The Coronavirus is only a pale shadow of what is yet to come. No scientist when these days begin will be able to say “We are confident we will get on top of this.” Governments will have no advice. The only hope will be the ignored God who made us and who alone can save, but those who speak about Him will be silenced and persecuted.

These days are not yet. Perhaps we are seeing the beginning of the birth pangs, or the beginning of the beginning. I have no idea when they will begin in full measure, but I read of them in the bible and have seen their approach in a vision in which God’s voice spoke about the folly of ignoring a warning. These days may be very near or yet very far away, but purifying fire burning God’s own people, the Church, globally, will be the first sign, not a virus. Live, love, witness, serve, help, share in season and out of season and warn…and pray for a great Revival, the saving of countless souls, before these days come.

Jesus is the true friend of sinners, more than a pal or “mate.” As our true friend, He does not conceal truth from us but tells it to us and trusts us with it. Let’s show His true friendship to the world He came to dwell in and die in, in order that we might not perish but have everlasting life. Awareness of mortality and eternity is the beginning of the beginning of wisdom dawning and the escape from folly.

God bless

Kenny

In case you think I am occasionally too hard hitting in what I say about my fellow Charismatics, well, it is because folly presented as faith damages people. An example from the radio this morning: in South Africa a Church was teaching its followers that they have the blood of Jesus in their veins so they would be immune from the Coronavirus. They have been teaching that for a while. I guess they now have people in their numbers who are showing signs of infection, as mercifully they have stopped teaching that. A gathering of 3 million was being planned for Easter which they were pushing ahead with, despite being told not to. Thankfully, once more, the recent news is they are not going ahead.

This is a time to make real the closeness of God by our solidarity with a suffering world, showing what true faith is, sharing the mystery of the already here but still to come Kingdom, sharing how our God is able to deliver from fear, that He heals either in time or in eternity. All that matters, Paul told us as new creations in Christ, is faith expressing itself through love.

On the even more serious side, in the face of confrontation with our mortality, it is an opportunity to share how in Jesus, and in Him alone, death has lost its sting for all who trust in Him.

God bless

Kenny

You have maybe heard of Dr. Helen Roseveare who suffered so brutally for Christ in Zaire (formerly Congo) in her years spent there as a Missionary Doctor.

This was recorded for the purpose of being used at her Thanksgiving service after she died. This lady made me seek God in tears as a teenage boy. I had never encountered such beauty. I saw the sheer beauty of Jesus Christ and wanted Him more than anything else in all the world and wanted to give Him everything. I could find no consolation for my distress and longing until I found a quiet place to be with Christ and get on my knees.

If any of you are interested in my story at all, well, this amazing lady speaking to a group of teenagers at Kilcreggan House is one of the top 3 influences in the establishing of my early life in Christ. This video to my mind is worth more than all I have ever posted.

This is the real thing. That day at Kilcreggan left me asking, “How is it possible for a human being to shine with the glory of God as I have just witnessed?”

The beauty of Christ can cut through resistance more than all the angry preaching in the world. The beauty of Christ had me in bits….

For those of you who have suffered physical and sexual violence against you, let this dear saint bring you hope that mourning can indeed be turned to dancing…

This is something I put on Facebook and then on YouTube so I could post a link here for those who follow my blog. It has had about 800 views so far and people seem to find it helpful. Feel free to share the link, if you know how! Can’t help you there!

If you are in the category of “vulnerable”then these sharings are for you.

If I get Coronavirus I have 4 conditions which would make that life threatening. Trying to take the confused back flips of the Government into account, I set myself to make some decisions  earlier today that I felt the peace of God resting upon. That is what I now feel this evening.

Lack of God’s peace deep within was a sign to me that I was needing not to be blasé with false faith but to make some choices with true faith by giving some serious thought to what I should and should not do. Peace restored.

If you are similarly vulnerable and need to make decisions for yourself I am praying in simple faith that the peace of God will lead you in choice making. You may not be an atheist in terms of God but please don’t be an “atheist” in terms of this virus. We can’t see it but it is real.

Because I am a person of faith I am a person of facts. Fact and faith belong together. Because I am a person of faith, I am a person who makes choices before God. Faith, intentional action  and my own responsibility, belong together.

God bless you…real good!

Kenny

If you read my blog regularly you will know that a few years ago I had to get rid of all my books (and all our furniture and other belongings as well)  – on the advice of the “best science!”  from knowledgeable University people – as they harbour mould spores which could mean death to me. It was a bit sad. It is sad to have to walk past second hand book stores etc.  It also means I only half remember what I want to remember and cannot check up on details of stories, facts, for accuracy.

Somewhere or other in one of my now long gone books I remember a story of a wee boy expressing concern about a family near to where they lived who had lost a child. The wee concerned boy was a Christian as was his family. Their own pastor like the people he was concerned about had also lost a child. His mother asked the wee boy why he had not expressed concern about the pastor and his wife and their tragedy. His reply was that he did care about them, but they had Jesus and “They know what to do. The other family don’t know what to do.”

That half remembered story reminds me of one of my most favourite ever memories of parish ministry. Someone, attending the prayer meeting for the first time prayed like this: “Lord, I thank you for bringing me to this church. Before I came here, I did not know there was another way to do life but now I have seen there is another way.”

