The Potter Pt.1: Arise, and Go Down To The Potter's House

Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.

Jeremiah 18:2, 3

I write to you with a mission to share with you the message on my heart, as God speaks to me. In no way do I want to be perceived as a man better than you or more knowledgeable than you; but what I wish to convey is the Father’s heart in challenging you to become a better, more enriched believer to grow in the knowledge of Him.

Salvation is a wonderful occurrence in the life of those who understand this work of grace in his/her life. Yes! The work of grace; salvation is not about what you did; it has everything to do with what God did and does from start to finish, towards you, in you, to you and through you. Many years ago, God spoke to me in my prayer time, He said, “Whatever I do in you, to you and through you, be so ever humble.” I replied, “Yes Lord!”

What I found out is that I didn’t really hear what God was saying to me; and to make a long story short, I was everything but humble. Over the years I continued in my superficial humility without having a clue at how foul I was in the nostrils of God. I studied the Word, I obtained revelation from it, I ministered it, I did all the things that a believer is supposed to do, and yet, I never factored in that my posture was most displeasing to God. I had the posture of false humility, which is another way of saying “under cover pride.” The word of the Lord to Jeremiah is very befitting because it holds within itself a powerful truth principle that we need if we are to grow to increase and favor in our lives.

The prophet in verse one was summoned by the Lord (Adonai –the Master) and in verse two he is told to “Arise….” – this is a very powerful word because, we have to assume that Jeremiah was in a lowered posture while being in the presence of the Lord.

Today we have too many believers that think themselves to be something when in fact; they are nothing and carry about themselves a restrictive pride. Jeremiah, known as the weeping prophet, understood that God was to be reverenced, therefore it is the Master, the Lord that is to call the shots in our lives, and not we ourselves. The word of the Lord is coming to us preachers who don’t know how to be abased when we should and arise when we should at the command of the Lord.

To arise simply denotes the ability to be governed by the Holy Spirit. When I look back over my life I find that the trouble that I got myself into was a result of not being ruled by the spirit of God.

I remember one time when the Lord spoke to me during my prayer time to get up and go stand on the corner near the stop sign. I was going to get cleaned up and get my outside clothes on, but the Lord commissioned me to go now. I went outside with my around the house shorts on, a tee shirt, my hair wasn’t in the best shape and I had on a pair flip flops. I did as God had summoned me to do, and when I did this, of all days some people witnessing came by. My thoughts were filled with what they might be thinking about my appearance and what made it worse, I knew them and they knew me. A little time had passed and I went back into the house and I began to wonder what that was for. God answered telling me, “In order to be my son, you have to be subject to my leading;” – a lesson that I shamefully, must say, did not stick.

If you and I would be totally honest with ourselves we struggle with being led or governed by the Holy Spirit because we have been so used to doing stuff in our flesh. This is where we get in the most trouble, because God wants to take us in one direction, and then the next thing you know we go into another. The truth be told, salvation is about surrendering your life over to the Christ and allowing the Christ to take full charge of that life; infusing it with HIS glory and power. Salvation is not merely about going to heaven when you live right; in fact it encompasses making the invisible God visible, so that others might be captivated by the out working of HIS power in, over and through our life. Simply stated, let go and let God be what HE wishes to be in you, to you and through you and trust me; you will be the better for it. The other thing that I love about what Jeremiah is hearing from the Lord is this: After he arises, God tells him, “…go down to the potter’s house…” a place that many of us don’t want to go, but remember when your life belongs to God, you go where HE directs, pulls, and prods, because it is HE who has made us, and not we ourselves.

I have endured many times of un-necessary sufferings, if you will, that could have been avoided had I went down to the potter’s house, when HE told me to. Going down to the potter’s house is not easy for some, and even harder is to allow The Potter (God) access to your clay (your will, your form). Jeremiah goes down to the potter’s house to observe what he is about to be told. God is not as shallow as we like to portray Him. God knows how to speak our language and connect with our understanding before HE engages in changing us. Through natural things the voice of God can be heard, to give us insight into the thinking of the Lord.

Going down to the potter’s house is the ability to be positioned in a place of divine instruction and counsel. Never take for granted the things that are around you, because in the place of quietness, the voice of the Lord will speak to our inward parts to bring the change that is necessary. “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house,” is the message of salvation and deliverance that must be preached into our spirit, soul and body, to transform us into what God wants us to be in the Kingdom of God.

