Witness Lee > Quotes

“The will of God for us is that we know the all-inclusive Christ, experience Him, and live Him as our life. To know Christ in this way is to have the full knowledge of God's will.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Colossians, Vol. 2

“The tree of life is the center of the universe. According to the purpose of God, the earth is the center of the universe, the garden of Eden is the center of the earth, and the tree of life is the center of the garden of Eden. We must realize that the whole universe is centered on this tree of life: nothing is more central and crucial to both God and man than this tree. It is very meaningful to see man in the garden standing before the tree of life.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis

“The Lord's appearing, His coming back, is a warning, an encouragement, and an incentive to us; we should love His appearing and look forward to it with earnest expectation and joy.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of 1 & 2 Thessalonians

“Calling on the name of the Lord follows the building up of an altar to the very God who has appeared to us. In the church life, under the oak of Moreh, we have the intimate appearing of the Lord. What shall we do in response to this? We should build an altar to Him and put everything we are and have on the altar. We need to tell the Lord that everything we are and have is for Him, and then we need to call on the name of the Lord to [549] maintain a deeper, richer, and more intimate fellowship with Him.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis

“Lord, I contact You in Your way. I don’t contact You by my thought, concept, or knowledge. Lord, You are my way.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis

“According to my experience, I can testify that both riches and poverty pass away, but God abides. Whether we are rich or poor, God is.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Exodus

“The tent was for Abraham’s living. Abraham did not take care of his living first. That was secondary. With Abraham, the primary matter [560] was to consecrate everything to God, to worship and serve God, and to have fellowship with God. Only then did Abraham pitch a tent for his living.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis

“If we see that God’s intention is to work Himself into us, we shall automatically eat and drink of Him. Mothers know that babies eat and drink automatically, not caring for any forms, manners, or regulations. Infants are better at eating and drinking than adults are. Our eating and drinking are often hindered by all the attention we give to table manners. Sometimes the more we pay attention to manners, the less we enjoy our food. I heard of a Chinese ambassador who attended a formal state dinner in Germany. Because he was so concerned about proper etiquette and table manners, he did not enjoy the food at all. He spent his time watching how others at the dinner conducted themselves and how they used their eating utensils. Table manners kept him from eating. Children are not like this. When my little granddaughter visits us, her grandmother often gives her something to eat. My granddaughter enjoys her food in a spontaneous and informal way. She is a good example of how we should pay less attention to forms and more to eating and drinking. At the very time the Lord Jesus was speaking with the Samaritan woman, the priests in the temple were worshipping God in the formal, systematic, prescribed manner. But where was God at that time? Was He in the temple with [517] the priests, or was He with the woman by the well in Samaria? As we all know, He was with the Samaritan woman. He met with her in the open air, away from the temple and the altar, without religious forms and rituals. Eventually, this Samaritan woman drank of the living water and offered real worship to God. At that time the true worship to God was offered not by the priests in the temple, but by the Samaritan woman who was drinking the living water. The priests worshipped God in vain; the Samaritan woman worshipped Him in reality by drinking Him into her being. The Spirit as the living water was infused into her. God was seeking real worship, and He received it from this Samaritan woman who drank of the Spirit as the living water. Today’s Christians need to see what real worship is. They condemn those in the Lord’s recovery as heretical, when they themselves are heretical and ignorant of the truth. Like the priests in the temple, they are blind to what true worship is. In John 4 the Lord Jesus did not spend time talking to typical Jews according to the Old Testament way of worship. Instead, He conversed with an immoral, semi-heathen woman concerning the worship which satisfies God’s heart. This woman worshipped God in her spirit by drinking of Him as the water to quench her thirst. Thus, God was worshipped by her in a genuine way. How much different this is from formal, religious worship! Throughout the centuries, most Christian worship has been like that of the priests in the temple. Only a small number have worshipped God in spirit by drinking of Him as living water.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Exodus

“Whenever we read a line of the Bible, we must say, “Lord Jesus, let me contact You in the divine Word. Lord, You are the living Word. Without You as the living Word I can receive nothing as life from the written Word. Lord, I must contact You. Although You are so mysterious, I praise You that You have given me such a tangible Word. This Word is solid, concrete, and substantial. I thank You for the Word that I can read and pray with. Yet, Lord, what I need is not the letter in black and white, but You, the living Spirit.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis

“The strongest person is not the one who is able to do something, but the one who is able not to do what he has the power to do. This self-denial is the unique way to usher in God's kingdom and to realize the kingdom life.”
― Witness Lee

“Do not simply know God according to what He does, but know Him according to what He is. Whether or not God does something for us means nothing.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Exodus

“Our drinking of God as the living water is for the church as His increase; our drinking is for the producing of His enlargement, His fullness, for His expression.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel

“The purpose of God’s calling...is not to give His people a little enjoyment of the animal life and the vegetable life in Egypt; it is to bring them into a spacious land flowing with milk and honey.”
― Witness Lee, Crystallization-study of Exodus: Volume One

“[To] Immediately...turn to our spirit and exercise our spirit to contact God...practically means that we do not trust in ourselves but in God.”
― Witness Lee, An Autobiography of a Person in Spirit

