Man is a Vessel to Receive God by Eating, Drinking, and Breathing in God

The central vision of Paul’s completing ministry is God in us as our contents, Christ as the mystery of God, and the church as the mystery of Christ.

First of all, we need to see that God made us as vessels to contain Him, and He wants to be our content. It is only in Paul’s writings that we can see this, and it must be because God told Ananias in Acts 9:15, “this man is a chosen vessel to Me, to bear My name…”

We are chosen vessels to God. We are not tools, instruments, or merely co-workers with God. We are God-bottles, God-shaped vessels, for us to receive God as our content, contain God, and express God.

If we see that we are earthen vessels containing a priceless treasure (God Himself in Christ), we will forget about trying to monitor and improve our behavior, we will give up on trying to do good and reject our “evil thoughts”, and we will rather focus on enjoying God to contain Him!

Our body is a vessel to contain physical food, drink and air, and our spirit is a vessel to contain God and live God. If we see that we are vessels to contain God, our whole Christian life will change, and God will become the center and the content.

Man is a Vessel to Receive God and Contain God

Man is not a tool for God to use. Man is not merely an instrument in God’s hands. Man is not meant to be like a robot that listens to God and does what God wants him to do robotically.

No! According to the revelation in the Bible, even from the book of Genesis, man was created by God as a vessel to contain God! In Gen. 2:7 God formed man from the dust of the ground (man’s body), He breathed into man the breath of life (which became man’s spirit, see Prov. 20:27), and man became a living soul. Then, man was placed in front of the tree of life to take God in as life.

Man is a container, and he has a spirit! We can exercise our spirit to receive God, contain God, and express God. God in Christ as the Spirit dwells in our spirit (after regeneration) and He wants to spread into our soul and be contained in our soul (see: Christ is making His home in our hearts, Eph. 3:16) and eventually to fill our body!

As Rom. 9:21-24 tells us, we are vessels of mercy, vessels of honor, and vessels unto glory. Our body is a vessel to contain physical food, water, and air. We need to eat regularly, drink even more often, and breathe all the time. In the same way, our spirit needs to contain God, receive God, and breathe in God.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels (2 Cor. 4:7) – the face of Jesus Christ, God’s shining on the face of Christ, is the treasure in our earthen vessel. Our earthen vessel is fragile, frail, and even worthless, but within this vessel there’s an incomparably rich and indestructible treasure in our spirit! We are vessels of honor (2 Tim. 2:21) to contain God!

Lord, make me a vessel of mercy my whole life! I want to contain You as the God of mercy, as the God of honor, and as the God of glory to express You in Your fullness. I want to forget about doing good or bad and focus on You as the treasure in my vessel!

Eating, Drinking, and Breathing God to Be Filled with God as our Content

We may “understand the concept” of man being a vessel, and we may see that we are thirsty for so many things, trying to fill our vessel… but what does it practically mean in our experience that we are a vessel to contain God?

Before we were regenerated we lived the way we wanted to, but after we were born again we received God’s life into us and things became different. However, we may still focus on improving our behavior, trying to be good, doing our best to love others, improving this or that aspect of our disposition, and making sure we do the good thing (and not the wrong thing).

But God doesn’t intend that we would do our best to improve ourselves but rather that we would be open vessels to receive Him, contain Him, enjoy Him, and express Him!

In the Bible God in Christ is the living bread and the bread of life (John 6:35); if we eat Him we will live because of Him (John 6:57).

Christ as the Spirit is the living water that really quenches our thirst (John 4:10, 14); if we drink of Him, out of our innermost being shall flow rivers of living water (John 7:37-39).

Also, in resurrection Christ is the living breath, the holy breath (John 20:22, receive the holy breath / spirit), which we can breathe in by calling on the name of the Lord even from the lowest situation (Lam. 3:55-56).

We need to forget about improving our behavior and focus on eating Christ, drinking Christ, and breathing in Christ! This is the proper church life: eating, drinking, and breathing Jesus!

We can eat the Lord in His Word, and we will be nourished inwardly and supplied to live out Christ. We can drink the Lord by simply coming to Him and asking Him to give us living water! Also, we should never stop breathing spiritually – we need to continually call on the name of the Lord to breathe in the Spirit!

By eating Christ, drinking Christ, and breathing in Christ, we receive more of God as our contents, and our vessel is filled with God! This is the purpose of our human life – to be filled with God as our content so that we may express God corporately!

For eternity we will do just this: we will drink the river of water of life, we will eat the tree of life (Rev. 22:1), and we will express God corporately as the New Jerusalem for eternity!

Lord, save us from focusing on improving ourselves, working on our behavior, and trying to be better. May our focus be on eating, drinking, and breathing God! Thank You for making us as vessels to contain You and express You. May we live our daily life in the light of this revelation. May we seek to be filled with God rather than to improve ourselves. Lord, give us to drink! Fill us with Yourself! Empty us of our natural things, and fill us with God!

References and Further Reading

• This article is inspired from brother Ed Marks’ sharing in this message and portions in, The Completing Ministry of Paul (ch. 11), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, “The Completing Ministry of Paul“, week 2 entitled, The Central Vision.
• Similar sharing online:
  # Man has a God-shaped Vacuum (via holdingtotruth.com).
  # Our Third Part (the Spirit of Man) is the meaning of life (via, godshapedvacuum.com).
  # The Must of Regeneration and the Meaning of Life (via lifeandbuilding.com).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Earthen vessel I was made, / Christ in me the treasure laid; / His container I must be, / As the content He in me.
  # God is in Christ to be my supply, / God as the Spirit nourisheth me; / If upon Christ in spirit I feed, / Filled with His life I’ll be.
  # I am the living bread, which came down out of heaven; / If anyone, if anyone eats of this bread he shall live forever.
• Pictures credit: 2 Cor. 4:7 here, and bread of life here (with thanks).