New Bottles for the Indwelling
of
The Holy Spirit
Click to go to our Home Page
The following is from 1SM pg 386. The whole chapter is
about Christ - the centre of the message. It is well worth reading the
whole document starting on page 383. “When God’s people are one in the unity of the Spirit, all of
Phariseeism, all of self-righteousness, which was the sin of the Jewish
nation, will be expelled from all hearts. The mold of Christ will be upon
each individual member of His body, and His people will be new bottles into
which He can pour His new wine, and the new wine will not break the bottles.
God will make known the mystery which hath been hidden for ages. He will make
known what are the "riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27) {verses
28, 29 also quoted}. {1SM 386.1} Jesus came to impart to the human soul the Holy Spirit, by which the
love of God is shed abroad in the heart; but it is impossible to endow men
with the Holy Spirit, who are set in their ideas, whose doctrines are all
stereotyped and unchangeable, who are walking after the traditions and
commandments of men, as were the Jews in the time of Christ. They were very
punctilious in the observances of the church, very rigorous in following
their forms, but they were destitute of vitality and religious devotion. They
were represented by Christ as like the dry skins which were then used as
bottles. The gospel of Christ could not be placed in their hearts; for there
was no room to contain it. They could not be the new bottles into which He
could pour His new wine. Christ was obliged to seek elsewhere than among the
scribes and the Pharisees for bottles for His doctrine of truth and life. He
must find men who were willing to have regeneration of heart. He came to give
to men new hearts. He said, "A new heart also will I give you." But
the self-righteous of that day and of this day feel no need of having a new
heart. Jesus passed by the scribes and the Pharisees, for they felt no need
of a Saviour. They were wedded to forms and
ceremonies. These services had been instituted by Christ; they had been full
of vitality and spiritual beauty; but the Jews had lost the spiritual life
from their ceremonies, and clung to the dead forms after spiritual life was
extinct among them. When they departed from the requirements and commandments
of God, they sought to supply the [BEGIN P.387] place of that which they had
lost, by multiplying their own requirements, and making more rigorous demands
than had God; and the more rigid they grew, the less of the love and Spirit
of God they manifested.” White, Ellen
Gould: Selected Messages From the Writings of Ellen G. White, Book 1;
Selected Messages, Book 1. p 386. May we all be as new bottles for the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit! Happy Sabbath everyone... Shirley Beaulieu |