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Laborers Together With God, June 7
For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye
are God’s building.
1 Corinthians 3:9
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The Holy Spirit must be the living agency to convince of sin. The divine
agent presents to the speaker the benefits of the sacrifice made upon the cross;
and as the truth is brought in contact with the souls present, Christ wins them
to Himself, and works to transform their nature. He is ready to help our
infirmities, to teach, to lead, to inspire us with ideas that are of heavenly birth.
How little can men do in the work of saving souls, and yet how much
through Christ, if they are imbued with His Spirit! The human teacher cannot
read the hearts of his hearers; but Jesus dispenses the grace that every soul
needs. He understands the capabilities of man, his weakness and his strength.
The Lord is working on the human heart; and a minister can be to the souls
who are listening to his words a savor of death unto death, turning them away
from Christ; or, if he is consecrated, devotional, distrustful of self, but looking
unto Jesus, he may be a savor of life unto life to souls who are already under
the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and in whose hearts the Lord is
preparing the way for the messages which He has given to the human agent.
Thus the heart of the unbeliever is touched, and it responds to the message of
truth.
“We are labourers together with God.” The convictions implanted in the
heart, and the enlightenment of the understanding by the entrance of the Word,
work in perfect harmony. The truth brought before the mind has power to
arouse the dormant energies of the soul. The Spirit of God working in the heart
cooperates with the working of God through His human instrumentalities.
Again and again I have been shown that the people of God in these last
days could not be safe in trusting in men, and making flesh their arm. The
mighty cleaver of truth has taken them out of the world as rough stones that
are to be hewed and squared and polished for the heavenly building. They
must be hewed by the prophets with reproof, warning, admonition, and advice,
that they may be fashioned after the divine Pattern; this is the specified work
of the Comforter—to transform heart and character, that men may keep the
way of the Lord.—
The Home Missionary, November 1, 1893
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