are you in "mid-air" yet?

BROKENNESS.....we don't hear much preaching from the pulpits across our nation about that. "What does that mean?", you may ask......well, let me borrow a definition from a friend's email:

"...learning to live with Christ as life only comes through brokenness. Brokenness is not only an event but a process. It’s an event when we realize that certain events or circumstances is God’s doing to bring us to the end of ourselves. It’s a process when we realize that every disappointment, discouragement, failure, depression is from God. We must get so frustrated with performance based Christianity that we become desperate for only HIM. The real question God is asking us is this: Is Christ and His life in you enough?

Many never get there because they think the secret “is doing more for God”. It never dawns on us that “being firmly planted in mid-air” is the best place we could possibly be. Not until we get out of control can Christ get in control.

When you have knowledge of Christ as life – even though it may not be a full understanding – and you pray a prayer of “Lord I want you to be my life” then that starts a process of brokenness in your life. The more you understand about knowing Christ the more God responds with little brokennesses in our life. God want the life of Christ in us to be manifested throughout every area of our life. Picture a pie sliced into 8 slices. That is a picture of our life. There may be eight areas of our life that is inconsistent with who we are in Christ. So the Lord in his mercy and love sends brokenness in that area of our life until we surrender, let go or confess our inability to handle that area on our own. When brokenness has yielded its fruit in that area then He moves to the next slice and sends a little brokenness. He continues till every slice of inconsistency is abandoned to Him. That’s the reason I said that brokenness is an event and then a process. The brokenness event is usually a dramatic struggle and the brokenness process are little struggles that you surrender.

You see, brokenness is the vehicle that God uses to bring us to the real goal which is abandonment. His ultimate goal for us is total abandonment. Brokenness is not an “Oh no not again” event but rather a “OK Lord show me where I am not surrendered” .

Madam Guyon writes about brokenness and abandonment:

Become abandoned by simply resigning yourself to what the Lord wants, in all things, no matter what they are, where they come from, or how they affect your life. Remember you must never blame man for anything. No matter what happens, it was neither man nor circumstances that brought it. You must accept everything (except of course your own sinfulness) as having come from the Lord. Surrender not only what the Lord does to you, but surrender your reaction to what he does.”

An illustration I heard long ago went something like this:

Picture yourself as an ancient piece of pottery....a vase, if you will. God puts the light (a candle) of Jesus inside but as a lamp, it is very dim. It's not until the vase is broken that the light begins to shine for the world to see.

Are you in mid-air yet?