Spiritual Assumption or… Touching the Anointing

Tags

agape, anointing, carnal, fear, flesh, God's love, Humility, joy, judging others, Liberty, love, Loving God, loving our enemies, Meekness, peace, reason, T. Austin-Sparks, the fear of God, The Fear of the Lord, The Light of His Countenance, Touching the Anointing

This topic is none of those about which I like to write. Nonetheless, I have seen a few times that touching someone who has been anointed by God, which means, speaking ill of them or even attacking them personally, will have (sometimes immediate) consequences in the life of the offender. If we are attacked and do not avenge ourselves in any fleshly way but (empowered by God) love our enemies by being silent and rather bless them instead, God comes in with His corrective justice. When I for the first time in my life observed God’s dealings with a Christian who appropriated something from another Christian to himself, something that was obviously a gift from God, I was truly shocked. It made me tremble with the fear of God! Meanwhile I witnessed God’s intervention more often and I honestly admit that His doing always leaves me speechless.

The Prince of Peace Lights the Darkness – Updated Dec 29th, 2021

Tags

beholding God, darkness, deliverance, demons, discerning the spirits, dying to self, experience, following Jesus, God's love, hope, joy, light, love, peace, Prince of Peace, self, T.A. Sparks, The Holy Spirit, the light of the world, visions, walking by the spirit

[Please note: If you only want to read the update which can be found in a ‘box’ also written in this green color, you need to scroll down more than two thirds of the text. Thank you.]

There is a new lesson for me to learn every day. It seems like walking in the spirit with Christ turns into full-time schooling, which is a great adventure anyway.  😊 The latest lesson learned refers to how the Prince of Peace wants to pour out His spiritual blessings of peace, joy, and love on us every day in every given situation. At first I had a vision a few days ago which is getting more and more interpreted by Jesus as I have gone through several experiences related to it. At the same time the Holy Spirit pointed me to some Scriptures and a quote by T. Austin-Sparks that confirmed the experiences made. The vision I am going to describe was, again, a part of a longer vision I had seen. What was completely new to me, though, was the experience that darkness did not cause any negative feelings like fear to arise in me anymore. Quite the contrary…

The Unknown Door or …What Fellowship with the Lord Provides

Tags

discerning the spirits, dreams, encouragement, experience, faith, Fellowship with God, following Jesus, freedom, God's guidance, God's Promises, God's voice, healing, joy, prayer, reasoning with God, suffering, T.A. Sparks, The Holy Spirit, true faith, visions, walking by the spirit

---

I do not want to anticipate the result of my latest struggles yet, however, I can tell you that I started to see that getting to know God’s thoughts on everything often comes from listening to the Holy Spirit during our more silent times of the day. I got a confirmation of my deliberations from T. Austin Sparks whose article on prayer I am going to mention further below again. (1) Alas, it is so easy to get sucked into the busyness and distractions of our everyday life that we usually only feel a bit uneasy when we are confronted with some unexpected “thing” or an unexpected “someone” in the middle of the day. We might not know where this discomfort has come from, but God knows. Whether He shows us the reason for IT through Scriptures, in dreams, or visions – as I have said before, that is not important. What is important, though, is that God wants to tell us something in order to set us free.

Hinds’ Feet on High Places or… The Only Way Out is Up

Tags

Allan Halton, discerning the spirits, earth, encouragement, evil spirits, experience, following Jesus, God's guidance, Hannah Hurnard, heaven, hinds' feet, Jesus Christ, joy, Michael Clark, pain, pandemic, peace, prayer, Resisting the Devil, rest, Satan, spiritual power, suffering, T.A. Sparks, Taking our Thoughts Captive, the devil, the enemy, the heavenlies, thought life, unrest, visions, walking by the spirit

As a preliminary note before delving deeper into my latest experiences with God, “Hinds’ Feet on High Places” here bears no relation to Hannah Hurnard’s novel with the same title. Although I never read her book, I heard from a few readers of my blog how much they liked it as they shared part of its content with me in the past. I have just read the plot introduction of this book on Wikipedia and I realized that there might really be a lot of similarities between Hurnard’s description and my own experiences with God as to suffering and sorrow. However, I want to go a step further now and to rather focus on a positive prospect of our life with God than on the difficulties of endurance.

The Secret of Spiritual Soul Rest in Christ

Tags

abiding in Christ, death, discerning the spirits, eternal life, experience, joy, Lily, our cat, rest, resurrection power, soul, Soul Rest, T. Austin-Sparks, The Holy Spirit, the whole armour of God, walking by the spirit

This title I chose seems to be self-explaining because we could also say that our soul finds its rest in Christ alone. Does not sound like a secret, does it? But if we, after decades of believing in the Lord, have not entered His rest yet although we always wanted to, maybe, it is not that easy to get there? Perhaps there is ‘something’ that continually keeps us from entering God’s rest. But what could this ‘something’ be?  🙄 Before expounding a bit more on what I just hinted to, I want to share another experience with you.

