I was blessed by this phrase from Psalm 104:17 this morning: The trees of the Lord are well cared for, they are watered abundantly! What a wonderful position to be in! I am a tree of the Lord. I have been planted by God himself to be in his presence. I am well cared for. I am watered abundantly. I have everything I need. I shall want nothing! What a blessing to belong to the Lord!

Along with my daily reading of the Scripture I have been reading a kind of devotional book consisting of daily readings from the Church Fathers. Today I came a cross a wise saying that found resonans in my heart. Cyprian said: "God does not listen to our voice, but to our heart." Men look at the external, but God looks to the heart, is another way of saying the same thing.

It gives me great joy and security to know that God sees me and knows me, even better than I know myself. He knows the inner longings of my heart and he is not confused by the words I use or the sound of my voice. When I delight in him, he will give me what my heart desires!

I want to be like a green olive tree in the garden of God. As a righteous man I will flourish like a palm tree, and I will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. I know I am planted in the house of God and I will flourish in the courts of our Lord. Even when I am getting old I will still yield fruit, and I will be full of vitality and fruitfulness as I declare that the Lord is upright; he works all things after his purpose and will. He listens to my heart! He is a faithful God. He will build his house as he is branching out from where is he dwelling!

As we have been together as a prophetic company to seek the Lord and minister to one another we have had a wonderful time. During an incident the Lord spoke to me about bringing a premature word.

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There is a discussion going on among Christian bloggers on the emerging church. Andrew Jones i s leading on in the interesting discussion.
To me it has also become an opportunity to look back and look forward as well as evaluating the present situation among the growing churches I am related to.
We started building new churches in the early eighties facing great opposition from the traditional denominational churches. Today many of the values we introduced are common property among a large segment of the Churches in Norway. What we, among others pioneered, is now accepted at large. During these years a great change has taken place in our nation.
But today we are facing new challenges. We who pioneered twenty years ago are now in danger of becoming settled and being part of the religious establishment. God forbid! Have mercy on us, Lord!
The apostolic mission and the prophetic ministry are to bring the people of God towards maturity, to present them to God the way he wants his people – holy. The people of God are on a pilgrimage. We have left the present world system for something better: the Kingdom of God. As the kingdom people, as a covenant community, we are constantly forgetting what is behind, and pursuing what God is calling us into! The people of God is constantly emerging as his body, – his hands and his mouth in the present culture, to express his life and bring redemption to the society.

Last night I participated in a gathering for all the group leaders in our local church here in Bergen. I had been asked to share with them my prophetic burden to help them in their walk with the Lord and equip them for the work of service. I gladly accepted that invitation as it is good to be able to share my heart with these group leaders who are having such a vital function for the health of the covenant community.
The Lord has been speaking to me for a long time on releasing the life of God among the believers for the church to be place of growth and development. Under the rule of Christ, the Branch, there will be a release of life that will branch out. The covenant community is a place of creative initiatives and manifold expressions of grace. It is the place of personal growth and maturing of character.
Jesus Christ is a life-giver. He is making people whole and complete. He is giving people a new start and a new life. He is creating a dynamic community releasing life, gifts and great potential in the people.
It is our duty to help people out of the shadow of passivity into the creative life in the light of God. It is our task to help people to function according to their talents and calling in God by helping them to put the past behind them living by faith in the now. We are to help people to get rid of all their mental limitations by putting away all human and religious measuring standards. The covenant community is meant to be dynamic growing transcending borders and jumping our walls. Our God is the Unsearchable One who can do anything, – far more than we could ever imagine or guess or request in our wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

I have been stirred in my spirit and challenged to take new action as I have been meditating on the sayings of Jesus in John 12: “The truth is, a kernel of wheat must be planted in the soil. Unless it dies it will be alone—a single seed. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who despise their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. All those who want to be my disciples must come and follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And if they follow me, the Father will honor them.”
This is something to be put into practice on every level, personally and corporately, if we are to see the life of Christ not only impact our generation but being imparted to millions of people. The churches must be willing to be planted in the soil of their cultures for the outer shells to be broken down to release the new emergent life of the kernels to produce a plentiful harvest of new lives in the ever changing cultures of the world.
The natural tendency is to cling on to our own form of life, but Christ is challenging us to apply the cross in our lives that we may be life-givers to people around us!

As I have been reading in the prophet Ezekiel many things have come alive to me. Recently I was stirred by a phrase in Ezekiel 17:23. The Lord is saying that he will take a tender shoot and plant it in a significant place. The tender shoot will become a noble cedar, sending forth its branches and producing seed and providing shelter. The Lord is in the business of cutting down the tall trees and helping the short trees to grow tall. He makes the green trees wither and gives new life to the dead trees. He is punishing the proud, bringing them down to dust. But he is showing grace to the humble, exalting them to a place of prominence.
The church has been planted by God like strong and graceful cedars for his own glory. In producing seeds that will bring forth plants of its own kind, the covenant community will bring glory to God. Our mission is to proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom to plant churches that will plant churches. Only when we reproduce and multiply we will be able to see the earth filled with knowledge of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Today I have spent five hours with the students at Bergen Bibelskole looking at the book of Isaiah. It was like Isaiah came alive to us in a real way. He was present with us in the classroom and his words hit us in power! His words presented us with the reality of God and insisted that we dealt with God as he reveals himself, not as we imagine him to be! He woke us up to the sovereign presence of God in our lives.
When we spend time with the prophets of God, among whom Isaiah is the supreme one, we are being changed by their vivid portraits of the Eternal One and their captivating visions of his kingdom. I was stirred in my spirit today as we looked at the prophetic ministry of Isaiah.
The visions of Isaiah and the images he uses to portrait the Unsearchable One are indeed relevant to postmodern people!

Today I have spent five hours with the students at Bergen Bibelskole looking at the book of Isaiah. It was like Isaiah came alive to us in a real way. He was present with us in the classroom and his words hit us in power! His words presented us with the reality of God and insisted that we dealt with God as he reveals himself, not as we imagine him to be! He woke us up to the sovereign presence of God in our lives.
When we spend time with the prophets of God, among whom Isaiah is the supreme one, we are being changed by their vivid portraits of the Eternal One and their captivating visions of his kingdom. I was stirred in my spirit today as we looked at the prophetic ministry of Isaiah.
The visions of Isaiah and the images he uses to portrait the Unsearchable One are indeed relevant to postmodern people!