BROKENNESS!
Has God broken you? Are you still broken down the line?
Let examine what brokenness is like in real life. Brokenness makes a believer look foolish before canal men. Imagine that you are terribly insulted and abused and yet you still have to go back to the person and apologise. You can say "But he is the one that offended me without any provocation", yet the Holy Spirit could say “Go and apologise”.
A broken believer is completely yielded to the Holy Spirit to obey His voice and instructions as they come, no matter the challenges of obedience.
A broken person is completely devoid of pride and anything called pride is emptied from him and that is the reason he can humble himself to the lowest level. Imagine also that you disciplined your son and the Holy Spirit says “why did you beat him”? and you said because he did this or that, and the Holy Spirit says you should not have beaten him at all, Go and apologize to him. This same thing happens a lot of times with our wives…and you don’t have a choice, you must go and apologize.
Broken people do not keep malice, neither do they harbor resentment. If you ask them to sit here, you can be sure that’s where they will sit, you ask them to do something, you know that thing will be done. In the church, when you have any of them around, you are blessed and lucky at the same time.
When they cannot make it to evening service or midweek service, they will send a text to inform you. When they are leading a group, you can be sure of what to expect from that group. They are also not easily provoked because of their love for God and obedience to His precepts. When you are broken the way God wants you to be broken, you will be a "surprise to many people around as they will find it difficult to offend you on any matter.
Remember the case of Daniel, upon whom they found no other way to offend except in the things of God, that was brokenness per excellence. After the elevation of Daniel in Babylon, Then the Presidents and Princes sought to find occasion against Daniel, but they could find none occasion nor fault, for as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error found in him. They concluded that it is only in the things of God they can find fault with him - Daniel 6:4
Remember the case of Daniel, upon whom they found no other way to offend except in the things of God, that was brokenness per excellence. After the elevation of Daniel in Babylon, Then the Presidents and Princes sought to find occasion against Daniel, but they could find none occasion nor fault, for as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error found in him. They concluded that it is only in the things of God they can find fault with him - Daniel 6:4
Trouble-makers will try to annoy you without success. When they have tried different provocative actions without success, then you will hear them saying “What kind of a person is this”? He does not get offended and even if you slap him, he would not reply. the enemies of Daniel said "We shall not any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God"- Daniel 6:5.
Take the scenario of a rich businessman, who has made his mark in business and upon becoming a Christian, he begins to learn of Jesus Christ and God and becomes aware of the the worldly and Kingdom ways of doing things. The worldly approach is to enforce your opinion on people under you, believing its the best solution, while the Godly way would be to be considerate and humane in the treatment of colleagues and others alike.
Brokenness kills worldliness in a believer’s life and turns the believer to a stranger in the midst of his/her friends. When you are broken, the pleasures and entertainment of this world, that people enjoy will mean nothing to you. Such things will no longer fascinate you, neither will anything that does not glorify God. The motions of sin will complete loose grip of you.
When a believer is broken and you are firing him with demonic arrow, you are looking for trouble for yourself. The presence and protection of the Almighty God is usually great around them that your arrow will certainly backfire at you or your children. You cannot succeed in doing him/her evil as their guarding angels are "the swift types", that will not tolerate any nonsense.
Why will a believer be battling with bitterness, anger and unforgiveness after many years of knowing the Lord? It is because he/she is not broken. The whole concept of brokenness is a battle against the flesh, living inside of us, the “old man” that wants to control us. – that proud "old man of the flesh" that demands recognition, respect and attention. Brokenness allows a Christian is walk in love and faith. When you are broken, you forgive offenses easily and forget them. When offenses are removed from your heart, your prayer rises to God, the Father and you can be sure of answers.
When offenses are gone, your faith life rises. You cannot be an effective prayer warrior with malice in your heart. With bitterness in your heart, you are not abler to walk in the supernatural. This is because love is required, for your work of faith to be accepted. There is nothing like a man or woman of faith that hold grudges against people, your decrees of faith will not 'hold waters'. You need brokenness down to the flesh. You need to be free from all worldly desires that hinder your spiritual growth, resist the 'old man' with the Word of God and remain broken and humble through your journey of life.
