Kids of the King, Arise!

KEY OF THE KINGDOM “FAITH” 

We’re going to  look at another Key of the kingdom that is VERY important. When Jesus shared about the Kingdom He often compared it to things that the people He was talking to were familiar with. This was to help them understand more easily.  We have already talked about it being like a treasure…very valuable, and worth looking for.

Look up these verses and fill in the blanks

Matt. 13. 31 The Kingdom of heaven is like a ___________, which a man took and sowed in his field
And this is smaller than all other seeds but when it is full grown it is larger than all the garden plants, and becomes a tree.

Matt. 17.10 If you have faith as a _____________, you shall truly say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it shall move, and ________________________.

So Jesus is comparing the Kingdom of heaven to a Mustard Seed. That is kind of odd, wouldn’t you think? But what was it about a Mustard seed that He was thinking about? It is a seed, that is one of the smallest around and yet grows into a HUGE plant. Looking at it you would never guess all that potential lay inside such a little seed. Jesus is saying you only need to believe, or have faith THAT small and it will be enough to do great things in the kingdom. Now how do you get this faith?

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The word of God is the Bible, or the Truth about God. Remember the story about the sower planting seeds in different kinds of soil? Well the ’seed’ in that story was the word of God. It fell on different kids of soil, or hearts, and depending on what happened to the seed in the soil affected how big the plants grew.

Faith is so important that is says in Hebrews 11:6,”Without faith it is _________________________!

Whew that is a BIGGIE! But I guess it makes sense because without faith you can’t believe the truth about who God is and what He does. Here is another verse to help you understand.

Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the ______________ of things hoped for the _____________of things not seen. That means that even if you don’t see what you are praying for you know without a doubt that God keeps His promises and is a great and good God. Here is a story of George Mueller, a man that was known for his incredible faith.
 

“The children are dressed and ready for school. But there is no food for them to eat,” the housemother of the orphanage informed George Mueller. George asked her to take the 300 children into the dining room and have them sit at the tables. He thanked God for the food and waited. George knew God would provide food for the children as he always did. Within minutes, a baker knocked on the door. “Mr. Mueller,” he said, “last night I could not sleep. Somehow I knew that you would need bread this morning. I got up and baked three batches for you. I will bring it in.”
Soon, there was another knock at the door. It was the milkman. His cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. The milk would spoil by the time the wheel was fixed. He asked George if he could use some free milk. George smiled as the milkman brought in ten large cans of milk. It was just enough for the 300 thirsty children.

To see more of the story and for puzzles related to this story check out:
http://chi.gospelcom.net/kids/glimpsesforkids/   and click on George Mueller

Not long ago in Mozambique, Africa, Heidi Baker tells of a story that happened there. Her favourite thing to say is “Jesus promised there would “ALWAYS BE ENOUGH!” Mozambique was a VERY poor country and there was alot of suffering. God has led her to take care of 1.000s of orphin children. She has HUGE faith that whatever situation she is in God will be there. They were having a Christmas party and she had bought small gifts for 100’s of children. She handed them out, and handed them out until there was just a group of older girls left. When she looked into her bag there was only stuffed animals left. She looked at the girls and the bag, and thought, these girls would probably like something else, but all I have is these stuffed animals. So she asked the first girl, “what would you all like?” The girl replied, “Beads”. Well Heidi prayed, and then reached out into her bag and gave the girl her gift. What was it? What do you think? It was BEADS! God cared so much about these poor children that He made sure that they recieved what was on their heart! These children KNOW there is a God that cares for them!

To read more about Heidi Baker and all that God is doing in Africa you can click on the side bar on ”Be a Hero”, and then on the top, ‘Heros of Today’, and then ‘Heidi Baker’. 

Ask God to “GROW” your faith. Read Luke 8:5-15. See what happened when the seeds landed on the different kinds of soil. Which kind of soil is your heart most like?

Go to a plant store and ask for mustard seeds.  If they don’t have them, ask them for the smallest seeds that they do have. Plant them in a pot and as the plant grows, ask God to grow your faith 100 fold. Have the plant as a reminder that with God ANYTHING is possible! It would be great if you sent me a picture of your growing plants and stories of how your faith in God has grown. You can do so in the comment section below. 

By Aneke
13 years
South Africa

Hi . 

I am so exited about the things God is busy doing in our lives!   We decided to sit a day aside to wait on the Lord on Wednesday the 8^th of August ’07.  It was awesome.  We blew the shofar to announce new things, we had communion and just came back to the God of Abraham, Izak and Jacob, the God of Isreal. 

The Lord gave me a scripture for myself also.  The Lord say’s:  It’s a  NEW day!!  A new season, there are new levels of following him that He wants to take me to.  It is so important in this new season to discern who real friends are and who are not.  There is also a lot of attacks from the enemy – it is not also very nice – my father is in fulltime ministry and radical.  Kids often say very mean things to me and so the Lord wants to take me to the place to forgive deeply out of my heart and let Him heal the wounds. I feel much lighter because of His light that takes away all the scary things.  God also gave a promise that He is the only one who will give genuine friends in this new season.  This is a way that is very lonely, but I know He is totally in control. I can’t compromise anymore.

A Bible verse that talks about this is Psalm 1(LB)

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
Nor stand in the path of sinners
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers (those who make fun of God)
But His delight is in the Law of the Lord
and in His law he meditates day and night
He will be like a tree planted firmly by streams of water…and in whatever he does he prospers.

Maybe you can pray with me. Dear God lead me to godly friends and help me walk in a way of no compromise. Help me to come to a higher level of pleasing you. Help me to forgive those that have hurt me like you forgave.

When you are done praying shout with me ITS A NEW DAY!

Entering into rest.  

Your OWN secret hideout:
By stephanie McIntyre 

Did you know that rest is one of the characteristics of the Kingdom? Lets listen and find out more. 

The day before I wrote this I was hiking across a beautiful rock beach.  I love hiking and walking, but yesterday something in me kept crying out to stop.  There was too much beauty to enjoy that fast.  I could only focus on the rocks in front of me and make sure my next step was safe.  I’d take a few glances at the breathtaking scene, but I never felt satisfied.  I wanted to stare at it.  Here’s a picture of the beach where I was walking – I hope you can see why I wanted to stop!

Finally, my friends leading the way decided to take a rest.  Grateful, I sat down on the nearest rock.  At last, I could take a real look at my surroundings.  And wow…it was AMAZING!  This kind of beauty needed time to be enjoyed:  sparkling blue water, giant rock cliffs, deep green trees and bright blue sky.  Can you see it?   It was the kind of beauty you can “drink in” (a beauty you could just keep looking at and looking at, and instead of getting boring it gets more interesting).  But I wouldn’t have had time to understand or appreciate that beauty unless I had stopped to rest and drink it in.

I think that’s why God wants us to rest sometimes.  He wants us to sit and “drink” His beauty in.  He wants us to stop, slow down, and celebrate His beauty. 

OK, grab your Bible.  Find Psalm 27:4.  This is where David, a king of Israel and friend, wrote something about beauty.  What does he say? 

One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)

Hold on.  Wait a minute.  I can just hear you!  “You were talking about enjoying beauty in things you see.  OK, fine, I got that.  But I can’t SEE God!  How am I supposed to look at Him and stare at His beauty?”

That’s a very good question – one that I asked, too!  But then, the Holy Spirit reminded me of a verse in the New Testament.  Check out 1 Peter 3:3. 

What does it say your beauty SHOULDN’T come from?  That’s right.  Outward things, like jewellery and clothes.  Those are things we can see.  So if the beauty doesn’t come from things we can see, there must be some OTHER kind of beauty, right? 

Keep reading – look at verse 4, now.  What does it say your beauty SHOULD come from?  Right!  Beauty from your “inner self,” from a “gentle and quiet spirit.”  Can you see your spirit?  No!  But God calls this an “unfading beauty” - one that never gets old or boring to look at!  And it’s not about the outside picture, it’s about WHO YOU ARE and WHAT YOU’RE LIKE, what your ATTITUDE is and your PERSONALITY.

It’s the same thing with God.  When I talk about “staring at His beauty,” I mean remembering what He’s like.  When David talks about “gazing upon the beauty of the Lord,” he follows it up by saying, “He will keep me safe.”  He remembers what God is like, and rests in that promise. 

ACTIVITY:

– Go outside (with permission) and find a place that you think is beautiful – even just a little bit.  Stop, sit down, and “drink in” the beauty of God’s creation.  Tell God how great you think this is.  Sometimes when I look at a beautiful part of creation, I remind myself, “My Daddy made this.”  Then, I tell my Dad (God) how much I love it and how much I love Him!

– Find a picture of a beautiful place (or take your own picture) and make a poster.  Underneath the picture, write out a Bible verse that talks about beauty, like Psalm 27:3-4 or Psalm 50:1-2.

The Lord spoke to my heart the other day that we are able to enter His rest whenever it is necessary and wherever we are because every day belongs to God. God wants to let His beauty shine in each one of us every day. Lets pray that the Lord’s beauty would shine brightly for us, in us, and through us today.

