Cooperate with Your Maker

By Apostle Aje Pelser

Preached at Harvester Reformational Church, Cape Town 16 Sept. 2012

 

Isa 45:7  I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.'

Isa 45:8  'Rain down, you heavens, from above, And let the skies pour down righteousness; Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation, And let righteousness spring up together. I, the LORD, have created it.

Isa 45:9  'Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' Or shall your handiwork say, 'He has no hands'?

Isa 45:10  Woe to him who says to his father, 'What are you begetting?' Or to the woman, 'What have you brought forth?' '

Isa 45:11  Thus says the LORD, The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: 'Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons; And concerning the work of My hands, you command Me.

Isa 45:12  I have made the earth, And created man on it. I—My hands—stretched out the heavens, And all their host I have commanded.

Isa 45:13  I have raised him up in righteousness, And I will direct all his ways; He shall build My city And let My exiles go free, Not for price nor reward,' Says the LORD of hosts.

Isa 45:14  Thus says the LORD: 'The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush And of the Sabeans, men of stature, Shall come over to you, and they shall be yours; They shall walk behind you, They shall come over in chains; And they shall bow down to you. They will make supplication to you, saying, 'Surely God is in you, And there is no other; There is no other God.' '

Isa 45:15  Truly You are God, who hide Yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior!

Isa 45:16  They shall be ashamed And also disgraced, all of them; They shall go in confusion together, Who are makers of idols.

 

“Blessings of Cooperating with Your Maker that will help your realize

His redemptive purpose for you and your church.”

 

Acknowledge Him as Your Maker first to enter His blessings.

Maker:

BDB/Strong’s Number H3335 yâtsar

to form, fashion

of human activity; of divine activity

of creation

of original creation; of individuals at conception; of Israel as a people

to frame, pre-ordain, plan (figuratively of divine) purpose of a situation)

to be formed, be created; to be predetermined, be pre-ordained

 

The Blessing of God’s Light

Scientists are still confused about light, whether it is a wave or a stream of particles or both. God formed it. End of discussion. Jesus said: “I Am the light” and then he told his disciples: “You are the light of the world.” I once saw a vision after church in our parking lot up on the roof of Milpark centre that our Church is a shaft of light in the darkness. I looked around and saw totem poles crumbling. Idols of achievement or carnality in church will fall.

 

Another time we were worshipping God in spirit and in truth I saw prophet Nola as a beam of light and as I turned I saw a whole congregation full of lights moving around like the spiritual beings God made us to be. Interesting.

 

We teach the Word 6 days a week in our church, one day for rest, and we hear the echoes of the Psalmist “The entrance of Your word gives light, it gives understanding to the simple.”  Psalm 119:130

 

The Blessing of Rain.

Isa 55:8  'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,' says the LORD.

Isa 55:9  'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Isa 55:10  'For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater,

Isa 55:11  So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

 

Think also of the water cycle that continues.

Jesus came down, became the living water, that whoever drinks of him will never thirst again, but receive a fountain of living water within. He rained His Word down and nourished the dry souls of earth so that they could bear fruit unto God.

But there are layers of understanding in Isaiah 55 that can be explored further: God’s ways are higher than our ways. We need to understand that His word does not always compute with our ways, once we acknowledge that it is possible to receive the nourishment that comes with His ways and His word.

It might not make sense to you to cast your piece of wood onto the water, but the axe head will float to the surface!

2Ki 6:5  But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, 'Alas, master! For it was borrowed.'

2Ki 6:6  So the man of God said, 'Where did it fall?' And he showed him the place. So he cut off a stick, and threw it in there; and he made the iron float.

2Ki 6:7  Therefore he said, 'Pick it up for yourself.' So he reached out his hand and took it.

 

 It might not make sense to climb out of a boat in the middle of a storm, but then you walk on water with Jesus as your focus.

 

Blessing of Clay in the potter’s hands.

Allowing God to shape your life, makes you a vessel of honour and not dishonour. You cna cleanse yourself of uncleanness by allowing the Holy Spirit to do the work. Being yielded to God and His purpose is the secret to becoming the sculpture God wants you to be, a work of art, and often clay is moulded and shaped into a functional piece.

