Book: Redefining Children’s Ministry in the 21st Century
Author: Becky Fischer
Chapter 5: Eli! Eli! I’m Calling You to Children’s Ministry!

Premise of the Book: We have a crisis in the modern and postmodern church concerning ministry to children. According to George Barna, 70% of the children we have raised in church will leave the church as young adults.

The main thrust of this chapter is two-fold:
1. To encourage the senior pastor of a church to take interest and get involved in the children’s ministry. Becky has noticed that when the spiritual father of the house is mentally and emotionally engaged with the children of his church, the children are more spiritual healthy, on fire, and secure in who they are in Christ. When the spiritual leader of the house is absent, then the opposite can usually be observed.

2. To recognize the call to children’s ministry. Becky was “tricked” into doing children’s ministry because there was simply no one else who wanted to do it. With a kind of righteous indignation, she took on the task and stumbled upon her destiny. Becky also openly wonders if some senior pastors, missionaries, and five-fold ministers might have missed the call to children’s ministry considering 1/3 of the world population is less than 19 years of age (I’m assuming she has noticed less than 1/3 of five-fold ministers are ministering to children). Lastly, she discusses what many churches would look for in hiring the ideal children’s pastor. Many churches tend to look for clowns, puppeteers, good entertainers, or great administrators who like kids. She challenges churches to hire a person that walks in some type of five-fold ministry. Her reasoning is that children need to be equipped for ministry, not just entertained and managed.

Book: With Christ in the School of Prayer
Chapter 9: Pray the Lord of the Harvest; OR Prayer Provides Laborers

“Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is ‘plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38).

Why does He ask His disciples to pray for this? Could He not pray Himself? Would not one prayer of His achieve more than a thousand of theirs? Is God, the Lord of the harvest, not aware of the need? And would He not, in His own good time, send laborers without the disciples’ prayers? Such questions lead us into the deepest mysteries of prayer and its power in the Kingdom of God. The answer to such questions will convince us that prayer is indeed a power on which the gathering of the harvest and the coming of the Kingdom do in very truth depend.

This paragraph, and especially the last sentence, really hit me hard. Somehow, the coming of God’s Kingdom (His reign & rule) depends on my prayer. The words that I release from my mouth wield a supernatural power. In the name of Jesus, I have authority to release the powers of heaven to do the work of the Kingdom on earth. In many ways, I cannot comprehend this mystery!

But since He entrusted them with the work and made it to a large extent dependent on them, He gives them authority to apply to Him for laborers and makes the supply dependent on their prayer.

In every church I have been to, one of the greatest complaints I have heard from leadership is that “20% of the people do 80% of the work”. And it’s true! This problem has several contributing factors, not least of which is a kind of Consumeristic Christianity that has emerged over the past 50 years. I won’t get on that soapbox now!

The point that I do want to make, though, is that Jesus makes a promise. Did you know that God has never broken a promise? He is completely faithful to the covenant that he made with his people; and, he is faithful to all promises that are bound to that covenant. In this passage, Jesus is telling us that we can rightfully invoke this covenantal promise! And, he WILL DO what he says. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be a faithful God. Is it possible that the problem isn’t on God’s end, but on ours?

Why don’t we obey the Master’s instruction more heartily and cry more earnestly for laborers? There are two reasons.

1) We miss the compassion of Jesus which gave rise to this request for prayer. Believers must learn to love their neighbors as themselves and to live entirely for God’s glory in their relationships with fellow-men.

2) We believe too little in the power of prayer to bring about definite results. We do not live close enough to God to be capable of the confidence that He will answer. We have not surrendered entirely to His service and Kingdom. But our lack of faith will be overcome as we plead for help.

Yes, the problem isn’t on God’s end. Two key elements that we, his disciples, are lacking: 1) The compassion of Jesus; and 2) Thinking too little of the power of our prayer.

Let us pray for a life in union with Christ, so that His compassion streams into us and His Spirit assures us that our prayer is heard.

Amen!

Let us set apart time and give all of ourselves to this part of our intercessory work. It will lead us into the fellowship of that compassionate heart of His that led Him to call for our prayers. It will give us the insight of our royal position as children of the King whose will counts for something with the great God in the advancement of His Kingdom.

