Waiting on God...In Brokenness

We live in a broken world. The “talking heads” are trying to fix it by ranting and raving. The politicians try to fix it by enacting more laws. People in general are just trying to live the best way they can. Can anyone fix the problem? We don’t like to think that God as a cosmic bystander or on the other hand instrumental in breaking something or someone. We generally think of God as involved and the “Fix-it” kind. And He definitely fixes things that are broken. But what if God allowed things to come into our lives that ended up breaking us? Could this be good for us?

“Pastor, what are you talking about God breaking us?” Brokenness is a term that means God has shown me through spiritual insight or by circumstance my own inconsistencies, inadequacies and incompleteness in my flesh and soul. The key here is the revelation of GOD to you. Some retort, “Nobody’s perfect.” I’m not talking about trying to be something that you’ve have preconceived in your mind. Some kind of image you’ve dreamed up that will somehow please Him. I’m talking about a revelation of me through HIS eyes. His Holiness looking at my holiness. His perception instead of my perception of me.

In another Perspective, I talked about the three parts of man; spirit, soul and body (I Thessalonians 5:23). I told you the spirit is born of God and is connected to God. The soul contains the heart and mind (Jeremiah 17:10) - the will, intellect and emotion. The body is plain ole flesh and bones. The soul and flesh are the outer man. The spirit (inner) man is born of God and communicates with God. When we are born again, His Spirit is placed within us (I John 3:24, 4:13). We are baptized into the body of Christ by His Spirit (I Corinthians 12:13). Before we were born again, we lived listening to whatever the outer man said because our inner man was dead to God. But now that our spirit is alive in Christ, there is a realization of God and even right and wrong is always before us. If His Spirit now abides in us, then there is the possibility that we could and should walk in His Spirit and not in our flesh (Galatians 5:16). But why can’t we do that? What’s in the way? What keeps me from being in complete obedience to God at all times? Well, you probably already know. It’s the outer man that gets in the way.

Our flesh receives sensory information and our mind analyzes the information. This determines what to do. How I feel about it? And what I will do about it? The spirit man is exactly opposite. It receives information from God and is in complete obedience to God. And if we let it, it will provide the information to the outer man which changes what we do. This is the channel God uses and He wants us to yield our outer man to this method. What will it take open to this channel and live in obedience to “walking in the spirit?” It is going to take BROKENESS. When we allow our outer man to be broken before God, our inner man will now shine through and accomplish God’s perfect will.

Let me conclude with this illustration. God told Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house (Jeremiah 18:1-6). Notice that the potter took the clay and made the vessel just like he wanted. But while the clay was in process, his sensitive touch discovered a flaw (maybe a rock, hard piece of clay, or other foreign object). The potter knows that with this flaw, the clay will not be able to stand the fire of the kiln. Once in the fire, the clay will crack and render the vessel useless. So the potter crushes the clay and removes the defect. He then starts over making it into the vessel he desires. Once the vessel of soft clay is ready, he places it to dry and then into the fire of the kiln. The fire is the test of the integrity of the clay and will ultimately determine its usefulness.

Our potter is God and He determines what we will be even before we know Him. He takes our life when we saved and He begins to mould us and make us into the image of Christ. Ultimately we are going to be used in His Kingdom to accomplish His work (II Corinthians 4:7, II Timothy 2:20-21). Some of our flaws are surface flaws that are easily removed. When you were first saved, you did some things that were sin and you knew those things didn’t please God. They were surface flaws easily removed out of our lives. Some flaws are hidden to the eye that sees the exterior. God looks at our heart, our soulish man (1 Samuel 16:7). He sees the flaws that are not easily removed. He knows how to remove each one. He is patient, merciful and longsuffering. But eventually, brokenness is the only way it will be removed. So, He allows or sends something, a circumstance beyond our control, a loss of something or someone meaningful to our lives to crush our soul. In those times, it seems we are being ground up like hamburger meat in the meat grinder of life. His purpose is not our purpose. Our purpose is comfort. His purpose is completeness, wholeness, and spiritual perfection (James 1:2-3). It may be a fiery trial (I Peter 4:12-13); but it has not taken God by surprise. In this test, Christian, you will see the flaws that God already knows about (remember the definition of brokenness). Take those things to Him and ask for a Holy Ghost spiritual surgery to remove them from your life. Let Him cleanse you and put you back on the potter’s wheel.

“But what about today?” “What can I do now, Pastor?” You can ask God to break you. Break you so you can reveal His glory and not your ability. Whether in the trial or no, you can ask God to break you. This request will be hard if you truly ask with a pure heart. The outer man won’t like it. But on the other side it will be glorious. His Glory will be revealed in us and through us to others who need to see. How must we wait on God? In brokenness before Him!