On the web, a new terminology in many peoples mind. The world is progressing in so many ways. But how is the spiritual mind and life progressing among the people of this world. I don’t want to offend anyone, especially my family, my friends, both natural and spiritually. They should know my lives aim and goal. The ones, who only know my natural life, will perhaps never understand the spiritual part that started to rule my life some years ago. Is there a spiritual life; is there a God at all? Those words and thoughts were not among them that I started with, as a little boy, in a city of Norway. Later, after I became a Christian, I was told by an older woman in the City, (she was visiting my mother in our home) I was outside playing, and the lady said to my mother; “this your son is going to be a minister some day when he gets older.” I don’t know if my mother even remembers that incident. The lady told me herself when I was grown up. I had served the Lord for some time then.
My parents never claimed to be professing Christians, other than belonging to the nations State Church, a Protestant belief which 97 % of the population of Norway belongs to anyway. They carried me to the priest and had me sprinkled as a baby. I remember I went to that Church a few times for Sunday school, but it did not have any appeal to me. If I met the Sunday-school teacher on the street, I made excuses why I had not been in His classes for a long time. I told him I had broken a leg or something to that extent. The teacher knew I lied, but I went on happy with my life thinking I had fooled him. Off course I only fooled myself.
There was a movie in town, “The Ten Commandments.” That was back in the early sixties. I had heard about Moses in school, so I thought I would go and see this movie. After seeing the story, and the effects of miracles that they preformed in the film, I went home crying like a baby. I remember walking home after the movie speaking to God Almighty, (not knowing what I was doing) and said, ” God make me like this man Moses.” He had such an impact on me that I had to go and see this movie again and again. At that time I saw the movie four times, and every time it had the same effect on me. I did not know that God was working on me. But if we don’t entertain Norway Churchthe spirit in our life, these things will rub off by the worldly afflictions. I was only around 12 – 13 years old at that time.
God make me like this man Moses
At the age of 15 I went with some worldly friends to a religious meeting to have some fun. That group of believers were called the Maranatha movement. They were a branch of the Pentecostal movement. They were quite a lively bunch of people, and we went just to have some fun there. But they came down to our row and dragged me up front to pray for me. They did not take my other friends. After prayer they told me that now I had become a Christian. Well I never felt a thing, neither was I prepared for such an event yet. Later I passed by a Pentecostal Church and heard some brass music coming out of that church building. I am a brass band player, and had been playing a Cornet for years in a school band. I got curious and went inside. That night they had practice and handed me a Cornet so I could play with them. I thought that was very nice of them, but at that time this was the closest I ever got to a spiritual dimension or environment.
As a young boy I had a friend. We were always together, but in the fall of 1966 my friend disappeared out of the picture. I did not know what he was up to, but he never came around anymore. One day I met him and asked him what he was doing. He was a little embarrassed at first, but finally he told me he had started going to the Salvation Army. Shortly they would approve his membership he told. Then He asked me if I would like to come with him to that service. They were going to dedicate him a soldier of the Salvation Army, January 1. 1967. He had always been my best friend so I thought I would go with him for the case of old friendship. I had never been in this church before. The hall was pretty filled up. I was kind of shy, so I decided to go up on the balcony. Nobody was up there, so I felt sort of comfortable up there alone. This was the very first Christian meeting I had ever been in, to watch and listen with any attitude of interest. I was curious about the whole thing, wondering what could make my best friend to take such a stand in life.
The meeting started and they finally came to the time of the dedication of my friend. He knelt down by the alter of that place. They laid hands on him and started praying. That is part of their procedure. I was watching the whole thing from the balcony. Suddenly I heard a voice behind me. He spoke loud and clear and said; “THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION THAT HE NOW IS ENTERING, YOU HAVE NO PART OF IT.” I turned around to look at the person talking to me, but there was no one there. I got chills down my back, I did not know what to do. That voice was as clear as any man could talk, and it was right behind my back. Since the movie on Moses, I had never felt such a presence in my whole life. I got scared, I never told anyone what had happened up on that balcony. After that night, this voice started to follow me. I did not hear it speak again like in that church, but my life had experienced a spiritual dimension, and I had not yet any part of it. That voice kept following me, in my mind the following months. I wasn’t able to get rid of it, it stayed with me. When I considered my life and the way I looked at things, I wanted to be honest with myself.
