Tag Archives: Spiritual Maturity

Clay in the Potter’s Hands (Pt. 7)

STEP 6:  THE SECOND FIRING

With raging intensity, the second fire starts to burn through the kiln. Quickly you move from separation into a time of death. There are impurities within each clay vessel that only the fire can purge.

The Lord and His angels shut down the dampers on the kiln, cutting off the flow of oxygen and filling the kiln with carbon dioxide. Black soot along with heavy smoke and flames consumes every vessel in the kiln as it becomes a black fire, your personal Gethsemane or dark night of the soul.

Abandonment, isolation, and death itself are all around you.  The fire is so intense that you can’t hear or see the dear friends who have been your comforters and intercessors for so many years. Everyone you love seems to leave you as you die in the blazing inferno.

You say, “Lord, the fire!  I’m dying in the midst of it! Everything I’ve built and loved my whole life is being consumed!”

Your heart breaks as your reputation and your walk with the Lord are condemned. Competition, position, jealousy and pride are driven out of your life by the purifying flames.

You feel as if you’re going to explode under the ever-increasing pressure. The Lord tenderly explains, “My child, in the midst of the black fire, a mystery takes place.  Brilliant color is pushed deep into the body of the clay vessel.”

“My mysteries and My revelations are revealed in the tremendous pressure of the high glory fire.  This is a hidden time when the most beautiful colors are formed in the earthenware vessel. The richness and depth of color come from the darkest hours of agony and grief, just as diamonds, rubies, and emeralds come from hot fires inside the earth.  In the midst of the second firing, My glory is being released into the depths of who you are.”

 

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This is the hardest imaginable step to go through.  Has it ever gotten so hot you thought you were going to die?  I have.  This is a step you can only speak about in whispers because it is so intense.

Clay in the Potter’s Hands (Pt. 6)

STEP 5: THE GLAZING ROOM
Something deep inside you stirs—that first call, that sense of destiny you felt as a new believer. “Lord,” you cry, “I don’t want to just sit in the back pew and die. You made me to be a lover of your people and to go out and find broken vessels and bring them to the Potter’s house.”

“I know it won’t be easy,” you continue. “I know I will pay an incredible price for the anointing I will carry for You. But, Lord, I want to become Your bride.”

So the Lord takes you into a huge glazing room filled with tables. Angels are moving pitchers from one table to another and placing them with cups on other tables in preparation for the high firing. The soft sound of weeping is heard as vessels that have been together all their lives are being separated.

God is sovereignly moving His different vessels to prepare them for His Great Commission. Some will be staying home while others will be going to different cities and nations. The angels continue to carefully pour, paint, and brush glazes onto each vessel before carrying them into a large kiln.

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Have you considered the cost of the anointing? When you say, “I surrender all” to the call of God, you will be immediately put through the processes of God and I can promise you, it will not be easy… but it will be worth everything!

Clay in the Potter’s Hands (Pt. 4)

STEP 2: THE POTTER’S WHEEL –

The Lord then scoops up the moistened clay with His mighty hands and places you on the Potter’s wheel.  You hear His promise: “I have measured you; I know your portion; I know what destiny I have for you. For even though the enemy would want to kill you, I tell you, I have a mission and a calling for your life!”

He begins to center you on the wheel. Slowly, His gentle hands go down into the very depths of who you are and begins to pull up the walls of your new vessel. 

While you are on the Potter’s wheel, being shaped by the hands of the Master Potter, there is a wonderful mystery taking place within you.  You are growing! It is a time of great favor and blessing.

But as you go around and around, you begin to notice that other vessels are sitting on the shelves around the Potter’s house. You want to be like them!

“Lord, I love the closeness and intimacy of Your hands,” you cry.  “But I see all of these other vessels sitting on the shelf and I want to be a part of what they’re doing!”

STEP 3: THE POTTER’S SHELF

Suddenly the Lord comes with His cutting wire and pulls you off the wheel.  Then He places you on the shelf to dry.

What a change this is from being on the wheel, where you were joyfully spinning in the hands of God!

At first, you don’t mind it too much, but after a month or two, you say, “Uh…you know, Lord, I’ve been sitting on the shelf for a long time and I’m really dry. When is my ministry going to begin?”

You remind Him over and over again, “Lord, I’ve been praying to You!”  But you don’t feel His presence. In desperation you cry, “God, where are you?  I seem to be in a dry and lonely wilderness!”

“You’re right,” He answers. “You’ve been promoted!” Surprised, you respond, “But Lord, I thought promotion was getting to start my ministry!”

In His love and wisdom He explains, “Promotion is the wilderness!  I’ve called you here so you can learn to recognize My voice.  I’m testing your heart.  I’m testing your love for Me.  Will you continue to seek My face, or will you turn away?”

When you were on the wheel, there was great intimacy between you and the Lord.  Everybody said such wonderful things about your future!  But now that you’re on the shelf, everyone seems to have forgotten you.

“Does God really have a future for my life?” you begin to wonder.  “Did He really speak those things to me?” You’ve learned all the worship songs by heart, read all the books, been to all the conferences and seminars – yet there’s a dying in your heart because you feel the Lord has forsaken you.

The worst part is that other people don’t understand.  “Why don’t you have more faith?” they ask.  They don’t understand that God has taken you into the wilderness.  You see, the greater the calling on your life, the greater the persecutions from other people. This is the price behind the anointing.

“My child,” the Lord says, “as you seek My face you will find the hidden streams of living water beneath the desert floor.  For it is not the reputation and approval of man you need, it is to be so deeply rooted in Me so no matter what storms in life come, you will not be moved.”

While God works out His perfect plan, your soul is wrestling and dying in the wilderness. Finally, you stop struggling and quietly pray a prayer of resignation: “Lord, I’ll stay in the wilderness my whole life if I have to. I have found You in the desert and You are all I need!”