I began playing piano at the age of three. I started picking out commercial jingles by ear one note at a time and like any self respecting parent, my mother shipped me off to piano lessons.

By the time I was a pre teen I was so frustrated I could scream (and often did) because I could hear in my mind what I wanted to produce with my hands but I did not have the dexterity or developed talent at that point to produce it thru my own hands as of yet. Many reading this are in that same place with a lot of different areas of their lives where you are frustrated because God has shown you results but you have yet to develop the needed skills to produce those results... but that's a different topic for a different day.  :)

Some years after that in my twenties I found myself playing piano and I picked up guitar along the way and as one thing led to another I was playing on worship teams and when I wasn't playing on stage, i would be running sound for the same teams at a number of various churches.

Roughly ten years ago now in 2004 I found myself leading some worship for a youth group where only a handful of kids were attending. They wanted to shut it down for lack of attendance as the previous guy leading didn't see a point in doing it with such a small number. I on the other hand felt that even if it was one or two, it was worth it if they truly wanted to worship... now again, that is something else that would preach to many right where you are today... but onward...  :)

Our little monthly gathering of a few kids began to grow and before long we outgrew the youth room and found ourselves in the main sanctuary drawing bigger numbers than the adult worship services. My elevation intimidated the church worship leader and a unique move of God began to stir.  

I remember the night like it was yesterday in December of 2004 as I sat in the little side room off the stage and the Spirit of God came over me in a way He never has before or since.  I was dressed up, the stage was lit for video, a small team of gifted guys had been amassed to do our best.. but God fell on me and suddenly the whole performance end of it all sickened me. I gave the order to turn the house lights off, kill the cameras and take the stage lighting to dim.  I changed clothes into shorts and a tee shirt, out of my shirt and tie and I even remember tossing my phone and keys across the room as in that moment I saw in the spirit they represented things of this world that had hooks in me and I just wanted nothing but God.

In that posture of abandonment before God I walked out onto that dimly lit stage and put my hands on the Korg Triton and sang in the spirit a few moments and went on to do a set of songs that would end up being my very first official recorded music project called "The Humble Beginning".

Now, some ten years later I've written many songs and logged God only knows how many hours of private and public worship but after 14 recorded projects, I was still left feeling ... dissatisfied. I went to the church I am now serving in and purposely picked a time when no one else was there, sat down at my keyboard (that I let them use there) and began to worship like so many times before.  I told the Lord I wanted something new. Please give me a new song was my prayer... He responded as He usually does, with an unusual instruction.  He asked me what I wanted.  I again told Him I wanted a new song and He again asked me what i really wanted.  I said I want to go where I have never gone before.  he instantly responded... then ask me to take you there..  so I did.

The moments that followed can only be described with Heaven's words but one of the fruits of that season of worship was indeed a new song called "Never Gone Before" and here is the chorus...

I wanna go where I have never gone before
and all I know is you alone, you are the door
won't you take me with you
to where I've never gone before

Every few years the Lord gives me what I would call a breakthrough song. Sing to the Lord when i was 12, I Sing Holy in 2004, Touch in 2006, Intensity in 2007, Enjoy the Presence in 2010 and now this. I'm currently working on my new project.. it will be the 15th full music project I have done since that original one in 2004 and there is already more general happiness in my heart about it than any project before.  I hope to have it ready for download before Thanksgiving.

My question for you readers is this... what do YOU want from your God... what place do you want to go to? What revelation do you not have that you really want? What piece of the God puzzle do you feel you are missing?  It's time to simply ask Him for it.. and be ready because He will likely answer with something unusual.. but IF you obey the unusual instruction, you will absolutely get whatever you have asked for and it will not disappoint at all.

More soon,

Mark

One of my giftings is that of being a scribe.  That means amongst other things, I not only capture but I also collect historical documentation of stuff in my generation that involves the people of God, moves of the Spirit, various churches at key times, etc.  This has led me to have tens of thousands of pictures along with thousands of CDRs and Cassette tapes.

Over the last few years and especially in the last several months I've been slowly taking my extensive collection of close to 1000 cassette tapes and dubbing them over to a digital format so they will be around much longer and be in a useable, accessible format.  

These dubs must be done in real time so I've been "reliving" and remembering a good many things as of late. I feel the Lord is using this in my personal life to reveal "patterns" that have been happening for a long time. Some of these patterns are good, some are not so good but either way, as the old expression goes, the tape doesn't lie. :)

I have loads of church services, teaching messages, radio shows, special live events, and all sorts of personal tidbits that had I not taken the time to record or capture in some way would basically be completely lost and only exist in the distant memories of those who originally participated. 

