By John Thiel, mp3

Genuine Love

The love of God is not a watering down of God’s principles; it is an upholding of God’s principles when you carefully look at it. Sadly it is true that many fallen churches uphold the love gospel while they disregard absolute and correct law adherence. They say that the law is not as important as the love of God and because of this, every one who upholds the love gospel is identified with that kind of mentality of the fallen churches. Satan has painted a picture that true law keepers are not loving and loveable Christians; they teach judgment and law, legalism; they are void of God’s love. That is the picture that Satan draws.

It is a sad reality that many reformers communicate and characterise rigid austerity. Quick to point out you have to change here and you’re doing something wrong there. This kind of mentality has developed. Many Adventists and reformers are austere, void of gentle characteristics of love, those softer characteristics. This is the case that has been not only painted by Satan but created in the lives of many reformers. While many on the opposite side of the pendulum can be ever so gentle, ever so loving, ever so courteous and tolerant are void of strict obedience to all of God’s will. This is what we see in today’s religious circles. It is my concern, where do we find the middle road of true, loving godliness; true godliness; law abiding faithfulness with gentle, kind love and courtesy. Where can we find this? For us to be of such a characteristic, where can we behold it and by beholding become like that?

Galatians 5:6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

Here is the bottom line of true Christianity. In Jesus Christ you will find faith which worketh by love. I like the amplification of this Scripture.

We are under a debt of gratitude to God for the revelation of His love in Christ Jesus; and as intelligent human agents, we are to reveal to the world the manner of character that will result from obedience to every specification of the law of God’s government. {AG 58.5}

What an interesting combination of thoughts are here. We are under debt of gratitude for the revelation of His love in Christ Jesus and as intelligent human agents, we who have been indebted by seeing that love in Jesus; are to reveal to the world the manner of character that will result from obedience to every specification of the law of God’s government.

In perfect obedience to His holy will, we are to manifest adoration, love, cheerfulness, and praise, and thus honor and glorify God. {AG 58.5}

Is this different to what often happens? Under the extreme expectations of God’s perfect will, are people obedient in a manner of adoration, love, cheerfulness and praise, or are they all a lot of serious faced, troubled souls? We are to give God the glory according to the first angel’s message. Fear God and give Him the glory, for the hour of His judgment is come. Humanly speaking, I don’t see much human understanding in this respect, because we associate judgment with a serious straight-faced austerity. Here it says, give God the glory by obedience to every specification of the law of God in perfect obedience to His holy will manifesting adoration, love, cheerfulness and praise and thus honor and glorify God.

It is in this way alone that man may reveal the character of God in Christ to the world, and make manifest to men that happiness, peace, assurance, and grace come from obedience to the law of God. {AG 58.5}

Isn’t that fascinating to think about this; that the contrast of an austere religious order that remains obedient to every specification of God’s law, the austerity is to be removed and in its place we are to reveal the character of God in love, cheerfulness, praise, and honor; in a manner of character that is loving. The greatest argument for the truth is a loving and lovable Christian. The true manifestation of love is to take place in the lives of those who are the true law keepers.

Jesus says, “Love one another, as I have loved you.” Love is not simply an impulse, a transitory emotion, dependent upon circumstances; it is a living principle, a permanent power. The soul is fed by the streams of pure love that flow from the heart of Christ, as a well-spring that never fails. O, how is the heart quickened, how are its motives ennobled, its affections deepened, by this communion! {5BC 1140.3}

Notice that love is more than what we regard it in this world, an impulse, a transitory emotion. You know what happens in a marriage many times; you love them then all of a sudden you hate them. How many times has that happened in a marriage? That is not the love from God. A love-hate relationship doesn’t fit into God’s love. It is a love that is a permanent power, a living principle. It is fed by the streams of pure love that flow from the heart of Christ.

Under the education and discipline of the Holy Spirit, the children of God love one another, truly, sincerely, unaffectedly–“without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” And this is because the heart is in love with Jesus.

This was the message I shared several months ago where we read I want you to fall in love with the man of Calvary, where in my dream I was showing to this poor lady who was separated from her husband in affections, that she must fall in love with another man for her to love her husband correctly. As it is written, that God’s children are to love one another truly, sincerely, unaffectedly, without partiality and without hypocrisy, because the heart is in love with Jesus. If it’s not in love with Jesus you can’t do this.

