Category: teaching (Page 6 of 9)

Dear brothers and sisters, I hope you are all walking closely with our Lord and Savior. For I believe that we are in the last days and His return is coming soon. As I have been praying lately I tend to let my mind wonder a little bit in the vast goodness of the Lord. During one of these times I was reminded of a word our Lord gave me back in 2002 or so. It was based on Rev.22:1-2. It goes “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” Wow, what a site to behold. It was at this point that He showed me that one side of the river where part of the tree of life is represents Milwaukee and the other is Chicago. So therefore, the river flows through the middle of the tree. this is where you would find Zion and the nearby surrounding areas.

God has a great plan for this area. The likes of which may be are to comprehend. But, thats ok because we are always supposed to be able to see all that He has planned. What we need to see is where obedience takes us. And that is to a place in His presence where we will get our crown and be with Him forever more. It will also take us to a table prepared for us in the presence of our enemies (Ps. 23:5). I had a thought about this table. During worship this last Sunday I had a vision of a round table. One where there is no place for anyone one of us to sit at and be at the “head” of it. Sharing this with a friend, he mentioned that what if there was a hole in the center and that is where our Lord would be. All of us sitting there eating of the bread of life. Drinking of the water of life and worshiping “the Word” as we listen to Him speak. Just think that this could happen and even greater. A place with Him that our thoughts would not be able to go to because of how limiting it is.

In closing I will leaves these reminders. That nothing is impossible for God. He is not limited in what He can and will do. And He is not bound by what we think or say. For remember that His ways are greater than our ways. His thoughts are greater than our thoughts. Lets not try to restrict God and just let God be God. When we do this we will have a closer walk with Him. When we are obedient we will not only see what happens but, also see the blessings that follow. Read and pray daily. Worship and praise Him with all your heart. Being ever mindful of Him who has given us life and a life more abundant.

Be blessed, Ken

Wow, it has been a long time since I’ve posted anything. But I do have a fresh word today, so here it is. ” My children, many of you have knowledge and understanding. Yet when you walk you are exposed. You only have partial protection. The enemy of your soul comes to take that which is most precious to me. Therefore affix my word to your heart. Wrap your heart in my word. For my word is impenetrable as I am impenetrable. Do this for me. Do this for yourself. The enemy comes. Are you ready for battle? I say these things that you may be prepared. My Love for you is great. Do this and live.”

The first part of this really caught my attention. The part about being exposed. When I thought about it I pictured a cartoon drawing. I have a nephew that is a very good animator, illustrator, and short film maker among other things. So I pictured him outlining one of his characters and only coloring the face and head. Thus leaving the rest of the body empty. Many of us are walking around with this head knowledge and having little to no relationship with the One who has given us life. Its not like God doesn’t care for He said that we are most precious to Him. After all, this word does start out with Him saying “my children.” And as children we need to be guided, taught, protected and encouraged.

In the next part God talks about wrapping His word around our hearts. He even said to affix it to the heart. This means to attach, cover and place His word. Two thoughts are here. One is the actual word itself and the other is Jesus Himself. In rev. 19:13 he is called “the Word of God.” So when you think about it both of these thoughts apply. Then He goes on to say that His word and Him self are impenetrable. They are one and the same. His word has not changed to fit the desires of society since it has been written. Jesus has not changed. In Malachi 3:6 says ” For I, the Lord, do not change…” Impenetrable as in the enemy cannot do anything. All his attacks against Him are useless.

The closing of this word comes with a request. “Do this for me. Do this for yourself.” So if you take a moment to ask yourself why He gives us an answer with a question. “Are you ready for battle?” The enemy is coming whether we like it or not. Satan can’t stand having God’s people prepared for battle. He can’t stand us who have a relationship with Him who Loved us first. Its even spoken of twice in this very word. “The enemy comes.” This is the very reason for a closer walk with Jesus. Eph. 6:13-17 talks of the armor of God. We need to not only wear it , but to wear it properly. To use it properly. And the best way to learn this is by walking with Jesus Christ our Savior. To “wrap” his Word and Himself around our heart. For I do believe that the time for His return is coming very quickly. Which means that things are going to change for the worst soon if not already. Attacks against His children are going to come more frequently. We need to become ready for the enemy. In James 4:7 it says ” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Choose a side and choose Jesus. Then you will not be alone in your battle. Jesus will be at your side when you submit to God.

I share these things so that you and I may be ready and prepared. Share this with others so they can be ready and prepared. Go about and walk with God because we are the Gospel. Let others read us and they will be truly reading about Him.

