When the vessels were full…she said unto her sin, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not one vessel more. And the oil stayed.

2 Kings 4:6

The divine almightiness is content to confine itself to our capacity. The oil of God’s Spirit flows according to the measure man has prepared for God. Divine blessing is subject to the limits of human channels. “Make this valley full of ditches,” said Elijah on another occasion. “For thus sanity the Lord, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain, yet that valley shall be filled with water…lAnd this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord; he will also deliver the Moabites into your hand.” Man has not the power to obtain anything more than God has given, but he has the option of taking less. “Ye will not come to me that ye may have life.”

Watchman Nee

How sad it is that many Christians live far beneath their possibilities! Equally so is that most churches come far short of the innate potential that God has for them. Often we place the burden upon the Lord as we view Him from human terms. In our minds He is limited, powerless, or ineffective. We are quite sure that if He would choose to move on our behalf that things would improve, but somehow He doesn’t.

The Bible is filled with stories of those who settled for less than what God had for them. Jacob, on the night when he met God and wrestled with Him was quite willing to settle for a personal blessing. Like us he was living in the moment. His immediate need drove his request. He knew that at the dawning of the day he was meeting his brother Esau whom years before he had cheated. Tomorrow would be the day of reckoning and he wanted God to bless him, give him favor and protect him. But God had more for Jacob than just a momentary blessing. I’m sure at that point Jacob would have been glad just to get a blessing but that was far less than what God had for him. While he’s seeking a blessing, God is preparing a nation. Jacob only saw his present condition but God was seeing a future nation that would be His people. Those who knew Jacob no doubt would have been skeptical that God would have such plans for someone like this. That’s us. We live beneath our possibilities because we limit God to our perceptions.

Abraham and Sarah limited God and when they were told in their old age they would give birth to a son, they laughed at the idea. In that moment God asked a powerful question- one He’s still asking today, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

The Israelites lived far beneath the status God had for them for they constantly forgot all His previous works. At the Red Sea, they forgot the miracle of the ten plagues and the night of deliverance. In the wilderness, facing thirst, they forgot the opening of the Red Sea. Facing hunger, they forgot the miracle of water coming from the rock. When Moses went up the mountain for forty days, they forgot the cloud and pillar of fire. And ultimately they forgot the power of God that had brought them out and brought them through so they died in the wilderness never seeing or benefiting from the land that God had promised and prepared for them.

Let’s apply these lessons to us. Often we hear people say, “Well I hope I can squeak through the gates of heaven.” How sad to believe that somehow we are the ones who opens those gates. Have we diminished the work of Christ on the cross and have we failed to understand the power of His death and resurrection? Do we not believe that there is sufficient power in His name and through the shedding of His blood to fully redeem us, sanctify us, and bring us into the kingdom of God in eternity?

We read with bated breath and wide-eyed wonder the stories of how God worked through the lives of His people. We read of Noah building an ark, David slaying a giant, Daniel sleeping in the lion’s den, Elijah calling fire down, Moses stretching his rod over the Red Sea and the people passing over on dry land, Peter and John healing a lame man, Paul raising a young boy from the dead, and on and on. What we fail to consider is that in every case, it wasn’t the people who did such amazing things. It was the power of God that brought them to pass. These were some who believed that God had more for them than just a few drops.

Paul urges the Ephesians to be “filled with the Spirit” until they overflowed. What about us? Should we settle for an occasional touch, encounter, or experience? Should we continue to believe that God no longer works in us as He did those in the scriptures? Let’s look at our text today again:

Every vessel the woman found was filled without exception. If you saw her collection you would instantly notice the variety and sizes of the vessels and you would also notice that all of them were full. The large ones were filled to their capacity, the small ones were filled to their capacity. Though each contained a different measure of oil, that wasn’t the point at all. The point was that each vessel in its own uniqueness was filled to capacity. It matters not how large a quantity of oil as compared to another vessel but whether or not each vessel was completely full.

In another story, ditches are dug in a valley in a time of drought. The next morning all the ditches were filled to capacity. I’m sure there were wide ditches, narrow ditches, shallow ditches and deep ditches- each dug according to the capacity of the digger. But all of them irregardless of size and shape were filled to the brim.

Acts 2 brings to understanding these two stories and their meaning for us. The stories both contain symbols of the Holy Spirit. In the first He is the oil- oil for anointing as was such when Moses poured the oil over Aaron until it ran down his beard, oil for the lamps in the temple signifying the presence- light of God, and oil that was used to bring healing and preservation for those wounded. In the second, He is the water- the Living Water that Christ said would flow from our innermost being- refreshing, invigorating, cleansing water. In the first the vessels were filled with oil. In the second they were filled with water. Luke writes these words describing the activity of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost:

“And they were all filled [that is, diffused throughout their being] with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues (different languages), as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out [clearly and appropriately].”

Acts 2:4

Lest we think this was a unique single experience, Luke further writes:

“And when they had prayed, the place where they were meeting together was shaken [a sign of God’s presence]; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness and courage.”

Acts 4:31

We may not be able to determine our capacity but we can determine our fullness. We may not be able to exceed what God has for us, but we can limit what we receive from Him. Like the vessels, we can choose to remove ourselves from the flow before we are full or we can even choose to be filled with other things which limits our capacity for the Spirit. Like the ditches, we can choose to be filled with Living Water or we can let life fill us with debris. Can we instead ask God today for all He has for us? Will we open the lid to our hearts and say to the Lord, “Fill my cup, fill it up and make me full!”

I leave us with the words of an old hymn”

Mercy drops around us are falling,

But for the showers we plead!