Our encompassing vision we have, as the family of God together, is that we truly believe for the Lord to be glorified and His Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.
Often God brings troubles into our midst, and we become a little uncomfortable. While it is true that He wants to comfort His people, He also determines to disturb His people with that which seems to have no solution until they themselves change. This reminds us of the little eagle whose “nest is stirred up” when the mother eagle wants to teach him to fly (Deuteronomy 32:11). As long as mama throws worms into his big beak, he will stay in his comfortable nest. After she stirs up the nest, he sits on so many thorns and prickles that finally he is ready to get out. He learns to fly because of his discomfort, and so will you!
You cannot sit on thorns very long until you want to walk or fly or run or do something. This is what the Lord does with most of us. He puts us in a place where we are unhappy with our circumstances and situations. We have no one to blame but ourselves. Because we wanted to walk with God, He led us into a place where the continuance of our walk depended upon change in our own spirit. We have a deep desire to walk with God, so our spirit is dealt with very deeply. He deals with us until we are miserable. He keeps disturbing us until we say, “I don’t feel like going to church. I don’t feel like anything right now. What’s happened to everyone? They used to be so sweet and nice—suddenly no one seems to be right. No one even talks to me!”
A doctor may give us tranquilizers, and afterward everyone about us may seem much nicer. In case the Lord is stirring us a little deeper, it is not a tranquilizer we need but a constant review of what He wants. God will never let us rest while we attain the personal objectives He has for us in our walk with Him. We should not have goals or objectives, in any church we are a part of, which are contrary to the overall picture of the Kingdom. Our objectives must not in the least deviate from His objectives for all of us.
Do we have just enough dedication to the Lord to relate our programs and businesses to His Kingdom? Is it possible that our motivations are not exactly what God’s motivations are, and we are not striving exactly for what He wants? Be assured that the Lord will disturb us until we become what He wants and we do what He wants with the motivation He wants. He will have that perfection in our lives even if it means His crushing us.
Let us review some truths about the broken spirit, beginning with Psalm 34:18. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Does our spirit bring us close to God, or does God come close, or withdraw from us, because of our spirit? Which is it? Or is it both? God is near the brokenhearted, and He saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Let me point out an example of two people (or it could be an example of yourself on two different days). Two people come before the Lord, and He says, “This is what I want you to do.” Each one says, “Yes, Lord, I will do it.” Both set about to do the will of the Lord, but one succeeds and the other does not. They come back, saying, “Why, Lord? We did only what You told us. You helped one of us, and You hindered the other.”
The Lord says, “I have already told you, I resist the proud, but I give grace to the humble” (I Peter 5:5). If it were on the wrong day, it would not make any difference. If you were really doing what God said, it still would not prosper if there were arrogance or pride in your spirit. This would keep coming out because this is in opposition to God. There is always a degree of arrogance and self-assertiveness, just a slight deviation from the pure motive that God wants, if you are not broken in spirit. “God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble” (I Peter 5:5; James 4:6).
God is “near the brokenhearted.” Is it because He takes pity on the brokenhearted? Or have the brokenhearted and the crushed in spirit positioned themselves closer to God? It seems as though it is mutual. When your spirit is crushed and broken, how close the Lord seems! Even when you are not aware of Him at the moment, the awareness comes later.
This happened to Jacob when he was fleeing for his life. He lay down to sleep, using a rock for a pillow; and he had a dream in which he saw a ladder with the angels of God ascending and descending on it. When he awoke, he was full of fear; and he said, “Surely God is in this place, and I did not know it. I was not aware that He was here.” We see that Jacob was broken. He was a fugitive—he was running. Immediately he made a covenant with God, saying, “If You will just bring me back here in peace, I will tithe; I will go into partnership with You” (Genesis 28:10–22).
This is about as good as anything that could be said about Jacob. We could not expect much more of him spiritually at that moment. He had reached about the highest pinnacle of his life up to that time. He was reaching into something and running. He was desperate and humble before God. Then God really met him.
Are you saying, “I want God to meet me. But I do not want to wake up the next morning and say, ‘I guess God met me. God is in this place, and I was not even aware of it.’ ” Do you want to be aware of His presence? Then do not be like Jacob; in his desperation, he was hungry and humbled. Be deliberately humble. Let humility be your choice.
The consciousness of God’s presence with us comes when our humility is determined and voluntary. We choose to be sacrifices. We do not sacrifice all because the Lord takes everything away from us. We choose to give it all to Him. We are humble by choice. We do not have to be humble. No one is going to say, “You are not humble enough,” and make you believe it. I have never seen a proud person who did not have some wrong illusion of his own humility. Even the most arrogant person seems to have a studied humility which he really believes. But the Lord is near the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
The fifty-first Psalm is a prayer of repentance for the sin David had committed. Notice his conclusions at that moment of his fresh awareness of sin. Verses 6–13: Behold, Thou dost desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part Thou wilt make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which Thou hast broken rejoice. Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me (a steadfast spirit). Do not cast me away from Thy presence, and do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners will be converted to Thee.
