REFERENCES:
Olson ; The Crises Ahead Ch. 10, 11,14;
Chaij ; Preparation For The Final Crises Ch. 2, 3.

 -  -  -   SEALING,  EARLY  AND  LATTER  RAIN   -  -  -  

*   *   *   *   * 


-  -  -     O V E R    V I E W    -  -  - 
  

   Today, we study a special work of God in the lives of the saints
   just before the coming of Christ; specifically the Holy Spirit
   is going to work in a remarkable way through the saints, through
   experiences which we refer to as the SEALING, and THE LATTER RAIN.
 
   The Holy Spirit has never been the easiest person of the GodHead to 
   conceptualize.  It is a little easier to think of the Father, even 
   though we haven't seen Him, because we know that He has located Himself 
   at the center of the universe.  He runs things from His throne; and we 
   can orient ourselves in the fact that He has located Himself. 

        Christ is  also,  to  some  extent,  easy  to  understand
    because   He   has   entered  into  and  participated  in the
    experiences of the creatures.  God wants to be known for  His
    character,  and  so  rather  than  frighten  anyone with His
    majesty, He enters into the experience  by  participating  in
    their lives, through this second person of the God Head, that
    we  know  as Jesus Christ, who first became an angel; Michael
    the Archangel, and thus was able  to  introduce  God  to  the
    angelic  world  in  terms that they could understand;  HE was
    one of them.  And then of-course, at a latter time He stepped
    lower, and took upon Himself the form of human  beings.    We
    can  understand  that even though we have not personally seen
    Him, because we can read the writings of those who have  seen
    Him.  And so He exists in some form that we can understand as
    human beings. 

        But  what  do  you do with the Holy Spirit?  Where do
    you locate the Holy Spirit?  How can the  Holy  Spirit  be  a
    person,  and  be  everywhere?    This  is difficult for us to
    understand.  The word in  the  New  Testament  for  the  Holy
    Spirit  is  pleura,  which  comes from a word, which means to 
breathe; it refers to air and wind; in fact the word  pneumatic 
    refers to air: a pneumatic pump is a pump which pumps air, or
    is  powered  by  air,  the  word  pneumonia  comes from this.
    Christ referred to this as a breath that  appears  everywhere.
    How  do you understand this as a person; this ubiquitous pres-
    ence everywhere?  But, here in lies the very genius  of  God;
    if  we  could conceptualize everything there is to know about
    God, in perfect human analogy, we wouldn't  have  God.    The
    very  fact that it is difficult to understand the Holy Spirit
    really becomes understandable.  Let's say that we  know  that
    the  two persons of the God Head, the Father and the Son have
    location, they   have   form;   that   makes   it   easy   to
    conceptualize,  we  know,  or  at  least have some idea as to
    where they are.  But  you  see,  if  the  third  person  also
    maintained  his  presence in a certain form, then there would
    be a problem of how can we have God personally in our  lives,
    if they are located, if He has form, that they are some place
    in  the  universe,  but  not here.  But, I would like to have
    God, not only send out  manifestations,  not  only  send  out
    vibrations,  I  want God.  And so if God then can in some way
    be with me, it would be so much more personal, than  if  God
    were just located somewhere.  But that raises a problem; If I
    have  God with me, what if you want God with you, and in you?
    Well I'd say you would have to be pretty close to me, if  God
    is  in  me;  unless God can be in both of us, separated, say,
    even spatially.  So maybe we could say God is in us,  and  we
    could  all  sort of stick together, so we could all be in the
    presence of God.  But  what  about  the  people  in  Southern
    California who want God?  And what about the  people  in  New
    York, and Australia, and Japan, who want God? 

        So,  to help us understand, and help us where we are, one
    person of the God Head,  referred  to  as  the  Comforter,  it
    really  means, in  Greek, a counselor or helper, or one like
    Christ, sort of an alter ego of Christ, one like Him who  can
    understand  us  but  divested of the trappings of humanity so
    that He can be everywhere. 

        On  the  one  hand I cannot understand, or conceptualize,
    how God, the third person, can be a person and everywhere  be
    present,  and still be a person?  But, if I could somehow get
    God within my grasp so that I could understand Him, He  would
    no  longer  be  God,  but  something I could conceptualize in
    Space and Time.  Then I would have the problem of how could I
    understand  that He be everywhere present. 

        If  we  take the mystery out of God we then reduce God to
    human analogies, and He ceases to be God.  I think that those
    individuals     who  become arrogant to say that God has to be
    only  that  which we can conceptualize in human terms thereby
    evaporate the significance of God, and we reduce  reality  to
    small  little human boxes.  This is what the Israelites tried
    to do with God when they made the Golden Calf;  they couldn't
    grasp  God  by  faith, so they had to put him  in  form; they
    weren't worshiping another God, they just  wanted  God  in  a
    form  that  they could box, that they could carry around with
    them, that they could touch, that they knew where he was. 

        That approach reduces God to a human level, and He ceases
    to be God; and that is why the Holy  Spirit  still  maintains
    that mystery about God, in being everywhere present. 

