Chag haMatzah Sameach kol beit Yisra'el to all the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) gathering for fwellowship and praise. The third, foruth, fifth and sixth days of Chag haMatzah (Feast of Unleavened Bread) are not compulsory assembly days or sabbaths so we are here voluntarily as part of this ministry's Spring Conference.

Today I want to focus on the work in Europe and in particular Scandinavia and then talk to you a little bit about two other centres of Messianic Evangelical revival that will shortly take place in addition to Kenya. We have had many fine discussions over the past few days and there has been no shortage or interesting theological topics that pertain to this end-time work. We were blessed to have a brother from Rwanda, a pastor serving both here in Sweden and in Africa, to be with us, and important new contacts have been made. We welcome our pastor from Norway who joined us mid-way.

Swedish Christendom has been rocked considerably by the defection of the founder of the largest charismatic organisation here, Livets Ord or the 'Word of Life', along with his son, to Roman Catholicism. Livets Ord has branches around the world, the biggest, interestingly, being in Donetsk, in the Ukraine, where a Third World War threatens to erupt. Ulf Eckman is not, however, the only big Christian leader to 'defect' to Rome - many in America and elsewhere are 'suddenly' showing their true colours, like Kenneth Copeland, but even political leaders like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. We are seeing the beginning of the fulfilment of the prophecy made by Yah'shua (Jesus):

"The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?' But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn'" (Matt.13:24-30, NKJV).

What we are witnessing now is the beginning of the revelation of the tares amongst the true believers and as the years roll on we will be shocked to discover who really was of us and who was not. As a ministry which has been in Scandinavia now since 1988, we have experienced the emet (truth) of this again and again. When I first arrived in Bergen, Norway, in 1988, and many had gathered to hear the message I had brought from England in the flat (apartment) of one of the men who would become a loyal member of this work and who died in the emunah (faith), Yahweh showed me a vision that I will never forget.

I had just arrived from England after the collapse of my first marriage and was very down. It had been a devastating experience and I felt a stranger in a foreign land. At the end of the meeting all the brethren - I would guess about a dozen men - formed a ring around me as I sat on a chair and gave me a blessing. As the spokesman prayed over me I saw in vision (for my eyes were closed) all of the men turn into white pillars, if memory serves me right. And then, one by one, each of the pillars turned black, like a light turning off until there were only three that remained unchanged. True to the revelation, all of those men, except three, would eventually fall away from this work.

Over the first years of this work we laboured hard to raise congregations in Norway - in Bergen, Oslo, Moss and a couple of other small fellowships. By the time Yahweh told me to leave Norway and move to Sweden, all but a handful of members had fallen away. Two moved with us from Bergen, one remained in Oslo, and the rest were my own family. Many thought they had found a 'better way' and tried to start their own church, which failed, and nearly all fell into atheism. One went off to the charismatics looking for greater 'signs' and 'wonders', another decided to devote his life to helping Jews get to Israel, one returned to the Lutheran Church, and so on. So this was, all in-all, a very devastating experience for me because of the hopes I had had of witnessing a revival. In retrospect I saw this was providential - that Yahweh had a purpose in it, that we weren't ready and that this early evangelism was a preparation for the real task that yet lay ahead. For one thing, we still had many of our doctrines wrong, and these had to be purgied and new teachingt received in our first years in Sweden. We didn't become Torah-obedient until we go to Sweden and even then we had to get out of the Messianic Jewish maze of false Talmudic traditions.