Walking in the Spirit by Switching from One Kingdom to Another

Tags

discerning the spirits, dying to self, encouragement, entering his rest, entering the Kingdom of God, experience, following Jesus, fruit of the Spirit, God's love, joy, love, patience, peace, rest, soul, spirit, spiritual power, the devil, the Kingdom of God, the new self, the old self, thought life, walking by the spirit

Dear brothers and sisters, I would have never expected that Jesus Christ would really enable us to move from the burden of self-life with all its stress and unsolvable problems to His restful life in the Kingdom of God. Actually, I always hoped that the possibility existed but I had almost given up on waiting for the enjoyment of continuous love, joy, peace, or even patience (something I NEVER knew before!). Apostle Paul encouraged the Philippians several times to “Rejoice IN the Lord always….. Indeed, I still ‘hear’ myself doubting this possibility a few months ago. However, it is true!

If God speaks…

Tags

abundance of life, authority, discerning the spirits, encouragement, entering his rest, experience, following Jesus, freedom, God's love, God's voice, Jesus Christ, joy, libery, life, mind, peace, rest, spiritual power, the Kingdom of God, walking by the spirit

For some time I have been wondering whether the existence of the Kingdom of God might mean more immediate proximity to our everyday life than we might have ever thought or believed possible. It was only yesterday as I had another surprising experience with our Lord Jesus Christ. In a certain sense I was reminded of another occurrence about four months ago when Christ pulled me out of a very depressive state by the simple question, “Do you believe that I am the life?” (1) After that question back then I felt that the spiritual power of His words triggered several dead or sick ‘spots’ inside me so that a healing process, both spiritual and mental, could set in. Although my physical diseases have not disappeared by now, I sense God must have his reasons why He has not fully healed me yet.

Who are the 144,000?

Tags

ambition, aspiration, desires, discerning the spirits, dying to self, emotions, encouragement, entering his rest, experience, eyes of the heart, following Jesus, God's love, joy, light, love, mind, Mount Zion, peace, soul, suffering, T.A. Sparks, the 144.000, the Lamb, the mind of Christ, the will, walking by the spirit

Several Christians over the last centuries have had thoughts and ideas about who these particular people mentioned in the Book of Revelation might be. Even a cult (Jehovah’s Witnesses) claimed this whole group of believers for their own purposes. But can it be that easy?  🙄 Is there a single Christian denomination or a ‘Christian’ cult that would be able to comprise those 144,000 who seem to occupy a very special position, maybe, even the best position possible as to their closeness to God?  🙄

I saw in my last post where I mainly published longer excerpts from T. Austin Sparks that it does not make much sense to go on doing so. It seems I should offer some explanations combined with my own experiences or insights regarding all topics so that the whole article gets more vivid. Actually, I know myself how tedious the simple reading of facts without enlightening examples can be.  😉 So I decided to include only short excerpts by TAS where I thought it might be helpful and to also offer my own ideas as to the following Scriptures. As for these 144,000, the apostle John describes what he saw in the Book of Revelation.

The Secret of Power and Ascendancy by T. Austin Sparks

Tags

ambition, Ananias and Sapphira, ascendancy, aspiration, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, following Jesus, God's guidance, Holiness, joy, Judgment, Life and Death, Light and Darkness, Overcoming, overcoming the world, peace, Pentecost, rest, Satan, self, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the cross, the devil, The Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God, The Kingdom of Heaven, unholy, walking by the spirit

Today I want to offer you some food for thought by T. Austin Sparks, a man of God of whom I am certain that he really knew what he was talking about from his own experiences in the kingdom of God. Regarding spiritual ascendancy and power Sparks meant that we should follow God’s “inward and upward call” (my words) to overcome, in particular the devil. TAS said that Satan cannot tempt anyone whom he finds poor in spirit. Indeed, if we are fully dependent on our Lord in all things, the enemy is helpless while we are being drawn higher and higher on this spiritual mountain called “Zion”. In that which follows you will find two excerpts from two different articles by TAS.

In THAT Day…

Tags

becoming one, encouragement, entering his rest, entering the Kingdom of God, eternal life, experience, God our Father, God's love, Jesus Christ, joy, Oneness, prayer, promises, The Holy Spirit, the new self, the promised land

It was only lately that our Lord made me aware of numerous Scriptures, both in the Old and in the New Testament, that point us to a specific moment in time. It seems I usually read over this wording, thinking “in that day” would mean in the majority of cases a date far ahead of us in the future. I decided to focus on only three Scriptures from the Gospel of John here. What they have in common is that they all present God’s promises having been fulfilled in us.