In the future, great watchfulness will be needed. There is to be among God's people no spiritual stupidity. Evil spirits are actively engaged in seeking to control the minds of human beings. Men are binding up in bundles, ready to be consumed by the fires of the last days. Those who discard Christ and His righteousness will accept the sophistry that is flooding the world. Christians are to be sober and vigilant, steadfastly resisting their adversary the devil, who is going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Men under the influence of evil spirits will work miracles. They will make people sick by casting their spell upon them, and then remove the spell, leading others to say that those who were sick have been miraculously healed. This Satan has done again and again.
God will be the sanctuary of His people, if they will obey His word, believing and proclaiming the simple gospel truths that Christ proclaimed when in this world. We need now to pray as we have never prayed before. We are living in the great day of atonement, and we are to confess our sins, and make diligent work for repentance. We are to put all our capabilities to work, that we may be delivered from wicked and unreasonable men. Satan comes down as a beautiful angel, and presents lovely pictures before the eyes of those who have so perverted their ways before God that they do not see what they are or know what they need. The enemy has come down with great power, to work with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. God calls for repentance and reconversion. . . .
When the lives of God's people are cleansed from moral and spiritual pollution; when their eyes are anointed with the heavenly eyesalve, they will see that they are poor, and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked. They will come to the fountain that has been opened for Judah and Jerusalem, and apply the cleansing blood of Christ to their poor, sin-sick souls. God grant that they make no delay in securing the advantages that He has prepared for all who love Him and keep His commandments. --Letter 259, Nov. 23, 1903, to Mrs. L. M. Hall, a close friend and for many years matron of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. TDG 336
Sometimes answers to our prayers come immediately; sometimes we have to wait patiently and continue earnestly to plead for the things that we need, our cases being illustrated by the case of the importunate solicitor for bread. “Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight,” etc. This lesson means more than we can imagine. We are to keep on asking, even if we do not realize the immediate response to our prayers. “I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Luke 11:9, 10 pr 111
And he said to me, “For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.” Daniel 8:14 (New King James Version)