From the day I was born again in 1977, it took 40 years of intense purging to get me where I am, personally, today. This has not been an easy journey - it has been very painful indeed and it has cost dearly. It has cost all of us who stuck it out dearly. I hope that those who are reaping the blessings of this work today never forget that a heafty price had to be paid - it didn't all just arise in a vacuum. There was a lot of blood, sweat, tears, broken hearts and shattered health involved. Those who remained and are here still today bear all the scars of pioneers. We have lost, in some cases, spouses and family, which has been hard. We have misunderstood, wrongly judged, and sometimes openly persecuted. Our enemies have hury a lot of people. We have all, like Moses in Midian, been driven out by those who ought to have loved us and cared for us into the metaphorical wilderness. Yet Yahweh has worked good through all of this. We are not bitter or resentful for we have sought, and obtained, the grace of Elohim (God). The opposition hasn't, moreover, ceased, and we don't expect it ever will, but as veterans of many a campaign we have become toughened up. The last generation will have to learn the same, and more.

In the business of the building the Kingdom there are always losses with the gains. The Parable of the Sower reminds us that the Davar Elohim (Word of God) falls on the good soil of well-prepared hearts as well as the bad soil of hearts which are handicapped by sin and unresolved spiritual issues that at length eventually choke out the seed of emet (truth) planted. We have had our fair share of zealous and enthusiastic converts who have sworn allegiance to their dying breath but who, like the seed that fell on stoney ground, shot up suddenly and then died for lack of spiritual depth. Some of these have been extraordinarily gifted individuals but each of them was at length felled by pride. That's why yesterday I deliberately quoted Psalm 131 wherein David declared:

"O Yahweh, my heart is not proud, nor are my eyes haughty; I do not busy myself with great matters or things too marvellous for me. No; I submit myself, I account myself lowly, as a weaned child clinging to its mother. O Israel, look for Yahweh now and evermore" (Ps.131:1-3, NEB).

It has become plain to me over the years that pride is the greatest feller and leveller of souls. There are those who have come with great theological knowledge, with great missionary zeal, with great organisational ability, with the gift of drawing people, with this or that ability - people with all kinds of wonderful gifts from the Creator - but when pride has ruled their hearts, they have always fallen. Ahavah (love) and humility are the great sifters - oh, and yes, there are many who thought they were people filled with 'love' because of the passion they felt yet that same passion drove them onto the rocks and brought them to an unhappy end. Let us all be warned not to think too highly of ourselves and not to mistake passion for ahavah (love). Paul reminds us:

"Those who are Messiah's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Ruach (Spirit), let us also walk in the Ruach (Spirit)" (Gal.5:24-25, NKJV).

In this meeting room today there are only three souls of that original band in Norway and they remind me of what we went through to get where we are today. I could not have managed without their loyalty. And there are new souls here fired with a passion for the Kingdom, the seeds so carefully nurtured over the last 25 years have been planted in East Africa and they are bursting forth in good soil, strongly and powerfully. I know we envy our brethren in Kenya and Tanzania a little bit for we have desired what they have here, and yet we know the soil is not yet right here. Their nation was prepared, ours is not.

For as we have been told in revelation over the years, the soil in Scandinavia, in Europe, in America, and throughout the West has to be violently ploughed over by events we have no control over. The old Shavu'ot ('Pentecostal') age is over - it was declared at an end at Pesach (Passover) this year and the Shavu'ot (Tabernacles) age has begun. Forty years of purging of the Body of Messiah will now take place - forty challening years for those being pushed into the fires of purification - as the tares reveal who they are and march off to the drum-beats of the Babylonian World System into Catholicism, the New Age and into every perversion of the Besorah (Gospel) you can imagine. The Second Exodus has begun. For now the glory belongs to Kenya where Yahweh has chosen to begin this "restoration of all things" (Ac.3:21, NKJV), for the people are humble, and trusting, and ready. The West is not. The West is full of pride, and arrogance, and the cancer of wealth hoarded for personal gain and self-indulgence. The Western Church has to collapse in on itself and the true qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) leave the dead body and present themselves to the princes of Messianic Israel for service.

