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  The Beginning

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  Plus 4 is God's Family

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  Plus 4 is a call from the Father!

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  Our Purpose

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  Our Vision

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  Our Commitments

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  Our Bio

What is Plus 4 Ministries?

Many people have asked us things like, “What is Plus 4 Ministries?” and “What does ‘Plus 4’ mean?”

It’s a revelation of family – My Family. It’s a revelation of relationship – My relationship with My Family.

 

After we knew that God had called us to the ministry, we began preparing ourselves to follow that calling. We had been seeking the Lord about the name He wanted for the ministry. We told the Lord that this wasn’t our ministry, it was His, and we were His messengers.

I was putting our youngest son, Caden, to bed one night. As I just sat there with him, I was quiet before the Lord. Very softly in my spirit, I heard “Plus 4 Ministries.” At first, I didn’t know what it meant, but it kept coming up. For the next two days, I was quiet about it and just pondered it in my spirit, listening to what the Lord wanted to say. Then, in my morning prayer time, He began to explain it to me very clearly.

He spoke to my spirit and said,

It’s a revelation of family – My Family. It’s a revelation of relationship – My relationship with My Family. Read the first three chapters of Genesis. You’ll see it there.”

 

For the next several days, I read and re-read the first three chapters of Genesis over and over. I picked apart each verse and presented them before the Lord for explanation and revelation. He spoke to me and explained the following:

When I created everything, there was already the three of Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) (See Genesis 1:26, John 1:1). It was Us and everything else. I created many things, but they were all spiritually subordinate to Us. Nothing was equal in spirit status or class. I instituted the family unit in everything else first (plant and animal kingdoms), and then for Me. I wanted a family. I wanted someone who reflected Me. 

I created Man to be that. Man was My image, My likeness. He looked and talked like Me. He was My kind. He was My family. Until I made Woman, it was the three of Us, plus the Man. He was Number 4. Even when I created Woman, she was taken from the Man, or from the same Man materials. She was still a Man, though. Adam was My family. She was My family and his family. Their kids were My family and their family. But they were still from the Man (Number 4)

 

I spent the next several hours thinking about this while going through the first three chapters of Genesis again. I pondered and meditated on what I was reading. I began to see certain things about how Man was made, what happened when Man sinned, and how God responded after Man disobeyed.

Adam was God’s Man. He was God’s Family. God created him to have fellowship with. God wasn’t alone or sad. God didn’t need Adam to give Him an emotional completion. No, God wanted him. He wanted a family. He wanted someone He could give to, love on, and do beautiful things for. God wanted to bless him (See Gen 1:28-29). God wanted to spend time with him. He had no ulterior motives or plans, except to give him good things. He spent time with Adam. They talked. God taught him (See Gen 2:16-17, Gen 3:8). God was his Father. Adam was God’s son (See Luke 3:38). Adam and God were happy together, and God wanted Adam to have the same joy of giving to someone that He had with him.

Adam wasn’t alone* (See Genesis 2:18). He wasn’t depressed or lonely. Those emotions weren’t there in the Garden yet. God didn’t give Woman to Adam out of necessity, but so he could enjoy her the same way God enjoyed Adam. She would help him. She would be his partner. Woman was an extension of Adam – of God – of God’s Family.

God created Adam as the highest class of being (See Gen 1:26-27). Nothing else matched him spiritually, except God. Adam couldn’t talk and fellowship with the animals and the earth like he did with God.

God experienced great joy with Adam, and He wanted Adam to have that same joy. That’s why God gave him Woman. Adam could love her and give to her. They could love and give to their children. And God could love and give to them. They would be family.

*Alone: Genesis 2:18. Hebrew noun bad (bod). It’s most basic meaning is to separate, or to be apart. It comes from Hebrew primitive root badad (baw-dad), meaning to divide, or to be solitary. 

 

Traditionally, when many people read this verse, they have the idea that Adam was lonely because he was by himself. At one time, I also had this idea. Preachers have painted the picture that Adam was just moping and wandering around the Garden in this state of sadness and foreboding and God finally came to his rescue. But this was not the case at all. With no more than a quick glance over this verse, you could certainly get that idea, seeing the literal Hebrew essentially says, “It’s not good for the Man to be separate.”

Realize, however, that Adam wasn’t lonely or depressed. He was walking and talking with God every day. There’s no loneliness or depression in God. Those things were attached to the curse, which came after Adam sinned (See Romans 5:12).

