The
Promise of the Spirit
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May 19, 1904 The Promise of the Spirit Mrs. E. G. White Christ
declared that after his ascension, he would send to his church, as his
crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take his place. This Comforter is
the Holy Spirit,--the soul of his life, the efficacy of his church, the light
and life of the world. With his Spirit Christ sends a reconciling influence
and a power that takes away sin. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 1}
In the gift of the Spirit, Jesus gave to man the highest good that
heaven could bestow. The Saviour looked on humanity, and saw that it was under
the power of the prince of darkness; but he saw also that there was hope for
human beings because there was power in the divine nature successfully to
contend with evil agencies. With glad assurance he said, "Now is the
judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." {RH,
May 19, 1904 par. 2}
The Spirit was given as a regenerating agency, and without this the sacrifice
of Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil had been
strengthening for centuries, and the submission of man to this satanic
captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the
mighty agency of the third person of the Godhead, who would come with no
modified energy, but in the fulness of divine power. It is the Spirit that
makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer. It is by
the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer
becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given his Spirit as a
divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil,
and to impress his own character upon the church. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 3}
Christ said of the Spirit, "He shall glorify me." As Christ
glorified the Father by the demonstration of his love, so the Spirit was to
glorify Christ by revealing to the world the riches of his grace. The very
image of God is to be reproduced in humanity. The honor of God, the honor of
Christ, is involved in the perfection of the character of his people. {RH,
May 19, 1904 par. 4}
At the cost of infinite sacrifice and suffering, Christ has provided
for us every essential to success in the Christian warfare. The Holy Spirit
brings power that enables man to overcome. It is through the agency of the
Spirit that the government of Satan is to be subdued. It is the Spirit that
convinces of sin, and, with the consent of the human being, expels sin from
the heart. The mind is then brought under a new law,--the royal law of
liberty. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 5}
The Spirit works in us by bringing to mind, vividly and often, the
precious truths of the plan of redemption. We should forget these truths, and
for us God's rich promises would lose their efficiency, were it not for the
Spirit, who takes of the things of God, and shows them to us. Our hearts are
warmed by the contemplation of Jesus and his love, and we long to speak to
others the comforting assurances that have been brought to our minds. {RH,
May 19, 1904 par. 6}
It is the privilege of every son and daughter of God to have the
indwelling of the Spirit. If those who know the truth would love and fear the
Lord alway, if they would abide in Christ, they would have moral and
spiritual power. The grace of Christ would be in them as a well of water,
springing up unto everlasting life, and would flow from them as streams of
living water. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 7}
The Spirit illumines our darkness, informs our ignorance, and helps us
in our manifold necessities. But the mind must be constantly going out after
God. If worldliness is allowed to come in, if we have no desire to pray, no
desire to commune with him who is the source of strength and wisdom, the
Spirit will not abide with us. Those who are unbelieving do not receive the
rich endowment of grace that would make them wise unto salvation, patient,
forbearing, quick to perceive and appreciate heavenly ministrations, quick to
discern Satan's devices, and strong to resist sin. God can not do his mighty
work for them because of their unbelief. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 8}
Christ has promised the gift of the Spirit to his church, and the
promise belongs to us as much as to the first disciples. But like every other
promise, it is given on conditions. There are many who believe, and profess
to claim the Lord's promise; they talk about Christ and about the Holy
Spirit, yet receive no benefit. They do not surrender the soul to be guided
and controlled by the divine agencies. We can not use the Holy Spirit. The
Spirit is to use us. Through the Spirit God works in his people "to will
and to do of his good pleasure." But many will not submit to this. They
want to manage themselves. This is why they do not receive the heavenly gift.
Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for his guidance and grace,
is the Spirit given. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 9}
Christ declared that the divine influence was to be with his followers
to the end. But the promise is not accepted and believed by God's people;
therefore its fulfilment is not seen. The promise of the Spirit is a matter
little thought of; and the result is only what might be expected,--spiritual
drought, spiritual weakness, spiritual declension and death. Minor matters occupy
the attention, and the divine power that is necessary for the growth and
prosperity of the church, and which would bring all other blessings in its
train, is lacking, though offered in its infinite plentitude. {RH, May 19,
1904 par. 10}
Just so long as the church is satisfied with small things will it fail
of receiving the great things of God. Why do we not hunger and thirst after
the gift of the Spirit, since this is the means by which we are to receive
power? Talk of it, pray for it, preach concerning it. The Lord is more
willing to give the Holy Spirit to us than parents are to give good gifts to
their children. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 11}
If our workers realized the responsibility resting upon them, would
they enter the work without cherishing a deep sense of its sacredness? Should
we not see the deep movings of the Spirit of God upon the men who present
themselves for the ministry? For the baptism of the Holy Spirit, every worker
should be offering his prayer to God. Companies should be gathered together
to ask for special help, for heavenly wisdom, that they may know how to
devise and execute. Especially should men pray that God will baptize his
missionaries with the Holy Spirit. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 12}
There is no limit to the usefulness of one who, putting aside self,
makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, and lives a
life wholly consecrated to God. If men will endure the necessary discipline,
without complaining or fainting by the way, God will teach them hour by hour,
and day by day. He longs to reveal his grace. If his people will remove the
obstructions, he will pour forth the waters of salvation in abundant streams
through human channels. If men in humble life were encouraged to do all the
good they could do, if restraining hands were not laid upon them to repress
the zeal, there would be one hundred workers for Christ where now there is
one. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 13}
God takes men as they are, and educates them for his service, if they
will yield themselves to him. The Spirit of God, received into the soul, will
quicken all its faculties. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the mind
that is devoted unreservedly to God develops harmoniously, and is
strengthened to comprehend and fulfil the requirements of God. The weak,
vacillating character becomes changed to one of strength and steadfastness.
Continual devotion establishes so close a relation between Jesus and his
disciples that the Christian becomes like him in mind and character. Through
a connection with Christ he will have clearer and broader views. His
discernment will be more penetrative, his judgment better balanced. {RH, May
19, 1904 par. 14}
The presence of the Holy Spirit with God's workers will give the
presentation of truth a power that not all the honor or glory of the world
could give. The Spirit furnishes the strength that sustains striving,
wrestling souls in every emergency, amid the unfriendliness of relatives, the
hatred of the world, and the realization of their own imperfections and
mistakes. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 15} A
union of divine and human endeavor, a close connection first, last, and ever,
with God, the source of all strength,--this is absolutely necessary in our
work. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 16} |
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