When and why the Holy Spirit moves or… Transfiguration Through Trials (T.A. Sparks)

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deception, discerning the spirits, exhortation, false spirits, Fellowship of His Sufferings, God's love, resisting temptation, spiritual power, spiritual transformation, suffering, T.A. Sparks, testing, the cross, the devil, trials, wilderness

I colori dell’infinito (The colors of infinity): Green standing for new life (through FAITH), white for purity (in HOPE), and red for God’s LOVE – freely adapted from John of the Cross
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Today I want to make clear that being filled with the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with what we find as a common belief in some religious circles (Pentecostal and Charismatic in particular). When we receive the Holy Spirit through spiritual baptism, it is not primarily about getting power to preach the gospel, it is not about having some great spiritual gifts with which we could impress others, either, nor is it about beginning to shine like a radiant light bulb nobody could resist to look at. 😉 Just think about Jesus’ example we find described in the Bible. What happened after our Lord had been baptized with the Holy Spirit?

Preaching the Cross without letting it kill us or… on Plagiarism, once again

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blogging, discerning the spirits, disobedience, dying to self, experience, honesty, inspiration, killing sin, plagiarism, resisting temptation, sin, the cross, writing

Walking in the Light as He is in the Light…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

It was not my intention to write a new blog post today and I hoped this would turn out a short one, but I thought I should share my recent experiences on the internet with you. In fact, I was simply searching for ANY other blog that deals with the cross of Christ on a personal basis. I truly wondered whether there might be a handful of such blogs nowadays. Here’s what I found out.

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.

Why Jesus was no nice guy

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deception, discerning the spirits, evil spirits, exhortation, experience, following Jesus, Michael Clark, people pleaser, Satan, the new self, the old self

Jesus cleanses the temple…
(Source http://thinktheology.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Jesus_temple.jpg)

This is a re-post of an older article of mine from December 2015. Just yesterday, once again, I felt that the boundary I need to draw regarding commenters who come to my blog and write in a dishonest or phony, though seemingly often kind way, must be drawn much closer than before. What God revealed to me this morning was WHY Jesus was not a nice guy. The simple truth is this: Our Lord NEVER submitted to demons who spoke through human beings; He only submitted to His Father’s Holy Spirit. Therefore Jesus seemed to be impolite and even harsh at times. It was not so that Jesus did not love the people, but He loved His Father more. If you like to compare another earlier entry, where I expounded on my own experiences and on the WHY I began to draw these boundaries last year in November, you might check out Do Not Allow Demons To Speak.

PS: Sorry for the inconvenience to have received two notifications of a new blog post within a few minutes. At first I tried to reblog this older article, but alas, there was no edit function for my newer entry available. Therefore I deleted the reblog and changed it into a re-post of Was Jesus a nice guy?  😉 Here you are.

Counterfeit Spirits

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church, deception, demons, discerning the spirits, drawing boundaries, experience, false spirits, following Jesus, God's goodness, God's love, light, peace, Resisting the Devil, RHEMA movement, Satan, T.A. Sparks, Witchcraft, Word of Faith

The danger behind the fence… (Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

The following excerpt by T. Austin Sparks speaks bluntly about how evil spirits imitate God by letting people appear ‘holier’ than before they had come into touch with these cunning underlings of Satan. May we not think it is easy to discern the real Christian who is indwelt by Christ’s Spirit (cf. Rom 8:9) from the ‘Christian’ that is indwelt by these evil spirits that comport themselves as if they were beings of light. Sparks wrote,

Get Thee Out… and move on

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darkness, discerning the spirits, dying to self, experience, following Jesus, God's love, intimacy, joy, light, Michael Clark, pain, resisting temptation, suffering, the new self, the old self

 

“For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” (Dt 4:24 KJV) – Photo by Susanne Schuberth

I do not know as yet what this blog post will turn out like and I need to admit it is a pretty hard one for me. So I prayed to the Lord that He might help me by adding His wisdom and thoughts on what He has been teaching me during the last few weeks.

LOVE is YOU

Tags

discerning the spirits, encouragement, experience, God's love, intimacy, life, light, love, Michael Clark, sanctification, the dark night of the soul, the dark night of the spirit, the Kingdom of God, the new self, the old self

After sunrise in the Public Pool (Fürth/Scherbsgraben)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

After a pretty long and dry period without much inspiration, here is another joint article by Michael Clark and me.

Satan is a liar. And he is very good at that. He tells us to worry about tomorrow because God would not care or provide. Therefore, we fear the future although we might know there are Scriptures which promise the opposite of what the devil keeps whispering into our ears. If we are tempted to sin, our enemy embellishes the act of sinning and plays the consequences down by offering us only good feelings that should make us fall asleep spiritually. And what is worst, Satan tries to convince us that God could NEVER give us what he, Satan, offers. Instead, he presents God as a someone who would take everything from us which would, if we listened to the devil, make our life worthwhile (I am mainly referring to sin here). Although we might spell out the appropriate Bible verses to the angel of light, he will only laugh at us, knowing that our natural heart is terribly wicked and inclined to commit every sin imaginable if the right conditions were presented to us.

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.

How to Break free from Delusion and Deception

Tags

deceitfulness of the heart, deception, delusion, discerning the spirits, entering his rest, exhortation, experience, false prophets, God's love, Jesus Christ, Satan, sin, spiritual growth, T.A. Sparks

“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jer 2:13 ESV)
– Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Below you can read a definition of what the word ‘delusion’ basically signifies. T. Austin Sparks explained it this way.

What is delusion? Well, it is to lead from truth into error. It is to mislead the mind or the judgment, to beguile, to lead astray, to cheat, to frustrate, to disappoint, to impose upon; something that is not the truth; and these are days peculiarly marked by that peril. [1]

Actually, delusion and deception are so natural to us that we usually submit to them without knowing about it until God sets us free. On the one hand, there are people who are atheists or agnostics who are deceived because they reject The Truth which is Christ. On the other hand, there are religious people, even Christians, who are deceived because they are content with what they know and can do for God or other religious entities. These believers do not want to grow spiritually because it is too painful for the flesh which must die and make room for Christ in us. Furthermore, there are Christians who have come to know parts of the truth and who had their personal experiences with God and Christ too, however, they habitually eat the whole meat of everything they were taught and do not spit out the bones. Thus it is often times a horrible mix of truth and lies they offer and you need to be cautious to not get captivated by their confusing spiritual spider webs as well.

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

Tags

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.