Miracles from the Fingertips of God

The Potter’s Hands

At times we can feel the hands of God on our lives. The hand is often used to demonstrate authority. As Father and Creator, His authority certainly should be without challenge. Here His hands convey and demonstrate His love and care as only He can.

He is the source of all authority—absolute and unconditional. It is His wish that we choose to submit to His authority through His Son Jesus.

For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. (John 5:26-27)

As the source of all authority, the Father delegates His authority to His Son Jesus, the Son of Man. Authority is defined as the right to do or not to do because of position or office; the legality.

There are two basic types of authority: intrinsic authority and derived authority.

Intrinsic authority refers to one’s essential nature. This can be demonstrated in both positive and negative ways. God’s love evokes positivity and hope, while His judgment seems to be very negative—at least for those in its direct path. Even evil people possess intrinsic authority. For instance, dictators rule from a source of fear. Even from such an evil source comes a degree of order within the bounds of this authority. Our Father is the ultimate source of all authority. The potter possesses total authority over the clay as we see in Isaiah 45:9. In this analogy, God is the Master Potter who has total authority over us, but chooses to allow us to let Him do the reworking we so desperately need. By our yielding faith His Spirit controls the process.

Derived authority is received from another source. Jesus gets His authority from the Father. The authority under which Jesus acted was directly from the Father. He stated many times that He did as the Father directed. This can be seen in many scriptures, such as John 12:50, 14:31, and 15:9.

As we will see in the next section of the analogy, the hand of the potter works only through the use of water to form the clay into a useful vessel. In this same way, the hand of God cannot rework us except through our faith in Jesus, the living water. We see a more complete picture of this later in the analogy.

Early pottery shops had apprentices who did most of the routine work. In the process they learned the skill required to be successful in the trade. Like apprentices of that day, we get a derived source of authority through our faith in Jesus. They fivefold ministry is a spiritual example of this.

And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelist; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: (Ephesians 4:11-12)

By our faith and our ability for Him to rework us; He develops the talents designed into us at conception. The fivefold ministry is not the only life path He purposes into people. There many more and some in multiple combinations. Example: husband, father, pastor, mentor, counselor, engineer all in one person.

His authority has been passed down through Jesus down to the newest believer by faith.

And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mark 16:15)

As Jesus’s authority came from the Father, the source of our authority is derived directly from the blood covenant we have with Jesus. Our God-given authority is too vast to discuss here. Know this: If this authority is not put into practice, it is lost by default. The loss is not permanent; it merely goes into a state of atrophy, like an unused muscle. When we obey, we allow the Father, the craftsman potter, to move us, the clay, closer to our full potential, to the image of His Son Jesus, the anointed one.

We will either have faith in what has been sacrificed for us, or not. With applied faith, comes promises of life, in abundance. If we are found without faith, that which we have will be stripped away.

For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25:29–30)

We have all been created to have the potential of full relationship with the Father. Sin has marred the created material, humankind. Again, it’s His intention to rework us into our full potential by our faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross. His authority comes to us with love and gifts. Someday we will have to account for whether or not we allowed Him to apply His authority to our lives.

Jesus said it this way in Luke 12:48:

But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.