Ben Shiller Jacob
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. 21 Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.
2 Timothy 2:20-21
Each one of us has been brought into the heavenly Kingdom of Light through the finished work of Christ Jesus. We are now the partakers of the heavenly inheritances. Every spiritual blessing, every privilege in the heavenly kingdom is freely available to us. You and I are the citizens of heavenly kingdom. While we enjoy our life on earth, we enjoy our permanent home simultaneously. The portal is open. The veil is removed now that has been separating mankind from Father God since Adam made an unwise choice.
Now, since we are heirs of the kingdom, each of us has a specific role and responsibility to play in the kingdom. But these responsibilities will be given depending on your availability, openness, dedication and willingness to renew our mind actively. In other words, sanctification or consecration. Sanctification is not uncommon in Christian world yet has been ignored greatly because of its unfriendly process.
In this context, Apostle Paul refers consecration to cleansing. Paul writes to his spiritual son, Timothy, to become a vessel for honor. He uses an analogy here by depicting kingdom of God to a great house and the members of the house to vessels. Pretty straightforward. Then, Paul categorizes all members of this great house as honorable and dishonorable. According to Paul, honorable vessels are those made of precious metals such as gold, silver etc. whereas dishonorable vessels are vessels which were made of inexpensive or cheap substances such as wood, clay etc.
The point Paul makes here is that God made us with a profound destiny which we cannot put a limit to it. When God created you and I, He created us only for honor not for dishonor. Yahweh made us to be with Him for eternity not for a hundred years. There are more plans for us yet to be revealed in the course of time. Since all these remain, one problem remains. Its not Satan and his kingdom. Believe it or not, it is us alone!
We like Father God, His Kingdom and its privileges but ignorant or lazy to walk as our Father God.
13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
Colossians 1:13
So, now since we have been shifted to an eternal kingdom of Yeshua through His grace, we MUST transform ourselves into the image of Yeshua. This is not possible by our striving or hardworking but the power that has been given to our spirit when we are birthed by the Holy Spirit. The resurrection power. Without striving, how can it be possible? Think about a one- or two-years old child who wants to walk instead of crawling. Who asked him to walk? Did anyone prompt him to walk? Not at all. It is an innate knowledge each of us has not acquired from our surroundings. During any phase of growth, the child is not compelled or forced to move on to the next phase. However, the child most likely needs a hand to hold and guide him to where he should go. That part belongs to his parents. In our spiritual growth, the Holy Spirit takes the responsibilities of a parent. What moves the child to the next stage is his inbuilt desire. The child knows when he reaches the end of a growth stage, he is able now to venture out to the next phase. Likewise, as our spirit is alive and active and ready to venture to mature but the mind is not willing because of the longstanding unrighteous patterns and structures and strongholds in our mind. That’s why Jesus said to his disciples,
41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Matthew 26:41
Shiller’s Takeaway
False mindsets and patterns we learned over the years need to be destroyed and unlearned without any traces left. This unlearning process is called cleansing and renewing our mind and heart with prayer, pondering the Word of God, worshiping Father God with constant communion with the Holy Spirit. We should cleanse ourselves with an internal desire which is in our spirit. But this God given desire often gets extinguished by our fleshly desire that way we fail to follow the Holy Spirit’s instructions. However, the plus point of rebirth is that it creates a heart that hates every unrighteousness, injustice, iniquity and every ungodly work which we previously enjoyed wholeheartedly. We may fall but we jump-up. That’s the beauty of the regeneration within us by the Spirit of Holiness.
As Apostle Paul desires for his spiritual son, Timothy, to be mature and to become a vessel of honor instead of being stuck in growth and being used as a vessel of dishonor, our Father God desires earnestly to be mature and be responsible for the bigger assignments that He has stored in place for each of us in due time.