Day four of Summer Fun University (SFU) came to a close with children praying for each other. Each afternoon, during our worship ministry time, I would feel a tug on my shirt from the same little seven-year-old, who asks, “Pastor Ray, is it ok if I go and pray for the children?” My response is always the same: “Yes, of course.”
Today, I watch as she steps around those who have already been prayed for, heading purposely to children who are still waiting around, watching and hoping for God to touch their hearts. It is as if she is following a higher power guiding her and her little friend to exactly the right child. Gently, she stops and asks if she can pray for them. Each one bows their head and closes their eyes. She first takes their hands and, raising them high above their shoulders, a tiny, soft, Richter-scale-registering prayer flows from her heart. In just moments, she releases their hands and touches their forehead. Almost every time the same thing happens … The power of God takes over and the child being prayed for ends up in the arms of her little friend, who then gently lays them on the carpet where they stay for several minutes or longer. Then off she goes to another, with the same result. I began to wonder where she learned to pray this way—with such anointed power—but then, I know where it came from.
Those who know me as a children’s minister know that it is very rare that I actually pray by laying hands on children, unless a child asks that I personally pray for them. It’s not that I don’t want to pray for children, but that I feel it’s my calling to teach children to minister to each other. This little girl has watched many times as the Knights of God pray for children, and has witnessed life-changing results. Each of these Knights has learned, and is now a mentor on, how to pray, intercede, and minister to others.
If we don’t teach our children how to pray, how to minister, how to move under the direction of the Holy Spirit, then we will end up raising a generation of needy, entitled, weak Christians who have no idea of, or inclination for, anyone else’s needs but their own. Nor would they know how to “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2 NKJV).
Scripture plainly tells us in Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV) that we must, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Each and every day, every worship service, every lesson I teach is laced with training on how to minister to those around us, and how to defend our faith and beliefs. I know that Jesus did the very same thing with His disciples and followers. Then He sent them out into the towns and villages to minister the truth of God’s love with incredible, earth-changing results. We train the Knights of God, not only to lead in worship, but also to minister and pray. They, in turn, teach and train the next level of our children’s church, and as was evident during SFU, we are seeing the fruit of that training. It is my intention to leave a well-oiled, strong, and capable legacy of seasoned, spiritually-strong giants of faith who will step out and “change the world one child at a time.”