How Kids Hear God's Voice

The voice of God is tied to understanding the child's voice, God's voice and belief of the heart. God's word gives us an explanation as to how children can hear the voice of God.

Transcript

Ethan: 0:02

Raising joyful children in an angry world, a podcast dedicated to faithful parents navigating their families through a stormy culture

0:09

This is raising joyful children in an angry world. I'm your host, Paul Osborne. Today I want to get into how to help our kids hear the voice of God. If you're a typical parent, you have probably experienced when your son or daughter comes home from school or somewhere and they've got a backpack, let's say, and you say, Hey, can you put that backpack up or away before you go out to play? And. Your words are spoken. The sound waves carry across the room. They enter into the child's ears, but for whatever reason, they're listening to their own voice. They're distracted by their friends. It doesn't enter the heart or the mind, and they don't do what you've asked. And so I want to talk today about how we can help them get out of that kind of dilemma when it comes to God's voice. Because the voice, we heed the voices that we hear. Is really what we do is how we're going to live, and that's why this is so important to help our kids get in position, to hear God's voice. And the Bible speaks about three things. One is how God speaks his voice. And then the second is, what do our kids do with their voice? And then what must they believe in their heart? I wanna start with the easy part. How does God speak? How do we hear God's voice? And the Bible teaches that faith cometh by hearing and hearing the word of God. In other words, in Romans 10, verse 17, it is an audible reading of God's word. So God has told Paul these words. Paul has recorded them for our hearing more than our reading. Not that we don't read the Bible and study the Bible, but our children need to have this spoken to them audibly. Coaches don't hand out scripts at halftime to motivate. So the Bible understands. The Bible teaches that there's something about the spoken word that affects the soul and the mind and the heart differently. Than just the written word. Not that it isn't important, but there is something more powerful. Socrates, Plato also taught this as does most psychology, something powerful about Audible. So we have to audibly read the scripture to our children, and then we have to talk about what do they do with their voice? How did they use their voice to position themselves to hear God's voice? And so in Psalm eight. King David gives us these words in verse two, that God has ordained in the mouth of babes strength to silence his enemies and restrain the Avengers. In other words, our children learn to praise God, their praising of God, their singing to God, their praying to God has something to do with their hearing of God because it silences the distractions. King David ought to know something about a child understanding silencing enemies because as a child, he silences Goliath. And in this Psalm he talks about using our mouths to praise God and what God has ordained that to do in his kingdom. It silences the distractions. So it, it's not just enough to, to read to our kids, but as we engage them, to teach them to sing songs like Jesus Loves Me and, and more complex songs, perhaps it helps position them to then hear God's word because it silences the distractions and the key to this, in my view about, well, how do kids gonna trust this? How do kids understand this? It really comes down to the words that surround this in Psalm eight. In other words, what was David thinking about, or what does David encourage the children to then think about in this psalm regarding this power that God has ordained and it gets back to God's creation? Go back to the Genesis story. He, he talks about God's name and what God has created. And when you read the Genesis story, well, what do you see? You see in the beginning? God created the heaven and the Earth and you see things like, and then God said, let there be light. And, and each time God is speaking. And so there's the voice of God who has created the world and who has created them. And when you understand that story, you then entrust that story to be true and believe that story, that God is the creator, the king of this universe, that he built it all for us. Yeah. Now, you know, that's the authority that then gives God my respect because I understand he is the creator. It's one of the reasons I would suggest that this, this concept of God's creation is one of the most attacked and, criticized pieces of scripture that we will find other than perhaps the resurrection because understanding. God has been the builder of this world and the builder of me now gives me a respect and, and as I'm praising God and singing out to God, that is going to allow my heart to now trust that he is who he says he is. It. It's not enough to just go to church and say, the Apostles Creed. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth, which is a great summary of Genesis one. But we've gotta teach it and we've gotta help our kids believe it. There's a couple of great stories. The simplest one is Paul and Silas, right? When they are put in prison, what do they do? Well, they sing hymns all night. What happens? Well, the chains that they're in fall off and the prison doors open and unlock and they don't leave until they have saved the jailer, but they are eventually set free and apologized to. That's power. And then there's a story in the Old Testament of King Jehosaphat and his singing army. It's an incredible story. He is the king of Judah. He is surrounded by three other tribes of of enemy people, three armies that are coming to destroy him. He gets the message that they're on the way and they're close. He calls all the people, women and children, and men into Jerusalem. He prays aloud before God using his voice to praise God in almost the Lord's prayer, aren't you? The God who's in heaven, just like our father who is in heaven, he goes through a series of prayers and promises that God has promised them about having given them this promised land. And as he's doing this, the spirit of the living God falls on the prophets and the priests that are around them and they then tell Jehosaphat, hey. This battle doesn't belong to you, it belongs to God. And they tell him, you just go out and watch what's gonna happen. And as they're telling him this, the cites, these are the descendants of Cora, which you may not remember, but Cora is the one who rebels and disobeys Joshua as they're taking the promised land. And now his sons that his grandsons or whatever generation we're down to, they are now the musicians. In the temple who are singing praises to God, and you see this powerful triangle in which they are quoting back that you're the God that created, you're the God that gives, you're the God that promises and they're praising God and the word of God comes and they hear God's voice and then they go out to go exactly where God has told them. They watch out and we see the three armies become confused and attack one another. And they don't have to fight the battle because God has fought it for them. This is how our children are going to understand all of this coming together. You've gotta read to them the Bible aloud. You've gotta teach them how to sing simple Christian praise songs. And you've got to share with them and help them understand the story of Genesis one, to believe that God is the creator. And when that all comes together, your children will hear the voice of God. And the voice that they listen to will be the one that guides them to wisdom and joy.

Paul: 8:41

The ultimate battle for the heart and soul is a fight for identity. Our king invites our kids to know who they are, what to believe, and where they belong.

Paul (2): 8:54

Until next time, let's remember the words for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.