What Ken Said

During the worship, God gave me a very clear and profound prophecy for one of my squadmates. His name is Ken Virzi, and he is the Leader for Team Silas. Ken has a special anointing for God that manifests in a heart that starves for worship. He has a gorgeous voice, but even more than that, his worship of God pours out in everything he does. In worship, one only needs to stand near Ken to catch a fire that doesn’t stop burning. The words he speaks out to God are absolutely intimate and beautiful, and it allows every person listening to see God through their Spirit, not just their eyes. So during this time of worship, the Lord told me very clearly I needed to tell Ken about some amazing things that would happen through his worship.

I walked through the thick crowd of people until I found him. I laid my hands on his shoulders and began to speak the gifts over him that the Lord enabled me to see. I told him that he had a special gift that enabled him to go profoundly deep into the heart of God’s own heart. I saw an image of an enormous tree by a river, surrounded by smaller trees further from the water. I told him that his gift made him like this tree, because the roots plunged so deep into the water, it was constantly connected and made it grow so much bigger than the others. Although the other trees received the water, his roots were planted so deep that he tasted depths of God daily that other people rarely, if ever, get the chance to experience.

I also told him that he had an anointing for worship. That even though he had an anointing to lead, that his gift was not limited to simply leading. I said that sometimes this year, he would be in places that were so dry, so empty of God, that no preaching or prayer would seem to do anything at all. Everything would be tried, but there would seem to be walls of strongholds built so thick that nothing could penetrate them. I told him that in these times, he simply needed to spread his arms and worship God, and then grace would fall like rain. The power of his gift is to bring the deepest worship of Christ to places untouched by the Gospel, and through the anointing that he has on his life, God would break down the strongholds, then allowing the lost to understand Jesus in their hearts.

I was well aware, probably moreso over Ken than anyone else to date, that God was speaking His words through me and none of it was me. Ken joyfully received the prophecy and then we parted ways.

Around midnight that evening, as many of us were saying goodbyes, packing our things, or just hanging out before bedtime, I saw Ken again. We were in a group of about seven people who were just standing around and talking. Ken pulled me over and said, “Shannon, I just wanted to say thank you so much for the prophecy you shared over me. Tonight, my team was sharing prophecies that we received that meant a lot to us, and I shared the one you spoke to me. It was really powerful and I receive everything you said.”

I just smiled and said, “You’re welcome. I was just trying to be obedient to God by sharing what He told me about you.”

I turned to walk off, and Ken did, too. As we were parting ways, he turned quickly towards me and said, “Maybe I shouldn’t say anything, but have you felt a different relationship with God since your father passed away?”

I stopped suddenly and thought about the question, though I already knew the answer.

“Absolutely”, I said, “I’ve heard God more clearly the past week and a half than I have in my entire life.” This was a true statement, and I had even mentioned it to my team in our meeting earlier that day.

Ken was silent for a moment, as if listening to the whispers of God in his own ear. “I just get the feeling that your father might not have left you a lot of possessions, like land or cars or anything like that?”

Ken stepped right up to me, and with such compassion in his eyes, he said, “Just because he didn’t leave you possessions doesn’t mean he didn’t leave you an inheritance, Shannon.”

Let me just interject here that, at this point, I hadn’t been able to cry in weeks. I had even told my teammate, Don, earlier in the day that sometimes I just wanted to cry, but I had to do it in my heart instead of with my eyes. If you really know me, you know I cry over a lot of things, so not being able to express my heart had been frustrating me for weeks. It was as if a huge wall had been built inside of me and nothing could get through.

However, there was such certainty inside of me, I knew what Ken was speaking was absolute truth from the Lord. He continued, speaking in Words of Knowledge he couldn’t possibly have known.

“Your father had a very special relationship with the Lord, that’s obvious because of the Woman of Faith you are, and your dad is so proud of you for that. However, I know that your family feels like they are missing a very important part of their lives now, not just because he was your husband and father, but because he was your family’s connection to God. The Lord spoke to your father so clearly, it was like he had a direct line to God.”

I don’t know if my mouth physically dropped open, but if it did, Ken didn’t say anything. I don’t know how many times the words “Our family’s connection to God” and “Dad has a direct line to God” were spoken by my family, even before he ever got sick. These EXACT phrases were ones I distinctly remember hearing over and over in my life, most recently in Mississippi when I was home for the funeral. I remember being picked up from the Memphis ariport by my sister when I first got back to America. We were crying and Lora said, “What are we going to do now? Daddy was our connection to God. Can we really hear Him like daddy did?”

