When everything around us is peaceful, we may be like Mary, who sat calmly at the Lord’s feet and listened to His words. But as soon as we hear that our children are sick, we panic and cannot be quiet even for two minutes to ask the Lord where we should take our children. If a man who is full of emotion has been broken in God’s hands, he can remain calm and unhurried even when he hears that his child is sick. This does not mean that he is calm because of his own efforts but that his faculty of panicking, in other words, his emotion, has been broken. This can be compared to an electric bulb that cannot shine even when the electricity is switched on, because it has a broken filament. When our emotional “filament” has been broken by God, we will surely remain unhurried inwardly no matter what news we hear. If we hear about a matter that concerns us and are able to react to it as if we were bystanders, this is a proof that the emotional “filament” within us has been broken. This is not something we can imitate outwardly; we will respond in this way only when the unsteady “filament” in us has been broken. Every part of our soul needs to be gradually broken and shattered by God.
There was a brother who complained that he had no way to pray because of the noise related to living with four other brothers. When we asked him how he could pray, he said that it was best when he was alone in a quiet room. When we are alone in our room, our mind often wanders. We all have this experience. When we were really alone in our room, our mind often wanders to New York, Washington, London, Shanghai, and Tokyo. In less than half an hour we can travel around the whole world. Hence, we should not complain about the environment or blame others for disturbing us. All of the real distractions are within us. If the “filament” of these distractions was broken, we would be able to pray even if there were people quarreling around us.
Some have truly learned the lesson in these matters. There was a brother who was led by the Lord to cast out many demons. While the experience of casting out demons is not very deep, the lesson that this brother learned before the Lord was deep. On one occasion, a woman was possessed by a demon, and her husband asked the brother to come and cast the demon out. He came with another brother, and they knelt down together to pray. While they were praying, the woman possessed by the demon took a pair of scissors and started to make a noise with the handles. However, the brother continued to pray. The demon-possessed woman then walked toward the brother, holding the scissors in her hand. This brother, however, was not disturbed and continued to pray without being affected. The demon-possessed woman, however, continued to make noise with the scissors as she walked back and forth beside the brother. The situation was truly frightening.
At a certain point the brother had a sense from the Holy Spirit within him. He immediately stopped praying and said, “Lord, in Your name I command this demon to stop and be still.” The woman stopped and put down the scissors. The brother then stood up with the other brother and said, “In the name of Jesus the Nazarene, I command you to leave her body.” Then the demon came out. The noise and disturbance at the scene were truly extreme, but this brother was able to continue to pray and be restful before the Lord. This shows that his emotion, which otherwise would have been affected, and his mind, which otherwise would have been susceptible to fluctuations, had been dealt with to a considerable extent.
If we desire to learn the lesson of the cross properly, we must learn to continually put our mind, emotion, and will to death in every matter in our daily living. If we are easily moved in our emotion to like someone or can easily be stumbled by others and have a negative feeling toward them, we will find it very difficult to turn back to our spirit when we try to pray. We must all learn the lesson of not letting the death of the cross become a doctrine but rather of letting it be executed in every part of our being. We must be clear that if we freely do things according to our mind, emotion, and will, it will be impossible to turn our being when it is time to pray. We can turn back to our inner man only when we allow the Holy Spirit the opportunity to continually deal with us through the cross in our everyday situations.
Our being needs to be conformed to Christ’s death until our mind, emotion, and will have the seal of death. This means that even though our mind, emotion, and will still exist, they have been broken. When situations arise, we can be unmoved in our mind, emotion, and will, and none of these inner parts will function in themselves because they have been broken by God. At such a time, we will be able to turn to our inner man because the outer man has been broken. This is not a doctrine but a very serious lesson.
As we are learning the lesson of being in the death of the cross, our outer man is decaying and being broken day by day, and our inner man is be renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). Our soul is being broken, but our spirit is being built up: this is the way of fellowshipping with the Lord. Every day we need to designate a certain time to pray to the Lord and have personal fellowship with Him. Even when the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He often went up to the mountain alone to pray (Matt. 14:23; Luke 6:12). However, the basic point is that our mind, emotion, and will must be dealt with by the cross in normal situations so that when we fellowship with the Lord in prayer, we will not be distracted by the things of our outer man.
Many people encounter problems when they pray, that is, their mind wanders and daydreams a great deal. There is nothing that can help us with this apart from allowing the cross to deal with our mind in our daily situations. If our mind has been dealt with, it will spontaneously focus and listen to us when we pray. Dealing with any problem hinges on Christ and His crucifixion. This is not a matter of doctrine; it is a matter of the cross in the Holy Spirit becoming a reality in our daily experience to deal with our natural man. This is the only way for Christ to have the ground in us and for us to touch spiritual reality. May the Lord have mercy on us so that we will learn the lesson of the cross and be kept in the way of fellowship with the Lord and of prayer.