 life of Nairobi and request that we pray again just before we start the session and I would like to ask about our heads wherever you are and humble ourselves. Jehovah Lord we have come back father in tongues of worship and even with other activities that will happen. This has been a great day your children have testified Lord about the answers to prayers that they have put before you and there are also those who still have prayers. Father we come to you with many requests those that are spoken aloud and those that are silent that on this day Lord on the 10th day of these 10 days of prayer that we've been having. Father that you've allowed us to go through we ask that we may find answers at the feet of Jesus. We stand here to praise and worship you in song and we ask that you may bring your Holy Spirit to come down and dwell with us and guide us and sharpen our voices and Lord for those who are tuned into this service that they may live with abandon blessing. Take care of those in different situations those who are sick those who are bereaved Lord and even those who have financial difficulties among other issues meet each and every person at the point of need. I bring your servants standing before you that Lord you may hollow them and make them right to stand between you and your children in this worship in Jesus name I pray. Amen. So my name is Damaris Ndira I'm singing soprano and on my right is Bouvie. I'm singing tenor. Next is Millicent Oguari singing alto and last but not least is our bass that is teacher Kefa. So we welcome you to this session and ask that you get out your books get out your gadgets tune in and let's sing together song number 208 from the SDA hymnals there'll be no dark valley. That session of music still in our nimble the crystal. Let's do song number number five five in nimble the crystal. Good afternoon beloved viewers we are so grateful and thankful to God for yet another privilege for this great exposition of Advent history lest we forget. With me in this panel of the we have my brother Harman Tambo Co Pio. Good morning good afternoon and happy Sabbath to all of you. My name is Abura Katiani I'll be the moderator of this panel now before we start I'd like to invite brother Nico for a word of prayer. Let us pray our loving father in heaven as we share from your word and as we discuss how you have led us even up to this point in time. I pray for the leading and guidance of the spirit and I pray that even as you help us to remember the things in your word I pray that we may leave this place knowing that you are in control. Thank you God for hearing and answering our prayer so we ask this in Jesus name. Amen now throughout history from the very beginning since creation the fall of man God has always called upon man to trust him by faith God sometimes reveals to man the things which are going to happen in the future and though sometimes they are irreconcilable with our feelings or irreconcilable with our thoughts but God has said it he has called us to walk by faith actually Paul tells us in the book of Hebrews that without faith we cannot please God. Now many times even in the past when Christ was on this planet the disciples are disappointed after his crucifixion and they thought that they had been disappointed by the ministry of Christ how he died on the cross of Calvary and how it almost looked like his work had been in vain. In the book of Luke chapter 24 verse number 13 we are talking about two disciples who were very remorseful of the things that had happened and they were talking about the events that had just taken place before Christ ascended to heaven and when Christ appeared to them Christ put everything in context and in perspective that time the disciples have disappointed some had gone back to the previous trade of fishing yet Christ himself had told them about the manner of his death his resurrection and his ascension to glory and his soon coming but none had comprehended indeed when you look at the history of the church there's a moment again that Christ has had called the church to trust him through faith and the church wavered and actually did not have the correct context of his word and we call that period the church again went through a great disappointment. Now people actually say that the great disappointment was on 22nd of October 1844 but I think on 22nd of October they were not actually disappointed because that was the day they were expecting the Messiah to come but when the Messiah failed to come they got disappointed thereafter after the 22nd of October when 23rd was was was donning on them then they felt the pinch of the disappointment the group that was actually carrying out the the work then and the and and and the responsibility of preparing the people to meet their Lord have been commonly refined to us the Millerites. I'd like to invite brother Hammond to let to tell us a little more about who the Millerites were of course we had talked about them last time but just maybe to give us a review of a bit of the Millerite and at least give us a little more insights to the experiences and who exactly and what exactly they went through. Thank you very much as you've been told my name is Hammond Tambo and if you watched the last presentation that we had we talked about the Millerites and we gave a background about where they came from who they were and why we are talking about them with regard to our conversation today. So just to do a little bit of a review William Miller was a Baptist preacher well he was a Baptist man he was not a preacher at this point and after studying the Bible and after reading the through the whole Bible for a period of about two years from 1816 to around 1818 he came to the conclusion that the world as they knew it then was going to come to an end with the second coming of Jesus and on October 22nd 1844 they actually expected Jesus to come but of course as we know Jesus never came and that experience has come to be known as a great disappointment. Now one thing we did not mention last time because of time constraint which I'd like to perhaps bring to our our attention is that October 22nd 1844 was not actually the first date that the Millerites had come up with so they were called Millerites because they believed in Miller's message and they joined him they did not belong to a particular church they came from different churches some of them were Baptist some of them were Methodist some of them were Presbyterian some of them were there was a church known as the Christian connection and they came from various denominations and they all joined William Miller in proclaiming that Jesus was going to come on that date so they did not belong to a particular religion but if you remember from last time presentations we said that they were called Millerites as a ridicule name it was not a good name by then because they were supposed to they were supposed to be made to look like they were just people who are following after Miller as opposed to following after God. Now Miller had never had an intention of starting a church but eventually they formed and coalesced and became this group so the first date that they actually came up with was March sometime in March I believe March 22nd 1844 actually initially they believed that Jesus was going to come in 1843 but after doing a little bit more study they discovered that when you count when you're counting years from BC to AD there is no year called zero so when you come from one AD you move to you when you come from one BC you don't go to zero AD zero you move from one BC to one AD so when they did that calculation they then came to the conclusion that the date was actually 1844 but they had not chosen a specific date and Miller himself was very reluctant to pick a date because he felt that if people put their hopes in a date then they would be more concerned with the date rather than with the Messiah who they were expecting so eventually as it started getting closer to 1844 after a bit of pressure Miller decided to finally agree to a date and the date that initially they came up with was March 21st which would would have been the beginning of the Jewish calendar year so they said between March 21st 1843 and March 21st 1844 Jesus did not come that was the first disappointment but this one was not very bad because they had not really made too much about that date so after March 21st 1844 now they wanted to know okay can we get a definite date the Millerites wanted to know they were about 250,000 of them in the northeastern part of the United States and they really wanted to know can we really get a date when exactly is Jesus going to come so there was a Millerite preacher by the name of Samuel Snow and Samuel Snow had been studying the