And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
To taste the good word of God is to feed on the Word of life by which a person is made new in Christ unto holiness and fruit for God's glory. To taste the powers of the world to come is to have a real foretaste and experience of the coming age, awakening longing for more until filled with all God's fullness. That foretaste centers on the glorious hope of Christ's second coming in the Father's glory, the resurrection of the sleeping saints in immortality, the change of the living, and being caught up to be forever with the Lord. It is feasting on heavenly joys in advance, finding joy and consolation in heaven, fixing the heart where the treasure is, and being weaned from the world so that nothing draws the mind from securing salvation and glorifying God. That tasting makes every converted person in a sense a missionary to proclaim salvation in home, church, and neighborhood, while rebellion after such exalted privilege leaves guilt unpardonable because no greater exhibition of power remains to impress more deeply.
Meaning of the Tasting
To taste the good word of God is to feed on the Word of life, the bread of life, by which a person sees the power of the world to come and is made new in Christ Jesus unto holiness and fruit for God's glory. That tasting is spiritual life in Christ through revealed love, and it calls for continuing to abide in Christ, for turning to what cannot nourish the soul leaves a person in danger with clinging to Jesus as the only hope. To taste the powers of the world to come is to have already a real foretaste and experience of the coming age, which awakens longing for more and a yearning to be filled with all God's fullness.
That foretaste points to the glorious hope of Christ's second coming in the glory of the Father with all the holy angels, the resurrection of the sleeping saints clothed with glorious immortality, the instant change of the living, and being caught up to meet the Lord in the air to be forever with Him. The present prospect so tasted is far more glorious than the disciples' prospect when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, and it calls for praising God even with a loud voice and not holding peace. Having tasted creates a whole being crying out after the living God, unsatisfied until filled with all His fullness, with a hope big with immortality and full of glory rooted in the redemption Christ purchased by His own blood. The tasting means to have witnessed and enjoyed the inexpressible glory of heaven and to have known by abundant light and experience God's character, goodness, mercy, wisdom and excellent glory, and His terrible majesty in exalted heavenly privilege.
The tasting belongs to understanding the mystery of godliness and appreciating Christ's sacrifice, for Christ drank the bitter cup prepared by human sin so that people could drink the cup of salvation, escape misery, and be raised to His kingdom. Those who have so tasted recognize that Christ left the Father's glory and gave Himself to make a way of escape and to raise people to His kingdom. Israel in the wilderness illustrates the tasting, having received Christ's light, power, miracles, care, manna and protection, yet resisting evidences of truth, failing to recognize Him, being unmindful of His miracles, and falling in the wilderness. Those who lived through the 1844 Advent movement tasted the good word and the powers in proclaiming Christ's coming and experiencing God's work.
Heavenly Joy Experienced Now
To taste the powers of the world to come is to feast on heavenly joys in advance. Those who have so tasted find their joy and consolation in heaven and cannot be satisfied or amused with earthly things. Their longing souls are drawn out after God, and where their treasure is there their heart is fixed in sweet communion with the God they love and worship. Their use of leisure and their amusement is to contemplate their treasure, the holy city and the earth made new as their eternal home. Dwelling on what is lofty, pure, and holy brings heaven near and lets them feel the power of the Holy Spirit.
That power weans them more and more from the world and makes the things of heaven their consolation and chief joy. The attraction to God and heaven becomes so great that nothing can draw the mind from securing the salvation of the soul and honoring and glorifying Him. To taste is to delight in heavenly things by contemplating God's assurances, knowing God, beholding Christ's character, and loving holiness. The taste of heaven begins in the heart now, for heaven's spirit dwells in those journeying there, and hope of heaven is vain if heavenly things and holiness hold no attraction.
The powers are to be received daily as a religious experience founded on God. That daily receiving goes together with communion with God, fellowship of the Spirit, a firmer grasp of the higher life, and drawing closer to the Redeemer. It works holy and elevating principles into character and life and affects all actions. It elevates above the world and separates from its polluting influence, so that purity, holiness, and separation from the world become natural. It sustains lifelong consecration expressed in self-denial and self-sacrifice, not merely outward religious acts.