Our affection for one another springs from our common relation to God. {5BC 1140.3}

When there is estrangement in the church, when there is estrangement in the family, then what is the problem? The problem is that there is not a common relation with God. There is not a deep communion with God; that is the source of the problem.

We are one family, we love one another as He loved us. When compared with this true, sanctified, disciplined affection, the shallow courtesy of the world, the meaningless expressions of effusive friendship, are as chaff to the wheat (Letter 63, 1896). {5BC 1140.3}

When the true love of God is brought into focus in a person’s life, then all those lovely soft-natured activities that we see in the world around us appears as chaff because it is something far higher; it is a disciplined love, a disciplined affection which is generated by falling in love with the man of the Bible.

To love as Christ loved means to manifest unselfishness at all times and in all places, by kind words and pleasant looks. {5BC 1140.4}

Does that require unselfishness? When somebody is treading on your spiritual and mental toe, are you going, I love you? Or do you react negatively and say, you are hurting me? When you get hurt and you are unselfish, you think of the other person, that you don’t make him feel too bad about hurting you. That is the love of Christ, isn’t it? We can see how much we need this. By kind words and pleasant looks, instead of this austere, rigidity there are pleasant looks and kind words.

These cost those who give them nothing, but they leave behind a fragrance that surrounds the soul. Their effect can never be estimated. Not only are they a blessing to the receiver, but to the giver; for they react upon him. {5BC 1140.4}

When you react in a godly manner it affects you.

Genuine love is a precious attribute of heavenly origin, which increases in fragrance in proportion as it is dispensed to others. . {5BC 1140.4}

May God help us to find this practice.

Christ’s love is deep and earnest, flowing like an irrepressible stream to all who will accept it. {5BC 1140.5}

There is something to accept.

There is no selfishness in His love. If this heaven-born love is an abiding principle in the heart, it will make itself known,… {5BC 1140.5}

By this will all the world know that you are my disciples. It will make itself known.

…not only to those we hold most dear in sacred relationship, but to all with whom we come in contact. It will lead us to bestow little acts of attention, to make concessions, to perform deeds of kindness, to speak tender, true, encouraging words. It will lead us to sympathize with those whose hearts hunger for sympathy (MS 17, 1899). {5BC 1140.5}

The world around us is hungering for sympathy. With the love of God upon us, it says that we will make concessions. What does that mean? With some making a difference pulling them out of the fire. You see a brother and a sister floundering, falling into sin, the typical reaction of a reformer is, oh, look at what they are doing, this is sinful. This is sin in the camp. We become judgmental over each other. What are we to do when we have the love of Jesus? It will lead us to bestow little acts of attention, to make concessions. I will make a concession here; my brother or my sister has done something wrong; let me try to understand what has happened. You will see as I continue, this understanding that will make a difference when we see people doing wrong and they are church members. We will have an understanding that comes from heaven and not from my own expectations of other people.

Selfishness and pride hinder the pure love that unites us in spirit with Jesus Christ. If this love is truly cultivated, finite will blend with finite, and all will center in the Infinite. Humanity will unite with humanity, and all will be bound up with the heart of Infinite Love. {5BC 1140.6}

I must cultivate this love; it doesn’t come without cultivation.

Sanctified love for one another is sacred. In this great work Christian love for one another–far higher, more constant, more courteous, more unselfish, than has been seen–preserves Christian tenderness, {5BC 1140.6}

How tender are we with one another?

Christian benevolence, and politeness, and enfolds the human brotherhood in the embrace of God, acknowledging the dignity with which God has invested the rights of man. This dignity Christians must ever cultivate for the honor and glory of God. {5BC 1140.6}

I have read something to exercise our minds upon.

The love of God is very much needed among people who profess to be law keepers, very much needed. This kind of love is a power. It tells you that it is a power that changes our behaviour one toward another. It is a power that produces something.

Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Iniquity is lawlessness. He wants to redeem us from lawlessness which is the way the world is – lawless. This is the love of God; it produces people with zeal for good works; it produces people with a willingness to obey every specification of God’s law. This is the love that we need to contemplate so that we become the strictest Christians and yet the most loving, the most concessional, the most trusting, the most tender, the most forgiving.

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

This grace, this love, this gift of Jesus is there to develop a people that are going to be the strictest on earth and yet the most loving. How does this kind of love become active in a church, in a family? This kind of love gospel does not make people careless in regards to every specification of God’s law; it makes them more attentive to it; it makes them strict reformers. Yet there is something that has to be changed in them if they are going to be that kind of people.

Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure.

We can read the laws of God from our perspective. We can say yes God has said we must do; God has said this and I must be obedient. We can do all that from a different motive than that which I have just read. It must be God that works in us to will and to do of all those things that we understand the word of God teaches for these last days. Whether it is the way that a woman wears her hair, whether it is the way a person dresses themselves, whatever it is, there is something that I can’t do unless it is God working in me to will.

We have known this. There have been times when we have struggled. If you look back, you have struggled with a particular situation that God’s word declares and you have said, no and look for some little statement of God’s word that makes it of no effect. Then slowly it dawned upon you that it’s God’s will. As we do that, we suddenly see how patient and loving God really is toward us. This is what happens. God begins to work upon the soul to be a motivating power that is not merely our own human motivated power. I can do things to make myself look righteous and that is the problem with Pharisaical Christianity. We do things under a motive that is not precisely that which God is producing for us. The first thing is to will. There have been many occasions and there will come more occasions where my will needs to be affected to be strict and faithful and overcome sin. The will is one of the faculties that are needed for progress in the Christian life and Satan has ventured to destroy this.

What is My Battle?

The tempted one needs to understand the true force of the will. This is the governing power in the nature of man–the power of decision, of choice. Everything depends on the right action of the will. {MH 176.1}

This is why I have said with people who have come to me and sought for counsel to conquer those things that get in their way. It is your choice; you have to make the choice whether you are going to fall for this or whether you are going to keep on going along this path. The will is the power of decision and of choice. Everything depends on the right action of the will.

Desires for goodness and purity are right, so far as they go;… {MH 176.1}

Because it pays well; it is good. I have a desire to be a loving and loveable Christian but not that person, I can’t love that person. That person is horrible to me. I can’t love a person who is unkind to me. I have a desire for purity and for right, but that desire as far as it goes is right.

…but if we stop here, they avail nothing. Many will go down to ruin while hoping and desiring to overcome their evil propensities.{MH 176.1}

This is what you see in Christianity; struggle, struggle, struggle and oh I desire to be Christlike but I keep falling down. Why? Why do we keep struggling like this and not gain victories?

They do not yield the will to God. They do not choose to serve Him. {MH 176.1}

When you and I know that I should be a loving and loveable Christian but I can’t stand this particular character, what must I do? I must yield my will to God who says, you are to love one another. You are to discipline yourself to love that person as much as you don’t like them. It is easy to like somebody that is pleasant to you, but to love somebody who is not pleasant to you, that is the part that God has revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Who did He come to redeem? He didn’t come to redeem those who loved Him, He loved the unlovely and reached down and affected them.

God has given us the power of choice; it is ours to exercise. We cannot change our hearts, we cannot control our thoughts, our impulses, our affections. We cannot make ourselves pure, fit for God’s service. But we can choose to serve God, we can give Him our will; then He will work in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Thus our whole nature will be brought under the control of Christ. {MH 176.2}

What is my part? I must give Him my will. I must choose by my will power to do and submit myself entirely to whatever God says.

Thus our whole nature will be brought under the control of Christ. {MH 176.2}

Through the right exercise of the will, an entire change may be made in the life. By yielding up the will to Christ, we ally ourselves with divine power. We receive strength from above to hold us steadfast. {MH 176.3}

What is love? It is the power of God, strength from above.

A pure and noble life, a life of victory over appetite and lust, is possible to everyone who will unite his weak, wavering human will to the omnipotent, unwavering will of God. {MH 176.2}

This is the answer to the problems that humanity and Christianity in either side of the pendulum suffers under because the will is not brought into harmony with God’s will. If we want to conquer, if we want to be victorious triumphant people, it can only be gained by the correct knowledge of my will in regards to God’s will.

But the infinite sacrifice of God in giving Jesus, His beloved Son, to become a sacrifice for sin, enables Him to say, without violating one principle of His government: “Yield yourself up to Me; give Me that will; take it from the control of Satan,… {5T 515.1}

Why? Satan has got us; he has got our will.

…and I will take possession of it; then I can work in you to will and to do of My good pleasure.” When He gives you the mind of Christ, your will becomes as His will, and your character is transformed to be like Christ’s character. Is it your purpose to do God’s will? Do you wish to obey the Scriptures? “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” {MH 176.2}

Here we see a very important activity that is illuminated to our mind. The will is the one I must give, to surrender all, to do everything that God has said but that will, will not function according to God’s will unless I give Him and I yield to Him that will. Here is the problem.

