Dear Wendy, how are you? I want to thank you for your e-mails which I find very helpful. Thats how I found about this other forum which I like very much. You know which one I mean, right? Thanks so much!

I am sharing these lectures Wendy so that anyone who believes and receives this message of the righteousness which is of God by simply believing what God says, no matter what He says or where He says it in the Bible, will take it to his own heart and to his brothers and sisters in the church. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Rom.10:10. The Lord will do the rest. He will accomplish everything. With a message like this, we will not depend upon what we can do or what we will do, for the Holy Spirit, as you said, will gather together those who have a "common faith." I dont expect everyone to accept this message. Far from it. If they did not listen in 1888 when Ellen White was there to tell them that it was the workings of the Spirit of God, and still called that "excitement" and "a species of fanaticism," what are we to expect today when there is no living prophet among us?

The Lord will take the reigns into His own hands. He will make bare His holy arm and He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness! Isa.52:10; Rom.9:28.

Wendy, I am sure you believe that the only way to be of "one accord" is to have a "common faith" which is the faith of Abraham which is the faith of Jesus. Whenever the word of God is read or heard, there is instanteneous response. When God has a people who finally believe that God declares His righteousness unto all and upon all them that believe what He says, no matter what He says, then He can put His seal on them and finish His work through them. "There is salvation in every line of the Scriptures." The Word of God is a continual feast! God bless!

Amen AB! *Big Hug* from me to you.

Wendy
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Maranatha!!!

Its nice to get a nice hug once in a while! Yep, I could use one and even a big one at that! That makes my day Wendy! God bless your heart!

The continuation of "the movings of the Spirit of God in clear and unmistakable lines," (1SM130) at the 1893 General Conference through Elder A.T. Jones: Part 24

"Well, suppose you get up in the morning with a headache, and your digestion has not worked very well during the night, and you feel rather bad all over, and don't feel just right; how do you know you are the Lord's? (Congregation: 'Because He says so.') But suppose you get up in the morning and feel bright and hilarious, and feel pretty good generally; how do you know you are the Lord's? (Congregation: 'Because He says so.') Sometimes people say when we ask them, 'Have your sins been forgiven?' 'Yes, I was convinced that they were for awhile.' 'What convinced you?' 'I felt as though they were forgiven.' They did not know anything about it. They did not, in that, have a particle of evidence that their sins were forgiven. Why, brethren, the only evidence that we can have that these things are so is that GOD SAYS SO. That is the evidence. Dont't look to feelings; feelings are as variable as the wind; you know that is so. Never pay a particle of attention to them; it is none of your business how you feel. When God says so, it is so, whether I feel so or not.

I will give that illustration again; I have given it before, but it emphasizes this point, that feeling has nothing to do with facts: Twice two is four, is it not? You know that is so, but there are some people in the world who do not know that twice two is four. But suppose you should tell some one, and he should believe it, how do you think he would feel? Do you suppose he would feel as though he had been picked up and whirled in a sort of half somersault and set down in a new place? No. What in the world has feeling got to do with that? Then what does he care how he feels?

Not that is not saying that there will be no experience as the fruit of this; but it is saying that if you look for feelings as an evidence, you will never find the evidence; but if you look to the word of God for the evidence, then you will get the evidence which God gives in His word; that is, His own divine power in that word effectually working in the man who believes. 1 Thess. 2:13.

Well, then the Lord has bought us, has He not? Now as far as you and I are concerned, we need not have any more doubt as to whether or not we are the Lord's, is that so? (Congregation: 'Yes.') But there are some people in the world who are not, really, in real experience and as a matter of fact so far as the consummation of the bargain is concerned; they have not submitted themselves to the Lord and are not practically His. He has made them by His purchase; now how can they know that they are His practically indeed? By His word; by choosing for themselves to have it just that way; by choice.

When the man chooses to put his will on the side where God's will is, then the thing is accomplished. Then it is at a man's choice that he practically, in his own experience, becomes the Lord's indeed. Then is it not by the man's own permission in choosing the Lord's way that the man becomes the Lord's in practical experience?

Then having done that, don't you see that so long as your choice is there, so long as your wish is there to be the Lord's--don't you see that you are the Lord's indeed? Do you see that? Whenever we deliver ourselves up to Him, that is so. But some of you delivered yourself up long ago, but then, since that, you have been discouraged and wondering whether you were the Lord's or not.

We want people to-night to get that doubt and question forever out of the way, so that whatever comes up, you will not be bothering about whether you are the Lord's. Just as certainly as your choice is there to be His, you are His; for He bought you long ago. That is the thing I am after. Is that what you are after? You are to take it if you ever get it. (Congregation: 'Amen.') Then we can know that we are the Lord's." A.T. Jones, 1893 G.C. Bulletin, p.401,402.
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WE CAN KNOW THAT WE ARE THE LORD'S.

