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crsschk
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 Re: G.D. Watson ~ Soul Food

[u]CHAPTER 18: "INTO THE DEEP"[/u]

In the 5th chapter of Luke, from the 1st to the 7th verses, we have an account of Jesus teaching on lake Gennesaret, and afterwards of the disciples launching out and letting down their nets for a draught of fishes, which is full of suggestive thoughts.

1- Before they launched out they were to hear the Word of God (vs 1). This is the first preliminary to all of life or service. The first thing we need to hear is God's Living Word. Before we can repent, or believe, or move out on life's duty, we need to receive in our innermost being the Living Word of God. As the earth is dead until until shined upon by the sun, so there is no capability of life or service in us until we hear the Living Word. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word." It is the Living Word touching our faculties, piercing our conscience, melting our hearts, moving our will, vitalizing our motives, which prepares us for obedience. In proportion as God's Word enters into us, in that proportion are we qualified for our mission.

2- "Launch". When He had left speaking, He said to Peter, "Launch out". So it is when we have heard His Living Word Spoken to us, by the Living Spirit, we are then prepared for the Command to launch out. This word implies the act of the will, which has been vitalized by the hearing of the Living Word. Previous to hearing the Word, the will is sluggish and rebellious; it has no motives or energy along lines of righteousness; but the imparted Word opens up motives, imparts strength, and arouses in the will the principal of choice and determination, which constitutes the taproot of moral character. There must be a fixed choice against all evil, or for all good. It is this fixed choice of the will which makes the central element of character. (see Isa 26:3) God watches the determination of the heart. This word "launch" implies throwing ourselves in utter dependence upon the Lord --- a co-operation with the Spirit, a giving up of our will to His Guidance.

In seeking pardon, or sanctification, or healing, or entering some special service, in various ways there come times in our lives where, after hearing the truth, we are to boldly, with all our will-power, "launch out".

3- "From the shore". To launch out implies launching from the shore. Going from the shore was to leave the multitude, the sights and sounds of terra firma; to leave home, and friends, and all that was on the land. How much this implies to us who will hear all the Living Word, and launch from the shore! It implies launching out from nature, with its laws, sciences, philosophies, from its materialism. It implies launching from the natural mind, with its carnal reasoning, opinions, taste, its prudence and whims, and fashions. It implies launching from all our past --- past failures and successes, all our past sins, and all our past righteousness as well. The cutting of the shore line that ties us to anything behind; the letting of all things go, that, like a receding shore to a sailor, it may fade from our vision. (It means saying "goodbye".)

4- "Into the deep". How deep He does not say. The depth into which we launch will depend upon how perfectly we have given up the shore and the greatness of our need, and the apprehension of our possibilities. The fish were to be found in the deep, not in the shallow water. So with us; our needs are to be met in the deep things of God.

We are to launch into the deep of God's Word, which the Spirit can open up to us in such crystal, fathomless meaning that the same words we have accepted in times past will have an ocean of meaning to them, which renders their first meaning to us very shallow. Into the deep of atonement, until Christ's precious Blood is so illuminated by the Spirit that it becomes an Omnipotent balm, and food and deep medicine for the soul and body. Into the deep of the Father's Will, until we apprehend it in its infinite minuteness and goodness, and its far-sweeping provision and care for us. Into the deep of the Holy Spirit, until He becomes a bright, dazzling, sweet, fathomless summer sea, in which we bathe and bask and breathe, and lose ourselves and our sorrows in the calmness and peace of His everlasting presence. Into the deep of God's providences, where we find the most marvelous answers to prayer, the most tender and careful guidance, the most thoughtful anticipation of our needs, the most accurate and supernatural shaping of events. Into the deep of purposes and coming Kingdom, until the Lord's coming and His millennial Reign are opened up to us; and beyond these the bright entrancing ages on ages unfold themselves, until the mental eye is dazed with light, and the heart flutters with inexpressible anticipations of its joy with Jesus and the glory to be revealed. Into all these things Jesus bids us launch. He made us, and He made the deep, and to its fathomless depths He has fitted our longings and capabilities.

5- "Down your nets". Their nets were the instruments for making their living. To us it signifies letting down our gifts, talents, occupations, into the will of God. Whatever we can utilize of money or business, or voice or pen, or thoughts or labor, or personal magnetism, yielding it utterly to the sway of the Spirit, sinking it all in the sea of His Will beyond our vision, trusting all results with Him.

6- "All night, and nothing". At that same place they had toiled all night and taken nothing. What failures they had experienced! How weary and discouraged they were! But God loves to take the most forlorn failures and turn them into successes. God loves to work in such a way as to outwit all the wise. By His gentle Omnipotence, He takes disappointment, failure, trouble, desolation, and all sorts of losses, and out of them coins the gold victory of success. Faber sings:

"God's glory is a wondrous thing,
...Most strange in all its ways,
And of all things on earth least like
...What men agree to praise.
For He can endless glory weave,
...From what men reckon shame;
In His own world He is content
...To play a losing game."

