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carnal mind, deception, experience, God's love, mysticism, Oswald Chambers, salvation, spiritual mind, spiritual power
“Can our eyes deceive us?”
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)
I recalled having read a certain quote by Oswald Chambers quite some time ago. However, whenever I tried to find it again, I failed, since I could not remember the exact wording. Just today as I was searching the net for mystical experiences by Christians, I would find some criticism about the very word “mysticism” by T.A. Sparks and A.W. Tozer instead. Of course, there has been false mysticism in Christianity, too, but not all mystical experiences were wrong. As long as one gets closer and closer to the Living God, I would never dare to say that mysticism was a bad thing. The false mystical experience might get obvious to us when we realize that it has caused the believer to get more and more focused on his own person and “ministry” than on the person of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. Pride about knowing more than others, arrogance toward not-so-spiritual believers, and sometimes even a sort of megalomania (about what God would be able to do through the little “ME”) go hand in hand with Satan’s spiritual suggestions.
Later I also found another writing on the internet by a man who tried to prove Oswald Chambers and Watchman Nee wrong. Reading his deliberations, it got more and more clear to me that the carnal mind can never understand what the spiritual mind already knows due to its experiences with God and Jesus. The skilled theologian might find countless Scriptures to support his theories and thoughts about Christian mystics being deceived, however, what he does not know, it seems, is that our reason and logic cannot but understand the very surface of what was written in the Bible. The very depth of Scripture, albeit, reveals itself only through the Holy Spirit that indwells the believer and continually teaches him subliminally what is true and what is not true, even according to the Scriptures. The apostle Paul told us,
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2:14-16 ESV)
And the apostle John wrote,
“I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.” (1 Jn 2:26-27 ESV)
Reading this Scripture, it dawned on me that we can only be deceived if we have not received the anointing of the Holy Spirit yet or, when we have received it, we stop abiding in Him and His love. There is a common “deception” I would like to point out here, which has to do with the Chambers’ quote I had been looking for. Although it is not a real deception, it is rather a saddening sort of confusion that has grieved so many believers because they were taught wrongly about salvation. Eventually, here is not only the Oswald Chambers’ quote (which I highlighted in bold letters), but his whole devotional.
The Staggering Question
June 1, 2015
He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” —Ezekiel 37:3
Can a sinner be turned into a saint? Can a twisted life be made right? There is only one appropriate answer— “O Lord God, You know” (Ezekiel 37:3). Never forge ahead with your religious common sense and say, “Oh, yes, with just a little more Bible reading, devotional time, and prayer, I see how it can be done.”
It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we see the activity and mistake panic for inspiration. That is why we see so few fellow workers with God, yet so many people working for God. We would much rather work for God than believe in Him. Do I really believe that God will do in me what I cannot do? The degree of hopelessness I have for others comes from never realizing that God has done anything for me. Is my own personal experience such a wonderful realization of God’s power and might that I can never have a sense of hopelessness for anyone else I see? Has any spiritual work been accomplished in me at all? The degree of panic activity in my life is equal to the degree of my lack of personal spiritual experience.
“Behold, O My people, I will open your graves…” (Ezekiel 37:12). When God wants to show you what human nature is like separated from Himself, He shows it to you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has ever given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He will only do this when His Spirit is at work in you), then you know that in reality there is no criminal half as bad as you yourself could be without His grace. My “grave” has been opened by God and “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells” (Romans 7:18). God’s Spirit continually reveals to His children what human nature is like apart from His grace.
http://utmost.org/the-staggering-question/
In closing, I dare to raise two additional, maybe challenging questions.
Do we believe that others will be saved because of our witness or because Christ is Savior? Can we trust Him and His unconditional love so much that we are convinced He loves our neighbors/loved ones/co-workers just as much as He loves us?
Entering the Promised Land 
So is the deception you are speaking of being deceived into thinking we have to “help God” or “work for God,” instead of trusting Him to work in others as he has worked in us?
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Good question, Ryan. Although that was not what I had thought of initially, it also makes sense to me. What I rather had in mind here was that not only a few believers feel a burden, esp. because of their “unsaved” relatives and friends who might still be atheists, to somehow convince them so that they will be saved before death. In these cases it is not so much that they feel the Holy Spirit’s joy to share the gospel because those non-Christians asked them before about the hope that was in them, instead, they believe they MUST do or say something, since if not, it was their failure in case those people could not be saved. I hope that clarifies my concerns a bit.
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It is so obvious after reading this that our faith in God’s ability to do a work in others and even make their blind eyes see is only limited by our seeing what HE has done for us and how desperately dead and blind we are without the work of God’s grace in us. He has to open our graves not only to let us raise from the dead, but also to let us see who we are without Him and HIS life in us!
One of the biggest deceptions of all is the power of the human intellect. Jesus was confronted with the intellectual Jewish leaders as they constantly challenged His authority to do what He saw His Father doing. He did not knuckle under to their authority and intellectual understanding of the scriptures for one moment! It is no different for those who walk by the Spirit and not by the mind games of church leaders today. Anyone who listens to the voice of the Spirit and obeys Him and does not join in and play THEIR “reindeer games” will soon be called a mystic or something worse. The whole game they play is really about control. Will we worry about what others might say and about our reputations or will we obey God? Jesus made Himself of NO reputation when He found Himself in the form of a man, “THERE, that is out of the way! Now to be about my Father’s business!”
So many Christians want to play God and take His place as judge and overlord of Christ’s precious followers. To these Paul wrote,
“What right do you have to criticize someone else’s servants? Only their Lord can decide if they are doing right, and the Lord will make sure that they do right.” (Romans 14:4 CEV)
Father, don’t let us fall into that trap of thinking that we know it all. As Paul said, “if any man thinks he knows anything, let him know this: he knows nothing as he ought to know.”
Keep following the voice of the Spirit, dear Susanne, and thank you for digging in and finding this quote from Chambers and sharing it. God bless you very much! ❤
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Oh yes, Michael, human intellect that does not submit to the Spirit of God can render us being deceived sooo easily.
It is interesting to see that I thought about not judging the spiritual condition-to-be of the “now-non-believer” and you, my brother, perfectly succeeded in leading over to not judging the believer, either. That was a very good complementary idea by you! 🙂
I am so glad you added the second Scripture which clarifies that we primarily need to be known (read loved) by God.
“If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.” (1 Cor 8:2-3 ESV)
I try to keep following Him whenever He nudges me, Michael. You are very welcome as to finding this quote which I did not search for today. Indeed, I found it accidentally and was wondering what to do with it. Then I started writing the blog post and it made no sense to me at all, no idea how to include the quote – ever. Yes, that is the Holy Spirit’s guidance. He does not need our plans, logic, or wisdom. Thank God, He does NOT need it! 🙂
Every blessing and His great love to you! ❤
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right Michael and the rest of rom.4:14 also. To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
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Amen, Wayne.
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michael sorry – same scripture different translation 🙂
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Exactly! His arm is not short to save. I praise His name for that too!
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Susanne- timely article i’v been asking the Lord about some of the mystics and where they got there information , revelation, i agree with some of there doctrines but like some of the popular teachers of today they got them ,revelations, from angels , that they spoke with, rather than the Holy Spirit. seems to be a season of questioning and measuring EVERTHING by Christ regardless of my beliefs. i have to be open to change. recently as i was talking with the Lord about releasing things i have beleived for yrs. i asked Him about the devil coming at this time of openess and deceving me as to what is light and what is darkness, as he has done for yrs , He spoke loud and clear this scripture. Matt. 7:9-11. 9″Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10″Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a SNAKE, will he? 11″If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!… so as i seek for clarity i can trust Him to continue to lead me in the right path as He is doing at this present time away from darkness into the light of His Son
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Wayne, I was happy to hear that God gave you such a clear response when you had asked Him about light and darkness. 🙂
I know it is anything but easy to let go of things I have believed for a long time. To be honest, I am always skeptical about any revelation, whether mine or revelations from others until I feel a strong confirmation and His peace in my heart.
The answer God gave you could not have been better, I believe. It is so true that He only gives us good things and I even think that He longs to be asked by us. He wants to have fellowship with His children and show His grace through helping them in every given situation. But oh, how long I always need until I really trust HIM and not my own thoughts and worries about what might happen in the future!!! 😛
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Susanne and Wayne, your exchange on this subject of hearing from God and following His voice in all things is so good. While reading it I was reminded of a scripture that seems to fit.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 KJ2000)
Inviting our Father into EVERY situation and calling on His Spirit to lead and teach us would be considered “mystical” by many Christians, but God calls it our starting point when it comes to dwelling in HIS kingdom. 🙂
Bless you both. ⭐
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Hey, that is one of my favorite Scriptures as well, Michael.
