October 14, 2021 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Ted N.C. Wilson, President, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Greetings, friends! I’m happy to meet with you again today and am excited to let you know that this coming Sabbath is Spirit of Prophecy/Adventist Heritage Day. This is a special day when churches around the world focus on how this movement began and how God is still leading His Church today.
In a letter read to the delegates at the General Conference Session in 1893, Ellen White wrote these well-known words: “In reviewing our past history, having traveled over every step of advance to our present standing, I can say, Praise God! As I see what God has wrought, I am filled with astonishment and with confidence in Christ as Leader. We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history. We are now a strong people, if we will put our trust in the Lord; for we are handling the mighty truths of the word of God. We have everything to be thankful for.” (The General Conference Bulletin, 1893, p. 24).
How important it is to remember how the Lord has led us in the past, and how He has taught us His mighty truths found in Scripture, and this specially designated day is designed to help us remember our Adventist heritage and the gift of the Spirit of Prophecy. This special day is organized by the Ellen G. White Estate and I encourage you to visit their website at the url shown at the bottom of the screen [Insert: https://whiteestate.org/resources/sop/] to find resources and more for this special day.
Today in our brief time together I would like to focus on the very important and special gift of the Spirit of Prophecy.
In Revelation 12:17 we read: “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” And in Revelation 19:10 we are told clearly that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
What a timely and important gift this is, and yet we are warned that “The very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God…..Satan will work ingeniously, in different ways and through different agencies, to unsettle the confidence of God’s remnant people in the true testimony. He will bring in spurious visions to mislead, and will mingle the false with the true, and so disgust people that they will regard everything that bears the name of visions as a species of fanaticism; but honest souls, by contrasting false and true, will be enabled to distinguish between them. . .” (2SM 78).
We know, of course, that the Spirit of Prophecy is not the Bible, nor is it equal to the Bible. As Ellen White indicates, the Spirit of Prophecy is to lead us to the Bible. However, the important point to understand is that the Spirit of Prophecy is inspired by the same heavenly inspiration as that of the Bible—after all it is the testimony of Jesus. First Selected Messages, page 41 tells us that “Through His Holy Spirit the voice of God has come to us continually in warning and instruction, to confirm the faith of the believers in the Spirit of prophecy. Repeatedly the word has come, Write the things that I have given you to confirm the faith of My people in the position they have taken. Time and trial have not made void the instruction given, but through years of suffering and self-sacrifice have established the truth of the testimony given. The instruction that was given in the early days of the message is to be held as safe instruction to follow in these its closing days.”
The testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of Prophecy is part and parcel of the Advent movement. It is a MAGNIFICENT GIFT from God. It is centered in Christ and all He represents—-His salvation, grace, and current ministry in the Most Holy Place in the heavenly sanctuary. The Spirit of Prophecy shares what Jesus wants for His end-time people—people waiting for His imminent second coming. We don’t know the exact date, and don’t accept anyone’s calculations if they tell you they know—only the Father knows—but we do know that His coming is very soon….I believe it with all my heart…..everything points to the culminating events of the Great Controversy.
And this is why it is so important, especially at this time, that we stay close to God, studying His Word–the Scriptures, and following His counsels found in the Spirit of Prophecy–the lesser light that leads to the greater light of God’s Word.
In this brief video we do not have time to fully explore the wonderful gift of the Spirit of Prophecy. But I encourage you to visit the White Estate at: whiteestate.org where you will find many helpful resources, including material for this year’s Spirit of Prophecy/Adventist Heritage Sabbath, questions and answers, photographs, and the entire collection of the writings of Ellen G. White available free in a variety of formats and languages.
May the Lord bless you richly as you discover the wonderful gift He has given to us through the Spirit of Prophecy.
Let’s pray together.
Father in heaven thank you for down through the agents your direct messages through the spirit of prophecy to those who could be trusted to write out messages in your holy word for us to read, prophetic messages, messages of instruction, of reproof, of encouragement thank you for inspiring individuals to write these messages, and Lord thank you for the wonderful ministry to the church through your power, using Ellen G White to touch the hearts of each of us, in the writings that we call the spirit of prophecy, thank you for these messages of hope, Instruction and encouragement of warning and of hope, Lord has these messages lead us to the Bible and to Jesus, help us to value the writings of Ellen White, understanding that they are direct messages from you and spired by heaven, thank you for hearing us, and bless this special Sabbath, in Jesus name we ask it, amen.