SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR WGM TEAM MEMBERS:
April 7, 2024
THIS SPIRITUAL DISEASE IS NOT HOPELESS – Part 27 (No. 9)
It will turn malignant and terminal if the pointed messages from Christ coursed through His chosen instruments are persistently ignored and even ridiculed and rejected. If this, it is a clear evidence that that disease has made deadly inroads already. Hereunder are more of such warning messages (all emphasis mine):
The message to the church of the Laodiceans is a STARTLING DENUNCIATION, and is applicable to people of God AT THE PRESENT TIME.
[Rev. 3:14-17 quoted]:
“The Lord here shows us that the message to be borne to His people BY MINISTERS whom He has called to WARN the people IS NOT A PEACE-AND-SAFETY MESSAGE. It is not merely theoretical [or doctrinal], but PRACTICAL in every particular.
“The people of God [not the heathen, unbeliever, or worldling] are represented in the message to the Laodiceans as in position of CARNAL SECURITY. They are AT EASE, believing themselves to be in an exalted condition of SPIRITUAL ATTAINMENTS. [Rev. 3: 17 quoted].
“What GREATER DECEPTION can come upon human MINDS than a confidence that they are right when they are all wrong! The message of the True Witness finds the people of God in SAD DECEPTION; YET HONEST IN THAT DECEPTION. They know not that their condition is DEPLORABLE in the sight of God.
“While those addressed are FLATTERING THEMSELVES that they are in an exalted spiritual condition, the message of the True Witness BREAKS THEIR SECURITY by the starling denunciation of their TRUE condition of SPIRITUAL blindness, poverty, and wretchedness. The testimony, SO CUTTING AND SEVERE, cannot be a mistake, for it is the True Witness who speaks [as in ‘Thus saith the Lord;’ ‘It is written’], and HIS testimony must be correct.
“It is DIFFICULT for those who feel secure in their attainments, and imagine themselves to be rich in spiritual knowledge, to receive the message that declares that they are DECEIVED AND IN NEED OF EVERY SPIRITUAL GRACE. [Here’s why]:The UNSANCTIFIED HEART ‘is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
“I was shown that MANY are flattering themselves that they are GOOD CHRISTIANS, who have NOT a ray of light from Jesus. They HAVE NOT a living experience FOR THEMSELVES IN THE DIVINE LIFE. They need a deep and thorough work of SELF ABASEMENT before God [not before man, the public, or the church community] BEFORE they will feel their TRUE NEED of earnest, persevering effort to SECURE the precious graces of the [Holy] Spirit.” - E. G. White, Vol. 3 Testimonies for the Church, pp. 252-3. I want you to know that, as a personal testimony, such “two-edged sword” messages are what awakened me to my true spiritual condition, not mere church attendance—and drove me to really “ask, seek, and knock” for the Holy Spirit to convict, convince, enlighten, and guide me as I sought to “rightly divide the Word of God.”
I can only hope and pray that you will be similarly, not identically, inspired to do the same individually. Bless all, NMF.