“Towards themselves, a Christian should have a broken spirit, but towards God, it should be one of rejoicing always in Him. They rejoice not for its own sake nor because of any joyful experience, work, blessing or circumstance, but exclusively because God is his center.” ~ Watchman Nee
Embedded deep inside every human being is the dark spirit of individualism. Because of this dark spirit, we live on self-propulsion, attempting to get all that we can from the world. This approach to life leads to soul-sickness, and at the root of our spiritual sickness is extreme self-centeredness. The result is we experience a tremendous amount of pain and suffering, impacting our circumstances and everyone around us. The dark spirit separates us from God and each other. If we are fortunate, before we burn our lives entirely into the ground, we come to the end of ourselves and experience a broken spirit.
God desires a broken spirit because we won’t fully surrender our will and lives over to the care, custody, and control of God until the dark spirit within us breaks. Because of free will, we get to choose how we will live our lives. The dark spirit we are born with is highly attracted and influenced by the dark world we live in at the moment. The Prince of Darkness utilizes the agency of sin deep inside us to tempt and accuse us as we stumble through life.
Once our spirit breaks, God can evict the old self and replace it with the Holy Spirit. This spiritual formula is how we experience rebirth and become a new creation.
- Have you come to the end of yourself?
- Are you ready for a new life?
- God could and would if you honestly seek Him.
God of truth and Spirit, I am ready for the dark spirit deep inside me to be eradicated. Please accept me as I am, forgive me for my self-centered ways, and heal my soul-sickness. I know you desire a broken spirit to surrender my life over to you entirely. I boldly pray for a broken spirit and complete surrender. In Your Spirit and Name, I pray these things. May Your will not mine always materialize, now and forever. Amen.
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