[This message has been edited by adventbeliever (edited March 17, 2001).]

The continuation of "the movings of the Spirit of God in clear and unmistakable lines," (1SM130) at the 1893 General Conference through A.T. Jones: Part 25

"But now we sometimes hear people talk as though that was going to sanction sin. No. It will not do that. No. It will save you from sinning. When a man gets into that place, and his choice is there to be the Lord's, then God works in him both to will and to do His own good pleasure; and he is a Christian. God will make him a Christian. That is the divine power there is in this thing. There is no sanction of sin about it. In fact, it is the only way to keep from sanctioning sin. Any other profession does sanction sin. Any other profession does do just what the Lord complains of--that men have made Him to serve with their sins. What does the Lord say? 'You have made Me to serve with your sins.' Isa.43:54. Let us stop it. Let our will and our choice be the Lord's every moment of our conscious days; and then it is a fact.

Let us turn and read that verse that says so. 1 Cor.6:19, and the last words of the verse: 'Ye are not your own.' That is so, is it not? I don't care who the man is, is he his own? (Congregation: 'No, sir.') The Lord has bought him, and if he does not let the Lord have him, he is robbing the Lord of that which is the Lord's own. That is the mischief of it. Though he be not consciously and practically the Lord's; yet the Lord has bought every one, and any man who refuses to let the Lord have him, he is robbing the Lord of that which He bought, and for which He paid the price, and he is counting the price which bought him as worth less then himself. Is not that the same satanic spirit that sought to put itself above God in Heaven? The Lord gave Himself for us; then when I will not let him have me, in that very thing, I count myself worth more than the price that was paid--that is, worth more than the Lord--and that is the same self that puts itself above God all the time. Oh let this mind be in us that was in Christ, who emptied Himself, that God and man might again be united in one.

'Ye are not your own,' are you? (Congregation: 'No.') Are you not glad of it? Are you not glad you are not your own? He says so, and it is so, is it not? Why is it? 'For ye are bought with a price.' He bought us, therefore we are not our own; and before all people in the world who are not their own, is the man who has yielded himself to the Lord who has bought him. 'Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.' Whose are they? (Congregation: 'God's') But I need not dwell longer on these verses, 'He gave Himself for us.' He bought us. How much of us? (Congregation: 'All of us.') When was it that He did it? (Congregation: 'Before the foundation of the world.') What kind of folks were we before the foundation of the world? What kind of folks were we when God bought us? We were just ourselves; just as we were in this world. And He bought us, sinners, just as we are? (Congregation: 'Yes.') Now did He? Honestly, now? We are coming to another thought here. Now did He pay the price and buy us just as we were? Sinners? (Congregation: 'Yes.') Evil beings and willing to go into evil ways? Willing to do the evil thing? Making no profession of religion, and not particularly wanting to? Did He buy us then? (Congregation: 'Yes.') What did he buy just then? He bought us, and all that there was of us. And as He bought what there was of us, He bought our sins. Isaiah describes it--wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores; no soundness at all. Is that so? (Congregation: 'Yes.')" A.T. Jones, 1893 G.C. Bulletin, p.402,403.
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HE HAS MADE KNOWN HIS WILL; HE BOUGHT US; WE ARE HIS; WE CAN CHOOSE TO PUT OUR WILL ON THE SIDE OF HIS WILL AND BE HIS AND BE DONE WITH IT AND HE WILL KEEP US FROM SIN.

The Word of faith in Genesis...Rom.10:17.

At first there were no worlds at all. More than this, there was none of the materials of which the worlds are made. There was nothing. Then God spoke, and all the worlds were in their places. From whence came the worlds, then? Before He spoke, there were none; after He spoke, there they were. Whence, then, did they come? What produced them? What produced the material of which they are composed? What caused them to exist? It was the Word which was spoken that did it all. And this Word did it all, because it was the Word of God. There was in that Word the divinity of life and Spirit, the creative power, to do all that the Word expressed. Such is the Word of God.

"And this is the Word which by the gospel in preached unto you." 1 Peter 1:25. The Word of God in the Bible is the same,--the same in life, in Spirit, in creative power,--precisely the same, as that Word that made the heavens and all the host of them. It was Jesus Christ who spoke the Word at creation: it is He who speaks the Word in the Bible. At creation the Word which He spoke made the worlds; in the Bible the Word which He speaks saves and sancifies the soul. Rom.4:25;5:1; John 17:17. In the Bible the Word which He speaks creates in Christ Jesus the man who receives that Word. 1 Peter 1:23. In both places, at creation and in the Bible, it is the Word that does it.