The spiritual dimension he now is entering, you have no part of it
At that time I was going with a girl from the same city. I talked to her about wanting to become a Christian, but she said I had to make a choice between her and the Salvation Army. Well up till then that was not really any choice. I still had not made any stand in life, I was wavering in the choices of crossways, but had too little to go on, to make a solid stand for anything. Later in the fall of 1967 I knew I could not walk around in this, no man world any longer. I had to find out about this voice. Was it real or was it just imaginations?
In the middle of November I had a chance to go to that church again. After 11 months I had gone far enough, I needed answers. I came in to the same hall on a Friday night. I did not go upstairs to the balcony, I was too nervous for that. I sat among all the other people during the service. There was no voice, no warning, no, nothing. I was disappointed and went home like a sour boy that didn’t get his candy when he wanted it. It is a good thing that God can see the heart. I decided to make another try the next night. I had been going in an emptiness for so many months, wondering about this voice, and now it didn’t even talk back to me. At this moment I was down to the bottom of heart honest, I had to find out if this was real. I wanted the real thing.
The next day I went for the evening service again, and I said to myself, “I will give it one more time, and if nothing happens to night, then there might be nothing too it. I came in the door to the church and it was packed with people. It was not a big building, I would say just enough to hold around 150 – 200 people. I went in and sat down in one of the back rows. I was jammed among the people, and as soon as I had sat down, I heard the voice again. It said: “You must not leave this place in the same fashion (or condition) that you came in the door.” That shook me up so bad that I was not able to remember anything from the whole service. I could not distinguish the singing or preaching that night. The service came to an end and I had not yet made the change that the voice had told me to do. I really did not know what to do. I had never done this before, and now I was desperate. I looked up on the platform and saw some of the people sitting up there.
Then I prayed to the Lord silently in my heart and said; “Lord if you can make one of these believers to raise up on that platform and come down the aisle to my row, squeeze in among the people up to where I am sitting, pointing at me directly and say, YOU! YOU MUST BE SAVED TONIGHT! Then Lord, then I know it is you, and I will give my life to you.” My lips were not moving, I just said these things in the depth of my heart. After saying Amen to my prayer, I lifted up my eyes to watch what would happen. Suddenly, as quick as I had finishing my prayer, a person rose up on that platform, walked down the aisle, down to my row, squeezed in among the people up to where I was sitting. Then directly as the person stood right before me, these exact words came out of that person’s mouth. “YOU! YOU MUST BE SAVED TO NIGHT!” Then I knew; I would never be the same again. The Lord had heard my prayers and given me three distinct signs. I could never doubt Him again. I was sold out. That confidence no one could ever take away from me. Well I needed it, because I would be tested on it as life went on.
I came home and told my parents that I had become a Christian. They just said that it would rub off. But it never did. After some months they wondered if I would like to take my bed and move over to The Salvation Army, because I was more there than home anyway. I was burning for the Lord. I was running the streets testifying and selling the “War Cry.” (The magazine for the Salvation Army.) I talked to anyone that would listen to me, drunks, tramps, just anyone. I met a person who claimed to be the foreman of a UFO organization. He told me that he had read the Bible seven times and never found anything worth living by. Well I told him I had not yet read the Bible once, but already found so much to live by in the Scripture. It is not the matter of how much we read, but rather how we understand and receive the things we do read.
