What is God Saying to the Church Today?
ONE GOD, ONE LORD, ONE SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST
TEACH YOUR CHILDREN, PART 2: Build A Daily Altar
God desires your children to be a godly seed. In Part 1, I shared with you that in order for you to produce godly seed, training must first begin in you. You must allow God, through the Spirit revealed Word, to train you to be His child. In Part 1, I shared with you that there are three basic steps in the training process for you the parent, as you begin the journey of taking back your home and family. This message today will focus on the first practical step to training up your children in God’s way- Building a daily family Altar.
Training your children begins in you. Since you impart to your children who you are, to train them begins in you, you allowing God to change you. It’s not an overnight thing, but a constant, purposeful choice to submit yourself to God each day as a good soldier reports to his superior for orders. It will take a lifetime to learn and grow, but as you learn and grow, you like a good soldier, are given those beneath you that you must train using all you have been taught by the Holy Spirit of God.
Some of you already have children who are out of hand. Retraining them is not impossible but you must halt your old method. It has not produced results. Nuke it. Begin afresh by allowing God to train you up, then He’ll show you day by day how to retrain your out of control children. The scriptures say the kingdom of God suffers violence but the violent takes it by force (Matthew 11:12). Due to circumstances, you have allowed the enemy to enter your homes. Now you have to become aggressive in your pursuit of God in order to oust Him back out. You have to learn how to bind the strong man who is trying to bind up your children. You are in a war and like a good soldier, you have to go through aggressive training to win this battle. The survival of you and your team, your family, depends on how well you are able to follow orders given by your Commander Jesus.
Remember the weapons of your warfare are not carnal, not fussing and calling names and slapping the kids or embarrassing them, but your weapons are mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds (1 Corinthians 10:3-5). The sooner you report for duty, the sooner you can get order and blessings back into your home. The atmosphere in your home must change by aggressively applying the truths of God’s word to your mind and you lifestyle.
The first practical step to training your children to be godly seed is to to build a family altar for your children.
How?
a) Do daily Bible study with them
Psalm 119: says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” As they walk through life, the word becomes the guidepost to keep them from becoming dashed on the rocks of life, to set them on a straight path in the ungodly environment we sometimes live in.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God [is] one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
–Deuteronomy 6:4-9
To train up godly seed you must teach them the word.
You’ll never find the right time to do Bible study or enough time. You just have to obey God’s word and do it. It’s not the job of the church or the Christian school to teach your children the word. It’s the parent’s job. The church and school are to support your training but YOU will stand before God to give an account for how you’ve trained them.
Find time to do it. Saturdays may be a longer Bible study where there is more child-involvement since there is more time. Sundays may just be a brief prayer before leaving for church in which each pray for the Holy Spirit to speak during the services, and for souls to be saved and changed. Later they may each tell what they learned from the service. This will encourage them to listen in church and will cut out boredom. Weekdays you may do it for 20-30 minutes each day before they leave for school. which means planning carefully if you have several children and you go to work. Morning is the best time since they will go to school with the thoughts fresh in their hearts and minds.
If early in the morning before they go off to school is not good for you, you need spend 5-10 minutes or so before they leave for school praying and reciting their bible verse. Full Bible study may be done at nights before they go to bed.
Make sure you let them hear you pray and call each of their names out loud before they leave the house. Let each hear you say, not just have a nice day, but something deliberately geared to focusing their thoughts and hearts on who God, not those people out there, but who God says they are. It could be, remember you are a good boy or remember you are a child of the living God or say something geared toward their future like you are going to be such a godly, wise woman, etc. Training focuses the mind and body on submitting to God. Your prayers for them and your words must do the same.
