Together

- the most important word in all aspects of ecology

Norsk - русский

The title of John Donne’s meditation “No man is an island” tells what this is all about. We are in this together. The actions of every individual will in one way or the other influence all. My choices and preferences will have consequences for others, consequences that can be positive or negative. 

The kind of transport I choose for my travels, will influence the climate. The same effect will the kind of energy I use for heating my apartment have. And - if I am not given a choice, I can influence the political system that makes decisions concerning what kind of energy my nation should focus on in the future. What I do with my rubbish and waste is important for the sustainability of our globe. Today almost everything is possible to recirculate.

If I am not careful with my diet and if I do not exercise to keep fit, it is likely that I will become a burden to the health care system. It is a paradox that the health-care systems around the world have to use so much resources on treating effects of unhealthy lifestyles, which have led to over-weight, alcoholism, substance abuse, smoking etc. What if more of these resources could have been used for finding cures for life-threatening diseases instead?

When God created the world, he gave his uttermost creature in the creation the responsibility to be stewards of his creation. This calling has never been made redundant. On the contrary it means that believers, more than anyone else, should be more conscious about how we care for the nature (God’s Temple), our body (God’s Temple) and our spiritual life (God’s Temple).

In none of these fields we operate in ‘singular’. We are always ‘plural’. We are in this together.
Together with each other. Together with Jesus. 

Jesus chose to spend time together with his disciples. Many times he encouraged them to learn lessons from the nature, the seasons, the animals, the birds, crops and harvest. Lessons that also could be transferred into their spiritual life. 

It may be appropriate to ask if the ‘ecological’ challenges we face in the world today, is caused by ‘ecological unbalance’ in the life of the believers. 

Yes, it is right and good to have an individual relationship with Jesus, it is indeed very important. However, if this means that the faith only has consequences for my individual life, I have missed the target. I often quote John Wesley’s words: “I shall endeavour to show, that Christianity is essentially a social religion; and to turn it into a solitary religion, is indeed to destroy it”. 

Likewise, I have often said that William Booth’s most important message is captured in one word: ‘OTHERS!’.

In Acts 4 Luke tells us that the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law knew that the disciples had been with Jesus. When we are together with Jesus, ‘others’ will know that we have been together with him. Therefore, they will also notice how we live our lives – that will more and more relate to how serious we take our calling to be good stewards, which includes the way we care for the world we are all a part of.

Are we together in this?

Published in the Russian Вестник спасения (War Cry) # 3 2019

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* Illustration from the article - The bottom text = Together - the most important word in all aspects of ecology. The text-box: When God created the world, he gave his uttermost creature in the creation the responsibility to be stewards of his creation.

Equal rights to serve

русский

Eighteen months ago, Easter Europe Territory held a seminar for employees and members of The Salvation Army (TSA). The purpose of the seminar was to give the delegates a better insight into what TSA is all about. In the final gathering, I had challenged the delegates to answer the question “Why did I choose TSA?”. Afterwards, I followed up with answers to the question: “Why did God choose TSA?”

I believe God chose TSA because he needed not only the prophetic voice of those whose hearts were fully committed to him, but also their prophetic actions. When you read ‘their prophetic actions’, maybe you immediately think about the social ministry of TSA. This is of course very important, but in the field of humanitarian work we are far from being lonely activists. Down through the history, many Christians from different traditions have had focus on the diaconal side of Christian living, and in doing so, they have contributed to the mission by making the faith credible.

I believe God chose to strengthen and bless William and Catherine Booth, because he saw the potential of Catherine’s prophetic voice and action, and that William would be ready to support her. So I think the third answer to the question above is:

God chose TSA because everyone who receives the call has the same right to ministry!

This view is closely related to holiness simply because there is no holiness outside of Christ. Paul describes our status in Jesus Christ in this way:

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28

In other words, it is contradictory to holiness and to the essence of what Jesus is all about if people in a church are limited because of their race, social status or gender. In our movement a saved person from the gutter or the prison, should be worthy the same trust as a saved person with a spotless record and university degrees. In fact, sometimes it has taken longer for representatives from the latter group to be accepted in TSA, however, no-one should be excluded on such grounds.