Book: With Christ in the School of Prayer
Chapter 7: How much more the Holy Spirit OR The All Comprehensive Gift

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him! Luke 11:13

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord had already given utterance to His wonderful How much more? Here in Luke, where He repeats the question, there is a difference. Instead of speaking, as then, of giving good gifts, He says, ‘How much more shall the heavenly Father give THE HOLY SPIRIT?’ He thus teaches us that the chief and the best of these gifts is the Holy Spirit, or rather, that in this gift all others are comprised. The Holy Spirit is the first of the Father’s gifts, and the one He delights most to bestow. The Holy Spirit is therefore the gift we ought first and chiefly to seek.

When Andrew Murray pointed out the subtle difference between Matthew and Luke account of the same story, it was like a light bulb going off in my head. See for yourself:

Matthew 7.11 NRSV
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Luke 11:13 NRSV
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

At times, I think we get caught up in desiring to have more spiritual gifts manifest in our meetings. We eagerly expect a healing or a prophecy or a miracle. These things are good, actually very good! However, Murray squarely points out that it’s our Father’s desire to give us – first and foremost – The Gift of His Spirit. It is from this Gift that all of the other gifts flow.

As the Spirit of the Father, and the Son, the whole life and love of the Father and the Son are in Him; and coming down into us, He lifts us up into their fellowship. … The Father can bestow no higher or more wonderful gift than this: His own Holy Spirit, the Spirit of sonship.

Let me ask you some probing hypothetical questions: Let’s say for a moment that the Spiritual gifts never existed (administration, preaching, teaching, knowledge, leadership, wisdom, healing, prophecy, mercy, miracles, tongues, service, etc). Let’s say that the only gift we ever received, at the time of becoming of a Christian, was only the Holy Spirit. 1. What would you do with that gift for the rest of your life? 2. Would you find yourself getting bored with that gift? 3. Will that gift be destined to become abandoned and forgotten like almost every other Christmas gift?

I believe that all of us, in some sense, can loose sight of why the Holy Spirit is the first and greatest of all the gifts. Through the Spirit the very presence of God is dwelling inside of us. It is through the Spirit we can now enjoy intimate fellowship with our Creator and Lord.

If we but yield ourselves entirely to the disposal of the Spirit, and let Him have His way with us, He will manifest the life of Christ within us.

When we have fellowship with God through the Holy Spirit, we cannot help but become more like Jesus: the person who exemplified what it meant to have intimate fellowship with the Father. I believe this intimate fellowship is the essence of kingdom living.

Between the years 2016 and 2020 we will see the beginnings of a revolution that will transform the face of Christianity. I have been opening my eyes to the children of today (age 5 to 12) and I believe we are going to see a massive resurgence of mysticism, a fresh openness to the supernatural, and a strong desire for social change.

What is our generation (those 18-35) doing to train and equip these young people in the areas of the Kingdom of God? *Now* is the time to build up the body of Christ! *Today* is our opportunity to make a difference. It’s time get involved the lives of today’s children. We must love them and be good stewards of the grace that has been given to us.

We can’t wait until middle school or high school or even college to reach *these* children. Their worldview is being formed *today*.

There is a church on the north side of Columbus called Northside Community Church. They are a charismatic/apostolic church associated with Christian International. On the 3rd Friday night of each month, they have something called “School of the Holy Spirit”. Basically, it is a night of worship, teaching, and receiving prophetic ministry. I’ve been there numerous Friday evenings and their ministry has blessed me beyond words.

But, something has been different over the past 3 months. Ever since the Lakeland Revival started in May…

The leaders of Northside Community Church have been on the Todd Bentley bandwagon and have traveled to Lakeland, and one other place where Todd Bentley has ministered, and I think they’re planning on visiting another Todd Bentley appearance in the near future. In short, the Lakeland Revival is part of a greater movement called “The Saints Movement”. This movement was prophesied by Bishop Bill Hamon several years ago and just recently he announced we are in a time of fulfillment. So what is the “Saints Movement”?

