Last night we started studying the first of three things that I want to study with you. The first is Understanding the Time--Understanding the time in which we're in. And the second is to Understand Our Work. And the third and most important is to Understand Our Need. Let's review a couple of things that we studied last night about Understanding the Time. We are in the end of the time of the end, we're in the last part of the time of the end. You may have gotten the impression from some of the statements that I read last night from the pen of Ellen White that the time of trouble was starting right then. And if you got that impression, you got exactly the right impression. The time of trouble was starting right then.

The twentieth century has been the greatest time of trouble that the world has ever known. During this century more people have been murdered than lived in the entire Roman Empire in the time of Christ. In 1904 Ellen White said, "We are now entering upon the time of trouble spoken of." MR 13, 394. That was true. If you understand what was happening in the church in those days, the time of trouble began as a spiritual attack against God's people from which we have never recovered to the present day. It's never been the same. And the world has never been the same. After the first world war began in 1914 the world has never been the same again. We are in a time of trouble and Ellen White said, "This time of trouble, once it begins, once the trouble breaks out among the nations, it will not cease, it will get worse, it will go on till Jesus comes." And people have tried to stop it. But the time of trouble has gone on and is still going on. Fortunately, we're very close to the end of it and at the end of it will come what the Bible calls the great time of trouble such as never been known since there was a nation.

We studied last night about the church. To understand the times in which we live, we must understand what is happening in the church. And this time of trouble is not just for the world but for the church. The time of trouble for the church is a time when the devil tries to get control of the minds of the people in the church. Now when the devil did that in the days of Christ was he successful? He was very successful. In fact, as you study Christian history, you will find that in past ages the devil has been very successful in getting control of the minds of the majority of the people in the church. And that's what this time of trouble in the church is about. In 1893 Ellen White wrote, "Satan is an artful foe and his work will be performed by many least suspected. In these last days the false will take the field with the true, the spurious with the genuine, to men whom he desires to delude and ruin Satan does not come as the outcast apostate spirit but he comes impersonating as an angel of light and truth."

How does the devil come to people? He comes with wonderful religious knowledge!

I heard a Seventh-thy Adventists say one time, they were just learning some "new" teachings in Adventism, and they said, Oh, this is going to be the later rain and the Loud Cry! Well, it didn't happen, but that's what they thought.

How does the devil come? Listen: "Satan has stolen the livery of heaven." Fundamentals of Christian Education, pg. 167. What's the livery? That's the clothing! He comes clothed as an angel of light. He sends ministers and teachers among God's people as teachers of righteousness to bring wonderful revival. And I want to tell you friends, we are going to see in these last days the greatest revivals of all time. People are going to rejoice that they have received the Holy Spirit and that the Later Rain and the Loud Cry is here, and it's going to be the wrong spirit.

Who is going to work miracles? What does it say in Revelation 16? Devils are going to work miracles. There's a very interesting letter that Ellen White wrote in 1893, I wish we had time to read all of it. I'll read several sentences about what the devil's going to do. "Never was Satan so fiercely stirred as now. He will work to create rebellion at the very time when the proclamation of the Three Angel's Messages is going to the world. He will inspire members of his synagogue to make most desperate efforts to clothe and defile the garments of all who act a part in this last message. They will bear false witness manufacturing lies to blacken the reputation of those who have proclaimed the messages. Satan and his synagogue will make most desperate efforts to gain every soul on his side. A train of circumstances will be secretly set in operation by the serpent to deceive, to allure the sinner, to wrench from him his convictions that he must return to his allegiance to God. The conflict will be long and painful. At times there may appear to be partial defeat, but bear in mind that you counted the cost when Christ told you the plan of battle. You are not the leaders in this conflict, for Christ is there, the armies of heaven are enlisted in the warfare."

So the confederacy of evil will attempt by every means to gain the advantage. And what are they trying to get at? They're trying to get control of your mind. That's what they're trying to do, and how do they get control of your mind? By false doctrines and theories! That's why it is so important to study the Bible and know exactly what it says.

