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| If there is any subject which should be carefully considered, and in which the counsel of older and more experienced persons should be sought, it is the subject of marriage; if ever the Bible was needed as a counselor, if ever divine guidance should be sought in prayer, it is before taking a step that binds persons together for life. {CE 228.3} {CC 58.5} |
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| He who is following the divine guidance has found the only true source of saving grace and real happiness, and has gained the power of imparting happiness to all around him. No man can really enjoy life without religion. Love to God purifies and ennobles every taste and desire, intensifies every affection, and brightens every worthy pleasure. It enables men to appreciate and enjoy all that is true, and good, and beautiful. {CT 53.3} |
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| While they trust to the guidance of human authority, none will come to a saving knowledge of the truth. Like Nathanael, we need to study God's word for ourselves, and pray for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. He who saw Nathanael under the fig tree will see us in the secret place of prayer. Angels from the world of light are near to those who in humility seek for divine guidance. {DA 141.1} |
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| "The spirit in which you come to the investigation of the Scriptures will determine the character of the assistant at your side. Angels from the world of light will be with those who in humility of heart seek fordivine guidance. But if the Bible is opened with irreverence, with a feeling of self-sufficiency, if the heart is filled with prejudice, Satan is beside you, and he will set the plain statements of God's word in a perverted light." - GW 127. |
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| When ministers have success in moving upon minds, if they are conscious that God has wrought with their efforts they will not become self-sufficient and boastful. They will walk as they have Christ for an example. Satan will not let them alone; he will assail them with temptation, and unless with humility and prayer they are continually seeking for divine guidance, they will be overcome. {GW92 275.2} |
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| Moses had not suspected this deep-laid plot, and when its terrible significance burst upon him, he fell upon his face in silent appeal to God. He arose sorrowful indeed, but calm and strong. Divine guidance had been granted him. "Even tomorrow," he said, "the Lord will show who are His, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto Him: even him whom He hath chosen will He cause to come near unto Him." The test was to be deferred until the morrow, that all might have time for reflection. Then those who aspired to the priesthood were to come each with a censer, and offer incense at the tabernacle in the presence of the congregation. The law was very explicit that only those who had been ordained to the sacred office should minister in the sanctuary. And even the priests, Nadab and Abihu, had been destroyed for venturing to offer "strange fire," in disregard of a divine command. Yet Moses challenged his accusers, if they dared enter upon so perilous an appeal, to refer the matter to God. Patriarchs and Prophets, page 398.3 |
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| Never should the Bible be studied without prayer. Before opening its pages we should ask for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, and it will be given. When Nathanael came to Jesus, the Saviour exclaimed, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" Nathanael said, "Whence knowest Thou me?" Jesus answered, "Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." John 1:47, 48. And Jesus will see us also in the secret places of prayer if we will seek Him for light that we may know what is truth. Angels from the world of light will be with those who in humility of heart seek for divine guidance. {SC 91.1} |
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| Many of those who have so long rejected divine guidance and guardianship are rushing on in the path of levity and selfish pleasure, yea, more, into baser acts and defilement of the body. As a consequence their minds are polluted, and religion is distasteful to them. Some have gone so far in this downward course, and followed so earnestly in the path of the Sodomites, that they are today nigh unto cursing, and the voice of reproof and warning is lost upon them. They will never be redeemed, and the parents are guilty of their ruin. The debasing enjoyments for which they have made such an enormous sacrifice--health, peace of mind, and eternal life -- are bitterness in the end. {5T 39.1} |
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| promises for divive guidance |
| There are ways by which the Lord leads and guides His people. God has all wisdom and all knowledge. He has said, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." James 1:5. Oh that all those who claimed to be God's chosen servants would have felt that they were in need of wisdom, in the place of their feeling the perfect wholeness which they did feel. Much talking and inflaming one another were not wanting, and ridiculing those whom God had raised up to do a special work. They had, like brethren, taken their Bibles and searched the Scriptures and bowed upon their knees before God in earnest prayer, claiming the promises of God for divine guidance. In this time of peril, as we are nearing the period of an important crisis, it is only reasonable that we should expect something of the revealings of greater light to the people; and how did these men who had allowed their minds to be filled with prejudice and jealousy know but God had made these men messengers to give light and truth to the people? What right had they to set themselves in dead array against these ministers of Christ, even if they thought that their ideas did conflict with previous ideas on some points? Why not spend the hours together in prayer to God, in fasting, in deep heart-searching? "Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven of the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord." James 1:6, 7. The true, earnest seeker will give up his way for God's ways, that he may be guided into paths wherein God may choose to lead him, where the Lord has great blessings awaiting him, although it may seem to short-sighted human beings there is only loss and disaster. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isa. 55:8, 9. {1888 279.1} |
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