Holy-Spirit Outpouring Follows Brokenness
Any time God wants to send a fresh wind upon you or do anything significant with you, there will be a season of brokenness that you go through.
Have you ever prayed the prayer? “Lord, please use me for your glory.” “I just want you to use me.” Perhaps you have even said the following: “Jesus, I want to know you better.” Getting to this point in our Christian walk is important because it means that we have now become pliable for the Master’s use. The only thing about praying these types of prayers is that before the Lord can do anything substantial in our lives, He has to break us.
How does God go about breaking us? One way is to break us through trouble that comes in our lives. King David, who wrote 73 Psalms in the Book of Psalms, understood the concept of brokenness and trouble. In Psalm 34, David wrote the following: “The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” (Psalm 34:18 NKJV) David was a brokenhearted man in this Psalm because he had already fled from Saul who was trying to kill him because of jealousy and due to the anointing on David’s life. He also was leaving his good friend Jonathan, the son of Saul, who was practically a brother to him. David wept bitterly. In his desperation to get away from Saul, David fled to King Achish of the Philistines, an enemy of Israel. The men in Achish’s service identified David as the one who had slain his ten thousands (1 Samuel 21:11). In fear of his life, David began to act like he was a crazy man and started to drool. This story is remarkable. David was a man who was anointed to be the next king of Israel. Yet, he was so afraid that he changed his behavior in the presence of the king of the Philistines just to survive. The soon-to-be king of Israel had a promise from the Lord but in his distress he took refuge in the enemy’s fortress. I can just imagine David as an adolescent being anointed by Samuel. He must have been so excited after being chosen by God to be the next king. Now, several years later, he is now having second thoughts about his reign as king coming to pass. Why is David going through all of this? He has already received God’s promise and approval as Israel’s next king. I believe the answer to this question is that David’s heart needed to be prepared to rule.
Through David’s experiences, the Lord was also preparing him to write the wonderful things of the Spirit that he jotted down in the Psalms. Trials, troubles and tests are ways in which God prepares the soil of our hearts for things of the Spirit. Tribulations are a consistent theme throughout the Bible and in the life of the believer today.
How does a believer stay in a perpetual state of humility or brokenness? Sometimes it is easier to be contrite when we are going through trials, troubles or struggling with some area of sin in our lives. Many believers struggle, however, to remain broken before the Lord when they have all the money they need, are in good physical health or if they are in a season of overall prosperity. As I have preached on the subject of the importance of staying broken, I have found people really want to walk in a constant state of humility but just do not know how. The Lord Jesus Christ actually gave insight into this in Matthew’s gospel in the beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3 NKJV) What does it really mean to be poor in spirit? The New Living Translation Bible is helpful in this regard: “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” (Matthew 5:3 NLT) The secret to walking in a lifestyle of brokenness is to maintain a helpless dependence on the Lord.
If we as believers want to experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we must stay in a place of brokenness. The place of brokenness is at the foot of the cross. We must keep our eyes on Jesus. He is the one that has taken our sin and has nailed it to His cross (Colossians 2:14). Though trials, trouble, persecution, suffering and sin in our lives are ways in which the Lord humbles us, we stay broken by constantly beholding the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we stay in the presence of God through prayer and waiting on the Lord, we are acknowledging our need for Him and are able to remain broken and poor in spirit.
