Category Archives: suffering

Following the wrong Jesus

28 Tuesday Jan 2025

Posted by in Being Led by the Spirit, Being Set Free, Cults, Discerning the Spirits, Fellowship of His Sufferings, Following Jesus, God's Glory, God's guidance, My Spiritual Diary, pain, Prayer, Principalities and Powers, Satan, suffering, the body of Christ, The Word of God, visions, Walking in the Spirit

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God’s leading is truly unpredictable. I started this blog on January 10, 2025 by typing the title and pasting an(other) excerpt from T. Austin-Sparks (than the one below). That was it so far. No inspiration. No idea what to write about at all. So I forgot it. But during the last three days I went through an intense time of suffering I could not explain. However, it was EXTREME. Apart from physical ailments and a mentally low condition with which I was familiar, I had no clue what was happening to me when out of the blue a surging billow of hopelessness, almost despair, weakness and brokenness of heart had thrown me into a dark dungeon I could not leave any more.

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Who is Our Teacher?

17 Wednesday Apr 2024

Posted by in Discerning the Spirits, Dreams, Dying to Self, Encouragement, Following Jesus, God's guidance, God's Love, My Spiritual Diary, sheep, Spirit vs. Flesh, suffering, The Fear of God, The Fear of the Lord, The Holy Spirit, the Lamb, The Word of God, visions, Walking in the Spirit

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Have you ever noticed while listening to other Christians that you sooner or later recognized by whom they were taught? I am not thinking here of discerning one or several human teachers ‘behind them’ since we all were taught by teachers. However, you suddenly perceived by whom their human spirit had been guided. Whether they seemed to be self-taught believers, whether they voiced denominational specifics, or if they were even able to speak directly to your heart; you ‘knew’ it. Indeed, God speaking through another human being can be a very uplifting experience but I am afraid, it does not happen often unless there are two or three believers gathered in His name.

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“How can we know that God guides us?”

10 Wednesday May 2023

Posted by in Being Set Free, Discerning the Spirits, Encouragement, Faith, Following Jesus, Freedom, God's guidance, God's Love, joy, Liberty, Mind of Christ, My Spiritual Diary, peace, Prayer, Principalities and Powers, suffering, thought life, Trusting God, visions

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“Focus on me and you will see.”

This is what Jesus just said as I was sitting and praying in front of my computer in the office, wondering whether I should write a new blog or not. On the one hand, it is not new to me that God’s leading makes things come alive when He wants us to get going for Him. On the other hand, we might even feel repelled later to do exactly the same things that initially gave us peace and joy when God has decided to guide us on another path than before.

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When I am weak, then I am strong?

21 Tuesday Feb 2023

Posted by in Dependence on God, Discerning the Spirits, doubts, Dying to Self, Fellowship of His Sufferings, Flesh, Following Jesus, God our Father, God's Love, God’s presence, honesty, loving our enemies, My Spiritual Diary, pain, Satan, spiritual power, spiritual strength, Spiritual Warfare, suffering, The Cross, The Power of God, The Valley of the Shadow of Death, trials, Trusting God, weakness

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lt is easy to write a blog post when you have learned a lesson and you have come through stronger on the other side of a situation that appeared to be hopeless before. But why should anyone share their struggles while still being stuck in a blind alley? Nonetheless, I do it now.

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What is an Overcomer?

09 Thursday Dec 2021

Posted by in Fellowship of His Sufferings, Fellowship with God, Following Jesus, God calls, God's Fullness, God's Voice, Overcomer, Overcoming, resurrection, Revelation, suffering, teaching, The Cross

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If God wants to show us something in particular, He will get us interested in that very topic. Not so much by yelling into our ears,  😉 rather, God will nudge us to delve into the issue concerned and to mull over it. By way of example, one specific thought comes back to our mind again and again, often times when we are right in the middle of doing something that has NOTHING to do with the thoughts God wants to share with us. Whether God speaks to us through Scriptures, through other people, through experience, or more directly through a dream or a vision is not important. It seems to me He uses the communication line which has been tailor-made for us individually.

