted back into the
world. I do not mean the low or shameful things of this world, but the
glitter and glamour of this present evil age, including things such as
fashion, sports, entertainment, amusement, clubs, and religion. So
outwardly I went to meetings every Sunday in the Baptist denomination,
but inside of me I did not have any interest and there was no reality. I
did not know the Lord intimately, but I knew He had something more to
offer than what I’d seen.
I came to the U. S. in 1984 and eventually ended up in a four-year
nursing program. At that point in my life I was going through a
difficult time and thought that I would have to go back to Hong Kong
when I graduated from the program; but I soon realized I would not be
able to do that because my daughter had been born in the U. S., and was
only 18 months old. So I studied hard at school, but at the same time,
was really depressed and saw no hope to change my predicament. I was so
overwhelmed by my environment that I could not get along by myself. It
was at this time in my life I met some Christians in my nursing class.
They were always happy and smiling. I was attracted to them because of
their expression. Eventually they invited me to a Christian meeting
and told me that they met as the church in Spokane. They were genuine
born again Christians. I went to my first meeting of the local church
in March of 1988. Right away I was attracted to their gathering. It
was very living and enjoyable. Every member of the congregation was
given the opportunity to stand up and give a testimony or pray if they
were led of the Lord. I had been saved for more than ten years, but had
never seen anything like this. Everyone was real, genuine, and happy. I
deeply sensed that God was present there. I sat listening and was in
such awe I could not hold back my tears, which flowed out like a steady
stream throughout the entire meeting. I could not identify with this
because I had never really shed tears before, even when I went through
severe hardships in my life. These tears were not due to sorrow, but
they flowed because I had found, once again, that which was precious to
me—God’s presence. The members introduced me to some of Witness Lee’s
books. I was shocked over how much this man knew the Bible, God, the
Spirit, the human spirit, Christ, life, and the church. The thing that
amazed me over and over was that he made all the spiritual truths real,
practical, and experiential. I was never drawn to Witness Lee himself,
or the so-called “local church” movement. I was attracted to the Lord
Jesus, and I know Him much more than before, through reading books
written by Witness Lee and attending meetings with the local church.
I really appreciate the last ten years of my life. They have become
precious to me. The Bible has been opened and I enjoy reading through
the New Testament at least once a year. The Word is so delicious! My
Christian life is full of meaning, faith, hope, peace, joy and
righteousness in the Holy Spirit. Rom. 14:17 became my daily
experience. In particular, I praise the Lord that my daughter
eventually got saved when she was seven years old. God has graciously
continued to keep her from the world. Currently she is 13 years old,
and is an honor student in school. She loves attending Bible studies
with many other young people meeting with the church in Spokane. What
can I say but praise the Lord for His mercy!
L.E.
Finding the Meaning of my Human Life
After receiving the Lord at age 19, I struggled to find the meaning of
my salvation and even the purpose of my human life. Why did God create
me and what did He save me for? Although I was a Christian, I didn’t
have the inner peace and joy I knew I should. By the Lord’s mercy,
after about three years, I came to realize I didn’t have a living
experience of Christ and hungered for more than just trying to be a
“good” Christian.
It was not long after this, while attending a University that I met a
dear Christian in my dental hygiene class. She introduced me to the
publications of Living Stream Ministry. I thank and praise the Lord
each day for this ministry, for through it I have found in the Bible the
purpose of my life and most importantly, the reason for my salvation.
Through the ministry of both Witness Lee and Watchman Nee, I have been
brought into a much richer, deeper experience of Christ. Everything in
this ministry has pointed me to Christ and how to take this lovely One
as my life and everything. Also, through this ministry I have been
brought to love the Lord more than I ever thought possible and am
learning to overcome all the many distractions that prevent me from
gaining this Wonderful Christ. I have NEVER been pointed to any other
person or thing, but solely to Christ. To me it is clear that to know
this One was the only goal of both Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.
By the Lord’s mercy, I found that when I was saved I became a member of
the church. I didn’t have to try to figure out which denomination was
right. As a genuine believer I was a living member of the one Body of
Christ! It has been nearly three years since I began meeting with the
church in Spokane and I do not regret a single day. God’s heart’s
desire is to have a living expression on the earth today and for me to
divide myself from this Body would be to cut myself off from my Lord’s
Body and thus His expression. I praise the Lord for so many dear
brothers who were willing to stand for the Lord’s testimony on this
earth and who were willing to spend and be spent so that the Lord’s Body
could be recovered back to God’s original intention—the meeting of the
church in each locality for the universal building up of the Body of
Christ, so that Christ would have a living expression on this earth.
Without such faithful ones, I would still be an aimless Christian
longing to know what this life in me is for. By God’s mercy, I will
spend the rest of my days in the church, meeting in whichever locality I
may be in, feasting on the unsearchable riches of Christ so that
Ephesians 3:17-19 may continue to be my reality: “That Christ may make
His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and
grounded in love, may be full of strength to apprehend with all the
saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are and to know
the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all
the fullness of God…to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ
Jesus unto all the generations forever and ever. Amen!”
E.S.
Once we were Blind, but now we See
My wife and I have been married for four years. We came into the church
life shortly before we were married. We are both 24 years old. We
both received the Lord in our pre-teen years. Throughout the years
before we came into contact with the local churches, we had both met
with multiple Christian groups either by ourselves or with members of
our families. We very much found ourselves dissatisfied and were
looking for outward signs of some sort to substantiate our faith in God.
Through the Lord’s sovereignty we came into contact with a sister who
was meeting with the local church and began to have home meetings in her
home. Meeting after meeting we were brought into an experience of
Christ that we never considered possible. We were impressed, not only
with the words that were spoken, but also with the living testimony of
the ones we were meeting with. Before entering into such a church life,
God was not real enough to us to affect our daily living.
We realized that we were vessels created by God, but full of dirty
water. Through the speaking and encouragement of these dear believers,
we were brought to see that it is not a matter of us trying to get rid
of our dirty water, but of just coming to the Lord again and again, just
as we are, to receive the dispensing of His life, the fresh water. And
it is by the dispensing of the Lord’s life that this dirty water is
displaced, our vessel is washed, and there is an overflow of the Lord’s
life that is being added into us and flowing out to others.
Through coming into contact with the ones meeting as the church in
Spokane we have come to know the Lord in a sweet and intimate way. We
feel very privileged to know at such a young age that God has a purpose,
not just for us individually but for all men on earth. We are so happy
to be with ones who love the Lord and are seeking to satisfy His
heart’s desire in this age.
Mr. and Mrs. J. W.
My Life with Christ in the Local Church
I grew up with both of my parents being Christians, and we attended
services once a week, but the Lord was not mentioned in our home. I was
saved through a youth group when I was 15 or 16. However, even though I
went to a Christian college, I soon went my own way, living out my life
according to my interests and my plans. This gave no joy to the Lord
or to me. At age 28 I was very discouraged with my human life.
Then I was brought to a meeting of the church in Spokane, which in a
very real way was the beginning of my Christian life. As I continued
going to the meetings of the local church over the next months, I began
to know a peace and happiness I had never known before. I felt that I
was home at last.
My enjoyment of Christ in the local church has continued to grow over
the years. I am very satisfied worshipping Christ with fellow believers
according to the Bible. Watchman Nee and Witness Lee really made the
Bible clear to me. Even after 20 years, the meetings and my times with
the Lord keep getting better.
M.B.
X-ray Vision
At the age of 15 I had a very definite hunger to know Christ in a real
and personal way. This, I believe, was due to the prayers and godly
influences of my grandmothers. Because of this hunger, I would at times
ask my mother why it seemed that none of the “typical high school
things” interested me. I felt as if I had “x-ray vision” and could see
through the facade of what the world had to offer. Fashion, straight
“A’s” and various social activities didn’t satisfy the craving in my
being for something eternal. “He has planted eternity in man’s heart (a
divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which
nothing under the sun, but only God, can satisfy)” (Ecclesiastes 3:11,
Amplified Version).
It was a pleasant surprise when a high school friend invited me to a
gospel meeting of the church in Spokane. Here I met believers in Christ
who were experiencing Christ and enjoying the Word of God in their
daily lives. The meetings were full of the presence of the Lord. This
made it very easy for me to begin to enter into a practical and personal
touch with the Lord in my daily life.
It now has been 26 years since I began to meet with the local church in
Spokane. I can testify that the desire that God put in my heart to know
Him at age 15 has been deeply satisfied. Every year, the Lord has
become richer and sweeter in my experience. I believe He has been able
to yearly strengthen me into my inner man and make His home in my heart
(Ephesians 3:16-17).
R.C.
Knowing Christ Objectively and Subjectively
I have been a Christian for 20 years, and came to the local church 13 years ago. I was hungry to experience the Word more.
Then, I came to the local church. I saw Christ not only objectively but
also subjectively—the believers there had one goal, Christ with nothing
else added. To me it was quite a display of Christ and what comes out of
Christ—the Church.
