The Magic Is Not In The Faucet

2Kings4:6 'When all the jars were full,she said to her son,"Bring me another one." But he replied,"There is not a jar left." Then the oil stopped flowing.

The only thing that stopped the flowing of oil was an empty jar!

Thomas Edward (T.E.) Lawrence was a British officer who was involved in a war between Arab rebels and Turks.Lawrence Lawrence wrote about his Arabian adventures in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. During the war, Lawrence formed close friendships with many of the Sheiks of Arabia. After the war, he brought some of these Sheiks back to England to show his appreciation for their support against the Turkish domination. They had a wonderful visit, appeared before the Joint House of Commons and Parliament, had an audience with the Queen. On the last night of their visit, Lawrence offered them anything they wanted to take back with them to their desert homes. They led him up to the hotel room, into the bathroom, and pointed to the faucets in the bathtub and said that they wanted to take faucets with them that would provide them with running water in the deserts. They didn't realize that the faucets were superficial. Behind them was plumbing, a hot water heater, an energy source that heated the water, a city main that supplied the water, and from the city main went a line to an outside source of water!


-The magic is not in the faucet! It is what is behind the faucet that gives the water!
-The faucet can be 24 carat gold, but if its not attached to a water supply, its useless!
-The magic is not in the faucet, the power comes from what is behind the faucet! Things that are not visible to the human eye, but are there nonetheless!
-If the pump, or the plumbing, or the reservoir ever to out of service, the faucet is useless! It's what's behind the faucet that gives it its power!

Now I don't want to minimize the importance of a vessel,us. God needs faucets,us!God ha always used human faucets for his glory.In fact,many times he used the most unlikely of faucets.

God can use anyone:
1.Moses stuttered
2.David's armour didn't fit
3.John Mark was rejected by Paul
4.Timothy had ulcers
5.Amos' only training was in fig-tree pruning
6.Jacob was a liar
7.David had an affair
8.Solomon was too rich
9.Abraham was too old
10.David was too young
11.Peter was afraid of death
12.Lazarus was dead
13.John was self-righteous
14.Naomi was a widow
15.Paul was a murderer
16.So was Moses.
17.Jonah ran from God
18.Miriam was a gossip
19.The twelve disciples had little faith
20.Both Gideon and Thomas doubted
21.Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal
22.Elijah was burned out
23.Martha worried too much
24.Mary may have been lazy
25.Samson almost lost sight of his calling
26.Noah got drunk
27.Moses was short-tempered

But God doesn't require a job interview. He doesn't hire and fire like most bosses,because He's more our Dad than our Boss. He doesn't look at financial gain or loss. He's not prejudiced or partial, not judging, grudging, sassy, or brassy, not deaf to our cry, not blind to our need.

1.God needs us to be faucets!
-John7:38 'Whoever believes in me,as the Scripture has said,streams of living water will flow from within him.'
-God can have all the plumbing in place, have the pump hooked up, ready to pour out blessings on His people, on the world, but He needs us to be vessels! He needs a faucet!
-In many cases, the only thing that stops a move of God is the lack of a vessel.
-From the scripture 2Kings4:6 we can see that the only things that stopped the flowing of oil was a lack of an empty vessel!
-Now don't ask me to explain why God chooses to use imperfect people for His work,because I honestly do not know.I do not know why God who can do all things would choose to restrict Himself to moving through imperfect, flawed, inconsistent humanity.But I do know that He is looking for people for his work,me and you!
-Ezekiel said that God was seeking a MAN to stand in the gap and make up the hedge!
-When the Lord struck Saul on the road to Damascus,He told Saul to 'Go see Ananias, he will tell you what to do" GOD USED A HUMAN VESSEL!
-In the Book of Revelation, John says that God wept because He could find no MAN to open the book of salvation, so God Himself took on the form of man to bring redemption!

Friends do you understand how important we are to the work of God!God will not move without a vessel,us!God will not pour out His Spirit without a faucet-we are that faucet!God needs us,that's you and me!

2.We are the faucet,but there's no magic in the faucet!
-We are the faucet,but unless there is a power supply,we are useless!It is what is behind the faucet that counts!We may still look good,may still say the same things, may still appear to be the same, but if our power supplies are shut off, we are of no use to anyone!

Romans7:18 'I know that nothing good lives in me,that is,in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good,but I cannot carry it out'
-Friends,we must understand that we are only the faucet,what counts is God,who is working in us!

2Corinthians4:7 'But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.'
-The power is God's,not ours!If we sing well,it's not us!If we preach well,it's not us!

Romans12:3 'For by the grace given me I say to every one of you:Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought,but rather think of yourself with sober judgement,in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.'
-Friends no matter how much God moves through us,always remember that it is God and not from us!
-No matter how many prophecies we have given,no matter how much anointed preaching and teaching comes forth from us,we must never forget that it is what's behind the faucet that makes all the difference!
-No matter how many powerful things happen through me,I am only the faucet,and if the power supply behind me gets cut off,I become useless!


Why couldn't the disciples in Matthew17:14-21 heal the demon-possessed boy?
Because they had no power!

The disciples would most probably have seen Jesus done all kinds of miracles,so now they come across a situation they think they can handle.They have watched Jesus do this, they have observed His hand motions, listened to what He said, and how he said it! They have the words, actions, motions, and everything else, but there is one thing missing! They have no power! There is nothing behind the faucet, and they fail miserably at the task at hand.

And so Jesus takes this opportunity to tell them that there is no magic in the faucet.Fervent prayer and fasting is required for that power to manifest in us.

We can say the right words,do the right hand movements,use the right tone of voice,but if there is no fervent prayer and fasting there will be no power!

3.The danger we face is when we try to duplicate only what God can do.
-We must never reach the point where we get so smart that we don't need God!


Friends the most valuable thing we can discover today is that we are a sinner saved only by the grace of God. No matter how smart we are,no matter how successful we are,no matter how rich or strong we are,we are still sinners saved only by the grace of God!There is no magic in the faucet-We need Jesus!