Giving up Control

Apr 22

Written By Sheryle Cruse

This idea of allowing God, the Creator of the universe we live in, to control ALL our lives, is very disturbing.

Yes, we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, and learning to allow Him to be the Lord, Master, and Controller of our entire lives, is challenging.

It was difficult for us, during all our sinful behaviors, before we accepted Him, and afterwards. Afterwards seems harder, because the Holy Ghost is continually bringing conviction to our hearts.

He won’t let up on us. He is the ultimate “hound dog from Heaven,” sniffing us out from our scent of sin.

Not just sin, but tracking us because He is with us nearby, and wanting to pour His love into us, as we run away from Him, like the fox running away from the hound dog.

It is the hunt. He is hunting us down with His mercy and grace.

You and I can only hide for a little while in the foxholes of life called “isolation.”

We have always had a certain resistance to allowing the Lord to control everything.

Let us face facts.

Prior to Jesus revealing His love to us, we were in complete control of every facet of our lives.

Our diamond called self-perseverance, and self-preservation, was dim, and in need of polishing.

The quality of this diamond was limited, because we refused to let go and allow the Lord to fix, reset the stone, and then allow Him to present His diamond in such a way that it gleams.

He, alone, is the Master Jeweler.

His fee to do all of this is a thing called submission and surrender to Him. Process.

Even amid God doing a miracle on our behalf, we want to, somehow ,control that process too.

When, where, and how He decides to do a miracle is His Providence.

Not ours.

Jeremiah 18: 2-6 declares:

**“Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words…”**

(Cause you to hear, is the waiting process. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit. Fruit is developed, not instant oatmeal).

“Then I went down to the Potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel.

And the vessel that he made of clay, was marred…”

(disfigured, damaged and spoiled)

“… in the hand of the potter; so, he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.

Then the Word of the Lord came to me, saying ‘O House of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?’ says the Lord. ‘Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.”

The description of the first vessel represents you and I when we were in the world, unsaved.

Broken vessels.

Marred and truly disfigured.

Ugly in our sin.

We could not look into a real mirror and see anything of value. Not only to ourselves, but to anyone else, including a God who says He loves us.

The new attempt by The Potter to make a better vessel should represent you and I, willing to jump upon the wheel, to be molded and shaped into a new vessel (our lives) worthy of honor, not dishonor.

This represents our faith to get out of the boat of logic and walk on the waters of our faith.

Look at this in a way that is real.

He picked us up with His hands and pulled us apart from the clump of clay (the world) and took us and put us upon His wheel of shaping.

This wheel spun slowly at first.

(Our born-again experience) then, suddenly, the pressure from The Potter’s hands, began squeezing the clay (You and I).

We felt the pressure of the sin in our lives leaving us as in the moisture in the clay, leaving the lump as the wheel spins and spins.

Pressure.

Not too much pressure, to cause weak spots in the clay before it enters the heat of the oven.

We needed to be purged and molded, and put into the refiner's fire and receive the launderer’s soap.

Malachi 3: 1-3:

*Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight.

‘Behold, He is coming,’ says the Lord of hosts.

‘But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For HE is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap.’”

“He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver.”

(Verse 3)

This passage describes God’s coming judgment as a purifying process, like a refiner’s fire burning away impurities and a launderer’s soap cleansing away stains.

OUR SIN STAINS.

God had told Jeremiah to go to The Potter’s Shop and wait.

(Are we patient to wait upon the Lord as we try and give up control of our lives)?

Patience is more than a virtue. It is mandatory to wait on the Lord.

God is never on our timetable.

This is why humility, on our part, is so important.

This waiting process has a lesson to learn.

If we get ahead of God in His purifying process in our lives, then we mess up the process, and leave the wheel too early and find ourselves marred.

If we lag, His processes of the refining, purging, and burning away of our sins, then we never catch up to the Lord as He is moving ahead of us to prepare the way.

This is an analogy of laziness, complacency, and not really believing He will do what He said He would do, on our behalf.

There is no “catch-up” with the Lord of Hosts.

Either get in His will, get out of His will, or you will be run over with new sins, and an interruption of His plan.

It is paramount we understand this.

He gives us many chances to follow Him.

This is His mercy and patience for us, and for mankind.

Why would we not run to Him?

Stay with Him?

And follow Him?

God said to Isaiah…

“Destruction is certain for those who argue with their Creator.

Does a clay pot ever argue with its maker?

Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you are doing it all wrong?’

Does this pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’”

Isaiah 45:9

When you and I put ourselves in the hands of the Lord, He will reshape us as He sees fit. His way is always best.

It is in our humility that allows us to accept the fact He is the Creator.

He is The Master Craftsman.

In 2023, in Ocala, Florida, I attended a revival in an Equestrian Expo center that held seven thousand people. I was a volunteer, helping pray for those who got saved, after their prayer at the altar with the evangelist who preached.

The first night, of four nights, 800 people came forward to receive Salvation, mercy, and healing.

