Worth the Fight… Extending Inner Quietness

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abiding in Christ, abundance of life, discerning the spirits, encouragement, entering his rest, experience, eyes of the heart, faith, God, Jesus Christ, joy, mind, pain, peace, prayer, rest, suffering, thought life

Last week I felt a strong nudge to get closer to God and to let go of more and more, partly self-imposed, duties. As a woman, you might know how difficult it is to get rid of old habits and of letting go to care for others (more than they really need it) in order to meet EVERY expectation perfectly. I have also been used to care for my body daily and I sensed that my exhausting workouts tend to make my life more and more burdened. However, I could not get rid of swimming ‘the English Channel’, so to speak. 😉 I do know that I am no longer twenty or thirty and therefore I had begun to take at least one break during the day some years ago. Mostly after dinner I spend time in bed praying. Admittedly, sometimes I fall asleep because of exhaustion. 😉

“Meet Me in the Spirit!”

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discerning the spirits, entering his rest, experience, faith, following Jesus, God's love, joy, pain, peace, prayer, rest, spiritual power, the promised land, walking by the spirit

“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) – Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Last Thursday in the afternoon as I was hurrying to another appointment with the dentist, I briefly checked the station clock which told me that I had two or three minutes, still. I was a bit late and kept hastening toward the subway which runs below the rail tracks. The dentist’s office was on the other side of the station so that I was able to arrive on time. Nonetheless, having had toothaches for about a half year now (on and off, but more on than off), I also kept asking the Lord about my future decisions regarding the dentist and these problems with my teeth. It was not the first time that I had raised these questions, but as you might know, God sometimes gives you no answers and then again He might tell you something out of the blue which you do not really understand.

Waiting on God…

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agape, Corrie ten Boom, Darren T. Carter, deception, depression, discerning the spirits, divine inspiration, entering his rest, experience, following Jesus, God's love, peace, rest, restlessness, Satan, separation from the world, spiritual flow, success, the devil, trusting God

View from Zirndorf’s Tower ‘Alte Veste’/Bavaria
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

This morning as I was searching for a quote from Corrie ten Boom which I had found on my German daily kitchen calendar, I discovered many others in the English language on the internet. However, the one I was looking for was not among them.  😉 In this particular quote Corrie said it so well, “You won’t lose time if you wait on God.” Isn’t it true that our old nature wants to see things been done, if possible all at once… so that we can rest AFTERWARDS? Has it ever occurred to you that God might have forgotten about your concerns since you prayed and prayed… but nothing seemed to have happened?

Speaking the Words of Eternal Life

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confusion, discerning the spirits, doctrine, entering his rest, eternal life, evangelism, experience, fear, freedom, God's guidance, hope, John MacArthur, mind, Old Self, peace, philosophy, Satan, spirit and life, The Great Commission, thought life, worries

“Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.” (Ps 74:16 ESV)
– Photo by Paul Schuberth

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6:63-69 ESV)

Jesus told His disciples that the word HE had spoken were spirit and life. How could he claim such a thing? And why is that true? How come that over the centuries so many educated people falsely assumed that the words written in the four gospels would automatically have the same spirit and life in them as they originally possessed when our Lord voiced them? I know that my questions are challenging here. However, it is so important to see how easily confusion can arise when we read for example about the Great Commission.

“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 to Break free from Delusion and Deception

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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.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

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continued prayer, dying to self, entering his rest, experience, faith, Flesh vs. Spirit, God's love, hope, Jesus Christ, light, near death experience, resurrection, spiritual power, spiritual transformation, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self, unconditional love

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (Jn 1:4-5 ESV) – Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Many of you might have heard or read about some people’s near-death experiences (NDEs) which they described as having been pulled through a dark tunnel toward the light. Having had a NDE myself (see My Testimony to be headlined ‘1995 – 2008: Years of the Wilderness’), I would say today that the ‘tunnel’ stands for our old self nature that is closely related to our body and soul. When people have experienced a NDE and come back into their ‘old’ life, something inside them has changed completely. Although their old nature is still there, a certain amount of God’s light has been poured into their own spirit so that their purpose in life could be changed. From then on they ‘know’ that love and gaining (spiritual) knowledge about God is most important. All other goals in life they once had have become less and less interesting. Basically, they long to be and live eternally in this light that they have come to know for a short time only. They might also realize that it is all about spiritual growth now, about being fully transformed into the image of God’s Son (cf. Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 3:18). Just recently I read a definition about this kind of spiritual growth.  If we ask, “What does it mean to grow spiritually?” T.A. Sparks offers us an answer which is truly surprising. He said,

“Spiritual growth means that the spiritual strain goes out of our eyes, and our faces, and out of our voices, and that awful intensity, tenseness, goes. It is not a mark of spiritual growth at all. So let us get rid of false ideas about what it means to be a grown Christian. It means to be entering into His rest; we all need that.”

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.  😉

What is the Kingdom of God?

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being born again, Dorothy L. Sayers, enlightened, entering his rest, experience, eyes of the heart, freedom, God, Jesus Christ, new creation, the Kingdom of God, the new self

“May [God] give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” (Eph 1:17-18 ESV)
– Photo by Susanne Schuberth

I know that many people, especially those who left the organized church, have realized that church buildings, programs, and Christian activities of any kind have nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. However, have you ever heard back from someone if you asked them about the reality of this usually unseen realm? I chose to paste an excerpt from Dorothy L. Sayers which I came across more than two years ago. I read that quote on another blog and it really hit me. Here you are.

The Power of Our Thoughts

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discerning the spirits, encouragement, entering his rest, experience, Flesh vs. Spirit, freedom, Jack Helser, joy, Michael Clark, peace, T.A. Sparks, thought life, thoughts, trust

Picture credits http://www.mvnazarene.org/includes/ckfinder/userfiles/images/I-Am-620×250.jpg

This is another joint article Michael Clark and I wrote which springs from our own experiences and from what the Lord has been teaching us lately.

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Paul signed off his letter to the Philippians saying,

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. (Phil 4:8-9, nrs)

How opposite this is to our human natures! We search the news looking for the latest terrorist attack or natural disaster. We even listen to gossip hoping to get some information that will make us feel superior to someone we know. Someone pointed out that Christians seem to have a vested interest in the misery of this world. We truly need new hearts and minds from God.