I´ll quickly tell you some of the stories from the last days in Brazil. We went to a youth meeting one night. The youth had a full day at a school gym. They were worshipping, dancing, playing, praying. All the good stuff. We came in the evening and Chase preached to them. After that we all went around and prayed for them and blessed them. They were really really hungry! Many of them got very much touched by the Father. A lot of them ended up on the floor resting in His presence. It was good.
On our way our from that meeting, one of our interpreters, Paula, stopped me. It was only her and I left in there from the team. She had been praying for a man that had told her that his left eye was completely blind! She had me come over to pray for him too, and together we prayed for him. Sanna and Chase came back also and we prayed for him, about a minute or so. Then he opened his eyes again, covered up his right eye, and started reading a poster that was on the wall! Did you get that?! His left eye had been healed and he can see now!!! WOW! That thing right there makes me very very happy. Thank you Jesus for giving him his sight back. Great!

The next night Sanna and I went to preach in two different churches. That´s the first time we´ve gone to separate places to preach at the same time. It went well for both of us, but for us both it was also very different than what we´re used to. I love to preach a more evangelistic message, but that time God had me preach out of Malachi, on giving a good offering. That´s different! They probably expected me to jump around in there and preach up a storm. I asked God about it before I went to the meeting. “Hey God. This is not how Gary has asked us to do this. The church probably expect something completely different too. And I´m not used to preach about this thing.” Do you know what His answer was? “Well, are you going to do what I want you to do?” Oh yes, that´s what I wanted to do. I believe that the message came through well, but I also knew that there were people there who needed healing. So I did what Jesus did, and told them that if they didn´t believe the words that I spoke, at least believe the works that I do, so that you will know that the Father is in me. So I had everybody that needed a healing stand up and I prayed over them. About half of them got healed right there! One man came up and wanted healing for his leg. He was 80 years old! I´m not sure what happened to his leg but I noticed that he had hearing aid in both ears. I asked him to take them out and we prayed for him. He ended up hearing better without the hearing aids, than with them! Praise God. And he was 80 years old! A young boy had come to the meeting with pain in his left elbow. After we prayed, the pain was gone!

The best stories I remember from Sanna´s church was that 17 people got saved, and I two year old girl got baptized in the Holy Spirit and started to pray in tongues! Cool! Her parents came up and gave the testimony. The little girl had suddenly during the meeting, while Sanna was preaching, started to speak in a strange language that the parents didn´t understand. They were both happy

Monday evening the team flew home to the US, but Chase, Sanna and I was left in São Paulo, because we had booked tickets for the next day. By mistake. And it cost $250 to change each ticket. We stayed with Weslei Vianna, a local man that interpreted for us during the trip. He is really cool! A great man of God. He took us around the city, which by the way is extremely big, and also took us to visit his spiritual grandfather, Luiz Schiliró. Luiz has preached the gospel in 56 countries! He has been arrested several times for preaching. He was arrested for practicing medicine without lisence! And that was because he was healing people in Jesus name. So that time he was restricted from laying hands on the sick. Police officers came to the next meeting to make sure that he did as he was told. One of them came over to him and told him that his mother was very sick and asked him if he please could come and lay hands on her and heal her! Hehe, that´s really cool. We prayed for him, and he prayed for us and imparted to us. By the way, he is 90 years old now and he is still preaching. Two sermons on Sunday in a few days.

The car drive to the airport was something I will never forget! If I had videotaped it I could have watched it every Saturday with a bowl of popcorn. It was exhilaration! Weslei drove very fast through the city of São Paulo, and he was on the sidewalk, driving against the direction and darted back and forth. Half of the time he didn´t even know where we were and had to change direction when he saw signs street names that he recognized. And São Paulo is so big that it´s almost impossible to know the whole city! It was really cool though, and he got us to the airport in time. Even though it looked impossible. Sanna preached on having faith, while we were in the car and she kept giving us hope Wonderful woman

Brazil is great! God bless you.

