Tags
discerning the spirits, dying to self, encouragement, experience, following Jesus, Jesus Christ, true faith
If you, like me, thought that attaining spiritual perfection meant becoming a better human being, someone who does not make the same mistakes again and again as they did before… it seems to me now that I might have been wrong.
During the last weeks and months I have come to see that spiritual perfection in God’s sight means nothing but utter dependence on Him in every howsoever tiny area of life. Oh, how long do we need until we stop trusting in our old nature’s ways of thinking and behaving? 🙄 We might have waited on God to really do something, to intervene and to save us from ourselves, we might have waited for years and decades, often despairing of our old man’s stupidity. Yet one day, out of the blue, our Lord might sneak in, taking us by surprise, and NOW He is setting the agenda. You realize all of a sudden that you have a much stronger faith you did not have before and then you dare to trust Him, eventually, even if His leading might often seem strange at first.
It is evening and already dark outside. Just now I was interrupted by a peculiar occurrence. I got up from the computer as I wanted to shut the door to the balcony. It has begun to rain continuously two days ago and I started to feel cold as the rainy wind began to breeze into the office. Looking down, I thought, “What is THIS?” 🙄 Close to the door there was a sort of long and thin leaf on the ground…yet…. its shape reminded me of something else. Indeed, shortly afterwards the “leaf” began to creep toward the door. If you did not know it yet, we live in a penthouse on the 6th floor (i.e. 5th floor according to German classification). Actually, although this was not the first slug that got up here (most probably not by taking the elevator), 😉 it was the first one that had crept into our flat. At times, though rarely, I found a few slugs on the balconies under the plants before. To cut a long story short, I was just asking the Lord whether He wanted to show or teach me something with that incidence. Alas, the wind was suddenly so strong that the door cut the slug into two pieces as the animal wanted to get back outside. Too late. 😦 The front part of the body was outside, the rear part still in the room and nothing in between. I felt sad at first as I did not want to kill the slug; I wanted to save it. But God… 🙄
Spiritual perfection is not about trying to save anything that belongs to our flesh and our old nature. Even those things that seem to be good in the sight of others; we should not try to keep them. Either our old self is reckoned stonedead and Jesus can act through us as and whenever He wants or it is all still a mix. A terrible mix of good habits and social conformism or, in other words, we might recognize our tendency to submit to the wrong human spirits in other people instead of following the Holy Spirit’s leading.
May God help us discern the spirits and may He give us the will and strength to only follow Him, even if it turns out a lonely path at times.
“The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” (Jn 10:3-5 ESV)
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (Jn 10:27 ESV)
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal 2:20 ESV)
Allan Halton said:
Hi Susanne. In Scripture “perfect” has several meanings. It can mean complete, or fully mature, or fully equipped, or whole. This last one in particular is just what you are saying. We read that David’s heart was “perfect with the LORD His God.” That’s quite the statement considering some of the things David did. Yet we read:
“For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father” (1 Kings 11:4).
The next two verses tell us what this perfection means.
“For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father.”
So in this context, to have a perfect heart with God means having a heart that is wholly dependent upon God. In other words, no idols, not even the idol of myself. A perfect heart is not a divided heart, but a heart that is wholly the Lord’s, and looks wholly to the Lord in all things, in good times and hard times, in all things great and small. This, I would say, is striking the same chord you are with the words, “spiritual perfection in God’s sight means nothing but utter dependence on Him in every howsoever tiny area of life.”
The word used in the passage above is the Hebrew “shalem,” meaning “complete, whole.” It is the same word used in 2 Chr. 16:9. “2Ch 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him….”
That is, looking wholly to Him with no other dependency.
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
Thank you very much for weighing in here and for sharing your wisdom, Allan.
It needs a long time to accept (in every area of life) that nothing ‘good’ our old nature is able to bring forth is at the same time good in the sight of God. 🙄
A statement that also made me often wonder is what Jesus said here, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:48 ESV) From the context it seems to be about loving our enemies just as God does and did by sacrificing His own Son for the sins of the whole world. Loving my enemies, that is something I cannot do at all! When I am hurting and feel I have been wronged, I always need to wait on Jesus to help me pray for those who wronged me. On my own, I would NEVER do such a thing!!
But after finally having prayed, I sense that something in my heart must have been changed as well. I have begun to understand where these people might have come from as I realize that they still have to deal with their own mental scars and triggers from the past.
Thanks again for your enlightening explanations! 🙂
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Carina said:
Utter dependence. Yes! My old-self performance mindset gives me a list of things I must do (and do well) if I want to feel I am good citizen of the Kingdom. But Christ says, Look at me! Look again! Keep your eyes fixed on Me! Every second of my day I need to remind my soul that Jesus is my sufficiency. He keeps saving me from old foolish, legalistic me. And as I breathe His life, oh, the joy and the freedom! I want to die to everything in the old and ONLY abide in Him. What a good, patient God we serve!
