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Accepting the Spirit’s Influence, October 20
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in
the fear of God.
2 Corinthians 7:1
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The Lord sends us warning, counsel, and reproof, that we may have
opportunity to correct our errors before they become second nature. But if
we refuse to be corrected, God does not interfere to counteract the tendencies
of our own course of action. He works no miracle that the seed sown may
not spring up and bear fruit. That man who manifests an infidel hardihood or
a stolid indifference to divine truth is but reaping the harvest which he has
himself sown. Such has been the experience of many. They listen with stoical
indifference to the truths which once stirred their very souls. They sowed
neglect, indifference, and resistance to the truth; and such is the harvest which
they reap.
The coldness of ice, the hardness of iron, the impenetrable, unimpressible
nature of rock—all these find a counterpart in the character of many a pro-
fessed Christian. It was thus that the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. God
spoke to the Egyptian king by the mouth of Moses, giving him the most strik-
ing evidences of divine power; but the monarch stubbornly refused the light
which would have brought him to repentance. God did not send a supernatural
power to harden the heart of the rebellious king, but as Pharaoh resisted the
truth, the Holy Spirit was withdrawn, and he was left to the darkness and
unbelief which he had chosen.
By persistent rejection of the Spirit’s influence, men cut themselves off
from God. He has in reserve no more potent agency to enlighten their minds.
No revelation of His will can reach them in their unbelief.
Would that I could lead every professed follower of Christ to see this
matter as it is. We are all sowing either to the flesh or to the Spirit, and we reap
the harvest from the seed we sow. In choosing our pleasures or employments,
we should seek only those things that are excellent. The trifling, the worldly,
the debasing, should have no power to control the affections or the will.—
The
Review and Herald, June 20, 1882
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