And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
God promises to pour out His Spirit in those days on servants and handmaids as part of all flesh, without limit of rank, kind, or male and female. The promise was directly fulfilled at Pentecost, when more than a hundred unlearned believers received power to prophesy and to speak the gospel with miraculous accuracy in other languages, convicting and converting thousands. Only part was fulfilled then, for the signs in sun and moon were not seen and visions and dreams were not given at that hour, while the fuller latter rain is reserved for the close of the age to restore primitive faith, glorify Christ, and prepare a people to stand. That outpouring revives the spirit of prophecy as a last-day sign for counsel and correction, with the Bible remaining the rule by which all is judged, and it brings pentecostal energy, healing, miracles, and holy character to humble workers in every place. It is given in answer to earnest, united, humble prayer with confession and reconsecration, and it falls when the third angel's message goes forth with a loud voice to lighten the earth, sending servants, handmaids, and even children to proclaim the truth with power amid danger and deception.
Recipients and Scope
The promise reaches servants and handmaids as well as all other people, covering all flesh and every kind and social rank of person. It is not shut up to the beginning of the gospel age but stretches through the last days toward the signs before the great day of the Lord and the deliverance of God's remnant. In those days people of all kinds receive the Spirit, with some prophesying, dreaming dreams, or seeing visions, so that even a stranger recognizes the time has come and is moved by what is heard at the meetings.
The naming of servants and handmaids, like the naming of sons and daughters, shows the gift is not limited by gender but includes both men and women. They too will prophesy, and the promise belongs to the Spirit's outpouring at Pentecost and to God's work in the last days, to be claimed by believers who seek the Spirit for individual life and work. Its place is among the signs connected with the near approach of the great and terrible day of the Lord, begun at Pentecost as the early rain received in measure since, with the fuller latter rain reserved for the close of the Christian age.
The Spirit falls on people in humble positions, including the uneducated, children, and humble young men and women, and moves them to proclaim the message and carry the final message of mercy to those in darkness. He thereby sends them with authority to preach that the hour of God's judgment has come, with such power that they cannot resist speaking even without permission from priests or rulers. Their Spirit-given preaching rouses the careless to confess sin and seek mercy and forgiveness in the name of Jesus, and holds firm under opposition, arrest, beating, and imprisonment.
Servants and handmaids receiving the Spirit belong with sons and daughters prophesying, old men dreaming dreams, and young men seeing visions, with servants and handmaids themselves prophesying as part of the pouring of the Spirit upon all flesh. It is a promise for those who love God to bear in mind, calling them to trust God and not lean on human strength. It stands with wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath of blood and fire and vapor of smoke, the sun turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord comes.
It was fulfilled when the disciples waited at Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, were baptized with the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, and spoke as the Spirit gave utterance, and it lays solemn responsibility on God's people now because salvation was purchased at infinite cost to receive the power of the Spirit and be witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. The promise is given to enlarge the church beyond its present members and to teach all nations, showing the Spirit is for all whom the Lord calls. It stands before the great and terrible day of the Lord when wonders appear in heaven and earth and deliverance is given to everyone who calls on the name of the Lord in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and in the remnant whom the Lord calls.
Timing and Fulfillment
The outpouring was not exhausted at the beginning of the gospel age but covers the days from Pentecost through the signs before the great and terrible day of the Lord to the deliverance of the remnant, which will have the gifts of the Spirit including the spirit of prophecy as it waits for Christ's coming. The Spirit was given at Pentecost as the early rain and has been received in measure since, while the fuller latter rain is reserved for the close of the Christian age amid the closing conflict. Its promise includes women as well as men, for servants and handmaids like sons and daughters are not limited by gender, and its manifestations are connected with and serve as signs of the approaching day of the Lord with gracious blessing for God's people.
The verse was directly fulfilled at Pentecost, when God poured out His Spirit on servants and handmaids and equipped them with power to prophesy for a special work. More than one hundred believers together received the Spirit in the morning of a solemn feast day before wine or the customary meal, speaking in other languages with a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and cloven tongues like as of fire sitting upon each of them. Peter explained this as that spoken by Joel, rendering afterward as in the last days, showing it was the prophesied power of God and a sign that Christ's inauguration in heaven was complete, not drunkenness. Those who did not come under the influence of the Holy Spirit did not recognize the Lord at work in His own way and thought the disciples full of new wine, and if such a manifestation occurred among those upon whom the ends of the world are come some would mock in the same way.
