(Dreams & Visions of a Godly Home) Holy Dreams & Visions — Denny Kenaston

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold.

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Opening Prayer and the Call to Seek a Godly Home

God bless all you little birds this morning. Have you ever watched the little birds in a nest? How many of you ever noticed that the little bird with his mouth open the widest is the one the mother drops the worm in?

Did you ever notice that? And that's why if you look into the nest, when mother comes near the nest, they're all going to see if they'll be the one to get the next bite. God says in the book of Psalms to his people, God says in the book of Psalms to his people, Open thy mouth wide, fill it.

Isn't that a precious promise? And of course we know God is not talking about this mouth, but it's our heart. Open thy mouth wide, young people, and I will fill it. We pray, Lord, we bow down to thee this morning.

We come in the name of your Son, precious Lord Jesus. Lord, we come crying to you. Not just me, Lord, all of us. We come crying to you, Lord. Oh, would you teach us, Lord? Would you teach us about the home?

Would you give us homes like that song that we sang, Lord? Oh, God, would you help us, I and all these dear young people, to dream about our homes this week, Father? Would you help us to do that, God?

And somehow impart unto us a revelation that we will never be the same, God. This is our prayer, Lord. Have mercy on us, all of us. Have mercy on us, Lord. We stand in need. We pray in Jesus' name. Dreams and visions of a godly home.

This is the burden that God laid on my heart to bring at Bible school. And the first impressions that I got from God on this subject, I'm sorry to say, but I pushed them away. And I thought, no, that can't be, that can't be.

What do these young people want to hear about things like that? They're not married. They don't have any children. Those are the ones who listen. The ones who have the children. The ones who have a baby in their womb.

The ones who are waiting. The ones that have five or six children. And they're looking for answers. The ones that are married. And maybe a few struggles in their marriage. Oh, they sit up on the edge of their seat and listen.

But, Lord, you want me to speak on the home to the young people? And I just kind of pushed it away and it just kept coming back again and again. And by now I know why. But I didn't know at first, but now I know.

Now I know. And you know, don't you? And you know why. This morning, the title of my message, this first message of five is, we're going to call it Holy Dreams and Visions. Holy Dreams and Visions. And spend most of this session on the principle of having holy dreams and visions.

Because we must have them. We must. As God got through to my heart and began to convince me of the importance of this subject to be given to a bunch of young people, none of whom are married, I realized that you are 400 young people who have come looking for a vision.

I realized that. You read the little programs. You read the invitations. You know what kind of Bible school it is. You came looking for a vision. And I'm glad for that, that you're here that way. I'm glad that somehow God puts into the heart of young people these kind of things in the stages of life that you're in.

You're here. You're youth. And these are the kind of things that go on inside of your hearts. And I know it. Where am I going? What do I believe? What will I do with my life? What is right and what is wrong?

All these things go through young people's hearts. And it's a very natural thing, because you see, even the things that your father and mother have taught you, even the things that you've learned from your pastors, all of those things must be assimilated into your heart and come out of your life as your own convictions.

And so there needs to be that process of filtering all of that out and coming to a point of decision. Well, surely we do well if we would give some attention to one of the most important aspects of your lives for the rest of your lives.

Your homes. I also know that young people long for higher ground. They want a standard to reach for. Give us an ideal to pursue. We want one! Most of your parents, not all, but most of your parents caught a vision of something a bit late.

A bit late. And maybe it was born out of failure. Maybe it came as they cried in despair to God concerning their own homes. Maybe they heard a message that arrested them and caused them to get a glimpse of something.

And many of us parents have been stumbling down a road towards something that we see. And we brought a lot of baggage along. And you know that. I'm sure that you, young people, have seen a lot of failure concerning the subject that we're going to talk about this week.

I'm sure of that. I know that the young people that live in my house have seen a lot of failure concerning this subject that we're going to talk about. But somehow your mom and dad just keep getting up again, don't they?

