CONFERENCE
THEME
Fill Me is an individual prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Yet as God’s people, our individual prayers rise to heaven as a single plea—Our Earnest Plea. We need the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. Without His indispensable infilling, we cannot faithfully stand for Jesus “though the heavens fall” (Ed, 57). Without His loving guidance and power, the mission of this generation, and of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, will not be accomplished. In response to our earnest petitions—individually and corporately—God desires to pour upon His people the early and latter rains. As Jesus stated, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13). Indeed, “the Spirit awaits our demand and reception” (COL, 121). “It is the privilege of the church to have it now,” and we are counseled to “seek for it, pray for it, believe for it” (RH March 19, 1895). As God’s clarion call for revival and reformation echoes from the world leaders of our church, this is a most opportune moment for the outpouring of the Spirit of Jesus upon His people. “Could there be a convocation of all the churches of earth, the object of their united cry should be for the Holy Spirit” (MR 2, 24). GYC 2011 is such a convocation. Fill Me: Our Earnest Plea.
PURPOSE
The gift of the Holy Spirit is vital for a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and is absolutely essential for God’s people to hasten the Second Coming of Jesus (Matthew 24:14; 2 Peter 3:12). Thus, the great need of the church is revived and reformed men and women who, by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the early and latter rains, cooperate with Jesus Christ in taking the Everlasting Gospel to the entire world. During Fill Me: Our Earnest Plea, we seek to understand, desire, experience, and share the gift of the Holy Spirit. i. Understand. Discover the biblical teaching about the Holy Spirit, His work, revival and reformation, and the significance of the early and latter rains for this generation in light of the soon return of Jesus Christ. ii. Desire. Allow God to arouse a desire for experimental religion, a daily walking with Jesus Christ through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. iii. Experience. Learn the biblical prerequisites for receiving the Holy Spirit and practical steps for experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit, His reviving presence, and His transforming work through Bible study, intentional prayer, and total surrender. iv. Share. Explore biblical models for sharing, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, the saving gift of Jesus Christ and the message of revival and reformation in expectation of the hastened return of the Savior.
8 THEME AND PURPOSE