Tags
discerning the spirits, dying to self, entering his rest, experience, following Jesus, God's love, Jesus Christ, natural life, peace, prophecy, rest, resurrection power, sanctification, T.A. Sparks, the cross, visions, walking by the spirit
This afternoon I had a gripping vision which initially filled me with great joy. But later I got deeply sad. In order to spare you numerous details, I try to be as brief as possible and to rather point you to this excerpt from T. Austin-Sparks further below where he also described a personal experience. Reading what he had to undergo shed some light on what I saw and felt in the following vision.
I recall that the first part of this vision had begun yesterday. While praying I started to see Jesus on my right side in the spirit. He was standing behind a sort of speaker’s desk, overlooking an empty room in front of Him that resembled an auditorium in college. The only thing I ‘knew’ immediately when I looked at Him was that He was in charge, He was the Only One to decide, even everything. Therefore I knew I could lean back and rest. This sight of Him standing silently and immovably while radiating Divine Love was awesome. Furthermore, this peaceful view did not disappear in the night and when I awoke, Jesus was still there, standing on top of this room like a huge electromagnet, capable to draw all human beings like tiny iron filings toward Himself when He called them by their names.
But suddenly something happened. On both sides of the auditorium the doors were opened and crowds of people were rolling in. All these rows beneath Jesus’ speaker’s desk were filled with men and women. As I watched them sitting there, I wondered. While Jesus was on top of them, though in their back, they never turned their heads in His direction. Quite the contrary, like hypnotized they were gazing out of a huge half circle panorama window right in front of them. This window was really beautiful, no doubt. However, what were they looking at? 🤔
As I could not discern anything but landscape outside, I asked the Lord about their occupation. Sitting and watching… still sitting and watching… what?? Jesus did not answer immediately. But when I looked into His face, I saw He was grieved. Without opening His mouth, I felt He was sad about Christians who were focused on everything that happened in this world, whether good or bad. This world represented their whole realm of concern. And it was also here on earth where they expected to find Him, where they served Him, even eagerly….. but alas, they either did not know Him personally or they could not recognize His actual will for them in their life. – End of vision
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, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:4-7 ESV)
And here, as announced before, is T. Austin-Sparks’ excerpt from “The Kingdom That Cannot be Shaken”, Chapter 5 – Sanctification in Christ, the Way to Dominion. TAS asked,
“What is sanctification in relation to the Kingdom, the Throne, dominion? It is very vitally related. There will be no reigning unless there is sanctification; there will be no dominion unless there is sanctification. Sanctification in Christ is the way to the dominion, to the reigning, to the realisation of God’s eternal purpose. What is sanctification then with its tremendous significance for the purpose of God? It is a separation from all that which came in and, coming in, meant the forfeiture of that dominion which God intended.
“But I am going to put that in another way. It is the breaking of the power and the stripping off of the whole natural life. The whole natural life of man now since the fall — since Satan’s interference and man’s response to Satan’s interference — is in itself the great obstruction in the way to God’s purpose in him and for him; and when I speak of the whole natural life I am not just speaking of that sinful life which everybody recognises and acknowledges to be evil. I am speaking about man as he is. According to this world’s standards, and according to the best standards of men, he may be called a good man, but God says: “There is none righteous, no not one.” And the great apostle himself said: “In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” That lies behind our religious life very often. Our very religious life can be energised by nature. Our interests for the Lord may be by the energy of our own natural life, and so we find the flesh sporting itself in the things of God, a kind of natural interest carried over into divine things: that just as you might be taken up with interesting things in this world, and study them, and apply them, and use them, and turn them to certain account for the furtherance of certain interests, so you have swung all the application of mind and heart and wisdom to the things that are divine, and you begin to manipulate things for God, and organise things for God, and govern things for God, and be something in the things of God. It is all the natural man brought over into divine things, which can be interesting, fascinating. Yes, the deep things of God making an appeal to that in us which can be so fascinated, things such as prophecy, the things to come. Oh, the fascination of prophecy!