Why? It's because they see something. They have seen something. And there's something that they want you to have. That's why they keep getting up. It was all for you. It was for you and it was for God.

But it was for you. They got a glimpse of something. They took off down a road. I know they stumbled a lot. I know they made many mistakes. Maybe some of you, even as you're sitting here today, you have misunderstood your parents.

Maybe some of you have reacted to their failures and some of you may even have bitterness in your heart. Even as you sit here today, there's a disgust in your hearts over the failures of your father and mother.

But I want to make a plea for them this morning. Have mercy on them. They saw something. And they caught it late in life. And they all wished they would have heard it 15 years ago. But they didn't. And so they've been stumbling down a road after something.

But you know what that thing is that they're after? They are after something for you to possess.

That's what they're after.

It has to do with you. It has to do with your partners someday. It has to do with your children. That's what they've been stumbling after. And though there have been many failures, they just keep getting up.

They just get up again. Because they have seen something, young people. Don't misjudge us. Don't misjudge us. We saw something. And we want it for you. And maybe the goal is 10. And we only reached 5.

But young people, just grab the torch. And go for 10. Go for 10. Okay. So we only reached 5. But we saw something. And what we saw, we wanted it for you. Holy dreams and visions. We are in the process of recovery.

Something was lost a couple of generations ago. And we are seeking to recover it. And you all are in that process of the recovery of those things that were lost. Maybe two generations ago. For many of us.

Not all of us. But for many of us. It's a process of recovery. And you, whether you like it or not, you are in the middle of that process of recovery. Of some very beautiful things that God has for you.

The bottom line fact is this. Twofold. Number one. Most of you will get married someday. Most of you will get married someday. What kind of a home will you have? Or you may sit back and say, Boy, Mom and Dad didn't do too well.

And I'm kind of grieved at some of the things that we went through. And maybe even got spanked more than you should have. But the bottom line fact is that most of you in this room are going to get married.

And then what kind of home will you have? Soon it will be your turn. I guarantee you, your attitude will change as it becomes your turn. You will find out it wasn't all just quite that easy. You will find out that it was much more than just having good ideas.

It takes the rigors of a spiritual life to live it out. And so soon it will be your turn. What kind of home will you have? What kind of home do you want? That's even a better question this morning. What kind of a home do I want?

Bottom line fact number two. What you see and what you do with the next five years of your life will determine what kind of a home you have. I want to say that one again so that you'll get on board right away.

What you see, young people, and what you do with the next five years of your life will determine, for the most part, what kind of home you will have. And you may sit here today and say, Ah, no, Brother Denny, I'm not planning to get married for four more years.

And so, you know, I've got things I'm going to do. And then when these four years are over with, then I'm going to get married and then I'll start on my home. No. Wrong. Wrong. You are already starting on your home.

Oh, that can be rather exciting, or that can be a bit fearful. Let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Joel, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, chapter two. In Joel, chapter two, in verse 27 -29, we find these prophetic words,.

And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel. That's God speaking. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, and none else. And my people shall never be ashamed.

Brother John spoke to us about being ashamed. God says, My people shall never be ashamed. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

Your sons, God says, and your daughters shall prophesy. Your sons that are sitting on this side of the room shall prophesy. That is, speak forth the mind and will of God under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Your daughters shall prophesy. That is, they shall speak forth the mind and will of God under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, saith God. And your old men shall dream dreams.

And your young men shall see visions. And also, upon the servants and upon the handmaidens in those days, will I pour out My Spirit. Now, dear young people, we are living in the age of this prophecy. Even as you sit here today, it is the will of God, I promise you.

It is the will of God that every single one of you be so filled with God that when you open up your mouth, words come out which are anointed by God. That is the will of God. We are living in that age where this beautiful kind of grace is being poured out upon all those who will receive.

It says here in this verse that the old men will dream dreams and the young men will see visions. And I would just like to key in on that for a little bit this morning and talk about it with dreams and visions.

