Kids Are Hungry for the Supernatural
Kids Are Hungry for the Supernatural
by Becky Fischer
Occasionally in the secular world there is a book that becomes a phenomenon and takes the nation by unexpected storm. Such is currently the case with a new book series for children that has since been made into a movie. The success of both of these items has surprised everyone. Kids are buying up the books faster than they can be printed, and the movie is breaking box office records.
So as no to give it any more “press” than it deserves, the series will go unnamed in this article. But to give you insight into its basic concepts, the books are centered on a young boy who was born into the home of a practicing witch and warlock. This child has been identified by other spiritualists as having extraordinary supernatural powers. As such he has been enrolled in a special school to train him how to use those powers more effectively–that is, he is being trained to be a top-notch warlock. In the books, this youngster typically uses his powers to get his way for supposedly noble purposes, and he uses his spiritual skills against anybody that gets in his way.
Following an Unlikely Hero
The children of America have become entranced with this young “hero.” They are enamored to the degree that the publishers, bookstore owners, and others involved in the marketing of the books have been bombarded with kids writing in to find out if there really are any schools in existence where they too can learn to do magic and witchcraft.
Like most good Christian parents, this can make us want to rise up in arms and “do something about it!” But before we get too red in the face, let’s examine what’s really going on here. This is nothing more than a loud and clear message that the children of our country and indeed of the world, are not just hungry, but are starving for the supernatural!
This is a generation of children like no other in history. Whereas we watched Generation X swim in hopeless lack of direction, this younger Millennial Generation, as some have named it, is full of vision and purpose. They have been trained to be focused and brimming with aspiration. But without the Lord Jesus as the center of their lives, that energy and determination will naturally turn to something else. Since every human being ever created was designed as a supernatural creature, sooner of later they will be drawn to the spirit world like a moth is drawn to the light. It’s the responsibility of the body of Christ to reach these children with the true Source of the supernatural before the world gets to them with their message.
Bible Stories Aren’t Enough
I’ve made a personal observation over the years about people who end up in the various cults this world has to offer. When a person gets hungry for spiritual things, which most do at some point in their lives, it seems like the sect that gets to them first is the one they hook up to. Then once they commit to a religion, it’s almost impossible to convert them away from it. The message here is that the church needs to get to people first with the good news of Jesus before the cults can reach them.
This leads us right back to a point we’ve made before in previous articles. That point is that it’s in childhood that individuals are the most open and the most likely to receive the gospel. That is a documented fact! We need to be going after the children of this world more aggressively than we’ve ever done before! But kids want more than cute little Bible stories. Kids want truth. They want power. They want the touch of the supernatural in their lives. The devil knows this, and he’s wasting no time–more blatantly than ever he’s peddling his” magic gospel” to our kids. For every child the church reaches, the devil is reaching hundreds, maybe thousands with his power-filled message. Once they commit to a “gospel,” it will be almost impossible to route them away from it.
We might be tempted to think, “What do kids know about power anyway?” But they are now being bombarded with “powerful” heroes of every kind on TV, videos, books, comic books, toys, and games–anyplace there’s a market for children. Boys and girls today know about spiritual power. Then they go to church–dull, boring church, where if there is any real life to be had at all, it’s generally in the adult service while the children are being baby sat with coloring pages and flannel graph stories. They come to the conclusion that “There’s no power here!” and they turn their hungry search elsewhere.
Give them the Power They’re Looking For
Christian kids want to be involved in what God is doing in the earth today. They’ve heard about the stories of miracles and healings from the adults around them. They hear grownups talk about the power of God in a service, or worship, or a conference. But not very often do they get to experience it for themselves, even when they sit in those same services because it’s generally geared for adults. Kids want in on the “fun!” They want to know if any of this is for them too, or just for the grownups.
I’ll never forget the very first time I taught a group of kids that they were capable of helping others get filled with the Holy Spirit. I took a group of youngsters from my own church with me to do a kids rally in another town. Before the service I let them know that it was likely that we were going to have an altar call that night for people who wanted to be filled. Then I gave them a few simple instructions telling them how they were to pray with those coming forward.
