The Seventh Vessel

John 2: 3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine…6 And there were set there six water pots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece 7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the water pots with water. And they filled them up to the brim 8 And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.

This story speaks to me about God’s divinity in comparison to our own ability. You see, there were six earthen vessels waiting for Jesus, and He commanded that those six vessels be filled to the brim. The number six represents man or flesh, and in this scripture I see this number six as my own ability. We are earthen vessels, and we do not come into this world empty, God fills us up with ability, potential, talents and so on, we even inherit some traits from our parents. Either way, we are filled to the brim by God, just like the six water pots were. Then comes the seventh vessel, nothing like the six earthly vessels, this one isn’t just filled with potential, ability or talent (all raw materials!), it is filled with the finished work, and the raw material has already been processed. It is filled with life changing power, filled to the brim with the Spirit of the living God.

In this story, Jesus was that seventh vessel, When He got to the six water pots, they were there ready, waiting to be used to glorify God and touch the hearts of many and what did this seventh vessel do? He poured Himself out into those six water pots, and turned their water into wine. He turned their potential into accomplishment, the water they had was the raw material for greatness, and when Jesus touched the water in the pots, the water became wine. The wine glorified God and blessed the party crowd. After His touch, their greatness was seen by all.

You see, it is not until Jesus touches us and fills us up with the Holy Spirit that we can become who He created us to be. Many of us measure our lives based on our ability and sometimes we really have achieved a lot, but do you know what? Even those great achievements are nothing compared to what you can achieve if you are filled and led by the Holy Spirit, if you allow Jesus to pour Himself into you. Those water ports could have been there to give water to the thirsty; they could have remained filled with just water, but why have just water when you can have sweet wine?
Where our own ability ends, this is where God’s divinity begins, because we surrender to God and say you know what, I can’t possibly do it without you, I have done the best that I can do, please intervene, and then His divinity kicks in, and you wonder why you didn’t surrender much sooner.
This is truly what I call the supernatural; where our own ability is lost in God’s divinity and it becomes apparent to those around you and the whole world that you couldn’t have achieved this without God’s divine intervention.

I believe that this story wasn’t just written in the bible to give an account of Jesus’ first miracle, I believe it was recorded as the first miracle for a reason, and I strongly believe that it was to make us aware that Jesus is the life and soul of the party, it all starts and ends with Him, if you surrender to Him first, He will bring such joy into your life (sweet wine) and people will be touched by that joy. When the master of the ceremony drank the wine, even though he did not know where it came from, he was so impressed that he called the bridegroom to praise Him. Do you see that? Let me bring it home to you; Matthew 5: 16 (KJV) "let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven". The people at the party including the master of the ceremony (Men) enjoyed the wine (good works) and they praised the bridegroom (glorified the father).

Let’s face it; we can achieve nothing except Christ does it through us and with us.

Be all that He has called you to be, surrender to Him today and let Him pour His Spirit into you, so you can pour into others and glorify His name.

(Written by Yewande Erinle 2009© All rights reserved.)

Ask - No tantrums!

Mat 7:7 – Ask and it shall be given you... Isa 65:24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear (KJV).

Looking at these two scriptures, they seem so contradictory (though they are not, as God’s word isn’t confusing or contradictory at all).

Isaiah 65:24 implies that God knows you are going to call on Him before you do, so He answers even before you call and He is able to give you an answer to your request before you’ve finished asking. So if this is the case, why tell us to ask at all? He says we must ask to receive in Matthew 7:7. Also, Philippians 4:6 (KJV) says ‘Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. I ask again, why would He tell us to make our requests known to Him as if He already knows? We know that God is the omniscient God (the all knowing God), so why make us ask Him for something He already knows you need or want.

Need and/or want: those two words are very important when it comes to prayer, you see, God already said He would provide all our needs according to His riches in glory. What you want may not be what you need, God determines what you need. For example; if you’re a parent, you determine what your child needs (and you provide it before they even know they need it) until he or she gets to a certain age, the age of maturity, where they are able to determine their needs for themselves. At this age, hopefully, they know the difference between a need and a want.

A want is a desire for something and that something may or may not add any value to our lives. A need on the other hand definitely adds value, so you don’t need to ask God for food, He knows you need it, and He says He feeds the birds of the air and since you mean much more to Him than the birds of the air, He will definitely feed, clothe and protect you. These are basic needs in life and God will not deny any of His children those needs (remember that the enemy can steal the provisions if you let Him, but we won’t go there today).