Verses 16–17: For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; Thou are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. David wanted a new awareness. He said, “Make me to hear joy and gladness.”
One person can come to a service and hear joy and gladness; he is rejoicing. The neighbor sitting next to him does not hear it. Why doesn’t he hear it? His hearing is directly related to his spirit. “Give me a willing spirit. Sustain me with that willing spirit, Lord.” Why? Because the Lord Jesus said, “If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God …” John 7:17. That man will know when God is speaking. He will have this deep innate realization: “God is in this Word. This is a Living Word from God.” A man who becomes bitter in spirit will suddenly say, “Well, I do not know about this being a Living Word. There are a lot of other good writers of good books.” A man’s attitude is in his spirit.
Let this be our cry: “Lord, I need to hear joy and gladness. Come near to me, so I can communicate with You again. Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. I want the joy of salvation restored to my heart again. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. Thou art not pleased with burnt offerings.” Some people feel that they are not giving something to God, or pleasing Him, unless they are burning something up. The pharisaic person feels that he must burn something in order to do God a favor.
A broken spirit is a monument that God builds over the tomb of your revengeful spirit until it dies and is buried. Then your broken spirit comes forth in it. A broken spirit opens the door to fruitfulness in your life; fruitfulness comes from a broken spirit. When a man with a wrong spirit tries to reach people, he will fail, regardless of the tracts he dispenses or the way he preaches, or the other methods he uses. People will sense the spirit of that man more than his arguments, his doctrines, or his profession of experiences with God. It was this kind of spirit which turned people away from the Pentecostal movement. After one or two generations in that movement, men and women would stand up and tell about their past wonderful experiences with God. But most people were aware of their bitterness of spirit, and were repelled by it. It will be the same with all of us if we become bitter.
Be thankful for the tests that God puts upon us, or we could eventually become nothing more than another movement. God puts us in a place where we will react to change. Otherwise we would become smug and remember only our past experiences as being great. We would not progress if our past blessings restricted us from God’s present prodding us on.
Never magnify experiences; magnify your relationship to Him which brings fresh experiences every day. People will point out certain experiences as being important for you: “Were you saved? Were you sanctified? Were you filled with the Holy Spirit?” Most important is that you have an open spirit to God and a believing heart, and that you are in tune continually with His presence.
Years ago I bought a cabin in Holy Jim Canyon. I also bought a four-wheel-drive jeep, so that I could cross through the stream to get there in any kind of weather. There God met me. I have not been there for years, but there is not a day when the Lord’s presence is not as close to me as it was at that peak experience in Holy Jim Canyon. Since that time, I found I could tune in to Him: it is not experiences; it is a relationship. In our relationship with the Lord, and in our closeness to Him, we weep before Him. We are broken in our spirit; yet we have a joy.
I am about as happy as I am entitled to be, maybe a little more joyful, because there is a joy that comes with His presence. The “bones He has broken” come to rejoice. The crushing He does in our lives opens the door to the relationship in which we rejoice. Let us press in to the place where we are continually in His presence. David sang, Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Psalm 90:1. He is our abiding place.
We will learn to live in Him. Jesus said, If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you … Those are just words, until one day your spirit is so broken before the Lord that you notice you are abiding in Him; you are learning to live in Him. He promised, If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7. We should feel continually reproved that we do not ask the Lord for enough. Instead of feeling poor, we are to feel how rich His grace is! We should appropriate more, and strive to take hold of even a greater portion. It is all prepared for us—the abundance He wants us to have!
Why worry about having the aptitude to preach or to prophesy? Why try to ride along with what someone else is doing? There is nothing as wonderful as appropriating the presence of the Lord, and this every one of us can do! These are the days of the Parousia, the great presence of the Lord among men. Some are only looking forward to the Parousia (i.e., “His presence”). Instead, look forward to His presence unfolding more; and take advantage of the manifestation of His presence that is here with us now.
If our spirit is humbled, broken, and crushed before Him, we are enabled to be the carriers of His presence. We put the ark on our shoulders. We even take His reproach on our shoulders and harbor in our hearts His wonderful presence, so that wherever we go it is not the richness of our talent or ability that matters, but it is the fact that in our humility we are carrying the presence of Christ into our every conversation and encounter. Everything we do can be to His glory and praise because we are carrying the presence of the Lord. This Parousia must be carried to the ends of the earth.
You can prophesy blessing for your life, but God will pass you by and bless some other Christian more if your spirit is not right. In spirit, humble yourself before the Lord; and He will draw near to you. He is near those who are crushed in spirit. This is the opposite of bitterness. The opposite of bitterness is brokenness. The bitter resist everything; the broken experience the Lord in it. Nothing of God’s presence penetrates the hard heart. Can it be that His presence penetrates the broken heart because there are so many crushed areas, so many cracks, perhaps, that His blessing seeps through.
The Lord needs the initiative of our faith, but not the aggressiveness of our personality. I am not very aggressive, but I have faith. When I speak, I want that faith to be like the force of a tidal wave. I want the faith that turns God loose to flood a person’s life.
