Unity in the Church, October 9

All the believers were one in heart and mind. Acts 4:32, NIV.LHU 296.1

When the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the early church, “the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul” (Acts 4:32). The Spirit of Christ made them one. This is the fruit of abiding in Christ....LHU 296.2

We have need of divine illumination. Every individual is striving to become a center of influence, and until God works for His people, they will not see that subordination to God is the only safety for any soul. His transforming grace upon human hearts will lead to unity that has not yet been realized, for all who are assimilated to Christ will be in harmony with one another. The Holy Spirit will create unity.LHU 296.3

The prayer of Christ to His Father, contained in the seventeenth chapter of John, is to be our church creed. It shows us that our difference and disunion are dishonoring to God....LHU 296.4

No advice or sanction is given in the Word of God to those who believe the third angel's message to lead them to suppose that they can draw apart. This you may settle with yourselves forever. It is the devising of unsanctified minds that would encourage a state of disunion. The sophistry of men may appear right in their own eyes, but it is not truth and righteousness. “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; ... that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross” (Ephesians 2:14-16).LHU 296.5

Christ is the uniting link in the golden chain which binds believers together in God. There must be no separating in this great testing time.... The children of God constitute one united whole in Christ, who presents His cross as the center of attraction. All who believe are one in Him.LHU 296.6

Human feelings will lead men to take the work into their own hands, and the building thus becomes disproportionate. The Lord therefore employs a variety of gifts to make the building symmetrical. Not one feature of the truth is to be hidden or made of little account. God cannot be glorified unless the building, “fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.” A great subject is here comprehended, and those who understand the truth for this time must take heed how they hear and how they build and educate others to practice....LHU 296.7

When every specification which Christ has given has been carried out in the true, Christian spirit, then, and then only, Heaven ratifies the decision of the church, because its members have the mind of Christ, and do as He would do were He upon the earth (Selected Messages 3:20-22).LHU 296.8