Objectively, I saw the truth that I had a spirit, soul and body (1
Thessalonians 5:23). Subjectively, I began to experience being one
spirit with the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:17). Oh what a joy to live in
spirit and fellowship with the Lord.
S.L.
The Joy and Rejoicing of My Heart
I am a 40 year old Physical Education teacher, who was born and raised
here in Spokane, Washington. My wife, Jill, and I have been married and
have served the Lord in the local church for the past 17 years. We
have two teenage children who are honor students in the Spokane public
schools.
My first contact with the writings of both Watchman Nee and Witness Lee
was in October of 1978. It was then that I first received the Lord and
was saved through a former classmate of mine who was meeting with the
church in Spokane. For the first time in my life I was hungry and eager
to read the Bible. One of my favorite verses was Psalm 119: 103 which
reads: “Thy words are sweeter than honey to my taste, yea, sweeter than
honey to my mouth.” The Lord showed me this verse, and so many others,
through reading some of the smaller booklets written by Watchman Nee and
Witness Lee. How I loved reading those booklets!
As the years have passed by, the ministry of these two servants of God
has been a tremendous strengthening to both my Christian life, and human
life. Any desire I have to seek after the Lord; any longing that I
have for ones to “be saved and come to the full knowledge of the truth”
(1 Timothy 2:4); any amount of love and shepherding that I can render to
the brothers and sisters in the church life; and any fulfillment of my
responsibility as a Christian husband and father, are a direct result of
being continually nourished with the Word of God and the ministry of
these two brothers. Oh, what a joy it is to meet the Lord each day
through His Word! Using the Recovery Version with all of the study
notes, I am brought into touch with the living Word day by day. Also,
what a pleasure it is to meet with those who “call on the Lord out of a
pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22) in the healthy local church.
Truly, the publications of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee have helped me
to daily find Christ through His Word as “the joy and rejoicing of my
heart” (Jeremiah 15:16).
J.G.
Finding Christ in His Word
I am from Spokane, Washington. I find it a privilege to write my
experience of coming to know Christ through His word, the Bible. During
the first years of my Christian life I found it very difficult to
understand the Bible. I eventually limited my reading mainly to the four
gospels. However, there came a day when I met some Christians who
really knew the Bible. It did not seem to matter what question was posed
or what page was opened; these Christians always had something to say
that caused me to appreciate Christ. How did they know the Bible so
well? How did they know the Lord so well? Soon I learned their secret.
These Christians’ secret was in their reading books by Watchman Nee and
Witness Lee. They invited me to read a section with them and my first
reaction was “Let’s just read the Bible.” We did read the Bible, and a
portion from a book by Witness Lee. After that day I began to read both
the Bible and the writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. I found my
love for the Lord kindled every time I sat down to read.
Also, within a short time, through these authors I discovered the Bible
to be a book that has an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The
entire Bible, every book, every chapter, and every verse within it makes
sense. God has a purpose. God has a way to carry out His purpose. I
have found the meaning of my human life, and even of my daily life. It
is all wrapped up with the wonderful person of Christ who is portrayed
throughout this book, the Bible.
J.J.
Pursuing Christ in the Word and in the Church Life
I would like to share the testimony of my enjoyment of Christ in the
local church. I was brought up by godly parents who were missionaries.
By the Lord’s mercy I was saved as a young boy. As I grew up I started
seeking after the Lord. In 1976, when I was a senior in high school, I
moved with my family to Huntington Beach, California and came into
contact with believers meeting there as the church in Huntington Beach.
Since 1977 I have been meeting with the local churches, first in
Huntington Beach, then in Costa Mesa, and since 1980 in Spokane,
Washington.
Throughout my upbringing I always had a profound reverence for the
Bible, considering it to be the infallible word of God. This view of
the Bible has only been strengthened in my time in the local church. I
love the Word of God, treasuring it more than my necessary food. I am
nourished and strengthened by the Word. The Word of God is my unique
and sole authority. I just care for what is in the Bible. I try to let
everything of my tradition and background go and just cleave to the
Word of God.
The Word of God I enjoy is not one of dead letters. Paul said that the
letter kills but the Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6). It is
indeed a tragedy if I come to the Bible and yet miss the One of Whom the
scriptures speak. This happened to the Jews in the time of Jesus’
earthly ministry. They searched the scriptures but were unwilling to
come to Christ that they might have life (John 5:39-40). The scriptures
point to Christ and it is ultimately Christ that I seek after. Like
Mary in Luke 10 I choose the good part which shall not be taken away
from me. To know Christ, to pursue after Him, to be conformed to Him,
and to be transformed into His image is my heart-felt desire and what I
am entering into.
In this context I would like to say a word concerning the ministry of
brother Witness Lee. Through this brother, the Lord has had a way to
unveil the depths of His Word to me. Witness Lee’s speaking and writing
have proven to be a consistent interpretation and faithful unfolding of
divine revelation contained in the Holy Word. His ministry emphasizes
the crucial contents of the Divine Word, focusing on life, light, truth,
Christ, the spirit, the church and ultimately on the revelation
concerning the divine economy of God. Witness Lee’s ministry, drawn from
his deep experiences of Christ and released so livingly from his
spirit, has caused a response over and over in my spirit. Throughout
the years, as line after line of the scriptures has been expounded by
him, the response in my spirit to the light and revelation has been
overwhelming. His ministry has caused me to seek the Lord in His Word
until the day dawns and the morning star arises in my heart (2 Peter
1:19).
Finally, I would like to say that in the local church I have been
ushered into the experience of Christ in a corporate way. In my years
in the local church I have been surrounded by fellow believers who all
share the aspiration of pursuing after Christ and being built up
together in the divine life. We are one body in Christ and individually
members one of another (Romans 12:5). We are pursuing not just in an
individual way but with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart
(2 Timothy 2:22). Song of Songs 1:4 says “Draw me, we will run after
thee.” As the Lord draws us, we need others to seek after the Lord with
us. How I love the local church with all of the brothers and sisters
pursuing after the Lord together!
J.C.
Coming out of a Coma
I was saved in Korea after resisting the Lord for 10 years. A year later
I met my husband, got married and came to the United States. Because my
husband was in the Air Force, we were living on a military base and
were very active in the base chapel. Since the Lord had brought me to
the United States, I told Him to delay His second coming and give me
enough time to pursue my purpose and enjoy what the US would offer. As
time went on I realized human life is the same here as in any other
place and man’s basic joy and satisfaction come from the Lord alone. At
the same time, I was increasingly sickened by the politics, social
nature, and worldly mixture of the group with which we were meeting. I
started to cry to my husband to find a Christian group that would only
fellowship about the Lord and nothing else.
One evening, in our desperation, we knelt down together and prayed,
“Lord, should we stay where we are or should we go somewhere? If we go,
how shall we pick where to go? Lord, lead us to the church.” A few days
later a couple with whom we had been having a Bible study were invited
by some friends to a conference given by the local church in Spokane.
They asked us to go along. In that meeting many Christian brothers and
sisters stood and shared their experiences and enjoyment of the Lord. As
I was listening, all the spiritual senses which had been planted in me
when I was saved began to return. I had gradually lost them over the
years and had been unable to recover them. I was coming out of a
spiritual coma! The speaking and the atmosphere of the meeting awakened
my inner being! I was hearing and seeing and touching the spiritual
things again! Fresh love for the Lord, the desire to read the Bible and
to speak for the Lord, and much more, was coming back.
Through the sharing of all the members in the meetings as well as from
reading the books of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee we saw God’s eternal
purpose—to build a corporate expression of Himself by dispensing Himself
into His chosen and redeemed vessels. What could we do when we glimpsed
such a heavenly vision? We abandoned our plan for my husband to become a
youth minister and Bible teacher in the warm South and consecrated
ourselves and our future to the Lord to be built and knit together with
others as the local church in Spokane to be a testimony of Jesus.
We experience inward joy and satisfaction by responding to the Lord’s
calling in this age to be prepared for His return so He can close this
age and bring in the Kingdom age. I thank the Lord for His precious
death on the cross which saved me from my sin and I worship the Lord for
the Spirit’s operation in my heart to bring me and to show me His
purpose.
Jin Blair
A Promise Made Long Ago
Isaiah 52:7, 12, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the
messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces
salvation. Who says to Zion ‘Your God reigns’ for you shall not go out
in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for the Lord will go before
you and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.”
Oh, how beautiful are these words! The Jews awaited their Messiah, but
when He came they knew Him not. As a Jew, I believed that the Old
Testament was a history of my people. Those such as Abraham, Moses,
David, and Solomon were heroes. I did not know God’s plan, and that the
Old Testament was His story. I did not know that I was predestinated to
be a son of God before time began, that my own time would come when I
would accept His Spirit into mine.
One time, I was very ill, and called “JESUS” over and over again. If not
for Him, I would have died. When I recovered I forgot Him, but He did
not forget me! He waited patiently for me all those years.