In any real move of God there is an activation and elevation of people into their giftings and callings. One of these callings is that of a scribe and at least one of their jobs will be to capture what happens. The best examples are the countless people over the centuries that took time to record the Bible and to preserve it so we have it today. Sure, the original authors take the lion's share of the credit for God working thru them, and that is as it should be.. but if it was just up to them, their writings would not have made it past their generations.

These days it's a popular thing to take a lot of pictures and I'm not for a moment suggesting just because a person takes a lot of pictures that they must be a scribe but I am suggesting that you often do not know at a glance so the next time someone offers to take a picture of you or even if someone annoyingly snaps a lot of pics of you and others around you, it could be because God is doing some special things, or perhaps is getting ready to do some special things. He may well be leading someone else to snag some documentation of you and others.

More soon,

Mark

I made a post on FB that said "Pondering on the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings...and how both are terribly misunderstood by so many today." Then one of my friends asked me to expand a bit on that and as I started to reply I realized that i would need a lot more space than Facebook would give me to do that...  

The verse it comes from is Philippians 3:10 which says "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" ...

Like so many verses when you take a look at it out of it's proper context it can appear to have multiple meanings and even be a touch contradictory. A better approach would be to look at the entire book of Philippians to start with and see that Paul was called by a dream specifically to go there and help them. Paul seems to have a very personal and direct conversation with them in this letter, to me it reads less general and more specific than most of his others to the other churches.  For this reason, I believe Paul is purposely sharing some deeper revelation with them than he usually shared with the other churches in his care.

When you read the first three chapters altogether you see Paul honoring basic Apostolic protocols at first but then he goes on painting a larger picture of being almost fascinated with God's Mercy, Grace and Power.. and wanting that same hunger for these folks he's writing to which of course is ultimately us today.  Paul is hungry for understanding of the spiritual dynamics or dare I say the "mechanics" of how God works like He does. This highly charged love and mercy based God full of purity and truth yet interfaced with fallen humanity and as a result, it is we as humans who are changed for God never changes.  The greatness of Paul's personal and private revelations kept his human intellect stimulated and challenged much more than his letters would ever reveal, I am sure. 

The power of Jesus resurrection is a marvelous topic but as most of Philippians up to that point talks about the person of Jesus, we can assume Paul is trying in the person and the power as one. He understood that Jesus speaking of His own body said if they destroy the temple in three days He (Jesus) would raise it back up again (John 2:19).  Paul was also aware as he wrote to the church in Rome that it was the Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead (Rom 8:11). Twice in Acts (2:24 and 5:30) Peter preaches giving credit to God the Father for raising Christ from the dead.

In this triune mystery lays a wealth of undiscovered glory, beauty and amazement that goes well beyond simply knowing Jesus on a personal level.  This is why Paul draws a clear distinction between knowing Him and knowing the power of His resurrection.  Was it the Father, the Son or The Holy Spirit that raised up Jesus? The answer is YES to all three questions and only in the confines of our fallen human mind does this not make sense. To the renewed mind of Christ it not only makes sense but anything outside of it is fallen thinking. Paul was undoubtedly engulfed mentally by these things hungering for them if for no other reason that Jesus was in it and thru it all.

The fellowship of Jesus' sufferings has been terribly misinterpreted over the centuries and the main place people miss it is with the word "His" as in "His sufferings" meaning the sufferings belong to Jesus, not to ourselves.  Many mistakenly believe this is a call to suffering or that Paul craved suffering just because Jesus suffered before him and that does not line up with scripture. 

To Corinth Paul writes in 2nd Cor 1:5 - For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. To Rome Paul makes his famous declaration that the sufferings of this present time aren't even worthy to be compared to the Glory which shall be revealed... (now watch these two words here).... IN US.  Paul is obviously well aware that there is a level of koinonia or fellowship with Jesus that has to do with an understanding of what Jesus went thru on our behalf and that level of fellowship unlocks Glory within ourselves. This is a level of relationship that while every believer has access to, very few actually desire, pursue or attain. Paul is making it clear that he was in and wanted that very much while also leading by example for every Apostle that was to come after that one of the keys to a deep, intimate walk with jesus is an understanding and even an embracing of the sufferings Christ endured.