One of the things that I've been very interested in studying lately is how Satan counterfeited the gospel to the children of Israel and to the ancient nations. Did you know that the ancient systems of paganism had something that sounded very similar to the ceremonial system that God gave to the Israelites? They had animal sacrifices, they had priests, they had temples, they had services, and they taught that there was going to come a seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent and they had all of these teachings. One of the things you'll find as you study heathenism or as you study the conflict down through the ages is that the devil's systems always lead people to break some precept of God's law every time. Arid that's why it's so important to know what the law of God says and to be obeying it. One of the common ways of belittling God's law is to say, "You can't keep it." Have you heard that one? "You can't keep it." Or another one is, "You don't have to keep it." All of that is part of the devil's deceptions to take control of the minds of the last generation. That's the time in which we're living.

Let me tell you, when you hear these kind of doctrines taught, remember this, if you hear something long enough, you will believe it. It doesn't' matter whether it's the truth or a lie. If you allow yourself to listen to a lie you will believe it. That is a law in the human mind. You will believe what you hear over and over again. Now if you can't help yourself and you're a captive in a foreign country like Daniel was, the Lord can protect you. But the Lord won't protect you when you're presumptuous. I've seen this happen over and over again. People have been warned, "Don't go to those meetings, don't listen to that preaching, you'll get deceived." They say, "I'm strong enough. I won't believe anything that's not true." That's presumptuous! If you hear error being taught, you have a moral obligation to never go and listen to that again. And if you violate that principle and are presumptuous, you will get deceived and God will not work a miracle to keep you from getting deceived. I've seen it happen too many times.

Maybe I should just read you one more statement on that. "Paul writes to the Romans, 'If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men.' Romans 12:18. But there is a point beyond which it is impossible to maintain union and harmony without the sacrifice of principle. Separation then becomes an absolute duty." MR 51, 1899. If you cannot have union and harmony without a sacrifice of principle, what is your absolute duty? To separate, that is an absolute duty! If you go and listen to error being taught you will get deceived and the loss will be at your own door.

Well, that's the time in which we're living. Let's now look at point number two, Our Work. What is our work? We must not allow anything that's going on around us to deter us from our work, because God has given us a work to do. And we must not allow ourselves to be side-tracked or dilute our attention from what God wants us to do. Our work is two-fold: We have a mission to take the Three Angel's Messages to every single person in the world. Revelation 14:6, 7 says that this message is to go to every nation, and kindred, and tongue and people. That is our job! That's what we need to be praying about in the middle of all the attacks.

If the devil works things out so we don't have any money, or we don't have a job, or we loose our liberty, if we're in prison, no matter what the devil does, he cannot stop us as long as we're saying, Lord, I'm dedicating my life to you. Use me to get the Three Angel's Messages to the world." By the way, God has used people in the past who were in prison and apparently had no ability at all to get the message to the whole world. It's happened more than once!

Our job first of all is to get the Three Angel's Messages to the world, and we need to be praying day by day and saying, Lord, whatever happens, I want to do what You want me to do to get the message out.

But a second part of our mission is that the Third Angel's Message says, "Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments and the faith of Jesus." Those are the people that are developed as a result of the Third Angel's Message, people that keep God's commandments and have the faith of Jesus. They are described in Revelation 14:1-5 as being without fault. All through the New Testament, over and over again, the apostles point out that when Jesus comes again in the clouds of heaven, that He is coming to receive a people who are without fault. You can read it in 1 Corinthians 1:1-8. You can read it in Ephesians 5:25-27. You can read it in 2 Peter 3:14-17. You can read it in Phillipians 1:10. You can read it over and over again in the book of Revelation--Revelation 3, 12, 14, 22.

So it is a message that you see all the way through the New Testament--that Jesus is coming to receive a people that are without fault, and we are to be that people--that's our work, we are to get the message to all the world, but we are to be prepared for the coming of Christ. And the people that are prepared for the coming of Christ will be without fault before the throne of God.