Be blessed, Ken

As I am sitting here figuring out how to put this post into words, I am reminded of how close we are to the end times. Politically, socially, environmentally and spiritually things are getting crazy. we have a President that was a businessman doing things against the establishment. Everything that was right growing up has now become wrong. We have more frequent earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis and changes in weather that don’t always make sense. Not to mention how the “church” has changed. The people saying that we need to adapt to our society for the comfort of a select few. Even though God’s word tells us a different story. The Bible is not a book that changes as the world does. It has remained the same for centuries. The truths spoken then are just as relevant today as they were yesterday. Which now brings me to the main part of this post. Back on May 7, 2017 our Lord gave me a word and here it is. My people I have poured out on you plenty. Some of you have received much, some have received little. Those who have much share much. Those who have little share little. I say this day “expand your tents so that your storehouses may overflow.” You all have need you all need more and I am the one who will give it to you. So, I say share what you have so that you may have plenty. I hear you respond with “Lord, I have need for my family. If I give then we have less and are in need of more.” Have I not met your need? Have I not met your neighbors need? Then give and it will be given to you. The greater you share the greater you will receive. And your neighbor will have a full storehouse.

The first overall principle here is that you can’t out give God. The more you give the more you get. What you are giving isn’t yours to hoard. God gives us this so that we will give it away. Remember that He has chosen to do His work through us. A second principle here is “Love thy Neighbor.” By sharing what we have we are doing just that. So, let us ask “what are we to share?” Well it can be food, finances or even better is God’s word. All of this and even more can show God’s love to this lost and dieing world. And oh how this all goes so well with that great commission.

But what has had me thinking was the part about “expand your tents so that your storehouses may overflow.” In this the tents and the storehouses are the same. They are us. We are both of them. When we take in God’s word we are expanding our knowledge and understanding of Him. When we pray we are gaining a relationship with Him. When we are in His presence we are letting Him in. The time is now for us to grow in our love for God. We need to expand our tents so that we may have more of Him in us. At this point when we are about to burst at the seams, we are to share all that He has given us to this world around us. All the while continuing to get closer to Him to have more to share. We may be the last chance some people have to get to know our God before the end has come. Walk, talk and share. Expand and overflow. It won’t be long before Jesus returns for us. We need to make the family of God greater.

Be blessed, Ken

Here we go with a follow up to the last posting. This is what the Lord gave me. “My Children I have poured out on my people. I will continue to pour out on my people. What I pour out is still sitting there. Not as many as I desire are coming to me to receive what I have laid out. Even the trees know to drink what I have provided. That they may grow strong. That They may be rooted and established. Yet, my people hunger and thirst but don’t drink. you need what I have. For the time has come , days are short. Eat, drink and be well fed. My people go about and lack nothing. I have set you apart from the beginning. Go share my word with those who need it. Give all away that I have given you. Come receive more and go back out. But start now, partake in me and we will be together. I in you and you in me. Go forth in my name.” The first part of this is interesting. The notice of His people letting His outpouring sit there. God gives us abundantly and expects us to go and share His word and love to this lost and dieing world. So why don’t we partake of His outpouring? Is it because we are afraid? Afraid of failing? We have the habit taking it all personal. Its not us they are rejecting. Its our Lord Jesus Christ. Burt because its us sharing we take it all in. It the same manner we need to be careful not to take credit for Jesus’ work in someone’s life. He makes the difference not us. All of this is backed up with the example of the trees. Two things come from this. One is that the trees partake of what is needed. Two is that they may be rooted and established. Is this why some of us fall away from Him? Is this why some of us are afraid to share? You can’t give out what you don’t have.

After this is the call to partake more. Eat, drink and go about doing His work. For we are called to do “good” works in His name. But if we aren’t prepared we will find it difficult to do so. Leaving us to try to explain it away with the thought of “I’m not an evangelist,” or “I can’t just freely talk to people like that.” Yet we all have a life. We work, go to school, go to the store and other aspects of our daily lives. All we need to do is live a life worth living. People will notice that we are different. And when they notice it they may ask us why we are different. This is now the opportunity to share is love and didn’t have to go out and make cold calls to people. But first we need to receive what Jesus is laying out before us. Eat, drink and be with Him. It all starts with Jesus.

