The prophet says: Go borrow empty vessels and borrow not a few
How strange it seems to the natural mind that the answer to this woman’s dilemma did not begin with fullness, but with emptiness.
The natural mind would immediately begin to look for an overflow an abundance, a great quantity or supply to
deliver her
But God has always been in the business of making something out of nothing.
There is nothing that attracts the attention of the Lord like emptiness
There is a natural law that nothing remains empty, it must be filled, It will be filled.
That introduces 3 very important points
#1 Emptiness is a choice
#2 We will be filled
#3 What we are filled with is up to us.
Since nothing can remain empty we realize that this condition must be intentional, we must by a deliberate act of our wills choose to be emptied, and to empty ourselves.
In our story we do not know what various things may have filled the many vessels that were borrowed, all we do know is that under Gods command they were of no use to him until they were first of all (empty).
Regardless of the condition they were found in, regardless of what purpose they had served before. Empty was the required condition.
Empty: Having nothing inside, Hollow, To be of no worth, no significance, Meaningless, Lifeless, Void.
This emptiness we’re speaking of is a heart condition, it’s an attitude and disposition of the heart that places the entire life before God as weak.. and hopeless, and helpless, and powerless.
It is a life wholly given up to God
It is a life that is totally sustained by God.
The only life that can be wholly sustained by God is the Life that is wholly given up to God.
Jn 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Jn 6:53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
We are the most valuable to God when we are empty.
I must decrease, but he must increase.
When we become nothing then he can become everything.
It is when we are something, that God becomes nothing
1Sa 15:17 And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
There is a story in Judges where God uses emptiness in a very powerful way
(An empty Clay Pot and a Candle)
Jud 7:16 And he –Gideon divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.
No swords, spears, knives, or even shields.
Just a trumpet, an empty clay pot and a candle.
Jud 7:20 And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.
What was it that made the pitcher valuable to Gods purpose?
Not their beauty, not their particular shape or design, not what they had done in the past,
Not whose house they had come from, Not because they were made out of silver or brass or Gold,
What made them valuable to God’s purpose is the same thing that makes us valuable to him today……………
#1 they were empty.
#2 they were breakable.
If you want to get Gods attention show him your emptiness, If you want to attract the heart of God Show him your breakableness.
You’ll never serve Gods higher purpose until your empty and broken.
Contrary to the worlds methods.
God does his best work with broken things, Broken pitchers, Broken bread, Broken and contrite hearts.
First: they were empty To house, or hold the candle,, the lamp, = The divine treasure.
Second: they were broken to allow the light that was inside to be seen, to release the treasure, to expose the treasure.
Many in the church today will never be used for Gods high purposes because they refuse to be emptied, and those who refuse to be emptied are not qualified to be broken.
It is the light inside that must be seen, that is the whole purpose, The sacred treasure, The divine Holy Anointing that must be manifested, and only emptiness can properly display his fullness.
Unfortunately many Christians have forgotten that our reason for being saved, is not to have a better more comfortable happy life, then go to heaven.
But to manifest the reality of a resurrected living savior to the world, A savior who has the power to loose them and set them free, to save them heal them deliver them and fill them.
The emptiness we are speaking of is the emptying of the self life that is a condition that must be maintained by us, as we maintain this condition we are qualified to receive the divine flow of the Christ Life.
It is what we know as the abiding life, The branch having no life of it’s own, claiming no power of it’s own, taking no glory to itself is now kept, sustained and empowered by the divine life.
That is what Paul was speaking of when he said:
Acts 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being;
Empty vessels the prophet said: and borrow not a few
Now surrounded by empty vessels this desperate woman begins to pour out of her little pot of oil, and to her amazement every (empty vessel) was filled.
It was only when there was no longer an empty vessel that the oil stopped flowing.
If we would have a fresh flow of the Holy anointing of God, there is no other way
We must come empty.
They that hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled.
