You are not the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to us. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit as our advocate: to help us, comfort us, remind us of all that Jesus taught and lead us into all truth. He is the one who will convict the children of sin and so lead them into salvation.

Here’s the challenge for children’s ministers: Most of the things that the Holy Spirit does we do too. If a child is crying we go to comfort them. We want to teach the children and lead them into truth. We want to guide them in life. But we are NOT the Holy Spirit.

So how can we ensure that we make space for God to move among our children and not become a replacement for the Holy Spirit?

We want our children to be reliant on the Lord. That will include encouraging them to ‘follow us as we follow Christ.’ But we must not stand in their way of encountering God.

Our work with the children is holy ground and we must ensure that in our desire to serve the children effectively we do not end up replacing the Holy Spirit in their lives. Knowing that this is a danger we have to be very intentional to ensure that we do not usurp the work of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives, but instead that we allow God to work through us with the children.

For some the challenge will involve dying to your own desires and motivations (to be loved, to be needed, to be purposeful) and to live only to extend God’s kingdom.

To put it another way we must ensure that we stay reliant on God and not on our own ability as we minster to the children under our care. (This applies to parents in their tole as much as to children’s leaders).

How can we do this?

1.        Stay humble – However gifted and effective you are, you are nothing compared to the Holy Spirit. He can work through you but you will never be more effective than Him – after all He is God. He can work through your giftings or in spite of them but our work and ministry will never be effective, bearing lasting fruit, without Him. The key to bearing fruit is to remain rooted in Jesus – our own relationship with the Lord is the key to being effective with the children.

2.        Stay prayerful – Remember that all our work and ministry should be dependant not on our own ability but on the Lord. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain that build it, unless the Lord guards the city the watchman stays awake in vain (Psalm 27:1-2). This knowledge drives us to prayer and dependance on God for every time we are with the children and to hold them in prayer when we are not with them.

3.        Leave space for the Holy Spirit – We want to keep the children engaged in our programmes and events, so the temptation can be to fill every moment with activities (or even choices of activities). This is good, but make sure you leave plenty of space in the programme for the Holy Spirit to come and encounter the children in your care personally. After all we cannot be with them every moment of every day, but the Holy Spirit is. When they learn to depend on Him when they are with us, they can learn to depend on Him when they are on their own.

4.        Be led by the Holy Spirit – Model to the children what it means to be led by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes I will pause in the middle of teaching if I feel the Holy Spirit wants to do something and listen to Him. But before I pause, I tell the children this is what I am doing. Sometimes when the Holy Spirit is working I highlight it to the children so that they can see Him at work. Always I try to keep my spirit open to what the Lord may want to do in any moment. I encourage you to do the same.

When we depend on the Holy Spirit to work with the children we bear fruit that remains. Our children grow in a living relationship with the Lord and this is what they need more than anything else to navigate their way through life.

Let’s be ones who point to the work of the Holy Spirit, not ones who inadvertently replace Him.