Open Heavens, Anointing and God’s Favor

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Open Heavens, Anointing, and God’s Favour.

fantasy-24 This is episode three of the series that I’m currently working on called, A Christian With an Attitude.  This is episode three.  Warning: if you are not a believer, you could become one by reading my blogs and listening to my podcasts.  This may not occur suddenly.  It might take a few weeks, a few months or possibly even a few years, but I pray that the Holy Spirit will visit you in a prompt manner.  This is up to God, not me.  If you hate Christians and the church, perhaps you should read this to as there is a lot of bad press on the news and social media about the fellowship of Christian believers. Unfortunately, some of this criticism is justified  In my articles and podcasts, my goal is that you come to know the real Jesus and not the fake Jesus that is so often portrayed in the news and on social media and sometimes by the church itself.  What I’m saying is that I won’t take any responsibility or credit if you become a Christian.  That is between you and God.  If you are a discouraged Christian, I pray that I can bring you some hope, breakthrough and encouragement.

For approximately one month, I’ve been living under what I call an open heaven and have been blessed with a powerful anointing upon my life.  This is also a time in which I am blessed with a special kind of favour from God.  I’m not a theologian, nor do I pastor a church in the physical realm.  I’m just your average garden-variety Christian.  I have secular jobs such as working as a substitute teacher.  I am also an author, a blogger and have my own podcast show.  I’m not rich and famous yet, but if it’s God’s will, I will be someday. If I don’t become rich and famous I will continue my blogs and podcasts anyway as if even if only one human being on this planet is blessed, I will be grateful to God forever.

You may ask, faithful reader, what in the world is an open heaven?  I don’t think I can theologically define the term, but I can share what it looks like to me.  To begin with, I have not experienced an open heaven for a long time, until now. Just last month, God brought me out of a horrible clinical depression that probably lasted for two months.  During this time, I could barely get out off my living room couch.

After my breakthrough, I began to progressively feel better on a day-to-day basis.  Life gradually became a little more tolerable.  I was able to accomplish at least a few simple tasks per day.  After about three weeks I was back to my premorbid, baseline status.  In other words, I was functional. I am now back in the saddle and am once again a productive member of society.  I give God praise for this positive change and so does my wife.  You can only imagine how difficult it is to be married to a man who is too depressed do anything but lie on the couch and watch television.  I thank God that my wife is a godly woman and did not leave me.  Many other women would have.  I am greatly blessed.

When I am blessed by an open heaven, things rapidly start to improve for me.  I begin to have hope, my energy level increases dramatically and I feel much more empowered to deal with the stresses of daily life.  Stress in life is inevitable.  It cannot be avoided.  Whether or not stress will make you ill or even kill you is significantly based on your ability to cope with life’s major and minor crises.  I don’t want to only be able to cope with stress.  I want to thrive in stressful situations.  I want to enjoy the stress.  One fact that every Christian needs to know is if they stick out their neck for God and take risks, they will soon discover that they have an enemy.

The enemy’s name is Satan.  And believe me he hates God and all Christians.  In fact, he hates humanity in general.  If one is mostly just a Sunday Christian who attends church regularly, and perhaps even attends a Wednesday evening Bible study, Satan will not likely hassle you too much because you are already saved and there’s nothing he can do about it. He doesn’t think that you pose much of a threat to his kingdom.  If, on the other hand, you’re a radical Christian or as I call my podcast A Christian with an Attitude, the enemy will do everything and anything in his power, which is limited by God, to make your life miserable.  As it says in the Bible, you must count the cost.  My wife and I have both made the decision, to count the cost and pay the price.

Satan’s attacks are very predictable, but may show up in a variety of forms.  If you usually have a harmonious relationship between yourself and your significant other, you may suddenly realize that now you are now bickering constantly.  Your car may break down and you may be burdened with an expensive repair bill.  You may think that you have a good relationship with your supervisor at your job and now feel that he or she is finding fault with your every move, even if none of this criticism is justified.  I believe you get the idea.  Satan will do anything that he can to destroy your ministry.  If you are a believer, you have a ministry.  You don’t need to be an ordained minister to have a ministry.  If you help the needy and disenfranchised people in our society, you have a ministry. You can justifiably call yourselves lay ministers.  My wife and I don’t get paid a cent for our extracurricular service to God.  We don’t worry about this because God will be a debtor to no man or woman.

