Experiencing God at Home (21 page)

As you teach your children to pray, help them learn to take their eyes off of themselves and to begin looking at the needs of others around them. Watch for opportunities to encourage people at school or in your neighborhood or among your friends and relatives. Ask God to work in their lives and situations and then watch to see how God includes you in His answer! God will guide you to pray for things He is about to do in people around you. It is exciting when your family participates in God’s activity in the lives of others.

3. The Church

Christ dwells within every believer. That means that when you encounter another Christian, you also have the possibility of hearing from Christ, who dwells within them (John 13:20). We should never discount what God could say to us through even the most ordinary Christian. God may choose to reveal His will for you by what He says through another. That is what being a part of a body of believers, a church, is all about (1 Cor. 12:12–31). In fact, God created His people to be interdependent, not independent. If we are to have access to everything God wants to share with us, we will need to live our life in close relationship with other believers. Each member of the church has a unique perspective and role to play (Rom. 12:4).

God may choose to speak to you through what the pastor preaches on Sunday or through what the Bible study leader mentions during his lesson. God might save His most profound word for you until you are talking with a friend in the lobby after the worship service is over. Whether or not the preacher or speaker is lively, boring, clever, funny, or inspiring, it is the divine message they deliver that is important, not the messenger. God may give other people who have been praying for you a special Scripture verse that applies specifically to your situation. He may give them an insight into a problem you are facing that brings you direction, resolution, and comfort.

At times, church members may encourage you or endorse you for particular places of ministry, such as was the case with George W. Truett (1867–1944). A humble country boy, he had moved with his family to Texas from North Carolina. He intended to be a lawyer, but during a meeting at his church, a deacon made a motion to ordain Truett to the gospel ministry. Though he initially protested, he relented to the call of God on his life, feeling unworthy of the position. His fellow church members affirmed God’s activity in his life, and Truett eventually served as pastor of First Baptist in Dallas for forty-seven years, growing it to be one of the most influential churches in America. Not everything people say is necessarily a “word from God” and should always be tested against what God’s Word says. Nevertheless, we should trust God with both the method and the messenger. Our role is to discern what God is saying and then immediately respond in obedience.

The same is true for your home. When God has access to someone’s heart, no matter what their age, God can use them for His purposes. In fact, many of the people our family has ministered to were introduced to us through one of our children. We have taught one friend’s mother to drive, shown a new family where to shop for kid’s clothes, helped repair the car of another family, put together a friend’s IKEA furniture, and cared for many children when their parents needed child care. Being a part of a church means being a part of a family, where we all have a right and a responsibility to speak truth into the lives of one another.

This truth has enormous application for parents in terms of seeking counsel from others. Parenting is one of the most challenging leadership roles you will ever be given. It is impossible to experience success apart from receiving God’s guidance. It behoves every parent to seek counsel from other believers. For example, your teenage son may be rebelling against your authority, and you may feel that the best thing is to ask him to move out of the house. But when you talk to your friend about it, she feels led to emphasize God’s grace and long-suffering. As a result, you decide to hold off on the unpleasant confrontation and see what God is about to do in your child’s life. Or you are frustrated with the negative influence a friend is exerting on your ten-year-old son. As you discuss this with your friend at church, she mentions a new family that just joined your church who also has a ten-year-old son. You decide to invite the family over for lunch after church where the two boys meet and ultimately become best friends. God will often use other believers to help address specific issues we are facing. It would be foolish for parents to assume their problems were no one else’s business but their own and refuse to talk about them with others. If God has a word for you and your family, you want to receive it from any source, at any time, under any situation!

Colombia Calling

A Colombian family was struggling with the violence in their society and were worried about raising their family amid the gangs and corruption that was so prevalent. As relatively new Christians, they asked God for guidance. The husband was a structural engineer; the mother, a fashion designer. They thought they would be good candidates for immigrating to a safer country. They had read
Experiencing God
and noted that many of the stories were from Canada, so that became their destination of choice. After finding a place to live and joining a church, they began to make a life for themselves in their new country. But the plight of Colombian children was never far from their hearts. In 2008, Jorge and Tirza convinced their church that they should begin a food distribution ministry among the slums on Nativity Hill, on the edge of Medellin, Colombia. Through business connections as an engineer and with the help of his church family, funds were raised, building materials donated, teams sent, and a structure built on 2.2 acres of land near the slums. A pastor was hired, kitchen staff employed, and equipment given to make a secure facility to feed children and, through sponsors, give them needed school supplies, medical and dental care, school uniforms, and eventually sending graduated teenagers to the university. Seeds of Love and Hope International Ministry provided forty-five thousand meals last year. It also sponsors ninety-three children through families in their church and community. The congregation is ministering beyond the walls of their church, their town, and even their country, and lives are being transformed daily. All this because one family sought to follow through with what God was placing on their heart. Can you imagine what God might do through
your
family if you listened for His voice and then did what He said?