Be blessed, Ken

It has been awhile since my last posting. I have found myself doing more things on a personal level. More than I am accustomed to. This is a good thing and yet I know that there is more to come. Which leads me to this. Our Lord and Savior gave me a word two Sundays ago that I have been chewing on. This word has gotten to me. I have been taking an inventory of myself in answer to it. Enough said, here it is. “Take this word of mine and take it in. The more you take, the more you shall receive. Take this and all my words in deeply. Share these words deeply. The deeper you receive, the deeper you can share. Make this an everlasting ordinance in your life.” When I  was given this word I was thinking “wow, how simple and yet so deep.” At first thought one might say no kidding. Another may say yea so what. But truly this is a wow moment. Many times I have thought of why I don’t receive these long and drawn out prophecies. I have come to realize that God doesn’t need to use a lot of words to get His point across.In fact Jesus even talked about the pharisee’s giving long prayers just for show and making themselves look god and important.

So here we are. Lets look at the first part. The phrase “Take this word of mine and take it in” brings me to John 6:35  where Jesus said that He is the bread of life and whoever goes to him will never go hungry. Jesus is the word. The word that was made flesh. How much of His word do we take in? How often are we taking in this word? Do we hunger and thirst for His word? For His righteousness? We can only take in what we want to. So, do we really want to? Leading us to the second part “The more you take, the more you shall receive.” Where is our hunger? Are we happy with where we are at or do we need to be taking in even more? I’ll answer this by asking a question. Do you want to be used in the kingdom of God and if so how much? These are very trying days that we live in. We need Him more and more each day. But, so does the rest of this world. They are in need of Him even if they don’t think so. Many of them don’t even truly know of Jesus. Or know about Him. Yes, many don’t want to hear anything about Jesus. Yet they have eyes that see. Looking for us to make mistakes. We need to be living his word in front of them Right before their eyes.

Now that we have been taking Him in, how far is His word sinking in? Take this word in as deep as you possibly can. Meditate on it. Ask questions in your prayer time. Ask questions of your elders and pastors about what you have been reading. Or even of what you are hearing from our Lord. All of this will cause you to grow in Him. Then you will be able to share even more with others wanting more. With others who don’t know about Jesus. You will be better prepared for their questions. Make this a habit in your life. It doesn’t happen overnight. But if you don’t start now it will not happen at all. Take your time and take Him in. Start this day a work of understanding Him. You won’t be disappointed. Remember that God has all the answers and is just waiting on us to ask the questions.  Read and pray for this is a great way to go deeper.

Be blessed, Ken

It was Christmas morning service and during the time of worship The Lord showed me something. That the seventh day after Christmas was the New Year. It is something that we all know. After all we have been celebrating the two holidays a week apart for what would seem like forever. Or at least since they put Our Saviors birthday on the 25th. of December. So here’s my point. The Israelites marched around Jericho for 7 days. On the last day the walls came down and they conquered it. For the first six days they marched around the city once a day. On the seventh day they marched around it seven times blowing the trumpets (rams horns). Then they sounded a long blast on the trumpets the seventh time around  along with everyone giving a loud shout and the walls came down. This is found in Joshua ch.6:1-21.

So whatever you have need for. Whatever or whomever you are interceding for, pray for it the next six days. In your prayers be honest with yourself. Start by asking for forgiveness and to be cleansed from any sins you may have done. This way there is nothing in the way of your prayers being heard. It will be a clear path between you and God.

On the seventh day pray seven times for your needs or at least seven times longer. Truly pray with all your heart. For when we look at the story of Jericho we can ask “why did they have to march around the town 7 times?”With no direct answer lets say it was a test of their heart. Did they really want to conquer Jericho? Did they really want to please the Lord? Did they really want to be obedient to God? Now put yourself in these questions. When you do you find something out about yourself and/or God that you didn’t know.

So pray to the Lord. Remember that what ever you ask for it will be given to you. Just don’t ask for great treasures. the ones like a new exotic sports car. These are the things that tell God you are putting money and riches before Him. For it says in the bible that you can’t serve both God and money. In Matt. ch.7:7-11 we have the “ASK” principle. Follow this area of scripture and see what God does. Have faith and believe. Don’t give up not even after seven days. This might just be the beginning of something great. A blessing He has been saving for the right time. And all He has been holding it for the exact time you need it. He just wants you to brake down some walls first.

Be blessed, Ken

P.S. If you don’t start right away thats ok. Just do it for 7 days starting as soon as you can. Taking you into the new year foe only a short time.

Well here is the last part of the series. In the prophecy it talked about the dark place. Its a place people often find themselves in. A place God doesn’t want us to be in. He said that in the words given me for this time. As with God’s ways, He gave us a way out. He said to look up and be set free. For looking up is to look up to Heaven and set your eyes and thoughts upon Him.

But I’m going to go back to the thought of being in a dark place. As I thought about this God started showing me things. In one instance I was on a boat on Lake Geneva for our Church Leadership appreciation dinner. Looking over the lake I was seeing the lights reflect upon the water. No matter what color light was shining , the same color would reflect on the water. This is easy enough to understand. For why would it be different. The water will reflect exactly what is shown. So, lets go back to the dark place and apply this principle. If a person is in a dark place and can’t find their way out, what are they to do. One might answer “cry out to God” or even “scream for help.” The thing is they may be doing it, but who is listening. This is where we need to be listening to God. God does know what is going on in People’s lives. He knows who is the right person to send.  For God does not make mistakes. There is a reason for everything He does and says. When He asks us to go to the person in need of help, who are we to say no. Remember Moses said that he was not good at speaking like that. So God had Aaron talk and Moses still went. Jonah complained and yet He still went to Nineveh. Both of them were obedient to what God wanted them to do.

Now when God wants us to go to help we should be saying yes. These people who are in a dark place need help seeing. They may be having a hard time looking up. They may even be having a hard time functioning properly. If this is the case we need to ask ourselves what colors are we showing? If you are not sure ask God to show you. Often we need to do some cleansing in order to show His colors. We can’t have anything covering them up. Can you imagine going to help someone and they can’t see the one who sent you in you. In this same thought . Can you imagine going to help someone and see the full rainbow of God’s colors shining from you. These may be the exact colors of hope they need. Colors that say life. colors that say His blood cleanses their sins and puts them in the past not to be seen again. Colors that say love, hope and that they are precious to Him. This is why we need to have a good or even great relationship with Him who has set us free. As much as its for us , its also for someone else.

We all have something to share with people. God’s colors are not limited to the “super” Christians. In fact its usually us who are not in the spotlight that can do some of God’s best work. Get close to Him and let your colors show. For when people see God’s colors through you we can tell them to look up and see where they came from. To see the author of these colors. Then they will be set free also.

Be blessed, Ken

In the first posting we covered the colors of the sky, water and the grass. So now lets continue with the colors of the rainbow. The colors of a rainbow are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, Indigo, violet (purple) and white. Some of these have meanings that are pretty clear. Red for example is symbolic of Jesus’ blood. White is purity. Purple has a meaning of royalty. Yellow or Amber is for the Glory of God. But what about the others. Green for life, blue for Heaven and Holy Spirit. Indigo which is a darker blue could mean covering. Finally orange, which some say is for fire. Many say it means separation. A person could go and spend a lot of time researching this and still not have a definite answer. For our purpose we will keep this simple. In these colors along with the rainbow itself we have the holy trinity. Colors that represent Jesus the Son of God. God the Holy Spirit. And God the Father who created it. I personally may spend more time looking into this, but not write about it. For the sources out there with some answers talk a good talk but I need to verify their statements. I know this may not be overly exciting. As the meanings of red, white and purple are easy to understand. Its just that the other colors seem to have many meanings and I don’t want to say yes this is definitely it.

This next part is thought provoking. The prophecy mentioned that they won’t always be there. The colors that is. So, why not? One reason could be the simple answer of death. When we go on to the next part of our journey we will be else where. Not on this earth and in this body. Looking on the colors as we do. Or it could reference some of the happenings mentioned in the book of Revelation. Of course physical blindness is a thought. Which brings the question of why talk about it if there is no clear answer? But there is a clear answer. That answer is to pay attention to it now that we can. Turn our focus to Him who has given us life  A life more abundant. We need to pay more attention to God then we do. Our days are numbered and short. Time is short to spread His good news. Start talking about the one we truly love. Plant seeds, water seeds already planted. Harvest time has come for many and the workers are few. This is mentioned in Matthew ch.9 verse 37 by our Lord and Savior Jesus. It applied then and it applies now. Even more so as people fall away or just don’t like doing it because they aren’t comfortable doing it. What will people say or think of me then. The real question is what will Jesus say or think if you don’t? It challenging and not always easy or comfortable. But needed none the less.

Please spend time in prayer. Seeking Him who gave you a reason to live. If you don’t have that relationship with Jesus than ask someone who does to pray with you. guiding you to the door of salvation. Letting you know how easy it is to open. If you know someone in this spot then take the time to talk to them about a life with Jesus. We all need strength for this time coming. And the only one who can provide it is Jesus.

Be blessed, Ken