The Secret of Power and Ascendancy by T. Austin Sparks

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ambition, Ananias and Sapphira, ascendancy, aspiration, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, following Jesus, God's guidance, Holiness, joy, Judgment, Life and Death, Light and Darkness, Overcoming, overcoming the world, peace, Pentecost, rest, Satan, self, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the cross, the devil, The Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God, The Kingdom of Heaven, unholy, walking by the spirit

Today I want to offer you some food for thought by T. Austin Sparks, a man of God of whom I am certain that he really knew what he was talking about from his own experiences in the kingdom of God. Regarding spiritual ascendancy and power Sparks meant that we should follow God’s “inward and upward call” (my words) to overcome, in particular the devil. TAS said that Satan cannot tempt anyone whom he finds poor in spirit. Indeed, if we are fully dependent on our Lord in all things, the enemy is helpless while we are being drawn higher and higher on this spiritual mountain called “Zion”. In that which follows you will find two excerpts from two different articles by TAS.

Smooth Talk and Flattery or… The Counterfeit Kingdom

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Angel of Light, counterfeit spirits, discerning the spirits, dreams, exhortation, experience, flattery, God's love, light of life, Lucifer, Michael Clark, repentance, Satan, the devil, visions

Before sharing another, this time ‘older’ and longer vision with you on here, a few words on how visions and dreams from God differ from our soulish imagination. If you had any dream or a vision from God, you will never, ever be able to forget it! These dreams and visions remain in the background of your mind and they do not disappear. There is a light and a life to them which is eternal as they have come from Him. Over the years I made observations as for God dealing with us human beings in a similar way, whether we know Him or not. That means, all human beings who do not know Him yet receive warnings from God as to their eternal destiny if they do not repent. I recall that a worldly woman once shared a terrifying dream with me less than three decades ago. I felt it might have been from God and suggested to seek Him regarding this. As a confirmation regarding the assertions I made, here are the Scriptures God pointed me to at that time. It is an excerpt of Elihu’s rebuke of Job.

The Division of Soul and Spirit (Heb 4:12)

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church, compromise, darkness, discerning the spirits, encouragement, experience, following Jesus, freedom, God's love, hope, Jesus Christ, joy, life, light, peace, promises, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, tithes, visions

I wonder how can we describe something we have never experienced before?  🙄 Although you might realize that this unexpected shift of perspective belongs to the most amazing experiences possible in the life of a follower of Christ, did you ever expect God to really work miracles?  🙄 As for me, I had given up on waiting for miracles. Over the years and particularly during the last one and a half years, I had more and more given up on expecting something more from God than an ordinary life full of daily struggles. Having no real breakthroughs in many areas of life, I waited on God to fulfill His promises of which I, honestly, thought I might only enjoy them after this life on earth. Quite a saddening prospect for the rest of your life, don’t you think?  🙄

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!  🙂

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.

Everyone can hear the Voice of God

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dreams, encouragement, experience, God's love, Heaven and Hell, Jesus Christ, joy, light of life, ransom, redemption, righteousness by faith, salvation, sin, suffering, visions

As my closer walk with God through Jesus in 1995 had just begun, one of the first books He nudged me to read was the Book of Job, again and again. It was not ‘fun’ to read but important for me to know beforehand about these years of suffering and pain that were still ahead of me back then. I decided to copy and paste a longer Scripture that deals with the WHY and HOW God speaks to ALL people in this world through dreams, visions, and more often than not through adverse circumstances. To Job who would think he was a righteous man Elihu said,

“I see!” – Receiving Supernatural Spiritual Sight

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), discerning the spirits, experience, following Jesus, heart, light, mind, spiritual blindness, suffering, T.A. Sparks, the god of this age, the new self, the old self

If we long to have (more) spiritual sight and insights, we must be prepared that God will take us through many, many severe sufferings. Who wants this? Surely, our old nature hates suffering. And this is why God takes us through these things. He knows that our new spiritual nature that is opposed to the flesh will finally come out victoriously. Below I offer you an excerpt from T. Austin Sparks’ writings that deals with the topic I have just touched on. Sparks described here the cause of spiritual blindness that both springs from our old nature and Satan’s work in our soul.

How to find out another ‘Christian’ spirit

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common sense, courage, deception, discerning the spirits, duty, exhortation, experience, false spirits, following Jesus, God's guidance, Jesus Christ, light, Light and Darkness, obedience, Oswald Chambers, peace, resurrection power, spiritual power, Truth in Love, Walking in the Light

“For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…” (Ps 95:7-8 ESV)

I have come to know several people who thought they were led by the Holy Spirit, who believed in Jesus as their Lord, and who prayed to God, their Father. Alas, the spirits they usually listen to are mostly the voices of their own soul’s desires, their own mind’s ideas, and their self’s pushing interests. Here the question arises whether it makes sense to try to correct someone who is absolutely convinced of being led by God? I am afraid it might be of little help to do so unless God tells us to open our mouths in His perfect time. But speaking up and telling them the truth might turn out a damaging experience if these people are too unstable to be confronted with their deception yet. Maybe, they are confused, maybe, they are mentally sick, maybe, they were led into error by the wrong people.

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).