Jewish festivals he had been studying the Passover he had been studying the Feast of Tabernacles and he had he had an understanding of how these Jewish festivals worked and he applied the prophecy of Daniel 814 which is what Miller relied on to come up with the date and he applied it and made a relationship between that prophecy and the day of atonement and the day of atonement would happen that would fall on that year around October 21st October 22nd 1844 so there was a camp meeting in August and in this camp meeting I believe it was Joseph Bates who was speaking and by the way just because I know many of us at Seventh Day Adventists this was camp meeting before the Seventh Day Adventist Church had been organized because the Seventh Day Adventist Church came into existence much later in 1863 these were the camp meetings of the Millerites so Joseph Bates was speaking during the camp meeting and Samuel Snow came to the camp meeting now their churches were not like you know the church we are in right now it was just a tent the sort of the way we do camp meeting and one of Samuel Snow's sister was in the congregation and as Joseph Bates continued speaking she stood up and she said we are spending too much time talking about things you already know there are some of us here who have met in due season and he was referring to his brother who had just arrived on horseback and so Joseph Bates was courteous enough he gave up the pulpit and he allowed Samuel Snow and Samuel Snow came and preached and he preached and he explained how the day of atonement worked and he explained that the fulfillment of the prophecy of Daniel chapter 8 would be fulfilled on the day of atonement which on that year would fall on October 22nd 1844 and this was about two months because this was late August early September so this was about two months to the second to now what they believed would be the second coming of Jesus and so they started preaching very very passionately because Miller had been preaching by this time for almost 15 years but they had never had this much excitement because now they knew for sure when Jesus was going to come Miller had told them Jesus would come around 1843 1844 but now that they had a definite date the excitement tripled rose several times over and now they were very very happy and they started selling their things I believe we talked about this last time some of them gave up did not go to harvest their crops some of them you know gave up their houses and everything they were just ready for Jesus to come and as we know of course Jesus did not come on October 22nd 1844 so today having done that little bit of recap today I'd like to add a little bit of what happened after the disappointment because remember I mentioned that there were about 250,000 Millerites and the population of North America at that time meant that there was one Millerite for every 20 Americans so this was no small movement this was no fringe organization of crazy people who are just reaching Jesus coming this was a movement that caught you would say it grabbed the headlines of the day if it was in our time the CNNs would be talking about it the BBCs would be talking about it the CNBCs would be talking about it it was something that was known throughout the United States especially the northeastern parts what is commonly referred to as New England so because there were so many of them it is interesting to know that after the great disappointment four major groups came up out of that disappointment there were four different groups and I'd like to share what those groups are so there was one group of people who continued setting dates so they thought to themselves okay Jesus has not come on October 22nd 1844 maybe he's going to come in 1845 so they set another date in 1845 and I was actually reading even William Miller himself initially was believed this idea that they had gotten the date wrong so this group continued setting a date they set 1845 then later on 1846 and then they continued setting dates continually until it reached a point when they realized Jesus was not going to come then they said Jesus came spiritually then there was a second group of people who became disillusioned and said we were wrong about everything the date was wrong the calculations was wrong Mila is a fraud and a good number of them either gave up religion altogether or they went back to their churches because they felt because one thing I should have mentioned initially the churches embraced Mila's message Mila himself being a Baptist as I said never wanted to start his own church and he was very clear I'm not trying to lead out any denomination he urged many people who believed his message to remain in their churches but towards 1844 as October 22nd drew near many of those churches started feeling a bit uncomfortable with this message of Jesus coming on October 22nd 1844 and a good number of them actually removed their members I will tell shortly the story of a young girl called Ellen Hamon who in her own family they were kicked out of the Methodist Church because they were members of the Methodist Church and they were kicked out because those churches felt like Mila was a fanatic they felt like his message was sensationalist and so they were not comfortable with it so there's a second so this second group of people a good number of them went back to the original churches because now they felt embarrassed and maybe they thought maybe we were wrong all along there was a third group of people who did not go back to their churches did not give up faith altogether did not continue setting dates but they rejected some of the doctrines that these Milaites continue discovering because if you would know many of them came from Sunday churches where they believed certain things which are not biblical for example many of them believed in the immortality of the soul they believed that when you die you don't really die your body dies but your soul remains alive and as your soul remains alive it either goes to heaven or it goes to hell a good number of them continue believing in these things but after the great disappointment as we will learn from the fourth group then they started realizing okay there are more Bible truths to be uncovered which now brings me to the fourth group of a small group I mentioned last time there was about 50 of them so you can imagine from 250,000 people that's a quarter million people only 50 of them remained in this small group they were referred to as the little flock they went back to the Bible and they thought to themselves where did we go wrong remember it was a very humiliating experience they were mocked they were laughed at people would ask them ah yeah you've not gone to heaven you're still here I thought you're going to heaven the other day they were ridiculed they were so it was a very humiliating experience but they had the courage to go back to scripture and read and discover what did we misunderstand and there was a man in New York by the name of Hiram Edson Hiram Edson and his friends after the great disappointment of course they were very hurt they were grieving they were crying they were weeping but they prayed for God to give them light and they prayed for God to help them understand what did we not get right and on the morning of October 23rd the day after the great disappointment Edson went to walk through a maze plantation with his friend his friend was called Owen Crozier they were walking through the plantation and as they were walking Edson stopped suddenly and he stared into the sky and he felt like he saw the heavens open and as the heavens opened he saw that there was actually a sanctuary in heaven that they had completely missed so when after seeing that they went with his friend Crozier they went all the way home and they started studying the book of Hebrews chapter 8 and Hebrews chapter 9 and as they read they discovered that there is actually a sanctuary in heaven because Daniel chapter 8 says unto 2300 days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed now they had mistakenly understood the sanctuary being cleansed to mean the earth being cleansed by fire at the second coming of Jesus but now when they studied Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 9 they discovered that the earthly sanctuary had been a representation of the heavenly sanctuary and the heavenly sanctuary also was built the same way because in Exodus chapter 25 verse 8 God told Moses and you shall build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them and he continued to tell him later on you will make this sanctuary according to the pattern that I will show you there was a pattern that Moses was given of a sanctuary in heaven so Hiram Edson and his friend