Preparing Princes

by Nancy Campbell of Above Rubies

"Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord."

2 Chronicles 36:9 NASB

We noticed in Preparing Princes, Part 2 that Josiah sought the Lord while he was still a youth. His son is now made king while a child, but the Bible says that he did that which was evil before the Lord. And yet he was only eight years old! Even at an early age children can follow after evil or follow after the Lord.

I am sure it depends on their training. This is why we must be faithful to fill our children with God's living Word even while they are small. Satan is out to get our children and he will try even when they are young. I remember at nine years of age wanting to ask Jesus Christ into my life. I struggled. I felt the power of the enemy holding me back. It was a spiritual battle.

My daughter, Evangeline experienced the same thing when she gave her life to Jesus as a young child. Evangeline shares her testimony: God saved me at four years of age. Even today, it is still the most vivid and powerful experience of my life. I was lying in bed. I still remember the orange bedspread cover. My mother came into my room and said, "Stephen (my twin) has just asked Jesus to come into his life. Would you like to also?" At that moment the world stopped and the fight between the powers of darkness and heaven began. My whole body was shaking. With all my heart I wanted to ask Jesus into my life, but the pull from Satan was so strong. "No, no, no..." the voice of Satan pulled at my heart. The struggle was powerful.

Eventually I said, "Yes" with all my heart. I followed my mother in prayer asking Jesus to come into my life. At that moment I knew God. I experienced the reality of God. He came into my life and filled me. He opened my mind to Him. I was saved for life - no turning back! I have known His powerful presence in my life ever since. Instantly I felt peace. Instantly I was not afraid of the big owl outside my room - or of anything. I have never been afraid of anything from that day.

Satan wants the minds and hearts of our young children. That is why we must be diligent to train them from a very young age. We want them for God, not for the devil's kingdom. This makes me wonder why God-fearing parents allow their children to go into the public school system to be subtly indoctrinated with humanism, socialism and progressivism. It is there they are trained to think like socialists and become more and more conformed to this spirit of this world.

Psalm 1:1 says, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night." Many of our children, especially at college, sit under professors who scorn the Bible and the ways of God. God's blessing is on those who do not sit in the seat of the scornful and the counsel of the ungodly. Just imagine if every God-fearing parent took their children out of "the counsel of the ungodly" and brought them home to teach them in the ways of God! We would have a revolution in the country. And we certainly need one!

Back in the days of Israel when they were training princes and mighty men to fight for their country, they didn't train ones and twos; they trained thousands of them. Look at some of the numbers that came to help David to make him king in 1 Chronicles 12.

"The children of Judah... ready armed to the war." ... ... ... 6,800

"The children of Simeon, mighty men of valor for the war." 7,100

"The children of Zebulun, such as went forth to battle, expert in war, which could keep rank; they were not of double heart." ... ... ... 50,000

"The children of Dan, expert in war." ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 28,000

The children of Asher, expert in war." ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 40,000

As I read through the Word of God I don't see any commandments to send our children to God-hating colleges where they are brainwashed to think like humanists. Instead, I see God wanting to pour out His Holy Spirit upon them. Acts 2:17-18 says, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters hall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy."

Do you want your children and teens to be worldly humanistic thinkers or do you want them to be filled with the Holy Spirit, boldly speaking forth God's truth in this deceived world. This won't happen unless they are in an environment for God to pour His Spirit upon them. That environment is not in a godless education system. Who do you think has the best idea? God? Or man with his own ideas?

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

Above Rubies, http://www.aboverubies.org

PRAYER:

"Oh God, please help me to raise my children in an environment where you can fill them with your Holy Spirit and prepare them to be mouthpieces for you in the land. Amen."

AFFIRMATION:

I'm taking God's side rather than man's!

Preparing Princes

by Nancy Campbell, Above Rubies

"Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel... to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers." 2 Chronicles 34:33

While Josiah reigned as king of Israel, the whole nation of Judah did not depart from following the Lord. What a marvelous testimony for the leader of the nation. This was not the testimony of an older experienced man, but of a young man.

2 Chronicles 34:2-3 tells us, "He did right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father." Josiah was only 16 years old when he began to seek the Lord with all his heart. This is the most opportune time for young people to seek God--the time when they are filled with energy, passion and vision. The greatest way they can exert this energy is toward God and His kingdom.

ZEALOUSLY SEEKING GOD
How do we get our young people to seek God? We can't make them do it. No law can make them do it. It has to come from their heart. Therefore, how can we influence their hearts?
1.    Inspire them to a life of serving God and others. Encourage them to get involved with missions and helping the needy. A selfish mentality where everything revolves around "me" is a destructive attitude.
2.    Make sure they are raised on the Word of God. The best way is to have Family Devotions together every morning and every evening.  The Word of God has power to change their lives and draw them closer to the Lord. Give God opportunity to work in their hearts by the daily filling of His Living Word. Make sure this is not done in legality, but with vitality, asking questions and promoting discussion.
3.    Make sure that prayer is second nature to them. This will happen as they pray out loud each day at Family Devotions. Encourage them to have their own daily "Quiet Time."
4.    Train them in character. Don't allow petty attitudes and self-pity trips. Don't allow grumbling and complaining. Prepare them to be able to face all situations in life, to minister equally to the poor and to the rich. They cannot become princes and princesses without training. Everyone born of royalty is consistently, systematically and extensively trained for kingship and queenship. They will not live like children of the King of kings without our faithful training.
5.    Pray for them. Our greatest weapon is prayer. When we pray, the Holy Spirit will work in their lives in answer to our earnest and fervent prayers. Prayer was our greatest weapon as we raised our teenagers.
It saddens me to see so many so-called "Christian" young people today who are taken up with the worldly pursuits of this life. Instead of seeking God and shining with the glory of God, they are more interested in looking at guys, talking immaturely with their friends, chewing gum* and dressing immodestly. "Cleavage" seems to be "in" in the church today, with adult women as well as teenage girls. Where is the example for our youth?  I hardly know where to look when I am amongst church people. What about young guys and men who must be tempted to lust. Do young ladies and women not realize that this relegates them to the "common" instead of belonging to royalty--princes and princesses of the King of kings?

