The Power of Thanksgiving and Praise On Any Given Day

I had the amazing privelige of having my son Caleb with me as I taught at a Korean American Youth Conference in the mountains near Big Bear, California a couple of Sundays ago.  I was asked to come and speak on worship.  To me, that is like being asked to speak about the ocean.  It's all there, but what would you like for me to specify?  Also, do you have a week? Or two?  Maybe even a month?  I absolutely LOVE speaking about why we are made to worship.

For this crew though, I sensed immediately that we needed to start right the concept of identity.  There is an intense battle in this life over this very topic, and I could sense in the room that this very battleground was well tread upon by the time I arrived at this conference.  They were tired, and many were weary.  As I speak, I often times "hear" impressions from the Lord about where to go.  He told me, in the face of the battle over identity, to take this fine group of men and women right to Psalm 104:3.  It says, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and enter His courts with praise."  When you go to a concert, you are not going to get inside unless you give the person at the gate your ticket.  They are usually accompanied by large security personnel.  You are not getting in without that ticket.  Well, in Psalm 100:4, the ticket is a thankful heart.  This is not about a person at the gate saying to you, "NO!  You are not thankful enough!  Get on the ground and show me some THANKS!  Nobody is refusing us entry.  It is US!  To enter the gates that will lead you into the inner courts of relationship and intimacy with the One who loves you more than you know, you just have to posture your heart in a position of thanks.  SO!  What are you thankful for?  Try it as you are reading this.  Declare to Jesus as if He is standing before you, because He just might be ;), what you are thankful for.

This is what we did together.  I released freedom from fear of man and of rejection in the room, and released everyone to declare what they were grateful for.  That is when we started having fun.  See the minute you begin to use your most valuable weapon (your choice) to go after Him, the battle rages within you.  The tempest begins to erupt inside.  See, you cannot thank God for something if you don't believe He did it.  You cannot thank God for someone when you hate them.  You have to choose at the "fork in the road".  You cannot thank God for setting you free from something, yet want to stay right there in the very prison he freed you from.  The warfare surrounding thanksgiving is HUGE!  We remained here for quite a long time until we began to believe what we were saying.  Then, we ran out of the obvious things to give thanks for, but we were hungry for more to give thanks for.  We waited on Holy Spirit for more.  He gave each of us more.  We then began to thank God for things as He laid them on our hearts.  That is when we went to new depths, dark covered and protected places, and even places in our hearts that we vowed never to return to.  There was intense warfare, deliverance, awesome repentance, and breakthrough.  Just from positioning our hearts to give thanks.  All without music.

The thing about positioning our hearts for thanksgiving is that it prepares our hearts to see.  When we purpose to thank the Trinity for all that has been done for us, we begin to see with new eyes His wonderful character.  What I mean is that He does out of who He is.  His actions merely reflect His good heart.  He is the perfect Father, and as Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us, we see the Father (John 14, 17).  And as we see Him, His goodness, His holiness, His forgiving, patient, loving heart, it leads, through revelation from Holy Spirit, to praise.

As we began to praise God, glorify the Son, and experience Holy Spirit in our midst, things began to shift to action in the room. Starting with our voices.  We evolved in this time from tiny little Korean whispers, to ROARS FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOPS!  We were experiencing some true revival in our hearts of things dead for long periods of time.  We were erupting with life!  OUR LIFE.  Many of these young people had many many reasons for being there, none of which had to do with their choices.  As we were living Psalm 100:4, people began to take ownership of their walks with God.  It was becoming theirs.  They were experiencing God, encountering His love, and using their choices to go after Him because THEY wanted to.  That is REAL, and that is all we all are after.  What is real.  Or should I say, WHO is real.

Last, I sensed that the Lord wanted them to leave all things not of Him that they have been carrying up here in the mountain, not taking it back down with them.  They were making a stand, and only accepting the Truth from His lips that was setting them free.  So, I made an imaginary grave pit surrounding me, and I invited everyone to come and dump everything that was defeated that day on the cross back into the grave. That time was precious.  Everyone, young and old, staff, students, and even camp staffers in the back, laid stuff down.  My son and I were able to witness some massive transformation in about 3 hours.

Better than any sunset or sunrise is the dawning of a brand new little soul breathing his/her first breaths of fresh air in this world.  Even better than that is seeing someone born again.  Free, with testimony, and ready to spread His Fire by Word and deed.  What would happen in our hearts if we purposely positioned our hearts to give Him thanks?  Try it.  Then let Him lead you to the very places, people, circumstances He wants you to be thankful for.  Dare to let the battle begin, because He has already set a table for you in the presence of your enemies.  He is with you.  He will never leave you.  He just wants to free you, and give you all the reasons to worship Him.    

