Counterfeit Spirits

Tags

church, deception, demons, discerning the spirits, drawing boundaries, experience, false spirits, following Jesus, God's goodness, God's love, light, peace, Resisting the Devil, RHEMA movement, Satan, T.A. Sparks, Witchcraft, Word of Faith

The danger behind the fence… (Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

The following excerpt by T. Austin Sparks speaks bluntly about how evil spirits imitate God by letting people appear ‘holier’ than before they had come into touch with these cunning underlings of Satan. May we not think it is easy to discern the real Christian who is indwelt by Christ’s Spirit (cf. Rom 8:9) from the ‘Christian’ that is indwelt by these evil spirits that comport themselves as if they were beings of light. Sparks wrote,

How to Break free from Delusion and Deception

Tags

deceitfulness of the heart, deception, delusion, discerning the spirits, entering his rest, exhortation, experience, false prophets, God's love, Jesus Christ, Satan, sin, spiritual growth, T.A. Sparks

“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jer 2:13 ESV)
– Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Below you can read a definition of what the word ‘delusion’ basically signifies. T. Austin Sparks explained it this way.

What is delusion? Well, it is to lead from truth into error. It is to mislead the mind or the judgment, to beguile, to lead astray, to cheat, to frustrate, to disappoint, to impose upon; something that is not the truth; and these are days peculiarly marked by that peril. [1]

Actually, delusion and deception are so natural to us that we usually submit to them without knowing about it until God sets us free. On the one hand, there are people who are atheists or agnostics who are deceived because they reject The Truth which is Christ. On the other hand, there are religious people, even Christians, who are deceived because they are content with what they know and can do for God or other religious entities. These believers do not want to grow spiritually because it is too painful for the flesh which must die and make room for Christ in us. Furthermore, there are Christians who have come to know parts of the truth and who had their personal experiences with God and Christ too, however, they habitually eat the whole meat of everything they were taught and do not spit out the bones. Thus it is often times a horrible mix of truth and lies they offer and you need to be cautious to not get captivated by their confusing spiritual spider webs as well.

Is Spiritual Growth a Miracle?

Tags

discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, immaturity, love, maturity, obedience, spiritual growth, T.A. Sparks

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15:5 ESV)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Today I want to present you a thought-provoking article by T. Austin Sparks that deals with our (in)ability to grow spiritually. Actually, if we do not grow, we will wither since if it is not the Holy Spirit inside us that causes us to grow in Christ, it is Satan to whom we listen and who pulls us away from God. Brothers and sisters, this may happen to anyone. Don’t we think that such a temptation could always be easily discovered by our spiritual antennas. Indeed, there are people who due to their bad experiences in life project a distorted image of man onto God and call this image God or Jesus although these ‘pictures’ are, in fact, of satanic origin. If someone cannot discern which spirit they are of, they will be completely lost unless they dare to trust other Christians who could help them see when they are wrong. Regarding such errors, it got quite clear to me why we should be part of the Body of Christ. A finger apart from the body is useless; it must be connected to the hand and the hand must be connected to the arm which belongs to the body so that this finger can work properly (cf. 1 Cor 12:12-27). Furthermore, the whole body must be connected to the head which is Christ in us. Without Him we would be a body without spiritual guidance and an easy prey for any deception, spiritual confusion, and eventually delusion.

Seven ways to discern truth from error by A.W. Tozer

Tags

A.W. Tozer, clarity, confusion, deception, delusion, demons, discerning the spirits, God, Jesus Christ, love, method, mystical experiences, Satan, sin, test, the Bible, The World

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Mt 7:13-14 ESV)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

If we are insecure about how to discern the spirits in certain cases, A.W. Tozer offers a very helpful method to try any new experience, doctrine, or religious movement regarding their effects on our relationship with (1) God, (2) Jesus Christ, (3) the Bible, (4) our (old) self, (5) other believers who are indwelt by Christ’s Spirit, (6) the world and its desires, and as to (7) sin. It is a quite long article of which I only pasted some excerpts on here although the text is pretty long, still. If you want to read more, please, follow the link below. It is well worth reading, I believe. I also think we can use this method in order to judge the origin of our thoughts, our (day)dreams and visions, even everyday occurrences and their effect on us. May God help us sharpen our discerners with what Tozer, who in my opinion had been inspired by God, wrote about.

Satan’s Counterfeit Spirituality

Tags

carnal, counterfeit gifts, deception, delusion, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, faith, feelings, God's will, joy, spiritual, suffering, walking by faith, Watchman Nee

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (Lk 9:23-25 ESV)
Picture credits http://cornerstone-marion.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/mission-website-cross.jpg

To begin with, I want to make a distinction between the carnal believer who is fully carnal and spiritual believers who can be both carnal or spiritual. That might sound a bit strange in the beginning, but I am going to explain it right now.

