Winter 2009
Non-Transferable Non-Refillable Bottles

Recently the Lord has opened the eyes of my understanding concerning bottles and filtration systems. The Lord has a lot to say about bottles and vessels for his glory.

Jeremiah 2:12-13 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Who in this hour has the fear of God?  Who in this hour is horribly afraid of the evils committed by God’s people? For the last three decades Pastors and evangelists have worked with a fevered pitch to remove any semblance of the fear of God from the life of a believer. Shepherds and sheep alike in this hour have no fear of sin, no fear of God’s judgment, and no fear of hell.

Because the fear of God has been removed, there is no more restraint and the Shepherds and the sheep do all that they imagine. Because the fear of God has been removed God has departed and now the people are in great want and spiritually desolate.  

Psalm 34:9 O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.

Psalm 31:19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!  And instead of God being the fountain of living waters for his Sheep men instead have made for themselves false fountains – false fountains upon which the sheep are to lavish praise and worship, false fountains that are empty and can and will not produce water nor hold water.

Mark 2:22 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.

As it was men’s work to hew broken cisterns so is it the work of men to put new wine in old wineskins. The purpose is that they might gain new life and new converts to the old wineskin so that it might be perpetuated as a venerated long-held tradition.  

When I was a child in early 1960’s soda bottles, milk bottles were all refillable.  You paid a deposit of three to five cents when you purchased the beverage and when you returned the empty bottle you got back your deposit. Then the respective company would collect their bottles take them down to the local plant, hose out the old bottle and then refill it. Within a few days the bottle would be back out on the store shelf again to serve another customer.

These bottles had been used over and over again, and many had been reused so many times that the glass was no longer clear.  These old vessels were so pitted and scratched that the glass had become somewhat opaque obscuring the product the vessel had been created to display.

As a child when I looked at those old scratched and pitted bottles side by side with new clear ones, I would always select a new bottle, somehow believing that the clearer new vessel contained a purer and fresher beverage.

Of wineskins it would seem that it might be hard to discern that the wineskin is new or used one once it has been filled. And if anything the peddler that is preying on the public with used wineskins would be seeking to make quick deals and then get out of Dodge as quick as possible before the skins start exploding and move on to new sales territory. But the nature of the salesmen of what Jesus was speaking of are dealing in the old dried out and cracked doctrines and traditions of men. In order to keep a flow of steady customers   they need to gin things up a bit, so they add greater and lesser degrees of the wine of the Spirit. Thereby trying to control the level of the Holy Spirit within a church or fellowship allowing just enough to keep their customers coming, but not enough to blow their denominational still.

Romans 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?

It seems that in this day and time that no one wants to be a unique vessel unto the Lord anymore. Instead we spend our every waking moment reading books, listening to tapes, and watching videos. At the subconscious level of our spirit’s we know we are: “Searching, but never coming to the knowledge of the truth.” But at the level of our carnal mind we have conned ourselves into believing that by infusing our soul with massive doses of specific teachings we can create within us the gift or ministry of our choice.  Falsely believing that God is running some kind of a ministry sub-shop where we can build our own spiritual ministry with a little Hagan, a little of Seeley Kinne, hold the Oral Roberts and extra, extra William Branham.  And we do all this despite our receiving the Holy Spirit’s nudging to get us to abandon this destructive path, and instead we keep on searching and seeking.  Believing that if we could only find the just the right Spirit anointed combination of these old dead bottles, that God would somehow be compelled to hand over to us the car keys to the Kingdom so that we can go out on a twenty to thirty year joy ride.  While I’m writing this I am seeing these poor starving children from a third world country. Covered in filth, dressed in rags these children were working toxic dumps to feed themselves and their siblings.

Revelation 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

And what were these poor children searching for?  Initially they were told that there were treasures and items of great value hidden among the refuse. They were told that one only had to dig long enough and hard enough, and they will be amply rewarded. But all too soon these children of death, were transformed from being starry-eyed treasure hunters, to scavenging beasts desperately searching for something, anything that they can continue one more day in their squalor. 

So we too dig deep into the dump of old waste doctrines and traditions of men. Spending our every waking moment reading books, listening to tapes, and watching videos. And what are we in search of?  Treasures of corruption, items that carnal men deem as having great spiritual value, rumors of forgotten and discarded spiritual gifts, tales of abandoned vessels just lying out there free for the pickings, and of course the mantles of dead Prophets, Apostles and other Holy men and women.

