Seven ways to discern truth from error by A.W. Tozer

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A.W. Tozer, clarity, confusion, deception, delusion, demons, discerning the spirits, God, Jesus Christ, love, method, mystical experiences, Satan, sin, test, the Bible, The World

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Mt 7:13-14 ESV)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

If we are insecure about how to discern the spirits in certain cases, A.W. Tozer offers a very helpful method to try any new experience, doctrine, or religious movement regarding their effects on our relationship with (1) God, (2) Jesus Christ, (3) the Bible, (4) our (old) self, (5) other believers who are indwelt by Christ’s Spirit, (6) the world and its desires, and as to (7) sin. It is a quite long article of which I only pasted some excerpts on here although the text is pretty long, still. If you want to read more, please, follow the link below. It is well worth reading, I believe. I also think we can use this method in order to judge the origin of our thoughts, our (day)dreams and visions, even everyday occurrences and their effect on us. May God help us sharpen our discerners with what Tozer, who in my opinion had been inspired by God, wrote about.

Can we be deceived?

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carnal mind, deception, experience, God's love, mysticism, Oswald Chambers, salvation, spiritual mind, spiritual power

“Can our eyes deceive us?”
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

I recalled having read a certain quote by Oswald Chambers quite some time ago. However, whenever I tried to find it again, I failed, since I could not remember the exact wording. Just today as I was searching the net for mystical experiences by Christians, I would find some criticism about the very word “mysticism” by T.A. Sparks and A.W. Tozer instead. Of course, there has been false mysticism in Christianity, too, but not all mystical experiences were wrong. As long as one gets closer and closer to the Living God, I would never dare to say that mysticism was a bad thing. The false mystical experience might get obvious to us when we realize that it has caused the believer to get more and more focused on his own person and “ministry” than on the person of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. Pride about knowing more than others, arrogance toward not-so-spiritual believers, and sometimes even a sort of megalomania (about what God would be able to do through the little “ME”) go hand in hand with Satan’s spiritual suggestions.

Who wants to experience the final death of self aka “Mystic Death”?

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being born again, darkness, Evelyn Underhill, experience, following Jesus, illumination, pain, psychology, purification, sanctification, the dark night of the soul, the dark night of the spirit, unbelief, unification with God, walking by faith

Clouds Obscuring the Source of Light
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

If there was another way to encounter the Living God and to stay in His holy and pure presence 24/7 here on earth and eternally too, I would have immediately said, “No, thank you, I am content as it is, no more death in my life needed.” Well, having been plunged into the second part of the dark night of the soul, the dark night of the spirit, in fall 2013, yet without interruption only one year ago, I today gave in after so many struggles with and against God since I saw it makes no sense to pray to God that I might have it my own way any longer. That means, if this death will continue to last for years in which I neither have any interest in God nor in spiritual things and in which God gives me more and more sickness and pain, then so be it. Period.

My House Shall Be a House of Prayer

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agape, becoming one, church, ecstasy, eros, experience, God's love, heart, homosexuality, intimacy, love, Martin Luther, Michael Clark, Michael Lazio, prayer, prayer of love, resisting temptation, spiritual power

Abiding in His Love…
(Picture taken from http://www.scatterthestones.co.uk/flourish-in-gods-love-for-you/)

If we still lived in Old Covenantal times, we could easily enter God’s house of prayer today by attending a church meeting in a visible building. Of course, I do not deny that Christians in churches do pray, too, but I want to clarify which prayer our prayer life should mainly consist of in New Covenantal times.
As Jesus cleansed the temple by driving out the merchants who sold animals and those who changed money, He surely made them angry. Shortly afterwards, the Jews certainly thought that Jesus was insane when they asked Him,

“What sign do you show us for doing these things?” (Jn 2:18 ESV)
and He only answered,
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (Jn 2:19 ESV)
🙄

Christ in Us – The Hope of Glory

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divorce, experience, eyes of the heart, God's love, Jesus Christ, light, love, marriage, Paul Schuberth, peace, spiritual power, William Shakespeare

My husband Paul
(Photo by Sarah Schuberth)

The description of a mystical experience I want to share with you today is very personal and I already wrote about it more than a year ago in an email to someone else. In contrast to all those other mystical experiences with God I wrote about before, that one included my husband Paul. In order to help you understand where I am coming from, I am giving you some more information about my personal life so that the whole experience itself might make more sense to you. Here is what I learned from God about how He sees marriage and particularly about how He sees us.

How can we discern God’s voice from other voices? (updated Dec 28, 2016)

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abiding in Christ, carnal mind, discerning the spirits, eternal life, Islamic mysticism, Jesus Christ, John Wesley, other religions, peace, spiritual mind, Sufis

Seeking God in the Silence…
(Picture taken from http://www.stjosephimperial.org/stewardship)

This is another article on discerning the spirits. I hope I can dig deeper now than I could do it before on this blog site. Actually, discerning the spirits is not about thinking, “The Bible is true and everything else that comes from this world or what was written in other religions is completely wrong.” Knowing the Living God, I realized that the eternal I AM always communicated His wisdom to human beings. The difference between all those other religions which had come before the book of Genesis was written and before the Hebrews were chosen to be God’s people that was allowed to get to know Him as the only God, is simply that there was a blend of God’s truth mixed with other religious stuff and God had not yet enabled man to discern the whole truth. Before Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection it was not yet time to do so (see Acts 17:30). Only God’s chosen prophets in the OT could utter pure divine wisdom through God’s Spirit dwelling on them. However, there were always wise men in the past who shared divine wisdom as well (though not perfectly, still truth mixed with lies at times) such as Seneca, Plato, Confucius etc. pp. However, since Christ has come into this world and is risen, we may know that we only find The Whole Truth by abiding in Him who “became to us wisdom from God” (1 Cor 1:30 ESV).

The Mystery of God’s Love

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ecstasy, experience, God's love, heart, inspiration, Jesus Christ, love, the new self

Divine Dust Disclosed (Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Some years ago I tried to put into words what usually cannot be put into words. Therefore I wrote several poems in German which hint to the spiritual reality of those things that are normally hidden to the physical eye. Although the natural mind cannot grasp the depths of God, His Spirit is able to strike a chord in us that finally will make us grasp the beauty of divine love.

The Living Flame Of Love

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Baptism in the Holy Spirit, being born again, church, Doña Ana de Peñalosa, ecstasy, God, Jesus Christ, John of the Cross, mystics, psychology, Richard P. Hardy, sanctification, the new self, the promised land

Star Trails beyond the Cross (Photo by Paul Schuberth)

A bit further below you can read John of the Cross’s last poem which he wrote when he finally had become completely ONE with God.

John of the Cross was a Carmelite priest and mystic who put his “up and down” experiences with God biblically founded down on paper until he reached the whole unity (i.e., unio mystica) with God through Jesus Christ. That poem was one of the first writings I had read from him when I came to know God’s living flame which had just begun to burn exceedingly high in my heart in the year 2000.

At that time I hoped that I had already finished my long way with God, that is, I thought I had reached the goal of perfect unity with Him. But, alas, it was only the beginning of a long, both blissful and painful way that led me closer and closer to Him. During the following years when I often thought that God would be silent and all the darkness inside me deeper than ever, He had been far closer than ever before, yet my birdbrain could not yet grasp it. God’s indwelling of a human being is indeed a divine mystery.