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.
Thank you so much for writing this series of articles on the compromised church. After I read the entire series through in one sitting I found myself with my mouth hanging open and yet my heart and mind praising God.
I wanted to make sure of my reaction, so I read extensive excerpts from your articles at a small prayer meeting I attend, where we pray for our church. Those of us in the prayer meeting have been struggling with changes in our church and the attitude of our pastor, who started 3 years ago. By the way we are a small church, not a mega-church.
Everyone at the prayer meeting sat with astonished looks on their faces, amazed as I read the excerpts. We all agreed you have been sitting in the back of our church unnoticed for a few months, that was the only way you could have known the specific words our pastor uses! We sat in awe…and I’ll tell you why. Through your article we were greatly encouraged as we realized it isn’t just us in this battle against apostacy. We realized God has a remnant throughout the US. We also came to understand that the battle we have been in at our church, has been God’s love over us to save us from the destruction coming on the compromised church.
God, through your article brought us to understand we are not alone in this battle and by your discerning words we were encouraged and we reaffirmed our faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement as the center of our faith. And we will be using your insights in this article as we prepare for a meeting with other members of our church body struggling with this same issue.
One more comment I might add, the compromised church also manages to isolate those of us that see their compromise. In isolation we fight to maintain our faith in the Word of God. In isolation we question, “is it me”. In isolation our strength wanes. So I praise God for he has strengthened us through your article, for we now know we are not alone, God has kept to himself a remnant.
Praise God and thank you for your article.
Bob
Bob,
Your comment left me breathless and humbled at the same time. As I was driving home today I was confessing to God that I am simply nothing and can do nothing good unless He does it through me. Then I got your comment. The blessing and truth you have received from these articles came from God not me. I am the vessel. I write as I am inspired. I can’t do it any other way. However, I am also saddened when I hear of other churches who are in this battle. It is a real shame, but God is preserving His Remnant. I rejoice in that and I commend you for not giving in to the deceptions.
Praise God and I pray that God will keep you and bless you as you remain faithful.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
Your articles are very helpful. In this day and age the lukewarm church reigns. Purpose driven, emergent, dead.
Very few voices are sounding the call.
Thanks, I’ll be back.
-gena
Dear Mike,
I wanted to update you…
Since my comments of 3/16 your article(s) on the compromised church have been passed to about 20% of our congregation. Keep in mind we are a church of about 80 people. As before, their reaction was amazement in the accuracy of many of your comments. And again, people were encouraged that it wasn’t just our church or pastor. But the real blessing was the strength they found in knowing we are not alone. People began not to feel defeated. Your articles have encouraged and edified members of our church.
On a more proactive level, the strength and encouragement we gained led us to prayerfully and thoughtfully open a dialogue with the pastor and Board of Directors over our concerns, specifically regarding the inaccurate or incomplete preaching of God’s Word. It was not an easy thing to do. But here is the great thing, whatever the outcome may be, whether leaving or staying, changes or not, our victory…God’s victory…is that we as believers in Jesus Christ are not defeated.
In closing, the Word calls us to stand against the powers of darkness, and with God’s help we are doing that, but the battle belongs to the Lord. We are in his hands and in his will.
Thanks again for your articles.
Bob
Bob,
Specifically addressing your statement above where you said, “On a more proactive level, the strength and encouragement we gained led us to prayerfully and thoughtfully open a dialogue with the pastor and Board of Directors over our concerns, specifically regarding the inaccurate or incomplete preaching of God’s Word,” I rejoiced when I read that. That is what we must do. It is very wrong to simply explode or become so angry we cannot even think straight. Your approach is very godly and I see the Holy Spirit’s hand in that. Thanks for the update brother and for you encouragement.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff