Spirit-led vs. spirit-driven

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anxiety, blogging, deception, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, false spirits, following Jesus, God's love, God's voice, heart, Satan, the Kingdom of God

Although I have been posting articles about discerning the spirits for almost 27 months now, I have come to realize that it is often times not possible to explain the difference between these emotions that move our soul habitually and, by contrast, those tender ‘nudges’ or even stronger impressions of restraint in our hearts by which God leads our spirits. Actually, we can only recognize what we have come to know ourselves, right? So, I simply want to tell you today what God’s leading is NOT about.

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What grieves me…

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compassion, deception, discerning the spirits, divorce, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, God's guidance, grace, Jesus Christ, leadership, Remarriage, repentance, Satan, sin

Photo by Susanne Schuberth

God alone knows our hearts and why we do what we do. From hence, we have no right to judge others wrongly and condemn them. However, we need to know with which people we can be open and which people we should beware of. Just yesterday I had two seemingly similar, yet also different experiences.

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…”

How do we recognize if we are guided by the Holy Spirit?

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death, discerning the spirits, dream life, experience, following Jesus, God, God's guidance, obedience, Oswald Chambers, quickening of the spirit, T.A. Sparks, walking by the spirit

Stairs under water (Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

If you and I want to be led by the Holy Spirit 24/7 and we are insecure about whether we have been led by Him or not, the following excerpt from one of T. Austin Sparks’ articles might be helpful to read. What I did not copy and paste were Sparks’ implementations on how and when Jesus refused to do what others told Him (whether his mother, his siblings, or other people were concerned) because that would have been too long an article on here. Nonetheless, if someone has time and wants to read the whole thing, you will find the link beneath the excerpt, as always.

Nowhereland… or between Death and Resurrection

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death, discerning the spirits, eternal life, experience, false gospel, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, life after death, Ministry, Satan, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self, the promised land

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. (Is 30:21 ESV)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

I could have also called this state I am finding myself in ‘the period of putting off the old self and putting on the new self’ which is something no one may observe but God and me. It is like being in the tomb after having endured the cross, having died to everything and everyone you once loved more than God and Jesus. And little by little, a completely new world gradually comes to light. Or in other words, “the day dawns and the morning star rises” (2 Pt 1:19 ESV) in our heart in order to never disappear again. Jesus promised us, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (Jn 17:3 ESV) We cannot put ourselves into eternal life as much as we might wish to get there. If we refuse to endure the cross, we remain captured in our old and fallen nature that is unable to serve and please God. There are many ‘Christs’ that have been preached from the very beginning and it seems to me even more today. However, every crossless gospel that strengthens our old nature or tries to change it (which never works) instead of telling us that our old Adam nature is completely useless for the work of God, these gospels are of satanic origin. All of them, without exception, whether it is the health and wealth gospel where our worldly desires and our mortal body gain center stage or the social gospel that tries to change the world we live in (without being called by God to do so). There are so many more things we can believe and which lead us astray, that is, away from Christ and the narrow path. What they have in common is that we can do them on our own. We do not need God’s power in order to do what we always did, do we?

Life IN Christ… or the cost of discipleship

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discipleship, Dorothy L. Sayers, dying to self, experience, faith, following Jesus, freedom, God, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther, T.A. Sparks, the cross, the dark night of the soul, the dark night of the spirit, the Kingdom of God, thought life

“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” (Mt 19:29 ESV)
Picture by Susanne Schuberth

As I thought about describing the difference between our life inside and outside of God, I thought I could share my own experiences with you on here. Just for clarification, I do not speak about the experience of Christ IN us, that is, about feeling his love, joy and peace merely from the inside. Rather, I refer to a life IN God and His kingdom as a completely new experience that approaches us from the outside by simultaneously filling us up from the inside, too. Sounds complicated, doesn’t it…? We might have received some foretaste of such a life beforehand when we all of a sudden were hit by an awareness of ‘I-do-not-know-what-it-is… but-it-is-wonderful’ as we were watching the sun rise or going down, when we saw nature unfolding its beauty in springtime or fall, or when we shared some self-forgetfulness of any kind, be that with children who played peacefully in a sort of innocence that could almost be “touched” or when we felt a very deep and unconditional love for someone who had treated us badly.

The Glory of God… is ours!

