HOW TO BE USEFUL TO THE LORD
CHAPTER SIX
WEEK 3 - SATURDAY
Bible Reading: Rom 8:13; 2 Cor 4:11-12
Read and pray: "For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if, by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." (Rom 8:13)
HOW TO BE BROKEN
Regarding being broken, there are three stages of the experience: 1) the illumination of the Lord; 2) our receiving or acting; and 3) the coordination of circumstances.
What does it mean to be broken? Imagine a glass that, at first, was whole, but is now shattered. That is being broken. This should be clear to all of us. Think of yourself. Your natural life, temperament, disposition, and flesh are whole. However, now that you have been saved, the life of Christ has entered you. That life must be manifested through your spirit, but it has been enclosed.
By what is it enclosed? By natural life, by the flesh, by temperament, and by disposition. Everything you have encloses the life of Christ, preventing it from being released. Thus, everything within you that is whole must be broken. Only when all these things are broken can the life of Christ be released.
First, God will shine His light upon you to show you that everything you have—including natural life, flesh, temperament, and disposition—is an enemy of Christ’s and a frustration and limitation to the life of Christ. God will also show you that all these things have already been crucified, for they are rejected by God, are enemies of God, and are frustrations for the life of Christ.
After you see this light, the Holy Spirit within you will immediately come and bring this light to every matter, whether important or trivial in daily life. Before seeing this light, you did not have any feeling or awareness of condemnation when you lost your patience and acted in a carnal manner, but now, after seeing the light, the Holy Spirit in you makes that light manifest in you.
When you act according to the natural life and lose your patience, the Holy Spirit gives you the feeling that this is the flesh, the natural life, the “self,” and temperament; all should be condemned, for they have already been mortified on the cross. Then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you condemn these things, crucifying them. In that moment, the crucifixion is not merely an objective truth about the cross, but a subjective experience within you. This is putting to death the deeds of the body mentioned in Romans 8:13. This is also the death that causes the mortification of Jesus to operate in us, as mentioned in 2 Corinthians 4:11-12.
We know that the life of Christ contains an element of death and, when that element passes through us, it causes a death in us. This is similar to blood cells, which have at least two functions. The first is to neutralize the enemies of our body—bacteria—and the second is, at the same time, to provide our body with the necessary nutrients.
We saw this light a few years ago, but we did not speak of it because we did not have the courage to say that, in the life of Christ, there is an effect of death. However, through experience, little by little we became increasingly certain of this. Recently, we saw that Brother Andrew Murray also said the same thing. He said that in the life of Christ, there is an annihilating power, an element of death, an effect of death.
Once the Holy Spirit has taken residence in us, He will lead us daily to put to death the natural life and the flesh. This putting to death, this killing, is breaking. Moreover, to help us, God also gives us the discipline of the Holy Spirit externally, preparing the circumstances to operate in us in a joint effort from within and without.
The life of Christ operates internally and the circumstances externally. When we have the desire to be broken, there is a coordination of things from within and without, and the Holy Spirit begins to fulfill the breaking in us. However, if our heart’s desire and our spirit do not cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the sense of mortification, then all the circumstances, regardless of how many there are, are not very useful. The external circumstances operate in conjunction with the Holy Spirit in us and, between these two factors, there is a third necessary factor: our acceptance.
The Spirit is within, the circumstances are external, and between them, we must be the ones who receive and execute. Thus, day after day and time after time, the natural life, the flesh, and the “self” will be broken. Finally, when we are about to lose our patience, we will no longer be able to act in that manner, for we have been broken and have many wounds within us.
Enjoy more: Hymn 382
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