However, Adam had no one to give his love to, or help him as his equal on the earth. He was separate in spiritual equality and class from everything else, but he wasn’t separated from God. God says in this verse that wasn’t good for Adam to be separate physically, and separate spiritually from everything else in his surroundings. So, God gave him a helper and someone for him to reproduce himself with the same way God reproduced Himself with Adam. God had a plan for Man and we were an extension, not an addition to His Family.

Plus 4 is God’s Family

I was beginning to see from the Lord where the Plus 4 came in.

 

 

Adam was Number 4. It was God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), plus 4 (Adam). God simply added on to His Family with Adam. Then, Woman was an extension, not an addition. She wasn’t Number 5. Their kids weren’t Number 6, 7, etc. They were all extensions of Number 4 – Adam. We’re all extensions of Adam in some way. We all came from that bloodline. After God made Man, it was God – Plus 4.

Man was the 4th member of God’s Family. God was already there in three persons. He created Man to extend His family. Since Man was Number 4, the Family of Heaven was – God, Plus 4. Every other human was an extension of God’s Family.

It’s still God, Plus 4. We are sons of God (See Romans 8:14-16). We belong to His Family (See Eph 3:15). We’re entitled to everything He has (See Heb 1:2, Eph 2:6). God loves and takes care of His Family.

No, we’re not preaching a “Man is God” theology. Not at all. Man, by himself, is a messed up thing. We couldn’t get out of bed in the morning and find our head with both hands if it weren’t for the Grace and Life of God that helps and sustains us. But the majority of people, Christians included, don’t realize what happened back in the Garden.

They don’t know who they are. People don’t fully understand how much God loves them. They don’t realize they were created as part of God’s Family. They don’t realize He loves them so much He gave up His Son for them (See John 3:16). He provided anything and everything they would need in this life, but also for them to live lavishly as a representative for Him and to live in victory.

God instituted His Family with Adam. He was Number 4 in God’s Family. Woman wasn’t an addition, but an extension of the family. She was still “Man.” She wasn’t added from an outside source. She was taken from the Man. She was an extension of him. Their children came from them – an extension of them. Every human created after that was/is and extension of God’s original Man.   

Woman was bone of man’s bone, and flesh of man’s flesh. Adam was spirit of God’s Spirit. Adam was made from God – in God’s image. Woman was made from Man – in Man’s image. But she was also made in God’s image, as an extension of Him.

Adam was God’s Family. He was Number 4. God’s Family just extended and got bigger. After the fall, people were separated from God. And Jesus had to come to pay the price to get The Family back.

Jen and I continued to seek the Lord about this, knowing it went deeper still. The depth of love God has for His family was being laid out in front of us, and we were eager to understand it further. This became a constant focus for many days. As we pondered it, it became clearer. One morning, God expounded it further to me. He said,

I loved My Man. I instituted My Family with Adam. Then, I instituted the marriage union and human family when I gave him woman. They were an extension of Me. They were My kids – My Family. I loved them. I talked with them. I visited them. I spent time with them. I want to do the same with you and your family. You are all extensions of Me – of My Man. You were created like Me – to be like Me. You aren’t additions to My Family; you are an extension. You’re supposed to be with Me.

 

As I thought about this, I remembered the verses in Romans and Galatians that say we’ve been adopted into God’s Family.

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. – Romans 8:15

 

To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. – Galatians 4:5

 

 

My own logic said, “If we were originally part of God’s Family, why would we need to be adopted back in?” After spending some time in prayer about it, the Holy Spirit brought these truths to my spirit.

What does adoption mean? It’s a legal transfer of authority from one family to another. A price was paid, and a legal transaction took place. Then, the adoption into the family was complete.

We were created as an extension of God’s Family, but we lost our place and access to Him when Adam sinned. It separated us and legally placed us under the authority and family of the devil. We were no less God’s Family, but by choice, we had a new master. In His infinite love, God wasn’t going to let it stay that way. He wanted His Family back. Jesus was sent to pay the adoption price, conduct the legal transaction, and allow us access back into God’s Family. It’s already done.

Now, people make their choice whose family they want to live in. But in God’s Family, He wants to love, and give, and talk, and walk, and fellowship with them and us, just as He did with Adam.

We were starting to see what God meant when He said Plus 4 was a “revelation of family” and a “revelation of relationship.” In meditating on this, we began to see just how deeply God loves Man. Even when Adam sinned and turned over the entire creation of earth to God’s archenemy, God still loved Man enough to help him as best as He could.