Let me just emphasize without spending time on this point: when the Bible talks about being without fault, it is not talking about just having your sins forgiven, it's talking about much more than that. Study 1 Corinthians 1:4-8 very carefully. It's talking about the testimony of Christ which is the spirit of prophecy being confirmed in you, it's part of your life!

And that brings us to point number three, Understanding the times in which we live, understanding the work that we have to do in these times in which we live. What do we need and what do our young people need?

I have been a teacher in a college and so many times the thought has come to me, and this is a very irrational thought, but still it has come to me. Have you ever tried to explain something to somebody and you explain it over and over again and they can't seem to get it? And you say to yourself, I wish there were some hole in the head that you could put a funnel in and pour the information in so that the person would have it and then they could figure it out! But it doesn't work that way, it has to come out of the mouth and go into somebodies ear and it has to be processed and they have to figure it out. And I want to talk to you for just a few minutes about something that I can not give you as a young person, your parents can't give it to you, none of your older relatives can give it to you, it's something that would do you a tremendous amount of good and yet no one can give it to you. And there's no amount of money by which you can get it. And yet it's something that you need. That's a terrible situation for a young person to be in and yet it's true!

Elisha was in that situation. Here was Elisha's situation:

Elisha was helping Elijah, he was like his personal assistant. But it was revealed to Elisha that his master, his leader, the one that was doing all the directing, was going to be taken away. And it caused him some apprehension. And the reason it caused him some apprehension was because Elisha at this time was a young man. And as he was with Elijah, he saw that Elijah, from his experience, possessed judgment and wisdom that he didn't have and now Elijah was going to be gone!

And that's something that I can't open your mind and put it into you, and your parents can't either, and nobody can. In fact, there's no human being in the world that for any young person, no mailer how much we love you, we can not pour into your mind that judgment and wisdom that comes as a result of years of experience, it's impossible! And you are going to be in situations as you near the close of earth's history where you're going to have to make decisions on your own and what are you going to do? You are going to be in the same situation that Elisha was in. People that you trusted to help you, they're not going to be there! And you're going to have to make decisions.

What are you going to do then? Let me read to you something that Ellen White said about Elisha's situation. You can find this in the book Upward Look, pg. 331." 'It came to pass when they were gone over that Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee.' 2 Kings 2:9. And Elisha said, 'I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.'"

Now why did Elisha ask for a double portion of the Holy Spirit to be upon him? Here's why:

"He did not ask for worldly honor, for a high place among the great men of the earth. That for which he craved was a double portion of the spirit given to the one God was about to honor with translation. He knew that nothing but a double portion of the spirit that had rested on Elijah could fit him to fill the place Elijah had filled. Because Elijah had the wisdom and experience of age which cannot, by any method, be imparted to the young." Can the wisdom and experience of the aged be imparted to the young? It's impossible, she says it's impossible by any method!

That's why the young people that are wise find people that are older for counselors. Young people that are wise have that figured out. Elisha had that figured out. He knew that there was no way that he could have the wisdom and the judgment that Elijah had because he didn't have the experience yet that Elijah had.

So Elisha was very wise, even though he didn't have the judgment that Elijah had, he didn't have the experience that Elijah had, he said to Elijah, "Allow a double portion of the Spirit that you have to be upon me." He knew that if he received a double portion of the Holy Spirit, in spite of the fact that he was young and inexperienced and he didn't have the wisdom and judgment that Elijah had, he knew that if he had a double portion of the Holy Spirit, he could make it. And I want to tell you Friends, in the time in which we are approaching right now, that is the only way that a young person can make it. You don't have the time to make all the mistakes that your grand-father made to get the wisdom and the experience that he got, you don't have the time!

Your only chance is if you can receive a double portion of the same spirit that Elijah had, that will make up, that will more than make up for whatever you lack in the way of judgment and wisdom and experience because of your lack of age so that you haven't had the experience yet!

Ellen White then asks this question, she says, "Had you been asked this question, what would you have answered. What is the greatest desire of your heart, as you engage in the service of God?"

