Jesus is coming soon and the gospel of John says in the eleventh chapter that He died not only for that nation but that He might gather together all the people scattered abroad into one. The Apostle Paul says the same thing in Ephesians 1 that in the fullness of times He might gather together all in one. It is just going to be one big church. Don't you want to go? Oh, friend, determine today that you are going to do anything, follow the instruction in the Bible, do whatever you need to do, in order not to miss out on this. This is all important. To be ready to go. Have you ever imagined in your mind's eye what it is going to be like to go to church in heaven? We are going to go; the Bible says in Isaiah 66 that every Sabbath all flesh is going to come together and worship. Have you ever tried to imagine in your mind what it is going to be like to come together and worship in heaven? Think of all the people who you love that you cannot worship with right now because they are asleep in Jesus, but they are going to be there and you are all going to be together and are going to worship the Lord. It is going to be so exciting. Ellen White says the people who have been so timid they were afraid to even talk here in this world, are going to shout and praise the Lord. Oh, friends, decide today, make a covenant with the Lord. Say, "Lord, I am willing, whatever I have to do, I am willing to follow you and do whatever you want me to do." Make a covenant with the Lord today. Friends, the only thing, the only kind of loyalty that means anything to God is from the heart. That is the only thing that means anything to God. He is not interested in pretense, in fact, He cannot stand it.

The subject I want to study with you about I've entitled "Keeping Up with the Providence of God." We could introduce this subject in either the Old or the New Testament. Both have a lot to say about this subject. Proverbs 4:18 is a familiar verse that I hope you have memorized. "But the path of the just is like a shining light that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day." Notice it does not say the room of the just, it says the path of the just. What is a path? A path is some place where you walk. As you walk that path, if you stay on the path the light is going to get more and more and more. But it is also true, friend, that if you do not keep walking on the path, the light is going to become darkness because the light is moving.

The Bible talks about truth (2 Peter 1:12). There are certain things that can be preached at one time that cannot be preached at another time. Noah preached a message about a flood; that was present truth. There are some truths that are timeless, but there is some truth that is present truth. Present truth today is not exactly the same as it was a hundred years ago, do you believe that?

The light is moving. There was a time when that was not true, but it is true today.

Friends, the Lord has been impressing upon my mind that very soon God's servants are going to have to preach things that we never thought we were going to preach. I have been asking the Lord to prepare my heart and my mind. Do you realize we are in a situation very similar to the Jews in the time of Christ? The devil had manipulated them into a situation through what they had been taught and what they had believed, where they were ready to reject the truth. Notice what Jesus said about this in the gospel of John. "Then Jesus said to them, 'A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.' These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them" John 12:35, 36. It goes on to say that although He had done all these miracles in front of them they did not believe. They had built up a list of criteria and said if it is the Messiah it has to meet this criteria, and we can prove it from the Old Testament. Jesus did not meet their criteria. Let me tell you, friends, when prophecy is fulfilled, if you study religious history you will find that almost every time, it is not fulfilled in the way that we have in our preconceived ideas thought it would be fulfilled.

If you are not walking in the light, if you step back a step, then pretty soon the light is two steps ahead of you, then three steps, and then pretty soon you are in the dark. People who were once in the light are now in the dark. They think they are still in the light, the Jews thought they were still in the light but they were not in the light at all. Jesus made it very plain to them that they were not in the light. Jesus says, "I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide [from the Greek word meno which means remain] in darkness" John 12:46. They were in the dark and thought they were in the light.

Jesus says, "Walk while you have the light." Step fast, friends, because the light today is moving quickly. If you do not step fast you are going to be in the dark and you will lose your soul and not even know until it is too late. Jesus said, "While you have the light, walk in it." Because if you do not the darkness is going to overtake you and you will not even know where you are going. You will think you are headed for the kingdom of heaven and when Jesus comes you will have the most awful bitter shock of your life and find out that you are lost and it is too late and there is no second chance.

We used to wonder, What did Ellen White mean in volume 1 pages 608 and 609 when she said it was shown to me that few Adventists would be saved? What does that mean? Very soon we are going to find out, friends. Walk in the light. "A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going" John 12:35.

