Uncommon Vessels

The Ongoing Journey to a Renewed Mind

Sara Whitten

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781666791891
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Oración

Have you ever felt like there was something more meant for your life? There is. Let's journey to the heart of Scripture to discover how to live in the chance-taking, destiny-fulfilling, peace-filled, mess-making, love-driven way for which we were designed. These ten life-changing truths take normal living and flip it upside down. Unearth new truths about your specific calling and answers for your stuck places with prayerful encounters designed to ask God those hard questions- and hear him answer! Prepare to be renewed from the inside out, and--as a result--to become uncommon vessels for greater purposes.

Chapter One

The Bow and Arrow

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Romans 12:2

Quality Control

Why does our mind need renewal anyway? What strikes me about the common verse from Romans 12:2 is that second sentence. It’s the “why.” Like most toddlers, I spent most of my time asking “why” and truly wanting to understand. In this case, the “why” is promptly and plainly stated. God wants us to be able to test and approve His will. Wow! Merriam Webster defines “test” as “a procedure . . . used to identify or characterize a substance or constituent” and "the procedure of submitting a statement to such conditions or operations as will lead to its proof or disproof or to its acceptance or rejection.” When we look at “approve” in Webster’s, it is to “give formal or official sanction.” Going a level deeper, Webster’ definition of “sanction” is pretty intense. It’s decreeing, agreeing, or making a binding oath. Sanctions in the natural often dictate military and economic operations. Having a renewed mind effectively means discerning and enforcing where God wants our efforts and our resources. A renewed mind is the tool that allows us to decree, agree, and bind ourselves to God’s will by being able to know what God’s will is and what isn’t God’s will. A renewed mind, in essence, allows us to be Heaven’s quality control.

We can take a thought, word, action, or event, and have a basis by which to accept or reject it as “yes, this fits God’s will” or “no, this doesn’t fit God’s will.” Understanding God’s will in a situation (to the best of our ability . . . let’s be honest, we all get “off” sometimes . . . ) is absolutely vital. It tells us when to fight, when to be still, when to agree, when to reject, when to hold, and when to release. The cool part about each definition I just explored is it inevitably leads to action. A renewed mind and what we think with it inevitably determines what we do. And what we do sets the course for not only our lives but the eternal story the Lord is writing.

Straight to the Source

Walking with the trinity is like walking on the stars. I say this because for either one you must turn your whole world upside down. There is no prescription or one-size-fits-all life plan. I believe He made us uniquely so that we would have to go straight to the source.

Picking up a new book makes my heart race. On bated breath, I read through the first chapter. Sometimes the overwhelming excitement of the new journey has my book sitting abandoned on the dashboard, forever waiting to the “perfect moment” of undivided attention it deserves. The truth is, however, that I could possess entire libraries. I could have read every testimony, every technique, every morsel of wisdom from those who have walked with the Lord before me, yet if I did not directly seek the Lord, I would only know about Him. I wouldn’t know Him. As life-giving as it is to read about testimonies or wisdom from the lives of others, there are specific purposes and plans for your life that you will never read about or hear about unless you dive in with the Author of them.

Knowing God

The request I get more than any other from those who submit prayers requests online is simply, “I want to know God’s will for my life.” Knowing God’s will starts with knowing God. Imagine you spend your life researching George Washington. You learn every detail that can be discovered. You pour over documentaries and research papers. You even travel to be in the same places he did when he lived. Now imagine getting to meet him. There is something intangible about that direct contact. The rumors are clarified. The stories are brought to life. The wrinkle of his nose when he laughs and the inflection with which he speaks bring his character to life. The questions you have can be asked directly instead of hunting in research archives hoping to piece together your own guess at an answer. You get an emotional impression. You can decide how you feel about him. You can decide if you see in him similarities to yourself or others you know. Direct connection revolutionizes your understanding of someone. Knowledge does not illicit love. Experience does. So, when looking for the answer to “what is God’s will for me?” or “what is my purpose,” we must first start with “how do I hear God?”

