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Wisdom Needed by Sabbathkeepers

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. - Matthew 10:16.

When the practices of the people do not come in conflict with the law of God, you may conform to them. If the workers fail to do this, they will not only hinder their own work, but they will place stumbling blocks in the way of those for whom they labor, and hinder them from accepting the truth. On Sunday there is the very best opportunity for those who are missionaries to hold Sunday schools, and come to the people in the simplest manner possible, telling them of the love of Jesus for sinners, and educating them in the Scriptures....

At present Sunday-keeping is not the test. The time will come when men will not only forbid Sunday work, but they will try to force men to labor on the Sabbath, and to subscribe to Sunday observance or forfeit their freedom and their lives. But the time for this has not yet come, for the truth must be presented more fully before the people as a witness....

The light that I have is that God’s servants should go quietly to work, preaching the grand, precious truths of the Bible—Christ and Him crucified. His love and infinite sacrifice—showing that the reason why Christ died is because the law of God is immutable, unchangeable, eternal. The Sabbath must be taught in a decided manner, but be cautious how you deal with the idol Sunday. A word to the wise is sufficient....

Refraining from work on Sunday is not receiving the mark of the beast; and where this will advance the interests of the work, it should be done. We should not go out of our way to work on Sunday....

When those who hear and see the light on the Sabbath take their stand upon the truth to keep God’s holy day, difficulties will arise; for efforts will be brought to bear against them to compel men and women to transgress the law of God. Here they must stand firm, that they will not violate the law of God; and if the opposition and persecution are determinedly kept up, let them heed the words of Christ: “When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Give us wisdom to navigate these strange paths through which we journey in these last days and Lord, we are confident that because You have trod this way before us, we are more than conquerors. Lord, supply all our needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 177 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1267#1267)

Calamities Blamed on God’s People

Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. - Revelation 12:12.

As men depart further and further from God, Satan is permitted to have power over the children of disobedience. He hurls destruction among men. There is calamity by land and sea. Property and life are destroyed by fire and flood. Satan resolves to charge this upon those who refuse to bow to the idol which he has set up. His agents point to Seventh-day Adventists as the cause of the trouble. “These people stand out in defiance of law,” they say. “They desecrate Sunday. Were they compelled to obey the law for Sunday observance, there would be a cessation of these terrible judgments.”

Calamities will come—calamities most awful, most unexpected; and these destructions will follow one after another. If there will be a heeding of the warnings that God has given, and if churches will repent, returning to their allegiance, then other cities may be spared for a time. But if men who have been deceived continue in the same way in which they have been walking, disregarding the law of God and presenting falsehoods before the people, God allows them to suffer calamity, that their senses may be awakened.

The judgments will be according to the wickedness of the people and the light of truth that they have had. If they have had the truth, according to that light will be the punishment.

Satan puts his interpretation upon events, and they [leading men] think, as he would have them, that the calamities which fill the land are a result of Sunday-breaking. Thinking to appease the wrath of God, these influential men make laws enforcing Sunday observance. They think that by exalting this false rest-day higher, and still higher, compelling obedience to the Sunday law, the spurious sabbath, they are doing God service. Those who honor God by observing the true Sabbath are looked upon as disloyal to God, when it is really those who thus regard them who are themselves disloyal, because they are trampling under foot the Sabbath originated in Eden.


Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord, to be ready and brace for the impending storm of persecution for as Your word says, "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution", help us to "hold the fort" and be strong for You. Lord, supply all our needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 176 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1260#1260)

Troublous Times Right Upon Us

After these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. - Revelation 7:1.

Four mighty angels are still holding the four winds of the earth. Terrible destruction is forbidden to come in full. The ... winds will be the stirring up of the nations to one deadly combat, while the angels hold the four winds, forbidding the terrible power of Satan to be exercised in its fury until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.

The signs of the times give evidence that the judgments of heaven are being poured out, that the day of the Lord is at hand. The daily papers are full of indications of an intense conflict in the future. Bold robberies are of frequent occurrence. Strikes are common. Thefts and murders are committed on every hand. Men possessed by demons are taking the lives of men, women, and little children. All these things testify that the Lord’s coming is near.

The restraining Spirit of God is even now being withdrawn from the world. Hurricanes, storms, tempests, disasters by sea and by land, follow one another in quick succession. The signs thickening around us, telling of the near approach of the Son of God, are attributed to any other than the true cause....

The time is right upon us when there will be sorrow in the world that no human balm can heal. Even before the last great destruction comes upon the world, the flattering monuments of man’s greatness will be crumbled in the dust. God’s retributive judgments will fall on those who in the face of great light have continued in sin. Costly buildings, supposed to be fireproof, are erected. But as Sodom perished in the flames of God’s vengeance, so will these proud structures become ashes. I have seen vessels which cost immense sums of money wrestling with the mighty ocean, seeking to breast the angry billows. But with all their treasures of gold and silver, and with all their human freight, they sank into a watery grave.... But amid the tumult of excitement, with confusion in every place, there is a work to be done for God in the world.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Keep us Lord, from all the terrible destruction that is plaguing the world. We claim Your promise to us in Psalm 91, that a thousand will fall at our side and ten thousand at our right hand but it shall not come near us. Lord, supply all our needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 175 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1253)

Armed Conflict in the Last Days

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. - Jeremiah 25:32.

Soon grievous troubles will rise among the nations—trouble that will not cease until Jesus comes. As never before we need to press together, serving Him who has prepared His throne in the heavens and whose kingdom ruleth over all. God has not forsaken His people, and our strength lies in not forsaking Him.

The judgments of God are in the land. The wars and rumors of wars, the destruction by fire and flood, say clearly that the time of trouble, which is to increase until the end, is very near at hand. We have no time to lose. The world is stirred with the spirit of war. The prophecies of the eleventh of Daniel have almost reached their final fulfillment.

Soon strife among the nations will break out with an intensity that we do not now anticipate. The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the strained, restless relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they realize that something great and decisive is about to take place, that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.

A moment of respite has been graciously given us of God. Every power lent us of Heaven is now to be used in working for those perishing in ignorance. There must be no delay. The truth must be proclaimed in the dark places of the earth.... A great work is to be done, and to those who know the truth for this time, this work has been entrusted.

