Archive for December, 2009

Fasting and prayer for Norway in January

Saturday, December 19th, 2009
January has been declared a month of fasting and prayer among believers in Norway.

There has been several prophetic words, even in the comments on this very blog, for Norway to fast and pray now. This has been acted upon by several organisations and prayer networks.

Dale Anderson from IHOP, Kansas, where the current youth awakening is taking place and from where the Bobs that carried the strong prophetic words of revival in Norway originates, held 28th November a speach of calling to prayer and fast for Norway at Youth With A Mission (YWAM) HQ in Norway.

If you read Norwegian you can read about the speach here.

The homepage for this event you can find here.

Here is also call from the YWAM leadership, that I found on Oase’s homepage.

Crylaughing

Saturday, December 19th, 2009
In the midst of darkness and struggle, the Lord is right beside me. That I learned yesterday.

I was out on a short drive. As I usually do I had worship on my stereo. I had been doing the exactly same thing earlier on the day. But this time it was different.

The Holy Spirit completely filled the car. And I was filled with compassion and joy.

I began crylaughing. Now that’s not a word, but it is now for me. Because the compassion made tears pop out of my eyes. And the joy made me smile and laugh.

Now sometimes you say that you’re so happy you begin to cry. This was different though. It was two different moods/states at once. I’ve often have had them separately, but never together at once before.

It continued until I came home. Then I laid down on my bed with some more worship. And the presence continued to touch me deeply.

Thank you Holy Spirit and Jesus! Pals for life!

Thankfulness elevates your life

Saturday, December 12th, 2009
Being thankful can really elevate your life to new levels.

The fact is that no matter what, we all have something to be thankful for. Just being alive is a great victory. Just by being born you beat all kinds of odds.

But most people doesn’t really need to use their imagination to find stuff to be thankful for. They just need a little rewiring and change of perspective.

When you make thankfulness a lifestyle, you’re investing in a better life. Because when you recognize all you blessings, that bad stuff gets kind of blurry.

The bible tells us to be thankful in everything. The reason is that thankfulness is the fuel of a humble character. And being humble is good fruit, according to that wise book.

What do you have to be thankful for? Give it a moment, and think about it. I have so many things: A wife, children and other family I love. Roof over my head. I live in a stable country. My kids get to go to school. Freedom. Jesus. The list goes on and on.

The more I seek You (song)

Friday, December 11th, 2009

Wow, what a beatiful song Kari Jobe sings here.

Holy warriors: A vision of the European and Norwegian revival

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
I saw the map of Norway from above. All around the country there was cones of light appearing. They were marvelous sources of power and living water, reaching upwards into Heaven.

Around all the cones a white matter began appearing. It grew and grew outward until the whole country was covered in this white.

Suddenly an huge tide of this white matter rose up. It’s magnificence and power was incredible. The tide was in motion, about to hit the continental Europe.

My vision went into slow motion and I was drawn towards the point of the tide, zooming in. Then I saw what the white matter was.

It was a magnificent holy army.

They were dressed in a white viking warrior outfit. All the weapons had marvelous patterns carved into them, and they were covered in white gold, making them an awing sight.

The vision froze and I could see this furious holy viking. His eyes was filled with determination to crush any presence of darkness. His arm was lifted, holding high a white golden axe, ready to crush all resistance, as the tide would hit Europe. His mouth roared out a cry of war.

My story: How does revival start?

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
How can we have revival, and how does it really start? Do we have to pray, fast and scream out, until God comes?

For me, calling to revival started with a very sexy woman. Now this story is not about this incredible woman, but God. So I’ll just say that she entering my life made me rededicate myself as a Christian, we got married in 2001 and God miraculously gave us two children.

I began going to a local church. I just wanted to rediscover my roots as a Christian, find the basics. I had no thought about visions, service for God, being used in mighty ways or anything like that. Revivals I hardly knew existed. I did not ask God for anything in that sense. I simply wanted to learn more about what it means to be a Christian.

The call

So even I had been a Christian for most of my life, I enrolled to an Alpha course. I was rather surprised when a letter came back, welcoming me to Christian leadership school. “Oh, they just did a mistake”, I thought and wanted to call them to correct the mistake.

Then God spoke to my heart: “It is no mistake. I have called you to leadership”.

So I went to the course, where I felt out of place. I knew little about leadership and nothing about leadership in Christian context. There was all these pastors and senior people, together with me, small mr Alpha Course.

That was the beginning of my calling. I did not cry out for revival to God. I did not beg him to use me. I did nothing.

The tiny powerful flame

God changed my heart. He started a fire there. It was small. Almost impossible to see and sense. When the devil first looked at the fire, he must have laughed: “Is that all? I’ll put that out in a minute”.

But he could not.

The fire just continued to burn and burn and burn. In times of living in sin and darkness, the fire was still there. In times of being long away from God, it was still burning. In times of big trial and hardship, that tiny flame did not die.

Nuclear reaction

Out of despair and agony I have tried to kill the fire myself, two times. It was times when it brought me to the limits of what I could endure, and then some. But I am powerless. I can’t put it out. It follows me. It fuels me. And it drags me back to God and his purpose time after time.

One time God showed me the tiny flame. And it was no tiny flame. It was like this huge nuclear reaction.

I am an involuntary volunteer. God took my heart.

So I do not think revival starts with people crying their hearts out. I think revival starts with God’s love. This love put fire in people’s hearts. And then they cry their hearts out. I think it’s how the Norwegian revival will start, and how most revivals starts. It’s not initiated on man’s will or doings.

You won’t relent until you have it all (song)

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Here is today’s song. Hope you enjoy this powerful worship by Misty Edwards.

