While observing spiritual encounters with God in children, a common theme occurs when focusing on discipling and equipping them for ministry.

We move them out of what is comfortable into a new reality with God.

We want them to have that crisis of faith that causes them to trust the Heavenly Father.

That unique experience causes a spiritual revelation, a divine encounter, and it sets their spiritual foundation deep—God reveals Himself to and through them. 

Spiritual revelation is a striking or conscious disclosure of something not realized about God and His will for the believer in Christ.

Children personally have revelations of God in their lives when we break out of what is standard practice in the church today.

When we move them to a new typical—to the Great Commission—they will experience God in ways that they never will see by staying inside the church building.

The Holy Spirit empowers them in the midst of ministry and missions.

We Are Called to Make Disciples—That Is Our Calling

We can talk about the many beautiful stories of the Bible; however, God wants to create an extraordinary story with our children.

They discover who God is through spiritual revelation. The Church’s calling is to make disciples and missionaries for the Gospel.

The more we train and release children for ministry, the more they have divine encounters with their Maker.

We will focus on significant events that bring spiritual revelation into a child’s life.

The greater manifestation of the Spirit of God occurs, in my observation, on mission sharing the Gospel—being in and doing the will of God.

We have seen significant movements of the Spirit in their lives. When children are away from what is comfortable, they become more focused on God for help and deliverance.

“He (God) calls you to an assignment you cannot do without Him. The assignment will have God-sized dimensions. When God asks you to do something that you cannot do, it causes a crisis of belief. Can He and will He do what He has said He wants to do through you?” —Henry Blackaby^[i]

Challenging children and pushing them out of what is secure for them causes a “crisis of belief.”

When Moses stood before God, there was a spiritual revelation.

God chose him to be His agent to deliver Israel from Egypt.

It became a debate between God and Moses.

But God had His way, and Moses became the leader God wanted him to be. Moses had a crisis of belief until he stepped into God’s will for his life.^[ii]

Land and Trip share, “God is simply taking you where you do not want to go to produce in you what you could not achieve on your own.”^[iii]

This is an exert from Dr. Clint May's new book, "Going Deep: Taking Children into the Spiritual Depth With God."

Going Deep documents16 years of ministry observing preteens taking part in the Great Commission. 

^[i] Henry Blackaby and Claude King, Experiencing God: How to Live the Full Adventure of Knowing and Doing the Will of God (Broadman & Holman, Nashville: 1994), 76.

^[ii] Ibid, 77.

^[iii] Timothy S. Land and Paul David Tripp, How People Change (New Growth Press, Kindle Edition: 2008), 132.