It is the flesh that asks you to break your fast before time, “after-all you are not the one that killed Jesus Christ” , whenever you hear such statement, know that Mr. Flesh is the one speaking. Believers know him as the enemy Number 1 of righteousness and holiness in a person. It is the flesh that fights against your spiritual growth in real life by resisting prayer, fasting and other spiritual exercises necessary for your spiritual growth.
When offenses are gone, your faith life rises. You cannot be an effective prayer warrior with malice in your heart. With bitterness in your heart, you are not abler to walk in the supernatural. This is because love is required, for your work of faith to be accepted. There is nothing like a man or woman of faith that hold grudges against people, your decrees of faith will not 'hold waters'. You need brokenness down to the flesh. You need to be free from all worldly desires that hinder your spiritual growth, resist the 'old man' with the Word of God and remain broken and humble through your journey of life.
It is the flesh that asks you to break your fast before time, “after-all you are not the one that killed Jesus Christ” , whenever you hear such statement, know that Mr. Flesh is the one speaking. Believers know him as the enemy Number 1 of righteousness and holiness in a person. It is the flesh that fights against your spiritual growth in real life by resisting prayer, fasting and other spiritual exercises necessary for your spiritual growth.
Brethren, you must resist sin and Mr. Flesh with everything in you and if possible, the believer must KILL the flesh inside, else it could lead one to hell fire. The flesh is the evil present within us that must be defeated and silenced. You know the flesh is not interested in going to heaven, so the earlier you send him out of your life, the better for you.
HOW TO REMAIN HUMBLE AND BROKEN:
One language every Saint of Christ understands very well is "RESISTING THE DEVIL". Every believer who knows the way Satan operate, would agree that the devil does not easily give up. He does not give up on troubling you, tempting you and trying to deceive you into error.
The devil is a contrary spirit that you will bind and cast out now….and before you finish eating he has returned in a different style to use different method to tempt you. This is why a proud christian is in trouble. The devil is able to deceive any proud believer and use such a believer to fulfill his evil designs. The devil suggest things that are contrary to the scriptures and if you cannot discern and dispel the thought, you are in trouble.
The devil will remind you of the evil thoughts you did not expel from your heart and trouble you with them again and again. So you must not be tied of casting out evil thoughts and demon out of your mind.
The devil will remind you of the evil thoughts you did not expel from your heart and trouble you with them again and again. So you must not be tied of casting out evil thoughts and demon out of your mind.
To resist the devil and remain humble, the bible says submit yourself under Christ, resist the devil and he will flee. The resistance game is not a joke when you consider what the scripture says in Hebrew 12:4 “ye have not resisted unto blood, striving against sin” – meaning that you should resist the temptation to sin with everything in you, down to your blood.
HOLINESS
Resisting the devil will be easier if you adopt holiness as your way of life. Holiness is a life sold unto God to do His good pleasure. So, you are a vessel unto honour before God and men and the delight of the Almighty God.
When we reject desires, attitudes, or actions that are sinful and choose those that are in harmony with God’s word, we are living and manifesting God's holiness. When we desire and pursue after righteousness, purity and kindness, we are doing well. The Christian life is a race, we run in holiness. Hebrews 12 discussed holiness and how to pursue it. You have to note that holiness can only be pursued by a broken person, a 'lamb' and not a 'goat'. It says, says we should:
• Laying aside any hindrances (Heb. 12:1).
• Laying aside the sin that easily ensnares us (Heb. 12:1).
• Fixing our gaze on Jesus (Heb. 12:2).
• Persevering in the fight against sin (Heb. 12:3–4).
• Submitting to the Lord’s chastening and enduring it thankfully (Heb. 12:5–11).
• Strengthening one another (Heb. 12:12–13).
Resisting the devil will be easier if you adopt holiness as your way of life. Holiness is a life sold unto God to do His good pleasure. So, you are a vessel unto honour before God and men and the delight of the Almighty God.
When we reject desires, attitudes, or actions that are sinful and choose those that are in harmony with God’s word, we are living and manifesting God's holiness. When we desire and pursue after righteousness, purity and kindness, we are doing well. The Christian life is a race, we run in holiness. Hebrews 12 discussed holiness and how to pursue it. You have to note that holiness can only be pursued by a broken person, a 'lamb' and not a 'goat'. It says, says we should:
• Laying aside any hindrances (Heb. 12:1).
