LET’S ASK JESUS

LET’S ASK JESUS

  • Hearing God's Voice, Let's Ask Jesus

LET’S ASK JESUS

“Jesus, will You show me a picture of something You did for me yesterday?”

Gather as a family in the living room, in the car, at the dinner table, or at bedtime, and ask Jesus together. This is empowering for children because it gives you a chance to model how you communicate with God, increase their faith, and encounter Him as a family. Spiritual hearing is a muscle that is strengthened over time, such as worshiping and praying. The more you do it, the stronger you become at it.

HE WORKS

A father in class shares: “This thing is working, man!! Last night our kids got into it; it ended with our daughter crying and son trying to defend himself. I asked him what had happened, and he told me everything that had happened except leaving out what he had done. Instead of continuing to question him for the truth, Holy Spirit told me to tell him to go to his room and ask Jesus what happened. Five minutes later, he came back, and this time he told me the entire story, including his portion of it! Then I asked him what did Jesus say, and he said, ‘Jesus told me to talk to her instead of pushing her and making her fall.’ Yay!”

HEARING GOD

God speaks to us in various ways, but one powerful way He speaks to His children is through peace. 

Peace – a sense of liquid peace comes over you like a warm blanket. Do you know that God is peace? Pure, 100% peace that doesn’t match your physical, on-earth circumstances. When we sit quietly and invite His presence, we can often feel it in the form of peace washing over us. What does a loving Father do when His children are upset? Begin giving instruction? NO! A loving Father would scoop them up, hold them close to His chest, and embrace their tiny bodies. He is communicating love, protection, safety, and security in His embrace. Sometimes we want God to tell us this and that, and sometimes He just wants to wrap us in His presence, and out of that, He leads us where we need to be. This is truly ‘entering the place of rest’ that so few believers learn to enjoy. We want to squirm or ‘do’ instead of just resting while He holds us. 

Think about what life would be like if you went mute and had to try to teach, train, and love your children without words. Seriously, think about how many times a day you use your words to guide your children, teach and train them, encourage them, cheer them on, and help them. How often do you use your words to lavish love all over them and tell them how precious and beautiful they are to you? Now ponder how often you let your Father speak to you a day.

ASK HIM

Random acts of kindness are when people go out in the name of Jesus and do good, kind, helpful things for others. While this is indeed praiseworthy and profitable Christian behavior, we need to be asking Him the who, what and where in order to be abundant in our harvest. Let me give you an example: One day, I was having a really hard day. I decided to get my eyes off myself and asked God what we should do with our day. I heard Him say to go be a blessing and rake leaves. I jumped into action. Logical thinking concluded that going to the poorest part of town and blessing the souls there would be best. I loaded up the van with kids and rakes and waved to my neighbor as we took off searching for the family that needed to be blessed. After forty-five minutes of driving around endlessly looking for a single family that had not yet raked, I was growing frustrated. What was supposed to help my day ended up making my day even worse. Defeated and somewhat mad, I made the trek back home. Upon entering our community, I heard the words, “What? You don’t think your rich neighbors need Me?” and instantly, I knew God gave me the WHAT (raking), but I ran with it before I asked the WHO or WHERE. I repented. Immediately upon parking in the driveway, the kids flung open the van door and ran across the street to the neighbor’s house (yes, the one we waved to on the way out) and raked all of the leaves. But the story doesn’t end there. Days later, I received a letter from the single elderly lady with a check saying she was so overwhelmed by all the work that needed to be done and was crying out to the Lord about her needs AS we were driving by waving at her. She finally had to leave the house with the yard work not done, and when she came back, she found ten bags full of raked leaves.

That is a perfect example of the harvest being ABUNDANT. God is a perfect economist. While one woman needed to take her eyes off her circumstances, another woman needed an extra set of helping hands. We can’t just DO in the name of Jesus. We need to ask Him the who, what, and where, too! And this requires communication – both talking and listening.

IMAGINE LIFE WITHOUT HIM

In preparation for a speaking engagement I sensed Holy Spirit wanted me to ask the kids, “What would your life be like if you loved Jesus, but couldn’t hear His voice?” This list surprised me just as much as it will you. This is in their own words and behind every word is a testimony and story of them hearing His voice.