Part of the Incarnation of God in Jesus is that He faced what we face and showed us another way to do life. He did not mock human beings and their struggle and live as some sort of a Superman figure untouched by the struggles of other mortals. He became one with us in our struggle and lived our life before dying our death.

It seems to me that in the present situation the world finds itself in working out as best we can how to face the Coronavirus problem that Christians need to show two things. First of all, solidarity with humanity, of which we are part. Secondly it is an opportunity to share with others that facing what we are all facing God helps us find a path in which there is no panic, in which we have found an answer to our fears. Beyond that, of course, we can share about prayer, faith in what God can do etc, but let’s begin where our God began in Christ. Showing our oneness with human beings in their struggles and on that basis helping people to know it is possible to “Be not afraid.”

Of course there is more to be said, but as I have watched “Superman” bravado from some well known Christian figures,  this is what was most on my mind today.

By the way, if you are a believer and finding it hard to be free from fear, don’t feel condemned by this post. Jesus knew that can be a struggle. It is why the Bible says repeatedly, “Don’t be afraid.” I don’t agree with the teaching that anxiety is a sin as though it is a disobedience to a command not to fear. I  believe such teaching is a damaging error.

“Don’t be afraid” is the voice of the God of compassion who understands us who knows trust is learned by the passing of time and through experience of someone who tells us we can trust them. It is His voice telling us there is a place He can get us to. If we are not there yet, that is not a reason for self-condemnation. It is an encouragement to keep hold of Jesus who is “The Way.” So, an appeal to preachers. Stop telling people their worry or anxiety is a sin. It won’t help. Be a channel of the presence of the One who tells us patiently and persistently not to be afraid. By the grace of God, strength and courage will rise and fearful hands will reach out to One they sense is near as you preach, to take hold of the One who does not judge them or express a frown towards upturned faces and outreaching hands.

God bless

Kenny

Sometimes I feel so out of step with fellow Charismatics. I have seen well known speakers on YouTube, proclaiming and praying in the face of Coronavirus. However some of it seems more like witchcraft praying to me, seeking to harness spiritual power to our advantage over lesser human beings.

I found myself thinking by contrast of Father Damian, showing the love of Christ to lepers, eventually succumbing to that disease and standing up to begin his sermon with the words,”My fellow lepers…” In that I find the love of God for a suffering people, in that I find so much of Jesus.

Shortly before his death, he wrote his brother Pamphile, “I am gently going to my grave. It is the will of God, and I thank Him very much for letting me die of the same disease and in the same way as my lepers. I am very satisfied and very happy.”

Of course Jesus heals and can protect people from disease according to His will. No doubt about that. But believing for that is not the only expression of faith. In fact it may be kindergarten faith compared with faith of the Father Damian type. It may even be a form of fear.

God bless

Kenny

(Posted this on Facebook. People seemed to find it helpful! It might just help leaders who will walk into difficult church situations this Sunday, though it is of much wider application than that.)

When you are wronged publicly and not vindicated publicly you can find yourself on the fast track to becoming more like Jesus. You will learn a whole heap of lessons in one go that otherwise could take you decades to learn. God has seen gold in you that He has placed there and is bringing forth. What an honour He is trusting you with when He asks you to live without your name or His being cleared , with your honour and his apparently trampled on, mocked, ridiculed and besmirched. A wonderful moment of Kingdom importance. You may be living in such a moment right now. Look and listen within and you will find something your mind can make no sense of: your spirit leaping for joy in obedience to Jesus instruction. Don’t minimise the importance of the moment. This may be your day to become a man or woman of God! The cloud of witnesses are cheering you on!

God bless

Kenny

Of course, you know who I am thinking about this morning: “Esther’s cousin, Right?” Wrong!

Well, half-wrong. It is another Mordecai who first grabbed my thoughts today. He is mentioned in the book of Ezra as one of the 50, 000 or so returnees who came back from exile to rebuild the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. Whilst he returned, the other Mordecai, the more well known one, stayed.

Why did the less well known one return to the land of his fathers? Well the Book of Ezra tells us the answer. The very first verse tells us Cyrus issued a decree that the people of God should return and build a house for the Lord because the Lord had stirred up his spirit to do so. The same cause is given in verse 5 as to why 50,000 returned, including the lesser known Mordecai. The Lord stirred up their spirits. He did not stir up the spirit of Esther’s cousin.

Use your spiritual imagination. If the two Mordecais knew of one another how did they regard one another? Perhaps they did not understand one another, perhaps their different course of action confused one another or maybe they accepted that for reasons they could not fully know or understand both may have been in the will of God. For sure, we can certainly be thankful one returned to build. We can be equally thankful that the other Mordecai did not return but looked after Esther.

Christians sometimes do not understand how God has led other Christians in a different direction from them. One is led to leave a church another is led to stay. Severe conflict can arise and accusation fills the air as Scripture verses are used both sides of the argument or conflict. Please be clear I am not talking about conflict between those who honour Scripture and are faithful to Jesus and those who don’t. I am talking about differing roads taken by true God fearing and Bible honouring believers and the suspicion and distancing Satan loves to sow into that ground.

Let’s learn from the 2 Mordecais. Something of God’s glory and purpose in the face of the earth would have been lost if there had not been that different response to the same situation. I used to not understand why the more famous Mordecai had stayed. I used to think he was a backslidden Jew as was Esther. They had not bothered to return. They were too settled in an idolatrous world and did not want to lose earthly treasures. Ezra chapter 1 verse 5 made me reassess and see things differently.

