The Common Misconception of Christian Authority

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authority, Christianity, deception, discerning the spirits, experience, God's guidance, God's love, God's voice, Jesus Christ, Resisting the Devil, temptations, the Bible, the devil, the Word of God, YouTube

Have you ever heard about Christians having been given a special kind of authority on the grounds of calling themselves a Christian? You know this kind of supernatural ‘power’ that is to enable us to share our testimony wherever and whenever or to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything” (Mt 28:19-20 NIV) that Jesus has said? Others might have been taught that as soon as the devil attacks us, we should put on the whole armor of God (Eph 6:11-18) so that we can resist him. Hmm…  🙄 If you ever tried this and that and you failed, I am afraid you were not the only one. Me too!  🙂 In fact, I thank God for letting us know that simply following the written word is not necessarily walking in the Spirit of truth also.

Endurance… despite it all

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authority, discerning the spirits, dying to self, exhortation, experience, faith, glory, John of the Cross, resurrection power, self-will power, spiritual power, suffering, surrender, T.A. Sparks, the dark night of the soul, the dark night of the spirit

Germany’s highest church: Wendelstein Church/Upper Bavaria
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

I recall that someone once told me that they would continue to write and publish when they were through with their trials and everything was clearer to them. Well, as much as I have been tempted to share this point of view, more and more it appears to me that there ist no end of trials in this life, or is it? Sometimes God keeps us covered by His both unseen and unfelt protection in a deeply dark condition where all good things seem to have come to their very end. The stage of testing where mere and naked faith in God puts us through may last for a few days, for some weeks, for several months or even for many, many years. The length of that period is dependent on what God has in mind regarding our personal spiritual growth. It was John of the Cross who realized that the deeper the night, the higher the glory and divine authority we will be able to share afterwards (whenever afterwards is experienced).

A Spirit-led Life

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authority, desires, discerning the spirits, dying to self, exhortation, experience, following Jesus, God's guidance, heart, joy, obedience, passions, peace, Satan, T.A. Sparks, The Anointing, the old self

Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Let’s say, we find ourselves in a situation of which we are not sure how we got there and how we might come out of it (alive), either. I am not necessarily speaking of big things here. Just take an everyday situation. For instance, you meet someone who asks you to do something for them and you spontaneously offer your help. How can we discern here whether our reaction was led by the Holy Spirit or not? Are we always to help everyone or are we to say no to them, too? And if so, when? If we meet ten persons who need our help and we only have time for two or three, we will know that we ought to listen to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, right?

God’s humorous guidance

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authority, discerning the spirits, dreams, experience, fear of the Lord, feeling, God's guidance, God's love, God's voice, inspiration, Jesus Christ, joy, Martin Luther, Michael Clark, pain, prayer, rest, resurrection, spiritual power, suffering, visions

What a nice surprise…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Well, basically, I had a day full of back pains and toothaches, but at the end of that day I dare say, “It was a pretty good day, though…” Originally I wanted to go to bed earlier than usual and I told my family about it one hour ago. As I thought about what to do in the following half hour before going to bed, I would ask God if He had any ideas or what HE wanted to do. At first I reflected on reading a bit… or on making a Sudoku puzzle… or not… however, I began with tidying up our flat as Jesus answered my question. “I want to spend time with you!” Wow! That came across pretty forcefully, even passionately. I immediately knew our Lord had spoken and my heart began to flutter in joyful anticipation.

“Do not allow demons to speak!”

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authority, deception, demons, disciplining, experience, false spirits, Michael Clark, Satan, stress, suffering

“Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil. (Mt 5:37 ESV)
– Picture taken from http://www.firesong.net/doubleminded.html

This morning as I awoke I had a haunting picture on my mind I could neither understand nor get rid of. In my mind I was looking at a very small, seemingly white fox that stood a few meters in front of me. He was so small that he could have been easily overlooked unless the contrast between his bright appearance and a huge dark hole, even abyss, behind him would not have caused me to look a bit longer at him. He seemed to be so innocent, so small and unimportant, even so full of light. Yet the light was cold and its brightness made me feel repelled in a sense I have known before, especially during the last few weeks as the Lord has been teaching me more and more about how demons disguise as creatures of light. As I asked God several times about an interpretation of this strange pic, I only heard one Scripture in my mind’s ear that reads,

“Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.” (Sg 2:10 ESV)

Disclosing Demonic Deception

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anger, authority, Boris Becker, deception, demons, disciplining, experience, God's voice, joy, pain, peace, Satan, spiritual power

If we see Satan as he really is, we will not be deceived any longer.
(Photo from http://fbcmillington.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Demonic-Deception-1140×641.jpg)

My special thanks today goes to Kenneth Dawson whose last comment on my latest blog somehow haunted me (positively, of course) and eventually has helped me go deeper into the issue of how Satan works.
Just this morning I had a strange experience. After a few short and rather restless sleeping periods, I awoke finally when it was still dark. As I began to pray, God gave me some light about how demons disguise inside human beings and about how to discern them so that we might be able to see what is really going on behind the scenes. Since, if we truly read Satan’s character, we will see that others, and maybe we ourselves, still, are not as (naturally) moody as we might have thought but only under the undetected guidance of Satan at times.

Do we really belong to Christ?

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authority, discerning the spirits, fellowship, following Jesus, God's wrath, heart, intellect, knowledge, Matthew Henry, sin, spiritual power, wisdom

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

At first, a special thanks to Anna Waldherr whose last comment on my latest post inspired me to deepen the issue of “sin” in a whole article. Those who read my blogs might know that I rarely focus on sin because many Christians rather need to hear about the grace and unconditional love of God in their lives. However, today you will read about something that has been bothering me lately. As wonderful as it is to speak and share about the love of God, there are times when we need to examine our lives as well.