I personally believe Jesus truly desired the suffering on our behalf. In the recent TV mini Series The Bible and later in the Movie Son Of God, one of my favorite scenes is when Jesus is embracing his own cross with a passion.. even a supernatural affection... while everyone else was dazed, confused, scared or upset.. Jesus was in complete control of His mind and He knew that He was only hours away from saving you and I. In fact, Hebrews (likely written later by Paul) the writer says it was for the Joy set before Him that he endured the cross.  Under the intense and inhumane suffering that very few humans will ever understand there was the Holy Spirit who was/is in fact the very Spirit of Jesus Himself and in Gal 5 we read one of the Spirit's attributes is Joy. That Joy was alive in Him.

In a very real way while his body was tortured to the point of multiple convulsions, involuntary spasms, blood loss because of cuts, scrapes and the flogging, and pain signals from those things along with countless punches, kicks and bruises were bombarding his human brain... there was an unquenchable Joy deep within Him. He had modeled Peace at the troubles sea.. He had modeled Patience as for three years he was merciful with those He called and dialoged with... This was His time to model His Love for us which is why He said greater love has no man than He lay down His life for his friend. This was Jesus laying down His own life and Paul knew that all too well. It was this revelation running it's full course that allowed the Apostle to embrace the trip to Rome and ultimately lay his head willfully on the executioner's block.. but before that could happen, first came the desire to know not only the person of Jesus... but the Power of Jesus ,, and the Sufferings of Jesus.

Truly this is the call of the Holy Spirit of Jesus to us today as well.  We are invited by all of Heaven and indeed by God Himself to freshly discover not only the person of Jesus whom many reading this have become so familiar with.. but to discover afresh His majestic power and His beautiful sufferings because within both are new realms of understanding, revelation, experience and ultimately more of Him coming alive IN US...

Holy Spirit, I ask you to touch and mold readers today... bring them face to face with yourself so that they can have the courage to come face to face with themselves and deal with the stuff you want them to deal with. Empower every reader with the courage to step up and into whatever you have called them to do so that your Kingdom may be advanced and so that the relationship with you that you so selflessly paid for with your own blood and body.. can be deepened... in your sweet name I ask...  

Amen.

M-

I still remember like it was yesterday. In reality it was in 1994 when Lori came into our bedroom with an unsure look in her eyes. I knew something was up, I just wasn't sure what, so of course I asked. She got a partial smile on her face and quietly said "I think I'm pregnant". Indeed she was and in February of 1995 we had our first baby boy, Luke Kenney was born. 

There was absolutely nothing that could have prepared me for being a witness to his birth. Never before in my young 25 year life had I ever encountered such a rush and flood of emotions and spiritual insights all at the same time.  It was more than watching the birth; that alone was just amazing and filled me with unspeakable Joy.  But the spiritual revelation that this living soul that God had deposited inside of her body thru my seed 9 months earlier was now being delivered into this world... I was almost on the floor before God with what was happening within me and then to know that Lori was likely having similar feelings on top of the unspeakable pain that accompanies childbirth brought me to a new place of reverence and appreciation for her as my wife. 

Memories of that day flashed before my eyes as I witnessed Luke's name being called at his graduation ceremony recently. As any parent knows, the time might pass evenly from a scientific perspective, but it sure seems like it flies right on by without any care for your feelings when it comes to your kids.  You blink a few times, turn around and suddenly these little helpless infants are driving, graduating and planning to soon leave the nest.

The lord has been speaking and ministering to me about LEGACY for a few years now. I remember when He first started to share it with me, I remarked back to Him that i was too young to even consider things like leaving a legacy for others. He gently whispered back as only he could do and said "You already are, (leaving a legacy) my son". The holy ghost light bulb went off in me and I began to "get it".  From the day my earthly eyes first met his, I have been creating, modeling and leaving a legacy for Luke to be impacted by and to enjoy.

 I wanted to share these things with you in my blog today to encourage you to not make the same mistakes I made. Always remember that what you are doing right now IS leaving a legacy for those coming behind you. It's not something that you begin to do when you are 50 or 60 years old. It's something you start to do as soon as you arrive here in the earth and it's no small thing. 

God has given each of us talents, giftings, abilities and specific things that can only be done by us in specific ways customized by our personalities that He alone has authored in us as living souls. Never make the mistake of underestimating your own importance either. As I said, we all have unique and customized abilities to impact our world ultimately for the Kingdom Of God.  

It is never too late to begin... start today and live your life knowing with each and every choice and decision, the power and authority of a lasting legacy comes behind you to solidify what you are doing. Know that you ARE making a difference. Every choice DOES matter, every decision DOES matter. You are only one choice away from your next victory!

Mark