Instruction for Men in
Positions of Responsibility
MR No. 1098—Instruction for Men in
Positions of Responsibility
Although
a man may be entrusted with great responsibilities, his high position may not
be the measure of his character. The responsibilities accepted do not make him
perfect or trustworthy. His acceptance with God depends upon his fear to
offend, and his obedience to God's requirements. If he departs from the counsel of God, he is no longer
under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
When men who profess to keep God's
commandments, often dwelling on the importance of obeying the law of God, fail
to work righteousness and walk against the law of God, He sends messengers to
warn them and turn them to the paths of righteousness. But many who have not
that faith that works by love and purifies the soul will refuse to heed God's
warnings.
To all who seek Him God will grant special
manifestations of His presence and favor. But to those who forsake Him He
gives the warning, I also will forsake them. At times the Lord sends His
messengers to warn His servants not to do the things that they think are best.
God sees the end from the beginning, and He would save them from the
difficulties and entanglements that would come as a result of
their own planning. He would have their influence kept clean, and powerful for
good, not injured by human errors.
A man
may make plans that as far as he can discern appear to him to be faultless. How
merciful God is to reach forth a restraining hand, saying, Follow
not that course, for it will bring trouble to your own soul and confusion and
perplexity to other minds, leading them to wrong conclusions. If, after the Lord has said, Do not advance in that direction, the man disregards the
warning, the evil results from which God wished to save him will certainly
follow.
The
Lord would have all men walk humbly with God. If men will engage in His service and with much prayer
persevere in well doing, the Lord will abundantly reward them. Their confidence
in the wisdom of God's leading will increase. They will not be left in
uncertainty, but, walking in the way of the Lord, they will become steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. God is well pleased with
their obedience to all His requirements.
If a
man will walk in the fear of the Lord, with perfect respect for all His
counsels, the Lord will cause his influence to be felt. If, notwithstanding a
dark outlook, man will choose the right instead of the wrong, the Lord will
make multitudes to be at peace with him. As he sees the goodness of God in
barring the way which would have led to embarrassment, he will give God the honor
and glory due to His holy name.
Our natural affection for relatives and
friends should not lead us to connive in the least at their sins, nor prevent
us, when they are in the wrong, from taking decided measures to change their
course and prevent the evil influence of their mistakes from being felt. When men, following their own course, become involved in
perplexity thereby, they often rely upon men to relieve the situation, and feel
aggrieved if their expectations are not realized. But God would not be pleased
to have them relieved, because they are to be chastened for their disobedience.
[2 Chronicles 17:3, 7, 9, 10, quoted.]
Obedience
to the Lord always brings favor, and a faithful discharge of righteous
principles will bear the divine credentials; but the Lord is dishonored when those who are placed as
stewards, guardians of God's flock, sustain and sanction an evil work.
The outward signs of fasting and
prayer, without a broken and contrite spirit, are of no value in God's sight. The
inward work of grace is needed. Humiliation of soul is essential. God looks
upon this. He will graciously receive those who will humble their hearts before
Him. He will hear their petitions and heal their backslidings.
Ministers
and people need the work of purification in their souls, that God's judgments
may be turned away from them. God is waiting, waiting for humiliation and repentance. He will receive
all who will turn unto Him with their whole heart.
God's Purpose for His Church.—God gives men the light, but many are filled with a
self-sufficient, masterly spirit; and they strive by carrying out their own
ideas to reach a height where they will be as God. They place their mind first,
as if God must serve with them. Herein lies the danger in this: Unless God shall in some way
make these men understand that He is God, and that they are to serve Him, human
inventions will be brought
in that will lead
away from Bible truth, notwithstanding all the cautions that have been given.
The
Lord Jesus will always have a chosen people to serve Him. When the Jewish
people rejected Christ, the Prince of life, He took from them the kingdom of
God and gave it unto the Gentiles. God will continue to work on this principle with every branch of His
work. When a church
proves unfaithful to the word of the Lord, whatever their position may be,
however high and sacred their calling, the Lord can no longer work with them.
Others are then chosen to bear important responsibilities. But if these
in turn do not purify their lives from every wrong action; if they do not
establish pure and holy principles in all their borders, then the Lord will
grievously afflict and humble them, and, unless they repent, will remove them from their place
and make them areproach.
When
parents sanction and thus perpetuate the wrongs in their children as did Eli,
God will surely bring them to the place where they will see that they have not
only ruined their own influence but also the influence of the youth whom they
should have restrained. And when children sanction and perpetuate the sins of
their fathers, the Lord will recompense them both together. They will have
bitter lessons to learn.
God is not “worshipped with men's
hands, as though He needed anything” [Acts 17:25]. No magnificence of outward display can please God when
the heart is serving idols and the hands are polluted with iniquity. The Holy
Spirit will unite with those in the church who, with contrition of heart, will
walk humbly with God. To
all who look to Him and walk in the footsteps of Christ, He gives
sanctification, comfort, and victory over the world.
The
people of God, His chosen kingdom, are not as a stagnant pool. They are as a
river, constantly flowing, and as it advances becoming deeper and wider until
its life-giving waters are spread over all the earth. Whenever the gospel of God is received, its
grace heals the maladies that sin has produced. The Sun of Righteousness
arises with healing in His beams. Light, strength, and refreshing come from the
Lord, and the good fruit borne bears witness to a work of
righteousness.—Manuscript 33, 1903.
Ellen
G. White Estate
Washington,
D. C.,
October
9, 1984.
Entire
Manuscript.