The Move of God is Waiting on a Move of Man

Some blogs take 200 to 300 words to bring clarity to a thought. This week's blog really is self-explanatory. This is one of those marinating type of thoughts that needs to allow the juices to slowly sink into the meat. Ponder this ...

So many are waiting for a move of God. Have you considered the truth that God is waiting for a move of man?

Make a move towards Him. Passionately seek His face. Take bold steps of faith in leading your children's ministry. Get out of the boat of comfort. Dare to believe that God meant what He promised in Joel 2 about your children. If you'll make a move THEN He will make His move!

Batteries Not Included

Rather than give a leadership/motivation/teaching thought this week, allow me to jump start your creativity with an idea for your children's ministry.

This past weekend, we began a four-part series with our children entitled Batteries Not Included. We taught our first lesson yesterday showing that while each and every child is fearfully and wonderfully (amazingly and miraculously God's Word for Today) made (Psalms 139:14) and are placed on this earth with an assignment (Jeremiah 1:5), each child is placed on this earth with batteries not included.

To illustrate this, we used a television remote control and a garage door opener. Both are specifically created and crafted to perform a task. And while both are similar in that they both have circuitry on the inside and buttons on the outside, each was formed by its maker to do a task that only they can do. The television remote cannot open/close a garage door and the garage door opener cannot turn off/on the television or raise/lower the television's volume. With our children, God has created them for a task that will greatly impact the world. While each child may have similar features as other children (2 hands, 2 feet, a mouth, 2 eyes, etc.) they are so unique. Their circuitry (personality, passions, physical features) were formed making them a wonderfully complex individual. (Psalms 139:14, The Living Bible). God designed this individuality or uniqueness for a task explicitly for that specific child.

As great and needful as the television remote control is, this device will never fulfill its assignment without the required batteries. The same can be said about the garage door opener. Jesus made the same claim. No individual will fulfill their God-given assignment without the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) for we too come with batteries not included.

Hopefully these thoughts will jump start your creativity and help you provide the opportunity for children to receive heaven’s gift of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

I'm Only Human

Please forgive me. I'm only human. I know that pride comes before a fall. So, hopefully, you'll push aside the possibility that I've fallen into the entrapment of pride and consider this to be a mild case of being a grandparent.

I know that many of you receive the monthly Billy Burns Ministries Ignite Connection and see pictures of Joey. I just couldn't wait for the next email newsletter to be sent to you. If you don't get the newsletter, send me an email at billy@billyburnsministries.com.

If deliverance prayers are in order for me, go for it. If congrats on having one gorgeous grandson are in order, go for it!

The Questions of Revival

For the past four weeks, I've been teaching our boys and girls about revival. Feel relieved, I'm not using today's blog to reteach all four lessons. It has been an awesome four weeks. I love seeing the children go after the Reviver. Another benefit of the series is it has prepared our children for the next four lessons that I'll teach as we look at the subject "Batteries Not Included." Hopefully in the near future I'll have both of these teaching series available for download at the www.billyburnsministries.com website.

In today's blog, I want to ask two questions that have been a big part of the revival teaching. These are two questions that I have repeatedly, tenaciously asked myself. During the last four weeks, I've used these questions to challenge our children to passionately pursue the Reviver.

Here are the questions:
1. If not now, then when?
2. If not here, then where?

I'll let the questions speak for themselves. Ask yourself the questions over and over again. I pray that they will produce a resolve within you and your children for the Reviver to manifest His presence in YOUR ministry EVERY time that you meet.

Two suggestions to keep this before your eyes …
1. It might be good to create these questions to be screen savers for your computer.
2. Place the questions on index cards and post the cards on places that you'll be visiting throughout the day (i.e., on mirrors or on your refrigerator door).

Seek the Reviver

A man came to Socrates and asked him for wisdom. Socrates quickly dismissed him, telling him to come back when he really wanted wisdom. This experience repeated itself several times, with the man coming back and asking for wisdom, until Socrates took the man down to a body of water and stuck his head under the water.

After holding him under for about 10 seconds Socrates pulls the man back up and asks, "What do you want?" to which the man replied, "I want wisdom great teacher." Socrates put the man’s head under the water again, this time holding him under for 30 seconds. Pulling the man up he asks again, "What is it that you want?" The man once again replies, "I want wisdom great teacher." Socrates holds him under the water again this time for much longer.

The man began struggling, and choking, and gasping for air. At the point that he was about to fall unconscious, Socrates pulled him out of the water and asks one final time, "What is it that you want?" This time all the man can scream is, "I want air, I want air!"

Socrates leaves the man saying, "When you want wisdom as much as you wanted air, you will find it."

How does this apply to revival in our children's ministry? A lot of people give lip service about revival. It's the "thing" right now, the buzz word of the Church.

A mistake that many are making today with this religious trend is that many are going after revival rather than the Reviver. Here's the key … when we become consumed with desperation for seeking the Reviver more than the revival, the revival will always be there. When we seek His face, His hands will always be seen.

The man with his head held below the water couldn't hide his desperation. Are you passionately going after the Reviver? Is your desperation showing in your private time and your public time of ministry? Again, when we desperately seek Him, His presence (revival) will always manifest.