I talked to anyone that would listen to me, drunks, tramps, just anyone
The following months were very enlightening. I read the Bible and prayed a lot. After a few months I read about the Apostles how they received the Holy Ghost in the book of Acts. I did not know much about it, the Salvation Army never talked about these things, but I understood that the Apostles had some very special experiences. I started praying to the Lord about it. If they needed this, what ever it was, I needed it too. As a young boy I learned to play the Cornet in a school band, as I mentioned earlier. I took the skills of playing with me on my journey in life, and still am. I started in the Salvation Army’s brass band. It was on my nineteenth birthday, a Tuesday night. We were having practice in the band that night. I was sitting playing my part in the band; then suddenly a voice spoke in my heart and said. “STOP PLAYING, PACK YOUR INSTRUMENT, GO TO ANOTHER MEETING AND YOU SHALL BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST.” My, I got so scared, I lost my breath; my instrument fell down on my lap. I was shivering. The conductor looked at me and stopped the playing session. He asked if there was anything wrong, he could see something had happened to me. I did not know what to say. They would probably never understand what was going on, so I just said to him that something came up, and that I needed to go.
Well he let me go and I ran down to this other meeting as fast as I could. I knew where to go. When I came in to this meeting, they had already had the preaching, and were coming to the last part where they were praying for people. I just got in among the church people and stood among them for a few minutes. Then one of the ministers up front asked if there was anyone that night that wanted the Holy Ghost. I knew this was my opportunity, I lifted my hand as a token that I wanted the Holy Ghost. They asked me to come up to the front. They knew I was new and started asking me about baptism in water. I had no idea what they had in mind. I was carried as a baby to the traditional Lutheran church and sprinkled with water. That was the only baptism I knew at that time. I told them that I believed the Bible and everything written there in. They finally made up their mind to pray for me, and they laid hands on me to pray for the Holy Ghost. I did not know much of their practice, but I knew what the Lord had told me a few minutes ago. I received the Holy Ghost right there. I just knew I had it at once.
The minister was not satisfied, he wanted me to speak in tongues. I did not know that, at the moment, but they kept telling me to let it out. I did not know what they meant, I was so happy for the experience I just had received. Then they asked me to start to pray. I felt I was so happy that if I started praying now, I could not withhold myself. Something was just bubbling inside. They kept pushing me to open up, so then after a while I decided to pray aloud. Inside it was like a mighty waterfall coming out, and then suddenly I heard myself starting to speak in another tongue. The minister started praising the Lord and said, “Now he got it, now he got it.” I felt kind of strange, because I knew I had it as soon as they laid hands on me.
Later I learned to know that they looked at speaking in tongues as the evidence of receiving the Holy Ghost. I know that devils can speak in tongues, and they are not believers. Believing such things would lead people out on a limb and confuse their minds later in life. When you believe you have the Holy Ghost, then you got the Holy Ghost whether you speak in tongues or not. Tongues are just one of the many blessed gifts of the Spirit that God honors in our lives, so we can serve His people in spirit and in Truth. After that night my life started changing a lot.
The next night I was back in my church again. We had prayer meeting and everyone was taking turns praying. We knelt down by the chairs and prayed one after the other. When the turn came to me, my soul was bubbling so hard again that I felt I was boiling over. Before I knew it I was speaking in another tongue again, like I did the night before. I heard a lot of noise around me but did not realize what it was until I was done. After the tongues were ministered, then suddenly the pastor of the church started interpreting the tongues. I was surprised. I had never heard anyone do that before. As the tongues went on, half of the congregation took off and ran out of the church. Tongues had never before been preformed in our church, so the most of them got scared, and ran out.
In the weeks and months that followed we had a lot of people that ran out of our church because of the gifts of the spirit in operation. I had no teachings on these things so it came directly from the Lord. I believe that by all my heart. After a few months I started reading on this baptism. The minister asked me if I were baptized when I stood there praying for the Holy Ghost. In the Bible I saw that everyone were baptized, after they came to the Lord. It was a cleansing process, leaving everything behind that is related to the old unregenerate life. If the Church had everything leveled out the right way, then a soul would have come to the Lord through repentance, got Baptized in water in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and after that, received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It would not have been a dragged out thing. The most of us though are coming through so many different denominations, with so many different beliefs, that the true formula of repentance is hidden from us. But God has ways to get to us, to bring us back on the right track.
In the weeks and months that followed we had a lot of people that ran out of our church because of the gifts of the spirit in operation
Because of all the turmoil around my person, this time I told the pastor about my research in the Bible on the issue of Baptism in water. The pastor was supporting me on the gifts of the spirit, because he had had a similar experience in his younger days. He also told me that he was baptized as a believer, but because of the neutral stand that the Salvation Army takes concerning baptism, he had never preached on it, as an officer in the Army. He was not against that route of spiritual growth, so he advised me to go to a Pentecostal church and ask for them to baptize me. And that’s what I did.