To know the powers is to have an experienced knowledge expressed in life, character, words, spirit, and teaching. Those so influenced live distinctly from the world rather than adopting its ways to try to uplift it, and their example and separation have a convincing influence. A taste of eternal joys is a gift of God's love meant to lead onward in hope, lift the mind, and bring it closer to God. These experiences are given for a purpose, so that the greater the blessings received the greater the responsibility to use influence for good. The tasting is joined with receiving the Holy Spirit and being transformed into Christ's likeness, and that change appears in unselfishness and generous care for others even amid deep poverty.
A real foretaste of heaven holds a believer steady under betrayal, condemnation, imprisonment, and death. One who has truly preached Christ and shared that foretaste does not murmur at his lot, speak bitterness, or condemn his enemies when the shadow of death falls, but manifests the spirit of Jesus when He was betrayed and condemned. In prison and in the last hours that foretaste becomes a feast of heavenly peace and love. It brings a glimpse of the dawn of better days that will open upon God's church on earth, with confidence that the loss of his own life will be seed for the church.
Call to Witness and Service
The tasting describes all who believe the truth, consecrate themselves to God, and have felt His converting power as a personal Saviour. That experience makes every converted person in a sense a missionary, laying on each a work for those in the home, among neighbors and friends, and in the church. They are to proclaim the gospel of salvation, speak of the love of God, tell in simplicity what the Lord is to them, deal justly with all, and walk humbly with God. Faithful testimony in simplicity may do more good than the most eloquent discourse, and experience gained in this nearest home work fits for a wider sphere of usefulness and prepares for foreign work, multiplying the few now engaged into hundreds.
Those who have experienced the goodness of God's word and the powers of the world to come are called by Christ to represent Him, whether or not they have been ordained by human hands. They are to let their light shine through good works that glorify God, wherever they are, including beyond their immediate community. The truth, spoken simply and made effective by the Holy Spirit, brings conviction and changes the will and character. To have tasted is to have received Christ and to be called to witness and use the gifts He has given.
Tasting the powers means experiencing them in a way that stirs a person to share Christ with others, and this response belongs to every true Christian whatever the age or education, because being Christian means being like Christ. The desire to bring others to the Saviour is the first impulse of a renewed heart, and its absence is evidence of lost first love. That loss calls for heart-searching, a fresh baptism of Christ's Spirit, and a deeper grasp of Christ's saving love. Everyone who has personally tasted has something to say in honor of Jesus and must not keep silent in meetings, for no one can live from another's experience. Each must strive with all might for heaven and for eternal life, and each has a part to act and something to do in the cause of God.
Those who have tasted the reality of the powers have solemn work to do for Christ, and this includes every believer and not only ministers. Each is to use ability to enlighten friends and neighbors and serve the Master, giving self fully to Christ and standing ready to answer at the judgment for how what was entrusted was used. Those who have received the word of life are to work with Christ as He draws people to Himself, cooperating in His work through service to others, including people suffering oppression. Old and young, men, women, and youth who have tasted must draw together with Him, serving as human instrumentalities cooperating with divine intelligences, especially in behalf of oppressed people who cannot help themselves.
God's servants who have experienced the power bear a burden to lead others toward God, and that power is needed to turn parents and children to God and prepare them for His kingdom. Those who have tasted stand on the solid Rock, remain firm in the faith, and show its effects by proclaiming the gospel and revealing Christ's grace. Near the end of time those who have this foretaste of the coming world's power show it openly as missionaries for God heralding salvation and doing the work of the third angel with joyful countenances and uplifted heads, with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shining upon them and rejoicing that redemption is near. They go forth as bold soldiers of the cross and messengers of righteousness, firm on solid rock and not on sliding sand, unable to be easily moved away from the faith once delivered to the saints, strengthened by their Leader to cope with difficulty, representing Christ and revealing the triumphs of His grace. Truth is heard from their lips, reflected in their countenances, demonstrated in pure and uncorrupt lives, and flashed as gospel light to those in darkness, while they declare the last message of mercy and their unswerving fidelity is registered in heaven.