Four years ago, I began having a feeling that there was a large empty
space inside of me. I began having dreams that spoke to me of Jesus. I
asked questions of believers I worked with. One Christian sister, in
particular, spoke about Christ to me many times. I wanted to have her
joy and peace. One evening at the sister’s home, I surrendered myself to
Him and was saved. I then started to meet with the local church, and
since then I have moved from the joy of my personal salvation to the joy
of being one with other believers. Through these believers’ testimony
and the writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, I have come to
understand God's plan. I have come to love the Lord above everything
else and treasure every moment with Him. I thank Him for having given us
these two brothers to open up God’s plan.
Barbara Rubin
Finding the Purpose of my Christian Life
How can I experience the Lord in a constant way? How can I know Him in a
real and living way? What is the goal of the Christian life? What am I
supposed to be doing here on earth as a Christian? Where is a place
where Christians are living in oneness? These were the questions I had
as a fifteen-year-old girl. I had grown up in a Christian home, for
which I am very grateful. My parents led me to receive the Lord as my
Savior when I was nine years old, but at fifteen I had these questions
for which I was seeking answers.
Through various circumstances the Lord brought me, one evening,
to a meeting of the local church in Spokane. In that meeting John 10:10
became alive to me. “I am come that you may have life and have it more
abundantly.” Many were giving their testimonies of how this abundant
life isn’t material blessings but is the very divine and eternal life of
God which we as believers possess and can enjoy. The lights came on in
my being and through the meeting I realized that I don’t have to wait
until I die, but that I can enjoy this eternal life now. The more I
enjoy this life, the more it will transform me and the more I will
discover that this life is an abundant supply in my daily living.
As I began to meet with the believers in the local church, I was
very impressed with their lives. They all had normal jobs, like nursing
or teaching. I could see that Christ was really their Lord in all of
their daily living, at home and at work. This really attracted me. Most
of all I noticed they were of such one accord. They didn’t have certain
conditions for receiving me or one another. Their focus was Christ
Himself and how to contact Him as the life-giving Spirit (1 Corinthians
15:45b) and experience Him in our human spirit (John 4:24). Through
their speaking, my eyes were opened by the Lord to see that as there is
only one Body of Christ, that oneness has to be and can be practical in
many local churches all over the earth.
I noticed they had books by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. I had read The Normal Christian Life
by Watchman Nee. I was very happy to find out that there were a lot
more books and that Watchman Nee and Witness Lee were coworkers who were
fully given to the Lord to minister for the building up of the Body of
Christ (Ephesians 4:12). When I read their books, I discovered that all
the puzzles in the Bible were fully put together. Everything was made
clear by their ministry in the light of God’s eternal plan. The center
of His plan is that our Triune God wants to have a corporate group of
people to receive, contain and express His divine eternal life. I
discovered that everything I thought I needed to wait for, I can
experience and enjoy now.
Becky Mogensen
To Know Him is to Love Him
As a youth growing up on a farm, I was aware that God existed by
observing the outward manifestation of His creation around me. Since I
only knew of Him objectively as the Almighty Creator, much of my living
was an outward religious behavior of striving to be good and to do good,
which usually resulted in frustration and disappointment. According to
my own reasoning I thought that being good was the mandate for entering
heaven.
Later, after entering college, I came to know this Creator as my
Lord and Savior by accepting and receiving Him into my spirit. What
followed was a joy, peace, and a rest during this crucial interval of my
life, but it quickly disappeared in a short time as I attempted to live
a perfect and proper Christian life. Once more I plunged into the
disappointing and discouraging realm of self-effort. Inside me was a
seeking for something satisfying and real which could not be found in
many good Christian activities, even in becoming a missionary to serve
the Lord, which I did. Surely this was the best thing a person could do
for God, I thought. Through a series of failures I was enlightened by
the Lord’s mercy that my endeavoring was in vain. At this very juncture
this One revealed to me that all the previous years I was just doing
something for Him and was missing Him, missing His sweet presence as a
real and genuine Person. Deep within there was the sense that the Lord
was saying, “Just take Me. You have been so busy all these years doing
things for Me. Just rest in Me. Love Me and enjoy Me.” In that one
moment, such an unspeakable joy and rest swallowed up all those years of
struggle.
From this point I was led to visit the local church in Spokane
where Christian believers possessed such a deep love and profound joy
for the Lord that was so attractive and encouraging. For the first time
in my life I truly felt I was home while fellowshipping with these
pursuers and seekers of Jesus Christ. What witnessed in my spirit was
that these really knew God in a personal and intimate way.
It was also very apparent that there was a genuine one accord
among these believers which I had never seen elsewhere. From the very
beginning of fellowshipping with them, I could really say, “that indeed
God is among you” (1 Corinthians 14:26). These were ordinary, normal
people who had discovered the secret of maintaining their joy of the
Lord in their daily lives. I finally realized that this is what I really
had been searching for all these years. The whole goal of these
Christian brothers and sisters was just Christ Himself. They were not
seeking anything for themselves, but just the very person of Jesus
Christ. Years of endeavoring and doing were replaced by enjoying and
pursuing, pursuing this One, our Lord.
Here I was also introduced to the ministry writings of Watchman
Nee and Witness Lee, faithful servants of God who had unlocked the
mysteries of the Bible. Their writings were and still are so supplying
and nourishing for my hungry spirit. I have a deep appreciation for all
the books and messages given by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee because
through these I was brought to the Person of Christ, not to any method
or outward regulation. I was brought to experience and enjoy the reality
of “Christ making His home in our hearts through faith” (Ephesians
3:17). There is one quotation by Witness Lee that sums up all that is in
me, “Give yourself to love the Lord. No other way is so prevailing, and
no other way is so safe, so rich and so full of enjoyment. Just love
Him. Do not care for anything else” (Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs,
p. 24). As an individual I could never have maintained this. This has
been my experience now for 16 years with the brothers and sisters
enjoying the Lord in the local church in Spokane.
Jim Mogensen
Christ as my Supply
I will tell you of how I came to the local church in Spokane. My parents
came to Spokane seven years ago and since then have been going to the
meetings of the local church here. At first it seemed like all the other
places we had been going to, until I got saved. Since that time the
Lord has always been in my heart, and has, I believe, grown in me more
and more.
My name is Johnny. I’m currently nineteen years old, and attending
college. I love the Lord, and love to call on His name. Many times I
have gone to meeting after meeting, and not once have I been discouraged
from going back. The brothers speak only life; it is why we are here,
and why we live. The believers help me experience Christ in a richer and
higher way. He is like a feast on a table, filled from side to side,
and up and down, with Christ. Only Christ Himself can really satisfy our
hunger. He is the beginning and the end. I am encouraged to follow the
Lord, and to pray for others because that is the only way to go on, and
most of all, I call on the name of the Lord, of the King, of my Savior.
Johnny Montúfar
I am Home
“Lord, this can’t be! Why is this happening?” I asked the Lord this. I’d
been a believer for two years and already was frustrated and
disillusioned about the Christian life. The more I tried to do
“something” for God or be “someone” for God the more miserable I became.
To escape this frustration I enlisted in the military. After my
technical school was completed the U.S. Air Force stationed me in
Spokane, Washington.
After being here for approximately one month that same old gnawing
question “Why” came back. This led me to pray, “Lord, there’s something
more to the Christian life; Lord, show me Your best!” Within a week, He
brought me to a college campus where I met a student who was meeting
with the local church in Spokane. I was invited to a gospel dinner that
evening by this student. Upon my first meeting with these Christians I
had the definite sensation that God had answered my prayer. In my being
resounded, “I am home!” That was twenty-five years ago.
Through the ministries of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee these dear
Christians have shown me how to experience and enjoy Christ with all His
riches by the exercise of my human spirit. What a revelation! The human
spirit and the soul are not the same! (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
One of the most helpful truths that I’ve experienced while in this
fellowship is to realize that I am just a member of the Body of Christ,
nothing more and nothing less. This has saved me from countless
frustrations and anxieties. I’ve learned to accept where the Lord has
placed me in His Body and have discovered how to function as the member
the Lord intended me to be. (1 Corinthians 12:14-22) This is what builds
up the Body of Christ what He desires.
Another enlightening truth that’s been shown to me is God’s eternal
purpose. This vision has been a governing and controlling matter in my
life. God desires a group of people built together in His life to
express Him with all His divine attributes by their human virtues. This
is what will shame and defeat God’s enemy, the devil. When the Lord has
His expression through the builded members of His Body, Satan is
defeated and the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose will be
consummated, which will be the New Jerusalem! (Revelation 21:2, 10)
I can sincerely and thankfully say to the Lord that He answered my
prayer that I had made as a young man. There’s nothing higher, more
honorable, and satisfying than to give myself to the fulfillment of
God’s heart’s desire. I attribute this all to the writings of brothers
Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.