understood this and they thought to themselves okay so when it says unto 2300 days sanctuary shall be cleansed it's not talking about the earthly sanctuary because the earthly sanctuary became irrelevant after the death of Jesus on the cross the earthly sanctuary was an example what we call a type it was a type and now the anti-type was the heavenly sanctuary and the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary was the day of atonement so at least they had gotten that right but now they understood that it was not a literal day of atonement like it used to happen in the earthly sanctuary but it was a day of atonement where now Jesus had moved from the holy place into the most holy place and now he would perform the final work of cleansing the sanctuary so when they understood that they were like ah so now we know where we went wrong and that's now that group started forming now they were not all living together some of them were in New York some of them were in Ohio some of them were in New Hampshire some of them they were scattered throughout the northern eastern part of the United States but that time because there were no cell phones because there were no radios because there were no televisions now they communicated using print media at magazines and journals that's how they used to communicate among each other so they started writing articles and they started explaining and because communication was not what it used to be to what what it is now it was very hard for people to all come to an understanding of this truth together so some of them never got to hear anything about this until several months later much much later now remember I said a good number of them came from Sunday churches and they were going to church on Sunday however there was a small group of believers in a place called Washington New Hampshire led by a minister called Frederick Wheeler these people were had been keeping the Sabbath even before the great disappointment and how were they keeping the Sabbath there was a church known as a seventh day Baptist church it still exists even today though the numbers are not as much there was a seventh day Baptist lady who believed in the male right message her name was Rachel Oaks Rachel Oaks one day the minister Frederick Wheeler was performing the communion service and he said in his sermon that we ought to obey all of God's commandments Rachel Oaks was livid she could not she could barely contain herself immediately after the sermon she followed Frederick Wheeler this minister to his house and she told him minister put down your cloth until you yourself start keeping the commandments of God because you are not keeping the commandments of God Frederick Wheeler was surprised what do you mean I'm not keeping the commandments of God and he said you are not keeping the fourth commandment the sub the commandment about keeping the Sabbath day holy so until you yourself start keeping the Sabbath you should not be telling any people about keeping God's commandments so Frederick Wheeler went and studied and he studied the Bible and he was convinced that the Sabbath is not Sunday but Saturday and he started keeping the Sabbath and he convinced members of his congregation and they also started keeping the Sabbath this was before the great disappointment they were Millerites yes but they were keeping the Sabbath a lot of the Millerites knew about the Sabbath message but they were not too concerned because they thought anyway Jesus is coming in a few weeks it doesn't matter whether we are keeping Sunday or Saturday there is really no difference so when Jesus did not come on 18 for a on 8 on October 10 2nd 1844 a man by the name of Thomas Preble who was also part of this congregation by led by Frederick Wheeler wrote an article about the Sabbath and this article was published in one of the publications and guess who came across this publication Joseph Bates we talked about Joseph Bates last time Joseph Bates was living somewhere else in New Bed it was called New Bedford I don't remember what state it is Joseph Bates read this article and he left where he was living he went all the way to Washington to meet with Wheeler and with Preble and they discussed this Sabbath doctrine the whole night and by morning Joseph Bates had decided he was going to start keeping the Sabbath then that's how the Sabbath truth started spreading to other people and others got to hear about it now as I come to the end of my presentation because I'd like to pass it over to Nico who's going to talk a little bit about this let me tell briefly the story of a young girl called Ellen Harmon now Ellen Harmon was 12 years old when William Miller came to preach in her hometown she was living in I believe it's called I think she was living in New Hampshire I just forget where exactly it is when William Miller came to preach in her town I think this must have been around 1840 just four years before the disappointment she had Miller's message she was convinced and herself and her whole family decided to become Millerites and they believed that Jesus was going to come on October 22nd 1844 now of course Jesus did not come she was 17 years old she also has a little bit of a backstory which I'm not going to get into but she had very ill health because when she was nine years old she had been involved in an accident someone had hit her with her stone in her face she was in a concussion for several weeks she was not able to go back to school after that so she was very frail she was very sickly she was 40 something kilograms at the age of 17 so she was very very sickly when Jesus did not come on October 22nd they were disappointed of course now in December they were praying with some of her family members somewhere in a certain house and as they were praying all of a sudden she started saying glory and she said glory a second time under third time a very loud glory and then she fell down now the people around her of course were surprised they were like wondering what's happening here but she was okay she was not breathing but she was fine the color on her skin was very natural nothing had changed and she went in vision and she had a vision that lasted about I think 10 15 minutes and when she rose from that vision she started explaining to those people what she had been shown she had been shown why they had been disappointed the advent believers and everything and that was the beginning of what we now refer to as the spirit of prophecy because she had been given that gift now it is curious and I think brother Abura had mentioned this last time Ellen Harmon was not the first Millerite to get visions there were two others before her one was a black man by the name of William Foy who actually had a vision that lasted 12 hours more or less the same thing and the only reason why he was not given that gift of prophecy is because he was living at a time when America was very racist and so it would have been difficult for people to pay attention to him because of his race then there was an uncle I believe an uncle or a father in law to Ellen White by the name of I forget his name but he was also given the vision the same one that Ellen Harmon was eventually given but he refused to go and tell it and he was told go tell others what you have been shown because they had just come from a great disappointment he did not want to do anything that was going to bring more ridicule to them so he was very embarrassed he did not go and tell he was told go and tell others what you have been shown he was he was reluctant the third time the angel came and told him the burden has been removed from you and it is going to be placed on the weakest of the week and from that time onwards at least all historical accounts say that this man never had any particular interest in religion afterwards and he never ever became a Christian after that and that's why Ellen Harmon was eventually given the gift of prophecy why was she referred to as the weakest of the week first of all I've already mentioned her health was very bad so she was someone she used to have she used to faint a lot her voice was barely a whisper because tuberculosis had really destroyed it and then being a woman at the time that she was leaving women had no rights they could not do anything so it was going to be very difficult for someone to take her seriously but it did not also help her case that she was 17 years old who was going to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl but God chose her specifically to prove a point when he told Ellen White's father-in-law that the gift is going the burden is going to be taken from you and it is going to be given to the weakest of the week and that was the beginnings of the development of the