Life2: The Life You Were Created to Live

By Ken Johnson

ARE YOU LIVING YOUR LIFE TO THE FULLEST?

Many people are living in a manner that will leave them with disappointment and regrets at the end of their life. Too often do you hear people coming to the underwhelming realization of, “That’s it? That’s my life?” Wouldn’t you like to experience more moments when your soul cries out, “This is living!”?

Here’s the good news. You don’t have to spend the rest of your life in the numbing fog of repetition and routine. There is a sweeter, brighter, deeper current of being available for those who seek it.

In this book, Ken Johnson uses the intriguing story of a man named Abram to show you how to:

-Stop living a life of bland, colorless resignation.
-Leave your comfort zone and enter the adventure zone.
-Find out why you are alive.
-Stir up within yourself a desire to go higher.
-Discover the Spirit of Life.
-Take hold of the life that is truly life.

Dare to believe there is more!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ken Johnson
• Release date: Jun 17, 2020

Ken Johnson

The Creator wired Ken Johnson to be an entrepreneur. Before he was ten, he was shoveling snow in the winter and selling hand-picked wild blackberries door-to-door in the summer. Ken graduated in 1972 from George Fox University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and then experienced seven years of rich productivity as a businessman.Surprisingly, Ken felt a divine nudge to leave the business realm where he was thriving and become a minister. He started by leading a little flock of thirty people, and years later he found himself leading thousands.Ken served on the Foursquare Church international Board, and on the Foursquare Foundation Board for six years. The Foundation has awarded more than $52,000,000 in grants to fruitful Christian leaders and ministries throughout the world. Seeing tens of thousands of people all over the world find new life in God shot adrenaline into Ken’s soul.In 2013, Ken, an avid outdoorsman, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Ken handed the leadership of Westside Church (which is still thriving) to his assistant, but he didn’t retire. He ‘re-fired.’ He continued to speak various places and began to direct more and more of his energy to mentoring leaders and writing.Ken has published three books: Life2 – The Life You Were Created to Live, When it All Comes Down it All Comes Down to This, and Signs of Life – God’s Available Aliveness. Ken is preparing to publish a trilogy called Your Wildest Dream.Ken’s focus is helping people become more alive through his books and his blog: Much More Alive. Whether writing or speaking, Ken is a vibrant, adventurous storyteller who uses stories to open people’s minds and unbridle powerful emotions. Nothing thrills Ken more than helping people become more prolific, more purposeful, more alive!

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WHAT LEADERS ARE SAYING ABOUT LIFE²

"The ‘Son-light’ Ken Johnson’s work radiates through with a warmth and power that can burn away the fog of uncertainty and confusion that so often clouds our sense of personal purpose. Life² is going to clear and focus an ‘on-target’ life for a lot of people."

—Jack Hayford, Former President of Foursquare International and Author of Worship His Majesty and Spirit-filled Life Bible

This easy read by Ken Johnson compels you to see our lives as God sees them—immense, glorious, and alive in Christ! It’s time we right-size Jesus and down-size our doubts. The result will be nothing short of a revelation!

—Wayne Cordeiro, Author of Leading on

Empty and The Divine Mentor

"In Life² Ken Johnson shares more than philosophy and theory to take your life to the next level. He shows you how to do it... step by step! Ken’s experience as a business leader before he became a pastor provides ‘real-world’ traction to this God-inspired message of success in life."

—Dirk Zeller, CEO of Sales Champions and

Author of Telephone Sales for Dummies and The Champion Team

Life²

The Life You Were Created to Live

KEN JOHNSON

Copyright © 2020, Ken Johnson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical (including any information storage retrieval system) without the express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations for use in articles and reviews wherein appropriate attribution of the source is made.

Published in the United States by Ignite Press.

ignitepress.us

ISBN: 978-1-950710-47-8 (Amazon Print)

ISBN: 978-1-950710-48-5 (IngramSpark) PAPERBACK

ISBN: 978-1-950710-49-2 (Smashwords)

For bulk purchase and for booking, contact:

Ken Johnson

[e-mail]

https://MuchMoreAlive.com

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, web addresses or links contained in this book may have been changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The content of this book and all expressed opinions are those of the author and do not reflect the publisher or the publishing team.

