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.

-G.D.Watson (1845-1924).
SOURCE: Faith, Prayer, & Tract League,
Tract #76; Grand Rapids, MI 49504.