gift of prophecy as we know it today and the spirit of prophecy as the Bible refers to it in Revelation chapter 19 verse 10 my brother Niko is going to talk a little bit about that and he's going to give more especially the biblical context for the development of this gift of prophecy but it's important to know the backstory and how everything happened perhaps the very last thing I will say William Miller died in 1849 so five years after the great disappointment he never became a seventh-day Adventist he never knew about seventh-day Adventists however just before William Miller died he received a letter from his right hand man who was known as Joshua Himes and Joshua Himes told Miller that there is a young woman in somewhere who we are being told is getting visions from God now Miller having experienced the humiliation of the great disappointment did not want to entertain this thought and he said I am not interested in that so he had about Ellen Harmon but he never took any interest in her gift and they never crossed paths at any time and it's important to note that because some people usually claim that William Miller started the seventh-day Adventist church together with Ellen White that is not true that is not historical at all I think that is as much as I can say yes yes and and and you've mentioned something very interesting yes regarding uh that group of people being referred to as Millerite yes reminds me about act step 11 when Paul and Barabbas go to Antioch yes and when they assemble with believers then they call them Christians to mock them but now Christians become the identifying name of the followers of Christ they were called Millerites as a mockery why are you following that uh Baptist farmer yes who has not done any theology yes and uh what is his background in in theological matters yes but then it becomes the identifying brand as it works of the people who believe passionately about the prophetic writings of scripture true because basically the the movement was built around the interpretation of bible prophecy and another thing that you've been you've mentioned which is very interesting is um is uh camp meetings yes camp meetings has always been known as a preserve of the Adventist church actually today I think the people who have continuously held it are Adventists maybe there are other groups but Adventists are much more known about camp meetings but just as you've mentioned correctly is that the history of the camp meetings did not start with Adventist movement exactly uh it dates back to the the the time of awakening yes when Presbyterians Baptists and and other denominations started having revival meetings yes and many preachers will come to those gatherings one of the reasons why actually I came across one of the reasons why these people did this it was hard to get preachers it was yes because preachers traveled on caravan they would go long distances so you remain in church without a pastor next time pastor is around the neighborhood guys go and camp around and sit there sing songs and then they just enjoy listening to someone for a week yes until pastor takes a break with his caravan and goes to a different point and then of course they started having assemblies of more pastors actually it has become an identifying mark almost one of the fundamental teachings of the church uh about about camp meetings but of course again it has roots in in scripture so it is it is good actually it starts giving us a taste of how the doctrines were developed they were not all hours from the beginning so we see the roots of the doctrines coming out of these people who are not Adventists from the very beginning and yet they have very fundamental teachings which we hold and cherish up to eight now one of the most interesting things is about prophecy yes because this uh all these things happen uh through interpretation of prophecy and the church has always been known as a church actually most of the summons and most of the preachings and and uh and uh teachings of the Adventist church were known to be based on interpretations of prophecy now the Adventist church has also been known uh so much more about the understanding of prophecy and uh about the interpretation of prophecy what is it about prophecy that makes it so stand out so much that it becomes an almost an identifying mark of the church and just as uh uh how one was speaking people tend to think that since Illinois had the ability to tell things that are in the future and things that were to happen or interpret the present circumstances biblically everyone thinks she started what does the bible talk about this gift of prophecy does the bible say anything about it thank you uh thank you so much for the uh lightening exposure it's brought a lot to my mind especially when you're talking about the history of the male rights and one of the things that comes out clearly is that as how man has rightly put it Ellen White is a significant part of the starting of the church but the reason why she comes out significantly is because of the prophetic roots of our church now i'd like to read a few verses and like you to assist me so first one is in second chronicles chapter 20 verse 20 second chronicles chapter 20 verse 20 i can i can read the bible says this is second chronicles chapter 20 verse 20 and they rose early in the morning and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa and as they went forth Jehoshaphat stood and said hear me O Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem believe in the Lord your God so shall he be established believe his prophets so shall he prosper amen the bible says in second chronicles that belief in the Lord will help you to be established and if you believe in his prophets then you prosper this is a call for us to actually listen to the prophets in the word of God so even as we believe in God that then we have to believe in his prophets the lesson for today in Hebrews was talking about God in the earlier time spoke through his prophets but in the latter days is speaking to us through his son which means that God spoke through a medium in the days that are passed and he doesn't believe us in confusion over whom he used to speak it was actually the prophets whom he used to speak so the bible here is telling us that first thing is we need to believe in God that one is given and there is no controversy about that but the next thing is we have to believe in his in his prophets and so shall we prosper people speak about the prosperity gospel today and the bible actually gives us a prosperity gospel and the prosperity gospel here is that if you believe in his prophets then we shall prosper which actually means that when we do not believe in prophets then the prosperity gospel may not work because you should be listening to the servants of God and sometimes we look at prosperity only as prospering materially but sometimes it's more than that there's spiritual prosperity there's peace of mind which many of us sometimes don't have there's even prosperity in help so when we look at the belief in the prophets prophets are not only saying that you shall prosper and have a good life in this earth in fact if you look at all the prophets in the word of God most of them did not have easy lives and the reason is because they were giving very difficult messages and anytime you go out to work for God then you actually start a war with the devil himself so most of the prophets in the bible did not have an easy time in fact some of them had such a hard time for example Elijah he had such a hard time during his prophetic ministry that he said God I do not want to live anymore please just let me die the things had pressed and weighed heavily on him to the point he was thinking that he was the one alone doing this work of God Jeremiah was put into prison for the things he had said when I was in school we used to be taught that Jeremiah was called the prophet of doom imagine if somebody was bringing to your message all the time and you're just thinking that oh what does he have to say again about what will happen I was interested to find out that David was also called a prophet many times you don't look at David as a prophet but acts chapter 2 verse 30 31 actually says David was a prophet as well but David did not have an easy life think about going to the court of soul and soul aims at him with a javelin then his own son started to seek his life until he had to run away as a king soul also was seeking his life throughout the bible I mean throughout the account of David and soul so we see that the life of prophets is not easy but God is saying when you listen to the prophets then you shall prosper so as we consider the gift of prophecy it would be really important for us