The Faith Of A Child; The Theology Of An Adult
An inquisitive event occurred at the church I was attending on Sunday. The Pastor gave a sermon on Justification By Faith. In an attempt to show an unbiased look both sides of the “Once Saved Always Saved” versus “You Can Lose Your Salvation” arguments although he let you knew what side he favored because “it was his responsibility to portray the ‘truth’”, a woman broke into the flow of debate, not to ask a question, nor to give an opinion. She wanted to share a testimony.
Her testimony was that she had had headaches and back pain during the service. Someone from the children’s department asked if she would come and let the children pray for her. She complied. The teacher of the children’s class had been teaching the children how to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit themselves. As the children honed in on that still small voice, they began to minister to this lady. By the time they were done, she was pain free. Here she was now telling the adults about this experience as the children released their "child like faith".
That is the beauty of being a child: having child like faith. Adults were discussing “faith”, debating theology, trying to figure out how faith works while justifying their theological positions. The children? They just practiced their faith! The adults came to no conclusions that united them while the children produced results, a healing!
When is the adult church going to allow the passions of the children of God to arise, that of an evangelist, a shepherd, a teacher, a prophet, and an apostle, and release the children of God to freely exercise them? The Holy Spirit resides in the temple of God, the bodies of believers in Jesus Christ. Church, let’s allow that spirit to arise, manifest itself, and be released in resurrected life and freedom!
When is the adult church going to learn it doesn’t have to be theologically correct or kosher all the time; they just need to have faith in Jesus and listen to his Holy Spirit speaking? Every religious sect thinks the theological “truth” has been revealed to them, and the rest of Christendom is incorrect or missing an element of that truth? Why does the adult church feel it has to “justify the truth” rather than live by the principle of “justification of faith”? Faith in what?
If we have “faith” in Jesus’ power to heal, then let’s just do it: heal! If we have “faith” in Jesus’ power to forgive, then let’s just do it: forgive! If we have “faith” in the body of Christ, then let’s just practice IJohn 3:16 and “lay down our lives for our brethren”: let’s just do it! If we have “faith” in “rebirth”, then let’s allow the Holy Spirit to rebirth! If we believer in sanctification, then let’s allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in caring, nurturing, and developing our fellow believers into the image of Jesus Christ! If we “faith” that God speaks to his children, then let’s listen and be obedient to what we have seen and heard.
When, as adults, are we ready to scrap our prearranged, highly organized, well orchestrated, music and oral ensembles we call worship services, and allow the children of God who attend to just be “children” who want to play, to romp, to sing, to dance, to be free to skip around bear footed, even puddle hop, and maybe even make mud pies while getting dirty instead of always appearing pristine clean? When are we going to allow their passions in Jesus to arise, to help “develop” towards maturing in Christ-likeness, and to release them to be free in the destiny God has for them instead of prohibiting them, holding them back, and controlling them?
I recently observed a parent, who when haggard by their children’s noises of just being kids, playing, sibling rivalries, vying for parental attention, and being fidgety under the strains of having to be in an adult world while still being kids, completely shut down their activity to have “order” for the sake of adult sanity, suppressing any child like life in them for quietness and control. As adults, we do that all the time to our children rather than joining them.
Jesus said, “Let the little children come unto me,” and “unless you are like a little child, you can not enter the kingdom of heaven.” I want to enter the lifestyle of that kingdom; I want to be a child again; I want to be able to come and jump into the lap of Jesus! Then I got to divert back to my spiritual childhood with child like faith. I got to quit debating, quit trying to be correct, quit trying to always be a portrayer of truth to prove that I am righteous, and just be a kid again! In an adult world kids are never right; in a kid’s world they just want the adults to join them in experiencing life.
I just want to heal, to forgive, to love, to respect, to honor, to worship, to grow, grow up to be like Jesus! I just want to experieince continual rebirth, to care, nurture, and develop others, to walk our the Word of God in my daily life, live it, to develop my inner ear to hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, to be able to envision the Church as a bride without spot or wrinkle prepared for its wedding day. As a kid, I want to play, imitating my Father. Ironically, as an adult I have learned to “play church”, but as a child I want to be the church; I just want the freedom and release to just do it!