This is what Solomon says in his proverb about a person’s heart, and for this reason he also gives the important exhortation that the heart should be kept with all diligence. Prov. 4:23. In a person’s heart there are many thoughts, counsels, and deliberations. These arise in a natural man from one’s human understanding, judgment, and feelings. Often these are based on what the eye sees and what the ear hears. If all these thoughts are allowed to take root unhindered in a person’s heart, they will determine that person’s life and behavior. Already in the Old Testament, there was a strong exhortation to be humble and to seek wisdom and the fear of God, so that they wouldn’t automatically consider their own thoughts as being correct and reliable. For example, in Ch. 2:2-5 we are exhorted earnestly to turn our ears to wisdom, to cry out for insight, to seek and search for the fear of the Lord—and for the self-reflection and discretion that will preserve us. V. 11. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” Prov. 3:5. “Let your heart retain my words; keep my commands, and live.” Prov. 4:4. “My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart.” V. 20-21. “Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter days. There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.” Ch. 19:20-21.“He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered.” Ch. 28:26. Now we live in the New Covenant, with infinitely great and blessed possibilities of keeping our hearts pure, and from there, remaining in purification and sanctification leading to greater light and greater wisdom. This requires deliberate effort, because of the Fall, and because we have a body of sin. There is so much that we are still unaware of and that is still beyond the reach of our light. There are so many things that—without even knowing or realizing it ourselves—can cause us to react in such a human way. This can make us stubborn and headstrong, and difficult for others to get along with. Prayer, humility, and godly fear are needed so that the ears of our hearts can be opened more to be able to hear what God has to say and teach us. “He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned.” Isa. 50:4. It is vital that God’s word dwells richly in our hearts and does its important work there: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Heb. 4:12. Just imagine what would happen if soul and spirit, joints and marrow were not divided—what would happen if all the thoughts and intents that arise were given free rein. The thoughts and intents of the heart must therefore be judged if we are to grow in wisdom and the virtues of Christ. This means that the word makes a division in our thoughts, and then there are quite a number of thoughts that we say a strong and decisive “No!” to. Peter writes that we should heed the prophetic word so that it can shine like a light, that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns brighter and brighter and the morning star rises in our hearts. 2 Pet. 1:19. The thoughts that come from “my clever head” and from my soul with its unreliable thoughts and feelings can then be rendered inactive, as Johan Oscar Smith writes in a letter to Elias Aslaksen on March 5, 1927: “In order for Christ to rule as Head, we must know nothing, understand nothing, and judge nothing until the One to whom all judgment has been given makes His will known. We no longer have anything to say and must bear the cross of insignificance, which is a heavy cross to bear for the one who thinks that they know something. Thus, soulishness is rendered inactive, and poverty of spirit takes its place. Christ as the Head is then put to use, and ‘my clever head’ serves merely as a receiver for Him—Jesus Christ, the High Priest. We become as one who knows nothing, possesses nothing, and can undertake nothing.” Keeping your heart with all diligence begins with purity as far as the light shines. And based on this acknowledgment that we have a body of sin, and there are many things that remain unconscious, a longing arises for more light, purification, and leading of the Spirit. We sense the need for the word to work within us and also for the preaching in the church, especially by the elders God has given us in our time. The light within us then becomes brighter and brighter, so that more and more of what is unconscious comes to light. And the glorious thing is that we can then work with it. What a grace and what a glory that the life that springs out from our hearts becomes more and more pleasing to God and more and more of a blessing to our fellow man!Jan-Hein Staal

