Vessel

Feb 2

By
ARMEL LWAMBA

We are what we contain and we choose what we desire to contain. No one forces us, it is up to us to choose. As the Bible says: Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD (Jeremiah 17:5 ESV). Then every man has to grow from the state of fleshly man or worldly man to royal vessel.

Because when we become royal vessels, we come with the trust label. God makes us trust worthy. Because we've chosen to surrender and as God's vessels, no one should defile what God has cleansed because God wouldn't tolerate that.
If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1 Corinthians 3:17 ESV)

All trials that God allows us to face, become part of our growth, contributing to polishing us. Because a royal vessel needs to be clean and strong. The stronger it is, the more it can receive. So as a vessel, do not complain of being polished through trials, be thankful for what you receive after you have been made stronger.

Strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22 ESV)

Claiming to surrender needs to be tested. And the test doesn't come the way we want, it comes the way God wants it. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9) Because we surrender to His will. Like Jesus Himself said; “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42 NIV)

As vessels, we have to trust that what we contain will not break us, because we are meant to contain it, the vessel and the content have to be proportional. Although the trials will sometimes be more than we can handle, when we will face too much, God's strength will help us when ours is not enough. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. (Isaiah 40:29 ESV)

So, do not be ashamed to ask for help when the trials are too much, because help is always available for God's vessels. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6 ESV)

The stronger we get, the more we can contain, and the price to get stronger is never easy but it is always for our good. Because the stronger the vessel, the more trustworthy you become and the lesser blind we become too.

Leaving the state of man to become a royal vessel requires sacrifices. One would ask, can one truly calls something that costs him much, hurts him, something good?

That is why, we do not choose to sacrifice what we have now for a life of service to Jesus, because we are too attached to all those things and are blinded by the fact that there are only temporary, blinded and considering the joy that we have always known and found in those things as joy. But let me tell you that joy is not found in this world but in abiding in the love of Jesus by keeping His commandments (John 15:5-11). Becoming a vessel does not only require sacrifices, as the Bible says; "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship" (Romans 12:1 ESV), but also riddance or repentance. Riddance of all that was disguised as being for us when it had always been against us. And the only way to manage that, is by Grace alone. We stand, we live, we grow by Grace alone.

The Bible says: But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”... (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV). His Grace for us is more than a man can need. Our weapons are weak against evil. We are able to see days end by Grace, we are able to stand on waters by Grace, we are able to walk through fire by Grace, we are able to stand in the unknown by Grace. So do not feel like becoming a vessel is something that you do on your own, it is something that is accomplished by Grace alone because HIS Grace is enough. Surrender to the LORD and your journey to discovering who you truly are, who you were always meant to be starts.

The battle within us will endure as long as we still know about God and do not yet know God.

There is a difference between knowing about God and knowing God. We become vessels when we know who God is. After all, how can a vessel not know what it contains. Fear, doubt, shame and many other feelings are still present because we know about God and do not know Him. Called to growth we are. We are called to know God in order to be the vessels we are meant to be.

There is no reason to jealous one another, because as vessels, not all vessels are meant to be used for the same purpose, nor the same way or at the same time. We all have different purposes which suits the size of what we can contain and the purpose for what we were made vessels by Grace alone.

Therefore, one can truly become a royal vessel only when one knows God and not only knowing about God. Knowing God, you can now start to experience what you have always been destined to, instead of thinking that you were meant for what you found when you lost your way.

God loves you, and it is up to each of us to decide if we love ourselves enough to surrender to God and become the vessels that we were meant to be. The moment HE thought of us; before we became, because our purposes were defined when we were thought of and the greater the purpose, the more trials we will have to go through. Never alone, but with GOD.