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discerning the spirits, entering his rest, experience, faith, following Jesus, God's love, joy, pain, peace, prayer, rest, spiritual power, the promised land, walking by the spirit
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Cor 4:17-18 ESV) – Photo by Susanne Schuberth
Last Thursday in the afternoon as I was hurrying to another appointment with the dentist, I briefly checked the station clock which told me that I had two or three minutes, still. I was a bit late and kept hastening toward the subway which runs below the rail tracks. The dentist’s office was on the other side of the station so that I was able to arrive on time. Nonetheless, having had toothaches for about a half year now (on and off, but more on than off), I also kept asking the Lord about my future decisions regarding the dentist and these problems with my teeth. It was not the first time that I had raised these questions, but as you might know, God sometimes gives you no (perceptible) immediate answer or He tells you something out of the blue which you do not really understand.
“Meet Me in the Spirit!” was all that Jesus said to me as I had just checked the time. Immediately I felt great joy and peace, knowing this would also be the title of a new blog post. However, was THAT an answer to my questions?? 🙄
How often do we want to see our problems fixed before we want to spend a longer time with God? As for me, I can tell you, “Always!” 😉 Sitting in the waiting room of the dentist, I felt that Jesus did not want to answer my question yet, instead, He drew me closer to Himself. Being touched by and enwrapped in His overwhelming love, I was no longer able to worry about the pains. Somehow that made me grin. God does not want to see us stuck in our thoughts, fears, and worries about circumstances. In fact, it is only through writing these things down that clarity comes out of my former confusion regarding this particular issue that has plagued me since 1995 as I had come to know God closer. Although the toothache afterwards was worse than before and although I could not really sleep from Thursday to Friday, once again, I was happy, since at the same time the presence of God got stronger and stronger during the night, without taking the pains away! Thinking about it more closely, I experienced similar things as for a twisted tendon and my continual back pains lately, too. At times, I took painkillers, but they did not help every time, either. It appears to me that this has been another lesson God wanted to teach me here. Jesus promised us,
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Mt 6:33-34 ESV)
Honestly, I always stumbled over the last words in these verses here, over this daily trouble thing. Why didn’t God promise us days without any troubles? Does anyone like troubles? Do you? I don’t. I recall it was about a week ago as I would be really wrung out by increasing pains that I all of a sudden felt nudged to stop asking God to heal me. Sitting there in my emotional mess, I heard me speaking these words in my mind, “This has been His will.” Without being able to explain it, I knew that this condition I have been in which was beyond my control happened because God wanted it… for my good. For the first time in my life, I realized that God did not want to punish me with physical pains in any way. Instead, these pains should turn out a hidden blessing according to His will (see Jn 9:2-3). Dear brothers and sisters, I can tell you that my soul was immediately at rest and I began to look forward to the things to come. If that was not another gift of faith from God, I don’t know, because my old nature has never been able to think that way. If God does not take pain and suffering away at once, yet simultaneously increases our share in His glory, we will wholeheartedly agree with apostle Paul’s following instructions, prayer and promise,
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” (1 Thes 5:16-24 ESV)
Do you know when the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will happen? I did not think of that day when He appears before all mankind. Rather, I was thinking of meeting our Lord in the Spirit through prayer, not on a day that lies far ahead of us, but in the eternal here and now, just as it is written,
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph 2:4-6 ESV)
May God give us His grace and make us fully alive so that we can live and walk in in the heavenlies where our true home is. Amen.
Entering the Promised Land 
Yes I completely identify with your story and never sense anything but Dads loving control.–good story–thanks.
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I am happy to hear you could not only relate, but even identify with my story, Ken. Thanks for your encouraging words! 🙂
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Susanne, just last night, after printing a Sparks chapter and beginning to read it, I came across these words:
“…We also must abide in heaven as He abode in heaven. This can be expressed in many different words of Scripture; as for example, walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh; warring after the Spirit and not after the flesh; or again, that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual. These are only ways of defining what it means to abide in heaven and not to live as of the earth; to allow no dependence on earthly means, no worldly methods, and never to take ourselves as we naturally are as the final word. For Christ in a very real and full way the heavens did rule, and so that must be in our case. The rule of the heavens must decide whether a things shall be undertaken, and whether we can go through. What is seen, what appears, what is felt must never be the ground our decisions. It is a grand thing and a source of tremendous strength to come to the same position as that of Christ as Man, where we know that boundless heavenly resources are available.”
It is so strikingly contrast to what I’ve ever thought this life was. It is a joy, though narrow and challenging, as you and I communicated the other day.
