April 6

"As the condition of the people began to open to His mind, He saw that the requirements of society and the requirements of God were in constant collision. Men were departing from the word of God, and exalting theories of their own invention. They were observing traditional rites that possessed no virtue. Their service was a mere round of ceremonies; the sacred truths it was designed to teach were hidden from the worshipers. He saw that in their faithless services they found no peace. They did not know the freedom of spirit that would come to them by serving God in truth. Jesus had come to teach the meaning of the worship of God, and He could not sanction the mingling of human requirements with the divine precepts. He did not attack the precepts or practices of the learned teachers; but when reproved for His own simple habits, He presented the word of God in justification of His conduct."

          Desire of Ages, page 85 from the chapter, 'Days of Conflict'

    We reminded ourselves that we should pray daily for the Holy Spirit. Why should we do this? Because if we don’t we won’t be able to share the Gospel effectively. We really want to share the gospel with people on our prayer list. For the long term readers we recognised that there had to be a plan, a strategy, to reach out to people we want to share the gospel with.

     At this point we ought to remind ourselves that Jesus had not always been as spiritually mature and outward looking as we see in this passage. He had gone up to Jerusalem as a callow youth. He saw the sanctuary services and his vision for humanity opened. He now saw God as His Father.

     Note from our reading that Jesus saw, “that in their faithless services they found no peace. They did not know the freedom of spirit that would come to them by serving God in truth.” What did Jesus do? Did he leave them to their just deserts? Jesus responded by setting out to meet spiritual needs, in this case Jesus came to teach a better way that would lead to happiness and fulfilment.

    “Christ's method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, "Follow Me." Ministry of Healing p.144.

     The first point is that we won’t reach people until we know the needs to meet – and, as shown in the life of Jesus, we won’t dream of doing that until the need to share the presence of God comes alive in our hearts. Pray for that as you pray for the Holy Spirit to come into your life.