It's Time For a Check-Up!

Just a passing question for you .... outside of a church setting, when was the last time that the Holy Spirit (the Parakletos ... the One who has been assigned to walk alongside of you, abide within you, lead and guide you, empower you, equip you) heard you direct a conversation towards Him?

Though this is a short blog entry, it is quite powerful. Your answer to the question will provide a rock-solid explanation for what is or isn't happening in your personal life and children's ministry.

Selah!

Praying in the Spirit - The Secret of Intimacy

After spending four weeks teaching on "The Helper", we had a "fun" break and enjoyed a Wild and Wacky, Don't Be Tacky weekend. (You can read about this weekend in last week's blog.) Then, this weekend we completed a two part series entitled "Why I Pray in Other Tongues". It was refreshing to remind our children about six important reasons for connecting to God through our heavenly language.

Let me share with you one reason that I didn't share with the children. In fact, I just saw this reason for the first time a couple of weeks ago as I was reading 1 Corinthians 14:2.

"For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men,
but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries." (King James Version)

Like you, I've read this verse so many, many times. But this time, I read it from a translation that shed a whole new light.

"If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him." (The Message)

This translation opened my eyes to the reality that praying in and by the Spirit goes beyond praying mysteries and secrets. As I read this translation, I could see that by praying in other tongues I am shutting the door to others (both human and spirits) for a time of "sharing intimacies just between you and him" by communicating words that are intended only for His ears and receiving His words to my spirit that shouldn't be heard by others. Can you see that? By praying in the Spirit the inner most longings of my spirit can connect with the inner most passion of His Spirit!

If you want to have a greater intimacy with God, learn the joy of praying in the Spirit!

Wild and Wacky, Don't Be Tacky

If you've worked in children's ministry for any length of time, then you know the importance of variety. In other words, it is vital to throw in crazy, fun weekends into your schedule from time to time. So, after completing our four week "The Helper" series, we changed things up by having a fun, game-oriented service called "Wild and Wacky, Don't Be Tacky." In addition to the kids coming to church dressed wacky (dyed hair, strange clothes, etc.), they loved being in a service that dealt with interesting, strange world records authenticated by the Guinness Book of World Records (www.guinnessworldrecords.com) and then seeing that record correspond to some strange fact found in the Bible.

For example, look at this fact found in Guinness: "The most fingers and toes at birth are 14 fingers (7 on each hand) and 20 toes (10 on each foot) and belonged to a Akshat Saxena (India). The record was confirmed by doctors in India on 20 March 2010. The Bible parallel: The Bible tells of a time that King David's troops battled a tribe of giants at Gath. One of the giants had 12 fingers and 12 toes. (2 Samuel 21:20-21)

The Wild and Wacky service had me introducing the topic such as: Our new wacky fact category concerns having extra fingers and extra toes. According to the Guinness Book of World Records there was a person born in India that didn't have the normal amount of fingers and toes. Take a guess at how many that he had. Then, I would ask around the room and select the two children that guessed the closest to the actual answer. After revealing the correct answer, I then shared about giants at Gath with the 12 fingers and 12 toes. We then brought the two children onto our platform to play a game that tied in to that wild fact. In "Removing the Digits", we placed several card board blocks onto a table (empty 2 liter bottles would be a good alternative). For 90 seconds, each child would use a Nerf arrow gun to try to knock down as many blocks as possible (removing the extra digits). The child with the most knocked-down blocks won the prize for the game.

Another category was the oldest mother to give birth to a child. Guinness: The oldest mother is Maria del Carmen Bousada Lara (Spain, b. 5 January 1940), who gave birth by cesarean section to twin boys, Christian and Pau, aged 66 years 358 days at the Sant Pau hospital, Barcelona, Spain on 29 December 2005. Bible: Sarah giving birth to Isaac at the age of 90. The game: The winning two children (those coming closest to the actual age) each chose a friend to help them play this game. One child put on a 3XL jogging outfit. Their friend was to place as many half-inflated balloons into the jogging suit as possible in 45 seconds. In this game both teams played at the same time. At the end of the 45 seconds, we stopped and commented about the possibility of Sarah looking "inflated" at the end of her pregnancy. Then, we used a dart to pop the balloons found inside of the jogging suits and had the children to help us count. The team with the most popped balloons won the prize for the game.

