"Broken" or "Non-broken"

     I read in discussion group about how God wants "broken" people. One fellow said we weren't qualified for leadership unless we had first been "broken".  They meant "broken" in a negative way.  I can't figure out where such theology comes from.  Certainly not from the New Testament.  God is trying to fix the "brokenness" and they are honoring and advocating the brokenness.  "Brokenness" to some in this group was a qualifying factor to be in leadership. My question to them was, "Why are we trying to get people healed?"  If God is looking for "brokenness" then shouldn't we just lead people to the edge of the cliff and push them over?  Shouldn't we be praying for everybody to fall back into sin, marriages to fail, health to fail, businesses to fail, so we can arrive at more "brokenness"?  If "brokenness" is what God is seeking, shouldn't we be praying for the failure of our kids so they can arrive at brokenness earlier?

  Maybe these folks mean well, but I think the word they should be using is "yielded", not broken.  Life, sin, failure,etc., does break us, but that is not a step toward promotion. That makes you a candidate for healing, but not leadership.  God can and does heal the broken and use them for His glory, but He is not asking us to go out and get "broken".  My friend, you don't have to be an ex-gang member, business  failure or divorcee to be used of God.  That idea is nonsense.  But, you do have to be filled with the Spirit, yielded to the Spirit, anointed by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, walk in the Spirit and live in the Spirit.  You do have to exercise some faith and some confidence in who you are in Christ.  You do have to hunger and thirst for more and more of that Spirit in whom the anointing is found.

    This thinking about "brokenness" has a way of coming around every now and then.  I was in a revival years ago where the evangelist wanted everybody to come to the altar and get broken before the Lord.  I tried, but I had too much joy, too much love, too much faith, too much Word, to much of God's mercy, and I couldn't do it.  Couldn't squeeze out a single tear of brokenness.  I saw it again more recently in what was supposed to be a "faith" church. The leadership wanted every one to be broken before the Lord and worked hard to get us there.  He said this was going to usher in revival.  It didn't. It ushered in fatigue.

  This reminds me of a Pastor I heard about, years ago, that got caught coming out of an adult movie house.  He explained, "How can I know what to preach against unless I go in and see".  This is more of the nonsense thinking that has invaded so many.  Did Jesus have to be blind to heal the blind?  Did He have to fall into adultery to forgive the adulterer?  Did he have to be broken to heal the broken? The answer is "No" to all of the above.  He was anointed!  And, the anointing that did all that through Him is available to us- right now.   When we qualify ourselves to do the works He did by our earthly experiences (successes or failures), we may be disqualifying ourselves for the anointing that was on Him.  When we think we have to have been broken by the devil, or graduate from some divinity school, we are moving away from dependency on the Spirit of God and leaning on our flesh.  Broken?  Nah!  Yielded?  Yeah!