The same attitude of equality relates to ethnic background and to gender. When we read the history of the Church, a general observation is that women have not been treated as equal to men with regard to the right to ministry.

I am convinced that it has been in the devil’s interest to keep it this way. Therefore, God chose to bless TSA because he wants to mobilize women, single or married. This is still a challenge even in our own movement. There is a tendency to give the leading positions to men rather than women. This tendency becomes particularly evident when appointments are given to married couples. So, for the sake of the mission and a desire to keep God’s blessing upon our movement, we are now making efforts to ensure that our rules and practices are in line with the rules and practices in Christ.

What is right in Christ, is right in the church! 

Published in the Russian 'War Cry' (Vestnic Spasenya) # 2 2019
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* Text in illustration = 'Equal rights to serve'

What will make the world listen?

“What will make the world listen?”  was the “headline” on my blog published on the morning of Tuesday 12th of January 2016. 

Coincidentally Magna and I were in Istanbul this particular morning. When returning from our furlough back in Norway, we should fly transit through Istanbul and back to Chisinau with a scheduled landing Sunday night. However, due to fog in Chisinau the flights were cancelled and our transit-time in Istanbul expanded from two hours to two days.

When we finally knew that our return-flight was postponed until Tuesday night, we decided to go on a city-tour in the morning. After having seen the beautiful Hagia Sofia, Magna and I followed our group across the Hippodrome in the direction of the obelisk on the Sultanahmet Square by the Blue Mosque. As we walked, we spoke about how generous God is who allowed us to see the beautiful city free of charge and Magna stopped and took a picture of the obelisk. The next moment a suicide-bomber triggered the explosives in a group of German tourists ten meters away from us.

I started to run, but realized after a few steps that something had gone through my knee. I managed to move myself another few meters before I fell to the ground. When I lay there, my only thought was:

“Is Magna safe?” 

– only a few seconds later she was at my side. When I saw that she was unhurt, a strange kind of peace filled me. I could see many people had fallen to the ground, either dead or unconscious. Remains of human flesh were spread all over the place, and Magna’s clothes and my shoes were covered with it.

I knew straight away what had happened, and I just thought: “So this is how it is in real life” – with reference to similar scenes flooding the TV-screens. Magna and I very often say to one another: “whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord” (Romans 14:8). 

My second thought was a question to God:
“Lord, for what purpose can you use this?” 

I knew that the suicide-bomber wanted to catch the world’s attention for his evil cause, and I know that God’s solution is: 

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”. (Romans 12:21) 

I reminded myself that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28). Therefore, I knew that he would give me opportunity to testify about his love to a wide audience.

As we sat waiting for the ambulances, I prayed for those who were killed and injured, and thanked him for life and for how he was going to turn this evil into something good.

After ten minutes the ambulances were allowed to start the rescue-work, and from then on everything went very fast. At the hospital, everything was very efficient and professional. In the midst of it all, media managed to get access to me despite the security, and I believe that less than three hours after the explosion, the first video of my testimony about God’s love as a the only remedy against evil, was on television.

And within the next 24 hours, it had been repeated to a number of journalists

and international news-agencies - and transmitted by national and international channels, like CNN, all over the world. God gave me the opportunity to speak and testify to two ministers of the Turkish government, one official from municipality of Istanbul and to the doctors and staff of the hospital as well as the Turkish police and members from the Swedish and German consulates.

When it finally calmed down in my room on my first day at the hospital in Istanbul, it was already late night, but I was able to pray and think. The first verse I thought of was: 

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”  Genesis 50:20. I experienced that; 

God already had intended to turn the evil into good. 

With some humour, I thought that it was a little bit sad that the projectile had gone through the knee. If it had still been in the knee and the surgeons were able to remove it, I could have kept it and engraved the reference "Gen 50:20". 