At Pentecost unlearned Galilean servants spoke with miraculous power and accuracy in all the languages then spoken, tracing fulfilled prophecy and unfolding salvation through the mercy and sacrifice of the Son of God. This did for them what they could not have accomplished in a lifetime, swept tradition and superstition from minds, and convicted and converted thousands who listened. Peter cited the prophecy to refute priests and rulers and mockers who claimed drunkenness on new wine prepared for the feast, showing the manifestation at the third hour of the day on a solemn religious festival before the customary meal could not be drunkenness but was the prophesied power of God proving the truth of the religion of Jesus.
Only part was fulfilled at Pentecost, for the signs in the sun and moon were not then seen and there were no visions and dreams at that hour. The whole is to be fulfilled in the last days before the great and notable day, with dreams and visions and the manifestations of the spirit of prophecy reaching to the end among the signs preceding that day that the end is approaching. Since those signs have been and still are fulfilling, the time has fully come for the children of God to expect dreams and visions from the Lord.
The Spirit will be poured out again just before the second coming as the latter rain with spiritual gifts, more abundant than at Pentecost when the disciples preached Christ crucified. After dreadful apostasy and darkness of error and superstition many will be rescued as the pure truths of the Bible shine forth in heavenly illumination marking the approaching end of the age, with restoration of primitive faith and practice to prepare a people for Christ's second coming. In its fulfillment many will be converted in a day because the message goes with power to proclaim heaven's warning throughout the earth with deep conviction alongside miracles, healings, signs and wonders, Christ will again be glorified as on the day of Pentecost, the earth will be lightened with the bright shining of the beams of His righteousness as the Fountain of Light, and a people will be prepared to stand the final test in the closing conflict.
Dating from Pentecost the Holy Spirit was to be poured forth on servants and handmaidens with sons and daughters, and in this age of the world He will work with mighty power in signs and wonders unless unbelief limits blessings and loses advantages that might be obtained. In ancient times the Spirit was not given in power because Jesus was not yet glorified, though holy men spoke as moved by the Holy Spirit and prophets had the Spirit of God in them. The promised outpouring will still come before the work is finished and God's people are sealed, raising up humble workmen in every hill country, lowland and valley as a peculiar people, an holy nation shining amid moral darkness as living stones, so that the weakest if they exercise faith and improve entrusted powers are elevated, refined and perfected in character by humbly submitting to His molding.
In the early days of the Advent message the Spirit often came upon a few believers as they were assembled together, taking His servant away in vision and giving light and evidence with comfort and hope and joy that put praise on their lips. Instruction was given in light in the night season and in the daytime before large congregations, faithfully written out and sent to persons addressed or to the printer. The many books written by the help of the Spirit bear living witness to the divine origin of the testimonies.
Gifts and Transforming Power
The pouring on servants and handmaids means they will prophesy, and this is the revival of the spirit of prophecy as an especial sign of the last days. It stands ranked with the most prominent signs in the sun and moon and with wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath as blood and fire and vapor of smoke before the great and notable day of the Lord comes. The closing work must present the fulfillment of that promise before it ends, so a movement that is the work of the last generation must manifest this gift as one of its tests of authenticity, and without it the work would lack proof that it is the final work. In the closing days of the work of the third angel's message the gifts of the Holy Spirit connected with the latter rain will operate in diverse ways, with prophecy as a living gift in the church for counsel, admonition, and instruction.
God has promised in His Word to give visions in the last days, and belief in these manifestations gives encouragement and strength for the work appointed to households and individuals. The Bible remains the rule of faith and practice, and by that Word all will be judged. The visions promised for the last days make no new rule of faith, but comfort His people and correct those who err from Bible truth. The Spirit's work includes prophetic gifts through which God communicates His will to the church, and these messages are not productions of human minds, so their divine origin can arrest attention, bring conviction, and lead people to conversion.
The future outpouring of God's Spirit and power on His people comes before God's final judgments on the earth. It brings among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The outpouring gives pentecostal energy as the all-conquering power, bringing renewal of spiritual life and resurrection from apparent death after spiritual energies have long been torpid.
Before that movement comes, the enemy of souls introduces a counterfeit outpouring in churches he can bring under his deceptive power. It is made to appear that God's special blessing is poured out with great religious interest and exultation, when the work is that of another spirit by which Satan under a religious guise seeks to extend his influence over the Christian world and hinder the true work. At that time many ministers and people separate themselves from churches in which love of this world has supplanted love for God and His Word and gladly accept the great truths proclaimed to prepare a people for the Lord's second coming.