Separation From Worldly Life
To have tasted the powers of the world to come is to have felt something of its divine power, to know joy in the Lord and to take interest in eternal realities rather than be absorbed in earthly vanity. Those who have tasted are therefore to live distinctly from those absorbed in earthly things, who have forsaken God, the source and fountain of living water, for empty substitutes and broken cisterns that can hold no water and give no lasting joy or satisfaction. Having received the light of present truth and learned to endure by seeing Him who is invisible, they must not lose that interest in eternal realities and joy in the Lord.
Because of this tasting they must not be engrossed by the trifling things of earth nor make haste unto vanity. They must not strive by unfair means to obtain advantages for themselves. They must not forsake God for broken cisterns, compete with the institutions of the world in size or splendor, make Jerusalem-centers, enter into confederacy with those who do not love or fear God, or carry on the work with outward display and selfishness that leaves truth in the outer court and limits its working. Such a course belongs to those in spiritual midnight darkness, not to those who know the joy of the Lord, eternal realities, and present truth.
Instead those who have tasted must carry on the work of God without outward display. That means annexing new territory and sowing seeds of truth, economizing and gathering up fragments for missionary work, and following Christ in self-denial and soul-saving. To have tasted God's good word and the powers of the world to come also governs education, so that knowledge of writings that deny God and deny, despise, and disparage Scripture is not to be regarded as essential to a good education or as an essential part of it. Tasting the powers of the world to come is an experience of spiritual life in Christ in which God has revealed His love and the person has tasted the Bread of Life, and this calls for continuing to abide in Christ. To turn instead to what cannot nourish the soul leaves a person in danger, and the only hope is to cling to Jesus.
Warning After Tasting
To have tasted means to have witnessed and enjoyed the inexpressible glory of heaven and to have known by abundant light and experience the character of God, His goodness, mercy, wisdom and excellent glory, and His terrible majesty. Rebellion after such tasting makes guilt unpardonable and leaves no possible hope of redemption. No new and wonderful exhibition of exalted power remains that could impress more deeply than what was already experienced, and no reserve force of power and no greater heights and depths of infinite glory exist to overpower jealous doubts and rebellious murmuring. Guilt and punishment must be in proportion to exalted privilege in the heavenly courts.
Tasting the Saviour's love is rejoicing in the evidence of sins forgiven after putting on Christ by baptism, separating from the world and covenanting to walk in newness of life. Those who have had this experience must not set up idols in their hearts. If after tasting they persist in uniting with the foes of Christ, reject the perfect righteousness He offers, choose the ways He has condemned, choose the amusements, vanities and follies of the world, and refuse to follow the light given them by refusing to conform conduct to the just and holy requirements of God's law, their sins are most aggravating. They will be judged more severely than heathen who never had the light and never knew God or His law, for guilt and wages are proportionate to the light and privileges enjoyed.
Having tasted the good word and the powers means having received Christ's light, power, miracles and care, as Israel in the wilderness received manna and protection yet resisted His evidences of truth, failed to recognize Him, and were unmindful of His miracles. Those who have thus tasted must leave childhood ways and grow into mature men and women in Christ, with natural dispositions softened and subdued by His grace and wrong traits of character overcome. If instead they dishonor Him by wrong words and actions and refuse to do His will, they pierce Him daily, make Him suffer the agonies of crucifixion anew, and crucify Him afresh like Israel who fell in the wilderness. God cannot fulfil His purpose through such, but only those who follow His perfect example and do His will in all things in this life will live with Him forever in the future life, where to know Him aright is peace and joy and life everlasting.