This thought was of course inspired by Lily, the wife of Samuel Logan Brengle, who kept the brick that was thrown at her husband and almost killed him. Brengle used the 18 months of convalescence to write his first book about holiness. Lily wrote the reference on the brick and they kept it for the rest of their lives.

This is not my doing. God mobilized a huge army of prayer-warriors around the world. By the spreading of the news, both in official and social media, I think that several hundred thousands have been praying. And we have received so many greetings, and have only been able to respond to a few, but we are so grateful to God and to you who represent his body. One of the greetings that came after a few days contained this message:

I will be careful to declare that I have received a word from the Lord to you, but it seems to me that the verses from Gen. 50:15-21 are meant for you. Particularly verse 20. Please take it for what it is, and ask the Lord what this may mean for you.

I could write back to him and confirm that it is from the Lord. The only thing that will make people listen today is when we act and respond with the love of God. If I do not let him work through me with his love, I can confess with Paul: I am nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2).

In Istanbul God taught me once again that his love makes the world listen! So if we want to see God’s Kingdom come to Russia and Eastern Europe Territory, all we do, has to be saturated with:

 

God’s love. 

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Published in Вестник спасения issue №2 - 2016 - PDF-format

Link to the full version of Вестник спасения #2 - 2016 год

“Dancing with angels”

- Thoughts on traditions

Growing up in a Salvation Army family, I was early exposed to the traditions and expressions of our movement as well as to the core – the Gospel. Step by step the content of the spiritual truths of the Gospel has been revealed to me, and like Paul I am still pressing on to “see” even more. In many ways the same can be said about the traditions and expressions. Being a part of the global SA-family since birth, I learned to appreciate our expressions even though I many times have questioned the forms when they have seemed emptied for content and meaning.

In many ways the revelation of the spiritual truths of the Gospel has gone faster than the revelation of the meaning of some of our traditions. Is this because the Gospel is preached, while our people’s understanding of the deeper meaning of the traditions is taken for granted?

Let us look at some examples:

“Dancing with angels”

The Native Americans who saw the white man’s movements in a flock of wolves, named him “Dancing with wolves”. Almost twenty years ago, before Kevin Costner’s famous movie, I met “Dancing with angels”. He was an old soldier in the Faeroe-Islands. In a prayer-meeting I saw him moving as among angels. With our banner lifted high he moved like a dancer among praying people, his face was radiant, and everything was so appropriate, genuine and right. It was not an attempt to create an atmosphere - he was just moving with the Spirit. He danced with the angels, and as a “Native of God’s Kingdom” I have given him his name.

After the meeting I learned that this was something Jogvan – “Dancing with angels”, used to do when the Spirit so led him. I interviewed him for our War Cry and asked him why. Jogvan said that for him the flag symbolised that Jesus had conquered all evil, and he wanted to remind the world and the devil that the victory was won. When Jogvan so was doing, he felt blessings flow to him and through him. The genuine content of the tradition “Glory-march” had been revealed to him, and through him it was revealed to me.

“Blood, fire & purity”

I have been under the flag on many occasions and for many dedications, and I guess I learned the meaning of its colours even before I could read and write. A few years back my wife and I led some meetings in Tallinn (Estonia). We had been focusing on praying for the nation, and in the final meeting we felt led to ask for the Estonian flag to be brought to the front. We asked representatives from the corps to come and hold in the flag as we prayed for the nation. Then I said: “Let us now pray that the blood of Jesus Christ, the power of The Holy Spirit, and the purity of God the Father will cover the nation.” 

As we prayed we took our banner and laid it over the national flag. Just a symbolic action for something taking place in the heavenly realms, but in a new way it brought content to the symbolism of our flag. God’s presence was evident.

The following Sunday we had an enrolment of a soldier in our corps, and with new vigour I could invite the soldier “under the blood of Jesus Christ, the power of The Holy Spirit and the purity of God the Father”.  The genuine understanding of “Under the flag” was again revealed for many in the corps.

