Qualifications for Vessels of Honor

Qualifications for Vessels of Honor
Saturday, December 19, 2015 by Hannah S. Hunter

Each time I return from a mission in Kenya I have to lay everything down at the feet of JESUS. That is never easy because it involves people, not things or accomplishments. Never is it about what I saw or experienced, but people. GOD is so relational. That is why we have Christmas. HE sent HIS only SON so HE could have a restored, unfettered relationship with his created creatures.

I was challenged to go back and review things I taught, saw, and experience in my times in Kenya. It was kind of like an early New Year ’s Eve reflection in preparation for New Year’s resolutions.

What is striking me afresh is Dan and my desire from the foundation to be pure vessels of honor, and also to raise more of the same up into leadership at all levels in every venue entrusted to us.

Timothy talked about vessels of honor. All of us have cracks and have been broken sometimes beyond recognition, yet in HIS hands HE has shaped us to be vessels that sustain HIS SPIRIT. How daunting an assignment! Yet attainable in our complete dependence on that same SPIRIT.

A quality that is paramount is to guard your heart. Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life (NLT, Proverbs 4:23). Our heart is part of the soul where the enemy mostly gets his foothold. We must guard it so that it does not lead us to run further in our mind and emotions, but bring it to submit to the will and purposes of our GOD.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us” (Heb. 12:1). When we are vessels of honor, we have so many watching and pulling for us in heaven. Imagine you have more than stadium upon stadium full of Bible greats cheering you on. I have seen certain key people in my life summoned to the throne room to watch as things unfold in my life. They are spectators to our mighty exploits done in HIM.

A third quality is we are able to throw off things that would grab us, imprison us, or slow us down. I see as we stand clad in the whole armor of GOD nothing from above the earth, under the earth, or coming at us on the earth can slow us down. We can throw off every encumbrance.

So, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him (Romans 12:1). This requires like Moses at times for us to walk away from the palace. Everything is so readily available in the palace. The wilderness is where we learn that staying lean and hungry leads us from the pull of the body and soul. We then can hearken, and keenly perceive and hear the voice of the LORD.

Holidays are not easy times to abstain from the pull of our flesh. We never have needed to hear HIM more clearly than this season in 2015. We just began Hanukkah. That is the renowned dedication to be a house of holiness. May it be said we became vessels of honor and houses of holiness. Shalom from my house to yours.

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