A life of responsive obedience

A life of responsive obedience
As I was reading in my Message Bible this morning again, God spoke to me through some words in the book of the prophet Zechariah. This prophet of God shared with the prophet Haggai the task of getting the people of God to rebuild the ruined temple of God. Their prophetic ministry brought the people out of their self-preoccupation and got them working together as a people of God to fulfil and work out His purpose in the world!
Through eight visions God provided the people with images of their magnificent identity as God�s people and gave credibility to the long-term purposes of God being worked out in their life. The fresh images of a sovereign God stirred the people, motivated them and released energy within them to do the work of God in their generation.
The message of God was simply this: Be alert! There is a man among you whose name is Branch. He will branch out from among you and build the temple of God. When he has branched out and built the temple of God he will assume the role of royalty. He will take his place on the throne and rule � a priest sitting on the throne! � showing that king and priest can coexist in harmony. Then people from faraway places will come to join in working out the worldwide purposes of God in the earth!
All this follows as the people of God put their minds to a life of responsive obedience to the voice of God!
This is the crux of the matter! Only a life of responsive obedience to the voice of God will make us partakers of the promises of God and enable us to become instruments of God in the realisation of His plan and purpose!
Therefore the word of the Lord came to me again this morning: Be alert! God wants His covenant community to be the cooperative Branch. The constant branching out to establish new covenant communities is the sign of His presence among His people. Those who branch out will gain respect and assume the role of corporate leadership as they mirror the creative and redemptive community of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit! Togetherness is a key word in the move of the Spirit in these days of branching out! Together we need to put our minds to a life of responsive obedience to the voice of our God. Then we will together see the purpose of God be accomplished in the world in our generation!

The time of your life

The time of your life
Solveig and I have just returned home for Cardiff in Wales where we have attended The Time of Your Life conference for the weekend. We had a very good time in Cardiff and enjoyed the hospitality of Hazel and Bryan Shutt.
The meetings were held in All Nations Centre which were packed for the occasion. The ministry of the word was good and edifying and the worship time was refreshing. During the days we were together there was a clear sense of the presence of God.

Discussion on marriage, divorce and remarriage
From Monday to Tuesday evening we have been together in the pastoral network of Bergen to look at the Scripture to find common understanding of the teaching on marriage, divorce and remarriage.
Stig Magne Heitman and myself had been designated the responsibility of preparing a paper to present our understanding for the group of pastors. Both of us were well prepared and was able to give reason for our belief. We had a very provoking and interesting time together as we look at the many problems we are facing in today's society and how to help people to live according to the standard of God.
As usually when we are together there is a genuine trust and respect for each other which enables us to relax and have fun in the midst of serious theological discussion! I don't think there are many forums like this one ,where people from so many different churches can meet together for deep conversations on difficult subjects with such high theological quality.

The rain is pouring down

The rain is pouring down
The summer is definitely over for us this year. Now the rain is pouring down. The heaven lavish the wet element from above on us!
To me it is a sign of what is going to take place in the invisible realm. Our nation has become a desert of materialism and consumerism. People have gone dry and unfruitful. There is a growing hunger for spiritual realities in this society starved on God-realities! Even the more charismatic churches seem to have gone dry in the routine of predictable worship services. The interruptions and surprises of the Spirit seem to be missing.
The heavy rain is a reminder to me of the promises of God to pour out the Spirit on dry ground. It is an encouraging demonstration of the all pervading manifest presence of the Spirit to be expected in the days to come.
As we humble ourselves and pray heartfelt prayers God will have mercy on us and come in a powerful way to our nation so the desert may blossom and our people will produce the fruit of repentance and salvation!

Praying pastors

Praying pastors
This morning I met with the pastors of Bergen for prayer again after our summer vacation. It is a wonderful privilege to meet with these praying pastors. I enjoy praying with them or just listening to their heartfelt prayers uttering my amens! Pastors who prays together stay together!

New batch of students

New batch of students
Today I met a new batch of students at Bergen Bible School. They seemed to be a very good batch, some more mature than others and some more colourful than others, but together they will have a good time the next ten months.

A bucket full of plums
Yesterday I harvested my plum-tree for the first time ever! I was a very pleasant experience to pick the plums from my own plum-tree. I filled my bucket (10 liters) with delicious Opal-plums. What a wonderful blessing! Next year I expect even more! My wife has already made some wonderful jam of plums. That jam brought the taste of grace and love mixed with faithfulness and made the plums even more delicious! What a blessing to be married with the best wife in the world!

