Others May, You Cannot

I have written before about early truths that God gave me as a young Christian that changed the course and direction of my life. Today I'll share another. My sister sent this to me when she was attending Tennessee Temple back in the seventies. I've handwritten it word for word into the front of every Bible I've ever owned, so great has been it's impact on me. Others May, You Cannot If God has called you to be truly 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 others do things which He will not let you do. Other Christians who seem to be very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot, 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 works, of their successes, and 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 such deep mortification that you will despise yourself and all of 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; a helpless dependence on Him. He wants to have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of 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. 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. Then, to make your work still more precious, He may let others get the credit for the work which you have done, and thus make your reward even greater when Jesus comes. The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for careless little 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 the right to do as He pleases with His own. He may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to be His servant, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and bestow upon you blessings which come only to those who are in His 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 which He does not seem to use with others. Now when you are so completely possessed by 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 very highest calling of God. By G.D. Watson (1845-1924)