Thursday

Related Verses
Rom. 9:21
21 Or does not the potter have authority over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?

2 Cor. 13:14
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Rom. 8:9-10, 15, 23
9 But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.
10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.
15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery bringing you into fear again, but you have received a spirit of sonship in which we cry, Abba, Father!
23 And not only so, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan in ourselves, eagerly awaiting sonship, the redemption of our body.

2 Tim. 1:6-7
6 For which cause I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
7 For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.

Related Reading
Second Corinthians 4:4, speaking of “the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ,” refers to four matters: illumination, gospel, glory, and Christ. Verse 6 goes on to say, “The God who said, Out of darkness light shall shine, is the One who shined in our hearts to illuminate the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” God’s shining in our hearts results in the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, that is, in the enlightenment that causes us to know the glory of the gospel of Christ…God’s shining in the universe produced the old creation. His shining in our hearts has made us a new creation, because this shining brings into us, earthen vessels, the marvelous treasure of the Christ of glory. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3207-3208) 

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The shining of God in our hearts is to illumine us that we may know the glory in Christ’s face. The glory of God manifested in the face of Jesus Christ is the God of glory expressed through Jesus Christ, who is the effulgence of the glory of God (Heb. 1:3); to know Him is to know the God of glory…God shines in our hearts that we may shine on others so that they may have the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, that is, the knowledge of Christ, who expresses and declares God (John 1:18). 

God’s shining in our hearts is in the face of Christ. In order to experience God’s shining, we need to have direct, personal, and intimate contact with Christ…This is the reason we call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. By calling on the Lord we are brought into face-to-face contact with Him and experience God’s shining in our heart. Only when we have such direct, personal, and intimate contact with the Lord do we have the inner shining. Whenever we call on the Lord in a dear, intimate way, we are before His face, and the shining of God is in our heart. Then we may shine out what we have received for the shining of the glory of the gospel of Christ. 

We need to preach the gospel in a very illuminating way. This means that while we are preaching, God shines into the hearts of those to whom we are speaking. We also need to help them to call on the name of the Lord Jesus in order that they would be brought to the face of Christ, have personal contact with Him, and experience God’s shining in their hearts. To preach in this way is to present not merely a gospel of certain facts but a gospel of glory. Those who receive the gospel of glory will have Christ as the precious treasure dispensed into them. Then, like us, they will be earthen vessels containing this treasure. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3208-3209) 

The first step of God’s procedure in fulfilling His purpose was to create man as a vessel to contain Himself as life…Do you realize that as a human being you are a vessel? A vessel is like a bottle or a cup. Today, while I was with the Lord, I was rejoicing because I am a vessel. I said to myself, “Man, you are exactly like a bottle. Your mouth resembles the mouth of a bottle. The purpose of a bottle is to contain something, not to contain yourself. You are a vessel designed to contain God.” 

This is not my concept. It was presented initially in Genesis and then stated emphatically by Paul in Romans 9 when he said, “Who are you, trying to argue with God? Don’t you realize that you are clay? The potter has sovereign authority to mold the clay into vessels.” Romans 9:21 and 23 reveal that God created man as a vessel. We are vessels to contain God as life. (Life-study of Genesis, p. 121) 

Further Reading: Life-study of Genesis, msg. 10; CWWL, 1985, vol. 3, “Elders’ Training, Book 6: The Crucial Points of the Truth in Paul’s Epistles,” ch. 4