7- "At Thy Word..." The pivot on which Peter's faith swung was the Word "nevertheless". Notwithstanding our failure all night, "at Thy Word we will let down the net". This was simple faith embodied in obedience. Obedience is the body in which the soul of faith lives and moves. We are to believe and obey at His Word, notwithstanding the awful failures of the past; right on the spot of defeat, over the same waters, with the same net, in the same boat, without any visible signs of success, we are to drop ourselves into His Will. Simply obey, and leave it with Him, whether we take any fish or not. The more perfectly we see our failure, the more perfectly we can enter into the meaning of this "nevertheless, at Thy Word..."

8- "Their net brake". "The lame have taken the prey". The draught of fishes was more than they asked or thought; it was larger than the measure of their nets, or the size of their boat, or the thinking of their minds.

This same Jesus stands on our sea of life, waiting for us to yield in utter obedience, and willing to do in us and for us "exceeding abundantly above our asking or thinking", on lines of experience and usefulness.


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Mike Balog

 2006/6/12 16:02Profile
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 G.D. Watson ~ Soul Food

[u]CHAPTER 19: "CONCERNING ANNIHILATION..."[/u]

One of the most whimsical and foolish delusions which Satan in recent years has palmed off on some shallow-thinking Christians is the heresy that the souls of the wicked are to be annihilated. This error was never known among the ancient heathens, who believed, even before they had a revealed religion, that the souls of the good and the bad both exist forever.

There is no darkness like that which comes from rejected light. The rejection of the plain teachings of God's word has brought greater infidels than the heathen ever knew, and more heresies than the ancients ever dreamed of.

This notion of the annihilation of the wicked is propagated by putting a false meaning upon the Bible words "destruction" and "punishment." The word "destroy" does not mean to annihilate, but to wreck, ruin, render utterly useless for the purpose for which it was made. The words "everlasting destruction, "everlasting punishment," are perverted into meaning annihilation. If the wicked are to be annihilated and their punishment will not be everlasting, then their destruction will not be "everlasting." The everlastingness of punishment is put opposite the everlastingness of reward; and if it does not mean everlasting in the one case, neither does it mean that in the other.

Again, the word "death" is perverted into meaning annihilation. But the term "death" is the opposite of "life," and not the opposite of existence. Life and death are opposites; and it is false reason to take the opposite of life and make it mean the opposite of something else. We know in the realm of nature and of mind, that death is not annihilation. A piece of plank is dead; it was once a living tree, full of life, and the life has now left it; but it still exists. A dead human body still exists, with all its members and organs, though the life has left it; yet not one particle is annihilated. And in the realm of mind, Satan and evil spirits are dead in sin-they are separated from the true life of God, which is love; and yet they exist. And just as truly and as rationally as demons have an existence, who are separated from the life of God, so the souls of the wicked will exist forever, though dead in sin. This is implied in the words of Jesus, when He shall say: "depart from me, ye cursed, into hell, prepared for the devil and his angels." These very words imply that the wicked exist co-extensively with Satan and bad angels.

Again, there is not a single hint in the whole realm of matter of all kinds that anything will ever be annihilated. The Holy Spirit says, in Ecc. 3: 14: "I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever; nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it, and God doeth it that men should fear before Him.

This statement covers the whole extent of creation. There is no sign that any atom of matter has ever been annihilated. Created substances can undergo a thousand changes-solids become liquids, liquids solids, gases turn into rocks, and rocks into vapor-and there is no trace in the history of the world of anything like annihilation. And so in the human mind; we may forget millions of things, but under certain mental conditions, every event in our past lives can be recalled to the recollection.

This delusion of annihilation bears upon its very face the handiwork of the devil; it is just the doctrine that will suit the wicked-give them license to live as they please in this life, with the hope of plunging into non-existence when they leave this world.

No Christian can entertain an error like this without weakening the spiritual life, for all error is poison to the soul. Yet there are many people who fancy they can walk in communion with the Holy Ghost, and yet drink down this heresy that is afloat in the world. Some professed Christians fancy that they are more merciful than the Lord, and they think it will help out the doctrine of divine mercy to accept of the doctrine of mercy from the devil, for it is his aim to turn every truth of the word of God into a lie.


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Mike Balog

 2006/6/13 9:37Profile
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 G.D. Watson ~ Soul Food

[u]CHAPTER 20: "CONCERNING SOUL SLEEPING."[/u]

We are living in the times when the winds of heresy are blowing in every direction. One of these foolish heresies is "that the soul of man sleeps in utter unconsciousness from the time of death until the resurrection." In all those Scriptures where death is called a sleep, the plain reference is to the body. The only sleep that the Scriptures ascribe to the soul is to be asleep in sin. Sin acts upon the soul as opium on the body, rendering it unconscious of the things of eternity. Hence the word says, "Awake, thou that sleepest!"