My story: Why did God let my dream die?

Monday, December 7th, 2009
Yesterday I told you about my failure as a Christian businessman. And how my God given vision went to pieces in a bankruptcy.

If it was a God given vision and I committed my work to Him, why did He let it die?

First of all, I told you about how God had warned me to seek support from other Christians. So in part I simply blame the devil. He inspired the sin that entered our church. I can’t say in the natural that it killed the business. However if it was important enough for God to warn about, and then later withdraw blessing from the project, it has something to with it.

My fault

But most blame I put on myself. I was responsible. And I did many mistakes. I also was not fit for the position I had. I communicated this on a number of occasions. However with no funds, it’s not easy to replace the manager.

So bottom line is that it was my fault. I disobeyed God when I failed to seek support elsewhere.

Broken for a reason

One evening this summer I prayed out my heart to God: “Why do everything I try to do, fail? Even when it’s you I do it for? Even when it’s your vision? Why is there a broken piece in my that screw things up?”

The answer came back:

“Yes, my beloved! As you now understand, you do have a broken piece in you. I created you exactly like that. I put that brokenness into you. That brokenness is the very reason I can use you. Because my purpose for you is to live close to me, always, 24/7. And the brokenness makes you dependent on that intimacy with Me. You are not you. You = Me + you.”

Wooooow! I broke down and I cried, because suddenly I understood that after all, there was a purpose to both my past failures and my brokenness. And even if the Christian company died in that bankruptcy, my purpose in God did not.

My story: Failure as a Christian business man

Sunday, December 6th, 2009
Today I feel a bit down, so it’s a great opportunity to tell my story as a Christian business man.

Almost from the beginning of my calling to revival in Norway and Europe, in 2000, God told me that Christian business would be important in the revival.

In 2004 I was working as a secretary in my church, while studying business. However it did not bring enough to support our family. So I began looking for other jobs. On the side I also created a business plan for a Christian business, that would generate recources for the local church.

The birth of a Christian business

I sold myself into a company and they offered me a position. At that time my business plan had matured into a small team and full support from my pastor and the leaders of the church, and had an investor who was interested in helping us. So I rejected the job proposal.

We didn’t start with much, though. Our office was in the church, and rather than developing products, we had to sell our time as consultants to survive. But we had a fire and vision and mission from God. So we kept at it.

Going to Ukraine

Our goal was to set up an offshore software development center in Ukraine. Over 1 1/2 years I had several trips there (I live in Norway), networking and retrieving information from university tops, politicans, lawyers, software developers and friends.

As the manager I made a plan and budget for how we could launch what we called RightSourcing. It was a combination of local specialists and offshore IT developers, creating the optimal risk profile and value for money.

A real learning experience

Long story short we launched the Ukrainian office, but only with a fraction of the cash needed, because of reluctance from the board and unkept intentions. My venture into daily battle began.

I have never before learned so much in so short time. Prior to that I had never experienced so much agony and pain. But I don’t regret one second of it.

A few months into the venture, God spoke to me, and said that I had to look to other churches for support. I told this to my team. I also began to half heartely look to other churches. However having not enough experience and too much on my hands, I failed to act strongly enough.

The desert experience

A couple of months after that I felt a spiritual door close towards my church and the leaders I worked with there. We later learned that it was at that time that the leader I worked closest with fell in sin.

This is what I call the beginning of my desert experience. It’s difficult to say exactly what that is. However it involves lack of durability in the works you commit, lack of supporting the family and the sense of lack of purpose and direction.

The business involved 10 – 12 people at the most. We had managed to put together people for a new board and a new manager. And everybody agreed upon the necessity for cash. However one year after the launch in Ukraine we were too tired to fight further. It ended in bankruptcy, which ironically enough to me was one of the more easier and pleasurable business experiences I had had that year.

The death of purpose

The business was my work for God and represented my God given vision. Why let God my work for Him die? He have told me later. I will post about this tomorrow.

It is now about 9 1/2 years in preparation for revival and 3 1/2 years in this crazy desert experience. Extreme makeover… Moah, moah, moah. God is good.

Suffering

Friday, December 4th, 2009
I feel the need to write something about the two different origins of suffering. Sometimes it is critical to discern the two.

Even though God allows suffering for His children, He never cast destructive curse on us. Never! Any suffering that originates from Him has a divine purpose, from the outset. And it’s driven by total love for us.

As earthly parents we from time need to set limits for our children. Sometimes we take away goodies or privileges from them, to help them grow up. This is the same with God, as the Heavenly Father.

No punishment

God does not punish us. All punishment was laid upon the shoulders of Jesus, as He step up on that cross. As long as we stay in the grace, there is no punishment.

Negative consequences from our sin is not punishment. When we allow sin power in our lives, there is consequences. It is how things work. The spiritual consequences we kill through repentance and staying in the grace. The souly consequences we kill by living in the Spirit and embracing our Heavenly identity. It brings you peace and inner balance.

Work of the devil

Any suffering that orginates from satan has no divine purpose. And the driving power is hate for us, and anything that belongs to God. This is the origin of any destructive suffering.

However God are able to even turn the works of satan, and put divine purpose into it. It does not mean that the origin of the suffering was God from the outset. It just means that God restored what the devil destroyed.

It must be really frustrating for satan to see that time and time again his hard work to destroy is turned to the good.

Not everything has purpose

Not everything that we experience as children of God has a purpose. The reason is simply that we’re not in Heaven yet, and the work of satan is very much present in the world. However God has always a plan to restore us, heal our wounds, and bring full purpose back to our lives.

We just need to hold on and keep loving our Heavenly Father.