As long as I've been a children's pastor I've created a space for our children to soak in God's presence. Every time we do these exercises I get completely rocked by what the children have to say. It's never anything that I was expecting. Establishing a soaking session as a family can be fun!
If you don't know what a soaking session is here's a little description about it. It's a place/posture where we can encounter God. Basically there's music out there that you can get that is soaking music for example: Kimberly and Alberto Rivera. The music helps to establish and invite the presence of God. Some people like to worship as a family. I leave soaking music on all the time in my bedroom. It really makes a huge difference especially for people/kids who have a vivid dreaming life it helps establish peace in the atmosphere. I believe in the core of me that in heaven there's music continuously. Bringing heaven to earth means allowing God to be worshiped in the atmosphere of our homes. That God is the One who fills that space with His presence and that we guard that because there are many different presence's that can take up our home's atmospheres.
After music has started I get the kids to get their soaking blankets out and lay them down. You can use fun shinny fabric. Making it fun for kids to encounter God helps draw them into a deeper level with Him. Before you start you want to teach them how to hear God's voice. Jennifer Toledo has a great book out to help kids hear God's voice it's called "Eyes that See and Ears that Hear." I'll just run through some basics with you so that you can get started.
First we start with Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and marvelous things which you do not know." We have everything that we need to hear God voice. The being of us is created for relationship with God our Father. He loves to speak to us. His name is the Word, He's like a chatter box. His thoughts are like the sands of the sea and stars in the sky. He's constantly thinking about us and His thoughts are good towards us. He doesn't think bad thoughts or scary thoughts towards us.His first language isn't English and He can speak to us in many different ways. We have to learn to tune into Him like we are tuning into a radio and catching the frequency so we can hear what He's saying.
For this exercise we are going to say that there are 3 voices we can hear. God, the enemy, and us...
The enemy's voice sounds like.. angry, mad, sad, makes us want to hurt others, feels mean.
Our voice sounds like..I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I want, anything to do with us and saving ourselves.
God's voice sounds like.. safe, loving, comfortable, even when He's correcting we feel loved, peaceful, life giving, and encouraging.
Go over the 3 voices with your children so they can hear the difference: You can give them and example of this old lady walking into the store she has a cane. Your first thought is, I should go pray for her, second thought is I don't have time I need to go home, third thought is I should go kick her. Ask your kids which voices are which.
Now God talks in many ways: The Bible, other people, audibly, in dreams, spontaneous thought, emotions, art, music, nature, inner audible, and visions. We are going to say that God can even talk through imagination but we are going to call it our image center. Our image center is like a black board and through our life we see things we shouldn't either by accident or on purpose and it makes our "chalk board" chalky so that we can't really see what God may want to say to us. Right now put your hand on your head and say God, forgive me for seeing things that I shouldn't please wash my mind with your blood and clean all the things that would get in the way from you speaking to me. Amen
Have your children close their eyes. Ask them if they can picture their toothbrush. Have them describe what they see in their head. This is where the Lord is going to talk to us! Children's imaginations are a lot more developed then adults because they get to use it all the time without being intellectually taught out of trusting it. God has created us even our imagination. I see it like God created us with an internal TV where we can either use it to get bad images or His images. Some of the most profound things I've ever heard from children was what they saw in this place.
There are a couple rules one you have to have faith and trust that what you see is from the Lord. Sometimes we believe that the enemy is way bigger then God and we are so afraid of being deceived that we act in fear instead of faith. Know that God longs to encounter us way more then we want to encounter Him. He's big enough to cover us with the blood of His Son. Second is that you can go back there anytime and ask for more. Every encounter we have we always can ask for more it's like pulling tissue from a tissue box. Kids are great at asking why. Have you ever had a child that was constantly asking why? God loves when His children ask why. Why daddy? What does that mean daddy? Just keep asking!
If you have little ones their soaking time won't be that long (less then 5 mins) which is fine. You don't want to force them into a relationship with God. You want to lead them into showing them that having a relationship with God is fun and full of adventure. God doesn't force us into a relationship with Him why should we force our children? Lets say they do this exercise and they don't see much just say that's good you can always go back and ask God to show you more! I would suggest that you as a parent you go on the personal journey with the Lord and share with your children what God showed you. Why? because children learn through imitation. They love to do what you do and when you as a parent demonstrate what a true relationship with God is they will model that. Know that you can't have their relationship with God for them but you can let them in on what your relationship with Him looks like.
Soaking is a position of peace and rest and getting the revelation that God has for us not from striving but from surrender. Teaching your children that God doesn't want us to act out of stress, fear, reaction or tension will help them establish a base where the Prince of Peace is their guide. They become responders to problems instead of reactors.
With your older children you can bring them into a deeper place. I've had 4 year old tell me of their extensive journey's with Jesus. You don't want to put ideas into their heads of what to expect just ask them questions like what else did you see? What did He say to you? Ask Him what He meant when He said __.
So now just have your kids close their eyes and picture they are in a garden and Jesus is standing there. This is the garden He's created just for them. Jesus wants to show them around. Have them go on this journey with Jesus. Give them about 5-7 minutes and then ask, what did you see?
If they didn't see anything tell them that's OK no problem. Ask them if they feel anything. It can take time to practice hearing God in this way. Like any muscle you have to exercise to make it stronger.
I had this girl one time when I was at a conference who didn't see anything she was about 12 and we had a lot of kids so it was hard to do one on one but I really felt like I needed to press in with her for that moment. I sat next to her and said what did you see? She said, "nothing" I said OK can we do this together? She said sure. I knew that she had had a rough background and that she had a lot going on. I had her close her eyes and picture Jesus standing in front of her. I told her He had a present in His hands for her. I told her to take it and look inside. She started crying. I didn't press any further. I just prayed over her quietly as she received the gift from Him. It was her personal time with the Lord. We don't as teachers or parents want to violate those times with our agendas. We want to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit to let Him encounter His children. He loves them more then we will ever love them and we need to trust that.
There are many structures that you can set up for your kids to encounter Jesus. The goal is to teach them that this is one way that God can talk with us and we can hear Him. Eventually they will encounter Him on their own without any help. Be the example of peace in your house. If there's a situation that affects the household have everyone soak and ask Jesus to show you the solution. Pray as a family together that God releases His word and then in unity you get to see Jesus get His full reward in your household!
I know for some of you this maybe scary and seem out of the box but if you aren't comfortable to start it with your children how about you start it. Build a relationship with the Lord where you can encounter Him in this way. Create a history of encounter that you can tell your children and grandchildren about. That's how the children of Isreal taught their children. They told them stories of how God moved in great power in their lives. Start a new season where encountering God becomes a lifestyle.
Blessings...
A
