The release of the Spirit | Diet 8

BEFORE AND AFTER BROKENNESS

THE BREAKING of the outward man is the basic experience of all who serve God. This must be accomplished before He can use us in an effective way. When one is working for God, two possibilities may arise. First, it is possible that with the outward man unbroken, one's spirit may be inert and unable to function. If he is a clever person, his mind governs his work; if he is a compassionate person, the emotions control his actions. Such work may appear successful but cannot bring people to God. Second, his spirit may come forth clad in his own thoughts or emotions. The result is mixed and impure. Such work will bring men into mixed and impure experience.

These two conditions weaken our service to God. If we desire to work effectively, we must realize that basically "it is the Spirit which quickens." Sooner or later, if not on the first day of our salvation, then perhaps ten years after, we must recognize this fact. Many have to be brought to their wits' end to see the emptiness of their labor before they know how useless are their many thoughts, their varied emotions. No matter how many people you can attract with your thoughts or emotions, the result comes to nothing. 

Eventually we must confess: "It is the Spirit which quickens." The Spirit alone makes people live. Your best thought, your best emotion cannot make people live. Man can be brought into life only by the Spirit. Many serving the Lord come to see this fact only after passing through much sorrow and many failures. Finally the Lord's word becomes meaningful to them: that which quickens is the Spirit. When the spirit is released then sinners may be born anew and saints may be established. When life is communicated through the channel of the spirit, those who receive it are born anew. When life is supplied through the spirit to believers, it results in their being established. Without the Spirit, there can be no new birth and no establishment. 

One rather remarkable thing is that God does not mean to distinguish between His Spirit and our spirit. There are many places in the Bible where it is impossible to determine whether the word "spirit" indicates our human spirit or God's Spirit. Bible translators, from Luther down to present day scholars who have labored on the English versions, have been unable to decide if the word "spirit," as used in many places in the New Testament, refers to the human spirit or to the Spirit of God. Of the whole Bible, Romans 8 may very well be the chapter where the word "spirit" is used most frequently. Who can discern how many times the word "spirit" in this chapter refers to the human spirit and how many times to God's Spirit? In various English versions, the word "pneuma" (spirit) is sometimes written with a capital letter; other times, with a small letter. It is evident that these versions do not agree, and no one person's opinion is final. It is simply impossible to distinguish. When in regeneration we receive our new spirit, we receive God's Spirit too. The moment our human spirit is raised from the state of death, we receive the Holy Spirit. We often say that the Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit, but we find it hard to discern which is the Holy Spirit and which is our own spirit. The Holy Spirit and our spirit have become so mingled; while each is unique they are not easily distinguished. Thus, the release of the spirit is the release of the human spirit as well as that of the Holy Spirit, Who is in the spirit of man. Since the Holy Spirit and our spirit are joined into one, (1 Cor. 6.17), they can be distinguished only in name, not in fact. And since the release of one means the release of both, others can touch the Holy Spirit whenever they touch our spirit. Thank God that inasmuch as you allow people to contact your spirit, you allow them to contact God. Your spirit has brought the Holy Spirit to man. 

When the Holy Spirit is working, He needs to be carried by the human spirit. The electricity in an electric bulb does not travel like lightning. It must be conducted through electric wires. If you want to use electricity, you need an electric wire to bring it to you. In like manner, the Spirit of God employs the human spirit as His carrier, and through it He is brought to man. Everyone who has received grace has the Holy Spirit dwelling in his spirit. Whether he can be used by the Lord depends not on his spirit but rather on his outward man. The difficulty with many is that their outward man has not been broken. There is not evident that blood-marked character those wounds or scars. So God's Spirit is imprisoned within man's spirit and is not able to break forth. Sometimes our outward man is active, but the inward man remains inactive. The outward man has gone forth, while the inward man lags behind.

May the Lord help us to submit ourselves to dealing that will aid the release of our spirit in Jesus name.

Author: Watchman Nee

Compiled and edited by: Peter O. Olutoyese