Hope… in spite of it all

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

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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.

How to Detect False Spirits – The Spirit of False Unity and Fake Love

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church, deception, discerning the spirits, Ecumenism, evil spirits, exhortation, experience, fake love, false spirits, feeling, God's love, knowing God, love, obedience, Satan, sin, the devil

God knows how often since October last year I asked Him when this series about discerning the spirits finally would be over. However, I never got a direct response from Him. Instead, He taught me consistently new lessons about dangerous spirits that look so innocent and “holy” on the outside. If this kind of teaching was only a “mind thing”, that would be no problem at all. But God always lets me FEEL those evil spirits, meanwhile even before I meet them. Brothers and sisters, that is never a pleasant experience, quite the contrary. Yet I believe it must be important to God that we learn to merely listen to His voice and to keep ignoring those other seducing spirits which often approach us.

Summer Storm Sadness

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caring, comfort, experience, feeling, God's love, joy, love, sadness

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Mt 7:26-17 ESV)   (Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

For about 20 hours we have had stormy weather here in Germany, a weather I normally do like. I always loved to be at the seaside, for instance, where I tried to walk or even bike against the stormy wind. Not so today. This spring and summer I planted more than 70 pots on our two balconies and so today I have been watching my beautiful plants partly being destroyed without me being able to do more than trying to fix them with cords, gathering broken branchlets, blossoms and (still) green tomatoes. As I came home from my weekly “big shopping” this afternoon, I saw that the mess had got worse and worse. Whatever I would try to improve the situation for the plants in the following hours, I saw it made no real sense. Eventually, I found myself wearily sitting on my bed where I tried to pray. Very sad, not really mad at God because of the storm, but disappointed…..and feeling completely helpless. Although I tried to reason and comfort myself with saying, “These are only plants…,” I could not get rid of the sadness. Prayer did not help, either.

Regaining a Peaceful Mind and Heart

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confusion, faith, feeling, flesh, God, heart, hope, hopelessness, Jesus Christ, mind, Oswald Chambers, pain, peace, psychology, rest, restlessness, Satan, the devil

There is always hope…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

“For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” (Rom 8:6 ESV)

Basically, it would be so easy to discern whether we have set our mind on the Spirit or on the flesh if we only took a short glance into our hearts and check them for their peaceful or restless condition. The problem is, as soon as we sense that there is NO peace at all, we might be inclined to look at our own failures or to those of others instead of taking a short glance to God who allowed Satan to bring us into that confused, disheartened, sometimes even hopeless condition. We can be sure that the devil always tries everything in order to keep us restless and discouraged. He does not cease telling us about our wrongdoings or about those of others in order to keep our thoughts running like a hamster in his wheel – from past events to the future, back to the past, and so on and so forth. The sorrow and those negative feelings that go with these thoughts ALWAYS come from the devil, too.

Sanctification – our spiritual workout

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experience, faith, feeling, God's love, mountain top experiences, mystery, Oswald Chambers, rest, sanctification, seeing God, thought life

Just a Look from Above…
(Photo by Paul Schuberth)

Just imagine you were an experienced mountain climber and there was a particular mountain you know like the back of your hand. You have been at the summit several times, you even found different ways to climb up and down, your muscles are athletically trained, and your body knows how to deal with sudden pains and injuries too. Looking at the sky before you begin to climb, you know from your own experience without consulting the weather forecast which weather lies ahead of you and you know which clothing and how much food you will need.

Knowing God…

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agape, being born again, ecstasy, eros, experience, eyes of the heart, feeling, flesh, God's love, intimacy, Jesus Christ, joy, knowing God, Oswald Chambers, peace, prayer, relationship with God, spiritual power, the Kingdom of God

Knowing God… and Being Known by Him
(Source http://pixgood.com/intimacy-with-god-quotes.html)

Instead of boring you to death with a new article written right from my blank mind, 😉 I decided to copy and paste two daily devotionals from Oswald Chambers that really hit home as for the consequences of being intimate with God. We will see and feel it in our own lives, and others will too, when all our thinking and doing eventually spring from being one with God as we abide in His love. If we are really as intimate with Jesus as Jesus was with His Father, the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) cannot be ignored, neither by us nor by anyone else, for it is written,

“A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 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 7:18-20 ESV)

Life is a Triggery Business

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experience, feeling, healing, heart, mouth, pain, prophets, speaking, spiritual power, the new self, the old self, tongue, triggers, wounds

What Makes Our Life So Difficult At Times
(Picture taken from http://www.meltdownmentor.com/v6/index.php/meltdown-or-shutdown/triggers)

To start off with, I know that life is a tricky business, too, but here I really meant triggery in the following sense. Take for instance a few little children playing in the sandpit. They are not related and are basically happy to play together. You are sitting on a bench, enjoying the first warming sunrays of springtime and you are watching those kids gladly until something unexpected happens. Right out of the blue you might hear exclamations like,

“This is MY shovel!! Give it back to MEEEE!!!!!” (You can easily imagine the picture you can see now… 😉 ) or,

“I don’t want to be your friend!!!” (Because “I hate red hair!”… “Your nose is too huge!”… “Your parents are silly!” – whatever the accusation)

Entering His Rest – but HOW???

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experience, feeling, God's voice, heart, listening, Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, rest, Satan's voice, the new self, the old self

One day, Philipp Melanchthon told his friend Martin Luther, “Martin, this day we will discuss the governance of the universe.” Luther answered, “This day, you and I will go fishing and leave the governance of the universe to God.” What allowed Luther to respond in this way? His knowledge and belief that God could take care of things. As we move close to God, we realize that he will take care of things, and we can rest.

God’s Gentle Guidance vs. Satan’s Subtle Seduction

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experience, feeling, God, God's love, heart, inspiration, Martin Luther, peace, rest, Satan, thought life

Which Way?
(Photo credits http://mark-hartshorn.co.uk/spiritualguidance.html)

The Lord Will Be Gracious

18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you.
20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.
21 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 30:18-21 ESV)