A Simple Yielded Vessel

I learned recently about a woman named Lucy Turner Smith. She saw an estimated “200,000” miracles and healings in her ministry and was the first black woman to build and pastor a megachurch in Chicago

The greatest encouragement from Elder Lucy Smith was “just be yourself.” She was known to have little regard for grammar, and she never tried to be oratorical. She would at times calmly talk and move around as she preached or ministered, but when she prayed for the sick, all manners of sickness and disease would be healed. What she lacked in man’s eyes, God’s power greatly compensated!

Lucy began a “one-room prayer meeting” in her own house with only two people. The meeting grew quickly as many were being healed and baptized with The Holy Ghost. Three years later they moved out to a larger facility. After 10 years, in 1926, she built a church and by the 1930s, had nearly 5,000 members. She said that the healing services were the reason for such growth.

God spoke to Lucy and told her to broadcast the services over the radio. This broadcast became known as “The Glorious Church of the Air” radio program in 1933. It was the first LIVE service to ever be broadcast from a black church. It would often result in letters coming in from all over the country,  telling how people had been healed as she prayed. The radio program also helped fund the tremendous charity work the church did. They fed thousands of people during the Great Depression and provided food and clothing to black families in the city.

Lucy Smith is a primary example of what tremendous exploits God can do with a simple yielded vessel. She didn’t try to be more than she was. She simply knew what she was called to, and she stuck to it.

Friends, don’t let excuses get in the way of God’s purpose for your life. Don’t disqualify yourself. 

Step out and give yourself completely to Him because He’s not looking for your ability, He’s looking for your availability.

“The Lord searches all the earth for people who have given themselves completely to him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9 NCV

I am a chosen vessel, set apart for the Master’s use (2 Timothy 2:21). My life is not my own—I have been bought with a price, and I willingly surrender to be used for God’s purposes and glory (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

I am clay in the Potter’s hands. Shape me, mold me, and form me according to Your perfect will, Lord (Isaiah 64:8). Cleanse me from anything that hinders Your Spirit in me. I yield myself fully—mind, heart, body, and soul.

I declare that God’s Spirit lives in me and flows through me. I am an instrument of righteousness (Romans 6:13), a carrier of His presence, and a light in the darkness (Matthew 5:14–16). Wherever I go, His glory goes with me.

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