Without details, there is a story playing out in an extended family situation which involves murder of two people, one an infant. After the initial news, I asked the Lord what He wanted me to know about this, as it seems these scenarios are happening closer to me than ever before in my life, without actually touching my life. Soon I would hear, “Do not live by your emotions.” Susanne, I have lived by my emotions all.my.life! And, yet, He has been faithful and true to show me how to recognize the restrictions hey have brought not only to my life but to my lungs!!!! Anyway, your post, though on a different topic, resonated with what I’ve been walking. Always a pleasure and a relief.
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This excerpt by Sparks is right-on, Becky. Very good!! ⭐
What horrible news you had to hear, my sister!!! 😦 I do not dare to comment on this…
The Lord could have said the same thing to me, “Do not live by your emotions.” Ouch! That really struck me today!! Thank you for letting God speak through you, Becky. I needed to hear that today.
It is a great encouragement for me to read that my post resonated with your spiritual experiences, dear sister. ❤
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Dear Susanne,
This was really good! I never saw that passage in 1 Thes. about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the here and now, before. The context shows us why we so often miss Him when He comes to spend time with us — we fail to rejoice in all our circumstances and pains and “fail to enter into His rest by the same example of unbelief” as the Hebrews did. Jesus comes to us with his heavenly presence so we can enter in with Him and we are so caught up with our pains and earthly disappointments (I have had a lot of these things lately, too) that we miss Him! Thus Paul advises,
How often we quench and miss the presence of Christ in His Spirit when He comes to us because we do not maintain a grateful heart attitude toward Him in all things? I know that I do it all the time. Then this…
As you have demonstrated so often in your own life, we will not miss Him when He comes to spend time with us in a personal way if we have been set apart (sanctified – not caught up in the distractions of this life) unto Him with our whole spirits, souls and bodies. It is this way that we are kept blameless and are ready for Him when He comes to us. Thank you for being a living letter to us, written by the hand of our Father, dear Susanne. ⭐ I have so much to learn.
Michael
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Oh boy, Michael, me and ‘a living letter’ […] ‘written by the hand of our Father’ at that… well, that has been humbling for me today, my dear brother.
If that which you read in this living letter brings you closer to God, then it was His doing. If not, it was Susanne in her old nature. Michael, I have so much to learn, too, and I am afraid that will never end. But maybe, that is a good thing, though? If there was nothing more to learn, wouldn’t it be a pretty boring (spiritual) life?
I forgot whether I had mentioned it in my post, but I think I often repeat it. It is only by His grace that we can rejoice in our sufferings. I cannot and could not do it on my own, ever.
Your friend and sister who appreciates both your encouragement and correction. Thank you for being you, my dear brother! ❤
Your Susanne 🐱
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Oh Susanne, my dear friend and sister IN Christ! It is HIM in you that shines forth and it is Christ who will do what it takes in your life to keep His light burning in you, too. I am truly thankful to our Daddy for any part we both play in encouraging and correcting one another when we need it. Thank YOU for being who you are as His re-created being IN Christ, dear heart. ❤
Your BWB 🙂 🐻
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Thank you sooo much, my dear brother. I know I will be eternally grateful for you!!! ❤
Moved to tears,
Your sister and friend in Him forever 🐱
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Likewise, dear heart.
“For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.” (2Cor 2:4, ESV2011) ❤
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That really touched my heart deeply, Michael. Thank you so much for your love and heartfelt prayers, my dear brother! ❤
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Thank you for the blog. The fruit of suffering is not something that I feel comfortable writing about, but I do know that it has a fruit. The fruit is good. However, to be free of pain is also good. We live with mysteries, and I believe we do so to the glory of God.
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You’re welcome, dear Pat. We all want to be free of pain, me, too, my sister. I think I can understand your hesitation to write about the fruit of suffering. This fruit is surely nothing we can bring forth on our own. I always feel so miserable while suffering unless God lifts me up.
As for the glory being a mystery, Michael lately shared something with me from Sparks where the glory was directly related to the love of God. Alas, I do not know where to find the link right now…. Ha! Here it is, text + link. 🙂
God’s mind is a glorious mind, it is a mind of glory, and glory is timeless: it is His eternal glory. Now seeing that this is an all-governing object and end of God, a definition of glory is called for which will just fit into every occasion when the word is used. And, of course, that is a very big job. You have only to look at a concordance and you will find that you have on hand hundreds, more than four hundred occasions in the Bible for the use of this word ‘glory’. And yet, there is a definition that will fit in to every instance. What I mean is this: when glory is mentioned, you ask the question: ‘Well, what does that mean? What does glory mean?’ Then if you define glory, you will see how the definition or the word truly understood just fits into every situation. The definition which we have given before, according (I think) to what the Scripture makes perfectly clear, is that glory is God’s nature. And a state of glory is a state which corresponds to God’s nature. Glory, therefore, is the Divine nature in expression. If you have Divine love in perfection, you have glory. If there is a state of love, Divine love, among the Lord’s people, then it’s glory. Not necessarily something like a blaze of light which you see, but which you sense. You sense it.
http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/004310.html
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Susanne, you prayed, “May God give us His grace and make us fully alive so that we can live and walk in in the heavenlies where our true home is. Amen.”
I agree! Amen to that! Hoping to meet you there,Soon, in His wonderful grace by which we may boldly enter in.
Michael
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“Please, Daddy, make it so. Amen!”
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To further the story further–St.Anselm stated–All our natural knowledge of God falls far short of His Majesty and misses the mark of His reality of Being.
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Indeed, what we need is spiritual knowledge of God, Ken. And even equipped with this, will we ever grasp Who He really is as long as we are here on earth?
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Thank you Susanne and Becky! I think “don’t live by your emotions” will be resounding in my spirit for some time! Father challenged me to “appropriate” Ephesians 2:6 several years ago…it was one of those “okay, but I don’t know how” moments…He has been leading me in this step by step and your blog helped with this. Blessings in Him, Jennifer
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You are very welcome, Jennifer! Glad you found the blog helpful. 🙂
Every blessing to you,
Susanne
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Initially and even since commenting above, I wondered if it could have been the Lord speaking, as it was a “do not.” Without the inclination to give all the context, His Word came at a time when it made sense. As well as, He continues to shed light on it.
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Dear sister,
I was recently considering this same topic of limited perspective regarding our afflictions and the Lord gave me psalm 120. A few verses stood out in my reading.
2 Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips
And from a deceitful tongue.
I thought specifically of the devil, how he lies to us to get us to doubt God’s promises. Michael, you’ve just written a very good piece on flattery of men led by the devil, which can also be a very effective tool in derailing us from the straight and narrow path.
4 Sharp arrows of the warrior,
With coals of the broom tree!
Ephesians 6 specifically describes demonic attacks on our faith as fiery darts, which is similar to the image expressed here.
6 My soul has dwelt too long
With one who hates peace.
7 I am for peace;
But when I speak, they are for war.
We want to be at peace with God and our fellow brothers and sisters, with fellow humans in general, but the devil is an expert in creating contention. He’s also an expert in getting our eye to focus on the negative. If we dwell on such thoughts, he can easily cause any physical or emotional pain to become unbearable and affect our mood, and even get us in a doubting or disbelieving mode.
But God has not left us alone in this battle, and we’ve been called more than conquerors! Colossians 3 says, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.” And we’ve been seated with Christ in the heavenly places, according to Ephesians. So let’s meditate on that! Let’s look up to the hills, where our help will come from! Let’s soar like eagles! God will renew our strength! He will renew our minds as we seek Him! He will give us new eyes, the eyes of faith, and we will SEE His glory with our spiritual eyes! We need that revelation of the Spirit… And then everything changes, as you’ve beautifully expressed in this post!
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Thanks for excellent biblical exposition and encouraging words, dear Carina! ⭐
It is true that the devil is “an expert in getting our eye to focus on the negative.” Also, I agree with you that our pains seem to be stronger when we focus on them. In fact, if we keep doing so, our moods are always easily affected as well. I did not want to suggest to take these things lightly, though, since I know that some of my readers also suffer from chronic pains, which is something that can really drive you nuts at times. If God does not help us out of our ‘messes’, we are a miserable bunch of human beings, indeed!
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No, of course we should be compassionate towards those who suffer great physical pain. I didn’t mean to sound nonchalant about this, either. Chronic pain or even intense acute pain can be dreadful. When I was writing my comment, childbirth came to mind. I went through an extreme amount of pain. The normal pain compounded by this horrible artificial oxytocin which was given to induce contractions. The “experts” didn’t want to wait and see if contractions would come on their own, when I arrived with a broken bag of waters and no contractions, they just gave me the artificial replacement for God’s intended hormone which I’m sure works much better! The worst four hours in my entire life! I normally don’t have a high tolerance to pain, for example, strong cramps during menstruation have at times decreased my blood pressure and made me want to vomit. Well, these four hours I was on the verge of fainting because it was unbearable. The midwife telling me to push… I was thinking, what? You want me to suffer even more? In the end, it seems my son’s head was too big to go down and I had to bear the additional extended pain of a C-section.
