SSLS 2017-01-26
2017 1st Quarter
Lesson 4, January 21-27, The Personality of the Holy Spirit
Thursday, January 26
“And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.” KJV, Acts 5:32, emphasis added.
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” KJV, 1 John 4:7, 8, emphasis added.
“Christ has promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to His church, and the promise belongs to us as much as to the first disciples. But like every other promise, it is given on conditions. There are many who believe and profess to claim the Lord’s promise; they talk about Christ and about the Holy Spirit, yet receive no benefit. They do not surrender the soul to be guided and controlled by the divine agencies. We cannot use the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is to use us. Through the Spirit God works in His people ‘to will and to do of His good pleasure.’ Philippians 2:13. But many will not submit to this. They want to manage themselves. This is why they do not receive the heavenly gift. Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for His guidance and grace, is the Spirit given. The power of God awaits their demand and reception. This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according to the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive.” (Ellen White, Desire of Ages, 672, emphasis added.)
“The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. Those only who are thus taught of God, those only who possess the inward working of the Spirit, and in whose life the Christ-life is manifested, can stand as true representatives of the Saviour.” (Ellen White, Gospel Workers, 285, emphasis added.) One might say that the impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the love of Christ.
“Why, then, do we not have more of the Holy Spirit?—Because we do not abide in Christ; because we do not eat his flesh and drink his blood. All who eat the heavenly bread will have eternal life. God has given us every facility, every grace. He has provided the riches of heaven’s treasure, and it is our privilege to draw continually from this capital. But we do not avail ourselves of this privilege. Vanity, evil-thinking, and evil-speaking keep us powerless and inefficient. Self is cherished, petted, exalted; and therefore we can not work out our own salvation in harmony with God’s will.” (Ellen White, Review and Herald, April 24, 1900, emphasis added.)
“We are in a world that is opposed to righteousness, or purity of character, and especially to growth in grace. Wherever we look, we see defilement and corruption, deformity and sin. How opposed is all this to the work that must be accomplished in us just previous to receiving the gift of immortality! God’s elect must stand untainted amid the corruptions teeming around them in these last days. Their bodies must be made holy, their spirits pure. If this work is to be accomplished, it must be undertaken at once, earnestly and understandingly. The Spirit of God should have perfect control, influencing every action.” (Ellen White, Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 8, 9, emphasis added.)