In the last scenes of this earth’s history, war will rage. There will be pestilence, plague, and famine. The waters of the deep will overflow their boundaries. Property and life will be destroyed by fire and flood. We should be preparing for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for them that love Him. There is a rest from earth’s conflict.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord, to look away from the crisis in the world and to look up to You. Lord, supply all our needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 174 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1245#1245)

Symbolism of the Three Angels’ Messages

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. - Malachi 4:5.

To prepare a people to stand in the day of God, a great work of reform was to be accomplished [by the Advent Movement]. God saw that many of His professed people were not building for eternity, and in His mercy He was about to send a message of warning to arouse them from their stupor and lead them to make ready for the coming of the Lord.

This warning is brought to view in Revelation 14. Here is a threefold message represented as proclaimed by heavenly beings and immediately followed by the coming of the Son of man to reap “the harvest of the earth.”

The angels are represented as flying in the midst of heaven, proclaiming to the world a message of warning, and having a direct bearing upon the people living in the last days of this earth’s history. No one hears the voice of these angels, for they are a symbol to represent the people of God who are working in harmony with the universe of heaven.

The three angels’ messages are to be combined, giving their threefold light to the world. In the Revelation, John says, “I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.” ... This represents the giving of the last and threefold message of warning to the world.

Revelation 18 points to the time when, as the result of rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12, the church will have fully reached the condition foretold by the second angel, and the people of God still in Babylon will be called upon to separate from her communion. This message is the last that will ever be given to the world; and it will accomplish its work. When those that “believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:12), shall be left to receive strong delusion and to believe a lie, then the light of truth will shine upon all whose hearts are open to receive it, and all the children of the Lord that remain in Babylon will heed the call: “Come out of her, my people” (Revelation 18:4).

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord, to be a part of those who will sound this last threefold warning to the world and may we also heed the warning ourselves. May we research what these messages are and their import in our lives and, Lord, reveal to us our duty in this matter. Lord, supply all our needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 173 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1237)

Sabbath vs Sunday Issue Joins

The third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God. - Revelation 14:9, 10.

Heretofore those who presented the truths of the third angel’s message have often been regarded as mere alarmists. Their predictions that religious intolerance would gain control in the United States, that church and state would unite to persecute those who keep the commandments of God, have been pronounced groundless and absurd.... But as the question of enforcing Sunday observance is widely agitated, the event so long doubted and disbelieved is seen to be approaching, and the third message will produce an effect which it could not have had before....

Men of faith and prayer will be constrained to go forth with holy zeal, declaring the words which God gives them. The sins of Babylon will be laid open. The fearful results of enforcing the observances of the church by civil authority, the inroads of spiritualism, the stealthy but rapid progress of the papal power—all will be unmasked. By these solemn warnings the people will be stirred.... As the people go to their former teachers with the eager inquiry, Are these things so? the ministers present fables, prophesy smooth things, to soothe their fears and quiet the awakened conscience. But since many refuse to be satisfied with the mere authority of men and demand a plain “Thus saith the Lord,” the popular ministry, like the Pharisees of old, filled with anger as their authority is questioned, will denounce the message as of Satan and stir up the sin-loving multitudes to revile and persecute those who proclaim it.

As the controversy extends into new fields and the minds of the people are called to God’s downtrodden law, Satan is astir. The power attending the message will only madden those who oppose it. The clergy will put forth almost superhuman efforts to shut away the light lest it should shine upon their flocks. By every means at their command they will endeavor to suppress the discussion of these vital questions. The church appeals to the strong arm of civil power, and, in this work, papists and Protestants unite.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Lord, as the time for the fulfillment of these prophecies are approaching and we currently are seeing some of them in the works, help us to be faithful to You, do Your bidding, and warn the people of their impending doom. Lord, supply all our needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 172 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1231)

Second Angel’s Message to Be Repeated

There followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. - Revelation 14:8.

The second angel’s message of Revelation 14 was first preached in the summer of 1844, and it then had a more direct application to the churches of the United States, where the warning of the judgment had been most widely proclaimed and most generally rejected, and where the declension in the churches had been most rapid. But the message of the second angel did not reach its complete fulfillment in 1844. The churches then experienced a moral fall, in consequence of their refusal of the light of the advent message; but that fall was not complete. As they have continued to reject the special truths for this time they have fallen lower and lower. Not yet, however, can it be said that “Babylon is fallen, ... because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” She has not yet made all nations do this.

God still has a people in Babylon; and before the visitation of His judgments these faithful ones must be called out, that they partake not of her sins and “receive not of her plagues.”

This is the same message that was given by the second angel. Babylon is fallen, “because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” What is that wine?—her false doctrines. She has given to the world a false sabbath instead of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and has repeated the falsehood that Satan first told to Eve in Eden—the natural immortality of the soul. Many kindred errors she has spread far and wide, “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” ...

In the last work for the warning of the world, two distinct calls are made to the churches. The second angel’s message is, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” And in the loud cry of the third angel’s message a voice is heard from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.”

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to heed the call to come out of Babylon and her false doctrines. Lord, supply all our needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 171 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1224)

The Sabbath Proclaimed More Fully

I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. - Revelation 14:6, 7.

At the commencement of the time of trouble, we were filled with the Holy Ghost as we went forth and proclaimed the Sabbath more fully.

“The commencement of that time of trouble,” here mentioned, does not refer to the time when the plagues shall begin to be poured out, but to a short period just before they are poured out, while Christ is in the sanctuary. At that time, while the work of salvation is closing, trouble will be coming on the earth, and the nations will be angry, yet held in check so as not to prevent the work of the third angel. At that time the “latter rain,” or refreshing from the presence of the Lord, will come, to give power to the loud voice of the third angel, and prepare the saints to stand in the period when the seven last plagues shall be poured out.

[The angel of Revelation 14] presents a message that is to be proclaimed to the world just before Christ comes in the clouds of heaven.... Just prior to this time, then, the attention of the people is to be called to the down-trodden law of God, which is contained in the ark of the testament....

They see that instead of observing the seventh day, the day that God sanctified, and commanded to be observed as the Sabbath, they are keeping the first day of the week. But they honestly desire to do God’s will, and they begin to search the Scriptures to find the reason for the change. Failing to find any scriptural authority for the custom, the question arises, Shall we accept a truth that has become unpopular, and obey the commandments of God, or shall we continue with the world, and obey the commandments of men? With open Bibles they weep, and pray, and compare scripture with scripture, until, convinced of the truth, they conscientiously take their stand as keepers of the commandments of God.


Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to sincerely ask ourselves the question, "Shall we accept a truth that has become unpopular, and obey the commandments of God, or shall we continue with the world, and obey the commandments of men?". I pray Lord that we all will decide for You. Lord, supply all our needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 170 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1217#1217)

How the Image to the Beast Evolves

He exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. - Revelation 13:12.

In order for the United States to form an image of the beast, the religious power must so control the civil government that the authority of the state will also be employed by the church to accomplish her own ends....

The “image to the beast” represents that form of apostate Protestantism which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas....

When Sunday observance shall be enforced by law, and the world shall be enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath, then whoever shall transgress the command of God, to obey a precept which has no higher authority than that of Rome, will thereby honor popery above God. He is paying homage to Rome and to the power which enforces the institution ordained by Rome. He is worshiping the beast and his image. As men then reject the institution which God has declared to be the sign of His authority, and honor in its stead that which Rome has chosen as the token of her supremacy, they will thereby accept the sign of allegiance to Rome—“the mark of the beast.” And it is not until the issue is thus plainly set before the people, and they are brought to choose between the commandments of God and the commandments of men, that those who continue in transgression will receive “the mark of the beast.” ...

In the issue of the contest all Christendom will be divided into two great classes—those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark. Although church and state will unite their power to compel “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” (Revelation 13:16), to receive “the mark of the beast,” yet the people of God will not receive it. The prophet of Patmos beholds “them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God” and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Revelation 15:2, 3.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord not receive the mark of the beast but to resist the Sunday law when it comes. Lord, supply all our needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 169 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1210#1210)

The False Revival

Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. - 2 Thessalonians 2:8, 9.

Paul, in his second letter to the Thessalonians, points to the special working of Satan in spiritualism as an event to take place immediately before the second advent of Christ. Speaking of Christ’s second coming, he declares that it is “after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.” 2 Thessalonians 2:9.

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 Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children. At that time many will separate themselves from those churches in which the love of this world has supplanted love for God and His word. Many, both of ministers and people, will gladly accept those great truths which God has caused to be proclaimed at this time to prepare a people for the Lord’s second coming. The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work; and before the time for such a movement shall come, he will endeavor to prevent it by introducing a counterfeit. In those churches which he can bring under his deceptive power he will make it appear that God’s special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest. Multitudes will exult that God is working marvelously for them, when the work is that of another spirit. Under a religious guise, Satan will seek to extend his influence over the Christian world.

Young men and women will be lifted up, and will regard themselves as wonderfully favored, called to do some great thing. There will be conversions many, after a peculiar order, but they will not bear the divine signature. Immorality will come in, and extravagance, and many will make shipwreck of faith.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to be discerning and to test the spirit by "Thus saith the Lord", according to Isaiah 8:20. Lord, supply all our needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 168 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1204)

The Spirits and the Sunday Law Issue

To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. - Isaiah 8:20.

The miracle-working power manifested through spiritualism will exert its influence against those who choose to obey God rather than men. Communications from the spirits will declare that God has sent them to convince the rejecters of Sunday of their error, affirming that the laws of the land should be obeyed as the law of God. They will lament the great wickedness in the world and second the testimony of religious teachers that the degraded state of morals is caused by the desecration of Sunday. Great will be the indignation excited against all who refuse to accept their testimony.

Those who oppose the teachings of spiritualism are assailing, not men alone, but Satan and his angels. They have entered upon a contest against principalities and powers and wicked spirits in high places. Satan will not yield one inch of ground except as he is driven back by the power of heavenly messengers. The people of God should be able to meet him, as did our Saviour, with the words: “It is written.” Satan can quote Scripture now as in the days of Christ, and he will pervert its teachings to sustain his delusions. Those who would stand in this time of peril must understand for themselves the testimony of the Scriptures.

Many will be confronted by the spirits of devils personating beloved relatives or friends and declaring the most dangerous heresies. These visitants will appeal to our tenderest sympathies and will work miracles to sustain their pretensions. We must be prepared to withstand them with the Bible truth that the dead know not anything and that they who thus appear are the spirits of devils.

Satanic agencies in human form will take part in this last great conflict to oppose the building up of the kingdom of God. And heavenly angels in human guise will be on the field of action. The two opposing parties will continue to exist till the closing up of the last great chapter in this world’s history.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to study and understand for ourselves the testimony of the Scriptures so that we'll not be deceived by the spirits of devils that come in the guise of departed relatives and friends. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 167 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1197#1197)

Spiritualism’s Role in Deception

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. - 1 John 4:1.

Many will be ensnared through the belief that spiritualism is a merely human imposture; when brought face to face with manifestations which they cannot but regard as supernatural, they will be deceived, and will be led to accept them as the great power of God.

As the teachings of spiritualism are accepted by the churches, the restraint imposed upon the carnal heart is removed, and the profession of religion will become a cloak to conceal the basest iniquity. A belief in spiritual manifestations opens the door to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and thus the influence of evil angels will be felt in the churches.

The popular ministry cannot successfully resist spiritualism. They have nothing wherewith to shield their flocks from its baleful influence. Much of the sad result of spiritualism will rest upon ministers of this age; for they have trampled the truth under their feet, and in its stead have preferred fables.

Satan has long been preparing for his final effort to deceive the world. The foundation of his work was laid by the assurance given to Eve in Eden: “Ye shall not surely die.” “In the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4, 5. Little by little he has prepared the way for his masterpiece of deception in the development of spiritualism. He has not yet reached the full accomplishment of his designs; but it will be reached in the last remnant of time. Says the prophet: “I saw three unclean spirits like frogs.... They are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” Revelation 16:13, 14. Except those who are kept by the power of God, through faith in His word, the whole world will be swept into the ranks of this delusion. The people are fast being lulled to a fatal security, to be awakened only by the outpouring of the wrath of God.


Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to remember that "to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them", so we can be able to identify these false prophets. Help us Lord to reject any one who preaches any gospel contrary to the Bible. It also means that we need to study the Bible to know what it says for ourselves so we will be able to identify false teachings when we see them. Help us Lord to study more of Your word dear Lord. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 166 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1190)

Apostasy Prepares the Way

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. - 2 Thessalonians 2:3.

