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.
Amen Charles,
I even hate the word religious! My Mom called one of the elders at her church that “word” after I suggested that they weren’t watching them to well as their church links include: Promise Keepers, Woman of Faith an interdenominational group, and others. She said “They must be alright because so and so is so religious! “( Well how dare I even make such a suggestion! my thought ) A friend of mine was telling people that I was religious and I told him I was a Christian believer.I do religiously go to work everyday about 9:00 AM. It just seems like such a pious word. Thanks Mike!!
In Him
Deborah
Deborah,
Religion quickly becomes a false hope and a surrogate of a real relationship with God. Even the Israelites wanted to simply be religious through Moses and Aaron because God was way to frightening. I prefer a close intimate walk with my Lord than to depend upon another man to be my go-between. Lo and behold, that is what God wants from us as well.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
Mike,
It really is nothing but a distraction. My parents want me to join up with there church. It is a Baptist church but would you join up with those links? No thank you. I have been to their services and I have nothing against them.The great part about people putting there church on a web site is I can now investigate what is really going on. I don’t have to invest to much time and effort that way. It is disappointing.
In Christ
Deborah
Deborah, Amen, I agree with you completely.
This is what I was talking about at work…people agreeing to “accept” people and their thoughts instead of having a debate about what I and they believe…they believe nothing is true and everything is true…it’s hard to convice people like that of anything.
Amen Sarah!
May I ask what is wrong with the Promise Keepers? Thanks
Once Confused,
The main issue I have with Promise Keepers is their Ecumenicalism. Here is a link to an article that gives a good view of this.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff