Now we need to see what the Word says we are. The holy Word tells us clearly that we are vessels. Man is a vessel (Rom. 9:21, 23). Not many Christians have paid adequate attention to the fact that we are vessels of God. Christians talk about men being God’s creatures or men becoming God’s people. Some even go to the highest point by saying that man can be a child of God. But in Romans 9 we are told that man is a vessel of God. A vessel is a container. It is different from a utensil or an instrument. A vessel is not used to do something but to contain something.
We are not supposed to do something for God. Forget about your doing. We are destined to contain God. We were made to be containers of God. The human concept is that we have to do something for God. Even in Christianity many teachers tell people again and again that they need to do something for God, to work for God. I do not say that this is wrong, but it does not touch God’s central thought. We have to realize that we are vessels unto God. God, strictly speaking, does not need us to do something for Him. God needs some containers. According to Romans 9 God desires that we be vessels unto honor, vessels unto glory, and vessels of mercy to contain Him. Brothers and sisters, you have to realize that you are vessels unto God!
The age today is the age of recovery. The Lord’s recovery today is to bring back the young generation to His purpose. Mankind, the human race, has continually been falling away from God’s purpose. Now at the end time the Lord is going to bring the human race back to His purpose. God’s purpose with man is to have man as His container.
In the United States the young people are enjoying and tasting all the material things. After the enjoyment of all the material things, after the experience of all the things invented in human culture, they get nothing. There is an emptiness, a vacuum, within them. This is because they were made to be vessels of God. Nothing can fill you up but God. Education, religion, science, physics, marriage, and all the things in human culture cannot satisfy man. Nothing can fill man up and satisfy him but God Himself. Now is the end of time, the end of all the ages. God is going to do something in a fast way to bring back this generation to His purpose.
Romans 9:21 indicates that when God created man, He formed man as a vessel. Man is a vessel of clay but he was destined unto honor and unto glory. So Paul says we are vessels unto honor and vessels unto glory. Of course, we are vessels of mercy (v. 23). God had mercy upon us because He has destined us to be His containers.
A Coca-Cola bottle is a vessel made to contain Coke. Man is not a Coca-Cola bottle. Man is a "God-bottle." Man is a bottle made of clay, but this bottle is different from the Coca-Cola bottle. This bottle has something wonderful within it. Genesis 2:7 says that when God created man, He formed man’s body of the dust of the ground and breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life. The Hebrew word for breath in Genesis 2:7 is the same word for spirit in Proverbs 20:27, which refers to the "spirit of man." This proves that the breath of life breathed into the nostrils of man is the spirit within man. God breathed into man the breath of life because man needs a spirit in order to contain God.
A radio has a receiver within it so that it can receive, contain, and express the radio waves from the air. The outward box of the radio is not good enough. It needs an inner recipient, an inner receiver. Within us there is also a receiver, and this receiver is our spirit. Man has a human spirit (Job 32:8).
Darwin tells us that men are the descendants of monkeys. Of course, that is nonsense. Eventually, as Darwin was dying, he repented of his devilish teaching about evolution. Man is not the descendant of a monkey. A monkey does not have a spirit, but every man has a spirit.
Nearly all the Christians have neglected Zechariah 12:1. This one verse in the Bible ranks the spirit of man with the heavens and the earth. It says that the Lord is the One who stretched forth the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him. The heavens, the earth, and the spirit of man are three great items. Do you realize that you have something within you which is as important as the heavens and the earth? Oh, the heavens! Oh, the earth! Oh, my spirit! I have a spirit that is as important as the heavens and the earth!
(The Living and Practical Way to Enjoy Christ, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)