A Little Leaven Leavens the Whole Lump

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deceitfulness of the heart, deception, delusion, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, false spirits, false teachers, following Jesus, little lies, the devil

This article might turn out another entry on discerning the spirits which seems to be an ongoing theme I cannot, and meanwhile do not want to get rid of, either. Whether we want to know if Christians speak the truth when they share their experiences with God or if we want to discern a preacher’s sermon, it appears to me that we all need this discernment as little lies often creep in secretly. I do not want to give a theoretical approach here. Therefore, I am going to share my latest experiences with you on here.

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The Common Misconception of Christian Authority

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authority, Christianity, deception, discerning the spirits, experience, God's guidance, God's love, God's voice, Jesus Christ, Resisting the Devil, temptations, the Bible, the devil, the Word of God, YouTube

Have you ever heard about Christians having been given a special kind of authority on the grounds of calling themselves a Christian? You know this kind of supernatural ‘power’ that is to enable us to share our testimony wherever and whenever or to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything” (Mt 28:19-20 NIV) that Jesus has said? Others might have been taught that as soon as the devil attacks us, we should put on the whole armor of God (Eph 6:11-18) so that we can resist him. Hmm…  🙄 If you ever tried this and that and you failed, I am afraid you were not the only one. Me too!  🙂 In fact, I thank God for letting us know that simply following the written word is not necessarily walking in the Spirit of truth also.

My Testimony – Part 2

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being born again, discerning the spirits, encouragement, experience, false teachers, following Jesus, Jesus Christ, joy, light, love, peace, prayer, rest, spiritual power

It was not my intention to write on the details about how I once came to Christ, but it somehow happened as I kept writing this blog post (scroll down if you want to skip the rest). So that’s why I chose this title.  😉

My purpose of writing today was showing you how easy it can be to get back under the law once we have been freed from it. I am not talking about Old Testament Law here. Instead, I want to describe my latest experiences on the internet, and then I am going to share another part of my spiritual journey with you. Btw, you can find the first part of my testimony here. Please note: I apologize to you for the bad quality of these old, darkened pictures I attached.  The camera my husband Paul used back then in 1995 did not have the same quality as the one he uses nowadays.

How Can We Know The Truth?

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Baptism in the Holy Spirit, blogging, church, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, false spirits, following Jesus, God's guidance, T.A. Sparks, The Anointing, The Truth

Recently I found a well-written article on how God leads us on the internet. A former famous pastor had published this entry some years ago. I won’t tell you his name because what he shared would not be basically wrong, however, it was not the whole truth. In fact, it is so easy to be misled by someone who has a broad scholarly biblical knowledge. Scholars might often utter a bunch of theoretical truth, yet do they know THE TRUTH? Do they know THE ONE who indwells their hearts and teaches them moment by moment on what to do and what to omit, on when to speak up and when to remain silent? It is not their fault if they do not know that they do not know the living God (yet), but if you and I seek the truth, we should not submit to their “leading”.

Cults in Cyberspace: Just a Mouse Click Away

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cults, Cyberspace, deception, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, false spirits, false teachers, Hypnosis, Marisa O'Connor, Mind Control, Online-Preachers, preaching, Scientology, Sri Chinmoy, Stefan Molyneux, warning

Photo Credits https://kalingatv.com/features/eye-care-tips-for-winter-by-dr-tarun-panda/

Dear reader, I am still occupied with this issue about cultic dangers. After publishing a more encouraging blog post last week, here comes another warning about the subtlest, and maybe easiest way of how Satan could try to capture our minds. This particular topic has weighed like a burden on my heart for a few days now, but I would find no time to write it all down. Let’s start with a testimony by a woman who experienced ‘something’ on the internet which seemed to be so innocent in the beginning.

Seventeen Point Checklist for Unknown Groups

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cults, deception, discerning the spirits, exhortation, false spirits, false teachers, Michael Clark

John Hurt in “Nineteen Eighty Four”, George Orwell (Michael Radford, 1984)

I decided to publish another checklist that might be helpful to find out whether you or anyone else you know has touched on any kind of group (Christian, religious, political, esoteric etc.) that eventually turns out to be dangerous for spirit, body, and soul. Michael Clark and I translated this Seventeen Point Checklist from a checklist I would find years ago on a German website. Michael recently published a great blog article in which he described his own painful experiences in cults. The picture he attached to that post was very inspiring for me, so I also chose a photo from George Orwell’s “1984”. I recall how much I hated to read this book in high school about 36 years ago, such a dark scenery! Back to the check list: If you follow the link below, you can also see the pictures (cartoons) that go along with the German text which I changed slightly due to a, which I believe, inappropriate wording in one case. I wanted to follow the Spirit’s leading here as you might have already expected when you are familiar with my writings.

http://www.ebi-sachsen.de/sekten/checkliste.html

“What Is A Cult? Recognizing And Avoiding Unhealthy Groups” by Jayanti Tamm

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cults, deception, discerning the spirits, exhortation, false spirits, false teachers, Jayanti Tamm, leadership

Today I want to offer you a short excerpt, or more specifically, a list written by Jayanti Tamm who was born into a cult from which she could escape only 25 years later. Although her former guru, Sri Chinmoy, was not a Christian cult leader, I believe the chief features of cults she would work out in this list below are generally applicable to all sorts of unhealthy and anti-Christian groups, too. 

A Pact with the Devil

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Charles G. Finney, cults, deception, discerning the spirits, exhortation, following Jesus, Freemasonry, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lions Clubs International, oaths, Rotary International, Satan, Sects, sin, the devil, true faith, warning

This time you might wonder at the topic I chose to write about. Like the charismatic issue that has bothered me for some time and eventually led to my last article, today I felt I should start to illustrate the possible dangers that might approach us in our every day life through people who are not necessarily Christians although they sometimes claim to believe in God. I am referring to ‘noble’, well-deemed people (mostly men) who might work as university professors, physicians, judges, notaries or bank directors. This list is anything but exhaustive. It might only serve to point you to the credibility their profession normally lends to them. What they all have in common is that they are (very) successful. Most of the times they are rich at that. Sometimes they become famous, too, sooner or later. However, they had to do something in order to get there. As German author and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in his work “Faust” described, “The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures.” (1)

Called to Live A Holy Life

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a holy life, Christianity, discerning the spirits, encouragement, experience, God's voice, good works, intimacy, Jesus Christ, peace, preaching, T.A. Sparks, the Bible

Happy New Year to every reader of my blog!  🙂 This post should have been published in December already, but as I was very busy and have been sick for one week, I thought I could offer it to you belatedly although these festive pictures might strike you as odd now.  😉 I just added the quote in the beginning and here we go. T. Austin Sparks put it so properly as he said,

The Christian who is truly intimate with Jesus will never draw attention to himself but will only show the evidence of a life where Jesus is completely in control.

I sometimes wonder whether we as Christians know that we are called to live a holy life, a life that is evidently different from what this world calls ‘life’. Not that I am thinking here of ‘holy’ Christians who preach the law while they tend to live licentiousness privately sooner or later. Such preachers are often characterized by a very offensive style of preaching. They only ‘feel good’ if they were able to misuse their self-assumed authority by beating the hell out of their audience (speaking spiritually here). If those who were preached to bow their heads eventually as they find themselves completely discouraged, only then such preachers feel better than others. This is a carnal way to preach the gospel, indeed, as it only serves to boost the sermonizer’s self.

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? 🙄