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Allan Halton, discerning the spirits, earth, encouragement, evil spirits, experience, following Jesus, God's guidance, Hannah Hurnard, heaven, hinds' feet, Jesus Christ, joy, Michael Clark, pain, pandemic, peace, prayer, Resisting the Devil, rest, Satan, spiritual power, suffering, T.A. Sparks, Taking our Thoughts Captive, the devil, the enemy, the heavenlies, thought life, unrest, visions, walking by the spirit
As a preliminary note before delving deeper into my latest experiences with God, “Hinds’ Feet on High Places” here bears no relation to Hannah Hurnard’s novel with the same title. Although I never read her book, I heard from a few readers of my blog how much they liked it as they shared part of its content with me in the past. I have just read the plot introduction of this book on Wikipedia and I realized that there might really be a lot of similarities between Hurnard’s description and my own experiences with God as to suffering and sorrow. However, I want to go a step further now and to rather focus on a positive prospect of our life with God than on the difficulties of endurance.
During the last week I stayed at home for three days. From Monday until Wednesday God showed me some visions, both in the morning and in the evening when I was alone while praying. As far as I could remember the details, I jotted them down in my calendar and I also shared them with Michael Clark during fellowship on the phone. It is not so that God always reveals what was meant by what we have seen, but sometimes He does, though.
It was only yesterday on Thursday in the morning that I found myself walking in the Spirit (in another vision, so to say) with Jesus along a well-trodden path that closely surrounded a high and steep mountain on our left. Jesus was on my right side as we kept walking this ocher-colored footpath. I did not focus on Jesus as I usually know I have to in order to not get side-tracked by the enemy. Instead, I looked up this high and slick mountain that was shaped like a huge brown cone. There was no rock, no tree, only a greasy soil texture which allowed no uphill climbs. Alas, I could not discern any way up nor down and no other path elsewhere, either, than this tedious one we were on.
Over time it began to dawn on me that we were walking on an endless circuit around this cone-shaped mountain. That was not only boring. I also felt more and more pressured to keep walking in this prison of sorts. My feelings turned from boredom over irritation to outright anger. After walking approximately one third of the whole ‘circle’ that surrounded the mountain, I really felt like a prisoner who wanted to break free! I turned to Jesus and beseeched Him, “Can we not go elsewhere??” To this He answered, “Yes, we can,” and soon I found myself with Him on a higher elevation on the other side of the mountain. Phew, much better there! Relaxing at Jesus’ left side, I looked down on the earth and on this whole mountain, its rounded off peak, and on the path that was thin like a thread, but somehow stuck to the mountain itself.
“What is this mountain?” I wondered. “This is the pandemic,” Jesus answered. “Oh…” I was surprised… 🙄 At that moment I saw many people who were walking on this path around the mountain. They were small like ants although I could discern the clothes they wore, the color of their hair and so on. They kept walking… and kept walking…and …you know the rest. At that moment it got as clear as crystal to me that we have to continually focus on Jesus if we do not want to remain part of the crowd which, being focused on the mountain and its path around it, never looked up to the heights.
Just now the Lord reminded me of a Scripture that describes our way out of all our problems, worries, and sorrows. Allan Halton shared Psalm 121 just yesterday in his reply to me on his own blog.
A Song of Ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. (Ps 121:1-8 ESV)
That was the solution, indeed! 🙂 But once again, back to the vision. As I was thinking about how this problem of the pandemic could be resolved, the Lord took me on another, even higher place where I looked down on far more than that one mountain. What I could not see any more, though, were the people below. Instead, I looked down on numerous mountains that emerged behind the first one as well as on its right and its left side. They all looked the same as they stood there arranged in a checkered manner. But alas, there was no room left between those countless mountains to ever perceive some light from the heights that were situated high above those mountains. That’s sad. 😦 It seems to me that all those brown mountains represented our earthly problems we struggle with every day since the color brown is the color of the earth or of the soil. Apart from the pandemic mountain, there is the mountain of climatic catastrophe, the mountain of wars, of poverty, of famine, of droughts, of flooding, of volcanic eruptions, of corrupt governments and so on and so on.
To cut a long story short(er), 😉 I want to share with you now the last picture I saw of this vision. Right after having seen those many brown mountains side by side, Jesus put my feet on a much higher elevation where I could merely discern those many peaks as light brown and round spots that were perfectly arranged on a sort of checkerboard (though as dots, not as squares). There was an obvious order in this pattern I could not perceive as long as I was walking with our Lord around this one mountain, focused on this one particular problem, so to speak. Yes, trying to solve our problems while we are staring on what causes us fear and worries in this world will never work out fine. We truly need God to put our feet on high(er) places where we find rest at His side and protection from the enemy who is generally lurking on earth and in the lower regions of the heavenlies that are closer to the earth.
