Last week, I started something on The Potter’s House and this is the concluding part, you might want to read the other one to flow with the gist. 🙂
With this promise in mind, his ego got a boost, but wait a while…the location of obedience will reflect on you when you leave that location. Remember he was told to “…go down to the potter’s house” and that is one place you can’t go in and return the same, because if it’s not the dust in your nose, it’s the clay stuck under your shoes or splattered over your clothes from the one on the wheels as it spins. One way or the other, you are touched by the Potter or his wares. It has been said that “God will not promote you beyond your last point of obedience”…so if you want promotion, OBEY THE LAST ORDER and go down to the Potter’s house!
Knock, knock, who’s there?
A ‘Mr. Jeremiah’ to see ‘Mr. Potter’… I’m directed by God to get a DHL from you
and the next thing you hear is “grab a seat and watch me work”!
Your mind goes, “God! I thought this was going to be quick. How much more humiliation do You want me to endure before You give me Your word? If the people don’t want to listen to me and stand up for me, at least You should! After all You got me here in the 1st place!” And God says, ‘SHUT UP’, WATCH and LISTEN!
At the Potter’s house, God takes you back to Genesis 1:2
“And the earth (Jeremiah) was without form, and void;”
….where you were without form and void. He reminds you that you were no better than this clay on the wheels, but He formed you from the dust of the ground Genesis 2:7
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
….and the only thing that sets you apart from this clay is that He breathed into you and you became a living soul. He paints the picture of the processes He goes through, before you can come out looking so wonderful to the extent that you declare, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”!
It is also at the Potter’s house that He (God) reminds you of the reason He formed you and called you. Remember that in Jeremiah 1: 5-10, He had set Jerry apart already and ordained him to be a prophet unto the nations. God had indicated that a time would come when he will experience fear and He was ready to deliver – vs. 8. But more than that, Jerry was set over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant – vs. 10. The next time you notice this phrase, is in Jeremiah 18 at the Potter’s house. So you could rightly say that…
the Potter’s house is a place of remembrance and preparation to execute commands.
Indeed it is a place of preparation. As the clay, Jeremiah goes through a lot of processes before he can be used to affect the nations which was God’s original plan…or like the clay, he become a vessel for use (to honour or dishonour depending on the level of purging). One of the reasons God sent Jerry down to Mr. Potter was to get him understand that “without the purging process you cannot become a vessel …you’ll keep getting marred in the Potter’s hands. And until every impurity is taken from you, you can’t be useful”.
2 Tim. 2:20-21 puts it this way and I paraphrase….
You are a gold vessel – that means very expensive, but I can’t use you unless you are purged, cleansed, empty, only then can I fill you with My plans, My thoughts and watch you bring to pass My purpose. And it doesn’t matter how expensive or cheap you are, if you aren’t purged, then you aren’t good enough and that is My standard!
Remember that Jerry’s commission in Chapter 1:10 and 18:7-10 were similar and you cannot affect someone’s life with a message that has not affected yours… you have to experience it to share that experience meaningfully. Notice that vs.11 admonishes them (the house of Judah) to purge themselves because God was getting tired of the polluted praise that was ascending His throne and assaulting His nostrils!
There are quite a number of lessons here to learn about the Potter’s house:
1) That every beautiful vessel you see was once an impure clay and that clay had to go through several purifying process by water and fire. A process of rejuvenation…a rebirth which John 3:5-7 calls the born-again experience. Any clay the Master uses has encountered the Son (water, word) and the Spirit (fire) to become a vessel (an ark) a carrier of God’s presence and essence.
2) That the Potter’s house is a place of breaking, marring, mess, making and beauty. A place where you don’t have a say in what goes on in your life…all you do is submit (arise and go down) your clay (yourself) and endure the pain (as a good soldier of Christ). A place where God works on you and removes filth, and reshapes you according to His original plan.
3) That the Potter’s house has a wheel, where He places you and spins you till His will becomes enthroned on yours and all things that surrounds becomes shadow in His presence. Truthfully, while on the wheels you can’t keep your mind together, all you are saying is “I SURRENDER ALL” because you don’t have a say in the direction you spin…or the time limit to get off the wheels. Every other thing becomes a blur and He is all you see. More like worshipping Him alone in Spirit and Truth, because your flesh (the clay) is under control of a Higher Being and you don’t have the magic words to direct its behaviour anymore.
Whenever you choose to visit the Potter’s House, bear these and more in mind. Go prepared, expecting anything!
Picture source: http://theschoolofchrist.org/daily/september23.html
© 2015. Frances Kelvin Otung. All rights reserved
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