Every man who falls on the Word must be broken. In the Bible, why does God insist on placing the Word on a person’s heart? In the Hebrew Bible, Deuteronomy 6:6 states, “And these words... shall be upon thy heart.” The KJV states, “And these words... shall be in thine heart.” It is not within a person, preacher, or pastor to place divine teaching directly in the heart. All they can do is place the Word on the surface of the heart, so when God breaks the heart, the precious seed falls into the heart, producing a barn-bursting harvest, rooted in the soil of the soul.

The walls of a hardened heart are like the walls of Jericho, the devil’s paradise; they must come down and be broken. Jericho was Mission Impossible. Jericho was an undefeated foe and a barrier to the Promised Land. In the Jordan Valley, the shout doctrine begins in Joshua 6. On the seventh day, they gave a great shout, and the great, invisible hands of God pushed the walls over. A supernatural victory brought a unified front.

Are you broken? God cannot use you until you have been broken. If you are in your smug, self-righteous, satisfied, sanctimonious, self-contained, comfortable little box of perfume, God cannot use you, and you will never bless anyone. But when you are broken and spilled out, you will be blessed to bring the blessings of God to everyone around you.

Every man who falls on the Word must be broken. In the Bible, why does God insist on placing the Word on a person’s heart? In the Hebrew Bible, Deuteronomy 6:6 states, “And these words... shall be upon thy heart.” The KJV states, “And these words... shall be in thine heart.” It is not within a person, preacher, or pastor to place divine teaching directly in the heart. All they can do is place the Word on the surface of the heart, so when God breaks the heart, the precious seed falls into the heart, producing a barn-bursting harvest, rooted in the soil of the soul.

The walls of a hardened heart are like the walls of Jericho, the devil’s paradise; they must come down and be broken. Jericho was Mission Impossible. Jericho was an undefeated foe and a barrier to the Promised Land. In the Jordan Valley, the shout doctrine begins in Joshua 6. On the seventh day, they gave a great shout, and the great, invisible hands of God pushed the walls over. A supernatural victory brought a unified front. Are you broken? God cannot use you until you have been broken. If you are in your smug, self-righteous, satisfied, sanctimonious, self-contained, comfortable little box of perfume, God cannot use you, and you will never bless anyone. But when you are broken and spilled out, you will be blessed to bring the blessings of God to everyone around you.

In Israel, at the potter’s house in Hebron, pottery was made just as it was in the days of Jeremiah. The potter used a spinning wheel worked by his feet, with a spinning table on top. He started with a simple lump of clay that represented humanity. He began to shape it, and his delicate hands felt the lumps in the clay. Then he would strike it hard, crushing those lumps. Every blow was startling. That is what God does when He begins shaping lives and feels the lumps within them. Some are more lumpy than others, but the lumps remain. God begins smashing those lumps so the clay becomes pliable, because God can only use broken things.

After crushing all the lumps, the potter began shaping the vessel of honor. Then, when the vessel appeared perfect in shape, it was taken and placed into a roaring fire, and the door was shut. The vessel remained there until it turned cherry red. Then the potter would remove it, hold it in his hand, and flip it on the edge. If it sang, the potter knew it was ready. If God places someone in the fire and they complain when He pulls them out, they may find themselves placed right back into the furnace. But if, when the fire ceases and a new environment is recognized, praise rises from the lips, the trial has accomplished its purpose. Trials are normal. Problems are sent to expose what is within. Anyone can shout, dance, and rejoice when all the bills are paid, there is money in the bank, the car is running well, and the insurance policies are paid up. But how does someone act at the place of bitter waters? The Potter’s work manifests the power, presence, and perfection of Jesus Christ through the crushing.

It’s the rubbing that brings out the shine. It’s the friction that produces the brilliance. It’s the dredging that extracts the gold and the silver. It is the crushed grains that make the finest flour. It is the crushed ground that produces a rich harvest. It is the crushed olives that make the new oil. It is the crushed grapes that make the finest wines. It is the crushed rose petals that make the finest perfumes. It is the crushed heart that cries out to God. It’s the crushed clouds that produce the rain. It’s the crushed nucleus that produces the power of the nuclear bomb. It was the crushed dirt that became a living soul, a handful of anointed dirt walking around with the fresh breath of God.

