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!