by Jill Austin
Jill also attends and is a part of a major church where prayer, intercession, holiness, and passion for the Lord are of primary importance. She has an amazing ability to dig into the Word and to pull out nuggets of revelation in a very simple yet practical way that makes even a child able to comprehend the truths that are being revealed.
It is with much delight that I endorse and recommend Jill, as I have seen new depth come in my own life since becoming acquainted with her.
—Suzanne Hinn
Benny Hinn Ministries
PROLOGUE
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear My words” (Jeremiah 18:1-2).
One of the most powerful biblical images describing the relationship of the Almighty God to humanity is that of a potter to the clay. The roots of the image are found in man’s creation in early Genesis. God carefully and tenderly shaped the clay of the earth into the form of man. Mankind was fashioned not of precious materials, but of mere dust. Contrast God’s handiwork with the mimicry of human rulers. Nebuchadnezzar fashioned an image of himself out of gold, and Caesar casts his image in silver coins, but God housed His image in the clay of the earth, and takes His delight in an earthen vessel. He caused the lowly earth to wear greater glory than the Nebuchadnezzars or Caesars of this world can house in precious metals!
In the story of redemption, once again the image of potter and clay emerges. The redeeming love of Heaven again takes the lowly clay of the earth and patiently, lovingly labors over it to fashion a vessel unique in elegance, beauty and purpose. Time becomes a potter’s wheel and a kiln carefully arranged for the fashioning of vessels. But the great designs of Heaven transcend time. These vessels are fashioned for eternity. They will stir unending praise to the wisdom and care of the Heavenly Artisan whose love drives Him to create manifold likenesses of His own glory.
The house of the Master Potter becomes a place where life is imparted, callings are shaped, stories are fashioned, and destinies are celebrated. It is a place of deep revelation, where the Lord causes His heart and His word to be discerned. It is a place where the broken and rejected are reclaimed and made new, fitted for the Master’s use.
You are about to embark on a memorable journey into the house of Master Potter. We are conducted on this journey by one who has served many years, first as a faithful apprentice, now on her way to becoming a clarion voice whose very words are being used to shape and call forth destinies in the heart of God. The prophetic voice of Jill Austin is now captured in story form! Through the vehicle of a story, the author draws you into fresh encounters with the wisdom and love of the Triune God.
The genius of this story is that it is an allegory framed within the disciplines of the potter’s trade. The power of allegory is its ability to create vivid pictures in the imagination that release unexpected insights into the story of our own redemption being written by the finger of God. Master Potter is a storied reflection of Jill Austin’s ministry.
The book graphically portrays the story shape of our salvation! Each of us is a story God is writing! He marvelously interlaces our particular history, our temperament, our gifts, our gender, our family, our culture and our time as the raw materials for retelling the story of redemption patterned in His Son, Jesus Christ. As you read the powerful allegory of Forsaken, rescued from destruction and despair in the Potter’s Field, marvelously transformed into Beloved, and prepared to walk out a new destiny, you will experience the full spectrum of human emotion while seeing resemblances to your own life story.
On the dark side, the adversity she endures, the snares she faces, the lies she believes, and the demons she battles are all painfully close to realities in our own lives. On the redemptive side, both the joyful surprises of divine love and the equally surprising mysteries of pain and suffering appointed in the wise counsels of Heaven closely touch the story of our own salvation. The contours of her story belong to everyone whose lives are being fashioned by the loving hand of the redeeming God.
The story unfolds on many levels—the divine and the human, the angelic and the demonic, the good and the evil. These layers are expertly woven together as the composite setting for the full telling of the story. Not since the release of Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness has a book appeared that so deeply stirs the heart to consider the multiple levels on which the story of our salvation is being written.
In this story a broken pitcher by the name of Forsaken finds herself at a final place of despair in the Potter’s Field. She reflects on the slippery road that has led her to this desperate place. We feel her anguish and desperation, even as the realms of darkness close around her to bring her life to an end. But meanwhile, Heaven has other plans. The intercessions of Master Potter enlist the angelic realms to carry out an eleventh-hour rescue, and Forsaken is snatched from the clutches of darkness, given the new name of Beloved, and carried away to the house of Master Potter. She finds a love she has been searching for all her life but has never known. She celebrates the miracle of Master Potter’s life entering her broken clay vessel!
Her rescue from sure destruction fills her heart with unspeakable joy! But her initial exhilaration is only the beginning of Master Potter’s appointed journey into the full joy of her salvation. That journey comes in divinely orchestrated seasons that the Potter’s wisdom only reveals in stages. She is graciously crushed, reshaped, pruned, and sent back into the wilderness where her heart and faith are tested. She makes choices that seem to thwart God’s purposes, only to be redeemed again to her destiny years later.