to read the book of fast Corinthians chapter 12 fast Corinthians chapter 12 to understand how the gifts of the spirit work so I'd like one of you to read verse one then somebody else may read uh verse 7 to 11 so maybe how many you can take now concerning spiritual gifts brethren I will not have you to be ignorant you know that you are gentle scattered away unto these damn idols even as he were led therefore I give you to understand that no man speaking about the spirit of God call it Jesus a caste and that no man can say Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost now there are diversities of gifts by the same spirit and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operation but it is the same God which work it all and in all 7 to 11 the bible says but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all for to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit to another faith by the same spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another different kinds of tongues and to another interpretation of tongues but all these worketh that one and the self same spirit dividing to every man separately as he will amen amen so first Corinthians chapter 12 verse 1 starts by telling us concerning spiritual gifts we should not be ignorant this actually means that God wants us to know that spiritual gifts are important and we might come to church every Sabbath and we might live as Christian lives every day but the question is what is the gift of the spirit that God has given you because sometimes we might say we're looking for the talents that we have in the world but God has actually given us the gift of his spirit so when you're being given the spiritual gifts in our in your life what spiritual gift do you have and there are several that are mentioned here for example we are told to one is given the word of wisdom I would definitely want to have that gift and God says that is a wise man he told me today that which gift did you want yeah I'd really love to have the word of wisdom yeah then the others there that are written that to another faith you know faith is very it's it's a substance of things hoped for the way the book of Hebrews puts it but I think sometimes faith is one of those things that we take for granted for example if you're told go out there and there's a lion that is out there roaming most of us would actually stay within this sanctuary the reason is that we might be afraid of what it will do to us right now we have a pandemic in the world and the truth is there's a lot of fear of what it will do to us so when God gives you the gift of faith I believe that it is really important then to others are given the gift of working miracles now it's miracles and not magic so when we start looking at the miracles that are in the word of God you look at something like raising Lazarus from the dead some people hadn't walked for almost 30 years and then Jesus comes and says take up your bed and walk that really really is a big miracle there's the guy who I think he was was he blind then he went to the temple and he says me this is all I know I was blind but now I see the people were so angry they actually disfellowshipped him because they said Jesus had performed a miracle on him and that was done on the Sabbath now another spiritual gift that is mentioned there is the gift of prophecy and it's what I'll be talking about briefly but prophecy is actually a really important gift then there's also the gift of tongues so it's up to us as individuals to actually pray to God and tell him you have filled me with your spirit please help me to know what the gift that you've given me is now coming to the gift of prophecy we're told that we shouldn't be ignorant of spiritual gifts but prophecy has a really really important place in our hearts as Adventists because of what is written in Revelation chapter 12 and I'd like us to quickly turn there so come on please read Revelation chapter 12 verse 1 to 3 Revelation chapter 12 verse 1 to 3 Revelation 12 1 to 3 the Bible says and there appeared a great wonder in heaven a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of 12 stars and she being with child traveling in bath and paint to be delivered and there appeared another wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads please proceed up to verse 5 okay verse 4 and he still drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born and she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne thank you just to clarify and explain what is being spoken of here in Revelation chapter 12 it's a prophecy about the birth of Jesus and when you read the verse 9 of Revelation we are told that the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and Satan so this great dragon was waiting for the man child who is Jesus to be born and you remember the story in uh it's on one of the gospels where Herod ordered the killing of all the first ones yeah in Matthew so the dragon was waiting for to devour the man child but we find out find out that he was caught up to God and he was taken to heaven to be with God on his throne and he rules all the nations with a rod of iron and this is actually also said in Revelation chapter 19 verse 15 that Jesus is the one who rules with the rod of iron so it's clear from this verse is that there was a man child who was born and there was a dragon ready to take up the man child now something interesting happened after this child who in understand now is Jesus Christ who's taken up to heaven the dragon now went to make war with a certain group of people and we can continue now in verse 6 where we are told and the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared of God so they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days now the Bible describes a church as a woman the Bible describes a church as a woman in Isaiah 51 verse 16 actually we could read it Isaiah 51 verse 16 and Jeremiah 6 verse 2 Isaiah 51 verse 16 brother Boora or how many? Isaiah 51 16 yes says and I put my words in the mouth and I have covered thee in the shadow in the shadow of my hand that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth and say unto the Zion thou art my people thank you the part I want to focus on in this verse is where God says and say unto Zion thou art my people or you are my people the Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 2 I have likened the daughter of Zion to a calmly and delicate woman so the Bible basically says the daughter of Zion or the descendants of Zion are referred to in the Bible as a woman and Zion is referred to as my people so God's people his church are described as a woman in the Bible so when it speaks about and the woman fled into the wilderness and even as we read in Revelation chapter 12 this is in Revelation chapter 12 that the woman fled into the wilderness for 1260 years it's actually referring to the church that was in the time of persecution in the period called the dark ages that began in 538 AD up to 1798 so the 1260 years the period is actually 12 1260 years that the church was actually under persecution so we find here that the woman goes into the wilderness and she's nourished there and now we go down to verse 15 in of the same chapter in Revelation 12 where the Bible says and the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood and the earth helps the woman and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth in prophecy this flood is referring to the persecution that the church was to undergo under the guidance and instigation of the devil where he was still making war with the church of God which we've understood is what is described as a woman in the Bible where the devil is making war with the church at that time and then Revelation chapter 12 verse 17 says and the dragon was wrought with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ we've said the dragon is the devil or the serpent or Satan and we're told he went to make war with the woman who is the church so he went to make war with the remnant of her seed so Jesus is taken up to heaven then there's a church that is still on the earth but this church is persecuted so of course when there's persecution some people die in the process now there are some people who are the remnant of the church and we are told that the dragon went to make war with this remnant people of the church now they give two interesting characteristics they keep the commandments of God and they have the testimony of Jesus now the question is what is the testimony of Jesus you can go to Revelation 19 verse 10 to give clarity on that Revelation 19 verse 10 yeah maybe we will go to Revelation 19 verse 10 we deal with that before we just take a short break and come back for the second session