Others May, You Cannot

OTHERS MAY, YOU CANNOTby 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.By G.D. WatsonG.D.Watson (1845-1924) was a Wesleyan Methodist minister and evangelist based in Los Angeles. His evangelistic campaigns took him to England, the West Indies, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Korea. He also wrote several books.

A classic! Thanks for posting this again. I am sure there may be newer members who have never read this. This is one of my favorite writings to share.You can also find more of Watson's writings here: Pilgrims Path-Soul FoodIn Him, Chanin

Thank you both,This is the message to my heart that I'm consistently hearing from the Holy Spirit. Thanks for the post and the link Chanin. Not sure I can handle this and the Rees Howells stuff too!

So true! I have found this to be the case in my own life. When Christ is really using us He will begin a humbling of us so that we allow Him to be the minister to other people's souls. He wants people who are humble enough to let Him intervene rather than people who religiously choose to interfere.

Thanks for posting this! :-)

Yes, Thank You.

That is excellent. I for one am one of the new members who have never read that before. It was like the Holy Spirit was directing that to me. Again excellent post.

Appreciated the sentiments expressed in this article. After reading it I thought of people who will use the excuse that God allows them to do 'whatever' even if you can't when confronted about their inconsistencies..."Sure, maybe you can't, but I CAN!!" Sounds a tad bit arrogant, don't you think?!I am going to copy/paste this into my own archives for future reference.ginnyrose

After reading it I thought of people who will use the excuse that God allows them to do 'whatever' even if you can't when confronted about their inconsistencies..."Sure, maybe you can't, but I CAN!!"Yes, this article has an amazing way of realigning our focus towards God's desire for us. I felt a need to post it, perhaps for my own sake, being involved in the OSAS discussion, which, though needed, can easily move us away from the right focus.When I first saw this article, many years ago, I was going through a lot of "culling" and I was becoming discouraged. These words reminded me that God was indeed involved in my life, and had a much higher purpose for me than I had realized. He wasn't restricting me because I was bad (what happens in earthly discipline) but because I was very special to him. Diane

I wish my English was better to reply on this post. If I could explain myself in Dutch, that would be so much easier. So, don't expect long stories of me on SI, but there's just one thing I wanted to say. And actually, it's not about the post itself (though i did understand that, with my bad english:P, and it was good), but about the sentence below:"Lord make me little and unknown, prized for Thee, and Thee alone" L.RavenhillThere's just one word i can say: AMEN! So true, i have to admit...your sis in faith

Revisit

Diane,Thank you for posting this article. I battle with pride in my life and the need to be recognized. And I realize that is so opposed to the Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit is showing me constantly different areas where I have allowed a proud spirit to creep in.Murray

~This is wonderful piece! From what I've seen in life, it's odd how this truth is so neglected by those who prosper and so twisted by others. ~I guess it's kind of obvious when someone doesn't accept these truths, but people seem to miss when they are being misused. There are dying congregations out there that God has called to make some changes, and they have been deaf. They claim that their failure to grow, in numbers or just within themselves, is just God testing them or keeping them humble. I guess such things are not for us to judge, but just as much as we should fear our pride we should also fear not changing when we have been called to.

Thanks for this!

I've given up counting how many times I've heard," I'm just not called the way you are . . " I hope and pray for all my brothers and sisters to have the courage to take the stand of a peculiar and seperate people but I fear that they are correct, they have not been called. Or I believe they're not able to hear for all the clutter and static of a world bent on drowning the voice of the Lord. I have wept for the powerless, deviod, hollow christian whose light they have chosen to dim. But I also draw near to my own people, those who bear the mark of a zealous, peculiar nation; with callouses on their knees and fire in their hearts.I think pride has crept in unawares, for myself, when I start to feel like the lone soldier. I am not alone, not in prayer, nor spirit, nor unity. I am not special, just peculiar, zealous and not of this world which is a great place to be ;-) In love,Rich

Thought I would pull this back up again.

Thank you for pulling this back up. It is very timely and very true.

It's one thing to agree with something; and another to be learning it. It is indeed precious, everything learned at the side of the Savior is, but that does not mean that it is easy.

Myself, I am amazed at the patience of God to work with such stubborn humanity, such as myself.

Oh,to be brought to the place that it is not only "ok" to be brought down to the brokenhearted-humbled-corrected-proper view of self; it is good, and a part of God's wonderful grace!

In Christ

This article has really blessed me. I remember I was so addicted to Baseball and boxing I would get together with other brothers and watch these things until the early morning hours. God seemed to deal with me about it when I began to draw near to him. So I put those things away and have not engaged in them at all and it has really enhanced my relationship with God. But some people look at me and say hey are you a holy roller or something a stick in the mud I felt bad and even tempted to Go back but I kept at it(Going after God) and the bad thing is I never went around saying "the lord told me to do this or that" NEVER!! I found out that when I let go of these things I had more time for prayer, bible study, and family time the stress left my home God was now the sovereign of my heart . this article was confirmation to me that God chastens those he loves so that we can be partakers of his holiness I also shared it with my wife and she said " this was an answer to your prayers as to why you can't do what others in the church do". Now I am not saying that sports are sinful and I am not posting this to say hey don't do this or that but this is what the spirit told me to do because this part of my life (love for sports) was lord and not God and that in itself was the sin of Idolatry for me because I had another object before God and his will(Sports). You all be blessed and thanks for this wonderful article.

:-)