The Greatest of These is LOVE – by Michael Clark and Susanne Schuberth

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church, discerning the spirits, experience, fellowship, Fellowship with God, following Jesus, freedom, God's love, joy, love, maturity, Michael Clark, peace, pride, Satan, spiritual gifts, Spiritual Warfare, Spiritual Weapons, Susanne Schuberth, T.A. Sparks, the devil, the enemy, the heavenlies, the mind of Christ, unity, walking by the spirit, worries

It has been a very long time since Michael Clark and I wrote our last joint article. As we are both dependent on God’s leading and inspiration, we know that we cannot ‘produce’ any blog post unless the Holy Spirit nudges us to write and publish. We are also aware of the fact that Satan has tried to destroy our spiritual fellowship more than once during the last nine years. These continuous onslaughts by the enemy are something we cannot fight against unless we use spiritual weapons since the devil is a spirit, too. It seems when you and I, dear brothers and sisters, are seeking fellowship with someone who is like-minded with us, the devil is instantly ready to fire. T. Austin-Sparks in his article “Spiritual Warfare” (1) wrote,

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Spiritual Assumption or… Touching the Anointing

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agape, anointing, carnal, fear, flesh, God's love, Humility, joy, judging others, Liberty, love, Loving God, loving our enemies, Meekness, peace, reason, T. Austin-Sparks, the fear of God, The Fear of the Lord, The Light of His Countenance, Touching the Anointing

This topic is none of those about which I like to write. Nonetheless, I have seen a few times that touching someone who has been anointed by God, which means, speaking ill of them or even attacking them personally, will have (sometimes immediate) consequences in the life of the offender. If we are attacked and do not avenge ourselves in any fleshly way but (empowered by God) love our enemies by being silent and rather bless them instead, God comes in with His corrective justice. When I for the first time in my life observed God’s dealings with a Christian who appropriated something from another Christian to himself, something that was obviously a gift from God, I was truly shocked. It made me tremble with the fear of God! Meanwhile I witnessed God’s intervention more often and I honestly admit that His doing always leaves me speechless.

The Prince of Peace Lights the Darkness – Updated Dec 29th, 2021

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beholding God, darkness, deliverance, demons, discerning the spirits, dying to self, experience, following Jesus, God's love, hope, joy, light, love, peace, Prince of Peace, self, T.A. Sparks, The Holy Spirit, the light of the world, visions, walking by the spirit

[Please note: If you only want to read the update which can be found in a ‘box’ also written in this green color, you need to scroll down more than two thirds of the text. Thank you.]

There is a new lesson for me to learn every day. It seems like walking in the spirit with Christ turns into full-time schooling, which is a great adventure anyway.  😊 The latest lesson learned refers to how the Prince of Peace wants to pour out His spiritual blessings of peace, joy, and love on us every day in every given situation. At first I had a vision a few days ago which is getting more and more interpreted by Jesus as I have gone through several experiences related to it. At the same time the Holy Spirit pointed me to some Scriptures and a quote by T. Austin-Sparks that confirmed the experiences made. The vision I am going to describe was, again, a part of a longer vision I had seen. What was completely new to me, though, was the experience that darkness did not cause any negative feelings like fear to arise in me anymore. Quite the contrary…

Stuck in the Soul or… Governed by God

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blogging, death, deception, discerning the spirits, experience, fellowship, Flesh vs. Spirit, following Jesus, God's guidance, habits, life, love, loving your enemies, overcoming the world, P.W. Faunch, peace, prayer, rituals, Satan, soul, soul-life, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the cross, the devil, the heavenlies, the old self, the throne, the whole armour of God, thought life, walking by the spirit

Just lately I have begun to see that a continuous life in the Spirit has to be governed by the Lord alone. Anything else I chose according to my old fleshly habits led to death, even my own thought life. Before going further by giving you another example, I decided to paste one of two short excerpts from T. Austin Sparks which clearly revealed the truth of my experiences afterwards to me. TAS said,

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.

