you have got to watch this!!!!! Akiane video as seen on CNN ( believe it or not ! )

You have got to look at these two links. The first is a segment that was shown on CNN, miracles will never cease! The second is Akiane's web site. Check it out.

http://tinyurl.com/yxewot

http://www.artakiane.com/akiane_art.htm#

Well she's an amazing artist and her poems are vivid, I would like to know about her prayer and bible study before I comment on her true spirituality.

On one painting ('divine knowlege') she says how she prayed for 5 months for a full understanding of it, I would be cautious of her work, beautiful as it is, it encourages warm fuzzies but does it draw us nearer in repentance to the One who can wash away our sin?

Sorry, don't want to put a downer on anyone :-(

I have read her book and heard much about her. She is awesome :) She is a sign and wonder to believers and unbelievers alike. God uses the simple to profoud the wise. What is wrong about praying about the meaning of the painting for 5 months? (Just curious, I just don't understand why that should be a cause for caution?) He's using the child-like ones like he said he would ;) Jesus is King!

This story spoke to my husband when not much seems to. I am greatful for her testimony.

Is there any mention of Jesus on her website, or just continued mentioning of a God, who reveals things to her. I would think that the first revelation would be the name of her Savior.
Wondefull artist, but her theology does not seem to line up with scripture.

Blessings Greg

I would assume, since she paints many pictures of Jesus. And one of them happens to be called Prince of Peace. That she understand who Jesus is. She also has one called Father Forgive Them. I'm pretty sure she knows her stuff, although you'd have to speak to her directly rather than judge her by her website :)

Rom 10:9 because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved:

Believing in God, and being a Christian are not the same thing. Assuming things,relying on our own understanding, is the best way to lose sight of the Truth.
I am not looking for an argument here, just posting my thoughts.
Blessings Greg

She's eleven

I am not looking for an argument here, just posting my thoughts.

Assuming things

Luk 18:16 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

Remarkable young lady. May the Lord keep her to Himself.

How can we state that these are paintings of Jesus? Is it not that we have been conditioned to believe he looked like that, and therefore people just assume that he looks like that?

Blessings Greg

P.S. Wonderfull artist, beautifull paintings.

OOPS please disregard this post :-?

We may be conditioned but I don't think a little child is. I find that even in scripture men were trying to describe what they saw. It isn't an easy thing because it is so often beyond words to describe.

It would seem if something was so beautiful to us we might paint it out of what was in our spirit. She said his eyes are so beautiful.

I don't think she is trying to make a doctrine, just expressing something that is beautiful to her. She is doing a pretty good job of it too.

God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. He can use a little child to open up the eyes of an athiest. Glory to God.

How wonderful.. Simply wonderful.

Dear Sean,

I really like your Thomas a'Kempis quote.

Just like to say that I agree with Smokey. I feel very cautious about all this. The girl has a fantastic gift and talent, it seems very supernatural, but something seems to be missing. As Smokey says it is that Jesus focus, there is a lack of cantering on the person of Christ. I know she is a young girl but a spiritual experience does not constitute salvation, salvation revolves around the person of Christ and His work in us. I have met many people who have had a spiritual experience with "God" a kind of a spiritual encounter but the transforming power of Christ was absent. If this girl is saved it would come out, I'm a bit nervous of people like Robert Schuller giving testimony on her website.

My prayer for her is that if she does not know the Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour that this would happen very soon.

I must also add that I am disturbed by a mentality we have in the Christendom to want to claim anyone who is gifted and alludes to any expression of Christianity as one of us. And if anyone tries to define what a true Christian should be like or what a true Christian should live like they are branded as judgmental. Should we not know our own?

I feel we must be careful not to ignore or overlook the real distinctions of a true believer because of our eagerness to embrace the talented or gifted as one of us. Its like the Bono's and Beyonces of this world, professing Christianity but the fruits are void of any quality. Yet we don’t care, we want to take them and parade them to the world to make our religion seem more appealing. If we are not willing to discern who is or is not a Christian we will find our churches filling up (as they already are) with a blended form of new age Christianity, indefinable and indescribable. Be careful "even the elect will be deceived".

