The Potter’s Hands

The Potter’s Hands

 

What would you do if you became a small child again? You will do exactly what you did when you were a child. If you called a jacket ‘a backet’, you would call it the same. At that age, it is natural to behave as a child and once again, you would resort to absolute dependence on your parents. Physical and emotional maturity indicates when young adults are becoming ready to be independent of their parents. In contrast, the more you are dependent on God; the more you are becoming spiritually mature. Dependence on parents is increasingly limiting whereas growing dependence on God is increasingly liberating.

Dependence on parents as a child is natural whereas dependence on God is by choice. Gods challenge is working with us, human beings who are capable of resisting, and interfering with his effort[1].  He is looking for people who, like babies, depend entirely on Him and like adults do it willingly. Faith is absolute dependence on God based on knowledge of His love, good will and desire for the best for you[2]. Faith in its highest form is allowing God to make you as He pleases. God’s priority is to make you He is interested in your formation before your function and promotion[3]. Correspondingly, your priority ought to be allowing Him to make you.  God wants us to grow from a ‘give me’ mentality to a passionate ‘mould me and make’ me heart cry. The prodigal son was keen to get things from his father and ended up losing everything he got.

In child like faith, can you yield to His hands as clay in the hands of a potter?[4] Oh, how incredible the potential you would realize if you allowed the Potter’s wheel to shape you into the Potter’s design. Is your heart’s cry, above all else, ‘make me, make me after thy will?’ It is only lip service faith, when you trust God with eternal life yet cannot trust Him with earthly life. Or when you trust Him for big impact, yet cannot trust Him for direction of life. When you trust Him with resurrection from the dead, yet cannot trust him with healing. When you sing ‘all to thee I surrender’, yet lie awake all night worried. When you sing, ‘He has got the whole world in his hands’, yet cannot include yourself in that world. Always remember that you are in God’s hands not so He can just carry and cuddle you but so He can shape you. He will use the word He has put inside you to renew your mind and life. Never forget that the more word of God there is inside you, the more you will experience everything that comes from God[5].

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[1] Isaiah 45:9

[2] Jeremiah 29:11

[3] Matthew 4:19

[4] Isaiah 64:8

[5] Romans 12:2; Psalm 19:7-11

Enough Desire

Enough Desire

A student of Plato sat at the feet of the philosopher for a long time. He listened to his instruction and watched him demonstrate wisdom but still could not walk in wisdom. Puzzled by the problem he went to the philosopher, and asked him why he could not also attain true wisdom. Plato took him to the sea and asked him to follow him into the water. He then asked the student to dip his head into the water. When his head was in the water, Plato held it under the water while the student battled in vain to go free. A little later, he let him lift out his head. The student gasped desperately for all the air he could draw into his lungs. Looking at the signs of relief on his face, Plato said, “When you desire wisdom as desperately as you desired to breathe the air you just breathed -- then you shall find it.”[1]

God’s will is for every believer to grow to spiritual maturity and bear much fruit.  However, many have read or listened to Bible teachings, yet their lives have not changed. It should not be like that because the word of God is the seed for all fruitfulness. The parable of the sower illustrates how fruitfulness is a heart issue (Mathew 13). The soil or attitude of one’s heart to the word of God is the single variable that determines fruit. The heart has to be eager to receive and retain the word of God. The enemy of desire for the word and its fruit is failure to understand its value. To overcome, approach God’s word with a heart prepared by dependence on God through praying for insight and understanding.

If you are hungry enough to have a productive spiritual life, you will have it.  Jesus said “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). The Bible has many examples of such people. Jacob desired a blessing enough to wrestle with God and got his desire.[2]  Hanna desired a child enough she prayed in an unusually passionate way and she got her desire.[3]  The woman with an issue of blood desired healing enough to press through the crowds to touch Jesus and she got it.[4]  The men with a paralytic desired his restoration enough to break through the roof to reach Jesus and they got it.[5]  Jesus desired your joy so much he endured the cross and he got His desire.[6]  If obstacles are insurmountable, your desire is not yet strong enough. If you cannot let go something for your desire, it is not yet strong enough. The grace of God rallies divine resources where there is a faith passion. Celebrating your desire rejuvenates strength and stimulates creativity. Faith frowns at obstacles and celebrates desired things before they are seen (Hebrew 11:1).

  

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[1] Several versions of this story exist

[2] Genesis 32:24, 25

[3] 1 Samuel 1:13

[4] Luke 8:43, 44

[5] Mark 2:4

[6] Hebrews 12:2

The Counter Decree

The Counter Decree

Have you ever faced a hard decision that was risky, costly, and inconvenient but of great importance? Queen Esther faced such a decision when Modecai, a God fearing man who worked in the king’s palace, told her about the imminent destruction of the people of God (Esther 3:12-15; 4:14). Even as queen, she could not approach the king unless he summoned her. If she did this and he did not wave his golden scepter, she would be put to death. Yet the stakes could not have been higher for her. Not only had the king issued an irreversible decree to destroy the people of God, Haman the champion of the entire plot had built gallows on which to hang Modecai. Despite the dangers, through prayer, Modecai’s encouragement and desperate faith, Esther went into the inner court to face the king. Courageously, she said, ‘If I perish, I perish.’

Because of Esther's courage, she found favor with the king and a dramatic last minute reversal happened. Modecai was lifted from the king’s gate, were he sat in sackcloth and ashes, to being paraded in royal robes. As for Haman, in the way he had prescribed for himself - Modecai was honored and on the gallows he had made for Modecai, he himself was hung (Proverbs 26:27). Of note is that the king's decree to destroy the people of God was valid even after Haman's death. The king however made a counter decree by which they would defend themselves (Esther 8:9-14). Further, he gave Esther and Modecai his signet ring that held authority to overpower the earlier decree and render it powerless (Esther 8:8). Similarly, against the law of sin and death that threatens a believer’s life Christ issued a superior law of the Spirit and life (Romans 8:1-3).

At the cross, Christ granted a counter decree for your life and neutralized the decree of death that was over you. You have received authority to defend yourself by God’s word, the blood of the Lamb, the power of prayer, Jesus’ name and faith in God. Always remember that when you are down it is not yet over. God moves right in time to pull together a glorious ending. God is working in your life often when you do not see and in ways, you do not expect. In the end through your faith and courage, the deeper the valley you go to the higher the honor. The thicker the enemy’s plot against you, the more marvelous the escape. The darker the clouds over you, the better the rains they pour. The longer the night you endure the brighter the day you will enjoy. The harder the battle the sweeter your victory will be.