At the first available chance I spoke to a pastor of a Pentecostal church about my experience, and need of baptism. They told me that they normally didn’t baptize anyone who did not want to become a member of their system. At that time I had no intention on leaving the church I belonged too. I had no reasons for it. I could fully live out the faith that the Lord had given me. Even if people did not understand me, they never went against me. That was probably because they knew I was not trying to change the Salvation Army. I was just changed, myself, that’s all.
The following Sunday in the fall of 1968, I went to that Pentecostal Church and got baptized in water. I was so happy, I had obeyed the Lord in everything he showed me. I came back to my church the next Sunday and testified on the things I had experienced. When I mentioned water baptism in public though, I got into trouble. I advised everyone to go and be baptized in water, as the Bible said, but the people rejected that. They told me that if I kept testifying on these things, then they would excommunicate me from the assembly. The pastor asked me if I would keep my mouth shut, as he had done over the years. I told him I could not deny the true experience I have had, so I could not give such a promise. Then they told me that I had no further future in the Salvation Army. They claimed I had become more like the Pentecostal people. They advised me to start going there instead.
Well I had all my friends in the Salvation Army, but they did not want me there anymore, so I had to start going to the Pentecostal church. I had slowly become a more outgoing person, and had no hard feelings against my old friends. I was just trying to follow the leading of the Lord. My time though in the Pentecostal system was short. It was a Trinitarian church, something that I, up to that point, had no idea what the difference was. I felt the need of more Bible study so I filled an application for a Bible school. I thought that would help me to still my thirst for more of God.
I felt the need of more Bible study so I filled an application for a Bible school
When I came to that Bible school I met the woman that should be my wife and companion in life. I had no intentions of looking for a wife when I went to that school, but I felt the Lord spoke to me about her from the very beginning, and that showed to be the truth. (We have now been married for more than 26 years. We have 5 children, two girls and three boys. Two of the children are now married and have their own children. I have become a grandpa and not yet 50 years old when I write this testimony.)
After the Bible school we got married and started to travel among the Pentecostal people in a minor scale. I was never hired by the system to be their minister, but I went to every little place that had a desire to receive more from the Lord. During one of these trips we came to a little town for some meetings. An older couple had received some audio-tapes on American ministers, and the power of healing in their ministry. They asked me if I would like to listen to them, and I had nothing against that. I sat down and played the tapes. It was the story about A. A. Allen, Jack Coo, and William Branham. I had never heard any of their names before. At that time they were all dead.
The most unique testimony to my opinion, was the story of William Marrion Branham. I had my Bible and followed the testimony with an open Bible and an open mind to God. It was a Norwegian brother who testified of what he had seen and heard, through the life and ministry of Bro. Branham. He had followed his ministry the last three years of his life, from 1962 up to December 1965. William Branham died in a car accident at that time. Many people look at Bro. Branham as a false Prophet, and some think, that since he died in such a crucial way, that he could not be Gods prophet. I wonder if they have read the last part of Hebrews 11, or the way John the Baptist was killed. His head was cut off.
This brother mentioned about several main topics of the Bible that Bro. Branham had taught. He had ministered on the Godhead, Only One God and not a Trinity. Water Baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Seven Church ages, The Seven Seals, The Original Sin in the Garden of Eden, the Elijah ministry in this end time, Predestination, Eternal security, and many more.
I was surprised at the teaching I was hearing from this tape. I had never heard anything like it. I wondered where the church systems had been all the time. This could not have been happening in a corner of this world. The first thing I said to myself was: “From this day on, I can never baptize anyone in water, but by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” This happened in August 1972. I came to understand that the Pentecostal Church in Norway was Trinitarian. They did not want the Jesus Name baptism. They had not yet come out of the Catholic Church tradition.
