But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some to honour and some for dishonour: (2 Tim. 2:20).

In any large house or great house there is always need for all kinds of vessels for different purposes and uses. The matter of vessels is so crucial and can cause embarrassment at the point of need. For example, when there is a party or reception and the food is ready and available but someone has forgotten to bring along the plates, unless an alternative arrangement is made or someone goes to fetch the plates everyone has to wait and this could cause great embarrassment and frustrate or spoil the event. Vessels may look a small matter but are indispensable.

God is the Head of His House and family. There is none greater than Him and in His house there are all kinds of vessels for different purposes. He owns everything and has prepared everything and is always ready to feed and bless mankind. He has made all things ready – slaughtered His meat, mixed His wine and set His table, etc. His handicap is always vessels to serve men. Whenever He finds the vessels He can use, then men are served and helped. Unfortunately, many a time, everything is ready but there are no vessels, at least not the kind He could use. So one of God’s great needs is for vessels; human vessels.

We must note straightaway that God does not use just any vessel no matter how urgent and how desperate His need may be. God uses only vessels made by Him and stamped with His Name, for His honourable uses. He does not borrow vessels from His enemies nor does He go to market to buy already made and mass-produced vessels. No, He only uses vessels custom-made by His hand and each vessel is designed and made for specific purposes.

The world is waiting to be served and everything has been prepared by the Heavenly kitchen and is ready. The challenge of Heaven is usually the vessel with which to serve them. There is much already ready in heaven to satisfy all of mankind but the problem is always the human vessels with which to serve them. The problem is not what to serve but the vessels since the LORD must use human vessels. The need of God is for vessels and many a time the kind He is looking for is scarce. So are you ready to answer to this crucial need of the LORD? If it is your desire to answer this crucial quest of Heaven then let us go up to Him together to find out what He is looking for in the vessels He uses, and how He makes and prepares them. We must look to the Holy Spirit now to let us into the Divine mind on this critical and crucial issue.

GOD’S VESSELS

Even though we have began to see some characteristics of the vessel God would use we want to now look a little bit at this matter to see what God looks for in His vessels, what disqualifies or qualifies a man to be His vessel and such like in case you are interested in being His vessel that He will use to serve your generation.

Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to the saints at Jerusalem; And here he hath authority from the chief Priests to bind all that call on thy name But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake (Acts 9:13-16).

Saul, who became Paul was one of God’s greatest vessels of all times. We will use his testimony to learn for ourselves what makes one a vessel of God. It is good to point out straightaway that as God has His own vessels, Satan also has his own vessels that he uses to serve evil and wickedness everywhere. If you have been his vessel, available to him and effective in his hands for his evil then you must refuse to continue to be his vessel because, God made you for Himself. So the first thing to take note of is that all of God’s vessels are those who have repented from their sins and been converted to Christ. They are men and women who have turned their backs on Satan, sin and the flesh and turned to the Lord Jesus in repentance and faith. This is basic because God will not borrow His enemies vessels for His use. As long as one has not become converted and born again such is not God’s vessel no matter what he or she claims to be doing for the Lord. So, that is the first thing to check. Are you truely converted and born of God? If you cannot confidently say yes to that question then you must wait first and turn to Him in repentance and trust Him to save you from sin through His finished work on the cross in His death, burial and resurrection.

Not born

Then please note that, like Saul, nobody is born a vessel of God. Saul was a Roman citizen, a lawyer, a successful business man and a Pharisee, but those did not make him a vessel of God. He was a great terrorizer and persecutor of the disciples of Christ and was very injurious to the cause of the Lord. He was feared by the disciples in his day until the Lord apprehended him while he was riding with impunity to Damascus to hound and arrest them. His ambition which he pursued very vigorously was to become a Sanhedren council member (one of the 70 Jewish elders). He was such a well known and feared tormentor of the followers of Christ that after he was arrested by the Lord and got converted and He sent brother Ananias to follow him up, the poor disciple protested. He told the Lord that he had heard of this same man how much havoc he had done to the disciples at Jerusalem. Infact it was an open knowledge that he was carrying a warrant from the chief priests to arrest disciples in Damascus. Ananias wondered how the Lord could send him to such a dangerous fellow. The Lord asked him not to be afraid but to go and do as He bid him because he was His chosen vessel. He who served the enemy so vigorously was now to serve the Lord he kicked against.