Acknowledging him in all our ways and inviting Him into every given situation seems to be the same thing. We both know that it works and I wonder why we sometimes need so long until we have realized that He has only been waiting for us to ask Him to make straight our paths.
Bless you, my mystic brother. 🙂
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Yes, Susanne, inviting God into every situation whether it be painful or joyful and filled with pleasure, I think is what God is waiting for us to do. As Paul put it, “In HIM we live and move and have our being.” I am always leaning new areas that I have yet to do this in.
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Me too, Michael, COUNTLESS areas in my life, to be honest. It seems He wants to share EVERYTHING with us. Even the smallest and unimportant issues of which we usually do not think that He might be interested in them.
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Yes, Susanne! He truly wants each of us to have our common “BEING” as members of Christ’s body and members one of another IN the Father and the Son and wants to be an integral part of all that we ARE. ⭐
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Yes, Ken, you are correct. It was the Bible thumpers and “fruit inspectors” that hounded Him everywhere He went. He was a friend of publicans, harlots and sinners and the religious ones hated Him for it. Even the word translated “multitudes” as in those who followed Him is interesting in the Greek…
ochlos
Thayer Definition:
1) a crowd
1a) a casual collection of people
1a1) a multitude of men who have flocked together in some place
1a2) a throng
1b) a multitude
1b1) the common people, as opposed to the rulers and leading men
1b2) with contempt: the ignorant multitude, the populace
You are in good company, my brother! ❤
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Thank you very much for your encouraging words, Ken! 🙂
Indeed, I only have great commenters here on Entering the Promised Land. What a blessing you are all to me!!! ⭐
I was sorry to hear that you are being attacked by others because of what and maybe how you believe, my brother. 😦
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Pingback: Can we be deceived? | The Road
Thanks for linking to my blog, Tim. Much appreciated! 🙂
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Es freut mich, dass du auch Deutsch verstehst, Michael! 🙂 [I am glad that you understand German as well, Michael!]
Being of one mind can really be funny at times, my brother, that is true! XD
That Scripture fits! ⭐
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Pheeew!! Thank God, you met friendly Germans, my brother. 🙂 Dein Deutsch ist übrigens prima, Tim! ⭐
[By the way, your German is topnotch! ⭐ ]
Nothing but European ancestors, it seems. Have you ever been in Europe, Tim?
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Aha! Thank you very much for this explanation, Tim.
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I feel so sorry for everyone who still feels so depressed that they are tormented by suicidal thoughts. From my own experience I know that this hope that takes away our misery can only be given by God.
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Ich verstehe ein wenig Deutsch, Susanne! 🙂
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Das was SEHR GUT, Michael! ⭐
[That was VERY GOOD, Michael!]
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Danke 🐻
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Gerne. 🐱
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Trusting God to save those we love, who are not yet believers, is an enormous challenge. We must, in effect, give God control over what He already HAS control, i.e. the welfare of those who are most precious to us, those for whom we would give our very lives.
Of course, their lives are in God’s hands no less than ours. And He gave the life of His Son to redeem them. When we remember that, our fears should vanish…not that they necessarily do, I admit.
But Satan can, also, use pride to undermine our faith.
The lie that a single road to Salvation is “ungenerous” has induced many Christians — who ought to know better — to accept alternate routes to Salvation than Christ. Buddhism can’t be so bad, can it? How about Hinduism then? And Wiccans are just serving the power of good or God by another name, aren’t they?
We will save these non-believers, if God is unwilling. Or so we delude ourselves. This does nothing but compromise the truth.
Just my two cents.
With love,
Anna ❤
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I am no universalist, either, as you might know, dear Anna. And we both know that there is only one way that leads to God and thus to heaven. It is Jesus Christ.
What amazed me extremely in the past was the similarity I saw when I compared my own NDE in 1998 with those of people who belonged to other religions or were mere atheists. Of course, they did not meet Jesus as I did, but they were confronted with The Light as they came close to death. And their descriptions and mine regarding the consequences of the NDE were almost the same: they did not fear death any longer, and they immediately realized that knowledge, or rather wisdom, and love are the most important things in life.
Love to you ❤
Susanne
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Excellent, Michael! ⭐
Thank you very much for your elucidating words.
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You’re a funny guy, Lloyd. Thanks for sharing your own experience with hitchhiking. 🙂
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Lloyd.
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That was a great revelation, Michael, which God gave you about the “IN-part” of this Scripture.
