Today is my last day in my thirties as tomorrow I will be 40 years old. I do not know if I should say 40 years young or old, but one thing I know and that is that it is nothing else than God's amazing grace that I am still alive. This is my sixth year of grace and I am not going to receive or accept any "middle age crisis". I have had so much crisis in my past that I want to trust in God and believe that the will be no more crisis in my life. Life is a walk, a journey and an adventure and we might go through hard times but the greatest promise of them all is that God is always going to be with us. In my past I tried to walk through the hard times on my own but it did never work out in a good way. Today I can walk through any storm together with JESUS and that is something totally different as HE has promised to take good care of His own people.
A heart filled with Jesus
Something I have been thinking about the last days is our hearts and I also wrote about this on my Facebook page the other day. I was studying the gospel of Luke and one thing that stood out to me and I believe God spoke to me through His word. God works in mysterious ways and our mouth speaks what the heart is filled with! (Luke 6:45)
One thing I already find is that we often let negative things, bitterness, hate, jealousy and other things come in to our hearts and when these things get mixed with JESUS who also is in out hearts we start to speak things that are against someone or something and this is not what GOD wants us to do! I am dealing with this myself and I believe we all do!
Why don't we just let JESUS fill our hearts to the maximum and pray for a deeper hunger for more of HIM! When we do so we also drive away the negative things from our hearts and we also gives The Holy Spirit a chance to convict us about who we need to forgive and who we need to ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness is a key in our lives as living in un-forgiveness can be dangerous!
When our heart is filled with hate our mouth speaks hate! When our heart is filled with ourself our mouth speaks about ourselves and our good deeds. When our heart is filled with JESUS our mouth also speak about JESUS and there is POWER in the name of JESUS! Power that can break a heart of stone and make it to a heart of flesh and blood! Our mouth speaks what the heart is filled with!
40 year celebrations & conference
Last weekend was the yearly Frank Mangs Conference at Frank Mangs Center in Närpes. Morgan Carlsson from Sweden was our guest speaker this year and he delivered some powerful messages to those who came. To me personally it was a great honor and privilege to finally meet this man of God in person, I feel we connected well in the Spirit and that is always something good.
During the conference our brother Trygve Erikson also released a new book with poems from the new testament for one year, something like a christian poetic calendar. Trygve is an older gentleman and a man of God that I love and respect. I have much to be thankful for, he is one of those who believed in me when I came to Frank Mangs Center for the first time in April 2008 and started my works out of there. Without Kurt-Erik Nordin, Helge Söderlund, Kurt-Erik Nordin and Frank Mangs Center together with my church I do not know where I would be today.
On Friday, august 10th I invited people to come and celebrate my 40 years together with me and we had a wonderful party. To me it meant much to see both my fathers there. As many of you know I met my biological father just a couple of years ago and this has been something big for me. It is hard to put the feelings in my heart into words but my mom and dad who raised me and loved me will always be my mom and dad. My father, now when I have found him will always be my father. It is still a bit confusing but it feels good in my heart and thats what counts.
Another wonderful blessing was 13 of my cousins from my dad's side who came and sang for me and spent the night together with us at Frank Mangs Center. Many of these I have not met for years, not even after my life did a u-turn from a life in the darkness to a life together with Jesus. It meant so much to have these cousins here celebrating my 40 years and I really pray and hope that I will meet them more often in the future. They are all wonderful people.
Also many friends from different directions came and those who spoke to me that day really touched my heart. Not only because of their wonderful words of encouragement but because of what Jesus has done for all of us, for me and for you and for changing my life to something I love. I love life, I love what I am doing and for the first time ever I feel good! All because of the love and grace of God!
This weekend was a wonderful weekend and I feel built up and ready for some action again. The summer has been busy so far. Now I am going to have two weeks off from ministry and spend two weeks together with my family being at home. I am looking forward to these two weeks as well as a busy rest of the year.
A busy 2012
When I have had my two weeks off I am heading to Lohja for one meeting and to Kotikirkko in Turku for one meeting. The following week Pastor Tommy Lilja is coming to Finland for five meetings and I highly recommend YOU to come out to at least one of these if you are near by. We are going to be in Seinäjoki, Jyväskylä, Turku, Karis and Tammisaari and it will be five nights filled with Holy Ghost Fire.
The following week I am continuing my adventure together with Pastor Tommy Lilja and we are traveling to Zambia for a five day mega crusade in the city, Lusaka. On the way back I am stopping by at one of the PTL-Ministries children aid homes in Addis Adeba in Ethiopia. This is a trip I am looking forward to and I have a strong feeling about that this will be something that changes my life forever.
Mission America 2012 is coming up in November and God is opening new doors in USA! I am excited and prepared for one month of ministry and meetings in USA. The rest of the year is busy and as I earlier said: I LOVE IT!
Have a wonderful rest of the summer!
Love you all!
In Christ!
Pontus
Frank Mangs Center are standing behind me as an organization and together we have decided that it is not wise to stand outside the open doors just because there are not enough money to walk through those doors.
Frank Mangs Center have opened up a new account for this ministry and we are now looking for people who would like to partner with us monthly. At least I would ask you all to pray for our work and for the harvest of 2012. You can read more about being a partner in finnish or swedish by clicking HERE.
