God Created Man as a Vessel to Contain God as Life for the Fulfillment of His Purpose

In order to fulfil His purpose, God created man as a vessel to contain Him as life; God chose us that we may be vessels of honour filled with the Triune God, He makes known His glory upon us that we may be vessels of glory, and by His mercy, we’re vessels of mercy. Hallelujah!

This week we come to the last week in the HWMR on The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity for the Divine Economy.

The topic for this week is, Being a Vessel Open to the Lord and Living Ordinary Days in the Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity.

As we prayerfully consider the matter of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, we are enlightened, supplied, encouraged, and motivated.

But we may not fully understand what experiencing the divine dispensing includes.

The divine dispensing is not limited to our time on earth; it is not merely related to the matter of us being transformed and built up.

What we see with the divine dispensing is the principle of the tree of life, which is dependence.

The more we grow in life, the more we’re built up, and the more we realize that we’re totally dependent on the Triune God and on the organic Body of Christ.

This is true not only in this age, on earth but even in the next age, for the overcomers who are co-kings in the kingdom will be experiencing more divine dispensing.

When all the believers in Christ have been perfected and the Lord has His wife, there will be a new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem, and forever we will enjoy the divine dispensing!

We will forever be dependent on our beloved Lord Jesus. This will never end.

We will always need Him and depend on Him, and we will be fresh and vital with Him as we remain under His divine dispensing. This will be our future.

How about today, our daily human life? We could say that there are two aspects to the divine dispensing, one being outward-inward dispensing, and the other an inward-inward dispensing.

This can be illustrated with eating a meal; first, we take something from outside of us into us (outward-inward dispensing), and then what has come into us is being digested and assimilated, and it is being applied to every cell and fibre of our being (inward-inward dispensing).

The objective food on the plate becomes very subjective to us not only by our eating but even more by our digesting and assimilating.

It is the same with the divine dispensing. We may love to eat the Lord by reading and praying over His word, but we also need to open to the Lord and experience the inward-inward dispensing, the digestion and assimilation of the Triune God as our food.

The Triune God is endeavouring to dispense Himself into us non-stop, little by little, every day.

And we received Him into our spirit; He is in our spirit as our spiritual stomach.

But there needs to be a further dispensing, a spreading, an assimilation. He needs to spread to all the parts of our inner being.

It is not enough just to read the Bible or the ministry; we need to digest what we read, and the Lord as the word needs to be assimilated into our inner being in our experience.

May we be open vessels to the Lord to eat, digest, and assimilate Him in the divine dispensing day by day.

God Created Man as a Vessel to Contain God as Life for the Fulfillment of His Purpose

God formed man of the dust of the ground; like a potter shaping a vessel, God made man from the dust and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Gen. 2:7).

Man is a human vessel created in the image and according to the likeness of God to contain God as life for the fulfilment of His purpose.

God created man as a vessel to contain Him as life.

We are just a vessel. A vessel is not there as an instrument to do something or to know something but to be filled with something so that it may express that something.

There are more than eight billion people on earth today, but how many of these human vessels are filled with the Triune God as their content?

Even among us in the church life in the Lord’s recovery, how many of us are filled with God as our content? What is filling our vessel?

What do we put in our vessel hour by hour, day by day?

We have this little device in our hand, our smartphone, and there are so many things that we take in through this device.

Do we realize that the god of this age wants to saturate our mind with his demonic thoughts and intentions?

Or do we just take in everything that the world offers to us freely, without any discernment or further thought?

As we go to work and contact people, as we travel and do things, do we just take in everything that is around us and is spoken to us, or do we exercise to be filled with God as life?

What do we do in our quiet times, our down times, when we have time to ourselves?

We are vessels to contain something. God created man as a vessel to contain God as life for the fulfilment of His purpose.

We are vessels that need to contain something. This is why we want to consume things, and we may consume things such as the news, sports, technology, social media, entertainment, etc.

What do we fill our vessel with? Nothing pleases the Lord as much as for us to realize that He doesn’t want us to do anything for Him or just to know about Him but that we love Him, open ourselves up to Him, and let Him live from within us.

He is the content of our human vessel, and He wants to fill us up and live from within us.

From the very beginning when God created us, He had no intention to ask us to do anything for Him; rather, He created us as vessels to contain Him and express Him.

He only wants to gain open vessels, vessels that are open to HIm to contain God as life for the fulfilment of His purpose.

If our vessel is open to the Lord, He can fulfil His purpose; however, if our vessel is closed to Him, God’s purpose is frustrated.

The real significance of man’s fall is that many fell from eating the Lord to contain Him as life to merely knowing and doing things that are good.

Knowing something and doing something.

This is what everyone does today: they want to know more things so that they do more things; they want to know more so that they do better and do more.

Once man fell, the evil nature of knowing and doing came into man, and now man wants to know and do.

This knowledge never fills man nor does it satisfy him, but man seeks more knowledge so he does more things.

Even as Christians, we seek to know more about God so that we do more for Him.

Christianity has become an active religion of knowing and doing.

God wants man to be an open vessel to Him so that He would fill man as his content for the fulfilment of His purpose, but man wants to know and do things.

Theological seminaries teach people to know and to do things, rather than helping them to contain God, enjoy God, digest God, and assimilate God as they remain under the divine dispensing.

Such education is against God’s eternal purpose.

Who among the millions of Christians today keeps their vessel open to the Lord for His divine dispensing so that He may fulfil His purpose through them?

Who realizes that God simply wants us to be an open vessel to His divine dispensing, and who opens their vessels to the Lord to contain Him and express Him?

Knowing and doing are a temptation to believers and unbelievers alike, and they are against what God desires to do.

May the Lord enlighten us and bring us to the realization that we are vessels created by God to contain God as life for the fulfilment of His purpose.

