People complain saying, "we have waited many years, yet Christ has not come". Indeed, our grandparents thought Christ would come in their day. Now we have grandchildren and we are still here, waiting.
Disappointed people, as well as scoffers say: "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 2 Peter 3:4
It is not God, Who is sleeping, it is the people.
If every soldier of Christ had done his duty, if every watchman on the walls of Zion had given the trumpet a certain sound, the world might ere this have heard the message of warning. But the work is years behind. While men have slept, Satan has stolen a march upon us.--Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 29.
Had the purpose of God been carried out by His people in giving to the world the message of mercy, Christ would, ere this, have come to the earth, and the saints would have received their welcome into the city of God.--Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 450.
Why are God's people asleep? Why are they "lukewarm" comfortably waiting for the Lord to come, when they need to be out their giving the three angel's message and sharing the gospel of the kingdom?
The answer is simple -- we need the Holy Spirit.
But then we ask, why do we not have the Holy Spirit empowering us?
One reason may be that we want the power, but do not want to abide by the conditions. We cannot use the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is to use us!"
Before they went out to "preach the gospel of the kingdom" in Jerusalem, Judah, Samaria and to the ends of the then known world, they spent time preparing their hearts to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
As the disciples waited for the fulfillment of the promise,
they humbled their hearts in true repentance and confessed their unbelief.
As they called to remembrance the words that Christ had spoken to them before His death...
The Spirit of God, with its vivifying power, must be in every human agent, that every spiritual muscle and sinew may be in exercise. Without the Holy Spirit, without the breath of God, there is torpidity of conscience, loss of spiritual life. Many who are without spiritual life have their names on the church records, but they are not written in the Lamb's book of life. They may be joined to the church, but they are not united to the Lord. They may be diligent in the performance of a certain set of duties, and may be regarded as living men; but many are among those who have "a name that thou livest, and art dead." {4BC 1166.1}
