Release of the Spirit - Ch. 3 "Recognizing the Thing in Hand"

In this chapter Watchman Nee addresses that which gets in the way of the release of life from the inward man (spirit). "As long as the outward man remains unbroken, we shall most likely find our hands full of things. Our outward man has its own religious interests, appetites, concerns, and labors. So when the Spirit of God moves in our spirit, our outward man cannot answer God's call."

The Limited Strength of the Outward Man
Nee points out that just as we have limited physical strength, so our soul has limited strength. No matter how much natural strength of soul (whether strength of will, or mind or emotions), there is a limit. If we have things "in hand" that are demanding our emotional energy, we don't have energy left to experience and express that which the Spirit within our spirit wishes to express in and through us. This applies also to spending our intellectual and volitional energy on our natural "religious interests, appetites, concerns and labors." We find ourselves spent and without energy to work with God's interests, appetites, concerns and labors.

For example, a person with a strong mind can be full of ideas and never lacking for new ways for accomplishing things. However, this same person may not be able to discern God's ways in ministry because he has spent his limited natural strength in his own personal interests and preferences.

The Spirit's Use of a Broken Outward Man
Nee repeats a truth of Kingdom fruitfulness: the soul life cannot be bypassed in the giving of life to others. The life in our human spirit MUST pass through the outward man. "Hence, when the latter's strength is consumed by the many things in hand, God cannot do His work through us...The inward man cannot come forth because he is resisted and blocked by the outward man...Before your outward man is broken you are occupied with your own things, walk in your own way, and love your own people...

"When the inward man needs to use his will, he finds it is acting independently, already engaged by the thing in hand. To break our will, God must strike us a heavy blow...In our being striken, we must learn that our will is not to act independently. Only then is our will ready to be used by the inward man.

"God breaks our will by taking away the things in our will's 'hand' so that it cannot act independently. Not that we have no mind, but that we no longer think after the flesh, according to our wandering imaginations. Not that we are devoid of emotion, but that our emotions are under the control and restraint of the inward man. This gives the inner man a will, a mind, and emotions that are usable..."

The Person Broken, not Just Taught
No amount of learning correct doctrine is sufficient for giving life to others, only the breaking of the outward man. And God accomplishes this through affliction and loss, trials and sufferings, hindrances to our own plans, etc. My observation over the years of my own walk and that of others is that, in His mercy, God will not allow the strong-willed believer to succeed in that which he attempts to do for God by means of his will-power; nor will He allow the compassionate person to succeed in that which he attempts to do through works of mercy; nor the intellectual person in that which he attempts to do through clever debate and argument.

No matter how "right" a person may be, God must sever his attachment to the tree of the knowledge of "right and wrong" in order that he may adhere to that which is transcendent, the tree of life. The natural life of the soul is strongly attached to serving God by determining what is "right and wrong", whereas the inward man wants to serve God by its attachment to the life of Jesus Who did not decide and discern according to what His natural ears heard and His natural eyes saw.

Make no mistake, this breaking work of the Spirit is very painful and disorienting because it touches at the core of what we believe is true and right; but the result of the loving discipline of the Spirit on our lives is great joy and liberty and overflow of His life in and through us.

May grace and peace rest upon our hearts and minds this week as He does His skillful work in and through us by various and sundry means!

The Release of the Spirit - Ch. 2 "Before and After Brokenness"

"It is the Spirit who gives life..." (John 6:63)
Nee begins this chapter by underscoring the truth that life comes to others only by the life of the the Spirit united with the human spirit. Because this is true, the spirit of the believer must be released through his outer man, the soul. The problem is not with the spirit; the problem is with the soul which, when unbroken, blocks the flow of the life of Jesus in the human spirit.

When the soul of the believer is unbroken, he operates either solely by his natural gifts and personality or he operates with a mixture of spirit and soul. For example, an intellectually clever person is governed by his mind, while a compassionate person is governed by his emotions, and the strong-willed person is governed by his strong desires. Without the breaking work of the Spirit, we try to do God's work through strong intellectual arguments or through strong emotions or through asserting our strong will. People may be persuaded but it won't be fruit that is real and enduring. This is because "it is the spirit that gives life" - nothing else!!

In the unbroken servant there is no harmony between the outward (soul) and the inward (spirit) man. A preacher or teacher can present a well-prepared message and have a cold heart in spite of the wonderful things he or she may be presenting. Or it's possible to have a burning fire in your spirit related to God but the outer man hinders you from being able to find expression for that fire. "The outward does not obey the dictates of the inward: inwardly crying, but outwardly unmoved; inwardly suffering, but outwardly untouched; full of thoughts within, but without, the mind a seeming blank. The spirit has yet to find a way to pierce the shell."

