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I am Florian Berndt. My wife Clare and I currently live in Germany, where I was born and grew up until I was in my early twenties. I was raised in the roman-catholic church and never came into contact, at first, with people who claimed that they had a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. So when He found me and entered my life when I was still a child I didn't have a clue of what had happened to me at first.
Even though my family was very liberal in practicing their beliefs I actually can't remember ever seriously doubting the existence of our Heavenly Father, even though I didn't know Him until He chose to reveal Himself to me in my children's bedroom so many years ago.
After having been enlightened I began to study the scriptures and read every christian book I could get my hands on, but above all I started to pray a lot and to practice my Father's Presence.
My childhood was not very nice and I suffered all kinds of abuse, leading me, later in my life, down some roads I wouldn't have chosen for myself if I could have. During my late teenage years I got filled with the Holy Spirit, and by this time I had gone through a number of denominations outside the state church in Germany, which I found out about after I started to look for fellowship. So I ended up in an old classical pentecostal church down the road.
Very quickly I started off as a very promising church member, being able to motivate people easily and witness to outsiders. This was also the place where I met my wife Clare who had come over from England with her mum. They both had something I recognised the folks in my church didn't have, so after things got though because Father used me to cast out a demon of somebody in the church, me and my fiance decided to leave and got married by a charismatic-catholic priest.
Because of my abusive background we thought it best to stay away from the area I had grown up for a while and Father led us to England where we worked for a healing and teaching ministry for a few years. While working in the healing ministry I had become very disillusioned and was looking for reality as outlined in 1. Corinthians 13. For even though we saw miracles every day I longed for the love that Paul described in this scripture. The whole charismatic/pentecostal realm had become a circus to us, not able to satisfy our deepest spiritual needs.
Some traumatic experiences that occurred at that time made us realize more and more that our neat charismatic theology didn't fit with the reality of life and did not measure up to scripture nor the longings of man's heart. This was the case until we both had an amazing encounter with Father, Who's Unconditional Love brought immense healing to this wounded and self rightous, German heart. A new area had begun.
Later on we felt called back to Germany to share Father's Love with the people there and experienced incredible miracles of provision, coming back to this country with almost no money. Since then we have also experienced great miracles of restoration and healing, but have also gone through the most troubled times of our lives.
After our decision to return to Germany lots of new revelations unfolded and we withdrew from church leadership in our hometown to spend time alone at Father's feet, listening to His voice and seeking His face. At this time I started to study the scriptures, as well as church history, on a more intense level.
Also I began to read everything I could find on the Fatherheart of God to confirm my experiences through scripture and being better equipped to share the incredible Love I had encountered. Shortly after that I experienced Abba's Love and Heart, not only for myself, but for all creation and for about two or three days I felt like being born again, again, unable to hate anyone.
Through one of the books that had greatly blessed me I became friends with a man who's own experience confirmed my new found understanding of scripture and opened it up to to me in a complete new way.
Suddenly everything fell into place and I understood that my religious upbringing had clouded my eyes from seeing what Father wanted to share with me all along, His perfect plan for the ages and His desire to reconcile all things back to Himself.
Later on we found out that there are many more men and women who have come to see Abba Father's Unfailing Love and who share our new found understanding of the truly Good News. As you can imagine many of them became very good friends to us too. Most of them call me by the name Floyd (now that's a longer story).
Since then we live in what we consider the wilderness and even though its a tough place to be sometimes, I wouldn't choose any other way then the one Father has chosen for us. Furthermore it is the desire of my wife and myself to share the Unfailing Love of our Abba wherever we go and to lead people this way into a vital relationship with our Heavenly Dad and His Son Jesus Christ, without all the religious bondage that we experienced ourselves.
To accomplish this is the purpose of this blog, and I hope that it will bless those who read this with the same comfort that the Father of all Comfort has blessed us with.
Even though my family was very liberal in practicing their beliefs I actually can't remember ever seriously doubting the existence of our Heavenly Father, even though I didn't know Him until He chose to reveal Himself to me in my children's bedroom so many years ago.
After having been enlightened I began to study the scriptures and read every christian book I could get my hands on, but above all I started to pray a lot and to practice my Father's Presence.
My childhood was not very nice and I suffered all kinds of abuse, leading me, later in my life, down some roads I wouldn't have chosen for myself if I could have. During my late teenage years I got filled with the Holy Spirit, and by this time I had gone through a number of denominations outside the state church in Germany, which I found out about after I started to look for fellowship. So I ended up in an old classical pentecostal church down the road.
Very quickly I started off as a very promising church member, being able to motivate people easily and witness to outsiders. This was also the place where I met my wife Clare who had come over from England with her mum. They both had something I recognised the folks in my church didn't have, so after things got though because Father used me to cast out a demon of somebody in the church, me and my fiance decided to leave and got married by a charismatic-catholic priest.
Because of my abusive background we thought it best to stay away from the area I had grown up for a while and Father led us to England where we worked for a healing and teaching ministry for a few years. While working in the healing ministry I had become very disillusioned and was looking for reality as outlined in 1. Corinthians 13. For even though we saw miracles every day I longed for the love that Paul described in this scripture. The whole charismatic/pentecostal realm had become a circus to us, not able to satisfy our deepest spiritual needs.
Some traumatic experiences that occurred at that time made us realize more and more that our neat charismatic theology didn't fit with the reality of life and did not measure up to scripture nor the longings of man's heart. This was the case until we both had an amazing encounter with Father, Who's Unconditional Love brought immense healing to this wounded and self rightous, German heart. A new area had begun.
Later on we felt called back to Germany to share Father's Love with the people there and experienced incredible miracles of provision, coming back to this country with almost no money. Since then we have also experienced great miracles of restoration and healing, but have also gone through the most troubled times of our lives.
After our decision to return to Germany lots of new revelations unfolded and we withdrew from church leadership in our hometown to spend time alone at Father's feet, listening to His voice and seeking His face. At this time I started to study the scriptures, as well as church history, on a more intense level.
Also I began to read everything I could find on the Fatherheart of God to confirm my experiences through scripture and being better equipped to share the incredible Love I had encountered. Shortly after that I experienced Abba's Love and Heart, not only for myself, but for all creation and for about two or three days I felt like being born again, again, unable to hate anyone.
Through one of the books that had greatly blessed me I became friends with a man who's own experience confirmed my new found understanding of scripture and opened it up to to me in a complete new way.
Suddenly everything fell into place and I understood that my religious upbringing had clouded my eyes from seeing what Father wanted to share with me all along, His perfect plan for the ages and His desire to reconcile all things back to Himself.
Later on we found out that there are many more men and women who have come to see Abba Father's Unfailing Love and who share our new found understanding of the truly Good News. As you can imagine many of them became very good friends to us too. Most of them call me by the name Floyd (now that's a longer story).
Since then we live in what we consider the wilderness and even though its a tough place to be sometimes, I wouldn't choose any other way then the one Father has chosen for us. Furthermore it is the desire of my wife and myself to share the Unfailing Love of our Abba wherever we go and to lead people this way into a vital relationship with our Heavenly Dad and His Son Jesus Christ, without all the religious bondage that we experienced ourselves.
To accomplish this is the purpose of this blog, and I hope that it will bless those who read this with the same comfort that the Father of all Comfort has blessed us with.
Florian has a blog in German which I don't understand a word of. He also has a wonderful blog on "My Church" where he has published a number of great articles in English. Here is the link to his My Church site:
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