A Perfect Service Required By God

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Everything that God could do was done to save a perishing world. «God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.» God has made it impossible for it to be said that He could have done more than He has done for the fallen race. When He gave His Son, He gave Himself. In one great gift He poured out the whole treasure of heaven. He has revealed a love that defies all computation, a love that should fill our hearts and lives with gratitude.

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Christ loves human beings, and He died to save them. At an infinite price He ransomed them from the power of the enemy. He invites them to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. He desires to see them prepared to receive the crown of life. He longs to bestow on them the eternal riches. He came to restore in them the image of Divinity. He calls upon those who have accepted Him to join Him in this work. He has chosen us as His instruments. By us He desires to carry out His merciful purposes. He says, You are laborers together with Me. Shall we not co-operate with Him in His great plan, working earnestly to save His blood-bought heritage?

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Proper Use of the Voice He has given us grand and solemn truths to impart to those who are in darkness. Let us not mar these truths by imperfect utterance. God has given us voices that we may speak His truth. He desires that the music of the voice shall aid in impressing His word upon minds.

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We should train ourselves to take deep, full inspirations, and to speak clearly and distinctly. The voice should not be dropped at the end of a sentence, so that the closing words are hardly audible.

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Those who open the oracles of God to the people should improve in their manner of communicating the truth, that it may be presented to the world in an acceptable way. Place proper emphasis upon the words that should be made impressive. Speak slowly. Let the voice be as musical as possible.

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Seek for Perfection God desires His ministers to seek for perfection, that they may be vessels unto honor. They are to be controlled by the Holy Spirit; and when they speak, they are to show an energy proportionate to the importance of the subject they are presenting. They are to show that the power about which they speak has made a change in their lives. When they are truly united with Christ, they will give the heavenly invitation with an earnestness that will impress hearts. As they manifest zeal in proclaiming the gospel message, a corresponding earnestness will be produced in the hearers, and lasting impressions for good will be made.

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The greater the influence of the truth upon us, the greater will be our earnestness in seeking for perfection in our manner of imparting truth.

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An Increase of Vitality Sin brings physical and spiritual disease and weakness. Christ has made it possible for us to free ourselves from this curse. The Lord promises, by the medium of truth, to renovate the soul. The Holy Spirit will make all who are willing to be educated able to communicate the truth with power. It will renew every organ of the body, that God’s servants may work acceptably and successfully. Vitality increases under the influence of the Spirit’s action. Let us, then, by this power lift ourselves into a higher, holier atmosphere, that we may do well our appointed work.

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By constant obedience those who are born again are fitted for service. The entire being is to be placed under the molding, fashioning hand of God, that physical, mental, and spiritual perfection may be attained. Christians are to grow to the full stature of men and women in Christ.

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Counsel Regarding Prayer The Lord desires His servants to improve in their manner of praying. He inquires, Where is the vivifying influence of your prayers? He does not accept the tame, lifeless, lengthy prayers which are so destitute of His Spirit. He calls for a reformation, else He will remove the candlestick out of its place. He desires the candle to burn brightly, sending forth light to all parts of the world. When the church turns fully to the Lord, lifeless, spiritless prayers will no more be heard.

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I urge my ministering brethren to improve in their manner of praying. This can and must be done. I must say to them, The shorter you make your spiritless prayers, the better will it be for the congregation. It is generally the case that the less of heaven’s vitality there is in a prayer, the more lengthy it is. Do not spend a long time in prayer before a congregation unless you know that God is inditing the prayer. Let the prayers made in public be short and full of earnestness. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much; but the prayer uttered in a low, monotonous tone and spiritless manner is not accepted by God. The voice of prayer should rise to God from hearts burdened by a sense of need. Let there be a revival of the Holy Spirit, that your prayers may be filled with the power of heaven.

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Learn to seek the Lord most earnestly for power to reach sinners. Heed the message God has sent to His church of today. [Read Rev. 3:15-18.]

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The Lord calls for those in His service to make all the improvement He has made it possible for them to make. The truth in our possession is of infinite importance. How essential, then, that it should lose none of its power in passing from us to those who are in darkness. It should not be bereft of its luster by our inefficiency. Our expression of God’s wondrous loving-kindness, frame our words as we may, will be tame enough as it falls from our lips. But when, with sanctified lips, we offer praise for God’s love, hearts are reached. Let us pray that the wondrous message of Christ’s love may reach hearts. Let us watch for the Lord more earnestly than they that watch for the morning. Let us hope in Him and walk in His ways. He is well pleased when His servants work with implicit faith in Him, asking Him to supply all their needs.

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Importunate, Prevailing Prayer From the experience of Jacob we may learn the power of importunate prayer. [Read Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 196, 197.]

