After Brokenness, What Then?

SPEAKER 01 : 0:01

Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, October 28th. In times of pain, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that God intends to use every circumstance to bring about profound spiritual growth and transformation. Today’s podcast brings us the encouraging answer to the question, after brokenness, what then?

SPEAKER 02 : 0:24

Our greatest enemy is not from without. It is that old self-life, that spirit within us that desires to act independently of God. And unless that spirit of independence is broken, here’s what you can expect, and I want you to listen carefully. It’s going to hinder your relationship to God. It’s going to dull your sensitivity to God. It’s going to delay God’s purpose in your life. It’s going to deny you of the peace and joy that you’re looking for in life. It’s going to diminish your effect, the good effect that you could have upon others. And not only that, but it is going to give Satan a greater place of opportunity in your life for a greater stronghold than ever before. And it’s going to deprive you of Now, brokenness always involves repentance over sin, the sin of rebellion, and it always involves the submission of our spirit to Him. So therefore, it is oftentimes very painful, especially if I have held on to something, some area, some relationship, some thing, some desire, some ambition, some goal in my life that is not of God. Sometimes it’s very painful to let that go. But God breaks us in order to bless us. And I want you to turn, if you will, today… Chapter 12 of the book of John. This was the first text in the very first message on brokenness, the principle. The 24th verse, it’s all wrapped up in this one verse. And Jesus said it this way. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. You can take one grain of wheat as long as it lays on the barn floor. There it is as one grain. But when you take that grain and you place it in the earth and you cover it, then its environment changes. The moisture, the heat began to work on that outer shell of that grain. Before long, the outer shell is broken. And when it is broken, that kernel of life begins to protrude its way up through the earth, through the soil. And before long, you have one stalk of wheat. On that stalk, let’s say there are anywhere from 50 to 100 grains. You took those fifty hundred grains, laid them on the barn floor, there’d only be fifty or a hundred grains. But if you took each one of those and placed it in the earth, And let it also die and be broken. Out of each kernel will come new life. And out of each kernel of new life will become a new stalk and more grains. You could have a hundred million bushels of grain. Out of one little grain, if you kept on replanting every single grain. Notice what Jesus said in this verse. He says, except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abides alone. But if it dies, if it’s broken… It bears much fruit. God breaks us in order to bring us to spiritual maturity and supernatural ministries in our lives. He arranges the circumstances by which He’s going to break us. He chooses the tools with which He’s going to break us, and then He controls the pressure and the timing it’ll take to bring us into submission to His will. But after brokenness, what then? So I want you to jot down three things primarily, but there’ll be many others that you might want to jot down for your own help. The first thing that I want you to notice that happens when a person is broken is this. You get a new view of God’s purpose for your life. You get a new view of God’s purpose for your life. Now, what is the view that most people have of their life? And I want you to be open when I say this because otherwise you’re going to be prone to be very defensive and say, well, I wouldn’t think that at all. But here is the most prominent view and the popular view that people have and don’t even realize they have it. And that is that God really exists for us. God, I want you to bless me here, and I want you to do this. And we send him up multitudes of requests all the time, and the truth is we are the ones who are at the center of our life. And for most people and every lost person and far, far too many Christians, the truth is the world revolves around me, my needs, my desires, what pleases me, what makes me happy, what satisfies me, what makes me feel good. The truth is that’s the way the world lives. And that’s the way many Christians live. So when it comes to practical theology and practical interpretation for God, our attitude is God is existing up there somewhere in our behalf. And when I need Him, I want Him to be Johnny on the spot to meet my needs right now. Listen, when you are broken, my friend, what really matters is God. What does God think? What pleases the Lord God? My focus changes. And what happens is this. All of a sudden, it’s not, how do I feel? What do I think? How can I please God? What pleases the Lord? What’s His priority in my life today? What’s His schedule today? What is His will? What is His purpose? Is my life glorifying to God? Is God being honored by our life? What a