Standing Before the Lord by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 26, 1911

Standing Before the Lord

By F. M. W.

THE consecrated child of God will live and labor as in the personal presence of his Lord. This was the secret of Elijah’s power. When declaring to wicked Ahab the judgment of God which would be visited upon the land of Israel, he prefaced it with the remark, “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand.” At the end of the long three years of famine, Elijah appeared to Obadiah, and requested an interview with Ahab. When Obadiah feared to become the messenger, Elijah declared, “As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself unto him to-day.”

The prophet fulfilled his promise. Upon Mount Carmel he confronted the haughty Ahab, the wicked prophets of Baal, and the backslidden hosts of Israel. He stood on this memorable occasion as the one true witness of Jehovah, but he was not alone. He stood as in the divine presence, the mighty hosts of God surrounding him. All heaven bent with interest and sympathy to view the scene. Inspiring heroism was Elijah’s on this occasion, and yet after all he was but a humble man,—a man, as the apostle James tells us, “subject to like passions as we are.” It was the Lord of hosts, before whom he stood, who filled him with his divine Spirit. It was the great God of the universe, who used this poor instrument of clay as the means whereby all Israel was made acquainted once more, and that, too, in a most remarkable manner, with the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

This consciousness of the divine presence proved a keeping power in the life of Moses, and led him to attempt, and to accomplish, great things for God. In the humble garb of his pastoral calling, his shepherd’s staff in hand, accompanied by his younger brother, he entered the palace of proud Pharaoh. He appeared not in the role of a suppliant, but as the representative of a mightier monarch than ever earthly kingdom knew. His words to Pharaoh were a demand: “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto him in the wilderness.” Again and again this uncompromising demand was made upon the Egyptian king. Driven out of Pharaoh’s presence, forbidden under pain of death to again see his face, Moses returned with the same unfaltering message. Fearing that disaster would be visited upon himself and his entire kingdom, Pharaoh at last yielded to the force of circumstances, and hastened the children of Israel upon their journey.

For forty years Moses stood as the visible head and leader of Israel. Criticized, censured, plotted against by the chief princes, and even by his own

brother and sister, he endured heroically the trying experiences of the forty years’ wandering. Only once, so far as the record tells, did he fail. He endured all these trying experiences because, as did Elijah, he stood as in the presence of the great God. “He endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” He saw the end of the journey, the final results of loyalty to God, and in contradistinction, the final fruits of unrighteousness.

Elijah and Moses are set forth in the Scriptures of truth as the types of two classes,—the resurrected ones and the translated ones,—who will constitute the inhabitants of the coming kingdom. We are living in the day when that kingdom is soon to be set up. We must possess in our lives the spirit which actuated those men of old. We must stand, as did Elijah, in the presence of the Lord of hosts, realizing that his watchful eye is upon us, and that he takes account of all that we do and say. Like Moses we must endure, “as seeing him who is invisible.”

This consciousness of the divine presence should take from us the fear of man. We are the servants of one greater than king or potentate. To him we are answerable for our course of conduct. He stands as our mighty Helper here, and as our final Judge at last.

This consciousness will rob life of its selfishness and sordidness. How mean will appear our selfish purposes, how groveling our earthly hopes, how degrading every impure, fleshly desire! The pleasures of time and sense will be lost in the anticipated joy of heaven. The glitter, tinsel, and show of worldly glory will fade into insignificance before the greater glory soon to be revealed. Life will be possessed of a high and holy purpose, and before the accomplishment of that purpose, selfish propensities will bow the knee. Then shall we recognize that life does not consist of a mere personal, selfish existence, but that it is a grand possibility, fraught with mighty and far-reaching questions, involving allegiance to the great God of the universe and loyalty to the principles of his government, as against the enemy seeking its overthrow. O, we need to cultivate in our Christian living this union with God! We need to sense this consciousness of the divine presence. Only in this shall we be kept from falling. Only in this can we withstand the seductive wiles of the enemy of our souls, and keep from being switched off from the great track of truth.

To-day every soul is on trial before the universe of God. The testing, proving process is going forward. The chaff will be sifted out, and only the sound wheat remain. The conflict between God and Satan is not one of personal difference alone; great principles are involved in the controversy. By our lives we are declaring on which side of the conflict we will arraign ourselves. Satan is bidding for the allegiance of every soul. To the young men and women among us, he presents the pleasures of the world; to our sisters, the foibles and follies of fashion; to our brethren, the enticing allurements of speculation.

The spirit of these things has already too greatly invaded the church of God. Some of our church-membership have departed from the old-time simplicity of faith and practise which once possessed this people. With too many, personal devotion is neglected, the family altar broken down, the Bible laid aside for the magazine or newspaper, the church prayer-meeting forsaken for personal convenience or social pleasure. Love is lacking in homes. Alienation and criticism exist among brethren. These conditions must be changed. God can not baptize his remnant people with power while these wicked principles control the life. Every heart needs to realize the exceeding sinfulness of all unrighteousness, and cry mightily to God for deliverance.

In every church-membership godly men and women should sound the rallying cry of return to the old-time simplicity of faith and Christian living. There are needed more men and women whose hearts God has touched, and who, living in the light of his countenance, and with hearts filled with his blessed, divine Spirit, will set an example of simple faith and devout Christian living in their churches and communities. The Israel of God must return to the old-time spirit of consecration if they would have the old-time spirit of power. Turning a deaf ear to the voice which would bid us link up with the influences of evil, we must set our faces resolutely toward the kingdom, placing our all—houses, lands, positions, families, and lives—upon the altar of God’s service.

The spirit of apostolic days, the spirit of the 1844 movement, will sometime actuate this people. One hundred forty-four thousand in whose mouth is found no guile, who are without spot or blemish in the sight of a holy God, will stand upon Mount Zion, and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb at last.

Dear reader, will you be among that number? It is your blessed privilege. Though unworthy of yourself, though weak in your own strength, by God’s grace and through his mighty power you may be an overcomer at last; but it must be because you will to submit yourself to God. It must be because you have a heart and a spirit to surrender all to him, and without a single reserve let him come in and fill your life. It is this surrender that will bring to you the power of his Holy Spirit. It is this daily living as in his presence, this standing before him, this seeing of him who is invisible, that will bring God into your life, a mighty controlling and sanctifying power.

All heaven is waiting to bestow upon the remnant church the Holy Spirit of power to-day. Why put off the blessed time of visitation? Why longer delay to ally ourselves with the heavenly intelligences and heavenly powers? Why longer refuse God his rightful place in our hearts and lives? Let him be supreme. Let him come in and fill us with his fulness. Then shall we be enabled to fill our heaven-appointed place in this great movement, and do the work which God designs shall be done by his Spirit-filled and Spirit-directed church.

F. M. W.