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With so much happening in our world that clearly fulfills the prophecies Jesus gave in His holy Word, we may well ask, “What are our greatest needs?” At this time, it can be very helpful and encouraging to know that the experience we are passing through in the last days of earth’s history was not an afterthought to Jesus, but one for which He has made complete provision for us to face with His presence and power by the Holy Spirit.
Let us first realize our greatest need on a personal level. We need to be born again—daily—and remain in a converted state throughout each day. Jesus, in a night conversation with Nicodemus, made very clear this great need of the soul: “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:3-8). But how was this to take place? “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:14-17). Jesus knows our great need is to behold Him—continually.
By beholding Jesus lifted up for us at Calvary we become changed, and the mind will gradually adapt itself to the subjects which it is accustomed to love and reverence. As Nicodemus a few years later would see Jesus dying on Calvary, his faith was established in the depth of God’s grace manifested for him through Jesus in dying for him, and the power of the gospel to transform a sinner into a saint became the realized and lived experience of Nicodemus. It may be our experience today on a moment-by-moment basis. That is why we are encouraged thus from The Desire of Ages, page 83, paragraph 4: “It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit. If we would be saved at last, we must learn the lesson of penitence and humiliation at the foot of the cross.” Such an experience Christ offers us because He loves us and wants us to be happy in His love!
As we behold Christ in His infinite loveliness, as we surrender fully to Him, He creates in us a clean heart and
| I stand at the door, and knock |
renews in us a right Spirit. All of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives without one missing as long as we abide in Him by a living faith surrender. Then we will affectionately obey God’s law from the heart that He has recreated. We need to learn our continual need of Jesus to do any good thing and that abiding in Him He will guide us continually. If we let go of Jesus or allow our thoughts to wander away from Him, we can realize that He will knock at the door of our hearts because He does not want us to be separated from Him—even for a moment. When there is a separation between us and Jesus on account of our own choice or neglect, Jesus does not leave us, but He pleads for us to open the door of the heart to Him! “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). As soon as we do, all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing in harmony with obedience to all we know of His law will again become our experience, and we will have learned from the time of separation from Jesus how bitter it is to be separated from Him for even a moment! We can realize His grace will be sufficient for every trial we face, and He will guide us as partakers of the divine nature through receiving His promises!
The second area of need relates to God’s church today. God’s church needs revival and reformation—and it will not come without prayer! Note this power passage from the book Selected Message, Volume 1, page 121: “A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs. To seek this should be our first work. There must be earnest effort to obtain the blessing of the Lord, not because God is not willing to bestow His blessing upon us, but because we are unprepared to receive it. Our heavenly Father is more willing to give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, than are earthly parents to give good gifts to their children. But it is our work, by confession, humiliation, repentance, and earnest prayer, to fulfill the conditions upon which God has promised to grant us His blessing. A revival need be expected only in answer to prayer. While the people are so destitute of God's Holy Spirit, they cannot appreciate the preaching of the Word; but when the Spirit's power touches their hearts, then the discourses given will not be without effect. Guided by the teachings of God's Word, with the manifestation of His Spirit, in the exercise of sound discretion, those who attend our meetings will gain a precious experience, and returning home, will be prepared to exert a healthful influence.” Such an experience is offered us as the body of Christ, as Christ longs to supply us with the Holy Spirit without measure!
While it is true that we all need a personal experience in obtaining a knowledge of the will of God, we also deeply need to be vitally connected to Jesus as the body of Christ—the church—in which we press together in prayer for God’s promised blessing of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, however, is directly connected with the ministry of uplifting Jesus in His infinite loveliness of character, and thus brings us to understand a most precious message of the righteousness of Christ. In the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the remnant church of Bible prophecy, God not only raised up Ellen G. White to uplift Jesus from the Bible and the counsels He gave her by the Holy Spirit, but He also used such messengers as A.T. Jones, E. J. Waggoner, and W. W. Prescott! They were mightily used by God as long as they were faithful to the light God sent them. From the experience given in our past history, we can learn that a message of the righteousness of Christ helps to prepare God’s people for the trying ordeal before us, known as the time of trouble that precedes the second coming of Christ. Jesus will close His ministration as high priest in the sanctuary in heaven, and the cases of every soul will be decided based on each one’s choice. May we realize our need as a church to be faithful to give the light, because it will not only bring revival and reformation in the church, but it will lead to the gospel going to the world!