Revelation 19 10 Revelation 19 10 says and I fell at his feet to worship him and he said unto me see that you do not do it I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus worship God for the testimony of Jesus is a spirit of prophecy amen amen now we see here an angel is speaking to John and after John is given the revelation he decides that he wants to worship the angel and then the angel sells him hold it right there do not do what you're about to do worship God or worship Jesus because the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy now Revelation 12 brought to us an interesting picture a remnant of a church and the two identifying marks is they have the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus and the Bible here says the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy so we'll elaborate more on this after the break all right thank you so much beloved viewers it's an interesting exposition that we have over here I really appreciate what you have mentioned regarding spiritual gifts and that the gift of prophecy is one of the spiritual gifts embedded in scripture and we really don't talk so much about it we think miracles and prosperity and good health healings are the gifts of prophecy but the gift of the spirit but we see the Bible talks categorically that the gift of prophecy is one of the spiritual gifts and Paul actually continues to say that but desire honestly the best gifts I'm glad that my brother Nico desires the gift of wisdom I wouldn't mind to prophesy but beloved viewers we come to the end of our first session and we'll take a short break and coming back in a few minutes beloved viewers welcome once again to this second part of our presentation we want to thank so much our brother he's called Felix Jr for the wonderful presentations of musical items that he has just presented that is also one of the spiritual gifts that we ought to covet that we've been talking about spiritual gifts now we're talking about prophecy the Bible tells us exactly what brother Nico just to refresh what brother Nico was mentioning the Bible says that in Sunray times and in times past God spoke to our father through his servants the prophets but in these last days he's spoken unto us through his son Jesus Christ when you go to the book of 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse number 19 Peter also emphasizes that these prophets did not just speak out of their own volition but these ones they were inspired as they were moved by the spirit of God so the gift of prophecy did not just come by the will of man but it is holy men who are speaking as they were moved by the spirit of God so whatever comes out in the context of prophecy is not by the will of man but God uses these men and women as mouthpieces he's used them in times past he's used them in in biblical times he's also using them in this present time and brother Nico has also brought a very important point that the identifying mark of the remnant church according to Revelation chapter 12 verse number 17 the dragon or the devil is very angry at the church and went to and went to make war with those who are left the remnant of her seed and then the Bible identifies them and tells us these are identified by their allegiance to the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus but the Bible does not leave us in darkness it continues to tell us that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy so brother Nico that is where you left us at and it is very important for us to actually appreciate that and that is one of the identifying marks of the remnant church as is called through Bible prophecy so how was this gift manifested the Bible talks about it as yesterday identifying mark but now how is it manifest among people because there are many churches that that church of prophecy of last days and there are many churches that have that prophetic tag and there are many people who call themselves prophet prophet John the prophet many preachers around call themselves prophets or apostles how do we distinguish which prophet is the true prophet and which prophet is the one that is identified as the remnant of God yeah that's a very important question because I think if we answer that then it's it will be very clear to us now who is a prophet and who is not a prophet before I leave the point on the spirit of prophecy there is something I'd like to mention sometimes in our church and even as adventists we tend to think that the spirit of prophecy is only referring to Ellen white but the thing is the spirit of prophecy simply means the spirit that inspires someone to prophesy that is the holy spirit leading you to prophesy or speak things from the word of God so when we hear that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy in revelation it actually means that all true prophecy should point us to Jesus because the testimony when you say you're testifying about someone you're actually speaking or giving a witness about them so the spirit of prophecy which is the holy spirit leads us to prophesy and the things that we will be prophesying about are actually about Jesus so for example when people came together and started studying the prophecies in 1844 like my brother Hammond had mentioned they were actually talking about the second coming of Jesus they're not speaking about things that would happen to them if they'd get a new land somewhere if someone you'd build a house somewhere they're actually talking about things relating to Jesus Christ you remember an account in the Old Testament when Balam was called and you're told to make bad prophecies about the Israelites he was in a position where he could not because the spirit of God wasn't leading him to pronounce a curse on the Israelites so the spirit of prophecy actually talks about Jesus I think now that you ask the question how do we identify the gift of prophecy I think without any shadow of doubt the first identifying mark of a true prophet is someone who speaks about Jesus because the spirit of prophecy leads you to speak about Jesus or to testify or tell people more about Jesus for example sometimes today we look at prophecy as only for telling the future but prophecy is more than that it is speaking the word of God to his children when you're given a message from God and you tell it to the people that is leading you to then you can actually be called a prophet of God so it's not only for telling the future it doesn't mean all our pastors here are prophets of God because they're receiving the word of God but we'll see that there are some identifying marks of prophets now some of these are actually in the Bible we could read one of them this is losing strength lots of them are actually in the book of Daniel someone read for us Daniel chapter 10 verse 8 Daniel chapter 10 verse 8 Daniel chapter 10 verse 8 the Bible says therefore I was left alone and so this great vision and there remained no strength in me for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption and I retained no strength thank you now this point is relating to the time when Daniel goes into vision he loses all strength in himself as he's taken into vision and into vision and then God shows him a vision that is written there in Daniel chapter 10 so one of the signs of a prophet is actually losing strength when going into vision another one is in Daniel chapter 10 verse 18 to 19 is that the prophets may receive supernatural strength even though like they look like they're feeble they receive supernatural strength even as they prophesy and this is a result of the God working to give them strength somebody read it then there came on again then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man and he strengthened thank you but in verse 19 and said oh man greatly beloved fear not peace be unto thee be strong yeah be strong and when he had spoken unto me I was strengthened and said let my lord speak for thou hast strengthened me yes so sometimes prophets may look like they are losing strength initially but now when they start going into vision and they are being shown things we see like with Daniel he was strengthened by God to give the prophecies that he was giving then another interesting point about prophets is that they don't have any breath in their body sometimes when they go into vision and this can be found in Daniel chapter 10 verse 17 uh one of you please read it verse 17 for how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord for us for me straight away they remained no strength in me neither is their breath left neither is there any breath left in me so we find that Daniel is prophesying but you're saying there was no breath in me we think about it today somebody without breath is dead yes so it's