Do not let them leave the house with a negative thought about themselves or angry with you so they do not hear you say I love you, I care about you. And do not be like the psychiatrists who say, don’t tell them they are wrong or only speak positive things to them. Training admits wrongs and weaknesses, but sees the potential for change and affirms those also. It’s okay for them to be angry because you’ve disciplined them, but it’s not okay for them to leave you shouting at them and them at you. Wrap it up with the truth from God’s word. Call those things that are not as though they are, Romans 4:17, in other words, say clearly what each child is God’s plan, even though they may not be displaying that plan right now.
LEAD THEM TO ACCEPT THE LORD AS THEIR LORD AND SAVIOR
Remember only they who are spiritual can discern the voice of the Spirit. The most important step in your bible study must be geared to each child coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Do not force them, but like a good teacher lead them and pray for the Holy Spirit to show them their need for Him. If the Holy Spirit does not draw them they will not come into the kingdom of God (John 6:44). We are just His vessels to lead His children to Him, but He must do the drawing, and they must do the accepting of Jesus.
All of your attention at first must me focused on salvation and then on Holy Spirit Baptism. They can then be encouraged to make a public commitment at church during an altar call and go through the baptism classes to be water baptized. Now they are ready for a thorough study of the scriptures to help guide and mold them.
FUN FAMILY TIME NOT PUNISHMENT
Let this be a time of peace and joy. It’s not that you can’t discipline. But never use separation from this Bible study or being excused from it, or attending it as a punishment. It is not an optional time, just as regular church attendance must never be an optional time for school age children to stay home and watch TV, etc. It is their life: just as they eat natural food to live, they must eat spiritual food to live. But it should be a time of joy. You may vary this time. Some Saturdays you can do it at Denny’s over a sundae. Or you can do it at the park, etc. Let it be a time for the family to gather together and call on God for strength and help to succeed.
DISCIPLINING AN OFFENDER
If a child is acting up, plan ahead how you may handle this. You may let one of the older ones lead while you pull the offender out in the next room. Let them know what they did wrong, listen to them if it is an issue that could be misunderstood, tell them what you expect, tell them the consequence, let them repeat each back to you to ensure they understand, then pray with them and return to the group and carry on. There is no time to make a big deal out of it but there is no time to ignore it either. The very next time the infraction is exhibited, immediately enforce the consequence agreed on. If you do not, then the training is non-effective and you will have much trouble later. This is why you being first trained by God is so important before you take the responsibility to train them. Remember bad habits did not form in a day and will not be broken in a day, but through consistent, persistent, following through and pressing into God’s word.
My daughter and I did this each day from the time she was five, and we continued this until my daughter was over 20 years old! I do not regret it. What awesome adult she has become because of God’s word! There were days when we did Bible study in the car! This is not recommended for more than one child. It is difficult to focus and focus they must.
INFANTS/TODDLERS
Don’t let the non-school age children sit through the entire bible study with the older children. They can do the worship, prayer and scripture recitation together. You can then send them off to the bed where they can listen to the basic bible stories you may record on tape and also to a prayer which may also be pre-recorded. Go to a Christian Bookstore and look for a good Bible story book that is based on the scriptures and is suitable for the age of your child. Or just develop your own. My book, Women Called to Arms, has a section with Bible Memory Scripters for children.
For older children:
- Get a notebook- We have a Children’s Bible Journal available which is suitable for this
- Find some time for them to spend at least 20 uninterrupted minutes with God. They may use an alarm or timer.
- Tell them to read the scripture. At first, these may be chosen by you but later teach them to allow the Holy Spirit to guide their own choice
- Teach them that before you begin each day ask the Holy Spirit to remove their old mindset of viewing the word and to bring them His revelation
- Have them make a note of the date and the scripture reference
- As they study the word, let them make notes as the Spirit speaks to them.
- Record how it applies to their life right then
- Record a brief prayer that forms out of the Bible study asking God’s help to obey the Word.
- Find time to discuss this with them. Complement them and encourage them and thank God in their hearing for the work He is doing in them
- As they get used to hearing from the Holy Spirit, give each a day when they bring the word at the Bible Study. Encourage their efforts at these time. Gently correct erroneous interpretation by allowing the Holy Spirit to guide you into leading questions.
