God created us as living vessels with a mind, emotion, and will, and He desires that we be open vessels in an active-passive way: an open vessel to the Lord loving Him but not being eager to do things for Him but letting Him do everything in us.
God created us not to be instruments for Him to us; He created us to be vessels to contain God as life so that He would live in us and be expressed through us.
Yes, we need to read the Bible and yes, we need to be actively involved in the church life, taking care of so many necessary things that are there, but our being needs to be an open vessel to the Lord.
He has been processed and consummated and He wants to simply dispense Himself into us.
We simply need to contact the Lord every day and receive His divine dispensing.
He imparted Himself into our spirit through regeneration, and now He wants to spread into our mind, emotion, and will.
May we learn to open all the inner parts of our being to His divine dispensing day by day.
He is doing something marvellous and wonderful in our being, but many times we are closed up to Him.
He wants to spread in our mind to make our thoughts one with His thoughts and infuse His way of thinking into us, but we may not open our mind to Him. Oh, Lord.
May we realize that we are a vessel who needs to be open to the Lord for His divine dispensing.
May we learn to stop our doing and give up any struggle to please God, and may we simply learn to open our vessel to the Lord.
What are we filled with today? What fills our vessel?
As we wake up in the morning, take care of our daily activities, travel, do and speak many things, what do we allow to fill us?
What do we choose to put ourselves under to be dispensed into?
The world has much to offer to us and thus usurp us, occupying our mind and emotion and will, but what do we allow to fill us?
We need to be poor in spirit and pure in heart, opening to the Lord in a fresh way every day and keeping our being open to Him.
As vessels created by God in His image and according to His likeness, we are satisfied only when we are filled with God.
When we contact the Lord day by day and seek to be filled with Him, we are full of meaning and purpose.
We were chosen by God to be vessels of honour filled with the Triune God.
He displayed His mercy over us by coming to us where we are, choosing us, and saving us; now we are vessels of mercy unto honour and glory.
We have God’s divine nature in us and we also have the redeemed and regenerated human nature; we have a treasure in our earthen vessel, the very Christ of glory. Hallelujah!
May we learn to open to the indwelling One and allow Him to fill all our being with Himself so that the treasure may be seen through our earthen vessel for Him to be expressed through us!
Being an Open Vessel Loving the Lord and Keeping ourselves Open to Him
God did not make us an inanimate vessel, a vessel without mind, emotion, and will.
He didn’t create us to be an object or an instrument for Him to use; He created us to be living vessels.
He made us with a mind, emotion, and will.
Through regeneration, He came into our spirit, and now He wants to spread in our mind, emotion, and will.
We simply need to be an open vessel who loves the Lord and keeps open to Him.
Many times, however, our vessel is not open to the Lord; we are either too hot for Him in knowing and doing things or we are indifferent.
God doesn’t want us to do anything: He only wants us to be a living vessel, an open vessel loving the Lord.
Paul’s fourteen epistles could be summarized in two words: open vessel. Paul was an open vessel, and the Lord could simply flow through Him.
Paul was writing his epistles to the churches and to the saints to help them be open vessels to the Lord for Him to dispense Himself into them for the building up of the church.
God wants an open vessel.
He created us as vessels of mercy unto glory (Rom. 9:23), and through regeneration, we have Christ as the treasure in our earthen vessel (2 Cor. 4:7).
We have this treasure in our earthen vessel so that the excellency of the power may not be out of us but out of Him.
We need to see this secret: we need to see that we are a living vessel that needs to remain open to the Lord.
We don’t need to do anything for Him out of ourselves and by ourselves.
We simply need to open to Him.
God has already gone through a process to become the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit, and as such One He now wants to enter into us and fill our open vessel.
God is here waiting for us to open to Him so that He can come in.
How much God can get in and spread in our inner being depends on how much we open our vessel to Him.
The New Testament shows us that God wants believers as vessels loving Him and keeping themselves open to Him (2 Cor. 3:16).
We need to deal with anything that is between us and Him and simply keep ourselves open to Him.
If we are not open to the Lord from the depths of our being, He cannot dispense Himself into us and He cannot make His home in our heart (Eph. 3:17).
If the depths of our being are not open to Him, He can’t dispense His riches into us and He can’t make His home deep down in our heart.
But if we are an open vessel to the Lord loving Him and just keeping ourselves open to Him, He can come in, He can spread in our inner being, and He can make His home in our heart.
We simply need to keep our whole being open to the Lord and love Him; we simply need to be an open vessel.
Paul was an open vessel, and the Lord could flow into him and out of him to minister life to the saints for the building up of the church.
Paul’s emphasis was not that we work something or do something for the Lord; he simply was an open vessel to God.
God chose him as a vessel, and he remained open to the Lord.
We may not have the same measure in function as Paul, but we can learn to open our vessel to the Lord and be an open vessel to Him so that He can dispense Himself into us and fill us with Himself.