        What  is  it that the Holy Spirit really wants to do with
    Human beings.  The answer is really very simple.  He wants to
    reproduce every human being in the image of God,  and  to  be
    part of each individual so that every individual can become a
    partaker of divine nature. 

        One of the basic dictums about human-beings, is that they
    are made in the image of God.    We  also  are  told  of  the
    tragedy,  that this image has but all been obliterated.  Man,
    through the process of becoming more and  more  self-centered
    through  the  choices  which he has made, really becomes very
    unlike God, and has chased God out of his life.  The intent-
    ion of the Holy Spirit is to bring God back into the life  of
    every human being, that will accept Him. 

        In  one  sense the Holy Spirit functions in every form of
    life,  "in  Him  we  live move and have our being."  The very
    power  that  we  would blaspheme God, if we chose to do that,
    would be the power of the Holy Spirit.  This manifestation of
    the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  human  life, has been
    described years ago by E.G. White, in terms of this manifest-
    ation of electric current.  Now that is not to say  that  the
    Holy  Spirit  is an electric current; but it appears that the
    manifestation of the Holy Spirit in operating through all  of
    life  is reflected in some kind of electrical energy.  We are
    told that the only medium that heaven has with  human  beings
    is  through their nervous system.  Mrs. White even speaks of
    the electrical power in the seed that grows.   This  reflects
    at  least  at  the  human  level  of  our understanding, this
    pervasive force of all life; which is  the  manifestation  of
    the  Holy  Spirit, beginning when the Spirit brooded over the
    waters. 

        But God wants to do more than that;  He wants to be  more
    than  to  just  have  some  life principle, keeping the heart
    beating and the lungs breathing.  He wants to  reproduce  His
    image, to remove the obliteration of the divine image, and to
    restore  people  back to God, back to what they were designed
    to be.  Toward this end, God has made available to those  who
    have  been estranged from the divine image, an opportunity to
    be reborn, this is spoken of as a New Birth.  At the point of
    the New Birth, when an individual  freely  and  intelligently
    readmits  the  power  of God, in-fact God himself, into  the
    life, three things happen to this person who is born again. 

        First of all there is born within the human-being who re-
    ceives the new birth the beginning of a new  motivation.    A
    motivation,  which  apart from the Holy Spirit is impossible.
    God wants individuals to be loving.  Before  the  new  birth,
    individuals  can  do  loving things, but there is always the
    problem that all of these acts which appear to be so good  to
    people  looking at them are tinctured with self-centeredness.
    This is very  difficult  for  people  to  understand  because
    they  think  of their goodness in terms of something that can
be paraded in front of other people.  It may appear  to  be  a
    very  loving  act that is it seems to reflect their concern
for the worth of other individuals, and of course this is even
    prompted by the Holy Spirit.  A person can do  these  things,
    but still reflect, unbeknown to anyone looking on and perhaps
even  to  themselves,  that they are reflecting self-centered-
    ness; that is they are doing right things but for  the  wrong
    reasons.    They  really  can’t help themselves; not until a
    person is born again can they remove themselves from the pos-
    ition  of  doing  loving  things,  to the position of being a
    loving person, in which these acts flow from a different kind
    of inner integrity.  God is not  just  interested  in  making
    people  look nice, He's interested in reforming them from the
    inside.  In fact, as long as a person has this inner integrity
    God accepts their ignorance, because if they had  this  basic
    motivation  they  would  be safe to save, they are teachable,
    they have a desire to be loving, and  all  they  need  is  an
    opportunity  to  understand.  And that is the next thing that
    the Holy Spirit does for the person who is born again. 

        Secondly, they receive new insights; the  beginning  of
    new insights mediated through the word of God.  I add mediat-
    ed  through  the  Word  of God because other-wise without the
    objective revelation of scripture, it would be very difficult
    for individuals in talking with one another  to  discriminate
    whether  the  Holy Spirit was operating through them ,because
    the Holy Spirit does operate through the electrical  currents
    of  our system, but I would also suggest that you can get all
    kinds of activity from taking a drug, I  would  also  suggest
    that  you  can have all kinds of electrical kinds of activity
    that people can start themselves just by a  thought  and  you
    can  have all kinds of activity going on within you by all of
    the stimuli going on around you in the outside world.  How do
    we discriminate,  how  do  we  avoid  that  situation   where
    everyone  says  that God is speaking through me.  Many people
    who claim this, do so entirely on  the  basis  of  their  own
    subjective experience, and how do you argue that. 

        So  to  avoid this ambiguous, mystical, subjectivism, God
    has spoken in His word, which can  be  seen  and  read.    An
    objective  revelation  that  becomes  the spring board for an
    internal revelation.  In other words, the  Holy  Spirit  will
    develop   insights  through  applying  our  understanding the
    message of His objective word.  And the insights will be dis-
    covered in terms of seeing ourselves as we are, we will begin
    to get a new picture of sin.  The Holy Spirit will prompt us,
    again  through  our  understanding  of the word, to recognize
    when we are moved toward some kind of selfish activity.   The
    Holy  Spirit will have to do this, because we are not capable
    ourselves of doing this.  Further    more,  the  Holy  Spirit
    working through what we are calling here divine insight, will
    also  teach  us to understanding God; not only ourselves, but
    God.  We will see Him and appreciate Him in ways  that  human
    reason  could  never  grasp.   This is spoken of as spiritual
    discernment.  We will begin to  make  spiritual  perceptions,
    make  ethical  decisions in ways that we could not do before.
    We will also be able to get  new  insights  as  we  begin  to
    understand other people. 

