James 5:7-8 (NKJV) "Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand."
"You want to open your minds, to gird up the loins of your mind, and hope to the end. You do not want to get many things upon the mind to take it away from the truth the angel is proclaiming. When the latter rain comes upon the people of God, you must have a preparation to press right on, because those whose vessels are clean, whose hands are free just when that latter rain comes get the light that comes from on high, and their voices are lifted every one to proclaim the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. {Ms81-1886.}
Circumstances cannot work reforms. Christianity proposes a reformation in the heart. What Christ works within will be worked out under the dictation of a converted intellect. The plan of beginning outside and trying to work inward has always failed, and always will fail. {Lt73-1896.}
Standing as you do, my brother and sister, God’s plan with you is to begin at the very seat of all difficulties, the heart, and then from out of the heart will issue the principles of righteousness; the reformation will be outward as well as inward. {Lt73-1896.}
God’s way is to give man something he has not. But you have said, I want it not. God’s way is to make man something he is not. Man’s way is to get an easy place, and indulge appetite and selfish ambition. God’s plan is to set man to work in reformatory lines, then he will learn by experiences how long he has pampered fleshly appetites, and ministered to his own temperament, bringing weakness upon himself. God’s way is to work in power. He gives the grace if the sick man realizes that he needs it. Man is too often satisfied to treat himself according to the methods of quackery, and he vindicates his manner of working as right. God proposes to purify and refine the defiled soul; then He will implant in the heart His own righteousness and peace and health, and man becomes complete in Him. Then the issues of life, proceeding from the heart, are represented as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. {Lt73-1896.}
This is the kingdom of God within you. Day by day men are revealing whether the kingdom of God is within them. If Christ rules in their hearts, they are gaining strength of principle, power, ability to stand as faithful sentinels, true reformers, for there can be no reform unless there is a thorough co-operation with Jesus Christ. Through the grace of Christ men are to use their God-given faculties to reform themselves; by this self-denying action, which the Lord of heaven looks upon with approval, they gain victories over their own hereditary and cultivated tendencies. Then like Daniel they make impressions upon other hearts that will never be effaced. The influence will be carried to all parts of the world." {Lt73-1896.}
"How many will be converted at this meeting? How many will seek the Lord with all their hearts here, how many will come to the Lord just as you are? You are not to set any particular minute or hour when your meetings are to close. With such meetings as this, it is an entire mistake to think that the very hour that you think it should be, the meeting closes. If the Spirit of God comes into the meeting at any time, we want every one to recognize it, and we want no rules here of this order. We have not come out here in that way. We have come out here in the name of the Lord, against the protest of infirmities, and yet we have come to speak to you, because we may never have another opportunity." {Ms117-1909.40}
"Every church should be a light in the world. If there is in your church a deadness, a stagnation, come together, as the disciples did before the day of Pentecost, and plead with God until you receive the light of life. Then let the light shine to all around you. Do not go on from week to week, from year to year, without knowing whether or not you are in the love of God. When Jesus went away, he promised to send the Holy Spirit, and we have a right to claim that promise. God wants us to work in the power of the Spirit. He wants us to be guided and controlled by the living, abiding principles that will keep us in the truth." {RH April 26, 1906, par. 18}
"A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs. To see this should be our first work. There must be earnest effort to obtain the blessing of the Lord, not because god is not willing to bestow His blessing upon us, but because we are unprepared to receive it. Our heavenly Father is more willing to give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him , than are earthly parents to give good gifts to their children. but it is our work, by confession, humiliation, repentance, and earnest prayer, to fulfill the conditions upon which God has promised to grant us His blessings. A revival need be expected only in answer to prayer." {1SM 121}
"There is nothing Satan fears so much as that the people of God shall clear the way by removing every hindrance, so that the Lord can pour out His Spirit upon a languishing church and an impenitent congregation. If Satan had his way there would never be another awakening, great or small, to the end of time. but we are not ignorant of his devices. It is possible to resist his power. When the way is prepared for the Spirit of God, the blessing will come. Satan can no more hinder a shower of blessing from descending upon God's people than he can close the windows of heaven that rain cannot come upon the earth. Wicked men and devils cannot hinder the work of God, or shut out His presence from the assemblies of His people, if they will, with subdued, contrite hearts, confess and put away their sins, and in faith claim His promises. Every temptation, every opposing influence, whether open or secret, my be successfully resisted, 'not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.'" (Zech 4: 6) {1SM 124}
2 Corinthians 13:5 "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith."
"Those who engage in [the] work will see so much to correct in themselves, and will devote so much time to prayer and to comparing their characters with God’s great standard, the divine law, that they will have no time to comment and gossip over the faults or dissect the characters of others. A sense of our own imperfections should lead us to humility and earnest solicitude lest we fail of everlasting life. The words of inspiration should come home to every soul: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” If the professed people of God would divest themselves of their self-complacency and their false ideas of what constitutes a Christian, many who now think they are in the path to Heaven would find themselves in the way of perdition. Many a proud-hearted professor would tremble like an aspen leaf in the tempest, could his eyes be opened to see what spiritual life really is. Would that those now reposing in false security could be aroused to see the contradiction between their profession of faith and their every-day demeanor." {RH May 30, 1882, par. 2}
"Isaiah 55:3 (KJV) 3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David."
