A Crushed Spirit

A Crushed Spirit

The Lord will dwell with him who has a contrite [crushed] spirit; him will the Lord revive. Ps. 34:18, 51:19; Isa. 57:15, 66:2.

The fact that the spirit is crushed indicates that there is no resistance in our spirit against God. There is always resistance in our flesh.

“All that a man has he will give for his life.” Job 2:4. This is what Satan said, but in this instance he spoke the truth. Jesus says that he who will lose his life will find it. This encounters such powerful resistance in man because he loves his life more than anything else. This is where contrition comes in—giving up one’s own will. Once that is done, the resistance is broken, and one can truly say, “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.” Rom. 7:22.

Satan has worked freely in certain areas in many people’s lives from their childhood on. He has built a kind of fortification in case of war. These fortresses are like other fortresses: a central point from which Satan can rule over a large area in people’s lives. You may call it a vice or a habit. This is where God encounters particularly strong resistance, for He shall dwell in man.

We know that God is mighty to crush all hardness; the difficulty is in getting man to go along with it.

How, then, can we receive a crushed spirit? When God’s Word is proclaimed as it is, then all opportunities are open to every soul who has a longing for God. It is God’s word that crushes. “‘Is not My word like a fire?’ says the Lord, ‘and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?’” Jer. 23:29. This results in a struggle in a person’s heart. In spite of God being the strongest, He cannot decide the outcome of the struggle, but He appeals to the person: “Son, daughter, give Me your heart!” It is the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4) that comes to the aid of the soul and is able to break down all resistance to God’s will in the human spirit. Once that is done, God dwells in his heart by His Spirit, and from that moment God’s fervent interest is devoted to working in the soul for his salvation.

There were many false shepherds and prophets in Israel, and about them it is written in Jeremiah 23:16-18: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; they speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord. They continually say to those who despise Me, “The Lord has said, ‘You shall have peace,’” and to everyone who walks according to the imagination of his own hard heart, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’ For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord, and has perceived and heard His word? Who has marked His word and heard it?” [Emphases added].

We notice that in these prophets’ hearts there was something hard that did not listen to God but rather drove them to comfort other hard hearts with a false comfort. They spoke against God’s word and will, leading people away from God. They served the evil one who lived in their hearts.

The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:17: “For we are not, as so many, peddling [adulterating for gain—marg.] the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.”

Here we hear again about the many who adulterate the word of God for personal gain. What was their gain? It was that it permitted them to go according their hard hearts, because of the adulterated preaching. The apostle Paul and those who accompanied him had let the hammer blows of God’s word crush all resistance to God in their hearts, and this had resulted in them becoming one with Jesus Christ, with His word and with each other. And when they spoke, there was a purity that was from God. It was a message in the Holy Spirit.

This is also the case in our days. Many attempt to obey God but are unwilling to be broken down according to the flesh; consequently they are not pleasing to God. For example, they have left the State Church but are unwilling to go outside the camp, bearing His reproach, and so they start a new sect contrary to God’s Word which teaches that divisions are manifest sin. Gal. 5:20. Next, it is vital for them to make it appear as if this madness is right, and so they adulterate God’s Word. Christ is knocking on the door of the heart, but Satan has already established himself in that heart, and people do not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.

However, let all of us who do see it, wholeheartedly walk in the light and call out everywhere that there is salvation to be had for all who desire it.