Giving the Kingdom Away @ Youth With A Mission Nashville, TN

ENCOUNTERING THE SPIRIT OF RELIGION

This past week was EPIC, but it started as an epic struggle.  As soon as I arrived to this base, I immediately endured what I later was able to understand to be a strong atmosphere of apathy and lethargy.  It was so thick.  It had completely changed some people I knew from this base.  I saw these people before as they lived in Kona, and then how they were when I arrived at the base, and they were completely different.  Subdued…like their passion had been sucked away from them.  This was week 4 in this school, yet I felt no prophecy, no spirit of worship, no identity, no victory in the air.  I felt…religion.  No person in the school was on fire, nor connected it seemed to why they were there in the first place.  They were learning about things, for sure, but they were not living the things they were learning about.  

PSALM 100:4

I came to speak on the Character of a Worship Leader, but never got to the teaching, because they would have just written it down and it would have meant nothing, because the listener was not ready.  Jesus was not in the room, and it was evident.  SO, we clashed and I invited Holy Spirit to the class, to the room, and let Him work; and we worshiped, and worshiped more.  I brought them through Psalm 100:4, which says we enter the gates in thanksgiving, and in the courts in praise, how we have to choose a personal heart of thanksgiving, something as small as a seed, but if it is our true personal thanksgiving to God, He can work with that.  Most in the room began to have an utter reality that they do not know God, yet they know all about Him.  Many knew God, but it was a memory from a while ago when they used to seek Him.  I encountered a relationship deprived group of people.  I heard stories later how they used to know Jesus, and be close, but a lapse in judgement here, and fall in sin there catapulted them into such shame and condemnation, and they have been on their own every since.  

MOMENT OF TRUTH

We had a morning where Holy Spirit told me to share on the old man/new man paradigm.  Long story short, the Kingdom of Heaven was invited, the Kingdom of Heaven showed up, and the realm of apathy, lethargy, and outright indifference gave way to sons and daughters discovering Ephesians 1:17-20.  Basically, they discovered who God is, who they are, and what they are gonna do together in this life.  They discovered they are loved.  There is nothing they have to do perfectly to win His love.  They have to believe and receive they are loved by almighty God.  They also discovered that they never knew life on the God side of the cross.  See, we need a Savior on the old man side of the Cross, and He is always our Savior.  But on the God side, or the Kingdom side of the cross, we need Christ as LORD.  This is where religion comes in the way, because religion always has man as the head, not Christ as Lord.  We seek, we listen, and we obey on the Kingdom side of the cross.  So, I drew a line in the middle of the room, and asked everyone to start on what I called the old man side of the cross, choose whether or not they want to give their entire lives to Jesus, Lord and Savior, all the way, and cross the line to enter a brand new life in the Kingdom.  See, Jesus didn't just save us from hell, a life of sin, and separation from God relationally, He also saved us to LIFE!  Life with Him, intimacy, true sonship, true identity, the kind everyone on the old man side of the cross are still searching for.  Several students could not cross.  This was the defining moment in the week.  So, we began to walk together through why they couldn't cross over.  

END RESULT: 5 salvations, 13 deliverances, and one heck of a thursday night worship party!!  

Jasmine Rene's Moment 

After our time of celebration and worship came to a close, I decided to take everyone out for a celebration dinner: at 11:00 PM!  HAHA!  So, we decided on Steak N Shake.  We brought Jesus with us, because we are learning how to keep Him present-tense with us at all times.  Our waitress kept coming over to see us, and felt very drawn to us.  I felt in my spirit that she didn't know Jesus, and Holy Spirit began to speak to me about her situation and where she was in life.  Michael McClanahan, the School of Worship Director, came right out and asked her, "Jazzy, (name on her name tag) do you know Jesus?"  BAM!  Adda boy!  Michael, I am so proud of you!  She said, No, I don't."  He said, "Well, would you like to, because we do know Him."  So we invited her over to our table.  She sat down with us, and Vinny started us off by sharing with Jazzy (Jasmine Rene) what God had done to kill religion in his life this week.  He was electric!  I love that guy!  Then, Jackie shared of how far the Lord had taken her in her walk with Him, then Erin, then, Gabrielle, then Michael, then Anthony, and on and on.  

