“And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, MADE HE A WOMAN…” Gen 2: 22
God took the rib – a simple, singular bone – and made it into a woman. He shaped, fashioned, formed, and moulded it into a woman. He worked on it with His own hands until what was once just a rib became a fully formed human being with breath, beauty, purpose, and destiny. The rib became a woman. The part became a whole. The fragment became fullness. What was taken from Adam’s side was transformed into someone who would stand at his side, equal in value, complementary in function, and united in mission.
But notice carefully: God did the making. Not Adam. Not the rib itself. Not the wisdom of the elders or the counsel of the angels. God Himself took the raw material He had removed and, with divine craftsmanship, shaped it into exactly what He wanted it to be. The rib had no say in what it would become. It did not negotiate the design. It did not demand to remain a rib. It did not insist on being formed into something other than a woman. It simply surrendered to the hands of the Maker and trusted Him to shape it according to His sovereign will and perfect wisdom.
“And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I WILL MAKE YOU fishers of men“ Matthew 4:19
This is the most critical, most humbling, and most liberating truth about discipleship: the shaping of a disciple is entirely at the jurisdiction of God. He alone determines what you will become. He alone decides how you will be formed. He alone knows the design He has for your life, the purpose He has embedded in your calling, and the vessel He is making you into. You do not get to choose your own shape. You do not get to dictate the process. You do not get to tell God, “Make me into this, but not that. Use me here, but not there. Give me this gift, but not that assignment.” No. Once you have been taken, once you have been placed into His hands, the making is His prerogative, His jurisdiction, and His sovereign right.
“Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, AS SEEMED GOOD TO THE POTTER to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand” Jeremiah 18:3-6
The clay does not tell the potter what to make. The clay does not resist the wheel. The clay does not complain when the potter applies pressure, when He reshapes what was marred, and when He starts over because the first attempt did not match His vision. The clay simply yields and submits. It trusts that the potter knows what he is doing. And in that yielding, in that submission, the vessel is formed.
God shapes each disciple into individual vessels as He wishes. Not as they wish. Not as their parents wish. Not as their culture expects. Not as their peers demand. But as He wishes. Because He is the Potter, and we are the clay. He is the Maker, and we are the made. He is the Master, and we are the disciples. And just as He took one rib and made it into a woman – not a man, not another Adam, but a woman with her own unique form, function, and purpose – so He takes each disciple and shapes them into the specific vessel He has designed them to be.
This is why comparison is so deadly in the life of a disciple. When you compare yourself to another believer, you are essentially telling God, “I do not like the vessel You are making me into. I want to be shaped like that person over there. I want their gifts, their calling, their anointing, their platform, their recognition.” But God did not take you to make you into them.
Rather, He took you to make you into you – the specific, unique, irreplaceable vessel that fits the purpose He has ordained for your life. Peter was shaped into Peter, not John. John was shaped into John, not Peter. Paul was shaped into Paul, not any of the twelve. And each one, when they surrendered to the Potter’s hand, became exactly what God intended them to be. Not replicas of each other, but distinct vessels, each carrying a unique aspect of God’s glory, each fulfilling a specific function in the body of Christ.
“And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, MADE HE A WOMAN…”
Like the potter who works on what was released into his hands to form vessels that fit his purpose, God takes the rib that has been surrendered to Him and works on it, shapes it, refines it, until it becomes the precise vessel He envisioned before the foundation of the world. And the vessel He creates is never generic. It is never mass-produced. It is never a cookie-cutter version of someone else. Every vessel is custom-designed, individually crafted, specifically formed to carry a particular measure of His glory and to fulfill a particular role in His kingdom.
“… And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it...”
Yes, it is true that the shaping process is not always pleasant. The Potter’s wheel spins. The pressure is applied. The clay is stretched, pressed, pulled, and sometimes even torn down and remade when it does not take the shape the Potter intended… That is what making demands. The rib did not remain a rib because God worked on it. He reshaped its structure. He transformed its composition. He made it into something it could never have been if it had stayed in its original form. And that transformation required divine intervention, divine pressure, and divine reshaping.
The same is applicable to every disciple. You will be stretched beyond what feels comfortable. You will be pressed in ways that feel overwhelming. You will be pulled into seasons that feel disorienting. And sometimes, when God sees that the vessel is not taking the shape He intended, He will tear down what you have built and start over, not to destroy you, but to ensure that you become what He called you to be.
“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.” 2 Corinthians 4: 8 – 9 (NLT)
This is why so many people resist discipleship. They want the end result without the process. They want to be a mature, powerful, and anointed vessel without enduring the Potter’s wheel. They want to be Eve without first being the rib. They want to skip the shaping and go straight to the presentation. But it does not work that way. The making is non-negotiable. The shaping is essential.
And the Potter will not release a half-formed vessel into the purpose He has prepared for it. He will continue to work on you until you are ready. Until you are shaped. Until you fit the purpose. And your only responsibility in the process is to remain soft, pliable, and surrendered in His hands.
The moment you harden, the moment you resist, the moment you say, “I do not want to be shaped like this. I want a different design,” you disqualify yourself from the making. Because God will not force you to remain on the wheel. He will not wrestle with a disciple who refuses to be formed. He will simply set you aside and find someone else who is willing to be made. And you will spend the rest of your life as a half-formed rib, never becoming the woman, never fulfilling the purpose, and never experiencing the joy of standing beside the man in the mission for which you were created.
“Ephraim is a cake not turned.” Hosea 7: 8
“Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone” Hosea 4: 17
So, surrender to the shaping. Trust the Potter. Stop trying to dictate what you will become and start yielding to the hands that are making you. The same God who shaped a rib into a woman is shaping you into the vessel He has always intended you to be. And when the making is complete, when the shaping is finished, and when the vessel is ready, He will present you to the purpose for which you were taken. And you will look back on the pressure, the stretching, the reshaping, and you will understand: it was all necessary. It was all intentional. And it was all designed to make you into the one thing you could never have made yourself – a disciple who carries the image of the Master.
Written by: Sunday Adeoye