A lack of fellowship with God often leads to a person becoming puffed up and conceited, which is highly distasteful to God and to godly people. God does not esteem those who are wise in their own eyes, and godly people are of the same mind. Job 37:24. [Norw.] In contrast, by continually maintaining fellowship with God and with His word, and by living our lives in God’s presence—before His face—this will cause us to be filled with the fear of God (1 Chron. 13:12), and we will constantly sense the Spirit’s chastening over our lives. Moses asked to see God’s glory, to which God replied: “I will make all My goodness pass before you.” Ex. 33:18-23. Therefore Moses did as God commanded and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning and waited on God. Ex. 34:2. When God descended and met with Moses, Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. Then he said: “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us.” This godly fear that Moses possessed, characterizes those who live in God’s presence. They receive this godly fear, reverence and humility in their lives. They also bow their heads and worship God. There, in God’s presence, and by the chastening of the Spirit, they are stripped of their high-mindedness, self-confidence, and self-consciousness. And this humble prayer is in their hearts: “Lord, may I find grace in Your sight! May my life be well pleasing to You! Do not forsake me, Lord, but go with me! I can do nothing of myself, but only what You work in me, I can do.” Ex. 34:6-9. Living in God’s presence, and in the presence of God-fearing people, is like a “constant judgment” over my flesh and my thoughts. Ps. 94:11-12. “The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile. Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord, and teach out of Your law.” It is only through God’s word that I can gain wisdom and instruction! My own thoughts are not only tainted with emptiness, but they are exclusively empty— they are nothing but emptiness! Therefore, it is a blessed position to be in, when God chastens us and through His word can give us wisdom and substance! It is a far worse position to be in, not to be “esteemed by God”—which is the case if I am wise in my own eyes. Job 37:24. Therefore, let us rejoice that we sense God’s consuming fire, and that He whose name is “Zealous” is working with me! It is a sign that we are loved by God. We are not left to our own devices on account of our own self-conceit, but God Himself—through the Spirit of truth—works with us so that what is nothing but emptiness may be replaced with the wisdom of God.Kjetil Evensen

“It’s the bride on her way to the Bridegroom; He has captured her heart and her mind.” WotL 393. It is an incredible grace to have received such a calling, but with this calling comes the need for a thorough education. It is this education that we are to receive now during this time of grace. This can only take place when our whole heart and mind are surrendered to Jesus. The bride must of necessity have the same mind as her Bridegroom. That was the mind that humbled itself. Then we are easily entreated and are thankful for all help and all exhortations. “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus.” Heb. 3:1. He is our forerunner and His life is what is to radiate more and more from our lives. In all the situations of life, we need to keep this as our focus. It’s the bride on her way to the Bridegroom. We are not to think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try us, as though some strange thing is happening. 1 Pet. 4:12-13. Why is this happening, and what is happening now? Now God is working with us so that we may be conformed to Jesus. In this fire that comes upon us as a trial, we are to be educated in order to attain our heavenly calling. Now we need to keep our calling and our salvation in mind. “Keep your calling e’er before you in the midst of trial and need. This you must if you’re to ripen; in the strife be glad indeed.” WotL 302. All these trials we face are God’s great goodness toward us. They have been measured and weighed with precision, so that we can endure them and remain standing and victorious. This is the good fight of faith! We should count it all joy when we fall into various trials. Jas. 1:2-4. How is it possible? It’s possible when we have a living faith in our hearts for victory in every trial. When we endure our trials it produces patience—and patience must have its perfect work so that we may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. That is what we are being trained for as the bride of Christ, and it is cause for rejoicing. There is much strength and self-reliance in us that must be broken down. And God undoubtedly has a greater work to do in breaking us down than in building us up when that time comes. He has our eternal well-being in mind. We are not to instruct Him as to what we need for our salvation. We are to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand and find the way in Jesus’ footsteps. “Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth.” 1 Pet. 2:21-22. Here we see the way in Jesus’ footsteps. It is in all these everyday situations of life that we find the way in Jesus’ footsteps, and the works that have been prepared beforehand for us—right in front of us. However, in order to see these works and walk in them, we have to humble ourselves, and it is precisely this that we are to be trained in: to learn humility. That is the way in Jesus’ footsteps, He who humbled Himself. We experience this humiliation when the light shines into our hearts and we sense God’s judgment over the sin that dwells within us. Then we must not become discouraged and weak, but without reservation agree with the judgment, so that the death of Christ may truly work in us. Then the life of Christ will come forth, more and more, resulting in a great blessing right where we have been placed. May our lives and our conduct truly be a testimony that we are “the bride on her way to the Bridegroom.”Kristian Bekkevold

“Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, ‘Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen.’” Acts 13:16. Paul then went on to speak to them about how God chose His people, led them out of Egypt with an uplifted arm, and how He put up with their ways in the wilderness. Then he spoke about how nations were destroyed by God’s hand, and how He appointed judges, then prophets, and when the people demanded it, He gave them kings. God did all this to help His people obey His commandments; He had thoughts of peace toward them. Without exception, God blessed them when they listened to His words and carried out His will. They crushed the kings and drove out nations at God’s command. And through obedience to the law, they became invincible. But throughout history we see that the difficulty lay in listening to God’s commands and obeying them. They would hold out for a time, and then they turned aside to dumb idols; they would not bow their necks, and God’s blessing departed from them, and defeats came one after another. All this has been written for our instruction. It’s easy to think how incredibly foolish they were not to listen. That’s true enough, but then what about me! Do I listen, or do I immediately forget how I looked in the mirror of the word? And I even have a much higher calling: divine nature! It takes a lot to get a person to listen. We are so full of ourselves and our own thoughts. We may sit under powerful preaching, but am I listening with the ears of my heart? Do I hear as a disciple hears? Do I listen to the voice that speaks to me about myself? What do I give my ear to? There is so much that would draw us away from the very heart of the matter, the very core of the gospel. In Isa. 55:3, He says: “Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you—the sure mercies of David.” I must incline my ear, I must turn my ear to Him; this is a conscious act. I must humble myself and be poor in spirit so that I can hear what He has to tell me. I have sin, and I must be on guard against that for as long as I live. If I forget this in my service for God, then I also will have left my first love for Christ. It is my actions that show whether I am listening. What is happening in my heart, am I cleansing myself? How can I learn to do His will without listening to what His will is, and how can the word be mixed with faith in my heart if I don’t listen? We live in the time when He speaks to us through His Son, and everything is naked and open before His eyes. Heb. 4:13. He works with great precision to give us the situations we need so that we can be formed into the part of the building He wants to use us for. When the time comes for the building to be fitted together, it will be done without the sound of hammers or chisels. As His will has been done in heaven, so it will be done on earth, in my life and yours. Let us wholeheartedly take to heart what God said in Mark 9:7. “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” Then, and only then, will we have an eternal future together with those who, throughout their lives, inclined their ear to hear Him and, through obedience to the Master’s words, kept a listening ear!Dagfinn Lindberg

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.’” John 14:23-24. Many people profess to love Jesus. They love to hear about forgiveness and eternal life with Him. But how many people really keep His word? “Judge not, that you be not judged.” Matt. 7:1. These are Jesus’ own words; yet how seriously have I taken them to heart? If I continue to judge and criticize others in my thoughts, then I do not love Jesus, and I will not come to fellowship with the Father and the Son. “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:15-17. To love Jesus is to love the truth about myself, because the Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit of truth. When I love Him and keep His commandments, I am able to receive the Helper—the Spirit of truth. By the word of God this Spirit helps me to see my wretched human nature to an ever-increasing degree and gives me the power to overcome the sin that dwells within me. This is what it means to walk in the light. 1 John 1:7. “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’” John 8:31-32. What a liberation to acknowledge the truth that it is the sin within me that is the cause of all my unrest! The problem is not with my earthly circumstances or with those around me. There is no need to judge the others, or to wish that they would change for my sake. It is only by loving Jesus, living according to His word and acknowledging the truth about myself that I come to true freedom! “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” John 8:36.Sverre Risa