When God reveals that something is so, when something is the truth, and God reveals by His Holy Spirit that that is the truth, that truth is to stand and no later suppositions contrary to the light are to be entertained. Have you read words like that in Ellen White's writings? (1SM 161) When God reveals what is truth that truth is to stand and no later suppositions, or after suppositions, contrary to the light are to be entertained.

Are there some things that God has revealed as the truth? Friends, the sanctuary in connection with the 2300 days and the investigative judgment, that truth has been revealed by the God of heaven as the truth. That is the truth. The God of heaven, the Holy Spirit, has verified that that is the truth. How dare we engage in discussions over something and have opposing view points over something that God has already told us is the truth. We have been doing that in Adventism now for well over 10 years. Let me tell you, friends, if you turn your back on something that God has revealed through His Holy Spirit as the truth, God is not going to work a miracle to save you. You are just going to go right out into darkness and that is going to be the end. You will think you are following the light; the devil will provide his light for you, but it will not lead you to the right place.

The genuiness of the gift of prophecy in the life and ministry of Ellen White. Has this been demonstrated by the Holy Spirit to be the truth? Friends, are you listening, we are not at liberty to entertain any doctrines or ideas that are contrary to the spirit of prophecy--period! We are just not at liberty to do that. In the face of all the evidence that God has been pleased to give, if we turn our back on the spirit of prophecy, we have turned our back on the light and we will be walking in darkness, or what the Bible calls it the sparks of our own kindling.

Jesus said the one who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. He thinks he is going to heaven but he is not. This concept of a spiritual light that is moving and the person who does not keep walking in the light finds himself in the dark, explains many spiritual phenomenon that are happening all around us that otherwise would be very confusing. A few years ago my brother and his wife were in Australia on a preaching tour. While they were gone a couple of Seventh-day Adventist preachers came to his home where I was staying to interrogate me. One of them said something like this: "Do you believe (he was kind of hostile) that the Seventh-day Adventist Church organization was ordained by God? Well do you or don't you?" Let me ask you a question? Do you believe the Jewish church organization was organized by God or that He had a hand in setting it up? Was there a time when they were in the light? Yes there was. The Jews had been called by God and chosen as His special people. They had been in the light. They had, friends, the spirit of prophecy. They had all the Old Testament; that is the spirit of prophecy. But, when the light moved, they did not move with it. God had more light for them and they would not accept it. They stayed put and as a result they were left in the dark.

Jesus is the light of the world. I want you to notice Revelation 14 and what it says about the 144,000. "These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes." When the light moves (Jesus is the light of the world), the 144,000 follow. The problem today is that when the light moves, there are so many people who do not follow it, they stay put. They get left in the dark and are then spiritually blind. There was a time when they were in the light but the light moved and they did not move with it. "As the light and life of men was rejected by the ecclesiastical authorities in the days of Christ, so it has been rejected in every succeeding generation." DA 232. That is quite a statement. Do you know what the word every means? She says that in every single succeeding generation the same thing has happened. "Again and again the history of Christ's withdrawal from Judea has been repeated. When the Reformers preached the word of God, they had no thought of separating themselves from the established church; but the religious leaders would not tolerate the light" Ibid. What happened? The religious leaders would not walk in the light.

"And those that bore it were forced to seek another class, who were longing for the truth" Ibid. Let me stop right here for just a moment and make an appeal to you. If you do not have in your heart right now a deep, earnest longing and love for truth, go home and pray and ask the Lord to give you a love for the truth. If you do not have a love for the truth you are going to be lost. Just read 2 Thessalonians the second chapter. Everyone who does not love the truth is going to be deceived. In your heart right now, if you do not have an earnest, deep, sincere craving, longing for truth, if you do not love the truth, if you are not willing to walk in the truth, go home to your closet and say, "Lord, please change my heart and give me a love for the truth." Friend, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). If you do not love truth, you do not love Him, no matter what you profess.