It was amazing for me to see that only on earth there seems to be an awareness of fear, confusion and destruction. The higher the places God sets our feet on, the more we see a God-ordained order of everything, even of evil. The evil on earth appears to also serve God’s purposes as we read,
“Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?” (Amos 3:6 ESV)
I cannot say I understand WHY God allows evil and suffering, yet I saw that it must have come from Him; all these bad things we don’t understand do not happen randomly but are part of God’s eternal plan. Trying to bring this blog to a close, I copy and paste a part of an email I just got from Michael Clark where he himself pasted a paragraph of T. Austin Sparks’ daily devotional from today. I had not read this devotional yet, but I saw that it perfectly fits in here.
“After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” (Rev 4:1, ESV2011)
Open Windows, December 3…
He is working now in you and me. I sometimes think that we are two persons, one here and one in heaven. Naturally we are here, but there is something of ourselves “going up” all the time, when the Lord is getting in us something more of heaven. It is being stored up there. Is not that perhaps what the Lord meant, when He referred to Himself as “the Son of man, who is in heaven” (John 3:13), even while He is on earth? There is an aspect of us that is growing in heaven. Do not think of heaven as some remote planet. We are growing in that heavenly thought of things. Something of us is “going up.” Do you say your situation is too difficult to bring heaven in? Well, there are difficult situations. Daniel’s was a difficult situation – his three companions were in a difficult situation; but they brought heaven in. A grand phrase in the book of Daniel is – “the heavens do rule” (4:26). And they proved it. Headquarters is in heaven: not in Babylon, not in Rome, not in Jerusalem or anywhere else, but in heaven. The Lord help us to live up to and out from heaven. (1)
Amen to T. Austin-Sparks’ prayer.
As an addendum, I thought I should share with you why I chose the title. Regardless of what I had been doing yesterday (big shopping, putting all my stuff away afterwards, talking, writing, cooking – whatever), I heard the Holy Spirit speaking inside me, “Hinds’ feet on high places…,” even a few times. So I was wondering whether I should dig into that book or not. But most of the time I was too busy to ponder on these five words and their implication. This morning when I was struggling with spiritual attacks, the Lord reminded me of “hinds’ feet on high places” once again and therefore I looked up the meaning. That which aroused my interest today was the experience that God had just helped me to resist an evil spirit. That spirit offered me one specific anxious thought I had been familiar with for decades. Yet for the first time I felt a certain strength to resist Satan’s “proposal” to follow that trodden path, i.e., I rejected jumping in my hamster wheel of negative thoughts and emotions. For some reason I had felt the courage to say to the enemy, “No, God told me to not be afraid about anything. Therefore, I reject those thoughts.” To my great surprise, only a few seconds afterwards those frightening feelings which had already started to bother me disappeared in the middle of nowhere and turned into joy and gratefulness to God instead. In closing (seriously!), 😉 I want to show you the verse I had looked up on the internet,
“He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, and setteth me upon my high places.” (Ps 18:33 KJV)
(1) https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/openwindows/003483.html
“In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks’ wishes that what was freely received should be freely given and not sold for profit, and that his messages be reproduced word for word, we ask if you choose to share these messages with others, to please respect his wishes and offer them freely – free of any changes, free of any charge (except necessary distribution costs) and with this statment included.”
All images by Susanne Schuberth 2020, Paul Schuberth 2021 (1st picture: quality is lower than usual b/c it was sent via WhatsApp)
Entering the Promised Land 
Wow! Your vision says it all, Susanne. Some verses came to mind as I read it and prayed about it.
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. (Ps 57:1, ESV2011)
One time a brother in Christ asked me how I was doing. I said, “Not too bad under the circumstances.” He replied, “What are you doing under there?” Yes! What are we doing under the shadow of of all these brown greasy mountains? If we take our refuge under His wings we can’t be UNDER our circumstances, can we?
“I look to the hills, but where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made them!” – “Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?”
All these perceived crises are to bring us to the end of ourselves that we might find our refuge under His wings. Our HELP comes from the Lord, not high councils on “global warming” or all the laboratories making Covid vaccines that can’t keep up with all these plagues, earthquakes, volcanoes, famines, wars, and pestilence… not to mention family tensions, the economy, etc. etc. etc.
My father would wrestle with me and pin me to the floor or twist an arm or a leg until I said, “UNCLE!” Then he would let me up. It was a game to him, but not so much fun for me. I think that Daddy is waiting for us to cry out, “Uncle!” and learn to see Him as our only hope and help so that we make a habit of abiding close to His heart under His wings.
