This newsletter will be regularly updated as time permits.
We all know (or should know) that dark clouds have been gathering over 'western' nations. Gross immorality is not only overlooked or excused, but celebrated. Children are no longer just being educated at schools but are now being indoctrinated into an anti-christian ideology. An ideology that pulls down all long established boundaries. Behind the visible however, is the invisible. As The apostle Paul wrote, 'For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.' (Ephesians 6:12) However, the Bible repeatedly shows that when God's people allow themselves to be substantially influenced by the ungodly culture of the day He withdraws and their enemies then have the landscape virtually unchallenged. (e.g. Judges chapters 2,3,4,6,10,13) and (2 Corinthians 6:14-18 & James 4:4) God would have stayed His hand if Sodom and Gomorrah had enough righteous people there. (Genesis 18) But they hadn't. Only.. only.. only God can redeem a nation, and so while it is tempting to 'fight' the culture it is more important for us as God's people to bring ourselves wholly and deliberately back under His Lordship. Let's see how bad the sin in the church is. Pornography. It would be lovely to say that God's people have nothing to do with that, but Charisma Magazine's 2014 survey among born-again Christians revealed that 95 percent admit that they have viewed pornography. 54 percent look at pornography at least once a month. 44 percent viewed pornography at work in the last 90 days. 31 percent had a sexual affair while married. 25 percent erase Internet browsing history to conceal pornography use. 18 percent admit being addicted to pornography (another 9 percent think they may be) Then there is unbelief. A Barna survey (2005–2011 USA sample) showed that 25 percent of born–again Christians said all people are eventually saved or accepted by God. 26 percent said a person’s religion doesn’t matter because all faiths teach the same lessons. 40 percent of born–again Christians said they believe Christians and Muslims worship the same God. The implications of these un-scriptural beliefs are simply enormous! The - as yet unproven - hypothesis of evolution has influenced so many of God's people that many Christians have started ministries or support ministries designed to convince other Christians that the Bible account of creation is not true. And so on. And so on. Righteousness exalts a nation and that righteousness comes from God's people. We need a revival. A reformation even. It has to start with you and I. And surely it needs to start now!
Ellel Pierrepont - Tuesday 24th July - Friday 27th
This is my 19th year teaching at Ellel Pierrepont - the largest centre in Ellel's worldwide ministry. The available discipleship programme called NETS consists of 4 ten week stages, and a student can do some or all of them. Students of all ages come from all corners of the world and it is a great privilege to meet and teach them. My programme was one day teaching term 4 students, 2 days teaching term 2 students and giving the weekly sermon at the Friday morning communion service. This is videoed and placed on the internet.
Term 4 students are the ones completing the full 40 week long NETS discipleship course, and the subjects on the Tuesday were
Two sessions on 'Hearing the Voice of God',
One session on 'God's testings'
One session on 'The dark night of the soul'
NOTE: I had been deeply fatigued in the weeks before this visit. So much so that I had my heart condition checked out at the hospital. (No changes detected) Determined not to let the ministry down I arrived on the Monday in a very weakened state and went straight to bed and slept all afternoon, all evening and right through the night. The next day I taught while trying to ignore a headache, but as the rest of the week developed I found I had tremendous energy. Thank you all, friends, family, CRI team and Ellel staff who prayed for me! It was amazing.
Wednesday and Thursday was teaching the 'Father Heart of God' to term 2 students. Each NETS teaching session is 75 minutes long and this 8 session course includes one session on a teaching-walk through the centre's magnificent woodland grounds which has the River Wey as its natural boundary. This is unpacking Romans 1:20
'For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,'
The weekly communion sermon on the Friday morning was titled, 'How Do You Balance Righteous Anger with Grace and Mercy ' and is available here along with my previous Ellel Friday morning communion sermons.
Or on YouTube.
Samples from chapter one and chapter nine
The amazing rise of Green Pastures Church in Northern Ireland!
It has been a privilege to have been associated with Green Pastures church since it started merely a decade ago in small premises on factory grounds in Ballymena. Christian Restoration in Ireland has provided teaching, counsel, prayer ministry and prayer ministry training to the fellowship as it grew and grew into the large vibrant church it is today. In that decade there have been over 1000 baptisms, and the church has a great many ministries interacting with the local community. Several years ago the church bought 97 acres of land on the entrance to the town and are developing a 'Christian Village' there. The new church itself is - there is no other word for it - massive and is now taking shape. The car park alone will be 7 acres in size. Pastor Jeff Wright took me on a tour of the building and it took a full hour to cover just the inside structure. Here are two 'pano' pictures I took on my iphone.
This first stage of the development should be opening in a year's time, with many more years of work ahead developing the full area.
Weekly teaching at Green Pastures College. September 20th - October 18th
Green Pastures College is just one of their many discipleship programmes. Each Thursday session runs from 1pm - 2.45pm. These students are now in the more advanced level. The subject for this series is 'Understanding Prayer Ministry in the Church' and subjects covered are, 'Fearfully and wonderfully made - Understanding our spirit, soul and body' - 'Understanding the spiritual realms' - 'Understanding how our spirit and soul respond to wounding' - 'Understanding healing from the destructive power of dysfunactional relationships' - 'Understanding the qualities of a prayer ministry person'
Portroe, County Tipperary, October 5th -7th.
