Tags
darkness, dependence, discerning the spirits, doubts, dying to self, experience, following Jesus, God's love, helplessness, honesty, Satan, spiritual power, suffering, T.A. Sparks, the cross, the fellowship of His sufferings, the valley of the shadow of death, trust, weakness
lt is easy to write a blog post when you have learned a lesson and you have come through stronger on the other side of a situation that appeared to be hopeless before. But why should anyone share their struggles while still being stuck in a blind alley? Nonetheless, I do it now.
Every human being can talk about God, Christ, and the Bible as long as they have been enabled to speak. The more educated they are, the more convincing such people seem to be, esp. to those who cannot figure out Satan’s elaborate strategies. T. Austin-Sparks said,
It has been a very long time since 
Before suggesting a more detailed explanation, I want to first offer you this follow-up vision on the one I posted on the 25th October in 2022 (full particulars 
This time I want to be rather silent and offer you an interpretation of Isaiah, chapter 53, verses 1-12, by T. Austin-Sparks. I guess most of us are familiar with this chapter that describes the suffering Messiah. But have we ever pondered on the possibility that we might reject our Savior Jesus Christ, not as the One who has died for our sins, but as the One who has revealed Himself to us personally because He wanted to lead us further into the truth… than we were willing to accept?
In order to illustrate the contrasting pair I chose in this title, I will give you an example. Just think about someone who has been hurt deeply by another person. The pain they feel can neither be forgotten nor does it seem that it will ever be healed. Since we as human beings do not want to feel pain at all, we might choose different ways to protect ourselves in the future. Some people suppress all their negative feelings, others tend to talk about it often, and others again seek revenge up to a certain extent. There might be even more ways to deal with such suffering on a permanent level, yet none of these methods will ever set us free. Quite the contrary.
Do we want more spiritual power, authority and persuasiveness in our lives? If so, then we ought to let go of trying to produce these with self-effort of any kind. 
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.
Entering the Promised Land 