difference. Priorities begin to change. Not my schedule and my plans and my goals and my dreams, but Lord, what do you want to accomplish today? You see, the whole focus changes. All the priorities change. Once God breaks us, what happens is our will becomes submissive to His will. And when our will becomes submissive to His will, His purposes take priority in our life. When His will becomes priority in my life, it’s no longer what pleases me, but what is honorable to God. Second thing that happens as a result of brokenness, a new freedom in our spirit. A new freedom in our spirit. And many of you need a new freedom in your spirit because you see, you don’t realize it, but you are bound up in all kinds of emotional bondage, guilt, Fear, rejection, anxiety, hostility, anger, you name it, it’s all there. When God breaks you, my friend, it’s amazing what happens. Now listen, brokenness always involves sin. It is the sin of rebellion. It is always that. Now if somebody walked up to you and said, well, you’re just rebellious, you’d probably say, well, who are you to say that I’m rebellious? So here’s what I want to ask you. What is that you’re holding on to that God has said, you’ve got to let that go. You’ve got to give that up. God says, let it go. And you say, no, I’m not going to let it go. That is rebellion. Now, rebellion may be very subtle, but rebellion is still rebellion. Rebellion says, I’m going to have my way, whether you like it or God or anybody else likes it. Now, what we say is, oh, Heavenly Father, I want to thank you in Jesus’ name. Lord, you know I make mistakes. God, you know everybody has their problems and their little sins, and I thank you that you understand mine. My friend, that won’t cover up rebellion. There it is, still glaring at me. Am I still going to insist on having my way? Am I still going to hold on to what God said you’ve got to let go? That’s rebellion. I’ve got to have it my way. Now let me show you what happens here. We set a new freedom in your spirit. Remember, He breaks your will. But in your spirit, here’s what happens. You begin to feel this unusual harmony going on inside of you that you never felt before. Now let me tell you why that’s true. Remember we said we have a body, soul, and a spirit. This body with its five senses is the way we relate to the world, to our environment. With all of its senses, all of its desires, all of its needs, all of its appetites. And then there is the soul of man, his mind, will, emotion, his conscience, his consciousness. And then there is his spirit. Now before you are broken, there is this continuous struggle and friction that goes on. And here’s the struggle and friction. These five senses of ours have needs. We have a desire for beauty, a desire for food, appetites for food, a desire, appetite for knowledge, a desire, appetite for sex. There are many desires, all legitimate. When you and I are living in rebellion and playing God in our life and living in a subtle form of idolatry, that’s what it is, then these senses get out of control. These desires get out of control. But when we are broken and our will is brought into submission to His will, here’s what happens. This body takes its rightful place. That is, these desires and appetites, legitimate as they are, are brought into submission to what? to the Spirit of God. Our emotions are brought into submission to the Spirit. Then the Spirit within us controls our mind, our will, our emotion, our conscience, our consciousness, and also is in control of our body. So that the body and the whole set of emotion, mind, will, and emotion, and the Spirit are all now working in harmony to it with each other. What happens? The war is over. The struggle within is over. Why? Because Romans chapter 6, notice there if you will, Romans chapter 6, one of Paul’s most important chapters he ever wrote, 6, 7, and 8. says in the sixth chapter, verse 14, for sin, that is the power of sin, shall not be master over you. Listen, that is the will of God, that sin would not reign over you. Verse 18, and having been freed, set free from sin’s enslaving power, reigning power. Now listen, When you and I were saved, the truth is, now I want you to listen very carefully. This is the key. When I was saved, the truth is, sin’s power was broken. Now, if I did not realize that, I’m going to go on in my own strength trying to suppress these desires to get out of control. And so we go on in our lives struggling with them, trying to suppress this one and trying to keep this one down and always trying to deal with these legitimate appetites that God has given us. But when we come to brokenness and this independent will within us is humble and submits to the will of God, And there is nothing left out there that we are holding on to, no thing, no desire, no purpose, no plan, no appetite, no relationship, when it’s all yielded and surrendered. and my will and my desires and my dreams are all laid down, what happens is that body, soul, and spirit begin to function in the most beautiful, harmonious way because now the Spirit is in control. I’ve made a decision to give up all my rights, and to say, God, every