How Does God Ready Us for Service (how to make a knife)
It is a fact that God desires to use every one of His children to minister to a world that is dying in sin.
Eph 4:11 talks about how God gave various gifts to us for the express purpose of sharing the gospel with all those we come in contact with every day.
So, how does God prepare us to be used by Him for the furtherance of His Kingdom? What is the process we must undergo in order to become tools in the hands of the Master?
Well, God revealed this to me some time back in a rather unorthodox manner.
For reasons unknown to me at the time, I suddenly became compelled to make a knife.
Now I have made a lot of things in my life, airplanes, boats, rebuilt old trucks, bow and arrows, fiddles and mandolins, but never once has it occurred to me to even attempt to make a knife.
I know they are made of steel, but beyond that, I had no clue.
When I was growing up you would have had to make a trip to a library or a master tool makers shop in order to gain this knowledge, but not today.
So, as any good nerd would do, I googled it. Within minutes I was watching with great interest video after video of people making knives.
Through this simple process, God was going to teach me something about people.
1. So, the first step in making a knife is selecting the right material. I dutifully searched the web for information on which steel was the best candidate for making a knife.
Most of the good stuff I found was too expensive or unavailable. So I got to thinking about what was available.
I went to the back of the shop, to the scrap table and started rooting around until I came up with an old rusty piece of steel bar stock.’
I didn’t know what it was made of or if it would even work, but it was available.
When God wants to make something of us, we must look a lot like that old discarded rusty piece of scrap metal.
The only difference is that God knows exactly what we are made of. He knows our strengths and our flaws.
All that is required for God to make something great out of our lives is for us to make ourselves available.
2. So I took this rusty piece of steel and drew the shape of a knife on it with a sharpie marker and then went to the band say to cut it out.
I had a plan in my head of what I thought my knife should look like. Just as I had a plan for my piece of scrap metal, God has a plan for each of you.
Jer 29:11 says, “for I know the plans I have for you, this is the Lords declaration, plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
The plans that God has for your life are always for your benefit, to give Him glory.
3. So, after I cut the metal to shape, I took it to the grinding wheel to start shaping it into the form of a knife.
In this process, you must grind away a lot of metal, but be careful not to get it too hot, as this would damage the strength of the metal, making it unusable.
Often, in the early, and sometimes latter, life of a Christian, God must take our lives to the grinding wheel, to modify our shape or remove a burr that is getting in the way of our being useful.
Prov 3:11-12 says, “my son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects.”
Just as the steel must be shaped by the hands of the craftsman, so must the lives of the Child of God be shaped by His hands.
The chastening of God polishes away the imperfections of our lives.
4. Now, once you have your knife cut to shape and ground to a bevel the blade, it must be heat treated.
Heat treating steel hardens it so that it will become a useful tool. Without heat treating, the metal is so soft that it will not hold and edge.
The steel must be heated until it is glowing orange, and there is simple test to determine if you have gotten it hot enough.
High carbon steel is magnetic, meaning that a magnet will stick to it. It is also influenced by the magnetic field of the earth.
However, when the steel is super-heated, to the point where it glows orange, it loses its magnetic properties. So to test if it is hot enough, you put a strong magnet against it, if it doesn’t stick, it is ready to be quenched in a vat of oil.
The life of the believer can be filled with suffering. Indeed, one of the primary arguments of atheists is, “if there is a God, then why is there so much suffering in the world?”
I believe there is a reason for suffering. Paul said of his suffering that, “when I am weak, then I am strong,” why? Because when we are suffering, we must rely completely on God and His strength.
Just as the steel, under extreme heat, loses its attraction to the earth’s magnetic pull, so too we Christians in times of great suffering loose our attraction to this world and rely completely on our Savior and Lord.
Romans 8:18 says, “For I consider that the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
Indeed, know that when you face trials in your life, God is hardening you so that you will be a worthy tool in His hand.
James 1:2 says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patients.”
5. Now, once the steel has been heated and quenched in oil, it must be tempered. You see, after the super heating and quenching the steel is brittle.
