Being Vessels Absolutely Open to the Lord & Loving Him to be Filled with God as Life

In order for Him to fulfill His purpose, God created man as an earthen vessel to contain Himself as life; He chose us to be vessels of honor filled with the Triune God, and as such, we need to be vessels absolutely open to the Lord for Him to dispense Himself into us and do everything in us. Amen!

Praise the Lord that we believers in Christ are earthen vessels containing a priceless treasure, the Christ of glory! This is not because we are better than others but because of God’s mercy. In His mercy, God chose us to be vessels to contain Him as glory.

The Lord Jesus is our treasure within us, and the key to us enjoying Him as our treasure is spending time with Him to behold Him and absorb Him.

Even though all believers in Christ have Christ as their treasure within them, not many enjoy this treasure. Many Christians live their Christian life as if there’s no treasure within them, for the treasure cannot be seen through them, and they do not enjoy the preciousness of the Lord Jesus as their treasure.

How can we not only contain this treasure but also enjoy it and express it? We need to spend intimate, personal, and direct time with the Lord day by day.

We need to take time out of our busy schedule to just be with the Lord to enjoy Him. He is the most wonderful One. He is the most precious One. We love to be in His presence.

When we contact the Lord, we sense that He is drawing us to Himself so that we may enjoy Him and partake of His riches. As seekers of the Lord, we need to simply open to the Lord again and again in our time with Him so that we may be infused with Him.

Just as the priests in the Old Testament had the showbread, the bread of the presence, in the Holy Place in the tabernacle and the temple, so we today have the face of Christ in our spirit, and we need to enjoy the shining of His face.

Like Paul, we need to live in the index of the Lord’s eyes. Our daily life needs to be a life of beholding the Lord. Just to behold His face – this is what our heart longs for.

When we behold the Lord, when our face is unveiled to behold Him, we are infused with Him and we reflect Him. We reflect like a mirror the glory of the Lord and we are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.

An inward process of transformation is taking place when we open to the Lord, remove any veils, and behold Him face to face. This process results in us expressing Him, for we reflect what we behold.

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

The first step that God took in order to fulfil His purpose was to create man in His image and according to His likeness (Gen. 1:26). He created man in a very particular way; He didn’t create man as a tool for Him to do something or an instrument for His use but as a vessel.

After God created man, instead of telling him to do this or that, He placed man in front of the tree of life (Gen. 2:7). He wants man to take God in as life and contain God as his life.

As human beings, we are vessels. We are like a bottle or a cup, a container to contain something. We are not inanimate or lifeless; we are full of life, we have feelings, preferences, and desires, but we are a vessel to contain something.

We were made to contain God, just as a bottle was made not to contain itself but to be filled with a particular beverage.

When you look at a Coca-Cola bottle, you know that it was designed to contain Coke. It wasn’t designed for gardening (though some people may use it that way) or to be displayed somewhere; it was designed to contain a particular beverage.

Similarly, we human beings are created by God as earthen vessels to contain God as life for the fulfilment of God’s purpose.

Inside our being, there’s a God-shaped vacuum which only God can fill and satisfy. We are designed as earthen vessels to contain God as life.

In Rom. 9:21 and 23 Paul clearly tells us that we are vessels of clay to contain the God of glory. He is the Potter, we are the clay; He made each one of us in a particular way for a particular purpose.

We may complain that He made us with our particular disposition, which we may not like, and we may not be satisfied with how we look outwardly. However, this is how God made us; He shaped us and fashioned us in a particular way to be an earthen vessel to contain God as life.

We may try to contain many things, for the world seems to offer us many things to fill us. But no matter how much education, sports, entertainment, and activities we try to cram into our vessel, we are never satisfied.

The only thing that satisfies us is the Triune God as life being dispensed into us to be our content.

This is why, when we repent and believe into the Lord Jesus, we discover that He is the meaning of our human life.

The meaning of our human life is not what we do outwardly or the things we try to put in our mind and soul inwardly; the meaning of our human life is Christ as life coming into us to fill us and saturate us with Himself.

God chose us so that we may be vessels of honor filled with the Triune God as life (Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 13:14). We are vessels to contain God; we are vessels of honor when we contain God.

When God comes in to be our content, we are vessels of honor unto glory. But when we do not contain God, when we are actively being filled with other things besides God, we are vessels unto dishonor.

What are we filled with? What do we take into us day by day? What do we put into our vessel? We need to come to the Lord again and again and keep our vessel open to Him so that He may fill us with Himself as life.

May we see that we are vessels, earthen vessels, to contain God as our treasure. May we realize that God designed us in a particular way for Him to come into us to be our life and our content.

And may we open to Him to be filled with Him again and again throughout the day.

Lord Jesus, we thank You for creating us to be earthen vessels to contain God as life. Hallelujah, we are not tools or instruments to God but we are vessels to contain Him! We open to You, dear Lord. We open to be filled with You. May we realize that we are not here to be filled with ourselves or with the things from this world but to be filled with God! Hallelujah, we are created in God’s image and according to God’s likeness to be an earthen vessel to contain God as life! Amen, Lord, we open our vessel to You. Come into us. Fill us. Saturate us. Be the treasure within. We want to contain You and be filled with You. May we be vessels of honor filled with the Triune God! Hallelujah, we were chosen by God that we may be vessels of honor filled with the Triune God as life. Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You to be filled with You! We open our vessel to Your divine dispensing: fill us with Yourself as our content!