We can’t say to God “what are you making?” as if we can determine what gifts and talents we are to be born with, but can get to know our Maker and submit ourselves to the processes of God and in so doing, we can get to know ourselves better. It is so important to be content with who God made us to be individually. From that flows so much of God’s purpose. The Holy Spirit said to Apostle Andre once in a dream: “I wish that you will just be yourself.” When we stop trying to emulate others but realize who we truly are in Christ, the Holy Spirit can bring our strengths to the fore and our weaknesses are remoulded into testimonies of His grace.

 

Clay needs to be wet when one works on it and when a pot is being made, the clay needs to be turned on a wheel. In Him we live and move and have our being, the orbits and spheres of our life sometimes seem monotonous but the sculpting process needs patient repetition, or the clay will be ruined. Pockets of air need to be removed from the clay or else it will explode in the kiln when fired up. When we approach God’s process in our lives with head knowledge, knowledge puffs up, but love builds up and edifies. We feel the pain of the kneading process but it removes the bubbles that eventually damage the end product of our lives. The fire is a necessary hardening process too and makes sure that we become enduring vessels of honour unto God.

 

2Ti 2:20  But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor.

2Ti 2:21  Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.

 

The Blessing of Knowing God’s Plan for his Sons

His words reveals His promises and the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The holy Spirit reveals the things too deep and high that only the Father knows.

1Co 2:9  But as it is written: 'EYE HAS NOT SEEN, NOR EAR HEARD, NOR HAVE ENTERED INTO THE HEART OF MAN THE THINGS WHICH GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.'

1Co 2:10  But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

All we need to do is ask concerning His sons!

 

The Blessing of Knowing God created the heavens and the Earth

Just looking at the night sky is a blessing in itself. Studying astronomy reveals so many astounding facts that glorify God even more.

 “When you look up into the night sky, it seems like you can see a lot of stars. There are about 2,500 stars visible to the naked eye at any one point at any one time on the Earth, and 5,800-8,000 total visible stars. But this is a very tiny fraction of the stars the Milky Way is thought to have! Astronomers estimate that there are 200 billion to 400 billion stars contained within the Milky Way”

 

http://www.universetoday.com/22380/how-many-stars-are-in-the-milky-way/

When God told Abraham to count the stars and promised him descendents like the stars he did not even have a son yet! Our best scientific efforts are not even able to count all the stars in the universe! God is so big and awesome in His creativity so we should stop limiting Him in our minds.

 

Blessings of God raising us up

He raised Jesus from the dead and when we are baptised into Jesus’ death we are raised up into a new life of right standing with God through faith.

We are now the righteousness of God through Christ. But death comes before resurrection, we must be willing to lose our When God raises you up, He will “direct your ways.” A good movie needs a good director, but then there needs to be submission from the actor.

 

“He shall build My city” this is Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the Church of the Firstborn registered in heaven – Hebrews 12:22-24

Heb 12:22  But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,

Heb 12:23  to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,

Heb 12:24  to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

 

Jesus said he will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Now we become His co-labourers and His workmanship created for good works in Christ.

 

“We will let exiles go free” – the opening of prison doors to those who are bound, by religious traditions of men, and ungodly institutions that have robbed people of their spiritual liberty and given them powerless rituals that can’t cleanse their conscience of sin, that can’t release them from fear of death.

God does this not for price, nor reward because Jesus has paid the price for our return from the exile of sin and death on the cross with His precious blood.

 

Blessings of Nations come to us

Labour of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, men of stature come over to you. These are all results of Your Maker directing your paths. People will say to you: “Surely God is in you.”

 

Blessings of Victory over idolatry

There are different forms of idolatry. In India now many people are being converted from serving useless idols with demonic counterparts. But there is also personal idols of achievement and mindsets that are set up as idols, stubbornness is also as the iniquity of idolatry, as Samuel said to Saul in the Bible. All idols fall in the presence of God and he is set up alone in our lives as the centre of our worship – Jesus is Lord, our God, Our Maker! As we cooperate iwth Him He makes us into something that brings Him glory!