The doors are closing - find your seat! The Word will either be your salvation or your judge

One day it is going to happen. The doors will close and the train will head for eternity. How it will happen and what is going to happen is beyond my understanding. But I do know that it is going to happen.

“When the full number of Gentiles has come in,” Jesus says.

No one knows when that will happen, but Jesus teaches us that everything will be going on as usual, just like during Noah’s time when the floodwaters came.

Maybe you’re one of those people who put things off. Like the five virgins Jesus taught about. They believed in Jesus, but they didn’t have any oil for their lamps. The Spirit wasn’t there and the train left without them. THEY DIDN’T HAVE TIME TO REPENT, OR TO RECEIVE FOREGIVENESS AND THE SEAL OF THE SPIRIT. Everything happened so fast. They would have been pardoned if they had called on grace in honest faith. But they just didn’t have time!

What surprises me is Christians who have been saved for a long time, but who backslide. They are gambling with eternity. They are living in some sort of hope that everything will work out. The question I ask myself is:

What are they doing with all of the teaching that Jesus provides in the Gospels?

The Word, Jesus says, will either set you free or judge you.

Then he tells several parables, and teaches from many different perspectives. My question to those of you who have become lukewarm is:

If Jesus comes tomorrow, will his Word be your savior or your judge?

None of us can live a perfect life; that’s why we have mercy. It rescues us when we fail. When you really are trying. When you get tired of yourself, because you can’t live up to your ideal, Jesus. Jesus knows that. He helps you in secret, he prays for you and his mercy sets you free. His goal is for you to spend eternity together with him. AND HE IS PREPARED TO FIGHT FOR YOU! The only thing he wants is your yes, your heart that says:

I am trying, Jesus. I am doing my best.

That’s good, Jesus says. Then I will do the rest.

But when you purposefully and willfully ignore the church. When you think there is something wrong with the pastor, the elders, the cell groups, not just in one church but in every church. Instead you get half drunk on wine on Saturday evening. On Sunday, when others come together to praise God, you are mowing the grass, speaking about the ones in church behind their backs and are actually quite depressed. If you were to look at yourself as reflected by the word of God, what would happen then? Who does that make you?

Because that’s what I think is going to happen the day you stand before God. He won’t judge you, but his Word will be your mirror. You are going to judge yourself! To an eternity with God or to an eternity in darkness.

My plea to you is to rethink your life! Mercy is on your side. Bow your knee now, swallow your pride and your big ego and let Jesus lift your burden away. Your pride is not worth an eternity in darkness.

Have you done that Tommy?

Yes, many times. I lie on the floor and call out for mercy.

Does it come?

Yes, always. Because his Word sets me free. That is the problem for many people. They call on mercy, but they don’t want to let themselves get set free by the Word. They set the conditions themselves.

His mercy is unlimited, but Jesus’ loving Word in the Gospels is uncompromising. It will either be unto your salvation or your judgment.

Upper-caste Hindus are volunteering for the crusade in Nepal!

Dear friends,

Sometimes this world is upside-down.

Our director in Nepal, Peter Rai, has just returned from Itahari, Nepal, where we are going to have a crusade in November. There are Christians there who are working against us, but the fantastic thing is that the Hindus, even upper-caste Hindus, are willing to be volunteers because they want to “see the miracles from Jesus”!!! That just fills my heart with joy! The whole town is getting on its feet, from businessmen to teachers, doctors, the police, the military, the socialists, the government and the people. What a party!

This is in Nepal, the only country in the world in whose constitution it has been written that it is to be a Hindu nation!

We are also going to bring a small team from Sweden with us. It is going to be very exciting.

Do you want your faith to grow?

Dear readers,

Today it was confirmed that Paige Junaeus will be coming to Sölvesborg at the end of October. She has a strong prophetic ministry and if you can, come to Sölvesborg starting on Thursday evening. I will also be holding a fall seminar on the life of faith, and we will be recording some new teachings for the Correspondence Bible School. These past few years the Lord has revealed to me and shown me how faith works and I long to see many people come into a life of faith.

We will start on Friday morning with a full day of teaching, followed by a meeting in the evening. Saturday will begin with a women’s meeting led by Paige and a men’s meeting led by me. On Saturday afternoon the seminar on the life of faith will continue, and in the evening Paige will speak. She will be the main speaker again on Sunday at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.

We are seeing explosive growth in PTL today, and all of that is of course because of God, but God works in response to faith. Not faith as performance, but faith that works by the power of grace. My goal is share with you how faith works in cooperation with God.

The method that Jesus put into practice and that he trained his disciples in was: to believe. Faith, Jesus said, can throw the mountain into the sea. As a believer you are called to live and have influence over your own life and your surroundings by having faith.

The chef cooks, the seamstress sews, the surgeon operates, the singer sings, and the believer…believes.

First: The Great Commission. Second: Theology – that’s the right order!

