What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11:24.

Many claim that they want to be saved, that they want to be sons and daughters of God, but they will in a most pathetic manner complain of God, because they do not feel as they think they ought to feel. They say, “I know I have much to be thankful for. The Lord has blessed me many times; but I can’t feel as I want to feel. I dare not apply to myself the promises and say that I am a child of God. I think He blesses others. I think He will receive them—but not me. I cannot believe that He will forgive my sins.”

This is clearly defined as unbelief and it is sin before God, for they dishonor God and limit the Holy One of Israel. Christ is your Saviour…. The gracious promises are given to His church, and if you have taken the steps requisite in conversion, if you have made open confession of Christ, you are a part of the body of Christ, a part of His great whole. Anxiety, questionings, and distrust of God show that you do not believe in Him and do not appropriate the promises to yourself. Therefore you fall short of that comfort and hope and courage in the Lord that it is your privilege and duty to have every hour of the day and every day in the week. Do you love Jesus? Do you long for His peace? Then believe, and the longings of your soul shall be satisfied….

You are without excuse if you hug to your soul your unbelief, your doubts, and go to others with your complaints, for there is no manner of excuse that can justify you, with these words of Christ spoken to you. They are full of comfort, full of hope and assurance forever. If you cast His words behind you and leave the cool snows of Lebanon to seek refreshment from human sources, you will not have peace or comfort, because you refuse the help that God gives you.

The Lord declares that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His church. Every sincere member of the church may include himself in these promises and say, “I am the Lord’s. In His strength I am invincible.” Then do not put on a doleful attitude and misrepresent my Lord, and act as though He had insulted you by giving you promises that He does not fulfill, as though you are having a hard time and are left alone to battle against the powers of darkness.

He says, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18)…. Do you individually believe these words? Or do you treat them as idle tales? Do you grasp them by faith, and accept them and rejoice in them? This is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God.—Manuscript 42, October 25, 1890, “Diary.”

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Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13.

Christ is soon to come the second time. Of this we should often talk. It should be the uppermost thought in our minds. He is coming, with power and great glory, and every eye shall see Him. All the holy angels will accompany Him. Of this company John writes, “I beheld, and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” (Revelation 5:11).

The trumpet has not yet sounded. Those who have gone down into the grave have not yet cried, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). The righteous dead have not yet been caught up with the living saints to meet their Lord in the air. But the time is near when the words spoken by the apostle Paul will have their fulfillment, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).

In order for us to be like the Saviour, we must be changed (see Philippians 3:20, 21). Now is the time for us to bring into the daily life the virtues of Christ’s life. We have no time to lose. Should we fail in our character building, we shall lose eternal life. We must build on the true foundation…. We must do the work of Christ, and be constantly watching and praying. Then we shall be ready for His appearing, prepared to receive eternal life.

All who will can be overcomers. Let us strive earnestly to reach the standard set before us. Christ knows our weakness, and to Him we can go daily for help. It is not necessary for us to gain strength a month ahead. We are to conquer from day to day.

This earth is the place of preparation for heaven. The time spent here is the Christian’s winter. Here the chilly winds of affliction blow upon us, and the waves of trouble roll against us. But in the near future, when Christ comes, sorrow and sighing will be forever ended. Then will be the Christian’s summer. All trials will be over, and there will be no more sickness or death. “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).—Manuscript 28, October 24, 1886, “The Hope Set Before Us,” a sermon preached at Nimes, France.

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Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. 2 Corinthians 6:17.

There is no middle path to Paradise restored. The message given to man for these last days is not to become amalgamated with human devising. We are not to lean upon the policy of worldly lawyers. We must be humble men of prayer, not acting like those who are blinded by Satan’s agencies….

The greatest light and blessing that God has bestowed is not a security against transgression and apostasy in these last days. Those whom God has exalted to high positions of trust may turn from heaven’s light to human wisdom. Their light will then become darkness, their God-entrusted capabilities a snare, their character an offense to God.

God will not be mocked. A departure from Him has been and always will be followed by its sure results. The commission of acts that displease God will, unless decidedly repented of and forsaken, instead of seeking to justify them, lead the evildoer on step by step in deception, till many sins are committed with impunity. All who would possess a character that would make them laborers together with God and receive the commendation of God must separate themselves from the enemies of God, and maintain the truth which Christ gave to John [the revelator] to give to the world….

The revelation of Christ to John is a wonderful, dignified, exalted, solemn message. To present this message with decided emphasis, demands all the talents of capabilities that God has given to men. When John received it, He was worked [upon] by the Holy Spirit, for Christ Himself came from heaven and told him what to write.