This our 12th year coming to 'God's Garage' in the Tipperary village called Portroe. It is a 5 hour journey (with breaks) from our home and the visits are always deeply appreciated. On the Friday evening I taught on The challenges of 'Your Kingdom come' in today's godless culture. On Saturday morning I taught on 'Moving on with God' and 'God's Testings'. On Saturday afternoon the CRI team ministered to approximately 30 people. Below is God's Garage founder Anne-marie Mulrooney with two of her children Grace and Ela, surrounded by the 9 strong CRI team that travelled down for the weekend...
Left to right at back: Mollie, John and Simon. Front: Ann, Shireen, Linda, Anne-Marie, Julie, Linda and myself.
'I would like to thank you and team for another great weekend in Portroe, again many lives have been transformed by God the Father working through you and the team to reach his lost and wounded children, thanks for being that vessel..'
'I just wanted to say thank you for your support, time and honesty. I am very grateful'
Some eight years ago I had the privilege of leading a good friend's son to Jesus. Since then he has gone from strength to strength in his walk with God.
When he recently announced his wedding he asked if I would give the wedding sermon, focusing on the love of God and also strongly containing the gospel message.
I agreed, and on Saturday October 13th Linda and I attended a totally God centred marriage, and the presence of God was very real. Our prayer is that God touched many hearts in that packed church.
Visit to Portlaoise high security prison Wednesday 17th October
Portlaoise prison is a maximum security prison. A large number of well-armed soldiers guard the prison 24 hours a day, making it one of the most secure prisons in Europe. The security features include a detachment consisting of approx. platoon strength, armed with rifles and anti-aircraft machine guns, who patrol the prison complex. An air exclusion zone operates over the entire complex. The perimeter consists of high walls, cameras, sensors and acres of tank traps. The prison chaplin invited me to speak to prisoners and team member Simon and I travelled down to Portlaoish the day before (as it is a 320 mile round trip) The next day we met the prison chaplin and were taken into the prison. I talked in a morning and afternoon session, and at the end of the morning talk Simon gave his amazing testimony. As we left one of the prisoners said to me, "This has been life changing"
Weekly Webinar from October 29th - December 3rd
I have taught The Father Heart of God in Australia almost every year between 2003 - 2017 but from January this year I stopped travelling internationally to teach. However Ellel Ministries, Gilbulla, in Australia kindly asked if I would teach via Webinar (an online seminar) from my home and I was delighted to do so. This was new to me and took quite a bit of adjusting! I am used to seeing my listeners and their reactions, but talking 'to yourself 'on your computer from your home was very hard to get used to. The webinar went live each Monday for six weeks from October 29th to December 3rd. The six sessions are available as recordings from Ellel Gilbulla .
"Thank you for tonight. I was rather grateful we are doing an online course because tonight I spent a lot of the time crying. Just the love of God is amazing and trying to get over feeling unworthy of it.....It was such an honour to be part of your course. I am gaining so much. You have such a gentle and loving fatherly voice. It is very soothing"
Listen to testimonies from others who have been blessed through this teaching in previous years.
Visit of Jill Southern and Andrew Ghinn - November 4th.
Those acquainted with Ellel Ministries International know what I mean when I describe Jill Southern as 'legendary'. She was a successful businesswoman who then pioneered Ellel Ministries work at their flagship centre school of healing and discipleship at Pierrepont near Farnham, Surrey where she was director from it's inception until retiring as director after 25 years. Her book, 'The Miracles of Pierrepont' is aptly titled and an amazing story of God's Hand upon the work. She still travels to many countries teaching, training and ministering, and seems inexhaustible! Earlier this year she announced her engagement to Andrew Ghinn, and they have honoured me greatly by asking me to preside at their wedding in mid-December. This was our chance to meet Andrew and to have their approval on the wedding programme.
Father Heart x 3 November 5th -10th
I might average only three Father Heart teachings per year, but this week I had three seperate events featuring this powerful truth. On Monday 5th I did my second Webinar teaching to Australia (see above) Then on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th I did a two day seminar to the students at Green Pastures College. Then on Friday 9th evening and all day Saturday 10th I did this teaching to large numbers at Green Pastures Church. The Friday evening session was held in the children's church
The feedback that came back from the senior pastor, director, Pastor and staff was very encouraging..
Senior Pastor: 'Ken thank you so much for what you did for so many people over these last two days...'
Compassion Director: ...'wanted to thank you for all you poured out last week - and how even by Saturday evening the message was as fresh and engaging as I'm sure it was the first time you ever taught it. We've had great feedback in the last few days.'
Pastor:...'hearing great feedback from the Father heart weekend! Real revelational stuff for many people.'
Staff member: .'.just wanted to say thanks for last weekend... While I had to miss a couple of sessions in the middle of Saturday to help prepare lunch I was blessed by the time I had in your teaching... Even with having first sat through the teaching 9 years ago and trying to live out of that truth more and more over the years I found myself blown away yet again by the Father's heart... I was on the wee book stand after the last session and it was lovely to have so many people stop and share on their way out! Believing for transformation in many lives going forward! Thank you Ken!'
On Sunday December16th I had the great honour of officiating at Jill Southern's wedding to Andrew Ghinn in Ellel Pierrepont's great hall. Jill was the founding director of Ellel 's ministry at Pierrepont for 25 years, and I am but one of many who regard her as a 'legendary' leader in her field'
And on December 18th I reached the grand age of 71