“I shall never forget the shock that came to me once across the other side of the Atlantic. I was due to speak in a city there, and I arrived on the closing evening of a series of meetings on prophecy and was in the last meeting. I was to open my own series of gatherings at the end of that last meeting, and I listened to the address on prophecy, on the signs of the times and so on, and I saw the people all down with their notebooks, going at it as hard as they could go, noting down all these things, tabulating all these interesting facts, all this data about prophecy. They were very interested and very busy, and then that finished. I had been very much waiting on the Lord for His message, and He gave it to me, I believe, and when I began to speak at the end of that meeting my message was: “And he that hath this hope within him purifieth himself”; the practical outcome of the times being fulfilled and the Lord’s coming in view; the practical outcome of a life of sanctification and holiness. The people lost interest, and they flung down their notebooks, and closed their Bibles, and were not a bit interested any more. There was no fascination about it.
“You see where we can get to. It is all natural, busy, interested, feverishly taken up with things for the Lord, and yet it may be all the drive of this natural life.
“Now what I want to say, and the point upon which I want to lay special emphasis in all love, and yet with all faithfulness, is this: Beloved, you and I will never come through to God’s eternally intended place for us in the heavenly Kingdom until everything of this earthly life has been smitten, has been smashed. We have got to be broken men and women on the side of this nature; we have got to know the meaning of the cross as planted right at the centre of this whole life of nature, to bring it to naught, so that we can do no more of ourselves, we cannot speak as out from ourselves, we cannot work as out from ourselves, we can do no more organising as of ourselves, we can run nothing as of ourselves, we are brought to the place where we know nothing as of ourselves — and we know it; and if there is to be anything, and if there is anything at all, it is the Lord only doing it — doing it at the time, and then usually leaving us empty and spent and helpless, until He comes along again. It is so different from this continuous, everlasting go, go, go of the flesh. It is helpless dependence upon the Lord because the cross has been planted there right at the centre of all the strength of nature, and now our preaching of a crucified Lord has to be by crucified men, our working in relation to a heavenly Kingdom has to be by heavenly men; that is, those who are drawing their very life from heaven, from God: those for whom Christ and Christ alone is their life and their resource, and they know it. The essential unto the heavenly Kingdom is a breaking, fully, finally, of what is earthly.”
https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002068.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 pictures by Susanne Schuberth 2022
Entering the Promised Land 
Ah, Susanne, I found myself nodding at your vision, with the majority of Christians looking at the world instead of at He who has overcome it. It is sad; I know and love some who have fallen into that deception. But to whom did Jesus minister? the lowly & downtrodden. And he ministered not by seeking political office but by addressing each person who came before him in their area of need. We are to do likewise. Reforming the world is not our job; loving and helping the people Jesus sends to us is.
Come, Lord Jesus!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Good word, Louise. It is true that we need to care for every person God puts in our way, though always according to His leading. Situations may arise where we feel obliged and even compassionate to help when He says, NO. And there are other people we might have ignored because they are so nasty to whom God eventually sends us.
I dare to say that anything we can do with and in our own strength, according to our own thoughts and feelings must not necessarily have had its origin in God’s Spirit as He is so different from ourselves. Everything we could do before we came to know Him (social things atheists can do just the same, for example) might lead us in the wrong direction.
Btw, this vision went on this morning. I observed behind Jesus another huge and empty but darker lecture hall opening up. As I checked it out, I saw an artificial curtain at the bottom which opened as soon as I pressed a button on another desk there. Believe it or not, the ‘movie’ you could see was the exact picture of the first room. That means you could watch people looking through the big panorama window. As for these two rooms I heard a voice say, “First hand, second hand.”
While those people in the smaller and brighter room still had some experiences with God, from that huge chamber you could only try to get some “life” out of those second hand experiences presented. That is so sad. 😔
LikeLiked by 3 people
Exactly right. God must lead.
Blessings, my sister.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Blessings to you, too, my sister. And thank you! 🙏🏼🕊️💕😇
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Susanne, thanks for sharing this. I tend to be somewhat wary concerning visions, since there is such a proliferation of that kind of thing these days. But I sense the witness of the Spirit in the vision you related. There is so much going on in our world–things that clamour for our attention– and almost without knowing it, our eyes are focused on it all when what we really need to be doing is “looking unto Jesus.” The segment by T. Austin-Sparks also bears witness to your vision. That is the nature of true sanctification. Sanctification of the Spirit is separation unto a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thank you so much for your confirming words, Allan. That was very encouraging for me today. 😇👌🏼
Like you, I am very cautious regarding visions as there exists so much misleading stuff from people who never experienced a daily cross for our rebellious and proud flesh. If Christ remains the center of everything, then there is no danger, I think.