I don't know where you personally fall on the spectrum of familiarity with the prophetic. Some of you may be way further along than me. Others of you may be discovering for the first time that God talks back. To others of you, it may just be a new name for that thing you’ve always done, like noticing that still small voice or the unction in your gut. For clarity's sake, let's talk about what the prophetic is. Prophesy is a receiving a message from God. It may come directly to you. It may be delivered through another's mouth. It will never contradict God's Word or God's character. Its intention is to remind you of your identity, give you hope, redirect you, or confirm what you've been hearing. You have the gift of prophesy. How do I know? Biblically, Jesus's sacrifice made it so that we don't need a high priest. We are removed from the days of Moses and the tent of meeting. Instead, the Holy Spirit sets up a tent of meeting within us. We are restored to the direct communication enjoyed before the fall, and this direct communication revolutionizes our understanding of everything. It makes it possible to fall in love with God. But it's even more than that. Since it's God we're talking about and not just a historical character, we are talking about our very Creator. Direct contact means we can ask the most important questions of all. These are the questions that burn within us regardless of who we are. We all ache to know the answers of “who am I?” and “what is my purpose?”

Bow and Arrow

There are three major essentials of a bow and arrow. All three were highlighted to me as I gripped my camp chair armrests with white knuckles and watched my seven-year-old son do target practice. To do anything long range you must have arrows, a bow, and someone putting strength behind them. Arrows are like the things we do in this life. They are our purposes with a lower-case “p.” You leading that vacation Bible school team is a purpose God has for you. It’s not the only purpose on your life, though. Often, I hear people asking what their purpose is, but they are really seeking a different answer. Our purposes are many and often are seasonal. Our identity, however, is unchanging.

The bow from which we launch these arrows is our identity. It’s what puts directionality into what we do. It is not interchangeable with the seasons, though we may understand it in a deeper fullness from one season to the next. It also gives our efforts longevity. Picture throwing an arrow by hand. Now contrast that with launching an arrow. In battle, arrows become a game changer because they made it possible to attack from long range as opposed to being limited to hand-to-hand combat. When we act out of our God-created design, we don’t fatigue in our purposes. Also, the force of our efforts is magnified when we walk in our identity. They become an expression of our natural gifts and desires.

Both bow and arrows would do nothing unless used. Can you go your whole life and do nothing with your identity and purpose? I suppose you could. Would that change the fact that you still have an identity and purpose? Absolutely not. The first question you should ask yourself is are you tapping into your God-created identity and purposes? The second question takes it one step farther and asks whose hands are you letting power your shot?

We can be a bow and arrows in the hands of the Lord, letting His strength power our efforts. While these times are not without resistance, we recognize His supernatural opening of opportunities and His accomplishment of what we could not do on our own. Speaking of doing things on our own, we also have the power to “do it ourselves,” using our identity in line with our ideas and launching arrows aimlessly, hoping for success. This often leaves us tired and feeling stuck. Finally, we can also be highjacked by the enemy, letting him manipulate our gifts and efforts in an effort to keep us from our greatest expression of ourselves. If you’ve ever heard that the areas of your greatest attack are often linked to your areas of greatest calling, my life is living proof of this. What ways have attacks made you shy away from the very ways God wants to use you most? Have you been wounded and isolated yourself from people when you were made to be an influencer? There are many ways in which the enemy can whisper to us to change our aim, not use that arrow, or lay down our bow altogether.

In teaching our son archery, we had to teach him how to hold his arrows so he would not fumble them, how to balance his bow, and—most importantly—how to aim to hit the mark (while not injuring others along the way). Often, I think our own heavenly Father is doing the very same things in us. He is teaching us how to not fumble our missions, how to hold on to our identity effectively, and how to hit the mark while not injuring others along the way. Unlike me watching my son, however, I don’t think God watches us with white knuckles, coaching from a camp chair. I think He is right there holding it with us, constantly speaking helpful direction, helping us recover from our mistakes, and cheering joyfully when we hit the mark.

The Paradox of Safety

We all know the bows and arrows are not used for nap time. They’re used for battle. I cannot talk about our identity and purposes as a bow and arrows without addressing the number one barrier to using them. The allure of safety. I’ve never heard it put better than from the mouths of Christians working in the 10/40 window. I’ve heard, “In the east the enemy appears as a roaring dragon, but in the west, he appears as an angel of light.” In other words, in these countries where the gospel is scarce (which are often unsafe areas as well), there is a very real awareness of the spirit realm. Even those who don’t know Jesus know that there are evil spirits. In contrast, in much of the western world, comfort and intellectualism lure people into apathy (angel of the light). No one wants to get their hands dirty for fear of what it might cost them, not realizing that by not doing so it is literally costing their life. It is all too easy ...