Special Testimonies for Ministers and Workers—No. 8

Study God's Methods

As a people we should study God's plans for conducting his work. Wherever he has given directions in regard to any point, we should carefully consider how to regard his expressed will. This work should have special attention. It is not wise to choose one man as president of the General Conference. The work of the General Conference has extended, and some things have been made unnecessarily complicated. A want of discernment has been shown. There should be a division of the field, or some other plan should be devised to change the present order of things.... SpTA08 28.4

The president of the General Conference should have the privilege of deciding who shall stand by his side as counsellors. Those who will keep the way of the Lord, who will preserve clear, sharp discernment by cultivating home religion, are safe counsellors. Of such a one the Searcher of hearts saith, “I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him. And they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.” Counsellors of the character that God chose for Moses are needed by the president of the General Conference. It was his privilege at least to express his preference as to the men who should be his counsellors. It was his privilege to discern between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. But a strange blindness was upon him. There has been a leavening influence upon human minds, and it has been most painful. For years God has been dishonored.... SpTA08 29.1

I have the word of the Lord for presidents of conferences. They should shoulder the responsibilities involved in the trusts reposed in them. In your work, do not try to meet a human standard, but the standard of God's work. If you will not do this, if you will not seek the Lord most earnestly, if you will not be burden-bearers, but choose to lay your whole weight of responsibilities upon the president of the General Conference, then, week by week, month by month, you are disqualifying yourselves for the work. You should leave it, and engage in common business transactions, which do not so decidedly involve eternal responsibilities. SpTA08 29.2

Presidents of Conferences, I appeal to you in the name of the Lord Jesus: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him: and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” You are to be self-denying missionaries, men of thought, men who will pray for divine enlightenment, and who will be faithful and true to responsibilities. Sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn his will. There must be zealous activity on your part. Teach not your ideas, your plans, your notions, your maxims, but teach the word of the Lord. SpTA08 29.3

Your weekly seasons of prayer will not qualify any one of you for your great and solemn responsibilities, if, after these seasons, you feel that your work is done, and, having looked into the great moral looking-glass, you go away and forget what manner of man you were. It is not merely one day of service that will suffice for the soul's need. You must be constantly coming to the storehouse to feed on the flesh and blood of the Son of God. Religion is not to be cheapened in 1896 or 1897. SpTA08 30.1

Those who are partakers of the divine nature are to come out from worldly influences, from empty festivities, and sit down with Christ, in heart communion with their Redeemer. Cease your unbelieving worry. When the anxious disciples saw the hungry multitudes beside the sea, impossibilities arose in their minds, and they questioned, “Shall we go to the villages and buy, to give them to eat?” Just so in the several conferences many now ask. Shall we send to Battle Creek for some one to come and hold meetings with us and revive us and feed us? What said Christ?—No. He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass in companies of fifty and one hundred. They obeyed orders, seating themselves in long lines on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fishes out of the hands of the lad, and looking up to his Father he asked his blessing upon the meager supply. Then he put into the hands of his disciples the food to be distributed. The scanty provision grew under the hand of Christ, and he had constantly a fresh supply for his servants to distribute to the hungry multitude, until all had a sufficiency. Then the word came, “Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost.”There was a surplus of food gathered up. SpTA08 30.2

This is a lesson to all in their spiritual experience. What an amount of worry would be saved if men would only trust in God. The bread of life is to be given to needy souls. And what a work is often made of the matter. There are long councils for devising plans, inventing new methods. There is a constant effort to get up entertainments to draw people to the church or the Sabbath-school. Like the disciples, the workers raise the question, Shall we go unto the villages and buy? What is the work to be done? Come unto Jesus. Humble faith and prayer will accomplish very much more than your long councils. Listen to the Saviour's invitation. Put your neck under his yoke. Accept his burdens. Receive that which he bestows. He says, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” SpTA08 31.1

This anticipation of terrible difficulties need not be. We must eat and drink the word of life, which is represented as eating and drinking of the flesh and blood of Christ. Those who know the truth must be educated to receive it from their own shepherds, and pray over it, and practice it. Then souls will grow in faith, and in intelligent knowledge. They would receive the bread of life, and digest it. “The entrance of thy word giveth light. It giveth understanding to the simple.” The truth needs to enter into heart and mind. More, much more praying, and less long sermonizing, will be for the health of the body and soul. SpTA08 31.2

Money has been expended in sending men to Jerusalem, to see the place where Jesus traveled and taught, when we have the precious Saviour nigh us, his presence with us, and we may have a Jerusalem in our own houses and in the churches. We can discern his fresh footsteps, we can eat his words, and have eternal life. We need more study, more earnest meditation and communion with Christ. We need to listen for the still, small voice, and to rest by faith in the love of Christ. We should have a much more healthful experience, and become much more vigorous Christians. SpTA08 31.3

We have a superabundance of sermons, but we need to learn to receive the word. All the help from abroad cannot supply this deficiency. The home missionary work must be entered into by home missionaries. God is not pleased with the selfish devisings to give so many advantages to those who know the truth, who had opportunities to understand far more of the truth than they practice. Thousands upon thousands are in ignorance, perishing out of Christ. Yet money and time and labor are devoted to the class who are ever learning, yet never able to come to the experimental knowledge of the truth, because they will not practice the truth. SpTA08 32.1

Those who are ready to do service are those who feed most on Christ. Read and study his word, drink in the inspiration of his spirit, and receive of his grace, not to hoard, but to give to others. In order to instruct others, the teachers must first be learners of Christ. There are Marthas in every church, they are intensely busy in religious activities, and they do much good; but we need also Mary's side of character. The most zealous workers need to learn at the feet of Jesus. SpTA08 32.2

Mrs. E. G. White