From this day on, I can never baptize anyone in water, but by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
In the fall of 1972 the wife and I went down to her parents, for a few days of rest. My father in law had just received a few booklets written in Norwegian, on the sermons of William Branham. My hunger for more of God grew as I read these sermons. I had not yet met any of the people who believed in the teachings of Bro. Branham. After we came home to where we lived, I felt I had to seek God in a deeper way. I stepped aside for a season of time in prayer and fasting. I was praying to have an answer from the Lord, on the things that transpired in the later months. I knew that if I was going to preach this message, then the Pentecostal Church system would throw me out, like the Salvation Army had done.
During the session of prayer and fasting I had a similar experience to what the Lord had one time. I was praying for more light, and at the end of the time of prayer, I had an experience seeing the Devil coming at me. I was brought in a vision, and I saw myself in a red colored room. The room was divided with a curtain. Suddenly I saw a hand pulling the curtain a side, and a man was standing there. It was the meanest expression I had ever seen in a man’s face. It was the devil clothed in human flesh. (The devil can appear in almost any form, as a Wolf, in sheep clothing, as an angel of light, invested in the serpent, in the Garden of Eden, and many more.)
I was praying for more light, and at the end of the time of prayer, I had an experience seeing the Devil coming at me
I knew that; “this person must not get any control over me.” As this man started approaching me, I felt I had to resist him and started praying. As he come closer and closer, my prayer got more and more desperate. Then I started commanding the spirit to stop. At last I was crying at the top of my lungs in desperation to get that thing to stop. Finally the man stopped. He looked at me with the meanest look you can ever think off. But he never touched me. Then I started commanding him to go back to where he came from. Slowly he started go backwards till he had reached the curtain whence he came out from. He stood there a long time looking at me, and then he pulled the curtain back, and the vision left me.
After that experience I ended the period of prayer. The first thing that happened, was a visitation from the Pastor of the Pentecostal Church. They had found out that I had been in Fasting and prayer. He told me I was doing things out of order. People easily got crazy doing the things I did. The warning was told to me, I could be excommunicated if I kept going against their rules and regulations. Well up to that time, I had not said or done much that could cause too many stirs. My determination thou in following what I felt was the leading of the Lord, was the same as always. It wasn’t long till they had me excommunicated from the Pentecostal Church. After that the Lord led me to another minister for a few months. That was a link and a learning process, a guidance to get to the people that really believed the same as I did.
I was now excommunicated from every system. I wondered if I ever would be a witness for my Lord Jesus Christ. I remember how I went in to a strange meeting one night. No body knew me there. I just wanted to sit in a meeting and listen to the Gospel, in a place nobody knew me. During the service the minister approached me and asked for me to sing a song. I was new to them, so they did not know if I could sing. I went up and did sing one of the dear Psalms of the Bible. They were blessed by the singing, and after the song they wanted me to testify. I testified of a few things the Lord had shown me lately, and the temperature in the service got very high. We were all praising the Lord and having a good time.
After the service was over, I went over to the door to leave. Then an old sister from that Church came over and grabbed my hand to say good bye. Then suddenly she started shaking, and while she holds on to my hand, she started prophesying. She said; “You are a chosen vessel before me, and I shall send thee far off, over the seas, over the mountains, to many countries, to be a witness of my name to many nations.” These were the approximate words this old lady told under the power of the Spirit of the Lord. This happened in the month of March 1973. In my spirit I said to myself. This lady is either crazy; or else the Lord has something up the road for me that I cannot see now. At that time I could not understand that I would be traveling much at all. I was told by the organizations that I needed a Church to support me, if I was ever going to do anything for the Lord. Well that’s the spirit of the system.
