Digging For Truth

           A U T H O R I T Y                 ( 26  RELATED  PHRASES )                 

                                    A U T H O R I T Y    O F   .  .  .                                        

                         A U T H O R I T Y    t o  . . .                                        

  It is a daily working agency that is to be brought into exercise, a faith that works by love, and purifies the soul of the educator. Is the revealed will of God placed as your highest authority? If Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, then the truth of God will so act upon your natural temperament, that its transforming agency will be revealed in a changed character, and you will not by your influence through the revealings of an unsanctified heart and temper, turn the truth of God into a lie before any of your pupils; nor in your presentation of a selfish, impatient un-Christlike temper in dealing with any human mind, reveal that the grace of Christ is not sufficient for you at all times and in all places. Thus you will show that the authority of God over you is not merely in name but in reality and truth. There must be a separation from all that is objectionable or un-Christlike, however difficult it may be to the true believer. { CE 148.1 } 

   These are not the words of Sister White, but the words of the Lord, and His messenger has given them to me to give to you. God calls upon you to no longer work at cross purposes with Him. Much instruction was given in regard to men claiming to be Christian when they are revealing the attributes of Satan,  counteracting in spirit, word, and action the advancement of truth, and are surely following the path where Satan is leading them. In their hardness of heart they have grasped authority which in no way belongs to them, and which they should not exercise. Saith the great Teacher, "I will overturn, overturn, overturn." Men say in Battle Creek, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we"' but they are using common fire. Their hearts are not softened and subdued by the grace of God.   {13MR 222.2}

   In the case of Moses, the Lord shows that he will defend all who are standing in his strength in defense of the right. Those who would smite his faithful ones, smite the hand of God spread over them as a buckler, — they wound that hand which bears the sword of justice. But when the one thus divinely guarded ceases to rely upon God for help, and begins to exercise authority which the Lord has not given him, that moment his defense is gone. The more criminal and unreasonable the opposition which God’s servant has to meet, the more earnestly should he seek to hide self in Christ. As long as he does this, he will be safe. { ST October 7, 1880, par. 8 }