As we walk this journey with Beloved, we observe Master Potter’s loving oversight of her life even in seasons of disobedience. He is intent on fashioning her into a beautiful vessel of honor and preparing her for a new destiny birthed of His sure prophetic word. He patiently shapes her with His loving hand. She is taken into deep places of healing from painful memories that have left her broken, fearful, and wounded, full of anger, bitterness, and shame. Her heart is gradually secured from all the places where she is still vulnerable to the subtle seductions of the world, the weakness of the flesh, and the fiery darts of the enemy. She learns the healing power of forgiveness, and the supernatural reversal of dark designs against her by deepened repentance and purified love.
You will find in the characters that make up Beloved’s journey through life curious resemblances to people in your own history. The abuse of Antagonist, the lies of Madam False Destiny and Pastor Compromise, the treachery of Mayor Lecherous and Pastor Beguiler, and the infidelity of Enchanter. The oppressing demons of Fear, Shame, Self-Pity, Despair and Death, and her heavenly companions, Valiant and Amazing Grace who war against them—these all give shape to the common spiritual struggles of the redeemed.
Unlike most fiction, this book invites a slow reading. In fact, there are profound encounters with the healing Lord awaiting a thoughtful and reflective reading of Master Potter. So vivid, so real, so human is her journey that if you dare to leave your heart open to the workings of the Holy Spirit, you will experience measures of healing and deliverance yourself. Beloved’s journey into wholeness can be replicated in the careful reader! The book invites you to read it prayerfully and expectantly—to anticipate healing and cleansing encounters with the love of Master Potter who is fashioning us for a bridal destiny at His right hand.
—Steve Carpenter
Th.M. Dallas Theological Seminary
President of Word and Spirit Ministries
Director of the Forerunner School of Prayer
with Mike Bickle’s International House of Prayer, Kansas City, Missouri
FOREWORD
Too many today are starving.
In a modern society longing to experience the reality of the Holy Spirit, they have relentlessly pursued nearly anything supernatural. People are so disillusioned and jaded by the lack of the Holy Spirit’s power and demonstration in Christendom that they have resorted to hunt
ing for it wherever they can. So thirsty for living water, they go to the desert and, instead of finding living streams, they have learned to drink the sand. The wild success of Harry Potter testifies how easily people get ensnared into the occult, New Age, and witchcraft simply from their hungering for something more.
Jill’s book offers something authentic, something more, by countering the current counterfeit imitation. She leads the reader into the arms of the true source of all the mysteries of the supernatural—the Master Potter Himself—the glorious man Christ Jesus. She demystifies some of the mystical by pulling back the curtain of the spiritual realm, as the reader is caught up in the battle between angels and demons and whisked into the transcendent splendor of the throne room of the beautiful God.
Warning, dear reader: You are not merely beginning a book but rather entering into your own journey into the ravished heart of Jesus, the Master Potter. With the unfolding of this prophetic journey, we watch the adventure of a broken little pitcher named Forsaken, who is renamed Beloved as a vessel of honor fit for the King’s use.
Mirroring the Shulammite woman in The Song of Songs, Forsaken’s tale begins with a spiritual crisis. Distraught with desolation, Forsaken is wounded and discarded in the Potter’s Field—the garbage dump on the outskirts of town. In the debris and rubble of her deferred hopes and dreams, Master Potter pursues Forsaken. Like us, Forsaken simply desires to be loved and to love in return. She is obviously a picture of what happens in our own hearts. In her weakness, she realizes that she is “dark” yet altogether lovely to the Master Potter—Jesus Christ. Her heart is tenderized; the first commandment is restored to first place in her heart; her name and identity are forever changed from Forsaken to Beloved.
Yes, Beloved emerges from her wilderness as one victoriously leaning on her Master Potter. She is no longer an echo; now, she is a voice. Beloved is not one who has memorized a message, for her authority comes from the secret place of being “shelved” for the Master Potter’s use. Living for an audience of one, in this very place of intimacy, she gains great authority in the Spirit. The Master Potter can then challenge her to go to the deeper places in Him—the “Mountain of Fire.”
This prophetic allegory reveals the greatest mystery in the universe: Christ and the Church are betrothed to be married forever! Because you are His favorite and He is crazy about you, He doesn’t want to just bless you; He wants to give you Himself! In the turning of these pages, you will hear the love songs of God’s heart for you. Learn to listen; learn to return them back to His heart.
God is going to change the understanding and expression of Christianity in this generation. My conviction is that this book will help catalyze this transformation process that God desires for all His people. Jill’s message is not merely for the Church but also a call for the lost to enter into God’s grace, which is abundantly available through Jesus. This story transcends the walls of the church to meet a generation exactly where they are. In a world where most do not know Jesus, we must respond with a “yes” to God’s desire to revolutionize how the world sees the man Christ Jesus. From Barnes and Noble to prison cells, this book sounds an alarm that our hunger must not be met in Harry Potter but rather in the Master Potter Himself.
So come, eat and drink deeply! Beloved, you will not walk away the same; this book will ruin you for Jesus! Therefore, it is with great excitement that I wholeheartedly introduce to you Jill’s book. I pray that with the turning of each page, this book will root you and ground you in the reality that you are the one He desires.
