The shaping

One of the verses that I have posted to my computer in my office is “I will give you the keys to the kingdom.” It is a promise from Jesus saying that if I focus my gaze and my intentions on Jesus Christ, it will be him who gives me the keys to unlocking his kingdom.
How tightly I must hold on to this promise if I will at all be effective for the Lord's kingdom. But let me share with you something else that the Lord showed me in reference to this verse:
I was worshiping with some friends of mine and one of the men in the group spoke to me during our time of prayer and said that an image of a “key” kept coming to his mind when he was praying for me. He went on to explain...In order for anyone to make a replica or an exact copy of the Master key, you have to grind the shape into the silver. And the sound of the grinding machine is unpleasant, with all it's shrieks and groans-it does sound quite painful. The idea is that the process of making a key in the Master's likeness is the shaving off of the excess portions, the carving and grinding of the exact shape. And the process is intricate.

Have you ever tried to use a key that “almost” looked like the master key? It doesn't work. The process has to be exact and precise, otherwise the replica is useless. God used this image and explanation to speak volumes to my soul and to my experience here in homeservice. I am called by God, through the process of sanctification, to bear the image of Christ, and for Christ to be formed in my inner being. I am to be made in the Likeness of Christ and just like the key, I have to go through the grinding and the "shaving off" so that I can become exactly like the Master key, my Master Jesus Christ. And if God is the key technician in whose hands I am being formed, I can trust that he won't make a mistake and accidentally move the key too much to the right or to the left in the grinding machine, rendering me “almost” like the master key but not quite, and thus utterly useless. But he holds me steady because his desire is for me to be exactly right, so that I am useful in unlocking the door/lock that he created me for. You see, Jesus does give the keys to the kingdom...but he also is the one who “makes” the keys as well, keys that bear his exact likeness to open the doors of the kingdom (to open the doors of the hearts that up to this point have been locked tight and are now ready to be opened.) Really, this image and truth is so incredible to ponder. And it makes what I go through bearable, knowing that there is a purpose in all that I face, in all the ways that I sense that I fail or am not quite good enough. To know that this is all a part of the “grinding” process so that the finished product is a key that fits into the doors of ministry that he has prepared for me.