It is such a mercy and a blessing for us as believers in Christ that God would deal with our natural disposition today through the Holy Spirit’s discipline and His transforming work so that Christ may be formed in us, grow in us, and bring us to maturity to make persons who bless others with the Triune God. Amen!
It is His mercy for us to be dealt with, broken, and transformed today; it’s His mercy that in our lifetime we would cooperate with Him to be transformed and conformed into His image so that we may be brought to maturity and become a blessing for others.
If our outer man is not broken, Christ cannot flow out from our spirit for the building up of church; if our outer man is not broken, we cannot minister life to others but rather, we become a problem or cause a problem int he church.
If we are boastful of what we are or have done, this is a sign that we have not been broken. If we think we are something when we’re nothing, we deceive ourselves, and we are not broken.
All human beings pass through sufferings, trials, and tribulations, but not all human beings can gain something eternal that is for the fulfilment of God’s purpose.
We believers in Christ have the privilege to know from the Bible that God desires to work Himself into us, and for HIm to do this, He needs to break our outer man so that the inner man would be strengthened, built up, and fully released.
This involves many things, even all things; as Rom. 8:28-29 says, all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
We will be pressed, mistreated, depreciated, and wronged by others, and we may not be appreciated, received, welcomed, or understood; however, as long as our being remains open to the Lord throughout this time, God has a way to work Himself into us, and what He gains in us is for the building up of His Body.
May the Lord have a way to shine in us and on us; may we have the Lord’s inner shining as a great light so that we may see what God sees and cooperate with Him for the breaking of the outer man so that our inner man may be released.
It is a great thing in our Christian experience for us to have the killing that comes from the shining of the divine light.
This shining is saving us from ourselves, and when we see what and who we are under the divine light, we will be delivered from the self.
When we truly see a vision of the Lord in His glory, we will be enlightened in ur conscience regarding our uncleanness; we will repent, reject ourselves, and take Christ as our everything.
Only Christ in us can live the Christian life; only Christ living in us builds up the church, and only Christ living in us can fulfill God’s purpose.
God’s Dealing with Jacob is a full picture of the Holy Spirit’s Discipline and His Transforming Work in us today
When we speak of the natural disposition, the natural constitution, and the outer man, a very good example in the Old Testament is Jacob.
Jacob, in the book of Genesis, is the best representative of one who has been dealt with by the Lord to break his natural disposition.
Even from his mother’s womb, he tried to be first, holding his brother Esau’s heel while he was being delivered.
The most outstanding characteristic in Jacob’s life is his natural endeavouring and scheming; he was crafty, always seeking to gain something, and in particular, he wanted the birthright and God’s blessing.
His craftiness was what was seen outwardly, but the real problem was his natural constitution.
The history as recorded in Genesis shows that Jacob was able, resourceful, full of schemes, and he was very capable and skilful.
He was truly one that was exceedingly strong in the natural constitution, and it seemed that he gained so much by practising his craftiness.
However, what we see is that there were so many afflictions, sufferings, and troubles that beset him; all these were for the breaking of his natural disposition, his natural constitution.
It seemed that God destined Jacob to live a struggling life all his days; whether he was with his parents, serving Laban, returning to see Esau, or taking care of his family as he went here and there, trouble followed him and sufferings were his portion.
God sovereignly arranged every circumstance, every situation, and every person in Jacob’s life and caused them all to work together for Jacob’s good, so that He could transform Jacob – a supplanter and a heel-holder – into Israel, a prince of God.
From his birth he was a supplanter, trying to gain more and more and more, but God arranged all things to deal with his natural constitution, with the result that he became Israel, a prince of God.
At the end of his life, we see the strongest manifestation of Jacob’s maturity in life – he blessed everyone, including Pharaoh.
He went through a long process of being disciplined by God to be transformed and have his natural constitution torn down, and as the last stage of transformation, he was mature and blessed all those around him.
He used to have supplanting hands, but these became blessing hands. He used to be a heel-holder and a supplanter, but at the end of his life he was taken where he didn’t really want to go, and he blessed his descendants in a specific way with a prophecy.
His supplanting hands became blessing hands, and God was expressed through this one, who became a prince of God.
He was a person who had lots of schemes and plots, but he was broken, torn down, and dealt with by God again and again to the point that God changed his name and called him Israel (Gen. 32:28), a prince of God.
The process he went through shows how the Spirit is disciplining us today to transform us and bring us to maturity so that we may bless others with the Triune God.
Lord Jesus, we open to Your transforming work in all the things that happen to us, all the people around us, and all the situations that You sovereignly arrange. Have a way to transform us and deal with our natural constitution, our natural disposition. May we be transformed and arrive to maturity so that we may bless others with the Triune God. We give ourselves to You, dear Lord, to be useful in Your hands and to grow in life unto maturity. Have a way in us. You did it in Jacob – You obtained Israel, a prince of God; do it in us, Lord, transform us and mature us to make us useful for Your service!
