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Ministers
of the Spirit
The gospel will not close
in obscurity with only insignificant results. The
notable advances of science and the astonishing
triumphs of technology will not overshadow it.
Man-made earthquakes (underground H-bomb
explosions) may cause dishes to rattle and
buildings to sway a hundred miles away, but when
God arises to shake the earth, the cities of the
nations will fall. (Revelation 16:18, 19.) God
will more than meet space-age achievements.
God has declared that
just preceding those stupendous events that
accompany our Saviors return, He will pour
out His Spirit upon all flesh. (Joel 2:28.) God
has promised a last-day world-embracing
Pentecost. Here and in related Scriptures He has
pictured such a turning to God within the church
and from without as has not taken place since
apostolic days. The everlasting gospel will be
proclaimed with more than Pentecostal power
to every nation, and kindred, and tongue,
and people. (Revelation 14:6.)
A church-wide revival and
reformation must precede the worldwide ministry
of the Spirit. As Christs disciples
continued with one accord in prayer and
supplication (Acts 1:14) in order to
receive the outpouring of the Spirit, so the
earths twilight hour the people of God in
all lands through the supply of the
Spirit (Philippians 1:19) will seek
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace (Ephesians 4:3) that will prepare
them to receive the promised last-day outpouring.
All who have found unity
with the Spirit will find unity in the Spirit
with every other Spirit-endued soul. This unity
transcends every other, for it, stems from love
and can exist only among those having the
same love, being of one accord, of one
mind. (Philippians 2: 1,2.)
Paul constantly wrote of
this unity of spirit, a unity akin to that which
exists between the members of the Godhead. For
the church at Philippi he prayed that they
stand fast in one spirit, with one mind
striving together for the faith of the
gospel. (Philippians 1:27.) To the church
at Corinth he wrote, For by one Spirit are
we baptized into one body,
and have been
all made to drink into one Spirit. 1
Corinthians 12:13.
When the disciples became
of one accord into one place, the Pentecostal
shower began to fall. (Acts 2:1-4.) Then the 120,
filled with the same love became
ministers
of the spirit (2
Corinthians 3:6).
All who receive the
Spirit are under obligation to share the Spirit.
On one occasion, the Lord took of the Spirit that
was upon Moses and put it upon the seventy elders
of Israel. Sixty-eight of the group went into the
Tabernacle, where God bestowed His Spirit upon
them. Seeing what had happened, Joshua said,
My lord Moses, forbid them.
Moses reply showed the greatness of the
man: Enviest thou for my sake? Would God
that all the Lords people were prophets,
and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon
them! (Numbers 11:25-29.)
Paul had some concern.
Finding disciples in Ephesus, he asked them,
Have ye received the Holy ghost since ye
believed? Acts 19:2. When this minister of
the Spirit learned of their spiritual
destitution, he immediately set about to remedy
the situation.
However, todays
church needs to have a new endowment of the
Spirit it can impress a world busied and occupied
with its Babel towers of human achievement, its
Aladdin lamps and magic carpets, its mansions and
skid-row hovels, its racketeers and riots, its
political, economic, educational, and social
problems. The world refuses to listen to the
accounts of how the Spirit used Old Testament
prophets and New Testament apostles. The World
today pays little heed to those who speak of the
religion of our father and mothers. The world
wants to see what the Spirit can do in the lives
of those who profess to serve God now. However,
where can the world see those who have been
signally blessed by the Spirit where are
lives that have been mightily transformed? Where
are the missionary witnesses charged with the
Holy Spirit who is communicating the Spirit to
those about them?
Can anything be so
frightening as that the sinners in Zion are
unafraid? That the hypocrites go unrebuked. That
the evil, bold, defiant, and unashamed feel no
terror? Conscientious Christians must ask as did
Gideon, Why,,, is all this befallen us? And
where be all his miracles that our fathers told
us of? Judges 6:13.
Soon God will wipe away
the reproach. The same God that heard the 120 in
the upper room will hear His people today and
make them ministers of the Spirit. He will give
the Spirit not to glorify man, but to glorify
Christ. When Christians imbued with the same
Spirit become living epistles, known and
read of all men, when the sword of the
Spirit will be unsheathed and the glories of the
cross-told abroad. Modern Davids will sing
not to glorify self or glorify music, but
to glorify God. Modern Daniels will interpret
current events. Nehemiahs will call for
Sabbath reform. Then every church member will do
all that the apostles did. Peters and Pauls
and Johns will proclaim Christs second
coming. Then the church will not glory in numbers
and statistics, her works of benevolence and
mercy, or her institutions and houses of worship;
but in the power of the Spirit she will cry to a
world going down to destruction, Save
yourselves from this untoward generation.
Acts 2:40.
Never has so much been at
stake. Many obstacles lie at hand, but the church
will meet the greatest challenge of all time, for
the world at its worst will see the church at its
best. The unity of the believers will be the
unity of the Spirit. Missionary witnesses for
Christ will make people as conscious of the
invisible as they are of the visible. The message
of redeeming love will go to every town and
hamlet around the world. The heralds of
Christs return will have the courage of the
Reformers and the zeal of the evangelists.
Thousands will turn from
the sin-drenched world, its follies and foibles,
its drunkenness and gluttony, its forms of
godliness. A divine compulsion will lead heads of
state, merchant princes, the intelligentsia and
the lowly, men and women of every walk of life,
to step out and willingly make any sacrifice to
serve the Prince of peace. A great company
of the priests were obedient to the faith
in the early church. (Acts 6:7.) Therefore, among
the clergy today many will make the irreversible
commitment to become ministers of the Spirit.
Church members will face prejudice, persecution,
boycott, and even threats of death, but their
passion for the souls will rise above the fierce
opposition of the synagogue of Satan. Indeed, the
more desperate the battle, the greater the
victory. Satan can do nothing against the truth
except what will ultimately result in giving the
truth a greater luster.
God wants to use you as a
minister of the Spirit in this climax. The whole
earth is to be lightened with the glory of the
gospel. Language proves inadequate to describe
the blending of the celestial glory with the
bravery of Gods last-day witnesses, sealed
with the seal of the living God. In vision, John
beheld their triumph over Satans final
worldwide confederacy of evil. He said, I
saw
them that had gotten victory
stand on the sea of glass
and they sang the
song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of
the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy
works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy
ways, thou King of saints. Revelation
15:2,3. My friends, will you join in those
hallelujah choruses?
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