WYC 2008: Something Better

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GYC West

Eugene Prewitt: Of Minneapolis and Modern Times

Eugene Prewitt

The Beginning of the Latter Rain, Part 1

Our Father in heaven, I ask that as we spend time here, that you would use your holy Bible to be a teacher for us, that you would give us of your spirit and help us to understand what is true.

And I ask for these gifts in the name of Jesus.

Last night when Brother Batchelor was speaking, he literally gave an introduction to our series this hour here.

He was speaking about the Holy Spirit, about our desperate need for the Holy Spirit and that is what we're speaking about today is the outpouring of the latter rain.

I'd like to begin by just reviewing a wee bit of history before we get to a Bible study.

Ellen White mentioned that there was a time when the latter rain began to be poured out on our church.

That was in the 1888 experience in Minneapolis.

I think probably better than half of us were aware of that.

I'd like it to get our attention for a moment, to think about the fact that the latter rain began to fall.

It's an incredible truth to imagine that God began the work of the fourth angel, the loud cry that he started the process of finishing the work.

And if we could just know why or how he chose the time that he did, the situation he did, maybe we could do our part to bring that experience again.

Before the rain, there are 2 points I'd like to point out, 2 ideas.

1 is that God had been building up truth for some time.

That is that there was a progression of truth that had been developing.

I mean, we could illustrate briefly, but with Martin Luther, people had come to understand that the Bible was the source of all truth.

We had learned that righteousness is not based on anything that we can earn, any merit of our own.

I'm speaking of we as in Christianity in general.

We've come to the time of John Wesley, but before him, Roger Williams.

Roger Williams taught us that there should be a separation between church and state.

He was the 1 who promoted the truth, this idea that truth is progressive and what our fathers accepted is not enough light for us.

I'm only paraphrasing to you the book Great Controversy, about 4 chapters of it.

Then came along John Wesley, and he brought out the fact that the gospel includes not only justification, but sanctification, and that sanctification as a process not only has a beginning in my life, but it can have an end.

And the end of sanctification, Wesley called with the Bible writers, perfection.

After Wesley had taught this idea of sanctification by faith we came to the message of the judgment taught all over the world by the various advent pioneers, Joseph Wolfe and William Miller being 2 of the most prominent.

And I hope that you can see a sensibility in the progression of truth, that you wouldn't want to know about the judgment until you understood the reality of sanctification by faith, that God did not ask us to prepare for His coming until He taught us as a people that it's possible to prepare.

After this message that we're in the judgment came, the next development was to show that the judgment is based on the 10 Commandments.

And here we came to the Sabbath truth, the message of the seal of God, and that process of the law being sealed in our mind.

The progression of truth was entirely sensible.

And God was leading up, leading up in this progression to what Ephesians 4 calls the full stature of Jesus.

Building up the church, the church was ready for that last building block.

If I could summarize all of this, the beginning of the latter rain came as a message.

And the message was a message that was building on top of what God had been doing in the church for 300 years.

Besides that point where it says truth built, where it says rumors circulated, It's referring to the fact that Satan understands the purpose of the testimonies in the church.

What does Ephesians 4 say about the purpose of the gifts?

They're designed, for example, to keep us from being blown around by every wind of doctrine.

They're designed to build us up or edify us and bring us to the measure of the full stature you've read Ephesians 4.

And if you've read in Matthew 5, what is the standard way that prophets are persecuted?

When it says, rejoice and be exceeding glad for so persecuted they, I'm starting to put the last 2 Beatitudes together in my head, So I'll skip to the end of the last 1.

It's by speaking all manner of evil against them falsely.

That's the standard way of persecuting prophets.

It's helped me understand why there are so many faulty arguments about Ellen White that are out there.

Like the question I might have had otherwise is wouldn't a little bit of research just annihilate most of these?

And the answer is that speaking all manner of evil against them falsely is just the standard method of persecuting prophets, according to the Sermon on the Mount.

