What God wants from us is that we are an open vessel; He doesn’t want us to do this or that for Him but that we would be open vessels to Him so that He can fill us, live in us, and be expressed through us. Amen!
We believers in Christ are vessels of honour prepared unto glory, for we have been designed to contain God as our honour and glory.
God designed us and created us in such a way that we contain Him as our honour and glory.
We are vessels of mercy (Rom. 9:23) in order that He may make known the riches of His glory upon us.
It is the Lord’s mercy that we are here, opening our vessel to the Lord. On our side, we want to cooperate with the Lord and learn to open our vessel to Him.
On His side, God chose us so that we may be vessels of honour filled with God! Day by day we need to open our vessel to the Lord to be filled with Him.
We need to thank and praise the Lord for His mercy, for He made us vessels to be filled with all that He is.
May we cleanse ourselves from any unrighteousness, confess our sins under the Lord’s light, and even cleanse ourselves from any vessels of dishonour so that we would be useful in the Lord’s hands.
As we exercise our spirit and learn to cooperate with the Lord, we need to remain in His word and learn to turn our hearts to Him so that we can be unveiled and see Him, enjoy Him, and behold and reflect Him.
May the Lord make us those who are pure in heart so that we can see God.
May we allow the Lord to work in us, operate in our being, and purify our heart.
May we redeem the time, seeing that the days are evil, so that we pursue the Lord both personally and corporately.
On God’s side, He chose us and He provided everything we need. On our side, we need to be open vessels to the Lord.
We want to be honourable vessels, vessels of honour in the house of God.
We want to stay away from vessels that are dishonorable, for we do not want to dirty or taint our vessel but rather, we want to keep our vessel pure and open to the Lord.
What a mercy that today we can be with Him and with the saints in the church life, enjoying the Lord and pursuing Him with those who call on His name out of a pure heart!
What a mercy that we can open our whole being to Him, realizing that we are a vessel to contain God, and we can be a living vessel that is open to the Lord!
Throughout the day we need to exercise to open to the Lord in little things and in big things, for all He wants is our vessel to be open to Him.
When He gains open vessels, He can do what is in His heart.
God Wants an Open Vessel: We need to Open our Vessel, Let Him in, and Let Him do Everything
According to the revelation in the Bible, both in the Old and the New Testament, God wants an open vessel (Rom. 9:23; 2 Cor. 4:7).
He doesn’t want great people who are capable and do wondrous works for Him; He just wants to gain an open vessel.
We may think we are open, but when the test comes and when challenges and difficulties arise, we realize that we’re not that open.
Many times we are closed toward God and open toward the world.
The apostle Paul was an open vessel. He realized that God created us as His vessels, and he kept his vessel open to the Lord.
God created us as vessels of mercy unto glory, and as believers in Christ, we have Christ as our treasure in our earthen vessel.
If we don’t realize that we have to be an open vessel, the Lord has no way in our being.
What God wants is an open vessel; we need to open our vessel, let Him in, and allow Him to do everything in us and for us.
We simply need to open up our vessels to the Lord so that He as the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit would have an opening to come in, fill us, and do everything in us and for us.
The Lord is waiting for an opening to get into us; however, how much He would enter into us depends upon how much opening we give Him.
God’s intention was to create a vessel to contain Him and express Him, so what He wants is an opening of the human vessel (2 Tim. 2:21; Rom. 11:24).
If our vessel is open, God can fulfil His purpose; however, if our vessel is closed, God’s purpose is frustrated (Col. 4:3). Oh Lord!
If we are an open vessel to the Lord, He can fulfil His purpose in us.
But if we are closed, if there’s no opening for the Lord in us, He cannot do anything in us. God doesn’t want us to do anything; He wants us only to be a living vessel, a clean, empty, and open vessel to Him.
The summary of Paul’s fourteen Epistles may be expressed in these two words – open vessel.
Nothing pleases the Lord more than being an open vessel for Him.
It is not our zeal for God or our ability to do many works for God that causes Him to be pleased with us; it is our loving the Lord and having an open vessel that makes Him happy.
For example, May in the Gospels did not do many things for the Lord, but she kept her vessel open to Him; therefore, she had a revelation of the Lord’s upcoming death and took the opportunity to waste herself on the Lord, spending all she had on Him.