I should have written this yesterday when we came back home but we were so tired after a very long day so I put it off until now. I´ll make it quick We had an awesome meeting yesterday morning. It was for pastors and leaders in Bauru. Rafaela Silveira taught in words of knowledge and it was great teaching. When she was done she had people come up who had received words of knowledge during the meeting. I will write more about words of knowledge at a later time, but for now I´ll just explain in very easily; it´s when God tells us about somebody´s pain, sickness, need or something else He wants to do. The people that shared got together with the persons it was for and prayed for them. It was amazing! We received some words about revival in Norway! Hallelujah! Sanna and I really look forward to go back to Norway and see what God will do there for our country. Pray for revival everybody!

In the evening Sanna was going to preach. It didn´t look like we were going to get to the church at all last night. We were scheduled to be picked up at 7:30 pm, but nobody showed up. We waited an hour and then they came. We didn´t know why they were late, because they never told us Maybe they started an hour later then we thought? The church was the best we´ve been to down here! I don´t remember last time I´ve been in such an amazing church! It was glorious!! I was on the floor after the worship and they put a blanket over me. Sanna introduced her husband as “the guy under the blanket”… She was awesome! I have heard her preach before and it has been good. This time it was incredible!!! Jim was with us again, and also a lady named Nora. The three of us kept looking at each other and stare in amazement at her. She was so filled with the Holy Spirit. It was about 100 people in the church, and about 80 of them came forward to rededicate their lives to the Lord. Not that they weren´t Christians, but the message she spoke made them want to sell out even more to the Lord. Give Him everything they have.

Sanna was really lifted up into the next level of anointing and authority. As her husband, I just marvelled at what God did with her during the meeting. That church will never be the same. My wife rocks!!

The first to get up to us was a young boy and his family. He was about 5 or 6 years old. His problem was that he had difficulties with breathing. His sinuses was clogged up and his throat was too narrow to breath easily. He needed God to open up his respiratory system in his throat. He also had pain in his right upper leg. As Paula and I prayed for him his family started to weep. After a short while I asked him to breath deeply repeated times. It was no problem for him anymore! Tears started welling up in my eyes and all of us stood there crying. I just took that boy in my arms and held him for a long time, both of us crying out of joy. God, you are soooo good! Thank you so much for healing him. His leg had no pain either. I saw him around later too, and he was smiling huge every time he looked at me.

Boy healed of respiratory problem

There was a woman that came up who had back, neck and shoulder pain. After praying for her without the pain to go I had a word of knowledge about one of her legs being shorter. I just told her to sit down and then I took her feet in my hands and checked and found out that the right leg actually was a centimeter shorter. That caused her back to hurt and it had moved up to the neck and shoulders! She knew about her shorter leg, so that was confirmation to me. We prayed for her, and after about 5 seconds the leg grew out again in my hands!!! That was crazy! She got up, we prayed for her back again, and the pain left her! Yeah, God!

A man had been given a word in 1997 that he would have the gift of healing. Yesterday Michelle had prayed for him that he would receive that. I didn´t know that until after the meeting last night. I prayed for him and imparted the gift of healing to him and had him stay there with me and pray for people. It´s all about giving away and activating the people in the churches here so that they can do the stuff after we leave. So he prayed for people and at least 3 people got healed that we know of when he prayed. That is so good! Exactly what we want

I had a word of knowledge about a man with hearing loss in his right ear. He came up to me and after a short prayer his hearing was 100% restored and he and his friends hugged and laughed and rejoiced together

You´ll hear from us again soon. Blessings!

Sanna didn´t come last night because she needed to rest, so I was going without her for the first time. It was strange, but she got the rest that she needed and is back on the team this morning! I was going with our faithful team member, Jim, and then two women, Dawn and Clarietha, chose to come along and we had a great time.

