God Sovereignly Created us to be Vessels of Mercy and Honor Prepared unto Glory

God is sovereign, and God sovereignly created us to be His containers, vessels of mercy unto honor and glory, according to His predestination; He is making known the riches of His glory upon us, the vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory. Amen!

We all need to see a vision of God’s sovereignty and realize that, as human beings, we are the clay and He is the Potter.

On the one hand, we make decisions to do this and that, to marry this person, to live in this place, and to get this job. On the other hand, God is sovereign.

God being sovereign means that He has the supreme and utmost power, authority, and position.

These days as the knowledge of man increases, man thinks he can question God and ask Him to change this or that for man; God is sovereign.

It may be easy to grasp the concept of God being sovereign, but when it comes to our own life, to our family life, and to the church life, we need to realize that God is sovereign.

He created us as vessels to contain Him; however, some vessels are not vessels of mercy but of wrath unto destruction.

Who are we to question God and ask Him why did He do this or that?

One vivid example of a person who accepted God’s sovereignty in the Old Testament is Joseph. He went through some very painful and terrible situations, for even his own brothers sold him into slavery and his master put him in prison without any cause.

However, Joseph lived under God’s sovereignty and trusted in God.

He did not fight back, He did not justify himself, and he did not seek to change the situation or the environment; rather, he simply lived under God’s rulership.

In His time and in His way, God raised him up and made him ruler over the whole world known at that time; the process of getting there, however, was a daily living under God’s rulership and accepting God’s sovereign arrangement.

The disciples in the book of Acts were persecuted, thrown in prison, and beaten; however, they prayed to God and referred to Him as, Sovereign Master.

We need to realize that God is sovereign, and we as His people are vessels to contain Him and be filled with Him.

May we learn to open to the Lord, praise Him for His sovereignty, and thank Him for His mercy.

In His mercy He reached to us, He redeemed, us, He saved us, and He came into us to be our life.

Even though we have God as life and we can partake of what He is in spirit, we still need to realize that He is sovereign. God is sovereign.

God Sovereignly created us to be His Containers so that we Contain Him as our Treasure

May the Lord shine on us and enlighten us to see who we are and what we are.

We are God’s creatures, and He is our Creator. He is the Potter and we are the clay.

As His creatures, we have no right to say anything to Him.

We may not like the way we are or we may not agree with the way others treat us in our environment; however, we need to see that God is sovereign.

He has the utmost right, position, and authority to create us as vessels in a particular way and to arrange a particular set of circumstances around us.

Rom. 9:21-23 reveals that God sovereignly created us to be His containers, according to His predestination.

We are not merely tools or instruments in God’s hand for Him to carry out His purpose; we are made in God’s image and according to His likeness to be vessels of mercy unto honor and glory (2 Cor. 4:7; 2 Tim. 2:20-21; Eph. 1:5, 11).

He predestinated us according to the purpose of the One who works all things according to the counsel of His will; He predestinated us unto sonship through Jesus Christ.

God is the supreme authority, the supreme power, and He gets to choose.

He chose to make us vessels to contain Him.

God sovereignly created us to be His vessels, His containers, so that we may contain Him as our indwelling treasure.

It is of God’s sovereignty that He, the Potter, makes the riches of His glory known by creating vessels of mercy to contain Himself. It is His sovereignty that He does this.

We believers in Christ are vessels of mercy unto honor; this is not the result of our choice but rather, it originates with God’s sovereignty.

God’s purpose in creating man is that man would be a vessel to contain God as a unique priceless treasure.

We today as believers in Christ have this treasure in earthen vessels (2 Cor. 4:7).

On one hand, we have free will, and we respond to the gospel by repenting and believing into the Lord.

But this is all of God’s sovereignty, for He predestinated us.

Praise the Lord, we believers in Christ were sovereignly created by God to be vessels of mercy unto honor and glory, and we were predestinated to be containers who are filled with God!

We may think that we chose the Lord, and we sought after Him with all of our heart.

However, if we look back we will realize that there were so many times in our life that we wanted to escape God, avoid God, and even avoid the question of who is God.

But God had mercy on us, and He arranged all things in such a way that we come to believe into the Lord Jesus.

We can only worship God for His sovereignty and His mercy.