As we do this and that, throughout the day, we can open to the Lord and open up to Him. We can simply tell Him,
Lord Jesus, we want to be an open vessel to You. We just love You, Lord, and we open our whole being to You. We don’t want to merely know things about You or do things for You; we simply want to love You and keep our vessel open to You. Wash us and cleanse us, Lord, and grant us to have a heart turned to You. Thank You for creating us to be living vessels to contain God and be filled with God. Amen, Lord, we love You! We stop our being in its intention to do things for You; we simply want to be open vessels! Come in, Lord, and fill our vessel. Saturate our mind, emotion, and will with Yourself. Keep our being open to You throughout the day!
Keeping our Vessel Open to the Lord for Him to Dispense Himself into us
Many Christians who love the Lord and seek after Him consecrate themselves to the Lord in a detailed way, and it is good to consecrate to the Lord.
They may consecrate all their possessions, their family members, their heart, and even themselves with their whole being to the Lord.
But many times we realize that, though we may make a thorough consecration to the Lord and give everything we have and are to Him, we may still not be open to Him.
Rather, we may be open to know and do things for the Lord.
We need to see what is our real situation and our true condition; we need to see what is the real problem.
We love the Lord, we love the church, and we declare strongly that we see the vision of God’s economy, and we may even say that we are open, but we may not be open to the Lord.
We may be open to knowing more about God and doing more for Him.
It’s really hard for a person to be absolutely open to the Lord and yet do nothing for Him.
If we can love the Lord yet not be eager to do anything in and of ourselves for Him, that would be a miracle.
Humanly speaking, when we love someone, we want to do something for them; we think that our love for someone is expressed in what we do for them.
But the Lord doesn’t want us to do things for Him; He simply wants us to be an open vessel loving Him and keeping ourselves open to Him.
The Christian philosophy and logic today tell us to do something for the Lord and for those whom we love, but the Bible logic says that we love the Lord and not do anything for Him by ourselves.
We just need to love the Lord in an active way but stop our natural being in its desire to do things for Him; we simply need to be an open vessel to the Lord.
Sometimes even those who don’t love the Lord want to do things for Him; this is to be religious.
We simply need to open our vessel to the Lord and let HIm have access to the depths of our being.
The sovereign God will put us in certain situations which will touch us, expose us, and break us open.
When this happens, we will be deeply thankful to the Lord for not leaving us untouched.
We need to open to the Lord and ask Him to give us the experiences we need to be an open vessel to Him and for the building up of the church.
When we open to the Lord in an active way and stop our doing to allow Him to do everything in us and for us, He can dispense Himself into our being.
He will duplicate His heart of love in us, His thoughts will be infused into us, and our will shall be subdued and made one with His will.
We need to ask the Lord to help us keep our being open to Him.
An open vessel is doing nothing but keeping itself open to be filled by the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity (2 Cor. 13:14).
It is not a work that we do for Him but it is our being open to Him for God to fill us.
He wants to fill us to the brim so that we can overflow with the Triune God and infuse others with this wonderful One.
When we keep our being open to the Lord and remain an open vessel to Him, loving Him but doing nothing for Him in ourselves, He will come in and will do everything in us and for us.
This is the deeper work that God does in us for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
For us to love the Lord is active, and for us to not do anything is passive; we need to love Him in an active way and stop our doing to let Him do everything in us.
May we not keep our being closed to Him by trying to do things for Him or just by knowing things; may we learn the secret of opening our vessel to the Lord for the filling.
Lord Jesus, we open our vessel to You. Teach us how to open and how to be an open vessel to Your divine dispensing. Grant us the experiences You want us to have for this vessel of ours to be fully open to You. Oh Lord, we stop our doing and we don’t want to merely know about You: we simply open our vessel to You! Dispense Yourself into us and remove any antichrist elements that are in our being. Replace anything that is natural with Yourself and make us the same as You are. Have access to our inner being, Lord, and dispense Yourself into every part of our mind, emotion, and will until You make us the same as You are. Amen, Lord, constitute us with Yourself and build us into Yourself for the church as the Body of Christ. We just want to love You and keep our vessel open to You so that You may dispense all that You are into us.
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,” pp. 241-242, 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:
– The Dispensing of the Triune God to Produce His Abode, pdf outline via LSM.
– A portion from, Being a Vessel Open to the Lord and Living Ordinary Days in the Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, via, the church in New York City (Monday MR).
– The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, an article via, Affirmation and Critique.
– But if we want to know not only who God is but what His thought is concerning us, we must come to the Bible. It’s the Word of God that reveals God to us. And it also reveals that we human beings are created by God as vessels. Read more via, the Bibles for America blog.
– The Triune God in His Divine Trinity dispensed into the tripartite man, a portion via, Ministry Samples.
– The outline for msg. 6 in the 2022 Thanksgiving Conference with verses via, The Church in Plano.