Plus 4 is a call from the Father!

It’s sad, but many people think that God was angry with Adam, and He cursed Adam and just kicked him out of the garden as punishment for messing up. But this isn’t the picture painted by God’s Word. In fact, God never cursed Adam at all.

When Man and Woman sinned, God didn’t curse them. He cursed the serpent. He cursed the earth, but not them. Read through the entire account. You won’t find where God cursed the Man or the Woman. He cursed the serpent, and He cursed the earth. That’s it. Man and Woman were now living on a cursed earth, and whatever they received from it (their children, possessions, food, etc) would now have sorrow attached to it.

In disobeying, they chose to be their own gods. They chose different from what God told them. They did it on their own. This separated them from God. They turned the authority God gave them over to the devil. By separating, the earth and everything in it would now have a curse attached to it as judgment for disobedience.
 
Jesus came to pay that judgment of the curse to redeem Man, not the earth, but Man. God didn’t curse them. They were His Family. God loved them. He tried to help them. He made them clothes. But He couldn’t let them stay in the garden. Adam would have tried to correct his wrong. He would have eaten the Tree of Life. But God still stayed with him.

They weren’t cursed. Where they lived was cursed. They were spiritually dead now, because they were separated from God’s Spiritual Life.

The curse on the earth was a judgment for disobedience. All of its after-effects and results are a product of sin and disobedience. The Man and Woman weren’t cursed, but they were subject to the curse of the earth and its effects because of sin and disobedience.
 
Life and death relate to Man’s spiritual condition. Blessing and cursing relate to Man’s natural world. However, since the natural world is based on the spiritual world, Life and Death affect it too. But Man’s spirit is neither blessed nor cursed. It’s either alive or dead. They weren’t cursed themselves, but they were cut off from God.

Now, not only were they cut off from God and His Life, but they also had all the sorrow that went along with sin, disobedience, and living on a cursed earth. Jesus came to redeem us from that curse (See Galatians 3:13)

What a magnificent plan God put into place to redeem His Family! As I studied this, I also began to realize how wrong I had been about what I thought God did in the garden after they sinned. I originally thought God cursed them as well as the serpent. I also had the idea that God just kicked them out to fend for themselves. In reality, He did what was best for them, but He stayed with them. He helped them. He didn’t leave them where they were. He loved His Family. He still does. It was His love that caused Him to not leave them alone to the devil’s plans. It was also His love that caused Him to send Jesus to purchase us back into His Family.

The more I studied this, the fuller it became in me. I never felt so loved by my Father than when I saw how much God did to have His Family in place again. What a glorious glimpse into what Heaven will be like. I began to praise God for His love and mercy on us and thank Him for His goodness. As I was doing this, He spoke very clearly to my spirit.

I want so much for people to understand how much I love them. Most don’t have a concept of what My love entails. People view Me as harsh and mean. People think I punished Adam for sinning, but I tried to help him. I loved him enough to prepare him as a result of his choices. He was My Family. She was My Family. I take care of My Family. I take care of My Family now, too.

If people only knew and appreciated how I view them. I see them the same way I did Adam – as part of My Family. They’ve been legally allowed back in. They’re adopted back into My Family. They can have, use, and be entitled to everything I have.

 

People need to understand how much God loves them. He isn’t mad at them (See Isaiah 54:9). He loves them. God wants to love and give to them. He wants to be their Father. Whatever they need, He’s already provided it.

“Plus 4” truly is a revelation of family. It’s God’s Family. It’s God’s love for His Family. And Plus 4 is God’s ministry – to proclaim His Family and His love to the world.

Our Purpose:

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. – 1 John 3:8

When the Lord first began speaking to us about the calling into the ministry, we had many ideas in our own minds about how to go about it. Certain ideas about what to do and how to do it brought much joy and excitement to us as we pondered what God’s plans were through this ministry.

However, it wasn’t until we quieted our minds and ambitions and spent time seeking the Lord that He began revealing what He wanted us to do and how He wanted it done.

He said very clearly,

A man’s calling is connected to his purpose. The calling is a tool to accomplish that purpose. Purpose without an avenue to achieve it is merely good intention.

 

After much hearing and many months in prayer over the founding purpose of this ministry, we are very clear on what God’s heart and purpose is through Plus 4 Ministries.