YWAM LA INFUSION - A DAY OF TRUE FREEDOM IN HIS PRESENCE

Yesterday, I had the awesome privilege to speak at Youth With A Mission Los Angeles, in a summer ministry called Infusion.  I brought Derek, a dear friend I am mentoring, with me to share with these amazing young men and women.  They were so hungry.  We started out by praying for a spirit of purity to be released over us, and we began to speak and even shout out our anticipations for our time together as we sought the Lord.  See, I find that it is always better to just invite Him to be with you, rather than to merely speak about Him.  The Word says to ask for the Kingdom of Heaven to come and that His will be done right here, right now, on earth as it is already being done in Heaven.  You, in essence, become a steward of the atmosphere and power of His Kingdom wherever you go.

A TIME OF FREEDOM

I sensed that God wanted us to go into a time of thanksgiving.  A thankful heart intentionally postures our hearts in humility to prepare us for His presence like never before.  I mean it.  Try it!  It causes you to choose thanksgiving over unbelief, over pride, over fear, over the critical spirit, over cynicism, and any other lofty thought that would exalt itself above the knowledge of the truth of God for your life (II Cor. 10:5-7).  If you want to war for your mind, for your heart, for the right perspective to have over circumstances, situations, or even in relationships with others, then be intentional to purpose yourself to look up and connect with God with things that you are thankful for.  Now, before you know it, you may run out of known things to choose to be grateful for.  That is because you are still on the surface of revelation.  Stay there with a heart of thanksgiving, and ask Holy Spirit to reveal to you more things to be grateful to Him for.  That is when He is allowed to go deep into your heart, to reveal wounds, unanswered questions, issues with others, disagreements, disillusionment, regret, fear, and on and on.  He will bring you back to the days of situations that caused these things mentioned above to be carried around in your heart from day to day.  Then, He will show you how to be thankful for people you still hate, despise, never want to see again. That is when the real tension shows up, because you begin to defend your stance on things, when, at the same time, you sense His love over you drawing you to a sweet surrender of your very positions and judgments to Him.  Before you know it, you begin to understand that the barriers you have built up to protect you from others is the very prison you are trying to be freed from.

This is what happened yesterday... and then there was BREAKTHROUGH! From Thanksgiving, we went to massive repentance throughout the room, and people began to give up their positions, their wounds, their judgments, bitternesses, fear, suicidal thoughts, and other behaviors they participated in to protect their hearts.  We were living Isaiah 61:1-4, MOMENT BY MOMENT.  See, God's way is just better.  He doesn't give you coping mechanisms to self-medicate.  He heals you, sets you free, and gives Himself to you in the most real way you can possibly imagine.  He is not religion, and His love is not even debatable, unless you have never experienced His love.  Many had not experienced this love until yesterday.  Before I knew it, people were being delivered, and then after their freedom experience in His presence, they would then turn around and begin praying and prophesying over others as if they had been free for years!  Instantaneously, freedom in one would unleash hunger for freedom in others.  One would confess his/her own sin and struggle, and at that moment, would choose Christ over the lies, and would make a new commitment right there.  We would rally all around, speaking declarations of TRUTH over their lives.  As soon as one was FREE, then there were many many others trying to be the next one to confess their sins in order to receive and know the FREEDOM they just witnessed before them.  By the end, 3 hours later, these beautiful people began to boast of how they were bound in sin and imprisoned by fear and orphaned in identity, but "Jesus saved me today".  "Jesus healed my heart today."  "I was addicted to porn, but I want everyone here to know, that I am free this day!  I have been set free, He has forgiven me, and all I want to do is know this freedom more and more, and to give His love away!"  Revelation 12:11 says that "They overcame the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony...", and I could not agree more.  The atmospheric shifted from things like religion, fear, suicide, lust, and unbelief at the beginning to an atmosphere of love, joy, excitement, FREEDOM, and hearts of evangelism for others to know His freedom.

MINISTRY SUMMARY

Jesus Christ is not philosophy, a debate, a religion.  He really is who He says He is, and He really loves us like He says he loves us.  His presence is the greatest gift He could ever give us.  This is because everything we have ever been designed to dream up about love, acceptance, value, safety, comfort, rest, sonship, identity, freedom, peace, and true joy can all be found in His manifest presence.

Oh God, thank You for Your PRESENCE!

Your son,

Kenny

Take Up Your Cross & Follow Me

Matthew^24-26 


Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?

