Endurance… despite it all

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authority, discerning the spirits, dying to self, exhortation, experience, faith, glory, John of the Cross, resurrection power, self-will power, spiritual power, suffering, surrender, T.A. Sparks, the dark night of the soul, the dark night of the spirit

Germany’s highest church: Wendelstein Church/Upper Bavaria
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

I recall that someone once told me that they would continue to write and publish when they were through with their trials and everything was clearer to them. Well, as much as I have been tempted to share this point of view, more and more it appears to me that there ist no end of trials in this life, or is it? Sometimes God keeps us covered by His both unseen and unfelt protection in a deeply dark condition where all good things seem to have come to their very end. The stage of testing where mere and naked faith in God puts us through may last for a few days, for some weeks, for several months or even for many, many years. The length of that period is dependent on what God has in mind regarding our personal spiritual growth. It was John of the Cross who realized that the deeper the night, the higher the glory and divine authority we will be able to share afterwards (whenever afterwards is experienced).

A Hard Lesson to Learn

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circumcision of the heart, darkness, dying to self, experience, Fellowship of His Sufferings, following Jesus, God's love, joy, Morning Star, pain, Sickness, suffering, T.A. Sparks, the dark night of the soul, the mind of Christ

Wendelstein/Upper Bavaria
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

This will be a rather short blog post since I am not doing that well at the moment. Before sharing with you what I have learned lately, inspired by an exchange with a sister, I offer you two quotes from Francis of Sales who said,

“The indifferent heart is like a ball of wax in God’s hands, ready to accept all the impressions of his eternal good pleasure. It does not place its love in the things God wills, but in the will of God who wills them.”

“A truly loving heart loves God’s good pleasure, not only in consolations, but also in afflictions….”

Sin does not equal sin or… God only judges the heart

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discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, forgiveness, grace, heart, judging others, light, rest, sin, truth

Fall Has Come…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

While typing the headline, I myself just wondered about the wording of this title. You and I know what sin is when we read or talk about it, however, is it possible that there are differences of motives when we fall in sin? I was just thinking about the Pharisees who by condemning a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery basically did no wrong thing according to their own law as they wanted to stone her. The Jews indeed had the right to judge those who belonged to them, just as they had no right to do so with others who were no Jews like the Gentiles. But here stood Jesus who represented the end of the Old Covenant, the end of the law for all those who believe in Him (cf. Rom 10:4). He alone was the One who could show grace to this poor woman “for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn 1:17 ESV)

Glorifying God Goes with Obeying God’s Gentle Guidance

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church, discerning the spirits, encouragement, exhortation, experience, faithfulness, glory, Humility, joy, Oswald Chambers, Righteousness, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self

The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. (Songs 2:12 ESV)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Reading the following verses, it appears to me that there are some requirements that must be met by us before we can be sure that it is always God who leads us. King David shared his own experiences with us as he said,

He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great. Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide in well-being, and his offspring shall inherit the land. The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. (Ps 25:9-14)

On how to discern the Antichrist or… The Body without its Head is dead

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anointing, church, deception, discerning the spirits, experience, following Jesus, R.C. Sproul, Satan, T.A. Sparks, The Bride of Christ, wisdom

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. (Ps 1:1-3 ESV)
– Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Asking myself of what, or rather of who, the real Church of God might consist, I recently found a both simple and striking observation by T. Austin Sparks who said,

“The church has no existence in the thought of God apart from the revelation of Jesus Christ, and it is judged according to the measure in which Christ the Son of God’s love is in evidence by its existence.” [1]

Every institution, house church gathering, or theological conference that replaces His name and leading with their own ideas is not The Bride of Christ. Instead, it is indeed an epitome of the antichrist. Two years ago I felt urged to write a poem on this very issue where I called these inventions of the devil “the whore” of Satan. [2] Even before starting to write these verses, I sensed a very strong anointing to do so while I was driven by the fear of God to call a spade a spade. As we know especially from the Old Testament, God does not mince His words. And as we see in the New Testament, Jesus who is The Word of God offended several people by telling them the truth. [3] Not only the Pharisees and scribes received lessons regarding self-knowledge; even His disciples stumbled time and again over His hard words so that many of them eventually left Him as we can read in the following passage.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

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continued prayer, dying to self, entering his rest, experience, faith, Flesh vs. Spirit, God's love, hope, Jesus Christ, light, near death experience, resurrection, spiritual power, spiritual transformation, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self, unconditional love

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (Jn 1:4-5 ESV) – Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Many of you might have heard or read about some people’s near-death experiences (NDEs) which they described as having been pulled through a dark tunnel toward the light. Having had a NDE myself (see My Testimony to be headlined ‘1995 – 2008: Years of the Wilderness’), I would say today that the ‘tunnel’ stands for our old self nature that is closely related to our body and soul. When people have experienced a NDE and come back into their ‘old’ life, something inside them has changed completely. Although their old nature is still there, a certain amount of God’s light has been poured into their own spirit so that their purpose in life could be changed. From then on they ‘know’ that love and gaining (spiritual) knowledge about God is most important. All other goals in life they once had have become less and less interesting. Basically, they long to be and live eternally in this light that they have come to know for a short time only. They might also realize that it is all about spiritual growth now, about being fully transformed into the image of God’s Son (cf. Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 3:18). Just recently I read a definition about this kind of spiritual growth.  If we ask, “What does it mean to grow spiritually?” T.A. Sparks offers us an answer which is truly surprising. He said,

“Spiritual growth means that the spiritual strain goes out of our eyes, and our faces, and out of our voices, and that awful intensity, tenseness, goes. It is not a mark of spiritual growth at all. So let us get rid of false ideas about what it means to be a grown Christian. It means to be entering into His rest; we all need that.”

