From the desk of Steve Shultz:
I've never been more convinced that God is doing a great deal more searching the earth for "empty vessels" and for those who are admittedly "weak" than the reverse of all that.
Add to that the Childlikeness that He is also searching for and you have a picture or description of a Christian, a Disciple, who is well-placed for a move of God in their personal life! And a person whose personal life has been so infused with Christ in this powerful way – is also well able to take on more visible or public tasks for the Lord.
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Joey LeTourneau:
Why Are Empty Vessels So Important to God?
And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9
For years, the Lord has led our family through a mandate from the story of the widow's oil in 2 Kings 4. The woman was broke, at her end, and about to lose her two sons to slavery. I venture to say many of us are at our own near tipping point even now. The woman went to Elisha, the prophet of the time, and asked what she should do. I love the question he asks in response: "What do you have in the house?" To which she replied, "Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil."
Her response strikes me because she so clearly contradicts herself. She says she has "nothing," but she also says she has "a jar of oil." How often do we say the same thing? I know I do. Essentially, she referred to her one jar of oil as nothing. How often do we have nothing left but God, only to say we have nothing left, when we can say, "But, God!"?
Elisha's next command to her is completely confounding to human wisdom. He tells her to go and gather vessels, empty vessels, and not to gather just a few. Typically, when we have a need, we are looking for something of power or worth. We would likely be looking to find full vessels. But God knew where true worth awaited, empty vessels not full of the world's worth, but empty enough to receive all the Kingdom had to offer.
As they were told, the woman and her sons brought all the empty vessels back into the room and poured into them from their one jar of oil. It says the oil did not cease – it wouldn't stop – until there were no more empty vessels. We typically want to be seen as full, and we are looking for answers that are full, but emptiness here was the key! I grew up hearing my mom ask a similar question that Elisha did, often saying, "What do you have in your hands?" God can do more with our "nothing" than we can with the world's everything, and all He asks for are empty vessels. Will we allow ourselves to be one?
A Childlike Kingdom
...Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the Kingdom of God. Mark 10:14
To be empty is not a posture of poverty but of childlike belief. It's a dust-covered if not deeply hidden place we all currently have that is packed full of the Kingdom. Many of us have grown up once more since being born again and have forgotten to let the child inside us continue to live. The Lord sees that child who still lives somewhere deep within you, and is calling such a hope forward now. A child can rejoice in their utter dependence on Father God because they trust in Who they know more than what they know.
Mature childlike posture causes the Kingdom to flow very naturally, here on earth as it is in Heaven. The disciples in Mark 10:14 saw the children as a distraction, but Jesus saw them as a revelation. Childlike belief is like its own language, a secret code that unlocks what has already been freely given, like a messy sandbox few of us adults will ever enter for the foolish mess, and therefore miss out on the treasure buried underneath.
One of my favorite movies is Hook, a spin-off on the story of Peter Pan. Peter Pan has grown up and forgotten how to fly. Instead of living by childlike faith, always believing, now he is a grown-up named Peter Panning whose life resembles that of more of a pirate. That is, until he went back to Neverland to rescue his two kids who had been taken, where the Lost Boys helped remind him of who he really is – that Peter Pan is still very much alive, only buried inside this grown-up. The kingdom was always alive and well, but Peter Panning had to empty himself of his new persona and learn once again to simply believe.
The devil, like Captain Hook, would like nothing more than to face an army of Peter Panning's, adults who have forgotten how to fly in their own God-given purpose and calling. But the last thing he wants to face is a swarm of Peter Pan's, those who aren't too grown up to defy reality with the faith, hope, and love of their childlike kingdom.
Weak & Foolish
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty... 1 Corinthians 1:27
When we live childlike lives, our lives become a revelation of the Father. I can't sit back and wait, but I can't bring about the breakthrough through striving or perfection either. If you are battling something, anything, or in need of breakthrough, you may be exactly who and what the Lord is looking for. Your emptiness brings you that much closer to the simple, childlike nature that Jesus Himself said represents the Kingdom. The emptiness and dependence we feel right now in our circumstances may be the very thing that qualifies us for His grace to be proven sufficient, His strength to be made perfect, and the power of Christ to rest upon our lives.
There is a childlike hope in you, no matter how "grown-up" you may be. That child sees the only remaining jar of oil, and recognizes the opportunity at hand. That child sees the empty vessels not as lack but as space to be filled with a power greater than their own. What do you have in your hands? Because God has you in His!
Joey LeTourneau
M.A.R.K. 10:14 Family/Heavenly Hope Ministries
Email: joey.letourneau@gmail.com
Website: bringhishope.org / uncommonvision.org
Joey LeTourneau, his wife Destiny, and their four daughters live near Denver, Colorado. They travel extensively, empowering the Body of Christ to draw near to their First Love and live out the life-giving testimony of Jesus to the world around them. They desire to see the Father's heart fully revealed to the world, and through such see a multiplication of life so abundant the whole world will know the true nature of our Father! Joey has authored two books, Revolutionary Freedom, and his new release, The Life Giver.
