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.
Yep. We live in an oligarchy. If this were true capitalism, then the govt. would let the market run its own course. Since major corporations can lobby the govt. for legislation, then the corporate elites get things that benefit them. Billions of dollars in taxpayer money is spent on bailing out corporations…. which just so happen to be friends with politicians.
Their is supposed to be a checks and balances system which prevents our govt. from becoming an oligarchy. It is not practiced as much as it should be. Because the politicians know that phone companies are in bed with the govt., then the govt. gets to have its way in by -passing the rights of the citizens in order to control its people. Unwarranted wiretapping, e-mail access, and video are evident that we are moving into facism. Our own govt. is reinterpreting the part of the constitution which says that one must have probable cause in order to obtain a warrant. Now they have interpreted it to, “reasonably believe.” Reasonable belief gives any one in govt. the authority to go and search without probable cause.
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I just received an advertisment on the top of my webpage which is an ad for owing a cell phone which allows me to check my voicemail over the internet. This opens a new can of worms for hackers, big brother, and who knows what. I have a hard enough time keeping my internet safe from unwanted pop-ups and adware. Why would I want to give someone unwarranted access to my personal voicemail?
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Sorry that my spelling is ‘off’ today.
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Next it will be the guns. Outlawing guns is like saying that we should outlaw women because their is prostitution.
In my city, the city law says that the landlord must have at least one firearm in his home to protect from intruders. This is an old law, but it has deterred a lot of burglars as well as domestic abuses. Theives don’t usually enter into homes where guns are present. Even Peter was allowed to carry his sword up until Jesus was apprehended and betrayed. Back then, theives were rampant in the countryside, so I can see why Jesus allowed Peter to carry a sword for some length of time. I don’t believe in using the “sword” to spread the gospel, but it is necessary for defense or for a standing army.
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Mike, I have never checked that site you have on pre wrath. Very interesting and added to our ‘favorites’. Like the song says…….. the midnight cry is coming and its 11:59. Come Lord Jesus, we are ready and waiting! Major changes can happen overnight in our world. Before it would take months or years, but now its within hours. Amazing. BTW, speaking of pre-wrath, we happen to have a book given to us to read that we haven’t read yet called, ‘The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church’ by Marvin Rosenthal. So……….guess what book we are going to start today?!?! Thank you Mike for a great post. Oh, one more thing…….Sophia is the name we couldn’t think of……thanks! 🙂
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The government will do what it has to do, they are anti-christ anyway. I have no anxiety about people accessing my information, I am content to know God has complet access to everything.
The fear of man brings a snare. I fear God, not the passing governments of men!
PS – I have to speak on the cell phone every day – I hate them. If I did not feel God would have me continue to be a witness for him, I would have bought the Unabomber’s cabin long ago!! 🙂
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Point of eschatological order. Pre-trib is also pre-wrath. We pre-tribbers consider them a subset of the overall truth. Jesus will come before God’s wrath – about 3 and 1/2 years before!! 🙂
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As you know, we are Amillers, BUT, one thing we have in common with the pre-tribbers is that Jesus will come and get us pre His wrath. Gotta go read a book now………….. 🙂
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Rick,
I am not afraid of someone seeing my e-mails or listening to my phone calls. Or even searching my car. I have nothing to hide.
But what I do have a problem with, is when this practice of unwarranted search, seizure, tapping, and filming open doors to other practices which lead to a restriction of liberty. No, I am not anti govt. I disagree with you that govt. is anti Christ, as long as it hasn’t fallen into tyranny. There have been periods of peace and prosperity given to many nations in history because of the blessing of a righteous govt. However, in the case of tyranny, the govt. does become tyrannical and proceeds to oppress the innocent and take advantage of the lower and middle class. As you can see, just within the last 15 years or so in this country, there has been a fading away of a middle class.