With passion for Jesus,
—Mike Bickle
International House of Prayer
Kansas City, MO
GREETINGS FROM THE AUTHOR
FROM POTTER TO PREACHER
…O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; we all are the work of thy hand (Isaiah 64:8).
For years I was an award-winning, professional potter before the Lord ambushed me and called me to full-time ministry. One day, as I was demonstrating on my wheel how to make a clay vessel at a Christian art festival, I heard His audible voice. Tenderly He began to speak to me of His love for the clay vessel. I repeated what He said, and the people listening were powerfully touched. Through pottery the Lord gave me insight into His great love and tender mercies for us, His vessels.
This was the beginning of my wonderful prophetic journey, which is known as Master Potter Ministries, a performing arts group combining music, drama and art. It’s hard to believe that this began over 25 years ago. For those first ten years I used the potter’s wheel and portrayed Jesus as the Master Potter, while actors spoke for the clay vessel. The last 15 years the Lord transitioned me away from these dramas into preaching and moving in signs, wonders and miracles around the world.
Pottery is still a passion of my heart. I love the yieldedness of the clay as I sit at the wheel. I’m always aware that any abrupt movement of my hands could tear the vessel.
The pottery process parallels our prophetic journeys. Jesus is the divine Potter and we are the yielded clay. Each vessel is His handiwork, unique and loved by Him.
Through our lives our sinful choices are manifested as cracks, chips and brokenness. When a vessel becomes too broken it is pronounced “worthless” and is discarded. That’s when Master Potter comes on the scene, rescues the pot, and begins to remake it. He does not disqualify us because of our weakness and vulnerability. He whispers in our ear His great love and incredible destiny for us—transforming us from weak broken vessels into His victorious Bride.
Unfortunately, much of this process is quite painful. We find ourselves back on the wheel of life and then impatiently sit on the shelf to dry. Can’t you relate to the testing of your faith when you are in the kiln and fired for the purposes of God? What an incredible, tailor-made journey God has for each of us!
This allegory is the story of weak broken pots powerfully loved, redeemed and re-created by Master Potter. May the book give you encouragement for whatever stage of the prophetic journey you’re in. As a potter I promise you this—if you submit to Master Potter’s gentle touch, you’ll end up as a vessel of honor fit for the King’s service.
—Jill Austin
Master Potter Ministries
Frail dust, remember, you are splendor!
MACRINA WIEDERKEHR
SETTINGS AND CHARACTERS
SETTINGS
Comfort Cove, a quaint nineteenth-century seaside fishing village
The Potter’s Field, the garbage dump outside Comfort Cove
The Potter’s House, Master Potter’s home overlooking Comfort Cove
Deeper Life, a religious commune in the wilderness
Formidable Mountains, a rugged mountain range behind the Potter’s House
Precarious Pass, a dangerous pass through the Formidable Mountains
Mountain of Fire, a mountain kiln deep within the Formidable Mountains
Madam False Destiny’s Inn, an entertainment establishment
MAJOR CHARACTERS
Father in Heaven
Master Potter/Son of God
Holy Spirit
Beloved/Forsaken, a pitcher
Satan/Prince of Darkness
DEMONS AND ANGELS
Michael the archangel
Gabriel, the messenger angel
Valiant, Beloved’s guardian angel
Death
Suicide
Fear of Man
Religious Ritual
Law ’n Order
COMFORT COVE
Antagonist, Forsaken’s former boyfriend
Madam False Destiny, spiritualist and owner of the inn
The Fire Chief
Mayor Lecherous
Pastor Compromise, pastor of the Country Club Church
Grandma Pearl, Beloved’s deceased grandmother
Beloved’s father, the town drunk
POTTERY TOOLS
Unrelenting Love, a large stone used to crush clay pots
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sp; Servant, a reddish-brown bowl
Soaking Love, a sponge
Piercing Love, a needle-like tool used to puncture air bubbles
Rite of Passage, a cutting wire used to remove the vessel from the potter’s wheel
Pruning, a metal trimming tool used to take excess clay from the bottom of pots
THE WILDERNESS
Amazing Grace, a mysterious guide
Pastor Beguiler, pastor of Deeper Life Community Church
Mrs. Beguiler, Pastor Beguiler’s wife
Enchanter, Pastor Beguiler’s son
Purity/Promiscuous, Beloved’s daughter
Crusader/Rebellious, Beloved’s son
BELOVED’S FRIENDS
Turncoat/Faithful, (a sugar bowl), a card dealer at Madam False Destiny’s Inn
Comrade/Friendless, a squatty mug
Harvester, a large canister
Sweet Adoration, a perfume vial
Long Suffering, a tall, willowy vase
Golden Incense, a teapot
Fearless, a wine carafe
Joyful, a wine goblet
Patience, a beautiful vase
Steadfast, a large serving platter
Diligence, a sturdy casserole dish
Abundance, a large fruit bowl
His Desire, a glazed pitcher
PART ONE
THE POTTER’S FIELD