We find in the Scripture the following facts to disprove the sleep of the soul in a disembodied state:

1. That the soul has a natural constitution of immortality.

We are told by Paul, in the 15th of 1st Corinthians, that Adam was made a living soul, but that Christ was made a quickening Spirit. The word "living soul" signifies an immortal soul; but Adam had no power to communicate spiritual life after his fall. On the other hand, Christ not only had an immortal soul, but power to regenerate other souls, and quicken them with the life of God. This is the difference between the first and second Adam.

We are told, in Ecclesiasted, 3rd chapter, that the spirit of man goeth upward, but that the spirit of a beast goeth downward; proving that at death the soul of man, in its mode of existence, is opposite to the soul of beast. We read in Zechariah, 12th chapter, that the "Lord formeth the spirit of man within Him." And the Apostle speaks of an "inner man." All such scripture plainly teaches that the soul has a formation and constitution independent of the physical life.

2. We read in several places that after persons had died, they were raised from the dead by their souls coming back into their bodies, showing that it was immortal.

In 1st Kings, 17th chapter, we read the account of Elijah's raising the widow's son from the dead. It says: "And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived." A similar passage is found in the 18th chapter of Luke, where Jesus raised from the dead the daughter of Jairus, when He said: "Maid, arise; her spirit came again, and she arose straightway." These Scriptures prove that the soul is a conscious, immortal personality; that it can exist in the body and out of the body, and returns again into the body.

3. The Scriptures speak of the soul going down to hell after the body is dead.

In the 14th chapater of Isaiah, we have an account of the death of the tyrannical king of Babylon, and his descent into hell. He was such a great man that at his death "hell from beneath was moved to meet him at his coming;" and the other wicked kings, who had gone into hell before him, "rose to meet him at his comming" and exclaimed, "Art thou become like unto us!" We are also told, in verse 16, that they "looked narrowly upon him, and considered him," exclaiming, "Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms!" And while all this was taking place in hell, we are told that his body was in the grave "covered with worms." (See verse 11.)

In the 10th chapter of Matthew, Jesus warns us "not to fear them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell," in which Jesus shows clearly that the soul can exist apart from the body; that it cannot be killed, as the body can, and that it can be in hell apart from the body.

The Lord also tells us of an actual occurrence, in the 16th of Luke, of a "curtain rich man" that died, "and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment." This man's soul had been asleep in sin all his life, and he never woke up to the reality of eternal things until he awoke in hell. This is the condition of millions today. They will never get their souls' opened until they open them in hell.

4. That the soul is alive and conscious when separated from the body is clearly shown from a great many Scriptures.

We see, in Ecclesiastes, 12th chapter, that at death the dust of man's body "returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns unto God who gave it."

"Life is real, life is earnest,
And the grave is not its goal,
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul."


Jesus told the penitent thief on the cross that before that day ended he would be with Him in Paradise. (See Luke 23: 43.) The real man to whom Christ was talking was not the fleshly body which was soon buried, but the immortal spirit in the body. He says, "Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise," showing that the real man would be conscious and happy in a world of bliss, away from all the sufferings of the body.

Paul tells us, in 2nd Corinthians, 5th chapter, that "whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord," but that we who have the earnest of the Spirit are "willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." He also tells us, in the same Epistle, 12th chapter, that at the time he was stoned at Lystra, and left for dead, he was caught up into Paradise, and that whether he was in the body or out of the body he could not tell, and that while in that state he heard unspeakable words; proving conclusively that the real, thinking, knowing soul can exist apart from the body, with all its faculties and powers intact.

Peter tells us, in his Epistle, 3rd chapter, that after Christ was crucified, "He went unto the spirits in prison, who had died in the Flood, and proclaimed unto them His victory," showing that the souls of those drowned in the Flood were alive, and had been confined in a place of imprisonment ever since the days of Noah.

5. The recognition of souls in the disembodied state is expressly stated in nearly all the foregoing Scriptures.

The souls in hell immediately recognized the king of Babylon, in Isaiah 14. The rich man in hell at once recognized Abraham and Lazarus across the impassable gulf; and Abraham noticed his lost kinsmen. Moses had died, and his body was buried in one of the valleys in the mountains of Moab; but we read, in Luke 9: 30, that at the transfiguration of Jesus, Moses and Elijah appeared with Him, and that they were recognized by three apostles. When Stephen was being stoned he saw the heavens opened and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and he said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." This demonstrates the fact that the spirit of Stephen was not going to die or sleep with his body, and that he recognized the Savior in heaven. When St. John was in Patmos, receiving the revelation, he "saw the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, and he heard them cry, "How long, O Lord?" (Rev. 6: 9-11). This proves that these disenbodied martyrs were not asleep; that they were recognized by the Apostle; that they possessed all their faculties; that they could pray; and that they were earnestly expecting the time to receive their resurrected and glorified bodies.