It was the crushed alabaster box that poured the oil over the head of Christ that baptized Him before He endured the cross. The alabaster box that took this woman a year of wages to earn would break it and pour it over the head of the Son of God in seconds. Until the alabaster box was broken and released its contents, it was worthless. It was the broken and crushed Peter who wept after denying his Savior.

 It was the crushing and the brokenness of Peter that drove him before a crowd of three thousand and preached with such a Holy-Ghost-atomic-bomb of power. With Pentecostal power, the Holy Spirit sent Peter into the streets of Jerusalem in an evangelical explosion, and that explosion birthed the New Testament church.

 Against the oyster, the rough sand produces the priceless pearl. An oyster that has not been wounded in any way cannot produce pearls. A pearl comes from a healed wound, and pearls are the product of pain. This occurs when an unwanted substance enters the oyster—such as a parasite, grain, or sand. Inside an oyster shell is a shiny substance called nacre. When a grain of sand enters, the nacre immediately goes to work, covering the grain of sand with layers to protect the defenseless body of the oyster. Then, pearls start to form. More pearls, more valuable; more pain, more pearls; more pain, more purpose. When you are in a place of pain, you are in a powerful place of transformation.

Those of you who worship the flesh, glory in wickedness, and play duck-duck-goose with sin—God is going to crush you in His Gethsemane press and the University of Adversity so diamond carats of humility surface: no pressure, no diamonds; no struggle, no strength. A diamond is like a piece of coal made good under pressure. God often has to reduce you to gunpowder so that He can cultivate a character. The crushed, shattered, tear-stained, and messy blob of flesh can become a resurrected child of God.

Sometimes God has to reduce you to the tail to make you the head. God can reduce you to nothing, because from nothing, He can get glory out of nothing that becomes something. Jesus waited until Lazarus was dead to bring him back to life, because when he was dead, God could get the glory out of something that was nothing. When God wants to do a miracle, He loves to do something out of nothing. When God is about to do something great, He starts with hardship. When God is about to do something amazing, He starts with the impossible.

Sometimes God has to mold and melt His children down to where their breath mumbles from the ashes of humility—like silver tried in the furnace of the earth, purified seven times. “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10, NIV)—tested, tried, and refined. The refiner’s fire is not some whiny trial but an intense gut-twist that changes your very nature. The fire sent to you will burn others but will refine you. You can reach more people with someone who has worked through the fire than with someone who teaches about the fire.

 The only way to know what is in your heart is for God to put you in the refinery until the impurities start to burst, boil, and bubble, and the imperfections start to surface. Then, God takes a net and scrapes them off, and you become a vessel fit for honor. The Refiner and Purifier refines you like gold and silver, so He can see the gleaming reflection of Himself. God takes our princely selves and transforms us into the portrait of His glorious Self.

Many people have been taught that, once they become a Christian, they will never have a trial, tribulation, or wilderness—all you have to do is blab it and grab it, name it and claim it, and groove to your own tune. That is pure bunk and not scripturally validated. God puts us in a stressed environment (wilderness) to develop us, not to depress us; to test us, and to bless us. In the Northeast, codfish are a big commercial business. There is a huge demand for codfish in California on the West Coast. The problem is how to ship them from the East Coast to the West Coast and keep them fresh. So first, they froze the codfish, and when they arrived in California, they had no flavor.

 Next, they said they would ship them in seawater, which is very expensive; but when the codfish got there, they were all soft and mushy. Finally, a creative man came up with a codfish solution. The codfish were placed in a tank of water with their natural enemy, the catfish. The catfish chased those codfish all the way from the East Coast to the West Coast, and when the codfish got to California, they were firm, fresh, and full of life. What does that have to do with you? God has put a catfish in your tank because He wants you to be firm, fresh, and full of life. “Suffering is better than sinning. There is more evil in a drop of sin than in an ocean of affliction. Better, burn for Christ, than turn from Christ.”—Charles Spurgeon