The Potters Wheel...

The Potters Wheel...

...Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 
Genesis 2:7
“But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand.” (Isaiah 64:8) One of the most powerful analogies in the Bible regarding our transformation process has to be the analogy of the potter and the clay. The Bible says that God is the Potter and we are the clay...
Let us go a little deeper into this study and see were some nuggets {secret treasures} of wisdom can be gleamed for us...

Let us study pottery making...
A potter begins with cutting off a piece of clay from clay block, then begins the wedging process.
With a firm hand he begins kneading the clay (as a bread maker would do with dough) which softens it and removes any air pockets in the clay. He works it to become soft and pliable in his hands. 

*The Father singles us out to begin His work on each of us alone, to make us what He has designed for us to be, for He created us to be all different vessels, for His use, not favoring one over another.

The potter first has to add enough water into the clay in order to make it pliable and soft enough for him to be able to actually use it.
If he does not add enough water into the clay, the clay will remain too hard and rigid for him to be able to actually use.  When the water is added into the clay, it makes the clay soft and pliable. If the clay is not soft and pliable enough, the potter cannot begin to use it to make the pottery he wants to make.
Then he begins to knead the clay more, and slams it on all four sides on a hard surface table to remove any small air pockets. Then he began's to form into a ball so he can place the clay on the wheel itself.

*One of the nuggets for us to pick up on this first step is that the water used in this process represents the Word of God.
Here is a good verse giving us the actual revelation that the word “water” in the Bible is symbolic of the Word of God. In other words, the Word of God is like water to our souls.  Just like our bodies physically needs water in order to be able to live and survive in this world, in the same way our souls need God’s Word flowing through us in order to feed us on the inside in our inner man.
… that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:26)
In our part has to be to get into His Word and try to read, understand, and assimilate what is in the Bible, an always including His sweet Holy Spirit helping us to understand what each scripture is revealing.

This wheel will then start to spin so the potter can use his hands to start the molding and shaping process with the clay as it is actually spinning on the wheel.  However, if the piece of clay is not properly centered in the middle of the wheel, then he will not be able to work with it, and he will not be able to make the pottery he wants to make.

*In the same way that the clay has to be properly centered in the middle of the wheel before the potter can even begin to mold and shape it – we have to be properly be centered in Jesus the Christ before God can start to mold and shape us.
So what does it mean to be properly centered in Jesus?  I believe what it means to be properly centered in Jesus is that you have to be under a complete and full surrender of you and your entire life with Him where He is now in full control of your entire life.  Jesus has to become both Lord and Savior in your life, not just your Savior, but Lord also. You have to enter into God’s perfect will for your life before He will start to guide both you and your life in the direction that He will want to take it in. God will not fully guide you to your divine destiny in Him or fully transform you to the degree that He would really like in this life unless you first come into this full surrender with Him, because He is a Loving Father and He will never force His will on you, we have all been given our own free will.  It’s your all for His all.  Just like the potter cannot mold the piece of clay into the piece of pottery that he is trying to make unless it is perfectly centered in the middle of the wheel – in the same way the Lord cannot begin to properly work with us in this life unless we are perfectly centered in Him in this full surrender, and (God forbid) if we try to take control ourselves and dismiss God out of the equation, and refuse to let Him lead us, an we go off course because we say to ourselves "I want to live my life my way" God has to step away and let you have control.  Thus we then see quickly what a mess we make of our lives under our control we run back to God an ask Him to forgive us and Him take control again.
the bible says in Isaiah 29:15-16...
Woe (judgement is coming) to those who [try to] deeply hide their plans from the LORD, Whose deeds are done in a dark place, And who say, "Who sees us?" or "Who knows us?"
You turn things upside down [with your perversity]!  Shall the potter be considered equal with the clay, That the thing that is made would say to its maker, "He did not make me"; Or the thing that is formed say to him who formed it, "He has no understanding"?  
We always must gleam that we are the clay, not the potter.
This is why Jesus tells us in His Word that without Him we can do absolutely nothing in this life – and that if we try to build our own houses in this life without His direct guidance, that we will end up laboring “in vain” if we try to do it all through our own efforts and wisdom.
Here is the verse that will give us this specific piece of revelation:
“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” (Psalm 127:1)
So we must be properly centered in Jesus for God to mold us.

Slow and steady the potters wheel turns 
as he is using his hands to mold the pot. If he speeds up the wheel to any faster degree, the lump of clay will tear completely apart before he can make it to the finish line.