To taste the good word of God is to feed on the Word of life by which a person is made new in Christ unto holiness and fruit for God's glory. To taste the powers of the world to come is to have a real foretaste and experience of the coming age, awakening longing for more until filled with all God's fullness. That foretaste centers on the glorious hope of Christ's second coming in the Father's glory, the resurrection of the sleeping saints in immortality, the change of the living, and being caught up to be forever with the Lord. It is feasting on heavenly joys in advance, finding joy and consolation in heaven, fixing the heart where the treasure is, and being weaned from the world so that nothing draws the mind from securing salvation and glorifying God. That tasting makes every converted person in a sense a missionary to proclaim salvation in home, church, and neighborhood, while rebellion after such exalted privilege leaves guilt unpardonable because no greater exhibition of power remains to impress more deeply.
Meaning of the Tasting
To taste the good word of God is to feed on the Word of life, the bread of life, by which a person sees the power of the world to come and is made new in Christ Jesus unto holiness and fruit for God's glory. That tasting is spiritual life in Christ through revealed love, and it calls for continuing to abide in Christ, for turning to what cannot nourish the soul leaves a person in danger with clinging to Jesus as the only hope. To taste the powers of the world to come is to have already a real foretaste and experience of the coming age, which awakens longing for more and a yearning to be filled with all God's fullness.
That foretaste points to the glorious hope of Christ's second coming in the glory of the Father with all the holy angels, the resurrection of the sleeping saints clothed with glorious immortality, the instant change of the living, and being caught up to meet the Lord in the air to be forever with Him. The present prospect so tasted is far more glorious than the disciples' prospect when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, and it calls for praising God even with a loud voice and not holding peace. Having tasted creates a whole being crying out after the living God, unsatisfied until filled with all His fullness, with a hope big with immortality and full of glory rooted in the redemption Christ purchased by His own blood. The tasting means to have witnessed and enjoyed the inexpressible glory of heaven and to have known by abundant light and experience God's character, goodness, mercy, wisdom and excellent glory, and His terrible majesty in exalted heavenly privilege.
The tasting belongs to understanding the mystery of godliness and appreciating Christ's sacrifice, for Christ drank the bitter cup prepared by human sin so that people could drink the cup of salvation, escape misery, and be raised to His kingdom. Those who have so tasted recognize that Christ left the Father's glory and gave Himself to make a way of escape and to raise people to His kingdom. Israel in the wilderness illustrates the tasting, having received Christ's light, power, miracles, care, manna and protection, yet resisting evidences of truth, failing to recognize Him, being unmindful of His miracles, and falling in the wilderness. Those who lived through the 1844 Advent movement tasted the good word and the powers in proclaiming Christ's coming and experiencing God's work.
Heavenly Joy Experienced Now
To taste the powers of the world to come is to feast on heavenly joys in advance. Those who have so tasted find their joy and consolation in heaven and cannot be satisfied or amused with earthly things. Their longing souls are drawn out after God, and where their treasure is there their heart is fixed in sweet communion with the God they love and worship. Their use of leisure and their amusement is to contemplate their treasure, the holy city and the earth made new as their eternal home. Dwelling on what is lofty, pure, and holy brings heaven near and lets them feel the power of the Holy Spirit.
That power weans them more and more from the world and makes the things of heaven their consolation and chief joy. The attraction to God and heaven becomes so great that nothing can draw the mind from securing the salvation of the soul and honoring and glorifying Him. To taste is to delight in heavenly things by contemplating God's assurances, knowing God, beholding Christ's character, and loving holiness. The taste of heaven begins in the heart now, for heaven's spirit dwells in those journeying there, and hope of heaven is vain if heavenly things and holiness hold no attraction.
The powers are to be received daily as a religious experience founded on God. That daily receiving goes together with communion with God, fellowship of the Spirit, a firmer grasp of the higher life, and drawing closer to the Redeemer. It works holy and elevating principles into character and life and affects all actions. It elevates above the world and separates from its polluting influence, so that purity, holiness, and separation from the world become natural. It sustains lifelong consecration expressed in self-denial and self-sacrifice, not merely outward religious acts.
