Basic HTML Version
Beware of Resisting, November 13
And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and
beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name
of Jesus, and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the
council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his
name.
Acts 5:40, 41
.
When God moves upon the hearts of men to draw them to Christ, it
seems that a compelling power comes over them, and they believe, and give
themselves up to the influence of the Spirit of God. But if they do not maintain
the precious victory that God has given; if they permit old practices and habits
to revive, and indulge in amusement or worldly luxury; if they neglect prayer,
and cease resisting evil, then Satan’s temptations are accepted, and they are
led to doubt the verity of their former experience. They find that they are
weak in moral power, and Satan declares to them that it is of no use for them
to try the experiment of living a Christian life. He says, “The experience you
thought was of God was only the result of undue emotion and impulse.”
As soon as the human agent entertains these suggestions of the evil one,
they begin to appear plausible, and then those who ought to know better, who
have had a longer experience in the work of God, second the suggestions
of Satan, and the Holy Spirit is grieved from the soul. There are those who
almost imperceptibly come to take this position, who will immediately recover
themselves when they realize what they are doing; but there are others who
will continue to resist the Holy Spirit, until resistance appears to them as a
virtue.
It is a dangerous thing to doubt the manifestations of the Holy Spirit; for
if this agency is doubted, there is no reserve power left by which to operate on
the human heart. Those who attribute the work of the Holy Spirit to human
agencies, saying that an undue influence was brought to bear upon them,
are cutting their souls off from the fountain of blessing.—
The Review and
Herald, February 13, 1894
.
[327]
338