This is the message I am meditating on these past few days, and as I think it through, I have been so convicted of how my mind and heart have tried to compete, work within, and try to even find validity with the mentality, the culture, and what is considered "normal" by the ways of the world.  I am a Christian, and Colossians 3 tells me to keep my... "mind focused on things above", to keep my... "heart focused on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God".  Be dependent upon the ways of Christ, not the ways of man.  This automatically makes me vulnerable to others, as it will soon be evident by following this direction from Colossians that I will stand out like a sore thumb.  So, is it worth it.  I am going to suffer things like relationship and friendship with others who will not be able to relate with me if I walk according to the Spirit, as opposed to the flesh.  I will suffer a huge blow to my reputation among others.  But what I gain is this immeasurable and incomparably great relationship with Jesus Christ, who reveals, who strengthens, who refreshes, who protects, who promotes, who gives me favor, and grace to walk it out with Him.

But first I have to make a decision to get up on my cross, die to the ways of the world, and my habitual need and/or love of them in order to have made the choice for dependence on Him.  The power is in the CHOICE!  World, or Christ.  Ways of man, or His ways.  What I have learned from experience on this earth, or what I need to learn from Him.  How to teach myself in my own power and abilities, or radical dependence upon His presence, mercy, grace and favor.  Every day it comes down to this right here before anything else can come into play.  We pay a price for the things that we want.  We either sacrifice our soul to the things of this world, which invade us as we consume them, or we offer our lives to the One who dreamt us up in the first place in order for Him to redeem us, to reconcile us and to pour all of Himself into us, that we may become the fulfillment of all He has hoped for from the beginning.

Open my eyes Lord, so I can see the values of these two directions.  The world, or You. What can compare to You oh God?

I choose You today, and I will choose You tomorrow.  This is my daily declaration before the sun rises.

Atlanta Weekend Trip: Master's Commission & Holy Spirit Men's Encounter

Well gang, I have to tell ya that this past weekend was awesome!  I got to hang out with my long-time friend a bit, speak at the Atlanta Master's Commission, and finally speak at the Holy Spirit Encounter's Men's Retreat in North Georgia.

This weekend, I sensed in prayer that I was to speak on the orphan mentality.  Someone who has an orphan mentality is usually someone who has a very difficult time trusting anyone but themselves.  They are bound by fear, and crave intimacy, yet, shuns it the same, because it requires a trust they cannot give.  They are extremely independent, and rely on nobody more than themselves to get things done, or to simply do anything.  Orphan mentality produces a victim spirit, one which causes a person to justify his/her own actions by blaming others.  There is never responsibility taken.  It's always "their fault".  A disagreement on any issue equals an assault on their very being.

I was talking to my good friend who actually is an orphan, and she told me that as an orphan, she did what she could to survive, and there was nobody for her until she was adopted, and even then, she had developed such habits as to not allow anyone to do for her, for she might learn to open up and believe in them, and eventually love them, and THAT's when they would pull the rug out from under her.  We as people, even though many of us were not orphaned as babies or small children, have all possessed the same tendencies, because unless we know true Love from a Father who made us, who loves, who will never leave us, or who will never be too busy for us, or who will never be exasperated with us because we want His attention or because we don't; unless we know the perfect Love, we will possess an orphan spirit.  This kind of mentality causes us to be lords of our own lives in everything we do.  We make all the decisions, we decide what is best for us, we judge others who don't measure to our standards, or who may simply have a difference of opinion.  Anyone who runs in our circles become competition, not friends.  Resentment, jealousy, rebellion, and independence become companions to help us through our day.  Before we know it, we are not the ones in control, but we are the ones controlled.  Therefore, any form of civility is mere act.  We really just wanted our parents to love us.  Can I say that?

As I shared this to both the master's commission group in downtown atlanta, and the next afternoon at the Holy Spirit Encounter in North Georgia, the response was incredible.  So many people are dealing with this sense about themselves.  God opened the door to forgive, and to repent.  His love in the room was so real, and people responded.  People repented of pornography, infidelity, drugs and alcohol, hate and bitterness towards others who wounded them.  They made a declaration right there that they were not going to continue the cycle of rejection, and wounding others.

I was able to speak to most of all who came to the Holy Spirit conference, and almost to a man, there was a new, fresh understanding of what they had been under all these years, and also a fresh determination for freedom from such an identity as the orphan spirit.