“Territory-conqueror”

For several years I have been engaged in ecumenical prayer-initiatives, and several good books have been written about taking new territory e.g. by going “prayer-walking”. Since I was a boy I have loved to march. Apart from seeing that it can make people aware of the fact that there is a Salvation Army still around, I have though questioned the purpose. In my Cadet-days, it was called a “March of witness!”, and maybe it was. But to be a “March of witness” the people who see the march need to associate a message with what they see and hear. Do they?

The marches played may contain some familiar tunes, but this becomes more and more rare.

Can it still become meaningful? For me personally it happened when I started to focus on the claiming of spiritual territory for the Kingdom of God. There are so many parades claiming “ground” for other purposes. We want our towns and cities to be influenced by God – hopefully through a lot of conversions. But even without revivals and masses turning to Christ, The Spirit of the kingdom can influence decision-making on all levels of society. This can happen through prayer – even as we march! And if we are not permitted to march – let us still “march”, do our prayer-walks, alone or in small groups.

Why is this a theme?

We are now serving in Moldova - a country with a relatively new Army (13 years). The Army here has seen considerable growth over the years and much solid spiritual work has taken place and is still taking place. It has been interesting to notice that some of our traditions have been “adopted” as a “Salvation Army – way of doing things” – without necessarily any revelation why. So in Moldova we will wave our flags and rattle our tambourines to perfection without necessarily knowing why an expression of praising God has taken this form. The idea seems to be: As long as it is a valid expression for the Army - it should be valid for us too! And visiting Salvationists from other countries are excited and stirred when they see it. Then it dawned on me: Is this really any different in the other territories I have been?

“Soul-stirrer”

There is nothing wrong in being stirred in the soul as long as we do not confuse it with spirituality. I am easily stirred in my soul through music, beautiful nature, a joke or a good quiz-game and even good Army-tradition. The only way to make the soul-stirring elements of our traditions become “spirit-stirring” is to ask God to reveal their true meaning and purpose and preach this to our people. If this does not take place we may discover that some of our very good program-items and ways of expression will be analogue to Paul’s “list of actions” detached from love (1.Cor.13).  And again “if so”: Would it not be better to find new expressions?

“The Natives of God’s Kingdom”

So, when the Natives of God’s Kingdom see me in action, what name will they give me? “Dancing with angels”, “Blood, fire & purity”, “Territory-conqueror” or “Soul-stirrer”?

- Lord, as long as it is not the latter, I do not mind. I just want to dance with angels covered by blood, fire and purity until more territory is conquered for Your Kingdom. Let Your Kingdom come!

A triune Godhead

Андре́й Рублёв

The Christian faith in God as a triune Godhead¹ is not a result of theological speculations but has developed from a wish to describe the Christian experience of God. You will not find the trinity as a theological term in the New Testament, but the book is filled with examples of how the Christians experienced God as one and at the same time three distinct persons.

To explain the experience of a mysterious God will always be limited by the fact that we are using human expressions in a spiritual realm. These limitations are clearly expressed by Paul: 

“For now we see in a mirror, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know fully…” 1. Cor. 13:12 

I think this also applies to the doctrine of the trinity. At the same time, I like this way of explaining the Godhead – it is a beautiful picture of unity, integration and love – an image in which we ourselves are created.

The Russian monk and icon-painter Andrei Rublev (Андре́й Рублёв) who lived in the Sergej Posad monastery (1360 til 1427) was captured by a great desire to portray the trinity. He went into a 40 days-period of fasting and the Spirit revealed to him the story about the three men visiting Abraham in Mamre with the message that he should have a son. Like in an ecstasy he painted one of the most famous icons in the world: Abraham experienced a visitation of the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. About this biblical incident Ambrosias of Milan writes: “In his guests he saw three but worshiped one!”

Another of the church-fathers, Thomas Aquinas, expressed a thought which I believe is very true: How we explain the creation is not irrelevant for our understanding of the Creator. I think it is difficult for the human intellect to grasp the doctrine of the trinity before a person has experienced God both as Father, Son and Spirit, but another reason can be the lack of understanding of how we are created ourselves. In the first chapter of the Bible God says: 

“Let US create man in OUR own image!” Genesis 1:26 

– If God is a trinity, a human being must be a trinity also!