Then I began to share how God is after her with all the love she has been looking for and never found.  I explained to here that I saw a huge whole filled with wounds from results of trying to fill that whole with other things, and people.  They all failed her. But Jesus was designed to be in that whole in her heart, and her heart was designed to be filled with His love for her.  The presence of God was STUPID!!  LOL!  Incredibly thick.  I began to prophecy over her life, and she agreed that the things I was sharing with her was exactly where she was.  She gave her life to Jesus that night, and we all partied more!!  Gabrielle, one of the students then asked her if she knew what her name, Rene, meant.  She did not.  So Gabrielle shared with Jasmine Rene that "Rene" means "Born Again"!  PERFECT!  Then, the lights went out in the restaurant.  YEP.  The thunderstorm all around us knocked it out.  We spent another hour at least watching the most beautiful lightening storm, sharing with her, and listening to her story, and we found out that she is due in court this Thursday because she got caught with drugs!  So, I told her that the school will all be there to support her.  That is tomorrow.  They will all be there with her.  She is going to see God's hand of mercy on her.  She couldn't believe it! 

She is now planning to do her Discipleship Training School with Youth With A Mission, and she has dedicated her life to Christ!  And each student who was filled with religion just two days before, led her right to the Jesus they each just met.  Everyone shared their personal hearts, from their relationship, from their love for Christ with her.  I was so blessed to watch this unfold!  

It was a battle of a week, it went toe to toe, and Jesus won.  Even though it was week 4, the Lord shared with me the day I arrived, that it was their week number 1.  Pray for these guys.  They are awesome, and they are now chasing God, not religion.  Hallelujah!!

The core crew in the SOW in YWAM Nashville, Michael and Annie McClanahan Directors

Took the gang to Steak & Shake to celebrate Jesus being awesome

This is Jasmine Rene Steak & Shake waitress.  Day one of her new life in Christ

We are learning who we are, and what we can do!

Burning lies, letting go of wounds

Burning lies

This is Vinny, stupid prophetic, and free from religion

Burning lies, from ashes to beauty!! (Isa. 61:1-4)

Shaynee from Norway, even her feet prophecy, and she can dance!

Worship night at Coast Christian Fellowship

Sunday night, July 1, 2012 Rebekah and I brought the band down with us to lead worship for a service called "IDK", which stands for "I Don't Know"! Meaning, tonight is a service we have designed where we have no idea where God is going to take us as we worship Him. Kenny, start singing! I LOVE IT!! We had a blast. We just went after His presence, just loving on Him with song and heart. His presence hit us in that place like an ocean wave. It was almost instant during a song we were singing, I think it was Set My Heart On Fire or something, when the Lord opened Heaven. We cold feel as if the top of the church just ripped off, and all we sensed was heaven pouring down over us. What an experience. It even hushed the audience to a place of stillness. Like a blanket of peace, when the Lord is so present like this, there is nothing that your heart needs to or even can say at that point. You are in the inner chambers with Him, and all you can do in that moment is rest. His presence is everything. It generates peace, it delivers unbelief, it heals bitterness towards people, it opens eyes to new perspectives, it awakens dormant faith, it revives hope, it raises our heads and hearts to things above,over the things of this earth. His presence compels every and all initiatives we could ever do for Him, but in His timing, motivated by obedience to Him, and by His love for others. All from rest.

He is the BEST!!! He is better than any idea we could ever have about doing anything for Him! Purpose that does not come from His presence is usually interwoven with vanity. Purpose born in His presence has enough grace, favor, mercy,and power to carry itself out, because it comes from Him. Nothing that comes from the mouth of God will return to Him void.  He is looking for obedient sons and daughters who are laid down lovers of His presence and of His person.  He wants to pour Himself into us and to manifest His power and love through us, in that all might come to know Him as their Father who just wants His kids back in His arms!

FATHER, I AM ALL IN!

New Songs, Coming From The Fire

Kenny and Rebekah On Our Date

Well, this is kind of a spontaneous blog tonight, but I wanted to say that the last three years of my life with Christ has led to one heck of a proverbial moment of truth in my life.  I seemed to have been tested by the Lord, taken through His consuming fire, burned up into ashes, and rebuilt with His mercy and love.  All I can say is, "God, I will trust in You with all my heart, and I will NOT lean on my own understandings again.  I am going to run to You and ask what You think about any and all of my ways, and You WILL make straight my paths."  The past 6 months of my life have been one death of vanity after another.  God has been stripping me of so much reaction to a culture of the ways of man.  Comparison, once again, snuck in, and silently sat down in my heart.  In my life, when I make a resting place for the spirit of comparison, the slowly increasing weight of the pressure for legitimacy ultimately breaks my back.  When that happens, I cannot do anything more, except cry out for mercy.  I get to a place where, if His presence is oxygen, I am choking on fumes, and suddenly, I am desperate all over again.  This is what has happened in the past 6 months.

