God’s Timing

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agape, anger, charity, discerning the spirits, encouragement, experience, family, following Jesus, God's guidance, God's love, God's Provision, God's timing, God's voice, grace, joy, obedience, peace, prayer, Resisting the Devil, rest, Satan, Submission to God, T. Austin-Sparks, the devil, the flesh, truth, Valentine's Day, visions, walking by the spirit

February 15, 2022

In fact, walking in the Spirit can be enjoyable at times. Today I want to share my latest experiences with you on here. It was only yesterday on Valentine’s Day that God helped me see how much He even cares about the little things of our lives.

The Simplicity that is ours IN CHRIST

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beholding God, discerning the spirits, dying to self, encouragement, entering his rest, experience, faith, following Jesus, freedom, Jesus Christ, mind, new life, purity, revelation, simplicity, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the cross, The Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ, walking by the spirit

The simplicity that is ours in Christ is not the exact wording Scripture offers since the apostle Paul voiced his misgivings when he said the following,

“But I am afraid that, even as the serpent beguiled Eve by his cunning, your minds may be corrupted and led away from the simplicity of [your sincere and] pure devotion to Christ.” (2 Cor 11:3 AMP)

If our Christian life does not always appear to be that easy or simple, maybe, there is a reason why we sometimes struggle so much. This Bible verse above suggests that our focus might turn out to be the root cause of our conflicts. As an illustration, let us think for a moment about a small baby that has just started to explore the life in which it was born. During their first year on earth, babies seem to be intrigued by everything and everyone that comes into view. With big round eyes they gaze at whomever and whatever could be looked at. And how very long they can stare at the object observed! If they watch a human being keeping eye contact with them, they will often start to smile in an irresistible way at that.  😊

Christ’s Shattered Sheep

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deception, delusion, discerning the spirits, Emmanuel Church (Tulsa/OK), encouragement, experience, following Jesus, God's guidance, God's love, God's voice, image of God, love, Resurrection Life, sheep, Spiritual Abuse, spiritual gifts, T.A. Sparks, The Good Shepherd, The Holy Spirit, the law, this world, View of God, walking by the spirit, world, worldly spirits

The way how this blog post has come into being was really strange. A few days ago I thought about publishing a new article, yet I felt no clear leading apart from posting these pictures of the sheep in a WordPress draft. I also recalled I had written an older blog post about another ‘sheep experience’ that dealt with the how we as His sheep can hear our Master’s loving voice (cf. here). But that seemed to be ‘all’ at that moment. I also searched for a book or an article by T. Austin Sparks that would contain the word ‘sheep’ as part of a title anywhere, but alas, there was nothing. So, I gave up on trying to find something to write about and rather tidied up our flat. Indeed, such an occupation that can turn out a spiritual experience, too. Whether it is cooking, shopping, doing the laundry or else, God is always at hand.  🙂

The Unknown Door or …What Fellowship with the Lord Provides

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discerning the spirits, dreams, encouragement, experience, faith, Fellowship with God, following Jesus, freedom, God's guidance, God's Promises, God's voice, healing, joy, prayer, reasoning with God, suffering, T.A. Sparks, The Holy Spirit, true faith, visions, walking by the spirit

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I do not want to anticipate the result of my latest struggles yet, however, I can tell you that I started to see that getting to know God’s thoughts on everything often comes from listening to the Holy Spirit during our more silent times of the day. I got a confirmation of my deliberations from T. Austin Sparks whose article on prayer I am going to mention further below again. (1) Alas, it is so easy to get sucked into the busyness and distractions of our everyday life that we usually only feel a bit uneasy when we are confronted with some unexpected “thing” or an unexpected “someone” in the middle of the day. We might not know where this discomfort has come from, but God knows. Whether He shows us the reason for IT through Scriptures, in dreams, or visions – as I have said before, that is not important. What is important, though, is that God wants to tell us something in order to set us free.

Hinds’ Feet on High Places or… The Only Way Out is Up

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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.

Who Really is Lord in our Lives?