On an informal basis, my wife and I minister to the poor, needy, disenfranchised, mentally ill, youth at risk and to those suffering from the terrible disease of addiction.  We both love our ministries both as a couple and as individuals, but believe this, it can be very draining on both our finances and physical and emotional energy. May God bless, prosper you, heal you and give you good success. In Jesus name, Amen.

Christianity With an Attitude

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Episode Three of the Ken David Stewart Show

Christianity with an Attitude.

I got saved when I was 27 years old.  The only reason that I said the prayer of salvation was that I wanted fire insurance or in other words, I did not want to go to hell.  Following my salvation experience my walk with the Lord has been very problematic to say the least.  In my case, I cannot honestly state that it was a walk.  It can be more accurately described as a stumble with many returns to my pre-Christian way of life.  During my life I have fallen into the depths of depression and spiritual darkness.  At times in my life, I felt like I have been submerged in the pit of hell.

I have often struggled with affection or any kind of liking towards my fellow man.  I admit that on numerous occasions I had a strong distaste for people, both believers and unbelievers.  I’ve attended many churches, this was most of the time due to the influence of my wife, Martha.  She is a very strong Christian woman.

Over my life.  I’ve especially had a difficult time with the Bible, the church and other Christians.  All three have failed to meet my expectations on many occasions.  There have been long periods of time when I have adamantly refused to attend any Christian services or Christian events.  I selfishly disregarded the pain, disappointment and frustration that I caused my wife.  In a very cavalier manner, I thought that I could not tolerate the hypocrisy that was being demonstrated by my fellow believers and the church.

As I am blessed to have a great deal of insight about myself, I also fully recognize that I am a hypocrite too.  I thought that by avoiding contact with the church and other believers, I was at the very least, saving God’s Kingdom from one more hypocrite, namely, myself.  There were times that I was either physically or emotionally too impaired to attend church.  Perhaps, at these times, I had some excuse.

I have very mixed feelings about the first Baptist Church that I attended.  I respected and appreciated the zeal and moral integrity of my first pastor.  He would visit our home quite frequently.  The Baptist pastor and  I had some very serious discussions about the Christian life.  The pastor and I got into many a heated argument.  At the time I was employed at a job that I utterly detested and was suffering with extreme issues of low self-esteem.  I told the pastor that I wanted to quit my job for the sake of my own health and sanity.  The pastor sternly rebuked me for wanting to take away the financial security and economic welfare of my wife and family.  I was very hurt by this rebuke.

I was quickly drafted into the role of being a leader in the 20% of any congregation that takes charge and gets things done.  This is the same principle, whether in the secular world or the Christian world.  20% of the people do 80% of the work.

In this capacity I attended weekly Bible studies, served as an advisor to the Sunday school faculty and went along on local missionary drives.  I was highly regarded for my abilities as both a student and as a teacher.  My pastor respected my intellectual acuity and my sincere desire to play a significant role in the growth of the church.

Unfortunately, my honeymoon with the   Baptist Church did not last very long.  My personal lifestyle and attitudes showed little change after I became a Christian.  To tell you   the truth, they demonstrated no change at all.  I continued to smoke tobacco, drink alcohol and listen to my favourite band, the Rolling Stones.

There were other issues as well.  My family and I lived in a mobile home.  We seemed to constantly be having problems with our plumbing, furnace and appliances.  As I had absolutely zero aptitude for any skill set beyond the intellectual and educational, a small team of church goers volunteered or were appointed to give me some handyman assistance.  I was not in the financial position to have any professionals repair my home.  After a while, one of my church helpers told me that from now on I should learn how to do my own household repairs.  This was well before the days of You Tube, so it was very difficult to learn any handyman skills on my own.  After all, no one had taught me.  I started to be infested by a strong spirit of resentment toward my fellow Christians at my first Baptist Church.images-151

Alligators in the Sewers Episode Two by Ken David Stewart

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Episode two

“Why don’t you find a place to park yourself in my living room, Sean?”

Sean was feeling faint so he was relieved to have a place to steady himself. He spotted a bright orange Lazy Boy chair in Russ’s living room. It was the first time that Sean had been in Russ’s house and he found it odd that Russ would have been orange easy chair and wondered where Russ got it.

“Where did you find an orange easy chair, Russ?

“On eBay. It’s a rare color for an easy chair but don’t ask me how much I paid for it. Would you like some coffee to go with your cigarette?”

Russ reached over to his fireplace mantel and took a very weird looking ashtray from the top of it. The ashtray was a beige color in the shape of an alligator. Russ placed it on the glass coffee table in front of Sean’s chair.

