God Recognizes and Honors Church Organization

God has made His church a channel of light. He does not give an experience to one of His servants that is contrary to the experience of the church itself. Neither does He give one individual a knowledge of His will for the entire church while leaving the church in darkness. He puts His servants in close connection with His church so that they may have less confidence in themselves and greater confidence in others whom He is leading.ULe 61.6

Those who constantly lean toward individual independence seem unable to realize that independence of spirit will likely lead people to have too much confidence in themselves rather than to respect the counsel and judgment of their fellow church members, especially of those in the offices God has appointed for leadership. God has granted His church special authority that no one can rightly disregard, for anyone who does this despises the voice of God.ULe 61.7

Satan tries to separate such people from those God has used to build up and extend His work. Any worker in the Lord’s cause who passes these by and thinks that his light must come through no other channel than directly from God is in danger of being deceived by the enemy and overthrown. The Lord intends that all believers should maintain a close relationship—Christian should be united to Christian and church to church, every agency under the Holy Spirit. All believers will be united in an organized effort to give to the world the good news of God’s grace.ULe 62.1

Paul believed that his ordination marked a new epoch in his life. He would later date the beginning of his apostleship to this time.ULe 62.2

While the light was shining brightly at Antioch, the apostles were carrying on important work in Jerusalem. Every year, many Jews from all lands came to worship at the temple. Some of these devout pilgrims were earnest students of the prophecies, longing for the Messiah to come. The apostles preached Christ with unflinching courage, though they knew they were placing their lives in danger. Many people became converts to the faith, and when they returned home, they scattered seeds of truth through all nations and among all classes of people.ULe 62.3

Peter, James, and John felt confident that God had appointed them to preach Christ among their countrymen at home. Faithfully and wisely they testified about what they had seen and heard, appealing to the “more sure word of prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19, KJV) to persuade “the house of Israel ... that God has made this Jesus ... both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).ULe 62.4