Maybe, it is time to clarify something here… I do not have ‘visions’ that suddenly begin and later end, something I could simply watch while being indifferent. Rather, it is something TAS calls walking in the Spirit while having ‘vision’, that means, the eyes of our heart have been enlightened. Then we start to walk with Christ in the heavenlies while seeing our experiences with our spiritual eyes only (similar to dreaming but very real). TAS also said that this ‘seeing’ is the birthright of every born again child of God. Like Paul also prayed for the Ephesians (Eph 1:18), we ought to pray for one another that we all might see and experience the greatness of our salvation.
So what I shared was a small part of what I saw while being myself in the midst of this ‘vision’, feeling also Christ’s sadness which made me weep immediately.
But what can we do to wake up other Christians, my brother? 🤔 As for me, I pray for them when I sense a burden on my heart and sometimes I share our eternal hope when God leads me to do so.
Thanks again for your inspiring words, Allan! 🙏🏼🕊️👍🏼
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thanks for the clarification concerning “visions,” Susanne. In that sense, I think I myself have “visions.” 😊
LikeLiked by 2 people
I am glad to hear this, Allan. 😊 And you are welcome. 👍🏼
LikeLiked by 2 people
Susanne, your vision of Jesus in a high place where all could see and hear Him and the crowd of would-be attendees with their backs turned toward Him is significant as to the way most of mankind, even the religious ones live today.
Have you ever wondered about these words of Jesus depicting the final judgement and thought that it might apply in our own lives?
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”(Matt 7:21-23, ESV2011)
Now compare that to this one,
“O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.” (Ps 139:1-2, ESV2011)
At first glance one can see that nothing is hid from God, even our most inward secrets. So, this phrase, “I never knew you,” Must mean something more that mere head knowledge.
The closer to the end of this age we are in, the more distractions seem to come our way and press in upon us. I know that some of you wonder where I have been. I feel like Adam hiding in the garden, hearing God call out, “Adam! Where are you?” I have been totally distracted for most of the last year by thoughts and plans of moving to Texas and we have finally moved down here to be with the majority of our extended family. The amount of labor that has gone into this move has been back breaking. We probably have at least another month before we are all settled in to our new place and maybe a bit longer. Every morning I would awake with thoughts about what had to get done that day in order to make this move and all that goes on with it happen.
Satan is good at filling our lives with distractions and in so doing we “hide ourselves from God” by focusing on them instead of seeking FIRST God’s kingdom and HIS righteousness in our daily lives. You see, God knew exactly where Adam was hiding, but He wanted Adam to realize how far he had fallen from the sweet daily fellowship he once shared with His Father in the garden.
So the phrase in Matthew seven, “I never knew you,” is very significant. The seven churches in Revelation had a common theme in what God wanted to see changed if they would only repent; “you have left your first love,” “I stand at the door and knock… IF any man will open up to me I will come into him and sup with him and he with me, etc.” What is this closed door in the face of Jesus? The early church was already falling away from the simple relational faith it once knew before the close of the first century.
The word “knew” in in this verse is a relational word. The Greek word here is “ginosko.” It was used to describe the intimacy of sexual intercourse when it was said of Joseph, “but [Joseph] knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. (Matt 1:25, ESV2011) W.E Vine defined it this way:
“In the NT ginosko frequently indicates a relation between the person “knowing” and the object known; in this respect, what is ‘known’ is of value or importance to the one who knows, and hence the establishment of the relationship, e.g., especially of God’s ‘knowledge,’ 1 Corinthians 8:3 , “if any man love God, the same is known of Him;”
So, we see that for God to “know” us and we Him in a saving way requires an ongoing and viable relationship with Him, not just a moment here or there as we can fit it in our busy schedules. This does not mean that we must be “holy hermits” in a monetarist somewhere, but it means as with any relationship, it must be maintained without being drawn away from the intimacy that God desires to have with us. In this Susanne has been a wonderful example of what God wants as she maintains such a life IN Christ and shares it with us. She lives out,
“Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:5-7, KJV)
Susanne, I thank God for you and all your prayers that God would draw me back to Him and that moment by moment relational love He has for us. Amen
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thank you, Michael, for referring to Psalm 139 — it is a touchstone for me…Search me, try me, see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
It has been a busy season for me, as well, although the work didn’t involve moving house. May you soon be settled.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks, Louise. It was hard for me to move from Idaho to be closer to the majority of our family, but it was becoming easier because Idaho was rapidly moving away from the one I grew up in. I am sure you can relate.