This initiative of faith is ours. Our broken spirit is neither aggressive nor regressive. In our initiative of faith, we can stand fast all day, if that is what God tells us to do, even if everyone says, “Move out of here!” Faith is not regressive. It does not back off, but not because of a personal assertiveness; it stands fast because it dares to believe God. God told Jehoshaphat, “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord” (II Chronicles 20:17).
Move with the initiative of faith. A broken spirit positions itself in the flow of God, and the obedience is determined. Your humility is determined, as if you sit down and talk to yourself, saying, “Listen, you are through being arrogant. Be humble, now. There will not be any trouble, because you will submit to God. He will work it in you to be humble. You will be broken. This is what you will do.” Listen to the voice of the Spirit, and meditate in this way.
A broken spirit is more perceptive, because a broken spirit does not evaluate circumstances by a reasoning process. A broken spirit evaluates everything in its relationship to the Lord. If you do not have a broken spirit, you evaluate every circumstance, wondering, “Who’s to blame? Who’s at fault? Who’s innocent? Why this? Why that?” Anything less than a broken spirit will be less perceptive because it looks for answers from another source. But a broken spirit does not do this. You never see any clearer than when you are rubbing your lumps. When you are broken before the Lord, you see what you ought to.
It would seem that God goes around with a ball bat to get people to walk with Him. Some had money and position, but by the time they came to be led by His Spirit, they had lost much. Some who had happy family relationships suddenly became brokenhearted. People came staggering in to walk with God, covered with lumps and broken in spirit.
“God, don’t You have any who are better than these ‘maimed, halt, and blind’?”
“Yes, but they are not listening. The broken are listening now. I not only have their attention, but they have an ear.”
If you have had your lumps, rejoice! Now you can hear from God. A broken spirit is very perceptive; its revelation and judgment are better. Thus the broken spirit becomes a vessel of divine compassion. A heart that is bitter contains little to bless anyone. Did the Lord Jesus say, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the bigwigs, and to see a lot of important people come into the gospel”? Some think it should be that way; but always Jesus was calling to “the poor, the crippled, and the blind” (Luke 14:21).
Jesus said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. Luke 4:18. Because of their broken spirit, these are the people who can hear. Never hate the testings you have gone through. If you still hate what you had to go through, you did not learn anything. Open up to the Lord and say, “You work all things together for good, because I love You. You were doing this to me, so that now I can hear Your voice.”
Romans 8:28 says, “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God.” Romans 8 is the chapter on sons. “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons” (verse 14). They learn to hear His voice, and they are led by it. Usually they come into that position where they can hear and be led, because the Lord puts them through trials which break their spirits. Romans 8:18 says that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Our perception eventually dawns. We then have a new comprehension and a new understanding of why we went through sufferings. When we cry out to God, we can hear His voice. We can touch Him. He is very near us. Then we become His vessel of divine compassion.
Your broken spirit is like Jacob’s dislocated thigh (Genesis 32:24–30). Then you cling and prevail. A bitter spirit rejects, withdraws, and is defeated. A broken and a contrite heart becomes the voice of all true repentance and change. We have many messages on repentance; some are basic to our School of Prophets manuals. Repentance is emphasized as very important. But repentance does not work with those who are not humble and broken in spirit. Your brokenness should be a matter of your choice.
A broken spirit requires a continual, persistent maintenance program. You must watch over it to see that it stays broken, because a broken spirit has a habit of healing up. Then God has to put you through it again. If you are a little wise, and you hear what He is saying, you will see that you stay broken at His feet. About the time you get up and strut, God will let the enemy knock you down. God will resist you, but He will not resist the enemy in knocking you down. After awhile you may feel like lying on your back and never getting up. Even though you feel wonderful, you know that if you get up and start to strut, you will be knocked down. It takes a continual, persistent maintenance program for your spirit to say, “I will lie here where I can look into the face of my Lord and rejoice in Him. I am not going to get up and strut anymore.”
Once we are broken in spirit, we should try to stay that way. Too many times we are broken in spirit, and it heals up too fast. Then we are outside of the blessing God has for us. The varying degrees of perception are determined by the depth of our brokenness. We do not always want to stay in that low, low level where we are broken before the Lord. We feel, “When this is over with, I will go to work for the Lord.” Then we get busy and preoccupied in trying to accomplish things. We may go along for a little while, but suddenly the bottom drops out again. We would never hit these alternating cycles of ineffectiveness and effectiveness, if we would stay effective by being broken before the Lord.
The minute you become strong, then you will be made weak. But when you are weak before the Lord, His strength will be manifested through you. When you have nothing to boast of, but being before His presence, then every good thing can happen.
In the New Testament stories, no person seemed to be more efficient than the apostle Paul. He was effective and efficient because he humbled himself continually before the Lord with a brokenness. He never asserted himself to be anything. He was nothing in his flesh. He said, For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing … Romans 7:18. He had nothing to glory in. No matter how far he went, he still kept that proper vision of the flesh—he kept it down; he kept it under. And as far as we know he never failed, never faltered.