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True Story: When kids see Jesus and angels.

[The following is a guest post by Jessica Heaston. Its a little long but this is literally one of the most thought-provoking things I've read in a long time. It made me feel excited and uneasy at the same time. It will REALLY challenge your world view and I can't wait to hear your thoughts]

A little about myself.

God brought an amazing man into my life and after courting for six months he proposed. We got married a year later.

Believing that children are a gift from God and that they are born by His will and not our own, (Rev. 4:11), we chose to trust God in all areas of our life including birth control.

I was pregnant with my firstborn a month after we were married and on graduation day I had two beautiful little girls and had just found out I was pregnant with my third.

Today, I have four awesome kids ages 8, 7, 5, and 4. 

I’d like to share what Jesus has taught me in raising my four wonderful kids. 

I’m sure you’ve heard this verse before, but I’d like to challenge you to look at it from a different perspective…

“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it” [Prov 22:6]

Jesus began a transformation inside of me when my oldest was still in my womb. I had several people tell me during prayer that she would be prophetic from a young age.

Unsure what to do with that I sought God for wisdom on how to nurture this ‘gift’ in her even as an infant.

The Lords answer surprised me...not because it was outrageous but because it went against the flow or norm’. 

Jesus wanted her saturated, even as an infant, in worship, prayer, and the Word. 

We brought her with us to every prayer meeting and worship setting. She also stayed in church with us instead of going in the nursery. 

As she got a little older I sought God for more wisdom and He would nudge me to talk with her and ask her questions. 

From the time she could talk we would have conversations like this:

Me: Do you see angels?
Her: Yes, There is one right there beside you mommy! I see them when I go to heaven too!
Me: When do you go to heaven? You mean when you are dreaming at night?
Her: No… (Laughing) Jesus wakes me up! He comes down and takes me up through the ceiling, through the clouds, through the stars to heaven!
Me: What does Jesus look like?
Her: He is big! And he has white hair and red eyes…..

The more we talked, the more I realized that this child was NOT just imaginative and making stories.

She was a child of God having REAL experiences!

She was only three when we had that particular conversation. We had never read Revelation to her and pictures in books don’t show Jesus with white hair and red eyes.

My daughter has since had countless other prophetic experiences.

She is now 8 and her favorite thing to do is not playing soccer, which she does love, or even playing with her friends…
Her favorite thing to do is to go to the Greater Toledo House of Prayer to worship, pray, and intercede for our city and nation.

She literally spends hours there praying. If I let her she would be at every open prayer slot open from start to finish. She has a deep, personal and intimate relationship with Jesus.

All of my children have deep personal relationships with Jesus. They each are unique and intimate in different ways. They each worship and pray in different ways as each of us are different.

But they are confident in this… 

They KNOW that Jesus is real, they have seen Him! 
They KNOW that He speaks to them, they hear Him! 
They KNOW He is good, they have tasted Him! 
They KNOW His love for them, they feel it everyday!
They KNOW that they are heirs of Jesus and that their prayers are powerful!

Why do they have such deep faith?

I wish I could say because mom and dad do, but to be honest we glean from them! 
They have this faith because as mom and dad we have protected, guarded, believed and encouraged who God has called them to be since they were conceived.

We have been on our faces before God so that we will know what “the way in which they should go” is. 

How can we train them up in the way they should go if we’re not seeking Jesus on their behalf asking Him which way they should go or how to train them up? 

It’s more than ‘they believe in Jesus’… It’s ‘they believe in who Christ is inside of them and what their purpose is’. That God loves them as children and that they have a purpose and are important to the Kingdom of God, now, as kids!

Psalms 8:2 says...
"From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and avenger." 

My side notes says, the mighty God whose glory is displayed across the face of the heavens APPOINTS and EVOKES the praise of little children to SILENCE the dark powers arrayed against Him. 

Do we get that?!

The power that children have in their prayer and praise!  That power was given to them and we, the world, are sedating them with so many distractions and making them believe that they are too little to hear from God. 

WAKE UP!!! 

They hear the purest from God!  If we would just ask them, encourage them, have faith like a child and believe with them then what power this generation would hold.

This is a passion on my heart to raise up the children to believe in who they are in Christ, encourage and empower them to DO those works. 

It is not always easy… It can be awkward having these conversations when you haven’t ever done it before. It takes consistency and time.

But oh the sweetness of the reward of seeing the fruit in your children and the confidence of knowing what God is doing in and through them!

As I reflected on Mother’s Day on what it meant to me to be a mom, it’s this… That I have been given the greatest privilege and responsibility that God has trusted ME... to train up these children in the way that they should go so that when they are old they will not depart from Him. 

I will not take that lightly. I will continue to be on my face before God on behalf of each of my kids individually seeking out what ‘that way’ is for them. I will be laid low on my face…

A mighty responsibility that when laid before a mighty God can succeed in accomplishing mighty things in the Kingdom of God through our children!

My challenge…  Go, seek the Lord on behalf of your children or kids around you.  It doesn’t matter their age.  Pray, fast, encourage and believe with the kids around you!  

Imagine the faith that we would have as adults if we had had someone who nurtured what Jesus was doing in our lives as children.

What kind of thoughts, questions or concerns did you have as you read through this?

Also what is your prayer for your kids and for you as a parent? [Not just for parents]