Crucified with Christ, the Power of God

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being led by the Holy Spirit, entering his rest, experience, faith, God's love, grace, Jesus Christ, Liberty, Michael Clark, new life, peace, resurrection power, spiritual blessings, spiritual power, surrender, T.A. Sparks, the cross, walking by the spirit

Do we want more spiritual power, authority and persuasiveness in our lives? If so, then we ought to let go of trying to produce these with self-effort of any kind. Michael Clark lately said to me, “It is amazing what God can do as soon as we get out of the picture.” Being crucified with Christ, conformed to His death, and risen to a completely new life with Him, means we have resolved to get out of the picture every day so that HE can live HIS LIFE through us.

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The Secret of Heart Rest

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being born again, experience, faith, following Jesus, God's love, grace, new life, peace, prayer, quietness of heart, rest, T.A. Sparks, the cross, The Lord's Prayer, thought life, walking by the spirit

I could have chosen another title also. But I guess the following, at first sight, might have had a slightly discouraging connotation. Nevertheless, the other title would have signified the same. I was thinking about the heading ‘Getting LIFE through the Cross.’ As you can see in the picture I posted above, there is a sort of summit cross, standing on a rock (!), out of which leaves have started to grow on all four sides which are to represent the whole world. Green leaves symbolize life as we know from Noah’s story, for instance.

The Other Side of the Cross

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being born again, discerning the spirits, dying to self, encouragement, entering his rest, experience, eyes of the heart, faith, following Jesus, freedom, grace, Jesus Christ, joy, mind, peace, rest, suffering, the cross, the devil, The Holy Spirit, thought life, walking by the spirit

Before sitting down in front of my computer, I had no clue as to whether I would ever write and publish again, neither had I any idea about what to write at all. Hesitatingly, I had checked out my blog “Entering the Promised Land”. Jesus recently told me to delete those three drafts of blog posts I had started writing during the last six months. One might ask what has happened during this rather long period since February this year after I had published Speak My Words. Indeed, it was exactly THIS! Our Lord taught me to rather speak than to write. This particular lesson had begun with a close observation of my conversational and thought habits.

God’s Timing

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agape, anger, charity, discerning the spirits, encouragement, experience, family, following Jesus, God's guidance, God's love, God's Provision, God's timing, God's voice, grace, joy, obedience, peace, prayer, Resisting the Devil, rest, Satan, Submission to God, T. Austin-Sparks, the devil, the flesh, truth, Valentine's Day, visions, walking by the spirit

February 15, 2022

In fact, walking in the Spirit can be enjoyable at times. Today I want to share my latest experiences with you on here. It was only yesterday on Valentine’s Day that God helped me see how much He even cares about the little things of our lives.

The Cave Dweller

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being born again, Christ in us, condemnation, darkness, deception, delusion, demons, discerning the spirits, evil spirits, experience, fear, following Jesus, grace, Indwelt by the Holy Spirit, Lawlessness, light, The Gospel, The Holy Spirit, visions, walking by the spirit

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.

Balaam and the Angel or… The Danger of Compromise

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compromise, controlling spirits, discerning the spirits, disobedience, entering his rest, entering the Kingdom of God, evil spirits, experience, false spirits, following Jesus, God's voice, God's wrath, grace, honesty, manipulative spirits, obedience, Resisting the Devil, rest, Satan, the enemy, the fear of God, the whole armour of God, transparency, visions, walking after the flesh, walking by the spirit

Landscape with Balaam (Joseph Anton Koch 1832/36) – German National Museum, Nürnberg

With compromising here I meant the temptation to mix the spirits in order to please people or ourselves more than God. In other words, God has told us to do something, but we begin to wonder after some time whether He might have changed His mind regarding the commandment once given. If God has shown us a certain direction we should walk in, we can be sure that He had good reasons why He led us that way. Whether we understand His guidance or not, it is always also for our spiritual protection if He warns us and tells us not to move along a way we might have chosen on our own. We read in the Book of Numbers,

“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Num 23:19 ESV)

Life in the Spirit

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being born again, darkness, discerning the spirits, dreams, entering his rest, entering the Kingdom of God, evil spirits, experience, following Jesus, God's guidance, grace, prayer, Salt and Light, Satan, spirit and life, T.A. Sparks, the devil, the heavenlies, The Holy Spirit, the promised land, the whole armour of God, walking by the spirit

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,

“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”  (Gal 5:25 KJV)

On how to not “Walk by the Spirit”

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discerning the spirits, encouragement, experience, faith, following Jesus, gospel, grace, knowing God, sanctification, T.A. Sparks, the heavenlies, thought life, walking after the flesh, walking by the spirit

It was only yesterday in the evening as I was occupied with tidying up the living room when I asked myself this question, “When should I walk in the Spirit?” to which God’s immediate response was, “Now!” Honestly, that gave me a pause.  🙄 Although I recalled having prayed quick prayers when I was busy with similar mundane activities before, I rather thought about walking by the spirit whenever I was confronted with decisions of any kind as to what and how to do something. That means in particular, when I left the house I asked God about leading me. When I had to write emails or to do some phone calls, I asked Him to show me what to say and to give me His wisdom in all things. And I really thought that was enough. But no, it was not!

“Redeeming Love.” by Patrick Maina

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adultery, being led by the Holy Spirit, discerning the spirits, experience, family, following Jesus, forgiveness, friends, God's guidance, God's love, grace, Patrick Maina, Reblog, sin

I really enjoyed reading Patrick Maina’s compassionate blog on how a friend of him became a tool to extend God’s love and grace to his wife. It is always encouraging for me to read about Christians who truly listen to Jesus’ voice!  🙂

Life beyond the walls

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (John 15:13)

The moment I saw Josh walk through the gate, I knew there was something terribly wrong. It did not take him more than five steps before breaking down in tears , proving my suspicion right. I had to run to support him from his staggering walk. As awkward as it felt at first, I found myself providing a shoulder for him to cry on.

African men are not supposed to cry, but Josh was no typical man. He had his stack of stories for his atypical life. Even then, it was the first time to see him cry and I could only try and fill up for myself what could have happened – he just kept mumbling words in the line of, “ndugu yangu, kwa nini haya? (my brother, why these?)”

With…

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The Connection Between the Fear of God and Justification

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experience, forgiveness, God's love, grace, Jesus Christ, joy, justification, peace, repentance, righteousness by faith, sin, sinner, suffering, the fear of God, The Fear of the Lord, the new self, the old self, true faith

Garden in Weihenstephan (Upper Bavaria)

The following is an excerpt of a (not published) book I wrote about seven years ago. I just translated a text of my journal which should clarify that the experience of the fear of God and being justified by Him usually go hand in hand.

To separate awe from God from an everyday, natural fear is not easy. For it is real fear as other languages ​​also make clear:

Gottesfurcht (German)

crainte de Dieu (French)

timore di Dio (Italian)

temor de Dios (Spanish)

The fear of God is, above all, the fear of displeasing God by transgressing His commandments. I believe a further difference compared with other fears is that our natural anxieties cause narrowness inside our mind and make us think of running away from a frightening situation. “Cut and run!” the thief might think when suddenly confronted with the policeman. He, too, is, or at least should be frightened when he must face governmental authority. Nevertheless, it might happen that the thief, instead, goes over to attacking the authority figure when he realizes that his getaway route has been cut off.