“You are starting to freak me out Russ. This ashtray looks a lot like a white albino alligator. This is like a prophetic symbol of why I’m here to meet with you,” Sean said.

“What do you like in your coffee? Some coffee creamer and Sugar Twin would be great if you have it.”

“You’re in luck. That’s exactly what I put in my coffee. My favorite flavor is hazelnut. What’s yours?”

Sean managed a nervous laugh. What a coincidence. That’s my favorite too.”

“My wife gets on my back quite a bit about using Sugar Twin. Ruth’s a nurse and she never fails to tell me that artificial sweeteners cause cancer. I told her that I don’t worry about that because I want to die before she does. I’m being serious, too. I don’t know how I would manage to get along without my wife.”

Russ hated the aging process. He didn’t like the fact that he could not do all the things that he was able to do at age forty. Russ had been somewhat of a high-energy freak of nature when he was younger. He was still trying to make a difficult adjustment to his new life as a senior citizen. This was not an easy transition for him. Since his retirement started he had put on about twenty very unnecessary pounds that he did not need that were causing him to slow down in his daily life activities. Russ found that with each passing year he seemed to either reduce or had to eliminate one of the activities that he had enjoyed doing the year before. Life wasn’t fair. A man of Russ’s intellect and drive could not understand or accept the inevitable fact that he was being forced to slow down in his senior years.

Russ wasn’t very happy with his life now that he was retired. It bothered him that he no longer knew how much time he had to live. His father had passed away at age forty-two after suffering a massive heart attack. This really shook Russ up, and he started thinking about his own longevity.

Russ had a lot of regrets even when he was in his prime. He had a poor self-image. He knew that he had excelled in his work for the city of New York, but felt that in most areas of his life he had been a failure.

Sean’s hand was still shaking as he took a long way drag from his Marlboro cigarette. “I’d sure like to hear any information you have, Russ. I feel like I’m going crazy. Sure, I heard some stories about alligators in our sewer system, but I thought it was just an urban legend. So did most of my coworkers until they started claiming they actually saw alligators while they were performing their sewer maintenance duties.At first, I didn’t believe them when a couple of my staff told me about their encounters with these reptiles. I just figured that seeing that I was their new supervisor they decided to tell me these stories as sort of an initiation prank.alligator 4

Episode 128 of the Lake Demon

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fantasy 5

Chapter One Hundred Twenty–Eight:
As Jack boarded The Viper, Blake brought Jack a rum and coke. He pointed to the large water soaked replica of Ogopogo trapped in the net. “I see that you snagged the big prize,” Jack said with a wide grin on his face.
“Yeah, it’s a beauty of a model,” Blake replied with a laugh. “I would sure like to meet the guy who put together that masterpiece.”
“That could be a problem,” Jack said.
“How so? Do you know the artist?”
“His name was Mike O’Grady,” Jack said.
“That name sounds very familiar. I think I knew a kid in school who went by that name,” Blake said.
Jack burst out laughing.
“Oh, come on. It can’t be the same guy,” Blake said.
“Do you remember who won first prize at the science fair in grade eleven?” Jack asked.
“Now I see the connection. Mike was the kid who built that small model of Ogopogo. It was a beauty. I remember that Mike spent weeks working on that model. So you’re telling me that Mike O’Grady designed and built the life sized model on the deck of my ship? Why would he build a full size replica and what was it doing on the lake?”
“I arranged the whole thing,” Jack said. “I paid Mike O’Grady to design and build the life sized model.”
“Why?”
“I was going to use the model to get back at you,” Jack said.
“What have you got against me?” asked Blake.
“Are you that obtuse, Blake? You mean to say that you don’t remember what you did to me?”
“No. I don’t remember what I did to you.”
“You quit our business partnership and took up with some sleazy married woman,” Jack answered angrily.
“She, somehow, talked you into leaving our business to become partners with her in her start-up enterprise. The worst part was that you left me entirely out of the loop concerning your new plans. I only found out about what you had done through one of our former business associates.”
“I can appreciate what you’re saying, Jack, but you are missing something here. In our previous business venture you and I were on the same page for a long time. Then, as time went by, our business ideas were starting to diverge to the point that we couldn’t agree on lunch. I didn’t see any rational reason why you and I should remain business partners. That’s why I jumped ship. I admit that I should have let you know of my change of plans in advance.”
“So why can’t I talk to Mike O’Grady?” Blake asked, changing the subject.
“Because he’s dead,” Jack answered.
“How did he die?” Blake asked.
“He had most of his right arm torn off by a junior size Ogopogo. Poor Mike died on the operating room table. I don’t think that Mike was in good enough shape to survive the surgery,” Jack answered.
“Are we talking about a real Ogopogo now?”
“Yes, it was a real Ogopogo, all right. The only thing was that this one was likely not a full grown member of the species. The little one decided that it would check out the full scale replica that we threw in the lake. Mike was taking pictures when he got too close to the railing of the boat. The creature grabbed his right arm and tore it right off. Mike was bleeding profusely all over the ship’s deck,” Jack said.
“Were you able to save the pictures that Mike took?”
“Yes, the pictures were very clear and sharp. I had them analyzed by a mutual friend of ours, Cam McDougall.”
“Wasn’t he the guy who had his own photography business?”
“Yes, that’s him.”
“Were you able to capture the small Ogopogo?”
“No, we had to rush Mike to the hospital,” Jack replied.
“Look Jack. I admit it. I did screw you around on our last business enterprise. I should have taken the time to try to work out our differences before I joined another company. And I should have told you about it. I’m sincerely sorry. It was just that Debra Lang had my head all screwed around. I allowed lust to over- take my rational mind,” Blake said.
“It didn’t take long for my relationship with Debra to blow up in my face. It took me awhile to realize that she was just using me both personally and professionally. The last straw was when I found out that she was still seeing her husband, Roman and was trying to reconcile with him. After I confronted her, our whole relationship, both personal and business, collapsed,”
Blake was trying hard to come up with a good story that would appease Jack’s wounded ego. Blake had even thought of a way to make it up to him.