With the breaking of the shell (outer man), one's intellect and emotions and desires will assist the spirit rather than hinder the spirit.

Nee goes on to say, "The release of the spirit makes it possible for us to abide increasingly in God. We touch the spirit of revelation in the Bible. Without effort our spirit can receive divine revelation...Furthermore, we may most spontaneously contact the spirit in others by our spirit...Our spirit can touch his spirit...With the breaking of the outward man, the spirit begins to flow and is ever open to others."

The human spirit is of the same nature as God; consequently, the more the outward man is broken, the more easily a person continues in the uninterrupted presence of God no matter what his circumstances are. We make the mistake of believing that we are experiencing His presence only when our emotions are stirred or if we are consciously thinking about Him, but then when the emotions are not stirred or the mind is busy with other activities, we feel He is gone. In the breaking of the soul, the believer lives and abides in His presence in all circumstances because he is living by his spirit indwelt by God's Spirit, and that never changes.

Nee finishes the chapter by teaching that not only is the breaking of the outward man necessary, but the dividing of the soul and spirit is necessary as well: "Through the merciful working of God, the outward and the inward man must be separated. Then what affects the outward will not be able to reach the inward. Though the outward man may be engaged in conversation, the inward man is fellowshipping with God...One is able to carry on activities, to contact the world with the outer man, while the inner man remains unaffected because he still lives before God."

..."In conclusion, let us remember that the ability to use our spirit depends upon the two-fold work of God: the breaking of the outward man and the dividing of spirit and soul...Only after God has carried out both of these processes in our lives are we able to exercise our spirit. The outward man is broken through the discipline of the Holy Spirit; it is divided from the inward man by revelation of the Holy Spirit (Heb. 4:12)."

(When speaking of the "discipline of the Holy Spirit", Nee is referring primarily to His use of pain and difficult circumstances in our lives to break us; the "revelation of the Holy Spirit" refers primarily to the opening of the spiritual eyes through the Scriptures to separate between soul and spirit. So we need both affliction and the Spirit's quickening of the Word in order to mature.)

Grace to you this week in the Lord Jesus!

Release of the Spirit - Ch. 1 "The Importance of Brokenness"

In chapter one Watchman Nee explains why brokenness in us is imperative for fruitfulness in God's kingdom. He begins by saying:

"Anyone who serves God will discover sooner or later that the great hindrance to his work is not others but himself. He will discover that his outward man (soul) and his inward man (spirit) are not in harmony, for both are tending toward opposite directions...due to the distractions of the outward man, (his) spirit does not seem to function properly...As we shall see, there is just one basic dealing which can enable man to be useful before God: brokenness."

Nee explains the makeup of the human person: first, the inward man (spirit) where we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit's life and power when we are in Christ. Outside of the inward man is the soul, the unique personality comprised of the person's thoughts, emotions, and will; and finally there is the outermost man which is our physical body. The soul and body are created to operate in submission to the spirit that is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

When Adam and Eve chose to operate from the tree of knowledge rather than the tree of life, the soul took over the dominant position, and they fell into slavery to subjectivity, viewing everything and everyone through the prism of their own soulish desires and opinions and emotions. They could no longer see through the eyes of God who knows and understands all in perfect love and knowledge. In their desire to fulfill their God-given mandate without having to depend and wait on Him, they became quick to rule and judge according to what their eyes could see and their ears could hear (unlike Jesus who judged only from what He saw and heard from the Father - Isaiah 11:3,4).

The soul (our natural personality and abilities, etc.) is the "container" or "vessel" of the life of Jesus. He is the Treasure hidden within us that others need to encounter. In order for them to encounter Him, the vessel has to be broken (II Cor. 4:7). Nee uses the story from Mark 14 of the woman who broke her jar of perfume in order to pour it over Jesus' head. The fragrance was trapped as long as the jar was intact; once broken, the fragrance spread around to all in the room. Jesus' life is the sweet-smelling fragrance within our spirit; in order for others to "smell Him" and therein be attracted to Him, the "earthen vessel" (our soul) must go through breaking experiences that weaken our dependence on our natural powers and giftings.

