We are all vessels

We are all created to fulfill purpose

For you have created all things and for your pleasure they are and were created Rev 4:11

The purpose of God is written down already, long before we all came along.

Some were written as prophecies… and they all must come to pass, for none of HIS word will fall to the ground without being accomplished.

For His words to be fulfilled, vessels must be used… some unto honor and some unto dishonored.

We have the responsibility to choose which of the vessels we will be, and mind you… there is no in-between. You are either a vessel unto honor or unto dishonor. (one of the strategies of the devil is to make you think you can be in between)

How do you choose which you’ll be? By choosing who you will be.

Who you decide to be, is what determines which vessel you will be in the purpose of God to fulfill his WORD.

PS 18: 25-26 /2sam 26-27: With the kind, you show yourself kind; with the blameless, you show yourself blameless; With the pure, you show yourself pure, and with the crooked, you show yourself astute.

We mostly see God’s plan in retrospect: no man can determine what God is up to from the beginning

Ecc 3: 11: Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

John 13:7: Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

What you need to be concerned then is not what vessel you are but what manner of person you are. You don’t even know you have fulfilled a prophecy until you look back in retrospect.

John 12: 16: His disciples did not know these things from the first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and these things they had done to Him.

Someone like Judas became a vessel unto dishonor: he didn’t know when he fulfilled the prophecy that has been written down: that the one closest to Jesus will betray him (Ps 41:9)…. He entered into the prophecy because he has been stealing from the purse (John 10:6). He really thought he was smart, He must have thought that Jesus would deliver himself as at other times, but prophecy has to be fulfilled.

Even the devil is a vessel in the hand of God….one to dishonor of course, he has a part in the ultimate plan and purpose of God.

Satan is allowed to do only that which God has planned for His glory and our good. He does nothing apart from divine permission. He does nothing contrary to God’s plan. Through Satan’s opposition, God’s purposes are fulfilled, and Satan’s purposes are frustrated.

God uses Satan in His plan to achieve His sovereign purposes and to fulfill His plan. God not only employs Satan to bring about the blessing of His saints, but He also uses Satan to bring about divine discipline.

The New Testament Scriptures, as well as the Old, reveal that while Satan opposes God and man in an attempt to frustrate God’s plan, his efforts are used by God to further His plan. The temptation of our Lord only demonstrated our Lord’s qualifications as the “Son of God.” Satanic opposition to our Lord was the occasion for our Lord to show His power over Satan and the demons. Our Lord’s death, which for a short time appeared to be a victory for Satan, proved to be the basis for Satan’s defeat ( John 16:11).

Satan’s opposition to the saints also may appear for a short time to be a victory for Satan. While Satan is used in the discipline of wayward saints, the goal is their spiritual deliverance from the bondage of sin:

I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 5:5).

A messenger of Satan was permitted to afflict the apostle Paul. But far from hindering Paul’s spiritual growth or ministry, it produced humility and dependence on God.

And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me–to keep me from exalting myself! (2 Corinthians 12:7).

Motivated by pride, Satan opposed Paul and the gospel. God sovereignty turned this around, producing in Paul humility and dependence on the Lord. Think of it! The harder Satan works to oppose the gospel, the more he promotes it. It is all part of God’s perfect plan! Even in the midst of his opposition, Satan is always serving God.

Be careful therefore what manner of man you become.

Now then….

There is reward and punishment for every vessel…. Reward for vessels unto honor and punishment for vessels unto dishonor.

I put it before you today: life and death, Reward or punishment, honor or dishonor, choose ye what you will be!

 

Selah