**Remember we learn best by discovering and by teaching. Don’t be in too much of a hurry to tell all. This is not being a good teacher. Teach them to discover. They’ll retain the knowledge better then. They too have the Holy Spirit. They too can and must hear from Him.**
-Don’t be in too much of a hurry to read the entire chapter but work on a few verses at a time. Accept whatever they give at first and just tell them how you want them to improve
-They 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.
MEMORIZING SCRIPTURES
They are not too young to begin memorizing the verses. Listen to the two and three-year-old sing the songs on BET, MTV, 102.5 or whatever stations you listen to, to know that they can and must memorize scripture. The Christian Homeschool book or thrift store will supply you with scripture cards such as the ABEKA program scripture cards that are simple enough for your kids to memorize. These go from A-Z and have such scriptures as I, I can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength to do so, Philippians or B, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved and your house, Acts 16:, and A, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Romans 2:23. Let them commit these scriptures to their hearts. The older kids can memorize these also and recite them with the younger kids during their whole family Bible Study, but may also memorize larger pieces of scriptures. As I mentioned above, my book, Women Called to Arms, has a section with Bible Memory Scripters for children. My Children’s Bible Journal is also a good resource for this purpose.
PREPARING FOR FAMILY BIBLE STUDY
Allow the older kids to do bible study directly from the bible.
The night or morning before, ask the Holy Spirit to give you what they need for the day. Study it and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to you.
When you get together, teach them how to pray a brief, deliberate prayer geared to asking God’s blessings on the study, canceling any strategy of the enemy to come in and disrupt or cause trouble, and inviting the Holy Spirit to come in and bring revelation.
Ask if anyone has a song. Eventually give someone the responsibility the night or so before to choose the song and to lead the prayer.
Let this time be a time of joy and peace that all can look forward to. It could be a good time to pray for others and to give testimonies of how God is working. Let everyone participate in some small way.
This time could be anywhere from 15-30 minutes but must be planned to maximize the time, yet allowing for the Holy Spirit to speak.
CHOOSING A SUITABLE BIBLE STUDY PROGRAM OR BOOK
If you use prepared bible studies, make sure these are relevant to your lifestyle and environment. Let the kids learn about that which they can immediately apply in school, around peers, etc. So choosing a good bible study is important since each family may vary in lifestyle according to their culture.
b) Teach your children to pray.
Remember God is only obligated to hear the prayer of faith, and since faith comes from hearing God’s word, teach them to pray God’s word or according to His word. Making them pray prayers when they have no word in them as their basis is vain. Teaching them the Word and Praying goes hand and hand.
Let them pray for themselves.
Let them pray for others.
Let them pray for those children around the world. A good prayer manual to send for is one that Samaritan’s purse puts out. In it, they pray for a country and the children of that country every month. Each month has a section to list prayer requests, to thank God for answered prayers, etc. These are free and may be sent for by calling Samaritan’s Purse or accessing them on the web at Samaritanpurse.com. As I mentioned above, my book, Women Called to Arms, has a section with Bible Memory Scripters for children. My Children’s Bible Journal is also a good resource for this purpose.
We must open our children’s awareness of the world around them and teach them to be thankful for what they have and many around the world are not fortunate to have. Before these books come, you may focus, for example, on our soldiers in Afghanistan and the children in Afghanistan. Pray for the needs you hear reported on the news. Let them also pray for the children in their classroom. Teach them to pray specific prayers, write these down and date them, Pray for these each day or once a week during the month, then look back to thank God for the answers.
Have a blessed journey on learning to be God’s child and teaching your children to be godly as you all study His precious word daily.
Look out for Part 3 of this 5 part series which will give you the second practical help on training your children in God’s way. You can find more information about this subject in my book, Women Called to Arms! If we’ve been a blessing to you, 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.