Six Reasons EVERY Child Must Be Filled with the Holy Spirit - Part #3

Posting these three Six Reasons EVERY Child Must Be Filled with the Holy Spirit blog entries has stirred me. I wish that I could literally travel to each and every church represented by those reading these postings and share this passion with your leaders. But, fortunately, you can do this for me. After meditating on these thoughts and allowing them to expand in your spirit, take these three postings and share it with your staff. I pray that these thoughts will help ignite a supernatural move of God that will shake the very foundations of your ministry, church, and the surrounding areas!!!

Reason #5. The Greatness of God’s Plan Demands SUPERNATURAL Boldness.

Some things just don’t change. When God began to speak to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1 and unfold heaven’s assignment for Jeremiah, Jeremiah immediately began to act like today’s boys and girls. Jeremiah was just a child and used that excuse to try to escape God’s directive. God’s response to Jeremiah is still God’s response to today’s child! (Jer. 1:7-8) According to Jeremiah 1:7-8, a child’s confidence can be found in the fact that when they go where God tells them and say what God tells them to say, they can be bold and confident that they can accomplish what God assigns them to do! How is this possible? Jesus spoke in Acts 1:8 of a power that will arise on the inside of each boy and girl. Remember that there is no BIG Holy Ghost for adults and a LITTLE Holy Ghost for children. The same Holy Ghost who turned a weak, anemic Peter into a powerhouse that could preach to the thousands in Acts 2 is the same Holy Ghost who will give a child the boldness to do great things for God!

Reason #6. The Greatness of God’s Plan Demands SUPERNATURAL Freedom.
This must be the generation of no restraints. There are traditions of man that have restricted boys and girls. Religious spirits have held them back with such uninformed (I wanted to use a stronger word) thoughts of "They are just kids" or "What do they know?" or "What can they do with their limitations?" This must be the generation who will go where no man has gone in the realm of the Spirit, to soar into the heavenlies like an eagle. We must recognize that there are places in the Spirit where no child has gone, sites in the heavenlies that have yet to be seen by boys and girls, places of worship that few children have visited, depths of intercession that few have explored, arenas of faith that that few have fought and conquered. This can only be accomplished through learning the freedom that comes with being sensitive and obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Remember ... I am just an email away .... billy@billyburnsministries.com.

Six Reasons EVERY Child Must Be Filled with the Holy Spirit - Part #2

I trust that after reading last week's blog entry that you can see the importance of this teaching. Each one of these six points could easily become a complete lesson in your children's church or Sunday school class. Here are the next two points from the teaching Six Reasons EVERY Child Must Be Filled with the Holy Spirit.


Reason #3. The Greatness of Life’s Pressures Demands SUPERNATURAL Strength.
No one ever claimed that being a Christian kid would be easy. Children live in a real mission field and are constantly exposed to supernatural warfare. Most children daily are thrust into America’s greatest mission field – public schools. Add to that the media bombardment which is quickly attempting to erode their values and spiritual foundation. With this constant barrage, I recognize that no Christian kid purposefully yields to these temptations and messes up. Facing life's monumental pressures, a child’s strength or will power alone just aren't sufficient. Temptations can be all too powerful to resist. Remember that Peter didn’t purposefully deny Christ three times. Fortunately, Heaven has provided a supernatural strength on the inside that will decimate the enemy. This great strength and fortification comes from supernatural exercise. (Jude 20; 1 Cor. 14:4). A supernatural strength will arise with a child as they consistently pray in their heavenly prayer language.


Reason #4. The Greatness of God’s Plan Demands SUPERNATURAL Protection.
A boy or girl filled the Holy Spirit is Satan’s number one enemy. Satan knows that a Spirit-filled child has the capability to annihilate and obliterate his plans. Satan knows that the Spirit of God can rise up within a child to destroy present-day Goliaths. There are potential Davids sitting in our classes that are destined to destroy strongholds and set free intimidated, captive peers. In knowing this, Satan will set forth traps, often innocent-looking itsy-bitsy traps at first, knowing that one fall will lead to the next fall and then the next fall and the next fall until the end result is accomplished, defeat and destruction. But when allowed, the Spirit of God who sees and knows all things will shout warning messages protecting the child from the hands of the devourer. (John 16:13).

Six Reasons EVERY Child Must Be Filled with the Holy Spirit - Part #1

While I LOVE writing this blog each week, I constantly combat the demon of brevity. I always strive to have the blog entry not exceed 350 words so that you can read the entry in just a couple of minutes. So, with that in mind, I'll force myself to condense into just a few sentences what easily could fill a complete workshop (and flesh out into a six week teaching series) as I share with you Six Reasons EVERY Child Must Be Filled with the Holy Spirit. Beginning this week, I'll share two reasons a week.