Jack Mogensen
Satisfied at Last
I received the Lord when I was 15 years old and at a Young Life meeting
where I heard that God loved me and died for me. I felt God was speaking
directly to me and I prayed to receive the Lord. Not being raised in a
Christian home, I didn’t understand what happened to me, what salvation
meant. It wasn’t until after leaving high school, I felt to pursue God
and find out what being a Christian was. I knew I needed to meet with
Christians, but who? and where? For the next three and one-half years I
searched for the meaning of my Christian life. Being a voracious reader,
I read numerous spiritual books. Eventually, I quit reading them and
told God, “I just read about others’ experiences, but none of them tell
me how I can experience You.” There was no open door for me to enter
into the experience of Christ like they had. Time after time I ended up
disappointed with where I was meeting and left. I remember crying out to
God “How do I experience You? Where do I find ones that really love
You? All I have learned is to memorize verses, do good works, study
theology, speak in tongues…there has to be something more than this!
Where are You?”
I asked a friend “What should I read to go on with the Lord?” She
suggested reading books by Watchman Nee. So I bought every book that I
could find. I recognized that there was definitely something different
about these books. They talked about how I could experience Christ in my
life and something more, that God had an eternal purpose. These books
were an open door to bring me into the experience of living Christ. I
was happy, but I still felt something was missing.
At this point, I had made a decision not to go to any more “churches”.
All they had done was disappoint me. I decided, “It’s just You and me,
Lord.” I transferred to a Christian college my senior year thinking that
I would find great fellowship there. After one week, I was disappointed
again. Didn’t anyone want to talk about Christ? Then I got a job on
campus with a Christian sister meeting with the local church in Spokane.
I found out that she read Watchman Nee’s books too. I was excited. She
told me about her meetings and eventually I went. I was impressed by
these people. They liked to talk about the Lord all the time. They loved
to say they loved Jesus! And they had so many books by Watchman Nee and
Witness Lee on how to live Christ, love Christ, pursue Christ, and to
see God’s eternal purpose and how it was accomplished through the
practical church life. I felt like someone who had been starving for a
long time and had been brought to a feast! I was so excited and kept
going to the meetings getting richly fed each time; but always, lurking
at the back of my mind was the thought “This will run out like all the
others. It won’t last.”
I have been meeting with the local church in Spokane and reading this
ministry for 26 years now, and can testify that this ministry, along
with the practical church life, has brought me only into a deeper,
richer, more intimate fellowship with Christ. It hasn’t run out, in
fact, it’s gotten better! I love Christ and I love the church more today
than I did 26 years ago. It is by this wonderful ministry and by
meeting on the proper ground of oneness that I have been brought into
the reality of how to experience Christ in my daily life, how Christ’s
life can grow to maturity in me, how I can be practically built into the
Body of Christ, receive a supply of Christ from all the members, and
become prepared to be part of His Bride waiting for His return.
This ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, and the normal practical
church life has brought me to love, cherish, and experience Christ in a
way I never would have thought possible. I am so thankful for both.
Merry Dantos
Captivated by the Enjoyment of Christ
When I began to meet with the local church in Spokane I found Christ and
the reality of Christ. Here Christ is so real and so enjoyable, so
reachable and sweet. O what an enjoyment it is to be attracted by the
beauty of Christ, and to be with the believers in the local church.
Praise the Lord for the local church in Spokane, where I found my spirit
to contact God, to enjoy the Lord, and to be in His presence.
Esther Montúfar
My Growth in Christ
My experience with the local church in Spokane has been the greatest
experience in my life. Here is where I have begun to appreciate the
local church and have been able to experience the love of Christ.
I got saved when I was 12 years old. I didn’t quite have the vision or
the understanding of the life of Christ, until the Lord Jesus brought my
family and me to Spokane.
Here I have grown to appreciate and to experience the local church and
the love of Christ. The past 7 years have been the greatest years of my
life. Praise the Lord for Christ and the church! May God continue to
show us more of His eternal purpose!
Arlette Montúfar
The Bible—an Open Book
I heard some Bible stories when I was very young. When I was nine, my
neighbor spoke the gospel to me and I happily accepted the Lord. My
parents enrolled me in a Christian school from the fourth grade to the
eighth grade. At this school I learned many Bible stories and I enjoyed
them very much.
Throughout my high school and college days I studied the Bible and tried
to walk according to my conscience the best I knew how. The Lord seemed
close to me but there still seemed to be something lacking. I found the
stories in the Bible distant from my experience. I was also lacking the
overall view of the Bible. One day while I was riding the bus to
college, I told the Lord that I didn’t have any friends at school. That
day on the way back from school, a person with a Bible in his hand sat
next to me. He invited me to a Bible study. In this Bible study he
showed me that God has a plan to gain man to express His image and
represent His dominion on the earth (Genesis 1:26) and that this is
being done by dispensing Himself as life into man, to be man’s life and
content.
After this Bible study I asked this person if I could read what he was
reading and meet where he was meeting. He introduced to me the writings
of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. He also brought me to meet with other
Christians in the local church in Spokane. This was in the spring of
1991. Since that time I have been meeting with these Christians and
reading the publications of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. I have found
that by meeting with them and reading their publications the Bible has
become an open book to me. I also have learned through this ministry
what it is to be a Christian in line with the will of God.
Spencer Clawson
Captivated by Enjoyment
When I began meeting with the local churches, I found Christ; I found the reality of Christ.
Here Christ is so real and so enjoyable, reachable, and so sweet. O what
an enjoyment it is to be captivated by the beauty of Christ and meet
with the believers in the local churches. Praise the Lord for the local
church where I found my spirit to contact God, to enjoy the Lord, and to
be in His presence with other believers for the building up of the Body
of Christ, which is the church (Ephesians 1:22-23).
Lorenzo Montúfar
The Reality of Christ in my Daily Life
I would like to testify of the utter joy and reality of Christ I have
experienced in my daily life through contact with the local church in
Spokane and the writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.
I was raised in a fundamental Christian home and was taught the truths
of the Bible as a child. My father was an elder of a Plymouth Brethren
Assembly. I appreciated the elderly Christian brothers and sisters there
because of their deeper relationships with the Lord.
Even though I embraced the truths of the Word, I recognized that I was
not experiencing the personal daily enjoyment of Christ. I also found
myself being attracted to and expressing the world. I was trying to
satisfy myself with so many things although I knew that only the Lord
should truly satisfy me. I was also grieved that my Christian testimony
was so lacking that unbelievers were not drawn to the Lord through me. I
recognized that if I was in the experience of the Lord more, Christ
would be filling me and then other things would have no room to fill me
and to blot the testimony of Christ through me.
This caused me to cry out to the Lord. As I was before the Lord I
blurted out, “Lord, You have to be more to me.” He mercifully answered
my prayer beyond what I could have imagined.
God sovereignly brought me in contact with a Christian brother who was
full of the enjoyment of Christ. This was expressed on his face and
evident in the words spoken from his mouth. I was so attracted to this
that I was inspired to go to a conference in Seattle where the reality
of Christ in believers’ lives was so testified. This impression stayed
with me for over a year, until the Lord caused me to feel I could not go
on in my human life without the Lord being real in my daily life. I
felt the world’s strong draw and longed to be delivered from it to go on
with the Lord for His pleasure.
I moved into a house with some of the Christian sisters meeting with the
local church in Spokane. Their daily life helped me learn to take in
the Lord as my life supply. I learned the practicality of John 6:57
where the Lord Jesus spoke, “He that eats Me even he shall live by Me.” I
have learned to treasure the eating of the Lord through His Word, the
testimony of others, and through the publications of Living Stream
Ministry. This has brought me to a wonderful, practical, daily
experience of Christ that overflows to others. I thank the Lord that He
has worked a testimony of the reality of His life in my life.
Marilyn Somner
Satisfied
I was raised in a Christian home and attended denominations in
Christianity. In my high school years I began questioning what was real.
By the time I was attending a small Christian college I called myself
an agnostic. By the Lord’s mercy, I was brought to the Lord through
friends in college. I went to various denominations and free groups, but
was not satisfied. I felt something must be wrong with me, that I
didn’t fit in. I had a desire to give myself to the Lord, but no
practical way to carry it out. Then in 1977 I came in contact with the
local churches through the church in Spokane. I found that God has an
eternal purpose, which would be worth giving my entire being to. I could
give myself to the Lord to fulfill His desire.
In all my years in the local church I have found the Lord real and
practical. I can contact Him and be touched by Him in all the various
matters of daily life. I have been brought to love Him more and more. I
love the Word of God; and the ministry of Witness Lee helps to open the
Word to me. The Bible makes sense, and is consistent from Genesis to
Revelation in unveiling God’s eternal plan. Through daily contact with
the Lord and His Word, and the supply of God’s life from the Christian
brothers and sisters, I have been helped to grow in life, and to care
less for things of the world and self. I have been brought to know the
genuine Oneness the Lord desires, and to experience living as a member
of the Body of Christ. My family life and home life have been enriched
and supported by the supply of God’s life I have received from believers
in the local church. Most of all, I have a living on earth which can
satisfy God’s desire.
