Training Children to Pray in the Spirit

We all know that including a time of prayer is an important element in our children's church service, Sunday school class, or mid-week Bible club, right? It is in this time that we are touching heaven for our children's needs. It is also a time of training our children how to personally touch heaven.

Have you considered that this time of prayer is also an important time for training our children to know the importance of praying in their heavenly prayer language?

Consider this idea. If possible, journal the requests as the children share their personal needs. Write down the name of child giving the request, a brief overview of the request, and finally the date of the request. Before praying for the needs given that week, look back at previous requests and asks for updates for each need. Allow the children to testify about what God has done. Then, before we pray over the new requests, I always love to share a scripture the illuminates and brings clarity to what will happen as we pray. It might be 1 John 5:14-15 or Matthew 18:19 or John 16:23. Then, after praying for the needs, I remind the children that as they gave their requests, they only gave us part of the information. There are often details about this need that we don't know. So, according to Romans 8:26, we can allow the Holy Spirit to pray through us in our heavenly prayer language about these needs. It is as we pray in other tongues that the Holy Spirit helps to pray as we should about things that we have no earthly knowledge.

Here are the benefits of doing this each and every week:
1. We are raising up intercessors.
2. Through our journaling, we are giving the children an opportunity to pray for needs and then come back in future weeks to see how God has met those needs. The old-timers (this includes me) called this Testimony Service.
3. We are instilling in our children the value of praying in other tongues by weekly demonstrating its importance as a vital part of our prayer time.
4. We are providing an opportunity for the children to become comfortable in praying in their heavenly prayer language. This is not something weird or spooky. Praying in other tongues must become a part of our daily lives.