Being Vessels Absolutely Open to the Lord and Loving Him to be Filled with Him

We need to realize that we are earthen vessels to be filled with the Triune God as our content.

After God created man, He put man in front of the tree of life. When the Lord Jesus came, He said that He was the bread of life (John 6:35) and that He is the vine tree (John 15:1-5). He came to be eaten by us as the bread of life so that we may have life and live forever.

The way God accomplishes His purpose is not by helping us to do this or that for Him so that He may be glorified; it is by coming into us as our life to be our content to do everything in us and for us.

Whatever we eat becomes part of us, even us; we are what we eat. When we eat something, we digest it and assimilate it, and that thing becomes part of us.

We are eating vessels, eating and drinking all the time to assimilate what we eat and drink. God desires that we eat Him. He wants us to be vessels containing Him and being filled with Him as our content.

We are made as vessels to contain God as life, and we need to be vessels absolutely open to the Lord and loving Him all the time. What is required of a vessel is that it remains open to be filled with the content.

The New Testament shows us that God wants us to be a vessel loving Him and keeping ourselves open to Him.

The problem is that, once we believe into the Lord and see His beauty, we may desire to do things for Him. He doesn’t want us to do things for Him; He wants us to be vessels absolutely open to Him for Him to dispense Himself into us.

If we are vessels absolutely open to the Lord, He can come into us, saturate us, and fill us with Himself, and He can do everything in us and for us.

The apostle Paul was a vessel absolutely open to the Lord, and the Lord could flow into him and through him in a bountiful way. May we just give ourselves to love the Lord. May we stop our doing for Him and just love Him and enjoy Him.

May we realize that God primarily wants us to open our being to Him for Him to dispense Himself into us. The New Testament shows us that God wants believers as vessels loving Him and keeping themselves open to Him (Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 3:16).

He doesn’t primarily want us to do things for Him; He can do everything, He can meet all His needs, but He wants open vessels.

If we don’t open to the Lord from the depths of our being, He cannot dispense Himself into us and He cannot make His home deep in our heart (1 Cor. 2:10; Eph. 3:16).

He wants to be the treasure in our being and, as the treasure within us, He wants to spread into every part so that He may conform us to His image.

Eventually, our earthen vessel will be conformed to the glorious and priceless treasure that we contain. But for this to happen, for the Lord to conform us to His image, we need to keep our vessel open to Him.

As we go to work and do all kinds of things at the office, as we travel and pay attention to many matters, and as we are relaxing at home or on holiday, we need to be vessels absolutely open to the Lord for His divine dispensing.

We need to tell the Lord to keep us open to Him.

This doesn’t mean that, if we don’t do anything for God, we are now sleepy and passive; rather, we are on the alert to do one thing: keep our vessel absolutely open to the Lord for Him to dispense Himself into us.

As open vessel is doing nothing but keeping itself open to be filled by the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity (2 Cor. 13:14).

God the Father as love is the source, Christ the Son as grace is the course, and God the Spirit as the fellowship brings the entire Triune God with all that He is and has into us by means of His divine dispensing.

When we are vessels absolutely open to the Lord, He comes in and fills us, and He does everything in us and for us (Eph. 3:19).

On the one hand, we are weak because we are earthen vessels; on the other hand, we have a marvelous treasure within us.

On the one hand we have this mortal, fragile, earthen vessel, and on the other hand, we have a treasure within us which enables us to keep ourselves open to the Lord.

As long as we come to Him again and again, even our being open to Him is enabled by Him as the treasure within us.

He as the treasure within enables us to open to Him, giving Him every opportunity to do everything that He wants to do in us and for us. This is the proper and genuine Christian life (Gal. 2:20).

May we exercise our free will to love the Lord (Matt. 22:37) and keep ourselves open to Him so that we may be vessels absolutely open to His divine dispensing today.

Lord Jesus, we open our vessel to You. Dispense Yourself into us today. We love You, Lord, and we open to You! Keep our being open to You all the time. Save us from being passive or indifferent, and save us from primarily trying to work for You. May we stop our doing and be very alert for keeping our vessel absolutely open to You! Amen, Lord, we love You and we open to You! May we see that You do not want us to primarily do things for You but just to keep our vessel open to You. We are here, Lord, and we are open. Cause us to open to You from the depths of our being. Cause us to keep our being open to You all the time. Have mercy upon us, Lord, that we would not have any part of our being closed to You. We want to keep our being entirely and thoroughly open to Your divine dispensing all throughout the day. Hallelujah, the treasure within us enables us to keep ourselves open to the Lord! Amen, Lord, we want to give You every opportunity to do everything You want to do!

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 Ricky Acosta 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, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2) (2024 December Training), week 17 (msg. 5), Christ as the Image of God and the Treasure.
• Similar articles on this topic:
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  – Seven Points of Vital Living – a Word of Fellowship, via, 21st century Nazarites.
  – A vessel of God, a portion from, Basic Lessons on Life, Chapter 2.
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• 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 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)
  – 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. / Flow through me, Lord, with overflowing fulness, / Make me to know Thine own deep love for souls. / Work in me, Lord, the faith that moveth mountains, / As power, Almighty power, my being holds. (Hymns #249 stanzas 1-2)
  – 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)