God pours out His Spirit on servants and humble young men and women and thereby sends them with authority to preach that the hour of God's judgment has come. The Spirit comes upon them with such power that they cannot resist speaking, even without permission from priests or rulers. That outpouring burns a missionary spirit in the hearts of all upon whom the Spirit moves, producing visible new developments and fruits like those seen after the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit works through human agents, combining divine power with human effort to convict the world of sin and spread the knowledge of God and Christ, and when the church shakes off spiritual slumber and cooperates with heaven the blessing brings renewed fruitfulness, many conversions, and worldwide diffusion of truth. Their Spirit-given preaching rouses careless people to confess their sins and seek mercy and forgiveness in the name of Jesus, and it holds firm under opposition, arrest, beating, and imprisonment.
Floods of spiritual influence are still to be poured out upon all who let God's Spirit work them, received by being with one accord in one place and laying hold by faith on the promises of God. Then the Holy Spirit comes and heals infirmities, with a softening, subduing influence on the heart so a person is moved and hears the still, small voice, while holy influences multiply and combine in perfect unity to raise human efficiency to the highest standard in carrying forward God's work. Those who receive it burn with zeal and speak words that represent the Spirit in the heart, crying to prepare the way of the Lord. God will let the latter rain of His rich blessing in truth and righteousness fall upon His people, opening the windows of heaven and pouring down in torrents as literal heavy rain symbolizes, with the Spirit of the Lord resting upon them in testimony, singing, prayer in the Spirit, and a decided change to cheerfulness that even unbelievers witness.
Dating from the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was to be poured forth on servants and handmaidens, with sons and daughters, and in this age He will work with mighty power in signs and wonders. Through this gift God's people become a light amid moral darkness, with that light reaching throughout the world. The fulfillment raises up humble workmen for the Lord in every hill country, lowland, and valley, making God's people a peculiar people, an holy nation, shining amid moral darkness as living stones in the Lord's building. The weakest and feeblest, if they exercise faith in God and improve their entrusted powers, are elevated, refined and perfected in character under the Holy Spirit's working, and by humbly submitting to His molding know His eternal fullness.
The promise does not mean that all who hold the right relation to God will have the gift of prophecy to the same extent as those given visions for the benefit of others, and it is not fulfilled by God speaking to each person privately only for personal benefit. Claims that the prophecy is being fulfilled in this private individual way can mislead people and encourage fanaticism when truth is mixed with error. That use of the prophecy prepares the way for spurious exercises that Satan takes advantage of, leading unbalanced minds into fanaticism and giving designing persons opportunity to further selfish purposes.
Seeking and Hindrances
The promised pouring on servants and handmaids belongs to the Spirit's outpouring for which earnest prayers had been offered over many ages, and Christ bestowed that gift of the Spirit on believers when He ascended, to convert, enlighten, and sanctify. The disciples' prayer together after the ascension shows the need to pray for that outpouring, laying hold by faith on the promises with one accord until the Spirit comes. God will bring His Spirit upon His children in rich measure when they seek Him now in most earnest, humble prayer, and His people unite together in a special season of seeking God for the outpouring promised for those days.
The promise that the Spirit will be poured on men and women, including servants and handmaids, in the last days calls every believer to seek God personally and claim the Spirit's power for individual life and work. Every believer should look to God for himself and expect it personally by relying on Jesus rather than depending on the minister. Faithful ministers lead people to have their own experience, to understand the leading points of faith and keep distinctly the old landmarks of God's leading, and so prepare them to stand in the day of the Lord, while teachers who advance their own independent ideas fail to prepare them.
Receiving the all-conquering power that gives pentecostal energy, renewal of spiritual life, and resurrection from apparent death after long torpor comes when God's people clear the King's highway by prayer and confession of sin. Floods of spiritual power are poured forth upon those prepared to receive it, and receiving requires reconversion and reconsecration to service, being of one accord, wrestling with God in prayer asking for the Holy Spirit to come into every heart, putting away sins by confession and repentance with humbled pride, and becoming channels through which light and grace go to the world. Where Christ is thus manifest among His people the unbelief that made service weak and inefficient is cured, backsliders are reclaimed, and divine life breathed into workers makes them strong and effective. The outpouring is still future and will come before the work is finished and God's people are sealed, so God's people are to prepare through growth in grace, knowledge of the Lord, and full obedience.
