The fact that the Gospel message is to go to the whole world proves that it is an international message. It is also individual. We read in Revelation 21 :17: “And let him that heareth say, Come.” It is God’s plan that the message is to go to all the world through the efforts of all who believe in it. God has ways and means of utilizing the time and talents of every one of His followers. To each member of the church He has given talents, some more and some less, but none for burial. Thus each individual who accepts the truth for this time automatically receives a personal responsibility for service.
The task seems very large, but God has His plans to finish it through His own people in His own time. His time is the present time, according to His own words. D’Aubigne, the great French historian, in his History of the Reformation, book 2, chapter 1, says, “God takes ages to prepare His work but when the hour comes accomplishes it by the feeblest instruments. To do great things by small means is the laW of God.”
In Great Controversy, page 606, we read of the message, “As the time comes for it to be given with greatest power the Lord will work through humble instruments.” It is God’s way to do great things by small means. “God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” 1 Cor. 1:27. He delights to take uneducated and weak, helpless human material and use it as a channel through which His saving grace may flow to others. We have the wonderful story of the man in Luke 8: 38, 39. That man was possessed of devils, degraded in the eyes of the people, but Jesus came into his life and regenerated him. He wished to go wherever Jesus went, but someone had to stay to proclaim the message in that city, for the people would not allow Jesus to remain. So He asked the man to return to his own home and show what God had done for him. The story says that he published the glad tidings throughout the whole city, and when Jesus returned the people gladly received Him, for they were all waiting for Him. (Verse 40.)
Would that God would give to all our members at this time the same spirit and the same power to work for Jesus as this man had. How soon would the world be prepared for His return ! We read in Testimonies, Vol. 9, page 41, “This work cannot be done by proxy. Money lent or given will not accomplish it. Sermons will not do it. By visiting the people, talking, praying, sympathizing with them, you will win their hearts. This is the highest missionary work you can do,”
