MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 16
THE EFFICIENCY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Starting from the divine work of glorious creation, and after the fall in Eden, down throughout all the generations thereafter, the divine work of redemption of the gospel designed to reconcile fallen, sinful man with God in Christ separated by sin, reaches its consummation in the restoration and perfect reflection of the character-image of God in man in their yet-finite, mortal, sinful flesh nature.
It is their moral characters, not mortal bodied, that have been sanctified and perfected by grace imparted through the Holy Spirit, patterned after the likeness of God the Father IN Christ Jesus,” then “sealed IN their foreheads” before He fully withdraws from the earth—the final act of His appointed work and office as Christ’s Successor and Vicar on earth. It is only at this very “edge and moment” of earth’s finite time that “the church triumphant” is finally manifested “to the world, man, and angels.”
The Spirit of Prophecy defines who and what this “church triumphant” is, but never reveals the specific identities and names of the individuals who make up this church of the living, not the dead. Read and compare Revelation 7: 1-8 and 14:1-5.
However, their dual prototypes in the Old Testament, are clearly identified by name with their corresponding works as their testimonial and witness, namely, Enoch and Elijah; both were translated to heaven without tasting literal death.
The Holy Spirit was the other divine agency also at work with Christ the Creator through whom the Father “created all things by, through, and for Him.” (John 1: 1-3, 10; Col. 1: 15, 16; Heb. 1: 1-3, 10). Notice the following (emphasis supplied):
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the SPIRIT OF GOD moved upon the face of the waters.” Gen. 1: 1, 2, KJV.
Now this from God’s messenger (all emphasis supplied):
“The [Holy] Spirit of God, received [by intelligent ‘faith that works by love’] will quicken all its faculties. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the MIND that is devoted UNRESERVEDLY to God [as He is revealed in ‘It is written,’ ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ ‘To the law and the testimony’ and in the character, work, and life example of Jesus], develops harmoniously, and is strengthened to COMPREHEND AND FULFILL the requirements of God [as revealed in the precepts and principles of God’s law spiritually magnified]. The weak, vacillating CHARACTER is changed to one of strength and steadfastness.” -E. G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 251.
My dear friend and fellow pilgrim still sojourning in this antitypical wilderness of sin—the fallen, sin-cursed-and-corrupted planet earth—remember this solemn warning: “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Eph. 4:30, KJV.
To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.