So in 1888, there was a brother in California, and he observed that Ellen White seemed to be friends with A.T.

Jones and Brother Wagner, and that her dear son Willie was also friends with these men.

And this person observing concluded that these 2 young men with their heretical views were poisoning the mind of the prophet.

Now, I'll tell you for myself, I've written letters to warn people in various places about other speakers.

I can understand where the man's coming from if he believes there's a danger to write ahead and to warn.

You ought to be very careful who you warn about.

You might warn about someone who teaches the truth.

On the other hand, there is a place for warning.

Mark those which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrines you have learned and avoid them.

So this man wrote letters to Battle Creek.

I know I'm just so tempted to expand on this, and we won't even get to our Bible study.

So the summary of the thing is that the rumors were that the prophet was influenced, That her ideas were partly from heaven and partly from these young men and partly from her son.

And when you know that what a prophet has written is a mixture of truth and opinion, which part do you figure is the truth?

The part that you agree with must be the inspired part.

And the part that you don't agree with must be that which came from a human source.

So Ellen White has written about this idea, and it is still in vogue today.

She's written, for example, when Uriah Smith had it, that it would have been easier for her if he had been an avowed infidel than for him to be promoting his view that some of what she wrote was true and some of what she wrote wasn't.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Hosea, Hosea chapter 6.

Come and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn and he will heal us.

Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord his going forth is prepared as the morning.

As the rain, as the latter and the former rain unto the earth.

The idea of Hosea 6.3 is that The latter rain is a special coming of Jesus into our experience.

That he is the 1 who comes to us as the early and the latter rain, and what's the condition in Hosea 6 of him coming?

You know there's more than 1, isn't there?

Literally, it means after thinking, in order to think again.

There's pardon there, but is that the only condition in Hosea 6 for receiving?

That's it, it says in verse 3, then follow on to know the Lord.

That sometime after my justification, if I'm following on to know the Lord, he will come to me at a special experience of pouring out of the Spirit's power." Turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Peter.

The Beginning of the Latter Rain, Part 2

Our Father in heaven, as we consider the material that has come through your prophet, I ask that you would give us the very same spirit that inspired these words, that they could do for us what you intend.

And I ask for this gift in the name of Jesus, amen.

I feel like not giving you references just because you're gonna email me and ask for them.

But this is from Testimonies to Ministers.

We may have had a measure of the Spirit of God, but by prayer and faith we are to continually seek for more of the Spirit.

If we do not progress, if we do not place ourselves in an attitude to receive both the former and the latter reign, we shall lose our souls, and the responsibility will be at our door.

As you have therefore received Christ Jesus, so walk ye in him.

The same way I became a Christian, by confession, by repentance, by turning away from my sins, my apologies to all of you for starting early or coming in even before I told you I would.

I receive Christ Jesus by repentance and confession, and that is how I am to maintain my experience with him.

I needed the Holy Spirit at the very beginning, and I need him more in my experience continually.

It just won't do for us to ignore what Jesus had to say about the Holy Spirit.

Jesus illustrated that if a son comes to his father, and you can learn something about Middle Eastern diet by what he said.

Do any of you remember what the son asked for?

Sounds like a very spare diet, doesn't it?

Because children tend to, if they know there's dessert available, what do they ask for?

Some of You might wonder why there isn't 1 in the New Testament about diet, and I'm suggesting to you some reasons.

There wasn't a lot of variety there that they could eat.

So even the children were asking for an egg, for fish, for a piece of bread, and Jesus said the Father is not going to give them a stone or a scorpion or a snake, because he loves them.

And while some things might be unnecessary when they're asking for nutrition, of course he's going to feed them.

That was the way Jesus illustrated asking for the Holy Spirit.

In every case, it was illustrated by hungering and thirsting.

So I should have listed that as 1 of the conditions of receiving more of the Spirit.

I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, floods upon the dry ground, I will pour my spirit.

1 of the conditions of receiving the spirit is to hunger and thirst.