To know the powers is to have an experienced knowledge expressed in life, character, words, spirit, and teaching. Those so influenced live distinctly from the world rather than adopting its ways to try to uplift it, and their example and separation have a convincing influence. A taste of eternal joys is a gift of God's love meant to lead onward in hope, lift the mind, and bring it closer to God. These experiences are given for a purpose, so that the greater the blessings received the greater the responsibility to use influence for good. The tasting is joined with receiving the Holy Spirit and being transformed into Christ's likeness, and that change appears in unselfishness and generous care for others even amid deep poverty.
A real foretaste of heaven holds a believer steady under betrayal, condemnation, imprisonment, and death. One who has truly preached Christ and shared that foretaste does not murmur at his lot, speak bitterness, or condemn his enemies when the shadow of death falls, but manifests the spirit of Jesus when He was betrayed and condemned. In prison and in the last hours that foretaste becomes a feast of heavenly peace and love. It brings a glimpse of the dawn of better days that will open upon God's church on earth, with confidence that the loss of his own life will be seed for the church.
Call to Witness and Service
The tasting describes all who believe the truth, consecrate themselves to God, and have felt His converting power as a personal Saviour. That experience makes every converted person in a sense a missionary, laying on each a work for those in the home, among neighbors and friends, and in the church. They are to proclaim the gospel of salvation, speak of the love of God, tell in simplicity what the Lord is to them, deal justly with all, and walk humbly with God. Faithful testimony in simplicity may do more good than the most eloquent discourse, and experience gained in this nearest home work fits for a wider sphere of usefulness and prepares for foreign work, multiplying the few now engaged into hundreds.
Those who have experienced the goodness of God's word and the powers of the world to come are called by Christ to represent Him, whether or not they have been ordained by human hands. They are to let their light shine through good works that glorify God, wherever they are, including beyond their immediate community. The truth, spoken simply and made effective by the Holy Spirit, brings conviction and changes the will and character. To have tasted is to have received Christ and to be called to witness and use the gifts He has given.
Tasting the powers means experiencing them in a way that stirs a person to share Christ with others, and this response belongs to every true Christian whatever the age or education, because being Christian means being like Christ. The desire to bring others to the Saviour is the first impulse of a renewed heart, and its absence is evidence of lost first love. That loss calls for heart-searching, a fresh baptism of Christ's Spirit, and a deeper grasp of Christ's saving love. Everyone who has personally tasted has something to say in honor of Jesus and must not keep silent in meetings, for no one can live from another's experience. Each must strive with all might for heaven and for eternal life, and each has a part to act and something to do in the cause of God.
Those who have tasted the reality of the powers have solemn work to do for Christ, and this includes every believer and not only ministers. Each is to use ability to enlighten friends and neighbors and serve the Master, giving self fully to Christ and standing ready to answer at the judgment for how what was entrusted was used. Those who have received the word of life are to work with Christ as He draws people to Himself, cooperating in His work through service to others, including people suffering oppression. Old and young, men, women, and youth who have tasted must draw together with Him, serving as human instrumentalities cooperating with divine intelligences, especially in behalf of oppressed people who cannot help themselves.
God's servants who have experienced the power bear a burden to lead others toward God, and that power is needed to turn parents and children to God and prepare them for His kingdom. Those who have tasted stand on the solid Rock, remain firm in the faith, and show its effects by proclaiming the gospel and revealing Christ's grace. Near the end of time those who have this foretaste of the coming world's power show it openly as missionaries for God heralding salvation and doing the work of the third angel with joyful countenances and uplifted heads, with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shining upon them and rejoicing that redemption is near. They go forth as bold soldiers of the cross and messengers of righteousness, firm on solid rock and not on sliding sand, unable to be easily moved away from the faith once delivered to the saints, strengthened by their Leader to cope with difficulty, representing Christ and revealing the triumphs of His grace. Truth is heard from their lips, reflected in their countenances, demonstrated in pure and uncorrupt lives, and flashed as gospel light to those in darkness, while they declare the last message of mercy and their unswerving fidelity is registered in heaven.
