Filling the Vessel
"He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name" (Acts 9:15)

As God's children we might be labeled as His instruments, tools, witnesses, or light, but here we find that He's chosen us to be His vessel. A vessel is any object that is used to carry something else, and God has chosen you to carry His precious and Holy name!

Keep Your Vessel Clean
Sometimes people are curious and look inside the vessel wondering, "What’s in there!? It looks good on the outside, let's look on the inside!" Do you realize that people are looking inside of your life? We sometimes lazily say, "Oh, but don't look at me, just look at Jesus". And in doing so we deny that the Lord has called us to be a vessel "being filled with the fruits of righteousness" (Philippians 1:11). In John 8:12 Jesus said, "I am the light of the world", but in Matthew 5:14 He also said, "Ye are the light of the world." Our lost world needs a mighty army of Christians who will lead them to the Christ! "Christian" means Christ-like! "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." (1 Corinthians 1:11) Paul didn't speak those words with arrogance, but with humbleness and through the power of the Spirit. He knew that the Lord had called him to be a vessel, filled with the fruits of the Spirit, and he invited people to look inside of his life and see Jesus Christ! The Pharisees, however, could make no such claim. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess." (Matthew 23:35) The outside of the cup and platter have only the power to display. When people look in your life, who do they see? Is Jesus Christ on display through your life? Keep your inner life clean and holy! Holiness is how much our heart has been affected by the sacrifice of Jesus at the Christ.

Keep Your Vessel Full
God wants people to see HIM when they look at our lives, God wants you to bear His name, to take it to those who have not yet received it in their hearts! "...that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:19) Emptiness in your life, as God's vessel, will result in spiritual emptiness in others as well, for you serve as His vessel to carry His name unto the lost! And the only reason why we continue in emptiness is because we've become content with it. NEVER be content with ANY shortage in your relationship to Jesus Christ! Jesus eliminated shortages at the cross! "It is finished" (John 19:30). When He died at the cross, Jesus paid it all! There wasn't a single sin that He didn't pay for and there was NO shortage left behind! He emptied Himself at the cross that we might be filled with Him now and forever and become a vessel that holds life-giving power for the lost and perishing. The vessel is not the important thing, but the contents are of priceless value! God used Paul to carry His Gospel to many lost because Paul took great care of the contents of His vessel! He kept himself full of the Spirit at all times and God was therefore able to use Paul in a great capacity! Paul even said, "Who then is Paul?" (1 Corinthians 3:5) Keep your life empty of self, but full of Christ! Is your vessel filled with Him? Where is God able to take you?