Knowing God and Knowing Life

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we might know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 1 John 5:20

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Him whom You have sent, Jesus Christ. John 17:3

Knowing God and knowing eternal life are two sides of the same coin. The knowledge of God that was given to us through the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ is the knowledge of the eternal life. With our mind being enlightened, we know God, and this knowing God leads us into the receiving of the eternal life of God. Therefore, the knowledge of God is eternal life. The former tends towards the objective knowledge and the latter tends toward the subjective experience. yet the two are one. Any genuine knowledge of God will usher one into the experience of the eternal life, and vice versa. Eternal life is the divine life with a special function to know God and Christ. To know God, one needs the divine life. The believers are born of the divine life, therefore, they know God and Christ.

In these two verses, we confirm the oneness of the ministry of brother Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.  Brother Nee's ministry leads us into the deep and objective knowledge of God and brother Lee's ministry leads us into the sweet and subjective experience of God based on the revelation revealed through brother Nee. The servants of the Lord are doing the one ministry of the new testament. They complement each other. 

Despite some opposers trying to divide the ministry of brother Nee and Lee, those who truly know and experience the two brother's ministry can testify that the two ministries are unto the one ministry. Whatever brother Nee had received from the Lord and were spoken forth are all made practical and enjoyable through brother Lee's ministry. In fact, without the help of brother Lee's ministry, it is rather difficult to experience the ministry of brother Nee. These two verses put the ministry of the two brothers together. One of knowledge that leads to life, and the other of life that leads to more knowledge. Like a vicious cycle, the more the knowledge of God, the more the eternal life; the more the eternal life, the more the knowledge of God.  Therefore, the two brothers are just one, and the duo's ministry are the same; they both usher the believers into the knowledge and experience of God unto the building up of the Body of Christ.

Watchman Nee's Chinese name To-sheng, meaning "the sound of a watchman's rattle." True to his name, he indeed was a watchman to the believers, reminding the hour of the time. His ministry was a reminder to the believers for watchfulness awaiting the Lord's return.  His ministry sounded out emphatically, point by point, what were the points one needs to be reminded of as we await the Lord's return. Now that he has gone to be with the Lord, still his watchman's sound, the ministry God had apportioned to him, still rings on. Therefore, a proverb is apt to describe him and his ministry of the word, "Although the watchman is gone, the sound of the watchman still remains, and echoes through the believers' ears until the morning dawn."

Brother Watchman Nee unveiled the three points of the blueprint for the Lord's building work:

1. Christ is the only material for the building of God's house.
2. The building is expressed locally where the believers are. 
3. The building is carried out through coordination.

In all these three points, brother Witness Lee's ministry fits in. Br. Lee had extensively expounded on Christ as the unique building material. One of his classic books is "The All-Inclusive Christ" in 1962. On the matter of the building being expressed as a local church in a locality, he, in 1968 has spoken a series of messages on "The Practical Expression of the Church." And on the matter of coordination, he has released a number of books on coordination in the Body for the building up of the Body of Christ. Therefore, brother Watchman Nee and Witness Lee's ministry are just one ministry.

As much in the vision, so much in the ministry, the two brothers' ministries are one and they complement each other. In as much as knowing God is the eternal life, what brother Nee had revealed of God is now being made experienceable through brother Lee's ministry. Praise the Lord for the two brothers and the apportion the Lord had sovereignly allotted to them! Today, we are the beneficiaries. In fact, I am one of the beneficiaries. Not to boast, but in reality, declaring the fact, I have been so much helped and blessed by these two brothers' portion. 

Glory to God! Amen!