The Story of Johnny Manziel Part One

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The Story of Johnny Manziel by Ken David Stewart Part One

I have always been one to root for the underdog.  So far, ex NFL player, Johnny Manziel has had many career and personal struggles.

Johnny was the youngest player ever to win the Heisman Trophy.  He was a star college quarterback with Texas A and M.

He was drafted 22nd overall by the Cleveland Browns of the NFL.  Johnny displayed some potential and had some success, but struggled with consistency.  The Cleveland Browns released him after the 2015 season.

Johnny played fifty NFL games and had eight starts.  He had difficulty translating his college football skills to the NFL.

After two years away from football, Johnny Manziel joined the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the CFL in 2018.  Johnny was only with the Hamilton Tiger Cats for a short while.  He wasn’t getting enough playing time in  Hamilton and was soon traded to the Montréal Alouettes, another CFL team.

Johnny Manziel was forced to leave the Cleveland Browns due to problems with performance consistency and some unfortunate off field incidents.

The Canadian Football League fans appeared to welcome Manziel with open arms.  He played in a few promising outings with  Montréal.  I don’t think that the CFL gave Manziel adequate time to adjust to the Canadian brand of football.  CFL football is a much different game from the NFL.  The footballs are larger in Canada, the field is longer and wider and the quarterbacks only have three downs to make a first down in the CFL.

It is this writer’s opinion, the CFL should have allowed the former Heisman Trophy winner more time to learn the Canadian football game.

It is still somewhat of a mystery why Johnny Manziel was banned from playing in the CFL.  This was a very unusual situation, as Manziel does not appear to have been fired by the Montréal Alouettes.  This decision was made by the CFL itself.  Johnny was not allowed to be picked up by any other team in the CFL.  The CFL said that Manziel was released as a consequence of breaking some of the conditions of his contract.  They would not specify what these conditions are.  This was a shame as I think that Manziel would eventually have become a good quarterback in the Canadian league.

Soon after leaving the CFL was signed by a new football league called the Alliance of American Football (AAF).  Johnny was only allowed to play for the Memphis Express for two weeks before the AAF folded.

Manziel was once again a free agent. The only possible way that he could play pro football again is if the XFL would show interest in him and offer him a contract.  As of this writing, I’m unaware that any of the XFL  teams have been willing to sign him.johnny-manziel-cfl-release-xfl-aaf-future

Alligators in the Sewers by Ken David Stewart

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Alligators in the Sewers A Novel by Ken David Stewart

Russ Bridges was enjoying a long, restful nap on his new black leather couch. He was startled out of a deep sleep when he heard a loud pounding on his front door. Russ had just turned sixty-six was enjoying his first year of retirement as the former superintendent of sewers for the city of New York. It was 2:05 PM on June 11, 2017. He had been reading the novel It by Stephen King. It was not unusual for Russ to fall asleep on his couch while reading in the mid afternoon. Stephen King was Ross’s favorite author and It was his favorite novel by the most popular horror writer of the century. This was usually how people defined Stephen King as a writer, but the author hated this limited, restrictive view of his writing.