The third great and final need is that the gospel must be given to reach the entire world. Jesus prophesied that this must take place. “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all
| We all have a part in hastening Jesus’ return |
nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14). Because the gospel must go to the world for Jesus to return, it would be well for us to consider how we can be directly involved in that taking place. A testimony from the churches where I serve as pastor is that as the church has started to grasp the reality that we all have a part in hastening Jesus’ return, it only follows that our priorities will come to reflect this! A couple years ago, one of the churches learned about the opportunity to sponsor Bible workers in other areas of the world where there is a great need. In light of this counsel, part of the revived and reformed experience of God’s church will relate to mission involvement! Notice this powerful promise from Testimonies for the Church, Volume 6, page 27, paragraph 5: “The home missionary work will be farther advanced in every way when a more liberal, self-denying, self-sacrificing spirit is manifested for the prosperity of foreign missions; for the prosperity of the home work depends largely, under God, upon the reflex influence of the evangelical work done in countries afar off. It is in working actively to supply the necessities of the cause of God that we bring our souls in touch with the Source of all power.” As the church stepped out in faith to sponsor two missionaries in other countries, in 2020 the church voted to double that number—and now sponsors four missionaries—from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Philippines. This is the smallest of the three churches in the area where I serve, and thankfully it has had a positive influence on the other churches in the area. In 2021, one of the other churches in that district area voted to sponsor a foreign missionary in India, and then as another family came from Adventist Frontier Missions to share their launch to a rather unreached country, that same church also voted to be a part of supporting that mission! Such an experience in furthering the gospel abroad will surely be a blessing on the mission work in the home field. But the testimony gets better. Another church in the area also learned of the Adventist Frontier Mission family about to launch, and also voted to support the mission on a monthly basis. Mission focus shapes our priorities and guides our church in the direction of hastening Christ’s return! Mission-minded giving changes the perspective we have on His kingdom, helping us to see and feel our need to be involved right where we are, too! We each are called to give the gospel to the world. The great commission includes you and me, and no matter how little or much we have, we can bring our all to Jesus so He can work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure.
May we realize the three greatest needs before us; daily we need to be converted; as a church we need revival and reformation, and we in connection with God’s church need to help share the gospel with the whole world. As Jesus purifies our hearts by His grace and makes us partakers of His divine nature, as the church presses to the throne of God for strength and grace to be revived and reformed with the emphasis on the righteousness of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be so grateful that it is our privilege—individually and collectively as the body of Christ—to help hasten Jesus’ return so the sin and suffering of our world will forever be at an end. What an encouraging promise we have in His word: “What do ye imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time” (Nahum 1:9). The experience God is giving us now will prepare us to be witnesses for Him forever—without any risk that sin will ever spoil the peace and happiness of the universe.
Wherever you are as you read this, and in whatever life experience, learn to turn to Jesus as naturally as the flower turns to the sun. We need not be afraid for the future if we humbly remember how God has led us. May you be encouraged by this promise from Life Sketches, page 196, paragraph 2: “In reviewing our past history, having traveled over every step of advance to our present standing, I can say, Praise God! As I see what the Lord has wrought, I am filled with astonishment, and with confidence in Christ as leader. We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.” Let us take this as a promise to sustain us in the days before us as Jesus is coming soon!
While we know that there are trials on the prophetic horizon before the return of Jesus, keep dwelling upon Jesus
| Perfection of the character of His people |
in the closing scenes of His life, and remember that He will never lead you into an experience for which He has not made provision by His grace for your life to be transformed into His image. By His divine grace, He will have a people that reflect Him fully, because such an experience is God’s plan—and it is His greatest need in the universe—to have a people who reflect Him and allow the controversy between Him and Satan to be forever at a close. Notice this powerful truth from The Desire of Ages, page 671, paragraph 3: “Of the Spirit Jesus said, ‘He shall glorify Me.’ The Saviour came to glorify the Father by the demonstration of His love; so the Spirit was to glorify Christ by revealing His grace to the world. The very image of God is to be reproduced in humanity. The honor of God, the honor of Christ, is involved in the perfection of the character of His people.” What a privilege to honor our Heavenly Father and Christ by letting the Holy Spirit transform us into the image of His relational, selfless love! Such an experience is offered us by having Christ dwell in us, “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). May this be your experience continually is my prayer. Maranatha.
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