Yes, when the pain is very intense, you cannot even think straight. Your prayers are likely to be mental and not spoken because you can hardly talk. Or you will pray in screams!
But you know, as I was giving birth to my son, God spoke to me, too. I was reminded of Rachel giving birth and dying in the process, because at one point, I definitely thought I was going to die… and I almost did, I think. I believe I lost a lot of blood when the doctor cut me up because my blood pressure plummeted, and I left the operating room pale as a sheet. My mum was very scared when she saw me. But God reminded me Rachel named her child “son of my pain”, and could definitely relate! But I didn’t see that Benoni name as a curse. On the contrary… I saw this as a badge of honor. The mother looking at the son and saying, every bit of pain I went through was worth it. My death is worth is because you were born, and I love you! I saw this childbirth pain as a bonding experience with that child. Because you’ve suffered greatly to get him, you appreciate him or her so much more. And God told me, “You women give birth with great pain. So did I. My spiritual children were born with the great pain of Me seeing my precious Son die on the cross. Never doubt that I love you. Remember, you’re the daughter of My pain.”
The ironic thing is that I had spent 9 months praying for painless labor. If God had answered my prayer, I wouldn’t have had the chance to get this deep spiritual experience. I needed this great physical pain to understand a very important spiritual truth about God’s compassion. God the Father is not distant and indifferent. He understands our pain because He deeply suffered when His son was dying, and He faced that pain for us. And yet, His compassionate love is greater than a mother’s love for her child!
Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you. (Is. 49:15, ESV)
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Oh, my dear sister,
I am so sorry to hear your story about childbirth!!! 😦
You may know, I can relate. It seems God let us experience pretty similar things here. As for the dose of oxytocin they filled me up with, my midwife (grinning) called it a dose ‘for an elephant’ (I could NOT grin as you might imagine!!).
After more than 34 hours as Sarah was eventually born, I said to myself, “Never, never such horrible pains again!!!” [Note: Of course, not suffering due to oxytocin for 34 hours!!] As I lost our son David in 2009 through miscarriage, I never saw a midwife nor a doctor. I was at home with God and relied on Him as my Great Physician, so to speak. It was not fun, either, but much better than in the hospital!
A BIG HUG TO YOU, MY SWEET SISTER!!!! ❤ ❤ ❤
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Thanks, Carina. That article came from God teaching Susanne and I from a very real temptation that came our way recently. God allows us to go through such things and lets it be painful enough that we learn in our hearts what we need to so we are not so susceptible to the wiles of the devil the next time they come at us. The flattery of the devil is aimed right at what we long for in our souls, to get us to open up to the lies of the deceiver so he can draw us away into his realm. Overcoming in all this lets us learn spiritual wisdom that goes beyond our human ability to discern that we might trust in our Spirit given intuition instead of outward appearances that appeal to our souls.
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Oh, yes, Michael, it’s very dangerous indeed, and it can take a lot of discernment to see through it. Flattery is not always obvious and an evident lie. Being hungry for acceptance and recognition, I have fallen for it far too many times. I’m still very vulnerable.
I may later share a bit of my experiences in your blog, but for now I can only say it was spot on! Great apostasy comes out of this. And you see the warnings all through the Bible, from Genesis 3 to Revelation. It’s crystal clear that we’re to listen to GOD’s voice and trust Him rather than man. It’s crystal clear we must at all costs seek Him and seek to know Him intimately and hear the voice of Jesus every time we read the Scriptures, and that we should pray in order to listen and not just to talk. Why don’t we get it? Because we don’t want to get it. The system teaches you in theory that you need to have a personal relationship with Christ, but if it becomes too personal, you threaten the system. Seen it too often.
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Hey! What a sweet surprise, dear Michael! ❤ You really made my day! All suffering seems to be disappearing into nirvana…
Thank you so much, my dear brother!!! 🙂
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Susanne, I am so glad to hear this! You have been through so much suffering in your life and it is a joy to hear that God can use me to alleviate some of it. ⭐
Your brother and friend in Christ,
Michael
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I am glad you are glad, Michael! 🙂
I know you know what suffering is all about, too, my brother. 😦 May God continue to bring forth more of His Son in us!
Your sister and friend,
Susanne 🐱
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This was good. I have a question for you. Not really related to this post but something on my mind any way. Some one told me that to bear fruit for the lord is to lead some one to Christ.
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Thank you, Fred. As for your question, I would say that someone who displays the fruit of the Spirit might have a ‘contagious’ effect on people who do not know God yet. But we must not forget that it is always Christ who saves, not us. And the fruit of the Spirit cannot be ‘produced’ in any way by us, either. We can only point others to Christ and leave the rest up to Him.
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