Author: Monica McKeen

I have most recently graduated a program called Word By Heart at YWAM. Is like I am a eyewitness to, the greatest story ever told. Word By Heart helps you know Jesus personally and be able to share him in a unique way by learning the Gospel of Luke translated through the Holy Spirit.  I have l experience d Him through all my senses, my imagination.  smell, and hearing as i learned to internalize the word of God.  This is not memorization.  It’s as if you literally right there with Jesus.  Taste and see that the Lord is good.  I am currently on my outreach, teaching others the method. If you are interested in a Seminar or a presentation. Let me know.

DO YOU KNOW THAT CHILDREN CAN HAVE SUPERNATURAL ENCOUNTERS JUST LIKE ADULTS? “Here are a few things you can do to help the children in your life develop a positive relationship with hearing God—especially through supernatural encounters and dreams! Encourage your children to hear God. At times, they can even be more sensitive to the heavenly realm than adults.

Children are incredibly special to God. They are so special that Jesus specifically welcomed and encouraged children throughout His life. He especially defended the relationship children have with God and instructed adults not to discourage them in their relationship with Him.

… “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”’ Luke 18:16–17 NIV

Jesus even talked about how children have a special connection with God through angels in Heaven!

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” Matthew 18:10 NIV

Help them recognize when it’s God and when it’s not

Children can have nightmares that might be frightening, but there is a good chance they actually have a high calling to fulfill in their life. A major plan of the enemy is to cause children to have nightmares, so they will grow up fearing the supernatural—both good and bad.When the enemy attacks in the area of dreams, it shows that this is a potential area God wants to bless and develop with young people.

Pay attention to the tone of the dream. Is it light and colorful, or more dark and shadow-like? Oftentimes, darker color dreams reveal hidden fears or things that may be trying to stop them from advancing.

Pay attention and listen to children

The best way to help children recognize God’s voice is to listen to them. Ask them specific questions about what they believe they’re hearing from God. Encourage your children to openly talk about their dreams, particularly in the morning when it’s easier to remember them more clearly.

Make a habit of asking them at the breakfast table what they dreamed about the night before. Even begin helping them keep a dream journal. If they can’t write yet, ask them to draw a picture, create a collage or other type of artwork to help them remember their dreams.

It may not be just their imagination

We love to teach children ho to interpret there dreams. We offer training, books and curriculum to help your children dream big with God. Look at our events page.

When we come together as a family and pray. God has the best plans for our lives. I taught my daughter at a young age to pray and seek the lord and hear His Voice. When she entered middle school it was her first school dance coming up but she knew she needed to pray about it and was upset when the Father told her no. But soon found out God was protecting her from all the bad things at the school dance. She was was so excited that she listened to her Father and he protected her. Let your relationship with the father become a lifestyle. Pray and listen as He has only the best for us.

If you are a Christian, you are led by His voice. It’s His leading that lets us know that we are His own (Romans 8:14 & 16). But many times
people do not recognize the voice of God because they’ve never been taught what to listen for. The earlier in our lives we learn these things, the more trouble and heartache we can save ourselves. For some, recognizing His voice will come very quickly and easily. For others, it may be a challenge to learn to “hear” in their hearts and not their head. Also, learning to hear and recognize the voice of God is not something you can put down in a one-two-three order and then have it for life! It is a lifetime process to learn to perfect
one’s communication with the Holy Spirit. Be patient with yourself and always know He is with you. He is your best friend. Elijah was a prophet called by God to bring correction to King Ahab and his wife Jezebel during a rough period in ancient Israel. He saw many miracles in his life and was used mightily by the Lord to demonstrate the power of God to Israel. Than he ran and hid in fear. The LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He replied, The Israelite’s have rejected your covenant, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too. The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a soft voice God began to speak said to him, you are going to anoint a new king to replace Ahab and Jezebel, and you will anoint a new prophet. So Elijah obeyed God. He knew God was all-powerful, and could do anything. Because of that, he expected to hear His voice in the wind, the earthquake and the fire. But he did not hear God’s voice there. To his surprise, it was when things got quiet that he heard God’s still, small, soft voice. He learned that when it seems like everything is caving in all around him, that if he got quiet, he would hear God’s voice.

