I came across this article posted by a dear sister of mine on another site and so wish to share it with you here.
I was curious to find out more about GD Watson, as I had never heard of him until yesterday. He was born in 1845 and went to the Lord in 1923. A short bio can be found at the Well of Oath site. I also found a link to other sermons by him at Sermon Index – GD WATSON should you wish to read more.
All I know is that a person who can write like this, has to live or have lived like this. You cannot not know this and write it. It can only be Holy Spirit inspired and lived out in the actual life to be explained and written as it has.
I pray it will not challenge you, but change your heart towards the Lord and what it means to walk in Him. May it cause your heart to cry out to Him for more of Him and nothing more.
It is in my humble understanding that nothing less can or will ever truly satisfy us as His children this side of heaven… He has to be fully Sovereign in our lives. We were designed by the Lord to have this kind of dependence on Him to the utmost.
OTHERS MAY, YOU CANNOT
G. D. WatsonIf 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.
Yeah, this is the text of the little tract that Paul Washer mentioned in Ten Indictments was given to him by Leonard Ravenhill some years back. I’ve found various versions of the text online, but my preference runs to this one, or at least very similar to this one (I’ve seen them watered down just a bit too). Very comforting.
…although…. as with anything else, I do believe that if this describes one’s individual heart and apparent situation, we do have to be on guard against that constant spectre of pride. Our human nature loves to take something like a life filled with hardships and become very prideful through and because of them when we’re given a beautiful reason for them such as this, and if it soaks us through, it can make us reluctant to accept anything wonderful or filled with joy because we might think it’s a bad thing or a judgment against us. Add to that our enemy who would love to make something ugly out of something beautiful and destroy our testimony, and who would love to make us so inwardly-focused that we no longer participate well in the part of the Body that we’re called to be, and I have a feeling this is why when Washer mentioned this tract he said, “I don’t agree with everything” before trailing off and moving on to his next point. Truth is, Scripture doesn’t tell us these things. It doesn’t make room for one person to be of a higher calling and thus have a more stringent discipline than the next, it says all who are received of Him will be scourged.
Off to work now! Have a wonderful day!
Hi dear Barbara
As always, you bring wonderful extras to the ‘table’ that we share here as family and it is always a joy to read what you write.
I fully agree that our pride can also get in the way if we are not on our guard.
I have been down this dreadful road when my life began to be changed by the Lord and in His mercy and grace, showed me my reflection in His ‘mirror’. Instead of looking to the Lord for Him, I began to look to my own perceived ‘whiteness’. Not a pretty sight ever for anyone, is it? But oh, so very needful for us to look at!!!
The need for utter transparency with the Lord is of paramount importance and also, to be receptive to Him when we do step out of His best for us and He shows us. He will always show us, it is us who are sometimes cloth-eared and unwilling to see. His patience is incredible with us. There can be no place for hidden ‘anythings’ in our heart ever.
The changes are often slow and we learn bit by bit as we go. When we learn that we really are nothing and that HE is ALL, we are more apt and willing to look away from ourselves, although the flesh will always be waiting in the wings for a piece of the glory and recognition.
The more He fills us and we become less, this need in us will fade in time as we grow in Him although I do not believe that it will vanish altogether this side of heaven. (Paul speaks at length about this) Our willingness for that change is crucial as is our utter surrender and submission to all that He brings before us and into our lives. It is part of the maturing process and each one of us has different things that are needful to take place, for Him to bring this maturation about. It is indeed the scourging you have mentioned and it does apply to each of His children. The Lord is no respecter of persons (lovely phrase – as it says in the KJV
)
I recently watched Louie Giglio’s DVD called, History, and one of the wonderful things he shares, amongst many, was “I AM” is exactly that, “I AM” and that we are, “I am not“!
It is perhaps a simplistic laying out of an enormous Truth, but it was rather effective and probably got the point across to those who perhaps had not thought about it before in that way. It definitely stayed with my husband to great effect.
Bless you and thank you for your comments. Have a wonderful day too
Hello Steph!
This certainly does answer some of those “why is this happening to me” questions!
I had heard of this, but have never read it in its entirety…so thank you for sharing it.
BTW—I loved your response on Mike’s blog today. It blessed me very much and I wanted to tell you that.
Blessings to you this week.
Oh Diane, you bless me with your encouragement!
I have a few other articles around this topic I can point you to should you so wish. Some I have written and some Mike has written. Just let me know.
Bless you sister
Steph
I would love that…at your convenience.
Hi Diane
Here are a few articles you can have a look at that each have something important to share about the Lord being and becoming Sovereign in our lives and how He takes us to that.
May they bless you and glorify our Lord!
Dying to self and suffering go hand in hand.
http://surrender-all-jessie.com/?s=Dying+to+self+and+suffering+go+hand+in+hand&submit.x=12&submit.y=7&submit=Search
Are we prepared to be squeezed by God?
http://surrender-all-jessie.com/2009/10/14/are-we-prepared-to-be-squeezed-by-god/
God’s Chastening Love
http://surrender-all-jessie.com/2009/07/10/gods-chastening-love/
Why Saints Persevere
http://surrender-all-jessie.com/2009/05/04/why-saints-persevere/
Fingers and Thumbs
http://surrender-all-jessie.com/2008/10/13/fingers-and-thumbs/