by G. D. Watson
If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25
If God has called you to be truly like Jesus in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. He will put on you such demands of obedience that you will not be allowed to follow other Christians. In many ways, He seems to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.
Others who seem to be very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and scheme to carry out their plans, but you cannot. If you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.
Others can brag about themselves, their work, their successes, their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing. If you begin to do so, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.
Others will be allowed to succeed in making great sums of money, or having a legacy left to them, or in having luxuries, but God may supply you only on a day-to-day basis, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, a helpless dependence on Him and His unseen treasury.
The Lord may let others be honored and put forward while keeping you hidden in obscurity because He wants to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade.
God may let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him and get the credit, but He will make you work and toil without knowing how much you are doing. Then, to make your work still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work which you have done; this to teach you the message of the Cross, humility, and something of the value of being cloaked with His nature.
The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you, and with a jealous love rebuke you for careless words and feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over.
So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and that He may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you.
God will take you at your word. If you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love and let other people say and do many things that you cannot. Settle it forever; you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue or chaining your hand or closing your eyes in ways which others are not dealt with. However, know this great secret of the Kingdom: When you are so completely possessed with the Living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven, the high calling of God.
The Chinese underground church is certainly a God-blessed church. To be a persecuted and an evangelistic church, will only keep these brothers and sisters a pure bride for our Lord Jesus Christ. God will not leave us behind though. He has big things in mind for His spiritually starved people here in America and in other free nations. These big ideas will be trying and suffering will abound but only in proportion to His purification of His church and His grace toward us. I would like to use this link on my site too if that’s ok, Mike. Thanks for the update on the persecuted church!
From 8 million believers at the end of WW II to approximately 80 million the Chinese church is the fastest growing evangelical group in the world. Persecuted, martyred, not many Bibles, little musical instruments, no bookstores, not many buildings, no Christian radio or TV, why did they grow? One primary reason, prayer. The early church spent much time in corperate prayer on Sundays, today, except for the obligatory “bless our troops” prayer there is little or none. As the Chinese pastor who visited America and was asked upon his return to China what impressed him about America. He replied, “I was impressed by how much American Christians are able to accomplish without God”.
Sarah and Rick,
This has really blessed my Soul. Sarah, of course, use it. This actually makes me even more hungry (if that’s possible) for the deep spiritual faith that these persecuted dear Chinese Christains have. The USA Church’s weak, materialistic, worldly focus robs us of this. I agree with Sarah, let’s pray that God will have mercy on us and use us for His glory as well. The great Apostasy is well underway, but there is a remnant. Praise God that we are part of that. Let’s pray that God will grant us repentance as He draws us into living for His glory alone.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff