You must have the faith of a child – Mark 10:15, Luke 18:17
Mark 10:15 (New King James Version)
15 I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.
Luke 18:17 (New King James Version)
17 I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.
The faith of an adult and the faith of a child.
One of the main differences between an adult and a child is that when you are a child you don’t cook, you don’t go to work and you have someone else to think everything for you. Life as a kid sees you having a house to live in with no expenses, food on the table three times a day and fun times with friends in between.
As adults, we have the complete opposite. We have the stress of having to work to earn an income. We have to put dinner on the table, and life can’t be spent just playing with friends. We need to prioritize what we do with our time. The more we play, the less money we have. The more we work, the more money we have.
The world we live in is full of information and Christian books and technology and Mp3s and DVDs and all kinds of things to grow a person in the faith. But few adults approach the Christian life like a child. We like to search for information and we get an idea that we want to know something and we search for the answer.
An example in my life.
At one time the Lord Jesus gave me the three gifts of the word of knowledge, prophecy and words of wisdom. I practiced them for several years and learned more and more about the gifts as I took a hands-on lesson from the Holy Spirit. I had no human teacher. I was like a child learning directly as the Holy Spirit and Jesus gave me messages to give to strangers and people I know and things were going well.
Then came the time when I wanted to know more about the gifts I had already received as well as the other nine gifts, so I went looking for a book about the gifts and spent tons of time reading in Christian bookstores and a lot of frustration. To judge a book, I simply look up a word of knowledge or prophecy in a book and read what they have to say in it. I figured that if it didn’t teach me anything about those two gifts, then the information wouldn’t be good for the other seven gifts. I have been searching for over two years for a book as an adult with faith for adults.
Faith as a child
One day I gave up my search and told the Lord that I would no longer look for a book on this subject. If a book existed, he should have brought it to me. One day I went to the street where one of the boys came up to me and said, “Look at this book.” The title was “The Gifts of the Holy Spirit” and it was by Dr. DGS Dhinkaran, an Indian apostle.
I asked my friend if it was a good book and he said it was great. I did some quick reading and had to agree. I went to a small shop 40 minutes away by train and bought the book. I learned a lot from this book and it is the only book I recommend these days.
You see a child as faith brings food to your table.
Adults decide what topic they want to study and go to a bookstore to try to find a book on that particular topic. But childlike faith allows the Holy Spirit to find the scriptures you need to know every day. When He wants a book to teach you something, He has you simply come across a book devoted entirely to the subject you need to learn.
Food is most often the Word of God. If you pray at least half an hour before you read the Word and ask the Holy Spirit where you should read in the Bible, you will find that the Holy Spirit will minister to the scriptures and open your ears to understand those scriptures.
Psalm 16:7 (New King James Version)
7 I will bless the Lord who has counseled me; My heart also instructs me through the night seasons.
The heart is the spirit of man, and there the Holy Spirit speaks to us. It is the LORD who gives us advice about the ways we should go and the ways we should act. The Holy Spirit is our Teacher, not men.
1 John 2:27 (New King James Version)
27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you; but since the same anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
The Holy Spirit is the Teacher and we do not need people to instruct us. If we trust the Holy Spirit as a child would trust its parents to feed it, then we will find that we learn much more from Him than from men.
This goes for careers, friends, churches, and all decisions.
We like to be adults and be responsible for what happens to us, but having faith like a child means allowing God to lead us through the Holy Spirit. If you pray instead of making decisions on your own, you will find that God answers your prayers and acts according to His will. Then your heart will be instructed in the night seasons either by God speaking to your spirit or even in a dream. If we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, we will receive good counsel, but if we do it on our own, then we are relying on our own wrong ways. The Spirit works through the heart, as I said:
Proverbs 3:5 (New King James Version)
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not unto thine own understanding;
It means not following your mind and its ways, but being like a child and letting your spirit guide you through your heart. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you through the scriptures before you make decisions.
God will take care of you. He promises that if you have the faith of a child, you will enter His Kingdom. It’s time to go with your heart and be a child instead of living like an adult in your mind.
#faith #child #Mark #Luke