When the early church became corrupted by departing from the simplicity of the gospel and accepting heathen rites and customs, she lost the Spirit and power of God; and in order to control the consciences of the people, she sought the support of the secular power. The result was the papacy, a church that controlled the power of the state and employed it to further her own ends, especially for the punishment of “heresy.” ...

Whenever the church has obtained secular power, she has employed it to punish dissent from her doctrines. Protestant churches that have followed in the steps of Rome by forming alliance with worldly powers have manifested a similar desire to restrict liberty of conscience. An example of this is given in the long-continued persecution of dissenters by the Church of England. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, thousands of nonconformist ministers were forced to flee from their churches, and many, both of pastors and people, were subjected to fine, imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom.

It was apostasy that led the early church to seek the aid of the civil government, and this prepared the way for the development of the papacy—the beast. Said Paul: “There” shall “come a falling away ..., and that man of sin be revealed.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3. So apostasy in the church will prepare the way for the image to the beast.

Satan will work with all power and “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness.” 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10. His working is plainly revealed by the rapidly increasing darkness, the multitudinous errors, heresies, and delusions of these last days. Not only is Satan leading the world captive, but his deceptions are leavening the professed churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. The great apostasy will develop into darkness deep as midnight. To God’s people it will be a night of trial, a night of weeping, a night of persecution for the truth’s sake. But out of that night of darkness God’s light will shine.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. You have shown us how the apostasy started in the first place and it is beginning to happen again, Help us Lord not to be part of it but to oppose it with voice, pen and our influence. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 165 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1183)

The Image to the Beast Set Up

[He] deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast. - Revelation 13:14.

The image of the beast will be formed before probation closes; for it is to be the great test for the people of God, by which their eternal destiny will be decided....

In Revelation 13 this subject is plainly presented: “I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.” Then the miracle-working power is revealed: “And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

This is the test that the people of God must have before they are sealed. All who prove their loyalty to God by observing His law, and refusing to accept a spurious sabbath, will rank under the banner of the Lord God Jehovah, and will receive the seal of the living God. Those who yield the truth of heavenly origin, and accept the Sunday sabbath, will receive the mark of the beast....

While John was shown the last great struggles of the church with earthly powers, he was also permitted to behold the final victory and deliverance of the faithful.... Looking beyond the smoke and din of the battle, he beheld a company upon Mount Zion with the Lamb, having, instead of the mark of the beast, the “Father’s name written in their foreheads.”

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to among those who will receive the seal of the living God. Give us the courage to reject the Sunday sabbath when it becomes a law. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 164 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1176#1176)

chatinent:
Jesus will always be drawn as a white man.

Lol.

If on the day of the resurrection, and a black Jesus was coming down from heaven, these brainwashed lots would call him a demon.

When we see Him, we all will know Him. Those who have listened to HIs voice will rejoice but the wicked will hide. There is no mistaken that lovely face.

The Devil’s Strategy Against Sabbathkeepers

Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. - Psalm 94:20, 21.

As the people of God approach the perils of the last days, Satan holds earnest consultation with his angels as to the most successful plan of overthrowing their faith....

Says the great deceiver: “... The Sabbath is the great question which is to decide the destiny of souls. We must exalt the sabbath of our creating. We have caused it to be accepted by both worldlings and church members; now the church must be led to unite with the world in its support. We must work by signs and wonders to blind their eyes to the truth, and lead them to lay aside reason and the fear of God and follow custom and tradition.

“I will influence popular ministers to turn the attention of their hearers from the commandments of God....

“But our principal concern is to silence this sect of Sabbathkeepers. We must excite popular indignation against them. We will enlist great men and worldly-wise men upon our side, and induce those in authority to carry out our purposes. Then the sabbath which I have set up shall be enforced by laws the most severe and exacting. Those who disregard them shall be driven out from the cities and villages, and made to suffer hunger and privation. When once we have the power, we will show what we can do with those who will not swerve from their allegiance to God.... Now that we are bringing the Protestant churches and the world into harmony with this right arm of our strength, we will finally have a law to exterminate all who will not submit to our authority. When death shall be made the penalty of violating our sabbath, then many who are now ranked with commandment keepers will come over to our side.

“But before proceeding to these extreme measures, we must ... ensnare those who honor the true Sabbath. We can separate many from Christ by worldliness, lust, and pride. They may think themselves safe because they believe the truth, but indulgence of appetite or the lower passions, which will confuse judgment and destroy discrimination, will cause their fall.”

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Lord! See all the evil plans the devil is making against Your faithful children that keep the seventh-day, Saturday, holy. Grant us the grace and strength to stand firm for You through it all and may You find us faithful at last. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 163 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1168#1168)

Satan’s Groundwork for the Final Conflict

He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time. - Daniel 7:25, R.V.

During the Christian dispensation, the great enemy of man’s happiness has made the Sabbath of the fourth commandment an object of special attack. Satan says, “I will work at cross purposes with God. I will empower my followers to set aside God’s memorial, the seventh-day Sabbath. Thus I will show the world that the day sanctified and blessed by God has been changed. That day shall not live in the minds of the people. I will obliterate the memory of it. I will place in its stead a day that does not bear the credentials of God, a day that cannot be a sign between God and His people. I will lead those who accept this day to place upon it the sanctity that God placed upon the seventh day.

“Through my vicegerent, I will exalt myself. The first day will be extolled, and the Protestant world will receive this spurious sabbath as genuine. Through the nonobservance of the Sabbath that God instituted, I will bring His law into contempt. The words, “A sign between me and you throughout your generations,’ I will make to serve on the side of my sabbath.

“Thus the world will become mine. I will be the ruler of the earth, the prince of the world. I will so control the minds under my power that God’s Sabbath shall be a special object of contempt. A sign? I will make the observance of the seventh day a sign of disloyalty to the authorities of earth. Human laws will be made so stringent that men and women will not dare to observe the seventh-day Sabbath. For fear of wanting food and clothing, they will join with the world in transgressing God’s law. The earth will be wholly under my dominion.”

