christianityandme
Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006
Interview with Akiane - Child Prodigy - Part 1
In our special feature today, I’d like to present an interview with child prodigy Akiane. She is a blessed little girl who started having visions and being taken-up with the Lord at the age of four! Also starting at the age of four, she started to draw pictures . . . this lead to her writing poems and eventually painting; paintings which have now sold in excess of $25,000 dollars! Everything about this little amazing, gifted girl inspires awe. Awe in her abilities and awe in God. How He can bless someone so fully. Her love of Jesus Christ is absolute and evident in everything she does.
Read below for a full transcript of an interview with Akiane featured in the magazine Voice of the Prophetic, transcribed in full below for your reading pleasure. Much more info is also included taken from various sources online, to give you a more complete picture of this incredible young person. So peruse the article for more about her, and keep her in your prayers.
A message from Steve Shultz (Founder & Publisher of Voice of the Prophetic Magazine):
The church is witnessing an incredible increase in the way God is speaking prophetically to the world today through Heavenly downloads I the form of words, the arts, poetry and music. He is speaking to and through all age groups - yes, even through children. I recently had the privilege of interviewing one such child. Her name is Akiane.
Born to an atheistic, stay-at-home, Lithuanian mother and American father, 11-year-old Akiane met Jesus at the age of four. To simply say that Akiane is a child prodigy is almost to cheapen the gift God has put into her. For a child that has constant visitations from the Lord, I would call her more of an “anointed little one” to whom God has sovereignly chosen to convey HIMSELF.
I first learned of Akiane through Paul Keith Davis of Whitedove Ministries. He and I share a common passion: to protect the gift within Akiane. The enemy hates what God has done, and is doing, with this young child. Though a huge percentage of her income goes to the poor from the sale of her paintings, even Christians have spoken ill of her.
We should be praying for, blessing, protecting, and embracing what God is doing through Akiane. As you read this interview, pray for Akiane. She needs every prayer she can get. - Steve Shultz.
Steve: First, allow me to introduce to you, Foreli, Akiane’s mother . . .
Steve: You were an atheist right?
Foreli: Right
S: What age was Akiane when she first started to have experiences with the Lord?
F. A the age of four.
S: From a mother’s perspective, what did you see happen?
F: I saw an immediate change in her vocabulary. She would say that God took her. A lot of times she would be secretive, saying, “You know I was taken. I was shown, but you are forbidden to know. When the time comes, you will know.”
S: And she was how old . . .?
F: She was four years old.
S: Did you think she was making it up, or did you believe her at first?
F: Well - 100%, no. Akiane was not a child who liked imaginative games. She didn’t like dolls. She didn’t like fairy tales. She was an active child. She was a logical child. She liked everything real. She was planning to be a doctor when she grew up. Those imaginary things didn’t at all fit her personality - or the Akiane that I knew.
“Faces are more meaningful to me than anything else, you can not live without seeing and touching them.” - Akiane
S: So, even though you were an atheist, you believed she was having experiences with a real God.
F: It was absolutely real - I knew immediately there was something very, very important which she had to say. I thought at first, when she used the word “God” - which we didn’t use in our family at the time - that there was someone else she wanted to describe. But the more technical her language became - linguistically mature and advanced - I knew there was something extraordinary happening. Inexplicable.
I had studied anthropology and many cultures. I was aware that there were different experiences that people had, but not in your own backyard like that! Not such a sudden and abrupt change in her whole viewpoint of life!
S: How long did it take you to move from hearing about these visions, to receiving Christ yourself?
F: It was gradual. I do not recall that one day I said, “OK, this is when I am receiving Christ. . .” It was step by step. It was like a divine injection - a time-release capsule.
S: Did you use to quiz her then? Were you getting up in the morning excited to hear what she was getting the night before?
F: Every day, yes - especially when she was four and five. I was very, very excited to hear what was going to be next. But a lot of times she would say, “Well, you know, I have so much work. You can’t understand it now, and when I grow up you will know.”
S: Interesting! Have you ever written down her experiences?
F: Even as we speak, we are preparing Akiane’s second book - a writing of all her experiences. You can get really great, deep glimpses of what was transpiring between her and God, of the future plan of God, and the emotional and spiritual battlegrounds . . . Somehow she releases it through her art and her poetry.
S: That’s amazing. Now, what kind of warfare have you been in as a mother, and as a family, as a result of Akiane having experiences with God?
