Travel: Hämeenlinna

The Connect Finland gathering finished yesterday. I was encouraged in my walk with Jesus to have Him as The King, listening to Him and obeying Him in EVERYTHING. I also think that this is a time where God will shake the structures and the works of men, so that He can have His way. I am currently visiting a house of prayer in Hämeenlinna. Today Jesus spoke to me about how much He loves me. He is all the time just longing to show His love for me. He asks Himself: “How can I show Jan Inge how much I love Him, how can I make Him understand?”. He always looks for opportunities to really make me know His great love.

When Jesus reveals Himself

After Jesus had risen from the the dead and revealed himself to His disciples, they had problems recognising Him at first. How come? They had known Him for years. They knew what He looked like. In Mark 16:12 it says that He revealed Himself for them in another form. It seems like everytime Jesus revealed himself after His resurrection, He revealed Himself in another form. Why did He do this? I think He did it because He wanted His disciples to know Him not by physical appearance, but by WHO HE REALLY IS. In John 21 we can read the story about when the disciples had been fishing all night without getting anything. Jesus shows Himself in the morning about 90 meters from them, but they didn’t recognise Him. He tells them to throw the net on the other side and they get a lot of fish. In other words: He tells them to do something and something great happens when they obey. Sounds familiar? At least this rang the bell with one of the disciples and He figured out that this was Jesus.



References (The Bible I use: Authorized King James Version):

Mark 16:12 Jesus appears in another form for two of the disciples

John 20:14-16 Jesus reveals Himself for Maria Magdalena, who doesn’t recognise Him at first

John 20:19-20 Jesus suddenly appears inside a room, where the disciples are gathered. The disciples realise it is Jesus AFTER He has shown them his hands and his side.

John 21:1-12 The disciples were 200 cubits (about 90 meters) from land, when Jesus appeared on the shore. That is not far in terms of recognising someone you know very well. It was in the morning, so lighting shouldn’t be a problem. He even spoke to them, without them recognising Him. You could say that they really didn’t expect so see Him since He was dead, but this was the third time He appeared to them after He was raised from the dead. In verse 12, after all the disciples had come ashore, we see that none of the disciples durst ask him “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. But why would this question be an issue at all? I think that if Jesus had appeared in the physical shape they were used to, they wouldn’t even think about asking: “Who are you?”

Connect Finland

We are now on our second day of the Connect Finland gathering. Themes for this gathering are “Jesus as The King” and that God is shifting us. He wants us to go from having religion to having fellowship with Christ. This thing about a shift is something I received before my trip to Finland and it’s something I feel very strong in my spirit. It is a time of change. God is doing something new. When God wants to do something new, He have to rock our traditional ways of thinking. We have to renew our minds so that they aren’t bound up by traditional ways of thinking and are able to receive the new things that God really want to show us. New wine in new wineskins!

Prayer for The Jews

One of the days here, someone shared from Zechariah 8.23. We wanted to pray for the jews. One of the girls here has a grandfather that is jewish, so we held her as a representant of the jews. We all had our hands on her and prayed. After a while I started crying. At first I didn’t know why, but I cried even more. After I kind of stopped crying, I realized that this was all about reconciliation. During the Second World War, Norway gave up jews to the germans. They were norwegians and we should have defended them or sent them to safety. Instead we gave them up to a certain death. I looked at her and started to apologize as a norwegian to the jews for what we did during the Second World War. In the middle of my apology, I started to cry again. She said that she forgive the norwegians for what we did.

Connect Finland Coming Up

Today we used quite some time worshipping and declaring Jesus as a king. We could clearly feel that we stand in the gap for the Connect Finland gathering that is to be held this weekend. I’m really looking forward to this, and I hope to get some inspiration to bring with me back to Norway.

Praying with Prayer Zone

It’s now my third day in Finland. I’m currently spending time with Prayer Zone. They have a week of prayer and teaching. We have had teachings on “The Tabernacle of David”. It was really lovely to meet some of my finnish friends again and God has also touched me personally through the prayer meetings here. God has led the meetings and been strongly present with His Spirit. Yesterday we felt that God led us to have a time of dedication. I personally felt that it was really good to declare before God once again that I want to live fully dedicated to Him and live by His Word, not my own feelings or thoughts. In Prayer Zone they train everyone in leadership. Every meeting they change who is the prayer leader (bowl) and who is the worship leader (harp). They have also divided the teaching material amongst them, so that everyone gets trained in teaching. I have also learned more about spiritual mapping.

Travel: Finland

In less than an hour I'm leaving for Finland. I will travel by bus and boat, so the journey will take me more than 24 hours. Next weekend I will attend a Connect Finland gathering. From Monday to Friday I will join in with Prayer Zone in praying for this event. Please join in with me in prayer for Finland. Pray for His kingdom to come and His will be done this special weekend.

Balloons on Karl Johan

Yesterday I made balloon-figures on Karl Johan (main street of Oslo). I met a balloon artist from South Africa who told me that he uses to fasten a rope to his pump and let it hang down on the side. That gives easy access to the pump at all times, you prevent it from falling down on the ground and break, and you save time not having to put it in your pocket when you’re not using it. It’s sounds like a good idea, so I think that I’ll try it.

I also met a Christian balloon artist from Brazil. He plans to start up a Christian clown network in his homeland. I will stay in touch with him and see how this develops.

In the evening I went to a Christian meeting where different churches in Oslo gathered. We spent quite some time in worship. I felt some of the love that Jesus has for me. He longs so much for me, even more than I long for Him. He loves to be in my presence. He loves to have fellowship with me. It’s so amazing to have The Almighty as a personal best friend.