The first point to make here is that Paul was not born a vessel of God. He was not converted at birth but infact fought the cause of Christ very zealously with everything at his disposal. At a point in his life the Lord arrested him and took him up from that point. Nobody was born converted. At a point in the life of every believer such repented and put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So they became born again and became new creations with old things past away. It was from this point that the Lord picked them and began to make them into His vessels for holy use.

There are many people that allow their past to hunt them forever. This is the trick of the devil and his aim is that you keep looking back and never look forward. Men that ever contend with their past may become crippled by that and never become effective for God in their day. Despite all that Saul had done in his past he still became one of Heaven’s great vessels. You must leave the past in the past. Rahab was a harlot, Mary Magdalene had seven demons cast out of her, Matthew was a bribe-taking tax collector and so on. Nobody was born good. Even if people keep reminding you of your past life, if you have repented and turned to the Lord in faith, that is in the past tense and forgotten by Heaven and will not stop you from becoming a mighty vessel for the Lord. You must now refuse the enemy, forgive yourself because the Lord has forgiven you and march on to become the vessel that God ordained for you to be.

A Chosen Vessel

The matter of being chosen is another crucial matter. The doctrine of sovereign election by the Almighty God is an important one in the Scriptures. The Sovereign God sovereignly chooses men to show them mercy and to pass through their lives to serve Him in their generation. He does this according to His foreknowledge and cannot be questioned about it.

(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. (Rom. 9:11-13)

The above Scripture is talking about how God spoke to Rebecca before her twin boys came out of her. They were not yet born nor had they done anything yet, whether good or evil. So, God choosing to show mercy to Jacob and use him for His purpose had nothing to do with works. Before they were born God had already said the elder one would serve the younger and that He loved Jacob and hated Esau. Some people will call this fatalistic predestination but it is not really so because God does it according to His foreknowledge and cannot be queried about His choices. Paul understood this and in his testimony he said that God separated him from his mother’s womb, and called him by His grace. It is an election of grace – God’s special kindness. By doing this God did not forget all the evil Paul did to His purposes but just chose him for His will and at the proper time apprehended and called him.

Now every man that God chose and elected must first appreciate Him and thank Him for this because it is not by merit. Then such must see that this places a great responsibility on him and must do everything he could to make his calling and election sure. Such needs to follow God closely, discover His purpose for his life and pursue it devotedly. So, all God’s vessels are sovereignly chosen by Him for His purposes. No matter how they have lived in the past once they are converted to Him they must forget the past and pursue with all their heart the reason why He loves and saved them. Not to do this but continue to live in sin and carelessly will be to squander the grace of God and become less than they were ordained to be.

Earthen Vessel

Such chosen/elected men become His chosen vessels – containers, deep plates or bowls. We are to see that they are earthen vessels made specifically and peculiarly by His hands for specific purposes. They are not mass produced or bought in the market but are custom made to fit a specific job and so made according to Divine specifications.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. (2 Cor. 4:7)

No matter how much power and wisdom, etc, exudes from you, you are still a clay jar – normal human being, a man of like passion like every other man. You can still fall sick, make mistakes, and die. Infact some of the men that God used so mightily were not strong. When you see them on stage you will think they are supernatural but when they come down they are like every other person – human. This shows that the great power coming out is from God and not from the man – the clay jar. Every vessel that understands this should not become proud of what God is doing through his life. He is just a vessel and a channel. Such must never touch the glory that belongs to God for ignorant men will try to make him a god. Even if everyone is mesmerized and confused the vessel himself must not but should remain humble and keep growing. He is just a clay jar.

God’s vessels can grow and enlarge their capacities. The aim of every vessel should be to grow and build capacity and offer to the LORD more space to fill with this treasure. To remain small and stunted is the bane of many who became satisfied and began to celebrate prematurely and peaked prematurely and became set aside because once the vessel is full it is set aside. Heaven sets aside all such  men who are full of themselves. God must help you to keep growing in His hands so that you can bear more and more of Him to your generation. You must strive for depth because shallow vessels are flat and contain little and easily spill what is in them. Such a person quickly dies up in prayer and utterance and is likely to be flippant. Such will not be of much use to God presently until they become deep. So bring yourself often to God in the closet and ask Him to make you deep for the deep calleth to the deep.