The Holy Spirit is poured out in large measure upon God's people, working through those prepared to receive Him to strengthen their service so that many may be saved and the Lord's glory revealed. This gift of the Spirit on servants and handmaids is the mighty power God is waiting to pour on His people. The outpouring includes the early rain and the latter rain that ripens the gospel harvest, and it is intended for believers. Unbelief quenches the Spirit and leaves people unprepared to receive the promised blessing, limiting blessings and losing advantages. Those who fail to receive and value the early rain will not recognize or understand the value of the latter rain when the Spirit is poured out.
The Spirit's influence bringing conviction of sin and conversion must accompany the preaching of the Word, so the church and ministry are to seek God and pray for the outpouring on servants and handmaids. Without the Spirit's grace and power, ministers lack spiritual discernment and practical knowledge, and their ministry becomes legalistic and stunted. The promised life-giving Spirit has been and still is the great hope of God's people and the hope and glory of Zion, and in a time of spiritual declension with wickedness and opposition on every side the ministry is to stand in dignity, efficiency, and power, with faithful stewards and a cooperating ministry advancing the work wisely without linking with those who do not bear the sign of obedience and dishonor God. The outpouring in great measure is a blessing and privilege, but departing from God instead of using it well brings spiritual darkness and evil.
The promise to pour out the Spirit upon all flesh afterward, with sons and daughters prophesying, old men dreaming dreams, and young men seeing visions, and upon servants and handmaids in those days, is for those who love God to bear in mind, calling them to trust God and not lean on human strength. As covenant-keeper God pours out His Spirit in answer to prayer upon learners in the school of Christ, that they may become ministers of righteousness. This includes young men who desire to enter the field as ministers, colporteurs, or canvassers and who are receiving mental training and special preparation for their calling.
Final Proclamation and Application
The pouring out comes when the third angel's message goes forth with a loud voice and the whole earth is lightened with its glory. It is the closing work of that message and the fulfillment of the promise of the descent of the Holy Spirit. Glory has been accumulating for that closing work, and every prayer ascending for fulfillment of the promise has been preserved and accumulating with none lost. When ready it will overflow and pour forth over the whole world as a healing flood of heavenly influence and accumulated light.
This special outpouring belongs to the last days when the church needs divine comfort, guidance, encouragement, and protection amid great danger and deception. It belongs to the time when the final message of mercy gathers a people from every kindred, people, class of society, and organization of error to prepare them for Christ's coming. It empowers laborers who go out relying on divine help to bring the message to the nations, where people are gathered for God's final harvest. After apostasy and the darkness of error and superstition, many will be rescued as pure Bible truths shine forth and the earth is lightened by God's glory.
The promise extends to all people, even to fallen and degraded humanity in the large cities. From an inexhaustible store of grace all who come can be endowed, so that people living in lordly houses and practicing God-dishonoring sins will under the preaching of the last testing message be convicted and converted. Many who have never heard the truth will feel the conviction of the Spirit as they listen to that message of startling importance, and some living in great wickedness will be convicted and converted.
In the closing scenes the promise applies to children and youth, who will be given the Spirit and proclaim the truth with simplicity and power. This comes when older workers are prevented from doing so, and when men no longer present the truth in simplicity as Jesus did. Then children moved upon by the Spirit of God will go forth proclaiming lessons so simple that even small children can comprehend them. Their witness will accomplish work that older church members and workers cannot do.
At the commencement of the time of trouble, filled with the Holy Ghost, servants and handmaids go forth and proclaim the Sabbath more fully with power that enrages the churches and nominal Adventists because they cannot refute the Sabbath truth. God's children who do not yet see and keep the Sabbath but have not rejected the light upon it then see clearly that Sabbathkeepers have the truth, come out, and endure persecution with them. At that time sword, famine, pestilence, and great confusion are in the land, and the wicked think Sabbathkeepers brought the judgments and take counsel to rid the earth of them.
The same promise is applied to those who take up their long-neglected, God-given work for the South, which calls for temporal and spiritual food after long neglect that has made hearts hard as stone. God will graciously strengthen and pour out His Spirit upon those who take up that work. This answers the heavy obligation now resting on the churches to arouse from past sinful neglect and indifference. The Lord will take men from the plow and from ordinary labor and send them out to proclaim the truth, and children will bear a message that their parents cannot bear.
All must therefore stand ready to respond to God's call to duty no matter what the sacrifice, giving assurance to missionaries going to new fields that those remaining at home will be faithful in doing their part. In the days just before Christ's second appearing God's people may expect a large measure of the Holy Spirit. Those who serve as shepherds of the people especially need that power from on high for their work.
