Expect Great Thing

Revival is a powerful move of God that reignites your passion to pursue God and lead others to salvation! I love revival meetings because they show us what normal Christianity should be!

It’s amazing to see what God is doing in and through evangelists, pastors, and other adult leaders, but you have to understand that the same power that is in them lives in you (Romans 8:11)!

Think about how you grew up. Maybe you were brought up in church but never saw your parents really live out their faith. Maybe you never went to church at all! As a parent, you have the opportunity to define normal Christianity for your child!

You may have thought that normal Christianity was going to church, and then going home and praying before dinner. Maybe you had a better understanding and knew that it was about pursuing God and involved regular Bible reading and prayer! Whatever your background, you, as a parent, have the opportunity to show your child that normal Christianity is receiving from God and then allowing that blessing and power to overflow onto others!

In our own church, I have heard testimonies of kids as young as three years old leading their friends and family to the Lord and laying hands on others believing that they will be healed! We recently had a 9-year-old girl filled with the Holy Spirit in one of our kids services! The Holy Spirit is for everyone who has received Christ! The kids who are doing these things are doing them because they are normal!

Sometimes, adults can become jaded, over-complicate the Gospel, and talk themselves out of doing the very things we are all called to do! However, the faith of a child is pure! They are open to receive from God and open to give! And, if we can raise our child to believe the truth, they they were created to do the miraculous and lead others to Christ, they will be powerful soul-winners and world-changers--even at a young age!

So how do you do this?

First, you have to make it normal for you.

Pursue God! Pray for the people you meet! Make a habit of soul-winning! Our kids look to us to see how they are supposed to act, and if they see that those things are normal, they will naturally begin to imitate them and eventually develop lifelong habits.

Second, expect big things!

Part of the reason you may not have prayed for others or talked to your friends about Jesus as a child may be simply that you weren’t expected to! No one ever asked you if you prayed for your friends, and no one ever encouraged you to do so.

But, just like you can expect your child to clean their room and say please and thank you, you can expect them to see the power of God work in their lives.

Your child always rises to the standard to which you hold them. If you teach them that they are responsible enough to make their bed every morning, they will eventually rise to that standard! However, if you teach your child that they are not at a level where they need to take responsibility for cleaning up after themselves, they will either fail to develop that characteristic or they will do it far later than they would have been able to with your help.

If you treat your child as though all the blessings in the Bible belong to them and all the power Christ gives us is theirs, then they will rise to that standard and begin moving in the Holy Spirit at a young age! If we write off the gifts of the spirit as for older people or pastors, our children will leave their own spiritual gifts and supernatural gifts untapped into adulthood!

Of course, none of this is possible without a genuine love for God. Take time to show your child how much God loves them--both by showing them stories of His love in the Bible and pointing out the ways He heals, saves, and delivers us today.

We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 1 John 4:16-17

As our children understand the love God has for them, they will naturally grow in love. And as they grow in love, they will live like Jesus lived--performing signs, wonders, and miracles, and preaching to everyone. It’s an understanding of God’s love that allows us to live out normal Christianity!

Just like God didn’t make you to be normal, He didn’t make your child to be normal! He made them to carry the power of God everywhere they go! Imagine what a difference your child could make on their school, baseball team, or neighborhood if they naturally desired to see God heal and restore their friends!

As parents, we are not just raising kids to be the next generation of teachers, politicians, and chefs, we are raising them to be the next generation of Christians! Imagine if there was a whole generation of college students and young adults who had already seen God do amazing miracles in the lives of their friends! Imagine a whole generation of people who enter the workforce with an understanding of what normal Christianity is!

God has called us all to do great things regardless of our age! God has something amazing in store for your family, and He wants to use you to bless others. So, pursue God and commit to raising your family to know what it means to live a life like Jesus lived!