“But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.” Rom. 6:22. What a glorious and liberating gospel. It is natural for us as people, to think completely differently, because we tend to see what the eye sees. Simon Peter was asked by Jesus, “Do you love Me more than these?” When Peter answered emphatically, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You,” then he was given a task to do. John 21:15-17. He was to tend and feed the lambs and sheep. My love for Jesus must always be greater than for those I serve or for the task I have been given, otherwise things will go wrong. Then it doesn’t matter at all what job or task I have been given. Then I serve God whether I am at home with my children or more visible in what I am doing. It is my relationship with Jesus that matters, so that the fruit of what I do results in sanctification. “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.” Rom. 7:21. It is when we do what is good, according to the light and understanding we have, that we are led by the Spirit of truth to discover the sin we have not yet seen. Then it is vital that love of the truth is burning and faith in victory is alive. Then we will get to see the truth about ourselves, and by acknowledging the truth, we will be freed from sin. May serving and loving Jesus be all our interest and all our delight, so that we allow ourselves to be saved and formed with thankfulness when the Holy Spirit shows us our unconscious sin. Then the result of the Spirit’s work will be eternal life. What a salvation to come to. What a life to live.Fred Olsen

In Heb. 12:27-28, we read about the kingdom that cannot be shaken. The apostle writes: “Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” This kingdom that we are receiving, which cannot be shaken, is the divine nature that grows forth: righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. On our journey on the way toward heaven, this kingdom slowly begins to grow to the extent that God’s word has taken effect in each and every one of us. The more of God’s word that is allowed to work on me, making me humble and attentive to the voice of the Spirit, the greater the growth of this kingdom will be. Those who are partaking in this development will also receive an anointing over their life and ministry, as the virtues come forth more and more. This is also evident in how especially good it is to have fellowship with such wholehearted disciples who have the kingdom of God growing within them. Johan O. Smith writes in his song, WotL 361: “Noble thoughts spread forth their leaves, and godly nature now does abound. This life-force through barriers cleaves, for all must rise to Zion’s ground.” Everything that is noble is of the divine, and comes forth through patient faithfulness to God’s word day after day and year after year. Then we experience that God’s nature breaks through and abounds. The kingdom that is within us, the eternal word that has been of help to us, cannot be hidden. This kingdom will grow greater and greater until our last day on earth. Everything else is shaken and has no right to exist in God’s kingdom. When I experience things that shake me, I must seek God for help. In such situations, it is my flesh, my corrupted self-will, that is shaken. It is not the divine kingdom that is of God that is shaken, but everything else that will not last. At the end of Heb. 12:28 it says, “Let us therefore be thankful and thereby serve God with reverence and godly fear.” [Norw.] In verse 29 it says, “For our God is a consuming fire.” We are exhorted to be thankful and to serve God with reverence and godly fear. We have a tremendous glory in store with a kingdom within us that cannot be shaken and that grows greater and greater to His good pleasure. There is every reason to serve God with all our heart and all that is within us, so that we fight for our calling and election. A fight of faith is needed to make this kingdom grow within us unto God’s glory and blessing. Then it is fitting to serve Him wholeheartedly with reverence and godly fear, so that we may be preserved in His love and goodness. God is a consuming fire over everything that does not belong in His kingdom. So seriousness and battle are required in order for godly nature to break through and abound. Then my flesh, which will constantly be shaken, will not survive, but instead this divine kingdom within us will grow. Let us join in building this kingdom unto God’s glory, which will never be shaken for all eternity!Rune Stadven

We believe that Jesus gives aid to the seed of Abraham. “It was as the Son of Man that He said, ‘Not as I will.’ . . . Once a person has learned these four words, it will become a tremendous comfort that Jesus was manifested in the flesh and justified in the Spirit.” This was written by Johan O. Smith. Now what matters is coming to know God’s will, for example: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thess. 5:16-18. When we pray, we learn to say: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name (not my name). Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Matt. 6:9-10. Here on earth, we receive power through these four words: “Not as I will.” “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin (that comes from self-will) which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Heb. 12:1-2. He began as the author of our faith with the words: “Not as I will,” and He finished in faithfulness, right to the end. Now His body is being manifested on earth—consisting of everyone who keeps these four words: “Not as I will.” “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.” 1 Cor. 12:18. And now His kingdom is being revealed through the church—just as He pleases. For we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, all who hold fast to the words: “Not as I will, but as You will.”Aad Bosma