JEREMIAH 18; Go down to the shop where clay pots and jars are made. I will speak to you while you are there.” So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started again. Then the Lord gave me this message: "O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.
When clay is soft and pliable it is easy to make an impression on. When it becomes dry and hard change doesn’t come easy. In fact it can’t come unless the potter applies water and pressure to bring a pliable nature back to the clay.
As the clay is abandoned to the potter on the wheel, whither it is soft or hard it will change because of its position before the potter.
In the state of abandonment before the Lord revelation comes, and that revelation is of Jesus himself. He makes an imprint of his nature on our heart. Each time he comes he leaves a different impression or mark upon us until we are formed in Him and of Him.
It seems almost dangerous to the natural mind to be abandoned to the Lord, and of course it is, because when we are abandoned we will change shape. He is the way so we will be changed from our way to His way. He is the truth so we will be formed into His truth. He is the life so we he will breath his life into our abandoned heart.(John14:6)
Sometimes I don’t like the feeling of the potters hands on my life, it’s uncomfortable! Kathie Walters often says “No one can make you as uncomfortable as the comforter.” This discomfort is not designed to cause me trouble, but to bring the fullness of Jesus into my life.
Let me say that God is not the author of sickness, in fact he is the author of life and he will turn the sickness of our souls into the pleasant pasture of the Lord. But I feel to share my testimony with you.
In 2006 I was faced with a life threatening illness. (Plasma blastic Lymphoma) The doctors could not give me a positive prognosis. For the first time in my life and the first time in my 30 years as a Christian, I had to face the very real prospect of death. I believed the Lord could heal me but in the early stages of 2006 I had to come to a place of total abandonment to Jesus. “Lord if I die I die in you, and if I live I live in you” I realized afresh that whither I live or die, I had won. So in abandoning my self to Jesus I found life. The good news is I have been totally healed, So in my healing I praise the Lord! And continue to abandon my heart to him. He has put his mark on my clay and changed the shape of my thinking forever.
Psalm 73:26 My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.
The enemy tried to take me out, but the Lord used the situation to strengthen my love for him. To show me that I live in eternal life now, and share all the goodness of God that is found in Jesus. In 2008 my soul is more abandoned to Jesus than it has ever been, finally I have shrugged off the cloak of religious thinking of do’s and don’ts to live in the freedom of his love. In the hand of Jesus is the book of my life, (and yours) every day and every breath is recorded in it. My heart swells with love as I think of my master, so kind and willing to lift me up and let me stand with Him in heavenly places. I will fulfil the call he has laid on my shoulders an easy yoke and a gentle burden. He will lead me into every word that is recorded in my book. Not one of his words will return to him void. And so clay I have become, abandoned to my master, yielded to his love. That he may fashion me according to his will. My life to Him belongs and he will be my strength and my salvation, may His name be praised forever.
John of the cross says: O lamps of fire in whose splendours the deep caverns of feeling, once obscured and blind, now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely, both warmth and light to their beloved. How gently and lovingly you wake in my heart, where in secret you dwell alone; and in your sweet breathing, filled with good and glory, how tenderly you swell my heart with love. John of the cross 1542-1591.
God works all things for good with those who love Him, (Romans 8:28). This is true abandonment; to recognize that the important and in the trivial, the pleasurable and the painful, the victories and the battles will all be worked by the Lord for our good, even if the enemy means it for our harm. Everything can be transformed for good when we abandon ourselves to His love.
Because Jesus is the light of the world everything is illuminated when we yield to him. It sounds very simple and it is if we see our lives as being about Jesus and not about us. But there’s the battle, our will or His!
As Peter the experienced fisherman said when Jesus said “put out your nets again” Peters reply “At your word I will let down the nets again” Luke 5:5; Peter became pliable clay at that moment and Jesus formed in him faith because of his act of abandonment.
Ignatius Loyola 1491-1556. said: “God created me my soul is in his image, and all my being bears the living stamp of his attributes. As many as are the hours and moments of my life so he makes a fresh present of it. I come from God; hence I belong to God, He is my Lord and my master. Does not God possess over me all the rights of men over creature? What would remain in me if God took back all that was his? I would simply be nothing, let all creatures serve thee.”
So in this abandonment, all of the riches of heaven are revealed and Jesus is seen as our greatest reward.
In 2007 we lost our car and almost lost our home but we found more of Jesus and have become very rich in Him. Jesus calls us to “Put out our nets again” and even though we have travailed all night and caught nothing we say “never the less Lord at your word we cast out our nets again” Because you are the potter and I am the clay.
Just a reminder “You win” To Jesus belongs all glory honour and praise.
Ian Johnson www.papelim.org.nz