A DIFFERENT SPIRIT
It's time to earnestly cry out to God for our young people. Pray they will not be interested in living the status quo life of the other young people around them, but who, like Caleb, will have a different spirit than everyone else. I love the description of Caleb in Numbers 14:24, "But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully him will I bring into the land... and his seed shall possess it."

When young people become filled with the zeal of God they can change a nation. That's what Josiah did. 2 Chronicles 34:3 continues, "And in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem..." Josiah was now 20 years of age, still a young man. At this age he began to clean up the nation. He rose up in boldness to expose the works of darkness. He was not only concerned about the evil, but he did something about it. He purged the land of evil, tore down the altars of Baal, chopped down the incense altars, broke them in pieces, ground them to powder and scattered them. He burned the bones of the priests of Baal and tore down the Asherim altars and beat them to powder. This was radical stuff! There was no half-heartedness here but absolute passion and zeal for the Lord. Let's pray for a nation of young people with this passion.

IN ALL THE EARTH
In the last devotion we talked about Psalm 45:16, "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth." Do you notice that we are training princes for all the earth? We are getting them ready to go out into the nation and into the countries of the world to take the gospel; to rise up against evil and deception and do something about it! These young people are not the "ordinary" who try to fit in with the "in" crowd. No, they are princes and princesses, living like royalty as they truly represent the King of kings.

* Please, don't get too upset with me. Of course, there is nothing biblically wrong with chewing gum. However, I personally feel that it is not dignified as a subject of the King of kings. Plus, I think it is rather rude to talk to people while chewing. (I agree with Nancy. --Lanita)


Love from NANCY CAMPBELL
Above Rubies, www.aboverubies.org

PRAYER:
"Father, please help me to prepare children who will seek after you with all their hearts and be zealous for God. Amen."

AFFIRMATION:
I will not give up my vision of training children who will stand strong against evil and take action against it!

What Kind of Children?

Malachi 2:15 RSV, "Has not the one God made and sustained for us the spirit of life? And what does he desire? Godly offspring. So take heed to yourselves and let none be faithless to the wife of his youth. For I hate divorce, says the Lord the God of Israel."

God reveals His heart about marriage in the above Scripture. He wants the wife and husband to be one. He wants them to be faithful to one another. He does not want them to be divorced. And He makes His reason for saying this very clear. The disruption of marriage tampers with the godly offspring. The thing that God looks for in marriage more than anything else is godly children. This is His heart's desire. He looks eagerly for the coming children. This is His plan for marriage.

It is the nature of God to want children in His image. And because we were made in the likeness and image of God, it is inherent in mankind to want to have children in our image. We long to see who they will be like. And yet we now live in a distorted age. Couples have been so brainwashed by humanist deception that they often refuse to have children, or at least limit how many they have. They live counter-culture to God's kingdom and to their own instinctive design. While they live to their own desires, God waits with patience to see children born in His image. Grandparents wait to continue the godly dynasty.

Each new precious baby is created in the image of God and He wants His image multiplied in the earth.

But even more challenging is that it is not just offspring that God looks for. No, it is godly offspring. The margin in my Bible says, "the seed of God." What kind of children are the seed of God? It is even more challenging again when we find that the Hebrew word is elohim. As you know, the name Elohim is one of the names of God, the first name that God introduces himself to us in Genesis 1:1. This is only one name of God and it occurs 2,570 times in the Bible.

Elohim is used 35 times in Genesis 1:1 to 2:4 revealing God's creative and governing power. He created this vast universe by His spoken word. Elohim is the one who brought "cosmos out of chaos, light out of darkness, habitation out of desolation, and life in His image." (Nathan Stone) Because we are created in His image, we also have the ability to create. God has put into our mouths the power of the spoken word. We can minister life or death by our tongue. (Proverbs 18:21) God wants us (and each new babe that is born) to create and speak for His kingdom and His glory. He wants the godly offspring to fill the earth with His words, His truth and His character.

Elohim also reveals God as a covenant keeping God. There are many Scriptures revealing this but here are a few.

Genesis 17:7, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God (Elohim) unto thee, and to thy seed after thee."

Genesis 9:15-17, "And I will remember my covenant... And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature..."

On Joseph's death bed he said, "God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." (Genesis 50:24)

When Solomon dedicated the temple he prayed, "There is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart." (1 Kings 8:23)

Elohim is a covenant-keeping God. He wants us to also manifest covenant keeping. This is how we reveal the image of Elohim. He wants each godly offspring to be a covenant-keeper. It is interesting that God talks about the godly seed coming forth in the context of a covenant keeping marriage. Malachi 2:14 RSV says, "The Lord was witness to the covenant between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant."

It is not having lots of children that will solve the world's problems. It is having godly children who will impact the nations for God. May God enable us to welcome the godly seed and train them to truly reveal the character of Elohim. There is no career that can come anywhere near the enormity and power of this vision.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL (from Above Rubies)

PRAYER:

"Oh God, please help me to be a faithful covenant-keeper and to train my children to be the same."

AFFIRMATION:

I have the awesome privilege to raise the "seed of God."