Yes, Psalm 139 is a great one along with Psalm 51, showing us how to pray and grow closer to our Father. David truly was a man after God’s own heart.
May you grow ever closer to Him in the intimacy of being one with the Father and the Son (John ch. 17).
LikeLiked by 2 people
Dear Michael,
This is such a beautiful comment that I needed to let it sink in for some time. You have touched my very heart with your words. Thank you! I appreciate your honesty. As you quoted in the last Scripture: The Lord is AT HAND. No worries, my brother.
I felt that other readers and commenters have missed you and your comments as well. The Body of Christ does not consist of numerous islands, but rather of members, members one of another. When one member is missing, the other members are grieved as we are all made to be complementary of one another. Although God has not given us the same gifts, He wants us to use them as He sees fit so that the whole Body might grow into Him. The greatest gift He has given us, of course, is His love.
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Eph 4:11-16 ESV)
The last verse says that the body grows provided that “each part is working properly.” We know if one member suffers, all suffer. I believe we all need an intimate relationship with our Creator every day. Not for ourselves alone but also for everyone who is not yet there in the Kingdom of God, walking in the Spirit and in the heavenlies with Him. If there is only one sheep missing, we know from Jesus Himself how His heart longs for this missing sheep. Jesus said,
“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” (Mt 18:12-14 ESV)
Michael, you are welcome as to my prayers; I had to intercede as my heart was so grieved due to this prayer burden. But oh, I am so glad God drew you back with His love! Thank you, Jesus!! 🙂 ❤
Be blessed by Him, my brother.
PS
I just decided to add an excerpt from TAS as to this part “Lord Lord… I never knew you….” from the gospel of Matthew, chapter seven. TAS confirmed that Jesus’ disciples were included/addressed here. He said,
“The fruit which proves the genuineness of the tree is not the leaves of profession: “Lord, Lord”, it is the genuine fruit of doing the will of the Father. And the tree must be a genuine, good tree to do that and not a make-believe tree. That is, there must be genuineness here. It is that that He is after. He even, mark you, includes in this searching word His own disciples. Oh yes, they are included in those who are saying: “Lord, Lord”. Their subsequent history proves this, and we shall see that. Not on the rim of the crowd only but right there at the centre, near to Him, there were those closely associated, following Him about every day saying: “Lord, Lord” and He does not spare them. He says, even to them – and it was kind of Him, it was not cruel or harsh, it was good of Him to do it – the Lord has nothing to gain from having outward professions of friendship.
And He knows that the individual who makes such outward profession may be living in a fool’s paradise, and He wants no one to live there, and so with the faithful wounds of a friend, for their good, He says even to His disciples: “Not every one that saith unto Me ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.” You see, that is a very sifting word, and the Lord is constantly sifting out amongst those who on the face of it are His followers. He is constantly coming to put the practical test to their profession, to apply the real test of doing to all their declarations. And the result is that we very often feel after that test that we have been saying a lot of things that would not carry the weight that we altogether made our position, and we discover that there is something more needed to be made up in what we are, to bring us abreast of all that we say; He is constantly doing that.”
