Kids
Prayer Event Report
A few weeks ago, while in
Florida for a kids prayer event at a local
church, I spent three hours with close to 75
children, ages 5-12. We sang worship songs
together, learned about the 10/40 Window and
THUMB prayers, and then about "Anna" (see this
month's article). At the end of the event,
children came forward soberly, asking for the
Holy Spirit to work through them like He worked
through
Anna.
The teaching staff laid hands on the children and prayed for them
by name, then the children laid hands on each
other and prayed. It was so sweet to see God at
work so quickly among them.
In a few moments of additional instruction, children were asked
to listen quietly for the voice of Jesus - to
pay attention to images, words or thoughts in
their mind, and feelings. There was no big
push to drum up ideas for them, just simple
instruction. Nearly fifteen kids responded by
sharing what they felt, saw, or heard (see
Scribe's Desk).
Ask and it
shall be given...
Expect children to hear from
God, then ask them what they experience. Too
many times we forget to ask them what they have
heard. If we adults never expect and ask, we
won't be privy to how deeply children are being
impacted.
Learning to train children to hear God's voice
So, how do you train children to listen to God's
voice?
1) Tell them Jesus wants to speak to them.
2) Take time to sit quietly (for about 60 seconds).
3) Ask questions about what they felt, if they saw a picture in
their mind or if a
word kept coming to their mind. Also, ask
how they felt during the quiet time.
4) Do this often in applied ways. For example, when kids are
presented with a
need, ask them to be quiet before the Lord
so He can show them how to pray
and if possible, help in the situation.
5) Use worship music quietly playing in the background or as a
focus to usher in
the presence of Jesus.
6) If you are interested in more detail about "methods" and the
basis for these
teachings, the curriculum, School of the
Holy Spirit by
www.kidsinministry.com is
an excellent course for adults and students
receiving training.
In
practice...
During a Shekinah Kids prayer
class, a friend came to give a report from a
recent missions trip to Bangladesh. Our church
is a partner with the work there so we invest
heavily in its success. Before the trip, our
kids had prayed over cloth that was cut into
squares to be delivered to the meetings and used
as prayer cloths.
Our friend shared pictures from the event showing how children in
particular had pinned the prayer cloths to their
clothes. A connection was formed at that moment
and the Holy Spirit began to ready the group for
what was to come next.
After the report, there was a heavy feeling among the group of
children. I asked, "What are you feeling right
now?" They answered that they felt like they
should do something specific. "What should we
do?" I asked. They didn't know the specifics but
had a feeling that we should respond.
We broke into two groups, sitting quietly before the Lord to
discover what He wanted us to do. Within less
than two minutes, one person from each group had
something to share. We came back together and
listened to the two who had heard something
specific from the Lord.
1) "We need to do something big that will impact Bangladesh...from
person to
person," she said.
2) "I saw a big building that was really round with lots of seats
and people," he
said. Then he added, "Oh, and it was all
grey, kinda plain."
The interesting thing was the missionary had taken our friend to
see a stadium for next year's meetings that
holds 20,000 people...it is a plain, round
building...grey in colour. When the kids heard
this, their faith exploded. Right then and there
they decided to petition our pastor to pay for
one night of the crusade at $500/night.
Just for fun, I've posted the pictures sent from the missionary for
you to see for yourself. The boy who "saw this
picture" in his mind, has a set of these
pictures on his dresser and is constantly
reminded to pray for the meetings that will be
held there.
KIDS PRAYER IS SO COOL!!! |
