To have the Outflow of Life and to Minister Life, our Outer Man must be Broken

In order for us as believers in Christ to have the outflow of life, that is, for life to be released from our spirit, our outer man must be dealt with and broken.

We are members of the Body of Christ, and just as the members of our human body all function in their measure, so we need to function in our measure organically.

Our service in the church life is not merely a matter of getting things done in the proper way but a matter of ministering life.

Our concept regarding serving the Lord and serving in the church life needs to be changed.

Our God is a wise God, and He does all things according to His economy.

However, the main thing God does in His economy is to dispense Himself as life into all the believers in Christ so that He may grow in them, transform them, and glorify them with this life and in this life.

Life is all we need. For life to be released, however, we need to exercise our spirit, for the divine life dwells, moves, and grows in our mingled spirit.

The reality of the church life and the reality of our service in the church life is in the mingled spirit.

If we do not exercise our spirit, we are not in the church life in an intrinsic way.

On one hand, we have our individual experiences of Christ in a personal, intimate, and private way, for we and the Lord have a love relationship that we develop and go through.

On the other hand, however, we live as members of the Body of Christ, and as members, we have a function in the Body: we need to minister life to the other members of the Body.

Day by day we need to enjoy more of Christ and minister more of Christ.

Day by day we need to stay in the cycle of becoming the reproduction of Christ as the tree of life for the ministry of life.

We shouldn’t simply stay at home and wait for the Lord to rapture us, nor should we think that we don’t need anyone’s portion.

Rather, as we meet with the saints, as we gather together for our small group meetings, vital group meetings, prayer meetings, home meetings, students meetings, young people’s meetings, Lord’s table meetings, and any kind of meeting, we should function to minister life to others.

May we have the surplus of life so that there may be an outflow of life for the ministry of life to others.

May we remember that even our service in the church life, though it may be in many practical ways, needs to be with the focus of imparting life to the saints for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

To Minister Life is to have the Outflow of Life, for our Service is God’s Flowing out to Supply others with the Divine Life

The Lord’s greatest service to us was not only His death on the cross; it was His impartation of life (John 19:34).

If He only died on the cross without imparting His life into us, we would have appreciated Him and loved Him, but we couldn’t experience what He is.

Our greatest service to others is not merely to sacrifice ourselves and visit them, shepherd them, or do things with and for them; it is to minister life to them.

To minister life is to have the outflow of life.

There must be an inflow of life, an infilling of life, so that there may be an outflow of life.

May we come to the Lord, again and again, to drink of Him as the living water, and may we seek to be filled with Him in spirit (John 7:37-39).

He is the living water for us to drink, the living bread for us to partake, and the living air for us to breathe.

Hallelujah, we can eat the Lord, drink the Lord, and breathe Him in for our life and life supply!

Our service is God’s flowing out to others to supply others with the divine life.

Life is the content of God and the flowing out of God; God’s content is His being, and God’s flowing out is the impartation of Himself as life to us (Eph. 4:18; Rev. 22:1).

From eternity to eternity, our God is flowing out. He flowed throughout the ages, and He flowed Himself into a man we call Christ Jesus.

Then, through this Man who became a life-giving Spirit, He continues to flow into man in many ages and through many stages.

God is flowing Himself into all those who believe into Him, and He flows the contents of His being into those who open to Him.

May we learn to open to the Lord day by day to be filled with Him.

May we simply have an open vessel toward Him, dealing with any hindrance or obstacle to His flow, so that He may have a free way to flow into our mind, emotion, and will.

When our heart is wholly free and wholly filled with the Lord, life can flow not only in us but also out of us.

There is a desperate need in every aspect of the church life for the outflow of life, the flowing of the divine life in and out of the saints.

We all need to learn to cooperate with the Lord to flow Him out for others to receive life and life supply.

When we come together with the saints, we should not be silent; rather, we should exercise our spirit even before the meeting, be filled with the Lord, and allow Him to flow out of us to others.

It is a serious matter for us to be quiet and not function to minister life in meeting after meeting.

Our God is a mighty flowing out God, and He flows within us. We need to simply allow Him to flow out of us.

He is imparting Himself into our being through our personal time with Him, and He intends to flow out the riches of His being through us.

In the meetings with the saints, we not only worship God but also bring forth the riches of Christ to have an outflow of life.

When there’s a genuine outflow of life, when life can freely flow, the church as the Body of Christ can be built up in life.

May we no longer limit the Lord but allow Him to spread in our inner being, saturate us with all that He is, and flow out of us into others to supply life to them.

Lord Jesus, we open to You: fill us with Yourself. We open our entire being to You to have the inflow of life. Amen, Lord, may there be a rich inflow of the divine life so that we may be constituted with the riches of Your being. Impart what You are into us. May the riches of Your being be constituted into our being so that we may be filled with You. Amen, Lord, fill us with Yourself! Grant us to have the outflow of life in the church life. May our service to God be God’s flowing out through us and into others to supply them with the divine life! Amen, Lord, flow through us! Flow as life into others for their supply!

