Everyone who is led by God must experience the Lord’s breaking work in him continuously. Problems will occur in our homes, in our careers, in our service in the church life, or even in our work for the Lord so that God can build more of Himself into us. Hence, we should not have the mistaken concept that by fearing God and living before Him, we will have a smooth way in everything we do and obtain people’s praise, glory, and respect. The one who respects us today may deride and trample us under his feet tomorrow. When someone admires us, we should put his admiration under our feet, because he may admire us for half a year or a year, but he may also look down on us and slander us one day.
God will not allow someone in His hand to be the object of constant attention and flattery like a pretty flower in a vase. Sooner or later, God will destroy the vase and remove our beauty so that people will look down on us. We should not think that all the saints will admire and respect us because we have been sent by God, called by God, and entrusted with His work. This is not the case. One day all the brothers and sisters may reject and despise us. Even though they may not oppose us or say anything against us outwardly, they will despise and criticize us inwardly.
The leading brothers in the churches have all drunk from this cup of suffering. Please remember that the ultimate benefit that the Lord of resurrection wants us to gain comes from the judgment and criticism of men. Those who have been instructed, taught, helped, and supplied by us for many years eventually may reward us with nothing but judgment and criticism. This is the way of one who serves the Lord; no other way is better or higher than this.
Those who agree with us and admire us today may be those who fiercely persecute us in the future. God will never allow any of His servants to be praised or exalted by man. Sooner or later, God will tear down what is praiseworthy in us and cause us to be base and reproachable in man’s eyes. This is God’s breaking. The genuine work of God’s hand is to break us. The anointing and the discipline of the Holy Spirit are good works of God, but the harshest work of God is the breaking. May the Lord have mercy on us, and may we, who are learning to serve Him, hear this word so that we will not be shaken when we encounter these things in the future. Instead, may we know God’s breaking work deep within.
Moreover, we must bear in mind that when we encounter God’s breaking, we should not respond magnanimously. When we encounter God’s breaking and it is difficult to accept, we should accept it rather than bear it. What does this mean? Chinese philosophers teach people to be magnanimous. However, magnanimity is incompatible with the teaching in the Bible. The teaching in the Bible requires that we be broken. To be magnanimous means that we have the ability to swallow difficulties. However, the more we swallow difficulties, the more we are full of the self without any of God’s element. This is not the teaching in the Bible. The teaching in the Bible requires that we be broken and torn down so that God may enter into us.
Suppose the Lord allows a certain brother who is serving the Lord in the church to be opposed by another brother. At such a time, he should not take the Chinese way of being magnanimous, which means that he should try to enlarge his capacity and deepen his sense of tolerance. Instead, the Bible says that our outer man needs to be consumed and that our inner man needs to be renewed. The opposition of a brother comes from God’s breaking hand. Therefore, we need to ask God to shine on us and show us what He wants to break in us. This is not a matter of being magnanimous and forbearing; this is a matter of being broken. The greater our magnanimity, the stronger our self will be. The most magnanimous person has the strongest self.
The way of a Christian is not the way of being magnanimous but the way of being full of wounds and scars. Someone may say, “No matter how people treat me, I do not care. I can take it.” This person may be magnanimous, but he is full of the self. Although he has a large capacity, there is no wound or opening in him, so life cannot flow out from within him. When a person who is according to the principle of magnanimity encounters circumstances, he will pray, “O Lord, enlarge my capacity.” This is not the truth or teaching of the Bible. The Bible teaches that we need to be consumed, not enlarged. Our outer man needs to be consumed day by day instead of being enlarged. God causes us to be cast down in order to consume us. All the problems in our daily living are for consuming us. This is why Paul said, “Though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).
To be magnanimous is not the teaching in the Bible; to be consumed is the teaching in the Bible. Hence, we must remember that every time we encounter a difficult situation, we should not take the way of being magnanimous but the way of being broken. Our wife may trouble us, but we should not respond with magnanimity or tolerance, because this is not the way of a Christian. The way of a Christian is to prostrate ourselves before God when our wife troubles us and to ask, “O God, what needs to be broken in me?” We should have the light and the teaching of the anointing within; we need revelation within to see the area that God wants to break in us. We need to receive God’s “axes” and “knives,” that is, the troubles from our wife in the areas that God wants to break us. Sometimes even a wife is not enough; we may also need six children and even the saints in the church.
We should prostrate ourselves before God and receive God’s dealings. We should learn to be in the light to receive God’s breaking. We should never pursue magnanimity, which is just a tool to cultivate, build up, and enlarge our self. Rather, we should learn to prostrate ourselves in God’s light and receive his breaking and tearing down without trying to cover ourselves. When everyone praises a forbearing brother whose wife quarrels with him all day, we should not follow them to praise him. We should realize that his magnanimity is only preserving, enlarging, and building him up. We should not try to be magnanimous and forbearing; rather, we should learn to prostrate ourselves in God’s light, receive His breaking, and allow the environment to break us and tear us down.