Two years ago Josh was at a city wide prayer meeting. During a time when the question was asked, “What do you think is on God’s heart?” Josh, then 8, stood up and declared, “Let the children of Winnipeg rise up and preach the word of God!”

Later, after a time of wating on the Lord, like we shared in the last post, Josh shared that He felt God had given him a picture.  It was of 2 hands bound together, then a light came behind the hands and the cords broke free.

I asked Josh, “What do you think this means” He replied that he felt God was telling him that there are many people bound, like in prison but also to bad habits and sin and that the light was the light of Jesus. The ropes break when they accept the light of salvation.  This is the message of the Kingdom that Jesus shared!  Look up  Luke 4: 18 and fill in the blanks.

Because He anointed Me to _____the gospel to the _________
He has sent me to proclaim ____________________________
and recovery of sight to the_________________
To set free those who are __________________

DO YOU THINK THIS IS ON GOD”S HEART?

In the spring, with the DPG we were going to do a presentation at the Juvenile detention center in the city. We were going to do some, skits, dances and share. I asked Josh, “As you know we are going to do a presentation later in the spring, How about if you preach? God placed on your heart that kids in the city rise up and preach the word of God, and now God has given you a picture idea. Sometimes God calls us to be the answer to our prayers.” 

Josh said he would pray about it and a short while later he agreed to preach, sensing that this is what God wanted. This is what God had him share with the youth in the detention center. 

Hello, my name is Josh

  
A long time ago, there was a man by the name of Jonah. Jonah was a prophet of God. One day, God told Jonah to go to a place called Nineveh. Now, Ninevah was a place known for its wickedness. Jonah didn’t like Nineveh and didn’t particularly like God wanting to give Nineveh a second chance. So, he ran away.

In fact…
 
He went to Tarshish, a city in the exact opposite of Ninevah. He went there by boat, but while on the boat the ships crew encountered a storm.  Jonah knew the storm had happened because he ran away and disobeyed. So, he asked the crew of the ship to throw him overboard. When they did the sea calmed.

Then, a big fish came and swallowed him up. While in the fish, Jonah prayed and asked God to forgive him. The fish spat Jonah up and he went to Ninevah.

How many of you think that sounds impossible…. You know there are actually stories of situations where people have been swallowed by a whale, and later when the whale was captured and cut open, the man was inside and alive! Don’t know If I would like that, the part about being inside the whale I mean, the alive part yeah! 

Anyway, on the first day he was in Ninevah, Jonah told the people that their city would be destroyed in 40 days. The Ninevites believed him and repented and the Lord was pleased.

BUT Jonah was not pleased with the Lord’s compassion. Actually he became quite angry with God. The Lord asked him, “Do you have a right to be angry?” Jonah didn’t answer. He went and built a shelter and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then God made a vine grow over Jonah’s  head and gave him shade…Jonah was happy about that….because shade was important….

But the next morning God sent a worm to chew up the vine…

…Bummer!

Then sun beat down on Jonah and he felt faint. He felt very angry, so angry that he wanted to die.

God said to him “You have been angry about the vine yet you didn’t care for it. It went as fast as it came. But Ninevah is a city with 120,000 people that cannot tell their right hand from their left and many animals as well. Should I not be concerned for this great city?

This story shows God’s love and forgiveness for both Ninevah and Jonah.

You may be like Jonah, running away from God. Or you may be like the Ninevites knowing you have done something wrong and wanting to be forgiven but not knowing how. Either way, God loves you and is willing to do save you. God is even willing to argue with other people on your behalf that you are worth saving.

Just like the Ninevites, who didn’t know right from left, God understands that you may have had trouble in your life where it was hard for you to understand right from wrong. But God still wants to save you from destruction. He wants to forgive you and give you a second chance. A chance to say you are sorry for the wrong things you have done. God offers his forgiveness to everybody, no matter what they have done.

So how will you respond to God?

Activation: HEARING GOD’S VOICE

Objective: Both as individuals and as a group to discern God’s voice. This is written for leaders so the language is a bit more difficult.  Adapt as necessary for the age group you are working with.  At the end is an insert with these points for younger kids that can be printed off.

SETTING: A comfortable room with worship music playing.

METHOD: Using scriptural steps to prepare our hearts through worship, confession, and waiting on God.

Materials needed:
* Bibles
* Large piece of paper or whiteboard
* Markers
* Worship music, either worship C.D. or worship leader familiar with songs of praise and adoration.