These Scriptures teach that souls in the disembodied state possess all their mental faculties-thought, memory, reason, perception-unimpaired; and that they have the same moral character that they had in the body; that they have suffering or joy; torment or comfort; that they recognize each other; that they can communicate with each other; that they take a great interest in the affairs of this world in reference to its destiny.

In confirmation of these Scriptures, volumes could be compiled of dying sinners who have had glimpses into hell, and dying saints who have had visions into heaven, and recognized the presence of angels and departed friends ere they left the body. For a Christian to be so deceived as to believe that the soul is unconscious after death, shows either a lack of Scripture knowledge, or a mind that is deluded by Satan.


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Mike Balog

 2006/6/14 0:18Profile
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 G.D. Watson ~ Soul Food

[u]CHAPTER 21: "GIVING THE TENTH"[/u]

It is no small perversion of Scripture that the passage in Malachi 3:10, about bringing the tithes into the storehouse, should always be applied to a spiritual consecration. If thousands of Christians would only take it just as it reads, and begin at once to give God a tenth of all they receive, it would prove to be the keystone in the arch of a full consecration, and one of the greatest blessings of their lives, both spiritually and temporally.

Some may say that the giving of a tenth was only a Mosaic law; but this is a mistake; it was in practice by the saints of God five hundred years before the giving of the law. Abraham gave a tenth of his spoils to the priest of God (Hebrew 7:4); and Jacob gave a tenth of his income to the Lord; and, so far as we know, it was the practice of Noah and the saints of earliest ages. When the Holy Spirit gets possession of a soul, He writes this principle of giving a tenth on the heart, showing it is not merely a Mosaic, but a Holy Ghost law.

It is a great blessing financially to constantly give a tenth of all you receive to the Lord. The living God keeps His financial promises just as absolutely as He does His salvation promises. "Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty." How few Christians positively believe this word and steadily act on it! I have never yet met a person who gave regularly a tenth to the Lord that ever regretted it. They uniformly testify that since they have done so, they have prospered far better in all their temporal affairs. I am absolutely sure, with Muller, that God does not want any of His children in debt, or destitute; and if all of us who are in debt will repent of the sin for getting in debt, and promise God never to go in debt again, and to give Him one-tenth of all we receive, and stick to the covenant with a living heart, He will begin to work financial mercies for us, and soon have us free from debt. (See Rom. 13: 8.)

After losing my orange groves in the freeze of January, 1895, and being heavily in debt, I acted on these principles; and since I made that covenant, God has wrought up undreamed-of financial miracles. A lady thousands of miles from my home wrote me, to my surprise, saying she felt impressed of God to give me $80 every year till my debts were paid; and many other things have happened just as marvelous. Since that covenant I have never gone a cent deeper in debt; have never been with- out some cash money, and have a hundredfold more assurance for all financial supplies than when I had the property. So firm is my faith in the point that if I had no postage stamp to send a letter to my family, and had some of God's tenth by me, I would not touch it to buy a stamp, but wait on my Heavenly Father for it.

God will not do wonders for us till we get away from our slip-shod faith and partial obedience. A great many will say they keep no regular account; they think they give about a tenth, etc. That is the way I used to give, but I see now that is shilly-shally obedience. It will please God to give Him the tenth, and not a guess about the tenth. Then some aim to give a tenth at the end of the month, or end of the year. This is degrading our Lord be putting self first and Him last. Honor God by putting Him and His kingdom always first, and then He will honor you. Just as soon as you receive any money, be it ever so small, take out the tenth for the Lord; do not wait till you spend the nine-tenths; do not use it all up, and promise to pay the Lord's tenth out of the next money you get; that is a slovenly, shabby way of dealing with God. Treat your Lord in all these matters with the respect and honor as if He stood visibly by your side; don't be mean and stigy in your treatment of Him, but generous and prompt and free-hearted, and God will treat you like a prince, and ever and anon He will astonish you with some great favor. Be you ever so poor, old or young, married or single, parent or child, even if you have only an occasional dime to call your own, give one cent of it to God; do it religiously, lovingly, rigidly, and, as sure as you live, Omnipotence will find some way to bless you in your temporal affairs.

Will you believe this? Will you begin at once to do it? Ask the Holy Ghost to help you keep it as a holy covenant. Ask the divine guidance just where you should give the tenth; don't bestow it according to your preference, but keep your mind impartial, and the spirit will lead you where to give it.

If you follow this rule, you will be perfectly surprised how much you can give away in a year and never miss it. I used to think I was liberal; but since giving a tenth regularly, I find I give three times as much as I used to, and do it with far more ease and comfort.

"Give, and it shall be given you." God's word is true; obey it, prove it, and see for yourself.


