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darkness, discerning the spirits, encouragement, experience, faith, following Jesus, freedom, God's guidance, God's love, grace, Jesus Christ, joy, Liberty, light, mind, peace, prayer, Principalities and Powers, suffering, the mind of Christ, thought life, visions
“Focus on me and you will see.”
This is what Jesus just said as I was sitting and praying in front of my computer in the office, wondering whether I should write a new blog or not. On the one hand, it is not new to me that God’s leading makes things come alive when He wants us to get going for Him. On the other hand, we might even feel repelled later to do exactly the same things that initially gave us peace and joy when God has decided to guide us on another path than before.
lt is easy to write a blog post when you have learned a lesson and you have come through stronger on the other side of a situation that appeared to be hopeless before. But why should anyone share their struggles while still being stuck in a blind alley? Nonetheless, I do it now.
In order to illustrate the contrasting pair I chose in this title, I will give you an example. Just think about someone who has been hurt deeply by another person. The pain they feel can neither be forgotten nor does it seem that it will ever be healed. Since we as human beings do not want to feel pain at all, we might choose different ways to protect ourselves in the future. Some people suppress all their negative feelings, others tend to talk about it often, and others again seek revenge up to a certain extent. There might be even more ways to deal with such suffering on a permanent level, yet none of these methods will ever set us free. Quite the contrary.
Before sharing another vision with you on here, I want to clarify that I have never been a person who was intrigued by “the dark realm”. For my whole life I have been running immediately when I was confronted with something that caused anxiety or fear. In other words, what I always avoided to see and hear had to do with violence and cruelty of any kind. Whenever I saw someone watching science fiction films, horror movies, or in case they were drawn to demonic stuff in general, I closed my eyes and ears to not let it in and went away as soon as possible. Since we live in a world that has been increasingly influenced by all those dark things, it is not easy to always withdraw immediately, in particular, when some dark thing jumps at you without premonition.
During the last weeks and months I published several articles on walking in the spirit. The connection between walking by the spirit and living in the spirit seems to be quite simple. Paul in his letter to the Galatians put it this way,
None of us would expect a baby to test-drive a car, nor would anyone assume that children, on the whole, go to university, give guest lectures, and teach students lessons they really need to hear (exceptions confirm the rule). As much as this world admires geniuses, in spiritual life there is no shortcut to heaven. We have to go through every more or less painful lesson our Lord puts us through. However, we may know that every lesson learned and accepted makes us see more of Him in our lives.
Entering the Promised Land 