Furthermore, after the Lord died and was resurrected, she didn’t just accept this fact but lingered and loved the Lord, keeping her vessel open to Him to such an extent that He appeared to Him before His secret ascension to present Himself to the Father in the freshness of His resurrection (see John 21).
We may love the Lord and be very eager to do something for Him, but if we do not keep our being open to Him, He will not be pleased with us.
The Lord doesn’t want us to do things for Him; He can do everything even without our help or involvement, but He needs our opening and our love.
We don’t need to do anything; we need to love the Lord to the uttermost, and we need to keep ourselves wide open to Him.
Nothing pleases the Lord so much as for us to realize that He wants us to do nothing except love Him, open ourselves up to Him, and let Him live from within us.
We may agree with this and we may love this, but how about our daily living? Do we open to the Lord?
Do we allow Him to live in us? Are we an open vessel to just contain Him and to be filled with Him?
Or do we still try to do things for Him and know things about Him? Oh, Lord Jesus.
Once man fell, the evil nature of Satan came into him, and now man wants to know and do things; this is abominable in God’s eyes.
He only wants man to be an open vessel. We all need to learn to open up our vessels to Him and just keep our being open to Him.
We need to learn to open up more deeply to Him, allowing Him to have access to our deepest thoughts, our innermost feelings, and our hidden intentions and decisions.
We need to open up to the Lord from deep within, invite Him into our way of thinking, our daily routine, and in everything related to us, especially related to what we are and do.
May we have the Lord not only as a guest in our guesthouse but even more, let Him make His home in our hearts through faith (Eph. 3:17).
May we allow Him to gain us, fill us, and do everything in us as we open our whole being to Him.
Lord Jesus, we want to just be an open vessel. We open our being to You. Oh Lord, we want to have a deeper opening toward You. Search us, oh God, and know our innermost thoughts, our deepest feelings, and our intimate decisions and intentions. We want to open more deeply to You. We don’t want to merely know about You or do things for You; we just want to be an open vessel. We open our vessel to You. We want to serve You and love You to the uttermost. We want to have an open heart with an open being to You. Oh Lord, by Your mercy and Your speaking, You do not want us to do anything except to be with You and be an open vessel toward You. Save us from not opening to You in an absolute way. Save us from merely opening in a superficial way. Oh Lord Jesus, our vessel is open wide to You! Come in and fill us! Saturate us with Yourself. Do everything in us and for us. Live in us. Express Yourself through us. Have Your way in us and through us! We are just open!
Loving the Lord and Keeping ourselves Open to the Lord All the Time to be Open Vessels
As we are prayerfully considering the matter of being an open vessel toward the Lord, we should not be introspective but rather, we should be before the Lord regarding this, opening our vessel to Him. By His mercy, He shines on us.
We ask for His mercy and grace, and He exposes us how closed we are, how opaque our being is, and how little we open to Him.
We may be touched by the Lord in our time with Him or in the meetings, but when it comes to our daily life, our vessel is so many times closed toward Him.
How can He fill us? How can He express Himself through us?
If He is only a guest in our hearts and has no access to our private chambers, how can He live in us?
We cannot deny that we open to the Lord and daily this opening seems to increase, but there is still so much reservation toward Him. Oh, Lord!
As the church, we are a golden lampstand; a lampstand doesn’t contain the fire but it holds it, it is a vessel for the fire to burn (Rev. 1).
We need to keep ourselves open to the Lord for the refilling and for the shining.
We need to be open to Him to fill us as the holy olive oil, and we need to let Him burn in us by living in us.
We are a vessel to contain God. The parable of the ten virgins in Matt. 25 is very much related to this.
We are vessels, and we need to be filled with the Spirit.
When the Lord comes with the kingdom, He will reward us if we have an extra portion of oil – the Holy Spirit experienced and enjoyed by us – in our vessel.
We need to be the prudent virgins who are not so busy and active in doing this or knowing that but keep themselves open to the Lord to be filled with Him.
A proper Christian is one who loves the Lord all the time and keeps himself open to Him all the time (Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30).
Just love the Lord. Just open to Him. Let Him come in, let Him fill up, let Him live in you, and let Him express Himself through you.
In our time with the Lord, as we contact Him, we want to not just get some nourishment or knowledge; we want to open our vessel to Him, be an open vessel toward Him, and let Him fill us.
May the Lord shine into our hearts and convict us, revealing to us that we are not that open to Him.
May He adjust us and correct us, and may there be a larger opening in our being for the Lord to come in.