Rather than telling you every detail about every category, I'll just share 3 more categories and allow you (and the Holy Spirit) to create your own memorable day.
* World's Oldest Person
* World's Longest Hair
* World's Tallest Person

One more thought. Is a Wild and Wacky weekend spiritual? You betcha! The underlying theme of the service is that the Bible isn't a boring, snooze-causing book! And services like Wild and Wacky will cause boys and girls to fall in love with the Book like you and I have!!!

Is Wild and Wacky an every week event? Nope. In fact, the following week we began a two week series on Why I Pray in Other Tongues. The off week was refreshing for the staff, exciting for the kids, and provided another reason for the kids to say, "I love going to church!"

Try it. You’ll thank me over and over again!

How Real Is the Holy Spirit to You?

I know that this blog entry is being read in some 60+ nations and its readership is composed of children's ministry leaders and workers who desire to see the signs and wonders of the Spirit in their lives and services. Although I have never met the greatest majority of the blog's readers, I know that I know that I have just described you. I am sure of the fact that you wouldn't be reading this blog entry if you didn't have a strong passion for seeing the Holy Spirit show up in your services, right?

If you have attended any of our Ignite the Supernatural conferences you have heard me make the statement that the Holy Spirit will never be real through you until He is real to you. In other words, the people who will see the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit in their children and children's services are the ones who know the Holy Spirit.

Can I perhaps over simplify how that you can determine if you really know the Holy Spirit? Here it is ... all wrapped up in one simple question. How often do you find yourself conversing with and talking to the Person named the Holy Spirit? If He has been assigned to abide or live within you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (and He has - John 14:16-17), then there should be conversation! Sadly, the only conversations for some reading this blog are done at the beginning and ending of a church service. To those individuals, I will emphatically declare that you won't see the Holy Spirit demonstrate His presence. But, for those who dialogue with this Person throughout the day, the realness and consciousness of His abiding presence as demonstrated in your consistent, ongoing fellowship will soon see His realness demonstrated in your life and ministry.

Here it is even simpler ... those who walk and talk will open the door for the seen scene. The arena of visibly seeing the Holy Spirit will come to those who start their day with a "Good morning Holy Spirit" and then dialogue with Him throughout the remainder of the day. In doing so, He will become real to you and then real through you.

One last question … just how real is He to you? This realness factor can change if you’ll close this blog, turn off your computer, and begin a conversation with Him. Let the realness begin N-O-W!

Certification of Delivery

We recently concluded a series of lessons entitled The Helper which tells of the sending of the Holy Spirit. The four lessons were:

* I Won't Leave You Helpless
* Let Me Introduce the Helper
* Jesus Promised, God Delivered, the Helper Came
* The Helper & You

In this blog entry, I want to share an object lesson from our third lesson. Hopefully you can use this in your ministry.

"The Helper Came"
Props: Bible, Envelope, Certified Mail Slip
Slides: Optical Illusion (easily found on the internet), Acts 2:4

I’m sure that you’ve all seen optical illusions before. (Show slides of optical illusion.) While looking at this picture, you are seeing a picture and quite possibly the person sitting beside you that is looking at the same picture sees something entirely different. This can cause quite a bit of confusion.

When our heavenly Father was sending the Helper, He wanted to insure that there was no confusion. He wanted each and every person receiving the Holy Spirit to know that they know that they know that the Holy Spirit had been sent as promised.

So, when this gift was sent from heaven, God eliminated all confusion by providing a proof of delivery. Just like certain types of mail sent by our United States Postal Service require an evidence of the envelope or package arriving (show envelope with attached Certified Mail slip), heaven made it so evident of the arrival of this Helper by a proof of delivery found in today's Bible verse.

“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began
to speak different languages.” Acts 2:4 (New Century Version)

Did you see the evidence or the proof of delivery? Our verse says that when the Holy Spirit arrived, each of the 120 people began to speak in a heavenly language. How do we know that this was the proof of delivery? Because we see it again and again when we read Acts 10 and Acts 19. They all began to show the arrival and indwelling of the Helper as they prayed in another tongue.

