Kids & Parenting
Co-operating with God to save our children
Ephesians 6:1-3 states, “Children, 1.) Obey your 2.) Parents in the Lord: for this is 3.) Right. 4.) Honor thy father and mother, which is the 5.) First commandment with a 6.) Promise that, it will keep you well and you will 7.) Live long on the 8.) Earth.” We will define these words from the Greek Concordance as the New Testament was originally written in Greek.
1.) Obey: is the Greek word hupakouo: It means to submit and come under authority by having your mind fixed through your words and actions: and plan and set this as a first priority in your heart by coming into agreement with your parent’s wisdom because, God has given them the ability and power to guard and protect your life.
2.) Parents: is the word goneus: meaning, the origin where one comes into being. It is the source which is ordained by God that creates change and through assembling with this source, it will announce and make public God‘s ordained proclamations which will make God’s destiny become fulfilled, to those who honor it, because they are God’s ordained representatives.
3,) Right: is the word dikaios: meaning, righteous which makes you holy and innocent in God’s sight and your own. This word righteous is the key to all spiritual growth and understanding in our Christian walk with the Lord. Our whole Christian life must be built on us knowing our righteous position in Christ Jesus. It now becomes necessary to remind ourselves again how this Righteous Spirit filters down to our children as we as parents fulfill our command to watch and guard our children in bringing them up in the admonition of the Lord.
The word righteous means we are justified = (guiltless and blameless), innocent = (free from evil) and holy = (pure and set apart unto God). This is the picture that God has of us the day we became His child. This picture that God has of us never changes no matter whatever we do after we commit our lives to the Lord. We may choose not to participate in His Spirit of Righteousness, but God never changes His mind and gets fed up with us. The definition of this word has to be interacted in our daily walk with the Holy Spirit.
Genesis 3:8 tells us that, “Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the day and they would have daily conversations with Him.” This word cool in the Hebrew text means, He would weave His spirit into their bodies and totally purified their being. It’s us allowing the Holy Spirit to flow in us as He did with Adam and Eve, as they stayed naked in the Garden of Eden before they disobeyed God by eating from the Tree of Good and Evil. Righteousness is the Spirit of God that came into our being the day we became born again believers. This Righteous Spirit has a drawing power that if it flows in us; it will attract and cause our children to seek after it.
Healthy parents who understand this principle and live in communion like this with God can protect and guard their children and equip them in their relationship with the Lord. It’s us functioning in this Spirit that gives us the promise in scripture that, our children when they get old, they will not depart from the faith.
In Eph. 5:25-27 Paul the Apostle tells us that; “Christ so loved the church that He gave up His life on the cross for it. This act makes us pure because, the water of the word washes us. In turn this sacrifice makes us presented to God with no spots and wrinkles and His sacrifice makes us faultless.” Jesus is the Word and His Spirit of truth as we partake of it reminds us constantly that, we are spotless and without wrinkles in His sight. He put a white robe of righteousness on us the day we were saved. Our robe only gets spotted because; we believe wrinkled ideas that God loves us on conditions. We must give God full access to our hearts and stay naked before Him and allow Him to love us in spite of ourselves. We are not to look under our robes and see our old nature and sins that we once lived in. Unless we as parents see our selves as Christ sees us, we cannot pass on to our children the rock solid anchor that they will need to deal with the everyday decisions of their lives and for them to obtain God’s mercy in their time of need.
In John 4:10 Jesus says. “If His people know His voice they will follow Him.” It’s us living in this Righteous Spirit that enables us to know His voice and follow His leadings. In addition, it acts as a sonar beacon with a magnetic drawing power that causes us to abandon ourselves to His love. This Spirit operating in our lives is what draws our children to the Lord Jesus. In John 12:32 Jesus states, “If He is lifted up He will draw all men unto Himself.” We know that Jesus was lifted up on the cross to die for our sin.
Our acceptance and participation in His sacrifice and our continual participation of us allowing Him to purify our minds with His perfect love, draws us to Him.
4.) Honor: the word is timao: meaning, to be held with profound respect, high esteem and something that is precious and of great value. Honor always follows integrity and high moral standards of excellence. I believe children watch more then hear. When parents take their responsibility to raise their children with a grateful heart to God for giving them to them, children know. When husbands honor and truly love their wives, this creates a dominos effect on their children.
5.) First Commandment: the words are protos:/entole: meaning, the chief and foremost course of action and a prescription for wholeness and priority in your life. Unless we as parents have our priorities of seeking God and putting Him first in our lives, children know and they may be standing up on the outside but their real feelings are sitting down on the inside.
6.) Promise: the word is apaggeliac: meaning, a pledge or a divine assurance that comes within oneself. God can never take this promise back. His statements and sovereign declarations never change.
7.) Live long: are the words aesthetes: / esomai: meaning, righteous living, settled and immediate wholeness with an extended period of time of physical existence on this planet. Romans 14:17 tells us that the kingdom of God is founded on “righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.” If we are living in this Righteous Spirit, the joy and peace created in us is like a medicine on our physical bodies that prolongs our physical lives. Thank God, for His mercy on us who are slow learners and the patience He has when we have a hard time understanding this spiritual walk in the Holy Spirit.
8. Earth: is the word Ge: meaning soil, region, or this globe we live on. Let’s put this all together and see what God has been telling us to do. In writing this, I intended to give this to my grandchildren only to have The Holy Spirit examine my own heart and see if I have been the committed parent to pass on God’s wisdom to my own children.