When it comes to wants or desires that’s a different matter. So in this case, God tells you to ask Him. This is not because He doesn’t know your desires, but He wants you to learn to desire what He desires. He wants to see your level of maturity, and He wants you to see it for yourself too. If you truly are a mature son or daughter, you will know the difference between a need and a desire or want, and you will ask appropriately.

Come with me to Gethsemane, let’s hear Jesus’ prayer again; Matthew 26: 39 - And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."
It was Jesus’ desire for the cup to pass, but He was willing to submit Himself unto God, to place His own will/desire under His father’s will/desire, to allow His father’s will to consume His own will. Just to show you that this was a true battle between the spirit and the flesh, see what He says to His disciples in vs 41 Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. But guess what? The spirit overcame, see vs 42 - He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." Here he has fully accepted that His father’s will must be done, that His own desires are irrelevant because the root of those desires is the flesh, self, and He has kept this under, He denied the desires of His flesh.

Selflessness comes with maturity; mature people don’t throw tantrums, only children do. God will give you the power to pray effectively when you are able to prove that you are selfless in prayer and that you do not allow your own desire to interfere with your prayers and with the will of God for your life, when your motives are righteous. Jesus showed that He was ready to do His father’s will, He wasn’t afraid to show that He had His own desires, but He knew that those were not real. The real thing was God’s will, because it is God’s word, and God’s word will never ever pass away. Everything will pass away, but His word will remain and because God had spoken that Jesus will die, Jesus had to die, both His flesh and His will, this is why that cup could not pass as Jesus desired. Moreover, His desire for His father’s will weighed more on His heart than His own will. That is true love and relationship.

We need to get to a place where we are able to demonstrate selflessness to God, not to people, but to God. This is where real power lies, this means that you have given the Holy Spirit full control, because it is the Holy Spirit that knows the heart of God and He places God’s desires in your heart.

So next time you ask God for a fancy new house or car or anything else you think is very important to you, and He doesn’t give it to you, don’t throw tantrums, just do the following;

1. Thank God for the ability and opportunity to ask freely
2. Thank Him for providing your needs according to His riches in glory
3. Cover your provisions with the blood of Jesus
4. Ask the Holy Spirit whether what you are asking for is God’s desire or your own (remembering that your needs have been provided)
5. If it is your own desire, and it is not in line with God’s desire, repent and ask God for His desire instead.
6. Ask the Lord to help you die to self daily so you can be like Jesus
The closer you are to God, the more you know Him, after a while you will not need to ask Him what He desires, you’ll know, just as Moses knew the heart of God.

So feel free to ask, but be ready to listen to and accept the answer you’ll get.
(Written by Yewande Erinle 2009 © All rights reserved.)

The Real You!

