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In Unexpected Ways, November 8
And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another,
What meaneth this?
Acts 2:12
.
We are to pray for the impartation of the Spirit as the remedy for sin-sick
souls. The church needs to be converted, and why should we not prostrate
ourselves at the throne of grace, as representatives of the church, and from a
broken heart and contrite spirit make earnest supplication that the Holy Spirit
shall be poured out upon us from on high? Let us pray that when it shall
be graciously bestowed, our cold hearts may be revived, and we may have
discernment to understand that it is from God, and receive it with joy.
Some have treated the Spirit as an unwelcome guest, refusing to receive
the rich gift, refusing to acknowledge it, turning from it, and condemning it as
fanaticism. When the Holy Spirit works the human agent, it does not ask us
in what way it shall operate. Often it moves in unexpected ways. Christ did
not come as the Jews expected. He did not come in a manner to glorify them
as a nation. His forerunner came to prepare the way for Him by calling upon
the people to repent of their sins and be converted, and be baptized. Christ’s
message was “The kingdom of heaven is at hand: repent ye, and believe the
gospel” (
Mark 1:15
).
The Jews refused to receive Christ, because He did not come in accordance
with their expectations. The ideas of finite men were held as infallible, because
hoary with age. This is the danger to which the church is now exposed—that
the inventions of finite men shall mark out the precise way for the Holy Spirit
to come. Though they would not care to acknowledge it, some have already
done this. And because the Spirit is to come, not to praise men or to build up
their erroneous theories, but to reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness,
and of judgment, many turn away from Him.... The Holy Spirit flatters no
man, neither does it work according to the devising of any man.
Finite, sinful men are not to work the Holy Spirit. When it shall come as a
reprover, through any human agent whom God shall choose, it is man’s place
to hear and obey its voice.—
The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 1540, 1541
.
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