Self under Arrest

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anointing, being born again, deliverance, discerning the spirits, entering his rest, esoteric movements, experience, faith, introspection, Jesus Christ, self-analysis, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self

Imagine you keep meeting your loved ones not only today but also… yesterday… and tomorrow. This is both grammatically wrong and seems to be a ridiculous statement, right? Yet how often our thoughts keep strolling about situations that happened in the past (and cannot be repeated!) and about what might take place in the days ahead (although solely God knows the future). Of course, we know that we should live in the moment right now, but can we? If you ever tried earnestly, you know that it is hard work to simply experience a few seconds without your mind trying to run away through space and time, so to say. The apostle Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (cf. Gal 2:20 ESV) What does that mean?

Disclosing Deeds of Darkness

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being born again, Christianity, church, darkness, deception, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, false spirits, God's voice, Jesus Christ, light, poems, prayer, preaching, prophecy, separation from religious spirits, separation from the world, worldly spirits

Photo by Sarah Schuberth

To be honest with you, although I was hell-bent on going to bed, quite some time after midnight I felt the strong ‘nudge’ from God to re-publish an older poem of mine, maybe, even two. I do know that this is not my poetry blog and most of my readers prefer reading blog articles instead. Nonetheless, I want to emphasize here, once again, the danger of cherishing any kind of fellowship or friendship, not only with worldly people (which should be clear), but also with those people who are used to meeting on a regular basis where one ought to hear from God. As I have often made clear before, a spirit being who has been birthed from above will, like God, not be predictable in their speaking, writing and doing. We are like the wind if we listen to God’s leading only. So, if we really want to have spiritual relationships first with God and then with one another, too, we do not only need to go away from the world and its pleasures, we should also say ‘Bye bye’ to any regular and obligatory gathering, whatever form it might take (attending church, home church meeting, connecting via internet etc.). The reason for doing so is that we cannot submit to God’s unpredictable leading and to predictable tradition (like preaching or listening to a sermon every Sunday and singing hymns in determined order) at the same time! Either we obey God and cannot be figured by anyone who does not yet have His Spirit, or we submit to another spirit that can be put in a box, a spirit that can be controlled by us. It might be easier and feel better to go on attending meetings with other Christians, but if God does not show up in such a gathering because His Spirit is quenched there, who are we really looking for? 🙄

Worth the Fight… Extending Inner Quietness

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abiding in Christ, abundance of life, discerning the spirits, encouragement, entering his rest, experience, eyes of the heart, faith, God, Jesus Christ, joy, mind, pain, peace, prayer, rest, suffering, thought life

Last week I felt a strong nudge to get closer to God and to let go of more and more, partly self-imposed, duties. As a woman, you might know how difficult it is to get rid of old habits and of letting go to care for others (more than they really need it) in order to meet EVERY expectation perfectly. I have also been used to care for my body daily and I sensed that my exhausting workouts tend to make my life more and more burdened. However, I could not get rid of swimming ‘the English Channel’, so to speak. 😉 I do know that I am no longer twenty or thirty and therefore I had begun to take at least one break during the day some years ago. Mostly after dinner I spend time in bed praying. Admittedly, sometimes I fall asleep because of exhaustion. 😉

Knowing God’s heart… intimately

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adultery, being born again, darkness, discerning the spirits, encouragement, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, following Jesus, George Michael, God's love, homosexuality, Jesus Christ, light, prayer, salvation, Satan, sin

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (Jn 3:3 ESV) –
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

It is not for me easy to define intimacy, even more difficult regarding my relationship with God. Maybe, an example might help here. Yesterday morning as I was thinking about someone who died four days ago, I closed my eyes and looked at Jesus in my spirit. I recall that I did not say anything, neither loudly nor silently in my mind, but my question was heard by Him, nonetheless. This person who died was famous and some might know that I write about British pop star George Michael who died at the age of 53. I did not know that much about him, I only remember some of his songs that touched me in a certain way, especially ‘Last Christmas’ where he sang,

“Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next day you gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I’ll give it to someone special…”

Death and Resurrection or… “I NEED A SAVIOR!”

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A.W. Tozer, being born again, death, dying to self, experience, following Jesus, joy, killing sin, love, pain, resurrection, spiritual power, suffering, T.A. Sparks, The Holy Spirit, the new self, the old self

Empty Tomb
(Source http://www.answering-christianity.com/empty-tomb.jpg)

In this article I want to make clear that death and resurrection are two very different things. Regarding Jesus’ death on the cross and His supernatural resurrection, and what that should imply for us today, you will find a longer excerpt taken from one of T. Austin Sparks’ sermons following my deliberations on dying to self.

Natural Life versus Kingdom Life or… How Do We Enter the Kingdom of God?

