Experiences of Power in Queensland, Australia
By R. D. Quinn
“God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.” For it is “not by might [human energy], nor by power [inherent ability], but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” How slow we have been to learn this all-important truth! and it is usually not until our own strength fails, and, like Jacob, we are forced to abandon our wrestling and resistance, that we acknowledge that “power belongeth unto God.” The manifest working of God’s Holy Spirit in connection with aggressive work is clearing our minds of all difficulties as to how the third angel’s message is to go as a witness to all nations and peoples before the end. The time has now come for the final warning to be given; and where the gospel is being preached in the power that belongeth unto God, the people are mightily aroused, and the honest souls, “such as should be saved,” are pressing into the kingdom. It need not be longer asked, “Where be all his miracles which our father’s told us of?” when the greatest of all miracles are being performed before our very eyes. In one of our recent tent efforts two young men came to our meetings. They were both from Sweden, and were college bred. One was a Swedish nobleman by birth. Having studied under infidel tutors they were both rank atheists. One had studied the principal religions of the world, from which he had formulated a religion of his own, which was practically sun-worship. They came under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit, and their foundation was shattered at once. The compelling power attending the message urged them to the meetings until they both experienced a remarkable conversion. One of them was driven of the Spirit into the woods at noon one day, where he remained that day and one whole night in study and prayer. In giving his experience afterward, he said that when he came out of the woods in the morning, he knew that there was a God in heaven who forgiveth sins. These two young men have since been the most ardent followers of the Master; for having been forgiven much, they love much. So rapid was their growth in the message, that in a few weeks they were holding discussions nightly for some time with visiting pastors who were trying to unsettle them in their new-found hope. As a result, the pastors were utterly confounded and put to flight. One of these brethren immediately translated a number of our English tracts into the Swedish language, “Elihu” among others, and sent them to his home in Sweden, along with an account of his remarkable conversion. This resulted in the conversion of his father’s house to the third angel’s message. At this same meeting a man who, through false reports, had become so prejudiced against our work that, shortly before we came, he had burned a beautiful copy of “Bible Readings,” was constrained by the Spirit to come a distance of eight miles each night for weeks, in order to attend the services. He and his family accepted the truth, and he was elected to the leadership of a company of twenty Seventh-day Adventists organized in that place. Others, by special providences of God, were brought great distances in order that they might hear the message for this time. The mysterious ways in which they had been led were not understood by them until they saw and accepted the message for this time. Then, with hearts made tender by the wonderful revelations of truth, they understood all. One lady, the wife of a local Methodist preacher, who, having attended the meetings, was strongly impressed with the truth, yet held back from taking her stand by the opposition of her own family and visiting evangelists, was awakened in the night with a definite impression to get up and study the Bible, certain passages so impressing her that she immediately accepted the truth. In this she was soon followed by her husband and her whole family. Believing that He who forgiveth all our iniquities, also healeth all our diseases, she claimed the promise and sought God for physical healing, and was restored to health. So, by all this and much more, we see that the work is going with mighty power; and although we are in the closing hours of the last generation, there is plenty of time for God to do the work when he gets hold of men who recognize that “power belongeth unto God.” Some are beginning to wonder how the work is going to be finished in the few brief years left us in this generation. But when we read in Joel that under the latter rain, which will be much more abundant than the former, God will pour out his Spirit upon all flesh, that the old men will dream dreams, and the young men see visions, and, by comparing this with the way God worked under the former rain to enlighten Cornelius and the eunuch, whom he knew to be devout men searching after truth, we are led to wonder why so much time is needed, and if we are not, after all, nearer the end than any of us realize. With the certain knowledge that God knows just where every honest soul is, as is shown in the case of Cornelius and the eunuch, and that he has men who recognize the workings of his Holy Spirit, as did Peter and Philip, how long, think you, will it take on the basis of special revelations from heaven, if need be, to bring his servants in direct communication with every honest soul in all the earth, and thus the work be cut short in righteousness? Let us beware of limiting the power that “belongeth unto God.” “Faith which worketh by love,” is the message now, and it brings certain victory. “The men that love and fear thy name
Shall see their hopes fulfilled;
The mighty God will compass them
With favor as a shield.”