https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/005095.html
LikeLiked by 2 people
Susanne, thanks for the reminder and encouragement to be an active member of the body of Christ for we ARE members one of another. “No man is an island.” This is especially true of the true ecclesia of God. Finding others who long for the unity of the Father and the Son among the saints is a rare thing and I guess I have almost given up on a larger manifestation of it, though having one here and one there is a great blessing as well. I see the Church like the valley of dry bones that Ezekiel saw in his vision. Thank God the vision did not end there, but the Father assembled them and cause flesh to grow upon them and breathed life into them once again. I think this is going on even now though there is much more left to do before the Church can manifest Christ as He prayed,
“And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:19-21, KJ2000)
You wrote, “The greatest gift He has given us, of course, is His love.” I remember that the few times that I have known the members coming together in unity, the love of God among them was present. Love does that, wouldn’t you agree? 🙂
You wrote, “We know if one member suffers, all suffer. I believe we all need an intimate relationship with our Creator every day. Not for ourselves alone but also for everyone who is not yet there in the Kingdom of God, walking in the Spirit and in the heavenlies with Him.”
I think that the earliest scene in the Bible of Adam and Eve was them walking in the garden with Him, completely naked, and they were not ashamed. This speaks of intimacy with no sin standing between each of them nor between them and God. It was after sin came in that they clothed themselves and hid their nakedness not only from each other, but also from God. James later wrote,
“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed…” (Jas 5:16, KJ2000)
This is true transparency in which we do not allow any sin to keep us separate from on another or from our Father. This is the healing that the body of Christ needs. I thank our Father that you and I have been able to be transparent with each other the way we have. It is sometimes hard to do, but it is always refreshing to be restored. Thanks for all your prayers and input in my life, dear sister. You are a gift from God. 🙂 ❤
LikeLiked by 2 people
You are welcome, Michael. I agree that transparency is not always easy in a spiritual fellowship, but I am thankful that Jesus never gives up on us. Instead, He urges us to pray for one another until we experience another breakthrough. And Michael, you have proved so often to be a treasure from God in my life, how could I ever let go of you?
Btw, lately I was reminded of your decades long search for another spiritual man ‘to plug into with your umbilical chord in your hand’. It has been similar for me as I always longed for someone who fully understands my (esp. heavenly) experiences with God. Guess what, it was also similar for T. Austin Sparks! That is what I found from him recently (at the time when he wrote it he was 62 years old). He said,
“Therefore, men of the Spirit, or that which is of the Spirit, have to tread a lonely path. There is this about such a life, strangely enough, that it is lonely in this way: that everyone who treads this path has to tread it for themselves; God so often sees to that. I do not know what your experience is; I know my own. For a considerable number of years, how I have longed, just longed with all my being, to find one man who had gone the way that I am going and knows all about it, and could just tell me all about it, and I could just lean on him. Just someone who knows this way, has been this way, understands it all, this lonely way, this way of the Spirit. I have not found that man yet, and I have had to come to the conclusion that God has deliberately debarred me from finding such a man or such men because of our great propensity for leaning on other people and not getting it firsthand.”
https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/004739.html
We are not alone in this, my brother. I thought that was somehow comforting to read and see.
LikeLiked by 2 people
By the way, I love the pictures you took, especially the first one 🥇
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was really waiting for you to comment on the pictures as you often did in the past, Michael. Thank you so much! 🙂 ❤
My hubby Paul said that this first picture reminded him of an oil painting. The way this little river (Rotmain in Bayreuth/Bavaria) was sneaking its way through the city of Bayreuth had a soothing effect on my weary body and soul on Wednesday last week. So I took several pictures of this view, yet I deleted them all all but this one. 😉
Thanks again for the encouragement, my brother!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree with Paul. At first I actually thought it was a photo of a painting from a gallery somewhere in your area, but I knew you would not do that without written permission. It has great composition the way you framed the stream between those two large broad leaf trees. I would love to do a painting from your photo with your permission once we get settled. That would be a great way to spend time indoors when the weather is foul here in east Texas. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You have my permission, of course, Michael! 😇👍🏼 Will tell Paul you both agree on this. 🖼️🎨😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes dear sister, Sparks has nailed it once again. In my earlier years I kept thinking “maybe the next Church will be the right one… One that understands and loves me and appreciates what God has written upon my heart.” NOT! Then I looked for an individual in some kind of a prophetic ministry for I was sure they would understand what I’ve gone through… NOT once again. I finally gave up I’m looking for the spirit of spirit and heart to heart connection in another human being only to find out that that is what Jesus wanted with me and would accept no substitutes. With that in its proper place He did allow one or two individuals into my life who understood this path. By that time I was broken of trying to put a human being in the place that belongs to God and I don’t regret it.
