A Prepared Vessel
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December 21, 2008 |
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 "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest" (Luke 10:2).
By the power of God, anyone can bear abundant fruit. Yet, each individual must be prepared to be worthy of God's use. If one is not prepared, the amount or magnitude of fruit and reasons for thanksgiving will be correspondingly small. In God's kingdom and in an individual's life, the more prepared a vessel is, the more abundant a harvest and reasons for thanksgiving will be.
After a harvest, a wise farmer prepares for the following season by making a point of meticulously considering all of crops. By the same token, we must look back on the past year, examine the fruit we have borne, and strive to reap a greater harvest in the coming year.
Let us delve into "the prepared vessel" of which God speaks and examine our own hearts.
1. Someone Who Does Not Involve Fleshly Thoughts
In accomplishing His work, God seeks people who will not involve or mix fleshly thoughts but adhere only to His will. In Luke 10:12, Jesus tells us, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." While it can be gathered from this verse that there are not enough laborers, it can also be concluded that there is an earnest need for laborers who will work according to God's will. Even if a worker for God's kingdom is available, if he follows not God's will but fleshly thoughts, it is as though that worker is not present.
Of course, any worker of God will strive to adhere to God's will. However, there are many instances in which workers of God will not do so.
1 Samuel 15:9-23 is a scene in which Saul disobeys God's Word and does as he pleases. Even though Saul is told to "utterly destroy" the Amalekites but he brought back their king and sought to sacrifice to God sheep and oxen he had taken from them. It may at first appear as a brilliant idea but Saul had only disobeyed God's Word. No matter how good and sensible my own ideas and thoughts may seem, they will be useless as they are not part of or related to God's will. Even if it is beneficial to God's kingdom, if God's law is violated the act will merely be the result of fleshly thoughts.
Romans 8:7 tells us, "The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so." In other words, without the shattering of fleshly thoughts, an individual will continue to act in accordance with what his thoughts tell him is in the right and thus be unable to subject himself to the law of God.
The prophets of the Old Testament era, disciples of Our Lord, and the Apostle Paul faced trials in order to have their fleshly thoughts shattered. One can wholly obey God only without fleshly thoughts, and the destruction of fleshly thoughts calls for the individual to root out every element and remnant of evil and untruth in his heart and fill it with goodness, love, and the truth. However, as the Holy Spirit dwells within each individual today, he can quickly throw out fleshly thoughts as long as he obeys His voice. Only then will he follow after the desires of the Holy Spirit and come forth as a worker God seeks.
For instance, suppose God assigns you a task that is difficult for you to comprehend at first. Even so, if you relentlessly make every effort to follow after the voice of the Holy Spirit and pray to God, He will show you the way. If you begin to involve fleshly thoughts, your heart will be troubled, you will make mistakes while doing God's work, and you will face constant interruptions and interferences. When you follow after the desires of the Holy Spirit, however, every aspect of the work will prosper and, even if things do not seem to go swimmingly at first, they will do so in the end.
2. Someone Who Embraces All People with a Heart of Goodness
God seeks vessels in whose good and virtuous hearts any and all souls can find rest. A church is a place where people of all different types of backgrounds, environments, knowledge, circumstances, and personalities gather. At times, some people come to church not to believe in God but for some other purposes. A prepared vessel must embrace even such individuals and lead them onto the path of salvation.
In Luke 5:32, Jesus tells us, "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." By equipping himself in a good heart with virtue and love, a prepared must vessel must transform anyone and breathe in life.
To this day, I have met many different types of individuals. Even if I embraced them in goodness, there were those who paid back in evil or even in betrayal. There were people who grossly blasphemed against the kingdom of God. On their account, there were times at which the congregation and I were gravely afflicted in the heart. Still, I had not for once hoped God to punish those individuals. I prayed in tears with an earnest desire for them to repent, turn from their ways, and receive salvation. Even today, as I am waiting for them to come back, the doors to the church remain wide open and I cannot adequately express with words my joy upon seeing some of them coming back.
Furthermore, in nurturing workers with whom I will accomplish God's kingdom, I have done so only in faith, hope, and love. No matter how much an individual may have lacked, I hoped and believed that God would one day transform him into a great worker and provided him with everything I had.
3. Someone Who Gives Thanks in Any Circumstances
In accomplishing the works of the Lord, there can be instances in which it is difficult to give thanks. Such are the times when the difference between a prepared vessel and an unprepared vessel becomes evident. A prepared vessel turns the circumstance under which he cannot give thanks into a reason for thanksgiving, and then magnifies God.
The life of the Apostle Paul was a series of such events. Throughout the course of his life, Paul came across more situations in which he could not be grateful than situations in which he could. Nonetheless, Paul transformed even those situations into reasons for thanksgiving.
Suppose you were falsely beaten, framed, and imprisoned while preaching the Gospel. How would you feel? The Apostle Paul wholly gave thanks to God and praised Him. Then the prison doors opened and on this account, the jailer and all his household received salvation, an event through which Paul bore the fruit of the Gospel. In a situation in which it was difficult to give thanks, Paul actually ended up bearing abundant fruit and magnified God.
The apostles "[rejoiced] that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name" (Acts 5:41). Even when it was hard for them to give thanks as they were beaten and persecuted on account of the Gospel, the apostles still gave thanks. This is the type of people in whom God is interested.
Therefore, I urge each of you to give thanks even in times you cannot. As you confess that what you are facing is an opportunity of God's blessings and move forth in faith, you will receive the blessings and magnify God per your confessions.
God fulfills all of His Providence. However, there are times when the progress is slow in coming or being achieved. This is the evidence of the love of God who desires each of us to come forth as a prepared vessel. The Almighty God can accomplish everything swiftly but, according to His love and justice, when we are not prepared He cannot accomplish them. As the preparedness of the heart, the faith, and all circumstances and conditions must be in order, God will wait. Instead of giving His children the visible and tangible fruit right away, God will first lead their souls to prosper.
What good would it do, even if the fruit were borne and the works were accomplished immediately, if the souls of His children have not prospered and their faith has not grown? By His love, God leads the faith of His children to grow and their souls to prosper.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when we fix our eyes on God's works through the eyes of faith and obey Him by destroying our fleshly thoughts, we will be able to experience the power of God who magnificently accomplishes all of which He has spoken. Furthermore, when we have come forth as prepared vessels, God will give us without restraint all that we ask Him and the blessings we receive at that time will be firm.
May each of you come forth as a prepared vessel used for God's kingdom and magnify Him greatly by understanding God's love of great depths, in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ I pray!
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