"In our day few of the professed followers of the Reformers are actuated by their spirit. Few are listening for the voice of God, and ready to accept truth in whatever guise it may be presented" Ibid. I do not know how many times I have prayed, "Lord, help me to accept the truth, however you choose to send it." Now let me tell you men, there are a lot of men who will not accept truth that comes from a woman. That was part of the trouble that Ellen White had. We will find out some day how many men have been lost because they would not receive any truth from a woman. There were women prophets in the Bible. Would you accept the truth if God sent it to you from a woman? Would you accept the truth if God sent it to you from a woman that was younger than you are and less educated than you and not as smart as you are? Would you accept the truth if God sent you a message of truth through a child? Or would you say, "I have a university education. They couldn't possibly know something that I do not know." Have you ever thought through that you do not get to choose how God is going to send you the truth? My brother Marshall used to preach and tell the people he was always amazed at the excuses people would give for not believing the truth. "The preacher was boring." He used to tell people, "I have wondered, when people get to the day of judgment and are lost, are they going to feel better about being lost if they have a good excuse than the people who had poor excuses?" Do you suppose they will? They are all outside the Holy City and one fellow says, "I am better off than he is; I have a good excuse for being here. My preacher was boring. I didn't like his personality. Church members were unfriendly. The school I went to was too strict. That person over there belonged to the church and they hurt my feelings." How is all that going to sound outside the Holy City? Is that the excuse you want to give to the Lord because you did not follow the truth?

"Few are listening for the voice of God, and ready to accept truth in whatever guise it may be presented. Often those who follow in the steps of the Reformers are forced to turn away from the churches they love, in order to declare the plain teaching of the word of God" Ibid. Now, of course that could not be true today after 1863, could it. Did you know there are a lot of people who no longer believe this? Have you ever heard people say, "Well, the cycles have to stop somewhere!? And they stopped in 1863 because that is when we incorporated and that was the end." The trouble is, friends, this book was not even written in 1863. It was not written until 1898. What do you do with that?

"Many times those who are seeking for light are by the same teaching obliged to leave the church of their fathers, that they may render obedience." "As the light and life of men was rejected by the ecclesiastical authorities in the days of Christ, so it has been rejected in every succeeding generation" Ibid. Did that stop in 1863 or is it possible for succeeding generations to reject truth? Is the Desire of Ages page 232 still true or not?

You see friends, we are living in a time that a few years ago nobody expected to see. People thought that it would be from the outside that we would be persecuted and oppressed. We did not think through what Ellen White said when she said that we have far more to fear from within than from without. (1SM 122?) Who would have thought that in Adventism the apostasy would become so great that in many places it would become spiritually dangerous to even attend the local Seventh-day Adventist Church because error was being "forced home to the people" (EW 125). We did not take seriously the context of Early Writings 124, and 125 as having reference to "different parties of professed Advent believers." (EW 124) We did not take seriously all the statements of Ellen White describing a group of "nominal" Adventists in the time of the end who would try to destroy the true Seventh-day Adventists. We were not expecting the true and faithful Seventh-day Adventists to be disfellowshipped and persecuted by their former brethren all over the world as is happening today. But when we go to the inspired writings we see all of this prophesied--we just did not understand it, we did not see how all that could happen. People did not expect it to happen just the way it has but nevertheless it has been prophesied. People have said that these things would not happen until after the National Sunday Law. Friend, that theory is a dangerous deception. The National Sunday law does not initiate the shaking, it brings the shaking to a climax, it brings on the end of the shaking. We are in the shaking right now and it is going to get worse and those who are waiting to take a bold unyielding stand for the truth until the Sunday law test are simply preparing to receive the mark of the beast.

You see when anyone rejects the light of truth that God has given to this people, Seventh-day Adventists, he has turned his back on the light and goes out in darkness--he may still call himself a Seventh-day Adventist but if he does not believe the first angel's message which the new theologians among us have rejected by rejecting the teaching of the investigative judgement beginning in 1844, he has gone into darkness and you cannot with safety go to his church and listen to him preach. When a person rejects the truth of the great day of atonement that began in 1844 and says that instead of afflicting the soul (Lev. 16:29, 30) it is time to celebrate they have gone out in darkness. If a preacher says that you will sin until Jesus comes, he has accepted Satan's fatal sophistry (GC 489) and you dare not go and listen to him preach lest you be deceived and lose your own soul. And finally if you are not hearing the historic doctrines of Adventism preached in your church, if you are hearing the same kinds of sermons that you could hear in any other church, then you are endangering your soul if you do not either find a historic Seventh-day Adventist congregation or start a home church where you can teach the truth to at least your own family. Our opportunities for learning and knowing God's last message to a perishing world and being prepared for what is coming on the world are very limited at best and we dare not allow ourselves and our families to be exposed to either heretical preaching or "peace and safety" messages that come just before destruction (I Thessalonians 5:1, 2) "I saw that we have no time to throw away in listening to fables. Our minds should not be thus diverted, but should be occupied with the present truth, and seeking wisdom that we may obtain a more thorough knowledge of our position, that with meekness we may be able to give a reason of our hope from the Scriptures, While false doctrines and dangerous errors are pressed upon the mind, it cannot be dwelling upon the truth which is to fit and prepare the house of Israel to stand in the day of the Lord." EW 125