Made By Him

Every vessel that God uses is made by His Hands peculiarly and for particular purposes. When the Scripture says concerning Saul that: for I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake, this suffering includes the training he would go through to make him a vessel and prepare him for the ordained task. Later Paul suffered much as he executed the call of God upon his life but he started going through suffering when he began to go through discipleship as every discipleship that makes men vessels involves “suffering”.

And if children, then heirs, heir of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Rom. 8:17)

If you are a child of God then you are an heir of the Father. You have an inheritance that the Father has prepared for you. You became a joint-heir with the first born Son. Now the inheritance is not for the immature and so we must suffer like the Son did if we are to share His glory and enter into our own inheritances. This suffering that sanctifies a man and transforms him into maturity is synonymous to discipleship. God uses it to train His children and make His vessels.

Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. (Jer. 18:3-4)

This is a picture that God showed to Jeremiah the prophet at the potter’s house and we want to learn from it. We will not attempt to go deep into the making process but just to use this picture to gain a few understandings for our lives. Firstly, God is the Potter Who makes the earthen clay jar. The human being is the clay – the raw material. When the raw material has been obtained and processed so that it is pure clay (the man falls into His hands voluntarily after sin and the flesh are removed) then He begins His work. This work is done in secret, in the man’s closet and inner chamber. It is at the altar that He makes men. It is a very painstaking and meticulous work in the Hands of the perfect Being. The wheels on which He wrought speak of the fact that He uses different instruments. Actually the wheels come in at the finishing stages when the vessel is being rounded off and smoothened. These instruments include other men, situation, circumstances, etc. Every vessel is made for a specific purpose and it is made as seemed good to the potter to make it. He does not consult you to know what you want to be made for. Eph. 2:10 says we are made for good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So He makes every vessel according to His fore-ordained plan for that person. If a vessel gets marred He can make it into another vessel. But if a vessel becomes difficult and spoils, like Judas, such is deposited in the Potter’s field where all vessels that got broken or in whom the Potter could not ‘succeed’, are laid. May the LORD succeed with you and use you greatly so that you do not end up in the Potter’s field. When He has succeeded in making a vessel He does not forget such but keeps him/her for holy use.

So you must settle down now and submit into His hands and be yielded and still so that He can make you into the vessel He has ordained for your life.

If any man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. (2 Tim. 2:21)

Dear friend if you want the Master to use you as a vessel of honour then you must settle down and take the above instructions seriously. This is how to agree with Him and submit to His making. Number one you must purge yourself of all iniquity. Then you will be sanctified. This qualifies you as the kind of vessel that He can use. Then HE can prepare you unto every good work. So, every vessel that the Holy God will use must be sanctified, qualified and prepared for every good work that the Master has ordained for him to do. None of this can be waved for you if you are going to be a vessel of honour and be mightily used for the Master. He has advertised this to you in case you want to serve Him and not waste your life serving Satan or yourself. Your response to this advertisement will go a long way to determine whether He will prepare you for good works or not. You may need to withdraw from every activity including the ones you call ministry, and give this a thought and respond to the LORD about it in prayers. May the LORD help you to decide well, IJN.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion let us take this charge from the Holy Spirit:

Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Tim. 2:22)

The Master wants to start using people from when they are young like He used Timothy, Joseph, David, etc. He can still use you at any age but when your life is burnt out by dissipations and wantonness and you have become wasted what can He do with you? So, flee youthful lusts. Flee is not just run but to aggressively escape from youthful lusts – the things that young people love to do. These include illegitimate sex in all its ramifications, addiction to the internet, fashion and indulgencies, etc. Young people generally do not know how to exercise self control and that is the matter. They do not have boundaries and know where and when to stop. Lusts are strongest when a person is young and if you want God to use you then you must heed the instruction to flee all youthful lusts.

When you have fled youthful lusts you cannot afford to be ‘neutral’ but must engage yourself with pursuing righteousness, faith and so on. To pursue them means to practice them until they become your lifestyle.

Note that you do not pursue these alone but with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. So the company you keep is very crucial. The ungodly will corrupt you but those that trust God with a pure heart as you do will encourage you in your journey unto becoming God’s vessel unto honour and doing great works.

May the grace of God never depart from you as you strive for mastery and become the Master’s vessel and channel.