beat the deadline

"After this prayer, the building where they were meeting shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they preached Gods message with boldness."
Acts 4:31

Prayer is talking with God, taking a divine breath that fills our spirit, soul and body.
Prayer is fellowship with our most intimate friend, giving him our inner thoughts and confessions. Honest and real.
Prayer alone or together is powerful and changes our world, provoking God to move in people's heart and situation.
I want to stop limit my expectations when I come before my God and pray.
He loves it.

It's good that someone is constant when I waver and have doubt.

I know, yet I can find myself not daring to believe.

My dreams are big.

My trust in Him sometimes scares me. Then He is quick to touch me.

It's like going to work and doing your thing, wondering if you've got what it takes.

Have you still got it? Everytime I start an illustration or a creative piece of work I ask myself this.

(I guess we all need some confirmations from time to time.)

I did my thing today again. -It worked this time too.

And next week I will even appear as news reader on TV (Christian Network)

He was tired and thirsty.
Maybe this woman could give him some water.
Outrageous for him to degrade himself to even talk to this woman.
But in this need another need was met.
Thirst for respect and recognition.
He was tired and thirsty, she even more so.
There was a well.
An even better well than the one the woman knew about.
She was interested.
Maybe a good thing she didn't understand what she was asking for.
Maybe if she knew she would be too ashamed to ask for it.
But she got more than she bargained for.
She received Life.
Jesus was full of it.
Now she started to be filled up.
She couldn't contain it, like Jesus couldn't contain it.
It had to come out.
It was natural.
No pressure.
Not a means to relieve bad conscience.
Just life overflowing.

When someone is weak and feeble and give in after little pressure, we call them fish puddings in Norway. I don't want to be a spiritual fish pudding (some times i feel like one). Then it is important to go to God's Gym! Ephesians 6 says: Be strong with the Lord's mighty power. Put on God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks from the devil.

I did that today. In prayer I put on the belt of truth, the body armor of God's righteousness, the peace of being prepared to share the gospel as shoes, shield of faith (oh how important that shield is!), salvation as helmet and the sword, which is God's word. And now i know I am a bit stronger.

Tomorrow I will put the armor on again. The dark powers don't stand a chance!

I found myself visiting the house where I grew up. So many memories. Nostalgic. Suddenly I was asked if I wanted to join some people who was coming together to have fellowship with each other and with God. And of course I wanted that. It turned out to be the neighbor house from where I used to live!

On my way over to the house I saw a woman sitting on a chair outside the house. I asked why she sat there, and was told that she loved Jesus and wanted to be close to the place where He would be worshipped, but her husband had cancer and was very weak. She had to watch him all the time in case he needed help. From where she sat, she could see him through the window and he could signal if he needed assistance.

When I went inside I met different kinds of people. Young and old. I said hello to everyone of them. I remember one of the guys. He was from America, and I have actually met him in real life in England. So there he was in this home group in Bergen. I thought that was cool. I remember also I said hello to an older woman. All in all I think there was around ten people meeting up to share life and encourage each other in faith. I felt a strong sence of expectance in the group, a simpleminded trust in God, that He would change them and minister to them.

I woke up in awe and wonder.

This is what my heart longs for. And here I am. A year later. Moved back to this God favoured place, thinking how will it happen. What can I do to fill this place with the precence of God and the vitality of His Spirit?

Some months later in a Sunday service. I saw the old woman in my dream. She was the grandmother to a friend of mine. There she stood on the platform reading a poem that glorified God. I was on my knee and filled with awe. Later I also discovered that this woman has lived in the area where I live now, where my dream took place, for many, many years.

God, have your way in this place!!!!!!

Every weekend I like to listen to the radio in the morning. On P3 there is program called DJ Friendly, which plays electronica. It is a nice and friendly way to start the day. When I turned on the radio today, these words came to me:

When God closes a door,
He opens a window.
When joy embraces your heart,
it conquers the sorrow.

These two lines were repeated several times.
How true and good to be reminded of.

God has always the best for his children, and He don't want us to settle with the second-best. So if that means changes for us, we can rejoice and feel the joy conquers the sorrow.

I feel in mood for quoting U2

Catching your bright blue eyes
In the freeze frame
I've seen them so many times
I feel like I must be your best friend
You're looking fine, so fine, Oh my,
Dressed up like a lovely day

Babyface, babyface
Slow down child, let me untie your lace
Babyface, babyface
Cover girl with natural grace
How could beauty be so kind
To an ordinary guy?

take a look here

I mentioned earlier about a dream I had, where I saw a raisin. You can read about it in "wonder". The other picture or vision i saw was a pan of water placed on a source of heating (I couldn't find the right word in English, can someone help me out)

I remember thinking that the water needs to boil, and I wanted it to boil over, so the the lid would fall off. I felt God spoke to me, saying that the only way to cause the water to boil, is to intensivate the heat. But nothing will happen immediately. It will take time for the water to boil. After a while, we will finally see some bubbles starting to rise. That will be the first visible sign that the heat is on.

Then more bubbles will come. But if the heat is reduced, there will be no more development. The bubbles will continue to come for a while, but the big boiling experience will not come. But if the heat is even further more increased at this point, we will be encouraged with great manifestations. The lid will start to lift, and we hear a great rumble. The bubbles competing with each other to be biggest and be fastest. The water is tossed and turmoiled by the incredible heat. Ah... what a sight! Such power!

I long for God to move i my city and in the area where I live. I have a deep and strong desire to see my friends and family being touched by God in a way that makes them turn to Him. That they will get the taste of Life! Then God is saying it will happen if we pray. Pray with burning desire that makes the water heated.

I feel that we can see the bubbles starting to come, where people turn to Jesus and receive salvation. We can get a glimpse of His glory and a sense of His presence. But they are only small bubbles. We need to intensivate our prayers even more and be comitted in our prayers. We must not give up. I believe that if we pray and pray with endurance, we will eventually see a powerful breakthrough of Gods power, that will cause the lid of darkness to fall off and nothing will be able to contain or controll the presence.

One morning before Christmas I remember waking up early and filled with awe and wonder. I felt excited and totally calm at the same time. It was as if God him self had spoken to me. And maybe that's exactly what had happened? While I was sleeping I had two visions in my dream.

First I saw a raisin. And I immediately thought I didn't want to be a raisin. A raisin has been something else before. It's has been a fresh and delightful grape. But not anymore. All the life and juice is gone and it's dry and, well let's face it, pretty ugly. The raisin has a problem. It has been removed from the source of life. Jesus gives us a picture in John gospel where he describes us christians as brances on a vine. Jesus is the vine or the trunk . The message is clear: Stay in the vine!!! That's where all the life is! That's where you will grow and bear fruit. Jesus even says: "Stay (or abide) in me and in my word, and you will receive what ever you pray for" This brings me over to the next vision I had. But that have to wait. Now I need sleep...

The Bible describes how life is made up of seasons. There is a time for everything. One time for laughing, and one time for crying and weeping. I have had times of weeping before, where that was the only right thing to do. And weeping is good. Laughing is also very good. Everything in right time...

Lately has been a time of laughing. I am not talking about sitcom "ha-ha"-laughing, but falling off the chair and feel pain in belly and cheek-laughing! I have heard legendary stories, seen legendary clips and experienced legendary moments. Most of them have made me want to lie on the floor and twist in belly pain. (maybe not good english here, but that's how I can best describe it.)

I don't find it fitting to tell them here, because sometimes it is only that funny in the right setting. But if you are very curious, I am more than willing to share some of them with you. Just let me know.

But I can share this with you now. Here is one of the clips that made me laugh: acrobatic cats

Amazing God, who makes us able to laugh:D Thank you!!!