Unlocking Identity: Equip Your Children to Hear God's Voice with Confidence

My Story

Going to church my whole life, I knew about Jesus, what He had done on the cross for me, and that I wanted to serve Him. But nobody told me how to have a relationship with Him.

For 30 years I wrestled with knowing who God was to me. I believed in Him, I knew the Bible was true, but He seemed distant, distracted, and unconnected to my life. It wasn't until I was in my 30s that someone told me that I could hear the voice of God.

That seemed like a radical idea to me, but as I searched the scriptures and began praying about it, I realized that God spoke to people throughout the Bible; like Samuel, Moses, and Elijah, why couldn't He speak to me. 

I began praying and asking God to speak to me. At the time, I was on fire for the Lord. He had radically transformed my life, (you can read about it in THIS POST) and I would spend hours sitting at my kitchen table learning more about Jesus and reading His Word. I was hungry for intimacy and knowledge of who He was to me, not just what others had told me about Him. I had felt a nudge into ministry and knew that I wanted to serve Jesus more but wasn't sure where to start. 

My husband and I started going to a church we felt God was leading us to. I was a little hesitant to commit because the church didn't have a children's pastor, and we had 3 kids in the children's program. But I released that to the Lord and told Him that I trusted Him with the decision.

While we were sitting in service one Sunday, the pastor came up to share "The Giving Challenge" and encouraged everyone in the church to give a little more throughout the rest of the year so they could afford to pay a children's pastor. In my mind, I began praising God, because He had answered my prayer. And as if from somewhere in the room a "thought" dropped into my heart "It's going to be you."

Me? I couldn't believe it. The first time I heard God's voice I had a knee jerk reaction that it wasn't true, it was so out of character. I didn't have any ministry training, I didn't know the first thing about children's ministry, and it hadn't been a thought I had ever had before. It was must different than any other thought I had thought before. Could it be God? 

I took a few weeks to ponder it, talk about it with my husband, and seek God's Word. I still wasn't sure if this thought was from God or just my own mind, but I decided to put it to the test and asked God that if it was really from Him, He would make it very clear. I turned to my Bible and during my normal morning Bible reading time I was reading one chapter a day through the book of Judges. That day I happened to be in Judges 6 and when I got to verse 14 it said, "Go in the might I have given you, have I not called you?" The words seemed to jump off the page and slap me in the face. 

God really had spoken to me, and He confirmed it through His Word and the people around me (my husband and parents who encouraged me ahead in the process). I was blown away. I called the lead pastor that day and asked for a meeting to put my name in the hat for the job. 6 months later I was hired and I have been in ministry ever since. 

Since that time, I have made it a priority to teach children how to hear God's voice.

Hearing God's Voice

Hearing God's voice is the Key to unlocking your child's identity in Christ. If they can't discern the difference between His voice, the enemy's, or their own, how can we expect to obey Him?

Hearing God's voice is the most important tool we can teach our kids to help them build their relationship with him. If someone had told me that God speaks back when I was a child I would have listened.

Like Samuel in 1 Samuel 3. His mentor had to tell him that it was God speaking to Him, and how he should respond. When we teach kids how to hear God's voice, we are setting them up for success in their relationship with Him. No longer are they dependent on those outside themselves, but on the Holy Spirit, leading, guiding, and directing them. 

There is also no Jr. Holy Spirit. They are capable of hearing God's voice from an early age. Parents, leaders, and mentors can help navigate them toward what God's Word says to confirm it for them. Or sometimes God speaks through them to parents, leaders, and mentors.

We cannot limit the power of God speaking to us, what He is saying, and our responsibility to hear it and obey. 

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." Deuteronomy 6:4

We must hear and obey the voice of the Lord to continue walking in right relationship with Him. 

But How?

How do you equip your children to hear God's voice with confidence? 

By training them, modeling it, and giving them opportunity to practice.

Train Them

Study together what the Bible says about God speaking. Maybe you have your own misconceptions about God's voice. Maybe you aren't sure if He talks to you. Wrestle with the Lord about it. Ask Him to show you He speaks, then listen. If your relationship with Him is one-sided, where you do all the talking, maybe its time to stop your mind and listen. 

Model It

The best way I have found to model it is by inviting my children into the big decisions of our family, or the things my husband and I are wrestling with ourselves. For example, when we felt like God was going to move us to a different home we invited the kids into the decision. To pray about it, listen for God's voice, and talk about what He said.

Another great way to model it is by providing prayer prompts for them to participate in: What does God say about you? Write it down, or write a Bible verse that comes to your mind. This is a great exercise because it allows you to identify the truth from the lies.

Our thoughts can come from 3 different places: ourselves, enemy, and God. How can you tell the difference? The ones from God align with scripture. If you or your children have trouble hearing his voice, try quieting your mind and erasing everything in it and imagine a blank piece of paper. Then ask God to write or draw on it and then you copy what you see. Hearing God's voice takes practice, intentionality, and space. He is a gentleman and won't make you. 

Practice

How do you practice it? By using the activities, I have outlined above or starting a family worship night, where you can practice listening for God to speak. Check out the free course HERE for starting your own worship night. 

When we give God space to speak, He will. He will help us with our identity and who He says that we are, instead of the lies we have believed about ourselves. How do you tell the difference? Learn to discern God's voice above the rest. 

When you do that, you will unlock your destiny, because then the relationship can really begin. To learn more about building identity in your kids: Check out the course HERE. 

Check out this Video for more about Identity.

God is always speaking. It is time to train our kids to listen.