We see here that, God’s perfect plan of raising His own spiritual family as a loving father is not only by us having the ability to bring physical beings into the world. We as parents are also able to nurture them so that, we will all be together for eternity in a city that will come down from heaven, where we will live on the earth forever. The first thing we all have to do is make a decision if we want to all be together and live in wholeness in our family gatherings now.
Why there are people that want to live outside of God’s protection and not follow His divine plan is beyond me. The only thing I have been able to come up with is, they haven’t been taught God’s ways or they have not run into a born again believer that really knows and lives in the love of the Lord. You have to be a complete fool to not want to hangout with the Holy Spirit everyday. People may say that they love the Lord but there is a difference in loving the Lord and being in love with the Lord. When you’re in love with someone you hangout and interact with that person and they completely dominate your life.
I am convinced that if we as parents love our children as Jesus loves us the Church, we will function with the love that is needed to be obedient to God’s command, which is found in Ephesians 6:4 telling parents to, raise their children in the admonition of the Lord. This word admonition is noutheteo: meaning to caution or reprove gently or to remind one of something. Let me point out that children should always want to seek the advice of their parents whether they’re living at home or living out of the house.
A child needs to become grounded while he is living at home under the careful eye of his parents and have a hunger with in himself to walk in obedience to the Holy Spirits voice, without always being told what to do. Obedience and experiencing the inward feelings of being obedient will create a feeling of self worth within the child, which will cause them to always be available and looking for every opportunity to co-operate and conform to God’s ways and their parent’s leadings.
Unless the parent has planted the seed of them willingly wanting to be obedient by the time they leave their house, they have failed at preparing them to face a hostile world being controlled by seducing spirits of the devil, which comes to rob them of God’s inheritance, which they received the day they became saved.
The greatest inheritance that a parent can give to children is an inheritance of the wisdom and love of God that He put in their own lives.
Unless we as parents make our children our top priority in our lives, not our ministries, our job, or our hobby etc., we have failed the foundational purpose of Christian maturity.
Proverbs 13:24 tells us “He who spares his rod (of discipline) hates his son; however, he that loves him, diligently disciplines and punishes him early.”
Proverbs 22:15 “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.” A child is a slave in having a lack of good judgment. He was born that way. When we drive something, we have to compel through unpleasant conditions and take on a responsibility because of what we were invested by God to do as an authority over our children.
Proverbs 19:18 “Discipline your son while there is hope, but do not (indulge your anger resentments) by undue chastisements and set yourself to his ruin.” Is there a possibility that a time can come when there is no hope?
Proverbs 23: 13 “Withhold not discipline from the child, for if you strike and punish him with the (reed-like rod), he will not die”
Proverbs 29:15-17. “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left undisciplined brings his mother shame. When the wicked are in authority, transgression increases, but the (uncompromising righteous) shall see the fall of the wicked. Correct your son and he will give you rest; yes he will give delight to your heart.”
If we are determined to bring up our children in the admonition of the Lord, then here are some principles that will help in forming a foundation that can build their lives. Many parents build the character of the child, habit by habit with no purpose or unity. If the child has a messy room, the problem is how to get him to keep it clean, not a problem of grounding the child in him learning how to exercise a pattern of healthy thinking. It is as if, we feel we have a duty to get them to perform some ritual of obedience and not let them become independent and decide for them self if they want to obey just for the satisfaction with in themselves.
When they do not learn this before they leave their parent’s house, his actions when he is an adult is founded on a weak foundation of countless unrelated habits and desires, which waver and conflict with one another. This produces no apparent direction in their lives and they have no resolve within themselves against the turmoil and fears that beat against our minds daily. Our whole being has to be disciplined and focused on seeking a clear and direct course of action with a vision given by the Holy Spirit.
Instill in the child the firm belief that there are great spiritual principles that he can learn from God through a relationship with a living God within him and if he will participate with Him, it will give him the power to handle the cares of life. Then develop in him a natural characteristic and quite desire to discover these principles. This is a hunger that is stated in Math 6:33 which is the foundation of all Christian growth. Our example as parents is them showing that they meditate on the word of God day and night and they talk about the Lord daily as they gather together which is absolutely imperative. Teach them to believe that whatever happens to them is in accordance with God’s plan for their life.
In addition, if they can discover how this plan works, they can prevent evil and achieve a life filled with joy no matter what circumstances exist with in themselves or the people they encounter in life. Let them make this the total dominating purpose for their life. This is what Heb.10: 38 means when it says, “the just or righteous will live by faith.” Observe that all of this is a habit of thinking, not focusing on our behavior like keeping their rooms clean etc. Then teach the child that the universe is fatherly. Teach them that this principle of fatherliness is the great spiritual power of the universe. As a parent meaning father and mother working together, roll model this example not only in word but also in deeds and they will become sensitive to God’s heart and the needs of the people around him.
Make them hungry to seek after wisdom higher their own. This is absolutely critical for real maturity.
In turn, this will give him a desire and clear path of understanding of the conflicts that tear people apart with fear, agitating passions and moral conflicts. Challenge them to be willing to sacrifice their own ideas of how to deal with the cares of life by not leaning towards their own understanding; by giving them a vision of Gods intended purposes for them to become fulfilled by the leaning of their whole personality on God’s grace (His unmerited favor) and mercy.
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