2 Cor. 4:7 says that we have this treasure in the earthen vessel; if our vessel is open, clean, and pure, the treasure within our vessel can be seen and manifested.
How much the Lord can enter into depends on how much opening we give to Him.
If we do not open to the Lord, if we don’t learn to deal with any obstacles between Him and us, He cannot come into us, He cannot live in us, and He cannot express Himself through us.
May we realize that God wants an open vessel, and may we be the normal Christians who love the Lord and keep themselves open to Him all the time.
This doesn’t mean that we stop doing anything for the Lord, we stop reading the Bible, and we stop going to the meeting, for God just wants us to be open to Him and do nothing else.
Rather, we love the Lord, we read His word, and we keep our vessel open to Him.
We want to live a genuine Christian life by loving the Lord and keeping ourselves open to Him, while at the same time we stop our doing.
When we do this, the Lord can come in and do everything in us.
He can fill us, He can live in us, and He can manifest Himself through us.
We can honestly tell the Lord again and again,
Lord Jesus, we love You. We open to You. We are here as open vessels to You. Have mercy upon us, dear Lord, that by Your grace we would not close any part of our being to You. Grant us to have a deeper opening in our inner being toward You so that You can come in and fill us. Amen, Lord, we open our vessel to You to be filled with You! We want to gain more of You. We stop our doing and we do not want to merely know. We just want to love You with all our heart and keep ourselves open to You. Amen, Lord, grant us to keep ourselves open to You all the time! Come in, Lord, and make Your home in our heart. Come in, dear Lord, and fill us with Yourself. We simply open to You. We want to be simple and pure toward You, keeping our being open toward You so that You can come in and fill us, live in us, and be manifested through us. May we live a genuine Christian life today by loving the Lord, keeping our being open to Him, and stopping our doing!
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 the brothers in the message for this week, 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, Being a Vessel unto Honor, a Fully Equipped Man of God, by being Empowered in the Grace which is in Christ Jesus to Fully Accomplish our Ministry in the Unique Ministry of God’s Economy (2024 April ITERO), week 6, Being a Vessel unto Honor, and Pursuing Righteousness, Faith, Love, Peace with Those Who Call on the Lord out of a Pure Heart.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– The Treasure of Excellency in Our Vessel, via, New Jerusalem blog.
– Man being a vessel of God, a portion from, The Living and Practical Way to Enjoy Christ, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
– 8 – The Ministry Abounding with Glory (1), Paul then immediately states, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us” (v. 7). According to the context, this treasure in earthen vessels refers to the Christ of glory, the embodiment and expression of God, who dwells in the believers as the Lord Spirit (3:18; 13:5; 1 Cor. 2:8). More via, Shepherding Words.
– 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.
– How God Created You with a Body, Soul and Spirit to Contain Him, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
– The first step – making man a vessel, a portion from, The Vision of God’s Building, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
– Jeremy Mason: We Do Not Lose Heart, via, Living to Him.
– Being a Vessel Open to the Lord and Living Ordinary Days in the Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, via, The Church in Plano.
– Did You Know You’re a Vessel God Wants to Fill? Read more via, Bibles for Europe blog. - Hymns on this topic:
– Jesus Lord, I’m captured by Thy beauty, / All my heart to Thee I open wide; / Now set free from all religious duty, / Only let me in Thyself abide. / As I’m gazing here upon Thy glory, / Fill my heart with radiancy divine; / Saturate me, Lord, I now implore Thee, / Mingle now Thy Spirit, Lord, with mine. (Hymns #1159 stanza 1)
– In His image I was made, / Fit that Christ should all pervade; / Thus the vessel God did form / With the content uniform… / Moving in me day by day, / Mingling with me all the way, / All my steps He regulates, / Every part He saturates. / Him expressing from within, / Making Him to others seen, / I transparent have to be / That He may be shown thru me. (Hymns #548 stanzas 1, 4-5)
– Flow through me, Lord, a weak and earthly vessel, / Cleansed by Thy blood, and quickened at Thy call. / Flow through me, Lord, all utterly abandoned, / To Thy dear service, great, or high, or small. (Hymns #249 stanza 1)
About aGodMan
Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training,” p. 241
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Yes!!! and Amen. So enjoyed this. Oh Lord, that I may be emptied of my self, my perceptions, my concepts and my fears and be open, turned toward You and filled with all You have, moment by moment, day by day.