Oh, my young friend! What do you need most? You don't have the time that your forefathers had because we're at the end of time, you don't have the time to make those mistakes and learn from your mistakes. You need the wisdom and judgment of experience but you can't get it and nobody can give it to you! But you can ask the same thing that Elisha asked. Elisha was a young man and he said, "Please, cause that I'll have a double portion of your spirit."

By the way, for those who have some spare time this afternoon, I'll give you something that you might like to work out. This is very interesting. Some of you know that I'm intrigued with numbers in the Bible. If you want to do something interesting this afternoon, Elisha asked for how much? A double portion. Some time this afternoon, you take a pen and paper and go through the life of Elijah in your Bible and you go through the life of Elisha in your Bible and I want you to just count up the miracles that are listed for each, just count that up, you'll find something very interesting. I won't tell you the answer, you can figure it out for yourself.

A double portion. Oh, friend! That is what we must have. That's what every young person must have that is going to make it. So we need to study about our great need, our great need of receiving a double portion of the Holy Spirit. God wants to give it to us. Elijah told Elisha, "You've asked a hard thing. But if you're with me when I'm taken up, you will receive it." Elisha was with him when he was taken up and he did receive it.

Volume one of Selected Messages, pg. 156, 157 says, "Christ the great Teacher had a infinite variety of subjects from which to chose but the one upon which He dwelt most largely was the endowment of the holy spirit." What was the subject that Christ dwelt upon most largely? The endowment of the Holy Spirit.

If you want to study the Gospel from which this just keeps coming up constantly, whole chapters devoted to that subject, study the Gospel of John. It starts right in the first chapter and it goes right all the way through. That's one of the main themes, not the only, but one of the main themes of the Gospel of John is the endowment of the holy Spirit. Whole chapters are spent on that subject.

In Acts of the Apostles, pg. 487,488, concerning this gift, it says, "He [that is Jesus] instructed His disciples regarding a most essential and complete gift which He was to bestow upon His followers, the gift that would bring within their reach the boundless resources of His grace." This is the most essential and most complete gift that heaven could have given to you. And it's essential to all of us, but it is especially essential today if you're a young person. Because you are going to be in situations like Elisha was in, and just hours from the time that Elisha and Elijah were talking Elisha was going to be alone and he wouldn't have somebody to ask questions and to get counsel from. That person was going to be gone. He was going to have to make the decisions himself.

My young friends, if you haven't been already, you're going to be in situations like this too. Where you will long to have a parent or a teacher or a pastor or somebody that you could ask counsel and advice but they're not available, you're going to have to make the decision your-self. So you're going to need a double portion of the Spirit. So we need to know what's involved in receiving the Holy Spirit.

In Desire of Ages, pg. 671, 672, we read, "The holy spirit was the highest of all gifts that He could solicit from His Father for the exaltation of His people. The spirit was to be given as the regenerating agent and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail." Now that's quite a statement! We as Christians believe that the cross of Christ was the central point of our religion and it is. There would be no salvation for any of the sons of Adam without the blood of Jesus that was shed at the cross. But you cannot be saved just by having your sins forgiven. That's necessary, but you cannot be saved only by having your sins forgiven. If you do not receive the Holy Spirit you cannot be saved. See, the plan of salvation has two parts--communion has two parts, the sanctuary had two rooms--the plan of salvation has two parts and you can't be saved with half of it.

That's necessary but that's not all. "Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the third person of the godhead who would come with no modified energy but in the fullness of divine power. It is the spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer." Have you ever heard somebody say, Well, I want to do so-and-so but I can't do it, I can't overcome it, I have such a strong propensity, I have such a strong temptation that I can't overcome it. When somebody tells you that, they're telling you the truth. Not only is it true for them, but for everybody in the world. There's nobody in the world that can overcome sin or resist sin successfully without the Holy Spirit. That is taught clearly in Romans the eighth chapter. Don't argue with people. When they say, I can't overcome, say, Yes, I know you can't overcome. You're exactly right, you can't. They'll be shocked when they hear an Adventist say that.

