None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
As a parent or someone serving in Sunday school, you may think that the children under your care are too young to know the Lord. And you wonder if you are wasting your time reading Bible stories and singing hymns to them.
Or you may have been buying Mandarin and Hokkien sermon CDs for your dialect-speaking parents or grandparents, and you wonder if the Bible teachings are too difficult for them to understand.
My friend, don’t underestimate the Holy Spirit. Many elderly folks in our Mandarin and Hokkien services, who first heard about Jesus through the recorded messages given to them by their children, are now born again and attending church regularly. And they are so full of Jesus that they cannot stop talking about Him to their relatives and friends.
Even for a young child like my daughter Jessica, when she was one year old, she would spontaneously raise her hands whenever she heard Christian songs, but not secular ones. My wife Wendy and I had never taught her how to recognize Christian songs. The only explanation we have is that Jessica was taught by the Lord Himself. (Isaiah 54:13)
When Jessica turned two, she surprised us again. Wendy was tucking her in bed one night when Jessica looked at her and said, “Jesus died for Jessica because Jesus loves Jessica.” No one taught her to say that. But I remember looking at her when she was younger and by faith saying, “You know, darling, Jesus died for Jessica.” She just looked at me and I did not know whether she understood me then. I just believed that the Holy Spirit is a better teacher than I am.
So don’t limit the Holy Spirit by saying things like, “The children are too young…My grandparents are not well-educated…My atheist friend won’t be interested…” Just send God’s Word into their lives by faith, and trust the Holy Spirit to do the teaching and imparting. For God says that no one has to teach anyone to know the Lord because all shall know Him, from the least, including little children, to the greatest!
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