Our destiny has been established by Him: our destiny is to be vessels of honor and glory containing Christ as the priceless treasure.

God’s sovereignty is the basis of His section, and His selection depends on His sovereignty.

We do not understand His sovereignty and many times we may not even agree with it, but God is sovereign.

Based on His sovereignty, God chose us to be vessels of mercy unto honor and glory, and He selected us even before we were born.

It is of His sovereignty that we were chosen by God to be vessels containing Him as our priceless treasure.

We are earthen, earthen vessels, but He is the priceless treasure in us.

He is our treasure and our content, and we are His containers according to His predestination.

This doesn’t mean that we can do whatever we want, now that God already predestinated us and set our destiny; we still need to contact the Lord, enjoy Him, and seek to be filled with Him.

Seeing God’s sovereignty and realizing that God sovereignly created us to be vessels to contain Him, we can only open to Him, enjoy Him, receive Him, contain Him, and express Him!

Thank You, God, for sovereignly creating us to be Your containers according to Your predestination! Hallelujah, God predestinated us unto sonship through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of the One who works all things according to the counsel of His will. We praise You and thank You, dear Lord, for choosing us to be vessels of mercy unto honor and glory. Hallelujah, we believers in Christ have an earthen vessel, but within this frail, mortal, earthen vessel we contain the priceless treasure – the Christ of glory! Hallelujah, we have Christ as our indwelling treasure, and we have been shown mercy to be vessels unto honor and glory! Amen, Lord, we open to You and we want to cooperate with You for the fulfilment of Your purpose by having our vessel filled with You! Fill our vessel today. May the treasure in us saturate and fill our vessel to saturate us with all that You are! Amen, Lord, we thank and praise You for making the riches of Your glory known by creating us as vessels of mercy to contain God!

God makes Known the Riches of His Glory upon Vessels of Mercy which He had Before Prepared unto Glory!

When the fallen man hears that God is sovereign, he rebels against God even more, for Satan is the one in man who rebels against God’s sovereignty and ordination.

But when we, believers in Christ, hear and realize that God is sovereign, we are full of joy, for He makes known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory (Rom. 9:23)! Hallelujah!

We are not inanimate vessels that have no choice but to do this or that; we are living vessels, living containers, and we can choose to contact God, enjoy God, and be filled with God.

In His sovereignty God has the authority to make us, the ones whom He has selected and called, vessels of mercy to contain Him in order that His glory might be manifested (vv. 11, 18, 23-24). How amazing is that!

God is sovereign, and He has the authority to make the ones He selected and called vessels of mercy so that His glory might be manifested in them and through them.

Who are we, sinful men, to contain God as our priceless treasure?

Who are we, earthen vessels, to be filled with God and express God as our treasure? Yet this is what God does in His sovereignty.

God sovereignly created us to be vessels of mercy unto honor and glory, and He exercises His sovereignty to work out all things for our good, for Him to be manifested through us.

If we look at our history, we realize that, even though at some time we may have sought after the Lord and pursued Him, it was Him to predestinated us, called us, chose us, and also kept us It is a great thing to realize that we are vessels to contain God as our treasure.

It is not a matter of our behavior or trying to improve our behavior; we simply need to learn to be open vessels to the Lord.

2 Tim. 2:20-21 shows us that we are vessels, but at the same times it tells us that we need to cleanse ourselves from anything that is of dishonor.

On the one hand, we are vessels to contain God; on the other hand, we need to cleanse ourselves from all unrighteousness and anything dishonorable.

It is God’s sovereignty that He makes His glory known by creating us as vessels of mercy to contain God.

God’s relationship with us is, on the one hand, that of the Sovereign One and the creature, and on the other hand, that of Him being our life and content and we being His vessel to contain Him and express Him.

According to His sovereign authority, He has prepared us unto glory.

In Ezek. 1:26 we see how the prophet Ezekiel was in exile with the children of Israel, by the river Chebar, where he saw visions of God.

One of the things he saw was the throne of God; there was a firmament over the heads of the living creatures, and above it was the likeness of a throne, and upon the throne there was One who had the appearance of a man.

God is on the throne, and the One who is on the throne today is Jesus Christ, the processed and consummated Triune God to be the Man in the glory.

But often we rebel against the throne of God in our being. To be honest, many times we show more respect to our boss than to God, and we obey the police officer more than we obey God.

