Everybody, please Please PLEASE be intentional about teaching your children about the Holy Spirit. Not only about God the Father, and Jesus the Son, but teach them about the Holy Spirit. Please!
As a jumping off point, please teach them the biblical truth that the Holy Spirit is a Person. Not an “it” or a “thing”. The Holy Spirit is not: an angel with wings, or like “the force” in Star Wars, or some mysterious life form floating around like a mist. In John 16:5-15, Jesus himself refers to the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, several times using the words “he” or “him”. And we should do the same with our children.
Since the Holy Spirit is a person who lives IN US, our children should gain an understanding of how personal it is to have God living in them. It’s so cool when a child begins to realize that they have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead! And this power, coming from the Holy Spirit, lives inside their temple, which is their body.
Not enough of this has been taught in our churches. The fact that He is a person living in me sure makes me think more about what I put into my body where He lives and what comes out of my mouth, with Him living in me. If these facts were
“drilled” in more at a young age, it surely would be more effective for our children when they are making the hard decisions as teens.
“the Holy Spirit is a person who lives IN US” I never knew the Holy Spirit was American. Learn something new everyday.
Great Sermon on this the other day, by the way.
Ha! Well of course! Everybody knows the Holy Spirit is a caucasian man from middle America! Can’t believe I left that out
And thank you for your kind words!
Last night with our 5th and 6th graders we had a lesson on how we can trust God which involved us realizing the promises He has kept for us. One of the promises Jesus gave the disciple before He ascended was the Holy Spirit which reiterates how God is trustworthy. In discussing the way the Holy Spirit is a counselor we were all encouraged that God is with us always which fulfills another of God’s promises to us(Deut. 31:6). Being aware of who the Holy Spirit and what He does and what He sounds like will irreversibly impact anyone’s spiritual health. The sooner we can understand how to recognize the Lord’s voice the better. Keep on keeping on Ryan.