I hope some day in the future this post may come to mind and help you to stay free from unnecessary conflict with other true believers when they follow a different course of action than you in the selfsame situation. Thank God there was a Mordecai in Jerusalem. Thank God there was a Mordecai in Persia.

Sometimes even these lists of names the Old Testament delights in stir up interesting thoughts! Perhaps the two Mordecais will even help us not to insist there is only one way for Christians to speak and act in the face of the Coronavirus! Even there I see we Christians can’t hide our propensity for fighting one another or at least putting one another right and grading one another’s faith and character.

God bless

Kenny

When we face injustice and wrong treatment for our faith, the real thing against the real thing, I think there are several things the bible tells us to do: leap for joy and entrust ourselves and our cause to a faithful God, to give but a couple of examples. It is good to do what we are told! That is part of being a child. I am still learning to be just that. Adults who do things their way and robustly defend their actions even when unwise, tend to get into more of a fankle compared with the obedient children of a good Father.

Beating the world at the worlds game with the world’s weapons is a hollow victory. It does not leave the taste of the Lord’s joy in our mouths, but ashes. What could have been our finest moment in God became another diversion from the invitation into His glory, into being like Jesus , and secretly we know it. . I learned to sing early on in my Christian life, “If you will not bear a cross you can’t wear a crown.” I am glad I was taught that It is a law of The Kingdom.

Have you won an earthly victory or vindication recently or in the past, but feel you need a spiritual bath. ..Take it! Then, having done that, determine that though you will be wise as a serpent it will not be at the expense of being innocent as a dove. And, If God gives you another opportunity to be a man or woman of Kingdom valour…Take it!

God bless

Kenny

Have been reading some things Christians have been saying on Coronavirus. Let’s not mistake bravado for true faith or attach the Name of the Lord to our own reactions or advice. God is not simply a loudmouth. He is not an idiot. As someone with heart problems, respiratory problems, a faulty immune system and diabetes, to name some of my health issues, I find secular advice is beneficial. I don’t find it scaremongering. I find it helpful despite it coming from confused and limited knowledge. I am free of course to still make my own decisions and way up risks about choices I make. I may get these choices right. I may get them wrong. Faith lives and breathes with facts and is not afraid. It does not mock fact or the attempts to establish fact.

God bless you. …and if you are particularly vulnerable, may God give you grace and help to not fear.

Kenny

… of Conference speaking. It has been a great blessing to speak at conferences in the UK and in other countries over the last 20 years or so, but for reasons of health I think the time has come to bow out from that ministry apart from honouring one or two outstanding commitments.

There is a deeper reason too. The anointing for that ministry is still there but it is lifting. I have seen that recently. There is still anointing for other things. In fact that has increased.

Just thought I would put that on record so that if I say “No” to an invitation to an event you will know it is not personal.

Time for others to run…

Kenny

I am aware that few of the generation this is for will be reading my blog. That almost makes the case for this post which I put on Facebook earlier!

Come on you folk in your 20’s to 40’s! Years ago I saw some of you being catapulted over a group of leaders aged around where I am now. It’s time for the “leapfrog” to happen. By the grace of God there is still life in this ageing dog yet, I am hoping for many years of ministry in some shape or form, If God wills, but you are to be the front line leaders now, not us. I will cheer you on in that new responsibility. If any advice from experience is wanted there is plenty of experience around. Why reinvent the wheel and cause yourself delay and needless pain? There will be plenty unavoidable pain so don’t add to it needlessly. Go much beyond us, wherever we got to as leaders.

It was good to see a younger Chancellor and a young Scottish Finance minister at work whether I agree with their politics or not. They rose to the task really well, I thought. Often the world picks up on something God’s common grace is doing and the Church comes along eventually dragging its heels. Of course all this depends on some of us getting on in years being willing to relinquish positions we may have held for a while to make way. Do it with grace and freely and joyfully when the time is right. If not it may happen in a more painful and bitter way.

Come on!

God bless

Kenny

If you have read Part 1 this will make sense. If not read that before this!

A couple of examples:

Last night I had a happy dream that it was snowing it was Christmas. In my sleep I was singing, “I wish it could be Christmas every day.” I opened the curtains this morning and there was an inch of snow all around. I had not heard or watched any weather forecast.

The other day I had an irresistible urge to read the Book of Esther. I found out the next day it was Purim. Neither of these things I picked up had any particular significance, but this is an illustration of what I was saying in Part 1. If you are prophetically wired you just pick things up. They don’t necessarily mean anything very significant.

Those that are much more prophetically wired than I am find it difficult to go to a Supermarket or a Cafe! They pick up too much about too many people.

Anyway I hope that may clarify Part 1 a bit more for you.

God bless

Kenny

A very simple thought came to mind as I was thinking again about Daniel and Esther. Darius, who ruled in the days of Daniel, could not sleep because of concern about Daniel who had done so much good for his realm. Xerxes, who ruled in the days of Esther, in the midst of a sleepless night realised he had never honoured Mordecai for saving him from an assassination attempt. So…

… who would God bring to mind today who has done a lot for you? If you have not yet done so, how could you help, thank or honour them?

Who comes to mind?