Through history dualism has influenced man’s understanding of himself. This is a Hellenistic thought but has often found its way into Christian teaching even though it is considered a heresy. We know that man is created with body, soul and spirit (1. Thess. 5:23). In our soul we find our personality, intellect, emotions and will – we may say that our soul is the seat of our self-consciousness. We also know that we have a body – and so far even the Gnostics (the Hellenistic philosophers) do agree in their dualism. The body is the seat of our world-consciousness because it is by the means of our body we relate to this world. But when we have become Christians we are also aware of the fact that we have a spirit. This spirit of man longs for God, and if a gospel is not preached or received, this urge will make man create a god in his own image. But having accepted salvation through what Jesus did for us on Calvary and having received his Spirit in our spirit, we know the experience of harmony, integration and love which is also the character of a triune Godhead. Because I know myself and my experience of God I know that this must be a correct way of trying to explain God. Our spirit is the seat of our God-consciousness.

The Bible gives us another picture which in a wonderful way helps us to explain the triune God. 

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” 1. Cor 3:16

The Temple was a triune building. It consisted of the court, the holy place and the most holy place.

Everybody had access to the court – there was even a part of it which was called the court of the Gentiles. If we follow the thought that our body is visible to the world (our world-consciousness) and that God in Jesus was made visible to the world, we can see how this comes together.

Only selected people had access to the holy place. The priests went in there daily to do the prescribed rituals (Heb. 9:6). This is an excellent picture on the soul of man. We know that the soul is the seat of the self-consciousness with personality, intellect, emotions and will – we decide whom we will invite into our “holy place”. We select with whom we will share emotions and thoughts. Before Christ this was the same with God the Father. Only the people he selected were given access to his “holy place” and could share his thoughts and emotions. But in Christ all people are selected to come into this divine fellowship – and if we see the picture of the Temple, we see that to be able to come to the “holy place” you have to pass through the court. In the same way the access to fellowship with God goes through the court = Jesus (John 14:6).

The Most Holy Place” is the core of the Temple = the core of God – His Spirit. This is also the real core of man – his yarning for God his Creator, and the reason why the Bible very often refers to the spirit of man as the “heart of man”. Only the High priest had access to the “Most Holy Place” once a year to sacrifice on behalf of the people.

And now, for me, one of the most exciting happenings in the history: In the moment Jesus died the curtain into the “Most Holy Place” was torn from the top to the bottom. This was a 30 cm thick woven curtain which was 10m tall – try to imagine the sound! This was not an isolated incident without any spiritual reference. In the very same moment the same thing happened in the spiritual world. It happened in every human being: the curtain to the spirit of man was torn – as a miracle there was made an opening from God’s heart to man’s heart. This is also why the Bible names Jesus as our High Priest, because he entered into the Most Holy Place with the perfect sacrifice and opened the way for men to God’s heart, but also a way for God to man’s heart.

When I go to God through Jesus Christ, and because curtain is torn I receive His Spirit in my most holy place – my spirit. He dwells there, but does not close the door behind him – the holiness of His Spirit should flow from my most holy place, to my holy place. He should influence my thoughts, my emotions and my will. He should even flow to the court – my body, so that His holiness should be seen in me. This sounds like the doctrine of holiness, and further this doctrine is easier to grasp if we allow the Spirit to reveal for us the beautiful thought about God as a triune God. Vice versa, an experience of holiness will help us understand this way of describing the Godhead. If He reveals for me the true picture of myself, the true picture of the Temple, I will see the true God – three in one!