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A Wilderness Voice, Alexander MacLaren, freedom, glory, Jesus Christ, joy, light, Michael Clark, poem, salvation, shekinah, spiritual power, the new self, the old self, the promised land, true faith

The Dawning of a New Day or… Spiritual Springtime
(Photo by Michael Clark)

Actually, I was searching for something else on the net as I suddenly found an exposition on the glory of God by Alexander MacLaren. I could not stop reading although I can hardly relate to all these wonderful blessings he wrote about right now. Even while deeply suffering, I am still sitting here, knowing that which I read there is the truth. Dear brothers and sisters, have you ever heard someone preach or teach on the possibility of being glorified even during this life on earth? I am speaking spiritually here, of course! However, as far as I can see it, you often only find Christian writings about justification and/or sanctification. And you also hear that sanctification will not be finished unless we are in heaven after our physical death. Yet is that biblical truth too? Although the Bible speaks about the necessity to die once (Heb 9:27), we also have Jesus’ mysterious promise he confided to Martha whose brother Lazarus had died before,

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (Jn 11:25-26 ESV)

Trust and obey or… On how to walk after the spirit

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discerning the spirits, entering his rest, entering the Kingdom of God, experience, feelings, heart, inner man, intuition, joy, mind, new life, obedience, outer man, pain, soul, spirit, the dawning of a new day, the new self, the promised land, thought life, walking by the spirit, Watchman Nee

“Blessings to those who are doing his Commandments; their authority shall be over The Tree of Life, and they shall enter The City by the gates.” (Rev 22:14 Aramaic Bible in Plain English)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Just lately God both nudged and even urged me to do several things which, to my own reason and habits, did not make any sense to me at that time. I saw no real danger, I only felt uneasy in my belly region about certain people and their way of thinking and believing. However, more and more every day, I felt that God wanted me to obey Him without understanding in advance WHY I should follow Him. In order to make me do so He caused great pains in my heart, severe sorrow and deep grief so that I thought I could not endure it any longer. As I eventually gave up on my own ideas of how life should turn out, how people should be, and on my own habits of dealing with and thinking about people, God gave me the strength to obey Him in a way that was not possible for me before. As I finally did several things He wanted me to do, my heart was all of a sudden flooded with such an intense supernatural joy that I even had to cry out loudly. “Wow!!!” 🙂 Oh, how quickly heartfelt obedience that seeks the approval of God and no longer the approval of man is rewarded by our Father in heaven who is ALWAYS pleased when His children ask Him for His wisdom and guidance in all things! In order to bring my joy home to you too, I posted  that photograph above. I would see that beautiful tree on my prayer walk yesterday and I KNEW I had to take a picture.  😉

Living LIFE Abundantly

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death, discerning the spirits, encouragement, eternal life, experience, Fellowship with God, freedom, God, Jesus Christ, new life, resurrection, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self

The Way that leads to LIFE is long and hard (Mt 7:14), but every path comes to an end, finally…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

The following excerpts from T.A. Sparks make clear the difference between the natural man and the spiritual man who allows himself to be guided by God 24/7. We cannot reach this blissful state unless our old self has died completely since only then we are “transferred” or baptized into Christ (see Gal 3:27) and are enabled to enjoy a life of perfect obedience to Him. We may know that it is a process, a long process, until we utterly despair of our old Adam nature and leave it all up to Him. But once we have died to our old self, Christ’s resurrection power begins to flow into a renewed mind and into a completely new heart that was given by God also. And from that time on, REAL LIFE in the kingdom of God begins. What I meant by ‘real life’ is a spiritual life that no longer knows the sting of death. These who “loved not their lives even unto death,“ (Rev 12:11 ESV), or in other words, these believers who hated their old self life, are enabled to enjoy God in all circumstances instead, just as Jesus promised us here,

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (Jn 10:10 ESV)

Eventually, here is T.A. Sparks’ exposition on ‘Fellowship with God’ which I found to be very helpful for me. I hope it serves you too, dear reader. As a side note, I became aware of this article by TAS as I read another quote from him in this blog article by Becky Johnson yesterday. Thank you, Becky! 🙂

The Way of the Church is a Dead-End Street

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being born again, experience, God's Humor, humor, inspiration, joy, light, spiritual, the new self

Kirchenweg (“Church Way”) in Oberfürberg/Bavaria
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

If I jotted down everything I experienced with God lately, it would turn out an overwhelmingly lengthy post. And I do not want my readers to be bored stiff. So, I hope God helps me to put it as briefly as possible and as detailed as necessary. And maybe, I can raise a smile or two from my readers because of my crazy experiences with God.