Spiritual Childhood. by Marietjie Chase March 10, 2007
One of my high school Teachers, Mr Bothma, gave me some of life's best advice: Live every stage of your life to the fullest. If you don't, you will always revert back to it.
We have celebrated children as a gift from God, as can be attested by the fact that we have 5 children and helped to raise five more. One of the speeches my children would tell you their Mom gives a lot is: Enjoy being a child. It does not last. You will be an adult forever. Once you grow up there is no going back to being a child.
A while ago I had a dream of a man with greying hair surrounded by children. He was somehow causing the hair of the children to turn grey in streaks. In the dream I felt like this was just wrong and pled the blood of Jesus. As I did this, the man faded and disappeared and the grey streaks in the children's hair disappeared as well. This was only part of the dream and I wrote it down and moved on. While praying last night, the Spirit of the Lord started giving me insight into some stuff.
Children, spiritual children, are not living as children. Their childhood is robbed by some entity that causes them to grow old before their time. We have a plague of immaturity in the Body of Christ because of this. Since they never were aloud to be "just kids", they are constantly acting childish. (For those who do not know what I'm talking about: bickering, clique-ing, getting offended about nothing, ignorant arrogance, lack of commitment and responsibility....etc. )
What does it mean to be "just kids"? In the natural it means that there is a parent involved. I firmly believe in: Children left to themselves bring shame to their mother. Being a parent means to love, guide, provide, supervise, be responsible for, protect and discipline. And I'm sure the list goes on. It is a nurturing relationship. One where the parent understands that there is a responsibility before God to do right by the child. Sadly, most people do not even have a positive parenting experience in the natural, so how would they understand or care for a 'spiritual" parenting experience. Read Ezekiel 34, John 10, Heb 13:20, I Peter 2:25 and I Peter 5:1-5
Paul wrote that when I was a child I spake as a child, understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things. He also said that we should as new born babes, desire the milk of the word. One of the saddest things of our society is , children having children. That ought not to be so. Spiritual children ought to be in a relationship,(fellowship, oikos, konania, covenant) where they are aloud to be zealous without knowledge-with supervision, ask and receive help, being carried in prayer and fed a balanced diet. They are to learn the spiritual disciplines so that they may mature into true sons(generic) of God who knows how to rightly divide the word. They need to learn, in this environment of love and acceptance; to discern - since it comes by experience.
This explains why there are so many people running around in the Church at large, with "Ministries" yet without effect. There is a lot of "growing up" to be done. Our "worship" of individualism and prosperity in our society afford us the "right" to never grow up, like Peter Pan.
Incidentally: the second part of the dream was of a small airport, where there was a small airplane with no wings, taxy-ing around the other planes. When I pled the blood of Jesus this little wingless plane faded and disappeared.
While praying about this, the Lord guided me to pray that these little wingless planes would be rooted out and the seed destroyed. The direction for prayer about the man was that it, the entity, be exposed. As soon as the children see that it is gone, they will go on to be "just kids".
One of my high school Teachers, Mr Bothma, gave me some of life's best advice: Live every stage of your life to the fullest. If you don't, you will always revert back to it.
We have celebrated children as a gift from God, as can be attested by the fact that we have 5 children and helped to raise five more. One of the speeches my children would tell you their Mom gives a lot is: Enjoy being a child. It does not last. You will be an adult forever. Once you grow up there is no going back to being a child.
A while ago I had a dream of a man with greying hair surrounded by children. He was somehow causing the hair of the children to turn grey in streaks. In the dream I felt like this was just wrong and pled the blood of Jesus. As I did this, the man faded and disappeared and the grey streaks in the children's hair disappeared as well. This was only part of the dream and I wrote it down and moved on. While praying last night, the Spirit of the Lord started giving me insight into some stuff.
Children, spiritual children, are not living as children. Their childhood is robbed by some entity that causes them to grow old before their time. We have a plague of immaturity in the Body of Christ because of this. Since they never were aloud to be "just kids", they are constantly acting childish. (For those who do not know what I'm talking about: bickering, clique-ing, getting offended about nothing, ignorant arrogance, lack of commitment and responsibility....etc. )
What does it mean to be "just kids"? In the natural it means that there is a parent involved. I firmly believe in: Children left to themselves bring shame to their mother. Being a parent means to love, guide, provide, supervise, be responsible for, protect and discipline. And I'm sure the list goes on. It is a nurturing relationship. One where the parent understands that there is a responsibility before God to do right by the child. Sadly, most people do not even have a positive parenting experience in the natural, so how would they understand or care for a 'spiritual" parenting experience. Read Ezekiel 34, John 10, Heb 13:20, I Peter 2:25 and I Peter 5:1-5
Paul wrote that when I was a child I spake as a child, understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things. He also said that we should as new born babes, desire the milk of the word. One of the saddest things of our society is , children having children. That ought not to be so. Spiritual children ought to be in a relationship,(fellowship, oikos, konania, covenant) where they are aloud to be zealous without knowledge-with supervision, ask and receive help, being carried in prayer and fed a balanced diet. They are to learn the spiritual disciplines so that they may mature into true sons(generic) of God who knows how to rightly divide the word. They need to learn, in this environment of love and acceptance; to discern - since it comes by experience.
This explains why there are so many people running around in the Church at large, with "Ministries" yet without effect. There is a lot of "growing up" to be done. Our "worship" of individualism and prosperity in our society afford us the "right" to never grow up, like Peter Pan.
Incidentally: the second part of the dream was of a small airport, where there was a small airplane with no wings, taxy-ing around the other planes. When I pled the blood of Jesus this little wingless plane faded and disappeared.
While praying about this, the Lord guided me to pray that these little wingless planes would be rooted out and the seed destroyed. The direction for prayer about the man was that it, the entity, be exposed. As soon as the children see that it is gone, they will go on to be "just kids".
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