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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.
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 
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 
It was only today as I have started to see more clearly how Satan keeps our minds busy and worried all day long. Not that I had not heard about it before, however, the theory once learned has come alive now, so to say. What I am referring to is the simple pattern Satan always uses to pull us down on his level as soon as we have begun to relax in the presence of God. You know this pattern that starts telling us to distrust God by asking, “Hath God really said?”
Just lately I have begun to see that a continuous life in the Spirit has to be governed by the Lord alone. Anything else I chose according to my old fleshly habits led to death, even my own thought life. Before going further by giving you another example, I decided to paste one of two short excerpts from T. Austin Sparks which clearly revealed the truth of my experiences afterwards to me. TAS said,
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!
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!
None of us would expect a baby to test-drive a car, nor would anyone assume that children, on the whole, go to university, give guest lectures, and teach students lessons they really need to hear (exceptions confirm the rule). As much as this world admires geniuses, in spiritual life there is no shortcut to heaven. We have to go through every more or less painful lesson our Lord puts us through. However, we may know that every lesson learned and accepted makes us see more of Him in our lives.
Entering the Promised Land 