Desert Dawn
“God is faithful, by
Whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son
Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians
1:9.
The Fellowship of Christ, Greatest Joy
of the Heart to Those Who are Faithful to the
Heavenly Vision…. As All Around Us Souls Give
Way Let Us Be Faithful to the Heavenly Vision, For It
Will Pay Off… For Eternity… Let Them Return
Unto Thee, But Return Not Thou Unto Them…
“Truly our fellowship is
with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
1 John 1:3.
“Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was
not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” Acts
26:19.
Power
Brewing in the Desert
The desert sun sinks slowly below the
remote mountains of the western wilderness. The
shadows lengthen and deepen over rocky caves and wild
ravines as the purple sky blackens into night.
Thousands of stars twinkle above wild desert ravines.
A full reddish moon rises over the rugged hills to
the east. A campfire glows in the distance. A man
whose very presence breathes power sits next to the
blaze. The fire illuminates his tanned, rugged
features. He holds in his hands the scroll of the
prophet Isaiah.
The
Stern Discipline of the Wilderness
Features and frame disciplined by the
hard, open life of the wilderness, he looks to be in
his late twenties. He knows where the pure springs
are located in the barren hills, for they are his
source of water. He has followed the bees to find
where the beehives are in the wild, dry ravines, the
hives with the best wide honey, for that is his food,
along with locusts beans from the locust trees
growing in the wilderness.
Pure,
Mighty Spirit
He wears a rough coat of camel’s
hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He looks,
for the world, like the prophet Elijah, as well as
the garments of Elijah. However, Elijah had lived
hundreds of years ago. This bronzed man of the
wilderness came out here to this empty land, alone,
while still quite young, to live alone with God. No
distraction from man, no confusion of spirit, he
determined, would keep him from his mission.
Nazarite Might
Very long hair and a beard that had no
razor has ever touched mark him as a Nazarite. His
gaze is clear, powerful, steady, penetrating, a
window into the power of souls of a man made mighty
by the indwelling Holy Spirit-that same spirit that
made Samson invincible in battle and Elijah, his
type, the most powerful man in the world. He had to
control his spirit so completely that no spirit alien
to the Holy Spirit would in the slightest influence
him. No man born of woman until the Christ was
greater than he.
Every so often, he left his retreat to
retrieve the world news, the significance of which he
pondered back in the desert. He studied human
character with the illumination of the Holy Spirit to
comprehend how best to reach hearts with
heaven’s message. The disciple of solitude,
prayer, and meditation girded his soul for a lifework
that would end in martyrdom.
Unmoved
by Circumstances, Moved by the Spirit
Shut in by God, this wilderness was
his school and sanctuary. God, who called him to the
wilderness, was his Teacher. Here in the desert he
has learned of nature and nature’s God. The
stern discipline of the wilderness toughened him
physically, giving him spiritual and mental strength.
No luxury would weaken him. He was a desert holy man,
a man whose body was a temple for the Holy Spirit.
All appetites and passions were kept under severe
control. He had to be able to stand among men as
unmoved by surrounding circumstances as the rocks and
mountains of the wilderness.
The Vision of Christ
If one is going to follow Christ,
one must obtain a vision of Christ. The Holy Spirit
imparts the vision of Christ. The second great work
of the Holy Spirit is to convince of righteousness,
because Christ has gone to the Father and we see Him
in the flesh no more. Therefore Christ sent the Holy
Spirit, for, as Jesus said, “He will guide you
into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself,
but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak:
and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify
Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it
unto you.” John 16: 10, 13-15.
The
Key to Unlock the Heavenly Vision
With these words, Jesus has
given us the key that will unlock the heavenly vision
of Christ. The Holy Spirit will impart the heavenly
vision of Christ to us, Who will reveal to us what
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love Him.
“But God hath revealed them
unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God.” 1
Corinthians 2: 9, 10.
Access
to the Inmost Depth of the Heart of God
We need not be distracted by
defections from the Lord, from the truth, from the
narrow way, for we have resources that are infinite,
unleashed to us by Christ in His great Gift of the
Holy Spirit. We have access to the inmost depth of
the heart of God through the mighty Third Person of
the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, “For what man
knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man
which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no
man, but the Spirit of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:11.
Filled
from the Womb With the Holy Spirit
John the Beloved writes under
Inspiration that John the Baptist was sent of God:
“There came a man having been sent from God, the
name of him, John.” John 1:6. (Greek.) The verb
means to send, to commission, to send as an
authoritative personal representative, in the perfect
form it indicates the permanent character of his
mission. (Reinecker and Rogers)
The angel Gabriel told John’s
father, “He shall be great in the sight of the
Lord, and wine and strong drink he shall not drink,
and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit yet from
the womb of his mother.
To
Make Ready a People in a State of Preparedness for
the Lord
“And many of the sons of Israel
he shall turn up to the Lord their God.
“And he shall go before him in
the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the heart of
fathers to children and the disobedient (not pious)
to the thinking, (mind, will, insight, purpose) of
the righteous, just, honest, to make ready a people
in a state of preparedness (furnished, equipped,
prepared, the perfect emphasizes a state of
preparedness) for the Lord.” Luke 1:15.