You should have seen their faces. They lit up like Christmas trees at the thought that they were the ones who were going to pray with the others. There was a four year old child with us who right then asked if she could receive the baptism, and one of our older girls leaped at the opportunity to instruct and pray with her. She did great! By the end of the service, three boys came forward desiring to be filled with the Spirit. I had about six of my boys wanting to be the ones to pray with them. They literally argued over who was going to get to do it! In the end, the youngsters did a wonderful job, and the newcomers went away speaking in tongues. My kids were pumped with excitement! God has used them in the supernatural! It wasn’t just the grownups who got all the fun while the kids sat in the corner!
Just recently I visited a church where I had been the children’s pastor for many years and all my little kids are now teens and much taller than me. I was told that there had just been a service where these teens were asked to share about an experience that made a tremendous impact on their lives. One of the boys testified about a time in one of our kids services where God had used him for the first time to give a word of prophecy. It touched him that God would use him in that way. Kids are hungry to be used by a supernatural God.
Beef Steak vs. Bologna
I grew up in a Christian home. No one in our family or in our close relatives smoked or drank. Consequently I didn’t either. But all of my heroes and heroines on TV and some of my favorite schoolteachers did. As a result it made me curious about those things. I remember as a teenager finally getting the nerve to buy a pack of cigarettes. I smoked the whole pack. Unlike the stories I’ve heard about other kids who did this and turned green, vomited, and never tried it again, I had no adverse or positive reaction at all to the event. I remember walking away from the incident thinking, “So what’s the big deal about smoking? Why does everyone think it’s so great?” It left me very unimpressed, and I never tried it again. There was no power in the experience at all.
A similar thing happened to me in a college concerning drinking. I attended my sophomore year in Germany, and as a part of our cultural experience we were invited to a private audience with one of the top government officials. We were to arrive for the meal by 6:00PM, but they didn’t actually serve the meal until after 7:00PM. But what they did serve, while we sat starving at the table, was all the beer and wine we wanted! I hated the taste of beer, but I had a marginal tolerance for wine, so in my hunger I kept drinking it down. It never occurred to me what I was doing!
It was right about in the middle of the speech given by the official that the alcohol hit me. I started giggling uncontrollably, and had to be escorted out of the room to my living quarters where I was put to bed to sleep it off. When I awoke I was quite fine–no nausea, no headache–nothing but the memory of actually a rather pleasant experience. But as I reflected on it, I remember thinking, “That was it? That’s what everybody raves about? What’s the big deal about getting drunk?” I never had the slightest interest in taking a drink again.
I’ve looked back many times over the years at those two experiences and wondered why I was not more affected by them. I have come to the conclusion that it was because as a child growing up in an atmosphere where the power of God was regularly evident in our church, that I had grown up on the “real thing.” All other so-called powerful experiences were like bologna compared to beef steak. I had tasted of the true power of God throughout my life, and anything else was a cheap imitation.
In Conclusion
That’s what we want for our kids. We want to grow them up on the real thing–the power of the living God! They need to be involved in the intoxication of worship and intercession. They need the exhilaration of being the ones laying hands on the sick and watching miracles take place before their eyes. They need the elation of being the ones leading others to salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit and watching the impact it has on lives. They need their own personal, power-packed visions, dreams, and prophetic encounters with God that marks their lives forever as the “real” supernatural experiences. I know what it’s like to be an adult knowing I was supposed to be ministering to kids but not wanting to because I was afraid I’d miss out on the awesome presence of God and the moving of the Holy Spirit in the adult services. So I fixed that. I just decided there was going to be an awesome presence and move of God in the kids services!!
We began doing ministry to kids believing there was going to be a supernatural touch from heaven in every service. We scratched the crafts and went to the altar and got in God’s face. My life changed, and so did the children we ministered to. We can’t keep doing children’s church the way we’ve always done it and expect any more power than we’ve been having!
As the adults in their world, we are the ones responsible to place our kids in children’s ministries, camps, churches, and other events where a supernatural move of God is taking place. Then when they are confronted with the supposed powerful magic of a fictitious hero, they will walk away saying, “What’s the big deal about that? That’s nothing compared to what my God can do!”
The challenge is clear. We must reach the children of this generation with the true power of the living God to satisfy their natural hunger for the supernatural life.
Becky Fischer is the founder and director of Kids in Ministry International. Watch Becky’s It’s Supernatural! Television interview with Sid Roth here.
This article reprinted by permission from: https://kidsinministry.org/.