5 Devotional Tips with 3 Activities to Hear God’s Voice
Raising our kids on Christian principle places a desire within to hear God’s voice for ourselves, and for our kids to hear Him for themselves. In a culture of noise, and many things competing for our attention, from screens, curriculum, and other social / system pressures, our home is the covering and greenhouse for nurturing the ability to hear His voice.
It may seem a daunting task, but as teaching letters, reading, and writing needs patience and time set every day to practise, so does the ability to being sensitive to God’s voice. We can facilitate such quiet time for our children to hone into His voice every day.
I have compiled a list of ideas that can help you do this, BUT first we must believe what the Word says!
Believe what the Word Says
The Word teaches us that when we turn to Jesus as our saviour, we are made the righteousness of God. We are made white as snow, and we now possess His nature and character. It says we no longer live, but it is CHRIST within us (which is HIS SPIRIT, THE WORD, THE ANOINTING, THE LORD, HIS FULLNESS) in us! This is all by faith! Not because we earned it, nor because we are worthy or perfect!
Judging by our erratic thoughts, sins, and failures, we will see that we are far from perfect, but the only way to walk in faith and overcome our failures, is not by being mindful of all our sin, but to rather be mindful of who HE is. As we by faith declare who HE is within us, then we begin to see healing, transformation, and victory flow and power.
I have laid down that down as a foundation so that you may have faith to receive the following beautiful ways of becoming sensitive to His voice.
5 Tips to nurture your children’s ability to hear God’s voice:
1. The most important thing is for ourselves to have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus; this is foundational to imparting this gift to your kids. Ensure that you are spending time with the Lord in His word and in worship.
2. Take accountability for your own walk with the Lord. Realise that you also make mistakes, and so you are forever growing and reaching for perfection in your faith. In other words, remain as a child, always teachable. The word is forever revealing something we did not realise. When the student is ready, the Teacher appears. In other words, when we are always ready to learn, Jesus is always there to teach us.
3. Set time apart to have daily family devotion. Reading the Word and memorising scripture are seeds that you are planting, which in time will grow as you keep watering it. We water the seeds as we keep in the word, keep worshipping, and keep sensitive to His voice. In other words, always be mindful of God with your thoughts, keeping them above on good and perfect things. Keep practising aligning your mouth (what you speak) to agree with your thoughts (which are from above). As we begin to speak the Word habitually, we will begin to believe it easier. If we are always speaking things contrary to the Word, our heart will struggle to receive and be transformed by the Word.
4. Set time apart so that your kids may be to themselves. You AND your kids need ‘free-flow’ time. It is a time of creativity where they can flow from the heart and be themselves; to put their hand at something without disturbance and interference. Have faith that they have the Spirit of God within them, and by faith allow time for Jesus to work through them by whatever craft or project that they desire to do. They need to learn from young that they do not need someone to always tell them what to do. They need to keep practising on that intrinsic desire to create and learn.
To do this I usually give my kids up to an hour of free time in the morning before they do any academic learning to just flow in whichever way they desire. Maybe they enjoy building, painting, and creating. Let them. I have noticed that after academics, their energy has been spent to even begin to flow creatively. So, rather begin the day with a creative flow.
5. Facilitate planned activities that can intentionally guide your children to hearing God. Children also need purpose and direction, so I have created 3 activities to be intentional about hearing His voice. Set time aside each day, or couple of days a week for these activities. These activities may help build your children’s confidence and sensitivity to God.
Instructions for doing the activities:
Before you begin the activities with your children, explain the gift of Christ inside of them. I explained to my children that when we accept Jesus into our heart, He places His gift in us. It is His Spirit. This undeserved gift is as living water inside of us.
I tell them to think of it as a tap flowing through a hose. We are the hose, and God the Father is the tap who gives us the Spirit (the water). Only have faith that the Father’s tap is always open, and His water is always flowing in and through us.
This water comes out of our mouth, in the form of words, so we must choose our words carefully. If they are good and encouraging words, then it is cleansing water to a person’s soul, but if its hateful and evil, then its gunk that needs to be cleaned out by speaking the word only. As flowing water from a tap will clean out the gunk of a glass by always filling it up, so God’s good Word washes out our filth as we keep speaking only His Word.
As they have this idea (through their imagination) in their mind of the water of the Spirit flowing through them, encourage them to begin to write the word on a piece of paper. They must imagine that God is speaking to them by their good thoughts. So, if it is a scripture, or anything uplifting and good then they must write it down. They must see it as God speaking to them. Remind them that they have the living-water within them by faith alone, so this water is flowing out of their thoughts and pen by faith alone (Perhaps some children will be more comfortable to practise speaking the words before writing).
When you have had some explanation time with them you can begin these 3 activities, one at a time, each at different times.
The download for the activity bundle is after the following activity descriptions.
Activity Descriptions
- A Letter from God
The Letter from God is like a letter puzzle which I would use first with my children. Once printed cut the A4 page in equal strip pieces (according to the number of people doing the activity; there are different options in the download.) Then give a strip to each child and yourself.
Remind the children that they are that hose-pipe and God is flowing in and out of them as words, so they should write anything that comes to mind. They must believe that God is speaking and that His Words are always good, and uplifting. If they can only manage a sentence or 2, that is a start.
Once everyone has written on their strip, tape the pieces back together to form a full page again. Tell them that you are going to read a love letter from God to them, then read it aloud for them. You can decide to do this once a week or how often you think.
Please note that reading the bible and praying together will plant God’s word in their heart and thoughts, so if this is happening then it will become easier to have Godly thoughts that they can write down.
2. The Mini 5-day Prayer Journal
This is a sequel to the Letter from God. Once they have been exposed to writing the letter, they can now do a personal weekly journal. They do the same as they did in the letter puzzle, but now they write on the left side of the mini journal and a draw a picture on the left side. The Mini Journal has enough space for 5 days. You could do the journal booklet then go on to the 3rd activity, or go back and do the first one again.
3. The Believe-it Ring Game
After the first two activities, they may have built up enough confidence to do the activity orally. Reminding them again to believe that God flows through them as water in a hose-pipe, each child will sit or stand in a circle, and have a turn to say what they believe God is saying to them that day. There is no right or wrong way; this is about slowing down, stilling their minds and hearts, and practising His presence. When we humble ourselves to God and become quiet, we can learn to be sensitive to His voice. There may be some direction needed but do this gently.
The Free Download in our Shop:
Hope you have fun with this. Here is the PDF download of this blog post teaching, activity instructions, and activity templates.