It wasn´t room for much preaching in that church, because my interpreter had a hard time understanding me so everything took more time than usual. But that was not a problem for God. He made it very simple for us all. He had me talk a little bit about Jesus and what He did while He walked the earth. I said like Jesus, that if you don´t believe me, at least believe the works that I do so that you will know that the Father is in me and I in the Father. So by that I called out to everybody with shoulder problems that they could stand up if they wanted to be healed. God told me that there were people there with shoulder problems so I knew that they would be healed. 14 people got up around in the church! I prayed over them from the stage and asked those who had received healing to come up front to. ALL 14 CAME FORWARD!!! WOW! I just had to ask them again if everyone of them had been healed, and yes. They were crying and smiling and thanking Jesus for His healing power. One lady in her fifties were crying a lot, waving both her arms over her had and praising Jesus loudly! She told us that her shoulders had been inflamed and painful for a long time. The last 8 months it had become much worse and she was in constant pain! She still had to work to bring home money to support her family. She worked with much pain… Now God had healed her and she was so happy!! Clappy happy Later she came up with a child in her arms and her smile was huge! Thank you for being there to heal Holy Spirit. You are awesome! We honor you God. Thank you!

I also called those who had pain in their feet to stand up. A man that was healed came up front to tell us that he had broken a bone in one of his feet. I had just been healed from shoulder pain too and had been limping when I came up last time. This time he didn´t limp! He was stomping his feet on the ground and grinned. He was getting better and better during the night.

This was an awesome evening. Other people got healed too. God told me to do impartation too. The four of us in the team lined up front and people walked by us and we prayed that they would get the anointing and the gifts that we so freely received from God ourself. After that I had everybody who was in need of a healing to stand up. The others in the church was instructed to lay hands on them and heal them in Jesus´name. 10 more got healed!!

After the meeting we went home to a family from church to eat pizza and snacks. They really honored us and God blessed them for it. Thank you so much, Jesus. I believe that this church is going to walk much more in the supernatural from this day on.

Thank you so much for your prayers. You all have a part in everything that happen down here since you partner with us in prayer. Thank you and bless you mightily!

It´s a little past 5 pm now and we´ve been to a meeting this morning. It was for pastors and ministers, and we´re going to have a meeting like that every morning this week. In a couple of hours we´re going to have meetings in three different churches. Gary Oates, Chase Turner and I are preaching and inviting the presence of our Holy God to come be with us to save the lost, heal the sick and free those bound by the devil. It´s going to be very good! Jesus is always good! Please pray for us. I´ll update this note later to let you know some of the things that is going to happen. Thank you all for partnering with your prayers. We love you all very much!

Hugs from Krister and Sanna

Update:
It´s been a fantastic evening! The meeting was very good. God showed up, the worship was glorious, people were hungry. I didn´t know what to preach on as I came there this evening, but Holy Spirit didn´t leave me speechless. He really came and thanks to Him there were many people healed tonight! Our team, consisting of Sanna, Jim (our faithful team member from the Colombia trip in January!) and myself did impartation with everybody in the church. It was great! It took some time because there was over 200 people in the church, but it was perfect. We want people to be able to step into the things that we preach. Since they believe they also can lay hands on the sick and see them recover. So that was my focus. To help them see who they are in Christ, and what authority and power they carry as sons of God.

I had a few words of knowledge and had people stand up for me to pray over them. God sovereignly healed 39 people of various conditions!!! Jesus you are the saviour of the world! It was so great! One lady used a walker and had done that for a couple of months because of a knee surgery that left her off worse than before. She couldn´t bend her knee… after I prayed over her and some other people that stood up she was able to bend her knee again and she came up using her walker. I asked her why she still had the walker and so she tried to walk without it; and she did! Glory to God! She walked back and forth, better for every step. In the end when she was going back to her seat, she just folded together the walker and lifted it up! It was so glorious!