Jesus said, “Seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be added unto you.” The kingdom of God is where Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. If we allow human substitutes into that position it will always bring failure and disillusionment. It seems that human fellowship is in the category of “All these other things.” 😇👍 The closer we draw near to him the more he allows us to draw near to one another. This is what John 17:21 is all about.
Thanks for sharing this quote from Sparks and your input, dear sister.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You are welcome, Michael. Great contribution by you, once again. 🏆🏆🏆
“The kingdom of God is where Jesus is King of kings.” Amen to that! It is God’s kingdom, not man’s. Therefore, He alone is the One in charge. And all those who follow His leading are His sons who are walking in this spiritual kingdom with Christ right now. 🚶🏻♂️🚶🏼♀️🚶🚶🏼♀️🚶🏻♂️😇
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear family,
A lot of what you have expressed in the post and in the comments is in line with what the Holy Spirit has been bringing my attention to.
Lordship and the oneness of God is one of the main themes in the Bible. There is ONE God. One name and one name alone that provides salvation. One way to enter the covenant, not by mere profession of belief but a wholehearted trust in our kinsman redeemer, which implies we give up on ourselves as capable of doing anything spiritual without His empowerment. Not just before we are saved, but ever. In us, in our flesh there is no good thing. Apart from Christ we can do nothing. He is our hope of glory, our sufficiency, our wisdom, our strength. HE keeps us with His almighty power, and our abiding in Him is more about believing, trusting, coming to Him in constant, dependent surrender than about “doing” things, even spiritual things such as praying and Bible reading because we could do those but if we do them with the wrong mindset we would get nothing out of it, just like the hard soil doesn’t receive the seed in the parable of the sower.
Psalms 2 and 110 speak of the human and demonic desire to “break free” from God’s rule and the disastrous results that brings. 1 John, Jude, 2 Peter discussing the spirit of antiChrist which is, first and foremost, a rejection of Jesus’ lordship. The opposite determination from John the Baptist “He must increase, and I must decrease,” or Paul “I no longer live, but Christ in me.” This is Christianity 101: “Those who don’t renounce EVERYTHING can’t be My disciples,” but we have made it into an advanced teaching for “superChristians”. This is His desire for ALL of us… Of course, none of us are as fully surrendered as we should. This process of renouncing is an every day thing. Situations arise which show us we still want to keep our life under control and we need to confess this and pray again for Jesus to be king over this and that situation. We allow the Word to pierce us again. We die again. And so on.
The problem with much of mainstream Christianity is that not many are even aware of what I’m talking about. A lot of teaching about Jesus as Savior, almost none about Jesus as Lord of all. And in fact, the very concept of salvation includes (progressive) deliverance from the power of sin, or else is a mockery of saving faith. Romans 6 makes it very clear that if we have truly been saved we have no excuse to continue in sin and say “It is a process” to justify NEVER dealing with besetting sins at all. Of course renewing our mind and having victory over really set in sinful habits IS a process which takes all our lives. But there are many who don’t care one bit about one sanctification and view salvation as a free ticket to heaven and nothing else. Their faith doesn’t even lead them to tremble like demons do!
I’m always challenged by Jesus’ messages to the seven churches of Asia, and one that really gets me is Thyathira. Who is your ruler, Carina? Who is teaching you? Are you tolerating and allowing the wrong spirit to teach you disobedience or are you letting the Holy Spirit bring you under the authority of your Owner and Master?
This word from Isaiah 9:7 gives me hope:
“Of the INCREASE of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”
LikeLiked by 4 people
Carina, I was touched when I read these two words only where you addressed us as your “Dear family”. ❤
What also spoke to me in your comment was the remark about the church of Thyatira. Sometimes we might not know where to draw a line regarding teachings that sound so right at first but turn out wrong later. It is for all of us a process of getting to know what the Spirit is telling us, often without words, only by positive or negative impressions, inward sensations or spiritual gut feelings. I just found something about this particular church from T. Austin-Sparks. It appears we cannot go wrong if we find the right love in our hearts (cf. Rom 5:5) which springs from a “deep, secret life with the Lord” (TAS). Here is Sparks’ excerpt from “His Great Love”, chapter seven.
