OTHERS MAY: You CANNOT
-by G. D. Watson.
If God has called you to be really like Jesus He will
draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands
of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure
yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other people
do things which He will not let you do.
Other Christians and ministers
who seem very religious and useful, may push themselves, pull wires, and work
schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it, and if you attempt it,
you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely
penitent.
Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of
their successes, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to
do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep
mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.
Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or
may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor,
because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless
dependence upon Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day
by day out of an unseen treasury.
The Lord may let others be honored and put forward,
and keep 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. He may let others be great, but
keep you small. He may let others do a
work for Him and get the credit for it, but He will make you work and toil on
without knowing how much you are doing; and then to make your work still more
precious He may let others get credit for the work which you have done, and
thus make YOUR REWARD TEN TIMES GREATER WHEN JESUS COMES.
The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with
a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for
wasting your time, which other Christians never feel distressed over. So make
up your mind that God is an Infinitely Sovereign Being, and has a right to do
as He pleases with His own. He may not
explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with
you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to be His love slave, He will wrap you
up in Jealous Love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those
who are in the inner circle.
Settle it forever, then that you are to DEAL DIRECTLY
WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your
tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not
seem to use with others. Now, when you
are so 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, then you will have found the
vestibule of Heaven.
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(~SOURCE: Faith, Prayer, & Tract
League:
Tract #76;