GYC 2010: No Turning Back

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

The Shaking and the Shaken: How to Face the Shaking of God's Remnant

P. Gerard Damsteegt

Has the Shaking Already Begun?

We can praise the Lord that the technicalities and difficulties and obstructions are all removed so that we get the right climate here.

And I hope that the shaking will not be too traumatic.

Before we start, let us ask the Lord to bless us.

Precious Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity of GYC and the opportunity to reflect upon the power struggle and the great controversy that affects every 1 of us, including your remnant church.

And give me the wisdom and the right words to share the experience that is presently taking place in your church.

We praise you and pour your spirit in abundance upon each 1 of us in Jesus' name.

This topic interestingly sparked my interest this summer.

I attended the general conference 2010 and we, I was on the floor and I heard many people talking about some of the events and said, you know, now we believe the shaking has begun.

And I said, no, no, no, no, no, this is not the shaking, you know, whatever.

And so when I came home For the next month or so, for my devotions, I took this topic and prayerfully considered it from the Bible in the spirit of prophecy.

And what I will share now with you is the result of this study, which in fact was very enlightening for me.

We know it will happen, or it happened already.

And you know, if we know things, we don't need to go into a panic, do we?

And so the problem with many of our people is that they are ignorant.

And Spirit of Prophecy, if you have time, but when is that?

Maybe on a Sabbath, maybe Friday night, and that's all.

And so what I now share is about this shaking.

First, you will look from a biblical perspective, then from the spirit of prophecy, and then we draw our conclusions.

And some biblical pictures give you the idea of an earthquake.

Here you find the picture of the old San Francisco Hall of Justice on Kearney Street a few weeks before the April 1906 earthquake and fire.

And yet a few weeks later, it was all but a standing and the rest of the neighborhood was completely eliminated.

Not only this, but there was a major fire.

So this is 1 of the types of shaking that the Bible refers to with the spirit of prophecy.

However, there's another 1 where you have a sieve and you have the grain in various parts of the world that happens in different ways and there is the product and you make a separation between the chaff and the pure grain.

The Bible talks about a purity, the spiritual prophecy talks about a purity of the church and how this is being brought about.

Now then you have the purification of the metal.

It talks about a refining product and of course what are we after?

And what the dollar does or the euro, the pure gold you need and then you separate it from the bronze.

Now those are some of the pictures in the scriptures that are being used time and time again and so let us now first go as good Seventh-day Adventists to the Bible, right?

And then in Scripture we turn then to, if you have your Bible with you, to Isaiah 19, verse 16.

Now in Isaiah 19, verse 16, here it is in a chronological sequence, this is the first passage in the Bible that really talks about the shaking.

Now if you have a modern version, it may not use the term shaking.

And so here then is the scenario in that they shall Egypt be likened to women and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking, the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shakes over it.

And here it shows 1 of the persecuting powers of Israel, Egypt, and it is compared with women.

The observation is the Lord does the shaking of the enemies of His people.

When a shaking takes place in the church, don't get upset.

The Lord is still in control of the Adventist church.

Look at Revelation 10, the majestic being from heaven.

So no matter what you see around you, whether you see poor leadership, all kind of politics and whatever, look up, look up.

And so really, if there are terrible things that happen in the church, look constantly at Jesus and that will give you the peace.

That is the whole purpose of this conference, Practicality of knowing Jesus.

And there it is when thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people.

There shall be as the shaking of an olive tree and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done." Now when do you do the gleaning?

So hear them, when thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people there shall be as the shaking of the olive tree and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.

And so the observation is, what does the cleaning do?

The cleaning, the shaking reveals the Lord's faithful, the remnant.

And so therefore we can praise the Lord for the shaking and the gleaning.

Here you see the olive gardens, and here the plenty of olives that come.

And at the end of the harvest, what do we do?

Whatever grapes that are left, we pick them.

And we in Michigan, we live in a fruit belt and we are all gleaning afterwards, don't pay high prices, but we glean.

And all the grape juice during the winter that I drink, that is coming from the labor of my wife in canning this and instead of the expensive bottles with refined products I have the grape juice with all the pulp all the antioxidants and that continues And so here another 1 is Ezekiel 37 verse 7.

So I prophesy as I was commanded And I prophesied there was a noise and behold a shaking and the bones came together.