F: Pretty much everything imaginable. You know, from stolen paintings, to people demanding we burn the paintings, to people who absolutely reject us, to people who bought the paintings whose friends left them because of the paintings of Jesus.
S: Did Akiane ever get discouraged? Dis she ever cry because it upset her when these things happened?
F: She never cried. I never saw tears, even when the painting of Jesus was stolen. she was extremely strong. She’s not the type that I would call a serious philosopher - how people might envision her. Somehow she sees it through future events and doesn’t see anything that’s traumatic.
S: That’s an amazing thing. She’s appeared on shows like Oprah. What other shows has she appeared on?
F: Oh, everything. She was on Oprah. On the Lou Dobbs Show. She was on Montel . . . She was on Extreme Prophetic and Miracle Channel in Canada. There’s a whole list on the website.
S: Amazing . . . Now, how did she first get discovered? Did you begin to show people her paintings?
F: We started showing her drawings and pastels when she was five. It was a very cold reception back where we lived [at the time]. I was the one who was most discouraged . . .
S: As a mother?
F: Yes, I was the one who cried. I was the one who was sad. I never saw her being that way.
S: Have you met many other children that are having similar experiences like Akiane?
F: Not like this. I have heard of children who have had a connection with God - and some experiences with future events and visions - but not through art, and not through poetry. No, I haven’t seen anything like this.
S: So now, has the Lord ever blessed you with any of these experiences? Is it always Akiane - the one with the gift?
F: I think he has blessed my husband through his lifetime. He never claimed to be prophetic and he never boasted once in his lifetime about this, but 17 years I have been married to him, and he always finds missing people, children or pets. He has this intuitive knowledge about what’s going to happen - he is almost 100% accurate - although he would never admit it. I would never say that he is a prophet, but you know, I think he has this ability.
As far as our other children are concerned, they are very normal and average. I occasionally have intuitive feelings about the future - but very much for my own family - through prayers and worship, I do. Very rarely do I have a global understanding of what’s going to happen - it’s more about what God is directing for our family and other family groups, because I also do counseling for other families. So it’s a little bit more localized.
S: How much of what Akiane has is like a vision, how much is like a dream, how much is intuition, and how much does she feel like she gets caught up and goes somewhere?
F: Sometimes it’s hard to describe what she’s experiencing. Even now, she will not tell me the dreams or what is going on. The dreams are a constant occurrence. It’s every day. But her inspiration for artwork, for poetry, and for life is coming from the unknown ways . . . a gentle, gentle breeze of intuition, that perception of going through all the information that God has given her. I think it is going through very gently . . . We have never seen her in a trance.
S: And yet, from your observation, she feels like there has been times when she has been caught up to be with the Lord?
F: Oh, yes. Yes. It was immensely intense when she was four and five, and then there was a big gap. It happened about four or five times when she was eight years old. Very intense and very powerful. Akiane explained when she was in Heaven with God Himself - the Father, and Jesus. Somehow They were - One in One - but, it was like two personalities.
She described this scroll of light, and all the poems, and wisdom words that They would ask her to memorize from the scroll of light, and all the poems, and wisdom words that They would aks her to memorize from the scroll of light.
She described how she was taken there and how she was given an assignment to be prepared for her mission - this is a true “being taken.” Only one time, she literally disappeared when she was six years old.
S: You mean when you were in the room, you wouldn’t have seen her?
F: Vanished. She vanished, and police were everywhere searching for her for half a day.
S: Oh my goodness . . .
F: It is a documented case of her disappearance - that was only once.
S: And then she showed up again in her room, or what?
F: In the midst of all the policemen!
S: Oh, my goodness . . .
F: It was in Missouri. And it was a very frightening experience . . .
S: As a parent, I can only imagine. where does she say she was during that time.
F: Oh, it was very clear. She came up to me, and as you can guess, I was crying. She said, “I was with Jesus and we had a conference. We had a lot to discuss.” And I said, “Why did this have to happen this way?” And she just said - in a very normal six year old voice - she said, “So you would see.”
And then she described all the events that transpired in a whole 5-mile radius, because we had everybody - State Patrol Officers, policemen - there were 50 people on the immediate property searching for her everywhere. And she described exactly who was doing what, and where . . .
“I want my art to draw people’s attention to God, and I want my poetry to keep people’s attention to God” - Akiane
S: Oh my goodness . . .