A surprising letter
I have just received a very surprising letter from an unknown fellow from USA. I have no idea how in the world he could get my address. He seemed to be a new believer with his grandparents coming from Norway. Now he was studying norsk (Norwegian) and preparing for ministry! I wonder what the Lord will do through this contact? I wonder what the Lord will do for this young man, and I wonder what he will do through this Norwegian descendant in USA in days ahead?

God doesn't lose his temper

God doesn't lose his temper
I have been reading the prophet Nahum today. What a powerful presentation he gives us of the Almighty!
When Nahum delivered his prophetic words to the people of Israel, Assyria with its capital Nineveh, appeared to be invincible. A world free of Assyrian domination was unimaginable. The prophetic task of Nahum was to make it imaginable, - to free the people of God from Assyrian paralysis. Free them from unbelief to believe in and pray to a sovereign God. Through his preaching, his Spirit-born metaphor's, his God-shaped syntax, he knocked Assyria off her high horse, and enabled the people of God to understand what was really going on!
God is in serious business. He won't be trifled with. He avenges his foes. He stands up against his enemies, fierce and raging.
But God doesn't lose his temper! He's powerful, but it's a patient power!

Prophetic gathering

Prophetic gathering
This morning I met with some of my fellow prophets just to talk together and spend time together to strengthen our friendship. We had a very good time with open and honest sharing with one another on how to help each other in our ministry for the Lord and his people. We evaluated some joint gatherings and our contributions in those. Very helpful feedback, very sharp and to the point. We have made a plan for meeting regularly to seek God together and to search the Scripture to learn more about the ministry of the prophets together.
We want to work closer together to be able to be of greater help to the work of God and the apostles with whom we are working. Changes are on the way, how do we handle them or even cause them to happen? Which are the new steps to take in the work of God? Which are the new places to do pioneering work? How can we help in equipping and releasing new ministries? The challenges are multiple! And the grace of God is sufficient!
God is so good! It is exciting to serve him in this time of ours!

Two pleasant surprises

Two pleasant surprises
Today I have had two pleasant surprises. I have been working on a paper on marriage, divorce and remarriage for the Bergen Pastoral Network for a few days. As I was working at Gullbotn this morning the apostle and dear friend Noralv Askeland came to my office accompanied by Tone Midgaard, his wife to be, to give me a warm cup of tea! What a pleasant surprise! After a short but good talk I was left to my work as I was enjoying my tea! It was a real blessing! It made my writing go easier!
Then I had a very warm and nice email from another apostle and dear friend, Keri Jones. I had just sent him some information concerning some "business matters" a few days ago and didn't expect a reply at all! Then he sent me this personal email that warmed my heart! What a pleasant surprise! What a blessing!
Apostles are very kind and caring people! Therefore they often bring pleasant surprises! I thank God for giving us apostles like Keri Jones and Noralv Askeland. Their surprising kindness has brought encouragement and strength to many people. May God reward them abundantly!

Vacation is over

Vacation is definitely over
Today my vacation time is definitely over! This summer Solveig and I have been able to have a real vacation! First we spent two weeks in Spain and now we have had two weeks at home. I have really enjoyed my vacation this summer. The two last weeks I have been able to do a lot of bodily work in my garden and it has been like medicine for me! God is so good!
This first day at work I have spent in making some arrangement for event to come and to read through two manuscripts in the School of the Word series and submit my comments to the editorial board. I have also been working on a paper on marriage, divorce and remarriage to be presented to the pastoral network in Bergen very soon.
This evening we are going to see some people and we look forward to having a good time with them!

Visiting the Norwegian Book-town

Visiting the Norwegian Book-town
The last few days Solveig and I have been on a nice trip to the Norwegian Book-town located in Fj�rland in beautiful Fjordlands in the western part of Norway! The journey is in itself a wonderful experience as the scenery is breath taking and overwhelmingly beautiful!
In this small village we found 12 book shops with a great variation of all kinds of books. It was a good experience to spend time searching for some treasures and to find them! I spent more money than I had planned but I have always looked at buying books as a wise investment so I don't regret anything!

A tragedy

A tragedy
For about two months now I have been working hard on my spare time to build our new community site. I made a lot of material available and was well on my way to have a very functional community site. We had already many visitor and a growing number of members of our community.
A tragedy has happen. Everything is lost due to an accident at the provider's server. All the work seems to be in vain. The people how seized the opportunity to download some of the resources are happy!
However I will not give up! I plan to start all over again but I am not sure I will use the same program or the same service provider!