As God revealed how horizontal my heart has been, and how He wanted back in the vertical position He designed it to be in, my heart began to cry out in a posture of HUNGER!!  I was desperate for the inner court home I snuck away from for the outer court praise of man.  He showed me that I had ever so gently replaced the authentic intimacy with Him in the inner court He gave me with a need for legitimacy founded in the opinions of man, only found in the "outer court".  I repented, I rededicated my life to Jesus, as my Lord, and He said something so beautiful to me, "Ok, son.  Let's start over."  Immediately, the little boy inside me just crazy excited about my Dad rose up inside me.  Immediately, His presence, which has been so difficult for me to discern for the past several months, wrapped around me like a blanket.  I became a little kid all over again, without any weight the world has to offer, without ambitions that would effort to define me, without shackles of living for my legacy to prove my legitimacy, without it ALL!!  I just rediscovered Jesus as all the vision I need.  All the vision He has in me, and for me, and through me, is in Him, who is my vision.

From this place of death, surrender, repentance, rediscovery, and simplicity, I have been writing songs.  Not to write songs, but to simply sing from where I am as He is who is before me.  The songs that are coming originate from a place of fear and reverence, of His wonderful love, the joy of my obedience, and such a deep awareness of our merciful God.  Father is revealing such deep understandings of His love for me, and it is lifting my eyes back off the ground, and repositioning them straight to His throne.  The result has been a heart of worship from the simple place of a child.

Songs from this season:

1.  Set My Heart On Fire
2.  Mercy Found Me
3.  I Have Found The One
4.  Name Above All Names
5.  My Reward
6.  We Lift Your Name

7.  We Are Loved

YWAM Catalina Island

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege and honor to speak in the first Discipleship Training School for the brand new YWAM Orange County base located on Catalina Island.  The school is being hosted by a marine biology camp for boy and girl scouts.  There are 12 weeks in these Discipleship Training Schools (DTS's) and my week to teach was the 2nd week.

As soon as I arrived, I could feel a bit of tension in the air, and it was very difficult to actually understand what to teach on.  I had my notes from my studies and preparation, but I wanted to just come and learn the students, meet the students where they are, and teach them from that place.  There seemed to be quite a bit of "interference" to anything of clarity for two days, UNTIL.... a dream.

In the dream, I heard snakes all around me.  I couldn't see them, but I could most definitely hear that they were coming from under the individual cabins used by so many scouts and travelers over the last 25 years as they come to partake in the camp.  In the dream, I went out into the main open area in front of the camp entrance, and I could hear the snakes hissing from my left all the way around to my right.  From this dream, I was able to discern many things that we as a school were to come against in Jesus' name.  This was an opportunity for God to reveal His power.

The next day, we came against lies spoken over our own life, and then spoke His truth and identity over each and every one of us.  Then, we broke off in teams, and went to anoint every doorpost, and proclaim in spoken and written form the Word of God over our dorms.  We consecrated these cabins to the Lord.  It was powerful.  Then, when we came back to the classroom, I began to learn of many nightmares and attacks in the night that several of the students had been having since they arrived.  One in particular, was a very tall young man who was deeply disturbed by his nightmares.  That night however, they all slept like babies!!
Next day, there seemed to be a momentum in this breakthrough.  Holy Spirit began to heal.  We had a young lady who had one leg shorter than the other for her entire life.  About an 1.5 inches.  A few of the staff and students surrounded her, marked two lines directly across from each other on each leg to mark where they would begin from, and then they began to lay hands and pray over her.  As soon as they started praying, her leg began to grow!  The mark on her left leg ended up being lower than the mark on her right leg by an inch and a half!  Her legs were now even.  She went crazy!!  We then began to pray over a wonderful lady who has been diagnosed with brain cancer.  She had to wear a hearing aid because the tumor had caused her hearing to cease.  As we prayed over her, she regained about 25% of her hearing in her ear!  This is miraculous in itself because the inner workings of the ear could not work because of the tumor.  We believe that the tumor is being diminished with each prayer.  This was a great start for her and the team around her (19-25 year olds) committed that moment to be her healing team until she was fully healed.