– Crystallization-Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations #5: God as Our Sovereign Potter Making Us His Vessels, His Containers, to Contain Him, a pdf via, The Church in Kobe. - 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… / In my spirit He remains, / With His power He sustains; / As the Spirit one with me, / He is my reality. (Hymns #548 stanzas 1 and 3)
– 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 stanza 4)
– 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)
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You may say that you have consecrated everything to the Lord. You have consecrated your wife, your children, your eyes, your ears, and your hands. I, too, have made this kind of detailed consecration many times. I even consecrated every single hair and every cell in my body to the Lord. Yet, have you realized that even after such a thorough and detailed consecration you still are not open to the Lord? Seemingly you have consecrated yourself to God, but actually you have consecrated to yourself. Your consecration did not keep yourself open to Him. Your consecration still kept you under your knowing and under your doing. This is the real problem. This is also the real burden of this Perfecting Training. The real burden is to pin your situation down, pointing out to you what your real trouble is. You love the Lord, you love the church, and you can declare strongly that you have seen the vision. Even you may say that you are open. But you are not open to the Lord. You are open to your knowing; you are open to your doing. It is really hard to have a person on the one hand absolutely open to the Lord and on the other hand doing nothing. If you can love the Lord and yet do nothing, that would be a miracle. When you love someone, surely you want to do something for him. Today’s Christian philosophy and logic tell you to do something for people to show them that you love them. But the Bible logic says to love the Lord but do not do anything for Him by yourself. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training,” pp. 241-242
May we be an open vessel to the Lord. He doesn’t want us to do things for Him but just keep our vessel open to Him for His divine dispensing.
Our problem, however, is that we are eager to know and do things rather than open to Him.
may we be an open vessel to the Lord.
Lord, by Your grace We would not have any part of our being closed to You; We choose to keep ourselves entirely and thoroughly open to You
Brother we may love the Lord and consecrate everything to him but the problem is that we always doing something for the Lord and we are not open
the Lord only wants us to love which ks active an be open to let him do everything in us which is passive
may the Lord gain our cooperation in this
Aaaaameeen brother! Lord teach us to open to You, save us from our doing, Oh Lord Jesus we need You more today!
Amen brother. We so much need to keep ourselves open to the filling of the Lord.
Either we’re indifferent or we’re too hot in knowing & doing.
We’re just naturally active. But the Lord needs those who can learn to be active-passive.
We’re all so far away to being truly open to the Lord all the time.
Praise the Lord for the secret of our regenerated spirit and the realisation that we are earthen vessels in which is Christ our treasure.
We need simply to call on Jesus unceasingly and trust in Him to fill us to overflowing and to make His home in our hearts.
Reason why, at the creation, man was not created first, in order to assist or help the creator to know and do but to be an open vessel
God is omnipotent, but He is not willing to come into us by using His power rather than knocking our door to get permission to get into each of us.
Because we are not inanimate, but living vessels to contain Himself.
Therefore, we need to be like a very good car to be driven by the well skilled driver that is Him.
Regardless of its power, newness and readiness to be driven, the car cannot be driven by itself.
I think we are living vessels with a will and emotion, but governed by His all round will.
Praise the Lord for He doesn’t forsake us alone.
Amen Lord.
https://youtu.be/Rm8kiaEMG0c
As believers who may have consecrated ourselves we may still not be open to the Lord.
Paul’s epistles show us the need for open vessels.
Instead of seeking to know and do something for the Lord, in the way of religion, we need to love the Lord and let Him in.
We need to be open to Him so that we may receive the divine dispensing of the Triune God, the all-inclusive, compound Spirit so that the Lord would fill us up.
O Lord we see that you do not want us to do anything for you but simply to love you and be open to you.
Hallelujah you will do everything for us for your glory!
Dear brother, God just wants an open vessel.
An open vessel is doing nothing but keeping itself open to the filling up.
The processed God—the Triune God, the all-inclusive Spirit, the compound Spirit—is here waiting for an opening to get into you.
How much He would enter into you depends upon how much opening you would give Him.
Ameeenn!!!
That’s right brother. It’s just in our nature the desire to know and to do. Even this matter of being open, we think we are really open even would make consecration to the Lord. But actually we are not that open to the Lord.
AMEN
Fn.”vessel”, cf.- 2 Tim. 2:20)
This indicates, that “God chose Us, that, We might be vessels of honor to contain Him”. God created Man as a vessel to contain Him, and out of the many vessels, He chose Us, to contain Him, the “God of honor”, that We might be vessels of honor. Finally, He makes known “His Glory upon Us, “the vessels”, that We might become vessels of His glory (v. 23).
All this is out of His mercy and according to His mercy; it cannot be obtained by our efforts. For this reason, We must worship Him, and We must worship Him for His mercy!
Or does not the apotter have authority over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?
(Rom.9:21)