What You Believe, Is What You Get

You Get What You Believe

In 1 Samuel chapter three, we read the story of how God spoke to the child, Samuel.

The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.

² One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. ³ The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. ⁴ Then the Lord called Samuel.

Samuel answered, “Here I am.” ⁵ And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.

⁶ Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”

⁷ Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

⁸ A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. ⁹ So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰ The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

¹¹ And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. ¹² At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. ¹³ For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God,^[a] and he failed to restrain them. ¹⁴ Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.’”

There is a lot of revelation for parents and teachers in this story about Samuel.

First of all this story is biblical proof that God does use children in a powerful way.  I’m still amazed at how many parents and even preachers don’t believe that God can use children in a supernatural way, when the Bible has many stories of God using kids and teenagers.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Is the Bible the Word of God?
• Do you believe the Bible is true?
• Does God use children in the gifts of the Spirit such as prophecy, word of wisdom, gifts of healing and working of miracles?

If you answered “yes” to the first two questions, then you should have no problem answering “yes” to the third question, because the Bible has many stories of God using kids and youth, for example, Samuel, David, Daniel, and the three Hebrew children.

Let’s take a closer look at this story of Samuel.  In chapter one of 1 Samuel, we see that Hannah was barren; she had no children.  One day Hannah went to the temple and poured out her heart to God.  Hannah made a promise to God that if He would give her a son, she would give him to the Lord for the ministry.  God answered Hannah’s prayer.  She conceived and gave birth to a strong, healthy boy.  Hannah named him Samuel, which means “asked of God.”

When Samuel was weaned (my guess would be between the ages of 2-4 years old), Hannah brought him to the temple and gave him to Eli to train for the ministry. Who knows what Eli thought of this – maybe he thought Hannah was trying to get free child-care.  This was not an easy thing for Hannah to do, but Hannah was very determined about keeping her promise to God.

This brings us to the story in chapter three where God speaks to Samuel.  God spoke to Samuel four times before Samuel was able to receive the word from God.

• Why did God have to speak four times?
• Was it the will of God for Samuel to hear the first time?

Of course it was.  If God is calling you by name, I think it’s pretty clear that He wants to talk to you.  So why did God have to speak four times.  What happened between the third time and the fourth time?

Verse 7 is very enlightening.  It says, “Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.”

This tells me that Eli was not doing a good job as Samuel’s teacher because Samuel did not really know the Lord yet and he hadn’t been taught to hear from God.  Hannah brought Samuel to the temple for the express purpose of being trained in ministry, but Eli wasn’t doing his part.  I think the reason that Eli didn’t teach Samuel about these things was because he thought, like a lot of adults do, that children can’t be used by God until they “grow up.”

Let’s take a closer look at verses 8 & 9: “A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if He calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.”

Notice in verse 8 it says, “Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy.”  I believe that is the first time Eli thought, “Hey! Maybe God’s talking to you, Samuel.”

Here is my point: Samuel did not receive the word from God until his teacher believed that he could.

There are three individuals involved in this story:

• God
• The teacher
• The child

It took all three to “have faith” before Samuel received.

It is very important that parents believe that God can use their children.

Willie George is one of my spiritual fathers.  I’m doing what I’m doing today because Willie influenced my life twenty years ago when I was attending Rhema Bible Training College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

One day I asked Willie, “Why is it so hard for parents to believe that their own children can step out into the supernatural and be used in the gifts of the Spirit?” (Many times I had more faith in their children than they did.  This seemed odd to me.)

I never forgot what Willie said, “It’s because most parents know their children after the flesh.”

Wow!  Now I understood.  Even Jesus “could not do any mighty works” in His hometown.  Why? Because they knew Him after the flesh.  They had no understanding of the call on His life or the gift of God in Him.

Mom and Dad, don’t look at your children after the flesh; look for the gift of God in them.  Some of your children are called to be apostles, prophets, evangelist and pastors.

The following is a quote from Clarine Chun’s book Please Do Not Despise Me.  Clarine and her husband pastor a church in Malaysia.

The church is constantly expected to provide a program to keep their kids happy while daddy and mommy are in the worship service. Parents also have this mentality that their kids cannot understand the pastors message, therefore, they need to be taken out of the service. Sometimes, I wonder when parents and adults are going to allow children’s spiritual maturity, to catch up and be on par with their level of intellectual development.

If our children can sit in school for six hours every day and are expected by both teachers and parents to give their full concentration, why can’t we expect that they will also sit for two hours enjoying the adult service?

The problem lies with parents and their inability to believe that their children can do it.

Clarine’s story brings me to another point pastors in church leaders need to make church, more inclusive for teenagers and children. They should be times when kids, team, and adults are taught separately, but there also needs to be times when families worship God together, especially if the Spirit of God is moving.

We need to communicate to our youth and children that they are a vital part of the church. I believe very strongly that the youth and children should be part of the worship team and ministries in the church.

In Mark 11:23 we read a very familiar scripture, “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass he shall have whatsoever he saith.”

The main thought of this scripture is that you get what you believe for and you say it with your mouth.

If your children are not passionately in love with Jesus, maybe you need to change what you are believing about them and change what you are saying about them.

You can start the change right now. Take a few moments and start to say things like:

“Father, I pray for (your child’s name) that his/her foot steps are ordered by You. Every time that ______________ sins or takes a step towards the worlds, I pray that the Holy Spirit will convict him/her of sin. _______________ is passionately in love with Jesus Christ. _____________ is hungry for the things of God. God has a plan for _________________’s life. God wants to use _____________ in a powerful way.”

Pray this way for your children every day for one month and it will change how you think about your kids.