Enjoying Life by Obeying God or… The Choice of Life and Death

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death, decisions, discerning the spirits, dying to self, eternal life, exhortation, experience, family, freedom, friends, grace, idolatry, joy, life, loved ones, new creation, old creation, pain, peace, suffering, T.A. Sparks, unbelief, walking by the spirit

Some Wildflowers on the Balcony
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

God spoke to me a few minutes ago through the following Scriptures. He made them alive particularly by emphasizing the word TODAY. You can read this word five times in these verses. As many might know, five is the number that stands for GRACE. Just to give you a few hints as for the context in which God spoke to me, I can tell you that I had a struggle regarding a decision on how to react (or not) to someone’s misbehavior that put them in more or less big trouble. If you love someone, you might know how difficult it is to not intervene when you see things go downhill. So, my heart was very troubled about this trial as God pointed out to me that NOW it was my choice to turn to Him and to obey Him instead of trying to ‘save’ someone I love. If I obeyed Him, all things would turn out well, He said. Below you can read the Bible verses that reached my heart and comforted me immediately.

Having the Mind of Christ

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Christlikeness, discerning the spirits, experience, eyes of the heart, God, heart, Jesus Christ, marriage, mind, new creation, old creation, relationships, Satan, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the devil, The Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ, the new self, the old self, thought life, true faith

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Heb 10:22 KJV)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

We all might have heard about the difference between the male mind that works rather ‘left-brained’ (logical, purpose-oriented, and goal-focused) and the female mind which is said to be quite ‘right-brained’ (emotional, empathic, and all-round perceptive). Since women and men are pretty different as to how their thought life and feelings proceed, a lot of misunderstandings between them are inevitable… unless they have the mind of Christ! What I mean by that is that our old and fallen nature thinks it knows it all better than the opposite sex. How many marriages and relationships fall apart because men and women have given up on trying to relate to what the other one is really saying! The bad news is that there is not much hope as long as we cling to our old nature which, whether we realize it or not, usually submits to Satan. In fact, our thought habits that spring from the self-centered old creation are filled with suspicion, doubts, fears, worries and all other negative tendencies you might think of. Just trying to watch one’s own thoughts for one or two minutes only and counting how often negativity pops up might leave you completely discouraged.

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.

When does God hear (all) our prayers?

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ask and receive, being born again, experience, faith, new creation, prayer, the new self, the old self, true faith

Abiding IN Christ like these crocuses in the vase, everything we ask for will be received
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Today as I heard someone praying about their personal issues, I suddenly heard the question in my mind, “Will God hear these prayers?” At first I thought, “Well, I am not God. How could I know which prayers He might hear and which not?” 🙄 But then as I considered this topic more closely, I had the idea that there are certain conditions that must be met before God is inclined to listen to our heart’s pleas, even continually. Having found some Scriptures that display the connection between true faith and God’s immediate response by hearing all our prayers, I decided to highlight some parts I found enlightening there (emphasis in italics mine).

The Dawning of the New Creation…

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being born again, dark night of the soul, darkness, eyes of the heart, God's love, joy, new creation, pain, the new self, the old self, the promised land, true faith

The Dawning of Wisdom
(Source http://www.theosophytrust.org)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor 5:17 ESV)

Have you ever realized that the new creation we are to be can only be found IN Him? I read that passage and others which speak about being IN Him over and over, but I felt there was still something missing regarding my interpretation of these Scriptures so that I could write about it more clearly. Although I have been feeling Christ IN me since 2008 without interruption – and sometimes before too – those periods of having been IN Him were always transient in nature. However, I hoped and believed that one day my life would be changed into a “24/7 experience” of being IN Him as well. Or in other words, what I am speaking of here is entering into His rest, entering the promised land, that means, being able to see the kingdom of God everywhere, having our spiritual senses that belong to our new heart completely opened. Being IN Christ is a condition where our perception of God and the world is completely changed. We perceive everything around us in a new light that can be both seen inside of us and outside of us in every created thing. To put it briefly, we are enabled to see God wherever we might be and whatever we might look at.