Discerning Spirit and Soul

Tags

being born again, deception, discerning the spirits, emotions, feelings, God's will, mind, reason, Satan, self-will power, T.A. Sparks, The Holy Spirit, The Soul, the will

Yesterday in the late evening after a phone call I suddenly felt or somehow “heard” inside me the title I chose above, “Discerning Spirit and Soul”. Immediately I wanted to start writing a blog article but it was late, almost midnight. Yet I could not get rid of this title inside my mind! It was as if it was strongly imprinted in my heart, too. As I felt no inclination to start writing so late and I had no idea what to write about this issue, either, I started a search on Google on this topic, adding T. A. Sparks. What I found there spoke to me, indeed. Although I have not read the whole article, I tried to keep it as short as possible and pasted what you can read further below.

Resurrection Life vs. Resurrection Power … Reaching the Promised Land

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being born again, encouragement, following Jesus, Overcoming, resurrection power, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the promised land, Throne

In my latest article I quoted some statements from T. Austin Sparks regarding a life here on earth without being touched by the death all around us, something he called ‘a deathless life’. If that might be an amazing experience for us already, there is more God has had in mind He wants to share with us. It is even His own resurrection power! Again, here are some quotes from TAS.

Do Not Fear Anymore

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darkness, encouragement, experience, freedom, God's guidance, God's voice, joy, light, peace, prayer, spiritual power

In December last year, less than one month ago, God made me emphatically aware of a certain Scripture. Sometimes I read the Scriptures on my daily Catholic kitchen calendar and I am bored. Sometimes they speak to me and I keep them, however, very rarely I sense that God is ‘shouting at me’ through them. The latter happened as I read the following verse below.

“The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.” (Zeph 3:15 ESV)

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”.

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?

Drawn toward the Light

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darkness, encouragement, experience, following Jesus, forgiveness, God's love, inspiration, Jesus Christ, light, Light and Darkness, sin, thought life, Walking in the Light

After many gray days lately, last week the sun came out for a short time again. Swimming under an almost clear blue sky in my favorite outdoor pool, I suddenly got aware of the fact that all human beings, even most animals and plants are drawn toward the visible light. These few sunrays made the water sparkle and glitter both on the surface and underneath. Due to the warm temperature inside (30° C, i.e., 86° F) the pool soon turned into a vapor bath. As the cold Eastern winds blew stronger, playing a funny game with these continually shaping clouds of steam, my heart was rejoicing over the ingenuity of our Creator. It was really an amazing spectacle!  🙂

Panic is Satanic

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anxiety, deception, discerning the spirits, ears of the heart, encouragement, experience, fears, feelings, panic, Satan, spiritual power, thought life

The other day as I was half awake in the morning, still dwelling on some thoughts that could have turned into real worries sooner or later, I suddenly heard a voice that emphatically told me, “Panic is satanic!” Although I knew it was the Holy Spirit speaking to me, I wondered why His voice was not as still and subtle as it often is when God nudges me tenderly to open my ears toward Him. It dawned on me that God wanted to teach me something. Therefore, I would not be that surprised later that day as a black truck passed me by when I was on a prayer walk in the afternoon. On this truck you could read a big-lettered yellow label that said, “Don’t panic!” Aha!  🙂

Through Whom Does God speak Today?

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angels, ears of the heart, eternal life, experience, eyes of the heart, following Jesus, God's voice, God's wrath, Joseph Benson, Satan, the body of Christ, the cross, the flesh, The World

Like me you might know a few gracious people with whom it is always easy to have dealings with. At other times, we might be confronted with some rude persons who unexpectedly utter words of truth.  🙄 Nonetheless, neither the gracious nor the veracious person must necessarily be a Christian. There are pleasant-natured people who are able to enjoy life and to be thankful for that, too. However, if you start to wonder whom they might owe their blessings in life, they remain silent or they evade the issue. Maybe, they tell you they were thankful toward life itself, toward Mother Nature, toward the universe or they believe in angels, instead.

Under A Foreign Yoke

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darkness, deception, discerning the spirits, dying to self, experience, God's goodness, heart, light, mind, prayer, Satan, sin, spiritual attacks, temptations, the, the cross, thoughts

Have you ever felt an increasing uneasiness as you pondered on the possibility to cave in to somebody’s pleading because you knew in your heart it would be the wrong thing to do? I do not know whether this is only a people pleaser problem, but I assume I am not the only one who is struggling with these thoughts and temptations.

Getting Detached

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darkness, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, following Jesus, light, the Puritans, Thomas Brooks, Tim Challies

Is the following a mere assertion to you? I say,

Either we’re Christians or we jump on bandwagons.

In my experience, we either take a stand for Christ or we remain neutral toward whatever people might suggest to us. Imagine someone, let’s say a worldly person, approaches you by presenting a hair-raising conspiracy theory to you. Actually, that happened to me two times lately. One person was convinced that her child had become severely sick due to kerosene emission by aircraft… 🙄 Conclusion: this person finally found someone on the internet who not only sold grossly overpriced (and overdosed!) dietary supplement, but who also offered bloodcurdling nonsense to prove his theory. Since no doctor could help her in the past, as she said, yet this person on the net eventually could, she now seems to take everything this man utters at face value. Sigh.