Thank you for the things you sent, which I’m sure will be very useful. I have now made seven plaques, and tomorrow I’ll send instructions to Kristiania with Olsen the gardener to buy thin pieces of wood, which I haven’t had until now.

You wrote in your letter that since you came home, you have only been to one meeting at Th. R.’s. It is absolutely shameful to withdraw from your ministry and, like King Oscar II, stop performing your duties. If we do that, we will end up like him—dethroned. The angel of the church in Ephesus was given the testimony by the Holy Spirit that he had labored for Jesus name’s sake and had not become weary. It is equally important for us to keep this testimony of the Spirit, so our weariness does not bring judgment upon us. Rev. 2:3.

When it concerns the body and sickness, we know that when Christ died, His body also died. In other words, our body is dead through the death of Christ. The body is dead because of sin. Rom. 8:10. We are now standing on resurrection ground, on the other side of the cross; therefore, the body is the Lord’s and is dead. Our body must be used for the sake of the ministry, so the body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body. 1 Cor. 6:13. There are differences of ministries but the same Lord.

When it is written that He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses (please read Matt. 8:16-17), that means that He bore the whole body into death. When the body is brought into death, then all our sicknesses are brought into death along with the body. Jesus did not suffer endlessly from headaches, scarlet fever, diphtheria, smallpox, toothaches, cholera, etc., but He did bear that body, which was susceptible to sickness, into death and thereby eliminated the sickness, because I’ve never heard of a dead body being sick.

We understand from all this that the body is dead and belongs to the Lord. So the Lord does with the body whatever He wants. When we are sick, this is connected with the fact that there are evil spirits that we do not have full victory over. Jesus’ death in the body removes all evil spirits from the body. However, an imperfect victory means it is possible for the body to suffer from sickness. You said yourself that you are most capable of spiritual work when your body is healthy. So your sickness is a direct hindrance to your ministry in the Lord. This hindrance should be eliminated.

The world is full of evil spirits. The other day, Br. Brungot imitated a helmsman who was half-blind in one eye, and immediately his own eye swelled up and looked just like the helmsman’s eye. The last time I saw Brungot, the worst of the swelling had gone down because he had judged himself, but his eye had still not returned completely to normal. He allowed himself to be used by an evil spirit of mockery, because he would never have mocked someone if he was in the Spirit of the Lord. Paul cast out a spirit of divination. Acts 16:18. A person has to make use of a lying spirit in order to get the power to lie, a thieving spirit in order to steal, a spirit of vanity to be vain, etc.—we could go on and on. In the same way, there are many good Spirits: the Spirit of prayer, the Spirit of revelation, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of power, the Spirit of judgment, etc. He will be the Spirit of judgment for those who sit in judgment and the Spirit of power for those who must turn back the battle at the gate.

We learn from all this that if we give in on any point, then we allow ourselves to be overcome; or if we toy with any of these evil spirits, then that spirit will gain some access to our body and will cause disruption there. You can see at a glance by a person’s outward appearance that they have a spirit of vanity.

However, I do not believe that you have adopted a spirit of vanity, but I do believe that to some extent you admire the things that are esteemed in this world. In that way you have allowed this spirit to gain some access to you, which in turn is having an effect on your body.

There’s nothing else for you to do but to firmly resist this spirit in faith, so that grace and thereby healthiness can take its place. Until you overcome this spirit, it is out of the question for you to become healthy. If God made you well before that happened, you would, with your healthy body, be even more subjected to the power of the spirit of vanity. The sickness is acting as a kind of hindrance and is therefore doing you more spiritual good than harm. This concerns you personally, but actually the situation is desperate since your ministry suffers and is not as abundantly fruitful as it would otherwise be.

From the moment you allow this to apply, the body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body, you will experience that your health will return to you like a flood, because it is most profitable for you and for God that your body is healthy. But if you allow vanity to reign, then prepare yourself for sickness and possibly an early death. For God is no respecter of persons.

I dare write like this to you because I know that you love the truth, since love of the truth is what saves us from death.

I wish you the very best. Try this spiritual remedy, and if it turns out not to be the right medicine, then God has not spoken in this matter. But if it helps, and you become more and more healthy as you get vanity under your feet, then the Lord has spoken, and you will be strengthened in faith and be better equipped for the work of ministry.

Very warm greetings to you and everyone at home.

Your brother in Christ,