The God of love desires all men to be saved, and He has been looking for workers who are able to fulfill His desires through the fiery works of the Holy Spirit in these end times. In order to become well-prepared vessels that God can use, we must be prepared to meet three standards. Let's look into those three here and quickly change to become vessels that are fully prepared to be used by God.
1. A Clean Vessel
2 Timothy 2:21 reads, "Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work." As written, we must become clean vessels first to be useful to the Master.
Here, we should understand that the cleansing process differs from person to person according to each one's love for God, their faith in Him, and their hope for Heaven. At first some of them were fervent, but soon their fervor cooled down and their faith became lukewarm. Some of them even returned to the filthiness of the world. In some cases, they became more evil than before and corrupted following the ways of the world (2 Peter 2:20).
However, if we truly believe God, love Him, and have hope for Heaven, we will unchangingly try to discover ourselves and renew ourselves, and thereby become clean vessels (2 Corinthians 7:1). Only then can we become well-prepared vessels and join in the fiery works of the Holy Spirit.
1 Peter 4:7 says, "The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer." Thus, we should pray more fervently with sound judgment and sober spirit at this end time. With this effort and by receiving God's grace, strength, and the Spirit's help, we can become clean vessels without either blemish or spot.
2. A Vessel Suitable for the Purpose
When choosing a single vessel from among many, we have to consider what kind of food we will put in it. We must then use it for the intended purpose. In the same manner, when God does His work for His kingdom, He chooses and uses vessels that are suitable for each given purpose. He knows very well how clean and big our vessels are and He knows the intended purpose for which we are the most appropriately suited.
God looks at our inner hearts, considers our heart-vessel's degree of cleanliness and size, and uses us for the most appropriate purpose. He also considers our talents and abilities. Therefore, we should carefully think about the purpose we can be used for in God's kingdom and prepare ourselves for the purpose. But note we should not decide it by our own thoughts or because some type of work looks nice, but we must be guided by the Holy Spirit through prayer.
As written in Philippians 2:13, God gives us hope, works in us for His will and for His good pleasure, and guides us to achieve that hope. Thus, when we ask God in prayer, He helps us find the work in a field that fits us best and that we have an aptitude for.
But what God uses us for is not predestined, nor is it the only option out there for us. We can be used in a vast variety of fields and in more precious ways than we could ever think about, as long as we cleanse our vessels and make our hearts proper in God's sight.
Still, what we should do is to make full preparation to fulfill God-given duties perfectly. Even if our career path in God's kingdom has been determined, we must not think we don't need further preparation and this is the end of our preparation. But we should keep on trying to become more proper vessels for God's use.
By developing talents more perfectly, we can be used as well-prepared vessels no matter when God calls us and no matter what purpose He has designed for us. When there are prepared vessels in each of these fields, all things can work together for good..
However, no matter what we are used for, the armament of the Word and prayer are basics. We should both become spiritual warriors and develop our ability, and thereby become well-prepared vessels for God's kingdom.
3. A Vessel useful to the Master
Although we may have many vessels in the house, there are certain vessels that we use regularly. Even when we get new and pretty ones, we tend to use the vessels we are used to using. We too should be such vessels for God, and those who obey Him are such vessels.
In other words, God uses those who obey Him more than other vessels. He entrusts more works to them and wants to keep them by Him. Meantime, they grow up to be larger and more precious vessels.
Of course, just as it takes time to get used to using something that is new, it also takes time for us to become persons who can obey God perfectly and until then we may undergo the process of refinement. But if one has a good and clean inner heart, he can change more quickly into a vessel that the owner feels comfortable using. Therefore, we should try hard to renew ourselves. Whether we become a precious vessel of honor or a vessel of dishonor depends on how we renew ourselves.
Even if we are not a vessel of gold now, if we prepare our vessel well, we can be used by God. We should never complain about the quality of our vessel, but we just have to try our best to fulfill our current duty in our current position. Then, God will use us greatly and we can later be changed into vessels of gold as well.
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Manmin News 
11021
