Learning to Trust and Obey

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

Learning to Trust and Obey

Today's Text: Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations ... will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land ... therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. Numbers 14:15, 16

The Message:      The Lord had fulfilled the word that He spoke to Abraham when He declared that after the children of Israel had been in bondage four hundred years, He would deliver them.... Yet here, on the border of the Promised Land, they dishonored Him by giving way to unbelief.      We shall be brought into strait places, but we do not want to wait until then before we learn to trust and obey. Now, just now, is our day of opportunity and privilege. When the light of truth is shining upon us, we are to learn the lesson. Let us plead with God to give us a true conception of His character and a willingness to obey Him.      We are to stand in the strength and power of Israel's God. Shall we do it, brethren and sisters? Or shall we murmur and complain, looking at the obstacles in the way and making a mountain out of a molehill? Today God gives His people, to confirm their faith, evidences of His power such as He gave to Israel. Will they make these evidences of no effect? Will they act as if God had not wrought in their behalf? The Lord wants us to acknowledge His power and His grace and His great salvation, which He has brought us at an infinite cost-in the death of His only-begotten Son.      We are living in a day of trial, a day of probation, a day of test. God is proving His people, to see whether He can work in their behalf. He cannot work for them if they open their hearts to the impulses of the enemy. He cannot cooperate with them if they trust in human beings in the place of looking to Jesus, and rejoicing in His goodness and His love. He wants to make of us a people through whom He can reveal His grace, and He will do this if we will only give Him opportunity, if we will open the windows of the soul heavenward and close them earthward against human rabble, against murmuring, complaining, and faultfinding....      Those who today murmur against God's appointed agencies, weakening the confidence of the people in them, are doing the same work that the children of Israel did. The Lord hears every murmuring word. He hears every word that detracts from the influence of those whom He is using to proclaim the truth that is to prepare a people to stand in the last days.-Manuscript 10, 1903 (The General Conference Bulletin, March 30, 1903).

Commentary: My friend, the process of learning to trust and obey is not something that happens in a moment.  It takes time to develop a trust in God that will see us through test and trial.  The more time that we spend with Him in prayer and the searching of the Scriptures, the greater will be our trust in Him to see us through the trials of life today.  If the enemy of souls can separate us from our source of strength, he is sure to overcome us, and as such it is his number one goal to separate us from the one power that can overcome him. One of the main ways that Satan has separated us from the power of God is by introducing to the church a counterfeit god, a god that is different from the God of the Bible.  He has been successful in doing this through the doctrine of the trinity.  By taking the Holy Spirit and making it a separate being from the Father and the Son, He has in essence supplanted the One true God for a triune god that is made up of three beings. This is the great deception that has been played upon the people of God.  By changing our concept of God, he has in essence separated us from God.  By introducing the Holy Spirit as a different being from the Father and the Son, he has introduced to the church another mediator, a being that is not the Spirit of the Father nor the Son. The Bible is very clear that "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;" (1 Timothy 2:5).  If we hold to the belief in the trinity we are in essence worshiping another god, one that is different from the God of the Bible.  The trinity teaches that the Father and the Son are co-eternal, meaning that they have always existed.  For this to be true then Jesus cannot be literally the Son of God and as such the Father cannot be a true Father.  John spoke of this in 1 John 2:22 saying "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son."  If we will not accept the testimony of the Father who has testified of Jesus saying "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17), then we make Him out to be a liar. My friend, it is high time that we look away from the doctrines of man and look unto the One true God of the Bible as revealed to us through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. God bless,

Video of the Week Who or What is the Holy Spirit? New Gods - Nader Mansour New gods is a presentation that addresses the identity of God the Holy Spirit. Nader Mansour shares the biblical foundation as well as other historical examples that shed light on this question. It also deals with the question of "why is it important?". What does the Bible say about new gods? Have you accepted a new god? How many are ignorantly worshipping a new god? You will not want to miss this presentation! Are you an SDA who has fallen for the trinity? You have not fallen too far, there is hope yet! Presented at the Wenatchee 2013 Camp Meeting, USA.