Spirit-led vs. spirit-driven

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anxiety, blogging, deception, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, false spirits, following Jesus, God's love, God's voice, heart, Satan, the Kingdom of God

Although I have been posting articles about discerning the spirits for almost 27 months now, I have come to realize that it is often times not possible to explain the difference between these emotions that move our soul habitually and, by contrast, those tender ‘nudges’ or even stronger impressions of restraint in our hearts by which God leads our spirits. Actually, we can only recognize what we have come to know ourselves, right? So, I simply want to tell you today what God’s leading is NOT about.

“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.

Susanne Schuberth’s Spiritual Diary (Part 5) – “Beholding Him”

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encouragement, eros, experience, God's love, intimacy, Jesus Christ, joy, knowing God, light, Longing for God, my journal, peace, prayer, the fear of God, the promised land, walking by the spirit

Photo by Susanne Schuberth

I just decided to translate, edit, and publish another part of my spiritual diary in which I described my everyday experiences with God in the Spirit about seven years ago. The following excerpt can be read in direct succession of Susanne Schuberth’s Spiritual Diary (Part 4) – “A Dream Come True…” Below you will find my try of describing these seemingly contradictory experiences of the love and the fear of God, affecting and smiting you at the same time. If that is not confusing to a human being, I don’t know…

“Close your eyes and see!”

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darkness, dream life, experience, eyes of the heart, faith, God's love, heart, light, spiritual power, thought life

My companion on a prayer walk yesterday…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

You might think I am crazy and, perhaps, you are right. 😊 Just now as I was randomly browsing my older blog posts on here, rereading what I could see up to the ‘read-more-tag’ (aka “Continue reading…”), I was hit by a Scripture I had copied and pasted beneath one of my pictures. What struck me was the following (highlighted) part of 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 which reads,

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Cor 4:17-18 ESV)

We know that God’s truth is most often so simple that it can easily be ignored, or even laughed about by someone who does not know God and wants to have it a bit more sophisticated to please their intellectual mind. But not so with our humorous God who turns into ridicule what people say who think they got Him all figured out. We read,

Susanne Schuberth’s Spiritual Diary (Part 4) – “A Dream Come True…”

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anxiety, church, depression, dreams, experience, family, fears, fellowship, freedom, interpretation, John of the Cross, joy, Michael Clark, my journal, prayer, suicide, the dark night of the spirit, visions

“GRACE behind the fence…” (number five represents GRACE)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Well, seven years ago, as I was still all alone in my walk with Daddy and Jesus, I was plagued by several fears. At that time, it was not that clear to me what the root of these fears was. As I know today, it was the fear of death, not of my own death since I had a wonderful NDE (near death experience) in 1998, but of losing my loved ones (parents, daughter, husband… you get the picture). After having already lost our only son through a miscarriage in 2009, these fears kept coming back much stronger than before, again and again. I have been pretty anxious all my life, however, during the Dark Night of the Spirit (see John of the Cross’ same-titled book) that began in 2010, it got worse and worse, i.e., God began to open the deep recesses of my heart so that I could both see AND feel these fears – extremely!!!

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 partly a re-post of an older article of mine from December 2015. Just yesterday, once again, I felt that the boundaries 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 obeying His Father more. As Christians who follow Jesus we should also obey God more than men as Peter and the other apostles told us (see Acts 5:29). 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.

Natural Life versus Kingdom Life or… How Do We Enter the Kingdom of God?

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being born again, church, deception, discerning the spirits, dying to self, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, Jesus Christ, joy, peace, Righteousness, T.A. Sparks, the Kingdom of God, the new self, the old self

Source http://www.lovethispic.com

We know what Jesus said about the Kingdom of God. So, just in case someone wants to convince us of already living IN the kingdom (although we do not really know what that might mean) or tells us that he himself lives there, we should remember Jesus’ words on how we can get there and on how the kingdom of God is NOT. We read,

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (Jn 3:5-7 ESV)

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Lk 17:21-22 ESV)

Being Blessed by GOD or… Satan’s Sensual Substitutes for the Truth

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deception, discerning the spirits, ecstasy, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, feeling, God's guidance, joy, Matthew Henry, peace, sensual experience, spiritual blessings, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self, worldly spirits

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15 ESV)
Picture Credits http://www.pamelavcarmichael.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/the-blessed-life_4034.jpg

Are we still looking for continued peace, joy, and wellbeing? If we only learn to listen to His Spirit’s guidance more closely and more often, we will experience all of God’s blessings in an ever increasing measure, for it is written,

But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’
But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. (Jer 7:23-24 ESV)

Beware of the Snare in the Air

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church, deception, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, false spirits, fellowship, Michael Clark, Satan, sin, true faith, worldly spirits

Marienkirche Hof/Bavaria (St. Mary’s Church)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

“What a strange headline,” one might say here. Leaving aside the fact that I love rhymes, I put the heading that way in order to hint to the possibility that not all snares by the devil can be recognized immediately. The Prince of the Air works in an unseen realm and he is very crafty in manipulating our thought life, which cannot be seen, either. Just recently I read an interesting quote from a man who was finally freed from the bondage of a destructive Christian cult. I took that quote out of a longer testimony which Michael Clark had shared with me. After having left the cult, Tom Murray realized,

No one can consider themselves above the possibility  of deception.

Can we see God in this life already?

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Baptism in the Holy Spirit, being born again, experience, eyes of the heart, faith, glory, Holy Spirit, John of the Cross, Martha Jesus, presence of God, seeing God, the dark night of the senses, the dark night of the soul, the dark night of the spirit, the new self, the old self, the promised land

SEEING GOD means a shift in perspective… 😉
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

It seems to me that there are at least five different stages of perceiving the presence of God. Our perception, or even sight of Him, increases and improves when we have reached the next stage. All happens by the grace o God, of course. What I did not include here are dreams and visions which are something that can happen anytime whether we find our selves in stage 1, 2, 3, or 4. However, they are not as important as being led by God continuously. In fact, from my own experience I know that an immense amount of dreams and visions have their origin in the dark realm of Satan who loves to appear as the Angel of Light. Stage 5, finally, is the fully enlightened and perfected saint who can see God directly and does not need dreams or visions any longer (regarding dreams and visions I was just paraphrasing John of the Cross). Here is my biblical approach on these five various, progressively blessed conditions of heart, mind, and soul.