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Touched With Sacred Fire, June 18
John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water;
but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not
worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with
fire.
Luke 3:16
.
It was a sin in the ancient economy to offer a sacrifice upon the wrong
altar, or to allow incense to be kindled from a strange fire. We are in danger
of commingling the sacred and the common. The holy fire from God is to be
used with our offerings. The true altar is Christ, and the true fire is the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit is to inspire, to teach, to lead, and to guide men, and
make them safe counselors. If we turn aside from God’s chosen ones, we
are in danger of inquiring from strange gods, and of offering upon a strange
altar....
The most powerful preaching of the Word will avail nothing unless the
Spirit teaches and enlightens those who hear. Unless the Spirit works with and
through the human agent, souls will not be saved or characters transformed
by the reading of the Scriptures. The planning and devising that is done in
connection with the work should not be of a character to draw attention to
self. The Word is a power, a sword in the hand of the human agent. But the
Holy Spirit is its efficiency, its vital power in impressing the mind.
“They shall all be taught of God” (
John 6:45
). It is God that causeth the
light to shine into the hearts of men. Will my ministering brethren remember
that it is essential that God be recognized as the source of our strength, and
the Spirit as the Comforter? The great reason why God can do so little for us
is that we forget that living virtue comes through our cooperation with the
Holy Spirit.—
Manuscript Releases 2:45, 46
.
The Spirit is constantly showing to the soul glimpses of the things of God.
A divine presence seems to hover near, and then if the mind responds, if the
door of the heart is opened, Jesus abides with the human agent. The Spirit’s
energy is working in the heart and leading the inclination of the will to Jesus
by living faith and complete dependence on divine power to will and to do
of His good pleasure. The Spirit taketh the things of God, just as fast as the
soul resolves and acts in accordance with the light revealed.—
Manuscript
Releases 2:46
.
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