-Author Unknown.
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.
WHEN
YOU ARE forgotten, neglected, or purposefully set at naught, and you smile
inwardly, glorying in the insult or the oversight, because thereby you are
counted worthy to suffer with Christ, THAT IS VICTORY.
WHEN
YOUR GOOD is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, when your taste is
offended, when your advise is disregarded, when your opinions are ridiculed,
and you take it all in patient, loving silence, THAT IS VICTORY.
WHEN
YOU ARE content with any food, raiment, climate, society, solitude,or any
interruption by the will of God, THAT IS VICTORY.
--
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