Receive it, not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe that the word has in itself power to accomplish what it says. Then "It shall accomplish (in you) that which I please," saith the Lord, and "It shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Isa.55:11.

Don't you see that when we receive the Word of God as self-fulfilling, that it won't take very long before the Lord can finish the work and cut it short in righteousness? Rom.9:28.

The Lord says: "Abide in Me and I in you." John 15:4; "Abide in My love." John 15: "Go and bear much fruit." John 15:16. It is clear that we can obey these only by hearing them and depending upon them to accomplish what is said in them! And that is faith, and even great faith, Jesus said! Matt.8:10.

Those who hear the commands and promises of God and depend upon "the Word only" for its accomplishment, unto them and upon them is the righteousness (right doing) of God revealed! Praise His Word!

"Thy shall love your God with all your heart, supremely, and your neighbor, impartially." And the Word "effectually works in them that believe;" for the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts as we depend upon "the Word only" for the accomplishment of what that Word says. How gentle His commands! They are Spirit and they are life, even everlasting life! John 12:50; 6:63.

When depended upon for the accomplishment of what is said in them, the words and commands of God impart power and they beget life, even the life of the Infintie One by which the command may be fulfilled and the promise realized! Then they become exceeding and most precious promises by which we become partakers of the divine nature! 2 Peter 1:4.

In the Christian life everything depends upon the word of God. It is true that God is able, and desires, to keep us from sinning; but this must be done through His word. So it is written, "By the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer." "Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee." This is the way that God has appointed, and there is no other way to have this thing accomplished. "It shall accomplish that which I please." Isa.55:11.
Nor is this way appointed merely because He arbitrarily chose that this should be the way, and then laid it upon men that this must be the way that they should go. His word is the way of salvation and the way of sanctification (Christian living), because this is the way that the Lord does things; because this is the way that He manifests Himself. It was by His word that He created all things in the beginning; it is by His word that He creates men anew; and it is by His word that He will re-create this world and all things pertaining to it. "Being born again by the word of God." "And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, It is done."

It is not only that the worlds were created by the word of God; but they are also sustained by the same word. God holds up "all things" by His powerful word. And the Christian is among this "all things" no less than any or all the worlds. Heb.1:3.

This is to be believed and depended upon by every one who professes the name of Christ. You and I can no more hold ourselves up in the right way than can the sun or the earth. And as certainly as the worlds are dependent upon His word, so certainly is the Christian to depend upon His word. And when this is so, the Christian is kept in the way of the Lord as certainly and as easily as is any planet in the universe. It is written that He "is able to keep you from falling." And He says, "I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness." "Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand."

O struggling Christian, falling Christian, is not that word which holds up worlds able also to hold you up? Trust that word. Depend implicitly upon it. Rest wholly upon it: and then you will find rest in it. Heb.4:1-3. Trust the Lord to hold you up, just as you trust Him to hold up the sun. His word holds up the sun, and His word is over and over to you, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee." "I will uphold thee." "I will keep thee, thou art Mine." "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

"The word of God is quick, and powerful." Heb.4:12. "Powerful" means "full of power." The word of God is living anf full of power, to do for you, with you, and in you, all that that word says. Believe that word, trust it; for it is the word of the living God. It is the word of the pitying Savior. "Reveive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." "I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up." Acts 20:32.

"You are kept through the power of God through faith." 1 Peter 1:5. The power of God is manifested through His word, and therefore it is His powerful word. Faith comes by hearing the word of God; therefore it is the faithful word, the word full of faith which we preach. Rom.10:8. Therefore when He says, you "are kept by the power of God through faith," it is only saying in another way, You are kept by the word of God, "unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." Believe that word, trust it, and find its keeping power! Amen.

Received the Word of God, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, and every command becomes a promise. Therefore, in every command of the word of God is the power, the very life of the infinite One by which the command may be fulfilled and the promise realized. John 6:63; 12:50. Praise His Word!

"And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with power." Luke 4:42.

THE FATHER OF ALL THEM THAT BE OF FAITH!

Abraham is the father of all them that be of faith. Rom.4:11. The record of Abraham, then, gives instruction in faith--what it is, and what it does for him who has it. What shall we say, then, that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the faith, hath found? What saith the Scripture?

When Abram was more than eighty years old, and Sarai his wife was old, and he had no child, God "brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be." Rom.4:3,18.

And Abram "believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness." Gen.15:5,6. Abram accepted the word of God, and expected by the word what the word said. And in that he was right.

