Are you on the Potters Wheel?

Sept 28, 2018

I used to wonder why God had waited for so long to bring me deeper into my calling in life, deeper into my dreams of leading others to Jesus… healing the hearts of people and even nations-- well at least in the way I thought it could and would happen.   But I couldn’t be more contented that He asked me to take a much longer road than some.  He has used circumstances and healing to draw me closer to himself and to give me a much different picture of what He wanted me to do, -- well actually more accurately put, ---to mold me into what he wanted me to be to be for the world.  I remember vividly at the age of 5 looking on the Sunday School flannel graph stories of the Jungle doctor in a far off land in Papua New Guinea (I know that dates me!) and thought to myself - “I am going to be that jungle doctor some day- yes, that is who I want to be.”  Years later, my heart burned within me as I listened to a missionary speak of her time in Papua New Guinea and how she stayed years on the island alone, translating the scripture, even contracting Trichinosis before leading the whole village to Christ. I read about Hudson Taylor going into the backroads of China and becoming like the Chinese to show them love and knew something in my heart yearned for the unreached. I prayed fervently for years for them (and still do) .  In each season in my life, I have always given myself fully to what the Lord wanted me to do- and in actuality, was fulfilling my calling all along. But many times I yearned for more, somehow knowing more “great” exploits were out there for me to accomplish, and sometimes it left me confused as to why God was waiting so long. 

In Jeremiah 18, the Lord compares the country of Israel to clay on a potters wheel, and as the potter molds a vessel as he pleases, so the Lord does with Israel and …us. I continually placed myself on the potters wheel.  Sometimes wondering if I was going to see the vessel used in those great exploits I thought about. 

But through my own healing and transformation, I have learned to become that clay on the potters wheel allowing him to mold me into exactly who he wants me to be. We know that God explains in Ephesians 2:10 that we are "God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." But, its not those works that are the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to love Him, to be loved by Him, and to love others. I have learned to become the handiwork that Ephesians 2:10 speaks of. That handiwork is how God molds me and paints my life into a beautiful tapestry of becoming like Him. I have yeilded to process - and in that process, God has created me to do the works of his Kingdom. 

As God has healed and restored my own heart and my true identity in Him through all my circumstances, all I have learned and through my own process of inner healing, he has brought me into my purpose. He has deepened my faith and repentance, broadened my compassion,heightened my love for people, and so much more as the Lord has brought me to deeper levels of intimacy in Him.

I am becoming exactly who God had planned for me to be all along. Transformation takes humility and repentance, and yet it is the most beautiful process ever- as we apply the work already done on the cross to areas of our own unbelieving hearts.

And, I am loving the vessel that God has been molding me into on that potters wheel. I may not be a jungle doctor in the natural realm, but I sure am a jungle doctor in the spiritual. I lead people to repentance and faith at the cross of Christ and go through the jungles of their heart to find the great treasure at the end…and help them become all that God wants them to be for Him. Sometimes reaching the farthest to reach hearts. This is who God made me to be. And people’s lives are being changed. It is my identity that has revealed my destiny. 

I place myself on the potters wheel. And while I used to “wonder” why God waited for so long to bring me into doing great “exploits” for him - Now my “wondering” has become a great desire for Him to purify my heart so he can do wonders through me.Joshua 3:5 states: “Consecrate yourself for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” 

No time of preparation in God’s Kingdom is too long for he will to be carried out. 

Have you learned to place yourself on the potters wheel?  Have you learned to ask Him to purify your heart and do anything in you that he wants to do?