Haven’t you found it? When it comes to a situation in your life that God’s word is expecting something of you and me that cuts right to the bone; the very thing that is very precious to me that is so heavily embedded upon my system; for me to give up my will there and then is the problem. Entire surrender in all respects to the will of God. I am not speaking of the things that are easy to us.

Some people find it easy to do dress reform. Other people have a real struggle with it and it’s like plucking out their right eye. Whatever subject it is, there are situations where we have to meet with God’s expectations and we say, no, that is too hard; that is going too far. Whatever God says, is it in harmony with our natural state of being on this earth? Is God’s will going too far to our expectations on earth? It is absolutely. We say, that is over the top, I can’t do that. Is it God’s will? If it is God’s will, it’s too hard. Most people find it impossible at some point in their experience to go on any further.

There is the problem, that entire surrender of the will must take place. It is not only in regards to the standards, it is in regards to everything, even things that are to do with our emotions and feelings that are contrary to what is expected of me. Why is it that we find impossibilities when God’s word is expecting something of me and my will is just not there?

In every age since the fall of Adam the opposition of evil agencies has made the lives of those who would be loyal and true to God’s commandments a continual warfare. {HP 260.2}

If they haven’t got the right approach that is what makes them austere. It’s a warfare; they have got grim faces. I have to do this right and they are suffering under the struggles. They look like grim reapers.

Those who would at last be victorious must meet and conquer the forces of Satan, who with fierce determination opposes every step of advance. They must meet a vigilant foe, a crafty enemy who never sleeps and who tries untiringly to undermine the faith of God’s servants. {HP 260.2}

That is our problem.

Good and evil never harmonize. Between light and darkness there can be no compromise. Truth is light revealed; error is darkness. Light has no fellowship with darkness, righteousness no fellowship with unrighteousness. {HP 260.3}

I wish that I could trace words which would present this matter as it is. {HP 260.4}

For Sr White to say this, she has been shown something and she can see what the problem is and she says, I wish I could find words to trace this. I can really identify with her in this because I have seen enough now; the Lord has led me over the years that I wish I could get something across when I see people struggling.

God expects His soldiers to be ever on duty. Never are they to yield to temptation, never to be unjust. They are neither to yield nor flee. {HP 260.4}

They are neither to yield to Satan nor to flee. That is tough going yet….

Relying on the strength of God, {HP 260.4}

What is that? It is His love; that is the power.

…they are to maintain their integrity. With a firmness that will not yield an inch, they are to hold fast to the word, “It is written.” {HP 260.4}

Bear in mind that we are placed on vantage ground because Christ has overcome in our behalf. He has made every provision for us to overcome. Divine power stands behind every will resolutely set to do the right. {HP 260.5}

When does divine power come? It stands behind every will resolutely set to do the right. A will that is resolute to do the right, to do whatever it means.

God has provided the armor and the weapons with which each one is to fight. Let the soldiers of Christ put on the whole armor of God and flinch not at Satan’s attacks. . . . Success in the Christian warfare means watchfulness and a daily crucifixion of self. {HP 260.5}

Here we have the source of austerity in the faces of people that have to fight against the enemy who is constantly working upon us the opposite way to what I would like to be. Haven’t you experienced this? Haven’t we suffered? Haven’t we seen it in people stumbling and falling? I am still seeing it happening now. There has to come a point where we will stop that. There has to come a point where we will conquer, because we are to be part of the church triumphant. That is what our desire is. God comes and says yes, I am going to make you mine but please understand what is happening. You will be struggling against Satan and you need a resolute will.

To give you that resolute will is what God is about. My will must be resolute; I must do what God’s will is even though it may kill me. That is exactly what the Scripture says.

Hebrews 12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

Jesus did the Father’s will, He has resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

It means taking hold of Christ by living faith and resisting evil if need be unto blood, striving against sin. {HP 260.6}

How can I do it? I need to be motivated to give my will, I need to surrender my will, I need to will what God wills and that is my struggle because Satan is there destroying this. There is only one way by which God can create in me a willing wilfulness; a wilfulness to submit.