Dreams, Visions, and God’s Work in the Heart

Now, I believe that God speaks through dreams. I mean where you are sleeping in your bed at night and you have a dream. And that dream is a divine dream. I believe in that. I have never had one, but some people do.

And I believe God speaks to His people through visions. I have never seen one. I have never seen anything written on the wall. But I believe in those things. God does them. There are also other dreams which God works in the hearts of His people and visions which He works in the hearts of His people.

And it is not some vision that God writes on the wall, but it is a vision which He writes on the walls of our hearts. Even as Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, that He writes with His finger on the fleshly tables of our hearts.

That is the kind of vision that I want to talk about today. Dreams and visions where God, by His Spirit, writes on the fleshly tables of our hearts. And you know, when God, by His finger, by His Spirit, writes something on your heart, it is there.

I mean, it is there. We are not talking about getting some more knowledge up here. We are talking about God writing something down here in our hearts that once it is written there, it is there. Dreams and visions.

A vision is a mental image pressed upon the heart by God. A mental image impressed upon the heart by God. It is that which you see with the eyes of your heart. Now, young people, if you have been born again by the Spirit of God, you now have two sets of eyes.

You have eyes which are in your head, and you now have eyes which are in your heart. And I don't know if you have realized it yet, but you have the potential to see way more with the eyes of your heart than you could ever see with the eyes in your head.

Way more. Fanny Crosby is such a beautiful example of that. She was a dear, blind woman. She couldn't see very much. Only a few memories of her little childhood. But, oh, what she saw with the eyes of her heart have thrilled the church for over a hundred years.

And, oh, overflowing out of her heart and her life have come so many beautiful hymns which she saw with the eyes of her heart, young people. So, it is that which we see with the eyes of our heart. And Joel prophesied that there would be a host of young people upon whom God's Spirit would rest, who would see God.

A host of young people who would be filled with visions of the mind and the will of God. That's what this Bible school is all about. We desire to fill your heart with visions of the mind and the will of God for your lives.

And our prayer, all of us who are involved, who are the older ones that are here, that is our prayer. Oh, we're not here just to deliver some teachings for you. We're not here just to give you some facts that you can write down on a piece of paper and go home.

Our prayers are deeper than that. We are praying that somehow God would impress images upon your heart that will stay there and affect you for many, many years to come. That's our prayer. We know that's how God works.

In Proverbs 29, verse 18, the Bible says, without a vision, the people perish. Without a vision, the people perish. But they that keep the law, happy are they. That's the other half of the verse, by the way.

We won't be centering on that, but it's good to look at the context. What kind of a vision is the man of wisdom speaking about? He's speaking about the vision that I'm speaking about today, that which God impresses upon the heart.

It is the seeing of the eyes of the heart unto something that God wants for my life. Spiritual vision to see what God sees and what God wants. Very interesting, you know, to study that verse. I've gotten a lot of different thoughts and inputs about the verse.

But, without a vision, the people perish. That has some very interesting meaning to it. That word perish. Now, it does mean perish, like it says, but the picture is a bit more than that. It goes something like this.

Without a vision, the people cast off restraint. Without a vision, the people go naked. Without a vision, the people live like savages. Without a vision, the people apostatize. Without a vision, the people grow lax.

Without a vision, the people go into the world. That's what that verse means. Oh, we need a vision. You young people need a vision. Something that God impresses upon your heart. And I thought about it, you know.

What a picture of the general view of American Christianity today. Without a vision, the people cast off restraint. And thus now they say, and it's so, there is no difference between the church and the world.

Why? Because the church has cast off restraint. And don't they even go naked? Don't they even go naked? They do. A little more each year. A little more. A little more. A little more. I hope you're not on that road, young person.

Just a little more. Just a little more naked. Just a little more naked the next year. A little more naked the next year. Well, you better look down the road a little ways and see where that thing ends up.

