As the believers in Christ, we have been born anew in Him (John 3:3-6), so that He now lives within us (Col. 1:27). Yet, so often we are frustrated by our failure to allow the Christ who lives within us to be expressed through us. We know the truth that “I am crucified with Christ,” but we dare not declare, as Paul did, “It is Christ who lives in me!” (Gal. 2:20).

Why is this?

In the excerpt below, Brother Watchman Nee shares two basic conditions we must meet if we truly desire to enter into the reality of a life that expresses Christ.

— Watchman Nee —

How Can Christ
Live Out
His Life In Us?

Now we know that only Christ is victorious. We also know that He lives in us. For when we believe in Him, we have Him. Yet day by day I am still myself as though nothing had happened. What should we do in order that Christ may live out His life in us? There are two ways, or we may say that there are two conditions.

First, surrender. Yes, Christ is indeed in me, but He cannot do anything if I do not let Him. You and I must obey God. What precisely is surrender? Surrender is not a promising God to do His will, nor is it making covenant with God to do what cannot be done. To surrender is for me to take my hands off my own life. It is to give over into God’s hand my good and bad, my strength and weakness, my past and future, my very life and very self so that God alone may work in me….

What God requires today is not how much good you must do. He only asks you to hand over your all to Him. We encounter so much defeat in our lives as to discourage us….The question today lies in whether or not you are willing to put yourself entirely in the hand of God. Irrespective of people, the world, sin, or whatever, if you find you in your own strength cannot let them go, then realize that you can overcome if you are willing to tell God, “Oh God, I commit to You what I cannot let go of. Please work in me till I am willing to let go.”…

The second way or condition for Christ to be able to live out His life in us is to believe. Since we have surrendered, we must now believe that God will deliver us from what we love, what we cannot and will not give up:

Commit thy way unto Jehovah;
Trust also in Him,
And He will bring it to pass.
—Psalm 37:5

To commit is to surrender; to trust is to believe.
And the result is that “He will bring it to pass.” Knowing that we have no way, we commit ourselves to God and believe that the Lord who dwells in us will accomplish the work.

— The Salvation of the Soul, Christian Fellowship Publishers, New York, 1978, pages 88, 90-92, in the chapter, “The Life that Wins.”

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— 22 July 2026 —