“Calling on the Lord’s name solves all our problems. If you are filled with sorrow and worry,...are disappointed, discouraged, or distracted,...are weak [or]...strong, [call on the Lord]. By calling you receive and take the living water.”
― Witness Lee, Crystallization-study of Exodus: Volume Two

“However, there is no retirement in the spiritual life, and God intervened to upset what appeared to be Jacob’s retirement.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis

“We need to be impressed with these words in verse [2 Cor. 1:]9—“we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God.” Through the redemption of Christ, the very God, who is in the heavens, has come into us, into our spirit (Col. 1:27; 2 Tim. 4:22). Thank the Lord that He is now in our spirit, calling us to forget about the soulish things and turn to our spirit to meet Him. We should no longer trust in our self, in our soul, but in God who is in our spirit.”
― Witness Lee, An Autobiography of a Person in Spirit

“Only when we live, walk, behave, and have our being altogether in our spirit, not in our natural man, are we in the kingdom of God and, in reality, are the kingdom of God.”
― Witness Lee, Aspects of the Christian Life and Church Life Seen in the New Jerusalem

“After having had so many dealings under God’s hand, Jacob was undoubtedly tired of human life. He was weary of supplanting, cheating, struggling, and fighting.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis

“You can never forget His appearing and His speaking to you.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis

“However, if you live the church life, the very Christ whom you offer to God will heal you. He is better than any psychiatrist. Do not go to a psychiatrist—come to Christ and offer Him to God. Then you will be healthy, sober, and emotionally balanced.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis

“When we realize that our need corresponds to God’s need and then pray accordingly, God will answer our prayer. Actually, His answer to our prayer is the fulfillment of His purpose. Our need must be God’s need, and the prayer for our need should also be the prayer for God’s need. When our need corresponds with God’s and when we then pray for our need, God’s need will be met also. When Isaac prayed for a child, whose need was greater—Isaac’s or God’s? Surely God’s need was greater. Nevertheless, the greater need of God could only be fulfilled in the smaller need of Isaac. Only when man realizes his need and prays for it does God have the way to come in to fulfill His need. God has a purpose, and we have a need which corresponds to God’s purpose. But God cannot do anything until we realize our need and pray about it. Then God will answer our prayer to meet our need for the fulfillment of His purpose. Eventually, Isaac had a son, Jacob, who not only fulfilled Isaac’s need but also fulfilled God’s eternal purpose. [845] Out of Jacob came Christ, who brings in the church, the kingdom, and the New Jerusalem. All these eternal things came about through the meeting of Isaac’s need, a need which corresponded with God’s need.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis

“We do not need religion, and we do not need regulations and rituals. We need Christ to be our spiritual food.”
― Witness Lee, Crystallization-study of Exodus: Volume Two

“In Genesis 3 the fire keeps the man who is under the curse away from the tree of life, away from God as the source of life. But in Exodus 3 the flame of fire visits the thornbush and indwells it. This indicates that through the redemption of Christ the very God Himself, the holy One whose holiness excludes sinners from His presence, can come to visit us, to stay with us, and even to dwell in us. Hallelujah, Christ has taken away the curse and has cast down to earth the fire of the Holy Spirit! Now that the curse has been taken away, we are no longer excluded from God as life.”
― Witness Lee, Crystallization-study of Exodus: Volume One

“Because God is the source of life, He recovers the oneness of the universe by entering into man to be man’s life.”
― Witness Lee, Aspects of the Christian Life and Church Life Seen in the New Jerusalem

“As long as he can keep us from God’s way and frustrate us in fulfilling God’s purpose, Satan will even motivate us to do things for God. This was how he worked in Cain.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis

“Since the church life is the proper life, it brings in God’s blessing. Peace, joy, love, sympathy, kindness, normal living—all are signs of such a blessing of life which comes by the experience of Christ through the cross.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis

“As the Almighty God, Jesus is high, but when He came to us as food He was lowly. He was a loaf of bread. He was even the crumbs under the table (Matt. 15:21-27). The very Jesus who came to us as life in the form of food was not tall and great; He was small and lowly.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis

“What kind of Bible do you have? You need to say, “I have a Bible of victory.” This is a book of victory, not a book of defeat....In the eyes of the Lord, Satan has been defeated already. This is a matter of fact; it is a settled matter. If we have this foresight and insight, then day by day we will sing Hallelujah. With the church there is no difference between a defeat and a victory. Even a defeat is for a victory. We must tell Satan, “Satan, even your victory is a preparation for our victory. We can never be defeated. Eventually you will be the one who is defeated. I do not care how much you attack and how much you damage.”
― Witness Lee, The Vision, Practice, and Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

“Neither Noah nor his sons were for their own interests. They were all for God’s goal. What was God’s goal? God’s goal was that man should express Him and represent Him. Noah and his family had no other God and no other goal. Their goal was not farming, education, or industry. Their goal was not their own self-interests. Their unique goal was to express God and represent Him. We must be deeply impressed with this. Although we have one God, we may have different goals. If we have different goals, we shall be divided. What is your goal? Is it to make a name for yourself or to be famous? Is it to build up something other than God’s purpose? We are here in Anaheim to express God and represent Him. We have a strong standing to declare to the whole universe, even to Satan and to all the rebellious angels, principalities, powers, and demons, that we, the local churches, are standing one with God for His purpose. Our unique goal is to express our God. We are here to express Him.”
― Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis