Broken and Contrite Spirit Part 1 of 3

[RhondaR]

A Broken and a Contrite Heart

by Peter Newman



We are seekers after the truth. Many of us have been through many trials
and tribulations and up many spiritual cul-de-sacs because we are seekers of
the truth.


We are looking for the city whose builder and maker is God.


I feel that the word that God is trying to bring to us is the same word that
Nathan brought to David, when he said, "Thou art the man." [2 Samuel 12:7]


In our understanding, weaknesses, and carnality, we are always looking
somewhere else. We blame some other person, some other thing, some
other concept, or some other truth, but when God sends His word, He
sends it to the man whom He wants to hear it.


God is sending us a word because he wants us to hear that word.



When God says, ‘Thou art the man,’ He is saying, ‘You are all guilty.’ We are
all guilty of measuring according to our own understanding.


That is why His Word says, "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean
not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he
shall direct thy paths" [Proverbs 3:6-7]



We must NOT lean on "our own" understanding. It lets us down every time.
It makes a fool of us and it puts us out of the Spirit of God.



Psalm 51:17, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit…" God wants to break
our spirit. He wants to BREAK the spirit that is enabling us to come to our conclusions, our measuring, and our understanding.


"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise."


That tells us that God does despise some hearts, but He says that a broken
and contrite heart He will not despise.


I want to talk about a broken heart, but before I do, let me tell you why
we need one.


There are many books on the market that will tell you how to reach
holiness and how many steps to take to get there. There are many
concepts, precepts, and lines about holiness and righteousness which
we are called to.


We are called to be holy people. We are a holy people in the eyes of
God. He does not see us in darkness. He will not look at us in our carnality.
He will not look at us with our hypocrisy. He will only look at us in holiness.


I had a problem with holiness. It has always been a difficult subject with
me because I never really quite understood what it meant. I did not
know how to get holy. I had been up the mountain. I had fasted for forty
days. I had starved myself half to death and I didn’t find holiness, I found frustration.


I followed all of the big preachers. I read every book and every idea
on holiness and at the same time I still saw that sin that was not supposed
to have dominion over me, still had dominion over me.

It contradicted the very scriptures that I had read. It contradicted some
of the scriptures that I had preached from.



My life was an unholy life because I was full of sin.


I began to contemplate this and said to God, ‘What about holiness, God?
We are called to be holy. You have called us your people, a holy nation,
a royal priesthood. That is what you have called us and we are a mess.
By the word that we hear, we know that we are a mess.


You keep telling us that we are a mess. You keep telling us that we
don’t measure up to holiness. What is holiness? Don’t frustrate me anymore,
Lord, tell me what holiness is!’


Of course, God knows exactly what holiness is. He said, ‘I am holy.’
Then He said, ‘Be ye holy.’


I said, ‘No, I have tried it. I have measured everything up as to what
I think holiness should be and to what I feel holiness is and I am still
not holy.’


I have flashes of holiness when I feel like I can soar up to the heavens,
but it only lasts for a while.


What God told me He may not tell you, but He said, ‘I am holy. Be ye holy.
If you draw nigh to me, I will draw nigh to you. Except two walk together
they cannot be agreed.’

He spoke all these wonderful scriptures and I said, ‘Oh, thank you God!
Now I have got it! I have to get near to You!’


Now the problem is, how do I really walk with God?


We have a clue here when it says,


"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit…" It is a broken spirit that He
wants. I cannot break my own spirit. I have to have somebody else to
break this spirit. The thing that God uses to break your spirit is the
Word of God.


"Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that
breaketh the rock in pieces?" [Jeremiah 23:29]



The Word of God is like a hammer. It will smash you to pieces. It will
contradict everything that you believe and everything that you have
to do or say. When God finishes with the Word, you will be as one
dumb before Him, with nothing to say.



Isaiah 57:15, "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth
eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with
him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of
the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."



There is hope for us! It is the plan of God to revive the contrite spirit!


We are anticipating right from this moment on, that God is going to
do something to the contrite heart. He is working with the heart that,
up to now, he may have had to despise because it was not contrite or
willing to bow the knee to the Holy One of Israel. We have hope that
He will revive the spirit of the humble and the heart of the contrite ones.



Isaiah 66:1-2, "Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the
earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and
where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made,
and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I
 look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth
at my word."


Zechariah 7:9-11, "Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying,

Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every
man to his brother: and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless,
the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against
his brother in your heart.


But they refused to hearken…" This was the word of the Lord to
His children to have mercy and compassion on their brethren. God
is interested in what you are saying to your brother. God is not
interested in what you say with your mouth.



He said, "Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near
me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have
removed their heart far from me…"[Isaiah 29:13]


God is a God of the heart. He is the God of the inward man. He is not
impressed with what we say, but when we have compassion and mercy.



In John 17:21 Jesus prayed, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee,"


Praise God, that day is coming. We are on the edge of it.


Unless you allow God to break your heart, you will go out of these meetings
the same way that you came in and God is going to despise you!


‘Enough is enough,’ saith the Lord! The time of playing third feast is over.



Many hear the word of the Lord, but they do not listen to it because
they hear it for somebody else.



The word of God is there to break our hearts. This word came through
Zechariah the prophet, but these were stubborn and rebellious people
who would not have their hearts broken by God’s word. They would
not submit themselves to the Word of God.


That is a heart that is not broken. That is one who will not bow the
knee to the word of God that comes into their heart. A heart that is
not broken is a heart that is full of deceit and vain imaginations.



Genesis 6:5, "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in
the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually."


That is what an unbroken heart is. It is full of vain imagination and it
is continually evil.


You may get aroused and come under some kind of conviction and
understanding in gatherings like this, but when you go out, because
you have not submitted your heart to the word of God and allowed
it to smash your concepts, precepts, and vain imaginations, they will
creep back in like a cancer.


How many times have we seen people come down to the alter,
very sincerely crying to God with tears coming from their eyes,
and they have their emotions touched by the Spirit of God but
never their hearts.


Romans 1:18-20, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the
truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of
God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.


For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even
his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."


We are a people without excuse. Even if this is the first time you’ve
heard the word, now you are without excuse.


You may be wondering about this one and that one. Your imaginations
can take the word of God away from you.


Let there be an intensity and a discipline in these gatherings when we
hear the Word of God because it is the only thing that will smash your
heart.


It will not be the preacher. It will not be his delivery of the word
that will touch your hearts. It will be the Word of God, sent from
the throne of God, by the ministry that God has called.

[RhondaR]

Romans 1:21, "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not
as God, neither were thankful…"


It does not say that it was when they did not know God, or when they
were in sin, or when they were in the kingdom of darkness.

These people knew God. We are a people who know God. We are
known of God. We testify to everybody that we know God. These
people knew God.

We are these people, "[Who] became vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish heart was darkened."


They became vain in their imaginations. We have these imaginations
of who we are going to be and what we are going to be, but have
not put ourselves under the Word of God. It is a hammer and a
sword that would divide and separate the clean from the unclean.


We are at risk. We are sitting on the edge.


We are making another trip into the valley of decision. Thank God
that His mercy has enabled us to make many trips into the valley of
decision. We thank the Lord for the many mercies He has shown us,
but we know that the time is short.


In fact, I believe it has run out. We have to ask God to break our
hearts now.


Psalm 41:5, "Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die,
and his name perish?" Have you spoken evil of God’s children lately?
Have you written them off? What you are to God is what you are
to His people.


You cannot say that you love God if you do not love His people.


You cannot pontificate about God if you do not have the compassion
and the capacity to have mercy, grace, patience, and long suffering
with His people. The people who are like that have never had their
hearts broken by God.


Psalm 41: 6-7, "And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity:
his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he
telleth it. All that hate me whisper together against me: against
me do they devise my hurt."


This is an unbroken heart operating in the sphere of religiosity,
pontificating and spouting out the doctrines, precepts, and lines.

If their heart is not broken, God is not impressed. If God is not impressed,
it is all in vain. It is vain repetition, hearsay, rumors, and slander if the
heart has not been broken.



The heart is full of vanity. It can even be spiritual vanity.


One of them is, for some of us, how long we have been with God.


It is a stink in God’s nostril when we claim a length of service to God,
as if we are entitled to a ribbon. It is vanity when we talk about the
trials and tribulations that God has allowed us to go through.


It is all vanity.


It is a heart that has not been broken, feeding on his or her
own experiences.



If anybody has been guilty of that it has been me.


I have been privileged to have had so many spiritual experiences that
I am ashamed.


I have had so many spiritual experiences, but they do not mean a thing
because it was only for that day and for that time.


The apostle Paul said that he saw all these wonderful things that
could not be uttered. Sometimes we have seen things and we couldn’t
be quick enough to utter them!


We want the world to know what we have seen in the Spirit.


It is all vanity.


Experiences, visions, and revelations turn into vanity
"when we rest our relationship in God"     on those experiences.


Psalm 12:1, "Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful
fail from among the children of men.


" It says that in the last days there will be a great falling away and the l
ove of many will wax cold.


We will not be surprised if the congregations get smaller. I would be
amazed if they didn’t. We are not looking for the numbers. God is
not looking for the numbers. He is looking for the remnant.


He is calling a people from out of a people. We are getting smaller
and smaller as the days go by. My prayer is, ‘Oh, God, keep me in
the hollow of your hand, and as the apple of your eye. Don’t let
me be taken out!’


I have discovered something since coming this way. I have
discovered that my boundaries have been drawn in. The realm
of what I could do and couldn’t do is diminishing to the point of
where I can go and where I can’t go.


I do not have a miserable life, I have a very happy life.


I do not find anything miserable about serving God. I do not find it
miserable when God tightens my borders up. I feel more secure. I feel
more that God loves me and is putting His trust in me to obey His voice,
and to obey His word.


My prayer is that God would tighten our borders, especially in the
realm of the tongue.



That little member of our body that continually uses vanity to speak
vanity about our experiences, our knowledge, our understanding, and
our length of service in ‘The Move’ with God.


God wants to break everything. He wants to break OUR membership.
He wants to loose us from OUR understanding and OUR ways.


 A heart that is not broken cannot fulfil the plan of God.


God will despise a heart that is not broken. We need to
understand this.


Psalm 101:1-4, "I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee,
O LORD, will I sing. I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.
O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house
with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes:
I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.
A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person."



We see what happens to a broken heart.


We are beginning to see what is not relevant and what is no longer
permissible. "I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way… I will walk
within my house…


" It is so easy to walk in the congregation. It is so easy to walk
around the campground with that religious garment wrapped
around us.


It is in the house, the physical house and the spiritual house,
that God is looking at and watching.


He is looking for that broken heart that He will not despise.


Jeremiah 17:1, "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and
with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart,
and upon the horns of your altars."


What an indictment!


The sin of Judah is impressed, pointed, heavy, and it is written on
the table of their heart. We see that God had already poured this
sin in your heart. He put it there because that is what He wants to
break. It is not the sin that is in your minds, or in your emotions that
He is dealing with right now, it is the one that is in your heart that
God wants to break.


Jeremiah 17:5, "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that
trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth
from the LORD.


" God has had such mercy on us. How often would we have
come under this category. Even today we may come under this
very word of God and He would say; "Cursed be the man that trusteth
in man, and maketh flesh his arm."


The record shows that people drift.


I remember in the 1960’s attending prayer meetings all night,
every night for eighteen months. People would come off their
shift and come straight to prayer meeting. I remember the prayers,
the tears, the confessions, and the putting things right, night
after night.


Some people told me that they would see the house shaking.


There were people laying out on the floor and on the stairways
crying out to God. Some couldn’t get up because they were pinned
by their sins. God was breaking, breaking, breaking. He was coming
for the prayers that we had prayed, ‘Break me, oh God! Make me,
mold me!’ He was breaking our hearts.


Today I can go into that city and cannot find five people whose
heart is still with the Lord.



When I talk to some of them, it is like it never happened. It is a puzzle
to me. I had seen them come straight from their night shift with a
glow on their face, and they couldn’t get in the house quick enough
to pray, but when I talk to them now, they say, ‘Oh, that,’ as if
nothing happened.


"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
" [1 Corinthians 10:12]


Jeremiah 17:9,10 says: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart,
I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways,
and according to the fruit of his doings."


Isn’t it wonderful that God tells us that our heart is deceitful
and desperately wicked.


There is no hope unless the heart is broken by God.

[RhondaR]

If the heart is smashed by God, he does not restore it. He does
not patch it up. He gives you a clean heart!


He brings us to a crisis as He brought David to a crisis. He brought
the word of the Lord to him and He brings the word of the Lord
to us, ‘You are the man!’


God heals the heart that He breaks. He heals the broken hearted.
He does not heal those who have self-pity. He does not heal those
who are caught and want to be sorry, or want to be seen repenting.


I spent years as an evangelist, going every week to churches to
preach and to make an alter call.


People would come down to the alter with tears. My shirt sleeves
would be wet with their tears.

I have gone back to the same place twelve months later and
found nothing.


Their hearts were not broken and neither was mine.


I was elated with my shirts soaking wet with tears, thinking they
were tears of repentance. It was bologna!

It was the other gospel!


We worked on the emotions of people. We used psychology.
We made them feel sorry. We made them feel hopeful. We did
anything just to get them down to a place where we could
see something.


God looks on the inside of man. God looks on the inside of you
and I and He is not fooled one bit.


The evidence of a broken heart is that there is compassion for
the brethren. There is mercy, patience, and long suffering
for them.


Isaiah 6:1, "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the
temple." It will break your heart when you see Him as He really
is, not as the vain imaginations that you have about Him.


It will break your heart when you see His holiness and discover
your own unholiness.


God hones in and shows you the hypocrisy, the vanity, the hardness,
and the deceitfulness of your heart when you see Him.


Then you will die. Your heart will be broken. God will not despise the
heart that is broken by Him. When he saw him up there, he said in
verse three, "Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole
earth is full of his glory."


God is holy. Holy means clean, pure, truthful, honest, and
everything that our deceitful heart is not.


When God broke Isaiah’s heart, Isaiah said, ‘Woe is me, I am as
a man undone.’


He was a prince and he was a prophet, but no matter what
God has called us to, we still need to see Him.


He is holy.


"Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips:
for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
" [Isaiah 6:5]



Psalm 107:20, "He sent his word, and healed them…"


The same word that breaks your heart will heal you. Thank God
that He comes as a healer.



In Luke 4:18 He says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath
sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised.


" He says, ‘That broken and contrite heart I will not despise.
I will not reject it. I will take it and make it into
a clean heart.’


When David found out that he was the man, he said,

"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a
right spirit within me." [Psalm 51:10]



We have sung this so many times, but we have to hear God
saying to us, ‘My son, give me your heart! Give it to me!

I don’t want your offerings. I don’t want your sacrifices. I don’t
want your ministry. I don’t want your service. I want your heart!’


This is the gospel message to us. This is the good news.



We have been called by His name out of the house of Babylon
to have our hearts broken. We couldn’t get them broken in the
house of Babylon. There was no hope for us.


We had to work on emotions and the seeing of our eyes, but God has
called us to a spiritual house.


He says to us, ‘A broken and a contrite heart I will not despise.’



==========

Father God, we bow before you. Break our hearts, oh Lord.

Not in an emotional way, Lord, but take us into the closet and
break us. Break us, God, we pray.

We thank you, Lord, that you have called us to be
 people with broken hearts and contrite spirits.

In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

[Soldier4Christ]

Amen sister.

I am thoroughly enjoying these Bible studies that you have been posting.

Job 23:16  For God maketh my heart soft .......

Psa 41:4  I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.

[nChrist]

Another Amen Sister Rhonda!

These lessons should make all of us know that what we really need is NOT in ourselves, rather in our Precious Lord and Saviour, JESUS CHRIST.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Galatians 2:20 NASB  "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.