God promises to pour out His Spirit in those days on servants and handmaids as part of all flesh, without limit of rank, kind, or male and female. The promise was directly fulfilled at Pentecost, when more than a hundred unlearned believers received power to prophesy and to speak the gospel with miraculous accuracy in other languages, convicting and converting thousands. Only part was fulfilled then, for the signs in sun and moon were not seen and visions and dreams were not given at that hour, while the fuller latter rain is reserved for the close of the age to restore primitive faith, glorify Christ, and prepare a people to stand. That outpouring revives the spirit of prophecy as a last-day sign for counsel and correction, with the Bible remaining the rule by which all is judged, and it brings pentecostal energy, healing, miracles, and holy character to humble workers in every place. It is given in answer to earnest, united, humble prayer with confession and reconsecration, and it falls when the third angel's message goes forth with a loud voice to lighten the earth, sending servants, handmaids, and even children to proclaim the truth with power amid danger and deception.
Recipients and Scope
The promise reaches servants and handmaids as well as all other people, covering all flesh and every kind and social rank of person. It is not shut up to the beginning of the gospel age but stretches through the last days toward the signs before the great day of the Lord and the deliverance of God's remnant. In those days people of all kinds receive the Spirit, with some prophesying, dreaming dreams, or seeing visions, so that even a stranger recognizes the time has come and is moved by what is heard at the meetings.
The naming of servants and handmaids, like the naming of sons and daughters, shows the gift is not limited by gender but includes both men and women. They too will prophesy, and the promise belongs to the Spirit's outpouring at Pentecost and to God's work in the last days, to be claimed by believers who seek the Spirit for individual life and work. Its place is among the signs connected with the near approach of the great and terrible day of the Lord, begun at Pentecost as the early rain received in measure since, with the fuller latter rain reserved for the close of the Christian age.
The Spirit falls on people in humble positions, including the uneducated, children, and humble young men and women, and moves them to proclaim the message and carry the final message of mercy to those in darkness. He thereby sends them with authority to preach that the hour of God's judgment has come, with such power that they cannot resist speaking even without permission from priests or rulers. Their Spirit-given preaching rouses the careless to confess sin and seek mercy and forgiveness in the name of Jesus, and holds firm under opposition, arrest, beating, and imprisonment.
Servants and handmaids receiving the Spirit belong with sons and daughters prophesying, old men dreaming dreams, and young men seeing visions, with servants and handmaids themselves prophesying as part of the pouring of the Spirit upon all flesh. It is a promise for those who love God to bear in mind, calling them to trust God and not lean on human strength. It stands with wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath of blood and fire and vapor of smoke, the sun turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord comes.
It was fulfilled when the disciples waited at Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, were baptized with the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, and spoke as the Spirit gave utterance, and it lays solemn responsibility on God's people now because salvation was purchased at infinite cost to receive the power of the Spirit and be witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. The promise is given to enlarge the church beyond its present members and to teach all nations, showing the Spirit is for all whom the Lord calls. It stands before the great and terrible day of the Lord when wonders appear in heaven and earth and deliverance is given to everyone who calls on the name of the Lord in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and in the remnant whom the Lord calls.
Timing and Fulfillment
The outpouring was not exhausted at the beginning of the gospel age but covers the days from Pentecost through the signs before the great and terrible day of the Lord to the deliverance of the remnant, which will have the gifts of the Spirit including the spirit of prophecy as it waits for Christ's coming. The Spirit was given at Pentecost as the early rain and has been received in measure since, while the fuller latter rain is reserved for the close of the Christian age amid the closing conflict. Its promise includes women as well as men, for servants and handmaids like sons and daughters are not limited by gender, and its manifestations are connected with and serve as signs of the approaching day of the Lord with gracious blessing for God's people.
The verse was directly fulfilled at Pentecost, when God poured out His Spirit on servants and handmaids and equipped them with power to prophesy for a special work. More than one hundred believers together received the Spirit in the morning of a solemn feast day before wine or the customary meal, speaking in other languages with a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and cloven tongues like as of fire sitting upon each of them. Peter explained this as that spoken by Joel, rendering afterward as in the last days, showing it was the prophesied power of God and a sign that Christ's inauguration in heaven was complete, not drunkenness. Those who did not come under the influence of the Holy Spirit did not recognize the Lord at work in His own way and thought the disciples full of new wine, and if such a manifestation occurred among those upon whom the ends of the world are come some would mock in the same way.