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¹ derives from the Latin word trinitas the combination of tres (three) and unus (one)

Published in the Russian War Cry 2006

Our mission – an equation with “unknowns”

The thoughts I want to share in this article have been on my mind for a long time, but standing on the threshold of new challenges in my own ministry has revitalized the desire to put them down on paper. When I was a boy I really enjoyed mathematics, an interest which unfortunately over the years has lost in hard competition with other interests. Particularly the equations with the unknown factors used to ignite the imagination. An equation normally gives away an answer – a desired result, but the formula contains one or more unknown variables. The mission of the Salvation Army has a desired result which is known to us all (our mission-statement), but a chase for such a result contains unknown and uncertain factors, and therefore I want to use the equation as an analogy:

The X-factor
There is not a clever spiritual consideration behind the choice of what to put under the “X”, but as far as I remember the equations with one “unknown” were the easiest to solve. Since it is the “easiest to solve”, I will say that the “X” stands for the unknown things that demand a development of my human capacities to fulfil the mission. We tend to put much effort into the replacement of X in favour of skills and knowledge. We arrange evangelism-courses, send people into training, read books on church-growth, attend courses for the “Willow Creek-method”, the “G12-method” or the “Purpose-driven Church-method” and are eager to learn from any congregation that has had success in one way or the other. There is nothing wrong in such an attitude, and be it far from me to join the defenders of ignorance. I believe God can use everything a person knows as long as he or she is dedicated to his will. At the same time there is always a danger involved in our reliance upon adopted knowledge and skills.

When you read this, my wife and I will be working in three countries of which we had only heard a few months back. We have never been to the countries, never learned the languages and do not know anybody from the countries. At this stage you will quite easily understand the picture with the X-factor. You might even suggest that I write this two weeks prior to departure to ease some of the tension in trying to reduce the “unknown” by intensive study of languages and reading of anything that can throw light upon our new situation. And may be you are right, it is easier to breathe when I know that there are unknown factors in my future ministry with higher importance than my shortcomings to solve the X-factor in the equation of mission. I am part of the body of Christ, and other limbs will have to make up for my lack of skills as I daily will make an effort to improve.

The Y-factor
We are clever in many ways in the army, and we receive a lot of admiration but not many converts. There is always a danger that we become so preoccupied with the X-factor that we forget the other “unknowns”. When I was in training in the mid-seventies, I got hold of a book by Leonard Ravenhill with the challenging title: Why revival tarries. The author sets the agenda in the first chapter: With all Thy getting, get unction.

I have seen it in the ministry of other people, in the ministry of sections and special events as well as in my own life – it is only when the anointing is there that something of eternal value is accomplished. You may hear a good sermon, a wonderful piece of music and attend a remarkable celebration – all the X-factors have been cancelled out – and it might even be memorable, but it was not recognized in the spiritual realms because of its lack of “unction”. The mission remains unaccomplished due to the forgotten Y-factor.

When I teach about the anointing I often get two questions.

The first:

“How do I get it?”
It is very simple. I guess that is why it so simple to forget. Everything that belongs to the spiritual realm is contagious. It goes for the anointing as well. To spend time with the anointed one and daily receive the anointing of the Spirit will make a difference. On the contrary will neglect of such relationship dilute an anointing which once upon the time was evident in a ministry, and one becomes but an echo of a great past…if I speak with the tongues of men or angels, but do not have love, I am but the sound of a gong or cymbal.

The second question is a little trickier: 

“How do I know that I have it?”
If we accept the fact that there are links between the Word, the Spirit and the symbolic use of the sacred anointing oil which we see described in Ex. 30:22-34, a brief Bible-study will show us what the anointing does. If a ministry has one or more of these characteristics, we know that it is anointed:

• Confrontation of the inner man

Oil has an amazing effect of penetration e.g. into fabric. The word of God is anointed and does the same with men: Heb. 4:12-13. An anointed ministry is recognized by the fact that it reaches the inner man and leads to:

• Conversion from unbelief

When the anointing of the Spirit came upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost, Peter’s testimony made people ask: “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). The anointing had led to:

• Conviction of sin

When the Spirit is present, he will convince the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:8). I have on occasions tried to convince people about sin without much success, but I have also been together with people in the anointed presence of the Spirit, and they have grabbed hold of me and said: “Joe, I must confess my sins!”