This is very timely for me. Thank you brother, and thank you my dear Lord Jesus. I have been experiencing a great deal of anxiety due to a situation in my life. The Lord has been showing me how much my anxiety displeases Him and needs to go. That I just need Him. Actually I can be thankful for the problem, the situation, as it has shined a light on an area that needed help, needed Him. When our vessel is emptied and then filled with Him, we are perfect and complete, content in any situation.
The Lord will gain His bride, one problem and one vessel at a time. Be blessed my dear brothers and sisters. In His love.
08/27/24 Being a Vessel unto Honor and Pursuing Righteousness, Faith, Love, Peace with Those Who Call on the Lord out of a Pure Heart (Week 6, Day 2)
“In 2 Timothy 2:20-21,Paul Speaks of Honorable and Dishonorable Vessels: (Part 2) God Does Not Want Us to Do Anything; He Only Wants Us to Be a Living Vessel, a Clean, Empty, and Open Vessel”
Romans 9:22-23 say, “And what if God, wishing to demonstrate His wrath and make His power known, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, In order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory,”
In Romans 9:20-21, Paul speaks of vessels unto honor and vessels unto dishonor. In Romans 9:22-23, Paul mentions another two categories of vessels, which are vessels unto wrath and vessels unto glory. Actually, vessels unto dishonor are also vessels unto wrath, unto destruction, whereas, vessels unto honor are also vessels 9f mercy unto glory.
God’s wrath will be manifested, and it will be manifested on those who are fitted for destruction. God not only has love; He also has wrath. God’s love requires vessels for its manifestation, and God’s wrath also requires vessels for its manifestation. God’s saving power needs a group of people for its manifestation, and God’s destructive wrath also needs a group of people for its manifestation.
In God’s sovereignty He predestined a group of people who, like Pharaoh, always harden their hearts. This kind of people will experience God’s destruction in the future. At present, God’s wrath has not yet been manifested. People today are still opposing God, reproaching Him as Pharaoh did in his days. Pharaoh, arrogant to the uttermost, said, “Who is Jehovah…? I do not know Jehovah” (Exo 5:2).
Today, many people say with the same tone as Pharaoh, “Who is Jesus? Who is God?” These people are the ones on whom God will demonstrate His wrath. God today in His long-suffering forbears them, but one day His wrath will be manifested upon them (Rom 1:18; 2:5, 😎. That will be the day of their destruction.
God’s eternal economy is to dispense (fill) Himself as life and everything into us so that we may become His corporate expression. The way to cooperate and fulfill God’s economy is by not doing anything in ourselves, by ourselves, and for ourselves. All we need to do is just to remain an open vessel to Him all the time. To be a proper vessel for the fulfillment of God’s economy is to be clean, empty, and open.
This principle is portrayed in the principle of the golden lampstand. Gold signifies God’s nature, which is divine. The lampstand has become golden, that is, divine, not by doing something until it becomes godly and divine. It has become golden by keeping itself open for the constant pouring of the oil into its vessel. The lampstand typifies us, the believers, who do not need to do anything, except by just being open to the Lord for His constant dispensing of His Spirit (Oil) until we expresses God’s divine nature (shining gold).
The principle of being continually open to the Lord is also portrayed in the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25. Virgins refer to all the believers, who after repenting and receiving the Lord Jesus, were cleansed by the Lord’s blood, turning them from being harlots (sinner of many husbands) into virgins (cleansed and betrothed to the Lord to be their only Husband).
All ten virgins (all believers in Christ) received oil (Spirit) into their lamps (their spirits). Five virgins were wise because they continued to take extra oil into their vessels (into their souls) by continually opening themselves for the Lord’s infilling. But the other five virgins were foolish because they were not open for the Lord’s infilling. Instead, they filled their vessels with many other worldly things.
When the Lord returns, the five wise virgins will participate in the marriage feast of the Lamb (Mat 25:10; Rev 19:7, 9). But the five foolish virgins will suffer wrath from the Lord for they will be cast into the Outer Darkness, where they will weep and gnashing their teeth for a thousand years (Mat 8:12; 13:42, 59; 22:13; 24:51).
Love Him and keep yourself open to Him. HWMR – W6D2
Amen. Lord, I love You. Lord, I am here open to You. Lord, have mercy upon me, and by Your grace I do not like to have any part of my being closed to You. I like to keep myself entirely and thoroughly open to You.🙏🏼💖