• Laying aside the sin that easily ensnares us (Heb. 12:1).
• Fixing our gaze on Jesus (Heb. 12:2).
• Persevering in the fight against sin (Heb. 12:3–4).
• Submitting to the Lord’s chastening and enduring it thankfully (Heb. 12:5–11).
• Strengthening one another (Heb. 12:12–13).
A holy believer has no place for evil thoughts. he casts them out as they come into his heart, so he can focus on things of God and be completely yielded to doing His will. Holiness guides the steps and actions of a believer to ensure it is pleasing to God.
A holiness believer is strongly rooted in God’s Word and ways and a holy person flees from every appearance of evil. What ever looks like sin and wickedness is unacceptable for you - Be it negative communication, film, song and music, dressing or attitude that can lure a person to sin should be quickly resisted.
While resisting the devil, we must follow peace with all men and holiness, and live love life, showing love and care towards our neighbours as to God. As we make His Word a standard for our lives, sin power over our life is easily broken and our prayers are easily answered.
To resist the devil effectively, we must hate sin and run away from temptations to fall into sin. This is very important for a believer because, with sin, the door way is once again opened to the devil to enter a person’s life to afflict, kill and destroy.
The destroyer that opens doors to the devil, called sin must be kept away. A little sin is enough for the enemy to gain entrance - for sin is-the-breaking-of-hedge. Sin of any kind or nature truncates the holiness journey, especially iniquity.
Follow peace with all men
Why is it so important that we follow after peace? The Bible tells us the reason we should follow peace with all men. In Hebrews 12:14, we understand that lack of peace serves as a blocker that stops us from being admitted into the presence of God. Think how many times you’ve been in a service where God’s anointing is present and people are being blessed, but you can’t receive because the absence of peace is the presence of doubt and worry, forces of hinderance.
Living in peace with your neighbour is such an important issue that Jesus adviced people bringing offerings, seeds to the Church, to go back home and reconcile with their neighbours and thereafter present their offerings to God. We are called to follow after peace, to love and desire peaceful existence. It is our duty to seek and pursue with all men. And we’re called to walk in holiness, to behave differently, to walk in forgiveness, free from offense. If we fail to pursue this kind of spiritual walk and remain in strife and bitterness, we’ll hardly experience the best that God wants for us.
The word “peace” refers to a state of harmony, which only God can give and He gives it to those, who pursue peace “with all men.” God wants us to know that we cannot pursue holiness in an atmosphere of bitterness and rancor. No Christian should allow anger, bitterness to fester for long in his heart, so give it whatever it takes to forgive people and follow peace with them. There is no way, you can claim to love God, without loving others, we cannot pursue holiness without pursuing peace with all men.
Take a moment to look at your life. God has called us to a higher level, and whether we like it or not, we should be blameless in all these, if we desire to be the best God wants us to be. If we’re serious about being disciples of Jesus, we must determine to forgive every person and every offense. We have to respond differently from the way worldly people react to situations. It might sound odd, but the truth is that our fight is never physical or canal. So our reaction should also be spiritual, through our knees bowed down in prayer.
Think about those times when you’ve harbored bitterness and offense and allowed your heart to grow hard toward a person. Was it not hard for you to pray, study and meditate on the word of God? Was the peace of God not far from you during such times?
Think of those people that Jesus Christ described as workers of iniquity on the last day. They serve the Lord and performed miracles in His name, but spots were found on them. It could be anger, pride, dishonesty, coveteousness and greed. Recently I traveled out of my station and in a church service saw a man, and the Lord opened my eyes to see 'blood stains on his shirt. I cleared my eyes and looked on him again and saw the blood stain.
CONCLUSION
Let us look at righteousness in the scriptures
What the bible says about Righteousness
Isaiah 33:15-17 - He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil, he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure. Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty; they will see a land that stretches afar.
1 Peter 3:14 - But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,
Matthew 5:20 - For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
1 Peter 5:10 - And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
2 Corinthians 5:21 - For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Timothy 2:22 - So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
1 John 5:18 - We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
Matthew 6:33 - But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Philippians 1:11 - Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Matthew 5:6 - “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
1 Peter 3:12 - For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
Proverbs 21:3 - To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
FIRE…
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