Separation From Worldly Life
To have tasted the powers of the world to come is to have felt something of its divine power, to know joy in the Lord and to take interest in eternal realities rather than be absorbed in earthly vanity. Those who have tasted are therefore to live distinctly from those absorbed in earthly things, who have forsaken God, the source and fountain of living water, for empty substitutes and broken cisterns that can hold no water and give no lasting joy or satisfaction. Having received the light of present truth and learned to endure by seeing Him who is invisible, they must not lose that interest in eternal realities and joy in the Lord.
Because of this tasting they must not be engrossed by the trifling things of earth nor make haste unto vanity. They must not strive by unfair means to obtain advantages for themselves. They must not forsake God for broken cisterns, compete with the institutions of the world in size or splendor, make Jerusalem-centers, enter into confederacy with those who do not love or fear God, or carry on the work with outward display and selfishness that leaves truth in the outer court and limits its working. Such a course belongs to those in spiritual midnight darkness, not to those who know the joy of the Lord, eternal realities, and present truth.
Instead those who have tasted must carry on the work of God without outward display. That means annexing new territory and sowing seeds of truth, economizing and gathering up fragments for missionary work, and following Christ in self-denial and soul-saving. To have tasted God's good word and the powers of the world to come also governs education, so that knowledge of writings that deny God and deny, despise, and disparage Scripture is not to be regarded as essential to a good education or as an essential part of it. Tasting the powers of the world to come is an experience of spiritual life in Christ in which God has revealed His love and the person has tasted the Bread of Life, and this calls for continuing to abide in Christ. To turn instead to what cannot nourish the soul leaves a person in danger, and the only hope is to cling to Jesus.
Warning After Tasting
To have tasted means to have witnessed and enjoyed the inexpressible glory of heaven and to have known by abundant light and experience the character of God, His goodness, mercy, wisdom and excellent glory, and His terrible majesty. Rebellion after such tasting makes guilt unpardonable and leaves no possible hope of redemption. No new and wonderful exhibition of exalted power remains that could impress more deeply than what was already experienced, and no reserve force of power and no greater heights and depths of infinite glory exist to overpower jealous doubts and rebellious murmuring. Guilt and punishment must be in proportion to exalted privilege in the heavenly courts.
Tasting the Saviour's love is rejoicing in the evidence of sins forgiven after putting on Christ by baptism, separating from the world and covenanting to walk in newness of life. Those who have had this experience must not set up idols in their hearts. If after tasting they persist in uniting with the foes of Christ, reject the perfect righteousness He offers, choose the ways He has condemned, choose the amusements, vanities and follies of the world, and refuse to follow the light given them by refusing to conform conduct to the just and holy requirements of God's law, their sins are most aggravating. They will be judged more severely than heathen who never had the light and never knew God or His law, for guilt and wages are proportionate to the light and privileges enjoyed.
Having tasted the good word and the powers means having received Christ's light, power, miracles and care, as Israel in the wilderness received manna and protection yet resisted His evidences of truth, failed to recognize Him, and were unmindful of His miracles. Those who have thus tasted must leave childhood ways and grow into mature men and women in Christ, with natural dispositions softened and subdued by His grace and wrong traits of character overcome. If instead they dishonor Him by wrong words and actions and refuse to do His will, they pierce Him daily, make Him suffer the agonies of crucifixion anew, and crucify Him afresh like Israel who fell in the wilderness. God cannot fulfil His purpose through such, but only those who follow His perfect example and do His will in all things in this life will live with Him forever in the future life, where to know Him aright is peace and joy and life everlasting.