Maria Woodworth-Etter From: Miracles and Marvels How to Cooperate With the Holy Spirit in a Meeting A Word from the Lord: Jesus was pure and undefiled and separate from sinners and free from guile, and so must you be. Let Him manifest His love in you from day to day. Many have I chosen and put my mighty power on, but today they have drifted back. They will not let me have my way with them. You must obey me, or I will remove the candlestick out of its place. Why question and doubt as to my mighty power? Do not doubt, but submit yourselves fully and completely into my hands, that you may be used to my glory and honor. Come as a little child, full of joy and gladness. Come right, conscious that we have done all we know He wanted us to do in the best way we could, to please Him. Think on that. Praise God, and look to Him in faith to refill us and use us to glorify Jesus. Then by faith, we touch the button, as it were, and turn on the switch. The connection being good and the communication between God and man restored by Jesus, and maintained in good order by the Holy Spirit. The mistake many of us make is to let the persecutions, and threatening and rage, and the powers of this world scare and frighten us. We are not prepared to suffer. We don’t trust God and go to Him to vindicate His work and us. We too often draw back or compromise and “use wisdom” of the wrong kind, and are just as well satisfied when the power of God is not manifested so much, and the nice, quiet, imminently respectable, and precise, modern Christians are not offended. We should be praying and looking for God to work more and manifest His power more, to draw back is not pleasing to God, and therefore, the marvels and miracles, the manifestations of His Presence and Power, are to a great degree, lacking. Let us go forward. Meet the conditions. Come at peace with all the brethren with love for God and man. Come with the desire that Jesus may be glorified. Meet together in one accord. Lose sight of yourself and each other in the supreme desire that God should work, that He should manifest His power. Then pray the prayer of faith and something supernatural will happen. God will answer. His power will flow in and through you. He will give you fresh courage and enable you to do your part, to speak the word of God with boldness, and to give witness to the Resurrection with great power and the signs following will give positive and unmistakable evidence that the Lord is working with you. Fear and convictions will fall on unbelievers. Enoch was translated, but before his translation, he had this testimony: that he pleased God. We are looking and hoping to be translated, the church that is, with the rest when Jesus comes. And we, too, should have the same testimony. The power, signs, and the manifestations of the Spirit are testimony that God is pleased with us. We should desire to be operated by God’s almighty hand and power. There should be the touch of virtue. Our prayers should produce results. We should have His power in our bodies. God should be glorified in some way in our bodies. We are God’s powerhouses. Jesus said, “You shall receive power, the Holy Ghost having come upon you.” If we draw back, God has no pleasure in us and will not use us to do His pleasure. He cannot, because we are not a consenting party, and God has given to every man a free will. God desires and seeks those after His own heart, one with Him and the Lord Jesus, to whom no sacrifice is too great. In order that the eternal counsels of God and His purposes may be carried out in their entirety. He seeks men of faith, of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews class. All that the Father has is conditionally ours. Now that prodigals are coming home, let us too eat of the fatted calf and join in the music and dancing. Let us make merry. He makes our feet like hinds feet, and sitteth us upon high places. The power of God makes our bodies light, when we are filled with the Holy Ghost, which is in earnest of the translating power. Some, however, are bound hand and foot. They cannot lift hands to God and cannot join in the holy dance. Some, it may be, have the spirit of the elder brother in the parable. We have holy, gentle boldness. We that are under the Blood have not a spirit of fear, but of love and of power and of a sound mind. We know that we are sons and daughters of God, with power and authority. But at the same time we are continually careful not to do or say anything that will displease or grieve Him, bring reproach on the cause or contempt on the work. We should try the spirits. Ours is the desire to do some big thing ahead of someone else, then watch. Ask rather, “Will the people receive light, will they be edified?” And you will probably have to say, no. Because so many spirits are not of God, some throw away God’s Spirit too. The Word and the Spirit agree in perfect harmony. We should not be trembling and fearful and excited for fear some other spirit should come in. When some wrong spirit comes in, don’t whisper around, getting others nervous. Jesus is present on the White Horse of Power to control the meeting and God can take care of His own business. Don’t say to your brother, “Stand back there because the devil comes in sometimes and uses you, I cannot trust you.” Peter backslide, but he repented, he went out and wept bitterly. If he had lived in these days, they would always be throwing it up to Peter and he would never hear the last of it. Why, he denied the Lord. At Pentecost a few days afterward, a spokesman was required. Did the rest say, “We cannot trust Peter; just lately he lied and backslide, and cursed and swore and disgraced the Lord and us.” If they had acted like that, the words would have frozen in his mouth. They knew God had restored him and filled him with his Spirit again. Take the one God chooses no matter what is in the past. What are they now? Take heed that you offend not one of these little ones that believe in Christ. (Mark 9: 42.) That they stumble not and fall because you reject them from fellowship, deny them liberty, and withhold your love. Be a committee of one, to see that you walk straight in all the will of God. Be a committee of one to see that it is the spirit of love that controls you at all times. Watch against an unforgiving spirit, a desire to avenge, to take satisfaction for an injury by just punishment through retaliation. Beware of envy. It is a feeling of uneasiness at another’s superior advantages or privileges, a dislike or discontent because of the superior excellence or success of another. If God has respect to the offering of a brother, and pays no attention to ours, it is not good for us to be angry and jealous, afraid someone else will get ahead of us in the affections and the love of the brethren. Then is the time to watch, because sin crouches at the door, and the devil is close at hand preparing to spring in and overpower us. If our ear is open to hear the Spirit, the Holy Spirit will warn us. If our supreme desire is that Jesus shall be glorified, we will be glad He is glorified in our