How to Surrender My Will

All men have been bought with this infinite price. By pouring the whole treasury of heaven into this world, by giving us in Christ all heaven, God has purchased the will, the affections, the mind, the soul, of every human being. . . All men are the Lord’s property. {HP 198.3}

What has God done in His great love for hopeless desperately sinful human beings that we all are? I can’t even change if I want to; I am so caught up with my own affections and feelings, my own will to do what I want to do. Now God comes and says, I want you to do this because if the whole world were commandment keepers it would be a happy place. I acknowledge that certain actions in my life are going to be good for me but I am motivated by selfishness. If I am doing these things because it is going to be good for me, it is for my selfish reasons. The moment that God wants you to do something in trying to keep every specification of His will, suddenly you think, this isn’t any good for me, I am suffering here.

Now comes the challenge. Do I want to give Him my will? If you will look to the love that is in Jesus Christ, what will you see? You will see that your affections and your will is being bought. He is buying your will in pouring out all heaven. As your mind is occupied with this amazing love of God (and I have tried to do it over the past several months, to show again and again all these different outpourings of God’s great love to us for one purpose, to purchase my will), I realise my will has to come into action but I am so indolent I don’t even feel like giving Him my will; I want my will.

I have to make choices that are contrary to my natural being and Satan is there creating this dilemma. I must focus upon God pouring out His treasury of heaven in this world by giving us in Christ all heaven. As I look at that, my will is bought. Now I will put my will on God’s side and every time there is another discovery of another detail in my life, I need to remember Jesus has paid the price for that and I am prepared to place my will resolutely to do the will of God. It is a constant battle that can only be sustained by those whose love has not grown cold.

Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

When love grows cold, can they will? Can they put their will on God’s side? They can’t; it is a constant battle that we can only sustain if my love for God doesn’t grow cold. To prevent my love for God from growing cold, I must keep on appreciating the amazing revelations of that love, in pouring out all heaven in what Jesus has done for me. We want to see and behold and grasp the vision of everything that I have shared in the past and bring it fresh to our memory. By pouring the whole treasury of heaven into this world, by giving us in Christ all heaven. This requires a beholding of what it actually was.

Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who [can be] against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

For God’s people He has provided through Jesus Christ a position with Him in His throne; all heaven. It is the treasury of all heaven to sinners such as you and me. If this is what God has done, He spared not His own Son, He didn’t spare anything to purchase my will, what shall I do with my will? Every step of the way, Lord, whatever your will is, that is what I will do. I am comforted every time I look at the wonderful gift of Jesus and that’s it. I love Him so much because He has bought my love, He has bought my will. Do you remember what happens in Christ Jesus? It is faith that works by love. Let us expand briefly on what I have shared in the past. When can you experience that love in all its glory?

Only he who sees his own sinfulness can discern the preciousness of the Saviour. {DA 494.4}

When you see how corrupt you really are; when we see all the absolute hopelessness of our condition. When we see it, then we will see the amazing love of God. Namely Jesus in the depth of the misery of His life that He received from you and me. There are chapters and struggles in our life that we want to keep the lid on. I don’t want to go there; those skeletons in the cupboard; those areas of even now where I am putting on a brave front because there is something still festering underneath that I know is not God’s way. I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to talk about it and I have seen this many times.

I have come to different individuals when I have tried to reach them and they say, no that is not what I am going to enter into. Why don’t we enter into it? It is because it hurts too much. When we look at Jesus and we open up that which hurts, we see an amazing love. We see that although I am so despicably, hopelessly lost in my emotional and sinful past and present failures, when I take the lid off that, I see Jesus there. That is an amazing discovery of God’s love. When I really see for myself that Jesus was numbered among transgressors, He the God of the universe became one with me.

We must read it ourselves and appreciate His cry. Look what I have done for you; I am numbered among the transgressors because The Desire of Ages 685 says, because I have embraced your sins in every respect; that is why I am counted among transgressors. Only as I see this and I surrender myself to it can the love of God begin to flow.

Lamentations 1:13 From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate [and] faint all the day. 14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, [and] come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into [their] hands, [from whom] I am not able to rise up.

Look at what the Father has done for me, I the Son of God. I the God of the universe have come down here; I am suffering with you. I have emptied myself out into your suffering.

What we have shared in the past in God’s word in reference to Christ must be expanded upon in our mind in application to our sinful self. Only then can we appreciate God’s love. Then our will, will change.

Psalm 88:3 For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. :4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man [that hath] no strength: 5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand. 6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. 7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves.

