Spiritual Assumption or… Touching the Anointing

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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.

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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)

When God Speaks

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cross, discerning the spirits, dreams, exhortation, experience, false prophets, fear of the Lord, following Jesus, forgiveness of sins, God's love, Jesus Christ, Jonah, prophets, Satan, spiritual power, the fear of God, visions, walking by the spirit, Walking in the Light

Just yesterday during my prayer time I had a short vision of Jesus Christ I want to share with you. To start off with, I know that there are false visions and dreams of which we might think they were from God, yet they were not. The enemy is able to produce all kinds of misleading stuff that might seem to have come from God and Jesus Christ. However, if God really shares a message with us, it won’t leave us unaffected, to say the least. From reading the prophets of the Old Testament, we might have realized that they did not always like it at first when the Lord had told them to speak up for Him. Sometimes it was even the contrary! If we think of Jonah, for instance, he actually ran away from the presence of the Lord.

“Today, if you hear His voice…”

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authority, discerning the spirits, entering his rest, experience, eyes of the heart, fellowship, following Jesus, God's guidance, God's voice, hearing, obedience, resisting temptation, Satan, T.A. Sparks, the devil, the fear of God, The Holy Spirit, thought life, walking by the spirit, wisdom

I wonder what the Lord tries to tell you and me today. Actually, I believe God wants to help us in ALL things concerning our everyday life. He is eager to lead us into ALL the truth about everything through the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 16:13). Since God rarely approaches us with a loud voice unless a severe warning is necessary, some of His messages go unnoticed. If our minds are busily occupied with the handling of appointments, schedules, and deadlines, His subtlety is easily ignored.

Misconceptions of God

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commandments, cults, discerning the spirits, encouragement, exhortation, experience, faith, false spirits, God's love, Holiness, image of God, Jesus Christ, obedience, prayer, Righteousness, Seeking God, sin, the Bible, the fear of God, the Word of God

More than 20 years ago after having left the Christian cult we were in, I felt that God was not half as judgmental as it had been suggested there in that missionary congregation. My own experiences with God and Jesus made me think that HE was quite the opposite of what I had heard back then. It would seem to me that God’s grace revealed in Christ did not judge anyone at all. From hence, for quite some time I was convinced that God was love, and only love. However, what about all this evil in the world and what about evil people? No judgment? No condemnation? Only forgiveness for everyone without any consequences? So many questions which I, sooner or later, could not ignore any longer…

What Really Counts in Life

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aging, blessings, books, commandments, death, disaster, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, following Jesus, God's love, hurry, Judgment, mind, obedience, rest, restlessness, the fear of God, the Kingdom of God, the new self, the old self, this world, thought life, waiting, wisdom, youth

If someone nurtures soaring hopes and plans, we might tell them to stay more grounded or earthed instead. But have you ever heard someone suggest to you to get more ‘heavened’? 🙄 If you, like me, often times wonder about the seeming hopelessness of our existence as we cannot sense the presence of God while (sometimes ridiculous) everyday troubles keep preying on our minds, you might have also observed non-Christians who can seemingly live their lives confronted with less problems and difficulties than we can. Yet, in the long run, that is not the truth. The Book of Ecclesiastes tells us some sobering facts.

Susanne Schuberth’s Spiritual Diary (Part 5) – “Beholding Him”

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encouragement, eros, experience, God's love, intimacy, Jesus Christ, joy, knowing God, light, Longing for God, my journal, peace, prayer, the fear of God, the promised land, walking by the spirit

Photo by Susanne Schuberth

I just decided to translate, edit, and publish another part of my spiritual diary in which I described my everyday experiences with God in the Spirit about seven years ago. The following excerpt can be read in direct succession of Susanne Schuberth’s Spiritual Diary (Part 4) – “A Dream Come True…” Below you will find my try of describing these seemingly contradictory experiences of the love and the fear of God, affecting and smiting you at the same time. If that is not confusing to a human being, I don’t know…

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.

The Secret of How to Obey God in every situation

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chastening, controlling spirit, discerning the spirits, disciplining, evil spirits, exhortation, experience, false spirits, following Jesus, God's love, Jesus Christ, Michael Clark, obedience, prayer, sin, the fear of God, the new self, the old self

Obeying God means everything will fall into its place…
(Photo by Paul Schuberth)

Having got acquainted with being disciplined by God for a long time, I always feel a mixture of cautious compassion and silent awe when I observe that God chastens someone whom I have known personally. While the love of God draws us ever closer to His heart, the fear of God causes fear and trembling in our souls since we realize that our God truly is a consuming fire. He loves us so much that He does not accept ongoing sin in our lives. In fact, God does not take sin lightly.

A Spiritual Self Check

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ads, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, flesh, following Jesus, fruit of the Spirit, God's love, pornography, salvation, Satan, spirit, the devil, the fear of God, worldly spirits

A Biblical Self Check
(Picture taken from https://goffwilson.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/self_check.jpg)

We should be aware that the devil does not sleep. Last Thursday as I checked my blog “Entering the Promised Land” on the cell phone when I was sitting at the hairdresser, I saw four ads popping up beneath one of my articles which I normally do not see when I am logged in on WordPress. One of these ads showed a sort of pornographic picture. We who may use WordPress for free, that means, all who are logged in on WordPress as bloggers ourselves won’t see those often offensive ads other visitors might be confronted with.