Brokenness

"BROKENNESS," by Professor Fomum, is a real classic for walking the Christian life with total abandonment to the Lord.

After the new birth, a man's spirituality is not measured by his capacity to preach great sermons, to cast out demons, or to heal the sick. Such capacities could be the manifestation of spiritual gifts, which are received from God, regardless of who the person is. Such a person may

• be totally unrecognizable at the slightest provocation,
• be selfish and self-centred,
• love sin,
• hide or blame others for his mistakes and failures,
• get worried when faced with the least problem, and act before he has prayed about it,
• etc.

This talks of an unbroken life in which, unfortunately, most believers who truly confess the name of the Lord, find themselves several years after conversion.

The purpose of God in the new creation is to produce people who attain spiritual maturity, by quickly attaining the stature of broken men and women. God does it through the cross, to break and destroy the natural man and, by the work of the Holy Spirit, to build the character of Christ in the believer. Brokenness therefore depends on the degree to which a person has allowed the cross and the Holy Spirit to work in him.

Taking Jacob's life as a basis, the author shows how one can go from the state of the natural man (unconverted) to that of a carnal believer (unbroken), then to that of a spiritual believer (broken); that is, a life in which the believer

• belongs totally to the Lord,
• allows free access to God in the minutest details of his life,
• no longer presents any obstacle to God.

Read this book. It will challenge you and help you to make progress on the pathway of brokenness, to such an extent that you will soon be able to confess with apostle Paul, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."