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being born again, church, deception, discerning the spirits, dying to self, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, Jesus Christ, joy, peace, Righteousness, T.A. Sparks, the Kingdom of God, the new self, the old self

Source http://www.lovethispic.com

We know what Jesus said about the Kingdom of God. So, just in case someone wants to convince us of already living IN the kingdom (although we do not really know what that might mean) or tells us that he himself lives there, we should remember Jesus’ words on how we can get there and on how the kingdom of God is NOT. We read,

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (Jn 3:5-7 ESV)

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Lk 17:21-22 ESV)

My New Life…

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A.W. Tozer, being born again, David Wilkerson, experience, eyes of the heart, feeling, glory, God's love, joy, love, Oswald Chambers, peace, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the dark night of the soul, the new self, the old self, thought life

“Chicken on Horse” – (Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

At first an apology to all those readers and followers of my blog who saw that I had published a testimony by David Wilkerson yesterday which I deleted shortly afterwards. Sorry for the inconvenience.  😦 Well, it began to dawn on me lately that I did not dare to write about my own and deepening experiences with God and Jesus as much as I used to in the past. Somehow it was easier for me to let other writers speak up for God, which certainly is a good thing as long as they were truly led by the Holy Spirit. In David Wilkerson’s case I need to admit that I only partly could agree with him since he had been on a different, spiritually lower level as for example Oswald Chambers or A. W Tozer of whom I believe they had reached a higher level than him, or T. Austin Sparks who, in my humble opinion, had been on the highest spiritual level because he had really died to self and was able to live continually in the presence of God in Christ’s Spirit. So you might have noticed that my articles more and more turned into teachings that feed the left brain half. However, where did the creative flow go?  😉

Wanna be a Spiritual Leader… or rather not?

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being born again, church, dark night of the soul, experience, Jesus Christ, leadership, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the dark night of the spirit, the new self, the old self, true faith

Picture credits https://greglee.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/spiritual-leadership.jpg

It was certainly not my plan to write about spiritual leadership, but somehow I came across this topic on the internet and here you are. Having read some deliberations from T.A. Sparks on how God, not man (!), makes spiritual leaders, I thought I could arbitrarily excerpt some characteristics from his article and share them with you. Since God’s way is not man’s way, a spiritual leader is not necessarily a theologian who graduated from college and has been pastoring a church for many years. Most probably, you won’t find God’s man or woman tarrying with a crowd of clerics, all of them decorated with titles and honors. No, the man of God is not a prince in shining armor, just as his Lord Jesus Christ in His time on earth did not push himself to the fore. Quite the contrary. It was always the people that so often pressed around Him because they would be drawn by the Holy Spirit in Him. Let’s hear now what Sparks had to say as to what a spiritual leader who was called by God needs to go through and how he eventually sees God, himself, and his work for God.

Having the Mind of Christ

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Christlikeness, discerning the spirits, experience, eyes of the heart, God, heart, Jesus Christ, marriage, mind, new creation, old creation, relationships, Satan, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the devil, The Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ, the new self, the old self, thought life, true faith

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Heb 10:22 KJV)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

We all might have heard about the difference between the male mind that works rather ‘left-brained’ (logical, purpose-oriented, and goal-focused) and the female mind which is said to be quite ‘right-brained’ (emotional, empathic, and all-round perceptive). Since women and men are pretty different as to how their thought life and feelings proceed, a lot of misunderstandings between them are inevitable… unless they have the mind of Christ! What I mean by that is that our old and fallen nature thinks it knows it all better than the opposite sex. How many marriages and relationships fall apart because men and women have given up on trying to relate to what the other one is really saying! The bad news is that there is not much hope as long as we cling to our old nature which, whether we realize it or not, usually submits to Satan. In fact, our thought habits that spring from the self-centered old creation are filled with suspicion, doubts, fears, worries and all other negative tendencies you might think of. Just trying to watch one’s own thoughts for one or two minutes only and counting how often negativity pops up might leave you completely discouraged.

Awakened to a New Life… IN Christ

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awakened, being born again, darkness, discerning the spirits, encouragement, eternal life, exhortation, experience, experiencing eternal life, fellowship, Fellowship with God, God's love, Jesus Christ, light, Oneness, Paul Schuberth, Satan, sin, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self

“Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God.” – John Wesley
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

This is not a new post. I put this article as a featured blog entry before all others on my home page since after rereading, I just found out that this writing expresses now, more than one year later, a lot of what I have been going through since then. As for publishing new and inspired blog posts, I will have to wait for Him to inspire me once again in the days ahead, whenever that may be. 😉

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Lately I began to wonder when this seemingly endless process of dying to self finally would be over. To be completely honest with you, I had given up any hope of ever seeing His light again, just as the apostle Paul said here, “… we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” (2 Cor 1:8-9 ESV) Just now as I checked the context of these verses, I saw some encouragement I unintentionally had ignored before. Paul wrote there,