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G.D. Watson

George Douglas Watson (1845–1924). Born on March 26, 1845, in Accomac County, Virginia, G.D. Watson was a Methodist holiness preacher, evangelist, and prolific author who became a leading voice in the late 19th-century holiness movement. Raised in a devout Methodist family with godly influences like family prayer and Sunday school, he felt convictions at age five or six, singing “Rock of Ages” with siblings, and sensed a call to preach by 12 or 13. Despite early rebellion, described as the “black sheep” among six siblings, he sought religion during revivals and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Ordained in 1868, he pastored in Kentucky but struggled spiritually until 1876, when he sought sanctification, achieving it after a Cincinnati evangelists’ conference, transforming his ministry with a focus on holiness. Watson’s evangelistic campaigns spanned the United States, England, the West Indies, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Korea, preaching a deeper Christian life. He authored over 18 books, including Soul Food, Our Own God, Bone of His Bone, and The Heavenly Life, emphasizing sanctification, the Holy Spirit, and victory over sin, many still in print via publishers like Kingsley Press. Married to Eva, who wrote his biography, Glimpses of the Life and Work of G.D. Watson, he faced personal trials, including his wife’s illness and his lapse into tobacco use during a period of spiritual backsliding. Watson died in 1924, leaving a legacy as an “Apostle to the Sanctified.” He said, “The Holy Spirit never comes to us to make us smart, but to make us holy.”
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G.D. Watson preaches about the secret of power lying in recognizing the constant presence of the Holy Spirit, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging His presence in all aspects of our lives and work for God. The Holy Spirit always precedes and accompanies every work of grace, moving through truth and personalities to bring about spiritual transformation. By recognizing the Holy Spirit's presence, we are inspired with energy, definiteness, and a sense of freedom and gladness that nothing else can provide, enabling us to tap into a power above all eloquence and magnetism for gospel purposes.
The Secret of Spiritual Power (F)
The concluding thought in connection with the secret of power is, we must constantly recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit. There is a marvelous secret of strength in recollecting the divine presence in us and in the work God calls us to. "Moses endured as seeing Him who was invisible." "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." The saints in the middle ages looked upon holiness as " the practice of the divine presence." Every time we go into a meeting or speak to a soul or pray or sing or work for God, if then and there we recognize the Holy Spirit as in us and with us, it will not only be the source of our inspiration, but it will be the act of faith which God honors with success. I do not say we are not to pray for the presence of the Holy Ghost, or for Him to fall upon us and the Word, but that, having prayed in the name of Jesus, we are to recognize the prayer as answered. The Holy Ghost always accompanies His own Word. In every meeting for the purpose of salvation or spiritual edification, the Holy Spirit is invariably on hand. David said the Lord prevented him with His goodness. The word "prevent" originally meant to run before, just as Elijah ran before Ahab when there was going to be a plentiful rain, so the Holy Spirit runs before us preceding every copious work of grace. Jesus says, "Where two or three are met together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." Not, He will be there, but He is there, waiting to meet them. The Holy Spirit is in the church before we get there, in the pulpit waiting for us, in every human soul before we speak to it, and the secret of power is, to thoughtfully, trustfully, unwaveringly recognize Him there. When Jacob was converted at Bethel he said, "God is in this place and I knew it not." Twenty years after, when he had power to prevail with God, he recognized the Almighty in the form of a man, and went forth with an enduement which melted his hardened brother into tears. The Holy Ghost always moves through appropriate conductors, of which there are only two; namely, a truth or a personality. He never works except through some truth or some person. If we use the truth according to His will, and fully yield our person to Him we are then to recognize Him in the use of these two agencies. "The Spirit and the bride say come." The bride is God's spiritual church. The Holy Ghost says "Come," and the Pentecostal church says "Come," but you notice the Holy Spirit gets His invitation in ahead of the church. And when you go to a sinner and say "Come to God," the Spirit has been there ahead of you, and is there to sanction your invitation. The Spirit has gone to every child of humanity. I do not know just what the Spirit is doing, but it is my place to recognize His presence. In every assembly where the pure gospel is preached, there is some susceptible case. Some sinner susceptible to conviction, some believer that is a candidate for a deeper experience. We never know who the cases are. It is frequently the very persons we least expect, but the Spirit knows, and I am to recognize Him as working on the people. This very recognition of His presence will inspire us with energy and definiteness. Did you ever see a blind person in a room with nobody there and he felt himself alone? Did you ever notice the countenance of such a one when he supposed himself alone, and then note the instant and wondrous change when he recognized your presence? The very recognition of another presence transfigured his features. I knew an old blind lady, who, when sitting alone, wore a very sad expression, but at the sound of your footstep, or a spoken word, the change in her expression was marvelous. The same thing is true in the spiritual realm. To forget the presence of God, to regard Him as at a distance, is to detach ourselves from the source of power, and our souls droop. But the moment we intelligently and clearly apprehend, God is here, the Spirit, the Comforter is in this place, He is ready and willing to work through me to the pulling down of strongholds, what a difference it will make in our words, prayers and songs. There will be a freedom, an unction, a gladness, which nothing else can inspire. "Lo, I am with you always." I do not care how poor or infirm or weak you are, the moment your soul clearly apprehends the eternal verity of that fact, "I am with you always," there will be kept open in your soul the secret spring of a power that is above all eloquence, for it makes eloquence; magnetism, for it creates magnetism; the power which alone is sufficient for gospel purposes. These are some of the items which have come to me in connection with this subject. It is passing wonderful what utterly frail and weak things God can use for His glory, especially when we work, not for our emolument or fame, but for the glory of the name of Jesus, perfectly willing to be loved and prized by God alone. When the Lord has been pleased to use us in any work, the best thing we can do is to give the work up to God the moment we are done with it, and drop back into our native littleness and nothingness, and rest in God.
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George Douglas Watson (1845–1924). Born on March 26, 1845, in Accomac County, Virginia, G.D. Watson was a Methodist holiness preacher, evangelist, and prolific author who became a leading voice in the late 19th-century holiness movement. Raised in a devout Methodist family with godly influences like family prayer and Sunday school, he felt convictions at age five or six, singing “Rock of Ages” with siblings, and sensed a call to preach by 12 or 13. Despite early rebellion, described as the “black sheep” among six siblings, he sought religion during revivals and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Ordained in 1868, he pastored in Kentucky but struggled spiritually until 1876, when he sought sanctification, achieving it after a Cincinnati evangelists’ conference, transforming his ministry with a focus on holiness. Watson’s evangelistic campaigns spanned the United States, England, the West Indies, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Korea, preaching a deeper Christian life. He authored over 18 books, including Soul Food, Our Own God, Bone of His Bone, and The Heavenly Life, emphasizing sanctification, the Holy Spirit, and victory over sin, many still in print via publishers like Kingsley Press. Married to Eva, who wrote his biography, Glimpses of the Life and Work of G.D. Watson, he faced personal trials, including his wife’s illness and his lapse into tobacco use during a period of spiritual backsliding. Watson died in 1924, leaving a legacy as an “Apostle to the Sanctified.” He said, “The Holy Spirit never comes to us to make us smart, but to make us holy.”