Unless you receive the Holy Spirit you cannot resist or overcome sin. "It is by the spirit that the heart is made pure." Have you ever heard somebody say, Oh, I want to follow Jesus but I can't control my mind, I can't control my thoughts, I have lustful thoughts and I can't control it. That's true too, you can't control it. Read the book Steps to Christ. It says in there that you cannot control your thoughts, and you can't control your passions, and you can't control your affections. Well, what a helpless hopeless situation, but that's the human situation. You cannot control your thoughts, you cannot control your passions, and you cannot control your affections. We're in a hopeless, helpless situation unless we receive divine power. That's why the Holy Spirit was given. It is by the Holy Spirit that the heart is made pure. Oh, if there is somebody here and you're struggling with impurity, what you need is the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. You need to start praying right now, say, Lord, I'm surrendering to you, I want you to send me the power of the Holy Spirit to purify my mind and my heart. That is the work that the Holy Spirit does.

"Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature." 1 John 3:1, 2 says that when Jesus comes we are going to be like Him. How is anybody as wretched as I am ever going to become like Jesus? It's not going to happen unless a miracle takes place, unless the Holy Spirit comes into my mind and heart and works out a change. The Bible says that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it. In other words, nobody can know it. We don't know our own hearts. Whenever I hear people say, Well, I would never do something like that, I think to myself, How do you know you wouldn't? We don't know what we would do if the Holy Spirit wasn't working on our hearts, it's because of grace that we wouldn't do all those things, no because there's something good in us.

"Christ has given His Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil." Oh, somebody says, my inheritance is so bad! The trouble with it is that it's true. Our inheritance isn't very good. We have inherited tendencies to evil. We do! Are you aware of the fact that there have been babies born who are actually drug addicts when they're born? And they have a craving for liquor and tobacco when they're born! That's terrible! It's true. There are babies born that have a craving for masturbation the hour they're born, they already have it! What are you going to do if you have a terrible inheritance? What is the Holy Spirit for? The Holy Spirit is given as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil.

Now after you've inherited something and you live awhile what happens? We've not only inherited it, we've made it stronger by doing it! I had a man come I was working with one time, he had been smoking for about forty years, he tried over and over again to quit not only because of his weak hereditary but because of his cultivated tendencies, he just couldn't do it. That's what the Bible calls an easily entangling or besetting sin. A besetting sin is a sin that you yourself cannot overcome. Now for anybody and everybody, there are some sins that aren't a great big temptation for you. Not everybody is tempted with every single sin that there is. Those are not your besetting sins. You don't have to worry about them.

For every individual there are sins that the Bible calls an easily entangling or a besetting sin. You can read about that in Hebrews 12, that's where it talks about it. So I said to this man, it got so bad that his physician said that he was going to have to quit if he wanted to live. He said, What am I going to do? I said, You can quit smoking right today, right this afternoon. I said, I'll show you. What was I going to show him? I showed him that God could help him to overcome smoking. Is God interested in the health of your body? Of course He is! And if you decide to surrender all to God and to obey Him, the Lord will give you the power to live in harmony with natural law. If I didn't believe that, I'd quit preaching right now. I've preached the gospel to people in prison who were rapists, people who were accused of capitol murder.

Would I preach a gospel to somebody who was a rapist and say to him, Well, you just have to ask the Lord to keep forgiving you of your sins? Is that the kind of gospel you want? Do you want to turn them loose if that's all they understand? If it's the real gospel and you receive the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will give you the power to not do that anymore! That's what the real gospel is.

The Holy Spirit was given "as a divine Power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil and to impress His own [that is Christ's] character upon His church." Is anybody here struggling with any kind of besetting sin in your life? Well, if you are, what you need is the Holy Spirit. And the Lord has promised it to you if you will ask, if you will surrender and ask.