Kathy Kalles
I Found the Answer!
I grew up in a Greek Orthodox home in Andover, Massachusetts. All those
in my family were faithful members of that church. I believed in God,
had a heart for God, and prayed to Him throughout my life. I served as
an altar boy at that church and was actively involved there while
growing up.
When I was 25, I moved to Santa Cruz, California. I was seeking the
reality of my human life. What was the purpose for my existence? While
walking on the beach one day, I remember that I cried out to God, asking
Him these questions.
Two weeks later I was invited by a friend to a meeting of the local
church in Santa Cruz. That was on October 1, 1972. I accepted the Lord
Jesus into my life and was baptized that afternoon. I felt like I had
come home, that my prayer for reality was finally answered. After my
baptism, I felt a joy that I never had before. I couldn’t stop smiling. I
found Christ as my reality. Hallelujah!
I began to read the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee and I
received much spiritual help and enlightenment from these publications.
Two months later, I attended a Christian conference in San Diego and had
the pleasure of staying in the same home as Witness Lee. He was so
interested in me, asking me about my background growing up in the Greek
Orthodox church, and he helped me as an older brother in the Lord caring
for a new believer.
Now I’m 52 years old and I can say that I love the Lord and His purpose
more than I ever have and I praise the Lord for the rich ministry of
these two faithful servants of God that helped bring me into the reality
of the experience of Christ, the church, and God’s eternal purpose.
Anonymous
Finding God’s Will and Heart’s Desire
In my senior year of college my roommate invited me to a meeting of the
church in Seattle where her parents lived. I had been saved for three
years and had attended numerous denominations throughout Washington
State. I thought I was being invited to just another group, another
service. To my great surprise I noticed there was depth in the Word of
God being spoken, the Lord’s presence was there and I was intensely
drawn to the Lord Himself in the meeting and even for weeks afterwards.
During that period I signed a teaching contract in Spokane and moved
there. In the fall of 1970 the Lord further opened my eyes to see His
eternal purpose as revealed in the Bible and I gladly consecrated myself
to Christ and His practical purpose, the building up of the church.
Every meeting I’ve ever attended has always had the Lord’s presence, the
riches of Christ ministered, and the flow of the Spirit in the Body.
The Lord has surely commanded His blessing on such oneness (Psalm 133).
After nearly thirty years in the local church I can testify it just
keeps getting better and better, because it’s truly an expression of
God’s divine life.
Being a teacher, I have worked with nearly five thousand young people.
Through the years I have had the privilege of having some children from
the local church in my classroom. I am full of appreciation for the
character and humanity in each of these families. These are the most
preserved, proper and purposeful young people I have ever been around.
When I was a young person in my early teens I too desired to know the
meaning of my human life. I was told this question was unanswerable and
to just go outside and play with my friends. In my later teen years I
received the Lord and my whole life direction changed. People told me
that God had a plan for “my life,” yet deep within that never quite
seemed adequate. Only when I came to the church life did I discover that
God has an eternal will and heart’s desire. It is so refreshing to see a
group of people who realize with assurance that God has a purpose and
their lives can fit into His purpose. To be living on this earth for
God’s satisfaction is truly the meaning of human life. How I thank the
Lord for His great mercy in bringing me to His purpose.
Paula Kramer
In My Daddy’s Arms
When I was 3 years old, my father left. Like the story of many, my mommy
and daddy would no longer be my mommy and daddy (or at least that's how
this 3-year-old saw things). It was painful. As a young child I learned
well the real meaning of the word divorce, but even into my adolescence
I could not answer my heart’s haunting question: “Where is my daddy?”
Through my childhood, I always had a deep sense that I needed my daddy. I
tried various things—some good, some bad—always attempting to calm the
clamoring question of my heart: Where is my daddy? My search continued.
All the while, however, I had no realization that my father was seeking
me. What? My Father? Seeking me? It was really true. My heavenly Father
was seeking me. John 4:23 says, “…the Father also seeks such to worship
Him…” Can you imagine?—the God of the universe, my heavenly Father,
sought me out!!
Three weeks before I turned 13 years old, my heavenly Father found me.
He took me into His arms and He has never let me go. (What joy and rest
to be in my Daddy’s arms.) It happened like this. I was at a meeting of
the local church in Spokane. I was only there because my mother forced
me to go, but the strangest (or most wonderful) thing happened to me in
that meeting. That night I had the realization that my heavenly Father
was seeking me. I had a deep sense that not only had I found my Father,
but that my Father had found me. He was calling me to Himself (1
Corinthians 1:9). I called on Him from the depths of my being (Romans
10:12-13), and my satisfied heart exclaimed, I love Him! I love my
Daddy’s arms! Indeed, I had been brought directly into the lap of God
Himself. Oh, in my Daddy’s arms!
Since that day, I have continued in the Christian fellowship of the
local churches. Today, at the age of 36, I testify with much joy and
comfort that there has never passed a day that I could not find my
Daddy’s arms, the arms of my heavenly Father. Also, having two precious
daughters of my own (whom I love to hold in my arms), I would like to
testify to anyone who is seeking the real Father that, in fact, “…the
Father also seeks such to worship Him…” (John 4:23).
Now I count it a joy to join my dear Lord Jesus in saying “…I must be in
the things of my Father” (Luke 2:49). For now, you see, my testimony is
not centered on my question: “Where is my daddy?” Much rather, it is
centered on my Father’s interest and on my heart’s joyful response: “In
my Daddy’s arms!”
Darryl Rawlins
Being Filled with the Holy Spirit
I grew up in a Christian family very preserved from the world. When I
graduated from high school I began to realize even though my parents did
a great job of keeping the world out of our home, my Christian walk was
far from matching the Word of God. I realized that I desperately needed
some spiritual nourishment! When I was a young person, almost daily, my
dad and I prayed: “Fill me with the Holy Spirit.” I never knew what
that really meant. So much of my spiritual search as a young adult
stemmed from the desire to know, “What does it mean to have the Spirit
filling me?” For a long time I was not making any progress in my pursuit
and in fact had been very discouraged by various situations. I found my
heart was becoming closed to the Lord, as no answer seemed to come. I
was about to make a last-ditch effort to find some spiritual reality
when I heard a person read something in a Bible study as an answer to a
Bible question. This person was reading a verse explanation, a footnote,
from the Recovery Version Bible. Hearing that footnote began to open my
heart to the Lord again. Immediately after that I went to my first
meeting with the local church in Spokane. I can testify that my heart
rejoiced greatly at what I heard and saw in those meetings. The meetings
were (and are) so enjoyable that sometimes my cheek muscles would ache
from smiling so often!
This verse really opened my eyes. Romans 8:11 says, “…His Spirit who
indwells you.” I found out that to know the Spirit is not hard because
He indwells me! This fact alone has changed my whole Christian walk.
What a joy! The Spirit who gives life lives in me! This is why the
meetings are so wonderful, because the believers enjoy being filled with
the Spirit. This is the way it should be, according to Romans 14:17:
“For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” I thank the Lord that now my life
is becoming a life not of vaguely wondering, but of paying attention to
the Spirit, obeying the Spirit, and living out the Spirit. This is the
real spiritual (or should I say Spirit-filled) life.
Thank You, Lord, for bringing me to the glorious local church—where God
bountifully supplies to me the Spirit out of the hearing of faith
(Galatians 3:5). I feel the Lord has answered my plea to know the Spirit
by showing me the truth in the Bible and the reality of the Body of
Christ. I am so happy in the local church. I love the Lord more today
than ever.
Diane Hooper
My Search is Over
Up until the time I was 23 I sought to find God as a reality in my life.
I restlessly and relentlessly searched in many places and read many
books in an attempt to find answers to the many questions I had
regarding having God as a real and personal part of my life.
In September of 1989 I met some Christians who met as the church in
Spokane. I realized as I began to spend time with these believers that
they had what I had been hungering for a long time. I could see that
these were ones who had the real experience and enjoyment of the Lord
and that the Lord Jesus was a real part of their lives. Because of
knowing them, I was drawn to the Lord and readily received Him as my
personal savior.
Since that day nearly ten years ago, I have continued meeting with the
church in Spokane, and have been drawn, motivated, and encouraged to
love the Lord and to grow in my experience of Him, to know the church as
the Body of Christ, and to see God’s eternal purpose.
I have also found the writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee
invaluable in helping me to know and understand the truth in the Bible,
verse by verse, and to receive light and life from the Bible, which is
the very breath of God. (2 Timothy 3:16)
I am so glad my search is over and that I’m finding Christ to be so real
to me every day. John 14:6 says “I am the way, the reality, and the
life.” I am so glad I found Christ as my life and the way to experience
Him in the local church.
B.L.