Reason #1. The Greatness of God's Plan Demands SUPERNATURAL Insight.
No child is here by accident. God knew each child and called them by name before they were born. (Jer. 1:5; Isaiah 49:1). Each child was strategically placed here by God with a specific assignment. (Jeremiah 29:11). It is only through the Spirit of God that a child can see their assignment. As a child prays in the Holy Ghost, things that have been hidden become revealed.

Reason #2. The Greatness of God's Plan Demands SUPERNATURAL Guidance.
Being a kid isn’t easy. With the peer pressures, the gospel according to the television and movies and internet, the insecurities of family stability, life is one gigantic puzzle. In the grand scope of life, kids don’t have a clue!!! There is a voice from heaven Who longs to give direction for we learn in reading the Word that the Holy Spirit is a talker who will provide step-by-step guidance through the tilt, tilt, tilt times of life. The Holy Spirit is on divine assignment to supply supernatural guidance in any and every area of a child’s life. He’s just one cry away for help! As a child develops an intimacy with the Holy Spirit, He will begin to whisper heaven’s secrets and give guidance. (John 16:13).

Igniting THIS Generation!

I trust that you enjoy the weekly blog entries and that you are benefitting from my thoughts. In searching the web, I have found that I am one of (if not the) only person who weekly encourages those in children's ministry to intensify their relationship with the Person of the Holy Spirit and shares insights about how to lead children into an intimate walk with the Holy Spirit. I am encouraged as I learn from Google Analytics that in any given month that people from 20 to 30 countries are reading this blog. In all honesty, some of the countries have to be Googled (is that actually a word?) to find out exactly where they are located! In just a few weeks, I will be celebrating 4 years of journaling my passion and encouraging others to become radical in their pursuit for a move of God's Spirit in their children's ministry. With this being my 147th entry, the passion hasn't diminished, but rather intensified.

The reason for this blog entry isn't to focus upon and deify Billy Burns Ministries but rather to show my heart and passion. I am consumed with helping to usher in a move of God's Spirit in children's ministries around the globe. My heart cries out to launch children's ministry leaders into new realms of the Spirit because our children will never go where we've never been. I passionately want to unite those with the same longings.

Do you have the same passion? Will you contact me to let me know that you too are an Igniter? This is a part of my assignment ... connecting fellow Igniters. I am just an email away .... billy@billyburnsministries.com.

Also, as a fellow Igniter take a couple of minutes to check out the upcoming Ignite the Supernatural Conference being held in Los Colinas (the greater the Dallas/Ft. Worth area), Texas on Thursday, September 30, through Saturday, October 2, 2010. The speakers and workshop listings/descriptions for the 21 workshops and 5 general sessions are located at http://www.igniteconference.com/. You'll quickly see that there isn't another conference in the world like this conference! And, you'll also see that the cost is EXTREMELY affordable ... so affordable that you'll want to bring your entire children's ministry team with you.

Next week, I'll begin sharing thoughts that will eventually make its way into a new book that I am writing as I post the first of 6 Reasons Every Child Must Be Filled With the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit - My BFF

What a weekend. We had three great services as we ministered on the subject "The Holy Spirit - My BFF". We used John 14:16 showing where Jesus introduces His followers to a Person that would FOREVER be a Friend and Helper.

The kids really connected with this concept. Every boy and girl can relate to the idea of having a Best Friend Forever. Most every child can also identify with the hurt of having a friend who for whatever reason abandoned them. According to Jesus, this heavenly BFF is the real deal. The Holy Spirit would be with them FOREVER ... when things were good and even when they were bad.

Who is this Friend that Jesus introduces? Jesus wasn't introducing Someone that He met down at McDonald's the week before. The Friend wasn't a friend of a friend. Jesus was telling of and recommending to His followers Someone that He had known before time was time. Not only did Jesus know the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit had worked with Jesus and God in Creation. Jesus was confident about this Friend because it was this Friend that enabled Jesus to perform His earthly ministry. (Luke 4:18-19; Acts 10:38).

We concluded our time of ministry by my telling a story of how my BFF just this past week showed Himself to be a Friend and Helper. It was a simple story, one that every child could relate to. In this story, I told of my calling upon my Helper to locate something for which I had searched for two days. Within 30 seconds of asking the help of the BFF that is assigned to be with me 24/7/365 (He gets no time off or takes any vacations), I sensed a direction to look in a place that made no sense. But, my BFF knew what He was talking about. I listened and obeyed and found the lost item just where He had told me to look. Upon the conclusion of the story, I invited the children to ask the Holy Spirit to become their BFF.