        This  will  be the counselor who will come and give us a
    fresh application of the word of God, today in our lives.  It
    is not enough just to have motivation;  not  enough  just  to
    have  insights.  We could want to do God's will, conceivably
    and could even know how, but we could still be weak.  And  so
    a   third   function  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  this rebirth
    experience, is power. 

        The Holy Spirit has been promised as a source of power to
    enable us, not only to  have  the  desire  and  to  have  the
    understanding to fulfill it, but to also have the strength to
    do it.  Through this three-fold process the Holy Spirit works
    in the lives of the saints.  What God would like to have done
    through the operation of His Spirit, is that we  become  like
    Him. 

        Here in  lies a problem.  When do we say that we are like
    God?  I would imagine that most of us here, within  the  next
    week, even though we are born again (if that is our experien-
    ce),   will engage in some activity that we could describe as
    selfishness;  the  Bible  speaks of this as sin.    Let’s say
    that next Wednesday (being  used  as  an  example),  I'm  out
driving  on the highway, and someone cuts in front of me.  And
    I think to myself; "I'd like to  hang  that  guy  up  by  the
    heels, and flog him," for doing a thing like that.  Just for
    a  little while there I could actually revel in some kinds of
    destructive spirit. 

        I know that none of you here would feel that  way;  you'd
    probably  say; "I hope a cop gets him!"   Now, if you were to
    say: "I hope a police officer finds him and  stops  him  from
    hurting  himself  or  others,"  then that would be honorable;
    but when we want a police officer to get someone I doubt that
    we are too concerned with their well being.  I hope he  gets
    his!  Or you might get a milder form and say:  "I  hope  that
    guy  gets  a  blowout."   But, maybe you can see that kind of
    spirit is destructive.  A person who manifests that  kind  of
    spirit  wouldn't  be  safe to have in the kingdom.   Now I am
    saying that Wednesday noon that will happen to me, so in  the
    course of things I would sin Wednesday.  What would happen if
    I  should  be  killed  Tuesday.   And let’s say that God would
    resurrect me and take me to heaven, or if you wish, God would
    translate me on Tuesday.  However He  would  never  translate
    someone  who  had not been purified, so I would first have to
    die.  And I had received the  Latter  Rain,  there  are  some
    people who have received the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and
    their   lives   have  been  perfected,  Enoch  and  Elijah as
    examples, they get to the place where they are pure,  morally
    speaking.    But with a person like me I'd have to be killed,
    but let’s say God resurrected  me.    I  am  taken  to  heaven
    Tuesday  and  I  am  given  a new body and a new environment.
    Now, twenty-four hours after I am resurrected, with this  new
    body  and  in a new environment, would I sin?  Of-course not,
    not if Christ is the dominating theme in my life!  Well  then
    why would I sin if I stayed here? 

        Well,  there  is  certain  weaknesses  of  the flesh, and
    stresses of the environment, and if that  were  changed,  the
    fact   that  Christ was the dominating theme of my life would
    keep me true in heaven.  But what if I were  not  born  again
    when  I was killed on Tuesday and God resurrected me, gave me
    a new body and put me in a new  environment.    Might  I  sin
    within  twenty-four  hours?   If Christ is not the dominating
    theme of my life?  Yes I would!  If self-centeredness were the
    dominating theme of my life, the way I performed so to speak,
    you put me in any kind of environment, and I would sin. 

        With this line of reasoning, if Christ  is  the  dominant
    theme of a person’s life then at the point of death he becomes
    sealed;  because  once  they  are  given a new body and a new
    environment, they would never sin again.  So, I would like to
    suggest the way to seal every saint and to preserve him or her  for
    eternity, is to let them die, very easy. 

        But that presents a problem.  That creates a problem that
    Satan  has  been  complaining  about  for a long time.  Do you
    remember the original claim that he made: "No one  can  serve
    God  because  they  love Him ... just for His own sake."  Now
    Christ disproved  that,  and  further  more  there  had  been
    isolated  individuals  throughout history that God could say:
    "Look, there's my son and there's my daughter."    But  Satan
    has  said:  "You  can’t  really show that in mass; the whole
    world is really flying under my banner, and even your  people
    continue  to  sin."    So  that  would really be a cop-out if
    everyone had to be killed before they could be sealed.  Would
    it be possible that an individual who was born again, if they
    really wanted the Holy Spirit to  completely  dominate  them,
    would  it be possible for them to get to the place where they
    would not sin; where they would die before they would  engage
    in  anything  that  smacks of selfishness, even in a thought?
    But not only that, would it be possible to get a whole  group
    of them to be that way.