With great delight I welcome you to the month of July, our Month of Brokenness. I thank God for keeping and delivering you and I from Coronavirus and global death.  As I write over 10 million have tested positive to this deadly virus and it has killed over 500,000 globally (data form  John Hopkins Hospital, USA) According to scripture: If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel (Dele Dada, put your name) say; If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men (Coronavirus) rose up against us: Psalm 124:1-2. I pray God continues to watch over us in Jesus name. The Good news is that all the meltdown, shutdown, and lockdown of nations, airlines, businesses and even churches are easing up. Every genuine Christian must be happy that we are going back to church even though there appears to be a new normal. Churches and service may not be as we used to have it physically, with the government and health regulations of keeping social distancing, wearing masks, sanitizing and hand washing maintenance. There is a need for us to embrace a new normal in the spirit also which is brokenness. The church has gone through rough time and I think one of the things God wants to teach with the COVID-19 is soberness, surrender, repentance and brokenness.  My counsel is as the church reopens pray that God will break you and remold you to fit into his agenda for him for the last half of 2020 and beyond. Don’t just become available become more valuable, faithful and usable for humanity and His Kingdom. Seven is the number of perfections, I pray God shall perfect all that concerns you in Jesus name.

Happy birthday to our beloved nation - Canada- (July 1,1867) May your citizens know the Lord Jesus.

What is brokenness?

David defined brokenness as sacrifice: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:17. Solomon defined brokenness as trust: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6. Jesus defines brokenness as death “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Jn 12:24. On the sermons of the mount Jesus said“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” Matt 5:2-12. Jesus said he was sent to the broken hearted. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted” Paul defines brokenness as weakness: But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.2 Cor 12:9-10. I put all these together and I define brokenness this way: It is coming to the end of one’s self-life. It is dying to self. It is serving God with the spirit of humility and meekness. It is having a heart of flesh instead of stone. Through brokenness we comprehend that we are finite people in tremendous need of a Savior. A person will throw himself at the Redeemer’s feet only when he grasps the reality that he deserves divine judgment for his sin and that his sole hope is Christ’s mercy. This is where a life of brokenness begins. “The broken man,” observed William MacDonald “is quick to repent. He does not try to sweep sin under the carpet. He does not try to forget it with the excuse. He rushes into the presence of God and cries, ‘I have sinned

There are three facets of the Christian life that are essential to revival: surrender, brokenness and repentance. Surrender is willingly letting go the control of our lives. Brokenness is the state in which we yield that control to God. Repentance is brokenness and surrender in action. Surrender, brokenness and repentance are character traits of people desperately desiring the Lord.

Why we need brokenness

1.  Pride is the order of the day. During this COVID19 lockdown I watched a movie titled- Robbers of Glory – By Mount Zion Ministries, where the main character was a highly anointed man who ruined his career and ministry by his pride and pomposity. Lack of brokenness was the basis of ministerial failure of many men of God in the bible and in our contemporary world.  During this COVID 19 one my daughters bought three volumes of “God’s Generals” By Roberts  Liardon for me. I am still reading them. One of those that touched my heart was Alexander Bowie, born in England, raised in Australia but had his major ministry life in Chicago. History has it that he was mightily used of God in the healing ministry. However, at a point he believed he was the incarnate of Elijah. It was said that he was at logger heads with D.L Moody because that great Evangelist attempted to correct him but lack of brokenness will not allow him. Brokenness produces true humility. Until our pride is broken, we will not humble ourselves before God or men. The hallmark of Christ is humility, the hallmark of the flesh is pride.
2. No more Prophets. “We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long” Psalm 74:9   We are too braggadocio and insensitive in this generation to hear God. No wonder we are producing so many fake prophets. Imagine COVID 19 a pandemic of this magnitude happening to the world without pre-warnings from prophets!  “Surely the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets” Amos 3:7. Because of the brokenness of Abraham and his friendliness with God, when God was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, He revealed it to Abraham.
3. Mass producing baby Christians. What do you think is responsible for the shallowness of Christians today? What is responsible for this generation of Christians who lack transparency, accountability, holiness and integrity? What do you think is responsible for the level of sin, divorce and all kinds of ungodliness that we see in the church today? I believe men and women are born again but they are simply not broken. The primary job of the minister is to raise Christians: “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;” Eph 4:14.
4. No more miracles. The Pentecostalism that started in 1900 that produced great men of faith of the 20th century has not only fast disappearing but we now have Pentecostal apostles that cannot produce biblical miracles and have now resorted to faking results, and producing false and fake miracles. Men are paid to die and brought in the glare of cameras to church to be raised by pastors! Can you compare what we have today with the generation of Apostles of faith like Apostle Smith Wigglesworth who raised 23 people from the dead according to “God’s Generals”. Have you read about Kathryn Kuhlman, Alexander Bowie, Jack Cole and Oral Roberts to mention a few? Apart from these people raising the dead, they experienced miracles themselves, for instance some like Moses were stammerers but, they experienced healing, the likes of Smith Wigglesworth, Oral Roberts, Lester Sumrall and Ethel Woodville. I believe these men and women had these outstanding miracles attending them because of their brokenness, I believe this led them to pray and made their prayers effective, which led to their outstanding ministries. We need brokenness because we have become a generation of prayerless, lukewarm, hypocrites and deceivers.