• Consolation for the sick

The sick is challenged to call for the elders to be anointed with oil and ministered to (James 5:14). An anointed ministry will bring consolation and healing to people and places.

• Confirmation of the blood

The use of the above mentioned sacred oil included among other things the sealing of the blood from the guilt-offering in a cleansing-ceremony (Lev. 14:14-18). An anointed ministry will always confirm and draw attention to the redemptive work of Christ on the cross.

• Consecration to Christ-likeness

“One spirit with the Lord” (1. Cor. 6:17) “Oil will flavor the ingredients it marinades” states the recipe-book. When we flow in the same oil as Christ, likeness to him must be the result – a characteristic of anointed ministry.

• Contradiction of friction

Differences of gifting, of opinion and human chemistry can cause friction. “Now there are varieties … but the same Spirit” (1. Cor. 12:4). An anointed ministry will recognize and rejoice in the value of variety and make it possible to flow in the same direction towards a common goal.

These are but a few characteristics of the anointing. They may be present in theory of many ministries, but are they confirmed by hard facts?

The Z-factor
No other church has a terminology which so evidently recognizes the reality of spiritual warfare as does the Salvation Army. I want to call this the Z-factor. The subject is controversial and will always remain as such. If it is taken seriously we challenge the forces of darkness, and therefore it is in the devil’s interest to get us to intellectualize it. We leave it to the extreme elements in the church – “the ignorant ones” who rush to spiritual conclusions when there are situations, which are hard to explain; while we strive to maintain a respectable and intellectual approach in the hope to at least save our reputation.

It is very dangerous when the terminology is right, but when challenged it is mere words. Have we become an Army capable of performing a nice parade, but useless when it comes to a spiritual combat?

I must confess that the seriousness and reality of this subject has been a discovery of more recent date in my life. Through the prayer-ministry in the city, which we have just left, we discovered how prayers had concrete influence in the daily life of the city. As we prayed, physical and spiritual counterattacks became part of the situation, and made us realize that we need to learn more about the Z-factor. We do not know enough about questions like e.g. territorial spirits, how to operate in cooperation with the angelic forces, our fellow servants (Rev. 19:10) and so on. Space prevents me from writing more about the subject in this article, but there is a fight to be fought, and may be I will return with more in a later issue.

Mission accomplished?
No, there is still a work to be done and we have to continue to work on the variables.

• The X-factor – how I deal with the challenges to develop my own skills and capacities.
• The Y-factor – how I attend to and nurture the relationship with the Anointed One and flows with Him.
• The Z-factor – how I deal with the real challenge in the spiritual realms.

May God give us the desired result wherever our field of mission is!

The prophetic voice of the Army

Published in “The Officer” Jan/Feb 2004

It was impossible to resist the challenge put forward in ”The Officer” in Sept. 2003 to write about our movement’s prophetic ministry. There are various reasons for my personal interest in the topic:

• The word of God has a definite appeal to: “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy” (1. Cor. 14:1)
• Through history there has very often been a prophetic period preceding revivals and renewals.
• Since the reformation, we have had an ongoing renaissance of the ministry-gifts listed in Eph. 4:11 – starting with the pastoral and teaching gifts growing into the ministry of the great evangelists, continuing into our own time where we on a broad base are rediscovering the ministries of the prophet and the apostle.
•  Moving on to the personal level, God has used the prophetic word to keep me in line with his will in my own ministry. I could have written a long testimony (may be a whole book?) about how God generously has intervened on many occasions through his own word and through people equipped with the gift of the Spirit to prophecy.
• Furthermore, I had a personal experience in 1994 that changed my personal ministry an added a new prophetic dimension to it. I do not regret the blessing of that particular encounter with God, but occasionally the anguish and burden following the prompting to share a word, is of such a character that even the knowledge that it might do some good is but a small encouragement in the internal battle. It is impossible to enter into the sphere of the prophetic without realising both its great potential for release and the incorporate danger of manipulation. But it would be disastrous if a fear to fail should prevent the gifts from being used in the church. Only a careful and ongoing teaching on the prophetic can prepare both the deliverer and the receiver of a message in such a way that misunderstandings can be prevented. Because “we know in part and we prophesy in part” (1. Cor. 13:9)
• I have seen how the use of an external person with a prophetic ministry in our corps has helped particularly the younger generations to seek a deeper relationship with God and gain a more sincere awareness of a calling to go and make disciples.
•  I see that the Army in many countries has a high sense of credibility in the consciousness of the public, and therefore has a God-given opportunity and therefore a responsibility to be a prophetic voice in the society.

