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Working of the Spirit, June 26
The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they
say, Lo here! or, lo, there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within
you.
Luke 17:20, 21
.
The kingdom of heaven can be felt, but not seen. The inward working of
the Spirit of God is compared to leaven.... Christ by this parable illustrates the
human heart. The leaven of truth, working inwardly will be revealed in the
life. The heart must be cleansed from all impurity, man must be fitted with
traits of character that will enable him to do service for God in any line. The
process is invisible by which the leaven changes the mass of meal into which
it has been introduced, but it works until the meal is converted into bread. So
must the Spirit of God work a radical change. New faculties are not supplied,
but a thorough change is made in the employment of those faculties. The
natural inclinations are softened and subdued. New thoughts, new feelings,
new motives are implanted. But while every faculty is regenerated, man does
not lose his identity....
The Scriptures are the great agency in this transformation. Christ prayed,
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (
John 17:17
). In this
great work we are laborers together with God. With the divine agency there
is to be the cooperation of the human instrument....
The meal in which the leaven has been hid represents the heart that
believes and receives Jesus. Christ works
out
the principles which He alone
can work
in
. The world looks upon this class as a mystery which they cannot
solve. The selfish, money-loving man lives to eat and drink and enjoy his
worldly goods. But he does not keep eternity in view. He loses the eternal
world from his reckoning. But those who receive and believe the truth have
that faith which works by love and purifies the soul from everything sensual.
The world cannot know them, for they are keeping in view eternal realities.
A motive power is working within to transform the character. A constraining
influence received from heaven is working like the leaven hid in the meal.
The love of Jesus has come into the heart with its redeeming power to conquer
the entire being, soul, body, and spirit.—
Manuscript 82, June 26, 1898
, “The
Leaven of Truth.”
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