Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

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.

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.

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!

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: 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.

Breaking news! God can be proved

Sunday, November 29th, 2009
It’s impossible to prove God’s existence, some say. I believe that’s not completely true.

I do agree that there probably does not exist a single piece of evidence that on an universal level can undeniable prove God’s existence on a world wide level. However I believe that on a personal level the undeniable proof is in the pattern.

At least that’s how it is in my life.

I can’t get past the huge amount of evidence. Each piece does perhaps not contain enough conclusive data. However the pattern of the evidence put together is so overwhelming.

It’s so overwhelming that even if I should wish to not believe, I can’t. It would be to deny so much of myself, that I don’t think it’s possible.

Court in session

The legal system in our society is built on the same principle. Judgement seldom come based on a single piece of evidence. It’s the pattern of evidence, put together, that tells the story, past shadow of reasonable doubt.

This pattern is enough to have people thrown in jail for the rest of their lives, or even killed, some places.

If this legal principle is strong enough to have people killed, why shouldn’t it be enough to produce life?
Because in my life the pattern of evidence is there. However the conclusion is faith and the verdict is eternal life, not death.

Pieces of evidence

I have thousands pieces of evidence in my life. And as I look for the light, the more evidence keeps pop-in up. E.g. right now I can feel the presence of God in my room.

However I might be emotionally screwed up, right? Well, all around me I can talk about different experiences, supernatural encounters, miracles, healing and circumstances that point to my God, experienced by myself or people I know. It’s a massive pattern of evidence of not an existing God, but a God who loves me. Here are one of the pieces and here’s another.

I bet He loves you too. Try to meet His out stretched hand and you’ll get your own pattern.

Darkness gives hope for light

Thursday, November 26th, 2009
When darkness seems all around I see hope for redemption and light.

Jesus won victory over the darkness. It means that towards God’s children it has little power. So when darkness sneaks up upon me, I know my redeemer stands ready.

Ready to let the light shine. Ready for victory.

It is in the darkest hour breakthrough comes.

The awakening of a nation

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Is revival revival, or is the revival in Norway different?

You can look at revival as spiritual awakening among individuals. If there is many enough individuals involved, you got yourself a revival. However there is a big difference between an outpouring of the spirit and awakening a whole nation.

In Norway we’re talking about transformation of the nation. It is when the awakening is not only working on an individual level, or are limited to the church. We’re talking major change in institutions of the society.

Such deep change demands more than awakening of a few souls. We’re talking change in politics, business, media, education etc.

Many are called in Norway

I know many people are called in Norway. Not just to be awaken, but also to be spearheads of change into different areas of society. God is preparing an army of leaders. If you’re connected you’ll see it everywhere in the body of Christ here.

Something big is happening underneath the surface.

Hans Nielsen Hauge

Hans Nielsen Hauge was perhaps the most significant Christian figure in Norwegian history. He was building the body of Christ through building industry, rather than cathedrals. His impact on society was incredible. He lived 200 years ago and left a real legacy for revivalists in Norway.

Hauge is also a major focus in the prophecies of Bob Hartley and Bob Fraser.

Personally I knew that business was very important in the Norwegian revival, long before I had heard about both Hauge and the Bobs. The Lord spoke this to me early in my calling, maybe in 2001 or so.

So when suddenly everybody is talking about Hauge and Christian business models, I understand that it’s legit and God driven.

Support our nation

Please support our nation, and the other Scandinavian countries, through prayer. The Norwegian revival is in labor. Also ask the Lord if there is something he wants you to do in order to release the revival. Not just for our nation, but also the many other nations that will be touched through this end time move of God.

Bless you!