Here the Lord gives Ezekiel the picture of what?

But then Ezekiel prophesies and what's happened?

Suddenly the miraculous power of the Lord, the creative power, brings them together.

And the observation then is the Lord uses a shaking to do what?

So can you see you know that if we understand what the Lord is using we don't need to get worried.

We look up and say Lord I cannot understand everything what's going on in my church but you are in control and the remnant will be revealed is it tremendous what a loving God So instead of looking with those things with fear and trembling, we can say, praise the Lord for your salvation.

And so there then, the Lord's creative power friends can do miracles in our church.

And I wish that when you go home that you read the whole context of the chapter because if you read them just by yourself, it says, for my jealousy and in my fire of my wrath I have spoken.

Surely in the day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel." Now he's shaking the hands of Israel, God among God's people.

You know, the whole context is that the evil powers, the gentle nations are invading Israel.

And then the Lord gets so angry that he steps in and what happened to Gog, the evil power, destroyed.

So friends, no matter what happened, no matter what wicked people come into our church, they will all be eliminated.

And therefore we are here to be the example.

And if people are confused, you can counsel with them.

And so here then, there will be a great shaking in the land of Israel.

The 2010 General Conference and the Shaking

At GYCweb.org Good morning everyone this is the second session of the shaking and we will focus specifically its impact of the 2010 General Conference.

How many of you went to the General Conference?

But the inspiration of this series on the shaking, and I got from what I heard among the attendees of the General Conference.

Where some thought that the major shaking had begun, another thought that it had not yet begun, and some were confused about it and worried about it and what I'm sharing now is the result of a study that I began after I returned home.

And it has helped me very much because the less knowledge we have about the truth, the more vulnerable we are to all kinds of false doctrines and teachings.

And so remember Jesus says the truth shall make you free and the truth will give you peace.

And again at this session we would not like to begin without asking the Lord for His Holy Spirit.

Precious Heavenly Father, we ask you to send your Holy Spirit to us.

Anoint us with the Spirit that gives us understanding in the important things in life.

And at this time, when we reflect upon the events during 2010, may we clearly see your hand in the events, and may we find that your messages and your counsels are very liberating, that it gives us a better perspective of the truth and where we are in the history of prophetic time.

And may your spirit talk to each 1 of us.

Speak through my words, and may we choose the right illustrations.

And what we will do now is not as extensive as in the past, but let us now summarize what are some of the important elements there that we discovered during our first presentation.

The review of the biblical evidence in our first lecture, we discovered that in regard to the shaking, it is the Lord that is in control of the shaking.

Now of course we can contribute to it or not.

And the less you know, the more you can contribute to the confusion.

The shaking in God's almighty providence reveals the true remnant.

And the Lord uses shaking to revive his people.

And this is really, now you may get upset or whatever, but if you understand fully the implications of all those teachings that we have done in the first lecture and whatever, You don't need to get confused.

The shaking is associated with judgment on the persecutors of God's people.

So in other words, the outward forces that try to suppress, ridicule, expose God's people no matter what, the Lord will take care of those people.

And God shakes out the oppressors of his people in the church.

So Any kind of difficult personalities that try to eliminate the plans that the Lord has for your life, the Lord will take care of those.

And sometimes you say, you know, but be careful what you say.

You talk to the Lord, and if the truth is being proclaimed, It should always be in kindness and love, but not suppressed.

We are called to witness, and the Lord takes care of the results.

I've been in evangelistic meetings where we had hundreds of baptisms and in meetings where we had only a few.

And so therefore there is for God's people you never talk about discouragement, never about disappointment, never about failure, because every experience teaches you more about how to work for others, about God's love and care.

So in other words, it is a good message of God's love and mercy.

So the observation is the enemies persecute and oppress God's people.

And it shows you also what is going on in God's people, among God's people.

Now this morning we discovered the following insights of the Spirit of Prophecy's insight.

The shaking is future and as a result of some of the questions, you know, that I heard in the break, you know, is it future, has it already begun?

Keep in mind here very clearly, the review of the shaking time.

It's in the future the shaking testing time will come to everyone in regard to what?

That is the final 1 that will really affect the church in great measures, because the final test is a matter of life and death.