At Pentecost unlearned Galilean servants spoke with miraculous power and accuracy in all the languages then spoken, tracing fulfilled prophecy and unfolding salvation through the mercy and sacrifice of the Son of God. This did for them what they could not have accomplished in a lifetime, swept tradition and superstition from minds, and convicted and converted thousands who listened. Peter cited the prophecy to refute priests and rulers and mockers who claimed drunkenness on new wine prepared for the feast, showing the manifestation at the third hour of the day on a solemn religious festival before the customary meal could not be drunkenness but was the prophesied power of God proving the truth of the religion of Jesus.
Only part was fulfilled at Pentecost, for the signs in the sun and moon were not then seen and there were no visions and dreams at that hour. The whole is to be fulfilled in the last days before the great and notable day, with dreams and visions and the manifestations of the spirit of prophecy reaching to the end among the signs preceding that day that the end is approaching. Since those signs have been and still are fulfilling, the time has fully come for the children of God to expect dreams and visions from the Lord.
The Spirit will be poured out again just before the second coming as the latter rain with spiritual gifts, more abundant than at Pentecost when the disciples preached Christ crucified. After dreadful apostasy and darkness of error and superstition many will be rescued as the pure truths of the Bible shine forth in heavenly illumination marking the approaching end of the age, with restoration of primitive faith and practice to prepare a people for Christ's second coming. In its fulfillment many will be converted in a day because the message goes with power to proclaim heaven's warning throughout the earth with deep conviction alongside miracles, healings, signs and wonders, Christ will again be glorified as on the day of Pentecost, the earth will be lightened with the bright shining of the beams of His righteousness as the Fountain of Light, and a people will be prepared to stand the final test in the closing conflict.
Dating from Pentecost the Holy Spirit was to be poured forth on servants and handmaidens with sons and daughters, and in this age of the world He will work with mighty power in signs and wonders unless unbelief limits blessings and loses advantages that might be obtained. In ancient times the Spirit was not given in power because Jesus was not yet glorified, though holy men spoke as moved by the Holy Spirit and prophets had the Spirit of God in them. The promised outpouring will still come before the work is finished and God's people are sealed, raising up humble workmen in every hill country, lowland and valley as a peculiar people, an holy nation shining amid moral darkness as living stones, so that the weakest if they exercise faith and improve entrusted powers are elevated, refined and perfected in character by humbly submitting to His molding.
In the early days of the Advent message the Spirit often came upon a few believers as they were assembled together, taking His servant away in vision and giving light and evidence with comfort and hope and joy that put praise on their lips. Instruction was given in light in the night season and in the daytime before large congregations, faithfully written out and sent to persons addressed or to the printer. The many books written by the help of the Spirit bear living witness to the divine origin of the testimonies.
Gifts and Transforming Power
The pouring on servants and handmaids means they will prophesy, and this is the revival of the spirit of prophecy as an especial sign of the last days. It stands ranked with the most prominent signs in the sun and moon and with wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath as blood and fire and vapor of smoke before the great and notable day of the Lord comes. The closing work must present the fulfillment of that promise before it ends, so a movement that is the work of the last generation must manifest this gift as one of its tests of authenticity, and without it the work would lack proof that it is the final work. In the closing days of the work of the third angel's message the gifts of the Holy Spirit connected with the latter rain will operate in diverse ways, with prophecy as a living gift in the church for counsel, admonition, and instruction.
God has promised in His Word to give visions in the last days, and belief in these manifestations gives encouragement and strength for the work appointed to households and individuals. The Bible remains the rule of faith and practice, and by that Word all will be judged. The visions promised for the last days make no new rule of faith, but comfort His people and correct those who err from Bible truth. The Spirit's work includes prophetic gifts through which God communicates His will to the church, and these messages are not productions of human minds, so their divine origin can arrest attention, bring conviction, and lead people to conversion.
The future outpouring of God's Spirit and power on His people comes before God's final judgments on the earth. It brings among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The outpouring gives pentecostal energy as the all-conquering power, bringing renewal of spiritual life and resurrection from apparent death after spiritual energies have long been torpid.
Before that movement comes, the enemy of souls introduces a counterfeit outpouring in churches he can bring under his deceptive power. It is made to appear that God's special blessing is poured out with great religious interest and exultation, when the work is that of another spirit by which Satan under a religious guise seeks to extend his influence over the Christian world and hinder the true work. At that time many ministers and people separate themselves from churches in which love of this world has supplanted love for God and His Word and gladly accept the great truths proclaimed to prepare a people for the Lord's second coming.