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Teach Your Kids to Hear God!
As parents we want to hear God’s voice but most of all we want to be able to teach our children to hear the voice of God. We can “train them up in the way they should go”. But we want their hearts to burn brightly for Jesus when they are teens and into their adult years. We want our children to be fervent lovers of God throughout their lives. I always loved reading the story of Samuel in the bible to my daughter. I think it is a key component when teaching our children to know the Lord’s voice personally, so that they can talk to him and have a personal relationship with Him, that will increase as they mature. When my daughter was young I would read her the bible story of Samuel. (1st Samuel 3:1-19) Samuel’s mother was a woman named Hannah. She wanted a son more than anything, so she prayed and asked God to give her a son. She promised God that if he would give her a son, she would give him back to the LORD to serve him all the days of his life. God gave Hannah the son she asked for and she kept her promise to God. When the boy was old enough, she took him to the temple and presented him to Eli the priest. So Samuel served in the temple under Eli. Eli trained Samuel in the ways of the Lord. Samuel heard his name one night while he was sleeping and thought it was Eli calling him and went to Eli’s room a couple of times and Eli told him to go back to bed. Finally Eli knew it was God speaking to Samuel and told Samuel to go back to bed and when you hear your name again say “speak Lord your servant is listening”. The lord spoke a powerful message to Samuel. God speaks today. Some people think that God only calls grown-ups. That is why I like the story of Samuel, because he was just a young boy when God called him. God knows your name just as he knew the name of Samuel and God still talks to boys, girls, teens and adults. It is important to learn as a family to hear the voice of God. My daughter was very young when she heard the voice of God. We would pray about everything. We would practice listening to his voice. We would ask him about vacations, ministry, parties and ask the Lord about it before doing it. The Lord told me as my daughter gets older that she would pray to him about things and he would speak to her. Not sure what it meant but I journaled it. When she was in Middle school she came home from school all excited about a school dance. She knew she had to pray and ask the Lord. God told her not to go and she did not go to that school dance. Was she upset yes. She wanted to go more than anything. But God knows best.
Come Monday morning she found out some bad things were going on at that dance and she was so happy the lord protected her. God has a plan and a purpose for everything in our life. God speaks to all of us today saying, “Come, follow me.” So, listen for God’s call and answer just as Samuel did, “Here I am!”

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Humility in the Webster dictionary shares “ low view of one’s own importance; One of the biggest secrets about God’s kingdom is that the kingdom of God is not something that you can point to and say, “Here it is” , or “There it is” for it is a kingdom! It is found in our hearts and wherever His will is done. God rules in human hearts. The kingdom is manifested through the church of Christ not a building it is us, God’s children. Our hearts and relationship with God. Remember, the disciples talking to Jesus about the Kingdom? They wanted so much to be a part of that Kingdom and have an Important part of His kingdom. After all they gave up much to follow Jesus. You find it in Matthew 18:1-4 “ At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Many years ago when I encountered the Lord and gave Jesus my heart I signed up for Discipleship classes and learned to hear God Voice and went through the book as a church on prayers that heal the heart through Communion with God Ministries. I was radically changed and over the years the lord used me and I had intimate times with him. I learned to journal and spend intimate times with him. As I grew in Christ, he gave me a ministry where I would teach children everything I learned. I became the Children’s Pastor than the family Pastor and soon got very busy and forgot to ask my father about His plans. I got caught up in ministry. Oh yes, I would still spend time with the Lord. But I would not listen or even ask him questions. I got very busy and doubt started to creep in. I was a single mother raising my daughter and would share everything God taught me with her. I became the Children’s Pastor in church and I know it was God’s will but I became so entangled in being busy. I would never ask My father is this what He wants. I would go ahead him and say yes to all Hearing God’s voice conferences for children and yes to preaching and teachings. I mediated on the scriptures and the Holy Spirit would show up at times. But fear and doubt would creep in and I wouldn’t journal anything because I didn’t think it was God. I forgot to pray and seek him about everything. I would still hear his voice but I had so much doubt and fear it was not Him. I remember receiving a word about Missions after my daughter was grown and gone. I wanted to go to Youth With A Mission years ago. When I first got saved in that same Discipleship we learned about missions and I read Lauren Cunningham’s book “is that really you God and wanted to go on the missions field. I wanted to quit my job and go My daughter was 3 years old at the time. But back then I knew I needed to pray and seek the Lord and see what the Lord thinks about this. I heard him clearly tell me no I want you to pour into your daughter” I even received confirmation that it is not His timing. I put it on the back burner until a year ago. A burning was coming into my heart for missions but when I prayed I heard the Holy Spirit say take out your 401K and apply to YWAM. Well that’s not God I said to myself and I let it go. I would listen to sermons that was speaking clearly to me and without telling anyone. My pastor is very prophetic and she said to me. I believe God is calling you for a season for Missions. Wow, I knew it was God so I start praying and asking Him for confirmation but had such fear about pulling out my 401K. I would tell him, That is crazy Lord. I never shared about my 401 with anyone and every sermon was about Matthew 6:26-34 “ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 7 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”

I finally surrendered at the alter one day and the peace of God came upon me. When I got to YWAM I was so happy. The first week we had Dr. Mark Virkler and my attitude changed. “Lord I knew this wasn’t you. I wanted to quit I was upset. But I remembered how the lord led me here and learned to humble myself and surrender once again. Although I argued with Him. I did surrender and said Why Lord. I heard him clearly through my first session in journeling “I am bringing you back to basics. You have lost your first love.” I grew so much those three months and other speakers came in that our church did there trainings. But I was humble. I knew God had a plan and a purpose for me and wanted me to put him first in everything I do. Today, I pray about everything. I love to have those intimate times with the Lord. And I thank Jesus for keeping us in His perfect will. My heart was to do his will and He knew that. Although I got off the path a bit he brought me back to basics which we all need from time to time.