Jeremiah is invited to witness how God works in the life of HIS people. Jeremiah is shown the mystery of sanctification and processing through the craftsmanship of the natural potter and his wheel. How awesome is that? God reveals to Jeremiah an intimate look at the love of God in the hand of the potter. He witnesses the stillness of the clay becoming one with the wheel of change and transformation as the potter uses the strength of His hands, the force of spinning and watering to soften the clay; and the shaping tools, to etch the will of God into the clay.

God will spin us through trial and testing, HE will turn us upon the wheel of change while skillfully applying the right amount of water (The Word) to promote the change needed in the shaping of our clay. The scriptures declare that Christ, while walking upon this earth, learned obedience through the things that he suffered. Ah, dear one, I too have learned obedience through the things that I suffered, some necessary and some not so necessary, but I learned obedience anyway.

The stubbornness of my own flesh, many times did not wish to conform to the potter and HIS wheel of change, but I can tell you without a shadow of doubt whether you stay on the wheel or fall off the wheel, God is patient and longsuffering to invoke your change. Staying on the wheel makes our change easy to accomplish, with the proper application of scripture we will become what God will have us to be. Many times we rely on the preaching across the pulpit to change us or activities we are involved in at church, but it is being in the presence of God that will change you. It is through God’s intimate touch (both hands working the clay) that will impact our life more readily and consistently then what we do in church. Many times we have to ask ourselves, “Am I doing something for God, or am I doing something in the power of God?”

Rest assured there is a difference in the two. God is not looking for another fly by night anything or anyone to represent HIM, what God is desirous of are individuals that are filled with righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost – the Kingdom of God. We don’t need any more mean Christians who have little or no love of God oozing from their life. We don’t need any more Christian whoremongers and bastards in the trenches doing more harm to the Kingdom of God cause, what we need are individuals that have answered the call to present themselves as living sacrifices upon the potter’s wheel of change, to be transformed by the renewing of their mind till Christ be formed in them. We don’t need any more believers “trying” to make a hundred; we need believer’s priest that will submit to the transforming power of the Master, (Adonai).

Going down to the potter’s house causes us to hear the Lord’s words. Not men, not my denomination, not my wife, not my husband, not my logic, but the Word of the Lord. Christ proclaimed that HE was about bringing many sons to glory. Arriving at this place requires submission to the truth. Not Baptist truth, not Methodist truth, not Catholic truth, in other words, we must submit to the truth of God’s word. The writer said, “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom” (see Psalms 51:6).

The Lord has a plan for our expression and through the shaping power of HIS hands HE will bring us to the manifestation of sonship, through every touch upon our clay, to mold us into the image of HIS dear son. God is always at work in us, moving us further and further away from the image of sinful man, to a revelation of the NEW MAN (Eph. 4:24) that is created after righteousness and true holiness.

Will you allow God the opportunity to bring you down to the potter’s house to invoke change in you, to you, and through you? I love what the Apostle Paul declares in II Corinthians 1: 9-10.

II Corinthians 1:9 – But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust

in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

10 - Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we

trust that he will yet deliver us;

Powerful stuff, if I must say so myself. God is in the business of changing us from glory to glory and from faith to faith. The moment you become resistant to change; you become ineffective in the Kingdom of God. I found myself becoming ineffective, because the things that I did not understand filled me with questions; a myriad of questions that positioned me as challenging God, challenging the wisdom of the Potter. How many times do we question the workings of God in our life? Many times we fail to come away with the most startling revelation of them all: “…we are not our own, we are bought with a price.

Many say the reason they will not go to church or listen to the preacher, is due to all the imperfection that they see in the church-goers, but can I tell you this? If that be the case, you will never go to church; you will never listen to the preacher’s proclamation to get on the wheel, to go down to the potter’s house, to submit to transformation, because you have become laden with excuses. Salvation is a four-fold work of grace, you are justified by faith (delivered us from so great a death…), and you are sanctified by the truth (…doth deliver us…); and you are glorified in HIS presence (…trust that HE will yet deliver us…), and finally you are replicated, meaning, it does yet appear what you shall be, but when Christ, who is our life shall appear we shall appear with Him in glory.

So offer as many excuses as you like, you will; sooner or later, have to pass through this way of transformation. The work cannot begin until we humble ourselves and submit to the working of God in our life. Sometimes we get mad at the preacher or the teacher, but they are the cutting tools used to make us for the purpose of God. The message of truth is given the assignment to make us free.

To be continued…