Kingdom Principle: Our Brokenness boasts of the Kingdom.

Brokenness is beautiful – it boasts of Grace, Faith & Love which advance the Kingdom

Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 51:1-12 Hebrews 5:5-10 John 12:20-33

The Self-Help industry has grown in the last 15 years from 2 ½ billion dollar industry each year to over 12 billion dollars a year. Our culture values two things very highly at are captured in the Self-Help phenomena… 1. We value our individualism often more than others– We don’t want to need anyone else to help us. 2. We want to fix or at least present our lives as if we have it all-together. This illusion of control over our lives is sought by many even if they know it is only an illusion. At the base of it all we are earthen vessels… which is very close to saying cracked pots…. (2 Cor. 4:7-10)

Life in the Kingdom serving the King of Kings is the contradictory to Self-Help. In fact the primary step to entering the Kingdom is to Accept that your life as you know it – needs to end and you must be re-born to enter the Kingdom. This act of being born again is not an act you can do unto yourself… In fact you must cry out for help from the Spirit of God. (John 3:1-8) This Acceptance indicates a Belief that there is life beyond this world. Jesus is the gift that has been given to the world, and it is our Confession that Jesus is Lord and he has been raised from the Dead, that brings us into our own resurrection experience by the Power of God. (Romans 10:9-10) Because of our Acceptance, Belief and Confession we Declare that Jesus is our Lord and we Love the Lord and one another. This is the path to discovering our brokenness.

How do you pursue brokenness while remaining resilient?

Let us FIRST understand brokenness as a desired characteristic. Ask God to open your eyes to the brokenness that already exists in you. God does not need to “break” you. It is a major error in thinking when the church preaches that God breaks us with pain or punishment. (reread John 3:16-18) There is wilderness and suffering, but that is very different from pain and punishment. Judgment is leveled against the ruler of the air (the devil and those who follow his ways), not against those who are being saved. Punishment is a poorly understood and often misused word for God’s love has nothing to do with punishment. (1 John 4:15-18) Jesus, our Messiah/Savior has come to forgive sin, and to save you from this world, this is an act of love not punishment. Because of the Cross, punishment is removed, Justice however remains.

You & I were born into this world broken, which is why we must be re-born into the Kingdom. God longs for you to know your brokenness not cover it up. When we seek to cover up our brokenness – what results is pride and sin and for these there are consequences, but this is not punishment to break us, rather it is discipline to restore us. Discipline is a choice, and it is a choice of love and submission. Punishment is punitive action to prove a point. Consequences are established rules, which are enacted when choices are made to break such rules, resulting in learning opportunities. When we choose discipline, much like “pruning” (John 15:1-5) it can be painful, but it is a choice. When we choose sin, there are consequences, which can also be painful, but neither of these have anything thing to do with neither punishment nor breaking us. Punishment is an act of this world, and those who choose discipline do so because they already see their brokenness.

SECOND: Believe that Jesus has paid the price for your brokenness to be redeemed and wholeness restored. Believe that Jesus’ blood was shed for you and that through him your spirit shall be born again. From this place the joy of salvation begins to shine. Believe that you are God’s workmanship and that by Grace you are saved to do good works. (Eph. 2:10) Believe that brokenness does not need to be covered up or even fixed by you…. The only brokenness that is “fixed” is redeemed in being born again, and that is completed outside of any effort by you. It is our joy to live into our calling and purpose that is housed within our brokenness. Believe that God sees you as perfected through the eyes of Jesus. It is through our brokenness that the light of Christ is most fully reflected.

THIRD: Confess your need for the Father to save you from your sin. Forgiveness cleanses us from sin, but does not remove brokenness, rather is removes fear, guilt and shame that cause us to hide our brokenness. Therefore no longer must you wallow or sulk in the darkness; rather you can run to the light. In the moments breath of confession, forgiveness is complete. In fact your forgiveness was completed in Christ before you ever sinned – what is necessary is our confession. In our brokenness, we will continue to work out in this world the realities of our choices. May this lead us back to Acceptance of our inability to do this on our own strength and to cry out for Grace & Mercy.

FINALLY:, Declare your stance for the Kingdom, that your life is not your own and that you give up your life, even “hate” your life, if it means to follow and be a servant of the God most high. This is the change and charge of repentance, a turning from what was once done, to a new way of life. As we follow the King we are not to look back, rather with bold declaration we proclaim to the world, healing found in Jesus Name alone. In this declaration we stand as the priesthood of all believers proclaiming the salvation of the King to the entire world.

To let the King’s light shine through you – you must be willing to be broken. Without brokenness – you have it all together and there are no cracks from which the light can shine. This is not a call to sin in order to create cracks – see Romans 6 – rather it calls us to embrace healing that begins with discovering our brokenness.  In this way the proclaiming of the good news and healing become one in the same; healing being defined as the removal of the works of the enemy. Therefore may our brokenness be beautiful as is the feet of the good news. (Romans 10:15)