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Mike Balog

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 G.D. Watson ~ Soul Food

[u]CHAPTER 22: "LET GOD!"[/u]

The name of God occurs thirty-five times in the first thirty-five verses in Genesis; and the word "let" occurs fourteen times in the same verses. The number thirty-five is five times the religious number seven, and fourteen is twice the religious number, and put together they make seven times seven, which is the Pentecostal number of Scripture; so that the words "let God" form the key to the religious life, and the key to the Pentecostal measure of that life. The first "let" is, "Let there be light," and the last is, "Let them have dominion over all things." So that from the first dawn of divine light in the soul up to the glorious kingdom in the new earth, the secret of every step is to be so utterly yielded to the unfolding will of God as to let Him work in us, and be us, and for us.

When we are seeking pardon, how all our mental powers are tangled in darkness, all our heart rent with such mingled emotions of fear, hope, and sorrow; how our will struggled like a chained animal, till in self-despair we throw ourselves for weal or woe into the hands of Jesus, and just let Him save us!

Then when, as believers, we are heart-sick over our interior sinfulness of nature, and longing for inward rest and purity of soul, after so many sore conflicts and unexplainable alternations between light and darkness, we are brought to a crisis, and the little words, "let God," are the only outlet from self-struggling into the calm, sweet rest of the cleansing power of Jesus. Those who receive Jesus for the healing of their bodies have the same lesson of "let God" to learn over again. How much physical or mental suffering we endure, how many swingings of hope and fear between sanity and insanity, between life and death, how many tossings of argument in the reason for and against divine healing, before one learns to yield all the ills of the body to the healing will of Jesus, and without a struggle or an anxiety just "let" Him pour the health-virtue of His precious body through every part of the being. And then, in addition to these definite steps of "letting God," there are numerous instances in the seeking of larger enduements of the Holy Spirit, in the department of God's providences, where we have to learn over and over again to cease from all our planning, all our imaginings of ways and means, all our uneasiness or care, and just calmly, sweetly, patiently, humbly "let God" manage and work in us and for us along lines beyond all our dreaming. These words " let God" are the latch to hundreds of doors in the vast palaces of divine life and providence. The Lord has ways of shutting up His children at times in mysterious providential walls, through which all their ingenuity and labor can make no door. How often they strive to break through impenetrable walls of limitation and difficulty, think of ways and agencies of getting through till the brain aches, when at last they lie helpless and limp, and consent to "let God" do good as He pleases; when lo! the iron gates of circumstance and hindrances open noiselessly of their own accord. (See Acts 22 : 10.) Because we have "let God" convert, or sanctify, or heal us, does not insure a perpetual letting of God in all other matters and directions. As a rule, we have to learn to "let God" do in us and for us, over a great many times and in a variety of things, before we from a fixed habit of always letting Him.

It is only by an intimate union with the Holy Spirit, causing our innermost being to move in steady harmony with God, that we can be ready at every sharp turn and under all sorts of circumstances to "let God" mould and move all our welfare according to His best purpose. It is not a cold fatalism or stoical indifference to God's will, but a warn, bright gulfstream of Holy Ghost life, in which all the choices, motives, intentions, affections, and volitions steadily coincide and co-operate with God's will concerning us. "Let the peace of God rule in your heart," "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly," "Let not your heart be troubled." Let God have all your inner and outer difficulties just as they are, without moving a finger to tinker them up. Let the slow, imperceptible, noiseless ocean of omnipotence flow into you, into your being, your life, your troubles, your friends, foes, finances, into that unexplainable mystery which perplexes you, into that very thing that just now weighs upon you.

From this moment lift the latch of your will, and let that eternal, silent sea of love, in which all the angels, and the worlds, and all ages float, take possession of you and yours forever. If from the very depths of our hearts we yield a constant, loving "let" to God, then He, through the eternal spirit, will speak into us and for us all these fourteen "lets" of His marvelous creation, from "Let there be light," to "Let him have dominion over" all things.


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Mike Balog

 2006/6/25 8:21Profile
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 G.D. Watson ~ Soul Food

[u]CHAPTER #23 "BURDENS OF PRAYER"[/u]

While Jesus is making intercession at the right hand of God, the Holy Spirit on the earth is praying through the hearts of those in whom He dwells. The human spirit is the vehicle through which the Holy Ghost pours His deep, divine yearnings, and in the same proportion that He widens and fills our souls, will He breathe into us these strong, sweet, melting intercessions, which are according to the will of the Father.

It is an infinite honor for the Spirit to put any burden of prayer on us, even when it is for our personal or family welfare; but when He draws us out into the priestly life of Christ, and puts in us unspeakable prayer for persons and objects that lie far beyond our personal and family interests, then it is in a higher sense praying in the Holy Ghost and alone for God's glory. The Spirit will divide and diversify His burdens of prayer according to the grace and gifts of each believer, calling some to pray in one direction and others in another, and He will put the pressure of prayer on and continue it, according to the soul's capacity, and its degree of willing co-operation with God in the prayer. A history of special burdens of prayer, as to their intensity and duration, would be amazing, especially if traced in connection with the answer that followed.