God bless

Kenny

Prophetically wired people can pick up where people are at and what may be going on in their lives. Just thought I would share that because you may have been in a meeting where someone seemed to call out or even prophetically paint your condition. That does not necessarily mean God is going to heal or act upon that pronouncement but that is the impression given as the “revelation” is shared.

I have met so many people who have been disillusioned because what was described by some revelatory means was accurate, astoundingly relevant, but nothing happened after prayer or ministry in response to the word pronounced. The “fault” was not with you but with the prophetically wired pronouncer. They did not mean harm. They have probably found they have received little teaching on how to use their gift and some of its pitfalls. More than likely they shared what they did because they hoped for something good for you. They are neither false prophets or bad people but people doing their best in an area of gifting where most people have had to find their own way- especially when teaching courses on such things are beyond most folks means when they are living by month to month resuscitation!

Paul Cain was a gifted prophet and his fall into sin should not be used to discredit the genuine gift of prophecy and word of knowledge and other revelatory gifts which God wants to bless the church with. Those that knew him well believe he ended his earthly pilgrimage badly. Whether they are right or wrong about that, some of God’s servants do end badly, be they Charismatic, Reformed or whatever. You or I may yet end badly. “Please God, by your grace may it not be so.” Cain accurately outlined the course of my ministry from 1995 to the present day. I remember him saying at one meeting, “God is showing me plenty right now but I am waiting to see if the anointing comes to share it.” That is a good lesson for prophetic people. I am not that prophetic, in that it is not my main thing, but I know that principle in preaching. I sometimes stall for a moment. I have not forgotten where I am at in my sermon! I am waiting to see if the Holy Spirit is giving me permission to say something I was about to say or not. If the anointing does not come, if the Holy Spirit does not come upon me, I try and be disciplined by that not to say whatever I was about to say.

In fact, come to think of it, that is a pretty good rule for how we use our tongue to speak, full stop. Listen for the Spirit’s permission. Something being true does not mean it is to be spoken. That could do immense harm.

God bless

Kenny

Even as a Charismatic, this is how I often feel in Charismatic meetings!

I am not one of these Christians who goes by the Jewish Year. Personally as a Gentile believer I think it is wrong to do that, though if you believe it is Scripturally the right thing to do, I will not argue the case but say “Good…for you!”

However I did find myself strangely drawn to read the Book of Esther yesterday, unaware it was Purim.

As I did that I started to think of Esther and Daniel and the situations they were in. Both characters and both books give us clues how to behave as God’s people in difficult times and may help us to be released from Satanic goading as to what loyalty to God must look like. In both books too we read of rulers being prevented from sleeping because of God’s people and the need to do right by them.

These are hostile days in the political world against the full expression of biblical truth. One only needs to look at the poster campaign last year sponsored by the government and police Scotland or listen to some of the comments of the leader of the Green Party in the current round of gender issue debates to see that increasingly we live in Biblebelieverphobic days perhaps more so in Scotland under the dominance of the current SNP leader than is the case in the rest of the U.K. Certainly Christian MP’s need our understanding and support as they do what they can in such an environment.

But here is an idea. What about praying that some in positions of authority will begin to have sleepless nights about the assault upon Christians and think of the hundreds of thousands of hours which Christians give to make this country a better place and the millions of pounds they give to do the same?

God bless

Kenny

“I say of the saints who are in the land, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.” (Psalm 16 verse 3)

In the early hours of this morning I found myself thinking  of people I have been blessed to meet who were converts of the 1949-52 Lewis Revival. I have met 11 people who lived in these glorious days when the Spirit of God was poured out in extraordinary power. Some of them I have talked with at length. Those times are some of the sweetest in my Christian experience and when I think back to them, even the very memories seem to carry something of  the power and presence of God. As I think of these one to one encounters and conversations, I am left humbled, aware that for all that people look to me as a minister and to my amazement even come to be for advice on being a minister, I have at most scaled only the foothills of the foothills of the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I could tell you several of my memories, but for some reason this morning, my mind went back to being in Kenny Ban’s home in Lochcarron. I was there with my friend Howard Espie. Kenny had shared with us  stories of Revival and his ministry late into the evening. The next morning we gathered around the breakfast table. I do not remember what we ate for breakfast, though I am sure it was wonderful! Let me tell you what I do remember:

1: The sense of spiritual hospitality . The sense of welcome and an open door. It was humbling as we sat around that breakfast table that someone like Kenny Ban should ask people like Howard and myself to pray. This was a man who had seen the moving of God in a manner that we had never seen, who knew God in a way that we did not, and yet we were not made to feel inferior. We were welcomed. So were others! Every so often as we sat at the table, the door bell would go, and someone else would be welcomed into the table, gathering, then another and another. There we sat together, feasting on the Living Bread, the Lord Jesus Christ. The only thing that was not welcomed at that table was any conversation that could draw our attention away from Him.

2: The reverence of Kenny’s prayers. In days when prayer can at times seem like a showing off of what good pals we and God are, round that table that day there was such a sense that when we speak with God, we are speaking with the Almighty. He is Father, for sure, but He is the Almighty. It felt like Kenny was speaking to God as I know Him through the Bible and in my spiritual gut, to be. The great I AM in whose presence we take our shoes from off our feet as it were. This was not threatening of foreboding, but refreshing and liberating. A human being knowing his place as a human being before God. It somehow freed me from the enforced casualness that seems to be demanded of one and exalted in Charismatic circles and set me free to rejoice in God as He is.

3: At that table, the Bible was read and listened to. There was no attempt to show off knowledge or learning, but rather to just come humbly under the sound of  Scripture and let its words speak and bring life. The Bible did not just contain the word of God around that table. It was the Word of God. It was read as such, received as such and life sprang forth within me.

4: God and His Word, God and His presence, God and His face and blessing sought in prayer  in fellowship with God’s people had to come before every other concern. Someone came into the table saying, “Have you read this in the papers this morning?” He referred to some scandal in the Church that was being reported. Kenny reached out his hand and placed it on the other man’s hand before he could open up his paper to read it to us all. He simply said, “Don’t read it, it will disturb your peace.” What wisdom. Establish yourself in God before facing any other reality that needs to be faced.

If there are four  places to which I wish I could transport you all, one would be this breakfast table. The second would be to the home of a lady called Agnes. Like Morag and myself, you would find yourself sitting there weeping at the sheer beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. The third would be to a Gaelic Service being conducted by John Murdo Smith in Uist. He was another convert of the revival. I don’t speak a word of Gaelic, but I went to the service as I felt I had never met a man so full of the gentle grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in all my Christian life. I sat there, not understanding a single word, but with the blessing of God running through my spiritual veins: grace upon grace upon grace upon grace.. The fourth would be to the home of  Donald John, because I would want you to see what I saw when Howard and I visited him in his home in his latter years: pure clear child like eyes which had seen God. He told us stories and they were wonderful stories: his trip to London in recent years to speak to 37,000 young people, his daughter being raised from the dead. Wonderful as those stories were, it is his eyes I will never forget as long as my memories are with me…it is the One who made his eyes shine with holy purity and childlike delight, love and laughter,  that I want to see more clearly, preach more simply still.

God bless

Kenny

Further to a previous post on demons:

There is an interesting story in Acts 19 about the seven sons of Sceva, who try to turn the Name of Jesus into a mere formula to be used in deliverance. They were  really trying just to copy what they had seen Paul doing without having that personal relationship which Paul had with Jesus. They end up regretting what they do. In the process of their presumption and its terrifying aftermath, the demons reveal this information: : “Jesus we know, and Paul we know about, but who are you?”

The English translations ,such as that given above, are trying to differentiate two types of knowledge expressed in two Greek words. The first word for knowing, which the demons use in relation to their knowledge of Jesus is a word for knowing by personal experience. So the typical example used to explain this would be that  we say we know the world to be round because we have travelled round it. We have not just accepted it  as truth passed on, nor read it in a book. We have personal experience that the world is round.

The second word for knowing, used  with regard to Paul is what we know about a matter because we  have worked it out. I know the world is round not because of personal experience but because of observation , watching shadows, taking mathematical reading, principles of mathematics etc. I somehow deduce and work out certain truths.

The demons know Jesus by experience every day. It is their hell to live  every day in the disarming effect of his shed blood and the knowledge they cannot escape his authority anywhere on earth or in the heavenlies. They know by experience that Jesus is Lord.  What he allows them to do, gives them permission to do also reminds them of their limitation. It is hell to them that they know Jesus is Lord, and all they can do, even by doing their worst is further his purposes. They encounter him in every square centimetre of the universe, every second of the day or night, in every situation and circumstance. They know by perpetual experience that Jesus is, and that He is Lord. They do not have to work it out, they know it without having to make any observation.

Their knowledge of Paul and of you and me and every believer is different. They learn about us from observation when by design or accident they find themselves around us. They work out things by how we react, what we do, how we spend our time, the words of our mouths, what we seem to be living for, what they observe of us in our secret moments hidden from human eyes. They cannot know our thoughts, though they may try to put their thoughts into ours, but they can work out what may be going on in our inner self by what they observe.

This is the cruel thing about the apparent knowledge give out by mediums. This is not the dead person communicating with their loved ones, but demons speaking forth what they have picked up by observation. It offers a satisfaction of a spiritual type and a level of comfort on an emotional level that keeps lost people lost, keeps them away from Jesus and his cross, keeps them away form repentance and faith in Him which is the only way to conquer the grave and enter an eternity of life and peace rather than lostness, darkness and everlasting torment. It comforts the lost in their lostness and  keeps them on the road of a lost eternity.

Demons work things out from the information they gather and use it against the children of God as well. They cannot rob us of the free gift of eternal life which we have found in Jesus, but they  will seek to use what they know to trip us up, hold us back from the full freedom of life in Christ and the stream of blessing that can release into the world around us.

It is really important to be careful the way we live at all times. You never know when  their may be a demonic watcher, picking up something which will be used in the future to try and make you fall, or to bring you into open shame.

Take your spiritual life and its element of warfare seriously. Live “In Christ” each moment, each day in the covering of his blood and in obedience to His Lordship. Do that, live in Christ and you can say with Jesus, that even when the Prince of this world comes, “He has no hold on me.” That is already true in terms of his accusations having no landing pad. The blood of Jesus has paid the penalty of our sin. As redeemed sinners, we  belong to God as His children at great price and cost. By the grace of God may our being “In Christ” also be true of our actual behaviour. In Christ there is not only forgiveness, but another life, His life, that can be lived in us and through us by which we actually conquer sin more day by day and learn to live righteously even in our private moments when there is no human being around to see us and only God and the demonic watchers can see us.

By the way, a final thought. Sometimes as you are in conversation, you will be aware that a demonic watcher has drawn near. It was not there and then it is. It is often because you are talking in genuine concern and love about another person and saying some deep things that the demonic listeners and watchers do not know about them. When you are aware of a watcher and a listener, stop  the conversation immediately. Take it up when the unseen watcher and listener has moved on. They will lose interest when there is nothing to their benefit being talked about and will search around for more fruitful pickings.

And, – just as I say when I am preaching – one more thing!! Finally, finally! You are maybe wondering about prayer. What if there is a listener in there? There isn’t, or if there is they will be completely frustrated. Prayers to the Father in the Name of Jesus are unintelligible to the demonic listeners and watchers. I remember praying with people on one occasion. A Satanist burst through the door with fury on his face and demanded to know which one of us had been praying in tongues. None of us had been. We had all being praying in English. The Holy Spirit has His own way of encrypting our prayers to the Father in the Name of Jesus. Speak to the Father anywhere, about anything:  gloriously, freely, speak to Abba, Father, Daddy. Time, space, eternity is cleared  of other matters, just for you and Him.

May these thoughts help you into more victory in Jesus still.

God bless

Kenny

Demons are not omniscient but they do observe and gather information on us. Jesus knew when Satan was around and was careful at such moments even with what he was saying. When I was in Gran Canaria a lady approached me, tied a thread around my wrist and said,”Welcome to Gran Canaria, Kenny. How are you enjoying your move to Edinburgh?” We had just moved to Edinburgh from Thurso. I was stunned into inactivity trying to work out what was happening. Morag was more alert. She tore the thread band off my wrist and said, “We are Christians and we believe in Jesus, the Son of God!” The lady looked frightened and moved off pretty sharply. On another occasion I went in to a drinking den in Wester Hailes looking for someone I cared about and was trying to help in the Name of Christ. From a dark room of filth and squalor another man started to shout out “I know you, Kenny Borthwick from Glasgow.” He then spoke some facts about me even though we had never met. There was such a sense of spiritual chill and threat.

Remember you are watched. Your story is of interest simply because Satan hates what God loves and seeks to kill, steal and destroy for no other motivation other than that hatred. Weak points, wounds, cuts and bruises are known about and used against us.

Like a heavyweight boxer Satan goes for weaknesses he observes with the dying fury of a mortally wounded lion who knows his time is short. He will hit them again and again at a moments he sees as opportune. We all have them. Do you know yours? Are you defending those areas of living, speaking, thinking, or have you dropped your guard. Make sure you put on the armour of God, put on the Messiah as your armour, or you will hit the canvas.

God Bless

Kenny

Some Facebook Posts from today:  musings on “church” from various encounters with Scottish believers in recent weeks.

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A phrase I have heard over the last few weeks from the lips of believers when I have inquired what Church they go to: “Well, I used to go to the Church of Scotland, but now…” I have heard that countless times over the decades, literally thousands of times by now. Very occasionally I have met folk who have moved from another church into the Church of Scotland and found a home there. Overall, I think I would soberly estimate that the Church of Scotland has somehow lost tens of thousands of sincere believers who have found a home and are serving in other church settings. A magnanimous spirit may say that they “have not been lost to ‘The one Church, the Body of Christ’ and God bless them.” A humble but troubled spirit might be prepared to add to that outlook the question”Why?”

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Today I have been reading Galatians and Colossians, and thinking as I did that of the Apostle Paul. For sure he was indeed an Apostle, but as we read of him in the book of Acts and as we read his letters to churches and to individuals, there are so many brushstrokes that fill out that picture. We see him as an apologist, a missionary, a worker of signs and wonders, a theologian. The hue that I saw today though was Paul the suffering, struggling, worn out but still persevering pastor.

Perhaps some of you who read my blogs are exactly that: suffering, struggling, worn out but persevering pastors. I wonder if you would dare allow Paul to do something for you? Would you allow him to help you see yourself as a pastor the way he saw himself: as making up what was lacking in Christ’s sufferings for the sake of His Body, the Church? His desire was to present the Church (even those parts of the church he had just heard about but had never met face to face) before the throne of God as mature in Christ. Read Galatians and Colossians for yourself – it can be done in very little time – and you will see what I mean.

Where did his struggle come from? Well, in the two letters I have referred to, we could sum it up in one word; religion. Sometimes it was the religion of the type that observed special days and seasons. Sometimes it was religion of the type that had lots of rules. Sometimes it was religion that majored on the supernatural, visions and angels etc. Whatever form religion took, he saw it as ministering to pride, powerless over sin, self indulgent, feeding self and pride which was destructive to the unity and peace of the Body. He saw it as a bewitching and he cursed whatever lay behind it with an Apostolic denouncement. However impressive, beautiful, orderly, supernatural it looked, it was deadly and he knew it. Sadly it seems there is something about human beings that is drawn to religion, and that deadly draw can still be a temptation to those who are converted, born form above and filled with the Spirit. Paul’s letters are letters to Christians, true born again believers, but believers who were in danger of losing their way.

The point is this: he was aware of the precise nature of the attack upon a pure faith in Christ. If you are a pastor, be aware. To that awareness, add humility and ask God for courage and wisdom to know how to preach a word that His love for the Church within you requires to be preached. Sometimes people will say to me after a sermon, “Were you preaching at me, were you talking about me?” Sometimes they say that because it is as though the word preached has being speaking into the secret things of their own hearts and I can genuinely say “No, I had no idea I was speaking into your life. It was God speaking to you by His Spirit through His Word.” A other times though in answer to the same question I would at times say, “Of course I was. I am your pastor. It is my job to speak about what I see, to speak into what is attacking the flock.” By the way, you have to know your flock in order to pastor them. That is maybe something you need to think about if you have a teaching ministry that almost takes pride in not pastoring in any other way other than through  preaching and teaching.

So Pastor, in the words of a song from the early days of the Charismatic Movement, words I warmed to and liked, which were taken from Scripture, but which had to my ear an awkward,  jumpy, brain-jangling tune: “Be bold, be strong, for the Lord your God is with you!” What is the current trend drawing the flock committed to your care away from a sincere devotion to Christ? Get on to it right away with all the wisdom and words God is able to give you. Alongside the religions that can arise that are peculiar to the church – times, seasons, rules, rituals, spiritual experiences – the world which rejects religion is a religious place – just look at the religion of atheism, the religion of  rights and entitlement, the religion of saving the planet, the religion surrounding matters like sexuality and gender etc.

It is a tireless and at times thankless job being a pastor. When the Chief Shepherd comes you will get your reward. In the meantime, be prepared to suffer to struggle in all the strength which He is able to mightily inspire within you.

God bless you. Oh one final thing. Make sure you are not just a stupid pastor bringing suffering on yourself. Make sure you are not a lazy pastor. Make sure you are not a bitter pastor, a Shepherd who has become an out of control  biting sheep dog. Try not to speak from discouragement or bitterness or your words may end up being toxic even though they seem to you to be honest and real. Whether something is true is not the only consideration before a pastor speaks.  Imagine if Jesus told us every area where our living for Him and our thinking was still not conformed to Him and to His mind, in one go! It would be pretty devastating. Try to speak from being “in Christ’ to those who are “in Christ.” What would He say and how would He say it?

Kenny

An unguarded strength can be a danger. That is not a new thought to me. It is not particularly profound, but it came with fresh force as I read Meistersinger Elkhart today. He was a mystic. At times his developed skill in that area leads him to some very fanciful interpretations of Scripture that by any stretch of the imagination are not valid. I still find him worth reading but with caution. I find I need to do the same even with some of my favourite writers that I turn to more regularly like Henri Nouwen or Brennan Manning. Their understanding of humanness is profound but at times they lean more to that than to Christ and the Bible. I remember noticing the same In Reformed teachers in the early days of my. Christian life. Their mastery of the doctrines of grace sometimes led them to twist Scripture and cleverly avoid its clear meaning. In the past I have met experts in Revival who could not acknowledge or recognise the Spirit of God at work in their own day.

Needless to say Charismatics like me can without care become guilty of the same thing. A strong conviction to do with “Kingdom now, as in heaven so on earth” can lead to strange fire, and the abuse of the vulnerable and to behaving in an unseemly way, the exact opposite of what love looks like. Just listen to some of the most current teachers on that theme and look at some of the ministry styles and bizarre corporate behaviour it wrongly baptises as a new level of “Faith” and its self congratulation for non results rather than humble admission that declaration can be arrogant presumption, taking God’s people into the territory of the dancing and chanting prophets of Baal.

Just in case you are wondering, I see the same in me.

I guess I am asking if you are guilty of the same? God given strength of ability, gifting, calling can make us single eyed in the wrong sense, one track minded in favour of that rather than following Jesus and faithfulness to the Scriptures. The two do not necessarily coincide. We can actually become a mystic, a Bible teacher, a prophet, a church leader, someone used in a healing ministry, who is skilled to a high level, who could even give talks on our area of acknowledged skill and expertise, but we have “lost connection with the Head.” Our expertise, sadly, can become our life. When it does its ability to bring the true life of Christ to people starts to wane, though we may well continue to be applauded by a Christian community that on the whole seems to not understand the presence or the absence of true anointing and its attendant true wisdom and love that comes from God.

Again, as often, a useful question can often be, “Is it I Lord.”

God bless

Kenny

Picking up our cross, daily. It is what Jesus said His followers have to do.

I have to speak on that theme on Saturday at “The Commission,” a Day Conference for men taking place in Woodhill Evangelical Church, Bishopbtiggs. Where is it obvious I have picked up my cross today to follow Jesus?

The “talk” on Saturday is the easy part…

God bless

Kenny

Had a long dream last night. Lessons in it for me that I want to share with you especially if you are in a period of spiritual “waiting ” for something of the promises God has made to you to be birthed.

1: Spend time with those who carry the sweetness of the Lord’s peace and have learned it through physical suffering. Those who suffer from chronic long term physical affliction and still manage to have faces bathed in the beauty of God’s peace have a sweetness you can eat and share. They will probably have to be sought out and are probably passed over as having much place in churches that are the flavour of the month. They may even have been lost from a congregation’s awareness and be no longer able to attend. They may well be in their seventies or older. They will care little about current theories that excite movers and shakers. They would not be considered cool or trendy. They have had to get to know Jesus to survive and even flourish. They are almost a bygone race: those in Scotland who knew Christianity is about Jesus: full stop. Spending time with them will be like tasting the best ice cream you have ever eaten. You will savour it and wonder why you have tasted something so wonderful before. Stay and savour.

