Borrow More Vessels for the Overflow

ECHOES OF TRUTH

THEME: GETTING SET FOR THE SHOWERS

JUNE 3RD:  BORROW MORE VESSELS FOR THE OVERFLOW

 

“If you are satisfied to live without a fresh visitation from God, you will. God measures out His Spirit to us according to our capacity and our hunger. If you only want a little of God, that is all you will get.” – A.W. Tozer

 

Unlike many realities of life where what you see is not what you get. Or what you want is not what is given. And perhaps as much as you want is not always the case when measured out, God never deals with anyone that way. It is simply the way of man and never the way of God.

 

With God, when it comes to an experience of Himself, His Person, His Spirit, the place of Koinonia with Him, it is always a matter of what you want is what you get! It is simply as much as you desire is as much as you receive.

 

God will never give Himself over to one who knows nothing about the value of His Spiritual realities. He won’t cast spiritual pearls before swine. He will not reveal the true treasures of heaven to a person who will not desire it so much to sell all that she has to lay possession of it. 

 

Get More Vessels, Not a Few!

Sometimes, we come to God like that widow of the Prophet who went to Elisha and told him to help her with her debt as the debtor was about to come to collect her sons but we probably haven’t taken the crux of her story to heart.

 

As recorded in 2 Kings 4:1-7, we can imagine the heaviness in her heart, the weight of the burden and sorrow upon her. Perhaps she had gone far and wide to ask people for help and they were all unable to save her nor her sons. She probably saw the prophet as her last point of help, hoping for some money or some miracle that will change the heart of the debtor. 

 

The prophet simply asked her, ‘What do you have?’.

 

Her response, ‘only a jar of oil’.

 

And the prophet knew that that jar of oil held the key to her breakthrough.

 

He tells her to take that tiny jar of oil she had, borrow as many containers as she can find and begin to pour the little jar of oil into it.

 

As in that Scripture, we know that she did and she had enough to sell and save her family. 

 

But let’s picture it together.

 

Assuming all she got was three twenty-five liters of kegs, that would be all the oil she will get.

 

If she had gotten a storex tank of two thousand five hundred liters, that would be all the oils she would get.

 

If she poured that tiny jar into a thirty-thousand-liter petrol tanker-sized container, that would be exactly what she gets.

 

And if she went with a bottomless pit, and kept pouring, the oil would equally keep flowing. 

 

Simply put, the quantity of containers she gathered equals the magnitude of her desire.

 

Like this widow, that would be as much oil, presence, visitation, experience, blessings, grace, and all that God is and can be to us that we would be getting from the Lord.

 

We can only get as much as our desires and hunger from the Lord. There will never be a problem nor an end to the oil of intimacy with God. We will always be the one with the issues. 

 

Also read: 17 Best Practices for a Powerful Juicy July

 

It is very crucial to begin to deal with this aspect of our hearts and life as we prepare and anticipate Juicy July this year. We cannot say that we are going on such a long journey and we only have the oil in our lamps and no extra in our jars. That would be a mistake. We will burn out before we get to see the bridegroom. 

 

The anticipations, the requests, the journals, the prayer points and everything we plan to put together to make July juicy indeed will only yield what is eternally rewarding in us if and only if, we are so hungry and desperate for it. 

 

The posture of a hungry heart does not simply embrace Matthew 7:7 as singularly accessible items but three parts that make a whole.

 

For Juicy July, we must be hungry enough to ask until we receive all that God has in store for that season.

 

Many will approach the seventh month with the goal to simply ask. Ask for both spiritual and physical blessings. Asking can only bring a level of satisfaction in God but nothing that fully satisfies.

 

It does not stop there. We must be hungry enough to seek all that can be found in God. July should be seen as a month that has many hidden treasures, like a treasure hunt. If it is called Juicy then it bears so many rewarding benefits that are hidden in strategic phases of the heavens. Only those who are willing to diligently seek them out will find them. Seeking ushers us into deeper revelations of God that still doesn’t fully satisfy.

 

And the crown of it all is knocking and the door will be opened! Yes, opened! This is what takes us beyond the asking to receive and we are off to attend to other businesses when we have received.

 

It transcends seeking to find so when we find what we are looking for, we equally walk away to other matters. Or keep looking for other things that are hidden. 

 

But with knocking, we find ourselves looking for the One who is the Giver, the Owner of the hidden treasures. When we knock, we enter into depths of revelations in God. We knock to enter and have intimacy. We don’t walk away when the door that we have been knocking is opened. We enter it, we behold what is behind the doors. 

 

It is only the heart that is hungry, desirous, desperate, that will persist to knocking. We must pray that the Lord will begin to visit our hearts with an insatiable hunger for Him that will push us to persist in July till we are more about knocking on heaven’s doors than asking or seeking.

 

And we must begin even now!

 

LET’S PRAY:

Father, please enlarge my capacity for You. Deliver me from small desires and a satisfied spirit. Fill my heart with deep hunger for Your presence, Your voice, and Your ways. As the Scriptures say in Matthew 7:7, teach me to ask, seek, and knock until I enter deeper intimacy with You. Let my life become a vessel prepared for Your overflow in Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

You may listen to this short sermon on Desiring God’s Best by Derek Prince