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.
I was chastened recently for exhorting us to never exalt a man to idol status. C.H. Sprurgeon is one preacher who brings me to tears and creates in me a deeper thirts to love and obey the Lord Jesus. But I do not ascribe to everything Spurgeon says because he is just a vessel and not the substance.
Every camp sometimes has its list of preachers by whom they seldom disagree and they sometimes exalt their every word as if it was inspired and inerrant. If Spurgeon were here today he would again say as he said many times that he is just a man with feet of clay and God forbid that he should attract followers to himself and not Christ. His humility was one of the reasons that he was so anointed!
I love reading his quotes on your site, Mike.
it is too bad when some teach that perfect holiness is attainable here on earth, what a burden they place on whom the shepherd.
But, I cannot wait to put away this body of death and see my Lord revealed in my perfect glorified body seeing only Him and nothing imperfect or evil…
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain
I cannot wait to worship Him when I am completely holy…what kind of worship will that be? To have no thoughts of the flesh, but to be completely mindful of only HIm! Amazing
Rick,
Yes, we are to emulate Christ alone. Thanks Rick.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
Seth,
Yes, we deeply desire holiness, but as long as we are in this old body it ain’t gonna happen. We can live obedient lives marked by personal holiness, but we will always fall far short Christ’s holiness until we are in eternity with Him. Come soon Lord Jesus!
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
Ah yes …holiness. This is what we, according to todays “My Utmost For His Highest” devotional are to be striving for. To be accepted of Christ as true Christians, we must be holy as He is holy. His standards are holy standards, not the “best ” standards of this world. Even above evangelizing , our highest calling is to live a holy life, in Christ. Much of the church today seems to have forgotten this. We will not rise to this standard as long as we wish to hang on to cultural ideology and means in the name of relevance. There must be more than just a moral break with the world. Holiness demands it.
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“Wherefore we labour that . . we may be accepted of Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:9
“Wherefore we labour . . . .” It is arduous work to keep the master ambition in front. It means holding one’s self to the high ideal year in and year out, not being ambitious to win souls or to establish churches or to have revivals, but being ambitious only to be “accepted of Him.” It is not lack of spiritual experience that leads to failure, but lack of labouring to keep the ideal right. Once a week at least take stock before God and see whether you are keeping your life up to the standard He wishes. Paul is like a musician who does not heed the approval of the audience if he can catch the look of approval from his Master.
Any ambition which is in the tiniest degree away from this central one of being “approved unto God” may end in our being castaways. Learn to discern where the ambition leads, and you will see why it is so necessary to live facing the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says – “Lest my body should make me take another line, I am constantly watching so that I may bring it into subjection and keep it under.” (1 Cor. 9:27.)
I have to learn to relate everything to the master ambition, and to maintain it without any cessation. My worth to God in public is what I am in private. Is my master ambition to please Him and be acceptable to Him, or is it something less, no matter how noble? ”
Oswald Chambers
“Oh, oh, oh, and I can’t wait to get to heaven when You wipe alway all my fears…” and when we become like Christ!
Thanks for sharing that Fred.
Amen Sarah!
Spurgeon is my all time favorite and all his sermons and preachings inspire me a lot.. In fact I think that most of the time I am more guilty of reading and hearing things from Spurgeon rather than reading the Bible… but then Spurgeon speak from the Bible..
Good to see others taking holiness seriously these days.
I recently felt prompted to set up a site in England – “Holiness UK” with the URL http://www.holiness.org.uk I have added many talks, sermons and mp3 audio, all on the holiness of God and man’s need for holiness, without which “no-one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12;14). it also links to THE classic book “Holiness” by J C Ryle which can be read free online.