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being born again, church, deception, discerning the spirits, dying to self, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, Jesus Christ, joy, peace, Righteousness, T.A. Sparks, the Kingdom of God, the new self, the old self

Source http://www.lovethispic.com
We know what Jesus said about the Kingdom of God. So, just in case someone wants to convince us of already living IN the kingdom (although we do not really know what that might mean) or tells us that he himself lives there, we should remember Jesus’ words on how we can get there and on how the kingdom of God is NOT. We read,
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (Jn 3:5-7 ESV)
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Lk 17:21-22 ESV)
We need to be genuinely born again by God’s Spirit so that we can first SEE and later ENTER the kingdom of God as Jesus affirmed when He had been asked about this very issue by Nicodemus (John 3:1-7). Once again, T. Austin Sparks had some interesting ideas about how Christians sometimes wrongly believe that they might already live in the kingdom and are thus being deceived. I (Susanne) can tell you, dear reader, that most of the people I have come to know had no clue what the kingdom of God really is about. Actually, it is not about doing good or impressive things for God. It is not about preaching the gospel so that unbelievers might be saved. And it is not about anything that is still visible to our natural eyes. In fact, only if our eyes of the heart have been enlightened, they will start to see God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit who is in everything and everyone that was ever created. The Kingdom of God is all about the inner life as the new creation in Christ and it is NOT about what others might perceive when they look at us. Maybe, that is a different explanation as you might have heard in churches. Nonetheless, it has been my experience for years now. The kingdom of God is not about reading books or about going to church. Neither is it about writing a blog post or about commenting on the internet. 😉 Furthermore, it is not about caring for our bodies since, above all, it is a spiritual matter. The Bible offers us the following definition:
[T]he kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. (Rom 14:17-18 ESV)
Do we have a righteousness of our own? Well, if we think of our old nature, we must deny this. Also, peace and joy IN the Holy Spirit are not natural to us, either. Indeed, we must be IN Christ so that we can serve Him as it should be. In this case, it is not our doing if we then do works ‘for’ God. Instead, it is God working through our enlightened spirits just as He wills as soon as our old nature with its rebellious self-willed schemes that oppose God’s plan for our life has finally died. Eventually, here is this excerpt from one of TAS articles which I announced further above.
That natural birth, even though it might be into surroundings where the kingdom of God is the one interest, never brings into it. No one can come into the kingdom of God by natural birth. One may be born into a Christian family, and into the midst of Christianity as a religious system, or what is called the Christian Church, but no one is in the kingdom of God on account of such birth. […]
[I]nterest and activity in Christianity is one thing, but being in the kingdom is quite another. Multitudes of good-meaning people are interested in Christianity, and are active in Christianity. They see the value of the Christian standard of life, and Christian teaching, and have thought, if only it could be applied, how different the world would be. So they have become busy in Christianity, and have thought they were in the kingdom of God. Not at all! You can have all the interest in Christianity without being in the kingdom. […]
Between the natural-life kingdom and the Divine-life kingdom there is a gap which cannot be bridged. For the vegetable to become an animal it must become a new creation, with a new life in it. For the animal to become a man, despite what evolutionists may say, it must become another creation, with another life in it. And for a man to become a child of God, an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven, he has to become a new creation, possessed of an entirely different and other life. It is another kingdom.
So that the natural man is totally incapable of having intercourse with the things of the Spirit of God; the two things belong to two different kingdoms. Divine life is essential, and that is the thing upon which Christ is placing His finger of emphasis all the time, as recorded in the third chapter of John, in His dealings with Nicodemus. […]
We have neither to produce Divine things, nor the result of Divine things, in ourselves. We have not to work ourselves up to be what we think we ought to be, as though we could produce it. We have not to seek to draw upon ourselves for the Christian life, for the things of God in life and in service. It is not so, and it is fatal to try to produce it as out from ourselves. It is not effort of any kind that is required in relation to God. Listen to that, and underline it. It is not effort of any kind that is required in relation to God and His things, but positive faith in the Lord Jesus as within us. […]
The Lord’s desire for His own, and the Lord’s need in His own, is that they should have spiritual understanding, and a mind quickened, energized, illumined as to Himself, His ways, His things.
If this were recognized, there would be fewer tragedies of deception, delusion, error, and misleading. All such things are the result of judging according to the natural mind, and coming to a conclusion that certain things are quite good and right because they appear to be so. The language of certain persons may seem to be quite sound, their arguments to be quite right, their ways to be the proper ways, and to the natural mind everything appears all right; there is no capacity for seeing beyond, and into, and through. Then those concerned are carried away into deception. They are deceptions because they are so closely counterfeiting the things of God, and the enemy knows quite well that, if he can put up a close counterfeit, an imitation, there are enough Christians without spiritual understanding to fall into his trap.
http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002996.html
So many Christians are being deceived by believing in a mere social gospel, that is, they are busily trying to change this world into a better place to be according to their own ideas of what God might want them to do. Dear brothers and sisters, this is such a big deception in which countless Christians might find themselves captured that I do not really know how to point this out as an evocative wake-up call… 😦
Well said, Sister. Christ and Christ alone.
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Amen, David.
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“The kingdom is about the inner life as the new creation in Christ”
So well said. All things must be an outflow of this inner life or we are just Pharisees at best and at worst, workers of divination.
Thank you as always.
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You are very welcome, David. Thank you for sharing your insights, dear brother.
