Key Insights
God will not use anybody who He has not prepared and He will not prepare anybody who He will not use.
Examples abound in the scriptures about people God used after having carefully prepared them:
- Abraham – Faith (Romans 4:19-22); (Genesis. 18:17-19); (Genesis. 14:14-16)
- Moses – Patience (Exodus 33:15-17); (Exodus 32:10-14).
But he made a fatal mistake that cost him the Promised Land. What was it and how do we learn from it?
See Deuteronomy 32:48-52. Moses’ punishment was for:
- disobedience,
- pride,
- the misrepresentation of Christ’s sacrifice was steep
- Esther – Ultimate Sacrifice (Esther 4:13-17); (Esther 2:5-9); (Romans 12:1-2)
- Paul – A Thoroughly Prepared Vessel
- A Jew: Paul said of his ancestry ‘I am a Jew from Tarsus, in Cilicia’ and later added ‘I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.’ (Acts 21:39; Romans 11:1)
- A Pharisee: (Acts 26:4-5, 9-11)
- A Disciplinarian – (Rom. 8:35, 38-39; 1 Corinth. 9:25-27)
- A Roman Citizen: Witness in Rome!
- A Scholar & A Thinker
- Knowledge of the Torah (OT); studied under Gamaliel (Acts 5:34-39)
- Linkage with the New Testament
- Festus: ‘too much study is driving you mad!’ (Acts 26:24-25).
- Paul’s incisive dissection of theological, doctrinal and social Matters. Of the 7 Books that he wrote over a period of 3 years, four– Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, the so called ‘prison epistles’– were written during his first incarceration in Rome
- A Polyglot…spoke and wrote in Greek, spoke Latin, Aramaic and Hebrew.
Conclusion
In fact, we can make an axiom out of this: God prepares the vessels that He uses; He will not use any vessel that He has not prepared. We can also take this truth a notch higher and state that: all prior life experiences of the vessel that is yielded to the Lord become assets for the execution of their life mission.
Questions for Reflection
- What challenges in your life do you feel God can’t use. How does the truth that God doesn’t prepare anyone He won’t use encourage you?
- How differently will you live from today knowing that none of your life experiences are wasted?
Prayer Points
- Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary
- Lord, I make myself available to you without measure so that You can accomplish Your purpose in and through me.