May we open to the Lord and just tell Him,

Thank You, Lord, for creating us as vessels to contain God as life for the fulfilment of His purpose. Lord, we open our vessel to You. We love You. We realize we’re empty vessels, but we open our vessel to be filled with God! Fill us, Lord. Fill our earthen vessel with Yourself as life. We don’t want to merely know about God and do things for God; we want to simply open our vessel to be filled with God! Amen, Lord, we love You and we open to You. We want to be filled up with You. Saturate us and permeate us. Have mercy on us, dear Lord, that we may keep ourselves open to You all the time. May our vessel be open to God to be filled with God as life for the fulfilment of God’s purpose.

God Chose us to be Vessels of Honour, Mercy, and Glory filled with the Triune God

God chose us to be vessels of honour, mercy, and glory filled with the Triune God (Rom. 9:21-23; 2 Cor. 13:14).

God created man as a vessel to contain God as life for the fulfilment of His purpose.

Out of the many vessels that God created, He chose us to contain Him – the God of honour – that we may be vessels of honour (4:7).

Out of the many billions of people on earth, we believers in Christ have been chosen by God to be vessels of honour that we may contain God.

We may think that we chose God, because we wanted to know God and His purpose, but actually, God chose us to be vessels of honour.

Honourable vessels are constituted both of the divine nature (gold) and the redeemed and regenerated human nature (silver), for we’re vessels of gold and silver in the house of God (2 Tim. 2:20-21).

Yes, we were created as vessels of clay, and there’s nothing precious about us in ourselves; however, God loves this vessel of clay, and He wants to come into us as life.

We were created as vessels and now we are redeemed vessels. By our faith in Christ, we receive His redemption and salvation and become vessels of honour.

We were vessels of dishonour but, by containing the God of glory as our content, we become vessels of honour.

God makes known His glory upon us, the vessels, that we might become vessels of His glory (Rom. 9:23).

Wow, we become vessels of glory because God makes known His glory upon us and is expressed through us! What a mercy this is!

We who were fallen and far away from God, have been regenerated and are indwelt by the God of glory to become vessels of honour and vessels of glory!

When others see us, they see God, for we are transparent vessels to make Him visible to others!

As we behold the Lord, we are infused with Him and we reflect Him to express His glory (2 Cor. 3:18; 4:6-7).

We should not look at our earthly vessel nor should we lose heart, for though the outer man is decaying, our inner man is being renewed day by day.

No matter what is our age, what our circumstances, and what is our level of growth in life, God is shining through us, for we are vessels of glory!

We were created for this. We are being transformed into the same image as Christ from glory to glory, and we’re not aware of it nor should we be aware of it.

We are only aware of God dispensing Himself into us. Others may be aware that the God of glory is shining through us, but we are not aware.

The more we experience the divine dispensing, the more glory there will be, and the Lord’s prayer concerning oneness and the divine glory in John 17 will be fulfilled.

And it is all because of His mercy and according to His mercy. We cannot become vessels of honour because of our efforts, nor is it by our struggles that we are vessels of glory.

We are simply vessels created in the image of God to contain God as life for the fulfilment of His purpose.

By containing God as the indwelling treasure, we become vessels of honour and of glory, and we are vessels of mercy.

For this reason, we must worship God and thank Him for His mercy, for it is not out of him who runs or wills but out of God who shows mercy (Rom. 9:15-16, 18).

It’s not our striving, our endeavouring, or our struggling, nor is it our merit; it is all of God who shows mercy.

How we thank and worship God for His mercy!

Lord, thank You for choosing us so that we may be vessels of honour to contain You. Hallelujah, we have God as our indwelling content, the treasure within us, and we are vessels of honour containing God as the priceless treasure! Thank You, Lord, for choosing us to contain You, the God of honour, that we may be vessels of honour. Thank You for making Your glory known upon us that we may become vessels of Your glory. Keep us beholding You so that we may reflect You in Your glory. Fill our vessel with Yourself as our treasure and glory. Amen, Lord, may we realize we are vessels to contain God as life so that we may express Him. Thank You and praise You for Your mercy. Thank You for having mercy on us to make us vessels of mercy, vessels of honour, and vessels of glory! Praise our Triune God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training,” ch. 22, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity for the Divine Economy (2022 Thanksgiving Weekend Conference), week 6, entitled, Being a Vessel Open to the Lord and Living Ordinary Days in the Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – Man being a vessel to contain God, a portion in, Four Crucial Elements of the Bible, The—Christ, the Spirit, Life, and the Church, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – Did You Know You’re a Vessel God Wants to Fill? Read via, Bibles for America blog.
  – The first step – making man a vessel, a portion from, The Vision of God’s Building, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – World history in the light of God’s purpose, a portion via, The One New Man, Chapter 2.
  – Vital factors for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose, an article by Ron Kangas in Affirmation and Critique.
  – Man – A Vessel to Contain God, article via, Living to Him.
  – God’s creation of man as a three-part vessel, a lesson (pdf) via, the Church in Plano.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – God made man a vessel he / With a spirit, soul, body. / God to man his content be / That through man His glory see. / Man does have God’s image true, / Noble in his status, too. / But God’s life man also needs / Divine nature to receive. (Hymns #1404 stanzas 1-2)
  – Earthen vessel I was made, / Christ in me the treasure laid; / His container I must be, / As the content He in me. / In His image I was made, / Fit that Christ should all pervade; / Thus the vessel God did form / With the content uniform. (Hymns #548 stanzas 1-2)
  – In God’s house and in Thy Body / Builded up I long to be, / That within this corporate vessel / All shall then Thy glory see; / That Thy Bride, the glorious city, / May appear upon the earth, / As a lampstand brightly beaming / To express to all Thy worth. (Hymns #840 stanza 5)