When our boss tells us not to do a particular matter, we stop doing it; however, when the Lord within us exposes a particular matter and tells us not to do it, we disobey Him. Oh, Lord Jesus!

Sometimes the Lord gives us a direct feeling not to say a particular matter, especially to our spouse; but we consider we have the right to say that thing, and we disobey the throne.

If we realize that God is sovereign, having absolute and supreme authority and position, we will enthrone Him in the center of our being, and we will obey His word.

It is of His sovereignty that God sovereignly created us to be His vessels to contain Him, and we are predestined by His sovereignty to be His containers.

We are predestinated to be vessels of honor to express what God is in glory! Hallelujah!

The goal of God’s selection in His sovereignty is that we would be vessels to contain God and express Him eternally!

On the one hand, God loves us and He chose us to be His vessels; on the other hand, His love is for us to contain God, be one with God, and express God in His glory.

We are created by God in such a way that we’re able to take God into us, contain God as our life and life supply, and be one with God to express what He is so that He would be glorified in us and with us.

This is what God wants, and He is sovereign in all things in order to fill our vessel and be expressed through us.

The climax of our usefulness to God is not to be used by Him to do this or that for His kingdom but to be vessels for Him to fill and be expressed through.

May we open to the Lord and enjoy Him day by day. May we be filled with Him as our content and our life so that He may live in us and we may live by Him.

May we allow the Lord to make His home deep in our heart until we are filled with all His riches and express Him with His fullness.

Lord Jesus, we open our vessel to You. Thank You for making known the riches of Your glory upon us the vessels of mercy. Hallelujah, we are vessels of mercy prepared by God unto glory! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to contact You, enjoy You, and be filled with You as our indwelling treasure. We cleanse ourselves from anything of dishonor and from anything impure. Oh Lord, thank You for creating us in such a way that we are able to take You into us and contain You as our life and life supply so that we may be one with You and express You! We open our vessel to You to contain You, be filled with You, be one with You, and express You. Amen, Lord, fill our vessel. May our vessel be conformed to the indwelling priceless treasure so that You may be glorified in us and we may be glorified in You. Praise the Lord, the climax of our usefulness to God is to be open vessels who contain God and express Him! Oh, how we praise You for Your sovereignty!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ray Mulligan in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Romans, msgs. 22 and 58, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living in the Reality of the Kingdom of God (2024 October ITERO), week 5, Living under the Sovereignty of God and according to the Mercy of God.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Man – A Vessel to Contain God, via, Living to Him.
  – His sovereignty, a portion from, Conclusion of the New Testament, The (Msgs. 001-020), Chapter 11, by Witness Lee.
  – A metaphorical story of vessels, via, Lamb Follower.
  – Man being a vessel to contain God, a portion from, 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? More via, Bibles for America blog.
  – HWMR Week 5 God as our Sovereign Potter making us His vessels, His containers, to contain Him, a portion via, The Church in Regina.
  – A Vessel unto Honor, Pursuing Righteousness, Faith, Love, Peace, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – World history in the light of God’s purpose, a portion from, The One New Man, Chapter 2.
  – 4 Characteristics of Blessed People You Might Not Expect, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – What miracle! What mystery! A wonderful new song via, Hymnal.net.
  – God as our Sovereign Potter making us His vessels, His containers, to contain Him, Morning Watch via, The Church in New York City.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – God created us His vessels / His expression to achieve; / Thus He made a heart to love Him / And a spirit to receive. / With our heart we have to love Him, / With our spirit Him possess / As our life, of Him partaking, / That Himself we may express. (Hymns #743 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)
  – Thus though worn, and tried, and tempted, / Glorious calling, saint, is thine; / Let the Lord but find thee emptied, / Living branch in Christ the Vine! / Vessels of the world’s despising, / Vessels weak and poor and base, / Bearing wealth God’s heart is prizing, / Glory from Christ’s blessed face. / Oh to be but emptier, lowlier, / Mean, unnoticed—and unknown, / And to God a vessel holier, / Filled with Christ and Christ alone! / Naught of earth to cloud the glory, / Naught of self the light to dim, / Telling forth His wondrous story, / Emptied to be filled with Him. (Hymns #589 stanzas 3-4)