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
Yup, self-performance, that’s it, Carina! And how hard it is to refrain from our own doing when we know we CAN do something on your own without God’s help. 😛 Recently I was tempted to write an article and to publish it in a newspaper as someone had really offended me in the public (not by words, but by doing something that was pretty ugly). It was not a small thing, yet it was also embarrassing. When you know you CAN write about it, but God says, “No, pray instead!” this is not easy, indeed. But eventually His peace and joy follow our obedience. 🙂
There are times when it seems to be impossible to look at Jesus again and again as the world and the pain darken our view. Today I would say He knows we are human – He is patient as you said – and finally Jesus helps us look at Him again. Is there anything we can do on our own? 🙄 Keeping my inner eyes focused on Him, that is something I really need His help for, too.
Love ❤
Susanne
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Anna Waldherr said:
A message greatly needed in these difficult and confusing times, Susanne. ❤
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
Thank you so much for your encouraging words, dear Anna! ❤
Love,
Susanne 🙂
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Michael said:
Dear Susanne,
Your blog has stirred up in me many different trains of thought. How often we get depressed when we contemplate our own shortcomings in this Christian walk. We seem to come along soooo slow, much like that slug. There has been times that we got discouraged and want to turn back to our old ways and if we give up the outcome is the same as it was for that slug. Jesus said, “Remember Lot’s wife.” She turned back and turned into a pillar of salt. Even when He seems far ahead of us, we must keep our eyes fixed on the path He has placed before us. If that slug had just kept going you would have saved him. The winds of change in this time we are in are not to be trusted, but through it all we must keep our spiritual eyes on our Lord and He will save us.
Then there are the pictures you posted of the sheepfold and that two story building with the huge overhanging eve out front. Even when we are not aware and we go out of the sheep fold we are still covered under the shadow of His enormous wings. Jesus in John chapter ten has so much to say about our relationship as sheep who submit to the Good Shepherd. How many time I heard pastors say, “This ministry is where God has put you and you are to get your spiritual food here and nowhere else!” I am encouraged that He said, “By me they come in AND GO OUT and find pasture.” It is comforting to know that we who are His can hear His voice and that He (not men) has led the way before us. Jesus is the door of the sheep and His Father is the Gatekeeper who opens the door before Him. The death and resurrection of Christ was all the Father’s doing and by it He opened the door to the Kingdom of God to us all. Jesus told Pilate, “You have no power over me unless my Father has given it unto you.” Jesus, while facing His fate of dying on the cross said, “Father, I would that this cup pass from me, but never the less, Father, not my will but thine be done.” He submitted to the will of the Gatekeeper that we might all be saved. Jesus led the way for us all. The path of Christ who leads the way is a way of suffering, but our Shepherd is there with us leading the way. I am so glad that His Spirit is called “The Comforter.”
Then we have these thrives and robbers. His sheep do not hear their voice because they come into the sheepfold by another way to get at the sheep rather than submitting in humility to Jesus and following Him. The one unfailing sign of these thieves and robbers is their pride and self-centeredness. Jesus said, “No man can come to the Father but by me.” Church leadership is overrun with those who have come into the sheepfold by another way (seminaries and Bible schools? “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies”). They do not know Jesus’ voice nor do they follow Him. For these the Bible is a textbook, not a love-letter. If not right away, eventually His sheep catch on that these are wolves in sheep skins. God knows how many sheep they have fleeced for their own gain. The goats find it quite comfortable in that system, though.
Your last picture you posted in this blog with the clouds radiating from a singe point on that mountain speak of the glorified Christ. I am so blessed by the way our Daddy uses His creation to speak to you. Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us the things He has shown you.
Love you dearly as we walk together in Him,
Michael ❤
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
Dear Michael,
I am amazed at how many very good thoughts and ideas you got from reading this rather short blog and by looking at my pictures! ⭐
Indeed, the last picture I took almost one hour after our daughter Sarah had written her short prayer in a fat book in the Abbey Church (“Stiftskirche” in German) in Berchtesgaden/Upper Bavaria. If you are interested, it is the church with the two pointed steeples in the middle of the picture here. Sarah’s short prayer was about asking God to show us the way, with which I fully agreed in written form as well.