Every Sabbath after church you should be more fitted to stand in the day of the Lord than before. But the prophet wrote sadly, "Oh, how many I saw in the time of trouble without a shelter!" (EW 71) From the chapter in volume 5 of Testimonies to the Church on the Seal of God pp. 207-217 we notice the following selected sentences: "Those who have been regarded as worthy and righteous prove to be ringleaders in apostasy and examples in indifference and in the abuse of God's mercies. They were once His faithful servants, favored with His presence and guidance, but they departed from Him and led others into error, and [notice they did not keep up with the light but went out into the darkness of error] Those who link in sympathy with the world will surely be destroyed. Not all who profess to keep the Sabbath will be sealed. Men of finite judgement cannot see that in patterning after these men who have so often opened to them the treasures of God's word, they will surely endanger their souls. However high any minister may have stood in the favor of God, if he neglects to follow out the light given him of God, if he refuses to be taught as a little child, he will go into darkness and satanic delusions and will lead others in the same path. It is now that we must keep ourselves and our children unspotted from the world. Those who are uniting with the world are receiving the worldly mold and preparing for the mark of the beast." Study that entire chapter friend and then how could you ever say that it does not matter which Seventh-day Adventist church you attend or what Adventist preacher you are listening to? The decision as to which Seventh-day Adventist church you attend could easily determine the eternal destiny of your entire family.

Did the Jews have the spirit of Prophecy? Yes, they did. But when the greatest prophet, the Elijah prophet, came to them they rejected him and the result was that they were not ready to accept the Messiah. Now in spite of everything that had happened--they had been in apostasy for hundreds of years--if they would have accepted the Elijah prophet they would have gotten turned around. One of the things that is so amazing to me when I study sacred history is the mercy of God. I cannot take it in. The mercy of God on Adventism I cannot take in. And I believe in preaching straight because I want to see every Adventist saved. I want to see not just the people out in the world saved; I would like to see the Adventists saved, would you? Friends, they are not going to be saved unless someone tells them the truth.

Let's follow what happened. The Jews rejected the Elijah prophet and as a result they were not prepared for the coming of the Messiah. In spite of everything else that had happened as far as apostasy, if they would have accepted the Elijah prophet they would have received the Messiah. John the Baptist told them who the Messiah was; he said, "This is the one." He told them exactly who the Messiah was. If they had accepted John the Baptist they would have accepted Jesus. We have an Elijah prophet, don't we? Do you know that if you will accept the Elijah prophet and accept the spirit of prophecy and read and study and obey it, you will be saved? God does not play games, friends. If you follow instructions. . . .

In one place Ellen White was talking to our ministers and said if the people of this world, not just Seventh-day Adventists, did not have all these false teachers and just the Bible and accepted it like it reads, not a single soul would be lost--not one. The plan of salvation is big enough to save everyone in the world, but if you do not walk in the light, the light moves and you are left in the dark.

Could that happen again? Notice the sequence: they rejected the Elijah prophet and as a result they were not prepared for the Messiah. The light moved. When you reject the light at one stage you are prepared to reject it at the next stage. We have the spirit of prophecy, we have the light of present truth, we have the Elijah prophet, but if we do not receive the Elijah prophet--I am not talking about making a profession. I am talking about reading it and obeying it. Is there a lot of difference? There can be--what is going to happen? Our great danger is that by not following the spirit of prophecy . . . . Sister White says in the Testimonies volume 5 about page 681 that there are many who are going directly contrary to the light because they do not read. They are in the dark. Our great danger is that as a result of neglecting or rejecting the spirit of prophecy we will go out in the dark and just as the Jews rejected the Messiah, that we will reject and outrage the Holy Spirit. That is our great danger.

