Will Your Vessel Hold What God Pours Out?

JUNE 4TH:  WILL YOUR VESSEL HOLD WHAT GOD POURS OUT?

ECHOES OF TRUTH

THEME: GETTING SET FOR THE SHOWERS

 

 

“Do not blame God for your empty hands. Examine your heart. God is an overflowing fountain, but if our vessels are leaking through compromise, secret sins, and double-mindedness, we will leave the fast as empty as we began.” – The BUD Family Africa

 

We must not plan for Juicy July if we have not first dealt with the state of our hearts, otherwise, we would be making a fatal mistake, taking a journey that would lead to nowhere valuable.

 

For us in the BUD Family Africa, this current season is as crucial as the season we are expecting and we all must examine ourselves, examine our hearts, in readiness for what God is set to do.

 

In Psalm 139:23-24, the Psalmist prayed a crucial prayer that we should pray daily, as the Lord helps us so we do not end up with a basket-like heart, hoping to draw from the fountain of life. With such a heart we will only end up wasting our time and not gaining anything from the Lord.

 

The Psalmist prayed: 

 

‘Examine me, O God, and know my mind; test me, and discover my thoughts. Find out if there is any evil in me and guide me in the everlasting way’ (GNT).

 

The reason why we must not trivialise this prayer is because the same Psalmist, David, also highlighted in  Psalm, 24, saying: 

 

‘Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. They will receive the Lord’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their savior. Such people may seek you and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob’ (NLT). 

 

This means that except we are clean in thoughts and in acts, we have no business entering God’s presence for we will not even gain an entrance. It would simply be a waste of time.

 

Juicy July is a season when we go under the cover of the BUD as a Family, in the name of Jesus, approaching heaven’s gates, and we command ancient gates to open up before us that God, the King of Glory, our Saviour may lead the charge and we follow in triumph.

 

It is that time the Lord in ways we can never comprehend, shows Himself strong, mighty and invincible in our battles. It is that time where the Lord of Heaven’s Host charges forth before us in His glory (Psalm 24:7-10).

 

It is only those whose hearts and hands are pure that will be able to worship in God’s presence, seek His face, and be blessed by Him. They are the ones who have gained the right to be intimate with God and have Him save them. They are the ones who can walk into God’s Holy place, stand there, and not be consumed unto destruction. 

 

If anyone of us were to embark on the Juicy July programme but at the end of July, we only feel empty and unfulfilled after thirty-one days of ‘being in God’s Presence’, it would only mean one thing: We never left where we were!

 

We never climbed God’s mountain nor got any chance to stand in His holy temple.

 

We never took God seriously. We were just being religious. We simply joined others to feel among.

 

It would simply have been a waste of time!!

 

Whatever the outcome will be, the fault would not be God’s but ours!

 

This is because we did not prepare our hearts and our hands, our vessel, for the journey. We were simply unfit from the very beginning.

 

Picture that you are a farmer, you have been praying for rain to fall. However, the fields are not ploughed, seeds are not set ready for planting, farm equipment are not serviced for the work they will do when the earth is watered and softened.

 

Should the rain fall, of what benefit will it be to the farmer and to the farm?

 

The season of planting would not be used to the greatest advantage and there certainly would be no harvesting.

 

In the same way, it is correct to ask that of what use will the juices of July be to us if we have not readied our hearts, our vessel, to receive?

 

God’s blessings to us under the New Covenant will not begin from meeting our physical needs. If they came first, they still don’t weigh great in value as what God intends to do within us. 

 

God is looking for the kind of heart that is not choked by the demands and expectations of this world. He is not seeking for a heart that is easily lured away by trends, sheds a couple of tears before Him and quickly dries up once her back is turned away from Him. God does not need the heart that is only rooted in religion, hypocrisy, materialism, and lust for worldly affections. 

 

Also read this TESTIMONY: My Juicy July baby is here!

 

 

God is in need of the kind of vessel, a heart, softened by humility, broken by the authority of His Word, submitted and willing to walk in His will, in obedience to Him. This is why before we begin to climb this Holy mountain in the month of July, we must set our hearts and hands right in the month of June. This is what makes the prayer in Psalm 139:23-24 particularly crucial for us.

 

We need to have God examine our hearts under the rays of His Word so they can be a fit vessel. We need to draw closer to the Word of God to see the lies in our hearts, the pride framing it, the disobedience and unbelief hardening it, the insincerity firmly rooted in it. God needs to expose every unforgiveness, offences we have refused to let go of, hidden in our hearts. God needs to test us to reveal anything that is sinful in us and deliver us from it. 

 

Sisters, this is a crucial path we must take for our July to be truly juicy, rewarding, and eternal. It is expedient for us to experience God in greater dimensions than we have ever imagined or experienced before.

 

God is wiling but are we also willing? Are we truly expectant for God’s face or is it His hands we are watching out for? Are our vessels set to receive? Or are they leaky?

 

Let Us Pray:

Dear Father, it is so important that we don’t allow ourselves and the devil cheat us of enjoying the benefit of tarrying with You for a whole month. The state of our hearts matters much in this experience of You. We can only gain as much as the room we let You have in our hearts. Please take this season, this June, to examine our hearts, reveal the state of our hearts that we may make right all that is wrong in us, whether besetting sins or manifestations of self. Father, cause the Holy Spirit to till our hearts and give us grace to submit to You that we may be led in Your everlasting way, in Jesus name, Amen!!!

 

You may also listen to The Key to a Perfect Heart by Derek Prince