We cultivate a hunger and a thirst by asking, by pleading, what's it say, it will never do to cease our efforts.

Only those who are living up to the light they have will receive greater light.

Unless we are daily advancing in the exemplification of the active Christian virtues, we shall not recognize the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain.

Testimonies to ministers somewhere around page 507.

When the latter rain comes, it will not be such that you will just look and say, oh, that is the latter rain.

Those who are not living up to the light that God has given them, while it's coming down around them, it will not recognize it.

It may be falling on hearts all around us, but we shall not discern or receive it.

At no point in our experience can we dispense with the assistance of that which enables us to make the first start.

It might help us to understand more about the metaphor of rain.

Because if you have a clump of dirt and the rain falls on it, rain does nothing for dirt.

And the Bible indicates that the seeds, in this metaphor at least, are the Word.

The Word of God, when combined with the power of the Spirit in my life, creates life in me.

Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, even of the, that's it, the word of God which lives and abides forever.

But when Ellen White comments on this illustration, she compares conversion to this early rain experience, the rain that first raises that seed in my life and gives me spiritual life, what she indicates is that while there is dew and moisture all through my life, The purpose of the latter rain is to cause the grain to be ripe.

But what happens if the blade is not even alive when the latter rain comes?

The latter Rain does not give life to dead plants.

And this is why we are to be searching in our experience, putting away our sins.

By receiving more of this early rain experience, we're preparing to receive the ripening process.

What I'm saying by this picture is that God is sending you and I to preach even now.

He's equipping us now with a certain measure of his spirit that exactly matches the duties he gives me today.

He gives me enough of his spirit to do a faithful job, for example, of making this presentation.

I might have a deficiency of spirit for that work, but it's not because he has not made it available.

However, if I'm not taking advantage of these opportunities to be filled with the spirit today, and yesterday, and tomorrow, then when that latter rain is poured out in great measure I won't have any spiritual life in me so that ripening rain will not ripen anything you when the ripening rains in the fall come they don't ripen dead plants, they ripen living plants.

If you're there filled with the spirit, can you help them in this?

What I'm sent right now to help people, absolutely want to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins.

But though you might try to reach me as a dead plant, I have to cooperate or I'm not going to live.

And our emphasis this morning is about how this cooperation works.

But now it's on the fact that without the early rain, we're not going to receive the latter.

Christ declares that The divine influence of the Spirit was to be with His followers unto the end.

But by some this promise is not appreciated as it should be.

Its fulfillment is not realized as it might be.

Learning, talents, eloquence, every natural or acquired endowment may be possessed, but without the presence of the Spirit of God, no heart will be touched, no sinner won to Christ.

When his disciples are connected with Christ, when the gifts of the Spirit are theirs, even the poorest and most ignorant of them will have a power that will tell upon hearts.

God makes them the channel for the outworking of the highest influence in the universe.

It's as if God said that if this is 1 man and he has great talents, and this is another man and he has very little talent, Yet the work he's called us to is this kind of work.

If we don't have the spirit, even this man can't touch our heart.

But if we do have a spirit, even this man will.

And it just won't do then for us to excuse ourselves as if there is no Holy Spirit.

Notice that it was after the disciples had come into perfect unity when they were no longer striving for the highest place that the Spirit was poured out.

All differences had been put away, And the testimony born of them after the Spirit had been given is the same.

Mark the word, the multitude of them that believed were of 1 heart and of 1 soul, Acts 4.32.

The spirit of him who died that sinners might live animated the entire congregation of believers.

The disciples did not ask for blessings for themselves, they were waited for the burden of souls." What did we just read?

When I'm asking for the pouring out of the Spirit today, if I'm going to imitate the apostles in the early reign, I'm really not asking for my own benefit.

The reason I want this much of the Spirit is because I've been asked to help these people.

And if God doesn't give me his spirit, I cannot help the people.

Father, for the sake of the dear people, please give me the power that you've promised.

That was the spirit that animated the prayers that we just read about, that was from Acts of the Apostles we were just reading.