When God looks at you, He sees what He created you to be. He does not see your weaknesses or short comings; instead, He sees His original blue print of you, His end product, His perfect will.
Take father Abraham for instance, he was named Abram by his parents, but God always saw Him as Abraham. Abram means ‘High father’ which is great, his parents definitely got that right, because he was a great man of God, a priest and a prophet, definitely a high father, but in Genesis 17:5, God confirmed his name and his destiny by calling him Abraham and asking him not to answer to the name Abram anymore. You see, his destiny was tied to his name in that his name confirmed his destiny.
God told Abram that he will be the father of many nations while Abram was childless at a ripe old age. You see God wanted Abram to be confronted with his destiny every moment of his life, so that he could work towards achieving it. Write the vision and make it plain! Sometimes the best way to remember who you are and what you are about is by your name. God did not want Abram to see himself as just the high father anymore, no! He was created to be more than that, he was created to be the father of many nations, but how was this going to happen if he didn’t even have a child of his own?
God had to deal with Abraham’s mind. If Abraham heard the prophecy regularly enough, he would believe it, he would become it and therefore fulfill his destiny. God didn’t change Abraham’s name, the name Abraham was not an afterthought for God, God always knew Abram as Abraham, even when Abraham didn’t know it, God gave him his new name at the appropriate time, at His own desired time. God had to prepare Abraham’s mind for his destiny. Each time Abraham heard his name, he heard the prophecy all over again, he saw in his mind’s eye the day he fell on his face before the Almighty God, the day God re-confirmed His covenant with him. It’s interesting that God chose to do this after Abram tried to help God by sleeping with his maid for a child (Sarai’s advice of course, see Genesis 16). You see if you don’t know who you are and what you were created for, the world will give you a name of its choice and assign another destiny to you. Sarai gave Abram an advice, her own take on things, she told Abram how she thought things would come to be and Abram weakened because he forgot who he was, he failed to tell his wife what God had shown him. He failed to let her know who he really was, he answered to the wrong name. God saw that Abram was giving up, it seemed he had forgotten who he was, and God wanted him to have a constant reminder of his destiny, so God called him exactly who he ought to be. This is God that calls things that are not as though they are and this is because they are, but we are just not aware of it. The seen is created from the unseen, there has to be the unseen (the spiritual) first, before the seen (physical), and this was a classic example.
The Lord said to Abram at the beginning of Genesis 17, ‘Walk before me and be perfect’. It was done, Abram was perfect in God’s eyes, Abram then, was not childless before God, he was the father of many nations, and the number of his children was like the number of the stars in the heavens. In chapter 15 of the book of Genesis, God gave Abram a mental picture, He took Abram out into the night and told him to look at the stars, and He compared it to the number of children Abram would have, innumerable! But by chapter 16, Abram was losing this mental picture (image), it wasn’t that clear in his mind anymore, so in chapter 17, God called him by his real name, Abraham – the father of many nations.
When anyone called the name Abraham, they would be prophesying and re-confirming destiny because life and death are in the power of the tongue (proverbs 18:21) and whenever Abraham heard his name and answered to it, he was agreeing with them (the person (s) who called him), as in Matthew 18:19, ‘Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven’. This way, God ensured that His will was done on earth as it was in heaven.
Let’s look at Simon Peter’s case in John 1:42, Jesus told Simon that he would be called Cephas, which means rock. This is what God saw Peter as, this was Peter’s destiny, to be the rock upon which God would build His church (Matthew 16:18). Jesus prepared Peter for this, by calling him the ‘rock’ everyday, till it came to pass.
My question to you now is, Do you know the real you? Do you know what name God calls you? Cause if you don’t, it’s time to find out and work with Him to fulfill your divine destiny. Go on; let His will be done in your life, as it is in heaven. Find out the real you today, your name matters...
(Written by Yewande Erinle © 2009 All rights reserved.)

When He Speaks

Psalm 29: 3 (KJV) the voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters 4 the voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty 5 the voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon 6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young Unicorn. 7 The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire. 8 The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. 9 The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory...

Have you ever been to a party where you were unfortunate enough to sit beside very massive and powerful loudspeakers? The noise is so loud that it causes your ears to ache, and you go home with a loud ringing in your ears and you probably end up temporarily deaf.

Well, God’s voice is similar to that except you can’t begin to imagine how loud it can be (spiritually) and the effects of it. It’s amazing, how that still small voice can be so loud. Look at the scripture above;

When God speaks to the waters, it’s like thunder upon the waters and it causes sound waves to move through the waters leading to a ripple effect (that’s a bit of physics for you from the omniscient God right there).

His voice is so powerful that it breaks the cedars of Lebanon. The cedar tree is a very strong tree, it’s roots are described as tenacious, it was the glory of Lebanon, this is what king Solomon used to build the pillars in God’s temple, and if you remember, inscribed on two of the pillars were Jachin (establish) and Boaz (meaning strength) respectively. The cedar tree was established in strength, and the voice of the Lord caused it to break and skip like a calf. Wow!

When God speaks, flames of fire are divided and the wilderness shakes. When you are in the midst of fire, all you need is God’s voice, and the fire is divided, making a way for you. You are able to walk out of that fire as if you had been sitting in a well air conditioned room, no burns. Likewise, when you are in a wilderness situation and you can’t see the wood for the trees, God’s voice will shake that situation, causing trees and bushes to fall, your vision becomes clear, you can see for miles and miles, and a path is created for you to lead you out of such a situation.

When God speaks, a female deer that isn’t even pregnant will give birth, can you imagine that? God’s voice causes the barren to give birth; it impregnates those that have no vision and causes them to bring forth beautiful ideas that will initiate their breakthroughs. His voice brings order where there is chaos, for example; barrenness is not of God, this is out of order because God asked us to multiply, so when God speaks to such a situation, His voice gets to the root of the barenness and the womb is restored to order. Remember, when God spoke in the very beginning (Genesis), the earth that was void and covered in darkness heard His voice and all of a sudden there was light. He spoke everything into being and into order.

What can I say? Except that you need God to speak to that hopeless situation and it will become hopeful. Troublesome situations will cease to exist at the voice of our Almighty Father.

Be still, and let your Daddy speak through you to that situation; see Jeremiah 22: 29 (KJV) O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD. Command that situation to hear the voice and word of the Lord today.

(Written by Yewande Erinle 2009© All rights reserved.)