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The Cost of Discipleship

06 Wednesday Jan 2021

Posted by in Authority, Building up the Body of Christ, comfort, Crucified Self, Dying to Self, Endurance, Fellowship of His Sufferings, Following Jesus, Growing in Christ, Jesus Christ, joy, Longing for God, peace, Power of His Resurrection, Submission to God, suffering

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I need to admit that I am not gladly writing this new blog article. Nonetheless, it seems to be a recurring lesson in our life (with God) that we need to let go of so many things. In fact, we are not only to let go of ‘things’, but also of good or bad people, of opinions once dearly held, of our good old habits, of our bodily constitution, of what we ourselves would have called good health etc. I put ‘with God’ in parentheses as I think that all mankind has to go through similar trials whether they believe in God or not. However, if we see ourselves as followers of Jesus Christ, is there a particular reward, a blessing of sorts if we have become (partly) acquainted with grief and sorrow as our Lord had been?  🙄

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How God Opens Man’s Ears to Hear HIS Voice

04 Thursday Apr 2019

Posted by in Building up the Body of Christ, Death, Discerning the Spirits, Endurance, Exhortation, Fellowship of His Sufferings, Following Jesus, God's Voice, God's wrath, pain, peace, Prayer, Salvation, suffering, Wisdom

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Instead of writing a long blog post of my own, I offer you two biblical excerpts from Elihu’s speeches to Job after Job’s ignorant friends had tried to share their human wisdom with him who would suffer a lot. Sometimes we cannot understand why God lets us suffer without telling us WHY and HOW LONG it might take. But there must be a reason why suffering is necessary in our lives, even if we cannot see the reason right now. Here is wisdom that Elihu, inspired by the Holy Spirit, suggested to Job on (1) ‘How does God make us hear Him?’ and on (2) ‘Why does He not answer us as we expect Him to do?’

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The Connection Between the Fear of God and Justification

13 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by in Building up the Body of Christ, Dying to Self, Entering His Rest, Faith, Fear of Death, God's Grace, God's Holiness, God's Love, joy, Judgment, Justification, Living in the Presence of God, My Spiritual Diary, peace, Repentance, Righteousness, suffering, The Fear of God, The Fear of the Lord

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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.

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What a strange way to get inspired…

27 Saturday May 2017

Posted by in Dependence on God, Dying to Self, Inspiration, Knowing God, Life and Death, Maturity, My Spiritual Diary, Old Self, Submission to God, suffering, Waiting on God, wilderness

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Rosenheim/Inn 

April 30th, 2017

Basically, I wanted to go to bed early. However, before I checked the internet as I sometimes do and there I read in the news that someone had died today. Not knowing who this man would be, I felt nudged to read more about him. Wikipedia told me that he was a Swiss man who passed away at the age of only forty years in the exercise of his favorite occupation which had been rock climbing and mountaineering. As I checked out his website, I clicked on some beautiful pictures I really marveled at. Not completely sure which photo I liked the most, I eventually chose one of them for my blog and began to write on here. Only a few minutes later I returned to this man’s website in order to insert this and, perhaps, another picture into my blog article, as I wondered again. Good pictures, yes. Even very good pictures, taken by a professional, no doubt about this. But where was this very first amazement I had felt? This awe and wonder, this joy about I-do-not-know-what-it-is as John of the Cross once called it (am paraphrasing him here). They were completely gone! I was no longer interested in these pictures that seemed to be normal, even ‘dead’ to me now and I decided to delete what I had just written, all at once. Well, God’s leading, you know, is truly a strange thing at times…

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Endurance… despite it all

28 Friday Apr 2017

Posted by in Authority, Discerning the Spirits, Disciplining, Dying to Self, Exhortation, Fellowship of His Sufferings, Flesh, Growing in Christ, Life and Death, Light and Darkness, Spirit vs. Flesh, Submission to God, suffering, The Dark Night of the Soul, The Dark Night of the Spirit, The Glory of God

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Germany’s highest church: Wendelstein Church/Upper Bavaria
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth 2017)

I recall that someone once told me that they would continue to write and publish when they were through with their trials and everything was clearer to them. Well, as much as I have been tempted to share this point of view, more and more it appears to me that there ist no end of trials in this life, or is it? Sometimes God keeps us covered by His both unseen and unfelt protection in a deeply dark condition where all good things seem to have come to their very end. The stage of testing where mere and naked faith in God puts us through may last for a few days, for some weeks, for several months or even for many, many years. The length of that period is dependent on what God has in mind regarding our personal spiritual growth. It was John of the Cross who realized that the deeper the night, the higher the glory and divine authority we will be able to share afterwards (whenever afterwards is experienced).

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