The people live like savages. And they perish. So, vision is something that comes from God. Something that by God's Spirit captivates the eyes of our heart. I think about young people and the lack of purpose in their lives.

But if young people could be captured by God, be captured by a vision given to them by God, which captivates the eyes of their hearts, oh, then all of a sudden, direction comes out of that. Meaning comes out of that.

Purpose comes out of that. So many things come out of that. And so, I don't know what kind of expectations you had in your mind about what I'm going to say about the home, but I'm not going to tell you about how to spank your children this week.

I won't be doing that. I'm going to aim much deeper than that. When something comes from God, by His Spirit, and it captivates the eyes of our hearts and holds them there for a long days, that's what we're talking about.

A vision is a fervent hope, wish or goal. A vision is a fervent hope or wish or goal. Interesting, you know, as I was meditating and preparing for these messages, again, I looked up the word dream in the Hebrew.

It was a very revealing study. The word dream in the Hebrew, it means to make healthy and to be strengthened. And I thought about that. Now, wait a minute, that doesn't make any sense. But then if you think a little longer and you realize, yes, that does make sense.

When God puts a dream in my heart, it does strengthen me. When God puts a vision in my soul, it does make me healthy. It begins to make me whole. It has a positive effect upon me when God puts a dream, a longing or an aspiration.

That's a little how we use it, you know. People say, well, I'm dreaming about this and I've been dreaming about that. And young people, I don't know what you've been dreaming about. But oh, it's very, very vital that you be dreaming about the right things.

And we will see why later as we go through the message this morning. Dreams are ideals, longings and aspirations. And my goal, by grace through faith, is to fill the eyes of your hearts with fervent hopes and wishes and goals.

And to fill the eyes of your hearts with ideals and longings and aspirations. That's my goal. By grace through faith, that is my goal. We are seeking a generation of young people who have a vision which has been imparted by God in their hearts.

A generation of young people who march to the beat of a different drum. Oh God, give us a generation of young people who march to the beat of a different drum. And they don't really care what all the other noises are that are over there.

Because they hear the beat of a different drum. And it takes them in a different way. And you don't have to tell them which way to go, because they see which way to go. They hear the voice themselves.

They need not another voice to tell them which way to go. They hear the beat of the different drum ringing in their own soul because they have gotten through to God. And God is imparting something in them.

They order their lives by the vision that burns within them. And dear young people, that's the way it is with anybody who does anything for God. Mark that down. Anybody who does anything for God saw something.

And that which they saw captivated them to such a point that it began to order their lives. You won't find them any other way. No man who does something because somebody else wanted him to do it is going to go on right.

But the one who sees will move ahead. And God will direct his steps by what he sees. I'm often accused of being an idealist. And in a Christian sense, that's okay. I don't mind being called that because in a Christian sense, being an idealist is simply dreaming of God's full thoughts and His full intention for my life or for your life.

So this week I'm going to be an idealist. But my ideas are coming out of this book. They're not just some ideas that I've dreamed up, but they are ideas which have come out of this book which means they have flown out of the heart of the very God of Heaven, the God who made us.

And so I'm going to be an idealist this week hoping that God will create some longings and aspirations in your heart. We need to be a people who dream dreams and see visions. John, or the Lord Jesus through John, said to the church at Laodicea, Anoint thine eyes with eyesalves that thou mayest see.

Which eyes was John speaking about there? These eyes? Or these eyes? How many of you think it was the eyes in the head that John was speaking about? We know. John said to the Laodicean church, You can't see anymore, Laodicea.

You have lost your vision. And you can't see anymore. And John knew and Jesus knew that destruction was down the road just a little ways. And He pleaded with them to anoint the eyes of their heart with eyesalves that they may see again.

Maybe we need to get some eyesalves here at the beginning of the Bible school so that we can see. So that we can see they lost their vision. Now, God, He moves His people by vision. He motivates them by seeing.