The Saints Movement is a time when the saints – that is, believers in Jesus Christ – recognize and act on the understanding that Christ has empowered and commissioned each of them to be the Church 24/7, manifesting the Kingdom of God wherever they live and work.

In other words, Bill Hamon has announced we are in a time of healing, miracles, deliverance, signs, wonders, and other manifestations of the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit. These manifestations would not be limited to an elite few, nor limited to the Charismatic groups, but rather it will spread to all Christians (the saints at large).

This prophecy excites me because it’s Biblical. Jesus commissioned us to go and make disciples and he said that signs and wonders would accompany those who believe (Mark 16:15-18). These signs and wonders are manifestations of the Kingdom of God. I am all for Jesus and his Kingdom!

Now, with that said, I am not happy with how certain Charismatic circles are handling this prophecy from Bill Hamon. For decades, charismatics have been chomping at the bit for an increase in signs and wonders… and it’s like this prophecy has stirred their emotional pot too much. Let me give you an example.

I’ve been making some observations about the way Northside Community Church has been doing their School of the Holy Spirit over the past year. Right around May 2008, the start of the Lakeland Revival, the leaders of Northside Community Church have been getting REALLY hungry for God. That’s a good thing! They’ve been bringing their passion and expectancy to their church and that is a very good thing! But, from my perspective, they are increasingly forcing things to happen. In June 2008, they really didn’t force anything. In July 2008, I got a sense they were forcing things a little. In August 2008, it’s blatantly obvious that they’re forcing the move of God.

Each of these three months, Northside Community Church has made space during their monthly meetings to impart the Spirit and “give it away” (that is a huge thing right now with this present revival). Impartation is basically the laying of hands and the transference of an anointing. Their impartation in June 2008 was relatively low key and there weren’t many outward manifestations of the Spirit. Their impartation in July 2008 got a little bit more emotional and some people were falling on the ground after an impartation. Their impartation in August 2008 was way more emotional and it felt forced. Let me explain…

On August 15th I invited my wife to join me to School of the Holy Spirit at Northside Community Church (not to be confused with our August 1st visit to Marion Christian Center). After the time of singing songs, NCC had an extra-extra-extra long time of speaking/singing in tongues. It probably lasted about 7 minutes (an increase from the usual 2 minutes). During that time, they kept telling us to “Stir up the Holy Spirit! Stir up the Holy Spirit!” After that, they had their impartation time. They invited people to come up and probably 75% of the people in the room came forward for an impartation. While they laid hands on people, my wife noticed that almost everyone who came up for an impartation were swaying and falling backward. She took interest in this and began to watch more closely.

As she began to observe, she noticed something that concerned her. She nudged my arm and said, “Do you see what they’re doing?”

I said, “Yeah, they’re imparting the Spirit and some people are getting emotional.”

[Someone falls over]

She said, “He just pushed her!”

I said, “You’re right, I did see his hand push her a little, maybe a few inches.”

[Someone else falls over]

She said, “He just pushed over another one!”

I said, “You’re right, that did look like a small push.”

[Someone else falls over]

She said, “What the heck! Why is he pushing people???”

I said, “I don’t know, they’ve never done this before.”

She said, “And why does he keep laughing really weird? It’s kind of scary.”

I said, “I don’t know. I think he’s full of the joy from the Lord.”

[Someone keeps teetering, but doesn't quite fall over]

She said, “Why does he keep pushing her? She doesn’t want to fall over!”

I said, “You’re right, he doesn’t know when to stop.”

She said, “I don’t trust him anymore.”

She continues, “…and If he pushes me, I’m pushing him back!”

I burst out laughing! That was the funniest most random thing I’ve heard my wife say in a long time. Watch out all you Charismatics! If you push my wife, she WILL push you back!

On a serious note, what they were doing up there with pushing is wrong. Even though it’s a harmless nudge, and no one is getting hurt, it’s still not an authentic move of God. God doesn’t need your help making people fall under the power of his Spirit!

If you’re pushing people to give the impression that a sign or wonder has taken place, stop it! Just because someone falls, doesn’t mean that God’s power was at work. And if someone doesn’t fall, that doesn’t mean God wasn’t at work.

Stop the Charismatic shenanigans!