F: She knew how many cars there were. We had a large house at that time - a Frank Lloyd Wright designed home. It was huge, almost 10,000 square feet. She couldn’t have known, unless there was some sort of supernatural way to know what was going on.
S: That’s amazing. God must have apparently changed her mission, because she wanted to be a doctor.
F: Well, yes, when she was two and three, she said that she wanted to be a doctor. Although, she has said that she will go back to it. Then she will heal -w with Jesus she will heal . . .
S: Yes. That’s better than a doctor . . . What does she say her mission is in life?
F: Intuitively, she knows that she will heal somehow in the future. She is a very gentle child, but her mission - since the time she was four years old, is going to be with art, with poetry, and with speaking to millions of people. She keeps saying, “. . . with millions of people. I’m going through throngs . . . millions of people in China, India. . .” She just keeps naming all these countries!
S: Goodness. Many in the church get afraid when they hear the word, “intuitive”. Because you’ve said, ” ‘intuitively, she knew this’, and ‘intuitively’. . . ” And yet intuitive is just another way to explain, “I’m hearing the voice of God and I don’t have words for it”
F: It’s impressions . . .
S: It’s impressions! Yes.
F: You know I still have the lingering atheistic jargon.
S: Well, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just that people get to afraid, and they shouldn’t be so afraid of that word, because “intuitive” is probably another word for simply “prophetic”. But we tend to be more afraid int eh church to say ‘prophetic’ than they are in the world to say ‘intuitive’ . . . but that is just part of our growth process.
F: We have learned to be really open minded about how people view these experiences, because sometimes different churches or groups, or societies, or nationalities view the same thing but describe it using different vocabulary. We have to just be very gentle. We’re not that judgmental anymore about how people view us.
S: Excellent. Well, I guess this would be a good time to switch to Akiane and talk with her.
Steve begins his interview with Akiane, whose voice is filled with child-like innocence and awe of the Lord.
———
S: How old are you now, Akiane?
A: I’m eleven.
S: You’re eleven . . . you’re only eleven. My goodness. Now, what is the earliest that you can remember having an experience with the Lord?
A: That was at the age of four. I just started having visions of meeting God and His face is bright, it was just so amazing just meeting Him . . .
S: Now were you meeting Him in a vision? Or do you feel like you were being caught up? How did it seem?
A: It seemed so real. It was in a vision. He was everywhere I went. He was beside me everywhere I went. It was just really different. I never had experienced that before.
S: Did you know it was Jesus right away?
A: I did! . . . But, at the beginning I just saw His face. I really didn’t comprehend. He told me who He was and then I started believing in Him.
S: Had you heard of Jesus before you started having these experiences?
A: I never had. My mom, she was an atheist, and she never talked about anything like that.
S: So you had never been to a place that told you about Jesus. You just got caught up and then he introduced himself to you and said his name was Jesus.
A: Exactly!
S: Wooowww . . . And when did the art start? How did that begin, Akiane?
A: Well, when I had visions, He told me to start drawing and I just asked Him a lot of questions - why and how . . .
S: Tell me some of your questions . . .
A: Like, “Why should I”? And about how and what to do, and what to draw with . . . And He just gave me all the material I needed, the ideas mostly. I just begged my mom to go to this art store to get some (giggle), pencils and erasers, and stuff like that!
S: What did He tell you He wanted you to draw?
A: Many faces . . . I drew probably around . . . hundreds of faces. I just really can’t remember the exact total. But I just started drawing and drawing. I thought that everyone my age could to the same, but when I started getting older - I thought, “Oh, this truly is a gift!” (giggle)
S: At the same time, did you think all children were having the same experience?
A: Yeah! I thought - the same way! But I just knew that if you believe in God, and you truly work at it, you could soon be really good, and soon be . . . like a professional to yourself . . . you know?
S: A what to yourself . . .?
A: A professional to yourself - I really don’t know how to say this - but if you work at it you will get really good.
S: Akiane, do you believe God poured the gift of drawing into you or just told you to start drawing, and then He poured the gift of observing things? How do you think it worked?
A: I think He already poured it into me when I was having the vision of Him. He started little by little, pouring more and more wisdom and guidance and ideas into me. Then I started drawing many more. Each time He gives me more ideas, and more visions, I start drawing even more. The double! And it started like that.