We cannot break ourselves (that is the exclusive work of the Spirit), but we can agree and cooperate with the breaking experiences that God allows in our lives, and we can even ask Him to do this ground-breaking work in our lives so that His fragrance is released in increasing measure through us. The more He has His way with and in us, the greater the flow and release of His life with less effort on our part. (We get "more bang for our buck"; there is a divine efficiency that operates in and through our lives.) We find that we are no longer stressed about how much we are accomplishing nor about visible evidence of fruit; we know that the results are completely up to His working as we simply live and abide in Him through daily obedience. We begin to understand that it is not my forceful will nor my strong emotions nor my sharp intellect that will produce life, but only the Life of Jesus coming through my personality! And we begin to see that ultimately all that comes my way comes through His loving heart and hands, and that it is for the purpose of fruitbearing (which brings Him great glory and us great joy).

I'll close this with a quote from this chapter: "The cross must break all that belongs to our outward man - our opinions, our ways, our cleverness, our self-love, our all...As soon as our outward man is broken, our spirit can easily come forth. Consider a brother as an example: all who know him acknowledge that he has a keen mind, a forceful will, and deep emotions. But instead of being impressed by these natural characteristics of his soul, they realize they have met his spirit. Whenever people are fellowshipping with him, they encounter a clean spirit..."

Just as resurrection life could come through Jesus only after His natural life went to death (John 12:24), so His indwelling indestructible life can only come through us to others as we experience the death that comes to us by many and sundry means in our lives. "There is no one more beautiful than one who is broken!"

Spirit of God, we pause to say yes to Your dealings in our lives; help us not to waste our sorrows and pains but to put them into Your hands for you to resurrect beauty from the ashes, knowing that that resurrected life will draw many to You through us. Thank You for Your faithful and loving and skillful work in our hearts and minds!

Release of the Spirit - Introduction

This week I'm beginning to go through Watchman Nee's book, The Release of the Spirit, and plan to take the next couple of months to complete it. We'll begin with the introduction to the book.

The teaching in this book goes along with the recent postings I've done on the issue of judging and the two trees in the Garden of Eden that are named in Scripture. Nee contends that in order to be fruitful, life-giving followers of Jesus, we must live by His resurrected life within our spirit rather than by our personal soul life. This is simply other language for living by the tree of life rather than according to the tree of human knowledge/opinion.

It will be important for us to understand Nee's language about our human makeup. The following are terms that he uses throughout the book and how he is using them:
1. "inward man" = the human spirit
2. "outward man" = the human soul
3. "outermost man" = the human body

Another truth that's important to establish from the start is that when Nee speaks of "destroying the soul", he is in no way referring to the annihilation of the human soul but rather to the subjection of the soul to the Spirit of God who indwells the human spirit. (Take note - when the Spirit of God is dealing with our soul life, His work can very much feel like it is annihilating us, because we are born into and deceived by a deeply fallen and sinful world that agrees wholeheartedly with the devil and the flesh in saying that we are happiest when we are in control. So when His loving Spirit begins to dismantle the natural soulish powers at work in us, it can feel like He is suppressing and even destroying our personality; the truth is that the more we live by His life and Spirit, the more enhanced our unique soul life is because the soul is designed to flourish and blossom in the place of subjection, not in the place of rulership.)

Related to the point above, T. Austin-Sparks says the following: "We must be careful that, in recognizing the fact that the soul has been seduced, led captive, darkened and poisoned with a self-interest, we do not regard it as something to be annihilated and destroyed in this life. This would be asceticism, a form of Buddhism."

The result of the fall of Adam and Eve is that we are all born with a debilitating bent towards soulish strength and government. In other words, we come into this world with a massive drive toward self-preservation (protecting the soul life), and we live and act depending on our personal/subjective opinions (which are based on our independent and subjective emotions, thoughts and desires). In our formative years, these drives are constantly and relentlessly endorsed and applauded by our own flesh, by the poisoned environment and world systems and by devilish powers. By the time we encounter Jesus and submit to Him and His kingdom by faith (even when at a young age), we are so deeply enslaved to soulishness that there is no way we can deliver ourselves.

This book is addressed to followers of Jesus, because the serious dealings with the soul is the process of sanctification that all who truly desire to mature will walk through upon coming into Jesus by faith. Stepping into God's house by faith can happen in a moment, but being made like the Owner of the house is a lifelong journey.

"The soul has to be smitten a fatal blow by the death of Christ as to its self-strength and government. As with Jacob's thigh, after God had touched it, he went to the end of his life with a limp...forever there must be registered in the soul the fact that it cannot and must not act out from itself as the source...T.Austin-Sparks has said: '...the fact is that if we are going on with God fully, all the soul's energies and abilities for knowing, understanding, sensing and doing will come to an end, and we shall - on that side - stand bewildered, dazed, numbed and impotent. Then a new, other, and divine understanding, constraint, and energy will send us forward or keep us going..."

Next week we'll look at chapter one on the importance of brokenness. Grace and peace to you!