One woman gave her life to Jesus for the first time, and two men that had been walking away from Jesus, rededicated their life to the Lord. Tears were streaming down their faces as they had seen the power of the only living God manifest in their midst. They wanted to come back and walk with Jesus again. Hallelujah, there´s a party in Heaven right now!

After the meeting we were invited out to eat pizza. The translators didn´t come so we ended up with 50 people from church, with nobody to translate! It was both fun and interesting. The pizza was very good, even though we couldn´t communicate very well with the people there. We left 12:30 am and went back to the hotel; tired, but full of joy. Thank you for everything you did tonight, Holy Spirit!

We went to Walmart with our friend, Erika. The reason we went there was that we needed to get some groceries. That´s it. But we went there looking for a chance to share about how much Jesus loves us. The first man we talked to was 69 years old and was a baptist minister. We talked together about living for Jesus and how awesome He is. We got to pray for him and bless him before we all continued shopping. Then we saw a couple that we wanted to talk to and see if we could pray for. We just went up and asked them if they had any pain in their bodies. “Yes,” they told us that he had a regenerate disk problem in his spine and had pain there. He was on medication so he didn´t have any pain right then so he couldn´t tell us if he was healed after we prayed for him. He´ll know tomorrow morning! His wife had pain in her knee. We usually ask them if they can tell us how much pain they´re in on a scale from 1 to 10. This woman, Karen, had a pain that was about an 8! That´s painful. He knee was popping and it hurt badly. After we prayed for her once the pain dropped to a four. Great, but we wanted to go for total healing. That´s what Jesus wants for us. We had her husband pray together with us and ALL the pain left her! Thank you JESUS!!

It was so good! Seriously the best time at Walmart. But God wasn´t done yet! While we were looking for noodles (hehe, this is fun) we stood next to two women that work there. Cherryl had a bad knee pain so we just told her about the other lady that just got healed and asked her if we could pray for her. She was more than happy about that and let us pray with her. Totally healed of the pain! Betty Joe stood looking at the whole thing and we could see that she was being touched also. She told us that she had fibromyalgia and had pain in every muscle in her body. We prayed for her and seriously, she had absolutely no pain left!!! Isn´t God just the best?

One of the greeting ladies also had knee pain and was healed by Jesus. Jesus was moving through the store today and we got to partner with Him. That is so nice of Him. Thank you Jesus for using us! The last healing we saw at Walmart today was the check-out lady. She had wear and tear pain in her body, around level 4 at all times. I took her hand and prayed for her right there and the pain was nowhere to be found

Now, that was a good evening at Walmart. Sanna and I have never had anything near that happen before. We have prayed for people and have seen people healed, but never everyone that we prayed for like this time. It was fantastic! We have just been to a Power and Love conference with Bob Hazlet, Dan Mohler, Todd White, Gary Oates and Tom Ruotolo in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. That was a very good conference that focused on power evangelism. During that conference we really got released to go out and God has given us so much more boldness. Thank you Saviour.

On our way back home Erika asked us to pray for her jaw. It hurt and made it really difficult for her to eat because of the pain. Her teeth didn´t line up so when she bit down it was very tender and painful. We prayed for her for a couple of minutes and she didn´t feel anything change, but we didn´t let that stop us. God wanted us to press in a little more on this one. We kept praying and she felt some of the pain go away from her upper jaw. That was good! We wanted it to be totally healed though… After some more prayer she didn´t have any more pain in the upper jaw but it was still painful in the lower jaw. At that point she got really surprised and had a funny look on her face. “Guys, it moves in there! My teeth are lining up!!” Her bit was actually perfect! God healed her jaw and her teeth. And that was one the way back home from Walmart. Yay, God!

Thank you so much for reading about what God is doing. He is awesome! And He wants to heal you too. Just believe it and receive it. In Jesus name. Be blessed

MIRACLES ABOUND IN RIOHACHA, COLOMBIA

“This trip has changed my life forever. God has blessed me in ways I could never have imagined and I am more excited about my future than I would have imagined.” Sandy B.

