The Weakness of the Soul vs. The Power of the Spirit

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Body of Christ, darkness, demons, discerning the spirits, encouragement, experience, feelings, Fellowship with God, following Jesus, freedom, pain, peace, Principalities and Powers, Satan, spiritual power, Spiritual Warfare, T.A. Sparks, the heavenlies, The Holy Spirit, thought life, throne union, Victory, visions, walking by the spirit, World Rulers

In order to illustrate the contrasting pair I chose in this title, I will give you an example. Just think about someone who has been hurt deeply by another person. The pain they feel can neither be forgotten nor does it seem that it will ever be healed. Since we as human beings do not want to feel pain at all, we might choose different ways to protect ourselves in the future. Some people suppress all their negative feelings, others tend to talk about it often, and others again seek revenge up to a certain extent. There might be even more ways to deal with such suffering on a permanent level, yet none of these methods will ever set us free. Quite the contrary.

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

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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.

Jesus Christ Abolished Death

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death, discerning the spirits, dying to self, eternal life, experience, faith, fellow-heirs with Christ, following Jesus, God's guidance, inheritance, Jesus Christ, Judgment, life, Overcomer, pain, redemption, repentance, Satan, soul and spirit, soul-life, spiritual power, suffering, T.A. Sparks, the cross, the devil, The Heritage, the throne, throne union, trials, tribulation, walking by the spirit

If you read and re-read the title, wondering about the truth of this seemingly simple statement, “Jesus Christ abolished… DEATH?”  🙄 you might feel the same way I did yesterday. I read an article by T. Austin-Sparks that left me both astonished and a bit bewildered at first. But then… No, I do not want to give away the ending yet. I am afraid, you need to read further if you want to know more.  😉 So, at first I am going to offer you this excerpt from one of TAS’ books that is called “Vocational Fellowship”. (1)

Christianity does not equal the Kingdom of God

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being born again, blogging, Christianity, eternal life, experience, eyes of the heart, following Jesus, Jesus Christ, joy, knowing God, pain, peace, reading, spiritual power, sting of death, writing

Not that I was hell-bent on publishing another blog post. However, since I was housebound until craftsmen had done their work in our flat, I decided to read a bit on the internet which I had not done often lately. Still, it seems to me a pretty boring matter to get back on the internet after having experienced LIFE, real LIFE that is a gift from God, divine LIFE that cannot be conferred on anybody, esp. not in such an artificial place as the internet is. Presenting truths to people whom we most probably will never ever come to know personally in this life time has become a frustrating experience over the last months (years?) to me. Having said this, you might wonder why I keep writing, though.

When time stands still

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distractions, Endurance, experience, following Jesus, hecticness, joy, pain, peace, prayer, rest, separation from the world, suffering, the cross

The other day I found a German saying on my Catholic kitchen calendar I did not throw away immediately because it prompted me several times to stop and read it again. Indeed, whenever I reread these words, I feel the confirmation of its truth at once.

“Sit back and do nothing. There is a time when silence heals.” (Gerhard Engelsberger)

Since I do not want to write another entry about the importance of (accepted) suffering for our transformation into the image of Christ, I want to simply tell you something about the prerequisites and the effects of withdrawing from this world’s hectic fussing and ramblings. Actually, it is not only necessary to find a quiet place (which is more difficult in a big city), we need to also nun ourselves from being occupied with everything that does NOT point us to God. Easier said than done, dear brothers and sisters! Whoever tried that before might know how difficult it is.  🙄

Worth the Fight… Extending Inner Quietness

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abiding in Christ, abundance of life, discerning the spirits, encouragement, entering his rest, experience, eyes of the heart, faith, God, Jesus Christ, joy, mind, pain, peace, prayer, rest, suffering, thought life

Last week I felt a strong nudge to get closer to God and to let go of more and more, partly self-imposed, duties. As a woman, you might know how difficult it is to get rid of old habits and of letting go to care for others (more than they really need it) in order to meet EVERY expectation perfectly. I have also been used to care for my body daily and I sensed that my exhausting workouts tend to make my life more and more burdened. However, I could not get rid of swimming ‘the English Channel’, so to speak. 😉 I do know that I am no longer twenty or thirty and therefore I had begun to take at least one break during the day some years ago. Mostly after dinner I spend time in bed praying. Admittedly, sometimes I fall asleep because of exhaustion. 😉

A Hard Lesson to Learn

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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 2017)

This will be a rather short blog post since I am not doing that well at the moment. What I have done recently was that I was complaining continually before God, lamenting that He seemingly did not care about me. Sometimes you have one trial, sometimes two trials at the same time, but this time the number of my afflictions has increased almost every day. Although I would remember having had good experiences with God in the past as well, I was not sure whether God’s love was still real for me, having been cut off from His presence for quite some time now.

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.

Before the thunderstorm…

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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, false spirits rise up in them, manifesting the spirit of antichrist (aka the ‘instead-of-Christ-spirit’ as Michael Clark told me several times in the past). There is 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.

“Meet Me in the Spirit!”

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discerning the spirits, entering his rest, experience, faith, following Jesus, God's love, joy, pain, peace, prayer, rest, spiritual power, the promised land, walking by the spirit

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”    (2 Cor 4:17-18 ESV) – Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Last Thursday in the afternoon as I was hurrying to another appointment with the dentist, I briefly checked the station clock which told me that I had two or three minutes, still. I was a bit late and kept hastening toward the subway which runs below the rail tracks. The dentist’s office was on the other side of the station so that I was able to arrive on time. Nonetheless, having had toothaches for about a half year now (on and off, but more on than off), I also kept asking the Lord about my future decisions regarding the dentist and these problems with my teeth. It was not the first time that I had raised these questions, but as you might know, God sometimes gives you no (perceptible) immediate answer or He tells you something out of the blue which you do not really understand.