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When you go out to buy a valuable ointment or perfume, do you purchase it for the beautiful container, or the contents that it stores? While we obviously buy it for the precious ointment within the container, many people live their lives in a mindset similar to valuing the container over the ointment. As the Scriptures make very clear, the work of God will remains severely limited in our lives unless we experience a breaking of our "containers."
To fully understand this fundamental predicament, it is imperative that we first understand our spiritual anatomy. Throughout the Apostle Paul's writings, two peculiar terms are used to describe the two natures that make up this design: the inner and outer man. The latter refers to our human spirits, where the Holy Spirit resides upon salvation. It is through here that God can teach us, work through us, and bless others through us (Nee, 1997, p. 7). Conversely, the outer man refers to that which is outside of our spirit; specifically, our physical bodies. However, as seen in Paul's writings, the outer man can refer to our souls under the influence of the flesh's sinful desires. Thus, as Christians, we possess two opposing natures within us: the spiritual inner man and the soulish outer man.
Understandably, the drastic contrast between these two natures causes them to be bitterly and unendingly opposed to one another. The Apostle Paul details this excruciating war in Romans 7, where he states that he continually falls to his sinful outer man despite desiring to obey God's will through his inner man. As Watchman Nee (1997) states, many of us eventually are made aware of this war, where we notice how our outer man keeps us from worshipping, learning about, and obeying God (p. 7). Paul explains in Romans 7:17-18 that we experience this war as Christians because the sinful nature in our outer man, in which nothing good dwells, leaves us with no ability within ourselves to serve God, despite having the desire to do so in our spirits. Thus, as long as our outer man and the sinful nature within it have dominion over our thoughts, mind, and desires, we remain spiritually decapacitated with our inner man imprisoned and the Holy Spirit's work quenched.
Fortunately, the Scriptures reveal an intensely difficult, yet unspeakably rewarding means by which we can overcome this spiritual bondage: the breaking of the outer man. The Gospel of John provides two examples that demonstrate this breaking, with the first one being recorded in John 12:24. As Christ reminds us that a grain of wheat cannot bear fruit unless it dies and breaks open, so are we unable to produce the spiritual fruits of the inner man unless we die to the desires of the outer man (Nee, 1997, pp. 8-9). The other example is given in John chapter 12, where Mary anoints Jesus with a costly ointment that was once stored in a flask. As previously mentioned, a flask can be beautiful, but its preciousness comes from its contents, not the container itself. Likewise, the unrestricted outpouring of the Holy Spirit through our inner man can only occur if we allow God to humble us and take our focus away from the qualities of the outer man (Nee, 1997, p. 9). Thus, through dying to self and focusing on Christ, we allow God to release the Holy Spirit's work through breaking the dominion of the outer man.
Unfortunately, many believers live their lives as a hard grain of wheat or a jar containing precious ointment, restricting the Holy Spirit's release in their lives by sparing their outer man from God's breaking process. This troubled existence not only restricts the Holy Spirit's flow, but also prolongs a miserable internal war that leaves us vulnerable to sin and Satan's malicious attacks. Conversely, it is when we allow the outer man to be broken through God's process of mental renewal that we can be prepared to wholeheartedly serve the Lord for His purposes and glory.
Nee, W. (1997). The breaking of the outer man and the release of the spirit. Living Stream Ministry.
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