The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty, for it is the point of truth especially controverted. When the final test shall be brought to bear upon men, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve Him not.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to be faithful to You through the impending crisis of forced worship on Sunday. Help us to get ready now spiritually, physically mentally and emotionally, we and our families in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 162 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1161#1161)

Preparation for What Lies Ahead

Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger. - Zephaniah 2:3.

Transgression has almost reached its limit. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. God’s people should be preparing for what is to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise.

The “time of trouble, such as never was,” is soon to open upon us; and we shall need an experience which we do not now possess and which many are too indolent to obtain. It is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality; but this is not true of the crisis before us. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal. In that time of trial, every soul must stand for himself before God. “Though Noah, Daniel, and Job” were in the land, “as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.” Ezekiel 14:20.

The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the long-standing controversy concerning the law of God. Upon this battle we are now entering—a battle between the laws of men and the precepts of Jehovah, between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition.

We should study the great waymarks that point out the times in which we are living.... We should now pray most earnestly that we may be prepared for the struggles of the great day of God’s preparation.

Those who place themselves under God’s control, to be led and guided by Him, will catch the steady tread of the events ordained by Him to take place. Inspired with the Spirit of Him who gave His life for the life of the world, they will no longer stand still in impotency, pointing to what they cannot do. Putting on the armor of heaven, they will go forth to the warfare, willing to do and dare for God, knowing that His omnipotence will supply their need.


Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Dear Lord, we surrender ourselves to Your control. Cloth us with the armor of heaven and may we go forth to do battles for You. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 161 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1153#1153)

Coming Events Clearly Revealed

The Lord God does nothing without giving to his servants the prophets knowledge of his plans. - Amos 3:7

The events connected with the close of probation and the work of preparation for the time of trouble, are clearly presented. But multitudes have no more understanding of these important truths than if they had never been revealed. Satan watches to catch away every impression that would make them wise unto salvation, and the time of trouble will find them unready.

As we near the close of this world’s history, the prophecies relating to the last days especially demand our study. The last book of the New Testament scriptures is full of truth that we need to understand.

The solemn messages that have been given in their order in the Revelation are to occupy the first place in the minds of God’s people....

Precious time is rapidly passing, and there is danger that many will be robbed of the time which should be given to the proclamation of the messages that God has sent to a fallen world. Satan is pleased to see the diversion of minds that should be engaged in a study of the truths which have to do with eternal realities.

The testimony of Christ, a testimony of the most solemn character, is to be borne to the world. All through the book of Revelation there are the most precious, elevating promises, and there are also warnings of the most fearfully solemn import. Will not those who profess to have a knowledge of the truth read the testimony given to John by Christ? Here is no guesswork, no scientific deception. Here are the truths that concern our present and future welfare. What is the chaff to the wheat?

Only those who have been diligent students of the Scriptures and who have received the love of the truth will be shielded from the powerful delusion that takes the world captive. By the Bible testimony these will detect the deceiver in his disguise. To all the testing time will come. By the sifting of temptation the genuine Christian will be revealed. Are the people of God now so firmly established upon His word that they would not yield to the evidence of their senses? Would they, in such a crisis, cling to the Bible and the Bible only?

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Thank You Lord for revealing to us through Your word, what You are about to do. Help us not to yield to the evidences of our senses but hold on to Your word. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 159 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1136#1136)

Moving Into Line

The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God. - Psalm 69:32.

It is your privilege to be glad in the Lord, and to rejoice in the knowledge of His sustaining grace. Let His love take possession of mind and heart. Guard against becoming overwearied, careworn, depressed. Bear an uplifting testimony. Turn your eyes away from that which is dark and discouraging, and behold Jesus, our great Leader, under whose watchful supervision the cause of present truth, to which we are giving our lives and our all, is destined to triumph gloriously....

Oh, let it be seen ... that Jesus is abiding in the heart, sustaining, strengthening, comforting. It is your privilege to be endowed, from day to day, with a rich measure of His Holy Spirit, and to have broadened views of the importance and scope of the message we are proclaiming to the world. The Lord is willing to reveal to you wondrous things out of His law. Wait before Him with humility of heart. Pray most earnestly for an understanding of the times in which we live, for a fuller conception of His purpose, and for increased efficiency in soulsaving....

It will be well for us to consider what is soon to come upon the earth. This is no time for trifling or self-seeking. If the times in which we are living fail to impress our minds seriously, what can reach us? ...

Men of clear understanding are needed now. God calls upon those who are willing to be controlled by the Holy Spirit to lead out in a work of thorough reformation. I see a crisis before us, and the Lord calls for His laborers to come into line. Every soul should now stand in a position of deeper, truer consecration to God than during the years that have passed....

I have been deeply impressed by scenes that have recently passed before me in the night season. There seemed to be a great movement—a work of revival—going forward in many places. Our people were moving into line, responding to God’s call.... Shall we not heed His voice? Shall we not trim our lamps, and act like men who look for their Lord to come? The time is one that calls for light bearing, for action.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to fall into line, trim our lamps, and act like men who look for You to come. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 159 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1136#1136)

The Results of False Visions

Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. - Matthew 7:19, 20.

Several now living [1890] are skeptics, have no belief in the gifts of the church, no faith in the truth, no religion at all. Such, I have been shown, is the sure result of spurious visions....

Satan is ... constantly pressing in the spurious—to lead away from the truth.

The very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God. “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). Satan will work ingeniously, in different ways and through different agencies, to unsettle the confidence of God’s remnant people in the true testimony. He will bring in spurious visions to mislead, and will mingle the false with the true, and so disgust people that they will regard everything that bears the name of visions as a species of fanaticism; but honest souls, by contrasting false and true, will be enabled to distinguish between them....

There is nothing more detrimental to the soul’s interest, its purity, its true and holy conceptions of God, and of sacred and eternal things, than constantly giving heed to and exalting that which is not from God. It poisons the heart, and degrades the understanding. Pure truth can be traced to its divine Source, by its elevating, refining, sanctifying influence upon the character of the receiver. The Author of all truth prayed to His Father, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:20, 21).

Things will be constantly arising to cause disunion, to draw away from the truth. This questioning, criticizing, denouncing, passing judgment on others, is not an evidence of the grace of Christ in the heart. It does not produce unity. Such work has been carried on in the past by persons claiming to have wonderful light, when they were deep in sin.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us not to murky springs but may we hold the Bible and the Bible only as our only safe guard. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 158 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1128)

Watch Out for the Dividers!