As the pounding on his door became louder, Russ managed to lift his substantial bulk off the couch. When Ross opened his front door he saw Sean Webb, the new superintendent of sewers. Sean took over Russ’s position when he retired. Sean looked very anxious when Ross opened the door for him. “Can I smoke in your house, Russ? I’m all stressed out and I need to talk to you.”

“Sure. Come on in Sean. Yeah, you can smoke in my house. I gave up smoking about ten years ago. Now I just vape like the young people do. You really look agitated. What’s up?”

“Thanks for seeing me on such short notice or rather no notice,” Sean said as his trembling hand reached into the front pocket of his shirt for his pack of Marlborough cigarettes.

“I got a serious problem at work and I really need your advice, Russ. Have you ever heard or seen anything to do with alligators in the New York sewer system?”

“Yeah, I know quite a bit about the problem, but I haven’t told anybody about it. Before I retired from your job, I had to sign a bunch of papers swearing me to secrecy concerning that topic,” Russ answered.

Episode two

“Why don’t you find a place to park yourself in my living room, Sean?”

Sean was feeling faint so he was relieved to have a place to steady himself. He spotted a bright orange Lazy Boy chair in Russ’s living room. It was the first time that Sean had been in Russ’s house and he found it odd that Russ would have been orange easy chair and wondered where Russ got it.

“Where did you find an orange easy chair, Russ?

“On eBay. It’s a rare color for an easy chair but don’t ask me how much I paid for it. Would you like some coffee to go with your cigarette?”

Russ reached over to his fireplace mantel and took a very weird looking ashtray from the top of it. The ashtray was a beige color in the shape of an alligator. Russ placed it on the glass coffee table in front of Sean’s chair.

“You are starting to freak me out Russ. This ashtray looks a lot like a white albino alligator. This is like a prophetic symbol of why I’m here to meet with you,” Sean said.

“What do you like in your coffee?

“ Some coffee creamer and Sugar Twin would be great if you have it.”

“You’re in luck. That’s exactly what I put in my coffee. My favorite flavor is hazelnut. What’s yours?”

Sean managed a nervous laugh. “What a coincidence. That’s my favorite too.”

“My wife gets on my back quite a bit about using Sugar Twin. Ruth’s a nurse and she never fails to tell me that artificial sweeteners cause cancer. I told her that I don’t worry about that because I want to die before she does. I’m being serious, too. I don’t know how I would manage to get along without my wife.”

Russ hated the aging process. He didn’t like the fact that he could not do all the things that he was able to do at age forty. Russ had been somewhat of a high-energy freak of nature when he was younger. He was still trying to make a difficult adjustment to his new life as a senior citizen. This was not an easy transition for him. Since his retirement started he had put on about twenty very unnecessary pounds that he did not need that were causing him to slow down in his daily life activities. Russ found that with each passing year he seemed to either reduce or had to eliminate one of the activities that he had enjoyed doing the year before. Life wasn’t fair. A man of Russ’s intellect and drive could not understand or accept the inevitable fact that he was being forced to slow down in his senior years.

Russ wasn’t very happy with his life now that he was retired. It bothered him that he no longer knew how much time he had to live. His father had passed away at age forty-two after suffering a massive heart attack. This really shook Russ up, and he started thinking about his own longevity.

Russ had a lot of regrets even when he was in his prime. He had a poor self-image. He knew that he had excelled in his work for the city of New York, but felt that in most areas of his life he had been a failure.

Sean’s hand was still shaking as he took a long way drag from his Marlboro cigarette. “I’d sure like to hear any information you have, Russ. I feel like I’m going crazy. Sure, I heard some stories about alligators in our sewer system, but I thought it was just an urban legend. So did most of my coworkers until they started claiming they actually saw alligators while they were performing their sewer maintenance duties.At first, I didn’t believe them when a couple of my staff told me about their encounters with these reptiles. I just figured that seeing that I was their new supervisor they decided to tell me these stories as sort of an initiation prank.”

alligator 7

About

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Hey, welcome to my new blog.  My name is Ken David Stewart.  I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I decided to return to blogging after leaving the blogosphere for a few months. After a time of discouragement with my past results with both blogging and … Continue reading About