“My biggest wish is that everyone would love God and one another.” - Akiane
S: Tell me - how many times do you feel like you have seen the Lord?
A: Ooooh! Every day since!
S: E-v-e-r-y day?!
A: Yeah! Since!
S: You realize that makes us adults jealous, right?
A: (giggle) . . . Maybe! (giggle)
Akiane donates a substantial portion of the sale of the paintings to select charities. The reproductions, prints on canvas are available in limited editions on all images. To purchase the originals are geclees, please call: ART AKIANE, LLC at: 800-318-0947 or e-mail at: love@artakiane.com
The Listen Campaign 2006 is a worldwide campaign to help disadvantaged children by funding up to 200 charity projects. it is artistically unique , bringing together 60 leading artists of film, music, writing and the visual arts who join together to focus attention on the needs and rights of children affected by war, disease, exploitation, poverty and AIDS. The Listen Campaign has commissioned a painting of Akiane’s for an upcoming auction at Christy’s in New York.
* Name: Akiane Kramarik
*An internationally recognized child-prodigy, considered the only known child binary genius, in both realistic painting and poetry.
* Akiane speaks four languages: Lithuanian, Russian, English and Sign Language.
* Her heritage is Lithuanian, Jewish, Polish, Hungarian, Slovakian, Russian, Bohemian, Chinese, French, Danish and German
* Born underwater at home, on July 9, 1994, in Mount Morris, Illinois, to the athiestic stay-at-home Lithunian homemaker mother, and an American father, culinary arts instructor, chef and dietary manager.
* Has lived in: Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, and Idaho, experiencing poverty and affluence.
* Having attended both public and private schools, she now is home-schooled with her three brothers, Delfini (14 ys), Jean Lu (12 ys) and Ilia (3 ys).
* Met Jesus at the age of 4 in a life-changing spiritual transformation, resulting in the conversion of her family to Christianity.
* Began drawing at 4 and painting at 6. Teaching herself and learning mostly from her own keen observation and stufy.
* Began writing poetry and aphorisms at the age of 7.
* Akiane gets up at 4 am to get ready to paint in the studio and write.
* Works about 3 hours a day, five to six days a week.
* Makes many sketches before painting.
* Works on one painting at a time.
* Often works over a hundred hours on a painting, producing 8 to 10 paintings a year.
* Has the same goal with each painting: to be an inspiration for others, and to be a gift to God.
* Her life goal: To share her love for God and people around the world.
To hear a great audio interview with Akiane, which was done by a secular radio station, click here (the page will open in a new window where it will just start playing. Unfortuneatly there are no controls so you can’t pause or anything).
Look forward to the rest of the interview, as well as much more info about Akiane including video, at a later date.
7 Responses to “Interview with Akiane - Child Prodigy - Part 1”
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August 21st, 2006 at 12:25 am
It is wonderful to believe, then, wonderful to know that child like faith is what is required to ride the on the wings of paradise with the Lord Jesus Christ. -Tab
December 15th, 2006 at 1:52 am
I must say that the Lord works in mysterious ways! In fact, 1 Corinthians 1:26-28 says that “Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.” As much as I can completely relate to this verse, I believe that it also says a lot as to part of the reasoning behind visiting such a precious young child such as Akiane at the age of 4. Though I don’t personally know her (but would be honored to have the privelage to do so one day soon), I have gotten a sense through reading this post, her website and a few other writings about her that she has remained humble through these years that God has been working wonders in her life. This alone bears great witness to the validity of everything she has shared about her many experiences as being the truth. In this way, outside of the fact that God knew each of us and had a special plan for us before we were created, I believe and get a sense that He chose to divinely reveal Himself to Akiane at such a young age and initiate everything to fulfill the scripture from 1 Corinthians 1:26-28 that God chooses the things considered as foolish to the world. Certainly there is nothing more humbling than seeing Him use a child that has not yet been exposed to the humanistic way and system of thinking that so many of us have thought is true reality. But apparently, many of us are more deceived than we thought. God does not work the way man does. Everything He does is with a purpose, and in this case, it is obvious He has worked in such a way in Akiane’s life that no one is able to take any credit to what has taken place in her life… she can’t, her parent’s can’t, and the world around her definitely can’t. The most wonderful thing about what is happening through Akiane’s life is that God is getting all the glory and will continue to both now and throughout eternity. The first I ever heard of Akiane was this Tuesday, December 12th. I discovered her website through a link listed on Global Fire Ministries’s links. I was actually looking for spiritual resources to buy for my niece (age 4)and nephew (age 2) to help them develop and step into the mighty spiritual giftings I know the Lord is going to impart into their lives. Though there was quite an extensive list of links from which I could choose from, my eyes