One time I heard a Christian teacher named Bob Mumford say, “If you fix the fix that God fixes to fix you, He will just fix another fix to fix you!” He has our best end in view, always, that we might be His sons and daughters conformed to the image of His Son.
“Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ (Isa 46:9-10, ESV2011)
Great insight from our Daddy, Susanne. Thanks for sharing your life with us, for it is HIS life working in you (and among all His saints) that gives us hope to seek Him in all things we face as well. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Michael
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Thank you very much for sharing your precious insights and for your encouraging words, Michael. I agree we really need to have come to the end of our SELVES. If we surrender our chaos to Him, He can begin to make all things new.
Under the Lord’s wings is the best place to be, that is so true, my dear brother!
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How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. (Ps 36:7, ESV2011) ⭐
The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you. (Ps 9:9-10, ESV2011)
It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes. (Ps 118:8-9, ESV2011)
You are welcome, dear Susanne.
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Thanks again, Michael, great Bible verses! As to trusting man more than God three more Scriptures just came to mind.
5 Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” (Jer 17:5-8 ESV)
Especially verse 8 above strongly reminds us of Psalm 1.
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Ps 1:1-6 ESV)
And finally, there are the apostles before the council and the high priest who commanded them to not teach in Jesus’ name anymore.
But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29 ESV)
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Gracias Susanne por esta enseñanza, confirma lo que el Señor me guio a decirle a un amigo y hermano en Cristo esta semana. Él anda preocupado todo el tiempo con el asunto de la conspiración de la pandemia y las vacunas, él dice que las vacunas son esto y aquello, que son una estrategia del enemigo y todo lo demás.
Algo que yo le dije fue: “Puede que sea así, pero nuestra mirada debe estar puesta en el Señor, no en estas cosas, todo lo malo que hagan los hombres y el mismo Satanás, Dios lo usará para Sus propósitos” y fueron las mismas palabras que acabas de decir.
Eso fue lo que sentí del Señor decirle y aunque él se enojó y después me pidió disculpas, él sigue promoviendo su tema de conspiración, pero doy gracias al Señor por confirmarme a través de este escrito que fue Su Espíritu que me guio a hablarle de esta manera, gracias al Señor por esa visión que te dio.
Esto fue lo que compartí en mi Blog […]:
“No llaméis, conjuración, a todas las cosas a que este pueblo llama conjuración; ni temáis su temor, ni le tengáis miedo”. Isaías 8: 12
“La vida es demasiado complicada como para vivir estresados por las noticias que a diario circulan a nuestro alrededor. La mejor manera de vivir esta vida es vivirla en Él, perdiéndonos en Él, sabiendo que Dios es el dueño de esta tierra y de nuestra vida. “En el mundo tendréis aflicción; pero confiad, yo he vencido al mundo”, dijo nuestro Señor Jesús, fue su grandiosa promesa para nuestras vidas, y me cobijo bajo esa promesa cuando escucho, leo y veo todo lo que sucede en el mundo y lo que de ese mundo me afecta.
Nuestra naturaleza está caída y podemos esperar lo que sea de ella, somos conscientes de esto, pero su amor y su cuidado no cambian, en medio de toda esta maldad de los corazones y de todas las maquinaciones de Satanás, Dios está con nosotros; así que prefiero centrarme en Él y no en las noticias que a diario nos traen los medios de comunicación y las redes sociales, que no hacen más que sembrar miedo y desesperanza.
En nuestro Señor Jesús hay esperanza, ese nuevo día está amaneciendo sobre nosotros, ese día en donde toda lágrima será enjugada, todo dolor se irá, toda oscuridad ya no será más, no habrá más llanto, ni preocupaciones, todas estas cosas pasarán. Dios siempre utiliza para bien lo que han pensado hacernos para mal, José es una muestra de ello, esa es nuestra esperanza y nuestra confianza. Dios es fiel y su promesa no cambia, Él es el mismo ayer, hoy y por la eternidad. Descansemos en Él, confiemos en Él, creámosle a Él, pongamos nuestra mirada en Él y vivamos en la alegría de su presencia en nuestras vidas”.
Gracias Susanne nuevamente.
XOXOXOXOXO
Con amor en Cristo, Patricia
Thank you Susanne for this teaching, it confirms what the Lord led me to say to a friend and brother in Christ this week. He is concerned all the time with the issue of the conspiracy of the pandemic and vaccines, he says that vaccines are this and that, that they are an enemy strategy and everything else.
Something I said to him was: “It may be so, but our gaze must be on the Lord, not on these things, everything bad that men do and Satan himself, God will use for His purposes” and they were the same words you just said.
