Are You a Tool?

Are You a Tool?

So, I was super convicted of something the other day and figured I would share it since conviction is good! It sanctifies youJ 2 Timothy 2:20-21 says, “Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.” Reread that passage, Scripture often does a great job of speaking for itself and I don’t want to do that for it!

I know that often one of the desires of people who are chasing after God is to be used by God. I often pray, as you probably do too, “Lord use me.” We say things like, “I want to serve you,” “Use me in ministry,” “Show me what you want me to do,” “I desire to advance Your Kingdom,” and on and on. This, no question about it, is a good desire. Whenever we desire to serve the Kingdom it is a good thing, since we are being obedient to what the Lord has called us to do. However, look at what this verse is saying again, “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”

So, my question is, are you a tool? Hopefully that answer is yes. Hopefully you are a tool that the Lord is able to use in every situation. Hopefully you are a vessel that God uses for every good work. But, how do we attain that status? By cleansing ourselves from what is dishonorable. Also known as killing sin in our lives. So often we desire to be used by God but sin is just dripping from every nook of our lives. If we desire to be used by God, in every situation and in every way, we have to demolish sin that so easily entangles us, and slows us down from running this race. Sin is our biggest enemy, and sin dwells in your flesh. So, you have to make vicious war against your sin and kill it, as aggressively as possible, for several reasons, and to be effective in the Kingdom of God is one of them.

I am not sure what the problem is, but I have been convicted lately that we are so nonchalant with our sin. We know we shouldn’t sin, and that it is bad, but hey, “Nobody will ever be perfect right?” That’s a passive, pathetic lie! Jesus says to be holy like he is holy, and Peter repeats it. Paul in Romans argues completely against that logic, it is vain and silly to think like that. Yall, kill sin, kill it. It ruins everything. It ruins our relationship with God, destroys our relationship with others, and makes us ineffective the more we allow it to dwell in our lives. KILL SIN, do not sit there and let it reign in us, only to murder us in the end. Every time somebody is taken out of ministry, what is the reason? Sin. DO you want to be used by God? Then kill sin, make war against it.

I know that I often feel most intimate with God when I am getting to serve in ministry and be used by Him. When we sin we know we are breaking fellowship with the Spirit, and grieving Him. More than that though, we are disqualifying ourselves for ministry on many different levels. I am not saying if you sin you cannot be used by God, by no means. I sin daily, and I hope the Lord uses me and I think He does. However, I am saying, the more you kill that sin in your life, the more likely you will be a vessel that the Lord can use in any situation.

Now, lest we think we have the power to do this on our own, let me remind, we are too weak to do this by ourselves! Everything in us screams our desperate need for a Savior, and that includes this area. We are not strong enough to kill the sin in our lives. We know this because we have all been in the situation where we know what we should do, but do the exact opposite anyway! We are sinners, born attracted to death, and we need to deeply rely on and depend on the Holy Spirit to lead us if we are to gain victory here. At the same time though we have to be proactive in walking in the Spirit and putting to death the deeds of the body. It is a hard balance, and a whole other topic, but we must kill sin by the Spirit, through our obedience and discipline. Nonetheless, freaking kill sin.

So, how proactive have you been about walking by the Spirit, and slaughtering the sin that is in your life? Do you desire to be used by God? If so, one of the first qualifications is to murder the sin in your life. Let me know your thoughts, failures, and victories.