Revelation is progressive so if you have been a Christian of many years and still believe exactly as you did when you were first converted then perhaps you haven't understood what revelation is.

I was saved in 1959 over fifty years ago and although I still believe in many of the same basics as I did when I first heard the gospel preached, I see many aspects of Christianity, the church and the scriptures, differently from how I was first taught.         

To have the attitude, I was saved in a (i.e.) Baptist, an Evangelical, Calvinist, or Charismatic church and I believe whatever they teach without question and when I die I will go to Baptist, Evangelical , Calvinist, or Charismatic heaven,’ This will not work today for most hungry Christians. The Lord doesn't reveal all His knowledge and wisdom to any one person or group. "He that have ears to hear, let him hear," said Jesus. (Mark 4:9) 

The Spirit of Revelation

If you are dissatisfied with your Christian experience then you probably have the spirit of revelation coming upon you. If you are saying "This can't be all there is, there must be more for me and for my children, then the spirit of revelation is activating in you.  Paul said to the believers in Ephesus, "I do not cease to give thanks for you and I pray for you so that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power."  (Eph.1:16-19)

The Christian life is a wonderful powerful, ongoing experience, but the traditional religious life tends to be boring, monotonous, demanding and restricting. Many Christians don't know what is their glorious inheritance that Paul was writing about. In fact many don't even realize that there is an inheritance for them that they can experience now, not only when we get to heaven.  But God is the God of now.  Now is the day of salvation which includes provision for the whole person in this life and the life to come.

"He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Rom.8:32)  

The greater includes the lesser. If we as believers are expected to trust God with our eternal destiny, then we must also be able to trust Him to provide for all of our temporal needs.

Encountering the Reality of God

In the days that we are living in,  there is so much going on in the world and so many choices offered, both legitimate and suspect, (especially for our children) that mere religion or Christian education cannot sustain them or compete with the offers of the world. Our kids are being inundated with fun, fun, and more fun. Video games, movies, music, pop and rock stars, teenage idols, and competitive sports and games. If they have been put into a government run school then they are in danger of being brainwashed by secular teachers and abused by worldly kids. This is not to say that fun is forbidden, I've enjoyed writing some funny fantasy books for children. I also have written some great illustrated Bible Study books for kids. Proverbs tells us that there is a time for everything under the sun. I often tell children when they come to church there is time to play and a time to pray; it's not all playtime. We must have a better alternative to offer them.

How about an encounter with the reality of God through the power of the Holy Spirit? Some years ago I was doing a large children's camp in with a church in Denver when two young girls who were born deaf and dumb were healed in the meeting after the kids had prayed for them.  When the children returned from the mountain camp on the Saturday afternoon they were met by their parents in the church parking lot. The parents asked the children if they enjoyed the tomahawk throwing, the swimming and the ball games. The kids replied. "That was OK, but the meetings were awesome. Kids were getting healed and God was moving and using us.  And please we want to come to the main church meeting tomorrow morning, because our speaker, David Walters is preaching."  The Holy Spirit is always more exciting than fun and games.

Changes in Church

Traditional Sunday morning church going must change. No more will it be a predictable, canned program. Hungry believers want something more than a good program.  When Jesus was approached by Nicodemas He not only told Nicodemas that he must be born again, but He also went on to say that, "The wind blows where it wishes and you can hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it's coming from or where it goes So is everyone who is born of the spirit." (John 3:8)  If we as born again spirit filled Christians, we are to be as free and as unpredictable as the wind, then when we gather together corporately, our meetings will also be like the wind. How about a fresh wind blowing through your church on a Sunday morning where anything can happen and anyone can be used, because the Holy Spirit is in control?  

A large part of our ministry has been bringing children into all that God has for them. But for that to really work we have to include the parents, teachers, youth pastors and children's workers. The vision or revelation must be imparted to everyone, including the senior pastors. Jesus ministered to the children, not with games and fun things, but with his love and power and saw their potential and calling. (See Matt.19:14-15. Matt.11:25. Matt.18:3-4.) When it says that Jesus laid hands on them that doesn't mean that He gave them a little blessing because they were cute, it wasn't a pat on the head.  He anointed them and ministered to them. When it says He suffered the children to come to Him, it doesn't mean suffer in the sense of putting up with something, but in the Greek it says, "Allow and do not prevent."

Churches can have a great revelation of prosperity, but the children in the same church can be poor in anointed teaching which makes them poor spiritually, because they have no real relationship with the God, and know little about the anointing and the riches in Christ we are all meant to experience.

Children Experiencing God

The youngest worshipper recorded in the Bible was John the Baptist who worshipped God in his mother's womb.  Also he was filled with the spirit before he was born. Does your church know or teach that? Are your children moving in the anointing, prophesying and praying for the sick and being used powerfully in the Kingdom?

Do the kids in your church know that they can? We have seen everyone, including the small children, have amazing experiences with God. What a wonderful sight to see kids and adults lost in the presence of the Lord for many hours. Weeping, shaking, laughing, taking up into heaven, seeing angels, some stuck and unable to move, even some have been unable to speak at all for hours.

We have had so many testimonies over the years from children now grown that their lives were changed and are bringing their own children to experience the same. Children are entitled to their own personal Pentecost. Once this happens, children and youth begin to move in evangelism, healing, the prophetic and all the gifts of the spirit. So many miracles have happened when we have encouraged the children to pray; not just amongst themselves, but also to adults..

Many deaf ears and blind eyes have been opened. Many people suffering in pain and disease have been healed through children laying their hands on them and commanding them to be healed in the name of Jesus?  In our churches, why can't some of our children be part of the ministry team, the worship team, and the intercessors? Are they not qualified? Their qualification does not depend necessarily upon their age, but their intimacy with the Father and their love for Jesus. If God can use the children that we consider to be the least qualified then there is hope for all of us. So often the average Christian has sat back and left the entire ministry to the "professionals" or the guy on the platform.

Let's not be average anymore, but enter in by faith to all that God has for us. Remember God has a destiny for all of us, including our children and grandchildren. When they experience being born again, they are not endowed with a junior or baby version of the Holy Spirit. They can be filled with the Holy Spirit and anointed as much as anyone else.

Children Prophesying

A while ago the Lord told my wife, Kathie, to pray for the sick. She forgot because she gets after the religious spirits. God spoke to her again but again she didn't do it, because she gets after the religious spirits. When we were eating out at a Bonefish restaurant a few weeks ago my little six year old grand daughter, Inisfree jumped up on the chair and pointed at Kathie. "Nana, God said pray for the sick." then she sat down and continued her dinner.

When we were part of a church in Gainesville Florida, we picked the children up (about 6 of them) after the Wednesday night service) they all began to prophesy one by one. They prophesied that the church had prayed for the Holy Spirit to come, but when He came, the people didn't really want Him. Another child prophesied that the Pastor would leave his wife, and another said the Pastor would leave in two weeks. Another said the church would close (about a 300 people church) and the last one said "In two weeks."  Then they asked if they could go play in the tree swing.

Why does God tell such things to children? Well for a start they don't make the judgments we as adults make and quite honestly they aren't that interested enough to think about it much.  So, they speak the words the Holy Spirit gives them and then forget about it usually. Everything they prophesied came to pass within two weeks 

Well obviously we could go on and on with stories... Read "Kids in Combat" - how God sees your children, how God has used children in history, and what is happening now.