Yes, as long as Bible verses remain theory and are not being practiced by obeying the Holy Spirit’s nudges in our lives, anything we might tell our children about God and the Bible will fall to the ground before reaching the target (which should be the heart and the mind together).
As for your own story, well, in my case it was also my grandmother (my mother’s mother) who had come to know Jesus. Apart from her later, only me, none of her children. Although she was a loving mother and had been married to a loving husband who believed in God, only she had a relationship with Jesus. That reminds me of what Jesus told us,
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” (Jn 6:44 ESV)
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (Jn 6:63-65 ESV)
Without the Holy Spirit making alive what we say and do, we can keep talking until we get blue in the face.
Or green… 😉
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Susanne, you bring up a great point about it taking the Father’s will to draw us to Christ. Jesus made this very clear. Yet, I have to also mention the power of prayer for our children as well as our example. All the time I was thrashing about in the world, especially in the last couple of years when I was about to go crazy, I had a mother-in-law and two grand parents praying for me. You might say that “the hound of heaven” was on my heals as a result. I KNEW something spiritual was going on, but being ignorant of spiritual things, I was clueless as to what to do about it. Finally, the Spirit broke through the cloud of my mixed up mind and touched my heart through the love of the very people that I had hated, a bunch of Hippie looking kids that had the love of God in their hearts. Funny how all those years in the RCC and a couple in a “Bible Church” and I never saw that kind of love there. Our Father knows just what we need and when we need it, wouldn’t you say? BTW, your daughter will make it. God will prevail in her life and I believe your loving example will not be forgotten by her. She is in my prayers as well as yours. ❤
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Thank you so much, Michael. ❤
I have always believed in the salvation of my whole family and I believe this faith was God-given (perhaps when I had my NDE in 1998, not sure).
Indeed, I think that both my grandmother and my mother prayed for me in the past. Also, I recall having read that Augustine of Hippos’s mother had prayed for nine years (as far as I remember his story) to see her son saved from his immoral lifestyle.
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Yup! (y)
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Indeed, VERY interesting! Seems to be part of God’s unfathomable, but often also humourous guidance… 😉
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This is enlightening. Thank you very much.
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You are very welcome, Fred. Glad you found it helpful. 🙂
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[quote]”“Behold, O My people, I will open your graves…” (Ezekiel 37:12). When God wants to show you what human nature is like separated from Himself, He shows it to you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has ever given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He will only do this when His Spirit is at work in you), then you know that in reality there is no criminal half as bad as you yourself could be without His grace. My “grave” has been opened by God and “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells” (Romans 7:18). God’s Spirit continually reveals to His children what human nature is like apart from His grace.”[quote]
That part gives me great hope. I have been feeling so down because I fear I am not good enough for GOD. I find my self crying out for help almost the whole time I am awake or I am trying to fine some thing to distract me from looking what was reveiled to me. Although lately GOD has been revealing his love to me. He even answered quetsions I have had.
Any way thanks for this post. Also I am glad to see more posts as I didn’t think we would be seeing any more. So thanking very much for sticking around.
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You are welcome as to this repost, Fred. I am glad to hear that it gave you hope, too. Merry Christmas to you and all who read this! 🎼🎶🎹🎤🎶😇
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I need to correct what I said. What I mean by trying to find distractions is I keep looking inward at my self and how much I fail to be as GOD wants us to be which is what was revailed to me. Not that I am trying to hide from GOD no I am trying to seek his help in these areas I fail in. I desppratly need his help. Oh have mercy on me on Lord for my failed words above. I know how much shame I feel when I fail at even my words that I feel condemn me. Please help me with even my own words so I can speak/ type pleasing to you. Create in me a New heart so that every thing I do think and say is pleasing to you oh Lord and edifying to those around me specially your children and my brothers and sisters in Chrst. May we all be more and more like a sheep and less and less like a goat. Thank you and Amen
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I might be wrong here, Fred, but I assume you might be a perfectionist, like me. Every little mistake is an OUCH to me. We need to try to direct our eyes away from ourselves and back to Him in whom we are already perfect. Difficult to do, I know… 🙄
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Oh yes I am a perfectionist. I am told it runs in the family, my biological family any way. I think this might be way one of the first things GOD showed me is that my Rightousness is found in Jesus not in me. I am not sure what the very first thing was though maybe just his love.
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My biological family… just the same, all of them perfectionists. 😊 I believe we are all loved by Him just the way we are since being changed into the image of Christ is something we cannot accomplish on our own.
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