2: A prophetic man I trusted more than any other, John Paul Jackson, now in glory, came into my dream. He was very seriously looking into a promise box and drawing out old prophetic words nd reading them again to those to whom he had given them while alive. He had a very serious look on his face. The sense was of the danger of people giving up old prophetic words as false because they have not yet been fulfilled. There was also a sense of mercy and forgiveness and hope that those who had side stepped the pronounced will of God could find their way back into Plan A, but it was not guaranteed they would take the necessary steps. There also came across the sense that some of us would be surprised who would prosper in God for we look upon them as suspect in commitment and not doctrinal enough for our liking. God has found in them an ingredient often missing but as important as commitment to truth, as important as faith: TENDER COMPASSION AND LOVE FOR PEOPLE. KINDNESS AS A BEDROCK FOUNDATION IN WHAT THEY DO DESPITE WHAT FOLK MAY THINK AND HOW PEOPLE MAY JUDGE

Anyway, there it is. It was for me, but it would be unlike me to hold on to a good gift from God and not share it!!

You may not understand all this about dreams and how God speaks through them. That’s alright. Look for truth in what I share and consider it.

God bless

Kenny

Further to my last post to this one, have just witnessed a mega church pastor in a den of Reformed Theology lions , some of them household names here and some household names both sides of the Atlantic. He behaved in a Christ like way. They on the other hand…well, we can have a commitment to doctrine and grieve the Spirit speaking truth with the voice of the devil. Knowing the doctrines of grace does not mean we are necessarily Christlike or even saved. It is a prospect almost unbearable to me that Christ should say to any “I never knew you.” He will. It may prove to be the case that some who have an impeccable knowledge of Christ’s words and the doctrines derived from them and His appointed Apostles may be found to have built on sand, through hearing but without living and doing. Hearing without doing and living does not survive the storm of Judgement according to Jesus in Matthew 7. Some of the lost may have much more biblical theology than the saved.

I felt I was witnessing a Sanhedrin with a fake smile “bristling with a bunch of nails.” (I seem to remember a line like that from a poem.) God help them and God help me not to be like them and recognise when I am. And God help that humble mega church pastor to continue in the blessing of God and to be a blessing to many, even though I would feel uncomfortable in the style of church life and worship that exists there and wish he would say things a bit differently than he does! Even writing that sounds patronising! I have embarrassed myself but will let it stand as a reminder of my stupidity and self important pride…

And to any of you dear folk who ask me to have the courage to name names… don’t force me to add to my stupidity by taking the bait you dangle. If I did it would turn a warning to be thought about and if necessary to be received with humility and repentance, into an argument which allows an evasion of examining  our hearts asking with trembling, “Is it I Lord?”

A shocked and disturbed Kenny

Information on a conference that may interest you.

youtu.be/P-3igHR-a3U

“The Heart is deceitful above all things” So says the God breathed Scriptures. For some reason I was thinking about that verse. It could be because of what has come to light about Jean Vanier, namely his sexual abuse of several women over many years. I was sad to read that allegations have proved to be true.

However, the verse went off like a light in my spirit not when I read that news but when I read a heresy hunting website. There are many of them around. Sadly I have sometimes found it to be true, not always but sometimes, that those who trumpet most about the errors and sins of others are often found down the line to have been living a double life. It is not unusual for preachers for example who go purple in the face as they rage against carnal sin in the church to be discovered with prostitutes or to be deeply into pornography.

If you find wrong in others a delicious morsel that sets you salivating and looking for an opportunity to share it, take care. God will treat you in the way you treat others. The measure in which you have delighted to find fault and expose others is the way He is deciding to deal with you right now. It may be too late to stop your sins being exposed. It may not be. Fear God. The exposure could happen today, or in two years time. This moment be the last one God gives you to repent. Do it. In mercy God may never ask you to make it public. He is kind as well as severe. What we hide He exposes sometimes. What He hides is hidden.

“The Bible says,” can make you into a winner of souls like Billy Graham a teacher like the late great Jim Graham or into a false prophet who speaks from the heart of the enemy of God and His people. Give some people a Bible and a soapbox and a dictator is released. Some people follow dictators and get hooked by their eloquence without any check on their behaviour. Make sure you are not one of them.

I have found many Christians love in the angry sermons pointing out wrong. Love does not rejoice in the discovery of wrong, the practice of wrong. Oh for sure it needs to be done, but only from a Christlike heart that loves enough to have a track record of suffering for the church. Heresy hunters and fixers of the church rarely have such a record.

What losses and scars do you bear for the flock of God whom you claim to be warning, heresy discoverer, troll of video excerpts and quotes out of context, bull who sees red at the mention of certain names? If, as a pastor I ever spoke about errors creeping in at the edges of the flock, I had earned the right to do so. I had the scars, the sleepless nights, the being treated at times as the offscouring of the earth. My wife and family have scars too. Pointing out error needs more than a Bible, a degree in theology, the ability to find a quote from a revered author and access to social media.

God bless

Kenny