unusually drawn to the link to Akiane’s website, though I had no idea what it was about. Upon seeing her website, I was instantly inspired and excited to see God doing above and beyond I have ever imagined Him to do in a child. Through her testimony, I have been encouraged to keep believing for God to move mightily in my nieces and nephew’s lives in ways beyond what I could ever imagine. Seeing what God is doing in Akiane has really helped me to take the limits off of God and actually learn more about His love for children. Interestingly enough, it has actually been rather healing for me to look at her art and poetry, as it has given me fresh hope and understanding as to how God must seen me when I was a child (since I grew up lacking ability to understand my value and self worth in the eyes of God). Though I am nearing 30, I find that through the years, instead of becoming more “adult-like” in my relationship with God, I am finding myself becoming more child-like as I draw nearer to my Heavenly Father who has so graciously adopted me as His own. The interesting thing I must share at this point is that growing up, I never had a very good perspective on the beauty of childhood, and for this reason, though I dearly love children, I couldn’t relate with those who would get excited to help out with children’s ministry at church. But over the past few years God has really been doing a work in me, healing me from the all the traumatic events that happened throughout my childhood. Then in fact it was just last Monday, the 4th of December that I, for the first time, felt my heart begin to burn with a passion for children to understand their potential and to be nurtured and taught in the ways of the Lord so that they can begin to operate in the fivefold ministry gifts as they grow in deep intimacy with Christ. This passion actually came as a direct result of my intense desire I have had over the past few years for my niece to begin to live the destiny God has for her right now at the age of 4. I don’t know at this point whethere there is any other purpose of God putting this passion in my heart other then for the reason of being fueled with God’s heart in order to birth forth His purposes in my niece and nephew’s lives. But whatever the case, in a little over a week’s time, I have been learning things about God’s heart for His children - those adopted into His body of believers - through experiencing this new passion he has put in my heart for children. This is definitely the work of the divine creator of life itself! When I really think about it, one of the greatest results I believe can and will come to pass from key leaders the Lord raises up to, through the power of the Holy Spirit, help empower children to spiritually develop as mature sons & daughters of God at as early as the age of a few years old, is that the rest of His body that has not yet reached spiritual maturity, though many are still as spiritual babies at an elderly age, is that there will be a quickened work of maturation amongst all believers all from witnessing the mighty ways in which God moves through the children of this generation. For that, I believe, will be when God’s true glory will be able to be revealed, since He so longs to fill all things with the fullness of who He is. But since it seems that the majority of the body of Christ are still as spiritual babies - though in their adult years - where many have not yet come to the point of working the works of God while giving Him all the credit and glory, that though He is going to continue to pour out His Spirit in a greater measure than ever before upon all flesh (as mentioned in Joel 2) in order to do a quick work of maturation in His bride - the body, I believe that through the pouring out of His Spirit upon children as little as just a few years old, He will be able to do an even quicker work of maturation in the adults who are still spiritual babies - all because the children He uses will humbly work the works of God without taking any credit or keeping any glory for themselves. So with this said, perhaps our cries should be that Christ does indeed bring a quick maturation to His bride through every way possible, meaning that He will also need to raise up more leaders who will help release all children into their God-given destiny. Oh Lord, thank you that you did not choose to reveal yourself to those whom the world considers wise, but to the simple who trust in you!!
January 24th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Please go back over this interview and use spell check. There are SO many errors and mispelled words on here and it takes away from the WORD.
Thanks,
Sandy
February 9th, 2007 at 12:16 am
I watch your video while at work in amazement and wanted my wife to see it. However; I have been unable to bring it up. Could you PLEASE email the the long URL address?
Sincerely
Larry ONeal
leoneal@aol.com
February 17th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I think you are an incredible young.
I like look your paintings are absolutely spectacular.
March 4th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I received an email from my cousin that had a link to a CNN video about Akiane and her beautiful artwork. I was going to forward it to other family members for them to watch, but I deleted it by accident. Please, please send me th URL address where I can once again view her amazing paintings and share them with my family?? Thank you so much!
June 28th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
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