I would like to remind you of a promise Yahweh made to us in 1991, 24 years ago:

"I am sending the [spiritual] fire I have promised to the New Covenant (this ministry), says Yahweh, and I am burning My Church (Messianic Community) [spiritually] to see if she will stand. And if she stands then she shall go forth in power and holiness as My people, especially set-apart to do a marvelous work and a wonder. But only those who have sacrificed for her shall be a part of her, for only such will possess the keys to minister salvation to those in bondage. These are the last minutes for this degree of the Church's (Messianic Community's) sanctification, and blessed are they who will enter now for they shall go forward as the standard-bearers" (OB 300).

A year before this revelation one of the members was told:

"My beloved son, the path which you must walk is long, and many refining fires will greet you along the way. Do not be alarmed, nor fear, but enter each fire in faith (Mal.3:2), nothing doubting, and you will emerge refined and purified ..." (OB 252:6-7).

"Therefore pass through the fire in faith, nothing doubting, that I may work My marvelous work within you, and utterly purge you of your fallen patterns and ways" (OB 317:33)

On 2 June 2004, almost ten years ago, I had a prophetic dream about the work here in Scandinavia. So I am going to recount that again for you so that you may be reminded of what it is we are waiting for here:

The Three Ladders and the Child

I was standing on a very high ladder with a child, and though the ladder was no more than about four meters high, I was able to see far and wide as though on the top of a very tall building or flying in an aircraft. The latter which affords a high view, incidentally, represents prophetic vision - indeed, I was carrying three ladders with me - a short one, a medium height one, and the tall one on which I was standing at the beginning of the dream. I carried all three on my right shoulder as though they were weightless (indicating these are gifts) - two were invisible and (the highest) one was visible. The child in part symbolises innocence and purity, and is the child-like attitude of humility and trust that David spoke about in his psalm - remember, like a newly weaned child clinging to its mother?

The Burning Fields

The ladder was propped up against a large, typically red-painted Scandinavian barn. I was in the countryside. The barn was on the edge of one large field and beyond were many other fields extending in all directions to the horizon. As we know from Yah'shua's (Jesus') parable of the seeds, the field represents the world (Mt.13:38), and the seed which leads to a crop represents those who are saved. The field that I was standing in represented Sweden and the other fields were other countries around the world. Everywhere I looked I could see fire - in the distance was a raging inferno - vast areas of the world were covered in fire - whole fields were engulfed in flames which were, I suppose, beyond control.

The Swedish Field

Of interest to me, of course, was the field I was in, namely, Sweden, and possibly Scandinavia (since the Scandinavian nations are often viewed as one prophetically). About two thirds of the field was freshly ploughed and about one third had a well grown crop. I was in a ploughed-up area so there was nothing there that that the flames could burn. However, the area where there was a crop was definitely on fire. Suddenly, to my right, a tractor emerged at terrific speed and plunged into the flames, churning up soil as well, in a bid to put out the flames and prevent them from spreading. In this the tractor-driver was successful but he was going at such great speed that in places he was throwing burning vegetation everywhere and actually spreading the fire. A path of burning débris was 'dropped' near where I was so I had to climb down the ladder to put it out myself. As I was now on ground level, I could only see the field in which I was standing, as the others were obscured by embankments and hedges, representing the boundaries of the nations. The fire was put out in the field I was in but much, if not most, of the crop appeared to have been destroyed. The man in the tractor had by this time disappeared, his job presumably accomplished.

The Consumed Umbrella

As I climbed down from the ladder I dropped my umbrella which was engulfed in the flames below. The interesting thing about this umbrella was that it was no ordinary one but made of brown leather, representing the flesh or carnal nature, as leather is animal hide. It was a carnal protective device that was providentially destroyed. I left the area of the barn with the three ladders on my shoulder and the little child in tow to another place, but I will not relate that part of the dream here.

The Child as the Pure, Trusting Messianic Bride

The child is of great importance to the end-time work we are engaged in - you all know what the child represents. The child was female, representing submission and trust - she is a type of the Messianic Bride. That is what Yahweh has been waiting for from us.