Yes, the trip to Riohacha, Colombia was life changing — not only for the team who went with us – but for the countless precious people whose lives were so mightily touched by God.

Another team member said it this way, “The greatest part of the trip was the greatest miracle of all, the salvations and the ones that we will see in heaven because you were so faithful. The healings were beyond description…so many without pain. Many can speak and hear, walk and Praise God for what he has done.” Jim T.

A HISTORIC EVENT

“Nothing like this has ever happened in Riohacha. This is a historic event”, Pastor Loren said about the outdoor evangelistic meetings held on the main street by the beach. The police actually blocked off the street to accommodate the crowd of people! The place was electric with the presence of God as people came with great expectations. The local television station covered the event as well as the newspaper. The whole town was abuzz.

The first night attendance was somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000. The next night conservatively between 4,000 and 5,000 showed up. Amazingly, there are only 18 protestant churches in Riohacha (population — 169,000) with about 2,000 believers total! So a lot of non-believers showed up and hundreds responded and gave their lives to Jesus. We’ll only know for sure the total number when we get to heaven. By the way, the Police Chief was saved the first night and two more police officers were saved the next night.

On the last night, the event was celebrated with a massive fireworks display that could be seen for miles around. The crowd was screaming with delight. What a memorable experience!

PRISON & ORPHANAGES

In addition to ministering to the pastors and leaders in morning sessions, our team visited three orphanages. What a delight to minister the love of God to such precious children.

Some of our team went to a local prison and ministered to the inmates. At least 30 of them gave their hearts to Jesus!

THE TEAM DIVIDES

On Thursday and Friday evenings our team divided up to minister in different churches led by Rafaela Silveira (Missions Director for Gary Oates Ministries) and Krister and Sanna Turoy who are interns of GOM. The Holy Spirit was present to “confirm the word by the signs that followed,” (Mark 16:20). The response to the salvation call was outstanding as we watched 50% of the people present in the church rush to the altar to give their lives to Jesus.

The meeting on Friday evening was followed by remarkable healings as a woman testified that eight small cysts in her breasts had disappeared after a word of knowledge. Shortly after that the room was filled with an anointing to dissolve cysts and other people testified that their cysts had disappeared from their bodies.

That same night in another church, Krister prayed for 10 people with poor vision. All 10 were healed and could see perfectly! During the week there was a total of 25 people who were blind or vision impaired that received healing and can now see!

DEAF AND DUMB FROM BIRTH HEALED!

On the first night of the outdoor crusade, two deaf and dumb from birth were healed. The word spread and the next night five more came and were healed! Our team saw a total of 9 people born deaf and dumb healed! (A team member, Dawn I., prayed with 7 of them!) One girl was about 10 years old, the rest were from 21 to 44 years old! It emptied out the local deaf school! In addition to them, 9 more hearing impaired were healed, for a grand total of 18!

THE LAME WALK

A three-year-old boy was in an accident when he was 6 months old and was not able to walk with out braces. After prayer, his mom took the braces off and his legs were straighter. After more prayer, the boy was healed and ran into his mom’s arms.

A security guard was shot in the leg. The bullet went down the main artery of his right leg doing much damage. He had several surgeries but they could not restore his mobility. It was as though his leg died from the knee down. He was scheduled for another surgery in three days. The power of God came on him, he jumped up and ran to the front to testify and demonstrated his healing by twisting, bending, and dancing around. After the meeting a man interviewed him getting all the details for the local newspaper.

An eight-year-old girl with malformed feet from birth who found it very painful to walk was healed. She started jumping!

In all, 15 people who were lame or had difficulty walking were healed!

PARALYSIS HEALED

A worship leader who played the keyboard was healed of three paralyzed fingers.

A man’s paralyzed arm looked deformed. After prayer, he could move his arm as mobility was restored.

RIOHACHA WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!