like you're dead but you're actually still alive so those are some of the things that we look at when we try to look at the physical evidences of a prophet now other spiritual evidence is that somebody is a true prophet is that their prophecies are actually fulfilled and i put that with the condition there are some prophecies that are conditional for example when you look at the story of Jonah he was given a message of from God and he told the people of Nineveh that you're going to perish but later God turned away and who gave them from their sins so we find that there are some conditions given to fulfillment of prophecy and so we can't label Jonah a false prophet because the people of Nineveh weren't destroyed but it's because the prophecy was actually conditional then another thing i understand about prophets in the bible is that God speaks directly to them i can't remember the verse right now but i'm thinking it's in numbers chapter 12 where God asks is there a prophet among you i will speak directly to him through visions and Moses my servant is such a person yes it's chapter 12 verse 6 yes numbers chapter 12 verse 6 thank you you can read it please and he said here now my words if there be a prophet among you i the lord will make known unto him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream verse 7 my servant moses is not so who is faithful in all mine house verse 8 with him i will speak mouth to mouth even apparently and not in dark speeches and the similitude of the lord shall he behold wherefore then why are you not afraid to speak against my servant moses this is when Miriam and Aaron had risen up against moses and God was telling them if there is a prophet i even speak to him in visions and dreams but you dare speak against moses and this is something you actually even commune with together yeah so moses is even a very serious prophet for that matter and you dare rise up against him so true prophets are spoken to by god in visions and dreams and as we saw in the book of Daniel there are some things that happen to you when you prophesy you lose your breath you don't have any strength another one is sometimes your eyes are open but you're unconscious of the things that are going on around you so those are some evidences of the prophets and i also mentioned that they have to be speaking about Jesus matthi chapter seven verse 20 says by their fruits you shall know them somebody's fruits actually tell you a lot about them because if i claim to be a prophet today but my life is unlike the life of jesus christ then i cannot be speaking for god because the spirit of god does not dwell in me so if the spirit of god is in me the life that i live the way that i speak the character traits that i exhibit will be like god himself and then i can be used as the representative of god so when we look at the gift of prophecy those are some of the things that we can touch it actually it is it is important that you have mentioned those gifts and those are those attributes because sometimes you know the devil can imitate some of them but at least there must be there must be able to the prophets the things that they prophesy also come to pass because you know the devil might imitate some of the actions even during elenoid there was a lady who had some of those those physical attributes yes yet some of the things she prophesied about were not to the law and the testimony because they must also be according to what is written in scripture it's good you even mentioned that because i was actually going to read Isaiah 8 verse 20 yes where the bible says to the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them so a true prophet must also his message must be consistent with the law that is the writings of moses and also the testimony which is the writings of previous prophets so if their word is not if the if a prophet comes and says no i know god says thou shalt not kill but god has revealed to me that it is okay to kill in certain circumstances then they cannot be a true prophet because according to Isaiah 8 verse 20 if you read verse 19 it actually talks about wizards and you know people who who have familiar spirits so if a person says something that contradicts what has already been written in god's revealed word then they cannot be a true prophet all right because of time and we will be we're running out of time i just want us to move quickly to how the gift of prophecy helped us during the time when most of the doctrines of the church were being formulated how did this gift come in and how are the doctrines of the church formulated actually you mentioned briefly regarding some of the roots of the doctrines that we now hold and cherish actually even the Sabbath was uh was uh was uh was came back to light not that it wasn't it wasn't discovered but it came back to light because it has always been there uh it came back to light before the formation of the the church so uh would you kind of talk briefly about the establishment of the doctrines of the church okay thank you so i think uh nico has given a very good exposition of the development of the gift of prophecy and i think the mischief that we are trying to address here is this common belief even amongst members of our church that our doctrines were developed by l and g white or that uh our doctrines came from visions that is actually not true i think we know what our doctrines are as at least for those of us who are baptized and it is important to mention and i think we were even having this discussion with nico the other day that there is among our doctrines everything that we believe is believed by other churches the Sabbath we are not the only Sabbath keeping church the state of the dead doctrine even jehovah's witness also believe in uh death sleep in death the way the bible teaches that people were people were dead are dead they are not in heaven they are not in pagatory they are not in hell that is not a doctrine that is unique to us there are other groups even when i was mentioning at the beginning some of the splinter groups that came out of the great disappointment um the doctrine of conditional immortality of the soul the idea that immortality is a gift and not something that we have automatically there was one of those groups that actually continued believing it because it had been taught by a gentleman by the name of george stores that's that is st o double r s and george stores who actually joined one of these splinter groups he never went with this group that eventually became the adventist church if you think about prophecy we are not the only church of the prophet we know for example the moments they have i believe his name is uh joseph smith joseph smith and there are other churches as well even today which claim to have prophets so that again is not unique to us and even the doctrine of the second coming we are not the only ones who believe that jesus is going to come a second time now our belief is unique in that we believe that jesus is going to come before the millennium while others believe that he's going to come after the millennium but basically fundamentally most there are many other christian churches believe in one version or another of the second coming of christ the only point of departure as we know it at least as far as everything that we know now that we believe that no one else believes is our understanding of the sanctuary doctrine and the teaching of the idea that there is an earthly sanctuary and there is a heavenly sanctuary so for purposes of those who may have missed it earlier we mentioned that the millerites eventually they started being called adventists not seventh day adventists they were just called adventists because they were looking for to the second advent the adventists discovered that instead of christ coming on october 22nd 1844 he actually moved into the final face of his high priestly ministry in the heavenly sanctuary the one that moses had been told about so when they discovered that they started studying okay what is this whole sanctuary message what is it about and they came up with the idea that we now refer to in our ranks as investigative judgments the constraints of time do not allow us to go into all the mechanics of that but i believe most of us are familiar with the concept so once they understood the investigative judgment so what happened on october 22 1844 is that in the sanctuary in heaven jesus moved from the holy place which is where the priest used to do the daily ministration in the earthly sanctuary and he moved into the most holy place to perform which is called the yom kippur the day of atonement where he now clean where in the earthly sanctuary the high priest would cleanse the sanctuary and all the sins that had