How Did Watchman Nee Really View Madam Guyon?

On page 106 of KKH (CFP), Watchman Nee said regarding Matt. 10.29,

"Madam Guyon long ago said that everything which befalls us environmentally is permitted by God (although Jessie Penn-Lewis later commented that the French saint has the tendency of falling into the danger of passivity."

This obviously indicates that Nee was not in agreement with Madam Guyon's mysticism. Again, Nee has the utmost regard for Jessie-Penn Lewis.

All I wanted to really point out here is that Watchman Nee was well aware of one becoming mystical and it's negative impact on passivity.

Watchman Nee states:

We would also like to observe that the exercise of godliness or living a godly life in Christ Jesus is a kind of spiritual pursuit, a kind of overflow of life. Here we will not point out those normal phenomena, but we would call attention to some sickly and deficient ones.

(1) Laziness. Some Christians are born lazy. They do not want to toil or to labor. They tend to use prayer or spiritual words to shield their laziness. I heard a story told by a brother: There was once a sister who had a dislike for work. She would either excuse herself as not knowing how to work or pretend that she did not have the physical strength to do the work. Later on someone arranged for her to pick a few flowers from the garden each day for the flower vase. After a few days she quit doing it. And what was the reason she gave? It most certainly was not spiritual. We would have to say that this is a sickly phenomenon and definitely not godliness.

(2) Rigidity. Some Christians mistake rigidity to be godliness. They make themselves false. One brother said he met another brother who would either lower his head towards the ground or lift up his head towards heaven after a word or two. He discovered that this brother was pretending godliness. He wished to shout to him from his heart: “Brother, do not pretend!” We should know what life is: that which flows naturally. With such rigidity in a brother, neither his spirit nor his God is able to come forth. So in exercising ourselves unto godliness we always need to be living and fresh, for it is God who manifests himself through our words and attitudes.

(3) Coldness. When we say that all who would live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecutions, we mean that all who would not offend God in order to please men will incur such treatment. This does not imply that we can be unlovely or discourteous towards people. It was told that when one day a sister met another sister strolling on a hill, she greeted her and asked her where she was going. The second sister lifted up her head towards heaven and answered coldly, “I go to meet God.” Do you think such self-styled godliness, such coldness, can ever draw people to God?

(4) Passivity. In exercising themselves unto godliness, some Christians want to learn from Madame Guyon and Brother Lawrence. This is admirable. But in learning to be like them, they tend to be passive, which is pitiable. Now in just what way will they fall into passivity? Well, such people enjoy the presence of God so much that their ears cannot hear what people say (please note that to not hear idle words is right, but not to hear important words hurts others), neither do they understand another’s thoughts nor do they care for other people. Under normal conditions, how would Brother Lawrence respond to a busy and noisy environment? Would it not be an inconvenience for people if they asked for a plate and he gave a spoon or if they said something once but he did not hear, or said it twice yet he did not understand? We therefore say that if the exercise of godliness falls into passivity this is abnormal.

Let us see more fully that our Lord is “the Word [that] became flesh, and dwelt among us..., full of grace and truth” (John 1.14). This is the great revelation of godliness. The Paul who exhorted Timothy, saying that “godliness is profitable for all things” (1 Tim. 4.8), is the Paul who also declared: “Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is caused to stumble, and I burn not?” (2 Cor. 11.29) He was that type of man who worked with his own hands (1 Cor. 4.12) and labored more abundantly than the rest of the apostles (1 Cor. 15.10). Oh, we all should honor and learn from such an example. (pp. 159-161, The Better Covenant, CFP, white covers)