From chapter seven of The Ministers in the Lord’s Recovery – Genuine Ministers of the New Covenant
Brother Nee and Brother Lee as Grains of Wheat Falling into the Ground and Dying to Bear Much Fruit in Resurrection
At its heart, the ministry of Brother Nee and Brother Lee is characterized by the principle of life out of death exemplified in Christ’s death as a grain of wheat for the impartation and multiplication of life in resurrection. According to John 12:24, the Lord as the lone “grain of wheat,” the only begotten Son of God, fell into the ground and died, laying down His soul-life to release the divine life from within the shell of His humanity, so that in resurrection He might impart this life into the believers to bring them forth as many grains, the many sons of God as His organic increase and multiplication (John 10:10-11; 3:29-30). In the immediately following verses the Lord indicated that if the believers as many grains of wheat, “the good seed” (Matt. 13:24-25, 38; 1 Cor. 15:35-54), aspire to serve the Lord so as to be honored by the Father, they should “follow” the crucified Lord into the ground, hating and losing their “soul-life” through death, so that in resurrection they too would release His eternal life from within them, thereby bearing others as abundant fruit for the propagation of the divine life (John 12:25-26; 14:6; 1 John 3:16). Brother Lee stated in Life-study of Matthew that the Lord’s recovery among us in the twentieth century issued from Sister M.E. Barber, a British missionary, and Brother Nee as seeds of life sown into the ground:
Miss M. E. Barber did not come to China to work. She was in China sowing Christ, even sowing herself in Christ. She was a seed sown into that district in China. Eventually, something grew out of that seed. The Lord’s recovery today is the produce of the seed sown by Sister Barber and Brother Nee….
Recently an opposer told a brother, “We are going to stop you.” He said that they were planning to stop the Lord’s recovery. If the opposers try to do this, they will find themselves in trouble. Do not touch anything of life, for the more you touch it, the more it multiplies. If you leave it alone, it may remain dormant. But if you touch it, it will grow. Suppose you say to some seed, “Seed, I shall stop you. I shall bury you in the earth.” How good that would be for the seed! But if you leave the seeds on a pedestal, appreciating them, looking at them, and treasuring them, that will be the most effective way to stop them. But if you try to terminate the seed by burying it in the earth, the seed will grow. The opposers simply do not know what the Lord’s recovery is. The Lord’s recovery is not work, teaching, or theology. It is a seed; it is the living Christ as a seed….Who can stop the Lord’s recovery? The seed has already been sown….The recovery as the seed of life has been sown in America, Europe, Brazil, and many other places. No one and nothing can stop it.57
In essence, Brother Nee and Brother Lee carried out their ministry not by teaching biblical doctrine or moral behavior but by sowing themselves in Christ as the seed of life into the ground for the multiplication of the divine life in resurrection. To a great degree, the Lord’s recovery in the past century is the organic issue of the seed sown by these brothers who willingly and faithfully laid down their soul-life to release the eternal life to the believers for the increase of this life.
57 Life-study of Matthew, pp. 439-441
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