Father's Heart Blog

Then Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son!” He answered, “Here I am.”

Allow our children to hear from God and respond to Him for themselves:

Samuel has just been woken 4 times by God and on the 4^th time Eli the man who was raising Samuel told him that when God calls say “Here I am Lord.”

I think this is significant, back in verse 7 it says that Samuel ‘did not yet know God, ’ Eli was responsible for Samuel and in particular for his spiritual service & growth, so what is interesting is that Eli when he realised that if it wasn’t himself calling Samuel it could well be the voice of God, didn’t stay up with Samuel and try to direct him, he went straight back to sleep and let God have His own encounter with the boy!

It is possible that we as parents get in the way and don’t allow this to happen. This can rob from the child’s spiritual experience. God is at work in young lives more than we give credit!

 

God wants to speak to kids:

The truth is He does in many different ways, children have been known to see angels, have prophetic / revolutionary dreams and visions, the biggest film in the Christian world at the moment is ‘Heaven is for Real, where a 5 year old boy believes he is taken to heaven on the operating table.

These experiences can get distrusted by adults, but is it possible we just have more unbelief and not enough child like faith than these little ones?

My wife says that she saw an angel as a child growing up in Tanzania, I bet she probably did, but the natural unbelieving reaction is to assume that the imagination of a child ran away with them.

 

We can’t afford to take an unbelieving attitude with our children:

Children have so much less unbelief than us adults and are thus more likely to see and experience the miraculous.

Heidi Baker a missionary to Mozambique has children pray for the blind and death because they don’t doubt that ‘Great Big God’ can and wants to do the miraculous.

My Pastor says to us young dads that he took his children anytime there was a preacher flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So my children who are 2 and 3 will freely walk a few isles to the front of the Church and get a better profile view of when people are being prayed for.

God wants to speak to your children! If you are a Christian no doubt that is your biggest prayer! So let us not be too cautious when they tell us a funny story of how He has.

Let’s assume what they have experienced is true, to encourage them to be ready the next time He speaks to them!

(Image used from ministrymatters.com)