Jesus said that the Lord wanted to give us the Holy Spirit more than parents want to give good gifts to their children. "Christ promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to His church and the promise belongs to us as much as to the first disciples, but like every other promise, it is given on conditions. There are many who believe and profess to claim the Lord's promise, they talk about Christ and about the Holy Spirit yet receive no benefit. They do not surrender the soul to be guided and controlled by the divine Agencies. We cannot use the Holy Spirit, the Spirit is to use us." Desire of Ages, pg. 672. There's the secret! If you want the Holy Spirit to come into your life and to give you power over your besetting sin, you have to make an unreserved surrender to God.

The Lord says, "You will seek and you will find Me when you have searched for Me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13. Jesus said, "Why do you call Me Lord Lord and you don't do what I say?" Luke 6:46. The Wise Man said, "Son, give me your heart." If you surrender your heart, your emotions, your affections to the Lord, if you'll choose to love Him with all you heart, mind and soul, a miracle will take place inside. I challenge you, you cannot prove God wrong. If you follow the directions, it will work every time. If you could prove God wrong one time, it would negate the plan of salvation. But the Bible says that it's impossible for God to lie. It's impossible. He stands behind every promise that He has made.

"For in His is made this same Jesus who you have crucified," Peter said, "both Lord and Christ." He is the Lord! Do you know what a Lord is? They didn't explain that in the New Testament. Did you know that about 2/3 of the people in the Roman Empire were slaves? They knew what a lord was. He has made this same one who you have crucified, Peter said, both Lord and Christ. Have you surrendered to Jesus as the Lord of your life? Ellen white says, "He cannot be your Saviour from sin unless He is also the Lord of your life. It's not possible to be one and not the other." And it is when you make an unreserved surrender to the Lord Jesus, you surrender you heart and life to Him, that is when, when you do that by faith, the Holy Spirit comes into your life and works a miraculous change that you could never do as long as you live.

Oh, friend! When you're young, one of your great temptations is that you want to manage your own life, that's one of the great temptations for the young. And that is an absolutely sure road to failure and defeat. Remember, when you're young you do not have the wisdom or experience of the aged and there's no way you can get it, there's nobody that can give it to you. But if you surrender to the Lord, He doesn't make mistakes. I cannot tell you how many people have come to me that are middle aged or older and wished that when they were young they had made a full and complete surrender of their heart and their life to their Lord, but they decided that they wanted to manage their own life for a while.

I want to tell you my young friends, we're so near to the end of time that if you decide that you're going to manage your own life for a while, you could end up losing your own soul. There's been plenty of people who have lost it in the past doing that. I could tell you story after story, because it's happened a lot of times. I know some of the people who tried it and aren't even alive anymore.

Don't try to manage you own life. The One that was nailed to the crossed for you, in Him there are hid all the treasures and wisdom and knowledge; and His choices, when you yield to Him as Lord of your Life, He will never make a mistake, He will never lead you in a way other than you would choose to be led if you could understand what you can't understand right now because you're young.

The Holy Spirit expels sin from the heart. Do you want sin expelled form your heart? When you make a full and complete surrender to Jesus, as the Lord of your life, the Holy Spirit will come in and expel sin from your heart that's Our High Calling, 152. Not only that, you'll be cleansed from moral defilement and it is the Holy Spirit working within your heart that will give you a fitness for the kingdom of heaven.

Now remember, you can find this in volume one of the Testimonies, pg. 705, 706, nobody is going to heaven who has not attained a moral fitness, nobody! How are you going to get moral fitness for heaven? There's only one way you're going to get it and that's if the Holy Spirit comes into the heart and your life, that's the only way.

When you read in the Psalms, it says that when the Lord makes up His people, He will count some who have been born here and some who have been born there. He will consider that this man was born in Babylon and that man in Jerusalem. And there will be people in heaven that did not have very much truth or spiritual light in this world. Some theologians are trying to figure out how a person can be saved when they really don't understand the truth. It's not complicated to explain. People that are heathen, that we call heathen, you will find them in the kingdom of heaven, you know why? When the Holy Spirit spoke to their conscience, they responded. They said, Yes. They yielded to the influence of the Holy Spirit, that is the truth, the light that enlightens every man that comes into the world, John 1:9.