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Jacob prevailed because he was persevering and determined. His experience testifies to the power of importunate prayer. It is now that we are to learn this lesson of prevailing prayer, of unyielding faith. The greatest victories to the church or to the individual Christian are not those that are gained by talents or education, by wealth, or the favor of men; they are those victories that are gained in the audience chamber with God, when earnest, agonizing faith lays hold upon the mighty arm of power.

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We can do nothing of ourselves. In our helpless unworthiness we must trust in the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour. None will ever perish while they do this. The long, black catalog of our delinquencies is before the eye of the Infinite. The register is complete; none of our offenses are forgotten. But He who listened to the cries of His servants of old, will hear the prayer of faith, and pardon our transgressions. He has promised, and He will fulfill His word.— R. & H., Jan 14, 1902 . —

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Angels Are Amazed Angels are amazed that men regard so lightly and indifferently the vital truths which mean so much to the sinner, and continue willing subjects under the captivity of Satan and sin, when so much has been endured in the divine person of the Son of God. O that we may cultivate habits of contemplation, of the self-denial and self-sacrifice of the life of Christ, until we shall have a deep sense of the aggravating character of sin; and hate it as the vile thing it is.

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Let the mind awaken to gratitude that through Christ Jesus, the Father is faithful to fulfill the promise to forgive all sin. His mercy and His love are forever an assurance as we look upon Christ uplifted upon the cross of Calvary. Will we individually rise to the appreciation as far as we have capacity to comprehend the truth, that God Jehovah, loves and forgives us if we believe in and love Jesus?

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O what a glorious truth! God is waiting to forgive all who come unto Him with repentance. Preach it. Lift up Jesus high that the people may behold Him. Let the salvation of the souls of men, women, and children be the great aim and purpose of our labor. . . .

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The Jews saw in the sacrificial offerings the symbol of Christ whose blood was shed for the salvation of the world. All these offerings were to typify Christ and to rivet the great truth in their hearts that the blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanseth from all sin, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Some wonder why God desired so many sacrifices and appointed the offering of so many bleeding victims in the Jewish economy.

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Every dying victim was a type of Christ, which lesson was impressed on mind and heart in the most solemn sacred ceremony, and explained definitely by the priests. Sacrifices were explicitly planned by God Himself to teach this great and momentous truth, that through the blood of Christ alone there is forgiveness of sins.

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This grand and saving truth is oft repeated in the hearing of believers and unbelievers, and yet it is with amazement that angels behold the indifference on men to whom these truths mean so much. How little is evidenced that the church feels the force of the wonderful plan of redemption. How few make this truth, that only through faith in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ there is forgiveness of the sins that cling to human beings like the foul leprosy, a living reality.

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What depths of thought should this awaken in every mind. He needed no suffering to atone for Himself. His was a depth of suffering, proportionate to the dignity of His person, and His sinless exalted character.— Letter 43, 1892 . —

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Spasmodic Repentance «Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.»

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Some may say, Why is this message sounded so constantly in our ears? It is because you do not thoroughly repent. You do not live in Christ and have Christ abiding in you. When one idol is expelled from the soul, Satan has another prepared to supply its place. Unless you make an entire consecration to Christ and live in communion with Him, unless you make Him your Counselor, you will find that your heart, open to evil thoughts, is easily diverted from the service of God to the service of self.

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As Morning Dew At times you may have a desire to repent. But unless you decidedly reform and put into practice the truths you have learned, unless you have an active, working faith, a faith that is constantly increasing in strength, your repentance is as the morning dew. It will give no permanent relief to the soul. A repentance caused by a spasmodic exercise of the feelings is a repentance that needs to be repented of; for it is delusive. A violent exercise of the feelings, which does not produce in you the peaceable fruits of righteousness, leaves you in a worse state than you were in before.

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Every day the tempter will be on your track with some delusive, plausible excuse for your self-serving, your self-pleasing, and you will fall back into your old practices, neglecting the work of serving God, by which you would gain hope and comfort and assurance.

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God calls for willing service—a service inspired by the love of Jesus in the heart. God is never satisfied with halfhearted, selfish service. He requires the whole heart, the undivided affections, and a complete faith and trust in His power to save from sin. . . .

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God will honor and uphold every truehearted, earnest soul who is seeking to walk before Him in the perfection of the grace of Christ. The Lord Jesus will never leave nor forsake one humble, trembling soul. Shall we believe that God will work in our hearts? that if we allow Him to do so, He will make us pure and holy, by His rich grace qualifying us to be laborers together with Him. Can we with keen, sanctified perception appreciate the strength of the promises of God, and appropriate them to our individual selves, not because we are worthy, but because Christ is worthy, not because we are righteous, but because by living faith we claim the righteousness of Christ in our behalf?— MS. 125, 1901 .