*In the same way, we have to have patience with the Father on how He wants to work and build our lives. He usually works things out in a much slower time frame than we are used too, and if we do not learn how to go with His slower flows and time frames, we could end up getting very frustrated and impatient, and then eventually end up losing our peace and joy in Him, not to mention our possible calls in Him. Just as a good potter has to take his time when molding and forming out this piece of pottery as it is spinning on the wheel – in the same way God has to mold, shape, and transform all of us in this same, slow, and steady manner. This is why one of the 9 fruits of the Spirit is the fruit of patience.
We all need the patience of the Holy Spirit operating in us to help keep us in God’s timing with how He wants to work things out in our lives, especially in the very fast-paced world in which we all live in.
The next thing you need to lay hold of in your transformation in the Lord, is that it is literally the hand of God Himself, operating through the Holy Spirit on the inside of you, that will supernaturally transform you. This is a direct, supernatural work done by the Holy Spirit Himself.

As the lump of clay is spinning on the wheel the potter takes his hand and pushes it down on the top of the clay to create an opening in it. Once this opening has been made at the top of the clay, then he goes down deep inside the middle of the clay as it is forming out, and he then uses his hands to properly shape the piece of clay as it is building up during this spinning process on the wheel, his hands are literally making and forming all of this out with this original shapeless lump of clay. The potter cannot make a pot unless his hands go down deep in the middle of that pot as it is forming out.

*In the same way, God’s own hand literally goes down deep into the middle of our souls and spirits where the inner sanctification work is actually done – to mold and transform us into the saints He wants us to become in Him. Since God is doing the actual supernatural work on the inside of us, it can become rather painful and unpleasant at times, since He will be removing all of the bad and negative qualities that He will not want us to have operating in our personalities – and at the same time, instilling and imparting all of the good, positive, and godly qualities that He will want us to have. God has to apply some serious pressure on all of us from time to time in order to get us to change to become the kind of person He wants us to become in Him, removing toxic qualities such as pride, arrogance, bad tempers, etc., can all be very painful due to our flesh wanting to keep these negative qualities operating in our personalities, But let God do this inner surgery work in you through the Holy Spirit, and you will eventually be molded and shaped into the godly saint that He is calling you to become in Him – and true joy, happiness, and fulfillment will be all yours in this life.  Let God take you as far as He wants to go and you won’t ever have to worry about having any second regrets once you leave and depart from this life and enter into heaven for all of eternity.
You can leave this life knowing that you have fully accomplished everything that the Lord was wanting you to accomplish for Him if you just stay the course with Him and do not bail out due to fear or laziness.
Since God is all-perfect and all-powerful and we are not – then it only stands to reason that we can fully trust God to build the “house” of our lives in Him rather than us trying to do it all on our own efforts and wisdom, or the wisdom and efforts of anyone else in our lives.  Stay in the boundary lines that God will be setting up in your life. If you stretch beyond those boundary lines, you will stretch beyond your divine calling and there will thus be no anointing, no protection, and no fruit for you in those other endeavors.  God knows exactly how far He wants to take us in this life and we need to respect the boundary lines that He will be setting up for our lives.
God obviously has His eyes on everyone since He is omnipresent, but until you come into that full surrender with Him, He will not start to work and build up your life in the direction that He will want it to go in.  What this means is that you can fully trust God to complete the work that He has begun with you until the day you die and depart from this earth.
As a result, you will be able to leave this life with most, if not all of your divine missions fully accomplished for Him as long as you stay the course and do not bail out on Him anywhere along the way.

The last phase on the wheel is to take a knife and start cutting off any excess clay that has accumulated around the pot as he was molding and shaping, smoothing out all of the rough edges so the pot turns out complete and beautiful to the natural eye.

*In the same way, God will always be pruning out different things and different qualities that He will not be wanting you to have in this life. God may want to prune out some of the bad and negative friends you are hanging out with due to the negative influences they may be having on you and your spiritual development in Him.
He may also want to prune out some bad habits and He will definitely be pruning out some of the bad and negative qualities you may still have operating in your personality.
Resist God on this pruning process and you may never reach to the heights, to the calling, and to the person that He will want you to become in Him in this life.  You have been created by God to be an unique person – unlike any other person that has ever been created and born into this world. Realize that only God can mold and shape you into the finished person that He wants you to become in Him. The Holy Spirit is already on the inside of us ready, waiting, and willing to do this type of inner work on us, as we yield to the Potter.

*This is the end of part one on this teaching, because God even told me to yet "go deeper" as we need to grasp this knowledge, before we go through the next step in this series on the potters wheel. 

Remember Buried Treasures are found on the bottom of the ocean floors, and their also buried, we have to dig to uncover what the Word of God is revealing. This may sound like a simple study, but we pray the Holy Spirit anoint it so each process opens your spiritual man up to receive even more revelation into the process of us being the clay, and our Heavenly Father being the Master Craftsman.  Amen.
Also remember to pray for me, as i am not a English major or a genius on writing, or a professional Blogger, so forgive any imperfections on my writing abilities, punctuation's, etc... 
I am just a humble messenger, listening, learning, gleaming, loving to learn more of God Our Father, His Awesome Son Jesus, and His sweet Holy Spirit and obeying their Voice, with all respect!