And how is it that there will be people in the kingdom that we will have considered heathen in this world and there will be people that have gone to church every week and have known all about theology that will be lost, how's that? It's because they did not yield to the Lordship of the Holy Spirit in their life.

You see, friend, if you're willing to completely submit and surrender your will to the will of God, a complete change will happen in your life. You will not only receive divine aid, but spiritual life will be imbued into your life. The Holy Spirit will make you fit for heaven, it will impress the character of Christ upon you, it will change the way you think, change the way you talk, change the way you feel, change the way you act, change everything in your life. You see, the Christian religion is not just a religion that promises forgiveness of sin, it means that our sin is taken away and the vacuum is filled with the Holy Spirit.

Oh, friend! What would I like most for every young person that's here this weekend? Well, if I could just have one wish fulfilled for each one of you, it would be that you could have the same answer to prayer that Elisha had, Elisha said to Elijah, What I want is a double portion of your spirit. That was the wisest request he could have made. Elijah said, You've asked a hard thing, but if you're with me when I'm taken up you'll receive it. He received it!

How are you going to be made into a holy person? The Bible says that only holy people will see the Lord and be with Him. How's that going to happen? Through the Holy Spirit! There's no other way.

How are you going to be fitted for heaven? Only through the work of the Holy Spirit on your heart. That's why Jesus said to Nicodemos, Truly, truly I say to you, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he will in no case enter into the kingdom of God.

But friend, here's the good news: if you're willing to surrender you heart and everything you have to the Lord, and ask the Holy Spirit to come into your life and to manage you, you can't manage the Holy Spirit--the Holy Spirit is to manage you. When the Holy Spirit comes inside to your heart, you have in your possession the boundless resources of heaven and of eternity. There is nothing that you will not be able to do. There is no sin that you will not be able to overcome. There is no difficulty that the devil can put in your way that you will not be able to go through and get past. Because the One the we serve doesn't ever get defeated!

There is no chance that you will be lost if you have the Holy Spirit in your heart and your life. There is nothing that you have done in the past that cannot be forgiven and cannot be changed. You see, there simply isn't any problem in your life that God can't solve if you're willing to make a full and complete surrender to Him.

Do you want to do it? Do you want to say to the Lord today, Oh, I'm choosing to yield my heart and my life to You. I want a double portion of Your Holy Spirit. Oh, my young friend, in the days we're living in today, that is your only chance. You're going to have to make decisions. You're going to have to make them when your parents and other older people that you have gone to for counsel won't be around.

And the only way you're going to be able to make the right decision every time is if you have a double portion of the Holy Spirit. But let me tell you, the Holy Spirit can make up for all of your lack of judgment or experience or any other lack that you have! It's infallible and all-powerful and it has the ability to get you ready for heaven.

Are you going to tell the Lord today, Lord, I'm surrendering to you, I want you to be the Lord of my life, I want to receive the Holy Spirit inside and to be changed. That's what our need is. When that happens, no matter how bad it is outside or what the time is, no matter how much needs to be changed in our character to get us ready for heaven, the Holy Spirit is capable of doing all of that. No mailer how many difficulties we have getting the Three Angel's Messages to the world, the Holy Spirit knows exactly what to do! And He knows exactly what you should do!

One of the things that has impressed my mind about this subject is that God never uses force. Never, ever! That's one of the reasons there's so many people that don't have the Holy Spirit. God won't force them into it. You have to chose to surrender to the Lord. But if you're willing to do that, everything for you is going to change! You're going to have power, you're going to have holiness, you're going to have fitness for heaven, you're going to overcome sin, everything in the gospel that is talked about in the Bible is going to happen in your life because through the Holy Spirit you receive every other blessing God wants you to get.

Do you want to receive it? Are you willing to surrender to receive it? If that's what you want, I want to invite you to kneel down and pray with me. Let's ask the Lord for this Gift.