Please play this song softly while you read 'A Broken and Contrite Spirit who can Bear'
http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=3550630&q=lo
http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=3550630&q=hi
BROKENNESS (Godly Yielded-ness)
Brokenness is one of the two most important keys in worship because it touches the heart of the Father in Heaven. He takes pleasure in the brokenness of His people. Praise the Lord, the world in all its brokenness will find God. King David loved God so much, with his heart, soul and mind; that he obeyed God till it hurt and broke him in total surrender to God.
Psalm 34:8, ‘The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.’
Godly brokenness is a state of total yielded-ness, heartbrokenness, selflessness, hopelessness, helplessness, humility, despair, patience in waiting, repentance, gentleness and tenderness in spirit etc. The meaning of contrite is to be brokenhearted and repentant from sin.
Worldly Brokenness
Worldly brokenness is mainly the multiplication of the consequences of the sins that people have committed or the results of the sins of someone in authority or control trust upon the suffering people.
People are also suffering because of their own wrong choices or the consequences of the spiritual law of sowing and reaping. Whatever they sow, they will reap; bad seeds beget bad harvest. (Gal. 6:7) This is what is happening around the world today. God has allowed it so that the suffering people can turn to Him for help.
In their intense oppression, without a solution, the broken people will be bitter, in despair, desperate, unforgiving, rejected, disillusion, rebellious, revengeful and even suicidal.
Thanks be to God, through their brokenness they will turn to Jesus our Savior, when we as Christians, show them the way.
Even Christians will experience the same consequences if we break the Spiritual Laws of God, but the good news is, we have God to turn to and the blood of Jesus to cleanse us of our sins when we repent and free us from eternal damnation. Hallelujah!!!
In worldly music, most singers like Elton John and Michael Jackson sing with extreme brokenness in their souls which is also revealed in the songs and lyrics they write. People who are broken will easily identify themselves with their songs but just like the singers, they could not find an answer to their problems and purposes. This will most probably lead them to drugs and unhealthy relationships, the devil’s imitations to God’s solution. If you notice in the book of Psalms, King David’s songs always lead people to God, no matter what situations they are in.
Godly Brokenness
Godly brokenness leads people to God; Godly sorrow brings repentance and points to The Almighty God. God allows events and situations into our lives to break us so that we can be helpless and hopeless and run to Him for Help.
God also wants us to notice Him or give Him attention. God’s dealings are for the development and the transformation of our character, to be a better people.
Sometimes our own doings and wrong choices will bring us to a state of failure and brokenness. The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32).
For all the promises of God in Him are ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ (2Cor.1:20); but we disqualify ourselves when we walk out of His will and bring calamities to ourselves.
Proverb 19:3, ‘A man’s own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the Lord.’
If we live in a perfect world nobody needs to know God. God wants us to turn to Him in times of trouble. That explains why God allows so much suffering in the world today. The time is short and God wants more people to come to know His saving Grace.
In the course of our walk with God, there will be a time when God will lead us into the wilderness to test our faith in His words. It is in this situation where everything is taken away from us that we have only His words and promises to see us through. This is the time when our knowledge of His scriptures and promises will be of great help to us as we stand by them.
Luke 4:1-2, ‘Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordon and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil…’
Even Jesus had to go through this period of time called the ‘Baptism of Fire’ where God puts every wrong foundation, agenda, attitude and emotion in serving Him under intense fire over a long period of time. Only our sincere love and heart for the Lord will come through the fire (1Cor.3:13-15). If we pass this test and press on, we will be promoted.
Breaking of Self Will
All through the history of creation, the hearts of men had been self-willed and independent and they refused to listen to God. God often described His people as ‘stiff necked’ people.
The reason for God breaking our self- will is to deal with our pride and arrogance so that we will submit to Him. God wants to remove the ‘I’ or ‘self’ as the idol in our lives. When we deny ourselves and our abilities, we will let our lives fall in line with the word of God in submission.
A good example is the training of Arabian horses. When the horses are trained and ready for graduation, the final test is to starve and thirst them by confining them. Down the hill are pools of fresh water and succulent green grass. A breakable wooden fence separates them.
When the horses reach a stage of hunger and thirst so severe, they will break the gates and rush down-hill in full force to satisfy their cravings. At that moment, the master trainer will blow the whistle, the familiar sound of discipline, for the horses to stop. Those horses that stop and obey will be chosen to graduate.
Will you stop when God blows His whistle in your life? The decision is heartbreaking. God wants us to be helpless and hopeless so that we will turn to Him and let Him control our lives. Every human being would want to be in control and also to control others.
When we were heathens, we had given free reign to our flesh and had developed the wrong attitudes and emotions and self- centeredness. After we are saved the Lord may want to equalize our lives back to the standard according to His word. This process is also heartbreaking.
God also wants to heal the areas of our lives that are hurting. So like peeling an onion, layer by layer, He will tear it apart again and bring healing balms to the hurting areas.