I want to tell you, friends, it is dangerous not to keep up with the providence of God. The light is moving. Are you moving with it or are you in the dark? Ellen White saw in one of her first visions about this light. You can read about it in the early part of Early Writings. She speaks about this several places in her writings, about the light that was set up at the path and it shone along the path that the Advent company were moving and it shone all the way up to the Holy City. This path, friends, is a narrow path and if you do not have light on the path, you are going to stumble off. What was that light that was set up at the beginning. She says it was the midnight cry. Did you ever study what the midnight cry is? We should know what that is if we want to be in the light. That is the light that was set up at the beginning of the path and it shines along the path all the way to the New Jerusalem. And the devil knows that and he has been trying ever since it has been started to get us to reject it because he knows that if we reject that we will stumble off the path and fall off. It is amazing how successful the devil has been.

Let me mention a few things that are involved in the midnight cry. It is the cry that the bridegroom is coming. Now, on what Bible prophecy was the midnight cry based? Daniel 8:14; Daniel 8 and 9 and Revelation 14:6, 7. The message of the 2300 days and the sanctuary and the investigative judgment. Can you believe there are Adventist teachers and preachers today that do not believe in the midnight cry light any more. They do not believe our historic message on the 2300 days and the sanctuary and the investigative judgment. Well, friend, if you are in that situation, you are in the dark. You are going to lose your way. The Lord is not going to work a miracle to save you; you have turned your back on the light. Remember when the Holy Spirit verifies what is light and what is truth, no after suppositions are to be entertained contrary to that. We are not to get into discussions as to whether it is true or not when God says it is true. This idea that you can just have a spirit of free inquiry and ask any question you want to is not according to the Scriptures. Jesus rebuked people for their doubt. He never commended doubt.

Friend, if the light of the midnight cry, if that message is not being preached in your church, your church is in the dark. Are you keeping up with the light? Are you staying in the light? Are you walking in the light? In Testimonies volume 2 on page 594-597 Ellen White describes a very impressive dream. She says that she was in a large company of people and a portion of these people decided they were going to go on a journey. They had heavily loaded wagons and started out on the journey. The path they were on started to ascend upward. They got to the place where they had to drop off part of the baggage. As they went farther the road became so narrow they decided they would have to leave the wagons and go on horseback. They put part of the luggage on the horses and rode the horses. On this path one side was like a white wall going up and on the other side was a precipice. As they went on the road became so narrow they were in danger of falling. At times it seemed that a hand would take a hold of the bridle and help them so they would not fall off the path. But the path became so narrow they could not ascend with the horses and luggage, so they cut off the luggage and it fell off down below. They kept on with the horses. Then the time came that the path became so narrow they decided it was not safe to go on the horses so they had to get off the horses and go in single file on foot up the path. Then the path became so narrow that even when they were single file it was too dangerous to wear their shoes so they took their shoes off so they could feel their way very carefully up the path. Then the path became so narrow they decided they would slip less easily if they removed their stockings, so they went barefoot up the path. After they got off the horses some cords were let down. They did not know where they were coming from but they held on to them and said, "We have hold from above," and they kept going. One of the most interesting points of this dream is as she gets to the point where they went up barefoot, remember there had been several changes. They had heavily loaded wagons, then more lightly loaded wagons, then horses with lots of luggage, then they cut off the luggage and had horses with less luggage, then they got off the horses and went single file, then they removed their shoes, then they removed their stockings. How many changes is that? Now listen, in Testimonies volume 2 pages 594-597 she says that at every change some were left behind.