This sleepy little beach town in the extreme northern part of Colombia will never be the same. The local pastors and leaders were overwhelmed by all that God did…and so was our team. They blessed us with an incredible display of love and hospitality. We look forward to ministering again in Riohacha next year!

On our stopover in Bogotá on the way home, we ministered in a church near the airport. That night 17 people came forward accepting Jesus into their hearts. There were many healings and deliverances. Several with hearing loss were healed, and one lady left the meeting carrying her crutches over her shoulder after being healed of an ankle injury.

These are some of the highlights that only scrape the surface of what God did in Colombia. What an AMAZING trip!

RIOHACHA, COLOMBIA MISSION TRIP REPORT
by Jim Tomlinson

Our team arrived at the Atlanta airport on January 20. We introduced ourselves to each other and waited to board our flight to Bogota. After boarding we enjoyed our 5 hour fight to Colombia. We had great anticipation as to what God was going to do through us. We are only vessels for him to work through.

After arriving at Bogota we had a snack and then we prayed over our rooms and went to sleep for the night. In the morning we had to be at the airport by 10 am. We arrived at our hotel in Riohacha around 12 pm. During our lunch we were briefed on what to do and what not to do. Gary then had a prayer of impartation for each of the team members.

Riohache is in the northern part of Colombia. Andy who is a friend and interpreter for Gary said it was also the most forgotten part of Colombia. It was around 80 degrees fahrenheit and the humidity was high. To the east is Venezuela and to the north is Panama. Our hotel was next to the Atlantic Ocean.

Wednesday night a 6:30 pm we had our first meeting in one of the churches. The pastor of this church was the lady that stepped out in faith and organized Riohacha for this week of meetings. On this night one of our team members prayed for a young girl that could not hear or speak since her birth. Our Lord Jesus healed her as the tears rolled down her face. Thank you Jesus. There were a total of 8 people that were deaf and mute from birth that were healed on this trip. God also did many other miraculous healing on our first night in Riohacha.

Gary had a couple of sessions of teachings for the Pastors and the church leaders of the city. He said that we need to seek the face of God and enjoy his presence daily to be effective as leaders. He said that as the leaders of the church go, so goes the church. People in the church know if the leaders are really doing what God wants and leaders need to be real. It is not what we say, but it is what we do that counts. Everything we do needs to line up with the Word of God.

Some of the team members went to the Prison in Riohacha. A man who had worked in the prison for 5 years, 3 times a week to bring the prisoners to Christ was the person that helped us with this visit. It has been very hard work for him. Around 30 prisoners received Jesus this day. Praise be to God.

We had the privilege of visiting 3 orphanages. Some young Indian girls and an Indian boy did a traditional Indian dance for us. One of the team members had brought some stuffed toy lions. The kids fell in love with these. Jesus loves each boy and girl. We pray that each one may reach the potential for which they were created.

A service goes as follows. Gary gives a teaching on the word of God. We then have words of knowledge and Gary then prayers for the people that stand up for these words of knowledge. Next the people that are healed give testimony as to what God did for them. Gary then comes to the most important part of the service. Those that want salvation are asked to come forward. The local pastor then leads them in the prayer of Salvation. Then team members are available for pray for individual needs.

God worked greatly while we were in Riohacha and one night in a Bogota church. There were many inner healings, many physical healings and much deliverance. There were many salvations, which is the greatest miracle. The miracle of salvation is also an eternal work of God. We were a small team that God put together. Each team member was different and gifted differently. However, we all wanted to see God work and he did. Praise, honor, and glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Only to God does the Glory go.

All the team members thank Gary and his staff for there help and humbleness. We also thank the people in Colombia that organized all the details and prayed. Then there are the other believers and the people of these cities that were so hungry for God. We thank and love every one of them. Alleluia.