A prophetic voice

Within our own movement we will find different interpretations of a “prophetic voice”, and they do not necessarily contradict one another. We e.g. understand it as

• a clear proclamation of the Word of God

I do not think that anyone will argue against such an understanding. Our Bible contains the prophetic word, and one may even suggest that the whole scripture is prophetic. Therefore a call to Salvationists to raise the “prophetic voice” through a conscious and sound proclamation of the Word of God would be very appropriate. Seen in this context every preacher will in some way take part in a prophetic ministry, and the receiver of the message may well experience it as a prophetic word into his or her situation. The proclamation of the word of God has never ceased in the history of our movement, but I need to constantly remind myself of the enormous responsibility I have as a “minister of the Gospel” to be true to its prophetic intention. May be if I always managed to do so, the Army would have been one step closer to “find its prophetic voice once again”.

• a clear understanding of the present time

When we read about the prophets in the Bible, one of their characteristics was the ability to interpret their own time and in turn God’s way forward. In 1. Chron. 12: 32 we read about the men of Issachar – ”who understood the times and knew what Israel should do”. Being a “grass root-movement” the Salvation Army under the guidance of the Holy Spirit will be in a position to see, feel and interpret the spiritual, social and material needs found in our societies. To bring forth God’s solution to this knowledge both to our own people, the general public and to the municipal, regional and national authorities would be a definite way to fulfil a part of the prophetic calling upon our movement. This was true in William Booth’s time and it is true today.

• an utterance of a prophetic word

Without entering into a long biblical exposition, I personally prefer to make a distinction between a prophetic ministry and an utterance of a prophetic word. I think that all believers should be encouraged and taught how to prophesy (1. Cor. 14:1) through the Spirit, but this will not necessarily make them prophets. When we discover the benefit of a prophetic message, how e.g. a couple of words can solve a problem in a minute that would demand hours and hours of pastoral counselling to solve, we very often realise how poor many of our congregations are on spiritual gifts. May be one of the reasons can be the fact that we are a “holiness-movement”. I love and encourage all good holiness teaching and long to see more holiness both in my own life and in the life of my corps. But very often a strive for perfection, gives us an obscure idea that we have to be perfect before God can use us – particularly when we come to the subject of spiritual gifts. But the gifts belong to the Spirit and are never “lend” to anyone as a reward or in recognition of a “holy life”. Neither the power of God nor the gifts of the Spirit are generated by our holy living, but are merely given by grace – the church in Corinth is an excellent example (1.Cor. 1:7).  A chase for “Christ-likeness” and a strive to hear God’s voice and feel his heartbeat for our present world should be a joint venture without dropping to the conclusion that the one depend on the other. Only when we discover this, God can receive all the honour and the world will recognize our message as an authentic prophetic voice.

• an act or a word from a prophet

I believe that God rises up people with a special ministry as prophets and that the SA has had and still will have more such people within its ranks. These ministers are not always officially recognized, but they are there and their gifting is obvious to many. I could have mentioned names from our history, and many people would have agreed to the description, but the recognition is not important at this stage. But I think it is important for us to release such a ministry on all levels of the Army from to time to time, either it be on corps, divisional or territorial level. Since we belong to a universal church, I believe it could be edifying even to use the ministry of non-Army prophets – as other denominations would gain from seeking the same ministry from equipped people in our church.

“Is there no prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of the Lord through him?”

(2. Kings 3:11)