God is Gracious to us to Tear down our Worthless Self and Build Himself into us to Transform us and Mature us
God’s dealing with Jacob – as seen in the book of Genesis – is a full picture of the Holy Spirit’s discipline and His transforming work in us, the New Testament believers.
The Spirit is working in us to deal with our natural disposition so that Christ may be formed in us, fully grow in us, unto maturity (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Heb. 6:1a).
This is God’s blessing us and making us a blessing to others so that they may be supplied with the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity (Gen. 12:1-3; Ezek. 34:26; Num. 6:22-27).
Jacob lived many thousands of years ago, but his life shows that we as natural persons need to pass through the breaking in order to become Israel, a prince of God.
The fact that God is breaking us through the discipline of the Holy Spirit is not a matter of being cruel to us; rather, it is Him being gracious to us.
What He tears us is our self – our worthless self, our fallen human being. However, what God builds into us – as He is tearing our worthless self down – is Himself, the peerless and infinite One.
He tears down our worthless self and builds Himself into us as the peerless, supereminent, and infinite One (1 Cor. 3:12).
God’s purpose in selecting us, predestinating us, and calling us is to transform us – sinners, enemies of God, fallen human beings – into royal sons of God who bear God’s image to express Him and exercise God’s dominion to represent Him (Gen. 1:26).
It may seem that, like Jacob in the Old Testament, our human life is filled with struggling and suffering; it may seem that we don’t really gain that much on this earth but rather, things happen to us to strip us of things and even to break us.
According to Rom. 8:28-29, God is working behind the scenes – He is sovereignly arranging every circumstance, situation, and person in our life, causing them to work together for our good so that we may be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ.
All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
This involves the breaking of the outer man, that is, dealing with our natural disposition.
The Lord is sovereign to arrange many things, situations, and persons around us to break our outer man, and He is also working within us to build Himself into us.
As the outer man is decaying, being broken, the inner man is being renewed day by day, and we are being conformed to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God (2 Cor. 4:16).
On one hand, we experience the discipline of the Holy Spirit through our environment and the persons around us; on the other hand, we are inwardly renewed and transformed, and we will be conformed to the image of Christ.
As we are passing through God’s breaking, we are being filled with the element of God.
We should not lose heart as we see that the outer man is decaying; we should not be disappointed when we realize that our natural disposition cannot improve but rather, it needs to be broken and torn down.
We should simply turn to the Lord, love Him, and open to Him, little by little, as wide as we can; He will have a way to do a secret, hidden, and deep work in us to reconstitute us with Himself.
He is taking us through the lifelong process of transformation so that He may increase in us as our natural element decreases, and He is causing us to grow unto maturity until we bless others with the Triune God.
On one hand, we are being transformed and conformed to the image of Christ; for this, all things work together for good, and God is taking us through the metabolic process of transformation until we are reconstituted with Christ Himself.
On the other hand, we grow in life unto maturity, and His divine life flows us until we overflow with life to others; the overflow of God through us as we reach maturity in life is blessing.
The blessing God blesses us by breaking our worthless self and building Himself into us, and He makes us a blessing to others.
When we reach maturity in life, we will bless others by bringing them into the presence of God to bring God into them as grace, love, and fellowship, so that they may enjoy the Triune God (Gen. 48:18-19; Num. 6:23-27; 2 Cor. 13:14).
Amen, what a glorious destiny we have!
Lord Jesus, we open to You and we give You access to our inner being. May all things, situations, persons, and circumstances work together for good so that we may be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ. Amen, Lord, have a way in us. Have Your way to tear down our worthless self and to build Yourself into us! You are the peerless, supereminent, and infinite One: we open to be infused with You! May we remain in the process of transformation and conformation to the image of Christ day by day! May we not lose heart as our outer man is decaying, firmly believing and knowing that our inner man is being renewed. Amen, Lord, grow in us and fill us with the divine life until we reach maturity and overflow with blessing toward others! Make us those who bless others by bringing them into the presence of God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1953, vol. 3, “The Experience of Life,” chs. 11-12, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Vital Factors for the Lord’s Recovery of the Church Life (2021 ITERO), week 6, The Factor of Dealing with our Natural Disposition for our Growth in Life and our Usefulness in Service.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Oh, how the Lord our self must break, / Our outward man does so impede! / It must be broken thoroughly, / And thus the Spirit will be freed. / This is the reason why the Lord / For us a certain measure makes / Of circumstantial suffering; / ’Tis thus our outward man He breaks. (Hymns #749)
– God’s purpose in dealing with those who love Him / is that they may gain Him to the fullest extent, / surpassing the loss of all that they have other than Him, / surpassing the loss of all that they have other than Him, / so that He might be expressed through them / for the fulfillment of His purpose in creating man. (Song on, God’s Purpose in Dealings)
– Minding just the spirit, we the cross will know, / And His resurrection pow’r thru us will flow; / Minding just the spirit, Christ will live thru me, / And His life within will reach maturity. / In the spirit Christ is life and all to me, / Strengthening and blessing all-inclusively; / Living in the spirit, holiness I prove, / And the triune God within my heart doth move. (Hymns #593)
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