Dette temaet er noe som er mye oppe i media for tiden. Særlig nå på grunn av vekkelsen i Lakeland, Florida, USA. Jeg har valgt å skrive litt om mine tanker rundt falske profeter. Håper folk som leser dette benytter muligheten til å skrive kommentarer her, det er det helt åpent for. Jeg ber om at Gud gir hver enkelt som leser dette en større del av kunnskapens og åpenbaringens Ånd.

Paulus oppfordrer oss til å ivrig søke de åndelige gaver, og da særlig det å tale profetisk (1. Kor 14:1). Også Joel 2:28–31 forteller oss at sønner og døtre, treller og trellkvinner skal profetere. Dette er et Bibelsk løfte. Så at det skal være folk som taler profetisk er helt tydelig. “For dere kan alle tale profetisk, én etter én, slik at alle kan lære og alle bli formant.” (1. Kor 14:31) Dette skriver jeg for å få tydelig frem at det er Bibelsk og etter Guds ønske og plan at mennesker skal profetere. Dermed er det ekte profeter i verden i dag. Som er fulle av Guds Ånd. “Den som tar imot en profet fordi han er en profet, skal få en profets lønn.” (Matt 10:41a)

Jeg tror at det er veldig mange i dag som er så redde for de falske profetene som Jesus snakker om, at de ikke er i stand til å ta imot ekte profeter engang. Profetene som Gud sendte til Israelsfolket i Gamle Testamentet ble også avvist, forfulgt, latterliggjort og drept. Slik har det vært i alle tider, og historien gjentar seg i vår tid.

“Døm ikke, for at dere ikke skal bli dømt. For med den dommen dere dømmer, skal dere selv bli dømt. Og med det målet dere måler opp med, skal det bli målt opp tilbake for dere.” Matt 7:1–2. Dette står i det samme kapittelet som Jesus advarer mot de falske profetene. Vi må være våken åndelig og prøve det som blir sagt av de som sier de taler ord fra Gud, men vi må også vokte oss så vi ikke dømmer noen!

I boken “Så sier Herren?” av John Bevere blir det forsøkt definert hva en profet er: “En profet er et guddommelig talerør. Å tale profetisk er å tale ved guddommelig inspirasjon. Det er å gi Guds budskap til et enkeltmenneske, en gruppe, en nasjon eller en generasjon. Det kan bringe ledelse, korrigering, advarsel, oppmuntring eller veiledning. Men en ting er sikkert: Det vil alltid lede mottakerne til Guds hjerte og veier.” Han definere også falske profeter som en som kommer i Guds navn med sine egne motiver. En falsk profet vil bruke gaven som Gud har betrodd ham for å fullføre sine egne hensikter.

I Matteus 7:15–20 står det om falske profeter og Jesus advarer oss mot dem. Han sier at de skal prøves på fruktene. Kan vel et dårlig tre bære god frukt? Her sier Han kort sagt at en falsk profet ikke kan bære god frukt. Men hva er den gode frukten? At de drar mennesker inn til Guds hjerte. Dersom de ikke gjør det, men heller profeterer og med det drar mennesker til seg selv kan det sies at de er falske profeter. Jesus avslutter med å si at vi derfor skal kjenne dem på fruktene.