In order for Life to be released from our Spirit, our Outer Man must be Dealt with and Broken

The divine life is in the center of our being, in the innermost part of our inner being; the divine life is in our mingled spirit.

However, our spirit is encased in our soul; our spirit is enveloped and surrounded very tightly by our soul and also by our body.

How can the divine life flow from our spirit to minister life to others? How can we have an outflow of life?

In order for life to be released from our spirit, our outer man must be dealt with and broken (2 Cor. 4:16; Heb. 4:12).

When death operates in us to break the outer man, the inner man can be released and life can flow.

Paul speaks about this in 2 Cor. 4:12, when he said that death operated in him but life in the saints.

If we allow the Lord to operate in us by means of the cross to put our outer man to death and break it, life can flow freely and others can be richly supplied.

In order for there to be a pure flow of the life of God, we must be broken.

As Gal. 2:20 says, we are crucified with Christ and it is no longer us who live; this is being broken, being crucified with Christ.

Then, what happens is that it is Christ who lives in us, and we live by faith, which means that the divine life has a free way to flow through us.

As death operates in us, life can freely flow through us.

What does it mean for our outer man to be broken? Our outer man is what reacts or firstly does something when something happens.

Many of the brothers are very much in their mind, so when they hear about something, they rationalize it and try to understand it.

Many sisters may be in their emotions, so when they hear any sad news or good news, their emotions run wild.

Some other saints are strong in their will, and nothing can determine them to change their mind when they made a certain decision.

When we say that our soul needs to be dealt with and broken, we don’t mean that our mind, emotion, and will need to be broken.

Rather, it means that the Lord in our spirit needs to spread into our mind, emotion, and will to the extent that the spirit is the one who governs and controls our inner being.

Instead of us reacting to things or doing things in our mind, emotion, and will, we exercise our spirit and the spirit takes the lead to be expressed through our renewed mind, balanced emotion, and subdued will.

If our outer man is not broken, there cannot be a pure flow of the divine life (John 7:38).

If we want the divine life to be released from within us, if we want for there to be an outflow of life, we must be subdued in our soul and let our spirit dominate and rule over every matter (Eph. 3:16-17).

Then, the Lord’s life will be able to flow out. Such breaking needs to happen in each one of us.

The Lord has come into our spirit to be life, but He wants to freely flow through our mind, emotion, and will so that He may minister life to others.

So He is working to make His home in our heart and flow out through the functions of our soul.

He arranges things in our environment that cooperate with His breaking work within us; if we cooperate with Him and allow Him to break our outer man, there’s an outflow of life for the ministry of life.

It is a sad thing, however, to be in the church life for many decades and not allow the Lord to touch us.

It is such a terrible thing to have someone in his or her late 60s and not be broken; in such ones, there’s no outflow of life.

Our vessel must be broken through so that the treasure within us may be displayed.

Our outer man needs to be dealt with and broken so that the Lord can have a free way to flow through us.

Our outer man impedes the flow of life; it must be broken thoroughly, so that the Spirit within us may be freed.

So the Lord allows a certain measure of circumstantial suffering so that the outer man may be consumed and the inner man may be renewed.

The inner man is being renewed day by day, but the outer man needs to be decreased and consumed.

May we appreciate the breaking and never complain, and may we have a pure outflow of life!

It is not a loss when we are dealt with; when we are broken, we should not consider it a negative thing.

May the Lord have a way to break through in us so that our outer man may be broken and our inner man may be renewed, for the release of the Spirit through us for the building up of the church.

Lord Jesus, we want to have the outflow of life. We open to You, dear Lord, and we allow You to work Yourself into us and to deal with anything that hinders the flow of life. Give us the experiences we need to have our outer man broken and dealt with. May there be a pure flow of life from our spirit. Oh Lord, may You operate in us and may we allow You to subdue our soul. Amen, Lord, we do not lose heart, though our outer man is decaying, for our inner man is being renewed day by day! Hallelujah, we are daily being delivered from the outer man and our spirit becomes the leading part of our being. Amen, Lord, make us willing to receive the breaking and never complain. May our spirit flow, oh, may it flow!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1954, vol. 3, “The Service for Building up the House of God,” pp. 95-97, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life (2022 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 6, entitled, Becoming a reproduction of Christ as the Tree of Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – He’s like a treasure of great worth / Contained in vessels earthen-made; / The vessel must be broken through / And thus the treasure be displayed. / 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. (Hymns #749)
  – Oh, may my spirit flow, / Oh, may it flow! / I ask Thee, gracious Lord, / Oh, may it flow! / My trust in self o’erthrow, / Down from self’s throne I’ll go, / That living water flow / In spirit, Lord. (Hymns #846)
  – Christ our content and reality / To shine out from us unceasingly: / He must have a way in you and me, / He must have a way. / Hallelujah! In the body we / Bear the death of Christ continually: / Thus His life comes forth for all to see as / The outer man is broken down, / The inner man is shining so that— / In these earthen vessels men can see / There’s the treasure of reality! / Thus the gospel’s glorious light will be / Shining out from us. (Hymns #1178)