This is the way that God moves when He wants to do something. God imparts a vision to the heart and actions take place out of it. This is how God does His work upon the earth through men and women. He begins to call the things that be not as though they were.

God Moves His People Through Vision and Obedience

Romans chapter 4. God draws near to a heart and by His Spirit, He begins to call the things that be not as though they already were. And a burden and a vision is born in someone's heart. They see something that consumes them.

And they are directed by that which they see. This is how God works upon the earth. You go down and study the history of the church down through the ages. You will track it back to the same place every time.

You will track every major thing, beautiful thing that God did in a person's life, in a church's life, in some movement, the life of some movement. You will track them back every time to maybe a lone figure somewhere or a few lone figures somewhere, in a closet somewhere, alone somewhere, brooding before God.

Then God puts something inside of the heart and from that which is put in the heart, then the actions begin to move from there. That's how it happens. Think of our dear Anabaptist people. Some hundreds of years ago, it was just some few men in the beginning who got a vision.

They got a vision. They saw a church like there wasn't around them. And the God, the God who calls the things that be not as though they are already began to brood in a few men's hearts. And the vision so captivated those few men that it was nothing to them to lose their heads, to be hung by the neck, to be thrown into a fire somewhere, or drowned in the river.

It didn't matter to them. They saw something. They saw something. I'm telling you young people, that's how God gets His work done on the earth. Whether it's a whole new movement over in Germany somewhere 400 years ago, or whether it's a godly home represented by you.

God gets His work done by moving in a heart first. That's how it happens. 20 years ago, I visited a little home up in Canada where a family lived named John Gerbers. I visited there 20 years ago. And I haven't been back there for 20 years.

I was just there this last summer. 20 years since I was there. But that little visit that I made at that home, God wrote something in here inside my heart. And I walked away from that home and I had seen something.

I saw something young people. I saw it with the eyes of my heart. And my heart said,.

I want that, Lord. I will have it. I will have it. By God's grace, I will have that.

And I went home and got my two little children. That's all I had then. Just little Daniel, two years old, sitting in the crib sucking on his thumb. And little Rebecca sitting over there in her little baby chair in the other side of the room.

And Papa in there trying to have devotions. I never had devotions before. I didn't know how you do it. But it didn't really matter to me because I saw something. And what I saw burned in my soul. And I said, God, I will have that.

I see, Lord, what You can do through a family, a godly family. And I'm going to have one, God. By Your grace, I'm going to have one. Before then, I didn't hardly have a clue. But I saw something. I received a divine revelation that day 20 years ago.

That's what I received. And I pray that somehow God will give you a divine revelation this week. That you will also go away and say and look back to and say, I saw something at Bible school. And I have never been the same.

The Pilgrim Church, Spiritual Identity, and a Life of Commitment

19 years ago, I sat in the basement of a little house in Hammond, Indiana. All by myself. I didn't know where I was going. I didn't know what God wanted for me. I sat there in my basement. I was confused.

My whole spiritual experience was turned upside down. I could no longer relate to the type of Christianity that I had related to up until that point. And I didn't know what to do. But as I sat there, one day I listened to a sermon by a man named Leonard Ravenhill.

He's gone now. He went to glory about two years ago, but he was a prophet. And that man mentioned a book. He called it the Pilgrim Church. It was just a little passing phrase in a sermon. And he said, that's the most inspirational book on church history I ever read.

And I thought, now I know who that man is who is saying that. That must be a good book. And I went and found that book. It was 500 pages long. And I got down there in my study down in the basement and I opened this book and I started reading it.

And I saw something in that book. You see, I was sitting there thinking, I don't know what I am anymore. I don't fit in anymore. In the typical evangelical church, the go-to church on Sunday, watch TV on Monday, the Super Bowl on Sunday afternoon.

I just don't fit into this thing anymore. But I don't know what I am. And I started reading that book. And I read a few pages. And then I wept. And I read a few pages. And I wept some more because in that book I saw me.

