Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. Isaiah 60:1, 2, NKJV.
Our Redeemer spent whole nights in prayer to His Father; and the foundation of the Christian church and missionary activity was laid in the very element of prayer. The disciples were of one accord in one place, calling upon the Lord that the outpouring of His Holy Spirit might come upon them.
While the Holy Spirit is given richly through various channels, the more we seek it the wider will be the diffusion. Thus, earnest work being done to save souls, there will be constantly furnished us a necessity for renewed application to the Source of all power; and thus there will be established an habitual communication between the soul and God. The fountain of the water of life is constantly drawn upon by faith, and is never exhausted.
The work is progressive—action and reaction. Love and devotion to God will give activity to benevolence, and benevolence will increase faith and spirituality. Oh, how much we need heavenly wisdom! Well, is it not promised us? “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.” Oh, what an assurance is this! How full and broad! Let us take the promise just as it reads. The Lord wants us to come unto Him with full assurance of faith, believing His word, that He will do just as He said He would.
Would that we might feel the importance of educating every individual member of the church to do something. We should individually sense the solemn obligation of Christians to bring into activity all their divinely entrusted resources and capabilities, to do to the utmost of their power the work the Lord expects them to do....
We need more faith, more sanctified ability. High and ennobling motives are before us. We have no time, no words to spend in controversy.... There is need of sanctified energy. The armies of heaven are on the move, and where is the human agent to cooperate with God?—Testimonies to Southern Africa, 43, 44.
From To Be Like Jesus - Page 283
To Be Like Jesus