Many years ago the Spirit drew me out in some singular prayers. For over a month I was led to prayer for little children who were unmercifully whipped; they would be brought before my mind so vividly I could almost hear their screams, and I would weep and pray for them as if my heart would break, Then, for over a month, I was burdened to plead for the insane, and at such seasons I could mentally see them, and enter into their sufferings beyond anything I had imagined.

One day, in the winter of 1879 and 1880, there fell on me suddenly a great prayer for the spread of holiness in the Southern States. I was led to pray three or four times a day for this; the spiritual condition of the Churches from Norfolk, Va., to New Orleans was revealed to me in such marvelous light, from day to day, as no one would credit unless they had a similar experience. My tears flowed in streams; my heart swelled and throbbed with unutterable longings to evangelize in my native Southland. I was then a pastor in New Albany, Indiana. When that burden of prayer had continued for two months, I learned with joy that the celebrated John S. Inskip and party were in Charleston, S.C., conducting a great holiness revival. In after years I met Miller Willis, of South Carolina, and to my surprise I found that he and another friend had been praying together every night for three months, and at the same time I was let to pray.

Three years after that time I had the great joy of attending a wonderful Holiness Convention in Gainesville, Ga., at which time there was organized the first Holiness Association ever formed in the South, so far as I know. Since then, what has God wrought! In the past few years, since passing through many inexpressible trials on various lines, it has pleased the Holy Ghost to again draw me out into the deep, warm gulf-stream of intercessory prayer. I never tire of it; and if I can find the time, I live to spend from two to four hours every day in secret pleading with God.

At 4 p.m., January 3rd, 1895, an overwhelming prayer came on me for a great Holiness Mission in San Francisco, which continued every day for year.

In July, 1895, another burden of prayer was given me for a great Revival of sanctification among the black people of the South, lasting six months.

In September, 1895, one afternoon a great longing prayer came in my heart for a mighty outpouring of the Spirit in sanctifying and healing power upon the north of Ireland. This prayer for Ireland has been on me with many tears for over seven months.

In December, 1895, I was burdened for Cuba and Armenia and Persia, for their liberation from the beast and the false prophet, and opening up to full Gospel light.

In January, 1896, there came a deep, sad, weeping prayer in my soul for the poor little girl-widows of India; as I pray for them, my heart aches, and they seem as dear to me as my own children.

In the past three months I have been much drawn to pray for large outpourings of the Spirit in Pueblo, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Staunton, Va. In addition to these, I have special and peculiar longings in prayer for various persons; in some cases for their conversion, others for sanctification, others for healing, others for deliverance from awful snares of Satan which I felt they were getting into, others for financial relief, others for God to send then to mission fields. Some of these burdens have been painful, even distressing; some have been accompanied with a longing and pining of heart, and some were with a heavenly sweetness and tenderness beyond expression. In some cases, the prayers came on me suddenly and powerfully, and , after days or months, gradually left me; in other instances, they came gradually, getting stronger, till I would groan and weep for a season, and then suddenly leave me.

While in prayer for these various places, they are brought to my mind so vividly. I seem to see the localities, scenery, and the people and their mental and moral condition; and in the case of individuals I am burdened for, the Holy Spirit makes me feel at times the very state of their hearts and minds; if they are self-willed, I have a distress in prayer for them; if they are yielding, I feel a sweet flow of prayer. I hope many who read this will abandon themselves fully to the sway of the spirit in prayer; we thereby enter the true priestly life of our precious Jesus. It may be seen in eternity that we accomplished more by our prayers than be all other things combined.


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Mike Balog

 2006/6/26 8:57Profile
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Santa Clara, CA

 Re: G.D. Watson ~ Soul Food

[u]CHAPTER 24 "SOME STRIKING INCIDENTS."[/u]

It takes us a long time, it seems to come into the full realization that the Holy Ghost is actually an Omnipotent person, extending around the whole world, and that He often works in a simultaneous and wondrous way on souls widely separated from each other. A thing that we have believed for years, when brought home to our experience by living facts, seems so new and powerful to us.