I will have to say, even though I do believe this little girl has had an encounter with God to tell the world He is real, the post by Bro. Revolution34 was spoken with great carefulness and wisdom. I would like go hear more of what he has to say.

We do need to be very careful because everything that is beautiful isn't harmless. We certainly need the witness of the Holy Spirit to quicken our hearts and if we feel that inner check we better listen to it.

Well spoken Bro. Revolution34

Pastor, your post is excellent.

I have met many people who have had a spiritual experience with "God" a kind of a spiritual encounter but the transforming power of Christ was absent.

Yes, and this is the very litmus test of a [i]true[/i] encounter with Jesus Christ. A death occurs. One's level of religious artistic brilliancy is no guage for the authenticity of salvation. If this were the case, Michalangelo, Da Vinci, Dali and Carravagio were Christian titans worthy of emulation. Wunderkind abilities to capture the musical and visual aesthetics of creation are no accurate guage either; if this were the case, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would be a extraordinary believer, as he composed Christian masses and spiritual anthems of superlative beauty in childhood.

I must also add that I am disturbed by a mentality we have in the Christendom to want to claim anyone who is gifted and alludes to any expression of Christianity as one of us. And if anyone tries to define what a true Christian should be like or what a true Christian should live like they are branded as judgmental. Should we not know our own?

Yes, we should. This little girl is precious, no doubt, and her astonishing talent is a gift from God, but merely producing gorgeous images of things in heaven and things beneath - and at even such a young age - does not by default carry over with it the transforming power of God that is able to reach into the innermost and quicken that which is dead in sin. I venture to say that if the oeuvre of this little girl is devoid of this, her work will destroy and give false hope rather than life. It will scatter. The fact that the heathen world embraces and spouts vivid acclaim for the fruit of her genius, the fact that unsaved masses can extoll the virtues of her Jesus portrait and it not lead to self-despair is a furtherance of a work merely charming to the eyes and intellect of a dead world, and while succeeding to touch the soulish emotions of unregenerate men and women, it's culmination only leaves untold multitudes with but a warm and fuzzy sense of awe, a platitudinous mental assent to an all-loving, flowery God of universal and unmitigated acceptance void of repentance and the dynamic new birth which leads to holiness, a fierce hatred of sin, and death to self and the world.

Brother Paul

My comments in praise of the pastors post is not in that it was downing to Akiane's faith but that it encouraged us to be careful. I have to agree with this part.

My personal opinion is the little girls loves Jesus and believes she is glorifying God and has seen her family converted in the process. Bravo.

Hi Corey, I'd like to engage you here:

Comparing them with a CHILD who converted her parents from athiesm

In all humility, how do you know she converted her parents? What constitutes [i]true conversion[/i] in your eyes? And how do you even know the child herself is converted - [i]God's[/i] way? Because of her beautiful Jesus picture? Because Oprah Winfrey thinks she's a "saint"? Ah, the terms "conversion" and "born-again" get tossed around almost as flippantly and haphazardly as we say a person is a Republican or Democrat. These days if you paint a picture or write a song with a positive respect for God, you are instantly considered a Christian and everyone gets warm and fuzzy. But if a fellow comes along and poses sober considerations, he is accused of attacking and exhibiting a judgmental spirit. In light of all my legitimate points, I really don't think my last post was that unreasonable.

She says she loves God. She says the images and words come when she prays.

I'm not saying she [i]doesn't[/i] love God. She says images and words come when she prays, and that may be so. But this doesn't constitute anything, and I hope you realize that (I speak with meekness). I truly believe God's hand is on this little girl. I am not comparing her to Mozart or DaVinci in the sense that you think I am; I was only showing that an artistic propensity to show God in a positive light does not automatically qualify a person as Christian. What if you later find out that she and her parents attend a Roman Catholic church? The idea is not very outlandish, you know. Will you still maintain she is a born-again Christian by virtue of her detailed paintings and visions and verbal confessions of "God showed me..."? I venture to say that many here who have impetuously concluded she is Christian would suddenly backpedal.