We read there also that there was a work of coming into unity.

You know, even for the apostles who had been together for 3 and a half years with Jesus, it took them many days.

It was, it wouldn't have taken nearly that long if the unity they were seeking for was 1 of agreeing to disagree.

Stopping the Tidal Waves of Fanaticism, Part 1

Our Father in heaven, I ask that you would join us here this morning.

That you would save us from the dangers ahead.

I ask for you to be our teacher in the name of Jesus.

It happens, just a few months ago that I began receiving emails from people regarding 1 Ernie Knoll.

I'm just curious, is that name familiar to more than half of you?

And the first email I received regarding Ernie, I had no idea that Ernie claimed to be having inspired visions.

I just received a copy, so I'm going to cut and paste a copy of a dream he had regarding the many facets of worship inside a large metaphorical church.

But it's interesting to me that back in 1888, after God chose A.T.

Jones to be the bearer of a very important message.

Several things happened that were a disaster for A.T.

We should so watch this in our own experience.

Did you all know that AT Jones was a genius?

The man made presentations before Congress where he was grilled about the inaccuracy of his references and was able to just quote verbatim the original source document.

And as 1 man representing our church was instrumental in preventing a Sunday law in Congress.

And do you recall from the book of Hebrews, 1 thing you should be very careful not to allow to crop up in your experience?

Speaking of Hebrews 13 or Hebrews 12, excuse me, where it says, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled.

You know if you accept the thoughts that were shared in this last presentation, and you allow God to send you to do his work and share his truth and accomplish what he bids you, in all likelihood, you're going to be poorly received at least a good chunk of the time.

And we ought to be satisfied to be treated the way that Jesus was.

Jones had quite a support when he was here in the States.

I mean, Ellen White, the prophet, was his friend.

And it's very encouraging, even if each letter you get from her does tell you something wrong with your life, that at the same time, it supports the general trend of what you're doing.

Isn't that exactly what it does every time you read it?

When she went to Australia, the length of time between when he would hear from her was greatly lengthened.

And can you imagine the logic that would go on in his mind?

That if Elmight were here, this wouldn't happen.

These people wouldn't get away with such and such.

Here he was in Battle Creek, the center of everything, and it was a center of a mess, especially in the 1880s and 90s.

I mean, also in the 1900s and 1910s and 1920s and 1870s and 1860s.

It's really, if you do a search on Battle Creek, not a lot of pleasantness comes up in the Ellen White CD-ROM.

Jones was missing the power of a local prophet, 1 young lady named Anna began having visions.

Have any of you read any of the productions of Anna Geymire?

Maybe she arranged to have them all burned.

And that would have been well if she had done that.

If you ever do a Google search for the term lucid dreams, you'll find interesting and unedifying material.

To the effect that if the statistics I read there are accurate, probably 5 or 6 of you are able sometimes to realize that you're in your dream and able to modify what you do in your dreams.

Is there anyone who's able to do that in your dreams?

That's lucid dreaming, and it's not a very rare ability.

And some people have very vivid dreams, where their dreams seem as real as the reality, sometimes more than reality.

This is why I despise those spiritual gift assessments that ask you about your interest and your skills and your personality to try to determine your spiritual gifts.

The 1 I remember that irritated me the most was 1 that in 1 battery of questions asked, do you have vivid dreams?

Which spiritual gift do you think it was trying to differentiate?

But Anna Geimeyer's dreams, you know, she was in a spiritual family with a spiritual set of parents.

They were talking about the end of time and the mark of the beast and the antichrist and the sins and the testimonies.

And do any of you realize that you dream about the things you think about?

Can you imagine how a love of notoriety might lead to an excitement like that?

Wouldn't it be pretty cool to have to be like Philip?

If you remember Philip, his 7 daughters, or however it was, they were prophets.

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Eugene Prewitt: Of Minneapolis and Modern Times

How to Prepare Yourself to Accept God’s Messages, Part 2

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