It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! - Luke 17:1.

God is bringing out a people and preparing them to stand as one, united, to speak the same things, and carry out the prayer of Christ for his disciples.... “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us....”

There are little companies continually arising who believe that God is only with the very few, the very scattered, and their influence is to tear down and scatter that which God’s servants build up.... The people who are putting forth every effort in accordance with God’s word to be one, who are established in the message of the third angel, they look upon with suspicion, for the reason that they are extending their labor, and are gathering souls into the truth. They look upon them as being worldly, because they have influence in the world....

One man arises, claiming to be led of God, who advocates the heresy of the non-resurrection of the wicked.... Another cherishes erroneous views in regard to the future age.... They all want full religious liberty, and each one goes independent of the others, and yet claims that God is especially at work among them.... These people are not sane; they are carried away with a false excitement, and we know that they do not have the truth.... Would to God they would be reformed or give up the Sabbath. They would not then stand in the way of unbelievers....

God is angry with those who pursue a course to make the world hate them. If a Christian is hated because of his good works, and for following Christ, he will have a reward. But if he is hated because he does not take a course to be loved, hated because of his uncultivated manners, and because he makes the truth a matter of quarrel with his neighbors, and because he has taken a course to make the Sabbath as annoying as possible to them, he is a stumbling-block to sinners, a reproach to the sacred truth, and unless he repents it were better for him that a millstone were hung about his neck, and he cast into the sea.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord not to make Your blessed Sabbath day a stumbling block to others. May we always present it and our faith in You in the most beautiful and attractive manner. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 157 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1121#1121)

Counterfeits!

To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. - Isaiah 8:20.

The people of God are directed to the Scriptures as their safeguard against the influence of false teachers and the delusive power of spirits of darkness. Satan employs every possible device to prevent men from obtaining a knowledge of the Bible; for its plain utterances reveal his deceptions. At every revival of God’s work the prince of evil is aroused to more intense activity; he is now putting forth his utmost efforts for a final struggle against Christ and His followers. The last great delusion is soon to open before us. Antichrist is to perform his marvelous works in our sight. So closely will the counterfeit resemble the true that it will be impossible to distinguish between them except by the Holy Scriptures. By their testimony every statement and every miracle must be tested....

The man who makes the working of miracles the test of his faith will find that Satan can, through a species of deceptions, perform wonders that will appear to be genuine miracles.

Satan is a cunning worker, and he will bring in subtle fallacies to darken and confuse the mind and root out the doctrines of salvation. Those who do not accept the Word of God just as it reads, will be snared in his trap.

Evil angels are upon our track every moment.... They assume new ground and work marvels and miracles in our sight....

Some will be tempted to receive these wonders as from God. The sick will be healed before us. Miracles will be performed in our sight. Are we prepared for the trial which awaits us when the lying wonders of Satan shall be more fully exhibited? Will not many souls be ensnared and taken? By departing from the plain precepts and commandments of God, and giving heed to fables, the minds of many are preparing to receive these lying wonders. We must all now seek to arm ourselves for the contest in which we must soon engage. Faith in God’s word, prayerfully studied and practically applied, will be our shield from Satan’s power and will bring us off conquerors through the blood of Christ.


Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to be our guard. May we test all things and not be deceived by fake miracles and manifestations. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 156 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1113)

Prove All Things

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. - Matthew 7:15.

In the work in which my husband and I were called by the providence of God to act a part, even from its very beginning in 1843 and 1844, we have had the Lord to devise and plan for us, and He has worked out His plans through His living agents. False paths have been so often pointed out to us, and the true and safe paths so clearly defined in all the enterprises connected with the work given us to do, that I can say of a truth I am not ignorant of Satan’s devices, nor of the ways and works of God. We have had to tax every power of mind, relying upon wisdom from God to guide us in our investigations, as we have had to review the different theories brought to our attention, weighing their merits and defects in the light shining from the Word of God and the things God has revealed to me through His Word and the testimonies, in order that we might not be deceived nor deceive others. We surrendered our will and way to God, and most earnestly supplicated His aid; and we never sought in vain. Many years of painful experience in connection with the work of God have made me acquainted with all kinds of false movements. Many times I have been sent to different places with the message, “I have a work for you to do in that place; I will be with you.” When the occasion came, the Lord gave me a message for those who were having false dreams and visions, and in the strength of Christ I bore my testimony at the Lord’s bidding....

During the past forty-five years, I have had to meet persons claiming to have from God messages of reproof to others. This phase of religious fanaticism has sprung up again and again since 1844. Satan has worked in many ways to establish error. Some things spoken in these visions came to pass; but many things—in regard to the time of Christ’s coming, the end of probation, and the events to take place—proved utterly false....

“Take heed therefore how ye hear” (Luke 8:18), is an admonition of Christ.... Examine closely, “prove all things” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).... This is the counsel of God; shall we heed it?

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us not to reject all things but to prove all things by Your word according to Isaiah 8:20. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 155 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1107#1107)

Fanaticism and Tongues Speaking

The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. - 1 Corinthians 14:32, 33.

A spirit of fanaticism has ruled a certain class of Sabbathkeepers.... They have sipped but lightly at the fountain of truth and are unacquainted with the spirit of the message of the third angel. Nothing can be done for this class until their fanatical views are corrected....

Some of these persons have exercises which they call gifts and say that the Lord has placed them in the church. They have an unmeaning gibberish which they call the unknown tongue, which is unknown not only by man but by the Lord and all heaven. Such gifts are manufactured by men and women, aided by the great deceiver. Fanaticism, false excitement, false talking in tongues, and noisy exercises have been considered gifts which God has placed in the Church. Some have been deceived here. The fruits of all this have not been good....

There are many restless spirits who will not submit to discipline, system, and order. They think that their liberties would be abridged were they to lay aside their own judgment and submit to the judgment of those of experience. The work of God will not progress unless there is a disposition to submit to order and expel the reckless, disorderly spirit of fanaticism from their meetings. Impressions and feelings are no sure evidence that a person is led by the Lord. Satan will, if he is unsuspected, give feelings and impressions. These are not safe guides. All should thoroughly acquaint themselves with the evidences of our faith, and the great study should be how they can adorn their profession and bear fruit to the glory of God.... A trifling, joking, reckless spirit should be rebuked. It is no evidence of the grace of God upon the heart for persons to talk and pray with talent in meeting, and then give up to a rough, careless manner of talking and acting when out of meeting....

