God Gives The Increase
By Lois J. Stucky
"Thank God for this day of opportunity! The Gospel of the Kingdom is being preached throughout the earth as never before. What a privilege it is to be living in these days!" Do you not agree with the lady from England who wrote these words in a recent letter to Herald of His Coming?
Here at Herald of His Coming, we are in enthusiastic agreement with her! We are eager to meet opportunities which come across our desks from readers in many parts of the earth, recognizing them as doors opened to us by the Lord to share the Gospel yet more widely. It is stirring to realize we are part of the fulfillment of Scripture! Jesus told His disciples that the "Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matt. 24:14). Giving great priority to spreading His Gospel makes all who participate partakers of that grand purpose in this late hour.
As workers together with God, however, we recognize that at best we are not "anything." It is God "that giveth the increase" (1 Cor. 3:7). Still, we are servants whom God uses to do His work in the Church and in the world. How important that we be faithful! God forbid that we settle down in ease and turn a deaf ear to the opportunities that knock. On the other hand, might we not be so engrossed in a multitude of daily duties or in headlong pursuit of financial gain or pleasure that we have not time or inclination to lift our eyes and look upon a world greatly in need of the Gospel.
Herald of His Coming is deeply grateful to all whose hearts are united with us in this ministry. Some of you send the finances that maintain the mailings of the Gospel into many countries of the world. What does the world need more in this critical hour than the Word of God? It is profitable to sinner and saint alike. It is by the Word of God that souls are brought into the Kingdom of God. It is by the Word that saints are edified and made holy as God is holy. Oh, that together God’s people could blanket the world with the Word of God even far more than we are in this hour of modern means to go with it!
It has been blessed, reader friends, to receive the special gifts that some of you have been inspired and enabled to make during the sparse summer months. Thank you one and all. No gift is too small to help. And each gift counts in God’s sight and will bring its reward.
And whatever else God calls and enables us to do, we can all PRAY. It is God’s wondrous "increase" that is so urgently needed and that comes in answer to prayer. The lady from England’s response to today’s opportunities is to seek to give more time to prayer. This issue of Herald of His Coming has a strong call to prayer. Sammy Tippit’s article gives thrilling incentive to pray for our nations, and for the glory of God to be revealed in them. We might be so distressed over sinful conditions existing in whatever nation we live in that we hardly have faith to pray for that. But see what persevering prayer, even through twenty years, brought to Romania! God’s glory!
The importance of prevailing in prayer hits with fresh impact as we read in Wesley Duewel’s article that God is far more desirous of our prevailing prayers than we realize. Prevailing prayer is the way God has ordained to bring His will to pass. He is depending on our cooperation in order that He might do great and mighty things! How well we understand from experience that we are incapable of prevailing prayer in ourselves. We must have the help of the blessed Holy Spirit, as Dr. Duewel so clearly sets forth. It is a privilege beyond our full comprehension that we become partners with the divine intercessors, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in prevailing prayer.
Numerous prayer requests come to Herald of His Coming in the letters received. The small Herald staff strives to bring these requests one by one to the Lord. Our hearts are touched by the needs. We desire very much to add effective prayers of faith to that of the friends writing. Some needs seem mountain size! How inadequate we feel before them! As Dr. Duewel’s article stresses, the dear Holy Spirit is our helper in prayer. Please pray for the Herald staff, that we always be filled with the Holy Spirit and under His control that He might be our enabler in all phases of the ministry, and especially in prayer.
A key to willingness to spend time in prayer, is a fervent love to the Lord. For this, too, we must have the Holy Spirit’s help. He sheds abroad that heavenly love of God in our hearts. Brother Moore’s article encouraging us to get the Holy Spirit’s fullness and fire, is typical of his heart as a gentle under-shepherd tending the flock of the Good Shepherd, but who does not withhold strong exhortation to us even as Christ did not. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten," said our Lord, "be zealous therefore, and repent" (Rev. 3:19). Might we take this Word to heart wherever it is needed! It will be for our eternal good.
In the September Herald of His Coming paper was offered the book in magazine format, "The Full Blessing of Pentecost" by Andrew Murray. You may want to request a copy when you write this month if you have not already done so. It is inspirational and instructive reading, focusing on the blessed Holy Spirit, the often-neglected member of the Trinity.
Andrew Murray encourages the reader of the book to press into being "filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19). Does this sound like something too lofty for you? Does it seem like setting your sights too high? Truly it is something the flesh with its ease-and-pleasure-loving nature, would not aspire to, but if you are hungry for more of God, for all He has for you, that you might be all He would have you to be for Him, then we encourage you to write and request this book in magazine format.
God well knows that we His people are utterly unable to fulfill the commission to go into all the world with the Gospel by relying upon human efforts. Only providing His people with divine power by sending the Holy Spirit makes possible the fulfillment of His gracious plan for those of every kindred and tongue and people and nation to one day be in heaven’s choir of praise. Please pray with us for the blessed increase of God in all the Herald of His Coming ministry. Thank you!