What is God Saying to the Church Today?
ONE GOD, ONE LORD, ONE SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST: Teach Your Children – Part 1
Training Your Children to Be Godly Begins In You.
God desires your children to be godly seed. Malachi 2:15 asks and answers the question, Why did He make the two one? Because He seeks godly offspring.
God is looking for godly offspring, but in order for you, the parent, to produce godly children, it must begin in you.
Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest [that which is] good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God.
–Deuteronomy12:28
You impart to them who you are. If you are rebellious, they will pick up your rebellion. If you are a liar or a thief, if you use profanity and try to trick people, they’ll do the same. If you sleep around or do drugs, you set them up to do the same.
And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.
–Deuteronomy 32:47
For it [is] not a vain thing for you; because it [is] your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong [your] days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.
–Deuteronomy 32:46
It is not a vain thing for you to obey God’s commands. It is your life and the lives of your children.
Training your children begins in you. Everything you do, every word you say, every waking moment will affect your children and their children. If you are harsh and cold, you may give them good advice, but the only advice they will hear is what their mind gives them, to run, run far and do not come back, unless your harshness so wounds their spirit that they are crippled emotionally.
Often parents share the commandment with their children that they are to be obedient to parents, but they totally miss God’s edict in Ephesians 6:4 where He tells parents not to provoke their children to anger, but to train them up in the fear and the admonition of the Lord.
1 Corinthians 13 reminds us that without love you can speak in the language of the angels and prophecy beautiful, heavenly words, but if what you say is not motivated by love, then all your good advice is in vain.
How do you expect your kids to automatically obey you when you have only trained them to move when you shout at them or hurt them? That’s not training them. They’ll want nothing to do with the God you follow when you are harsh, cold, abusive and unloving; or just the opposite, weak, whishy-washy, can’t mean what you say, can’t be a parent, so you let even the three-year-old be the parent.
You impart to your children who you are. It’s up to you to train them, but to do so begins in you, you allowing God to change the old, harsh unloved, unloving person you’ve become. Allow Him to change you if you are the one who is a product of such a harsh training so that you’ve become a weak parent. If you have become a parent who is still seeking love lost in childhood, through your children so that you do not have the insight to train them up.
Jesus, the Creator God who spoke the world into existence had to learn obedience (Hebrews 5:8). So must we, His followers learn to obey. Your children must also learn to obey.
So? How do you train up godly seed?
1. Turn away from your sin, from your old way of life.
How? a) Be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to examine your heart. Do not try to defend your sin or cast blame like the old man who blamed God and his wife (Gen 3:12-13). Have the heart of truth and humility like David, who when confronted with his sin, cried out, Against you and only you have I sinned and done this wrong. You are justified in your judgment of me. Psalm 51.
He could have said, “Bathsheba made me do it. If she was not on the roof naked I would not have slept with her.”
Turn away from the old way by examining yourself.
b) Confess your sins. 1 John 1:9 says if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Verse 10 says, if we say we have no sin we make God a liar and the truth is not in us.
Turn away from the old way by examining self and confessing your sin.
c) Repent. To repent is not just to say you are sorry or to be sorry you are caught, but to be deeply sorry for sinning against God and then turning away, turning back from doing the same thing.
Doing so is often painful at first- like a wound being cleaned by the nurse, but afterward, healing comes, because of the cleansing.
Hebrews 12:6 says who the Lord loves He chastens. If we do not allow Him to chasten us then we are bastards, verse 8, and have no part in Him.
So the first step we take in training up our children to be godly is for us, as parents, to turn away from sin, from the old way.
2. Get the Word of God in you.
How? a) Regularly attend a church where the whole counsel of the word of God is preached. It’s stupid to use the excuse that you do not need to go to church to worship God. He says to go to church, Hebrews 10:25. Something supernatural happens when the believers gather together in one place, something you cannot get by being alone.
In Matthew 18 Jesus tells us that when two or more are gathered together in His name He is right there in the midst and will answer any prayer we agree on in His name.
1 Corinthians 11:29-30 says we do not discern the Lord’s body that’s why so many of us are sick and dead. Go to church regularly. TV church cannot take the place of meeting together unless you are bedridden, then it’s the duty of the church to come to you regularly.
b) But going to church is not enough. You must have daily individual Bible study. Studying God’s word is imperative.
