In every man's life, there are stages when he must enter God’s Workshop or God's Garage, either as a Believer or as an Unbeliever.
The first stage is at Creation: Genesis:1: 27 So God created humans in his own image. He created them to be like himself.[h] He created them male and female.
Isaiah 44:24 24 Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;
Jeremiah 18:3 3 So I went down to the potter’s house and saw him working with clay at the wheel.
All the stages above represent the creation stage
The second stage is after a mishap when something has gone wrong.- like in Jeremiah 18:4 He was making a pot from clay. But there was something wrong with the pot. So the potter used that clay to make another pot. With his hands, he shaped the pot the way he wanted it to be.
Interestingly, In 2 Timothy 2:20, the bible reveals that there are different kinds of vessels. it, therefore, means that with different kinds of vessels, there should be different types of instruments/tools in the workshop or garage to work on them.
This passage in Corinthians reveals what the various tools can perform on a vessel - trouble, distress, perplex, despair, persecute, forsake, cast down, and destroy.
2 Corinthians 4
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
In every workshop, one will find different kinds of tools- the carpenter’s workshop, the mechanics, the farmer's, the potter's, the blacksmith, and the goldsmiths all have their workshops, and there are different kinds of instruments meant to do different things. Even the kitchen has different kinds of tools for different purposes.
God has tools too in His workshop. They include but are not limited to fire, water/rain, sickness/diseases/plagues, famine, snow, wind/storms, sledgehammer, sickle, sword, the WORD, and many others.
Why does God need tools and what does He use them for?
- A) He uses them to create
- B) He uses them to repair damages. In Ezekiel 37- He used the wind to repair the damage caused by death, In Genesis, He used the fire to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. - Daniel 12: 10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.
Some Damaged Vessels are Not Repairable
2 Timothy 2:21
Another fact to consider is that not all vessels that enter God’s garage or human garage come out better. or even come out at all. Some come out after the damage repair excellent very close to the original state, some come out a bit better than the damaged state, and yet some are irreparable and must be discarded- a visit to any junkyard will explain this aspect better.
Unfortunately, some vessels that cannot be repaired have to be dismembered and their useful parts are used to repair other damaged vessels (spare parts)
Others must be converted for other things lesser than they were originally created to do. Some parts that are not useful again are discarded.
God has in His workshop various instruments or tools because various vessels enter His garage for Damage Repair.
Examples in the bible abound that after creation, there was a mishap and they had to come back into God’s garage for repairs.
Example 1 Judas and Esau's vessels were marred or damaged by greed and theft. Their vessels were irreparable. Judas died, Esau was put aside
Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.
Matthew 27: 5 5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
For Esau- Hebrews 12:17
For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
Example 2 Demas; He was marred by the love of this world 2 Timothy 4: 10 For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica;
Example 3 Jonah - Jonah was marred by disobedience. He had had to enter into the workshop of God, the belly of a whale to be straighten.
Everyone living must pass through one workshop or the other. Those that are vessels of honour will be guided by God’s merciful hand to come forth better. But vessels of dishonor are left at Satan’s garage in the hand of cruel and merciless attendants or apprentice.
God sometimes allows some of His vessels to go through Satan's workshop first before He transfers them into His workshop. The sad thing is some never leave Satan’s garage.
Those who enter God’s garage are meant to come better than when they arrived there.
Examples of those that came out better after the damage repair stage.
Example 1. Daniel. He was taken as a slave from Judah and taken to Babylon. The sin of Judah caused Daniel to be carried away as a slave
Sin damages and it can cause temporal or permanent damage.
Daniel was taken into God’s workshop to be refined and purified like gold or silver. Daniel was already a worthy vessel, he was like gold being purified several times in the furnace of affliction, to be made more worthy, witty and valuable. Proverbs 25: 4 Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.
Example 2 Joseph was a spoilt child, though a precious seed. He needed to enter God’s garage too for damage repair, His was more severe than Daniel’s
Genesis 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.
4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
Another example is Abraham, God needed to separate Abraham unto Himself to make him what He (God) wanted him to be. God called Abraham out of his father’s house Genesis 12:1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
However, Abraham took with him Lot, - Partial obedience. God took Abraham through trials that broke him. When eventually He can out of God’s workshop, God’s command became his will. Abraham was now totally aligned with God
Genesis 22: 2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
Abraham came out better out of God’s workshop than he went in. He had learned total obedience
Lessons- When you enter God’s workshop, the best attitude to put on is humility, meekness, and total obedience. When these attitudes are lacking, some vessels stay in the garage longer than they are supposed to.
Never pretend that you are still in charge in God’s workshop. God is the one in charge.
To be Continued