As if hearing this in his own mind, Ken said, “I know your family has been worried about hearing from God. I know that your brothers and sisters have been thinking that they can’t have the same tight relationship with the Lord that your dad did. Not because they aren’t strong Christians, but because your dad and God were best friends.”

Again, I remember thinking of how many times, growing up, I always thought of my dad as “A friend of God”. The words and terms he was using were not some vague thing, they were EXACT phrases that my family has used for years to describe daddy.

Something about Ken’s eyes sharpened and he said, “Shannon, you know that extremely close relationship your father and God had together? He’s in the very presence of our Father now, dancing and singing before Him, so fulfilled to finally be looking on the face of the God he served for so many, many years.”

Ken smiled, and with his next words, those tears that had been dammed up for weeks began to flow.

“All the things that God taught your dad, all that discernment he had, his anointing that covered so many things, his boldness, his understanding of God’s deep things… Shannon, THAT is your inheritance. Your father has no need of it anymore, because now he has it all. He’s standing before God in completeness, just as we were all created to be when we get to Heaven. But all that He learned, that the Holy Spirit taught him, that he fasted all those years for, all of that, he left for YOU. I know we can’t really understand how deep the spiritual things grow, since we are human and on earth. But trust me, when your dad made it to God, he asked him to leave that with you. And he did. That’s why you’ve been able to hear God so clearly since then.”

By this point, I was trembling. The truth that was pouring from his mouth was piercing my heart in ways I had never even felt before. Even writing this, weeks later, I’m finding tears in my eyes.

He continued, “As you go on, you’ll find that there will be times when God speaks to you clearly, gives you such discernment, it will be as if you are your dad, always knowing what to say and what to do. And you’ll begin to see that in your family, in your brothers and sisters. Where they have been lacking, they will be full, and it will be such a familiar spirit, it will be as if your father is always with you, because he is. It’s going to be so amazing as all of you grow, to be able to see, ‘My sister has dad’s discernment’ or ‘My brother has dad’s boldness’.”

I was so overcome, I just hugged him, thanking him over and over again. I’ve never had someone prophesy something in me that touched me so  deeply, and I knew it was because God had given me the eyes to see that Ken can plainly see the deepest things of God and convey them to those of us who don’t see as clearly.

He put his hand on my shoulder and said, “I know you’ve been wondering why your dad had to die while you were in Ireland with us, because I know you didn’t want him to pass away while you were gone.”

Once again, I was amazed. I had even journaled about it, wondering why God didn’t take him ten days earlier, when I was at home with him.

“God took your dad while you were here, on the race, so you could receive your empowerment at the time when you needed it the absolute most, when the world you are touching needed it the absolute most.”

I remembered back to prophecy after prophecy over my dad, speaking of a new ministry that would reach places his ministry never had before. When Ken said this, I realized, “I am that ministry.”

As we were saying goodnight, he added, “Shannon, know now that your dad doesn’t have to sit at home in bed, reading blogs about his baby girl traveling the world alone. Now, he’s with you, in a way he never could have been before. Remember to thank God for that, because he truly is with you.”

Before he spoke to me, I had been so clogged up emotionally, especially in a time when I needed so badly to mourn. But the amazing gift that God gave me through Ken has healed a huge hole in my spirit. I’ve been able to mourn when I need to now, and I’ve been able to see the spiritual inheritance that my dad left operating each day in my life. This prophecy not only encouraged me, it freed up things inside of me that had been so hard and cold.

So, in finishing with this series, I hope you have been able to see how important prophecy is in the Body of Christ. I also hope that you have seen that when you are willing to open your mouth, God will fill it up with what He wants to tell the world. Just as Jesus Christ walked this earth and plainly told the world what God was really saying, we have the same comission, the same empowerment, the same spirit. He has used ordinary people, like me, like Ken, like my teammates and squadmates, to speak. He used ordinary people like Joseph, like Moses, like Daniel, to speak.

Please know that you are just as equipped to open your mouth and hear God’s words coming out. It will begin a transformation in you that you can’t imagine, as it will begin a transformation in those around you.

P.S. Thanks, Ken 🙂