God pours out His Spirit on servants and humble young men and women and thereby sends them with authority to preach that the hour of God's judgment has come. The Spirit comes upon them with such power that they cannot resist speaking, even without permission from priests or rulers. That outpouring burns a missionary spirit in the hearts of all upon whom the Spirit moves, producing visible new developments and fruits like those seen after the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit works through human agents, combining divine power with human effort to convict the world of sin and spread the knowledge of God and Christ, and when the church shakes off spiritual slumber and cooperates with heaven the blessing brings renewed fruitfulness, many conversions, and worldwide diffusion of truth. Their Spirit-given preaching rouses careless people to confess their sins and seek mercy and forgiveness in the name of Jesus, and it holds firm under opposition, arrest, beating, and imprisonment.
Floods of spiritual influence are still to be poured out upon all who let God's Spirit work them, received by being with one accord in one place and laying hold by faith on the promises of God. Then the Holy Spirit comes and heals infirmities, with a softening, subduing influence on the heart so a person is moved and hears the still, small voice, while holy influences multiply and combine in perfect unity to raise human efficiency to the highest standard in carrying forward God's work. Those who receive it burn with zeal and speak words that represent the Spirit in the heart, crying to prepare the way of the Lord. God will let the latter rain of His rich blessing in truth and righteousness fall upon His people, opening the windows of heaven and pouring down in torrents as literal heavy rain symbolizes, with the Spirit of the Lord resting upon them in testimony, singing, prayer in the Spirit, and a decided change to cheerfulness that even unbelievers witness.
Dating from the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was to be poured forth on servants and handmaidens, with sons and daughters, and in this age He will work with mighty power in signs and wonders. Through this gift God's people become a light amid moral darkness, with that light reaching throughout the world. The fulfillment raises up humble workmen for the Lord in every hill country, lowland, and valley, making God's people a peculiar people, an holy nation, shining amid moral darkness as living stones in the Lord's building. The weakest and feeblest, if they exercise faith in God and improve their entrusted powers, are elevated, refined and perfected in character under the Holy Spirit's working, and by humbly submitting to His molding know His eternal fullness.
The promise does not mean that all who hold the right relation to God will have the gift of prophecy to the same extent as those given visions for the benefit of others, and it is not fulfilled by God speaking to each person privately only for personal benefit. Claims that the prophecy is being fulfilled in this private individual way can mislead people and encourage fanaticism when truth is mixed with error. That use of the prophecy prepares the way for spurious exercises that Satan takes advantage of, leading unbalanced minds into fanaticism and giving designing persons opportunity to further selfish purposes.
Seeking and Hindrances
The promised pouring on servants and handmaids belongs to the Spirit's outpouring for which earnest prayers had been offered over many ages, and Christ bestowed that gift of the Spirit on believers when He ascended, to convert, enlighten, and sanctify. The disciples' prayer together after the ascension shows the need to pray for that outpouring, laying hold by faith on the promises with one accord until the Spirit comes. God will bring His Spirit upon His children in rich measure when they seek Him now in most earnest, humble prayer, and His people unite together in a special season of seeking God for the outpouring promised for those days.
The promise that the Spirit will be poured on men and women, including servants and handmaids, in the last days calls every believer to seek God personally and claim the Spirit's power for individual life and work. Every believer should look to God for himself and expect it personally by relying on Jesus rather than depending on the minister. Faithful ministers lead people to have their own experience, to understand the leading points of faith and keep distinctly the old landmarks of God's leading, and so prepare them to stand in the day of the Lord, while teachers who advance their own independent ideas fail to prepare them.
Receiving the all-conquering power that gives pentecostal energy, renewal of spiritual life, and resurrection from apparent death after long torpor comes when God's people clear the King's highway by prayer and confession of sin. Floods of spiritual power are poured forth upon those prepared to receive it, and receiving requires reconversion and reconsecration to service, being of one accord, wrestling with God in prayer asking for the Holy Spirit to come into every heart, putting away sins by confession and repentance with humbled pride, and becoming channels through which light and grace go to the world. Where Christ is thus manifest among His people the unbelief that made service weak and inefficient is cured, backsliders are reclaimed, and divine life breathed into workers makes them strong and effective. The outpouring is still future and will come before the work is finished and God's people are sealed, so God's people are to prepare through growth in grace, knowledge of the Lord, and full obedience.
