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| What is Pouring Out from Your Life? Are You a Vessel or an Un-Vessel? The choice has always been yours to make... |
"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart."
God made YOU. He formed you. He knew you. He had in mind what you were to be. You are His masterpiece. You are one of a kind. You were chosen. How special does that make you feel? If it doesn't it should. You are a creation of the Utmost High God. He knows every part of you. You are unique. You are special and whether or not you acknowledge it or are aware of it, or believe it - You are HIS.
"For you formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well..." (Psalms 139:13-14).
I can visualize in my mind God creating you, with such excitement and pride and joy. Think about it. If you are a parent, a father or a mother - think about the joy you experienced when you found you were going to have a child. As a mother myself, I can remember laying a hand on my stomach, talking to this little tiny peanut of a being with such love and joy and happiness and hopes. I remember saying to my firstborn Joseph, when I found out:
"Oh how I rejoice in the fact that God has given me YOU. You are answered prayer. You are special, you are a blessing. In fact, I use to a sing a song to him it was called, "God made you special" Sung by Denise Williams. I spoke blessings over my unborn child, even though God had not yet formed his outward ears in completion, I know Joseph's soul heard me. I nourished him not only with that from my own body, but with my words of love and blessings. If I did that with my own children - how much more so does God do that with us as He forms us? He has great desires for you. He has plans for you. The only thing you have to do is choose. He has given us free will. We can choose to be that vessel He has called us to be, or we can choose to be an un-vessel.
Just as surely as God has created our physical bodies - He has created you with a desire that is to be one in communion with Him. There is a part of us (whether or not we choose to acknowledge it) is hungry to be one in communion with God. Originally it was our sole purpose in being created to have fellowship with God. I often think about what the Garden of Eden must have been like before Adam and Eve's fall... I don't know about you, but I LOVE the outdoors. I love hearing the birds sing, seeing God's nature in the different plants and flowers that He has created, I tend to believe that Adam and Eve communicated with the animals in the garden, because when the snake deceived Eve, she was not surprised that he spoke to her. How peaceful it must have been, sheer joy and love and harmony and abundance - such as we won't know until we get to Heaven. All around us is the witness of God. In the hustle and bustle of daily life we get so caught up in activity or family or problems that those things that speak so clearly of God's being get drowned out and often ignored or taken for granted as we live our lives. Live our lives not realizing or identifying or acknowledging the true reason of why we were created. When God made you, He made you with special gifts, special talents that were yours to be used to glorify Him.
You can choose to be a vessel or an un-vessel.
Definition of a vessel according to the Miriam Webster Dictionary:
" A vessel is a vein or artery that covers blood to the rest of the body" or "A vessel is a hollowed container for holding liquids" or "A vessel is a ship or large boat."
An "un-vessel" (a definition a new friend just introduced me too recently) is someone who is a vessel and doesn't know it... Maybe they try to fill themselves with things other than what God originally intended, but true satisfaction can never be found without filling it with what God intended it to be filled with - HIMSELF. Even Jesus said:
"Whoever drinks of the water I give him shall never thirst.but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." (John 4:14-15)
You were made to be a vessel. A very rare, special and dear vessel unto the Lord. You choose what you will be filled up with - discovering the true purpose that God has for you or living a life as an un-vessel, filled with other things that will never give you the satisfaction or the completion you would receive if you realized that you were created to be filled up with God's purpose; that is where the peace that passes ALL understanding described in Philippians 4:7 comes from. I can't adequately find the words to write to explain just what that feels like, it's something you have to experience for yourself and here is the thing - just like our fingerprints are individual and unique - so is the calling God has for you. It is better than ANYTHING you could have chosen for yourself, part of life's journey is figuring out JUST WHAT THAT CALLING IS. I can only compare it to a treasure hunt - with you being the treasure. There is such a peace that comes about when you realize that God created you, He made you, He formed you SPECIAL. That He has a purpose for your life - and it is not a contest, nor is it one where you are in competition with someone else. God has no favorites. He loves us each individually for who He created us to be. He made you. He knows you. He loves you. You were not made by mistake - no matter how you were conceived. God knew you were coming. You were no surprise to Him. Maybe you were made to feel as though you weren't special, maybe you were born into a situation where you felt unloved. However you entered into this world, you need to know that YOU ARE LOVED. Greatly, truly, wonderfully, completely loved. Hear my words - for I am only a vessel unto the Lord, my calling - to write for Him. To allow my fingers to fly over my keyboard and deliver whatever words of encouragement I can give you to allow you to know that God's word is the same today as it was yesterday as it will be tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8). Whether or not you acknowledge it - you need to know, you were created to be a vessel. God desires to be glorified through your life with the gifts He has created you to utilize. He loves you enough to give you the choice - to be a vessel or an un-vessel.
Look at the example of Jonah. God told him specifically what he wanted him to do and what did Jonah do? HE RAN!!! He thought he could run from God and for the purpose that God had for him. You can read about it yourself in the book of Jonah in your Bible. To get Jonah's attention God had to have a whale or "great fish" swallow Jonah up, what a way to get Jonah's undivided and complete attention. I have written a post about it in my blog - you can look it up on the side of my page, under my blog entries from 2013, the month is October and it is entitled "Are You in the Middle of a Jonah Moment." The point is - God will continue to capture your undivided attention for as long as you have breath in your body. He loves you, He knows that the purpose He created you for your life will bless you more abundantly than you can possibly imagine! There is no greater satisfaction or joy than to be used as a vessel by the One who created you - God. So maybe God hasn't swallowed up someone by a whale or big fish in these current times (or maybe He has and we just haven't read again about it yet... hehehehe...) But if you think about it - what point in your life do you keep coming back to? Someway, somehow God is trying to capture your attention. Only you can determine if you think long and hard about it how He is doing that...
"Here I am!!! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me." (Revelations 3:20)
Listen - do you hear it? Quiet your soul. Quiet the noise around you. LISTEN. It is God knocking on the door of your heart. Open it. What do you have to lose? You have only to gain. Try it - see what it is God is telling you. I know that as you read this word, that desire that God instilled for Him within you is crying out. Maybe for the first time you are recognizing that you were not created to be an "un-vessel," but a "vessel." You won't be whole until you recognize and fulfill the purpose that God has for your life. And here is the thing - YOU are the VESSEL. HE is the provision. He wants to be used in YOU, through YOU, by YOU. So let Him in...
Here is the thing about vessels. They come in all shapes and sizes, they are not all the same. We are an imperfect people, God is in the business of using those imperfections to draw people unto Him. I think about my own imperfections and it makes me realize all the more - I am called to be a vessel, yes that is true... But here is the beauty of it - God fills me up. God makes me beautiful. The beauty you see in me - is Him. Without Him, I am an un-vessel, incomplete and not used for the intent in which I was created. The beauty you see in me - is HIM.
I think there is very clearly a reason why throughout the Bible God has chosen to use people who you would not have thought He would use. They were not the strongest, they were not the most beautiful or perhaps they were the last people you would expect to be chosen for "Team God." Yet they opened themselves up through their faith to allow God to use them. Mary did, David did, Jonah (finally did ) as did so many others that you can read about in your Bible. When you read about them, remember that these are not a made up bunch of characters - but real individuals like you and me - who decided upon their own free will to be vessels unto the Lord.
God created you for a purpose. A beautiful one of a kind purpose. Will you be that vessel unto Him? Listen... Do you hear it? He's knocking... It's time for you to stop ignoring the knock and open the door wide. You won't be sorry...
"Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him." (Psalms 34:8)
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