appetite, every desire, every dream, every goal, I’m going to trust you to meet those in your own time, and therefore, I yield. There’s a second thing that happens. We begin to experience naturally from that an inner quietness and peace. You know why? Because I’ve laid down my rights, laid down my demands, This is what I must have. This is the way it’s got to be. And see, all of that causes war and turmoil and frustration. But you see, once you give up your rights, once you lay down your demands, what happens? The war is over. And there’s an inner quietness, an inner peace that begins to develop in your life. A third thing that happens to a person’s spirit is this. There is a spirit of meekness. That does not mean weakness, but it means your will has been broken. You have humbled yourself before God, and now you become teachable. You become open. You become transparent. No longer defensive. A spirit of meekness, openness, teachableness. A spirit of humility. now able to listen, now able to learn, not spending your time defending yourself. And he says in this passage of Scripture, if you’ll notice, he says, and when this grain of wheat dies, it does what? It bears much fruit. It bears much fruit. Where is the fruit coming from? It’s coming from within. You think about the competitive spirit that exists among Christians today. If she gets promoted, I’ve got to get promoted. If he has one of these, I’ve got to have one. And on and on we go. A competitive spirit. Did you know that when you lay down all your rights, you’re not in competition with anybody? You know why? Because that’s not what you’re living for. He’s the center of your life. And that war is over. You say, well, if you lay it all down, you’re lost. Oh, you surrendered. And you threw up the white flag. And when you threw it up to surrender, you just won. The spirit of meekness says, I give up my rights. This is an age of rights. But my friend, I don’t have any rights. If I’m God, I do. If He’s God, I don’t have any more. You know what I discovered? It’s amazing how He can take care of all my needs. It’s amazing how the inner quietness and peace and the spirit of meekness is there. You know why? Because I’m not troubled about whether these needs I have are met or not. These are appetites God knows how to satisfy in the right fashion. But as long as I’m going to have it my way, listen, if I insist on having it my way and living independently of the will of God, these desires are going to get out of control. And when they get out of control, there’s disaster. God breaks us not to destroy us, but to protect us, to preserve us, and to accomplish His greater, higher purposes within our life. Then there is also the spirit of forgiveness. It flows more quickly when there’s brokenness. You know what happens when you’re broken? You don’t demand somebody. to pay off their debt, emotional debt they owe you because they mistreated you. It is amazing what you can forgive. And it’s amazing how you’re not troubled about forgiving it. In other words, you’re not getting on your knees and saying, God, I was mistreated. Lord, you know, I have been hurt, but God, I’m going to forgive them anyway. No. When you’re broken, my friend, you know what happens? It’s like what they say and what they do just goes right on across you, passes right on through, and it’s just like it never happened. You know why? Why? You belong to Him. What do they do? They’re doing it to Him. Christ is your life. And that begins to become a living reality. And all of a sudden, the things that used to hurt you don’t hurt you anymore. The things that used to trouble you and irritate you don’t irritate you and trouble you anymore. You know why? Because you laid down your rights. And this body and this soul are now under the control, under the submissive control of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is now upon the throne of your life. He’s making the decisions. And He’s the one who’s receiving and giving. And it is His life. He didn’t hold grudges. But you see, before that can happen… That old stubborn rebellious will of ours has to be broken. The power of sin’s reign must be acknowledged as broken. And it only happens when I finally submit my will to him to say, Lord, not what I want, but what you want. But when he says in this passage, listen, he says, it remains by itself alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. What else happens there? When a person has been broken and their body and their soul and their spirit is now working in harmony together, in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ, look how that frees us to relate to other people much better. You see, now, I’m not struggling in my relationship with someone else to get all I can get out of them and to drain all I can emotionally out of them to satisfy myself and to build myself up because, you see, I already have all I need in Christ. Now, that’s not some preacher’s casual saying. That is living reality.

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Thank you for listening to After Brokenness, What Then? If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.