Today it is not a matter of life and death, you know, to be an Adventist, unless you are in certain Muslim countries, but not here.

And it has to do with Sunday issue, the Sunday and the Sabbath.

It will purify God's church and his people.

The next 1 is it divides the church into parties.

But if you give everything to the Lord, the Lord will take care of those things.

You know, we like to be in control of it, but frequently whatever goes on in our schools and universities, I have no control over it.

And I'm not writing a book about the good or the bad things there, no.

The Lord takes care of it, But I have to have my witness there.

And if I don't have a good witness, the Lord may liberate me and put me somewhere else.

And so therefore, in order to get this boldness, we need to be acquainted with the Lord and what He does.

You know, I mean, that is very important, friends.

You studied the Reformation under Moses and under David, under Josiah, Hezekiah, Nehemiah, tremendous man of God.

And yet, you know, there was a tremendous conflict and some died in this.

It brings the latter rain and the loud cry of Revelation 18.1.

So are we not looking for that time when the righteousness of Christ will be fully revealed everywhere?

At the same time, there is a shaking now.

And keep in mind, the shaking in the future has to do with the final, ultimate conflict about the law of God and the law of human beings.

It will be a struggle that will be manifested by the 10 Commandments and human beings, the laws of human beings, Sabbath and Sunday.

I mean that is the final thing, the final thing.

And, however, that is not the only shaking.

The shaking began in 1850, was affirmed in the 1860s, Re-emphasized in the 1880s and the early 1900s.

Now the early shaking, and some people ask me, you know, yes, but was this not, did Ellen White not say there was a mighty shaking at command?

Yes, it was a shaking among all the Advent people.

It was not a shaking among the seven-day Adventist people.

The Millerite movement with the thousands and tens of thousands of people, after the disappointment were mightily shaken, and 5 years later, only 100 people remained truth.

And the light sees its vision of the path high above the world.

And God's people are walking on it, And they are being propelled in the back by the midnight cry, which was the prophetic message of 1844.

And at the same time, they had to look to Jesus that was ahead.

And as they followed the prophetic light And looked at Jesus, they arrived at the holy city.

Frequently you said, oh yeah, all the prophetic messages, you know, and Daniel's revelation is something for the pastor.

How You Can Survive the Shaking?

This message was presented at the GYC 2010 No Turning Back Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

For other resources like this, visit us online at gycweb.org.

At GYCweb.org I think it's quite a challenge to eat especially if you're caught in a line I happened to be on time because I didn't go to the meeting and so I could go quickly to the dining hall and there was no line.

Anyway, I think that we have a lot to say about this last section, which is probably the most important section of our series.

And let us just ask the Lord to bless us.

Precious Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity of sharing this precious message and may it give us courage and strength and may we see more of your love and care for us.

It is very important that you are even interested in the very details of life and all the challenges that we have to face in the near future, even before the latter rain is being poured out.

And so thank you so much and send your Holy Spirit and give me the words to speak in Jesus' name.

Now, we have seen this morning when we looked at the biblical pattern, we have looked at the spirit of prophecy, and we have applied it to the major speech that is being presented in the General Conference and we have seen that the aspect of the General conference speech was specifically focused on the application of the biblical and spiritual prophecy principles.

And you will see that in church or whatever you do or whatever pastor messages present, the problem comes when you apply it.

And I have had little difficulty with this in the application And so if it really doesn't make any sense, then you're going to reflect, yes, maybe there is something else going on.

But if the testimony is very straightforward, I would say accept it and you will never go wrong.

I sometimes tell my students, you know, if you make this decision and you go that way of life, when you meet Jesus at the end of time, what kind of arguments would you bring to him?

And when we meet Jesus, we have no arguments to bring.

You know whether it's a pastor or teacher or whatever because he will, his eyes will penetrate and we are completely there you know and if we are on his side we will receive the approval.

And so the commitment friends is very important and if you have made the commitment yesterday night, your future is wonderful.

But you know the commitment is every time.

Don't forget this because Satan is there, he never rests.

So let us now look again at the biblical insights and the shaking of scripture and the experiences exactly in the scriptures, everything is related to God's church, to God's people.

And so what is now the experience among God's people in scripture?

The remnant and what is the specific characteristics of this remnant.

How many of us, to be honest, have sighed and cried to the Lord because of what's happening in the church?