This school came together and there was such a true unity and love there for one another when I left.  I am sure of this: I was blessed more by this crew than I could have imagined.  Week 2 was amazing.  Thank You guys for having me, and Lord, thank You for giving me such an amazing journey!!

Georgia Men's Advance 2012

WOW!  What an amazing weekend I got to spend with hundreds of Godly men at the Georgia Men's Advance at Rock Eagle, Georgia.  This is the annual Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship Conference.  I was invited to speak along side Dr. Mark Rutland this past weekend, and all I can say is WOW!  I am so humbled to be a part of this time.  I spoke Friday night, the opening night on the Kingdom, and many people came to give their lives to Jesus, and to lay down idols in their lives.  I prayed over men until 1:30 am.  Saturday, Dr. Mark Rutland spoke two powerful messages on reconciliation, identity, and purpose. I was blown away and learned so much from this amazing man.  Sunday morning, I spoke on the role of the Holy Spirit to help us with the Greatest Commandment, so we can do the Great Commission. You can watch the videos using these links here:

Kenny Peavy: January 27
Kenny Peavy: January 29

Rebekah and I love you guys and gals, and we are so grateful for all of your support and love for us, and for what God is doing in and through us.

God bless you!!

The Peavys

You Never Know When....

As some of you may know, we took off from Los Angeles on Tuesday morning at 4:30 am, heading east toward the sunrise.  We were bound for a 3-day adventure that would take us across America and conclude in Atlanta, Georgia.  My friend, Derek Owen, was leaving with us from Los Angeles in his own car.  He was driving to Paducah, Kentucky.

Our first day had us driving from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  When we rolled in to our hotel for the evening, we were wiped out, but so excited from the adventure from the day we had endured as a family.  We had a semi-decent sleep, and the next morning we were ready to knock down another 750-800 miles.

YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN....

As I was loading my car, a young man approached and ask for some money.  As I looked at him, I asked him why he was in a position to need money from strangers, and why was he homeless.  I meant it from the perspective that this is not God's plan for him.  He answered and said that his grandmother passed away three weeks before, and he had been living with her in her place.  When her apartment came open, he had nowhere else to go.  He was now out on the streets.  I explained to him that he had just walked up to a pastor who loves Jesus, and was homeless myself at one point in my life.  I placed my hand on his head, looked into his face, and told him that this is not what his life was to be about.  God had and has a plan for him, and He longs for him to know Him.  The man began to cry, and then to sob.  He buried his head into my chest and let out a long sob.  I hugged him, and let him have this moment, and let God have His moment with His son.

I told him to wait a second, and I ran inside to the free breakfast buffet where my family was still eating, and I grabbed a cinnamon roll and a big cup of coffee.   I told Rebekah what was going on, and we quickly got all the cash we had on us, and I returned to him.  I showed him the money we had combined together for him, and I gave him his food.  He could not believe it.  Then the Lord told me to tell him that he is not invisible and that my wife and I were doing this because the Lord was telling us to.

I told him how the Lord longed to know him, and with a Father's heart that he couldn't understand until he experienced the Father's perfect love.  He told me that was experiencing it in that very moment!  I asked him if he wanted to trust God, give his life to God, and let Him live in him, on him, go before him, protect him, guide him, comfort him, and live through him to others.  He said that he wanted me to stay with him forever, but if couldn't have me stay with him, and if it wasn't me who was giving him such love and attention, but God Himself, then he definitely wanted to give his life to Jesus so he could have Him with him at all times.  He said this because he had never known joy until this very conversation, and he didn't know why his heart was leaping inside his chest for more of it, but all he could think was, "I WANT THIS!"  So, he prayed to God, and asked Him to be Lord and Savior of his life forever!  AMEN.