And so here we are, as this prophetic dream is fulfilled. We will witness in Sweden, in Norway, and elsewhere, the destruction of nearly all the Christian field as believers get sucked in to Mystery Babylon. But there is a remnant here and they are looking for a rallying point. However, they have to be open to new emet (truth) and be prepared to let go of their false traditions. I'm afraid the economic collapse will not only be for the unbelievers - to bring them down into the dust of humility and to kindle a hunger for deliverance - but also for the believers. Ulf Eckman is just a symptom - there is the greater body of Lutherans, Pentecostals, Baptists, Seventh-Day Adventists, Messianics and Independents here who have to have all the dross burned out of them if they wish to come up to the Final Gathering and Second Exodus.

In the meantime we are throwing our weight into East Africa and wherever Yahweh opens other doors, as well as opening our own doors to Scandinavians, Europeans, Americans and others who are seeking for the fullness. We have some more purification to go through ourselves ... I think we all know that! So we need to get right now lest the Second Exodus moves off without any of us.

Before we conclude today I do have two other very important pieces of prophetic information to share with you. You will remember that at the end of my Pesach (Passover) address I spoke to you about a vision I had had of a compass which was pointing north and then, after considerable shaking, changed direction and pointed in a north-easterly direction. It was Yahweh's very first bearing for the first part of the Second Exodus. So what is the compass pointing at? Placing the compass where we are located here in Kadesh-biyqah (the red square on the map opposite), the compass then points to FINLAND.

Before I go on I need to explain, for those who are not familiar with Scandinavian history, that at one time in the past Sweden and Finland were a single country. Finland became an independent country after the First World War when it broke away from Imperial Russia who had acquired it from Sweden. However, Sweden and Finland, both Lutheran countries, may be regarded as a single nation spiritually. In 1593 at what is called the Uppsala Möte or 'Uppsala Meeting', the people of Sweden - that then included Finland - entered into a covenant with Yahweh to be a Protestant-Lutheran Christian Nation. Though the covenant has been broken repeatedly, the final act being the separation of the Swedish State from the Church of Sweden in 2000, it would still be true to say that Sweden and Finland are one country. Though today Sweden and Finland are a monarchy and a republic, respectively, the people of Finland still speak fondly of the King of Sweden as 'their' monarch. There are very close ties between the countries, Swedish volunteers fighting in defence of Finland when it was invaded by Stalin in 1939.

The reason I share this tidbit of history with you is because I want to now share a vision received by one of our brethren, Brother Gabriel Ljungstrand, in the late 1970's, which clearly points to what we are doing today. In the vision he was shown a globe of the world and across the entire planet small fires were bursting up everywhere only to die down again, returning the land to darkness. But new ones would spring up again, first rising, then falling. These, he understood, to represent revivals throughout the centuries and particularly in our modern time.

Then he saw FOUR FIRES arise, but these were much, much bigger than any of the others and, moreover, they did not go out. These four large fires were over Sweden-Finland (in Europe) which were represented as a single country, Kenya (in Africa), the Philippines (in Asia) and Bolivia in America (see map below).

When Brother Ljungstrand shared this vision with me today the pieces began to fit together - the compass pointing toward Finland, the Sukkot revival that has broken out in Kenya, and the promise of similar Sukkot revivals in Philippines (about which I have been feeling very strongly now for a long time, and where two of the brethren have been called to go by revelation) and Bolivia (about which I had received no knowledge at all until now).

May Yahweh bless us as we ponder these things and ready ourselves for our callings in our own countries and here in Scandinavia. There are representatives of several of the Tribes here - from West Manasseh (America), Germany (East Manasseh), England (Ephraim), Northern Ireland (Judah), Norway (Benjamin) and Sweden (Napthtali) - others will join us soon so that there is a representative from each of the tribes. Our prayers are now directed toward the awakening in Sweden, Finland, the Philippines and Bolivia. May Yahweh bless you and this assembly as we draw closely together in Messiah Yah'shua (Jesus) as we become ever more conscious of our calling. Amen.