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.
Mike,
I have a lot of persecution at my work. Please pray for me. I had to take a stand at work, and I received a lecture from my boss. A Word of Faith ‘Reverend’ came into our work and began preaching that what we confess we will possess. This went on for a while until my blood began to boil. My ‘brother’ who claims to be a reformed Calvinist sat there and said nothing. I spoke up to say, “No what you are saying is not true.” And it made the man angry. I then preached to him about God beign sovereign and that he is not obligated to make what we say come to pass. The man then told me that he said he wanted to teach me and that he was anointed. I warned him telling him that he was only trying to exercise dominion over me and God is not someone we can take to court when he denies us of things that we ask for. And the place got hot….
I did not compromise. My ‘brother’ in the Lord did not do anything but sit there offering no assistance or anything. It is hard to contend when you are contending alone (minus Jesus). My boss lectured me on his brand of Christianity (Joel Osteen), and he said that Christians should never get angry. I just couldn’t sit there and listen to that man preach that nonsense at my work. Taking a stand is costing me and it seems like there is no one who is willing to lift a finger to help carry a burden. I think that I am getting only a small fraction of the cup that Jesus drank when he went to the cross. At one time, everyone had abandoned Paul too didn’t they?
Have a blessed Easter. We will be gone also. Be safe and may the Lord bring you all home safely.
Josh,
Yes, Paul was abandoned by nearly everyone. Only Luke, Timothy, and Titus plus a few others remained with him through it all. Your boss is not right about Christians never getting angry. However, what we must do is make sure we are angry with righteous indignation for God’s glory alone. I do pray for God to strengthen you and give yout he grace and wisdom to continue to stand firm.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
Hi brother Josh
I too will pray for you. I had to make a solid stand in my family that cost me in the flesh dearly. Agony of agonies, but the Truth must out. As Mike rightfully says, the anger must be a righteous indignation for God’s glory alone.
Hold fast to Him and allow Him to have the outcome of this situation that He requires – even if it gets worse, and don’t try and ‘manipulate’ the outcome. We often have no idea to whom and with whom the Lord is working in the background with, even if on the surface, they are yelling and fighting. You rightfully stated to this man that God is Sovereign.
May God bless you and give you the strength to be weak in yourself.