I encourage all reading this blog, the only way to displace the absolute feeling of inadequacy, or illegitimacy, is to know who you really are.  The only way to know who you really are is to encounter the revelation that God LOVES YOU.  YES YOU.  The world can try to pull you down to it, and all its ruin, but when you have the love and support of your dad, let them try.  How much more when Abba Father the Maker of all, has His eyes on you, and loves you with all His heart!  Then and only then, can you be free from opinions, from expectations, and free to trust others.  For me, it is still a work in progress, but I am so excited about who He is, and who He says that I am.  No man can ever take that away.

Romans 8:14-17

 ¹⁴ For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. ¹⁵ The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.^[f] And by him we cry, “Abba,^[g] Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

SWAGGER WAGON: From Kenny & Rebekah

Always Let Love

Happy Valentine's Day everybody! Love is an untamed unpredictable force that has you singing with the birds one minute, and singing the blues the next. Never try to tame it, for it is it's best when it is wild and free. To know love, you must risk everything, and when love sees the risk you take, you will earn love's attention, gain it's service, and it will win her heart and pull her to you. But love is the only thing that truly wins the heart of another. Be good to love, and never control it, or it will leave you and find another who cherishes and cares for it. Always let love show you what you cannot see yourself.
Love is superhero. It has x-ray vision into the hearts of others. It has ability to withstand amazing suffering for others. It always believes the best in people. If you let love, it will show you revelations about everyone around you, it will free you from your cycles of pain and loneliness, it will turn you from selfish to selfless in a minute, and it makes you want to help people around you. If you let love, it will teach you. How to love. How to listen when you don't want to. How to do things when you don't want to. How love things you don't want to. Because love rescues from the prison that can be your self and frees you to the limitless possibility of helping others. If you let love, it will show how to truly live.

If you let love....

Salvation @ 35,000 Feet

Last week, I was in Costa Rica, and had an amazing time with the staff and students at the YWAM base there, as I just shared with all of you in my last blog. What I didn't share with you yet about that trip has to do with my trip home. I was originally scheduled to fly home by way of Houston. Because of the snow storm over alf the country however, Houston airport shut down. I had to fly through Newark, New Jersey. So, from San Jose, Costa Rica to Newark. Ten from Newark to Los Angeles. Ahhhh! I was bummed but at least I could get home. I was counting my blessings when the Lord spoke to me to be alert and ready, because He was going to lead someone to me so I could listen to them and lead them to Him. I couldn't wait!

From Cota Rica to Newark, nothing happened. I met people here and there, but clearly not anything like I sensed from the Lord. I waited. I got off my flight in Newark, and quickly boarded my plane bound for Los Angeles. As I was getting on the plane, a male flight attendant greeted me as I went to take my seat. Instantly, I knew that I was to speak to this man. I prayed, and I felt like God told me that this man would come to me. So, I waited. We too off, and by the time we were a few minutes in the air, I absolutely fell sound asleep. A hour later, I woke up and watched a movie. After the movie was over, we were right at half-way to Los Angeles. Well, to be honest, I had to stretch my legs, and to go to the bathroom as well. As I walked to the back of the plane, I saw there was a small line for me to wait in. I waited, and as I became te next one in line, I waited just beside where this man was seated. He noticed I was wearing a Costa Rica hat, and spoke to me, asking if I were from there. Examined to him that I was teaching missionaries abou God, their identity in Him, and their purpose on this earth to know Him, His ways, and then to give Him away to all who don't know Im yet. I shared that I am a musician, and we do concerts, and raise awareness for orphans, prostitution ministries, homeless ministries, home building initiatives, and other platforms to give Christ's love away. He asked how did I come to end up doing this? I shared with him my testimony of a life of rejection, insecurity, loneliness, hurt, and fear of never eing loved that drove me into a life of drugs, partying, and ultimate despair. I shared how God was my Hero, my Rescuer, my Savior, and my Lord. He stopped me, and asked me to come to the center of the plane wit him.

It was there that he told me that he lost his wife the year before to a heart attack. He shared that he was so lonely and at he cannot trust people. He asked me to help him. I told him that the only answer I could give Him IS the only answer there is. I asked Him if he wanted to give his life to Jesus as is, and told him that Jesus loved him as is. I told Him that Jesus was with us at 35,000 feet, and that He so wanted to live with him forever. My friend began to weep a deep sob of loss for his wife, and then a deeper sob of a little boy who just wanted to be loved by someone who would not leave him. I prayed with him, and he gave his life to Jesus right there in the center galley, by a new line of people waiting to go to the bathroom.

Lord, thank you for my friend, and I pray that he comes to know as I know you. As my Father, who will never leave me. Who will always love me, and work all things for good over me. Thank you for using me to bring your son home. I ready for your next kid. Use me!!

Your son, Kenny