With my soul I have desired You in the night, yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early; for when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Isaiah 26:9, NKJV. BLJ 348.1
It is the Savior's love that constrains the messenger to bear the message to the lost. Oh, how wonderful is the importuning of Christ with sinners! Although His love is beaten back by the refusal of hard, stubborn hearts, He returns to plead with greater force, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” His love woos with winning force, until souls are compelled to come in. BLJ 348.2
Those who come to the supper turn to the blessed Jesus and say, “Thy gentleness hath made me great.” He wins them by the word of His love and power; for the Word of God is the rod of His power. He says, “Is not my word like a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” BLJ 348.3
When the Word of God is sent home to the human heart by the Holy Spirit, it is mighty to the pulling down of the strongholds of Satan. Finite men and women could do nothing in the great warfare, were it not for the Word of God. They could not plead successfully with human hearts that are as hard as steel, that are bolted and barred lest Jesus should find an entrance there; but the Lord endows men and women with His wisdom, and the weakest one may become as David by faith in God. BLJ 348.4
The Lord takes those who are devoted to Him, even though they may be uneducated, humble men and women, and sends them forth with His warning message. He stirs their hearts by His Spirit, He gives them spiritual muscle and sinew, and they are enabled to go forth with the Word of God, and to compel human beings to come in. Thus many poor, fainting souls, who are starving for the Bread of Life, are out of weakness made strong, and wax valiant in the fight, and put to flight the armies of the aliens. BLJ 348.5
“See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.” Every time you turn away your ear and refuse to listen, every time you fail to open the door of your heart, you strengthen yourself in unbelief, and make yourself more and more unwilling to listen to the voice of Him that speaketh, and you diminish your chance of responding to the last appeal of mercy.... Let not Christ weep over you as He wept over Jerusalem, saying, “How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”—The Review and Herald, September 24, 1895. BLJ 348.6