Dear readers,
As I mentioned a few days ago, there is a lot of work being done to prepare for our crusade in Zambia. In order for you to understand just how much preparation goes into this kind of event, our Nepal director Peter Rai from Kathmandu is traveling to Itahari, the location of our crusade in November, for the third time tomorrow. This time he will be there for a week.

All of our crusades are based on a crusade manual I’ve developed with the project name: “The agenda of the gospel crusade – 7 principles that will help us make a successful crusade.”

The manual works very well, as long as it is followed, which is the big challenge. So this summer I have also developed an additional guide with the theme: “How to go from a mini crusade to a middle or mega-sized crusade!”

Most of our crusades have from 5,000-25,000 visitors. The organization of it and preparations for it are intended for about 10,000. With this new manual, however, we can reach even more people. Yes, it will take more time to prepare, a bigger budget, more coworkers and more intense marketing, but it will reach more sinners! The goal is to fully permeate the city, even the larger ones, with the gospel. Everyone is to know that Jesus is doing something in the city!

We recently launched this new model in Ethiopia and Nepal, and I hope that it will begin to function effectively after 2 or 3 crusades.

Finally: A lot of people talk about theology. I believe that if you are focused on winning souls for God, if that is what you are passionate about, then sound theology will naturally develop! If you really want to win people for God, you ask Him for help, and He will help you progress so that your life and teaching are in step with the great commission. Do you see what I mean? Many people put theology first and the great commission in second place. Then the risk is that you dig yourself into a hole and end up in the wrong place. Jesus’ teaching is connected to the great commission. That was how he trained his disciples: learning by doing.

Join us on a crusade in Nepal in November

For many years people have contacted us and wanted to join us on a crusade. Now that could become a reality! In November, Bertil Dolfén, coordinating manager for PTL, will lead a team to PTL’s crusade in Nepal. Bertil has been trained in the “healing on the streets” concept. That means that you go out on the streets, ask people if they are sick, pray for their healing in Jesus’ name, and then ask them if they want to accept Jesus!

Under Bertil’s leadership we are developing a PTL concept with the same theme, that can work among the unreached peoples. That means that if you join us you’ll get to do street evangelization in Nepal and put into practice the laying on of hands in Jesus’ name, just as the disciples did.

PTL Street Evangelism

"Empowered by the Holy Spirit we follow the pattern of Jesus Christ!"

1. The sign: Divine healing, delivarance and restoration
2. The message: Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ
3. The purpose: Salvation prayer and a redeemed soul

If you would like to join us, the requirement is that you attend 1-2 training days where Bertil will teach on the foundations of PTL Street Evangelism.

Write to: bertil.dolfen@ptlministries.org

Tell him a little bit about yourself and why you want to join PTL in Nepal!

“Can’t we do this in Sweden?” you might ask. Of course we can. Bertil is even a part of a team that puts this into practice regularly.

“But, should we really do that? Shouldn’t we be careful?” But that’s what Jesus did! With determined steps he went up to the man at the Pool of Bethesda and asked: “Do you want to get well?”

Or Peter, who looked at the lame man at the Beautiful Gate and said, “Silver and gold have I none, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!”

I personally am in love with Paul’s words from 2 Corinthians 2:2-5: “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.”

This is something to think about in Sweden today. It is the power of God that brings about a new birth! It is, as Paul emphasized many times, a matter of – a new creation!

The photo above is from PTL’s latest crusade in Fall 2009 in Nepal.

The news about PTL has spread all across Zambia

Dear blog readers,

I’m back at the office after a vacation during which I combined work with time off. The final weekend of vacation I preached at some meetings in Öland at a wonderful Christian campground on the northeastern part of the island.

Right now my inbox is full of e-mails from abroad. Our first crusade is in Lusaka, Zambia from September 8-12 and many hundreds of volunteers are ready to help. We have a large music team and TV team, representatives from the government will be there, and people will be coming from all over Zambia to attend. The news about our first crusade, which was a major breakthrough in the middle of the Zambian jungle, has spread all across the country.

In October I continue to Ethiopia. In both Ethiopia and Nepal we have also started the School of the Crusader. In Ethiopia we are hoping to reach over 100,000 people in a single meeting for the first time.

In November we will conclude with two crusades, in Nepal and India. We are hoping to get a team together to travel to Nepal. PTL’s coordinating manager, Bertil Dolfén, is working on a concept called “Healing on the streets,” where teams will put healing into practice by the laying on of hands on the streets of Nepal. Would you like to join us? Send us an e-mail!

After Nepal I head straight for Delhi for a large leader conference and a small indoor crusade.

Jesus said that “no one who leaves everything for my sake and the gospel’s shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time.”

PTL’s motto in all of this is “One for all, all for one – He died for us, we live for Him.”

The challenge that the Lord has placed on PTL this fall is something that we work on together: you, me, the Holy Spirit and Jesus, along with the Father. The task is easy, yet difficult: Taking the gospel to the ends of the earth, to all nations, to set the captives free!