Christ is not Divided
When I was seven years old, my Christian mother prayed with me to ask
the Lord Jesus to come into my heart. That day, Christ imparted His very
life into me. It is both a miracle and a mystery, but it is a fact.
Praise the Lord! I grew up in a small community in northern Minnesota
where my Mom took my siblings and me to many denominations.
Consequently, we never called ourselves by a particular name, rather we
referred to ourselves as Christians. Eventually, I began to question why
there were so many denominations. “Is Christ divided?” (1 Corinthians
1:13a) In all of the places we went, I did not see, nor did I experience
the enjoyment of the Lord. The closest I came to enjoying the Lord was
at Bible camp, but it seemed to fade when I returned home to my daily
routine.
As I entered my teenage years, I continued to love the Lord, but my
consciousness began to fade. I did more of want I wanted and I consulted
with the Lord less. My husband and I were married at a young age. He
was not saved, however he and I both believed that he was. We went off
to college and had some very difficult years. Eventually the Lord
brought us to Spokane, Washington. My husband got saved the month after
we arrived. During this time I consecrated myself to the Lord. I had no
idea what would happen. I just knew I wanted to give everything to the
Lord. I had been caring for myself too long and not for the Lord.
A few weeks later, we were introduced to some Christians who were
meeting as the church in Spokane. I discovered that Christ is not
divided! These Christians were meeting on the ground of oneness. Could
it be true? These people cared only for Christ. They were glowing with
Christ and I soon discovered that they even enjoyed the Lord in their
daily life. I longed to experience this enjoyment.
In my first meeting, I learned that I have a body, soul, and spirit (1
Thessalonians 5:23). Christ lives in my spirit (2 Timothy 4:22). This
means I need to exercise my spirit to enjoy Him. This is what all the
happy people were doing and this is what I was attracted to. Christ
became so real to me in the local church; never before had He been so
real to me. Through the writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee I began
to see more of this Wonderful Person that lives in me. I only want
Christ and it is in the local church that He has become my reality.
Anonymous
A Blessing and a Privilege
I was born to parents who were meeting with the local churches. So, from
the very beginning, I’ve been able to hear about, enjoy, and experience
the Lord in the local churches and through reading the ministries of
Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. To me, it’s a blessing and a privilege to
have been in the local churches my whole life. I am so glad to be here
and so grateful to the Lord for His sovereign arrangement.
The ministries of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee cause me to love the Lord
more and to seek after Him with my whole being for His satisfaction.
These ministries have also put in me a love and a desire for the Word of
God and have caused me to know, see, and experience the Person of Jesus
Christ and His heart’s desire as revealed in the Bible: to gain a
Bride, a match, for Himself.
Another aspect of the local churches that I really treasure is that our
enjoyment of the Lord is corporate and practical. Since I’ve always been
in the local churches, I don’t know what it’s like to be a solitary
Christian, seeking the Lord in an individual way. I do know, however,
that I have a big appreciation for the believers and our mutual
enjoyment of the Lord as His Body. Moreover, through enjoying the
ministries of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee I’ve found that Christ is not
just enjoyable on Sunday or in the church meetings, but that I can
enjoy Him every day in a real and living way. As I enjoy Him in the
meetings, in my daily life, and with the other believers He floods me
with Himself to fill me up and to satisfy His heart.
I’m so glad I can be here, as a young person meeting with the local
church in Spokane, enjoying the Lord with all the believers so that He
can come back.
Rachel Kilgren
The God of Glory Appeared
I believe that as a boy growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I had a
sense of eternity in my heart as I looked up at the stars on a clear
night, though I didn’t know yet who or what was this eternity. After
graduating from the University of Washington in the early 70’s, I
started seeking after God in a serious way due to a growing sense of
emptiness and vanity in my life. One day God appeared to me and then I
knew that there was a living and knowable God; yet I still didn’t know
how to reach Him. Soon after this I determined to travel to Europe and
eventually to Israel to visit a close friend who had had a real
experience of God there. I hitchhiked through Europe, Turkey, and the
Middle East and arrived in Jerusalem in June of 1973. Within two weeks I
had finally found the way to this living God in the Person of Jesus
Christ.
I then spent three years in Denmark with Christians there, including
Youth With A Mission and a Teen Challenge-type arrangement in
Copenhagen. I returned to the USA and became a member of a “spirit
filled” denomination near my parent’s home in Kirkland, Washington.
After two years of being involved in this denomination, I still felt a
longing for something deeper, something more of God. Then in my first
year in nursing school at Seattle Pacific University, I met a Christian
brother in my missions class (I was planning to be a medical missionary
to the Middle East) and he invited me to a Bible study. I attended and
discovered a group of people who also had a longing to know God in a
deeper way. The fellowship was full of the enjoyment of the eternal life
of God. There was no tongue speaking or prophesying as I knew it to be
but I felt so enlivened and refreshed from having met with these
believers.
Over a year’s time I attended some meetings of the local church in
Seattle and the local church in Bellevue and I heard some different and
deeper interpretations of the Bible than I had heard before, yet all the
time there was a deep confirmation in the depths of my being that this
was the same living God appearing to me again. Eventually, as I searched
the Scriptures, I discovered the words spoken by Watchman Nee and
Witness Lee matched the Bible and touched the depths of the spirit that
was in the writers when they wrote the books of the Bible.
Now, 21 years later, I can testify that their ministry has led me to the
living Person of Jesus Christ, to know Him inwardly in an ever
deepening way and also to know and participate in His heart’s desire
which is the building up of His Body, the church, to be His glorious
bride at His coming back.
Erick Kilgren
I Found the Lord’s Address
My name is Denise. I received the Lord when I was in high school. I was
raised in Catholicism and learned the Apostles’ Creed which states that
God is triune. So I knew doctrinally that the Holy Spirit existed; but
no one showed me in the Bible that there was also the human spirit in
man, the organ created by God for man to receive and contact God. I knew
I was a Christian and that the Lord Jesus lived in me but didn’t know
exactly where He was or how I could contact Him. It was like vaguely
knowing someone lived in a particular area of town but not realizing or
knowing the specific address.
In 1983, ten years later, I came in contact with a group of believers
meeting as the church in Spokane. For the first time I began to hear
about my human spirit, that it was the organ created by God for us to
contact Him. I saw in the Bible that the Lord as the Spirit had come
into my spirit and we were joined as one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17). I
had found His address and could contact God anytime!
The Christian brothers and sisters in the local church experienced such
reality of living by these two spirits that I had not seen with other
Christians. They genuinely cared that I would experience this same
reality. They shared with me the verses that show God as the Spirit in
reference to our human spirit. The following three verses have been
special to me ever since.
John 3:6 “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
John 4:24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.
Romans 8:16 “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God.”
Also special to me are the ministries of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. I
began reading books by these two Christian brothers in 1983 and I can
testify that their writings have brought me into a deeper experience and
a higher enjoyment of contacting and receiving God in my human spirit.
What an enjoyment to know the Lord’s address and to be able to contact
Him at anytime!
Denise Harms
Filled and Satisfied
Some of my earliest memories as a child include longing to believe in
God and knowing that I did not. My mother would take me to Sunday school
occasionally, but I wanted to go all the time, and I was envious of
other children whose families were able to do this. When I was in
seventh grade, I asked a group of men at a young peoples’ fellowship,
“But Who is He?” They all sat there silent. I was disappointed that no
one could tell me. I continued to long to know Him. In high school I
went to an occasional Young Life meeting. My sister had an experience of
praying and asking Jesus to be her personal Savior in Young Life, and I
could tell she was different after that. Something had happened, but I
didn’t understand.
In the summer of 1970, home on break from Washington State University,
the Lord drew me into His personal presence, like a great magnet. I
talked with Him. He knew all along of my longing and He then, in an
instant, met it with Himself. I believed in God and I knew it! The
believing One now resided within me. Interestingly though, no one told
me what had happened. New desires rose up in me: I wanted to read the
Bible, I wanted to meet with other Christians and I began to have a
sense in my conscience regarding my life as never before. But as I went
back to college that fall, I became distracted.
After receiving a degree from WSU, I went on to nursing school at the
University of Washington. As I began though, something was gnawing deep
inside. It was unlike me not to finish what I had begun, but I felt I
needed to quit and just work in downtown Seattle. The “magnet” was
working. There, I got a job at a medical clinic, and there, I met the
Lord again. This was in 1974. He arranged for me to work next to a
believer who began to tell me about this One. She was so satisfied with
Him. She glowed like no one I had ever known, especially when she shared
with me about the Bible and her experience of this Person. I could tell
she loved Him. She asked me to a dinner with believers she was meeting
with in the local church in Seattle. We sang a song that night that
said, “Do you know what you were made for, do you ever wonder why?…you
were made with something deep within, a vessel to contain just Him.” It
clicked! This answered the question of the universe in me, “Why am I
alive?” I had been filling myself with things other than Him. I was made
only to be filled with Him. I returned to nursing school and became an
RN, but my real goal in life changed. My goal was becoming God’s goal. I
wanted to be filled with Him.
