Position Does Not Preclude the Need for Prayer

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

Position Does Not Preclude the Need for Prayer

Today's Text: Let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Nehemiah 1:11

The Message:      Nehemiah, the Hebrew exile, occupied a position of influence and honor in the Persian court. As cupbearer of the king, he was admitted to the royal presence, and by virtue of this intimacy and his own high abilities and tried fidelity, he became the monarch's counselor. He was a man of high principle, unbending integrity, and great sagacity.      In that heathen land, surrounded by royal pomp and splendor, Nehemiah did not forget the God of his fathers or the people who had been entrusted with the holy oracles. The dignity of his position did not rob him of his piety or his love for his brethren.... He was not ashamed to own his relationship to them and to the truth. He felt that he must honor the truth in all places. He did not make apology for holding a faith distinct from the faith of those in the Persian court....      Days of peculiar trial and affliction had come to the chosen city. Messengers from Judah described to Nehemiah its condition. The second temple had been reared, and portions of the city rebuilt, but its prosperity was impeded, the temple service disturbed, and the people kept in constant alarm by the fact that its walls were still in ruins and its gates burned with fire. The capital of Judah was fast becoming a desolate place, and the few inhabitants remaining were deeply embittered by the taunts of their idolatrous assailants, "Where is your God?"      The soul of the Hebrew patriot was overwhelmed by these evil tidings. So great was his sorrow that he could not eat or drink; he "wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted." But when the first outburst of his grief was over, he turned in his affliction to the sure Helper. The record says that he "prayed before the God of heaven." He unburdened his heart to God. He knew that the affliction that had come upon Israel was the result of her transgression, and with deep humiliation he came before God to ask for pardon and a renewal of the divine favor. Faithfully he makes confession of his sins and the sins of his people.      Taking hold by faith of the divine promise, Nehemiah lays down at the footstool of heavenly mercy his petition that God would maintain the cause of his penitent people, restore their strength, and build up their waste places.-Manuscript 58, 1903.

Commentary: My friend, prayer is the breath of the soul.  If we do not take time to spend in prayer and communion with God, we will begin to depend more and more upon our ownselves and will not be able trust in God when the trials of life come.  Nehemiah, though in a high position, did not neglect prayer nor the worshiping of the One true God.  He presented his petition before the Most High and his prayer was answered. Today more than ever we need to look unto Jesus that we may be sustained by His power.  Though we live in a time of peace and prosperity we need daily and continual communion with God.  Deception has come upon the people of God and many many are worshiping God in vain.  They worship on the right day, but the One true God of the Bible has been supplanted with the false god of the trinity. For nearly the whole of the Christian world the arch deceiver has been successful in supplanting the Sabbath of the Lord for the first day of the week, but more than that he has supplanted the One true God with the god of the trinity.  While Satan has not at this point been able to supplant the day of worship for the Seventh-day Adventist church, he has artfully removed the One true God of the Bible with the god of his own devising.  Through the acceptance of the trinity Seventh-day Adventist church is as surely worshiping the god of Babylon as if they were also worshiping on Sunday. The Adventist church prides themselves on the day that they worship but are blind to the words of Jesus saying "But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."  (Matthew 15:9).  While there are still many in the SDA church today that are sincerely ignorant of this, God cannot accept this false worship.  He longs to impress upon them His lovely character, but as long as they are looking unto the false god of the trinity, He cannot, for it is only as they look unto Jesus that they can see the One true God and be changed by beholding Him. The trinity takes our eyes off of Jesus by placing God the Holy Spirit in between.  In doing so it supplants Jesus as our mediator and places another being in its place, and as such the people receive not the Spirit of Christ, but the spirit of Satan.  The Bible teaches that the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, and that the Comforter is Jesus Christ the righteous.  The Greek word for comforter is the same word that is used in 1 John 2:1 as Advocate.  Thus the text says "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Comforter with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:". My friend, in the time of Nehemiah they were striving to repair the walls of Jerusalem, but today those walls have been broken down and the enemy is within our midst.  It is high time that we warn the people of their danger.  The straight testimony of the Faithful and True Witness must be given, that the people of God may awake to their peril, for if they are not warned they will not be prepared to stand when the implementation of the mark of the beast is impressed upon the whole world.  If they are looking unto Jesus through the deception of the trinity, they will as certainly worship the beast as the Sunday keeping churches. Now is the time for us do all that we can to awaken the people of God that they may look away from the false god of the trinity, and look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). God bless,

Video of the Week One God in Three Persons - Part 1 Dr. Allen Davis and Pastor Daniel Mesa giving a partial response--due to lack of time--to Dr. Norman Gulley's article, "One God in Three Persons" found online at the Adventist World website.