I said, Lord, that's who I am. I don't know if there's anybody like that anywhere,.

But that's who I am.

I'm like that pilgrim church down through the ages in love with the Lord Jesus, in love with His Word, a commitment to do what it says no matter what the cost. In fact, 19 years ago, I was a real fruitcake.

But I saw something. I saw something back there. And I'm seeing something here today far beyond anything I ever dreamed when I was back there in that basement reading that book. I saw something. What do you see, young people?

What do you see? Understand this. God precedes the reality of what He is going to do with a vision. Always. God precedes the reality of what He is going to do with a vision. What do you see? If you see, you will have.

Do you believe that? Oh, that's very exciting if you're seeing the right things, if you're dreaming the right kind of dreams as a young man, as a young woman, if you're dreaming the right kind of dreams and you're seeing the right kind of visions, that is exciting because what you see, you will have.

God precedes the reality with a vision.

This is the way I want you to go. Okay, Lord. I'm going to follow you.

What do we see today? Five years from now, you may have what you see today. And that can be rather discouraging depending on what you're seeing. You know, maybe young men, maybe you see some shiny truck with its wheels on it, you know, vroom, rolling down the road and still the sound of vroom thrills your heart like it did when you were a little boy playing on the carpet.

Maybe that's what you see. Well, my dear friend, that's what you'll have in five years. But I tell you, if you could look at it from God's perspective, it isn't anything different than that little toy you had in your hand when you were a little boy.

No difference. So, if you're dreaming about a little toy that you had in your hand while you were a little boy, Oh, God, raise our sights higher than that. Because what you see, you will have in five years.

You say, well, Brother Denny, I don't see. You're right. I don't see. It's alright. God can change that. You just open your heart. You say, okay, Lord, here I am. And I open my heart to you, Lord. I want you to impart in me a proper vision this week.

God will hear the cry of your heart. In Genesis chapter 12, I want to just turn there, give you a good example of this, so that you don't wonder, am I dreaming something up? In Genesis chapter 12, in verse 1 through 4a, this very thing happened to Abraham.

This very thing we're speaking about, it happened to Abraham. And it can happen to you. And it must happen to you, by the way. It must. Maybe not in the sense that it did with Abraham. Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that cursed thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken unto him. That's far enough to read. Abraham got a vision. God gave Abraham a vision of his future. He called the things that be not as though they already were, and Abraham responded to that vision with obedience.

With obedience. It affected his life. What he saw affected his life. And what he saw, God gave to him. What he saw, God revealed it in his heart. And what he saw with the eyes of his heart, down the road a few years, he saw the reality of much of it.

Not all of it, but much of it he saw with these eyes. And some of it he didn't see until many years later as he was in glory with God. But he saw it. He saw it all. The fulfillment of all that God said to him.

Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Sight and Knowledge of God’s Will

Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1. I want you to see this principle in the New Testament. The apostle Paul knew that God moves through what we see. Paul knew that. He knew it from his own life. Just like he said to the king, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision that God gave to me.

And Paul knew that it was by that which he saw which affected his whole life. And that which he saw, he continued to see. And it continued to guide him all the days of his life. But in Ephesians chapter 1, he's speaking to the church at Ephesus.

And he knows that they also will be affected by what they see with the eyes of their heart. And so he tells them, oh, I'm rejoicing in all that I hear that is going on there. But as I rejoice, I pray.

I pray for you. What am I praying for you? In verse 17, I'm praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Oh, I'm praying that God will give you His Spirit and His Spirit will reveal to you the knowledge of Himself first. First. And that's where it must begin. With a glimpse of.

God. But then he doesn't stop there.

He goes on in verse 18 to say, I'm praying that the eyes of your understanding, which eyes? These eyes. Right? I'm praying that the eyes of your heart, being enlightened, that ye may know. And that's a deep word there.