God also wants us to humble ourselves by crucifying our flesh and denying ourselves for His glory. We even have to deny our rights to follow the righteousness of God. There is a difference between the righteousness of God and our self-righteousness. For example, our self righteousness says, ‘take revenge, an eye for an eye’; but God’s righteousness says, ‘Forgive, forget and love’. The decision to follow God’s word is heart shattering. When someone hurts us and we cannot fight back, it will bring us to a state of brokenness at the feet of Jesus.
I recall the time I tried to give up cigarettes after smoking for twenty years. After knowing Jesus, I was so spiritual that I told God that I would give up smoking at all cost. But when the desire and craving for cigarettes came, I could not stand it and cried out to the Lord, ‘Lord, just one more cigarette,’ and pleaded to Him to allow me one more puff. That pleading is brokenness. Even without an answer from God, I rushed to the post- box where I secretly hid my cigarettes from my wife and lit my cigarette to smoke. After I had satisfied myself, I was so convicted of my doing and ran to God, knelt before Him, cried and asked God to forgive me. This is also brokenness in trying hard to walk the path of God.
A good example of breaking the self will in the Bible is the breaking of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32).
Brokenness in Sickness
To be sick is the most heart wrenching and humiliating, especially sickness without a definite cure. There is this man, a capable self-made millionaire, hospitalize for terminal cancer. With all the money in the world he is helpless and is at the mercy of knives, needles, the hospital accounts department and the terrible attitudes of some of the nurses. This can be the most vulnerable time of this capable, rich and stubborn man’s life that he will turn to God.
I remember at the dialysis clinic I used to attend, I often suffered from painful cramps which would last for ten to fifteen minutes. When it occurred, I would have to plead for saline (salt water). The nurses could not care less and went about doing their chores. They would take their own sweet time while I writhed in agony. Many times under that condition, I lost my Christian principles and I shouted at them.
Another area of humiliation because of sickness was the fear of meeting people; especially the non-Christians whom I had witnessed before. I was afraid they might recognize me and come up and ask, ‘Hey, you told me your God can heal, how come you are in this condition?’
It would also not be encouraging for Christians to see an anointed servant of God on the dialysis machine, ‘Hey this guy had laid hands on me when I went up for healing prayers’.
Normally I will cover myself from head to toe with a blanket while I am on dialysis. What a broken shame!!!
How can I explain to them that if God wants to heal me, He can do it anytime? How can I explain to them about God’s dealings and brokenness? How can I explain to them about suffering for the Glory of God? I have to swallow my explanation as they would not understand anyway.
You see, God can use anything to accomplish His purpose of dealing with us and purifying us and that includes physical healing, even though He has proclaim that He is the Healer. He is still in the business of healing people and prospering people and if His plans are to put you to test through physical sicknesses, He will allow it. God will overrule the temporal physical healing to achieve the spiritual healing of your souls that will last for eternity. Job, in the Bible, lost everything and even suffered sickness when God allowed the devil to test Job.
Mark14:35-36, ‘Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him, “Abba Father,” He said, “everything is possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.’”
This verse also indicates that even Jesus had to struggle to do the will of the Father. His human side was broken to know what He had to go through and even though He is the Son of God, He still showed some resistance knowing His mission was so incomprehensible. Nevertheless ‘Your will be done.’ This is the brokenness of Jesus. (Isaiah 53:2-3)
Now I understand how in the days of the Old Testament, the Israelites felt while they looked on helplessly as their temple was being destroyed, yet this God they had boasted so much about refused to do anything. They were a broken people.
Effects of Brokenness
The Thorn Bird Effect – one good example of the result God will receive through our brokenness is that of the example of the Thorn Bird – a kind of bird found in Australia.
When the thorn bird knows that it is getting old and is going to die, it will go to the thorn bush and press itself against the thorns. But before doing that the thorn bird will sing a beautiful song out of the brokenness of its heart. Everybody who listens to the singing will know that it is the thorn bird’s finale song and it is the most beautiful song the bird has ever sung as it comes from the depth of the heart of the bird.
In breaking us, God has created the ambience for us to release from the depths of our hearts, an important quality for those who go into deep worship, to sing like the thorn bird’s last song.
Psalm 42:7, ‘Deep calls to deep!’ Deep reaches out to deep and deep touches the deep.
You will know the time when you are closest to the Lord will be when you are desperately helpless, crying out to the Lord from your heart for help.
Isaiah 29:13, ‘These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.’
Conclusion
In conclusion, Adoration and Brokenness will bring forth fruits of purification of our souls, through the refiner’s fire in worship and brokenness through the Baptism of Fire. (I will be sharing more in the next chapter.)
It satisfies the Father in Heaven because you are more and more like Him now. When He sees the reflection of the image of Himself in the refined gold, He knows you are ready to bear much fruits.
next.....................................The Prosperity Gospel !!!
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