Let's Get Radical #4

Here is a brief overview of the final three lessons in our Let's Get Radical teaching series.

Week #4 Radical Love, Radical Expression
God's radical love towards us is undeniable. The Psalmist David tells that He daily loads us with benefits. (Psalms 68:19) While it is impossible to count all of his benefits, David begins to list some of the radical things that God has done in telling that God has forgiven all of his sin, healed all of his diseases, ransomed his soul from hell, surrounded him with His loving-kindness and tender mercies, filled his life with good things, and renewed his youth like the eagle's. (Psalms 103:1-5) Considering the numerous acts of God's love towards him, it is no wonder that David pushed aside Michal's rebuke for his radical demonstration of praise. (2 Samuel 6) Radical love demands and brings forth radical expression!

Week #5 Once You Know It, Show It
God's Word tells us that radical praise is a part of our DNA. Psalms 8:2 tells us that even babies have the ability to worship God! This praise is on the inside waiting for an opportunity to be expressed. After all that He has done for us, how can we keep this praise on the inside? How can we be like the nine who continued on their way after receiving Jesus's awesome healing power? (Luke 17)

Here's the exciting part of demonstrating our praise. It doesn't have to be boring and repetitious. Throughout the year, I love to buy candy for my wife Vickie. There are boxes of candy that are filled with the same type of chocolate candy and other boxes of chocolate candies that contain an assortment of types. I love the assorted boxes because you never quite know what you are about to eat. I have read that David loved the assorted kind of demonstrations of praise. I have yet to study this to verify it for a fact, but I have read that the Book of Psalms uses 58 different Hebrew words to describe radical praise and worship including words that tells to bow before God, spin like a top before God, jump up and down, lift up hands unto God, etc. Radical demonstrations of love and gratitude can be and should be exciting!!!

Week #6 We Can’t Go Back
While I love to study history, I sure don’t want to live in the olden days. It might be enchanting to read about the days of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, but please, please, please keep me living in 2011. I don’t want to go back to the days before air conditioning and electric lights and cars and …. you get the picture! What might have been acceptable at one time in history just isn’t good enough for today.

We now know the truth. Our radical God has done and continues to do many radical things to and for us. Because of this, we can’t go back to the way that it used to be. Let’s be like David and say, “In GOD's presence I'll dance all I want! … Oh yes, I'll dance to GOD's glory more recklessly even than this. And as far as I'm concerned . . . I'll gladly look like a fool …” (2 Samuel 6, The Message Bible). Let’s get radical before our radical God!

Let's Get Radical #3

Here is a brief overview of the next two lessons in our Let's Get Radical teaching series.

Week #2 We are Made in His Image
Jesus told us that we when we saw Him, we were actually seeing what God is like. Jesus was being a copycat of His Father. The Jesus that walked on the earth and did awesome, radical things was copying or being like His awesome, radical Father.

“Jesus answered, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.””

John 14:9 (New Century Version)

The Scriptures teach us that we too are to be imitators of God.

“Follow God's example in everything you do just as a much loved child imitates his father.” Ephesians 5:1 (The Living Bible)

How is this possible? How can we be radical like God? It's quite simple. We were made in His image and likeness.

“Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image and likeness.” Genesis 1:26 (New Century Version)

If God is radical, then we too can be radical!

Week #3 God is Radical in His Love to Us
Counting is one of the first things that we learn in preschool. First we start counting by using our fingers and then we might even start counting on our toes to get into the bigger numbers. Our counting and measuring never stops. Whether we recognize it or not, we are constantly counting throughout the day. We count and measure our days by knowing the time of day (when we look at a clock) and the number of days into the week or year (when we look at a calendar). We count and measure our height, the amount of food that we eat (our calories), the amount that we weigh, etc.

As brilliant and educated as we might become, there are some things that are so immeasurable that the numbers can't be tabulated or counted. The Bible tells us that God heaps His love and His blessings on us each and every day.

“Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits.”
Psalm 68:19

Did you get that? He LOADS His blessings upon us. Try as we may, we cannot measure the radical display of the radical love shown by our radical heavenly Father. It is impossible. Why? Because our God is constantly thinking about us. (Jeremiah 29:11) There’s not a second that goes by throughout the day that He isn't looking over you. What an awesome, radical God!!!