Entire families came forward, along with many older folks as well.

The title of the message was “Wounds in the Church.”

The message basically said, “Church is supposed to be a hospital for those who are sick and afflicted. Why would it turn into a place to kill the sick who came in for help? Christians are the only army who kill their own wounded.”

Prior to the service, a woman directly in front of me, never stood for worship. She never made eye contact with me.

(Remember this eye contact issue).

As worship was ending, there was an offering taken for the ministry who was sponsored for this four-night event.

I verbally asked her, without her seeing me, eye to eye, to borrow a pen to write out a check.

With her back to me, never turning around, she grunted like a pig at a trough. “UGHHH, grunt.”

She held up a pen over her shoulder and handed it to me, never turning around to greet me at all.

I filled out the check, and said thank you to her.

Handed her the pen back, once again, never making eye contact with her.

Once the message was preached and the altar call was happening, as a volunteer, I knew my cue to leave to go to the back of this enormous building to greet the people who just got saved. I am shoulder to shoulder with over 200 volunteers, ready to greet the 800 who were on their way.

Hundreds were in these lines with the 199 volunteers ready to give them their info, so the local churches in this area could follow up with them for their zip code and geographical locations.

Did not want to lose the fish in the net.

I was the lone volunteer in this crowd of people with no one to pray for.

No one came up to me for prayer or to give me their information.

No one.

Finally, before everyone who was in these huge lines left to go back to their seats, a lone woman walked up to me, as if to say, “What's up with all this?”

I immediately recognized her. She was the woman who loaned me the pen earlier. We never made eye contact until now. She still did not know I was the man she grunted at. I recognized her. She never recognized me.

She walked up to me and said,

“Now what? I just dedicated my life to this Jesus, and I want to get back to my seat, so what do you want me to do?”

Gruff voice again without the pig sounds.

I said,

“Ma’am…”

(because I am from Texas)

“…the evangelist wants us to say a quick prayer for you and, if you are willing, give me your contact information, so the local church in your area, can follow up with you.”

She hollered,

“OKAY, fine, hurry up then.”

I prayed a quick prayer and got her information.

Her name was Katherine.

When I finished my prayer, and said, “In Jesus Name, Amen,” she hollered again at me.

“Well, is that it? Are you done now?”

Gruff and disrespectful.

I didn’t care about her rudeness. She was obviously going through things that only the Lord knew.

Fast forward.

Before the evangelist began to pray for physical healing and emotional healing needs in the crowd, the worship team did one more song.

“Breaking the Chains.”

The anticipation for Jesus to heal was thick.

Suddenly, Katherine, who never turned around and looked at me, and still did not know who I was, stood up and put her hair into a ponytail.

Then, during the song, she started jumping up and down, hollering and singing with the song,

“BREAKING THE CHAINS-JESUS, BREAKING THE CHAINS. JESUS, JESUS...”

She kept screaming/singing to the song all through the song to the end.

She was hollering this, at the top of her lungs, and while doing this, she took her arms and made the gesture with her arms, crossing them over each other as if to say,

“I am breaking the chains off my life. I am breaking the chains.”

She never stopped jumping up and down and hollering.

She was accepting whatever the Lord was doing in her heart.

She went from a grunting pig in her spirit, to shouting,

“Breaking the chains, Jesus, breaking the chains.”

Miracle. Here is a woman, obviously oppressed in this thing called life, and in a moment of time, she worshipped Jesus Who met her that day.

He met her at exactly the time He wanted her to surrender and give-up-control.

Are we pigs at the trough of life, like the Prodigal Son?

We have known Jesus at one time, but find ourselves eating pods, and begging to go home to the Father’s House for reconciliation?

Jesus will get rid of our pigpen thinking, if we will let Him.

She grunted out loud before she met the Savior.

She was a 50 plus-year-old woman, who must have been in pain.

Pain, physically?

I do not know.

Pain, mentally or emotionally?

Probably.

Something made her grunt and stay in her chair during the service.

Something drew her out of her chair, to go forward and accept Jesus as Savior.

I know what it is that fixed her issues of life.

It was her giving up control of her life.

Then, once she committed to that, Jesus took control, and put her on the wheel, and began molding a broken vessel named Katherine.

He is Master Potter.

Let Him gently bring you to the wheel of great fortune, called repentance.

He desires to mold and shape you and your life.

It is what He does. It is who He is.

He went from a Cross to a grave, from a grave to a permanent trip to Heaven. Well, permanent for now, as He is returning someday for sure.

He currently sits at the Right Hand of His Father, making intercession for us.

He does this with nail- scarred hands.

His hands are scarred for a reason.

That reason is to be the Potter of our lives.

I see Him pulling the clay from mankind’s pile.

Your piece counts.

It is never marred in the hands of The Potter.

Never.

Embrace the wheel daily.

You will be found to be a vessel of honor, in Jesus.

If he can do that for Katherine, I wonder what He will do for you, personally and with His love and mercy attached to His amazing grace.