Beware of Job’s false friends

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Christianity, compassion, dogs, fellowship, foxes, friends, God's voice, heart, Joseph Benson, Michael Clark, Satan, shepherd, swine, the new self, the old self, true faith, vipers, wickedness, wolves

“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:8-12 KJV) – Photo by Susanne Schuberth

I have often pondered the thought to close the comments section completely and to remove the LIKE buttons, too. The reason why I have not done it until now was that I appreciate feedback on what I write and that I have learned a lot from commenters as well. However, it has become clear to me that this continued struggle to moderate or to not moderate responses, or to eventually delete replies I had moderated before as another hidden evil spirit finally manifested in a longer comment thread, this struggle is quite exhausting for me and it is very distracting at that. I sooo love and long to hear God’s voice through commenters and, dear reader, sometimes it really happens! There is a handful of faithful commenters who only weigh in when they have something encouraging to contribute. They act cautiously and lovingly, pondering on what God might have to say. As for these, I paste a quote I found today on my daily Catholic kitchen calendar. It reads,

“A friend is someone who takes your hand and touches your heart.” (Author unknown)

Hope… in spite of it all

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blessings, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, feeling, God our Father, God's voice, grace, healing, hope, mind, Oswald Chambers, pain, Satan, Seeking God, will

Restaurant “Alte Veste” (Zirndorf/Bavaria)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Before going to bed I read Oswald Chambers’ devotional on “Friendship with God” which I will copy and paste further below. Although I read that one before and would believe it was true, I always felt that there was something missing. God who does neither act logically nor chronically as we might like it, revealed the missing piece to me a few hours before I would read this devotional.

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.

Small things and big things or… How to meet God in everyday life

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Benedict of Nursia, Christianity, contemplation, deception, discerning the spirits, dying to self, experience, false gospel, false teachers, fame, following Jesus, Francis of Assisi, Jesus Christ, Joel Osteen, John of the Cross, Joyce Meyer, Lester Sumrall, mediation, Michael Clark, mystics, Resisting the Devil, riches, sacraments, Satan, success, Teresa of Ávila, the cross, worldly spirits, ZEN, Zig Ziglar

Photo by Susanne Schuberth

I just did a short research on the internet that left me quite frustrated, at least regarding the Christian notion of small things and big things. It has been quite obvious to me that this world is all about recognition, fame, money, fulfilling all your dreams and the pursuit of happiness through sensual pleasures. However, reading the views of famous and successful Christians (aha!), you could find several instructions and to-do lists on how to ”pray for the big things” (Joel Osteen) or the advice that ”spending time with God through prayer and His Word is a prerequisite for having a great life and fulfilling your purpose” (Joyce Meyer). The latter also said that, “I can tell you from experience that God’s help and presence in our lives is vital. He is the Author of all true success and everything that is good-without Him, we can do nothing of true value.” The problem with what these famous Christian preach and teach is that they sometimes offer a great deal of truth mixed with a tiny amount of lies. That can be really tricky at times as you might see when you read Joel Osteen’s whole quote that says, “I don’t think you should spend your life praying for things, but I do believe you should thank God for what He’s given you… but I think the scripture teaches us that we can pray for our dreams, pray for the big things… he’s not a small God; this God is incredible” (Emphasis in red is my suggestion of the little lies in these two quotes here).

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…”

Prayerlessness profits nothing

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darkness, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, following Jesus, God's love, Jesus Christ, light, Martin Luther, Michael Clark, prayer, Satan, T.A. Sparks, walking by the spirit

Impressions from snowless Fürth/Bavaria in December 2016
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

After midnight and just before going to bed I often read T. Austin Sparks’ daily devotional. Sometimes his words strike me so that I need to copy and paste them, knowing that might turn out another blog article, although I rarely know what I am going to write about in detail. From my own experiences, I can confirm that these days when I am hindered through people, pain or problems to spend more time alone with God than usual (i.e., two or three times a day), my mental condition is not the best. I am more vulnerable, impatient, more easily discouraged and I am easily stressed out as well. Also, it is more difficult for me to discern God’s voice from others AND to finally obey His leading, too.

Only honesty before GOD will set us free

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darkness, deception, discerning the spirits, dying to self, exhortation, following Jesus, prayer, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self, true faith

“And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.” (Hos 2:18-20 ESV)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

I would have never imagined that seeing myself at the worst, incapable of anything which is good and able to commit EVERY sin if put in the ‘proper’ circumstances would be the entering wedge to spiritual freedom in the kingdom of God. Actually, as soon as we stop trying to appear, even if only a wee little bit better than we really are in our old and fallen nature, God comes closer and closer in order to share HIS heart and mind with us. I believe we need to first fully recognize in what kind of prison we have lived for all our life and to despair of our inability to set ourselves free in any way. We need to be so fed up with our old ways of thinking and behaving that we more and more cry out to God to give us a new heart and the mind of Christ. We must knock on heaven’s door like the persistent widow as described here.

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.”

When does God hear (all) our prayers?

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ask and receive, being born again, experience, faith, new creation, prayer, the new self, the old self, true faith

Abiding IN Christ like these crocuses in the vase, everything we ask for will be received
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Today as I heard someone praying about their personal issues, I suddenly heard the question in my mind, “Will God hear these prayers?” At first I thought, “Well, I am not God. How could I know which prayers He might hear and which not?” 🙄 But then as I considered this topic more closely, I had the idea that there are certain conditions that must be met before God is inclined to listen to our heart’s pleas, even continually. Having found some Scriptures that display the connection between true faith and God’s immediate response by hearing all our prayers, I decided to highlight some parts I found enlightening there (emphasis in italics mine).

Let’s pray…

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being born again, encouragement, experience, God's guidance, God's love, God's voice, inspiration, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther, Michael Clark, prayer, rest, Søren Kierkegaard, Teresa of Ávila, The Lord's Prayer

Entering the Promised Haven
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

This is another entry Michael Clark and I wrote together which springs from our own experiences with prayer and its effects on our soul and spirit.

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It has been for three days now that I, Susanne, wanted to write a blog post about prayer. But since I had neither time nor inspiration to do so, I only gathered a few quotes on prayer yesterday in the late evening. Afterwards I shared these quotes with Michael and we prayed about writing together about how our times alone with God affect us. We realized that be both usually wake up in the flesh and urgently need to pray in order to feel God’s presence in our life again. Michael made an observation I really liked. He said, “I need to pray first thing or my day is trashed.” Yes, indeed! Here are the quotes that sprang somehow out on me. 😉