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.

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.

“Should we share the gospel without knowing it… personally?”

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entering his rest, exhortation, experience, faith, following Jesus, God's love, Jesus Christ, rest, Satan, T.A. Sparks, true faith

“For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge.” (Ps 31:3-4 ESV) – Photo by Susanne Schuberth (Cadolzburg/Bavaria)

What a strange verbalization one might say. Yet in order to get your attention, I decided to put this question the way you can read it in the headline. So, what does it mean to know the gospel? Is it enough for us Christians to have read the Bible, most commentaries, and to know the majority of answers to theological questions? Should we, then, whenever we meet someone of whom we think they might be unsaved speak up and tell them that we already have what they don’t have (as yet)?

How do we recognize if we are guided by the Holy Spirit?

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death, discerning the spirits, dream life, experience, following Jesus, God, God's guidance, obedience, Oswald Chambers, quickening of the spirit, T.A. Sparks, walking by the spirit

Stairs under water (Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

If you and I want to be led by the Holy Spirit 24/7 and we are insecure about whether we have been led by Him or not, the following excerpt from one of T. Austin Sparks’ articles might be helpful to read. What I did not copy and paste were Sparks’ implementations on how and when Jesus refused to do what others told Him (whether his mother, his siblings, or other people were concerned) because that would have been too long an article on here. Nonetheless, if someone has time and wants to read the whole thing, you will find the link beneath the excerpt, as always.

Nowhereland… or between Death and Resurrection

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death, discerning the spirits, eternal life, experience, false gospel, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, life after death, Ministry, Satan, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self, the promised land

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. (Is 30:21 ESV)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

I could have also called this state I am finding myself in ‘the period of putting off the old self and putting on the new self’ which is something no one may observe but God and me. It is like being in the tomb after having endured the cross, having died to everything and everyone you once loved more than God and Jesus. And little by little, a completely new world gradually comes to light. Or in other words, “the day dawns and the morning star rises” (2 Pt 1:19 ESV) in our heart in order to never disappear again. Jesus promised us, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (Jn 17:3 ESV) We cannot put ourselves into eternal life as much as we might wish to get there. If we refuse to endure the cross, we remain captured in our old and fallen nature that is unable to serve and please God. There are many ‘Christs’ that have been preached from the very beginning and it seems to me even more today. However, every crossless gospel that strengthens our old nature or tries to change it (which never works) instead of telling us that our old Adam nature is completely useless for the work of God, these gospels are of satanic origin. All of them, without exception, whether it is the health and wealth gospel where our worldly desires and our mortal body gain center stage or the social gospel that tries to change the world we live in (without being called by God to do so). There are so many more things we can believe and which lead us astray, that is, away from Christ and the narrow path. What they have in common is that we can do them on our own. We do not need God’s power in order to do what we always did, do we?

Trust and obey or… On how to walk after the spirit

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discerning the spirits, entering his rest, entering the Kingdom of God, experience, feelings, heart, inner man, intuition, joy, mind, new life, obedience, outer man, pain, soul, spirit, the dawning of a new day, the new self, the promised land, thought life, walking by the spirit, Watchman Nee

“Blessings to those who are doing his Commandments; their authority shall be over The Tree of Life, and they shall enter The City by the gates.” (Rev 22:14 Aramaic Bible in Plain English)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Just lately God both nudged and even urged me to do several things which, to my own reason and habits, did not make any sense to me at that time. I saw no real danger, I only felt uneasy in my belly region about certain people and their way of thinking and believing. However, more and more every day, I felt that God wanted me to obey Him without understanding in advance WHY I should follow Him. In order to make me do so He caused great pains in my heart, severe sorrow and deep grief so that I thought I could not endure it any longer. As I eventually gave up on my own ideas of how life should turn out, how people should be, and on my own habits of dealing with and thinking about people, God gave me the strength to obey Him in a way that was not possible for me before. As I finally did several things He wanted me to do, my heart was all of a sudden flooded with such an intense supernatural joy that I even had to cry out loudly. “Wow!!!” 🙂 Oh, how quickly heartfelt obedience that seeks the approval of God and no longer the approval of man is rewarded by our Father in heaven who is ALWAYS pleased when His children ask Him for His wisdom and guidance in all things! In order to bring my joy home to you too, I posted  that photograph above. I would see that beautiful tree on my prayer walk yesterday and I KNEW I had to take a picture.  😉

How God meets man… or what does it mean to be IN Christ?

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being born again, darkness, experience, God's love, joy, light, living water, pain, the dark night of the soul, The Holy Spirit, the new self, the old self, the promised land

The River of No Return…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

I just had an interesting picture on my mind. Imagine all people in this world initially walk through barren and desolate land for the most part of their lifetime. But sometimes some of them suddenly see an oasis before their eyes. They can hardly believe that they now can leave the wilderness they were in for a very long time and sparks of hope begin to take root inside their hearts. However, alas, as they come closer and closer, they realize that what they had seen within their reach seemed to be only a Fata Morgana since it was gone as soon as they wanted to take possession of it. Grievously disappointed and discouraged they find themselves forced to continue on their journey through the desert, but they cannot forget the beauty of the place they would see before being able to arrive there.

Satan’s Subtle Lies

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discerning the spirits, entering his rest, experience, freedom, God's guidance, God's love, God's voice, light in the darkness, pain, peace, rest, restlessness, Satan, Satan's voice, the dawning of a new day, wisdom

A Stony Saint – Banz Abbey, Bavaria
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Imagine that… You experience after a long time of restlessness, fears, doubts, and various pains deep rest that encompasses spirit, soul, and body to an extent that was not known to you before. You cannot grasp how and why it happens, but you eventually can lay back in the arms of God and let Him do what He wants to do. You only watch Him, amazed at His way of dealing with your life – and you only rest.
Suddenly someone suggests to you that in order to keep that almost perfect peace of mind, you should instead read Scripture with an open heart so that you could hear God better or sing some songs in order to not stop praising God who helped you through another trial which had been very hard for you. Why you should do these things? He says that you need to be prepared for the next trial.

The Dawning of the New Creation…

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being born again, dark night of the soul, darkness, eyes of the heart, God's love, joy, new creation, pain, the new self, the old self, the promised land, true faith

The Dawning of Wisdom
(Source http://www.theosophytrust.org)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor 5:17 ESV)

Have you ever realized that the new creation we are to be can only be found IN Him? I read that passage and others which speak about being IN Him over and over, but I felt there was still something missing regarding my interpretation of these Scriptures so that I could write about it more clearly. Although I have been feeling Christ IN me since 2008 without interruption – and sometimes before too – those periods of having been IN Him were always transient in nature. However, I hoped and believed that one day my life would be changed into a “24/7 experience” of being IN Him as well. Or in other words, what I am speaking of here is entering into His rest, entering the promised land, that means, being able to see the kingdom of God everywhere, having our spiritual senses that belong to our new heart completely opened. Being IN Christ is a condition where our perception of God and the world is completely changed. We perceive everything around us in a new light that can be both seen inside of us and outside of us in every created thing. To put it briefly, we are enabled to see God wherever we might be and whatever we might look at.