True Gratefulness and Real Strength

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church, deception, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, following Jesus, God's voice, knowing God, love, Satan, spiritual strength, T.A. Sparks, thankfulness, the devil

Maybe you, like me, were inclined to believe that we are to express thankfulness toward God whenever something good, in our view, has happened to us. That is not wrong an attitude in itself, however, where is our gratitude when God allows bad things in our sight again (!), happen to us as well?  🤔

I have come to know several people over the years who usually express thankfulness as they discern a glass half-full and not half-empty. Nonetheless, it is not necessary to be a Christian to be able to do so. It is a matter of personality alone that decides whether we have to do with an optimist or with a pessimist. Indeed, it is nothing but innate thinking and behavior of our old nature that makes people appear as if they were Christians. Bold words, huh? 🙄 If you happen to read my blog more often, you might presume that I primarily point to the social gospel type of Christian here, people who work hard for the Lord in their own and other people’s view. However, they have never come to know Jesus on a personal and intimate level themselves. All they know about God was what they read and heard and saw other ‘Christians’ do. Our Lord will make it clear one day what the difference between those who were known and famous Christians in this world and those who were unknown nobodies, yet being known by God, will be.

Waiting on God…

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agape, Corrie ten Boom, deception, depression, discerning the spirits, divine inspiration, entering his rest, experience, following Jesus, God's love, peace, rest, restlessness, Satan, separation from the world, spiritual flow, success, the devil, trusting God

View from Zirndorf’s Tower ‘Alte Veste’/Bavaria
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

This morning as I was searching for a quote from Corrie ten Boom which I had found on my German daily kitchen calendar, I discovered many others in the English language on the internet. However, the one I was looking for was not among them.  😉 In this particular quote Corrie said it so well, “You won’t lose time if you wait on God.” (1)  Isn’t it true that our old nature wants to see things been done, if possible all at once… so that we can rest AFTERWARDS? Has it ever occurred to you that God might have forgotten about your concerns since you prayed and prayed… but nothing seemed to have happened?

What is the Fear of God?

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Albert Barnes, condemnation, curses, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, freedom, God's love, joy, judging others, love, obedience, peace, spiritual blessings, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, true faith

Photo by Paul Schuberth

Although this article springs from my own experiences with the fear of God, I did not describe here how it really feels to be struck all of a sudden by this special spirit of Him who rules the universe. If you like to read more about that, though, click here. In this entry you will rather find a definition by T. Austin Sparks’ of the fear of the Lord and some implications of what it means to truly belong to God’s people. Contrasting the evil of fear imposed on us by Satan in order to torment and paralyze us, TAS wrote regarding the fear of God,

Speaking the Truth IN Love

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Albert Barnes, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, God's love, grace, joy, love, peace, Truth in Love

Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Speaking the truth in love is not something we can do on our own. Actually, we need to love our Creator through Jesus Christ, so that we can behave toward all other human beings (including ourselves) as we should. If God wants us to take a stand, we should do it, of course. However, if we are not IN love with God, what will happen then? That is most probably something some of us already did: we tried to speak the truth in love by telling others what we believed, and perhaps it was really the truth (!), but we did not wait on the Lord to nudge us to do so and thus it got all harsh and judgmental.  😦 We might have even felt that there was something wrong about it and thus we added some pleasantry in order to show that we really loved the other person. Well, I am afraid that is not the way God intended it to be.

“What is Christianity about?” by Michael and Susanne

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charity, Christianity, doing good, experience, following Jesus, God's love, justice, love, Michael Clark, Oswald Chambers, partiality, taking a stand, wisdom

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8 NASB) – Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Good grief, that is a strange question, don’t you think?
Okay, okay, if someone said Christianity was all about Christ, then we would wholeheartedly agree and could stop writing at this point. Nonetheless, that was not what we wanted to talk about here. Instead, we have often wondered whether we as Christians are more known for what we stand against than for what we stand for.