Balloon Apron

I also received an apron yesterday. It’s a thing I have around my waist and store my balloons in for easy access when I work. I used several hours filling it, as I have to align all the balloons. The apron holds 1500 of the most typical size balloons (260Q). I was really glad when I received it, as I have wished for one of those since last summer. I ordered one then, but never received it. The company didn’t answer to my mail when I asked for it either. I tried again a few months ago. When I was told that it was sent to me, I had some doubts, so I was really glad when it finally arrived.

It’s lovely weather outside, and I am now ready to go make some faces shine with the sun.

Jesus Church: Café

Jesus Church is currently establishing a café in a very central place in Oslo. Yesterday I painted some walls there. The café will open in not so long.

Oppsal: Youth Group

Yesterday I was on Oppsal. We have a youth group there every second thursday. Afterwards I talked with Karl Anders about the possibility of establishing a home page aimed towards kids as young as 12 or 13 years old.

Travel: Ålesund

Yesterday I came back from a week in Ålesund, the city I was born in. I went there to go to a confirmation gathering for the oldest of my six nephews. It was a very encouraging trip. Some family members have experienced a lot of good things lately. My oldest sister and her boyfriend plan to marry 13. August. One family member has regained her faith. I hope that she also starts to read some in the Bible and finds a christian fellowship. It was also really fun to play with the children (nephews) and to go for walks in the mountains.
I met with a friend that I haven’t seen in a long time. The presence of God came really strong when we prayed together. I have prayed for more friends to pray with, so it was fun to see that there are old wells that just need to be dug up (refreshing old friendships).

Addicted to The Word

Lately God has shown me, to an even greater degree, the importance of His Word, as found in the Bible. The last two weeks I have been listening to a spoken version of the New King James Bible New Testament, day and night. All the time I am by myself, I listen to it. It’s on when I go to bed, it’s on when I stand up in the morning. It’s on my Ipod when I go somewhere. I’m totally addicted to the word, feeling how I get built up in my Spirit all the time, listening to these divine words.

Some philosophers have said that if they only had a solid point, they would be able to move the whole world. I see upon the Bible as a solid point in a moving world. I have had so many spiritual experiences. How can I know if God spoke through these or if it was only the Devil trying to confuse me? It’s only through The Word, The Bible. During the time I have been a Christian I have learned to know a lot of people. Some have been Christians, some New Age people, some from other religions. Many people have strong opinions about how things are, or ought to be. Even among Christians I encounter people having very different opinions and some times they all claim to have some kind of revelation that their theology is “the truth”. What I find very interesting when opinions differ, is to see what people base their opinions on. I have found that among Christians many build up some sort of theology based upon a mix of a few chosen bible verses, their own feelings and what this person defines as “logic”. It is also very popular to totally isolate some bible verse from its context. One example on strange theology: In the later months I have spoken with quite a few Christians speaking loudly and widely about some sort of big revelation that “there is no sin, everything is allowed”. Make a quick search on the word “sin” in your computer Bible and tell me there is no sin. If there is no sin, we don’t need God’s grace either.

One time I was visiting a woman, which I soon found out was a part of the New Age movement. She said that she was a Christian. She also said that she was a world servant, meaning that she prayed for the whole world. He spoke about some really big revelations she had, where she had been taken up into heaven and shown a lot of things. The only problem was that all the great things she had been shown and told didn’t match with the Bible. That was the only thing making me able to discern in this particular situation. I kind of sensed a “different spirit” over this woman, but I couldn’t tell if it was bad or good from what I was feeling in my spirit. As a matter of a fact, I felt a kind of peace in her home, which for me was hard to separate from the peace of God. Demons often try to imitate Gods qualities to try to fool people. At one time, there came a spirit into my room. It felt like a wave of love coming into the room, followed by something that actually reminded me of Gods presence. I could easily have been led to believe that this was one of Gods angels coming into my room. The only problem was that this spirit spoke contrary to Gods word, so I commanded it to leave in the name of Jesus, and it left. Many Christians believe that God is speaking for sure if they feel some kind of anointing, a chill, goose bumps or just have a great feeling about something. It is easy to forget that the Devil can turn himself into an angel of light if He wishes to do so. The Devil is an expert in camouflage and imitation. So HOW CAN WE KNOW IF IT IS GOD SPEAKING OR NOT? There is ONLY ONE WAY. We have to check if it MATCHES WITH THE BIBLE.

Unfortunately many Christians today disrespect the Bible and then also Jesus, who calls himself the Word (John 1). Many Christians turn the whole thing the other way around. They have some kind of opinion they have picked up somewhere, and they try to make the Bible match their opinion. In their attempt to do this, they often build theologies on a very shallow basis. Example: There are some people that start up with basing their world-view on what they call science. They are absolute convinced that humans have evolved from apes. They then find out that they want to believe in the Bible also, and tries really hard to make the Bible support this opinion. In their attempt to do so they make strange doctrines that sometimes spread like “common truth” in Christian churches. Today it is widely preached in Norway that: “The Bible is not supposed to teach us about science”. According to these people the only intention with the Bible story about the creation, is to show us that God created everything. All the details in the story is, according to this people, just the words of men – not of God. In other words: The Bible story is a fairy tale with some elements of truth in it, and it is up to us to decide what is fairy tale and what is truth. If we start to believe that the Bible is partly fairy tale and partly truth, we can actually preach whatever we want to and claim that the Bible verses supporting our theology is the truth and that the Bible verses which are contrary to our theology is fairy tales. I truly believe that it is important to start out with building our world-view on The Bible.

There is only one way in which you can avoid being flushed away by all kinds of opinions and doctrines. There is only one way you can separate what is the true Christian doctrine and what is some demonic attempt to mislead you. You have to build your life upon the rock. You have to stay close to Jesus and totally surrender to His Words as given in His Holy Book, The Bible. Amen.