Since God judges our heart by our reactions to the pressures and pains of life on earth, it is of great importance that we do not overemphasize imputed righteousness (righteousness ascribed through faith apart from our behavior). There is a place in the plan of redemption for imputed righteousness.

But if imputed righteousness is carried to the point that we do not learn to serve the Lord in the problems of life, preferring instead to act as any unsaved individual, not growing in faith, trust, and hope in the faithfulness of God's Word, the conversion of our will to perfect rest in God's will, humility, total dependence on the Lord, and joyous obedience to the Lord, then we have missed the whole purpose of our life on earth.

The testimony of Jesus is something God and men can see.

God humbles us and causes us to hunger and thirst after things or relationships or circumstances. He may deny our most intense desires for a season, giving only what is necessary for the moment. This too is part of the curriculum. The delay in giving us the desires of our heart, and keeping us doing that in which we take no joy, shape our attitude toward God until it is acceptable to the Father.

Neither we nor our fathers have experienced previously the "manna" with which God nourishes us and keeps us moving forward. God is God and He always is doing a new thing.

We eventually come to understand no person can truly live only by the things of a material environment. We are to live by every Word that comes from God's mouth. We are to be humbly dependent on God every moment of every day from now through eternity.

We can learn humble dependence on the Lord only in the valley of tears, of bitterness, through which we are passing.

It is important that we seek a holy environment. If we do, God finally will bring us to the spirit Paradise to be with the Lord, the saints, and the holy angels.

It is important that we keep the Word of the Lord, persevering until He grants us a change of raiment. If we are faithful in the work of sanctification now, then at His coming He will complete our transformation and we will be in His image and in complete union with Him.

Environment and transformation will be perfected in the spirit realm for those who have pleased the Lord by their conduct in the earth, who have shown themselves to be worthy of the Kingdom of God.

Our life on earth especially is for the purpose of giving us the knowledge of the Lord. It is here, by means of the problems and pressures of the world, that our proud strength is broken and we learn to depend totally on the Lord for every aspect of existence.

Our environment, our personality, and our knowledge of the Lord must be perfected before the spiritual fulfillment of the Levitical Day of Atonement has accomplished its intended work and we have been reconciled fully to God. (from The Feasts of the Lord)