Others May - You Cannot

 Others Can – You Cannot

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 successors,

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 a 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 modest and humble,

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 honoured and put forward, 

but 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 to do a work for him and get the credit for it,

but He will request that you work and toil on without knowing 

how much you are doing;

and then to make your work still more precious 

He may then 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

pleasers 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 a jealous love, and bestow upon you

many blessings which come only to those who are truly his elect and chosen ones.

Settle it for ever, 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 the secret place of your 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 divine pathway towards heaven.