The message and the messengers

[skyblue888]

Those whom God sends with a message will be unassuming and will make no claim whatsoever about their status with God. They will simply give their message and leave it to the people to decide for themselves whether what is presented is present truth or not. Even Mrs. White, though she was a prophet, never made any claim to be anything except a mere servant. She refused to be called a prophet though her work involved more than that of a prophet.

In the last decade I have been on many adventist forums and I have met with individuals who claimed to have had visions and dreams and that their message came directly from these visions from God and yet as they engaged in discussions and debates they showed that they did not have one bone of kindness in their bodies for they would waste no time in character assassinating those who did not appreciate their work or act contrary to their ideas.

"There can be no more conclusive evidence that we possess the character of Satan than the disposition to hurt or destroy those who do not apprreciate our work, or act contrary to our ideas." Desire of Ages, p.487, bottom of the page.

As for the latter rain message itself, I will humbly say that we do not have to pray for the Lord to send it to us for He has already done so in 1888, between 1888 and 1901 more specifically. If one will take the time to read the section titled "Rejecting the Light" from Testimonies to Ministers, 89-98, he will be able to grasp with the help of the Holy Spirit the very message which is to bring Christ and His righteousness into the life. Mrs. White identified that message as "heavenly illumination."

Praying for the Lord to send us the latter rain message is like the Jews who are praying for the Messiah to come when He has already come. They did not recognize Him when He came the first time. As Seventh-day Adventists, we are in danger of repeating their history as far as the latter rain message is concerned.

In 1893, Mrs. White, while in Australia, sent a telegram to the leaders in General Conference while in session. A.T. Jones read the telegram before the congregation. "I received a letter a little while ago from Brother Starr in Australia. I will read two or three sentences because they come in well just at this place in our lessons: Sister White says that we have been in the time of the latter rain since the Minneapolis meeting." 1893 Genereal Conference Bulletin, p.377.

Mrs. White summed up that message in a few words and in many places and in many ways. On page 93 of Testimonies to Ministers, we read, "Unless he makes it his life business to behold the uplifted Saviour and to accept His merits which it is his privilege to claim, the sinner can no more be saved than Peter could walk upon the water unless he kept his eyes fixed steadily upon Jesus."

It is our privilege to look to Jesus, moment by moment, and to claim His merits! Then the Father receives us unto Himself. See A.A.333. The acceptance of the latter rain message brings the Holy Spirit into the life. "Looking unto Jesus and trusting in His merits we appropriate the blessings of light and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Testimonies, Vol.5, p.744.

As we make it our lifebusiness to rely solely upon the merits of Christ's sacrifice for our acceptance with God, the Holy Spirit is given to us and He dwells with us with no modified energy but in the fullness of divine light and love and power to subdue all our inherited and cultivated tendencies to evil and to impress Christ's character upon us. See D.A.671.

"We shall come in repentance and contrition and with a despairing snse of our own finite weakness, learn that we must daily apply to the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour that we may become vessels fit for the Master's use." Faith and Works, p.87.

So, as you can see, these statements speak loud and clear as to what constitutes the latter rain message. We may come to God just as we are, sinful, helpless, dependent, and, moment by moment, hang our helpless souls upon the all-sufficient merits of a crucified and risen Saviour. As we habitually rest in His merits, His commands and promises become Spirit and Life to us. The Lord accomplishes everything. He imparts all the powers, all the grace, all the repentance, all the inclination, all the pardon of sin! See Faith and Works, p.24.

The result of receiving, believing, and acting upon this message: the rise of a people who keep the commandments of God because they exercise the only true faith, the faith that lays right hold upon the merits of the all-atoning blood of the spotless Lamb of God.

sky

p.s. Should we not be praying that the Lord will give us wisdom to discern the message that He has already sent to us and a heart to receive it, believe it, and act upon it?

[Gordon1]

Those whom God sends with a message will be unassuming and will make no claim whatsoever about their status with God...

....I have met with individuals who...engaged in discussions and debates...showed that they did not have one bone of kindness in their bodies.

Well put skyblue. Kindness has no place for ridicule, mockery, intolerance or contempt.

[12tribes]

Ezekiel 3:17-19

(17) Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

(18) When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

(19) Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

[skyblue888]

To tell the wicked to turn from his wickedness is to invite him to turn to Christ, to accept His merits and righteousness that he may be turned into another man, one with Christ, thus enabled to obey every precept of the law.

Right?

sky