I have received your letter; thank you very much. On Maundy Thursday and Good Friday I went with Ellefsen and his family to Kristiania. We wanted to take a closer look and judge for ourselves what’s going on—what people are talking about and what the newspapers have been so busy covering. Br. Barratt is a man full of spirit and life, with no small degree of wisdom. I believe that he has received the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God; he had great power. Br. Erik is a true master in repelling attacks; he has learned the wonderful art of using the sword. Most people are very afraid of the sword. They imagine that they have more love when they allow themselves to be bound and trodden down by their enemies. They allow themselves to be struck in the face and to be duped by all the doctrines of devils—as if that is love. If that is the case, it must be love for themselves, the devil, and the world.

Things went really well. Barratt and Erik are just the right men to lead. After all, Erik has been through some fights before, in God’s power. If some unwise person shouts something out, then God’s enemies—lacking understanding—run all over the world spreading rumors about it. Something like this can happen among several hundred people. Imagine if liberty were given to just anyone to speak in the state churches; then I think you would hear a lot of nonsense. But now the discipline is stricter there than at Gimlemoen18, due to the fact that people sit “at attention” and hardly dare to breathe.

Speaking in tongues is, and has been, like shooting salt from a 10-inch field cannon into a crowd of people. All the world’s ventriloquists, from the time of Adam until now, have not been able to enrage the European press like Barratt when he came to Kristiania and spoke in tongues. Therefore, speaking in tongues is a magnificent tool—no wonder the devil is raging; no doubt he realizes that it is a dangerous weapon against him and his work. God has given me gifts to cast out spirits. When the air has gotten so thick with the spirit of opposition that you can hardly breathe, then God has given me grace to drive them out in the name of Jesus Christ, and the air has become completely clear, so that we can breathe freely. Why should the devil hinder God’s work? Hasn’t Christ led principalities and powers captive in triumph? Even after the spirit of unbelief has been driven out of the room, I have noticed that it can still cling to people. So there is a difference between driving evil spirits out of the air in the room and driving them out of individual people. But God will reveal more about this to me.

Last night, a Navy man prayed that the spirit of unbelief might be driven out of him. God immediately moved me to command the evil spirit to leave him; so he felt very good that evening. Br. Ellefsen is also occasionally attacked by the spirit of unbelief, which has troubled him for several years, right from the time he was considering becoming a free-thinker. At other times, Ellefsen can speak with great power. Br. Berg has been praying much for the gift of tongues. The other night he finally spoke a little in tongues; but since then he hasn’t been able to. In the Lutheran Church Association, they have been very busy trying to suppress and completely quash the gift of tongues in a 17-18-year-old girl. I heard that they had gotten her to the point where she asked them to pray that she wouldn’t speak in tongues. But yesterday she was at one of our private meetings and spoke in tongues quite beautifully; so the efforts of those who had been so busy pouring water on her to put out the fire have most likely been in vain, and their triumph seems to have culminated in nothing but a puddle.

Then there is the “trembling” that these whitewashed statues find so hard to swallow. God gave me grace yesterday to tell a little about this matter of trembling at the meeting. In John 11:33 you see that Jesus trembled in spirit. In Dan. 10:10 we see that Daniel was seen trembling on his hands and knees. Imagine if someone had seen Jesus tremble; surely they would have taken sides with Pilate, Herod, and Caiaphas in their vexation. But the current generation says, “Had we only been in the time of our fathers, we would not have killed Christ”; but in their eyes the disciples of Christ today are just as crazy and full of the devil.

The promptings of the Spirit differ. The Spirit works as a sword, wisdom, knowledge, patience, flexibility, faith, power, etc. It is necessary to become acquainted with the different promptings of the Spirit; otherwise you become very one-sided and misunderstand other promptings of the Spirit than those you are used to.

You talk about leadership. You all have excellent leadership. Just abide in Christ, and be hard as flint against all flesh, even if it is found in the house itself. Satan must never get his way just because someone shouts out loudly. Let them yell and scream—don’t budge an inch when it comes to the truth. It requires significant hardness, firmness, love, devotion, and courage to lead. A person must either lead, or be led—one or the other. It’s impossible to be neutral here. He who truly has the anointing of the Spirit must not allow himself to be led by a person whose entire heart is full of the world. God uses the power of those who are baptized with the Spirit to guide and lead the flock, and a person must give heed to such guides; otherwise they will come into conflict with the Scriptures. There is not a single assembly of people who have been baptized with the Spirit where God has not provided a leader or leaders. It is no problem to recognize the leader if you are paying attention. The leader is the one who, in spirit and truth, can help the flock in difficult situations; one who can overcome the wolf and defend the flock against external and internal enemies, who understands how to provide healthy nourishment and sound doctrine; the one whom the flock has confidence in—this is the leader. He who opposes the leader opposes Christ. If the leader goes astray, most often the whole flock goes astray. (Consider the angels of the churches.) The angel of the church is in the Master’s right hand. He leads with this. Even if everyone were to deny it, it is nevertheless true. You hardly need to spend much time in a flock to recognize who the leader is; but even if someone does not acknowledge him as the leader, he is the leader nonetheless. It is another matter if someone wants to be called the leader—such a person is carnal and will be brought under judgment and can’t last as a leader, because he can’t even lead himself out of carnality—much less the others.

Kristian is big and strong and healthy, despite all claims to the contrary. Even if he was a little sick when he was teething, that is not the same as being “sickly.” He can probably stand up for himself against most of his peers in both brains and brawn.

I received Aksel’s letter today; greet him from me. Greet everyone at home. Now it is high time to sever all relations with the world. If a person longs for what is great, he can find it in Christ, because all the treasures of the earth belong to Him. But He proved His greatness by being able to let go of the greatness of the world in order to show that the eternal greatness He won thereby is so much greater.

Your son and brother,

Captain Kielland invited one of the petty officers, who is a friend of his, to his home in order to ask him about speaking in tongues. This man had evidently received the Spirit of wisdom and revelation and speaks in tongues. He managed to help Kielland understand this quite a bit better. Kielland told him that he once had a good relationship with God.

They sit around in the artillery room, during breakfast, and read their Bibles.