The Spirit Patiently Waits

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him,and he with me. Revelation 3:20.

All, from the oldest to the youngest, need to be taught of God. We may be taught by man to see the truth clearly, but God alone can teach the heart to receive the truth savingly, which means to receive the words of eternal life into good and honest hearts. The Lord is waiting patiently to instruct every willing soul who will be taught. The fault is not with the willing Instructor, the greatest Teacher the world ever knew, but it is with the learner who holds to his own impressions and ideas, and will not give up his human theories andcome in humility to be taught. He will not allow his conscience and his heart to be educated, disciplined, and trained—worked as the husbandman works the earth, and as the architect constructs the building. “Ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9).

Everyone needs to be worked, molded, and fashioned after the divine similitude. Christ tells you, my dear friends, young and old, the everlasting truth, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. [If you do not take Christ’s word as the man of your counsel, you will not reveal His wisdom or His spiritual life.] Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; ... For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him” (John 6:53-56). Said Christ, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (verse 63).

Those who search the Scriptures, and most earnestly seek to understand them, will reveal the sanctification of the Spirit through the belief of the truth, for they take into their very heart the truth, and have that faith that works by love and purifies the soul. All their spiritual sinew and muscle are nourished by the Bread of Life which they eat.—Manuscript Releases 8:162, 163.

This devotional is taken from Ye Shall Receive Power by Ellen G. White.