Being Blessed by GOD or… Satan’s Sensual Substitutes for the Truth

Tags

deception, discerning the spirits, ecstasy, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, feeling, God's guidance, joy, Matthew Henry, peace, sensual experience, spiritual blessings, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self, worldly spirits

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15 ESV)
Picture Credits http://www.pamelavcarmichael.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/the-blessed-life_4034.jpg

Are we still looking for continued peace, joy, and wellbeing? If we only learn to listen to His Spirit’s guidance more closely and more often, we will experience all of God’s blessings in an ever increasing measure, for it is written,

But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’
But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. (Jer 7:23-24 ESV)

On the Consistency of Thought and Deed

Tags

agape, carnal mind, consistency, deeds, demons, discerning the spirits, ears of the heart, experience, false spirits, God's love, God's voice, Jesus Christ, Michael Clark, Satan's voice, The Truth, the Word of God, thought life, true faith, words, worldly spirits

Picture credits http://stores.jkmstore.org/spirits-that-hinder-the-flow-of-god-in-your-life-mp3/

Michael Clark and I wrote this blog post together, once again. As it has often been the case, I, Susanne, start with writing and share my thoughts on a certain topic with Michael and then God gives us a confirmation about writing another joint article.

---

Can you force yourself to seemingly like what you basically do not like? What a strange question, Susanne! I need to admit that I can’t do it any longer although I tried. My heart won’t let me deceive myself anymore. Even if I like or love someone, I cannot like nor love what they do when their twisted thinking and doing contradicts the truth revealed in Christ. Not that I stop loving them, but my heart is grieved, often very deeply grieved. That hurts a lot indeed!  😦 In the past, I tried to do the impossible, that is, to encourage someone despite their wrong thinking and doing, simply because I liked these people. Well, God showed me how hypocritical that behavior was and how much I put myself in a state of bondage of the wrong spirits through that seemingly “kind” behavior. No, Susanne, that was not kind, it was only “nice.”

Beware of the Snare in the Air

Tags

church, deception, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, false spirits, fellowship, Michael Clark, Satan, sin, true faith, worldly spirits

Marienkirche Hof/Bavaria (St. Mary’s Church)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

“What a strange headline,” one might say here. Leaving aside the fact that I love rhymes, I put the heading that way in order to hint to the possibility that not all snares by the devil can be recognized immediately. The Prince of the Air works in an unseen realm and he is very crafty in manipulating our thought life, which cannot be seen, either. Just recently I read an interesting quote from a man who was finally freed from the bondage of a destructive Christian cult. I took that quote out of a longer testimony which Michael Clark had shared with me. After having left the cult, Tom Murray realized,

No one can consider themselves above the possibility  of deception.

Instead of Sanctification: The crossless gospel spirit

Tags

discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, false gospel, false spirits, following Jesus, God, Jesus Christ, justification, pain, peace, sanctification, Satan, sin

Every gospel that focuses on man instead of focusing on Christ is anti-Christian by nature.
(Picture taken from https://thepropheticnews.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/antichrist.jpg)

I am sure there are more versions of that kind of gospel today and I presume there will pop up more and more of them in these last confusing days where Satan appears as an angel of light. However, I want to merely focus on two different manifestations of the crossless gospel I have met particularly on the internet since I began to write online comments in English on December 1, 2011. I would like to refer to these two confusing sub-categories as Spiritless Salvation of the Sinner and Spiritual Self-Salvation.

How do we define SIN?

Tags

deception, delusion, experience, faith, following Jesus, listening, Michael Clark, mind, peace, Satan, sin, true faith

Walking with God…
(Photo credit https://revlisad.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/walking-with-god.jpg)

This is another joint article Michael Clark and I wrote together.

---

Jesus was without sin because He only did what He saw His Father doing and He only spoke His words. This is why Paul could say that nothing of itself is sin, but only that which is done without faith… which is not doing what our Daddy in Heaven shows us to do and say. Faith is not law keeping. Faith is obeying the Spirit and the wind of the Spirit blows where no man expects it to. We must be free to follow the leading of the Spirit if we are to walk by faith. This is why Peter was sinning when he refused to eat with Gentiles, though the law forbade him to do so, but the Spirit of the NEW covenant often surpasses the law. The apostle Paul told us the following,

“I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.” (Rom 14:14 ESV)

“To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.” (Titus 1:15 ESV)