Soon afterwards God gave us, but especially Sarah, several signs of His love. At first I detected in a hidden corner inside the church a dark window with a button in front of it. There was also a sign that said, “Manger”. ‘Manger’, I wondered? Christmas…..in September?? 🙄 Curiously I hit the button and suddenly a bright light illumined the biblical scene where the woman at the well asked Jesus about the proper way to pray to God. Hooray, that was a quick confirmation of the prayer!! 🙂
When we left the church, we felt His peace and Sarah decided spontaneously to be led by God instead by our own choices. We had been looking for the park of the health resort for some time already, however, although we had a map on the phone and a big touristic map on a sign in front of us, we could not find it. As we had given up on looking for it, there it was. We stood on the other side of the street, looking at the entrance, not knowing how we got there. 🙂
Without premonition, only two or three minutes later, Sarah found there an antiquated book she had been looking for; she even got it for free in this book-sharing box inside the pretty park of the health resort. She was so happy with the book; only God could know that it (or rather the author) had been on her bucket list, right!? 😉 A few minutes later I took the last pic and Sarah said, it was really good. I was not sure why, yet I kept it. In the evening I zoomed in on it and then I saw that these clouds behind the mountain looked like five fingers… God’s hand was with us which He proved daily on our short vacation last week (my first vacation after twelve years at home; yet as God had planned it, it was really, really good!!). 🙂
I love you dearly and I appreciate our spiritual fellowship more and more every day, my brother! ❤
Love,
Susanne
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Michael said:
Susanne, our Father is so good! It is amazing how He and Jesus makes themselves known to us. We read in the Bible that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. The more He reveals Himself to Sarah, the more faith she has to seek Him even more. This is so wonderful. You are a gift to all who have taken the time to know you, dear sister. Who would have ever spotted and then pushed that button in that dark corner of that church, but one who is seeking the truth that is in Christ. The woman at the well is so instructive. Where are we to worship? In this church or in the holy mountain? Neither one… we will connect with Him in Spirit and in truth…. inward truth IN Christ as we diligently seek Him. The kingdom of heaven is not about physical places, though He is not prevented from touching us even there. “The heavens are His throne and the earth is His footstool.” He is found everywhere in His creation! I am so excited for you and Sarah and the way that Daddy lead you both during that brief time together. It is a joy to know you.
You remain in my prayers,
Michael
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
Yes, Michael, God has done a miracle in Sarah’s life, giving her meaning and purpose. The fact that she has been seeking Jesus lately is the biggest miracle for me. This proves that God has drawn her to our Lord. 😇🙏🏼🕊️👍🏼 Thank you very much for your countless prayers over the years, Michael. God heard them!! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼👍🏼
Yesss!!! God can be found everywhere, even in a church! 🙃
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Michael said:
Susanne, I had further thoughts on what it means to be perfect as His children in the eyes of God. Paul wrote:
“Not that I have already obtained, or am already perfected; but I press on. . . . One thing I do, I press on towards the goal. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.” Phil.3: 12-15.
Or as Paul wrote in Romans,
“I therefore urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercies, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices that are holy and pleasing to God, for this is the reasonable way for you to worship.Do not be conformed to this world, but continually be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may be able to determine what God’s will is—what is proper, pleasing, and perfect.” (Rom 12:1-2, ISV)
We might not be “perfect” yet as Jesus was made perfect through the things that He suffered, but what our Father desires is that we have the mind of Christ operating in us, that is, the desire of the Holy Spirit leading us into all truth in our inward parts, our very hearts. This is His goal for us. As we can see by the above verses, perfection is progressive. Perfection is having hearts that continue to press on with minds in us that are being renewed in Christ day by day. As His children, we are “perfect” as we are submitting to His working in our hearts even if it is like an infant taking one small step at a time.
“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (1John 3:2, ESV2011)
Watching Him working His grace in you, Susanne, has given me hope that there is hope for me as well for it is “by [His] grace we are saved.”
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
Very good thoughts, Michael! Thank you for sharing them. 🙂
Indeed, it is ONLY His grace by which we are saved. There is hope for everyone who calls on Jesus’ name (see Romans 10:13, for example).
Actually, when I began to write comments on the internet, I still thought that there would be a day in the future when I would not be sinning any more (here on earth, I mean). There are several quotes from John that seemed to indicate this to me. It was a stress for me as a perfectionist, realizing over the years that I keep stumbling, mainly by saying something I should not have said to several people.
James told us that “[…] we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.” (Js 3:2 ESV) Today I feel so much freer than in the past as I believe that only Jesus is this perfect man. He is our justification and as we walk in the light as He is in the light – as you often say – we are cleansed from all our sins. That is so comforting for me, Michael, I do not need to be perfect anymore. I NEED JESUS – that’s all! 🙂
His grace to you and to all who read it!
Susanne ❤
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Michael said:
Well said, dear sister! We focus our hearts on Him not ourselves and His grace does the rest. ❤ ❤
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Susanne Schuberth (Germany) said:
Amen, my brother! 🙂
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