Oh yeah, you know, we realize things don't go well and we have problems and, you know, roadblocks, but sigh and cry, this is a very unique experience.

And I think that if you want to prepare for this, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, you know, shall be satisfied.

And even if I went to the seminary, and I wasn't a preacher and whatever, it took me a long time to realize what it means.

You know, hunger and thirst for righteousness.

And you have to call upon the Lord to give you this.

But if you have this, when you get up in the morning, the first thing is not look at Google News, CNN, the weather, but look at the word of God.

And friends, if you don't have this experience, Call upon the Lord.

I enjoyed the scriptures, fun, it's interesting, but hunger and thirst for righteousness is something different.

That you absolutely cannot be without it.

And then the experience of the remaining church members.

So here you have the remnant And what about the rest of the church?

But you're lukewarm, and in a lukewarm situation, we will spit out.

But the problem is, we think we are rich, we have become wealthy, we have need of nothing, and don't you know that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked?

And then counsel, gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich and white garments, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesalve that you may see.

And so again, let us look here at the Spirit of Prophecy Insights.

What is the effect of the straight testimony?

It deals both with the remnant and the rest.

Those who accept the testimony and rejoice in it and those who oppose.

Those are the 2 classes and the closer we come to the end, and I've seen it in my 40 years of Advent experience, that it becomes clearer and clearer the closer we come to the end.

It's not that you neglect the others, but you feel attracted to the other group.

Because you have the same basis of understanding, the same goals, the same way to approach scripture, the same way to it, and if you don't have this, 1 goes in, 1 goes out.

We have now several bible passages and on every issue in the church, 1 decides in 1 direction, 1 decides in the other direction.

It's very tragic in a way, you wish it wasn't so, but you never have intimate fellowship with people that treat the Word of God in the spirit of prophecy in a way that you would never dare to treat it.

And to me it is the treasure to heaven, the treasure to heaven, a marvelous relationship with Jesus Christ.

Its purpose in Spiritual Gifts Volume 2, page 283.

You read, by some there is a shunning of the living testimony.

It needs to be something besides theory to reach the heart now.

It needs the stirring testimony to alarm, arouse, that will stir the enemy's subject and then honest souls will be led to decide for the truth.

So was it not for this honest testimony, friends, many would not decide.

They would say, okay, you know, let's see how it goes, let's see how it goes.

But a straight testimony cannot be shunned, and this is the key.

We may know the 3 Angels' messages, We may know the 1888 message, we may know health reform and all the other things, but it needs to be something more than theory.

It needs to be in heart experience And that only can come from the Lord.

And so that is my challenge frequently, you feed the students with reams of information.

And if you see how they treat sometimes 1 another, how they walk in life.

Then Monday morning they come to the seminary or the college and you hear them talk.

Is it the latest experience with the Lord Jesus?

Series

The Shaking and the Shaken: How to Face the Shaking of God's Remnant

Has the Shaking Already Begun?

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Till I Die: A Study on the Commonality of Tears, Blood, and Sweat

Burn the Boats: Challenges to Commitment

1h 11m

Adventist or Fragmentist: Avoiding Apostasy 101

What lens are you using?: The key to avoiding apostasy

1h

500 Years Later: Is the Reformation Still Relevant?

2. The Revolutionary Protest: Just a Misunderstanding?

1h 10m

Egypt, the Exodus & Moses' Quest for God's Destiny

1. The Big Question: Who are You?

1h

Plenary

Perilous Pitfalls of Compromise

2h

Plenary

What About the Few

1h 45m

The 21st Century Challenge

4. New Life in Old Methods

1h 4m

Baptizing the Devil: Evolution and the Seduction of Christianity

3. Good but Not True

1h 1m

Keys to Growing a Powerful and Vibrant Prayer Ministry

2. From Spiritual Laodicean to Daring to Ask for More: Melody’s Story

1h 13m

1888's Everlasting Gospel

6. Does Last Generation Theology amount to Change in the Everlasting Gospel?

51m

Remnant Identity: Who We Are and Why It Matters

4. The Remnant & A Final Generation of Spirit-filled Witnesses

54m

Devoted Devotions: A Vibrant Devotional Life for the Last Days

Bound by Devotion

59m

Sound Doctrine