In the autumn of 1894, when going through great trouble, I spent much time fasting and prayer. It pleased my heavenly Father to encourage me be many wondrous instances of the guidance of the Holy Spirit; so striking were they that I I ought to print some of them for the encouraging of the hearts of others. A lady in Nottingham, England, wrote me that she felt impelled to tell me how God had used my little book, "White Robes," to lead her into the restoration of the fullness of the Spirit, and that, when she went into a private room to pray, the Spirit, in a very definite way, put my name into her mind, and a special petition in her heart for me. This special petition given to her for me was, word for word, the very prayer that I was pleading for myself at the same time, five thousand miles away. During those months I used to awake quite regularly at three o'clock in the morning, and get up and spend an hour in prayer. A very dear minister, who walked very close ot God, came to visit me, and said that, for some time past, he had strangely awakened at 3 A.M., and had felt led by the Spirit to get up and pray for me. During this time, I received a letter from a devoted man and his wife, whom I had never seen, living in Canada, over two thousand miles from my home, saying that several times they had been strangely awakened at 3 A.M., and clearly impressed by the Holy Spirit to have a season of prayer for me. The evidence was overwhelming that all this was the direct agency of the omnipresent, personal Holy Ghost. My whole being was profoundly impressed by those movements of the Spirit. I was, in a stronger light than ever before, that the Holy Spirit, as an infinite personality, enveloped the human race as a tender, watchful ocean of live; I saw an extraordinary proof of His compassion and interest in me, an infallible proof that He would answer the prayers which He had so marvelously prompted. Glory to the Triune God forever! At that time, in my reading of the Bible, certain passages would be powerfully given to me by the Spirit as my own, and in nearly every such instance I would receive, a few days after, a letter from some saint saying they felt led ot pray for me, and that while in prayer the Spirit had very definitely given them such a passage of Scripture for me, which was the very passage given to me some days previous.

This leading of the Spirit occured a great many times; and in one instance four persons, in different parts of the country, each wrote, giving me the same text, as having been impressed on their minds while in prayer for me. I knew these things were not by chance, but from God, and they made those portions of the word doubly precious to my heart. I have scores of those letters filed away and the passages marked, as living memorials of the minute guidance of the Holy Spirit.

I remember, one week in the early summer of 1895, that many different things were pressing sorely on my heart. The Spirit put on me a burden of prayer which seemed greater than my heart could contain. After pleading with tears for several days, I cried out in an agony, "O Lord, please put this burden of prayer on some other souls; do select some of your dear saints to share this prayer with me." In four days after I received three letters in the same mail- one from the city of Denver, one from the hills of Kentucky, and one from a village in Georgia- each writer saying that on s certain day, the day of my agonizing prayer, they had been strangely and powerfully burdened in prayer for me, and all the three testified of having the assurance that the prayer would be answered. You can only imagine how the conjoint testimony of these letters- all received the same moment- went through my innermost heart. I have those wonderful letters yet, every line of them written as under direct inspiration of God.

My poor heart swells with love and my eyes flow with tears of gratitude, and I in memory read over and over the life pages of the marvelous, far-reaching, particular, personal, and precious leadings of the blessed Comforter. The deeper our union with Jesus, the more clearly we recognize the presence of God in every thing and event. One of the reservation secrets of heaven will be to return the pages of our earthly lives and see every moment of our history from God's standpoint, and find that His watchful, overruling presence was hidden in the very places where we least suspected Him. If we look for wonders, we will not likely see them, but if we seek in perfect lowliness proofs of His being the living God in the little things of our lives.


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Mike Balog

 2006/6/27 1:02Profile
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Santa Clara, CA

 G.D. Watson ~ Soul Food

[u]CHAPTER #25 "PRAYING FOR AN ENEMY."[/u]

I am convinced we have far too shallow views of that command to pray for our enemies. It means a vast more than to say, "God bless our foes." It means that we are to take them on our heart in good earnest, and intercede for them, particularly, lovingly, perseveringly- pray for them till out of a living heart we can unite their highest welfare with our own.

I have been blessed all my life with a few enemies; at a few periods in my life with a great many, and sometimes they have been exceedingly bitter. But in reviewing the past, I notice that I have had the fewest enemies and the most popularity when I was the least spiritual and the farthest away from God; and that, when I have had deepest fellowship with Christ, I have been the most misunderstood by religious people and the most intensely hated by bad people. I can recall many seasons when I felt it a necessity to pray especially both for positive enemies and for Christian people, who had greatly injured me, while they did not intend to be my foes. One such circumstance occurred in the early summer of 1895. A certain very bitter enemy had done many things to greatly damage both me and my family. I had often prayed for him in my secret devotions, but one day I felt drawn to go off alone into a forest and spend some hours in pleading to God for him and his family. At the beginning of my prayer, I tried to exercise great charity for the man by putting myself in his place, and looking at my own miserable self from his standpoint. But the Spirit soon showed me that was the human way, and not the Divine. It came to me that what I needed was to love that man with the identical same love that Jesus had for him; to pity, sympathize with, and feel toward him exactly as God felt, up to my capacity; that I was to be a living vessel in such union with the Holy Spirit that Jesus could love him through me, and pour His Divine live through my affections. It was revealed to me that in order to love him as Christ loved, I must utterly abandon my being to the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of becoming a channel of the perfectly unselfish, impartial, disinterested, tender, and boundless compassion of God. I complied with the suggestion of the Spirit, and before I had prayed an hour the fountains of my soul were broken up, my tears flowed like rain; I felt a warm, soft love for him; all his welfare of body and soul, all his family, all his temporal and eternal interests, became very precious in my sight.

As I continued to plead with God for his soul's salvation, and for all his welfare in detail, suddenly that Spirit opened to my mind what a lovely Christian that man would make if he was thoroughly washed in Jesus' blood, and filled with the Holy Spirit. I seemed to see his soul and all his gifts and powers, now so perverted by sin- how lovely they would be if transformed be Divine grace! As I viewed him under the possibilities of saving grace, he seemed transfigured in my vision. I then prayed that I might feel a Christ-like grief for any trouble that might befall him. From that moment it has been easy and sweet to pray for him, and I never think of him except with a pecullarly tender love.

A few months after, that man had a great calamity which brought pain and sadness to my heart; yet I was accused of praying the misfortune upon him. Our neighbors and acquaintances can never really know what is in our hearts till that great day. It is infinitely more essential that we actually love our fellows than that we convince them of our love. If Jesus was unable to convince men of His love to them, are we greater than He? It is the deep reality of having the Christ-love flow through us to everybody that we need, far more than the success of showing it to people. I find the more I pray for anyone, the easier it is for me to think well of him, and to look at his conduct in the most favorable light.

Not only must we pray long and fervently for our positive foes, but pray much for religious people who are cold and severe to us; for if we do not keep our hearts warm and pure, and very tender to everybody on earth, we lose that sweet sense of oneness with Jesus which is worth more than all the friendships of creatures. It is not my calling to make people love me; it is my great business to have perfect union with the Holy Spirit, and to love all with God's love, whether they love or have confidence in me or not.


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Mike Balog

 2006/6/28 9:15Profile
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Posts: 9192
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 Re: G.D. Watson ~ Soul Food

[u]CHAPTER #26 "MARVELOUS ANSWER TO PRAYER."[/u]


During the year 1895, the Lord permitted me to have in my life and experience many very wonderful answers to prayer. I wish now to give an account of only one among a great number.

It is well known that the orange groves in Florida were nearly all killed in January, 1895, so that my property, from which I expected a support, was all ruined. I was divinely kept from even a thought of a murmur. I fasted and prayed many days, and made a solemn covenant with God: First, I would ask help of no one except the Lord. Second, that I would not go any deeper in debt. Third, that I would very rigidly give God one-tenth of all He gave to me. My faith had a few testing seasons, but I never lacked, and I was never out of cash money. The infinitely tender dealings of God for the year, in spiritual and physical matters, would fill a book. Here is only one. I had more urgent need for money coming due in November. I knew I had no way to get the money but by prayer, so all through September and October I prayed much for the funds, and I observed several days of fasting. I was kept in perfect peace, yet intense looking to God. During the last week in October, a poor, sanctified widow fifteen hundred miles from me, and who had never seen me, wrote to me that she was very powerfully impressed of the Spirit to spend a whole day in prayer for my temporal supplies, and that God spoke into her heart that He would supply my needs. I needed one hundred dollars by November 10th, and another hundred in December, but my little prayer only took in the first hundred. On the 6th of November, after supper, just before beginning the weekly holiness meeting in my house, I was walking in the library, talking with the Lord of my deep need; suddenly the Holy Ghost opened up to my mind a fresh and strong view of the Fatherly provision of God for me. My whole soul was melted into love and peace; tears of joy flowed down my face; there was something just like a voice talking in my heart, which said, "Money is nothing to Me; it is only My wrapping-paper, and is inexhaustible; just give Me continually your warmest love and perfect obedience, and I will attend to your finances."

With these words in my mind, I felt that my prayer was answered. In four more days the money would be needed, and I did not have my mind on anybody on earth to supply it. On the 9th I received a letter from a sanctified business man, several thousand miles away, saying that he "felt a strong impulse to send me a check for over two hundred dollars." The receipt of the check did not surprise me at all, for my faith was expecting God to do something; but I walked into the forest and sat down on a log, and just gazed for an hour at the great and living God, and adored His matchless love and the reality of His personal presence. I did not know which to admire most, the movement of the Holy Ghost on the widow to pray, or on the dear brother to send the money. And then to see the accuracy of the Lord's time-table, that the supply should reach me just on time to a day. I at once took out one-tenth for the Lord.

Now I have written this only for God's glory, to encourage the child of God to have perfect faith in Him, and I earnestly recommend the rigid principles of giving the tenth to God of all that we receive.

The Lord wants us to pray very particularly and persistently for all things which are covered by His promises, and it is a good way to prove our earnestness by fasting, especially in emergencies. God is now waiting to work thousands of wonders for His children, in saving, or healing, or filling, or providing, if they will deeply and perseveringly plead His promises through the merit of Jesus.


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Mike Balog

 2006/6/30 0:31Profile





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