That was what I felt from the Lord telling him and although he got angry and later apologized to me, he continues to promote his conspiracy issue, but I thank the Lord for confirming through this writing that it was His Spirit that guided me to speak to him about this. Way, thank the Lord for that vision he gave you.
This is what I shared on my blog […]:
“Do not call, conspiracy, all the things that this people calls conspiracy; do not fear their fear, and do not be afraid of them.” Isaiah 8:12
“Life is too complicated to live stressed by the news that circulates around us daily. The best way to live this life is to live it in Him, losing ourselves in Him, knowing that God is the owner of this earth and of our life. . “In the world you will have affliction; but trust me, I have conquered the world”, said our Lord Jesus, it was his great promise for our lives, and I take shelter under that promise when I listen, read and see everything that happens in the world. and what of that world affects me.
Our nature is fallen and we can expect anything from it, we are aware of this, but his love and care do not change, in the midst of all this evil of hearts and all the machinations of Satan, God is with us; So I prefer to focus on Him and not on the news that the media and social networks bring us daily, which do nothing but sow fear and hopelessness.
In our Lord Jesus there is hope, that new day is dawning over us, that day where all tears will be wiped away, all pain will go away, all darkness will be no more, there will be no more crying or worries, all these things will pass away. God always uses for good what they have thought to do to us for evil, José is a sample of this, that is our hope and our confidence. God is faithful and His promise does not change, He is the same yesterday, today and for eternity. Let us rest in him, trust him, believe him, fix our gaze on him and live in the joy of his presence in our lives. ”
Thanks Susanne again.
XOXOXOXOXO
With love in Christ, Patricia
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You are welcome, Patricia. Indeed, I just looked up this Scripture you quoted and it serves as a confirmation for me, too. Also, I decided to include the verse before and afterwards.
For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying:
“Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.” (Isaiah 8:11-13 ESV)
Without the fear of God in our hearts, the fear of offending Him more than we might offend other people (even Christians), we will more easily join the wrong people and thus be led astray.
Alas, we cannot convince other Christians that they are wrong regarding their conspiracy theories and their rebellion against the government. As for me, I decided to only pray for them and to wait until our Lord leads me to speak up – or not.
In His Love,
Susanne ❤️🕊️
PS
Just in case you were wondering, I removed a few words […] in your response that might have enabled other readers to, perhaps, identify the brother you were writing about.
“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8 ESV)
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Gracias Susanne por tu respuesta, realmente viene del Señor, es una confirmación a lo que el Señor ha puesto en mi corazón. Dijiste que es difícil convencer a otros cristianos acerca de sus teorías de conspiración y rebelión contra el gobierno y esto me hace recordar lo que nos dice el Señor de someternos a las autoridades porque son puestas por el Señor. Tienes toda la razón qué difícil es esto y lo único que podemos hacer es orar y esperar la guía del Señor para hablar con ellos o no hacerlo.
Quise responderte antes, pero este final de año no fue fácil, tuve muchas dificultades y hasta ahora retomo lecturas y correos y hasta pensé que había borrado esta lectura que me gustó tanto, pero como obra del Señor apareció en mi correo como si no hubiera leído tu artículo. Gloria a Dios, las cosas que hace nuestro Dios, tan pequeñas, pero tan maravillosas.
Un abrazo, que este año el Señor siga obrando en tu vida como hasta ahora lo ha hecho.
Thank you Susanne for your answer, it really comes from the Lord, it is a confirmation of what the Lord has put in my heart. You said that it is difficult to convince other Christians about their theories of conspiracy and rebellion against the government and this reminds me of what the Lord tells us to submit to the authorities because they are set by the Lord. You are absolutely right how difficult this is and the only thing we can do is pray and wait for the Lord’s guidance to talk to them or not.
I wanted to answer you before, but this end of the year was not easy, I had many difficulties and until now I have returned to readings and emails and I even thought that I had deleted this reading that I liked so much, but as a work of the Lord it appeared in my mail as if I had not read your article. Glory to God, the things our God does, so small, but so wonderful.
A hug, this year the Lord continues to work in your life as he has done so far.
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You are very welcome, Patricia.
This world cannot see it, but I think the small things count for God just as much as the so-called big things. To Him, it is no problem to give us the one or the other. It seems it should be similar for us regarding small things since we read,
“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?
No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Lk 16:10-13 ESV)
A hug to you, too. May our Lord help you and guide you in all your difficulties through this coming year, my sister. ❤
Susanne
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That our perspective will always be flawed if limited to this world alone is a profound insight, dear Susanne. I could not agree w/ you more as to the futility of trying to convince other Christians of the error of trusting in conspiracy theories.
Your friend,
A.
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I am glad you agree, Anna. Thanks for your comment! 🙂
Your friend,
Susanne
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