Then as I prayed over him, I saw a picture in my mind of a lumber mill, and I saw him working there, and then the Lord spoke to me and told me to tell him to "Come Home".  I asked him where "home" was and he told me "El Paso".  I spoke of the picture I saw and told him of a job for him at that lumber mill.  He knew exactly where that lumber mill was/is, because he grew up just a couple of miles away from there.  He began to laugh hysterically.  He couldn't believe it.  God was changing his sorrow into joy in the moment, and he couldn't catch up with the massive shifting from ashes to beauty.  He kept saying, "WOW, WOW!"  All his life, he had felt invisible because both parents were addicted to drugs and alcohol, and never had time for him, except to beat him for being in the way.  Yet, God told me to tell him that he is NOT invisible, and He loves him, and cannot wait to show him.

After this, he opened his bag, and showed me a pistol!  He said to me, "Kenny, I was going to get some money from you to buy a cup of coffee, and then I was going to kill myself this morning. It was supposed to be my last day today."  He pointed at the place he had planned to end his life.  I looked at him with everything in me, and said, "Yeah, but God intervened, He saved you.  And, you did die.  You encountered His love for you, and you surrendered to Him, you gave up, and He raised you up from such a life, and now you can say that this is truly your FIRST day of the rest of your life."  We hugged, and he drank his coffee.  We laughed and cried together, and I prayed over him, and he prayed right back over me, and one my family, and we prayed to the same God, our Father, whom we both now knew.

He went and sold his gun at a local pawn shop, went to Walmart, bought a pay-as-you-go cell phone, called his aunt, bought a one-way bus ticket to El Paso, with expectation in his heart that the job at the lumber mill has his name on it.  He left that place an orphan in his heart, and he is returning learning how to be a son.  Father, teach him as you have taught me.

People are hurting all around us.  They are desperation with legs, camouflaged in a defeated rhetoric ever exclaiming "I'M FINE, I'M OK", when just under their skin, a storm is raging inside them.  Just under the roar of that storm is the little person inside them screaming out, "HELP ME!" "I WANT TO BE LOVED!" "CAN YOU HELP ME??" Are we ready?  Can we hear them, can we slow down enough to see them?  Can we get our eyes off of our own mirrors to see them?  Are we ready to by moved by His love, to be armed with His love for those who don't know His love?  

Women's Holy Spirit Encounter - Atlanta, GA

This past October, I traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to speak at the Holy Spirit Encounter weekend. I usually speak at this amazing conference twice per year for the men.  And we have had incredible meetings with Holy Spirit.  We have seen so many deliverances, salvations, rededication's, and more in these weekend meetings.  Men turn into little boys before their Lord and Savior.  Innocence being restored, wounds being healed, and hope reviving in the lives and hearts in previously beautiful but bound and imprisoned souls.

This time, I was invited to speak to the women's conference!  I flew to Atlanta a day and a half before I spoke, and I got to spend some incredible time with my dad and my older brother Kevin.  The time we spent together was so special, and I will cherish that time forever.  

The highlight of the women's event came before I even spoke one word.  I was introduced to the audience of ladies by none other than my own mom.  Yup.  That was one of the most special moments of my walk with God.  My mom is everything.  She endured during my years of rebellion when I was younger, and has been enduring my dad forever (LOL, had to get ya there pops).  She has always been there with unconditional love and wisdom over me, even in the really difficult years of my life away from God.  I will always cherish her, and I will always cherish the moment she introduced me, her son, as the speaker at this conference.

I shared about the love of God, the real God, as opposed to the religious man-made God we have created in our own image.  I shared about my struggles to find this real God in the midst of so much confusion caused by religion, and the fallen world all around me.  I shared how He found me first, and how he changed my life, and what I have been doing around the world for Him as I just follow Him each day from that first encounter with Him.

When I finished, I handed it over to the director of the event, Mr. Tom Linder.  He is such a great man of God, who just loves.  He loves to love.  He opened the floor to anyone who wanted to respond, and for the next two hours there was a line in front of me filled with women who were rededicating their lives, giving their lives to Jesus for the first time, women who needed prayer, etc.  We had deliverances right there in the line, salvations in the line, and some of the sweetest redemption from wounds and brokenness I have ever seen.  This line seemed to never diminish, and even right up until the time that I literally had to walk out of the building to catch my flight, there were still women, HUNGRY women after His presence, His love, His redemption, His freedom, who were waiting in the line to be prayed for, and to let things go in the coolest exchanges of idols for presence I have ever been a part of.  I was so humbled to see this.

God, yeah You ARE the coolest!!