The truth of God will never degrade, but will elevate the receiver, refine his taste, sanctify his judgment, and perfect him for the company of the pure and holy angels in the kingdom of God.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord not to be fanatical but orderly and follow Your lead. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 154 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1100#1100)

Low State of Morals

Fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints. - Ephesians 5:3.

There is an alarming commonness in conversation at the present day, which shows a low state of thoughts and morals. True dignity of character is very rare. True modesty and reserve are seldom seen. There are but few who are pure and undefiled....

Polluted thoughts harbored become habit, and the soul is scarred and defiled. Once do a wrong action and a blot is made which nothing can heal but the blood of Christ; and if the habit is not turned from with firm determination, the soul is corrupted and the streams flowing from this defiling fountain corrupt others.

There are men and women who invite temptation; they place themselves in positions where they will be tempted, where they cannot but be tempted, when they place themselves in society that is objectionable. The best way to keep safe from sin is to move with due consideration at all times and under all circumstances, never to move or act from impulse. Move with the fear of God ever before you and you will be sure to act right.

The moral dangers to which all, both old and young, are exposed are daily increasing. Moral derangement, which we call depravity, finds ample room to work, and an influence is exerted by men, women, and youth professing to be Christians that is low, sensual, devilish....

Those who have learned the truth and do not have works corresponding with their profession of faith are subject to Satan’s temptations. They encounter danger at every step they advance. They are brought into contact with evil, they see sights, they hear sounds, that will awaken their unsubdued passions; they are subjected to influences that lead them to choose the evil rather than the good, because they are not sound at heart....

There is no training we need so much now as the preparing of young men and women to have moral rectitude and to cleanse their souls of every spot and stain of moral defilement.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to have works corresponding with our profession of faith. Cleanse our souls of every spot and stain of moral defilement so we may become sound at heart. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

_Culled from Maranatha pg. 153 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1091#1091)

Ottoman Empire in Prophecy

Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. - Revelation 9:14, 15.

The history of nations that one after another have occupied their allotted time and place, unconsciously witnessing to the truth of which they themselves knew not the meaning, speaks to us. To every nation and to every individual of today God has assigned a place in His great plan. Today men and nations are being measured by the plummet in the hand of Him who makes no mistake. All are by their own choice deciding their destiny, and God is overruling all for the accomplishment of His purposes....

All that prophecy has foretold as coming to pass, until the present time, has been traced on the pages of history, and we may be assured that all which is yet to come will be fulfilled in its order.

In the year 1840, another remarkable fulfilment of prophecy excited widespread interest. Two years before, Josiah Litch, one of the leading ministers preaching the second advent, published an exposition of Revelation 9, predicting the fall of the Ottoman empire. According to his calculations, this power was to be overthrown “in A.D. 1840, sometime in the month of August;” and only a few days previous to its accomplishment he wrote: “Allowing the first period, 150 years, to have been exactly fulfilled before Deacozes ascended the throne by permission of the Turks, and that the 391 years, fifteen days, commenced at the close of the first period, it will end on the 11th of August, 1840, when the Ottoman power in Constantinople may be expected to be broken. And this, I believe, will be found to be the case.”—Josiah Litch, in Signs of the Times, and Expositor of Prophecy, August 1, 1840.

At the very time specified, Turkey, through her ambassadors, accepted the protection of the allied powers of Europe, and thus placed herself under the control of Christian nations. The event exactly fulfilled the prediction.... A wonderful impetus was given to the advent movement.


Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Thank You for revealing to Your servants what is to be before it happens to strengthen our faith in You. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 152 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1084#1084)

The Stars of Heaven Fall

The stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. - Matthew 24:29.

In 1833, ... the last of the signs appeared which were promised by the Saviour as tokens of His second advent. Said Jesus, “The stars shall fall from heaven.” And John in the Revelation declared, as he beheld in vision the scenes that should herald the day of God, “The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” This prophecy received a striking and impressive fulfilment in the great meteoric shower of November 13, 1833. That was the most extensive and wonderful display of falling stars which has ever been recorded; “the whole firmament, over all the United States, being then, for hours, in fiery commotion! No celestial phenomenon has ever occurred in this country, since its first settlement, which was viewed with such intense admiration by one class in the community, or with so much dread and alarm by another.” “Its sublimity and awful beauty still linger in many minds.... Never did rain fall much thicker than the meteors fell toward the earth; east, west, north, and south, it was the same. In a word, the whole heavens seemed in motion.... The display, as described in Professor Silliman’s Journal, was seen all over North America.... From two o’clock until broad daylight, ... an incessant play of dazzlingly brilliant luminosities was kept up in the whole heavens.”—R. M. Devens, American Progress; or, The Great Events of the Greatest Century, ch. 28, pars. 1-5.

Thus was displayed the last of those signs of His coming, concerning which Jesus bade His disciples, “When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” After these signs, John beheld, as the great event next impending, the heavens departing as a scroll, while the earth quaked, mountains and islands removed out of their places, and the wicked in terror sought to flee from the presence of the Son of man.

But the day and the hour of His coming Christ has not revealed.... The exact time of the second coming of the Son of man is God’s mystery.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Lord, Your coming is nearer than we think, help us to be faithful till the very end. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 151 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1078#1078)

Signs in the Heavens

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. - Joel 2:31.

In the Saviour’s conversation with His disciples upon Olivet, after describing the long period of trial for the church—the 1260 years of papal persecution, concerning which He had promised that the tribulation should be shortened—He thus mentioned certain events to precede His coming, and fixed the time when the first of these should be witnessed: “In those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.” The 1260 days, or years, terminated in 1798. A quarter of a century earlier, persecution had almost wholly ceased. Following this persecution, according to the words of Christ, the sun was to be darkened. On the 19th of May, 1780, this prophecy was fulfilled.

“Almost if not altogether alone, as the most mysterious and as yet unexplained phenomenon of its kind, ... stands the dark day of May 19, 1780—a most unaccountable darkening of the whole visible heavens and atmosphere in New England.”—R. M. Devens, Our First Century, p. 89....

