Basic HTML Version
Seek to Save the Lost, December 10
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye
should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.
John 15:16
.
This commission rests upon everyone who claim to believe in Jesus Christ. We
are to seek to save those that are lost....
The true worker for God wrestles with God in prayer, and puts intense earnestness
into the work of saving lost souls. He does not seek to exalt self by word or
deed, but simply seeks to win souls. God pronounces the purest, the meekest, the
most childlike Christian, the best worker for Him, the mightiest in labor for souls.
Heavenly intelligences can work with the man or woman who will not absorb the
glory to himself, but who will be willing that all the glory shall redound to the honor
of God. It is the man who most feels his need of divine wisdom, the man who pleads
for heavenly power, that will go forth from communion with Christ, to hold converse
with souls perishing in their sins; and because he is anointed with the Spirit of the
Lord, he will be successful where the learned minister may have failed. God has
given lessons that are all-important in regard to the duty of every disciple. Not one
need be in darkness; for it is evident that every Christian is to be a living epistle,
known and read of all men.
Everyone who believes in Christ as a personal Saviour is under bonds to God to
be pure and holy, to be a spiritual worker, seeking to save the lost, whether they are
great or small, rich or poor, bond or free. The greatest work on earth is to seek and
to save those who are lost, for whom Christ has paid the infinite price of His own
blood. Everyone is to do active service.... The sheep unsought is not brought back
to the fold.
God depends upon you, the human agent, to fulfill your duty to the best of
your ability, and He Himself will give the increase. If human agents would but
cooperate with the divine intelligences, thousands of souls would be rescued. The
Holy Spirit would give devoted workers glimpses of Jesus that would brace them for
every conflict, that would elevate and strengthen them, and make them more than
conquerors.... The Lord has promised that where two or three are met together in His
name, there will He be in the midst. Those who meet together for prayer will receive
an unction from the Holy One. There is great need of secret prayer, but there is also
need that several Christians meet together, and unite with earnestness their petitions
to God. In these small companies Jesus is present, the love of souls is deepened
in the heart, and the Spirit puts forth its mighty energies, that human agents may
be exercised in regard to saving those who are lost. Jesus ever ... strove to impress
upon His disciples that the Holy Spirit must enlighten, renew, and sanctify the soul
(
The Review and Herald, June 30, 1896
).
[359]
365