Those who claim to be disciples of Christ often express hardness of heart and blindness of mind, because they do not choose and practice God’s way instead of their own. Selfish motives come in and take possession of mind and character, and in their self-confidence they suppose their own way to be full of wisdom. They are not particular to follow the ways and words of God. Circumstances, they say, alter cases. Worldly policy comes in, and they are tempted and drawn away. They moved accordingly to their own unsanctified desires, making crooked paths for their own feet and for the feet of others to tread in. The lame and weak suppose them to be led by God, and therefore think that their judgment must be right. Thus many follow in false paths that are not cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in.—Manuscript 139, October 23, 1903, “The Message in Revelation.”

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Ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery. Ephesians 3:2, 3.

Through divine revelation, the plan of salvation, as wrought out by Christ, was laid open to Paul. Called of God, he was to teach men that from a state of hopelessness, dead in trespasses and sins, there was deliverance through the gospel of Jesus Christ. There was life and power to reach forth unto holiness. Because of these revelations, Paul was blessed with a marvelous insight. Though he could not present to others all that he himself had seen, yet he was firmly rooted and grounded in the truth. No suffering or reproach could ever lead him to deny the great truths that had been revealed to him. No presentation of false theories could lead him away from the influence of the grand views he had received of heavenly things…. The gospel as presented by Paul in his writings is just as powerful today as when it was written. To men in all ages is made known the rich treasures of the grace of Christ, the abundant love of God as revealed through His Son. Can we, while in a cold, lifeless condition, appreciate these truths?

The gospel of Christ was preached to the Jewish nation. Had they accepted its truths, it would have proved their salvation. Through belief in Christ they might have become members of the royal family, manifesting through the succeeding ages the riches of His grace. But they, as a nation, rejected Christ, refused His offers of mercy, and were cut off from the parent vine, that the Gentiles might be grafted in. Still it is their privilege to become partakers with the Gentiles of the salvation of God. Belief in Christ will work in every man a transformation of character.

Through the transforming grace of Christ, the fruits of the Spirit are made manifest in the life of those who were once dead in trespasses and sins. In disposition, in words, and in actions, they are seen to be partakers of the divine nature. This wonderful grace was revealed to Paul, and he worked constantly that others might be brought to a knowledge of these saving truths.

To Jew and Gentile alike was the gospel preached under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The middle wall of partition that had separated the Jews was broken down in Christ Jesus. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13).—Manuscript 111, October 22, 1906, “A Warning Against Formation.”

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He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30.

On one occasion the Jewish rulers sent messengers to John the Baptist to make the inquiry “Who art thou?” … He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias” (John 1:23)….

None who listened to the words of John and marked the earnestness of his manner could doubt that he referred to the Christ who had been so long promised to the world…. Multitudes accepted the preaching of John, and followed him from place to place. Many cherished in their hearts the hope that he was the Messiah. But as John saw the people turning to him, he sought to direct their minds to the coming One….

In this age, just prior to the second coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, such a work as that of John the Baptist is to be done. God calls for men who will prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord. The message preceding the public ministry of Christ was “Repent, publicans and sinners; repent, Pharisees and Sadducees; repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (see Matthew 3:2). As a people who believe in Christ’s soon appearing, we have a message to bear, “Prepare to meet thy God.” Our message is to be as direct as was the message of John. He rebuked kings for their iniquity. Notwithstanding that his life was imperiled, he did not hesitate to declare God’s Word; and our work in this age must be done as faithfully. In order to give such a message as John gave, we must have a spiritual experience like his…. We must behold God, and in beholding Him, lose sight of self.

John had by nature the faults and weaknesses common to humanity, but the touch of divine love had transformed him. When, after Christ’s ministry began, the disciples of John came to him with the complaint that all men were following the new teacher, John showed how clearly he understood his relation to the Messiah, and how gladly he welcomed the One for whom he had prepared the way…. “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Looking in faith to the Redeemer, John had risen to the height of self-abnegation. He sought not to attract men to himself, but to lift their thoughts higher and still higher, until they should rest upon the Lamb of God….

Those who are true to their calling as messengers for God will not seek honor for themselves. Love for self will be swallowed up in love for Christ. They will recognize that it is their work to proclaim, as did John the Baptist, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” They will lift up Jesus, and with Him humanity will be lifted up.—Manuscript 113, October 21, 1907, “Judge Not.”

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