Plus 4 Ministries is called to:

• Deliver the Message of God’s Love
• Bring Restoration and Wholeness Back to Families
• Teach People How to Live and Prosper
• Bring Clarity to the Word of God
• Train the Next Generation
• Show People Who God is and How to Have What God Has Promised
• Be a Bearer of God’s Power
• Demonstrate to People There’s a Better Way – God’s Way
• Change Lives

These tenets may be summed up in the Plus 4 Ministries Mission Statement:

Equipping Individuals. Building Families. Changing Lives

Our Vision:

Where there is no vision, the people perish: - Proverbs 29:18

 

 

These words were written by King Solomon of Ancient Israel nearly 3,000 years ago. He clearly understood the importance of having and pursuing a God-given vision. Years later, the prophet Habakkuk spoke by inspiration of the Holy Spirit to write down your vision and make it easy to read and understand. Doing this will help keep you focused in your pursuit (See Habakkuk 2:2).

Vision is separate from purpose. Oftentimes, people confuse the two, but in fact, they are vastly different. Purpose is just that. Purpose is why something or someone exists. It’s what they are here to do. Their calling, their gifts, their talents are all tools to assist them in accomplishing that purpose. Purpose is God-given. It is the foundation for anything’s beginning.

Like a calling, gift, or talent, Vision is also a tool. It is a specified and anticipated conception, path, or avenue to accomplish and fulfill purpose. We might also interchange the word “plans” for the word “vision.” In reality, one must have a vision of some form, if life is to be brought to any task. If no vision exists, stagnation, and ultimately, death will be the result – Solomon confirms this for us.

In obedience to God’s Word in Habakkuk 2:2, Plus 4 Ministries holds up the following vision to accomplish the purpose God has charged us with:

Plus 4 Ministries looks to Jesus and His ministry on the earth as our example of God’s will and love to people. Therefore, Plus 4 Ministries strives to pattern its ministry after Jesus’ ministry by following His example.

Matthew 9:35 states, and Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. – Matthew 9:35

In His commission to carry on what He had begun on the earth, Jesus instructed, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” – Mark 16:15, 17-18.

Accordingly, Plus 4 Ministries will continue with Jesus’ example and instruction by going into cities and towns to teach in churches, to preach the good news of God’s Kingdom, to heal the sick, and to cast out devils.

Our Vision is to witness the move of God in great manifestation. Our Vision is to see the lame walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dead raised up, the dumb to speak, the demon-possessed set free, for those in bondage to be released, and the light of God’s love and grace to shine.

Our Commitments:

Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. – Psalms 37:5

 

 

The foundational integrity of any organization, whether it is a school system, a church, a hospital, etc., is based on the commitments and morals of the influencing individuals. If the commitments are shallow and insincere, then the entire organization will reflect and be likewise. However, if the founding structure is based on solid convictions and commitments from its beginning, then the integrity of that organization will also be solid.

Accordingly, Plus 4 Ministries has stood before God and we stand before those who support this ministry to make these commitments. 

• We Will Operate in Love
• We Will Do Everything in Excellence to the Best of Our Abilities
• We Will Do What God Tells Us to Do
• We Will Never Go into Debt
• We Will Only Preach Where God Sends Us to Preach
• We Will Not Allow Strife to Exist in the Ministry
• We Will Not Criticize Other Ministries or Defend Ourselves Against Personal Criticisms
• We Will Pray Everyday for Our Employees and Those Who Support This Ministry
• We Will Never Ask Anyone to Do Something We Have Not Done or Would Not Do
• We Will Operate With the Utmost of Financial Integrity
• We Will Operate by the Principle of Sowing and Reaping
• We Will Tithe on Every Dollar That Comes into the Ministry
• We Will Never Ask Anyone to Meet Our Personal Needs

Our Bio

Dave and Jen Kendall, along with their two sons, Austin (4) and Caden (2), live in the Springfield/Branson, Missouri area.

They are a dynamic family with a strong passion for God and a heart for people. Their heart is to minister to people through the Anointing of God. Together, they are committed to excellence in their pursuit of Jesus’ instruction to

Go into all the world and preach the gospel” (Mark 16:15) and to Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out devils” (Matthew 10:8).

 

Traveling and teaching, the Kendalls have a strong Anointing from the Lord in the area of healing and deliverance, in bringing clarity to the Word, and teaching people how to have a closer relationship with God.

The Kendall’s compassion for ministering God’s Word to people is summed up in the mission statement of Plus 4 Ministries:

Equipping Individuals. Building Families. Changing Lives.