brother. The Holy Ghost takes of the things of Christ and gives them unto us. Oh, that we were as eager to glorify Jesus as the Holy Ghost is. As followers of Jesus, we should be. Our speaking and actions must all be in harmony with God’s word. God does not speak through us in other tongues to rebuke an elder, for instance, nor give us authority to cause division and factions in the assemblies. It is God’s will and to His glory that we bear much fruit, fruit of the right kind. (Galatians 5:22-23.) The gifts are given that we should bear more fruit. It is the Christ abiding in us to fulfill the Father’s will that brings forth much fruit. Are we content with just a little fruit, so that we know we are not cut off? Jesus was not! He cleanses us from the defilement of our surroundings and circumstances. If we would continue to abide in Him, we must cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit. Lay aside every weight; be not entangled with the yoke of bondage, nor affairs of this life. Work for eternity, lay up treasure above. Place your affections in heaven. Let us keep before us the joy and privilege which is ours, to give the invitation, “Come in the Name of Jesus”, to whosoever will. John 15:7, “If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.” We should abide in Him, in His service, in His word, and in His will, having His mind, filled with His spirit, which impels to action to carry out the purposes of the Father. His words must abide in us. Keep reading and practicing the New Testament teachings. The supreme object of our lives should be to exemplify its teachings, carried out even in detail. Our chief desire should be to know what Jesus would have us say and do at this time and place. Whatever is for God’s glory, that is what He wants us to do. It is for His glory to heal His saints, it shows how much He loves them and manifests His power. One case of healing in the name of Jesus, accompanied by the knowledge of sins forgiven, and the peace which passes all understanding, is sufficient to demonstrate the divinity and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and therefore, convict and convince sinners. The Holy Spirit puts the desire in your hearts to glorify Jesus. We wish and long for Him to exhibit His riches and goodness and do great things, not for us especially, but for everyone, even whosoever will call upon His name under the conviction that He is the Son of the Living God. We allow Him to prepare us and we prepare ourselves. He is invited to work. We surrender the control to Him and bring every thought, word, and action into subjection to Him. The Holy Ghost and we work together in perfect harmony. His object is to form Christ in us. (Galatians 4:19.) Unless Christ is in us, we are reprobates. He dwells in our hearts. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are His body. Let us consider and see what is for God’s glory and ask for it and He will do it. Our will and asking brings it. It is God’s will to do it, if it is our will for it to be done. Don’t ask if you really don’t want it. If you do, ask in faith and confidence. If you are going to draw back when the Lord begins to use you, to answer your own petition, how can you desire it? If you have gifts from God, but loose your experiences and try to work them out yourselves, it is an interruption and an annoyance in the meeting. Though you speak in tongues and have not love, it is as sounding brass. If you try to exercise gifts and have not love for all, you make terrible mistakes. For you are blind or see but dimly, closing your eyes when convient to yourself, seeing only the faults of some and the virtues of others. You become a respecter of persons, showing partiality with a wisdom that is not from above. All gifts must be used in the power of the Holy Ghost. With the exercise of a particular gift there must be the demonstration of the Spirit. The Lord Jesus working through you will be the power. If it is not used out of love for God and to carry out His purpose, you will find without Him you can do nothing. Where we would teach, it is sometimes His will we should learn. Where we would speak, it is sometimes His will that we should be quiet and listen. We ought to be peaceful and contented if we are not being used in a conspicuous way. If we are not receiving honor from our brethren, as long as they treat us as brothers or sisters, let us be contented. We should rejoice in the Lord, even if they do not acclaim us as a teacher or assign us a leading or prominent part in the meeting. There is law in Holy Ghost meetings, and system and order, and neither the Spirit nor God’s word allows a lawless freedom to rule. The Lord Jesus is present and we should allow Him to use the others as readily as us, without our getting in His way and being hurt and offended if we cannot have our way. Many are too presumptuous in the house, the meeting house of God. There should be a Holy reverence and awe in the presence of God. Don’t make the meeting place a place where you can play at being operated by the Spirit and power of God, and show off your gifts and tongues and talk as much and as long as you please, whether others are interested and edified or not. God’s meetings are his workshop, where He works perfecting His saints, supplying His children, apportioning to each his work, supplying their needs, qualifying them for the service He requires and generally carrying on His work. Who is there who thinks he can instruct the Almighty how to do all this? Claiming infallibility? Who is sure he knows all the mind of God for the assembly and that he is the only one who does? If each one knows the part God would have him take in the meeting and the time when he should let himself be operated by God’s spirit, that is probably as much as he needs to know. Now a Word to the Leaders. Leaders should be as fathers and mothers to all present, and without personal likes and prejudices, full of love for all and yet caring for the flock, peaceable, mild, merciful, compliant with all that is of God, fruitful, without guile or pretense and not using their position to avenge themselves for personal slights. God’s presence should be manifest. Don’t get settled down, contentedly satisfied in the absence of divine power, as if we could do anything of ourselves to amount to anything in the work of the Lord. Know it is the Lord God who must work through us if anything is to be accomplished that will survive the fire, which will try every man’s work. We are laborers together with God. But if God is not laboring, we should never rest satisfied till He does. Let no man glory in man or in himself. Do not let us glory or delight in, or rely upon anything that is ours, but let us glory in God and our Teacher who enables us, The Holy Spirit that is, who enables us to understand God. Let us rejoice that the communication is open with God, that our names are written in heaven, that the Revelator abides and gives us understanding of the things of the Kingdom. (Jeremiah 9: 23-24.) Let us
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 18:52:59 +0000