The Life That Wins

by Watchman Nee, 1986
The Life That Wins

Watchman Nee’s book The Normal Christian Life introduces the Christian to the idea of the deeper life that a relationship with Jesus Christ ought to bring into one’s experience. The Life That Wins goes on to discuss the practical aspects of experiencing that life. Where The Normal Christian Life shows that a victorious life is possible, The Life That Wins describes how such a life may be lived.

  1. Our Experience — Some aspects of our carnal experience before we discover victory in Christ.
    • The Life Ordained for Christians
    • Eight Kinds of Failures Among Christians
      1. Sins of the Spirit
      2. Sins of the Flesh
      3. Sins of the Mind
      4. Sins of the Body
      5. Sins of Disposition
      6. No Heart to Keep God’s Word
      7. Failure to Render to God His Due
      8. Unrepentant of Sins That Require Confession
    • Victory Is Necessary As Well As Possible
    • Honest in Heart, Not Deceiving Oneself
  2. The Christian Life As Revealed in Scripture — A look at the Scriptures which speak of the victorious life.
    • The Christian’s Experience of Defeat
    • The Christian Life As Ordained by God
      1. A Life That Is Free from Sins
      2. A Life That Holds Intimate Communion with God
      3. A Life That Is Wholly Satisfied with the Lord
      4. A Life That Is Full of Influence
      5. A Life That Is Free from the Power of Sin
      6. A Life That Overcomes Environment
      7. A Life That Practices Good
      8. A Life That Is Full of Light
      9. A Life That Is Wholly Sanctified
    • Must Experience God’s Full Salvation
  3. The Nature of the Life That Wins — The characteristics of the victorious life contrasted with the carnal life.
    • The Meaning of This Life — Not a Changed Life, but an Exchanged One (NOTE: This is about as close as Nee gets to describing how we must begin to identify with the new nature of God in our born again spirit rather than with the carnal habits ingrained in the natural man.)
    • The Principle of This Life — a Gift, Not a Reward
    • The Way to This Life — Obtained, Not Attained
    • Possessing This Life Is a Miracle
    • The Consequence — an Expressed Life, Not a Suppressed One
  4. How to Enter into This Life That Wins — The practical issues of obtaining victorious life.
    1. Yielding — “I have been crucified with Christ”
      1. I Cannot
      2. I Will Not
    2. Believing — “that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God”
      1. Believe God’s Fact
      2. Believe You Received, and You Shall Have
  5. Yielding — A more detailed explanation of yeilding.
    • “One thing thou lackest yet”
    • God Wants Men to See Their Inability
    • Yielding Is Letting Go
    • Satan Tempts You to Bestir Yourself
    • Our Weakness Is to Be Boasted Of
    • Impossible with Man but Possible with God
  6. Believing — A more detailed explanation of believing.
    • Believe unto Victory
    • Believe in God’s Fact
    • Faith Substantiates God’s Fact
    • Faith Is Not Hoping
    • Faith Is Not Feeling
    • Unbelief Is the Greatest Sin
  7. The Testing of Faith — Faith must hold strong through testing or it is shown to be false. If we allow circumstances that appear to contradict that which God has declared to be true shake us out of our confidence in him, then we never really believed Him to begin with. (NOTE: Watchman Nee is in error in this chapter. He teaches that God is the tester of our faith. The book of James makes it clear that God is not the tempter, He is the giver of Wisdom. Still, there is much that is good in the chapter so it should not be discarded entirely.)
    • Reasons That Faith Needs to Be Tested (NOTE: None of these reasons are Biblical.)
      1. That We May Grow (NOTE: God gives us His Word that we may grow, not trials -- I Peter 2:2)
      2. That God’s Heart May Be Satisfied
      3. That the Mouth of Satan May Be Stopped
      4. That We May Help Other People
    • The Relationship between Faith Tested and Victory
      1. Our Victory Does Not Mean We Have Changed (NOTE: This section is true with regard to the natural part of man. Our spirit has been born again, exchanging the old life for a new one that has been born of God.)
      2. Which Is Trustworthy — the Word of God or Our Experience?
    • Where Faith Is, the Mountain Is Removed
    • Genuine Faith Believes in God’s Word Alone
    • Stand on the Side of Faith
  8. Growth — Experiencing victory in ever greater measure.
    • Two Aspects of Growth
      1. Overcome the Sin That Entangles Us
      2. Acknowledge Our Own Inability and Accept Christ as All
    • Two Kinds of Temptation and the Ways of Dealing with Them
    • The Just Shall Live by Faith
    • Immediately Restored by the Blood After Failure
    • Maintain a Proper Relationship with Christ Daily
    • Grow through Seeing the Truth and Accepting Grace
  9. The Note of Victory — Characteristics by which we know that we have victory.
    • Victory and Triumphing in Victory are Different
    • The Triumph of Jehoshaphat
    • Two Stages of Thanksgiving and Praise
    • Keep Victory in Joy
    • Rejoice in Afflictions
    • “More than Conquerors”
  10. Consecration — A short look at the step that follows the obtaining of victory.
    • The Basis and Motive of Consecration
    • Things to Present
      1. Persons
      2. Affairs
      3. Things
      4. Self
    • The Results of Consecration
Also by Watchman Nee:
Aids to "Revelation"
Grace For Grace
Gleanings in the Fields of Boaz
A Living Sacrifice
The Messenger of the Cross
Other Items on Related Topics: joy
Real Presence
Leanne Payne
Heretics
G.K. Chesterton
The Master's Indwelling
Andrew Murray

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