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.
Possessing the Treasure 
This is such a blessing to watch again. When we realize that God does what He does for His own glory, it all makes sense. If faith were attainable by man, where’s the glory for God? If salvation hinged on man’s free will, then God is robbed of glory and is not sovereign, He is at the mercy of mortal man and has no power to bring sinners to Christ apart from the will of man. Praise be to Him this is not the case, for salvation truly is of the Lord!
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Yes it is Lyn. I posted this several years ago, but I decided to post it again in response to some “push back” I received in the comment section of some of these last few posts about this very thing. I find that this message in this video just cuts through it so well and leaves no room for those who want to argue. I am utterly amazed at times at those who refuse to believe this wonderful truth about the sovereignty of God in our salvation. The other side of that is some are so belligerent or aggressive in their attacks on these truths. I simply don’t get it.
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I enjoyed the piece and agree in general. MY thought is that we, as Children of God have yet to understand that God is Sovereign and Three times Holy and that His Grace is motivated through His Love for us. It is His decision whether to extend His Grace to us. We appear as less than nothing to Him and there is NO way we can deserve or earn His Consideration, much less His gift of Life. How Magnanimous is our God, that He regarded us AT ALL, much less offered us Life in Him. THAT is the Grace of God. He offers Life to us and we must reach out and accept the gift of Life. Grace is God’s, not ours! Faith comes after the fact, after we say yes and reach out to Him. At that point, we are saved THROUGH Faith, which means that we Believe God! We believe that God has accepted us and has Blessed us with the Gift of Eternal Life. Why? Because He said so!
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Mike, I think I do get why ‘others’ get so aggressive on this stuff. In a word, ‘Fear’, in another ‘Arrogance’. It’s the same thing that caused the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin to pursue and cause the Death of our Lord! “I must always be considered right in all things! I must be considered a Holy person!” You can almost hear the words when reading the Gospel Jesus threatened their standing in the Temple just like those that disbelieve in God’s Sovereignty. They are threatened by the very Truth! They don’t see that they are totally powerless! I guess if one of them can create a dust mote, then they MIGHT be able to say something. But God Created EVERYTHING, just because He wanted to. Let them top that! LOL
By the way: Above I mentioned the term ‘Three times Holy’. It comes from the habit the Jew has to declare God as ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’. It is a sense that God’s Holiness is considered ‘Good, Better, Best’. If the attribute is mentioned three times He is so Holy there is nothing higher.
Blessings upon you, my friend!
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Reblogged this on Truth2Freedom's Blog.
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Amen Doug!!!
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