"Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, 'Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the Kingdom of God.'" (Mark 10:13–14)
Jesus taught us to pray for His Kingdom to come. It is one of the most prayed prayers we have. Often, while we wait for the answers to those prayers to come from somewhere else, many of the Kingdom answers we ask Him for are already inside of us. That's why this word is for the child inside of you. So much of the Kingdom is waiting to come alive from within that childlike nature, and it's always been right there within us all.
Imagine, just like the passage above, that you are the adult pushing away such childlike ways in order to focus on more esteemed, adult agendas. But Jesus reaches over to that part of your core, lays His hand on you, and blesses you once again to come alive in such childlike ways. Why? Because these areas cause the Kingdom within you to flourish.
Freedom
A child does not start their life with the restrictions we often later adopt into our thinking; they operate from the spirit and nature God created them with, so much so that they seem to have wings that lift them above all the things that we gradually allow to tether us down to the comfortable, the possible, and the secure. True freedom doesn't come from the outside; it comes from the inside. True freedom is the freedom to live from a security in the Father that is not measured in the world's ways. It is the liberty, by the Spirit, to be WHO we were created to be, and to naturally operate in the areas that follow below.
New Things
A whole, loved child is not afraid of new things. Before fear or reasoning comes in, a child doesn't have as many roadblocks to stepping into new seasons and endeavors with the Lord. When they do enter new seasons, they know to grab the hand of their Father and willingly let Him guide them through. Being free enough to grab that hand and embrace that kind of dependence and surrender is one of the greatest ways forward into the paths and promises so many of us wait for. (Photo via Flickr)
We know well the Scripture that says, "Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth..." (Isaiah 43:19). But it's easy to leave out the part before it and the part after it. Before verse 19, we are told to forget the former things. This could be referencing the ways we're accustomed to or comfortable with. Then, at the end of verse 19, it actually finishes with a question: "Shall you not know it?" It's one thing to declare the new thing of God, but it's another thing to be childlike enough to recognize God's new thing and be dependent enough upon Him to let Him teach us anew how to join Him in it.
Creativity
"Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. And I said, 'What are these coming to do?'
"So He said, 'These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one could lift up his head; but the craftsmen are coming to terrify them, to cast out the horns of the nation that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.'" (Zechariah 1:20–21)
Coming from the image of the Creator Himself, no matter what we might think about ourselves in terms of creativity, we each have a unique area of creativity within us. Whether it's something as obvious as the arts, problem solving, business strategy, or how we parent, creativity is natural to who we were originally created to be.
In the passage above, there was an attack on God's people to scatter them, so what did God do? He empowered creative craftsman to come and terrify the enemy! Did you read that? That is a strong word choice. God uses the creatives and craftsmen to "TERRIFY" the enemy. We can all use our unique authority in Christ, combined with the unique way we've been created in His image, to terrify the enemy and his plans while we build and create from God's original design.
Dream
To dream isn't just some pie-in-the-sky hope for something more, rather it's one of the primary conception points of how we co-labor with God. Abraham had a dream of a promised child, Isaac. But God dreamed into Abraham's dream saying, Let Me do you one better. You surrender your dream, Isaac, to Me, and I'll turn your dream of one child into as many as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Not only that, but I'll use your dream to accomplish My dream to redeem My family through My Son.
Often, as we grow up, we lose the ability to dream. Not because the ability isn't still there—it is—but because we have buried the child in us with a more important, adult agenda, thinking the same way the disciples were thinking in Mark 10:14. We think there are more important things to do than sitting at God's feet, dreaming with Him, and letting Him dream through us.
Believe
Children might not have more than a mustard seed of faith, but that's all it takes, and they naturally know how to use it. They don't use their mustard seed through their thinking, reasoning, or logic. Nope, they abandon their own understanding to trust and acknowledge the Lord with all their hearts, and then God makes paths that weren't there before.
It's basically living out Proverbs 3:5–6 with our hearts and spirits more than our minds. Peter is a great example of our tendency to go in either direction. At one point he reasoned to cut a man's ear off in order to achieve victory for the Messiah, because he was using carnal thinking. But in a previous moment, he was blessed for having expressed 'the rock' on which our Messiah would build His Church, after he gave an answer that Jesus said could not have come from man but only out of Peter's living connection with the Father. The adult in us usually thinks one way, and the child inside us leans toward the kind of living faith that Jesus plans to build His Church upon!
Love and Forgiveness
You've likely heard Jesus' words about seventy times seven when it comes to forgiveness. A free, whole child does that naturally. Children who are whole are quick to forgive because they value the life that's on the other side of forgiveness more than they value their pride. They are not measuring for themselves; they are measuring for hope and joy! Similar to forgiveness, whole children love others naturally and without condition. They cheer others on without measuring their success as a negative reflection on themselves. They naturally befriend an outcast with compassion, and they gravitate toward pure, godly love in all its forms. This is the kind of love that covers all, and the more childlike we become again, the more we will have the love we need to redeem and restore so much in the world that we fear is lost. (Photo via Flickr)
Who You Are over What You Do
I could have just put the word identity here, but I didn't want it to get lost in the familiarity of the word. There's a practical principle of identity that comes with being a childlike son or daughter, and it's important we return to this concept in an everyday form.
Most of us adults live off of what we do. After one's name, it's usually the first question that we ask someone. But when a child starts to live, they live entirely off of who they are. When we put the "do" first, we are often trying to prove something to a lie, a fear, or an insecurity in our minds. "Doing" is important, but so is the order, and what we do is most valuable when it flows first out of "who" we are. When we become secure in who we are as sons or daughters of God, and in the unique part of Him that we carry, that's when our "do" becomes revolutionary in its impact for the lives and world around us.
We have a Dr. Seuss-like chorus about this idea that we've long used, and it is currently a fixture in our children's book, "WHO Am I." It goes like this:
When the BE and the WHO
Overtake the WHAT and the DO,
That's when fear goes away
And I'm now free to say,
I'll be exactly WHO He made me to BE!
Our children skip through the house singing it now, and it's become contagious. We pray it will be contagious for the child inside of you as well. The world, as well as the many people and culture around you, needs the child in you to sing and live this song.
The world needs who you are. The world will be changed by the child inside of you. So speak life over the child inside of you, and over the children around you too! As Jesus Himself said, "...for of such is the Kingdom of God" (Mark 10:14).
Whatever you do, don't miss another ELIJAH LIST email! Subscribe at this link: elijahlist.com/subscribe.
Joey LeTourneau
The Occular Institute
Email: joey@occular.co
Websites: www.letourneaucreative.com |
occular.community
Joey and Destiny LeTourneau are parents of eight, and grandparents of one precious granddaughter. They are visionaries and pioneers who have lived and traveled all over the world, helping transform communities, cultures, and nations by empowering people to discover and live out their unique, God-given purpose, and work with both established and emerging leaders. They have written a number of books and lead an organization called Freedom U, with bases in various parts of the world. They work with The Occular Institute to create community transformation through economic innovation, and have a creative company where they bring prophetic Kingdom messages to life to empower the next generation and their families.ÂÂ
To receive more words like this in YOUR inbox, subscribe FREE to the Elijah List at this link: elijahlist.com/subscribe.
Thank you for making the always-free "ElijahStreams" possible. To partner with us, click here.
Your donations truly help us keep these emails free for you. Donate at:
Find us on:
* Facebook click here
* XAPiT click here
