The Release of the Spirit • 3 (Recognizing the Thing in Hand)

Follow the hyperlink to Chapter Two.

Nee begins Chapter Three by defining a concept he calls the thing in hand as anything which hinders us in our walk with God. (30) He writes that with the outward person unbroken, we will find ourselves consumed with so many things—most of them probably good things—that our hands will not be free to do that to which God is calling us. (30) It seems clear to me that now, more than at any other time in history, our enemy craftily fills our hands with the urgent responsibilities of busyness, to keep us from engaging the eternal work of the kingdom.

Further hindrance is caused when our spiritual hands are full because our inner person can only engage others by means of our outer person. When the outer person is entangled with extraneous things, the inner person is not free to connect. (33)

Nee contrasts the unsaved individual in whom the inner person is totally dominated by the outer person, with the Christian in whom God is working to reverse that situation. (34) It is only in breaking the outer person that an individual becomes fit for kingdom work. As long as we remain unbroken, God will continue utilizing life’s trials and heartaches to break us. (35) As long as we fail to recognize the hand of God working to break our outer person for our good and the good of the church, we will blame other for those very things God would use to make us fully functional in the kingdom. (36)

Nee writes, All that comes to us is ordered by God. (36) It may just be a matter of semantics, but I would word this a little differently. I do not believe that everything foisted upon us in life is God’s will, however, I would agree that once a bad thing happens to us, God’s desire is to use it for our good (Romans 8:28).

There is an immutable law of God’s working in us: His specific purpose is breaking us and releasing our spirit for free exercise. Nee says that no amount of pleading in prayer will change this fact. It’s the way it is, and the sooner we come to grips with it and cooperate with the process, the happier we will be. (36)

What do you see in your own hands or in the hands of others that is infringing upon kingdom priorities?