We have been called, we are ready to go but where and what are we to do? As ambassadors of the Kingdom we need to have strategy and orders to follow. How do we hear what is on God’s heart? In her book, Intercession, Thrilling and Fulfilling, Joy Dawson shares some steps that have been widely used as a guideline to hear what is on God’s heart. In the work that I have done with King’s Kids God has given us incredible guidance this way. This is not the only way but it is a helpful guidline as to how we can together hear what is on His heart. 

Procedure:
PRINCIPLES FOR EFFECTIVE INTERCESSION:

WORSHIP: 
• Spend time in worship, praising God for who he is.
• Choose familiar Hymns or choruses that focus on the character of God, who He is and what He has done.
• Encourage people to call out short prayers of praise and thanksgiving.

CONFESSION:
• Read Psalm 139: 23-24  “Search me oh God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts, See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”  This is asking the Holy Spirit to show you anything in your heart that makes Him sad. Pause and allow time for the Holy Spirit to point these things out
•Check carefully to see if you resent any one in your heart, and make sure that you have forgiven those who have wronged you.
• Allow time to make things right reconciliation in the group if needed,
• Ask someone to lead in a prayer of confession. 

ACKNOWLEDGE:
• That you can’t really pray effectively without the Holy Spirit’s help. (Romans 8: 26b)
• Invite The Holy Spirit to fill you, guide you and control you as you pray. (Eph 5:18b)
• Pause and again deal with anything that the Lord may bring to mind that you need to repent of.
• Ask someone to lead in a prayer inviting the Holy Spirit’s presence and guidance.

REBUKE THE ENEMY:
• Read James 4:7 “Submit yourselves, then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
• Have the leader come against any thoughts or intents of the enemy during this prayer time in the name of Jesus.

SURRENDER: (Since you want to hear what is on God’s heart)
• Your own imagination, or what you are thinking about at the moment.
• Your wishes.
• Your burdens as to what you think we should pray for.
• Read: Proverbs 3:5b…”Lean not on your own understanding.”
                 Isaiah 55:8a…”For my thoughts are not your thoughts.”
Pray silently

PRAISE GOD:
• TOGETHER Praise God and thank Him that He is a God that wants to speak with us.

WAIT SILENTLY
• Have your Bibles with you and respond to the direction of the Lord to passages in the Bible. (Psalm 62:5, Micah 7:7,)
• Listen for His direction. God may bring to mind a scripture, a picture, a name of a person or a place.
• Allow 3-5 minutes for this. (Younger children often receive from the Lord much quicker than older people.)

GATHER TOGETHER
• On a large piece of paper that everyone can see, ask the group what the Lord brought to mind. It is important that everyone share his or her thoughts.
• Don’t worry if what they receive doesn’t make any sense. It may well be apart of the puzzle and a necessary part of the bigger picture. It may also be somthing the Lord will to bring to mind at a later time.
• Go over what you wrote down and see if there is a common theme or sense of direction.

THANK HIM
• Thank God for the time with Him.
• Ask God for further confirmation.
  Take action to what God brought to mind in faith.

YOU CAN COPY THIS REMINDER AND PUT IT IN YOUR BIBLE.

ILLUSTRATION:

Let me tell you of a time that a Daniel Prayer group I was leading, was praying as to what the Lord would have us do in the summer of 1999. The Pan Am games were going to be in Winnipeg that summer and we thought that the Lord wanted us to be involved in an outreach at the games. We followed these principals and the Lord gave one of the kids a very clear picture. It was of an apple that fell on Canadian soil. It was a nice red shiny apple.  After a little while it was picked up, and passed around, but no one wanted it. It was then tossed back to the ground, but this time it had a swastika engraved on the side. She had been reading a book awhile back of the story of Hansi, the girl with the swastika.

We wrote it down along with some other thoughts but it really did not make any sense.

A while later, I went to a conference and there someone gave me a tape of a message that David Demian had received from the Lord for Canada. It was a message that burned in his heart. In a nutshell it told of how he had been seeking the Lord for insight as to what was hindering a move of God in Canada. The Lord revealed to him that it was a root of anti-Semitism that had come to Canada via Europe. The Lord then revealed to Him that this was evidenced most clearly by Canada refusing entrance during WW2 of a boat full of Jewish people fleeing Nazi Germany. They had sought refuge in Cuba and the USA and Canada was its last hope. The response to their plight was “None is too many!”
The boat was subsequently turned back and two thirds of the people died under the Nazi Regime.

