By forsaking his own ways, and learning to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, your humble servant in Christ, Bro. Joe, has learned that the Joy of the Lord, it maketh rich, and has been called to lead the following life of self-denial, with the help and guidance of the man of Galilee.

If God has truly called you to be like Jesus, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and will put upon you such demands of obedience that you will not be able to follow other people, or to even measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other good people do things which He will not permit you to do.

Other dear brothers and sisters in Christ, both old and young, who seem to be very religious, talented and useful, may push themselves ahead, pull strings and work schemes to carry out their plans and ambitions, but the Holy Spirit of God’s grace in your heart will not permit you to do any of these things, and if you attempt it you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord, as to make you sorely penitent, and you will quickly and humble learn obedience from the things which you will have suffered.

Others may boast of themselves, of their works, their knowledge, their wisdom, their judgement, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you try to do so, He will lead you into such humiliation that you will despise yourself, and all of your good deeds and accomplishments.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making big money quickly and easily, or may have great wealth left to them, but it is very likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far more valuable than gold,namely a helpless dependence upon Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your every need, according to His riches in glory, and your Faith, day by day, out of an unseen treasury, direct from the throne of His grace.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants you to bring forth some special quality fruit for His glory and honor, which can only be produced through constant and secret communion with His Eternal Spirit. He may let others become great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him, and get full credit for it, but make you work and toil on, without anyone even knowing how much you are doing, and then to make your work still more precious in His sight, He may let others get all the credit for work which you have done, and thus make your reward a hundred times greater, when the Holy Angel Band comes to bear your Spirit home on their snow-white wings to your Heavenly Mansion near the throne of God, there to sit down with Jesus in His throne, with the Faithful who have overcome by the Blood of the Lamb, and by word of their testimony.

The Holy Spirit will keep a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will reprove and chasten you for little words, and actions, or for wasting your time, things which never bother your close friends. So make up your mind that God is an infinite sovereign and has a right to do with His own as it pleases Him. He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you, but if you will fully give all of yourself to Him, to be His servant, then He will wrap you in a jealous love and protect you from all the powers of evil and bestow on you many rich blessings. Settle it then within your heart forever that you are to deal directly with His Holy Spirit, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, restraining your hand, ruling your heart and spirit, that with joy unspeakable you will be pleased and delighted with this peculiar, personal, jealous care, under the guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life. You will then have found the vestibule of, and the gateway to, Heaven.

This message was written in the fall of 1950 by Bro. Joe Edwards, while he was working in Rome, GA, to repay a loan of $2,000.00 which he had borrowed from a friend in Rome so that he could complete the building of the church in Albany, GA.