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adamic nature, afflictions, ascendancy, being led by the Holy Spirit, demons, discerning the spirits, Division, experience, fears, fellowship, following Jesus, God's goodness, God's guidance, God's love, God's voice, Michael Clark, overcoming the world, prayer, rest, resurrection, soul, Soul Rest, T.A. Sparks, the cross, the fear of death, The Holy Spirit, the old self, the throne, trials, unity, waiting on the Lord, walking by the spirit

Yesterday in the evening I found myself mulling over problems other Christians close to me have been struggling with. Although I knew that the solution for our unsolvable problems could always only be found in the spiritual realm, I finally had to realize that the only thing I could do was to keep praying for their deliverance. And I have prayed for it already, even for a long time, for many, many years and decades. As I was just standing in front of the mirror in our bathroom, still thinking about this problem of the fear of death, this sting which exclusively in Christ and His victory is overcome (cf. 1 Cor 15:54-57), I heard the Holy Spirit speaking to my heart distinctively,

“God is good.”

Walking in the Spirit by Switching from One Kingdom to Another

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discerning the spirits, dying to self, encouragement, entering his rest, entering the Kingdom of God, experience, following Jesus, fruit of the Spirit, God's love, joy, love, patience, peace, rest, soul, spirit, spiritual power, the devil, the Kingdom of God, the new self, the old self, thought life, walking by the spirit

Dear brothers and sisters, I would have never expected that Jesus Christ would really enable us to move from the burden of self-life with all its stress and unsolvable problems to His restful life in the Kingdom of God. Actually, I always hoped that the possibility existed but I had almost given up on waiting for the enjoyment of continuous love, joy, peace, or even patience (something I NEVER knew before!). Apostle Paul encouraged the Philippians several times to “Rejoice IN the Lord always….. Indeed, I still ‘hear’ myself doubting this possibility a few months ago. However, it is true!

If God speaks…

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abundance of life, authority, discerning the spirits, encouragement, entering his rest, experience, following Jesus, freedom, God's love, God's voice, Jesus Christ, joy, libery, life, mind, peace, rest, spiritual power, the Kingdom of God, walking by the spirit

For some time I have been wondering whether the existence of the Kingdom of God might mean more immediate proximity to our everyday life than we might have ever thought or believed possible. It was only yesterday as I had another surprising experience with our Lord Jesus Christ. In a certain sense I was reminded of another occurrence about four months ago when Christ pulled me out of a very depressive state by the simple question, “Do you believe that I am the life?” (1) After that question back then I felt that the spiritual power of His words triggered several dead or sick ‘spots’ inside me so that a healing process, both spiritual and mental, could set in. Although my physical diseases have not disappeared by now, I sense God must have his reasons why He has not fully healed me yet.

Life in the Spirit

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being born again, darkness, discerning the spirits, dreams, entering his rest, entering the Kingdom of God, evil spirits, experience, following Jesus, God's guidance, grace, prayer, Salt and Light, Satan, spirit and life, T.A. Sparks, the devil, the heavenlies, The Holy Spirit, the promised land, the whole armour of God, walking by the spirit

During the last weeks and months I published several articles on walking in the spirit. The connection between walking by the spirit and living in the spirit seems to be quite simple. Paul in his letter to the Galatians put it this way,

“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”  (Gal 5:25 KJV)

On how to not “Walk by the Spirit”

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discerning the spirits, encouragement, experience, faith, following Jesus, gospel, grace, knowing God, sanctification, T.A. Sparks, the heavenlies, thought life, walking after the flesh, walking by the spirit

It was only yesterday in the evening as I was occupied with tidying up the living room when I asked myself this question, “When should I walk in the Spirit?” to which God’s immediate response was, “Now!” Honestly, that gave me a pause.  🙄 Although I recalled having prayed quick prayers when I was busy with similar mundane activities before, I rather thought about walking by the spirit whenever I was confronted with decisions of any kind as to what and how to do something. That means in particular, when I left the house I asked God about leading me. When I had to write emails or to do some phone calls, I asked Him to show me what to say and to give me His wisdom in all things. And I really thought that was enough. But no, it was not!