“Life would be… hard, hurts in my heart, stay offended, bitter, very fearful, unkind, unconnected, lonely, lack of favor, unforgiveness, anger, aggression, scared, broken relationships, pressure, controlled, orphan spirit, more sickness, less creativity, bored, less adventures, hopeless, discouraged, rejected, struggle in school, trapped, believing lies, embarrassed, ashamed, forget things, nightmares, no honor, bullied, lack of confidence, difficulties, no hidden treasures, sad, heartbroken, exposed to bad things, lack of protection, lack of wisdom, no encounters with His presence, unsafe, lack of provision, couldn’t be used, powerless believers, lack of peace…”

CHANGE THE WORLD

If you have read many posts of Let the Children Fly, you will know that hearing God is a core ingredient to partnering with Him in your parenting. The fruit is literally changing the next generation!

STRENGTHEN THEIR HEARING MUSCLES

Fun ways for the kids to practice hearing. I STRONGLY encourage you to practice together in fun ways that empower their hearing in times of peace instead of only when they need to seek Jesus over a heart splinter. Also, doing it as a family is super helpful because it gives everyone a chance to learn from each other and takes the pressure off of being the only one. For example, if a child states they don’t hear anything, I simply ask them to listen again, and we come back to them after everyone else has shared. When you send out a birthday card, have the kids ask God what He wants to say to that person and then draw a picture (you can caption it based on what they heard). When you have extra time on your hands, have the kids ask God what you should do with your time. When you can’t find something, have the kids ask Jesus to show them a picture of where it is. When they are upset about something, have the kids ask God to show them what is bothering them. When you come up against something ‘different,’ ask Papa what He wants them to do about it. When you see a homeless man, have the kids ask God what He wants you to know about that person. When they are behaving poorly, have them ask God to show them what they did wrong (instead of YOU telling them). The ideas are endless! You can’t practice strengthening their ears enough.

THUMBS UP

I love having the kids ask Jesus what He thinks of them in all situations. Doing this has helped to break off lies and continues to keep their identity solid in Him. While my girls would always hear sweet things, my son would say, “Good!” when I would ask him what he heard. “How does Jesus feel about you?” “Good!” I would have him ask again and even reminded him that the God of the universe who created the entire world had more to say than “Good!” However, Holy Spirit told me to stop doing this as my son heard correctly and simply communicated it in his own way. If he asked Jesus how He felt about him and saw Jesus giving him thumbs up in his mind, he interpreted that as ‘good.’ I realized I needed to back off and let him hear from God in his own way because when the God of the universe says “Good!” it is good indeed!

SERVING YOUR SERVER

This is a great way to teach children to love others while growing their confidence. I would have the children take off the sticker that is often wrapped around their napkins at a restaurant and ask Jesus what He wanted to say to our waitress. While waiting for our food, they would ask, listen, and then write or draw what they heard. When she handed me the bill, we would tuck the notes in our bill. She would read them while processing my payment and oftentimes come back in tears. The children got to see how hearing God for others was a blessing, and their faith increased that they heard well. Multiple times we would go back to a restaurant, and the waitress would rush over to tell us she still had the words we gave her. Priceless!

PROPHETIC PURITY

We were in the midst of our move when a leader asked for Hudson to come and be filmed receiving a prophetic word. That was great, but the leader insisted he show up in a tie. My son was less than amused, and I wasn’t able to do much about it as our boxes were already packed. He said he would figure out the clothes but just to get him there. Like most teen boys, Hudson was a bit miffed at having to wear someone else’s clothing but did it and honored their wishes. But then I got an email saying they had to redo the filming since the lighting wasn’t as good as with the others. Hudson said no, thank you. I got another email and another and another. I was trying to say goodbyes and pack the last of our items and yet felt obligated to honor their request. I finally told Hudson to reply, stating his reason for not coming back up. 

Here is his email: “Dear _____, I do not mean to be disrespectful at all, but I do not feel you are using the prophetic in the way it was intended. Prophetic words come from God, through you, to me, and you have already given me that word. I do not see why I need to wear a tie to receive what God wants to say to me. If I come back in and get filmed with you giving me a word, it will be fake because I already received it and can’t act on camera like I did the first time. I am sorry, but I will not be coming back in. I hope you are able to use the first video.” 

I grit my teeth a bit when he first read it to me as my ‘honor your leader’ bells were going off, but I heard the Lord say, “He is right,” and I let the chips fall wherever they needed to fall as the leader received his email.