The intense darkness of the day was succeeded, an hour or two before evening, by a partially clear sky, and the sun appeared, though it was still obscured by the black, heavy mist. “After sundown, the clouds came again overhead, and it grew dark very fast.” “Nor was the darkness of the night less uncommon and terrifying than that of the day; notwithstanding there was almost a full moon, no object was discernible but by the help of some artificial light....”—Isaiah Thomas, Massachusetts Spy; or, American Oracle of Liberty, vol. 10, No. 472 (May 25, 1780)....

The description of this event, as given by eyewitnesses, is but an echo of the words of the Lord, recorded by the prophet Joel, twenty-five hundred years previous to their fulfilment: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.”

Christ had bidden His people watch for the signs of His advent, and rejoice as they should behold the tokens of their coming King.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Lord, fill our hearts with rejoicing as we see signs of Your return all around us. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 150 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1070#1076)

The Violent Earth

I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake. - Revelation 6:12.

Prophecy not only foretells the manner and object of Christ’s coming, but presents tokens by which men are to know when it is near.... The revelator thus describes the first of the signs to precede the second advent: “There was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.”

These signs were witnessed before the opening of the nineteenth century. In fulfilment of this prophecy there occurred, in the year 1755, the most terrible earthquake that has ever been recorded. Though commonly known as the earthquake of Lisbon, it extended to the greater part of Europe, Africa, and America. It was felt in Greenland, in the West Indies, in the island of Madeira, in Norway and Sweden, Great Britain and Ireland. It pervaded an extent of not less than four million square miles. In Africa the shock was almost as severe as in Europe. A great part of Algiers was destroyed; and a short distance from Morocco, a village containing eight or ten thousand inhabitants was swallowed up. A vast wave swept over the coast of Spain and Africa, engulfing cities, and causing great destruction.

It was in Spain and Portugal that the shock manifested its extreme violence. At Cadiz the inflowing wave was said to be sixty feet high. Mountains, “some of the largest in Portugal, were impetuously shaken, as it were, from their very foundations.” ...—Sir Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, p. 495.... “The earthquake happened on a holy day, when the churches and convents were full of people, very few of whom escaped.”—Encyclopedia Americana, art. “Lisbon,” note (ed. 1831).... It has been estimated that ninety thousand persons lost their lives on that fatal day.

How frequently we hear of earthquakes and tornadoes, of destruction by fire and flood, with great loss of life and property! Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of disorganized, unregulated forces of nature, wholly beyond the control of man; but in them all, God’s purpose may be read. They are among the agencies by which He seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger.


Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to be aware of the signs of the times and be ready for Your soon return. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 149 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1063#1063)

Healing Can Be From the Devil

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. - 1 Peter 5:8.

The fallacies of Satan are now being multiplied, and those who swerve from the path of truth will lose their bearings. Having nothing to which to anchor, they will drift from one delusion to another, blown about by the winds of strange doctrines. Satan has come down with great power. Many will be deceived by his miracles.

I am instructed to say that in the future great watchfulness will be needed. There is to be among God’s people no spiritual stupidity. Evil spirits are actively engaged in seeking to control the minds of human beings. Men are binding up in bundles, ready to be consumed by the fires of the last days. Those who discard Christ and His righteousness will accept the sophistry that is flooding the world. Christians are to be sober and vigilant, steadfastly resisting their adversary the devil, who is going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Men under the influence of evil spirits will work miracles....

We need not be deceived. Wonderful scenes, with which Satan will be closely connected, will soon take place. God’s Word declares that Satan will work miracles. He will make people sick, and then will suddenly remove from them his satanic power. They will then be regarded as healed. These works of apparent healing will bring Seventh-day Adventists to the test....

If those through whom cures are performed, are disposed, on account of these manifestations, to excuse their neglect of the law of God, and continue in disobedience, though they have power to any and every extent, it does not follow that they have the great power of God. On the contrary, it is the miracle-working power of the great deceiver. He is a transgressor of the moral law, and employs every device that he can master to blind men to its true character. We are warned that in the last days he will work with signs and lying wonders. And he will continue these wonders until the close of probation, that he may point to them as evidence that he is an angel of light and not of darkness.

Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us Lord to be vigilant and anoint our eyes with eye salve that we ay be discerning in these last days. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 147 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1049#1049)

Beware of Man-made Tests

Beware ... of evil workers.... For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. - Philippians 3:2, 3.


There are those who need in their hearts the touch of the divine Spirit. Then the message for this time will be their burden. They will not search for human tests, for something new and strange. The Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the test for this time.

The commandment of God that has been almost universally made void, is the testing truth for this time.... The time is coming when all those who worship God will be distinguished by this sign. They will be known as the servants of God, by this mark of their allegiance to Heaven. But all man-made tests will divert the mind from the great and important doctrines that constitute the present truth.

It is the desire and plan of Satan to bring in among us those who will go to great extremes—people of narrow minds, who are critical and sharp, and very tenacious in holding their own conceptions of what the truth means. They will be exacting, and will seek to enforce rigorous duties, and go to great lengths in matters of minor importance, while they neglect the weightier matters of the law—judgment and mercy and the love of God. Through the work of a few of this class of persons, the whole body of Sabbathkeepers will be designated as bigoted ... and fanatical....

God has a special work for the men of experience to do. They are to guard the cause of God. They are to see that the work of God is not committed to men who feel it their privilege to move out on their own independent judgment, to preach whatever they please, and to be responsible to no one for their instructions or work. Let this spirit of self-sufficiency once rule in our midst, and there will be no harmony of action, no unity of spirit, no safety for the work, and no healthful growth in the cause.... Christ prayed that His followers might be one as He and the Father were one. Those who desire to see this prayer answered, should seek to discourage the slightest tendency to division, and try to keep the spirit of unity and love among brethren.


Prayer:
Our Father in heaven. Thank You for another wonderful message today. Help us to love one another and be united in You. Bless our finances, bless all that concerns us, give us good health that we may testify to all of Your goodness to us. Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers for we have asked in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and soon coming King, Amen!

Friends, feel free to share your testimonies 📣 with us and also share your prayer requests with us here https://www.giministry.org/prayer-request.html Our prayer team will be lifting up supplications to the throne of grace. God bless you!

Visit https://www.giministry.org/ for more...

Culled from Maranatha pg. 147 (https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/74.1049#1049)