Teaching Brokenness

Anecdotes from Watchman Nee

Consecration and breaking

Sister M. E. Barber once said that whoever places himself in the Lord’s hand will be broken. You have to pray that the Lord will deal with you without reservation, and you have to place yourself in His hand without reservation. Consecration is not a light matter. The Lord will break us according to our prayer. If you want to be a whole piece of bread, you should not offer yourself to Him. Once you offer yourself to Him, you should not murmur and complain when you are broken. Only those who are broken bring blessing to others, because they have changed; they have become rich, and they are now able to nourish many.1

Necessity of brokenness

After Brother Nee decided to serve the Lord, he met Sister Barber. She asked him, “Are you serving the Lord? What does the Lord want you to do?” Brother Nee answered, “The Lord wants me to serve Him.” Again she asked, “What were you going to do if the Lord didn’t want you to serve Him?”
He replied, “The Lord surely wants me to do something.”
Then she read from Matthew chapter 15 about the breaking of bread and asked, “How do you understand this passage?” Brother Nee said, “First the Lord took the loaves and fish in His hand. Through His blessing they were multiplied and fed four thousand.” Sister Barber spoke in a serious tone: “All the loaves in the Lord’s hand were broken and given out by the Lord. The unbroken bread could not be transformed and feed others. Brother, please remember, many times I was just like the bread saying, ‘Lord! I give myself to You.’ However, in my heart I still held out hope, as if to say, ‘Lord, even though I have given myself to You, don’t break me.’ We always want to offer the bread whole, not broken. But no loaf which has been put in the Lord’s hand has ever been left unbroken.”2

Footnotes

1 - Nee, Watchman. The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vols.58 page 249-50. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1992.

2 - Reetzke, James. M. E. Barber, 1st ed Chicago: Chicago Bibles and Books, 2000, pg. 19

Notes mentioning this note

Letters - 1901.10.5 on Furlough to Mr. Baring-Gould from Norwich
Letter 59 St. Martins Lane Norwich Oct. 5, 1901 Dear Mr. Baring-Gould, Thank you very much for the letter and...

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