“A POSITION OF POWER AND AUTHORITY
Thyatira – seduced and corrupted, calling for uncompromising love. What is the issue of that uncompromising love? “He that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron.” Here we are touching a tremendous principle. Do not materialize that for the moment and picture yourself somewhere as a reigning monarch over the nations of this earth, and that sort of thing. That is not what I am getting at. It is the principle that matters. Here you see, when love triumphs over that state of compromise and mixture and confusion and entangling of contrary things, and comes right out into an uncompromising place of victory, you are in a position of tremendous ascendency, of power to govern.
“Test it the other way. You find a compromised life, a mixed-up life, a life with contraries all entangled; some of the world, some true Christianity; some flesh, some Spirit, things which ought never to be brought together. Will you tell me that such a life has any power in it, any authority, any power of ruling and reigning? Not at all! Was it not just in that connection that the devil through Balaam seduced the corrupted Israel, to bring Israel down from their high place as the ruling nation among the nations, to rob them of their spiritual government, to make them broken among the nations, when God had said, “The Lord will make thee the head, and not the tail” (Deut. 28:13)? That is the principle here. Love, uncompromising love, brings into a position of power, of authority. You will never pray through so that God comes in and does things if your life is compromised, if there is any kind of double life going on. You may pray until you cannot pray any more, and the Lord will not come in, you will not govern in prayer if the life is mixed up. Love, which brings us out into an absolutely clear, pure, transparent place before God, means we are put into a position of great spiritual power. What that may be afterward we are not going to stop to say. I merely indicate it.
“The Church is going to rule in the heavenlies in the ages to come, and in the letter to the Ephesians, where the revelation of the Church and of its eternal calling and vocation is presented to us most fully, love is the triumphant note – “…to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:18-19). That is set there in relation to the Church. The Church is to come to that place. There are big issues bound up with this matter of love, both that of spiritual power and ascendency now, and afterward throughout the ages to come that of governing in the heavenlies, when the Church will take the place occupied now by the evil principalities and powers, the world rulers of this darkness. That is no small vocation. It depends on first love. Such is the lesson of Ephesus and of Thyatira. Right at the heart is love, first love, full love, and the outcome of that is authority over the nations.”
https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001274.htmlhttps://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001274.html
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s a profound commentary. Indeed, the power that should drive every decision and empower us for obedience is love.
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. We abide in Jesus and in the Father because we love them. We let the Holy Spirit guide us into the mortification of the flesh because we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good and we want more fellowship with Him, so we gladly submit to His pruning, to His painful fire which brings the blessing of increased transparency and a fuller enjoyment of His presence in us, His rule over us which brings an end to senseless strivings and finally gives way to the peace beyond understanding.
I think of Jonathan when he gave David all of his royal armor, sword, etc. which in that culture gave a clear statement “I give you the rights I had as the heir of Saul.” He even said, I know you will be the next king, and I will be your second. Alas, Jonathan didn’t live to see David crowned, but I’m pretty sure he will enjoy the fellowship of a greater King for ever. Jonathan’s recognition of a greater one who is worthy of the kingdom should be ours. I like this example of a friendship that was devoid of any envy or personal ambition. It is a beautiful picture of our position in Christ. He reigns. We serve and enter the joy of our Lord. Yes, we will be given authority… indeed, we can experience some of that authority today, over our children, in leadership positions in our jobs, in the influence we have over unbelievers who may see us as a source of knowledge of spiritual things. But we’re always aware that the King rules over us and His kingdom is absolute.
And knowing very well the world, including ourselves, is far from the ideals of God’s kingdom, we hunger and thirst for righteousness. We pray for more of His righteousness in our lives. We pray to be conformed to the image of the Son. And we will be satisfied.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wow, great comment, Carina! 🏆🏆🏆
Bringing in this example of David’s and Jonathan’s friendship was truly Spirit-inspired. 🕊️😇👍🏼 Love it! ❤️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Powerful. ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Anna. ❤️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: How can we discern God’s Voice more clearly? | Entering the Promised Land