When I came home from the conference, the Lord strongly impressed on me to look back at what He had given the kids a few months before. Here I once again read the story of the apple. All of a sudden it became clear. The apple represented the Jewish people, also known as the ‘Apple of His eye”. So how did this effect what we were supposed to do the summer of 99?

A short while later it became clear that God was leading many Christians in Canada to have a ‘Gathering’, in Winnipeg, the heart of Canada, the summer of 1999. This would be a first step to repent for this anti-Semitic act and was the beginning of a Journey of repentance for Canada’s anti-Semitism. It culminated in the bringing of the survivors of this ship, the St Louis, to Canada for a formal apology. The kids that had heard from God that fall of 97, were an integral part of this whole journey.

Carolin Sadler, taken from book Warrior Bride Arise.

Right now in Canada, and LOTS of other nations, many people are praying and asking God to show them what is on His heart. Why not take this teaching and the lessons on hearing God’s voice in the last three Keys of the Kingdom posts and ask God to speak to you. I would love to hear from you. You can do so either by commenting on the blog below or contacting me at carolin@watchmen.org As we have seen on the blog God speaks to kids too and their YOPPS need to be heard. Look forward to hearing from you.

Hearing God’s Voice #3

We have talked in the last two Keys of the Kingdom, about some of the ways that God shows himself to us, and speaks to us. Let me go a bit farther.

Every person has two ways in which they hear what God is saying to them. One is through your mind, and the other is through your spirit. Let me explain and give you some examples.

Our spirit is the main way we hear from God. It discerns, or just recognises if something is from God or not. Jesus talked about this in John 10:4-5.  Look it up. What does it say?

The sheep follow him because they  _______________________________.

Sheep won’t follow the voice of another shepherd only the voice that they KNOW.

Our minds on the other hand try to figure out if what we think we heard God telling us makes sence or not. If it makes sense we say o.k. and decide this is someting we should do. If it doesn’t make sense we junk it.

In Isaiah 55:8-9 God says :

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts”.

God thinks and does things in ways we don’t. After all, He is God and we’re not. So if I decide that I have to understand everything God tells me, I will miss out on everything that is « super-natural » – that is outside of what is normal.  Because I will have already tossed aside anything that doesn’t make sense. 

Did it make any sense when God spoke to Joshua and told him to march around the walls of Jericho and they would fall down? Or when He spoke to Gideon and told him to win the war by putting the torches in the jars and shouting?  Doesn’t SOUND too bright. But because God said so it worked!  All the exciting stories in the Bible are those when God showed Himself as being greater than time, circumstances, and human understanding. 

So what do we do with our minds?  Do we just shut them down?  No, God doesn’t want us not to use our minds, after all he made them too. He wants to change our way of thinking.

What did Jesus Call that?  Do you remember? Look up. (Matt 4:17) To Repent!

Repent actually means to change the way you think.  It means you are actually seeing the world with new eyes, or kingdom goggles.  It is the Holy Spirit that helps us to see God’s point of view about things.

So when we would look at a situation and say, “well it really doesn’t make sense, but in my heart or spirit it feels right,” the Holy Spirit is helping you adjust the way you see things. This takes practise, and sometimes there is a battle, your mind saying, “No way! That is impossible!” while inside you are feeling,  “Well this sounds like something God would do or say”.  This battle will always be there as God will always want to stretch your faith to believe the impossible.

What do you think. If God wants to bring more of His Kingdom to earth, and restore our close relationship with him more and more, would it be possible that He would ask us to do things that may seem way out there?

Let me tell you a true story of a 3 year old girl named Inisfree.

Inisfree was at a conference in Birmingham, Alabama, where Kathie Walters and Bob Jones were sharing. Here is the story Kathie shares:

In the last meeting on Sunday morning a very tall, thin young man walked down front.  He was obviously in some terrible conflict and wanted someone to pray for him. Someone prayed for him and he fell to the floor, and kept throwing himself around on the ground.
The person that prayed for him thought, “I must go and ask Kathie what to do.”  Kathie answered that she would just have to ask the Lord if she was supposed to pray for him. In the meantime other people were around this man and praying, but nothing was changing.
Suddenly a little blonde haired girl, Inisfree, came and asked if she could pray for him. She knelt down by his side and laid her hand on his chest and prayed.  As she prayed, he turned his head and opened his eyes and burst out crying.  He said, “An angel has come to pray for me”.  He was totally free!  There was no doubt about it as he had a smile on his face and his body was back under his control. 

What does that story tell you? God still does miracles and Kids can be used by God, and hear God’s voice today as well!

 * Post adapted for kids from teaching by David Demian on “Concentrated hearing” by Carolin Sadler