THE BREAKING OF THE OUTER MAN

THE BREAKING OF THE OUTER MAN

                If we are intelligent we tend to depend upon our intelligence. If we are talented we tend to rely upon our talent. If we are good looking, we tend to rely upon our good looks. But whatever it is that we rely upon apart from God is pride.

                If we will be used by the Spirit of God, then we must learn to rely upon something much deeper than the outer man with all of its talents, intelligence and looks, good or bad. Like the alabaster box that must be broken in order to release its sweet perfume, so we, must be broken in order to release the Holy Spirit that dwells in our spirit.

                Let us never presume that true humility will come by constantly reminding ourselves to be humble. Neither should we assume that it will come about by merely following the teaching of a certain leader. This will never work, because our pride can only be broken by God’s dealing.

                Our part is to be fully consecrated to the Lord. Consecration is a word not heard much anymore. We are familiar though with offering up our bodies as a living sacrifice unto the Lord and that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. But far too often we treat these as nice theories of good intention. We say that we have given ourselves to the Lord and then we go our own way on our own agenda.

                Do we really believe that the Holy Spirit is guiding us and that God is in control of our training?

                Watchman Nee said it like this: “Do you not realize that all the events of your life for the past five or ten years were ordered by God for your education? If you murmured and complained, you have grievously failed to recognize His hand. If you thought you were just unfortunate and unlucky, you are ignorant of the Holy Spirit’s discipline. Remember that whatever happens to us is measured by the hand of God for our supreme good… How foolish are those who have murmurings on their tongues and fires of contention and resentment smoldering in their hearts at the very predicaments the Holy Spirit has measured to them for their good.” (The Release of the Spirit” by Watchman Nee.)

                If we operate in the temporary realm then we can at best only give temporary help and it will not carry over into eternity. Therefore if we want our works to last forever, then we must break beyond the outer man so that “Out of our bellies will flow rivers of living water”, as Jesus promised. Jn. 7:38.

                Do we want our prayers to touch the Spirit of God? Do we want our words and kindnesses to touch the spirit of those we meet? Then we must allow God to cause the outer shell of the grain of wheat to die so that the life of the inner man my spring forth into eternal life. Only the Holy Spirit can do this.

                So much of our religion is carried on by the outer man. Our traditions and our teaching, our sermons and even much of what we would call the fruit of the Spirit is carried on in the flesh. In all sincerity we are striving to please God. I am not talking about rebellious people here. We want to serve God with all of our hearts, but we largely operate in the flesh and depend upon the flesh to get it done.

                The thing is God doesn’t want to destroy the outer man. He doesn’t want to destroy our intelligence, our talent or our looks. After all, He created Adam and Eve with all of the above and much more. But what He wants is for us to so walk in the Spirit as Jesus did that in time everything in our lives will be done by divine appointment and we wouldn’t imagine taking a step, or doing anything that was not ordered by and empowered by the Spirit of God. This is how the disciples in the early church worked and this is what God intends to return us to as we face the final harvest and the end of the age.

                We must realize that when we operate in such a way, it will stir up the ire of every demon in the vicinity. Such love and power is not benign. Remember, strong magnets either strongly draw or strongly repel and this will be our lot as well when our steps are ordered of the Lord. The Lord Yeshua was such a magnet. He drew men unto Himself, while repulsing demons and flushing the out of hiding. The way of Christ is the way of the cross simply because darkness hates the light.

                There is a certain solemnness to the days ahead. We can certainly see the ranks of the enemy forming against us. In America we have never known what real persecution is and so we get all wrapped up in our little problems. But we need to learn how to conquer these things and to see the hand of God in them for our good. We need to be ready to move on into bigger problems when the whole world is literally arrayed against us. We can see it coming. The spirit of antichrist is alive and well in the world today. We are going to need a kind of boldness that we have hitherto not demonstrated.

                But such boldness can only come from the Lord and it can only work through humble hearts that have been molded and formed by the Spirit of God. We have to believe that what the Lord has started in us, He will also finish… and He will… as long as we remain consecrated to Him.

                I pray that the Lord will come soon, and I also pray that in the meantime, He will use us to win many souls to His kingdom. We have nothing to offer, but we can become channels of the Holy Spirit, vessels that bring glory to His name. We are strangers in a foreign land and that makes us ambassadors for the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Yeshua. We represent our King.