Don't Forget the Spirit

At a certain point in our parenting experience, my wife and I began to evaluate what the Christian life sounded like from our children's perspective.    Children are simple and they need things taught simply and concretely.  How do you teach about walking with Christ without it sounding, in the end, like a bunch of do's and don'ts? 

We realized that we had been neglecting teaching the ministry of the Spirit to our children.

In our own personal walk with Christ we had learned about being filled with the Spirit. 

Eph 5:18 says  "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,"  It was a command.  

Christ had taught the disciples about the ministry of the Spirit in the Upper Room Discourse:

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you." Jn 14:16-17

After the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, the Holy Spirit would come to live inside those who believed.  This was a new, wonderful arrangement.  Even more personal, in some ways, that the relationship the disciples had with Jesus while on earth.

“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you." Jn 16:7

The illustration of the vine and the branches in John chapter 15 vividly shows the dynamics of dependence and power between Christ and His followers, made possible by the Holy Spirit within.  Fruitfulness is promised.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." Jn 15:4-5

Although there is the expectation of fruit for those who abide in Christ, there is also the promise of fruitlessness to those who don't.

So how do you teach these truths to children?  We found out it was really wasn't that hard.  It was more a matter of keeping it a priority.  There are so many ways to show children that Christ lives inside of them and that He empowers them to live the Christian life through the Spirit. 

Now that they are adults I sometimes hear one or other of our children quote a phrase we often repeated to them: "The Christian life isn't hard, it's impossible."

Only Christ can live it, and only as we are filled with the Spirit.