Endurance… despite it all

Tags

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).

Leaving the Security of the Shore Behind or… Following HIM Wherever HE Goes

Tags

dying to self, experience, faith, following Jesus, God's love, Jesus Christ, rest, the dark night of the soul, the dark night of the spirit

Gstad/Chiemsee (Upper Bavaria)

Having not much to say at the moment, I decided once again to simply publish some of my pictures and Scriptures in the hope that they might communicate that which I cannot share currently [Note: If you click on a pic, you will see it full screen].

Trust in HIM – A Biblical Promise in Pictures

Tags

experience, freedom, God's love, joy, light, peace, resurrection power, spiritual power, the Kingdom of God, the new self, the promised land

Instead of offering my readers another blog article with, perhaps, too many words, I decided to show you some of the pictures I took last Sunday as we celebrated my husband Paul’s 54th BD in the Bavarian Alps. The first picture above and the second below were taken three days earlier as I was walking alone on a not-so-high mountain after I had spent some time with my daughter on her first day of stay in a hospital nearby.

A Hard Lesson to Learn

Tags

circumcision of the heart, darkness, dying to self, experience, Fellowship of His Sufferings, following Jesus, God's love, joy, Morning Star, pain, Sickness, suffering, T.A. Sparks, the dark night of the soul, the mind of Christ

Wendelstein/Upper Bavaria
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

This will be a rather short blog post since I am not doing that well at the moment. Before sharing with you what I have learned lately, inspired by an exchange with a sister, I offer you two quotes from Francis of Sales who said,

“The indifferent heart is like a ball of wax in God’s hands, ready to accept all the impressions of his eternal good pleasure. It does not place its love in the things God wills, but in the will of God who wills them.”

“A truly loving heart loves God’s good pleasure, not only in consolations, but also in afflictions….”

Spiritual Fast Food or… We are what we eat

Tags

Baptism in the Holy Spirit, death, discerning the spirits, dreams, experience, God's voice, life, reading, Satan, Satan's voice, the devil, thought life, words, writing

Picture credits http://doctorwellgood.com/healthy-eating/we-are-what-we-eat.html

It seems sometimes I want to bombard my readers with almost one blog post every day. 😉 Actually, it was only about two or three weeks ago as I started to listen more closely to several talks and to observe my immediate inner reaction to what was being said, as I saw that there is a big difference between ‘words’ and ‘Words’. Before I begin to expound on this deeper, I want to point you to Michael Clark’s excellent article about the confusing deluge of words of any kind, even in the Christian world on the internet and elsewhere. Please, read his article here.

Preaching the Cross without letting it kill us or… on Plagiarism, once again

Tags

blogging, discerning the spirits, disobedience, dying to self, experience, honesty, inspiration, killing sin, plagiarism, resisting temptation, sin, the cross, writing

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

It was not my intention to write a new blog post today and I hoped this would turn out a short one, but I thought I should share my recent experiences on the internet with you. In fact, I was simply searching for ANY other blog that deals with the cross of Christ on a personal basis. I truly wondered whether there might be a handful of such blogs nowadays. Here’s what I found out.

Hope… in spite of it all

Tags

blessings, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, feeling, God our Father, God's voice, grace, healing, hope, mind, Oswald Chambers, pain, Satan, Seeking God, will

Restaurant “Alte Veste” (Zirndorf/Bavaria)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Before going to bed I read Oswald Chambers’ devotional on “Friendship with God” which I will copy and paste further below. Although I read that one before and would believe it was true, I always felt that there was something missing. God who does neither act logically nor chronically as we might like it, revealed the missing piece to me a few hours before I would read this devotional.

What hinders spiritual growth

Tags

deception, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, eyes of the heart, feelings, fellowship, following Jesus, God's guidance, God's love, intellect, preaching, suffering, T.A. Sparks, teaching, true faith, Truth in Love

STOP!!! … AND RUN when you sense deceiving spirits approaching you! (Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Let me begin with an analogy we all know. Imagine you see a small child that has not been fed properly by his parents. Instead, he was badly nourished and therefore grows slowly, even much slower than his peers. Maybe, his parents are extremely poor and cannot feed this child as they should. If this small child gets no help from others, sooner or later the first sicknesses will befall him and most probably, he won’t get that old, either. What is so sad to observe in the physical realm exists in the spiritual realm, too. Nonetheless, the difference is that it is easier to feed a malnourished child than a malnourished spirit being for we can see it immediately when a child is too lean, too pale, and very weak. But how can we discern a believer who has fed on the wrong spirits? Can we see the deception they have fallen prey to as well?  🙄

Before the thunderstorm…

Tags

circumcision of the heart, discerning the spirits, dying to self, experience, following Jesus, Michael Clark, pain, resurrection, Satan, the cross, the new self, the old self

Yesterday, before the thunderstorm…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Let me provoke you here a bit. I argue that Satan has ruled the Institutional Church (IC) from her early beginnings and I also believe he did not stop there. The devil even goes so far to draw those into his spider web of lies again who once would leave the institutional church system because they saw its serious shortcomings. And it does not seem to me that he has had great difficulties in doing so. Whoever does not preach the true gospel of Christ, but a mixed version that is more pleasing to the listener’s ear, has become deceived whether they know it or not. But alas, they do not know it. If they did, they would not be deceived, right? They could repent if God gave them eyes to see the truth. It is so saddening to observe when they are confronted with the truth, instead of repentance, false spirits rise up and manifest the spirit of antichrist aka the ‘instead-of-Christ-spirit’ as Michael Clark told me several times in the past. There is our old self’s nature, our fallen human nature, the flesh that always wants to be like God without obeying Him and His Spirit’s leading (cf. Gal 5:14). In his recent recent article Michael wrote,

Man loves to try to do the works of God, accumulate knowledge, know with his own mind, and imitate God instead of knowing God intimately with his heart and allowing God to conform him into the image of Christ by the plan and design of the Father. The fleshly state of fallen man still loves to eat the fruit of that same forbidden tree instead of Jesus, the Tree of Life (See John 6:51).

Religious man loves to collect Bible knowledge and knowledge of doctrines so he can decide for himself what is good and what is evil. He loves to heap to himself teachers that tickle his religious ears and to garner to himself degrees in theology. Yet, when the New Testament speaks of “knowing the Lord,” it speaks of an intimate knowing that goes much deeper than a mere accumulation of facts.

Being Perfectly Balanced

Tags

balance, discerning the spirits, emotions, experience, feelings, following Jesus, God's guidance, God's voice, heart, intellect, mind, Oswald Chambers, reason, self-will, T.A. Sparks, The Holy Spirit

“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” (Mt 7:19-20 ESV)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

As I lately took the picture I posted above, I was sure I would use it for a blog article. Nonetheless, I had no clue about what to write as yet. A few days later I added Scripture and, still, I had no idea and no desire to write at all. Just today as I was meditating on this Scripture from Matthew chapter seven again, I wondered what this ‘good fruit’ Jesus spoke of might be and how we could recognize it immediately. It seems to me that all things God is allowed (!) to work in us and through us automatically produce good fruit. Good works, however, we do apart from being led by Him have not sprung from this tree which is rooted in Christ and, therefore, they are not really good in God’s sight. They are even bad! That reminds of the following Scripture where Jesus told us,