Quote:
Originally Posted by formermember
Another problem with Nee, which fits the context of what we've been discussing, is the breaking of the outer man and the release of the Spirit (or spirit). Of course, there was even a book with that title. This kind of perspective appears throughout Nee's writings.
Here's a brief description: God dwells in a believer's spirit. The body/flesh and the soul/self are the outer man. In order for the Spirit of God, through the spirit of the believer, to be released, the outer man needs to be broken.
So when difficult circumstances come, including through false accusations, or abusive authorities, this is to be received as an opportunity for the outer man to be broken.
In experience, this leads to receiving abuse unnecessarily, refusing to confront or attempt to change unhealthy environments, and repressing both opinions and emotions. (IMHO)
Incidentally, I no longer believe in the tripartite man as a doctrine. I have found it much healthier not to divide up the parts of man in that way. A dichotomous view (outer man and inner man) makes more sense, and leads to less introspection.
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FM,
To me, the problem with this doctrine and the way it was taught is that it made it sound like this "breaking" was something that was fundamentally structural to the soul. I always pictured the soul actually cracking in some kind of way, like a coconut shell. The way Nee and Lee taught this encouraged this kind of thinking.
Actually, "breaking" is simply learning to be humble and to trust God. We needn't see it as structural thing, but rather an attitudinal thing. It's learning more and more that there is a God and I ain't him.
This points to what is to me a BIG, BIG problem with these ministries, they too often made everything about process rather than relationship. To them, breaking wasn't learning to trust God more, it was having something fundamental happen to the structure of your soul. It became about this impersonal thing call "transformation" that God was doing to you. Your soul was getting "broken," your spirit was getting "released," God was getting "infused" into you. It was all about this (for lack of a better word) physical thing that was going on with your inner being. It made everything very impersonal, mechanical and process-oriented.
We can't fathom what God is really doing to us on a subatomic spiritual level. What we can observe is that through being in relation with him and loving him more, we are becoming more like him--not necessarily in "life and nature," but certainly in disposition. We are learning to love what he loves and hate what he hates.
Whether all this metaphysical stuff that Nee and more so Lee talked about is actually taking place we cannot know; and it is really irrelevant anyway because it totally misses the point. We are becoming more like God by knowing God. Through that, by the Spirit in us, he somehow can be seen through us. That's all we need to know.