From Clay to Vessel of Honor: The Potter's 9 Stages

Introduction

The Lord has a word for you this morning. Whoever you are, wherever you are in your walk, it's impossible for you to walk away saying, "God had nothing for me." This message is about transformation. And if you think your life hasn't been transformed yet, if you don't yet feel that work happening in you, it's only a matter of time. Because God wants to start working in you right now.

In Jeremiah 18:1-6, the Lord sends the prophet down to the potter's house. There, Jeremiah watches the potter work the clay on his wheel. The vessel comes out ruined. So the potter takes the same clay and makes it into another vessel, as it seems good to him to make it. And God says, "Can't I do with you as this potter does? Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand." Take that sentence and put your own name where it says "house of Israel." That's how you are in God's hand.

God isn't working your clay to destroy you. He's working it to restore you and to transform you. Once he's saved you, his plan for you is to make you into a vessel of honor, sanctified, useful to the master, prepared for every good work (2 Timothy 2:20-21). And between the way a potter works clay and the way God works our lives, there are a lot of similarities: nine stages, to be exact. See where you fit.

Outline of the Message

1. The Clay: The Starting Point God Isn't Afraid to Love

At first, the clay is on the ground, still mud. It's dirty, it sticks, it's mixed with rocks, leaves, sticks, dead insects. Nobody gives it a second look.
This is the stage where you are still nothing: where you haven't yet met Jesus, where you haven't received the Holy Spirit. Even if everything is fine materially (family, situation, house, car), the transformation hasn't begun until you've met Jesus.
"In the beginning, the earth was formless and empty": God always starts working from nothing. He doesn't start when we're already clean and ready on the wheel; he starts when we're still mud.
Jesus isn't afraid to get dirty. When he looks at the mud, he doesn't see mud: he sees the vessel of honor it will become. When he came near Paul, he didn't see the persecutor, he saw the one who would write the epistles.

2. The Extraction: Jesus Comes to Find You Where You Are

The potter doesn't stay in his workshop. He goes out, into the fields, the paths, the ponds, the woods, wherever the clay is.
Jesus comes to where you are. Whatever your situation, whatever life you're living, he comes to find you there.
To dig out the clay, you have to dig a hole. He'll dig into your life if he has to. He'll climb down into the hole, he'll get his hands dirty, but he'll pull you out.
No one is ever too dirty for Jesus. The clay can't get itself out of the field; it's he who reaches out his hand. If you're out of the mud today, it's because he came for you.

3. The Washing: The Word Sanctifies You

Once dug out, the clay is still full of impurities: dirt, rocks, leaves, wood. It's not fit to be worked. It has to be washed, washed, and washed again.
You don't wash clay with soap: soap does nothing for it. Only water washes it. And spiritually, only the word of God washes.
At this stage, when you hear the pastor preach, the Holy Spirit says to you, "Repent. Wash yourself. Get rid of your filth, your impurities, your sin."
This washing applies to new converts, but also to Christians who have been walking with Jesus for 5, 10, or 15 years. If you still have a life "for everyone to see" and a life "in secret," your heart still needs washing.
Then God uses a very fine sieve. He deals with the details: the places you go, the people you spend time with, the music you listen to, the movies you watch, how you behave at home, at work. He doesn't let anything slip through.

4. The Drying: The Wonderful Stage, but a Dangerous One

Once clean, the clay is poured into large basins, out in the sun, in the heat. The water evaporates. What "evaporates" isn't bad in itself: it's simply things that are of no use in serving God.
This is the wonderful stage of the early days of the Christian life. You've just met Jesus, he's forgiven you, God's warmth is on you, you feel the Holy Spirit, you feel his presence.
But a risk appears: staying too long in the heat, the clay can get used to it. The Christian is full of zeal, wanting to do everything, all the time, at church, but with little depth and little spiritual maturity.
They end up saying, "I didn't feel God's presence in that service." Because at this stage, they're still living by feelings, by emotions, by excitement.
You have to move from "I feel" to "I believe," then to "I know." I know God is there, I know the Holy Spirit is at work (even if I don't feel it), because the word says so: where two or three are gathered in his name, he is in the midst of them.

5. The Kneading: God Drives Out the Air Bubbles

After the gentleness of drying, the clay sees the stick coming. It didn't see this coming. It can be trampled underfoot, crushed, beaten with a stick. It isn't pleasant, but it's essential.
Two goals: get rid of the air bubbles and make the dough consistent for what comes next.
The air bubbles are invisible in the clay, but if they're left in, they'll explode during firing: the vessel will crack, it will burst, and it will even damage the other vessels around it in the kiln.
Spiritually, the air bubbles are pride, lying, hypocrisy. These things don't show from the outside, but God sees them. And he will never lift up someone who still has those bubbles.
To knead us, he sends people, circumstances, trials, sometimes even sicknesses. If you have pride, he'll break you until you learn humility. If you're a hypocrite, until you learn truth.
The cross isn't only Jesus's victory over death and sin: it's also the crucifixion of your flesh. God can even allow Satan to knead you, as he allowed with Job.
This is the stage where many give up, saying, "Ever since I met God, everything's gone wrong." But Jesus himself agreed to come down, to suffer, to be humiliated, to go to the cross. What more do we have to endure than he did?

6. The Shaping: God Brings Balance to Your Life

Shaping extends and finishes the kneading. The dough is worked so it becomes soft and even, ready to be formed.
This is when God brings balance to your life: the material and the spiritual, the gifts and the character. He gives you the gift of prophecy and wisdom. He gives you speaking in tongues and patience. He lets you serve him in the church and work in a company. He teaches you praise and meditation, prayer and intercession, fasting.
It isn't normal for a Christian to pray every day but never read their Bible. It isn't normal for them to sing praises but never fast. It isn't normal for them to pray but never praise. God wants children who are balanced in everything.
The Bible says of Jesus, in Luke 2:52, that he grew "in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men": the intellectual side, the physical side, the relationship with God, the relationship with others. A perfect example of balance.

7. The Spinning and the Forming: The Shape Belongs to the Potter, Not the Clay

The vessel takes shape on the wheel. Not the shape the clay wants, but the shape the potter wants. In your prayers, always leave room for, "Lord, your will be done."
It's in the movement that the shape appears. Without movement, there's no shape. If God has called you to serve him, serve him, even if you're just rough clay at first, even if you think you don't know how to do anything. Go for it: it's he who gives the movement, and in the movement he'll give you your shape.
The potter's hand works through touch, pressure, movement. At certain moments, our life goes in a direction we wouldn't have chosen. Sometimes it speeds up when we'd want to slow down. Sometimes it stalls when we'd want it to move forward. God is the one at the controls.
At certain moments too, the potter puts a little water back on the clay so it doesn't dry out: that's the anointing of the Holy Spirit, which he regularly renews in your life. As long as you stay in that movement, you're in his hands, and nothing can happen to you.
Jesus himself, before the cross, said, "Lord, not my will, but yours." He went through with it even though it was hard.

8. The Firing: The Shape Becomes Permanent

Until the vessel has gone through the fire, its shape isn't permanent. If you filled it with water right after the wheel, the water would warp it. But God wants to make you into a vessel of honor that's solid, watertight, that won't shift, that will fulfill its purpose no matter what.
The fire is an anointing: the message God gives you for his people, for those around you, in your home, your family, your school, your workplace, your neighborhood.
Your message depends on what God has done in your life. If you're married, he'll speak through your faithfulness, and you'll preach faithfulness to those around you. If you've been healed, you'll testify of the God of power. If you're obedient, you'll testify of the God who provides for your needs.
We all have the same God, the same gospel, but our clay is different: it comes from different places, it hasn't had the same drying, it hasn't been kneaded the same way, it hasn't been through the same trials. God does craftsman's work, not factory work. No two pots from the same workshop are ever perfectly identical.
Once fired, the vessel is ready. Even if you're slandered, you keep moving forward. Even if you're insulted, you keep moving forward. Even if people put obstacles in your way, you keep going. Even if you fall, you get back up. Nothing can stop you from moving forward for God anymore.

9. The Decoration and Display: For God's Glory, Not Your Own

The last stage is decoration. The vessel is shaped, fired, beautiful. God makes all things beautiful, just look at his creation: the sun, the stars, the oceans, the forests. In your life too, he wants to make beautiful things: his nature, his character, talents, gifts, his anointing, his power.
But be careful: even decorated, it isn't for your own glory. It's because God wants to present you. He wants to show you off, he wants to put you on display, he wants to say, "Here is my servant."
From there, who knows where the vessel will go? Only God knows. If he's prepared you, it's for a specific purpose. The mud that became a vessel of honor is itself the proof of God's transforming power on the earth.

Key Takeaways

God's work is never a work of destruction, but a work of transformation. Everything he does in your life, he does for your good, even when it's painful.
Jesus isn't afraid of the mud. No one is ever too dirty for him. He came all the way into our darkness, because God so loved the world.
You need to move from "I feel" to "I believe" then to "I know." Mature Christian living doesn't rest on emotions but on the word.
The air bubbles (pride, lying, hypocrisy) can't be seen by others, but God sees them. They have to be driven out before the firing, or the vessel will explode and damage the others around it.
The shape of the vessel is the one the potter wants, not the one the clay wants. Our fundamental prayer remains, "Lord, your will be done."

Personal Application

Which of the nine stages are you at today: clay, extraction, washing, sieving, drying, kneading, shaping, spinning, firing, decoration?
Is there a double life in you (what shows in front of everyone, and what's lived in secret) that the Holy Spirit is asking you to wash?
Are you still living by feelings and excitement, or have you begun to live by faith and by the word, even when you "feel" nothing?
What air bubbles is God currently trying to drive out of you through trials or difficult people? Are you accepting the kneading, or trying to escape it?
Is your Christian life balanced (prayer and reading, praise and fasting, serving in the church and working life), or is one area crowding out the others?

Scriptures Referenced

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does God allow trials in my life if his work is a work of transformation?

Because those trials are part of the kneading. In raw clay, there are still invisible air bubbles (pride, lying, hypocrisy) that God has to drive out before the firing. Without that breaking, the vessel would explode in the fire and even damage the other vessels around it. Trials are not a sign that God has forgotten you: they are a sign that he is preparing you to be lifted up and used.

I just got saved and I'm full of excitement. Can that be a problem?

That's the wonderful stage of drying, and it's a good thing. But it's also dangerous if you stay there too long. A lot of zeal with little depth leads to living by feelings, waiting for shouting, praise, and excitement before you'll believe God is there. You need to learn to move from "I feel" to "I believe," then to "I know," because the word says so: God is present, even when you don't feel it.

How do I know which of the nine stages I'm at?

You're bound to be somewhere between the clay and the decoration. Look at what God is doing in your life right now: is he calling you to repent of specific things (washing)? Are you going through a hard trial that's breaking your pride (kneading)? Is he pushing you to step out, to serve even when you don't feel ready (spinning)? Meditate on the message, think back over these nine stages, and ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you are and which direction he wants to take you.

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