I do believe that the Lord can raise up a tyrant right up under our noses, and the majority of the population would continue on, careless, unconcerned, and glued to American Idol. He has raised up tyrants in the past on rebellious Israel, as a form of judgment upon that nation. Even a tyrant or tyrants can have purpose. Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus 4 Epiphanes, and Sennacherib all served as instruments of God’s judgment. Once they served his purpose, they too faced some kind of judgment in the end.
Here is some scripture to support this claim.
“Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the things of old; for I am God, and there is no other, I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish my purpose, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country, I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed it, and I will do it. ” Isaiah 46: 8-13.
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Rick,
Did I get any points for that last one?
Mike?
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Points???
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That was a joke.
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No points, Josh. I believe democracy is anti-christ and politics is a diluting deception in the visible church and even in the body of Christ proper. Remember, God can use any government for His glory, even anti-christ ones like China.
But God does not deal directly with countries as He once did. He deals with His church through His Word and Spirit. We have been sorely persecuted and succombed to it. We haven’t recognized it because it hasn’t come in unwarranted searches or removing Bibles, etc.. It has come in the form of hedonism and materialism as well as humanistic idolatry.
When God called Israel out of Babylon only a tiny remnant heard and obeyed. Why? Most had found a home in Babylon. The same we see today. The Christian nation lie perpertrated upon the church has covered her eyes to the truth. America, as well as many nations, is a modern day Babylon. God is calling, some are listrening by His grace!
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I would say that removing Bibles or the ten commandments from the court room is a very recognizable form of persecution as well as an “in your face” kind of abandonment of a solid moral structure. Just look at the amount of homosexuality being promoted in our culture. It is all in our faces.
Then you have a more rampant ( and the most destructive) kind of rebellion which you mentioned. Hedonism (the love of pleasure instead of righteousness), lasciviousness (Christ is a license to sin), and there are many despisers of the good. I believe in my whole heart that America is national end-times Babylon. There is way too much evidence for that. We are a nation full of idols, we have aborted millions of unborn babies, and we dwell carelessly. Don’t forget that Clinton helped part the land of Israel. (I wonder if Bush will go ahead and divide Jerusalem before the end of his term.) If Bush tries to heave her (Jerusalem) away, then we ourselves will be injured just for trying. Zech. 12:3
I know that Israel has been brought back into the land in unbelief. Unfortunately, they are in tribulation as we speak. They are under constant attack from Hamas and Hezbollah, while the U.S. pressures them into appeasing them. Even Jimmy Carter is a fool.
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Rick,
You said, “God does not deal with countries as he once did….” What did you mean by that?
God still deals with nations. He delt with Nebuchadnezzar (he chastised Nebuchadnezzar by making him like a beast who grew claws, etc) ,Babylon, Israel, Assyria, and others. The fact that they were Gentile, does not make them exempt from God’s judgments. That hasn’t changed.
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God raises up tyrants. He does this during times of judgment. After those tyrants have fulfilled his purpose, He then raises up righteous men who then overthrow those tyrants. These kinds of judgments purge the land of idols, rebellious generations, wicked rulers, and they are a form of tribulation which bring a remnant to repentance. Godly sorrow still produces repentance.
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well I think that most people accept everything. None stands for what they think anymore. It’s a deliberate intrusion in our lives we cannot allow. In the end he loved the big brother and that’s how we all will end up.
Now I always use 0800 numbers service.
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Rick,
Am I saying that tyrants glorify God? I don’t think that that is the term that I want to use. I am saying that God does use tyrants to fulfill his purpose in times of judgment or tribulation. Here are 2 more examples:
“Look among the nations and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwelling places that are not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and their dignity go forth from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle, swift to devour. They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like the sand. At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!” Habukkuk 1:5-11
Here is the other from Revelation: “And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.” Revelation 17: 16-18
Back in Isaiah 46, King Cyrus was raised up to destroy the same tyrants which God had used to bring the Jews into captivity. King Cyrus was an instrument of judgment upon Babylon.
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