Our roving eye of lust is out on the pull seeking what other’s have. Our eye of lust wants anything that could grant us recognition of men.  It is the horseleech of Proverbs that cries day and night for more and never is satisfied.  The thing about lust is it is an inflamed emotion, it is not a five or ten-year discipline, it doesn’t want to pay the price to get something, it wants immediate gratification.  Why should we spend precious time praying, fasting, and studying God’s word alone? Why should we pour ourselves out, giving all that we have and all that we are to the Lord? When we can just go over to the dump and get it for free? 

To him that hath an ear to hear let him hear; I’m going to give some very liberating information.  The bottle that God creates within every believer is wholly unique and forged at the foot of the throne of God. This bottle is non-transferable and non-refillable.  So you can save yourself from wasting years of your life trying to get someone else’s bottle. You can spare yourself the disappointment and discouragement while at the same time avoiding giving the devil place in your life when you discover this spiritual Ponzi scheme doesn’t work.

John 10: 1-2 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

If we try to receive some gift, or a ministry or someone else’s mantle by going some other way but through the door (Jesus) we become a thief and a robber.

If you are even contemplating using shortcuts in regards to receiving your calling, gifts of the Spirit, and/or ministry, you are contemplating the most dangerous thing a believer can do. You are indicating to the serpent that you are willing to do anything to get the gift and/or ministry of your choice.  In Genesis the serpent came to Eve offering her a short cut to the promises of God, and we know all too well what happened there. 

Jesus is the door.  Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Jesus is the way the truth and the life. All true Ministry or gifts lead you to the feet of Jesus. If they lead you to the feet of a Minister or a Ministry it is false. How else can you explain the following verse?

Matthew 7:21-23 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

I have heard this repeatedly preached that these people had false gifts. Counterfeit ministry and that these people were agents of the devil.  Jesus was not confused when he spoke, this passage does not require interpretation. If Jesus could give his unregenerate disciples gifts of healing, power to cast out devils and perform miracles, if in the Bible we have examples of those who began their walk close to God and later departed, it is easy to understand that a gift or ministry has to come through the door or through the vine to the braches. If Jesus said I can of my own self do nothing. If Jesus said if I bare witness of myself it is no good. If Jesus said He could only do that which he saw the Father do. . .  how can we expect to do it any other way?   

The Bible repeatedly warns us that: “No thief shall enter in the kingdom.”

So why are we really doing this book and tape thing?  These in all reality are acts of rebellion and disobedience on our part.  For when we know that we should be studying to show ourselves approved, and meditating on His word, for when we know that we should be spending time in prayer and waiting on the Lord, for when we know that we should be humbling ourselves before God and serving one another as we would Christ. We instead push those aside, as well as the promptings of the Spirit in order and have a flesh feast while dumpster dining.

Thirty years ago I knew dozens if not hundreds of believers that took on this lifestyle. They gorged themselves on tapes, books and videos. They were on top of all the latest truths. The sad truth is that not one of them ever came into something solid in God. Many of these believers have long since passed away, while those who still remain are sickly, weak, and a lot more confused and frustrated than if they had never embarked on the route of ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth.

Acts 19:13 Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the LORD Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.

In our day we have a lot of vagabond Christians who take upon themselves gifts, ministries, and mantles that are not their own so say things like: In Jesus name whom John Lake teacheth. Or In Jesus name whom Charles Finny teacheth. Or In Jesus name whom Smith Wigglesworth teacheth, or in Jesus name whom Kenneth Hagan teacheth -- be thou whole, be thou cast out, be thou whatever, and nothing happens. I am not knocking the faith message, I am knocking receiving 2^nd hand, third hand and fourth hand

truth. Reading a book doesn’t make it so in your life. “The word has to be made flesh” you have to experience it, you have to lay at the feet of Jesus to be taught of him. You’re pastor can not do this for you.

Now if that sickness, that demon, or that whatever it is that you want dominion over would speak to you I’ll go out on a limb predict it would say;  “Jesus I know, and John Lake I know, but who are you?”

Why do movements fail?  Because people are pattern conscious.

I Corinthians 12:15-17 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?

 Let’s put this in modern terms we all need a devotional relationship with God.  We all need to know the Lord’s Visitation in our lives. But God made only one unique vessel named Walter Beuttler. If everyone goes and patterns themselves after Walter Beuttler, as good as that would be, the body of Christ would be diminished by this action. Because the body would be deprived of many otherwise unique vessels with unique operations and gifts of the Spirit that along with the real Walter Beuttler would greatly edify the body. But instead we end up with 10,000 Beuttler clones most of which are really bad knock offs.

God has called each of us to be unique vessels before Him to glorify Him uniquely, and personally – and that each of us become the glitter jewel before Him that we are called to be – as thus our life becomes a sweet savor unto Him. We need to press into the Lord and seek Him with all our heart that we might truly become all that we can be in Jesus Christ rather then settling to be just a can of beans.