Make Straight in the Desert a
Highway for Our God: John’s Work; Our Work
Unmoved Mover
John the Baptist’s work was to
give the Elijah message in the spirit and power of
Elijah, turning the hearts of the fathers to the
children, and turning the disobedient to the
thinking, will, and mind of the righteous, making
ready a people who would be in a state of
preparedness for the Lord. Standing among men with
such a great mission, he had to be unmoved by
their apostasy, as “unmoved by surrounding
circumstances as the rocks and mountains of the
wilderness.” He had to be the unmoved
mover-turning men’s heats to repentance,
obedience, and preparation for the coming of the
Messiah.
Prepare Ye The Way of the Lord, Make
Straight in the Desert a Highway
for Our God
John laid the ax to the root of the
tree. Matthew 3:10. His work was thorough. The work
of repentance is to be deep and thorough, with not
one scintilla of the heart left in sympathy with
Satan and his rebellion. “Every tree bringeth
not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the
fire.” Matthew 3:10
John was “the voice that crieth
in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our
God.” Isaiah 40:3.
A
Highway for Our God
Just as John prepared “the way of
the Lord and made straight in the desert a
highway for our God,” this even so our work
today. God wants to have a highway in human hearts
for His glory to be revealed. Not a small channel, or
a twisted channel, but a highway for our God.
The
True Faith of Jesus
True Seventh-day Adventism is a
thoroughgoing faith that eliminates all self and
founds itself on the Rock Christ Jesus in true depth
of self-surrender. This marks true Seventh-day
Adventism as something radically apart from false
religion that is seen in the Structure with rock
music, rap, rhythm, and blues, with a New Theology
that provides for salvation in sin, with its religion
of self-esteem, mind control NLP, and the rest.
We stand for the faith of Jesus,
for the work of the forerunner, John the Baptist. Our
faith stands not in the wisdom of men but in the
power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:5. Our faith is
anchored in the sovereignty of God, in the cross of
Christ, in the law of God, in the Word of God. It is
the one true faith on the face of the earth, for it
is born from above, from heaven, and is in no way
anchored to the rebellion of this earth. This true
faith is precious beyond life itself. It is the faith
of Jesus. Revelation 14:12.
Making Low Every
Mountain of Human Pride
John’s work was to level human
pride in the dust: “Every valley shall be
exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be
made low.” Isaiah 40:4. The mountains and hills
of human pride, self, and power were to be made low.
The valley of humiliation, of humility in Christ,
shall be exalted.
Straightening
Out the Perversity of Man
“The crooked shall be made
straight, and the rough places plain. Isaiah 40:4.
All the perversity of man is to be eliminated,
straightened out by the power of Christ. This means
that our work in straightening out human life in the
power of God is the opposite of the work we
see in the Structure with rap concerts for the youth
at Camp Meeting-the opposite of Willow
Creek’s blending of the world with the gospel
the opposite of the Purpose-driven life that
revels as the flock that likes to rock.
The
Glory of the Lord Shall Be Revealed
“And the glory of the Lord shall
be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isaiah
40:5. This work of preparation will allow the glory
of the Lord to be revealed.
John
a Type of Our Work
“The work of John the Baptist,
and the work of those who in the last days go forth
in the spirit and power of Elijah to arouse the
people from their apathy, are in many respects the
same. His work is a type of the work that must be
done in this age. Christ is to come the
second time to judge the world in righteousness. The
144,000 prophet- messengers of God, who bear the last
message of warning to be given to the world, are to
prepare the way for Christ’s second advent, as
John prepared the way for his first advent. In
this preparatory work, ‘every valley shall be
exalted, and every mountain shall be made low; and
the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough
places plain;” for history is to be
repeated, and once again ‘the glory of the Lord
shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it
together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken
it.’” SW 3-21-05
The
Apocalypse of Christ
The book of Revelation begins with
these words: The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ,
Apocalypse means “revelation, unveiling,
revealing.” The words “of Jesus
Christ” are a genitive construction, in which
Jesus Christ can be the object of the revelation,
that is, the revelation reveals Jesus Christ, or it
could be a subjective genitive, in which Jesus Christ
is the One Who originates the revelation. Usually
this genitive is taken to be the latter, a subjective
genitive, meaning that Jesus Christ is the One Who
gives the revelation. However, as I have noted over
the years, I see no reason at all why it cannot be
both-the revelation of all Who Jesus Christ is in His
glorified Being in the heavenly sanctuary,
ministering throughout the Messianic Age, and
last-day Power and Glory-the Eschatological, End-time
Christ coming in power and glory, as well as the
revelation that Jesus Christ gives us regarding the
unfolding of the future in advance throughout the
Messianic Age with a focus on the End-time.
Both
Visions
Both
visions must possess our souls. Not
only the vision of the Christ must possess our souls,
but the vision He has entrusted to us in the
prophecies that are the Testimony, or Witness of
Jesus Christ-Revelation and the Great Controversy.
Being possessed of the vision of Christ, and the
vision Christ has entrusted to us of the Messianic
Age, the End of Time, and of Eternity, will help keep
us steadfast, so that we may enter that better, most
wonderful land and live forever with Him in heaven
and the New Earth.
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