The author is solely responsible for all content included herein.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are from the Amplified Bible. Old Testament copyright © 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament copyright © 1954, 1958, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are from The Message: The Bible in Contemporary English, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www. Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked Phillips are from The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition. Copyright © 1958, 1960, 1972 by J.B. Phillips. Macmillan Publishing Co. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked TLB are from The Living Bible. Copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

OTHER BOOKS

BY KEN JOHNSON

Signs of Life: God’s Invitation to a Better, Stronger & Longer Life

When It All Comes Down, It All Comes Down to This: Live in God’s Love

Contents

CHAPTER 1 A Better Life

CHAPTER 2 Something’s Missing

CHAPTER 3 Here Be Dragons

CHAPTER 4 A Walk Under the Stars

CHAPTER 5 Overcoming Gravity

CHAPTER 6 Death Grip

CHAPTER 7 Life with a View

CHAPTER 8 Fountain of Youth

CHAPTER 9 Dead Men Walking

CHAPTER 10 Life-Giving Spirit

CHAPTER 11 A Better Country

CONCLUSION

Endnotes

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

1

A Better Life

He gulped a mouthful of seawater and choked.

Was this it? Was this the end?

It would almost be a relief. His arms and legs felt leaden, hardly a part of his body. He didn’t think he could swim one more stroke.

Sensing even more than seeing his struggle, two of Bill’s comrades put hands under his armpits and dog-paddled in place as Bill gasped and rested for 15 infinitely precious seconds. Supported by the human buoys, Bill took four or five deep breaths and then silently pushed his friends away and continued to swim east. Each stroke seemed impossible, but impossible was his whole world at that moment. What was one more?

These individual respites—two or three companions supporting one—became more and more common as that longest of nights wore on. One of the four escapees would grow weary and whisper for help. Two of the other three would draw on what few ounces of energy remained and prop up their fellow swimmer or even tow him through the ocean for a short distance.

Bill and his friends had been swimming toward Hong Kong since they entered the sea at nine o’clock the night before. Although all four of them were in top condition, the swim from mainland China to Hong Kong seemed like a dream—a nightmare—as their muscles cramped and screamed stop!

Just the previous afternoon, the companions had hunkered in the hillside brush, looking down on the bay. They watched the area for some time, seeing Red Guard soldiers on patrol, trying to discern a pattern to their patrols that might offer them a window to freedom.

They had left their little village in inland China 17 days earlier, consuming their meager supply of food after just a few days of careful rationing. For two weeks, they lived off of seeds, bugs, roots, and what little bit of wild fruit they could scavenge.

Bill knew that if the Red Guards, some with tracking dogs, discovered him and his three friends, it would probably mean death for him. This was his third escape attempt. The attempt last year had been aborted after near starvation, resulting from 18 days of wandering lost in the mountains. In his second escape attempt earlier this year, he had drawn on what he learned from his first endeavor and actually reached the coastline.

And he had been rewarded.

Off on the distant night horizon, he saw the lights of Hong Kong… That distant glow in the sky represented freedom, opportunity, life itself. The mental image of those freedom lights had sustained Bill in prison after the soldiers had captured him and these same three friends six months earlier. They had been thrown in a squalid, 10-by-12-foot room, crammed with 60 people. He lived on a handful of rice a day and was near death when he was finally released.

Freedom or death, Bill whispered to his three friends as they looked down on the bay below. Bill knew that if he was caught again, his second capture, he would probably not survive the punishment the government would impose on him. He forced the terrible pictures from his last capture from his mind and took another look at the tiny, luminescent speck of freedom, representing something he had sought now for years.

A better life.

At nine o’clock p.m., the escapees scurried to the edge of the bay under the cover of darkness. Bill says he’ll never forget how he felt when he stepped into the water that moonless night. Eleven hours of liquid stood between him and his dream. For four months, these four college-age young men had been separately, secretly, training for the grueling ordeal that now stretched so far before them. They looked each other in the eyes, silently pushed off from the sand, and began to swim toward the lights.

That had been a lifetime ago.