Christians claim to believe the Bible is God’s Word. We claim it’s God’s divinely inspired, inerrant message to us. Yet despite this, we aren’t reading it. A recent LifeWay Research study found only 45 percent of those who regularly attend church read the Bible more than once a week. Over 40 percent of the people attending read their Bible occasionally, maybe once or twice a month. Almost 1 in 5 churchgoers say they never read the Bible—essentially the same number who read it every day.

So, it may be hard for Christian parents to impress upon their children the importance and value of reading the Bible on a regular. They notice that their parents aren’t reading the Bible. The less they read it as children, the less they will read it as the get older. The less they read it, the less important God’s Word becomes.

Why does it matter? If you seldom, if ever, read the Bible, you don’t know what it says. If you don’t know what it says, you are biblically illiterate. If you are biblically illiterate, you, and your children, are completely helpless against the indoctrination and lies purported by media, movies, books, education, politicians, and more. At that point, your mind is being made up for you. And it’s not the mind of Christ!

Worse, our children and youth can be easily convinced the Bible has no more value than any other religious book, and worse, that it’s not true at all. You have no idea how many young people write to me because of the movie Jesus Camp and tell me they grew up in Sunday School, but when they got older they became atheists because they were talked out of believing the Bible is true.

Muslim children are taught to read and memorize the Koran daily, and pray five times a day.

Orthodox Jewish children are trained to read the Torah daily, and pray three times a day.

Mormon children get up at 5 am to read the Bible and study the Old Testament. Daily. They pray with their families daily.

Christian children……….not so much.

Where do you stand on this important issue? Many are convinced America (as well as other supposedly Christian nations) is in the mess it is in because we no longer read and value what is written in God’s Word.

As a Christian parent, do you wonder what you need to do to raise children who are committed, passionate followers of Jesus Christ. Start by reading your Bible, and training them to do the same.

This is a great time of year to teach your children about serving. Serve together at a local food bank or head out to a nursing home and sing Christmas Carols and give a message of hope through God’s word. Pray as a family and God will share with you what to do. Many places are looking for volunteers. So get out their and teach your children to be God’s hands and feet.

When you’re a FT missionary supported by an awesome team you make financial decisions a little differently. My friends are YWAMER’s and there daughter came to them asking about the possibility of taking ballet in Berlin, Germany they sat down with her and prayed. That’s what you do. You ask God. As they prayed together as a family it went something to the effect of, “God, you know our hearts & you certainly love dance. What would you say to us about Katie taking ballet lessons in Berlin?” God loves to talk to us ALL! He really likes it when His kids talk to Him and ask Him things. Yes He might say no. But He knows best. So when Katie asked she received an impression and felt like God said that when she danced, He smiled. A lot. And that it made Him happy to watch her dance for Him. 💝 Gulp, yup, kiddo. That sounds about right. So, my friends prayed with others to receive confirmation and believing God is in this. When all of a sudden one of the families stepped up to the place and wanted to help cover the costs of her lessons this year. Wow, Thank you Lord. I know it doesn’t always happen this way, but more than once I have seen things like this unfold since we started trusting God in the area of our provisions on a deeper level. And the coolest part? Katie get to experience a tangible level that God sees & loves HER. 👑 I believe God to be extravagant in His generosity to us. We don’t have to look further than Jesus to know this is truth.
Bless you, friends. However we live this out in having an attitude of generosity & sharing from our abundance with those in need. May our eyes be more open to see the extravagance of the love of God on our lives!

In the beginning, I faced many problems regarding my kids’ ministry, but I had a strong faith in God, that He will help me to do something different, and he did. I remember the first day I got saved reading Lauren Cunninham’s book in a Discipleship class “is that really you God” My heart wanted to quit my job and pull my daughter out of school and go on the Mission Field with Youth with A Mission. But I also learned in that same disipleship class to pray about everything because God has a plan. When I asked the Lord about it he said “No” 19 years later he says it is time to go. I have learned a lot at YWAM and God taught me so much more about how to teach families and to hear the voice of God. I have been able to make God known through Missions. I am so excited about this journey God has me on and looking forward to partnering with YWAM again in Foundations School.