I must add that since I was very young, I was bothered about the
differences I saw among races and mankind in general. I sought answers
throughout my life for this seemingly unsolvable problem of division. As
I began to meet with the church in Seattle and subsequently with the
church in Bellevue, I began to see in the Bible, and through the
ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, that God is one and when He
fills mankind with Himself, they become one. The believers in Christ are
one. Believing in Christ is the solution to all man’s needs, including
oneness. This became my experience. As we take Christ in, the oneness
prevails and “He Himself is our peace.” The Lord on the cross produced
this precious oneness, and I daily experience it in the local church
today. The Lord is continuing to meet all my needs and my longing to
know Him personally and intimately; but greater than my need and purpose
for myself is His need and purpose for Himself. God has a need to fill
man to gain His masterpiece, a corporate expression in the church as the
reality of the Body of Christ, His very Bride, which will be the New
Jerusalem, His eternal dwelling place, one with man. This is for His
satisfaction.
Today, my husband and I and our three children are meeting in the church
in Spokane, and our testimony is that Christ and the local church only
get richer and more satisfying as He continues to be the most wonderful
magnet in the universe drawing us away from all else but Himself
(reference from a footnote by Witness Lee in the Recovery Version of the
Bible, Hebrews 12:2, footnote 2). We are filled and satisfied.
Jacquie Kilgren
The Christian Life: a Matter of Eating
I have always enjoyed eating, but before I began to meet with the local
church in Spokane, I never considered eating Christ and being
constituted with Him (John 6:57).
Although I am 52 years old, I am a young Christian. As a child, I
attended a denomination with my family and had a great love for the
Lord. When my mother died suddenly shortly after my thirteenth birthday,
I turned to members of my denomination and asked the question “Why?”;
when they told me that God needed her more than I did, I was hurt and
felt angry at God. I turned away from Him and although I talked to Him
all the time, I considered myself an agnostic. I now know the Lord
carried me through all of the difficulties I experienced. He led me to
Himself. I was saved in 1995, and along with my husband, started
searching for a church. On October 19, 1997, we walked through the doors
of the meeting hall of the church in Spokane and knew we were home.
Right away the believers began to feed us both physically and
spiritually.
I have been appreciating that the Lord, throughout the Bible, tells us
to eat of Him. Starting in the book of Genesis, He told Adam and Eve to
eat of the tree of life and all other trees in the garden except for the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17). We all know
what tree they chose to eat from and the consequences of their choice.
The Lord said in John, “I am the bread of life…” (John 6:35). In
Revelation we are told, “I will give to eat of the tree of life,”
(Revelation 2:7), and “I will give of the hidden manna” (Revelation
2:17).
I have been enjoying the Lord in the local church, taking Him as my full
supply. Just like in my physical being, I need to eat every day. The
Bible contains a lifetime’s worth of meals, actually feasts. The more I
eat of the Word, the more I am constituted with Christ. I started being
fed with milk and am now experiencing the enjoyment of more solid food.
Just as when I was a young child, my role was to eat and enjoy the food,
I realize the Lord is looking for a group of Christians who will eat of
Him and take Him as their full supply to be constituted of Him and
become His Bride so that He can come back to fulfill His desire. I want
to be a part of the mature Bride, which is a corporate matter. I thank
the Lord for saving and making me a part of the Body of Christ.
Gail Harding-Thomas
Born of the Spirit to Walk by the Spirit
The gospel of Jesus Christ reached me through my mother, who became a
Christian in the 1950’s on the island of Taiwan. She and hundreds of
thousands of others were saved at that time by the prevailing gospel
preaching of brother Witness Lee and some faithful believers meeting as
local churches on that island. At age 14, I also prayed to receive the
Lord as my Savior and was baptized in meeting hall #2 of the church in
Taipei. Tears of joy ran down my face as I confessed out loud, “Lord
Jesus, I believe You!…” It felt like a heavy weight was lifted from my
inner being, and I knew Jesus came into me. Later on I realized more
clearly that the heaviness I sensed was the burden of sin on my
conscience. When I turned my heart to the Lord and called on Him, my
sins, along with the guilt in my conscience, were washed away by the
precious blood of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:16, John 1:29; Hebrews 9:14). I
had peace with God. For the first time in my life, my spirit contacted
God the Spirit, and the two became one (1 Corinthians 6:17)!
Soon after I received the Lord, I thought, “Since I am now a
Christian, I will start being a good person and do some things I never
could do before, such as reading the Bible from cover to cover, and
being patient with friends and family members.” These noble ideas seemed
to help improve my living at first, but after a while, my old self
surfaced again. Repeated failures in attempting to do good caused me to
question if Bible teachings could ever be realized in my practical daily
walk.
In 1973, I came to the United States for graduate study. By the
Lord’s sovereign mercy, I was kept in the local churches, firstly
meeting with the church in Chicago during graduate school, then with the
church in Spokane after graduation. Through the years, Christian
brothers and sisters in the local church cared for my personal
well-being and walked me through critical turns. They showed me how to
partake of the Spirit in the Word as my life and life supply (John 6:57,
63). My love for the Lord grew steadily, and quite unconsciously,
things of the world gradually lost their appeal to me.
By observing the daily lives of many dear brothers and sisters
around me, I soon became convinced that all believers can experience
Christ practically in their daily walk. The secret, I learned, is to
know your human spirit, where the Holy Spirit dwells. A dear brother
testified many times, “The human spirit is the greatest discovery of the
twentieth century!” This discovery does not refer to a doctrinal
understanding, but a subjective revelation. Thank the Lord that I came
to this realization personally when reading through the book, The Economy of God
by brother Witness Lee. As the Word of God divides my soul from my
spirit (Hebrews 4:12), I can clearly discern, by paying attention to the
inner sense of life, the difference between living in my soul and
living in my spirit.
All the Bible teachings can only be realized in my practical
daily walk when I live in my human spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14)! My
attempts to do good resulted in failures because I unknowingly turned
away from the Lord Himself in my spirit to the works of my “self-made
laws,” which induced soulish efforts instead of living faith (Galatians
3:1-3). By turning to live by the Spirit in my spirit, my experiences
now testify of what brother Witness Lee described in The Knowledge of Life
(page 106): “If we touch the inner sense in a practical way and live in
fellowship, we will automatically be able: (1) to be freed from sin,
(2) to do the good works which we are unable to do, (3) to fulfill the
law of God, and (4) to live out the life of God.”
Rachel Wang
Enjoying Christ Day by Day
My name is Nelly and I’m from Mexico City. I came to the United States
nine years ago. My parents came to Christ and we kids followed. I first
touched the Lord when I was twelve years old and I opened my heart fully
to Him and allowed Him to have a way in my being to grow so that I
could enjoy Him. What I have found out since I have touched this living
Person is that contacting Him and enjoying Him daily, in the morning
when I can read the Bible, and going to regular meetings, has helped me
to have Christ grow in my being. Getting to know Christ has been a
wonderful experience. Christ is always there for me and He will never
leave me. From the time I called on His name with an open heart I have
never wanted Him to leave. I want Him more and more. Enjoying Christ in a
real and pure way daily helps me grow and mature in life. Christ can
fill all of my needs and He knows that all I need is Him.
Nelly Montúfar
An Answered Prayer
As a young man, the things in the Bible seemed remote and difficult for
me to believe. My parents took me to church but I had no personal
relationship with the Lord Jesus. Before finishing high school I lost
interest in attending church and despaired of ever finding the Lord in a
meaningful and personal way. Then during my freshman year in college,
the Lord, in His bountiful mercy, found me. I was walking along the
street alone, feeling upset with myself, when a young man turned to me
and asked, “Are you a Christian?” Within a few minutes, we were kneeling
together on the sidewalk and praying. I prayed for Jesus to come into
my heart and be my Savior. At first I was not sure anything real had
happened, but beginning from that day in May 1972, the Lord Jesus began
to make Himself real to me.
I expected that, having received the Lord as my Savior, I would
immediately become a better person. Instead I found that many of the
same old character faults continued in my behavior. This caused me to
doubt my salvation very much. Meanwhile, I began to read the Bible, and
to find it very sweet. I also began to seek the fellowship of other
Christians. These were two big changes that should have borne evidence
of a new life in me. Yet, because I was looking for other changes, I
still continued to doubt. During that time, I attended meetings of
several Christian denominations, but found little that matched the new
feeling in me toward the Lord. I feared that I was unable to live up to
being a Christian in reality. In fact, I wondered how anyone could, so I
decided to investigate what the original Christians did after believing
in the Lord. From reading Acts 2:41-47, I realized what a difference
the experience of the early church could make. For the next several
months I prayed repeatedly to the Lord, beseeching Him to lead me to a
church like the one in Acts. I wanted to be led by the Lord in this
matter, with nothing initiated out of my own ideas. So I told the Lord
that I would avoid inquiring of others about their churches, but would
wait until He sent someone to me with an invitation.