The light, friends, is moving. Are you keeping up with the prophets of God? Sister White says those only remained who had accustomed themselves to endure hardship. The privations of the way only made these more eager to press on to the end. The time came when we suspended nearly our whole weight on the cords. Are you aware, friends, that the road we are traveling is getting narrower? Have you noticed it? Oh, friend, how are you going to stay on the path and keep up with the providence of God? How are you going to do it? The only way that you will do it is if you have faith. Those cords represent faith. I remember a few years ago a very good friend of mine was telling me he was sorry for what I had had to do because now I had worked so many years for the Adventist denomination I had given up all my retirement benefits and all these different things. Let me tell you, if you stay on the road all the way to the end, you are going to give up a lot more than retirement benefits.

The road is getting narrower, but the light is still moving. What was present truth twenty or forty years ago is not present truth today, and you and I must keep up with the light. We must be faithful to the truth that God reveals to us through this Word. You must decide that you are going to walk in the light no matter what happens, whether your wife or your husband or your parents or your children or whatever anybody else does, you have to make an individual decision, Lord, I am going to walk in the light. Now, it would be wonderful if your wife or your husband or others in your family would decide to walk in the light, too. You could walk together, but in a congregation this size I can guarantee you that there are going to be people here that if you are going to go to heaven you are going to have to decide to go alone. That happens to some people. You have to decide that you are going to walk in the light no matter what. Because some of your dearest friends or some of your family may at one of these changes fall off the path. Once they fall off the path and go out in to darkness, they will not be able to comprehend you at all. I am sure that there are quite a few people in a group this size who have gone home and you feel like a stranger in your own family because you are trying to walk on the path of light and other people are either way behind and are off the path entirely and you feel like a stranger in your own home.

Friend, it is worth it, just to be in the light. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Friend, your relationship to Jesus is closer, I say this reverently and advisedly, your relationship to Jesus is closer than your relationship with your wife or your husband or to any other person in this world. If the Lord wills, this evening I am going to show you that Jesus is all you need in this world or the next one. That is all you need. That is Christianity. If you have Jesus, you have everything. That is what Adam did not understand. Now do not misunderstand, if Eve had been the only one that fell the spirit of prophecy is very clear that the plan of salvation would have been instituted to save one person, but Ellen White says that Adam did not understand that the One who had given him this beautiful creature could supply her place if he should lose her. He did not realize or understand this. If you are going to go through to the end, friends, you must come to the understanding, you must get a hold of the pearl of great price, you must have an understanding in your heart and in your mind that Jesus can supply anything you need. It is more wonderful to be in the light with Jesus and to be a stranger in your own family than to be going with everyone else and be in the dark.

If you are going to stay on the path until the end, I got long winded and the time is gone, we must finish quickly, if you are going to stay on the path until the end, you must get hold of those cords from above. You must develop faith. I want to spend just the next two or three minutes talking about faith. How can you develop the faith that you need to go through to the end? The apostle Paul says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. That is in Romans the tenth chapter. If you want to have the faith that will take you through to the end, you must be studying the Bible, by the way Ellen White recommends that you study the Bible on your knees (I found that a tremendous blessing). At one place she told our ministers that Ezekiel 9 to 12 is going to be fulfilled right to the very letter and you need to study these chapters on your knees. You will find that comment in the 1888 Materials. I am aghast when I study those chapters and realize that the Lord has told us those chapters are going to be fulfilled exactly. You need to be studying your Bible every day, on your knees, and plead with the Lord and say, "Lord, please give me the eye salve so that I will be able to understand spiritual things." We will not have time now to get into 1 Corinthians 2, a tremendous chapter where Paul says that the natural man receives not the spiritual things of the Spirit of God for they are spiritually discerned. Unless the Holy Spirit enlightens your mind you can read and memorize the Bible and you still will not be in the light. Then what you read and study in your Bible, what the Holy Spirit reveals to you, you have to walk in the light that you see. You have to obey the light that you see. Somebody might ask you like they ask me, "How did you get into the situation you are in now?" Friend, we were just praying and just trying to follow the Lord and taking one step at a time and all I can say to you is that the Lord led us this far. Where else are we supposed to go? Remember Peter said to Jesus when He asked the twelve disciples if they were going to leave they said, "Who are we going to go to?" We are in the same situation, do you realize that? Who are we going to go to? The Lord has led us this far; we cannot turn back, that would be turning our back on the light. We just have to take one step at a time, however the Lord directs. And to be doing that you have to be studying the Bible on your knees and the Holy Spirit has to teach you the spiritual meaning of what you are seeing. There are treasures in the Bible. One of the great griefs of my life was when I discovered at about the age of nineteen that there was so much treasure in the Bible that I could dig as much as I could my whole life and I would never uncover even a tenth of the treasure. There is so much there. There are chapters in the Bible that the real spiritual meaning doesn't come through to you, at least if you are as dumb as I am, until you have read or quoted them fifty or a hundred times and all of a sudden you start to see things that you never saw before. There is a gold mine of truth in the Bible and if we will get on our knees and pray and study and memorize it, the Bible says the result will be that we are going to have faith and we have to have that faith or we will not be able to go through to the end because that path is going to get so narrow that unless you have hold from above you are just going to fall. There is no way you are going to stay on the path unless you have a hold from above.

