Making a Man

Prophet Elisee Yao / 1 Dec 2019

The laws of creating and making are two different matters. Creation is spiritual, but the making of something involves a process. ‘Making’ is the formation of that which was created, transferring it into the natural. 

Genesis 1:26-27, New King James Version (NKJV)
²⁶Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Verse 26 portrays the concept of making (to make man in God’s image and likeness), while verse 27 describes man’s creation in the spirit. When God created man he was not yet made manifest on earth. In order to be on earth, man had to be formed (made).

Genesis 2:7, New King James Version (NKJV)
⁷And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

This scripture offers us another example of the difference between being created and formed (by the dust of the ground). When God speaks, God creates but His spoken word cannot work or be made manifest in the natural until it is formed. When God speaks over life, it hangs, suspended in the spirit. It is the same as God calling you (directly or by prophecy) as an evangelist or pastor: this step is creation, the making of that evangelist or pastor is where the process comes in.

John 1:14, New International Version (NIV)
¹⁴The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Word was made flesh. The Word could not be created because God is not created. For the Word to be made manifest on earth, the Word needed to be squeezed into shape. That is why the Word was formed in the womb of Mary, and squeezed out (by giving birth) into flesh. Anything created but not formed on earth is a lawbreaker and has no business functioning here. Some spirits are created but not formed, so they have no legal right to function on earth without permission. Since God is spirit, He won’t function in your life unless He is authorized[1] to do so.

Anything created but not formed on earth is a lawbreaker and has no business functioning here.

Jeremiah 18:1-6, New King James Version (NKJV)
¹The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ²“Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” ³Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. ⁴And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. ⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ⁶“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!

When God called Israel, He created her, but He had yet to make the nation, like a potter makes, moulds, and forms a vessel in His hands. This whole Christian walk is a ‘making’ experience. You are not a sanctified Christian overnight, you are made into a Christian. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that we are a new creation, not a new making. That vessel still needs to be made in partnership with the Holy Spirit!

We are a new creation, not a new making.

There is power in becoming, and becoming involves the process of making. Life doesn’t automatically display the reality of the spirit, it needs to go through the process of formation first.

Isaiah 64:8, New International Version (NIV)
⁸Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

We are all clay before we are anything else. But before the clay is even placed on the potter’s wheel, to be formed and refined into a beautiful and useful vessel, it must be crushed. Dust (the substance God uses to form us) must be crushed and mixed with water to produce clay. You might understand the importance of your baptism in water and the Holy Spirit now. You need to be crushed to be formed. Furthermore, the dust has to be mixed with just the right amount of water to be soft and pliable. If it is too soft, it will collapse. The right balance of ingredients is needed in the mixture, and only the Potter knows the right amount of water to sustain the clay. This is why the clay must be in the hands of the Potter. Making involves a process, and these are the stages of making a man:

We are all clay before we are anything else.

1. Breaking

If you are not broken, you cannot be shaped. Brokenness is the very first requirement for transformation in your life. This is the stage of complete surrender and yielding, where you say to the Lord, “what you say goes” and “not my will anymore, but Yours, Lord”. You cannot be broken before the Lord without humility. Jacob, for example, was not broken until he met God. After meeting with Him, Jacob could not balance anymore on His own. His gait was altered and he was forced to lean on God from that day onwards. God will put you through a similar procedure to break you. 

2. Crushing

Being crushed goes beyond brokenness. Before you are remade, restored, and renewed you need to be crushed. This is the place where every self-righteous part of you is revealed and your ego is put to death. You might feel like the Lord hates you during this time; like everything and everyone is against you, and everything you hold onto just falls apart. Remember that Jesus could not rise in glory without being crushed. Crushing is excruciating. Olive oil cannot flow unless the fruit is utterly crushed. Intensely high pressure is required to produce oil drops. During the crushing process, God will corner you, and you will feel like you won’t know where to go: there will be no window or door of escape. But it is during this time of intense crushing, that the Lord is trying to bring the best out of you. So that in the crushing, the ancient oil of Zion can flow through you. Once you have gone through the process of crushing, oil is not a problem for you anymore, because oil is a natural product of yielding to the crushing process.

3. Moulding

Then, God needs to mould you. You will be too rigid to be moulded unless you have first been broken and crushed. When you come into God’s hands flexible and soft, He can make you into what He truly wants you to be. This is the beginning of the forming process, where God starts to mould you according to His will and purposes, not yours.

4. Refining

The refining process guarantees the longevity of the vessel, and you are refined by fire. After being broken, crushed, and moulded, the moulded clay needs refining by being placed in the Fire. The fire is designed to burn away the things in you that need to go, and it is painful! You will find yourself in a place where you want to run way again, because you feel like you cannot take the intense heat of the Refiner’s fire any longer. Remember Daniel’s friends who went through the test of Fire that was heated seven times hotter (symbolising perfection in suffering). The ultimate test of the Fire is whether or not you will go through it saying: “Our God is able to deliver us, but even if He does not, we will not serve other gods” (Daniel 3:16-20). This Fire is not quenched by water, but by the mindset of determination. If you skip this vital stage, and you are not refined before you meet the power of the Holy Ghost, then it is a complete disaster. You must be refined beforehand.

1 Peter 1:6-7, New International Version (NIV)
⁶In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 

Gold is refined by fire and so it must be with your faith too. Faith needs to be tested by the Refiner’s fire!

Once you come out of the fire (moulded beforehand), the result is that you become rigid and fixed. This means that you do not change on a whim or become doubtful every time you are faced with a problem. Instead, you stand firm. God wants to refine you to the point where no experience in your life will shake your faith in Him. He desires refinement to such a degree, that you become so aware of Him (your eyes fixed only on Him) that you stick to Him like glue and never give up on Him, come what may. 

5. The Refined Vessel

2 Timothy 2:20-21, New King James Version (NKJV)
²⁰But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. ²¹Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.

The vessel you can become when you survive the fire varies from clay and wood, to gold and silver. This scripture is not intended to mean that the wood and clay vessels are subject to dishonour. It means that in God’s great house, there is room for migration from clay to gold if you set your mind and heart to it. You cannot metamorphize (change quality/substance) in the fire. Metamorphosis (changing your form; changing the way you are) from clay, wood, or silver to gold is your own choice. God has given you the potential to migrate but things will only get better for you when you decide to tap into that potential and change your attitude towards life. With your mindset, you have the power to migrate from the swamp to the river, or from wallowing in the mud to becoming a vessel of honour in God’s hands. Let your vision, desire, and purpose be one of constant migration from clay to gold for the glory of God.

Some of you are in the midst of the process and you are backing away from God, thinking God wants to destroy you. Yes, God wants to destroy the old man, and He wants you to partner with Him in the process. It is only once the old man is killed that the new man can rise up and be renewed day by day. It’s all up to you because God gives the anointing without measure (John 3:34). The measure is not up to God anymore, since He has already given it: it’s up to you. You can migrate from a little anointing to limitless anointing by submitting yourself to the process and understanding the heart of the Father. We must count the cost, but can we get to the point where we say, “I know there is a price to pay but so be it!”

Choose to set your mind and heart to becoming a vessel of honour useful to the Master and you will be amazed at what the Lord will do through your life.