Crystallization-Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations
Message Five
God as Our Sovereign Potter Making Us His Vessels, His Containers, to Contain Him
Opening Word of the Prophesying Meeting
(Day1 ¦ Day2 ¦ Day3 ¦ Day4 ¦ Day5 ¦ Day6)
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Jer. 18:6 Am I not able to do with you, O house of Israel, as this potter does? declares Jehovah. Indeed, as the clay is in the hand of the potter, so you are in My hand, O house of Israel.
Rom. 9:15-16 For to Moses He says, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
Word of Appetizer
What is the purpose of God in creating us to be His containers?
God’s purpose in creating man was to make man His vessel, His earthenware container, to contain and be filled with Christ as life for the building up of the Body of Christ as God’s great corporate vessel for His expression.
If we do not contain God and know God as our content, we are a senseless contradiction.
Spiritual Burden
God as our Potter has sovereignly created us to be His vessels, His containers, to contain Himself according to His predestination.
God’s purpose in creating man was to make man His vessel, His earthenware container, to contain and be filled with Christ as life for the building up of the Body of Christ as God’s great corporate vessel for His expression.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
God as our sovereign Potter has absolute right over us as His pottery; it is crucial that we see a vision of God’s sovereignty.
God as our Potter has sovereignly created us to be His vessels, His containers, to contain Himself according to His predestination.
In His sovereignty God as our Potter has the authority to make the ones whom He has selected and called to be vessels of mercy unto honor and glory.
The Experience of Life
Because of God’s mercy, we responded to the gospel when others did not respond, we received a word about Christ as life when others refused to receive it, and we took the way of the Lord’s recovery when others drew back from taking this way.
When we turn our heart to the Lord, we are beholding the Lord Spirit as the presence of Christ in our spirit, and we are “being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”
Practice and Application
We need to realize who we are; we are God’s creatures, and He is our Creator. As His creatures, we should not resist His purpose or answer back to Him, the Creator.
“Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help”. We were created to be vessels of mercy unto honor to contain Christ as the God of honor so that we may honor God and men.
Prophesying Topics—Twelve Topics per Week
T1 Jehovah is the Potter, and we are the pottery in His hand (Jer. 18:6; Rom. 9:21).
(Please explain that this thought is found not only in Jeremiah 18 through 20 but also in Romans 9.)
T2 God as our sovereign Potter has absolute right over us as His pottery (Jer. 18:1-10; Rom. 9:19-23).
(Please explain how the verses above reveal God’s sovereignty.)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1980, vol. 2, “The Completing Ministry of Paul,” chs. 9-10, 12; CWWN, vol. 56, pp. 446-456
T1 God created us to be His containers in order to contain Himself (Acts 9:15; Eph. 3:19).
(Please explain the purpose of God in creating man to be His containers.)
T2 Spiritual progress is a matter of being continually emptied out and continually filled up.
(Please use your experience to explain that decadence starts from self-complacency and that progress starts from hunger and thirst.)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1964, vol. 3, “The Economy of God,” ch. 5; CWWN, vol. 37, ch. 22; CWWN, vol. 47, “Authority and Submission,” ch. 9
T1 Five characteristics of the Lord as the bread of life (John 6:41, 33, 35, 51, 32).
(Please use your experience to explain that the Lord is Spirit, so we must use our spirit to eat Him.)
T2 As we eat the Lord Jesus, we need to have proper spiritual digestion (Eph. 5:17-18; Rev. 10:9-10).
(Please use your experience to explain that to pray-read the Word of God is to exercise our spirit to eat the word.)
Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 21-22
T1 “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion” (Rom. 9:15).
(Please explain what the expression “sovereign mercy” means.)
T2 All is of God’s mercy (Rom. 9:15-16).
(Please use your experience to explain that our going on with the Lord is a matter not of our willing or running, but of God’s mercy.)
Further Reading: Life-study of Romans, msgs. 22, 24, 58
T1 I have learned to trust in the Lord’s mercy and to worship Him for it (Rom. 9:16).
(Please give an example to illustrate that everything that happens to us is a matter of divine mercy.)
T2 We were created to be vessels of mercy unto honor to contain Christ as the God of honor (Rom. 9:21, 23).
(Please illustrate the significance of mercy, honor, and glory.)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1967, vol. 2, “An Autobiography of a Person in the Spirit,” ch. 5; CWWL, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training,” ch. 22
T1 We were created to be vessels of mercy unto glory to contain Christ as the God of glory (Rom. 8:21, 23, 29-30).
(Please explain what vessels of mercy unto honor and glory are.)
T2 We are predestinated, called, justified, and, eventually, we shall be glorified (Rom. 8:29-30).
(Please illustrate the significance of glorification.)
Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 10-11, 110; CWWL, 1973-1974, vol. 1, “The Indwelling Christ in the Canon of the New Testament,” ch. 10