The charge ‘Go for it!’ can be heard in many contexts. You can hear it in a ‘timeout’ on a sports-arena when a couch is encouraging the team to do the little extra to win a match. It is used on boards when decisions are made, and a ‘Go!’ is always fitting for the body of Christ in general[…]
There is no doubt that the greatest gift is The holy spirit and his burning love(1), but leading up to his teaching about love as the most excellent way, Paul wrote: Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.1 Cor 12:31 What does he refer to? First of all, I must admit that I think it is[…]
Words by Colonel Jostein Nielsen. To all my friends in the Western world, I say: “Happy Easter!” and “Christ is risen!” In Eastern Europe we celebrate Easter in accordance with the Orthodox calendar – and this it means that we will be celebrating the Palm Sunday today. Well – in Russian we actually call it “Willow-Sunday!”. In[…]
Words by Colonel Jostein Nielsen. Part of the unwrapping of the gift of the Spirit, is to confirm that you have done it. This is in line with the Biblical principle of believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth (1). However, it is very important that we confirm each other as well. When I[…]
Mark 16:1-4 1When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will[…]
Words by Colonel Jostein Nielsen. When I was baptized in the Spirit at the age of 16, I wanted to share this blessing with as many as possible. Therefore, I said to the Lord:“If you want me to tell the Army about this, you need to give me an opportunity to do so at the[…]
Words by Colonel Jostein Nielsen. I have met many Christians who say: “I am ready for whatever God will give me”. This is a good attitude, however, it is also a passive attitude. Particularly because the Bible is pretty clear on what the will of God is, and what God has already given. When I[…]
Words by Colonel Jostein Nielsen. When I am teaching on the subject of spiritual gifts, I have on rare occasion used questionnaires which are created to help people to find their gifting. The reason why it has become rare, is that I think that their usefulness is limited. The questionnaires are good because they demystify[…]
Words by Colonel Jostein Nielsen. The fourth important factor influencing movement (1), is the spiritual gifts. We can read about how the disciples used such gifts, and Paul teaches about the gifts of the Spirit in several of his letters. When he wrote to the Corinthians, he expressed how he thanked God for them because of the[…]
Words by Colonel Jostein Nielsen. In his beautiful song “All that I am”, Bill Himes prays: “Take every passion, every skill, take all my dreams and bend them to your will” (1). In this sentence he touches three of the four important factors influencing my movements as a disciple of Jesus: Passion, Skills (or Talents) and ‘Dreams and[…]
Words by Colonel Jostein Nielsen. When I last week wrote aboutpassion, I introduced the first of four factors of importance for my mission as a follower of Christ: 1) Passion2) Personality 3) Talents4) Spiritual gifts They are all part of my identity as a disciple. Today I want to share a few thoughts about personality. When[…]
Words by Kevin John Larsson. As I was preparing for this series I was interested to discover that the 40 days of Lent does not include Sundays, so we will follow that calendar and not post a devotional thought today. Of course, we will continue the series on Monday featuring more of our beautiful songs[…]