The Way Of Brokenness

Every week for the last two months, I have been getting an email from the Moody Alumni Association to fill out a survey for the US Department of Education. They want to keep track of what people are doing with their education once they graduate, what kind of ministry jobs they are getting. I have deleted this email every week.

But this week, I contemplated simply sending them a response letting them know that while my degree sits on a shelf collecting dust, I have been praying in a barn every morning. I have been wrestling with the cross of Christ. I have been writing articles about chickens and glaciers and wheat and ants and broken zippers…and cussing at my dog for eating a biscuit. I want to tell them that I have been dying—both to myself and to this world. And that I have simply been sharing my journey of finding life in Jesus Christ through brokenness. And I want to tell them that that is doing far more for the kingdom of God than anything I ever learned at Moody.

And I especially want to tell them this:

“May our outer man be broken to such an extent that the inner man can be released and expressed. This is precious, and this is the way of the servants of the Lord. We can only serve when we have reached this point, and we can only lead others to the Lord and to the knowledge of God when we have reached this point. Nothing else will work. Doctrines and theology will not work. Mere Bible knowledge will not profit us. The only thing that is useful is for God to come out of us…..
When our outer man is smitten, dealt with, and humbled by all kinds of misfortune, the scars and wounds that are left behind will be the very places from which the Spirit flows out from within…Unless the outer man is broken, everything we have is in the mind and in the realm of knowledge and is useless.”—Watchman Nee

Change will never come to the church unless we are willing to stand up in the ashes of what it’s become and start calling people to die. To lose their life so they can find it. That is the message of the cross. That is the true ministry and gospel of Jesus Christ. Our ability to exegete Scripture and navigate the hermeneutical spiral while crossing the principlizing bridge means nothing to God. The only thing God wants to know is: “Are you willing to die?”

Are you willing to die, beloved? To both yourself and to this world? Are you willing to embrace the way that Christ showed us—His cross—so that He can live in you and be poured out to a world that so desperately needs to see that He is real, that He is relatable, and that He is the only one Who can save us? This, and only this, will prepare us for His return. Make the way straight, brothers and sisters.

(John 12:24-26) Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, My servant will be as well. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

(Mark 8:34-36) Then Jesus called the crowd to Him along with His disciples, and He told them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel will save it. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”

(Luke 1:16,17) Many of the sons of Israel he will turn back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

(John 1:21-23) “Then who are you?” they inquired. “Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet: “I am a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’ ”…

(Posted on Facebook 12/9/2020 Talitha Koum)