Two more principles very quickly. "Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, 'Why could we not cast it out?' So Jesus said to them, 'Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind [that is this kind of faith] does not go out except by prayer and fasting" Matthew 17:19-21. How much praying are you doing? I learned how little praying I was doing when a little over twenty years ago now I think it was my brother Marshall who sent me for a Christmas gift. . . in those days digital clocks were just coming out. He sent me a digital clock radio. In our bedroom at home the bed stand has like a shelf at the front where you can place books, so I placed this clock radio right in the middle of the bedstead, right in front. When I would kneel down to pray at night I could see the clock and when I opened my eyes I could see the clock and I began to realize I was not spending all that much time praying. Now we do not have time to discuss this subject in detail, but if you want to go through to the end you are going to have to become a person of prayer. You can pray when you are driving your car, when you are in a business engagement, during your work, but especially do we need that quiet time alone with God in prayer, when every other voice is hushed. We must become people of prayer so we have a hold from above or we are going to fall off the path.

The light is moving. The path is getting narrower. We must have hold from above to keep up with the providence of God. Oh, friend, how much time are you spending in prayer. If you are energetic enough to get up and to pray, God will hear and answer. For our young people here today, those of you who think that you have told the Lord everything you know how to tell Him in ninety seconds, let me tell you how to spend more time in prayer. I have found this to be very, very helpful to me personally as a Christian. Take a chapter from the gospels on the life of Jesus and pray through the chapter. If I had time I would do one with you right now but we do not have time. My favorite book to pray myself through a chapter is the gospel of John. Generally I find as I pray my self through a chapter in the gospel of John it usually takes 30 to 45 minutes. It is one of the most wonderful things that can happen to you as a Christian. Oh, you get in John the fourth chapter and you hear about the water of life!--don't you want it? I want it. That gives me a lot of things to pray about, and it just seems like every few verses there is something more to pray about. Take a chapter from the Bible (especially the gospels) and get on your knees and go through it. It is wonderful. That is why you need to memorize the Bible, then you can do it in bed at night too when the lights are all off and you can be quoting through the Bible and as you come to places where you need to pray, you can pray. And when you wake up in the morning and no one else is awake and it is dark you can start quoting your Bible again and you can pray. You have lots to pray about because as you quote those chapters, let me tell you, there will be so many things for you to pray about you can spend hours in prayer. You will get hold from above so you can keep up with the providence of God and stay on the path.

This if from Desire of Ages page 825, "Where there is no active labor for others, love wanes, and faith grows dim." You must not only study your Bible and pray, you must be actively involved in missionary work and, if you are not, figure out a way to get started. Go to somebody in your church or contact some special ministry, ask the Lord to show you what to do and you get involved in some type of outreach program. If you are not, your faith will grow dim; you will lose hold from above. Oh, friend, my heart cry is, "Lord, help me to keep up with the providence of God and to get hold from above." Is that what you want? Do you want to have hold from above and to stay on the path to the end? It is worth it friend, if you want to have that experience, my faith is just simple enough I believe that if we would ask the Lord, that He would be willing to let us down the cords today for us to get hold from above so we that we can stay on the path. Do you want to stay on the path? It will take a miracle. We did not even go to the end of the vision. The time is coming when the path will disappear. Then you will have to have hold from above. Do you want the Lord to let you down today some cords of faith so that you can get hold from above? Let us ask the Lord to give us a hold from above.