In October 1972 I moved to Seattle to attend the University of
Washington. There in the dormitory I found a little Bible study group
which I joined. Still nobody invited me to their church. Then after
about a month, a Christian brother asked if I was interested in visiting
the church with him. That was my introduction to the local church in
Seattle. Upon entering the simple meeting hall, I saw some hundred or so
Christian brothers and sisters sitting in folding chairs arranged in
circular fashion. As I listened to them pray and sing, punctuated by
“Amen!” uttered in unison, my immediate impression was that the Lord had
indeed answered my prayer by guiding me to a church like that in the
book of Acts. But at the same time I wondered if I was ready to take
such an absolute step myself. I went home thinking what a marvelous
experience it was to see such a genuine meeting of Christians, but still
doubting that I myself could ever be like that. However, when my friend
invited me to go to another meeting the next Sunday, I was ready to go.
So I began to attend the meetings of the church in Seattle regularly on
Sundays. I observed the brothers and sisters calling loudly “O Lord
Jesus!” in the meetings. I also heard that besides the body and the
soul, every man has a spirit, made by God specifically for us to contact
God, Who is Spirit. One day, rather quietly, I called “O Lord Jesus!”
as I walked on campus. Right away I had the sense that the Lord was
there with me. That was when I first realized practically what it means
for the Lord to be with my spirit. As I continued to exercise my spirit
to contact the Lord and worship Him, my doubts about my salvation
quickly evaporated.
A couple in the local church who lived near the UW campus,
invited my friend and me to their home every morning to pray, sing, and
read the Bible at the beginning of the day. How we enjoyed the Lord’s
Word together! At the same time, I picked up the habit of taking long
walks in the morning or evening for prayer and fellowship with the Lord.
Sometimes I also sang in my dorm room. I looked forward to waking up
each day, for I began every day by reading at least a chapter in the
Bible. My studies became secondary, and Christ occupied the first place
in my life. When I heard that a blind brother who was studying the same
subject needed a reader, I was happy to volunteer my time to help him.
All this happened quite spontaneously, with almost no effort on my part!
In addition to my own reading of the Bible with the Lord, I was
introduced to the writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. I also
received much help from the speaking of the believers in the meetings.
At the 1973 summer conference in Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to
hear Witness Lee speak in person. In that conference he spoke mostly
from the book of Ephesians. Although I understood little, I picked up
one phrase that he emphasized repeatedly. This phrase was that we all
need to take Jesus as our Person. I prayed over this phrase day after
day during the summer, telling the Lord that I wanted to take Him as my
Person.
In 1974 the opportunity came to attend a summer Bible training, when Witness Lee spoke the messages collected in the Life-Study of Romans.
During that training, he realized that there were many attendees who
did not have a good foundation in the meaning of many spiritual terms. I
was one among those. I am very thankful for the basic explanations he
so patiently gave us during that training. I found that time so
profitable that I decided never to miss another summer or winter
training and I never did until 1979 when, beginning with The Life-Study of Galatians,
the trainings were video-taped so we could watch them without the need
to travel. How I thank the Lord for opening up His Word book after book
in all the Life-Study messages! Through those messages I have
learned that God has an eternal purpose, that Christ has the
pre-eminence in all things, that the Triune God dispenses Himself into
His chosen and redeemed people as the life-giving Spirit, that we can
enjoy the Lord in our spirit, that the cross is not only for our
redemption but also for the termination of every thing rising up against
the knowledge of Christ (including we ourselves in our flesh), and that
every bit of Christ we gain today as believers will become an eternal
memorial in the New Jerusalem. I am thankful for 27 years of meeting
with the churches in Seattle, Portland, Bellevue, and Spokane and also
to the ministry of our dear brother Witness Lee.
Doug Dean
From Sorrow to Joy
The summer of my first year in college, my father was ill and dying. Not
having any warning of his imminent death, he passed away unexpectedly,
leaving a grief filled and shocked family. My mother cried throughout
the rest of the summer. The center of her life was gone and she would
not received any comfort. I had always tried to live a life that pleased
my parents, so when I could not comfort my mother I became depressed
and full of sorrow.
In the fall, when I returned to school, I received a Bible from a
Christian sister who met with the local church in Taipei. One night,
while I was depressed
and alone, I began to look into that Bible. As I
turned the pages, some words caught my eyes…
“He said, “It is finished!” and He lowered His head and delivered up His spirit” (John 19:30).
The memory of my father not knowing when he would die ran through my
memory. But this man, Jesus, He knew when He would breathe His last
breath! This man, I discovered, had to be God! The realization of Jesus
being God overwhelmed me and my depression was swallowed up by a great
joy!
From that time onward, I began meeting with the local churches. The
first local church that I began to meet with was the church in Tansui.
There
I developed a love for the Word of God. I enjoyed the ministry of
Witness Lee. I exercised my spirit and daily read the Word of God
prayerfully. My experiences in the local church in Tansui laid a good
foundation in my Christian faith. I read the entire Old and New
Testament within the first year of my new life in Christ. Every day I
had a private morning time with the Lord and then one with other
believers. We exercised our spirits by singing and praying. I was filled
with the Lord and went to testify to my mother. My mother also received
the joy. Jesus became so intimate with me, and I could not but tell Him
that I loved Him. I also loved to meet with other believers.
Now, many years later in the church in Spokane, I am still full of joy. I
think the local churches are so pure and absolute to love the Lord
Himself. Each time I go to a meeting I have a stronger desire for the
Lord and to get into His Word. Every message I read from the ministry of
Witness Lee causes me to want to contact the Lord Himself more and also
to love His Body. I am so happy to be in the local churches, loving the
Lord and living my life to please Him.
Jan-Jan Wu
Of God Who Shows Mercy
I’m a 22-year-old young man and have spent the majority of my life in
the local churches. I was raised on the ministry Watchman Nee and
Witness Lee, yet I began to take it for granted, and I eventually began
to actively pursue the things of this age. Through a period of 5 years, I
slipped lower and lower into the miry clay of sin. Yet through His
mercy I was given the opportunity to start over with my life.
After joining and then getting out of a Christian discipleship ministry,
I was absolutely before the Lord in regard to where He would have me
meet with other believers. He clearly and unmistakably led me to the
local church! It is here that my heart is being gained for the Lord
Himself, and it is here that I find every bit of ministry focused solely
on Christ Himself! Time and time again my spirit bears witness to me,
through the speaking of fellow members of the Body of Christ, that this
is a place that can meet the very heart’s desire of God Himself.
The unique characteristic of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee’s writings is
that they bring me to Christ and cause my love and desire for God to
burn inside my spirit. This is confirmation that the Lord has indeed
placed me in the local church, where I have been recovered back to the
person and desire of God!
J.A.
Our Experience of Jesus Christ as Grace in the church life
My wife and I were born 3,000 miles apart, (she was born in Mexico and I
in Washington state) but the Lord sovereignly brought us together in
the middle, in Tucson, Arizona. Esther, my wife, was raised in a
Christian home with her Grandmother next door, who was very fervent for
the Lord. Esther and I met and then she brought me to the Lord, we got
married, and then I brought her to the local church.
We came to the local church through two of my old high school friends.
We quickly came to realize that this was something very different.
These people dearly loved the Lord and were so genuine. We saw that
they clearly understood what the Bible was saying and all could speak
out the truths they had seen from it, just like in 1 Cor 14:26,31.
However, it was very clear that the ones meeting as the local church
were not remarkable in any other way. They were just normal, ordinary,
people living God-filled and Spirit-filled lives. What was their
secret?
We found that the secret was in reading the works of Watchman Nee and
Witness Lee. These brothers spent most of their lives discovering,
developing, and expounding the truths of the Bible. Their ministry is
completely based on the Bible. They were shown truths and they also
built upon truths discovered by dear Christians throughout the
centuries. Reading their works causes us to love the Bible and the Lord
Jesus even more. The practical result of this is the local church
life.
The church life is glorious! There is a care and a love that we've
never seen anywhere else. It is a wonderful family that has supplied us
both materially and spiritually. It is just like the church life as
portrayed in the New Testament. One of the amazing things is that this
church life extends throughout the world. We have seen saints from
Europe, Russia, Latin America, Central America, Mexico, Taiwan, and
Canada. They all speak the same thing. We've been to meetings
throughout the western United States and even into Mexico. We're always
invited into people's homes as family members. We're so encouraged to
run the race, and accept Jesus as grace, in every moment and in every
place, calling on the name of our dear Lord and Savior (2 Tim. 2:22).
We searched long and hard for this kind of church life, but Praise the
Lord! it found us. We can say we're home for good. As David writes in
Psalm 84:10--"For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had
rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the
tents of wickedness." We're so happy to spend the rest of our days as
simple brothers and sisters living in God's house, which is the
practical church life.
Roger & Esther Stepper
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