An eternity in the endless ocean, the endless night.

It was now eight in the morning. Bill and his friends had been swimming toward the lights of Hong Kong, and then toward the glimmer of dawn, and finally toward the bright orange sun. Team rescues were happening every few minutes now. The men had decided that whether they drowned or reached freedom, they would do it together. All four had drawn fully on their deep reserves, but even reserves can be exhausted, and Hong Kong was still not in sight.

Land, came the hoarse whisper. One of Bill’s companions was the first to spot the tiny island. The sight of land gave each of them a final burst of energy, and minutes later, they crawled onto a small, rocky outcropping in the South China Sea. No food. No fresh water. No trees. No greenery. Just rocks. But they were blessed rocks, just the same, and the swimmers lay like dead men in the morning sunlight.

An hour later, they heard the sound of a boat motor. Better still, it was coming from the direction of Hong Kong. Two of the guys took off their swim trunks and stood, buck naked, on the tallest rock they could find, frantically waving their trunks as S.O.S. flags.

The boat began to turn their way—a Hong Kong Coast Guard vessel. As the military craft pulled up to the island, Bill and his friends were relieved to see welcoming smiles on the sailors’ faces. Hungry, lucky, happy, crying for joy, they got into the boat and began to wolf down the milk and bread offered to them.

Bill is a friend of our family. (Of course, Bill is his American name. I won’t give his Chinese name because he still has family in China.) Bill has become a successful businessman in the United States. The same determination that powered him through two unsuccessful escape attempts and then on to freedom has energized his efforts to build a better life for his family and himself.

Bill is perhaps the ultimate representative to me of human determination to pay whatever price required to find a better life.

Something More than ‘Survival’

Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs pyramid puts survival at the foundation of the pyramid of human aspiration. It wasn’t the need for survival, however, that drove Bill and his three fugitive friends toward freedom in Hong Kong. They wanted something higher on the pyramid than mere survival. After all, they could have certainly survived in Communist China.

But these men wanted more. They wanted what we all wanted. Personal improvement, life enhancement.

A better life.

Pushing back from this scene for a moment, think with me about our most common English greeting. What is the most frequently asked initial question asked when two human beings encounter one another?

How are you?

Given the millions of vocabulary options for quickly showing interest in another person, why has this little three-word query risen to the top of the list?

When I encounter a friend, make that inquiry, and receive the standard, Fine, thank you in return, I probe just a little deeper. I might say, "How are you, really?" Or maybe, How are you on a scale of one to ten? If my associate says seven, I ask whether he or she is currently moving up the scale or down the scale.

How are you? is actually asking How is your life?

The widespread question is based on the universal aspiration, isn’t it? Every sane person wants a better life.

Stop and think about this statement: Everything I do is in pursuit of the best life possible. Isn’t that true? It’s obvious that quality of life gets a unanimous vote among personal values, but did it ever occur to you that everything, every single thing we do, is done in pursuit of that better life?

For example, you stand in your clothes closet in the morning and decide which shirt or blouse to wear. You’ll choose the one that offers a better life every time. I like this brown and blue Hawaiian shirt today because I feel better in that shirt than in this other one. It will look better on me than that one. It goes better with my eyes. It fits the sunny weather better. Others will like it better, which will make me feel better.

The desire for the best life possible determines each and every decision we make and step we take, whether it’s turning aside to use the restroom or taking a break from a long meeting to walk out into the sunshine and fresh air.

We’re all looking for the best life possible right now.

Behind It All

You might be thinking, That sounds pretty selfish, Ken. What if I do something for someone else at my own expense? Good question. My answer is this: Even if you take it on the chin for me, wouldn’t you be doing that because it made my life better? The idea behind altruistic service and sacrifice is that the one who serves surrenders their ultimate treasure (his/her life being made better) in order to improve someone else’s life. So even service and sacrifice are based on the assumption that a better life is the best thing going!

We go to great ends to experience a better, richer, fuller, longer, larger life. We live for those moments where our soul cries out, This is living!

For some of us, those moments don’t come very often, and not nearly often enough.

Definitions of a better life may vary from person to person around the world, but the goal is universal. I’m open