Archive for the ‘Inspirational’ Category

Is it ok for poor to shoplift?

Friday, December 25th, 2009
A priest said during a preach that it’s ok for poor people to shoplift as the less of greater evils. It has attracted a lot of attention.

I would salute the priest for his understanding and compassionate heart. As Christians we’re called to stand on the side of poor people. And that desperate situations can drive people to do things they normally would not do, we all can understand.

However I do not agree with the priest’s message. I believe God both understands and, if repented, are quick to forgive shoplifting. But it is still wrong.

I might be naive. However I believe in the life of the Spirit and integrity. I believe that if we chose to live in the Spirit and live by integrity, God will always provide a way for us to stand tall. It will not be easy. We will face many difficult choices. But there will always be a way of righteousness and integrity.

Moreover Jesus gave clear promises to those that chose to give all for the Kingdom of God. He promised that God will provide for those that seek Him first. Those that set their sole Hope to the King, will not perish.

The priest did good by showing compassion. And we should also not be quick to judge people that in their desperate situations find it necessary to shoplift. However as priests we should always point to the Hope of Jesus and His promises to us.

I know He provides, because I experience it every day.

Article: Priest in Britain Advises Congregation to Shoplift (Fox news)

How God’s love exploded in me

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
God’s love. The thing that started everything and is His passion and drive our very being.

This love is so huge can’t be expressed in words. And it changes everything. This is how I came to experience and realise just that that.

My testimony of God’s love

As I courted my wife I was out buying her a present. I still remember how I took the escalator to the second floor in the most famous shopping center in Oslo, Oslo City. As I stepped off suddenly everything around me changed.

It was like my very being was transformed into this tunnel vision. A single point of focus for my whole existence. Every cell in my body aligned with this focus.

Right then and there nothing in the whole world mattered other than the well being of my future wife. That was my single purpose and focus. And this love I felt was intense.

It was God’s love

It lasted for about a minute. I could not have handled this state much longer. I was amazed of this love. It was a supernatural love, far beyond what people normally can experience.

Then I understood that this was God demonstrating a small fraction of His Love for me. And believe you me, it’s immense, huge, amazing and beyond comprehension.

Amazing miracles on the street in Denmark (video)

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Our Danish brothers are taking seriously the commandment of going out, preaching the gospel and healing the sick.

Watch this amazing video (English subtext):

How can we know that it’s real?

Monday, December 21st, 2009
Yesterday I briefly contributed to a thread regarding what criteria we apply to believe in the Bible.

The question was posted by an atheist, probably looking to creating some controversy. I tend not to engage too much in these kinds of discussions, because I don’t think the way to modern people’s heart go through their intellect, but rather through their experience.

And it also leads back to why I believe in the whole Bible being the word of God. Frankly I don’t believe in God because of the Bible. Even both my parents were Christians and I’ve grown up in a Christian influenced society, I’m pretty focused on things that I myself can relate and verify in my own life.

So reading about the great deeds Jesus did, and the people both before and after Him, does not ignite my faith by it self.

The experience of a loving God

My faith comes from the love of God reaching out for me, and touching me, directly in my life. My faith comes from my experience of Him. And then, as I see He reveal more and more of Himself to me, through the Bible, it has proven its credibility to me.

Because I first experienced His love, I believe in both Him and His Word.

And I just can’t get past this love. I can’t forget it and leave it behind. This love has marked me. It makes my faith soar and rise to levels I never believed it could reach. It makes my heart so steady and rested in knowledge of what I do not see.

So my simple contribution to the discussion was that a real encounter with this loving God would blow away any intellectual criteria people might have for not believing the Bible.

Lukewarm and loving it!

Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Francis Chan was a self centered pastor for a self centered mega church in Simi Valley, CA. But all that changed.

One evening in 2006 Francis Chan reached a turning point. After a trip to Africa he realised that his church was heading in the wrong direction. From being a self centered congregation, that did not preach the provoking parts of being a true Jesus follower, he wanted to change things.

Francis was afraid that his people was not up for the challenge of change. But he was wrong. His church started to grew even more. And from earlier spending 4% of the church budget on mission in 2006, they increased to 55% in 2008.

Because of the increase of attendance they needed a bigger church. However they didn’t go the standard megachurch route of build a xx million dollar building. Instead they built an outdoor arena, that could be used by the local community during the week.

Here is the preach Francis Chan spoke after several months off to seek God for the purpose of his church.

You can follow Cornerstone Church on Twitter as @CornerstoneSimi, and visit their homepage here.

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.

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.

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.