Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. James 4:8.
Angels of God are drawn toward all who in their thoughts and devoted service draw nigh to God.... It is a great misfortune to be double-minded. “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8).... Let us use to a purpose the mind the Lord has given us. Ambition, covetousness, the mania to follow the fashions, the customs, and practices of the world in order not to be thought singular, will soon obliterate all lines of distinction between the Christian's lines of pursuit and the practices of the world.
The love of pleasure is not to be cherished and indulged. When the human being, formed to do service for God, finds his time absorbed with plans that the Lord has nought to do with, he may well inquire, What end do I have in view? Whose service do I really enjoy? What does this eager strife for distinction amount to? 13Manuscript 21, 1898.
As stewards over the Lord's property, we are to keep the temple of the soul cleansed from all the rubbish and defilement of the world.... All our talents are to be used, every thought is to be enlisted, every power to be put forth to bring us into harmony with the mind of God. We are to adorn ourselves with all the graces of the Spirit, emulating all that is upright and pure and elevating and ennobling, copying the excellencies, and embodying the perfections of the heavenly family, obtaining an education that will fit us to unite with the royal family in the courts of heaven.
We have the privilege of being trained under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. All the attributes that are excellent are to strengthen our moral powers, that they may have no mist or tarnish upon them. We are weaving our threads in the web of humanity; not a thread of self-glory must be woven into the fabric. All heaven is imparting its help that we may surmount every obstacle.... We are to build characters of a goodly fabric, spiritual, heavenly, perfect. God bids us work for time and for eternity that we may grow after the divine likeness.13Manuscript 21, 1898.
From In Heavenly Places - Page 165
In Heavenly Places