Archivio articoli in Lingua Inglese OTHERS MAY: YOU CANNOT 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. |