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Well said.
This reminds me of Martha and Mary in the bible. Martha is so busy serving, dashing about, that she grows resentful about Mary who is just sitting there at the Lord’s feet. The churchian world loves Martha’s, they get “things” done. Lots and lots of things. Jesus however, sees through all that and points out the problem with Martha. Mary is literally sitting at the feet of a King, in the kingdom so to speak, while Martha is still dashing about trying to find the right napkins.
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Actually, I found these Bible verses about Martha and Mary TODAY on my daily kitchen calendar. 😉 If this is not timely, dear Gabrielle, I don’t know.. 🙂
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Isn’t God’s synchronicity just perfect? I spent a lot of time flitting around like a Martha until God finally told me, will you just sit at my feet? I was quite offended, it sounded so counter intuitive, against my nature, which I suspect was the whole point. We’re to become a new creature.
Today I can say sitting at His feet is the most wonderful thing ever. I don’t know what all my fuss was about. 🙂
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🙂 I liked your comment very much, Gabrielle! ☆☆☆
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This was a very soul searching read for me today, dear Susanne. So much so that I dare not comment at this time.
Michael
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Oh? I am sorry to hear this, dear Michael. I did not know about the possible effect of this post. I will keep praying for you, my dear brother. ❤
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This part of your blog hit me right between the eyes. It is quite scary in fact watching the events unfolding around the world.
So many Christians are being deceived by believing in a mere social gospel, that is, they are busily trying to change this world into a better place to be according to their own ideas of what God might want them to do. Dear brothers and sisters, this is such a big deception in which countless Christians might find themselves captured that I do not really know how to point this out as an evocative wake-up call… 😦
To be honest I don’t like what is going on. I do share some of my comments but it is making my head swim. I am getting so sick of it. I need a life! I can’t change the world nor do I even want to try. Not many people would believe me anyways. Gosh I just don’t know what to trust anymore to be honest.
Someone shared a song on my timeline, “Unchained Melody” by the righteous brothers last night, and I just cried. I knew not the words really except that it was so beautiful. The voice. And yet so sad. We really need righteousness but that is an individual thing as God calls us to it.
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Dear Stacey, what we all need is LIFE, a life IN Christ that helps us see this world, even the Christian world, from a different perspective. It is one thing to discern the truth from the lies and another thing to be heartbroken about it. We can only trust in God. What else could WE do? May He help us on this difficult and dangerous path to not go into the wrong direction.
I know this song you mentioned, Stacey. The fact that you cried shows that you have a compassionate heart and a deep soul, too.
May God keep you and protect you in His loving grip! ❤
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I agree and Thank you my darling sister! You too be blessed and protected.
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Thank YOU, my dear sister. 🙂
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Your post, Susanne, reminded me of the old Led Zeppelin song “Stairway to Heaven”. There is a line that goes:
“There’s a lady that’s sure
All that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven.”
We think we can build that stairway with our own good deeds, as if Christ’s sacrifice on the cross had been unnecessary. But no amount of good deeds will suffice. We are saved by grace, and grace alone.
Thank you for the reminder.
Much love,
A. ❤
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Ha! I know this song pretty well, dear Anna, and I always loved its melody. Indeed, it is way easier to do ANYTHING than to simply rest and wait on God to show us what should be really done by us and what should be dropped. Grace is kind of counterintuitive, isn’t it? You are very welcome as to the reminder. Much love to you too, ❤ Susanne
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Susanne, thank you for writing. This was rich indeed. I also read that Sparks article and those very things stood in stark contrast to much of what I have been privy to as far as Christianity is concerned.
Just over the weekend, if I can share a short story, I was listening to a Christian station and there was news of one of the more well known Christian artist’s who had a brother whom she had publicly asked for years for prayer that he may be saved. The station played a clip of this artist who quoted the day and date and time and then said “I have just prayed the salvation prayer with my brother, and he is now a CHRISTIAN!!” She was ecstatic. Upon hearing, though, my reaction was quite the opposite. My heart dropped and I was instantly turned off. Soon I would be quite aware that in my world of many unbelievers who do not know any of this ‘Christian lingo’, I have zero desire to pray a salvation prayer with them, though I speak often to the Lord of each of them. There is not a ‘salvation prayer.’ As well as, it is not our work to make anyone a ‘Christian,’ but, rather, to manifest Christ that they may know HIM. And adding a Chambers sentence that I recently read that has not let me go since: “The sheer unaided power of God.” He was writing about the miracle it actually is to believe in Christ as Lord and Savior, and that it comes about by the “sheer unaided power of God.” Selah.
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You are very welcome, dear Becky. Oh boy, the story you shared really turned me off too… ‘salvation prayer’… a weird and unbiblical invention by the churches. However, this sentence by Chambers rings true with me as well. Very good!☆
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The Chambers quote comes from My Utmost for His Highest devotional, July 17th.
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Thank you very much, Becky!😙
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Wow Sue the article is a thing of beauty and the comments are wonderful truly–I have a printed copy of the full article by Sparks of which I am now studying with flying sparks—thanks for the great post!
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What a sweet and encouraging comment to begin a day after only 3 1/2 hours sleep! Thank you very much for writing, Ken. 🙂
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Thank you for the blog.
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You are so welcome, dear Pat. ❤ Thanks for your comment. I hope you are doing well. Take care.
Love,
Susanne
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Amen to that.
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