Hebrews 11:6- Without faith, it’s impossible to please God
Romans 10:17- Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God
Hebrews 4:12- The word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit…and is a discerning of the intents of the heart
John 17:17- The Word of God sanctifies
John 1:1-3, 14- The Word is God Himself who came to earth as Jesus
Joshua 1:8- The word of God brings good success
But I don’t have time to read the word. Balderdash! Hogwash! How can you claim you love God and you don’t even have time to get to know Him? John 14:15, If you love me keep my commandments, Jesus said. How can you keep what you do not spend time finding out about?
Oh, God understands that I’m tired. No He does not! That’s a lie Satan has fed you. Do you understand when your child consistently does the opposite of what you say? Do you smile and pat him when he doesn’t follow your orders? No! Absolutely not! Then why should a righteous, holy God understand your disobedience to His word?
If God can die for you, you can find time to give Him 30 uninterrupted minutes or more a day. Set your alarm. Get up early. Get up at 3 AM if necessary. Spend time with Him then go back to bed. Put a Bible in the toilet and read it while you relieve yourself. He’s not bothered by the smell. Find a way. It’s urgent that you do daily Bible study.
How do you expect your children to love a God you think so little of that you can’t find time to spend reading His Word? ABSOLUTELY NO ONE WHO NAMES THEMSELVES BY HIS NAME SHOULD GO A DAY WITHOUT READING HIS WORD!
To train up Godly seed, first, turn away from the old way. Second get the Word in you.
3. Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the Word to you.
Too many of us misquote and misinterpret the word and it’s neither funny nor cute. The misquoted, misinterpreted word has no power over the enemy, who knows it. He lived in heaven with the WORD! He knows the word.
John 14: 26 The job of the Holy Spirit is to teach you all truth about the Word and to remind you of the truths you learned.
1 John 2;27- The anointing you have received from Him abides in you so that you need no one to teach you, but the same anointing teaches you concerning all things and is not a lie.
And do not use this scripture as an excuse to not go to church because it says, you need no one to teach you. You’re not going to church for someone to teach you, but so that you and the Spirit can confirm and bear witness that God’s word is true and that He is faithful as He says He is.
1 John 2:20- But you have the anointing from the Holy one and you know all things. Why? Because He in you knows all things, and if you spend time with Him listening to the Word, He’ll tell you how to get out of debt, how to get out of poverty, how to train up your children to be godly seed.
As you study the Word, ask God to remove your old mindset, your old way of viewing Him and His word.
Ask the Holy Spirit bring revelation to you.
Write down the Scripture reference, the date, what the Holy Spirit spoke to you, and how it applies to your life right then. Then write a brief prayer that forms out of this particular study.
Look back at your journal regularly because it will amaze you at how much you have grown in Him, and how faithful He is to His Word.
The Word, when approached from the intellect is just another book, but when approached through the revelation of the Holy Spirit in you, it becomes a mighty hammer, a sharp two-edged sword, powerful to remove mountains and exalt valleys, so that the captives are set free and bondages are broken.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
–Deuteronomy 30:20
That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, [and] that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he [is] thy life, and the length of thy days.
–Deuteronomy 30:19
Training up your children to be godly begins with you
So? In summary, how do you train up godly seed?
Turn away from your sin, from you old way of life.
Get the Word of God in you.
Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the Word to you.
Now you are on your way to training up godly seed.
Homework:
- Get a notebook
- Find some time to spend at least 20 uninterrupted minutes with God- Set your alarm and get up at 3:00 am if you have to- and pull up at His table ready to hear from Him for your day. Then go back to sleep.
- Begin to read from, say, John chapter 1
- Before you begin each day ask the Holy Spirit to remove your old mindset of viewing the word and to bring you revelation
- Make a note of the date and the scripture reference
- As you study the word, make notes as the Spirit speaks to you.
- Record how it applies to your life right then
- Record a brief prayer that forms out of the Bible study, asking God’s help to obey the Word.
- Don’t be in too much of a hurry to read the entire chapter but work on a few verses at a time.
- You may need to repeat the reading a couple of days in a row so as to learn to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit since you need a habit of hearing His voice before you recognize it.
- The Psalms is a good place to go if you feel troubled or perplexed. You’d be surprised to hear your own heart echoed in the words. Make notes in your journal.
Look out next time for Part 2 in this 5 part series of training your children, where we will share with you a practical step in training your children. You can find more information about this subject in my book, Women Called to Arms! If we’ve been a blessing to you through this message, or if we can pray for you, let us know.
Until next time this is J.A. Thomas from Voice to the Believer Ministries encouraging you to take God at His word.