The Consequences of Fully Belonging to God in Christ

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church, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, God's love, Jesus Christ, joy, separation from the world, spiritual maturity, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, worldly spirits

Attaining Maturity of Faith Together
(Picture credits http://samuelosaghae.com/html/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/reaching_out_924_345.jpg)

Has it ever occurred to you that God always separated a people for Himself and that it was never His intention that His people should be yoked with unbelievers (cf. 2 Cor 6:14)? I dare say, we should not even be yoked with Christians who remain stuck in this world and keep to this world’s mentality and pleasures, either. Also, I want to include tradition and religious rituals of any kind here that need to be stripped off if we want to obey God’s voice daily at any given moment. At first this separation from the world is made by the Holy Spirit’s power in our own hearts and minds. But sooner or later we might realize, a bit startled perhaps, that the line God drew between those who are His and those who are not His has become an unbridgeable gap. We might still hope that we could get along with those who believe in God in a way that is much different from ours. Furthermore, we might still be intent on loving those who keep attacking us because they do not understand the paths on which God leads us, however, we need to come to grips with the fact that a heart to heart communication apart from God’s Spirit is no longer possible with them unless we want to share their often ungodly ways.

If I cannot have YOU…

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dying to self, experience, faith, struggling with God, suffering, the dark night of the soul, the dark night of the spirit, the new self, the old self, the presence of God

Source http://utmost.org/where-the-battle-is-won-or-lost/

Instead of writing another long blog post of my own, I decided to share Oswald Chambers’ devotional from today which describes my current struggles perfectly. Actually, I see more and more clearly that I cannot count on anyone or anything in this world any longer. When the circumstances get tough and you see that you have no influence to change anything whatsoever and that your prayers are not answered, somehow, it seems you have lost the game. Trying to change myself did not work, trying to change my circumstances did not really work, either, and having lost connection and direction from God for quite some time now, made me despair of life itself. Today I had to admit that if I cannot have God, I do not want anything else. Whether it is our families, our careers, our internet presence, our fame and riches (or lack thereof), nothing compares to a continued life in the presence of God. And if He won’t give it to me, then that was it.
Finally, here is the devotional I announced above.

Godly suspicion or… A not so nice but honest blog post

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darkness, delusion, discerning the spirits, evil spirits, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, false prophets, light, Michael Clark, prophecy, T.A. Sparks, the devil

The Evil Lurks at Every Corner
(Source Pinterest)

This is another joint article Michael Clark and I wrote which springs from our experiences with controlling spirits in family, friends and even commenters that have found our blogs as of late. It has been a steep learning curve as to what is the voice of the Lord and what is from the carnal desires of people.

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If I (Susanne) was still after gathering as many followers, “likers”, and commenters as possible, I would never write such an open letter as I am now doing. 😉 First of all, as I had begun to moderate comments recently, completely splitting up with commenters and email contacts on the net, trashing comments that seemed to be very nice at first, unfollowing many blogs and unfriending a large percentage of people on Facebook… this was very difficult for me in the beginning. It was like a new habit that did not yet fit nor sit well with me. But of course, it has not become a real “habit” since God follows no hard and fast rules – ever! His leading is as unpredictable as can be. Sometimes it has simply been listening to the Lord’s gentle nudgings right at the outset and at other times I felt the urgent insistence of the Holy Spirit when He warned me about very dangerous spirits that tried to primarily influence me and then those people around me, including my readers.

Instead of Christ: The social gospel spirit

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charity, darkness, demons, discerning the spirits, dream, entering his rest, finished works, following Jesus, joy, light, Michael Clark, peace, serving others, social gospel, spiritual power, thought life

The most obvious thing to do is not always what is right – in God’s sight
(Picture credits to http://dianawaring.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/iStock_000011493906Small.jpg)

The night before last I had a really strange dream in which I found myself standing on a sandy beach, knowing that the ocean was right behind me. I did not look back since what I saw in front of me was more interesting and quite amazing, so to say. Just a few meters before me a huge sand wall rose; actually, it appeared to me it was about 300 meters high (i.e., almost 1,000 foot). What was so stunning about this wall was that it looked like a mountain, but there was no way to ever climb it at the front side because all I could see was smooth. No rock overhang, no plants, merely smooth and hardened sand it seemed. Only at what I saw as the top of the mountain there was a sandy overhang of which I immediately knew it would be a lethal experience to step out on it since it was already cracking. Since we do not have such natural phenomena in Germany, I told Michael Clark about my dream and he said that there are sandstone cliffs in Western Washington that might look that way.