Thank God for the Holy Spirit. He is more than just the third Person of the Trinity. The blessed Holy Spirit is a Person awaiting the opportunity to walk off of the pages of the Scriptures and become One who is our BFF!

Eliminating the Roadblocks in Our Children's Ministry Services

I so want each and every child in my ministry to experience and walk in the fullness of the Spirit. I want them to have an intimate relationship with Him. And, since our services are probably the only launching pad for a child's love for the Holy Spirit, I am constantly evaluating what I see in our services so that I can insure that we are doing everything possible to help nurture their walk in the Spirit.

Recently during one of these time of inspection, I saw a couple of areas that needed attention and tweeking in our services. I saw how making two simple modifications throughout our entire ministry could move the children and our ministry one giant step closer to the ministry that I could see in my spirit.

Here are the two areas that I examined:

1. The first insight involved the culture of the Pentecostal/Charismatic service. I had to ask myself the question about whether or not the children understood the whats and whys of our services. We are constantly gaining new children in our services. Do the children have a clue about what we are doing? The Pentecostal/Charismatic church service has its own patterns and ways of doing things, right? We are clapping our hands, raising our hands, praying aloud, speaking in a strange tongue, etc. These and other things define the Pentecostal/Charismatic culture. And, in our church, this isn't relegated to just the adult services. And then I asked myself, do our children know why we are doing the things that we do? For example, hopefully, the children see you and your staff raise your hands during worship or dance before the Lord in the time of worship and prayer. Your children should hear you praying in your heavenly prayer language. But, do they actually know and understand what is happening? Have you explained during the service what is happening and why you are doing what you are doing? This ignorance will remove the value of what is going on and the children won't naturally follow your example.

2. The second insight again involved in what the children are seeing. If the children are following our example, what example are they following? We talk a pretty good talk in our services about seeing God move amoung our children. But, do our actions match our words? For example, do the children see you and your staff demonstrating your passion? Is your entire team being seen during the time of praise and worship? And, if so, do the children see the longing and passion in the heart of your leadership? They hear us talk about loving God with all of our heart, soul, and might. But, do they SEE it demonstrated during our time of praise and worship from the entire team? They hear you talk about wanting to win the world for Jesus as you receive the offering. But, do they SEE you and your entire staff giving in the offering? We must be DELIBERATE and VISIBLE as we set the example of what we want to see from our children!

As we eliminate these two speed bumps, we will be one giant step closer to seeing God demonstrate His presence in our services ... I guarantee it!

When Father Abraham Just Isn't Enough - Part 2

In sharing last week about opening the door for the presence of God, space didn't allow me to present a balanced, complete thought. I honestly do my best to make this blog readable and not consume for than a couple of minutes of your time. So, allow me this week to present the rest of my thought and offer the Thou Shalt Nots that must be avoided as you desire to usher your children into God's presence.

1. Thou shalt not forget that you are ministering to children. In using the title When Father Abraham Just Isn't Enough for these two blog entries, I wasn't encouraging you to totally ignore kiddy, fun, action songs. I was merely encouraging you to remember that there is a time and place for everything. We need to remember that we are ministering to children and fun and movement is a BIG part in touching a child's life. We need the songs that have children hopping up and down, spinning around, shouting, etc. But, there is a balance. An improper imbalance in either direction will tilt the ministry scales out of kilter! Too much Father Abraham and too little going-after-God worship will perpetuate spiritual babyhood. Too much going-after-God worship with little if any Father Abraham style songs will lose the attention and attendance of your children.
2. Thou shalt not become predictable. Remember that the definition for the word "rut" is a grave with both ends knocked out. Get out of the rut. Don't be predictable. Don't sing the same song each and every week. And, on a side note, don't sing one song for 30 minutes in a service. Just because the Spirit of God moved while you were singing Amazing Grace as the second song on January 4, 1949 doesn't mean that you have to sing Amazing Grace as the second song each and every week in anticipation for Him to move again through that song! Want to lose your kids? Be predictable.
3. Thou shalt not be unprepared. Ready for this? There is a plethora of great music available. There are so many CDs and DVDs with awesome music available today designed for children's ministry. But, sadly, many children's ministry leaders are lazy. With little or no forethought, they walk into the service and just randomly pick a song or two. Music is music, right? It's just another check mark on your order of service, right? NO, NO, NO!!! Where do you want to go in your service? What do you want to see happen? Take the time and find the music that will navigate you to your destination.