Mission Venture Ministries

“But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand.” – Isaiah 64:8

The Bible says that God is the Potter and we are the clay. When we are open to God’s will in our lives, He molds, transforms, and sanctifies us as we walk with Him.

When we come to the Potter, we need to surrender all to Him, all our imperfections and let Him be our Master. We need to let Him mold us and make us the vessel of honor that He wants us to be.

For this to be accomplished, we need to have the knowledge of God’s Word before He can start the process of molding us. As the potter places a piece of clay on a wheel he needs water in order to make it pliable and soft enough for him to be able to use it. Jesus is our Living Water and the Bible tells us “… that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.” – Ephesians 5:26-27

Consequently, the very first step we have to take, if we really want God to mold and shape us into the kind of person He wants us to become, is to spend time in the Word so that we will become pliable and shapeable.

The next step is that the piece of clay needs to be properly centered on the wheel. The reason for this is if a lump of clay is not properly centered on the wheel, it will eventually tear apart before the potter can finish the process. In the same way we have to be properly centered in Jesus Christ before God can start to mold and shape us.

Being centered in Jesus is to have our life fully surrendered to Him where He is in full control. Jesus has to become both Lord and Savior in our life.

Just like the potter cannot mold the piece of clay into the piece of pottery that he is trying to make unless it is perfectly centered on the wheel, in the same way the Lord cannot begin to properly work with us unless we are perfectly centered in Him in full surrender.

If we try to live our lives without Jesus leading and guiding the way, our lives will eventually fall apart and we will never reach and fulfill the divine destiny to which God has called us. This is why Jesus tells us in His Word that without Him we can do absolutely nothing: “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” – John 15:5. God also tells us that if we try to build our own houses without His direct guidance, that we will end up laboring “in vain” if we try to do it all through our own efforts. “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” –  Psalm 127:1

Once the lump of clay has enough water and is centered on the wheel, then the actual molding process begins. The wheel starts spinning and the potter’s hand presses down on the top of the clay to create and opening and moves his hands deep inside the middle of the clay. He continues by constantly shaping it and molding it to result in the vessel he desires it to be.

In the same way, God’s own hand literally goes down deep into our soul and spirit where the sanctification work is actually done, molding and transforming us into the saints He wants us to be.

Just as the piece of clay needs to fully trust the potter, in the same way we need to fully trust the Lord to mold, shape, and transform our lives. The clay is totally under His control. It has to be one hundred percent yielded to Him. The clay must yield to the potter’s hand if it is to become something useful. For this reason, we need to yield to God by surrendering ourselves completely.

When we are in the Potter’s hands, feeling His pressures, feeling the molding of His fingers, we can relax and trust Him, for we know that this Potter has suffered with us and knows how we feel, but is determined to make us into a vessel useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work: “In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.”  – 2 Timothy 2:20-21

If we allow God to use His skill and His power to mold us into the people, and into the character that He wants us to be, we should all say along with Isaiah, “O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand.”