Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 6 (1889-1890)

Ms 32, 1890

The Source of the Church’s Power

1890

This manuscript is published in entirety in HM 11/1890.

Brethren, we must have less of self and more of God. We are not to trust for success to what we can do, but to what Christ can do through our efforts. The efficiency of our labor depends upon our hold on God. The Lord requires of you diligent culture of your abilities. Unless you are constantly in Christ’s school, the tastes and aspirations will become earthly, and the energies intrusted to you for the accomplishment of God’s work will be perverted and misplaced. 6LtMs, Ms 32, 1890, par. 1

The Holy Spirit is grieved and driven away by the self-sufficiency, the unchristlike spirit, that is cherished. You have no time to spend in contention. Draw near to God, and go to work for Christ and the souls He died to save. If mistakes are made, as they will be, do not fall back, content to make no further effort, but try again. With agony of desire, in humility, with wrestling faith, come to One who is too wise to err, and who will make no mistake in your case, One who knows your every weakness, and who will hear your heart-felt prayers. May God make His servants wise through the divine illumination, that the mold of man may not be seen on any of the great and important enterprises before us! 6LtMs, Ms 32, 1890, par. 2

The Lord wants us to come up into the mount—more directly into His presence. We are coming to a crisis, which, more than any previous time since the world began, will demand the entire consecration of every faculty of the mind and every power of the being on the part of all who have named the name of Christ. 6LtMs, Ms 32, 1890, par. 3

It is through the church that the self-sacrificing love of Jesus is to be made manifest to the world; but by the present example of the church the character of Christ is misrepresented, and a false conception of Him is given to the world. Self-love excludes the love of Jesus from the soul, and this is why there is not in the church greater zeal and more fervent love for Him who first loved us. Self is supreme in so many hearts. Their thoughts, their time, their money, are given to self-gratification, while souls for whom Christ died are perishing. 6LtMs, Ms 32, 1890, par. 4

This is why the Lord cannot impart to His church the fullness of His blessing. To honor them in a distinguished manner before the world would be to put His seal upon their works, confirming their false representation of His character. When the church shall come out from the world and be separate from its maxims, habits, and practices, the Lord Jesus will work with His people; He will pour a large measure of His Spirit upon them, and the world will know that the Father loves them. Will the people of God continue to be so stupefied with selfishness? 6LtMs, Ms 32, 1890, par. 5