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We are Like Earthen Vessels -
Like Plain Melamine Cups

But we have this treasure in earthen VESSELS, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves; 2 Cor 4:7 NAS

A problem called sin separated all of us from God. We could not keep God's law no matter how hard we tried. We came to Jesus in repentance, asked for forgiveness and asked Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. We knew that we must receive Christ through FAITH by His GRACE or not at all. We knew that we had nothing to offer Jesus but our sinful self-centered selves and we exchanged our sinful self-life or His eternal life, receiving His righteousness as a gift. We invited Jesus to live inside of us.
(Rom. 3:23, 6:23, 5:6, 8-10, 5:15-17, 6:6, 7:4, 7:25, 2 Cor:5:17, 2 Pet. 1:4)

For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest anyone should boast. Eph 2:8-9 NKJV

Father God filled us a new divine nature and we thought we would surely be able to keep His law now. BUT we found out that even with our new divine nature, we could not keep the law, do right, and consistently keep from doing wrong. What is wrong with us?

... He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises,
so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, ...
2 Peter 1:4 NASU

What are we missing now? If we have a new divine nature now, as brand new creatures in Christ, surely God gave us this new nature primarily so that we can obey Him and live a perfect life. NOT! Romans 7 is clear that we still cannot do right and we keep doing wrong. Romans 7 begins by saying that believers are not married to 'Mr. Law' (righteousness by keeping the law) but we are now married to Jesus. We bear fruit out of union with Him.

We were not given a divine nature first of all so we could keep the law but so that our new divine nature could abide in HIM. Our flesh hates thoughts like that. Flesh pretends to be complete but the Word says we are complete in HIM. Father God gave us a divine nature who wants to abide in HIM. Even as when we prayed to receive Christ, we had to repent of our independent thinking (I can do it,) now we still repent of thinking we can do it - that we can keep the law. We are still that one who cannot do it by self-effort; only Christ in us can obey God - can live the life - can do it.

We are vessels like plain melamine cups. We are created to be RECEIVERS and RELEASERS, receiving the Spirit of God who fills us as we commune with Him daily. When we receive all that He is inside us, we can pour Him out or release Jesus to live His life through us. He is the life.

OK, so we choose to be filled with the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit. But that is still not quite His main point. We are not called to just use the Holy Spirit, gifts or fruit to help us to please God by keeping the law. He didn't come just to enable us to succeed on the treadmill of performance in order to earn God's love and acceptance with self-effort. He came so we can abide in relationship in Him. (Abiding is not to be made into a work.)

All that is important about a cup is what it is filled with. His hope is that we will want to be with Him - to know Him - to be filled with Him -more than we want to use Him to improve our ability to perform 'for Him.' When we remember our complete poverty to give Him anything, we will choose to receive from Him and to release Him to others everyday.

Only as we abide in Him, lingering in His presence, will we really become the receivers He longs for us to be. We have nothing to bring to Him but ourselves, like plain melamine cups, desperately needing to be filled with Him. Even with our new divine nature, we cannot perform; we are impotent to 'do right' in order to please Him. We can only choose to receive all that He is and to pour Him out or release Him to others.

God's desire in sending Jesus was to demonstrate abiding in Him. We are reconciled to God not only to spend eternity with Him, but to abide in Him - to commune with Him - to know Him - now. When we rush into our day to 'serve Him' or to 'serve others' so we can be pleasing to God, we miss His point. We can do nothing; only Jesus can live His own life through us. Our function is to abide in His Glory daily and then release it.

All we can do is to report to be filled with Him each day and then expect to release Him or to be poured out every day. If we are too busy, thinking that we have something to offer, we are back into our self-effort, and are DRAINED as we are poured out, until we feel like empty cups. We can either receive and release Him to others or release our self-effort.

It is not that this is the new law to try to keep in our self-effort either. As we abide in the vine, we receive the sap from the vine, the life flow, which bears fruit that remains. Branches can't bear fruit if they try to live separated from the vine. Have you gotten the revelation that without abiding in Him you can do nothing? Have you heard famous spiritual leaders say that they became much more fruitful after beginning to spend hours with God and then they only needed minutes with men?

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"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5-6 NKJV

As we abide in Him all through the day, we are ready to release His supernatural life, His anointing, His presence, His power. Many will come to drink of the living water in us, but we will never run dry. We are filled to overflowing from the life-spring of water that flows from inside. We are filled melamine cups; there is always more than enough.

" ... Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.
Indeed, the water I give him will become IN HIM a spring of water
welling up to eternal life." John 4:14 NIV

All that is important about a cup is what it is filled with.

Copy and print me. I will be replaced by more living water.

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