Discovering "The Normal Christian Life"

Breakthroughs are often accompanied by sources of encouragement.  This encouragement comes in a variety of forms….conversations with a trusted friend, quiet retreats, a music CD, a series of messages, or even a group of inspiring paintings.  My encouragers have most often been books.

Leaving behind lifestyle choices created a void.  One way I filled that void was by spending a lot of time with my grandfather.  We would do ministry things together like going to his Saturday morning radio broadcast, but we would also do everyday things together like working in the garden or bringing in fire wood.  I was at his home often and would usually stay late into the night.  One evening I was wrestling with the question, “How do we know when we are walking in the Spirit?”  My aunt answered by suggesting I read The Normal Christian Life by Chinese writer Watchman Nee. 

It became a foundational book in the formation of my spiritual understanding.  Here are some of the thoughts that impacted me:

“God makes it quite clear in His Word that He has only one answer to every human need–His Son, Jesus Christ.  In all His dealings with us He works by taking us out of the way and substituting Christ in our place.”

“God will not give me humility or patience or holiness or love as separate gifts of His grace.  He is not a retailer dispensing grace to us in doses, measuring out some patience to the impatient, some love to the unloving, some meekness to the proud, in qualities that we take and work on as a kind of capital.  He has given only one gift to meet all our need–His Son Christ Jesus, and as I look to Him to live out His life in me, He will be humble and patient and loving and everything else I need–in my stead. 

“Living in the Spirit means that I trust the Holy Spirit to do in me what I cannot do myself.

“If I have a hasty temper, impure thoughts, a quick tongue or a critical spirit, I [will] not set out with a determined effort to change myself, but, reckoning myself dead in Christ to these things, I [will] look to the Spirit of God to produce in me the needed purity or humility or meekness.

“It is not passivity; it is a most active life, trusting the Lord like that; drawing life from Him, taking Him to be my very life, letting Him live out His life in me.”