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People
gathered from 39 countries in Malaysia during the last
week of September to share what God is doing through
various children's programmes. There was a tangible
hunger for more direction on how to prepare this rising
generation for the global call. People who run
orphanages, amusement parks, and other various
non-governmental assistance agencies are intent on
finding ways to turn the kids in their spheres of
influence toward Christ through prayer.
It was exciting to hear
the reports and very quickly we noticed a similar
theme running through all of the presentations. There
are two general calls going out for children at this
time. They are: 1) obeying God's voice, and 2) crying
out over sin and spiritual strongholds.
Obeying God's Voice
Children are being taught no only who Jesus is, but
that He speaks to us in various ways. Not only does He
speak to adults, but He loves speaking to children
everywhere and when kids hear this, they blossom. But
it's not enough to learn to hear/know His voice, one
must then obey. I believe that obedience is the coming
wave that will impact the nations.
Crying Out Over Sin and
Spiritual Strongholds
Over and over again through presentations using
video and slides, we saw children crying out to God for
their situations in faith. Even children with very
little are crying out on behalf of other who have even
less. It's an amazing thing to see the impact of
teaching such simple Biblical truths.
We learned of some very
creative initiatives out there aimed at bringing
children closer to God. Some of them include children's
programming that target Muslims in the Arab world;
orphanage care; ministry on the street to street kids;
and other various church-based kids prayer initiatives.
Cool Story...
In India there is a pastor who really believes in the power
of kids prayer so he has more than a dozen kids prayer
groups in satellite locations. In place after place he
has each group draw on a sheet of paper how things are
when he arrives...often the reality of their lives
includes things such as jumbled roads, bad housing, no
education, no good source for water, abuse, alcoholism,
etc. Once they have a visual map showing how things are,
they draw a map of how things should be (organized roads
and housing, proper roofs, good food, water wells, no
alcohol, open schools, etc.). Then the kids begin to
pray. His groups are proof that after only simple
instruction about God's voice, kids can hear God's plan,
then pray in faith. The old map begins to morph into the
new map. In case after case, their new vision and map
comes to pass...usually in a shorter time that any adult
could have imagined. This only fuels their faith and
adds more prayer groups to his circuit.
There is no doubt in my
mind that there is a global call of children by the Holy
Spirit; the very fact that you're reading this page is
mounting evidence. We must find ways to help them answer
the call. They are the church of today...tomorrow we
send them to the nations. |