The Holy Spirit is given to bring to our remembrance the words and works of Christ, spoken for the salvation of the soul; and if this Spirit were recognized and appreciated, spiritual life would increase one hundred-fold. But many do not choose to remember. They seek rather to forget the good impression made on mind and heart. They do not desire to yield their way for God’s way. God bears long with them, and his Spirit is constantly employed to bring spiritual things to their remembrance, that subjects of vital importance may find a lodgment in their hearts. The Spirit takes of the things of God, and presents them to mind. Constantly the mind is given glimpses of God. If men listen for the voice of God, these spiritual impressions become more and more frequent, and extend from one to another till the leaven seems to go through the whole church. A divine presence hovers over the people, and a revival is the result. Souls are converted. The sympathies and energies of the people are enlisted on the side of the truth. God works in them, to will and to do of his good-pleasure, breaking the spell of the world, and engrossing the thoughts with subjects of eternal interest. {ST January 20, 1898, par. 11}
Colossians 3:12-15 "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. 14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful."
Those who really love Jesus will seek to labor in His spirit and strive to conform their own lives and characters to the great Pattern. In reforms, the Spirit of Christ must continually abide with the reformer. Men may be attracted and won into the ranks of Christ and reform; but they cannot be forced or driven by censure, reproach, or harsh measures. A course of Christian forbearance, of candor, and of consideration and courteousness toward all who do not see the truth as we do will be a power for good. {Ms1-1880.72}
Order must be preserved in every change. We must learn not to be too fast and require too much of men. It is impossible to exert a proper influence unless the heart of the believer is in connection with God. Souls that were precious in the sight of God have been oppressed, censured, abused, and severed from the church. The body of Christ is, as it were, bleeding from these terrible movements. The most thrilling appeals may be made from the pulpit, logic and eloquence may fail to move men to see the truth and accept it, but meekness and piety exhibited in the daily life, in the management and right training of families, have power which even disarms infidelity. {Ms1-1880.73}
“Another year has now passed into eternity with its burden of record; and the light which shone from heaven upon you was to prepare you to arise and shine, to show forth the praises of God to the world as His commandment-keeping people. You were to be living witnesses; but if no special endeavor of a high and holy character bears testimony before the world, if no higher effort has been made than that which is seen in the popular churches of the day, then the name of God has not been honored, and His truth has not been magnified before the world, by presenting divine credentials in the people who have received great light. If they have had no greater appreciation of the manifest power of God than to eat and drink, and rise up to play, as did ancient Israel, then how can the Lord trust His people with rich and gracious manifestations? If they act directly contrary in almost every respect to the known will of God, and are found in carelessness, in levity, in selfishness, in ambition and pride, corrupting their way before the Lord how can He give them another outpouring of the Holy Spirit? God has the richest blessing for His people; but He cannot bestow it until they know how to treat the precious gift in showing forth the praises of Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvelous light.” {1SM 140}
"Today you are to give yourselves to God, that He may make of you vessels unto honor, and meet for His service. Today you are to give yourself to God, that you may be emptied of self, emptied of envy, jealousy, evil surmising, strife, everything that shall be dishonoring to God. Today you are to have your vessel purified that it may be ready for the heavenly dew, ready for the showers of the latter rain; for the latter rain will come and the blessing of God will fill every soul that is purified from every defilement. It is our work today to yield our soul to Christ, that we may be fitted for the time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, fitted for the baptism of the Holy Spirit." {1SM 191}
Jonah 1:7 "O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not."
""The Lord calls for a reformation all through our ranks.... When the church is awakened, decided changes will be made. Men and women will be converted, and so filled will they be by the Spirit of God that they will pass from country to country, from city to city, proclaiming the message of truth. With hearts filled with earnest love for souls, they will open their Bibles and present the Word—“It is written.” Wherever they go a people will be raised up to stand in the day of the Lord. The simplicity of these humble workers will be their strength, for angels of God work with those who are humble and obedient. Learned, eloquent men will not see the results from their work that are seen by these humble, zealous, praying men. {Ms2-1900.15}
Chron. 29:5 "and said to them: “Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place."
"We must humble self, today, tomorrow, and constantly. With a willing, sanctified heart, we must cooperate with God. We are living in the time when Satan has come down in great power. He is walking about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But the Lord is ready to take away the sin that hinders us from yoking up with Christ. If we wear the yoke of Christ, he will be our Immanuel, - "God with us" supplying every weakness with his strength, every inefficiency with his power and success. But if we take glory to ourselves, he removes his excellency from us, and we no longer ride prosperously." {SpM 89.1}
"In every age seasons of spiritual revival and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit have been followed by spiritual darkness and prevailing corruptions.... God's blessing will not rest upon the church in advancing still more light until they use the light as God has directed in His Word." Selected Messages, Vol. 1, p. 129, 130
"On the other hand, there are some who, instead of wisely improving present opportunities, are idly waiting for some special season of spiritual refreshing by which their ability to enlighten others will be greatly increased. They neglect present duties and privileges, and allow their light to burn dim, while they look forward to a time when, without any effort on their part, they will be made the recipients of special blessing, by which they will be transformed and fitted for service." The Acts of the Apostles, p. 54. {ChS 43.4}
"Today a large part of those who compose our congregations are dead in trespasses and sins. They come and go like the door upon its hinges. For years they have complacently listened to the most solemn, soul-stirring truths, but they have not put them in practice. Therefore they are less and less sensible of the preciousness of truth. . . . While making a profession, they deny the power of godliness. If they continue in this state, God will reject them. They are unfitting themselves to be members of His family." Testimonies, vol. 6, pp. 426, 427.
Unless otherwise stated, quotations come from the writings of Mrs. E. G. White.