Deretter går Jesus over til å si at ikke alle som sier “Herre, Herre” skal komme inn i himlenes rike i Matt 7:21–23. “Ikke alle som sier til Meg: “Herre, Herre,” skal komme inn i himlenes rike, med den som gjør Min himmelske Fars vilje. Mange skal si til Meg på den dag: “Herre, Herre, har vi ikke profetert i Ditt navn, drevet ut memoner i Ditt navn og gjort mange kraftige gjerninger i Ditt navn?” Men da skal Jeg bekjenne for dem: “Jeg har aldri kjent dere. Gå bort fra Meg, dere som driver med lovløshet!””.
Disse versene blir ofte tatt med når en snakker om falske profeter fordi det står i vers 22 at de har “profetert i Ditt navn”. Her tror jeg ikke det er snakk om falske profeter lenger. Grunnen til det er at det ikke lenger er snakk om noen som fører folk vill, men heller en advarsel til dem som “driver med lovløshet”. Det står at de har profetert, helbredet og kastet ut demoner i Jesu navn og dermed tror de at de kjenner Jesus og gjør Hans vilje. Men de driver med lovløshet! Ordet lovløshet betyr at de lever som om det ikke skulle være noen lov. Med andre ord så gjør de store gjerninger ved den Hellige Ånds kraft, men de later som om Jesus aldri kom med noen lover, som om de kan gjøre hva som helst og bare bruke makten de har fått men ikke sørge for at de lever rett med Gud. De ærer ikke Gud og Jesus har aldri hatt et intimt forhold til de, Han kjenner dem ikke. Derfor skal Han si at de skal gå bort fra Ham. Falske profeter derimot vil bruke Guds kraft og profetiske gave for trekke folk bort fra Gud og til seg selv. De er altså ute etter å villede. De vil fortelle oss at Kristus har kommet tilbake og prøver å lure oss med seg. Men Jesus advarer oss spesifikt mot det i Matteus 24:26.

Det jeg ikke forstår er hvorfor folk blir så skeptiske med en gang noen blir helbredet i Jesu navn og den Hellige Ånds kraft. Hva har skjedd når det har gått så langt at vi sier at helbredelsene som skjer må være fra djevelen? Har vi ikke da fått en altfor stor djevel og en altfor liten gud? Gud er stor! Gud har all makt i himmel og på jord. Gud helbreder også i dag! Og det gjør Han ofte gjennom at lydige mennesker legger hendene sine på syke og ber og de syke blir frisk! Paulus opplevde når han satt i fengsel at noen forkynte “Kristus ut fra ønsket om egen nytte, ikke med et oppriktig sinn..” (Fil 1:16b) men dette var ikke et problem for ham. Han sier: “Hva da? Bare det at Kristus blir forkynt på enhver måte, enten det er med baktanke eller i sannhet. Og dette gleder jeg meg over, ja, jeg vil fremdeles glede meg.” (Fil 1:18).

Det hadde vært suverent om vi kunne ta denne holdningen til Paulus og glede oss over Ordet som blir forkynt. Dersom noen helbreder, forkynner, driver ut onde ånder, profeterer osv og vi er usikker på om de er 100% fra Gud, eller om vedkommende som gjør det lever et helt rent liv, eller om motivene hans/hennes er på rett plass, hva da med å glede oss over at Ordet blir forkynt?! Er det så farlig om de som står på scenen ikke er helt lik oss selv? Er det farlig om de ikke har nøyaktig den samme teologien som oss? Selvsagt bare dersom det de gjør fører folk til Gud, gjør at folk blir sulten på å kjenne Jesus bedre, bruker mer tid i bønn, leser mer i Bibelen, evangeliserer for venner, kolleger og ukjente og lovpriser Gud og gir ære til Ham. Hva med å be for de i stedet for å forbanne de? Ja, det er utrolig mange kristne som forbanner de som de tror er falske profeter. Husk at “død og liv er i tungens makt” (Ordsp 18:21) og vi som har den Hellige Ånd i oss har ekstra kraft i ordene våre. Når vi taler i mot mennesker og det arbeidet de gjør, så vil fienden ta disse ordene og gjøre det som står i hans makt for å oppfylle det vi taler ut.

Vi bør be Gud om visdom og veiledning, be om gaven til å prøve ånder (1. Kor 12:10). Be om åpenbaringer på Hans enorme styrke. Hans vilje til å bevare oss. Mye av det som blir sagt i dag i medier og kristne kretser om falske profeter er basert på frykt. Dette er min påstand, men jeg mener veldig sterkt at dette er basert på frykt for hva djevelen kan utføre, og at vi glemmer til dels at Gud har makt til å holde oss oppe.

Vår Herre Jesu nåde være med dere!