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[December 7]
It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. Matthew 10:20
ONLY those whom God has ordained in the sense of giving them the Holy Spirit of sonship are in any wise commissioned, or authorized, to preach in the Lord's name. All the ceremonies on earth and all the hands of all the bishops cannot give authority to anybody to speak in the name of God. Our Lord Jesus did not begin his ministry until he had received God's ordination. At the time of his consecration and baptism the Holy Spirit came upon him, anointing him, consecrating him, authorizing him to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, to comfort those that mourn. The same Holy Spirit is authority for anybody who has received it to tell all that he understands respecting the plan of God to all who have an ear to hear—especially to the meek, the brokenhearted, those who are feeling after God. While the Apostle Paul intimates that the female members of the church are not to preach publicly, this does not interfere with the fact that all of them who have received the Holy Spirit have the anointing to preach and to teach according to the limitations and opportunities of their sex, and sometimes the private teaching is equally effective as the more public. Z'13-365 R5363:2 (Hymn 198)