Just be sure you haven't broken the Tenth Commandment in your attacks on a little girl.

I don't understand what you mean here. Are you hinting that by posting my concerns I might actually be coveting her gift?

May God bless you as you thoughtfully consider these things.

Brother Paul

I think we should all realise here that we are not judging the girl, we do not have the information to make righteous judgements of her.

What we are saying is that we should all be careful of [b]anyone[/b] be they innocent child or mature wisened adult, who says they get inspiration directly from God. Not that He doesn't speak to us in that still small voice or in dreams.

But when someone claims He sent a person to us, whom God wants to be a model for a painting of Jesus, then we must start to ask further questions.

We are not really discussing the integrity of Arkaine we are warning about jumping to conclusions without checking out the facts.

Please note the next bit is not an attack, just an opinion and I will be more than happy to be shown wrong;

Let me ask a question, why was a girl with these gifts born to athiest parents?

let's just assume that she is not pointing people to the true God but is being deceived and these visions are Satanic,

I see three options of the devil giving these gifts to a child...

a) with Christian parents

b) with believers of false gods whereby they are converted to Christ

c) with athiests who then are converted to Christ.

So why pick option c) well the parents will not be able to discern it and will accept her deception and convert to a false Christ.

What about option b) I will suggest that as all religions accept Jesus as being a prophet and that there is a 'perfect place' we can ascend to, that by being born to parents of a false religion would make her unacceptable to Christianity (who the devil is trying to deceive) as they would not convert because what she is painting does not contradict any other religion.

Finally a) if she was born to Christians, they would be able to discern her deceit and lead her to Truth before she leads others away.

Matthew 25:24 warns about the elect being deceived by those showing signs and wonders.

I'm sorry, I don't want to offend anyone but we are to be harmless as doves and wise as serpents. MAT 10:16

I hope that Arkiane has met with Jesus Christ and her parents too, I have prayed for her since I heard about her and in the fullness of time we will find out what type of Christian she is, she needs our prayers that she keeps on the narrow path (assuming she's on it) because money and fame have been the downfall of many young people, and old people too.

Why did God pick Abraham? His parents were heathens. Why did He pick me? My parents were heathens.

In the final outcome we will all find out what kind of Christians we are. In that day He will say to some of us I never knew you. Yeh you did all these great things but you didn't love.

Me too, or we would all be doomed

Corey_H wrote:

Oh, that's rich!

I don't suppose you've considered the fact that Abraham wasn't raised by Jews, and neither was Enoch, and neither was Methuselah, and neither was Noah, and neither was Melchizadek, and neither was Ruth...

Or that Jesus wasn't a Christian, nor was Paul when Jesus appeared to him, nor was the centurian that came to Jesus, nor the woman who had her disease cleansed... nor was I...

He will use who He will use, sinner, saved, Jew, gentile, catholic, or pentacostal - for His Glory.

Pitiful.

I'm sorry, you misunderstood what I was writing, I know God can use anyone but my point was that if it is a deception then the only choice was to use athiestic parents.

Again you are not adressing the issue that we must test all the spirits:

I Jn 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Corey_H wrote:
He will use who He will use, sinner, saved, Jew, gentile, catholic, or pentacostal - for His Glory.

I agree, of course, the question is; is she being used by God to bring people to repentance?

Answer: we don't know because we haven't met her or heard of anyone coming to know Christ because of her work.

We must not be so gullible as to accept everyone who says they have met God,

However this quote of Gamaliel is fitting here:

Acts 5:38 And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: 39 But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

I think this scripture speaks on the subject of pictures.

John: 17 NKJ
29. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
30. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

Eddie

Dear Corey,

Thank you for the discussion. May we all grow in deeper knowledge and wisdom of his ways. I pray seromindex be a tool used by God to contribute to just that. I regret to say that I don't think our discussion will grow any more profitable from this point on. I must therefore humbly bow out.

May God's grace be with your spirit,

Brother Paul

Is there really any need for personal attacks on brothers and sisters who are only suggesting caution? Especially against persons who have been walking with the Lord for a long time? How does that bring Glory to our God?

:-o