The Holy Spirit is poured out in large measure upon God's people, working through those prepared to receive Him to strengthen their service so that many may be saved and the Lord's glory revealed. This gift of the Spirit on servants and handmaids is the mighty power God is waiting to pour on His people. The outpouring includes the early rain and the latter rain that ripens the gospel harvest, and it is intended for believers. Unbelief quenches the Spirit and leaves people unprepared to receive the promised blessing, limiting blessings and losing advantages. Those who fail to receive and value the early rain will not recognize or understand the value of the latter rain when the Spirit is poured out.
The Spirit's influence bringing conviction of sin and conversion must accompany the preaching of the Word, so the church and ministry are to seek God and pray for the outpouring on servants and handmaids. Without the Spirit's grace and power, ministers lack spiritual discernment and practical knowledge, and their ministry becomes legalistic and stunted. The promised life-giving Spirit has been and still is the great hope of God's people and the hope and glory of Zion, and in a time of spiritual declension with wickedness and opposition on every side the ministry is to stand in dignity, efficiency, and power, with faithful stewards and a cooperating ministry advancing the work wisely without linking with those who do not bear the sign of obedience and dishonor God. The outpouring in great measure is a blessing and privilege, but departing from God instead of using it well brings spiritual darkness and evil.
The promise to pour out the Spirit upon all flesh afterward, with sons and daughters prophesying, old men dreaming dreams, and young men seeing visions, and upon servants and handmaids in those days, is for those who love God to bear in mind, calling them to trust God and not lean on human strength. As covenant-keeper God pours out His Spirit in answer to prayer upon learners in the school of Christ, that they may become ministers of righteousness. This includes young men who desire to enter the field as ministers, colporteurs, or canvassers and who are receiving mental training and special preparation for their calling.
Final Proclamation and Application
The pouring out comes when the third angel's message goes forth with a loud voice and the whole earth is lightened with its glory. It is the closing work of that message and the fulfillment of the promise of the descent of the Holy Spirit. Glory has been accumulating for that closing work, and every prayer ascending for fulfillment of the promise has been preserved and accumulating with none lost. When ready it will overflow and pour forth over the whole world as a healing flood of heavenly influence and accumulated light.
This special outpouring belongs to the last days when the church needs divine comfort, guidance, encouragement, and protection amid great danger and deception. It belongs to the time when the final message of mercy gathers a people from every kindred, people, class of society, and organization of error to prepare them for Christ's coming. It empowers laborers who go out relying on divine help to bring the message to the nations, where people are gathered for God's final harvest. After apostasy and the darkness of error and superstition, many will be rescued as pure Bible truths shine forth and the earth is lightened by God's glory.
The promise extends to all people, even to fallen and degraded humanity in the large cities. From an inexhaustible store of grace all who come can be endowed, so that people living in lordly houses and practicing God-dishonoring sins will under the preaching of the last testing message be convicted and converted. Many who have never heard the truth will feel the conviction of the Spirit as they listen to that message of startling importance, and some living in great wickedness will be convicted and converted.
In the closing scenes the promise applies to children and youth, who will be given the Spirit and proclaim the truth with simplicity and power. This comes when older workers are prevented from doing so, and when men no longer present the truth in simplicity as Jesus did. Then children moved upon by the Spirit of God will go forth proclaiming lessons so simple that even small children can comprehend them. Their witness will accomplish work that older church members and workers cannot do.
At the commencement of the time of trouble, filled with the Holy Ghost, servants and handmaids go forth and proclaim the Sabbath more fully with power that enrages the churches and nominal Adventists because they cannot refute the Sabbath truth. God's children who do not yet see and keep the Sabbath but have not rejected the light upon it then see clearly that Sabbathkeepers have the truth, come out, and endure persecution with them. At that time sword, famine, pestilence, and great confusion are in the land, and the wicked think Sabbathkeepers brought the judgments and take counsel to rid the earth of them.
The same promise is applied to those who take up their long-neglected, God-given work for the South, which calls for temporal and spiritual food after long neglect that has made hearts hard as stone. God will graciously strengthen and pour out His Spirit upon those who take up that work. This answers the heavy obligation now resting on the churches to arouse from past sinful neglect and indifference. The Lord will take men from the plow and from ordinary labor and send them out to proclaim the truth, and children will bear a message that their parents cannot bear.
All must therefore stand ready to respond to God's call to duty no matter what the sacrifice, giving assurance to missionaries going to new fields that those remaining at home will be faithful in doing their part. In the days just before Christ's second appearing God's people may expect a large measure of the Holy Spirit. Those who serve as shepherds of the people especially need that power from on high for their work.