Isn’t that an experience that Jesus when through? That is the experience you and I will meet and we must see the love that will alter my will’s direction. See Him and gaze upon and admire Him as He goes through these experiences as He is hanging on the cross. By faith He entrusts Himself into the hands of God even though He said my God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? He finally breaks the bond of that and trusts in the God whom He has known is so loving and kind to Him. He breaks out of that and He does not remain in the tomb. The Father lifts Him up out of the hopeless condition that you and I are in. He has suffered and He has poured out His love upon us in those details. When we read it, when we ponder upon it, we come to the realisation, yes, I want to do God’s will and I have put my will on God’s side.

Then comes another problem. Now that I have done so, now that I am conquering sin and I fall again; what is the love of God now? I have placed my will on His side in the past, but now I have slipped and fallen again. What is the beautiful comfort now? What is His love now?

1 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

The one who has poured out His life for me; the one that I have disgraced by my failure is pleading for me still. He is there suffering still with my sinfulness because He himself is the I Am who knows the past experience as present.

How careful is the Lord Jesus to give no occasion for a soul to despair. {7BC 948.2}

I was surprised that when I shared these powerful things people came away from those sermons sometimes more discouraged. I shake my head, didn’t I just share this? When I see myself in my deplorable state and I lift the lid up then I make grave mistakes after that and I am still not becoming successful, Jesus is very careful not to send me into despair.

How He fences about the soul from Satan’s fierce attacks. If through manifold temptations we are surprised or deceived into sin, He does not turn from us and leave us to perish. No, no, that is not our Saviour. Christ prayed for us. He was tempted in all points like as we are; and having been tempted, He knows how to succor those who are tempted.{7BC 948.2}

Our crucified Lord is pleading for us in the presence of the Father at the throne of grace. His atoning sacrifice we may plead for our pardon, our justification, and our sanctification. {7BC 948.3}

The blood of Jesus is pleading with power and efficacy for those who are back-slidden, for those who are rebellious, for those who sin against great light and love. Satan stands at our right hand to accuse us, and our Advocate stands at God’s right hand to plead for us. He has never lost a case that has been committed to Him. We may trust in our Advocate; for He pleads His own merits in our behalf. Hear His prayer before His betrayal and trial. Listen to His prayer for us; for He had us in remembrance. {7BC 948.5}

All heaven is poured out in Jesus.

No sooner is the name of Jesus mentioned in love and tenderness than angels of God draw near to soften and subdue the heart. {6T 339.2}

Isn’t that what I need? I need to have a heart, a will that is softened and subdued. As my heart cries out in my agony of condition, something happens because I love my Lord, He has done so much for me. All heaven is there not only in Jesus but what did Jesus have when He was in the wilderness? He was tempted there so terrible. When He was ready to faint, what happened? As will happen to all of us, angels of God were sent to Him to strengthen Him. There in Gethsemane that beautiful picture of the head of Jesus upon Gabriel’s bosom to strengthen Him. Do you need strength? Do you need the strength to put your will resolutely behind God’s will to do what He says even if it means unto blood? The angels of God will respond to the cry. All heaven will come to our aid if we will do what Jesus did in the deplorable condition in which I am in.

You may feel that you have accepted the truth, that you understand it, and you may stop there and go no further. {CTr 80.5}

I know the truth of the gospel, I know the truth of the atonement, I know the truth of all the prophecies and I can stop there.

It is one thing to accept and hold the truth, and another thing to have the truth as it is in Jesus. While you are engaged in labor, while your hands and minds are employed in doing useful work, there is a necessity for meditation and reflection and earnest prayer. You want this light that comes down from heaven to do something for you. You want that faith that is represented as gold. You want to cultivate the love of Jesus in your heart. {CTr 80.5}

You cultivate it by reflecting upon His love.

…and you want to bear in mind that the very angels that appeared to Abraham and to Lot may be in your midst, though you may not see them.—Manuscript 19a, 1886. {CTr 80.5}

There we have this profound wonderful conclusion that our will can be stirred only into action by the great love of God. When we have that great love of God before us and preached to us and made a big issue of, it is there to create in me a most decided resolute will power to be the most faithful and strictest Christian in joyful cheerful love. I hope and pray that we will take this privilege. That we might be the strictest reformers when our hearts are aglow with the love of God. May we represent God in that way is my prayer.

Amen.