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 
Very sad to read about this, Ken helped me with many issues/questions when I was a young believer, I trusted him, he’ll be missed. Please if you know of any way to help his remaining family let us know.
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Thankful for Ken Silva’s faithful teaching. I found him online shortly after The Lord saved me in 2004. Will miss reading his posts, but look forward to meeting him one day.
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So sorry for the loss of your friend and mentor.
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My condolences Mike for the loss of a Brother in the faith of our LORD and Savior. Our prayers of peace, thanksgiving and reconciliation be with all who are grieving. Amen.
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Was thinking of Ken only yesterday…with much affection…Was , an am, so grateful for all he did, Mike…Am praying for his family…
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Mourning our dear friend and brother in Christ, Ken. He was a faithful contender for the faith. I will miss his calling me, “lil sis”. Discernthetime.com will miss putting up his Biblically sound, informative articles. ‘until we meet again with Jesus, dear brother.
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That is so sad. Ken inspired me for years and even corresponded with me. I pray that God will comfort his family in this time.
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Reblogged this on Truth2Freedom's Blog.
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It is with much sadness that we received the news this morning of Ken Silva’s passing away, we have exchanged lots of emails and he often shared his faith in Jesus with us in these emails. We as believers do not fear death, a verse that comes to mind is (Psalms 116:15) “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”
Ken worked endlessly in exposing major false teachers and he was instrumental in us leaving a false Charismatic church years ago.
We are praying for his family in this difficult time.
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I appreciate you posting this, Mike. I knew Ken had been sick for quite some time. He never would say how poorly he was feeling.
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May God comfort those who are mourning for the loss of Ken. He loved the Lord and contended and defended for God’s Name Sake. “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt it necessary to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” Jude 1:3 Praying for all, charisse
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Praying for you and all of Ken’s family and friends. I owe a lot of my personal growth to Ken’s ministry. What a mark he has left on this sinful earth.
Let us thank God for him.
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Thanks Mike. I never had the pleasure of meeting Ken in person, but we communicated several times by email. I always enjoyed those and appreciated what he had to say. I’m so glad his pain is over. I’m sure he and Jim Bublitz are celebrating with their Heavenly Father now.
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Yes, Ken was a big influence in discernment which helped be on top of what was going on. Very gracious in our e-mail exchanges. Sad what he went through.
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Reblogged this on Ezekiel Countdown and commented:
Reblogged on EZC. Praying for you and Ken’s family, and the rest of yet awaiting our eternal reward. Will greatly miss his articles which earnestly contended for the faith once for all delivered.
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Ken Silva has done so much for the discernment in the church
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