Spotting Sectarian Spirits

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charismatic, church, doctrine, end time spirit, eschatology, false prophets, false teachers, Jesus Christ, nothing but grace, pentecostal, prosperity gospel, RCC, truth

Some Churches seem to be so “cute” (Painting in watercolors by Susanne Schuberth)

It is not always that easy for us to discover sectarian spirits which, indeed, infiltrated the Church from her very beginning, as the apostle Paul prophesied,

“I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.” (Acts 20:29-30 ESV)

Looking at the RCC, the distortion of Scripture is readily identifiable, since the Spirit of Christ indeed left their leaders, who adhered to the idea that (pagan) tradition could be at eye level with Scripture, long since. Also, adding self-invented sacraments and works to mere faith in Christ, who alone can save us from our sins, was definitely the outcome of listening to evil spirits.

But how can we discern evil spirits masquerading themselves as if coming from the Lord Jesus Christ right at the outset?

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Prayer, preaching, and love – do they belong together?

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Baptism in the Holy Spirit, experience, following Jesus, Jesus Christ, love, poems, prayer, preaching, repentance, spiritual power

The most important thing to do for every minister and servant of God is as Jesus reaffirmed,

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt 22:37-39 ESV)

If we move the commandment which is to be found in the second place to the first place, we will surely fail. Although both commandments count as equal, we may never forget that obeying the great commandment alone empowers us to love our neighbors with that love we received from God before (Rom 5:5). Also, if we drop the first commandment and try to love others (or ourselves) on our own, we will be frustrated because of not being able to love anyone including ourselves.

Called…..and chosen

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called, chosen, faithful, following Jesus, Jesus Christ, knowing, love, spiritual power

Following HIM (Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

“So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.” (Mt 20:16 KJV)

I have been thinking about the terms being “called” and “chosen” for a long time now. Already many years ago, I heard people say that they were called by Jesus

(1) due to the testimony of other people or
(2) because they were listening to a preacher’s sermon or
(3) since they felt God speaking to their own heart

And I have been wondering what the Bible really means by being “called”

Is God’s Love experiential – or not?

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experience, feeling, God, Jesus Christ, knowing, love, sin

Love-Inspirational-Daily

“Whoever could become a loving person who had never before experienced love in their life?”

If someone was neglected as a child, they will hunger for love and appreciation later. And it’s only natural to seek to get it from other human beings. But what will happen if they do not get the love he or she urgently wants to have? Won’t they end up having doubts about the meaning of life and finally end up in despair?

Some thoughts on our thought life…

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Carl Gustav Jung, darkness, flesh, God, Jesus Christ, light, psychology, sanctification, Satan, Sigmund Freud, spirit, thought life

Light and Darkness (Photo by Paul Schuberth)

During the years before God freed me completely as regards to my thought life, I struggled a lot with my self-made mind control, which, honestly, never worked at all. Thoughts come and they go. They always “go together” with those good and bad feelings they cause. And they don’t ask me, “May I stay or should I go?” Instead, they seemingly do what they want. The reason for their impertinent “behavior” lies in the fact that every recurring thought or dream has an invisible root that is hidden deep within our hearts. Recurring thoughts use to bother us and therefore we are often lost in them or speak about them if possible and appropriate. If we don’t have anyone with whom we can share the thoughts which grieve us for example, or which reveal our deepest longings, then the thoughts will ”reveal themselves” somehow automatically by coming out of our mouth in inappropriate situations as well. Here I am reminded of Jesus who said that the mouth speaks “out of the abundance of the heart” (Lk 6:45).

MY TESTIMONY

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Baptism in the Holy Spirit, bipolar disorder, childhood, ecstasy, healing, Jesus Christ, school, wilderness

On Vacation in Gran Canaria (Canary Islands/Spain)
Photo by Paul Schuberth

The 1970’s: My childhood with God
The first ecstatic experience with God – at school

If there was something I really hated in my school days, then it was doing pieces of needlework. Ugh!
On a hot summer day in July I sat sweating and squirming next to my more talented classmates in the attic of our old schoolhouse which was heated up like a sauna. The needle between my fingers slipped more than once over the fabric and the cross stitches I produced were anything but decent. Looking to my friends, I saw that they were almost ready and that their works looked terrific.

Since I have always been a perfectionist, I felt stressed. “Hurry up!” the teacher said, “there are only ten minutes left.”
Silently Susanne prayed, “Please, dear God, help me!”
Alas, nothing extraordinary happened.
I tried everything I could, but I was too slow. Sweating and almost weeping, I startled up as the teacher urged, “Just two minutes to go!”
My second prayer was not as polite as the first one. “Dear God, You MUST help me!!!”
What happened then?
A miracle.

INTRODUCTION

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adultery, being born again, divorce, ecstasy, flesh, Jesus Christ, poems, spirit, the Kingdom of God, the promised land

In advance, some thoughts on exploring the idea of walking in the spirit vs. walking in the flesh …

As for walking in the spirit, indeed, there will be no ordinary days any more because I know for sure that He brings the unexpected things. And there’s something new about His Love that will catch you by surprise (it’s all about those extra things personally provided by Him). What I mean here is in particular the unexpected experience of being transformed from a fleshly-minded person into a spiritually-minded being without doing anything yourself in order to get there. It is the exclusive work of the Holy Spirit to give birth to a new creation in Christ (Jn 3:3-8; 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15).

I guess that God chose the picture of “birth” to remind us of our own helplessness during that process of being born again. We are like babies who are born when it’s time to experience a completely unknown, new world outside the comfortable womb. Another thing which is fully consistent with the image of a newborn baby is that we, too, forget everything about our experiences inside the womb as soon as we have learned to survive in the spiritual promised land (i.e., the Kingdom of God). We learn to walk by the spirit, and we learn to speak another language that not necessarily needs words which could be heard by anyone. But most of all, we learn to forget, namely our past sins, the sins of others, our past pain, our previous likes and dislikes – and last but not least, we forget the desires of the flesh.

In order to illustrate that experience, I’d like to choose a situation taken out of the Bible but described in my own words.