In order to remove the brittleness it must be tempered. This consists of placing it in the oven at 400 degrees for one and one half hours.
Without tempering, the blade would break or chip if it were placed under a great load.
As believers, we need our lives to be tempered as well. Too often, I meet believers who have been through the fire, only to emerge brittle and bitter.
The tempering agent for the believer is fellowship with other believers. When you are down, it is we, the body of Christ, that should be there to lift you up and encourage you.
Phil 2:3 says, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others as better then himself, let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interest of others.”
Simply put, when you see someone who has been through the fire, you have a sacred obligation to help them and lift them up, to help bring healing to them.
6. Well, now that my knife has been heat treated and tempered, it’s time to hone it down and actually put and edge on it.
See, if I had put an edge on it before the heat treat, it would have warped, so I had to leave the edge a little thick, so it could stand up to the heat.
I think it is human nature, that after you have been through a great difficulty you want to take a break, step back from all responsibility, take a breather, take a vacation.
But our ways are not God’s ways.
All of the shaping and grinding and heating and quenching and tempering that I have done to that old rusty piece of steel has been for the singular purpose of finally putting an edge on it so that I can call it a knife.
I believe that many times we miss a blessing that God has prepared for us when we step back to take a break.
Maybe all of the trials you have been through are preparation for God to finally put an edge on your life that He can use.
Even if you are currently serving God in some form of ministry, don’t ever be satisfied, because God isn’t.
Look at Jn 15:2B “…and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”
Indeed, the more you do, the more God expects, because He is anticipating the design and plan He has for your life.
7. So, now I have this knife, (show the knife). Many things can be done with this knife, carving, skinning a deer, making other useful things.
But this knife will find its greatest expression only when it is in the hands of a Master Craftsman.
A clumsy, unskilled person would misuse or even damage this knife. But a master craftsman would not only use it to do great things, but he would also care for it, keep it clean and sharp.
Prov 3:6 says, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
As a believer whose lives have been designed and crafted by God, shouldn’t we always be willing to place our lives into the hands of the Master Craftsman?
Shouldn’t every aspect of our lives acknowledge Him, and shouldn’t He have the final say in how He will use us for His glory?
8. See, a tool in the hands of a Master Craftsman brings glory to the craftsman, not the tool.
However God has designed, shaped, or forged us; it is ultimately for His glory.
I Pet. 4:11 says, “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen.”
So, no matter what your talents or gifts, you have them by God’s design; therefore use them to glorify God.
9. You know, this knife I have made will probably outlive me. I gave this to Will last Christmas and in turn, he may someday give it to his son, and so on and so on.
You see, when we allow ourselves to be used by the Master, the work He does through our lives will far outlive our life here on this earth.
In I Cor 3, Paul is telling us about Jesus as the only foundation upon which to build anything that will last. He says in verse 11, “for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
And when we allow God to shape our lives into something He can use, then we have the rare privilege of being used to build something eternal.
And if our work is God’s work then Paul says in verse 14, “If anyone’s work which he has built on it (Jesus as the foundation) endures, he will receive a reward.”
Our work here in this life is to set captives free. Our reward is glorifying God and eternity in Heaven.
So let me ask you, 1. Are you available; are you willing to let God show you the design He has for your life?
2. Are you willing to let God polish those imperfections out of your life? 3. If you have been through the fire, did you come out closer to God and less connected to the world?
4. Have you been acting as a tempering agent in the family of God? 5. Have you been willing to let God hone you to a sharp edge that He can use?
6. Are you willingly placing your talents and abilities into the hands of the Master Craftsman so He can use you to do great things?
7. Are you using your talents and abilities to bring glory to God?
Someday this knife will be lost, or broken, or rust into nothing. But the things we do for the Kingdom of God will last for all eternity.
Won’t you place your life into the hands of the Master? No matter how rusty and insignificant you may think it is, with His touch and His design, your life can and will bring glory to God and in return, He will give you peace.