been confessed in the course of the year would be purged out and it would be put on the scapegoat that is the only thing that we believe as adventists among a sea of many christian denominations that others do not believe and so our doctrines developed mostly by study last time i think nico talked about sabbath conferences these people they were a bit resistant to the idea of organization they did not want to become a movement and become a church because they were afraid that you know it might you know cause other cause more confusion in an already flooded uh flooded christian pool but eventually because of legal issues so for instance issue of property uh because they were dealing with money because of those legal constraints they were forced to organize and become a church and as they were organizing remember they were a mix of people from different protestant churches quakers and mormons and all these different churches and because they were coming together everyone was coming with their own ideas they were all coming with their own doctrines and beliefs and so in order for them to have doctrinal harmony they would meet and they would study now as they were meeting and they were studying i want to just give one example just one example of something where the gift of prophecy was was uh useful but not in development but in confirming the doctrine there was a time when they believed that the sabbath starts at six and ends at six for whatever reason they picked that time because the bible says in the book of genesis and the evening and the morning were the first day and the evening and the morning were the second day so in biblical reckoning of time the day begins in the evening to the next evening so this was a bit of a confusion they were thinking okay so should the sabbath start at six or should it start at evening and of course we know how our world is uh sunset and sunrise is not the same for everyone it was a very contentious issue and some people were swearing by the fact that the sabbath is to start at six and end at six and they went and studied extensively and they studied extensively they could not agree now at that point where they could now not agree remember these are a combination of christians from different backgrounds that is when god gave ellen white a vision by the way i mentioned initially a name was ellen harmon but when she got married to james white that's when she took the name ellen white that's when god gave ellen white a vision and confirmed to them that the sabbath actually starts at sunset and to the next day sunset it's a bit to put it at six to six is a bit arbitrary so that's why they needed to have it like that and that happened for so many other things they would study sometimes they would study for days they would study for weeks and once they had studied and they had satisfied themselves that the bible had given them everything that they needed to know that is when god gave ellen white a vision and then the vision only came to confirm the vision was never brought to create any new doctrine it was only a confirmation on what they had already studied and that's how the church developed doctrinally they were able to develop many of what we consider our key fundamental beliefs today and they eventually organized and in 1863 they registered as a seventh day Adventist church but i just want to emphasize the visions do not create doctrine the visions only confirm doctrine after they had studied extensively and god never gave ellen white a vision until he had he had seen that these these people the these early adventists had studied enough and they had understood enough for now god to then bring in the vision to confirm that so i think that's just important to mention we might talk a little bit more about this in our session next week but i think i think i can address all right thank you so much i think we'll just take some 30 seconds to to give the brother nico at least some moments to give some parting short as we come to the end of our today's presentation just read it from the bible first the salonians chapter five i'll read from verse 19 up to 21 the bible says quench not the spirit despise not prophesying prove all things hold fast that which is good and abstain from all appearance of evil there's a lot that we have said here and we've spoken about the gift of prophecy but the call from the bible from us is that despise not the prophecies of the bible prove them if you find something that is good hold on to it and if you find something that is evil abstain from it completely so it is my prayer that you may not take just the knowledge that we have given here but you may go and study it out like the brands and if you find that it is so then believe it and hold on to it all your life god bless you amen uh you have a parting shot yes i think for me i just want to say what the same thing i said last time what you are learning from this story of adventist heritage is god's guiding hand it there are so there are so many other things we could have talked about here and i think next week we are going to give you a few resources that as a viewer you can also explore yourself to make yourself knowledgeable in these things but the important thing is that god's hand was always guiding them and there was a lot of praying and there was a lot of studying and there was a lot of crying out to god to open their eyes today we as i said last time we stand on their shoulders their giants we stand on their shoulders we are very comfortable and we you know we are having a good time as adventists but we should understand that it took a lot of prayer it took you know proverbially blood, sweat and tears to develop this movement and this church and what it is today and it is important for us to appreciate the role that the spirit plays not just in giving visions and in giving the gift of prophecy but in guiding us and leading us through this confusion that is what is considered Babylon and modern day Christianity just in closing beloved viewers we are told that we have nothing to fear for the future lest we forget god's leading and his guidance in our past history the gift of prophecy was not just made manifest during the apostolic time or during the during the during the time that the church was coming out of the dark ages the bible tells us so clearly that in the last days god will pour out his spirit upon all flesh sons and daughters shall prophesy old men shall dream dreams young men shall see visions and upon servants and hard medians the bible says god shall pour out his spirit and they shall prophesy and the bible assures us that god is going to show signs in the heavens above and in the earth beneath signs in the heavens above and in the earth and on the earth beneath the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the lord and the bible assures us that whatsoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved so the gift of prophecy will be made more manifest that was not the last of it but the gift of prophecy is going to be made more manifest in the remnant church even much more as the last day's approach but as according as as brother nico has guided us there are ways to know the true prophet because we have many false prophets and the bible has actually warned us many false prophets have gone out into the world but we have the bible counsel on how we can be guided to know the servants whom god is using to speak to his people thank you so much for the for having stayed with us having tuned in to this program we saw a few of your comments but time will not allow us to go through them but you're coming for part three of this session when you come for part three we'll address your comments as we proceed on with our discussion god bless you and now i'd like to invite our brother harmon to pray with us as we come to an end of the session sure uh let's bow down our heads and pray my god and my father i thank you that you have revealed these things to us lord we have an account of your guiding hand in our past and how you took this movement through a very confusing time and here we are today lord standing on the shoulders of giants we pray lord that you help us not take for granted our rich heritage i pray lord that you help us to acquaint ourselves with our past so that as we have been reminded we will have nothing to fear for the future forgive us lord if in this discussion we've said anything that brings shame to your name and lord do not hold it against us but instead teach us and help us to remain faithful to you as we come to the end of this program and as we wind up the 10 days of prayer program today lord i praise your name because i know you have answered our prayers i pray trusting and believing in jesus name amen