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 
Reblogged this on Shepherd/Guardian.
LikeLike
I have been warning people about The Shack for the past month or two, and it amazes me how many Christians are still enamored by the book and they can’t wait to see the movie. It’s very disheartening. It doesn’t help, of course, when you have a lot of church leaders and “Christian” celebrities like Tim Tebow and Jeff Foxworthy praising the movie; nor organizations like CRU promoting the movie by giving away free tickets to see it. It sometimes seems to me that a line is being drawn with Christians on the one side, and the pseudo-Christians on the other. Seems like a great delusion is being sent to the pseudo-Christians. Hmmmm? I think I read something about that somewhere. Thank you for posting this Mr. Ratliff. I fully intend to share it everywhere I can.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yeah, you got it Bob. This is a test. Do not be dismayed. God is in total control.
LikeLike
I shared this meme on Facebook a couple days ago and……….*crickets*
Hopefully, people will consider it.
~Jennifer
LikeLiked by 1 person
Everything I post here automatically gets posted on Twitter and FB. Right now most of the response I am getting is on Twitter and here. We all have different sets of “friends” or followers. If you read some of the comments on the original post it is disheartening. However, I think this is an example of that line drawn in the sand God does, your know, that dividing line I wrote about a few days ago?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I went and read it….Yes, how interesting! I believe you are exactly right. A test.
LikeLike
Only 13?!!!!
LikeLike
When the book first came out I read a review of it made by a good Christian resource. He did not list this many, but he listed enough to make me put out some warnings back then about it. I have found that there are two types of professing Christians who are excited about this movie and have read the book. They are the biblically illiterate, you know, like those who follow Joel Osteeen. Then there are those who try to spiritualize everything while ignoring doctrine like the Gnostics. I read some comments today on this same meme on another site and it was alarming how many people claiming to be Christians were upset that we were taking this stand. These were the ones who base their entire Christian walk in Experiancialism …
LikeLike
It’s like when Wild at Heart first came out. Or the Bible Code. Or The Matrix movies. Or Mel Gibson’s Passion. People in churches get SO EXCITED and fail to examine what’s being presented in the context of God’s Word. As you said, it’s the experience they get attached to. And that’s how people get converted to the papist religion or the religion of secret underwear.
LikeLiked by 1 person
exactly. Another friend of mine said today about The Shack Book-> Objection: “It’s just fiction!”
Answer: It is theological fiction – fiction written to teach a particular view of God and his relation to the world. Therefore while there are some things in the book that relate explicitly to the fictional setting, the explicit teaching about God in the book is intended by the author to be taken seriously.
That makes this type of book and movie very dangerous as it is a snare to those who are not discerning.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I am in the camp that is a work of fiction that grabs the imagination and inspires people to do some searching. Now, did this son of a missionary mean to present a theology? I think of Dante’s work that has no claim to Christian mysticism or theology but grabs the imagination for what us earth dwellers cannot fathom. There is danger everywhere – perhaps two larger dangers is assuming we are discerning while others are not — or the artist/theatre/literary/musically inspired, when motivated by their talent – choose not to express religous or spiritual content. The meme above is great as it points out succinctly where the work of fiction differs from Christology. I have not even seen the movie or read the book – but the meme prepares the potential viewer of the movie may present feel good drama but should not be interpreted as aligned with theology.
LikeLike
Thanks brother Mike for posting this. So sad that many are spiritually blinded. Praying for God to give people discernment because so many are terribly blinded. Thanks for always giving out the warnings.
LikeLike
Joe, perhaps, but I know way too many people who have little if any discernment and surprise, surprise their Biblical knowledge along with their knowledge of doctrine is slipshode at best. This type of movie and/or book is the worst possible thing for them to be exposed to. Hence the warning. That is my role and in obedience to it I post this sort of thing. I expect those with discernment to already “get it,” and they should in turn guide those immature believers away from such things that can only cause confusion.
LikeLiked by 2 people