You are a chosen vessel before me, and I shall send thee far off, over the seas, over the mountains, to many countries, to be a witness of my name to many nations
In the month of July 1973 I was privileged to meet Bro. Raymond M. Jackson. I came down to a convention in the South part of Norway. I did not know any of the people, neither Bro. Jackson. But when he preached the word of God, it brought joy to my heart. I could finally hear a servant of God with a revelation in his bosom. It was so simple and so true. What I did not know, was that there was already a war going on in Norway, among the so called message people. And they were just about to excommunicate Raymond Jackson from their ranks. They said he was not in the message anymore. This did not come to my knowledge till later on. But at that convention I got baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Two years later I heard that Raymond Jackson was coming to Norway again. The wife and I went down South to join in the meetings. We were so thrilled by the ministry of this brother, that we wanted to be there even if it was only one meeting to be held. We did not know that this meeting was just a cover up for the, so called message people, to start an attack on Brother Jackson. After the service was ended, I saw many of the brothers from the message group assembled around Bro. Jackson. They started attacking him on his beliefs, things they did not agree on. While they kept this session going, I felt almost sick inside. “Why do they attack this brother for what he stands for”. To me, this brother really made sense in his preaching. I felt that his way of ministering the word of God was the answer, to understand and believe the time we are in right now.
Then I heard the Voice again. The Lord said; “The same spirit they are using against this brother, is the same spirit they used to cast you out of the denominated systems.” That statement shocked me. I asked the Lord and said; “but Bro. Branham told that this message could not be organized.” The Voice said again. “The message cannot be organized, but people can organize again.” And that is what has happened, the people have done the very thing that Bro. Branham told them not to do. These people are living back in the time Bro. Branham lived. They don’t dare to go beyond the time after this brother died.
The message cannot be organized, but people can organize again.
From that time I knew my life would probably be kind of lonely, even in this message. But I knew I had the Lord and His guidance in my life and that was sufficient for me. After the Norwegian brothers had thrown Bro. Jackson away, I went over to him and asked if he had any further plans in this country. He said no, but that he might take a trip to Sweden before they returned back home. I offered them transport to Sweden, and to join the meetings there. They accepted my offer, and that was my first chance to really get acquainted with Bro. Jackson and his wife.
During this trip I remember Bro. Jackson telling me that I could not always be sitting on the fence, watching conditions, without taking any part of the spiritual warfare. Then, when I had made my decision, he wanted me to tell him which side I had taken in life. Well I really didn’t feel I was sitting on any fence, but I did understand my brother’s expressions. He had seen too many, so called, promising brothers, turn away from the truth when pressure came upon them. To him, I could just be another one of them.
After our experience together with Brother Jackson, we went home. I started a closer study of “The Contender” the magazine coming out from Faith Assembly. After some months I wrote my brother and told him, that I was down from the fence, ready to fight the battle for the Lord. If there was no one in Norway that wanted him to their meetings anymore, then he would be more than welcome to come and stay with us, and have meetings here. Two weeks later I got a letter from Bro. Jackson. He asked when the meetings started, because he was coming to Norway to be with us in our little fellowship. That was the summer of 1976. He came, and we had the most wonderful meetings together.
After the summer convention in 1976, I felt we should start up with regular meetings based on the revelation the Lord have given us through the Message of William Branham, and the continuation ministered by Raymond Jackson. Then, in the spring of 1977 I got a letter of invitation from Bro. Jackson to come to the States for their summer convention in Jeffersonville. That was the starting point for the fulfillment of the prophecy that came through this old lady back in 1973. I had forgotten all about this prophecy, until we came to that convention. On a Friday night, just before I was going to minister in my poor English way, a brother rose up in the congregation and prophesied. This happened thousands of miles away from this old lady, but the Lord knows all about it. At once, when the brother prophesied, I was brought back in the spirit to this old lady. It was like the Lord was telling me; “And you thought this old lady was crazy, saying things like she did”! Well it comforted my spirit to know I was on the right track.
And you thought this old lady was crazy, saying things like she did”! Well it comforted my spirit to know I was on the right track.
After that summer convention in 1977, the wife and I have been many times over to the American continent in meetings. We have been privileged to travel with Brother and Sister Jackson many times. We have been together around the world in different meetings. We have been sent over the seas, over the mountains, to countries far off. God is truly confirming his word and his promises. And I know the best is yet to come. There are so many things I could have testified about, when it comes to the goodness of the Lord. I have had so many experiences to verify the walk with my Lord, but these stories are told to let you know we have a living God who cares for the ones that are honest in their walk, who desires nothing less than the truth. We are privileged to be a part in the ministry, “Contending for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3)