Sarai, however, did not put her expectation upon the word of God only. She resorted to a device of her own to bring forth seed. She said to Abraham, "The Lord hath restrained me from bearing; I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her." Gen.16:2.

Abram, for the moment, swerved from the perfect integrity of faith. Instead of holding fast his expectation and dependence upon the word of God only, he "harkened to the voice of Sarai." Accordingly, a child was born; but the whole matter proved to be so unsatisfactory to Sarai that she repudiated her own arrangement. And God showed his repudiation of it by totally ignoring the fact that any child had been born.

He changed Abram's name to Abraham, and continued to talk about making him the father of nations through the seed promised, and of making His covenant with Abraham and the seed that was promised. He also changed Sarai's name to Sarah, because she should "be a mother of nations" through the promised seed.

Abraham noticed this total ignoring of the child that had been born, and called the Lord's attention to it, saying, "O, that Ishmael might live before Thee!" But "God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shall call his name Isaac: and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him."

By all this, both Abram and Sarai were taught that, in carrying out the promise, the fulfilling of the word of God, nothing would answer but dependence upon that word only. Sarai learned that her device brought only trouble and perplexity, and delayed the fulfillment of the promise. Abram learned that in harkening to the voice of Sarai, he had missed the word of God; and that now he must abandon that whole scheme, and turn again to the word of God only.

But now Abraham was 99 years old, and Sarah was 89. And, if anything, this seemed to put farther off than ever the fulfillment of the word, and called for a deeper dependence upon the word of God--a greater faith than before.

It was perfectly plain that now there was no possibility of dependence upon anything whatever, but the naked word only: they were shut up absolutely to this for the accomplishment of what the word said. All works, devices, plans, and efforts of their own were excluded, and they were shut up to faith alone,--shut up to the word alone, and to absolute dependence upon that word only for the accomplishment of what that word said.

And now that the way was clear for "the word only" to work, that word did work effectually, (1 Thess.2:13) and the promised "seed" was born. And so "through faith,"--through helpless, total dependence upon the word only,--"Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised."

And "therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable." Heb.11:12.

And thus was fulfilled the word spoken to Abraham, when God "brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them... So shall thy seed be."

This is a divine lesson in faith. And this is what the Scripture means when urging upon us the necessity of cultivating faith. For this was imputed to Abraham for righteousness, even the righteousness which is of God by faith.

And all "they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." All they who, excluding--yea, repudiating works, plans, devices, and efforts, of their own, depend in utter helplessness upon the word of God only to accomplish what that word says,--these are they which be of faith, and are blessed with faithful Abraham with the righteousness of God.

O, "understanding how to exercise faith: this is the science of the gospel! And the science of the gospel is the science of siences. Who would not strain every nerve to understand it?

The faith of the Centurion is the faith of Abraham, the faith of Jesus!

"Now when Jesus had entered Capernahum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, 'Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed, dreadfully tormented. And Jesus said to him, 'I will go and heal him.' The centurion answered and said, 'Lord I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But ONLY SPEAK THE WORD and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it.' When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.'" Matt.8:6-10.

And "These things were written for our admonition on whom the end of the ages have come. 1 Cor. 10:11. "When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8.

What did the Centurion depend or rest upon for the healing of his servant? "The word only." And Jesus, who is the author of faith, says that that is faith, even "great faith." Now then, what is faith? Faith is the expecting the word of God to do what it says, and the depending upon that word only to do what it says.

As that is faith, and as faith comes by the word of God, it is plain that the word of God, in order to inculcate faith, must teach that the word of God has in itself power to accomplish what itself says. And such is precisely the truth of the matter; the word of God does teach just that, and nothing else; so that it is truly "the faithful word"--the word full of faith. "All Your commandments are faithful." Ps.119:86, 138. "This is the word of faith which we preach." Rom.10: 8. "This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." 1 Peter 1:25.

The greater part of the first chapter of the Bible is instruction in faith. That chapter has in itself no fewer than six distinct statements that definitely inculcate faith; with the essential connective of the first verse, there are seven. The inculcation of faith is the teaching that the word of God itself accomplishes the thing which is spoken in that word. "My word shall accomplish that which I please." Isa.55:11.

Therefore, faith is the depending upon "the word only" for the accomplishment of what that word says. Then and only then does "The word effectually work in them that believe" that! 1 Thess.2:13. Is this not the rest that is enjoined in the Sabbath and that the apostle Paul had in mind in Heb.4 and Heb.3:18,19? The rest that the Jewish people did not enter in though they strickly refrained from any physical labor on the seventh day of the week!

[This message has been edited by adventbeliever (edited April 13, 2001).]