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I'm still amazed at how many parents and even preachers don't believe that God can use children in a supernatural way when the Bible has many stories of God using kids and teenagers.


God Uses Kids
Ask yourself these questions:  Is the Bible the Word of God? Do you believe the Bible is true? Does God use children in the gifts of the Spirit such as prophecy, word of wisdom, gifts of healings, and working of miracles?

If you answered "yes" to the first two questions, then you should have no problem answering "yes" to the third question, because the Bible has many stories of God using kids and youth; for example, Samuel, David, Daniel, and the three Hebrew children.

Let's take a closer look at this story of Samuel. In chapter one of 1 Samuel, we see that Hannah was barren; she had no children.

One day Hannah went to the temple and poured out her heart to God. Hannah made a promise to God that if He would give her a son, she would give him to the Lord for the ministry.

God answered Hannah's prayer. She conceived and gave birth to a strong, healthy boy. Hannah named him Samuel, which means "asked of God."

When Samuel was weaned (my guess would be between the ages of 2-4), Hannah brought him to the temple and gave him to Eli to train for ministry.

Who knows what Eli thought of this—maybe he thought Hannah was trying to get free day care!

This was not an easy thing for Hannah to do, but Hannah was very determined about keeping her promise to God.

God Speaks
This brings us to the story in chapter three where God speaks to Samuel. God spoke to Samuel four times before Samuel was able to receive the word from God.

Why did God have to speak four times? Was it the will of God for Samuel to hear the first time? Of course it was.

If God is calling you by name, I think it's pretty clear that He wants to talk to you. So why did God have to speak four times? What happened between the third time and the fourth time?

Verse 7 is very enlightening. It says, "Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord revealed to him."

This tells me that Eli was not doing a good job as Samuel's teacher because Samuel did not really know the Lord yet and he hadn't been taught to hear from God.

Hannah brought Samuel to the temple for the express purpose of being trained in ministry, but Eli wasn't doing his part.

I think the reason that Eli didn't teach Samuel about these things was because he thought, like a lot of adults do, that children can't be used by God until they "grow up."

Let's take a closer look at verses 8 and 9:
And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he rose and went to Eli and said, "Here am I, for you did call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call then that you shalt say, Speak, Lord; for the servant heareth."
(1 Sam. 3:8-9)
Notice in verse 8 it says, "Eli perceived the Lord had called." I believe that this is the first time Eli thought, "Hey! Maybe God's talking to you, Samuel."

Here's my point:  Samuel did not receive the word from God until his teacher believed that he could.

There are three individuals involved with this story:  God, the teacher, and the child. It took all three to "have faith" before Samuel received.

Source: Children and the Holy Spirit by Mark Harper
Excerpt permission granted by Mark Harper Ministries

Author Biography

Mark Harper
Web site: Mark Harper Ministries
 
Pastor and Leadership Coach, Mark Harper has 35 years of experience in the local church. He is the creator of the Super Church 2.0 Curriculum, which is used in over 5,000 churches worldwide. The focus of Mark's ministry is helping leaders build strong churches and helping parents build strong families. Not only has Mark served in the local church as pastor, associate pastor, and family ministry pastor but he is also a certified coach with the John Maxwell Team. He also recently released the Amazon Best Selling book The Red Book: The Lifeblood of Children's Ministry.
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