Brokenness

In past articles, I have talked briefly about how we are made . . . in three parts, just like God, who is in three persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are made in three parts as well . . . spirit, soul, and body.

The most understandable description I have heard of our three parts are as follows: our spirit is the seat of our God-consciousness, the soul is the seat of our self-consciousness, and our body is the seat of our senses . . . sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell.

Our spirit is our most inward part. It was created to commune with God. It is also the part that is eternal. It will live forever, either in heaven or hell. The belief that when we die, that is the end, is a myth. Our body goes back to the dust, from which it was created, but the spirit was not made from dust; it was breathed from God, and it is eternal. God breathed into Adam, the man he had created, and he became a living soul. What was created from God’s breath will never die, that is the human spirit.

The soul is the seat of our self-consciousness. It houses our mind, will and emotions. It is the essence of our personality.

Hebrews 4:12 talks about the spirit and the soul as separate entities.

“For the word of God is living and powerful,

and sharper than any two edged sword,

piercing even to the division of soul and spirit (NKJV).”

I thought I was done with this series, Learning to Hear the Voice of God, but a few days ago I had a conversation with a pastor friend. He wanted to know what I was doing, so I explained the series I have been writing. “Oh,” he said. “The key to hearing the voice of God is to be broken. We’ll never hear God’s voice unless we are broken.”

I don’t agree with that entirely, because I heard the voice of God for the first time before I was a Christian and brokenness can take place over twenty years or more. I think the correct statement is that the more broken we become, the more clearly we hear the voice of God.

When I was in Bible College, having been a Christian just a little over a year, I was given the book, The Release Of The Spirit, by Watchman Nee.The entire book is about brokenness. The outer man, or the soul man, must be broken in order for the spirit to come forth, to be set free.

Our soul man is typically self-centered. Because it is the seat of our self-consciousness, the soul man can be very selfish and “me” oriented. Often, it is ruled by immoral lusts. If we allow these lusts to control us, then it is very difficult for the spirit man to come forward, to break through the outer soul man. We are in essence, in bondage to our lusts. They rule us. When the Bible refers to “the flesh,” it is referring to the sin nature that dwells in the realm of the soul.

Paul says, “Within my flesh dwells no good thing (Romans 7:18).”

To picture this situation, imagine a clay vase with a narrow top. The vase represents the soul man. Inside the vase is the spirit man, or the spirit. The spirit man cannot break out because it is enslaved by the soul man, the clay vessel. Now, envision the clay vase developing cracks, which become wider and wider until the vase collapses, completely setting the spirit man free.

This is the process of brokenness. Brokenness is a good thing, because it sets the spirit man, which was created in the likeness of God, free. As brokenness becomes more and more complete, we are set free from sinful lusts which dwell in the soul man, and we can live as we want to live, in step with God, continually walking with Him, in unrestricted fellowship.

When I received the book, The Release Of The Spirit, I was hungry for God to do a work in me. After I read it, I stayed in bed for two days, waiting for God to break me. Looking back on that time, one might have a good laugh. God is not going to complete the breaking process in two days. Watchman Nee says it is a process that usually takes at least twenty years.

What breaks us?

What causes us to spurn our fleshly lusts

and to abhor our own selfishness?

It is hard things . . . hard things break our selfishness and cause us to want to be like Jesus. That’s why we should never try to run from the difficult things in life. Actually, we should embrace them and thank God for them, for they are the very things that break us and set us free from ourselves.

In my soon to be released book, The Eye Of The Storm, there is a chapter called Five Years In The Valley. Once I was speaking in Fort Wayne, Indiana to Women’s Aglow. I handed out the little booklet, which is the first chapter of my book. In my message I also talked about the five years in the valley, when it seemed everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

A woman came up afterwards and said to me, “Five years in the valley, that’s the chapter I want. I have a friend in Florida and everything is going wrong in her life.”

I guarantee you this. Many Christians today are going through very hard things.

I have another guarantee.

These are the times when the most work is done in your life and in your character.

God uses hard things to conform you into the image of Jesus, and to break you. 

When you are broken, that’s when the noise of the fleshly nature, the outer man is quieted. That’s when you can really hear the voice of God, so don’t fight it. Embrace the hard things and know that they are God’s tools in your life.

If you really want to explore the subject of brokenness, I recommend you get the little book, The Release Of The Spirit. Watchman Nee explains the process of brokenness in great depth. If you hunger for God to use you in a much deeper way, this book will help you immensely.

Log in next week for our next installment, posted right here.

Photo designed and taken by Lorraine