4. Circumstances

God is an expert at engineering circumstances to provide answers and direction for our questions. The job opportunity that comes out of the blue, the invitation to speak at a special gathering of people, the request for you to host a Bible study in your home, the coach who asks you to help him with your child’s team, the unexpected check that arrives in the mail are not coincidences but God at work around you. Some people mistake an “open door” or a “closed door” as clear evidence of God’s activity. God may indeed open a door for you to walk through, but not every open door is from God. Satan offered several “open doors” for Jesus to walk through that would have destroyed His ministry (Matt. 4). Likewise, some doors (Moses and the Red Sea, Joshua and Jericho, Christ and the cross) may appear closed when, in fact, God intends for you to walk right through them. The key is for you to seek God’s interpretation of your situation. The various circumstances you face in life will appear confusing apart from God’s explanation. Some have observed that the difference between coincidences and God-directed circumstances is in the timing. God loves to act
after
we pray and just in time. He is rarely early and never late.

From Russia with Love (An Example from Tom)

My two older children had an opportunity to go with their youth group on a mission trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, while we were living in Europe. While there, they ministered to residents of an orphanage as well as to children with tuberculosis at a residential school. The mission team led children in games, Bible stories, and music, as well as doing minor repairs on the facilities. They came home with the usual souvenirs, big furry black hats, and changed personalities. We lived in a very well-to-do society at the time where families went to Paris to shop, London for a show, Prague for Christmas, and Austria to ski. Most children at their international school sported the latest stylish clothing, accessories, and electronics. But seeing the poverty, the living conditions, and the bleak future of many of those Russian children changed my kids. Suddenly they were thanking me for everything. Thanks for dinner, thanks for driving me to my practise, thanks for going to my game, thanks for helping me with my homework, thanks, thanks, thanks. When my son’s birthday was approaching, I asked him what he wanted. He said, “Oh, nothing really. I have everything I need . . . maybe a shirt.” What???!! No iPod, no Nintendo game, no $200 pair of jeans or $330 basketball shoes? I wanted to ask the youth pastor where my real kids were (though I didn’t want to give up the ones he had brought back!). The circumstances God put them in truly spoke to their hearts, and they were never the same again.

One of the keys to parenting is to place your children in situations and circumstances where they can clearly hear from God. As we write this, Richard’s twenty-one-year-old daughter is in Greece on a two-week mission trip. It has stretched her beyond anything she has done before. But it is amazing to hear what God is teaching her! At times, parents can get their priorities confused. For example, some parents believe their children need to learn to work so they encourage them to take a Wednesday evening job at a fast-food establishment, even though Wednesdays are when the church youth group has its weekly worship and teaching time. While it
is
good for children to learn good work ethics, it is even more crucial to learn to hear from God. These same youth may have to forego the summer mission trip to inner city New York next summer because of that same job. While these kids earn money for iPads and designer clothes, other kids are experiencing life-changing moments on mission trips and youth-oriented worship times. Parents ought to do everything possible to provide opportunities for their children to receive and process a word from God.

Are You Hearing from God?

The pastor of Friendship Community Church decided he would take seriously the truth that God was the Head of His church. And, as the Head, God could clearly guide His church if only His people would listen to Him. Every Sunday night the pastor allowed time for “God Watch” sharing time. During this time, people were invited to tell the congregation where they saw God working in their workplace, schools, business, and family. At first, the church members didn’t know what to say. But after they began to watch for God working around them, they began to see His activity everywhere. For the first few weeks, the time was spent in awkward silence while people wracked their brains trying to recall anything they had witnessed God doing in their lives. But gradually the sharing time was transformed into a cacophony of enthusiastic reports from people of all ages. Often answers to prayer were shared and opportunities to witness reported. The Holy Spirit was drawing people to suddenly ask their Christian colleague questions about God. Other members were feeling led to begin a Bible study at work or at their child’s school. New ministries were launched as church members responded to what God was initiating around them. The church exploded with growth as its members began watching throughout the day for what God might reveal to them next about His activity.

When you learn to identify God’s activity, you will regularly see Him at work. When you listen for God, you will regularly hear Him speaking to you. What you see and hear could forever change your life.

Questions for Reflection/Discussion

1. What has God been revealing to you during your personal Bible study lately?

2. What answers or instructions has God been directing you to during your prayer time?

3. What have people in your church been saying lately about what God is telling them?

4. Are there any circumstances that have arisen that you think God may be using to speak to you?

5. Can you think of a recent time when you ignored what God’s Spirit was saying to you? What was the consequence?

6. When was the last time you spoke with your spouse about what you sensed God saying?

7. Has God been speaking to any of your children? If so, what has He been saying, and how have you been helping your children respond to God’s Word?

8. What are some ways you could help teach your children to hear from God?

Chapter 12

God’s Invitation for You to Work with Him Always Leads You to a Crisis of Belief That Requires Faith and Action

Growth through Bungee Jumping (An Example from Richard)

As they were growing up, my two sons, Mike and Daniel, were all boys. They loved adventure and pushing the edge of the envelope. My daughter Carrie, on the other hand, was the undisputed family princess. For whatever reason, she was timid about certain things. For one, she was extremely close to her mother. For years it was difficult for Carrie to part from her for long. This resulted in numerous stints for Lisa as a parent volunteer on school field trips, outdoor education excursions, and children’s camps! Carrie eventually grew independent enough to go to summer camp sans her mother, but it was always complicated.