How do you become broken?

1. Realize the necessity for brokenness.  Jesus “directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.”  Matt 4:19 until you realize that you need to be broken you will not be broken. I tell you ministers, parents, grandparents, until we are so broken that the youth and our children can see our brokenness, we cannot get the desired result.  Until God breaks your will, pride, ego, you will never be fully useful. You will remain only a nice loaf of bread useful to yourself! God transforms the most broken, sinful moments of our lives into something that gives Him glory. He cleans us up, clothes us in His righteousness, helps us gain clarity and focus, and put us on the right path

2. Develop a teachable Spirit. One of the evidences of unbrokenness in our time is the unteachable spirit. Everybody has suddenly become a teacher, no more learners. There is nothing wrong with teaching but you need to ask who is listening to you? The story was told of Oral Roberts, how he went evening after evening to Kenneth Hagins’ ministry services not as a speaker but just to learn! Let us humble ourselves and prepare to learn. Empty barrels make the most noise.

3. Genuine repentance and godly sorrow. When God said in Proverbs 13:15, “The way of the transgressor is hard,” no one was excluded from that principle – not even David, one of the greatest kings to ever live; and in Psalm 51 we get a peek into that. We see a man truly broken by his transgression. “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgression” Psalm 51:1-2. When Nathan confronted him that he had sinned, what came out of him was- “I have sinned against the Lord.” 2 Sam 12:3. So broken that he had an appellation- I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. Acts 13:22b

4. Backward integration. In mathematics there is what you call backward integration, working from the answer to the question. The Scripture says  “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” Heb12:1.It takes brokenness to lay down the weight that easily besets us, but now we must be willing to put down such weights to procure our brokenness!

5. Prayer. Call on God for a broken heart. Desire brokenness and pray for it and expect God to break your stony heart. Pray like David for a contrite heart. Psalm 51:17. Pray and act like Jesus for the spirit of humility and grace to do the will of God as Jesus did at Gethsemane at the cross. Phil 2:5-9. Matt 26:42. Pray for the spirit to run from immorality and unforgiveness like Joseph. Gen 37: 12, 45:5. Pray like Isaiah for the spirit to obey God. Isaiah 1:19. Pray for tenacity of purpose like Paul, the necessity to preach the word of God at all cost. 1Cor 9:16. Pray like Ezekiel for a ne heart. Eze 22:29.

6. Surrender. Surrender is a fact of life. It may be voluntary or forced. In one way or another, every person yields control of their lives to someone else no matter their position in society. The question is not if we surrender, but to whom we surrender. Humanity has but one acceptable response to the crucified and resurrected Christ—to surrender our lives to Him and live for His glory (Rom. 12:1-2). Anything else is rebellion. To experience brokenness, you must relinquish control of your life to the One who both created and purchased us is with his blood on the cross. Jesus never requested our reckless abandonment, He demanded it.

7. Die to self. Die to inordinate ambition, desire for popularity, fame, unbridled pleasure, questionable source of wealth, get rich quick and at all cost syndrome.

8. Know the word and practice the word. “You do err not knowing the scripture” Matt 22:29

Conclusion. The cry today is for a revival. A revival that will cause many to come to the knowledge of God. That will see many people saved. But revivals don’t just happen they are made to happen. They are not just made to happen they are made to happen by the right people. The right people are not just people wishing for revival they are people who have experienced brokenness, who desire to be broken for the sake of the gospel, who are teachable, willing to lay the weights of sin down and repent of their sins, willing to surrender their will in exchange for that of Jesus, willing to know God’s mind through his word and willing to surrender their totality and die to self. May you be one of such people today in Jesus’ name.

Dr Amos Dada is the District Superintendent of Christ Apostolic Church Bethel Canada. Follow him on Twitter @dada_amos;FB Amos Dada. www.cacbethel.com. Youtube/dramosdada