Special Insights No. 4
Second Quarter 2006
“The Holy Spirit”
(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)
“The Promise of the Holy Spirit”
The promise of the Holy Spirit is probably the most important promise that has ever been made to the world. Without the Holy Spirit nothing that we as Christians endeavor to accomplish in the name of the Lord will be of any great success.
The Promise of the Coming Comforter:
Through Ezekiel the Lord has promised that He would accomplish marvelous things in His people (Eze. 36:25-27). The Lord told us that by His Spirit, He will cleanse His people from all unrighteousness. By faith in His promises, we will become commandment-keepers, overcoming all sin prior to His second coming. This is a necessary corollary to the final cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary and the completion of our High Priest’s work.
“Before the final visitation of God’s judgments upon the earth there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times” (The Great Controversy, p. 464). We long for this experience, but there’s a preparation to be made before God can bestow this blessing upon us.
Prerequisites for Receiving the Holy Spirit:
Our Quarterly stated in Wednesday’s lesson: “Not until through faith and prayer the disciples had surrendered themselves fully for His working was the outpouring of the Spirit received..... though Christ gave them this wonderful promise, they had to be prepared to receive it. Is it any different today for us?”
Prior to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the early rain, the disciples experienced a soul-shaking cleansing. Before they could be fit vessels for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, they first had to experience the cleansing fire that removed the dross that stood between them and God. For ten intense days moved by the Holy Spirit the disciples humbled themselves in true repentance and searched their innermost souls, confessing to God their sins of unbelief. Seeking union between all the brethren they set aside personal differences and contentions. True selfless love for one another transformed their characters (see Acts of the Apostles, pp. 36, 37).
When God Attempted to Fulfill His Promise to Us:
Just as the disciples prayed for the outpouring of the early rain, at the end of this earth’s history, we are praying for the outpouring of the latter rain. The disciples needed the power of the Holy Spirit before they could do the work of evangelism that Jesus assigned to them as He departed from them: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). However, the Holy Spirit could not benefit them until their hearts were transformed. They needed that “teacher of righteousness” promised by Joel (see 2:23). We need Him, too, before we can hope to fulfill our commission that will culminate in the “loud cry” of that mighty forth angel of Revelation 18.
A.T. Jones explained this clearly at the 1893 General Conference. Speaking on the passage in Joel he said: “The 23d verse says: ‘Be glad, then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He hath given you the former rain, moderately.’ What is the margin? ‘A teacher of righteousness.’.... And when He gives the latter rain, what will it be? ‘A teacher of righteousness.’ How? ‘According to righteousness.’ Then is not that just what the testimony has told us in that article that has been read to you several times? ‘The loud cry of the third angel,’ the latter rain has already begun, ‘in the message of the righteousness of Christ.’”
Jones went on to pinpoint the time when the Lord in His great mercy attempted to give us the needed “refreshing”: “Now brethren, when did that message of the righteousness of Christ, begin with us as a people?.... [Congregation: ‘Minneapolis.’] What then did the brethren reject at Minneapolis? [Some in the congregation: ‘The loud cry.’] What is that message of righteousness? The Testimony has told us what it is; the loud cry—the latter rain. Then what did the brethren in that fearful position in which they stood, reject at Minneapolis? They rejected the latter rain—the loud cry of the third angel’s message” (1893 General Conference Bulletin, pp. 182, 183; The Third Angel’s Message, 1893, pp. 68, 69).
The Holy Spirit Insulted:
Our Sabbath School lesson author, Elder Arnold Wallenkampf, saw the necessity of every Seventh-day Adventist understanding this history when he wrote his little book titled, What Every Adventist Should Know About 1888. After quoting numerous statements from Ellen White, he summarized by saying:
“The sum total of these anguished pronouncements by the Lord’s servant tells us that at the Minneapolis conference the Holy Spirit was not only resisted but cruelly treated. This cruelty manifested itself in hard, proud, sneering speeches against God’s special messengers, Jones and Waggoner. The speakers did not realize that their hard words were aimed at Christ Himself. When the attendees despised the Lord’s messengers, they insulted the Spirit of God” (p. 40).
Our first lesson in this quarter explained that the Holy Spirit is definitely a real, divine Person. He can be insulted and grieved. When we insult and grieve a human being, it is necessary for us to recognize our guilt, repent, and make amends, if possible. It follows that we, as a corporate body, should be seeking to correct our sin of resisting and insulting the Holy Spirit when we rejected and insulted Him at Minneapolis in 1888.
Our lesson author stated: “It is possible for you and me to break the connection with God by driving the Holy Spirit away from us so that He cannot convict us of sin. Without conviction there can be no repentance and hence no forgiveness.....The Spirit is meek and humble. He does not hold a grudge..... But He will not tolerate obstinate evil” (New by the Spirit, p. 111; RHPA, 2006).
“Without the historical Calvary there could have been no historical Pentecost [early rain]. Likewise, unless there is a personal or experiential Calvary, there will be no experiential Pentecost [latter rain]. Only as we crucify all self-interest can we receive the fullness of the infilling of the Holy Spirit” (ibid., p. 57).
—Ann Walper
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