God gives gifts to serve others and overcome evil. Children receive gifts to be part of the church and battle Satan. The document outlines steps to help children discover their gifts: have faith in God's gift, pray, know the gifts listed in the Bible, and use gifts responsibly. Examples from the Bible show gifted children like Joseph, David, and Timothy.
2. What are gift ? Gifts are special talents and abilities God has given us to serve him and each other. “ Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others.......................” (1 Peter 4 : 10)
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4. How can we help our children discover the Gifts God has given them ? God always wants us to discover the gifts he has given us. You can would be able to help children to discover their gifts by following steps below. 01. Faith Your FAITH would be the first thing which would enable you to discover your gifts God has given you. You should believe that God has given you gifts. God will never ask you anything that you are not trained for or anything that you lack. Take a look at what God said to his disciples. “ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the father will give you whatever you ask in my name. “ John 15:16 According to the word of God, God has given you a gift. if this is not so the word of God would be a fraud. You would find it very difficult to believe this. This maybe because you might not have much experience as a Christian. But you must believe this as the word of God has never stated anything false. Believe that you have a gift. Have faith in it. Thank God for it. Inquire to see the gift you have received.
5. 02. Prayer “ ..........you do not have, because you do not ask God....” James 4 : 2 You would understand your gift, if you ask from God. But how much time I prayed about it, but I still don’t know what my gift is. You might think this way. Your gift might still be hidden within yourself. This might be so because you have a wrong attitude. James states about this.... “ When you ask you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasure. “ James 4: 03 God does not want us to discover the gifts he has given us. Instead we should promise God to strengthen those gifts and use them accordingly. Set your eyes upon Jesus, God will give you many opportunities to use your gifts.
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9. We can divide (Spiritual) gifts into three groups according to their nature. Christ loves his church and gave all these gifts to the church. As I mentioned previously our children are also part of the church. We have kids churches, kids clubs , Sunday Schools etc. And all these are parts of Christ’s body as our adult church. As we can see all these gifts working at our adult church and among the adults they should be allowed to work among our children too. Gifts of helping Gifts of serving Gifts of signs Gift of Apostle Gift of Prophecy Gift of Evangelism Gift of Pastoring Gift of Teaching Gift of Administration Gift of Encouraging/ Counseling Gift of Faith Gift of Giving Gift of Helping others Gift of Showing mercy Gift of Distinguish between spirits Gift of Miracle Gift of Healing Gift of Speaking in different tongues Gift of Interpreting tongues
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12. God gifted children in the bible with his gifts and in the same way God wants to use our children today. The same way God gifted children in the bible, God gifted the children we have today. Children in our Sunday schools, in our kids clubs. God gifted them and God wants you to discover their gifts and God wants you to help them to discover their gifts too. Then God wants to use them in a very unique way today.
What are gifts ? As we all know that gifts are the special talents and abilities God has given us to serve him and serve each other. We all know that we all have lot of abilities and talents in different areas. I am good with computer graphics and Dhanushka good with dramas. So we are both good, but good in different areas. In the very same way our kids are also good in different areas. They have different talents and abilities. We all know that our special abilities and talents are given by our Lord God. So we can find out that our special abilities and talents as gifts God has given us. We are only good with that. There is no else like you and me. We are unique. So our kids also have the special abilities and talents and all given by God. So I strongly believe that we need to teach them their special abilities and talents given by God. Some of them can sing, some of them can dance, some of them can draw, some of them good with craft stuff, some of them wooden stuff, some of them good with education, some of them good with sports etc. So we can realize that our kids have a lot of very special talents and abilities their life. We can see that in our church, in our Sunday school department, in our kids church many people and many kids good different areas. They have different talents and abilities in different areas. As we are children’s workers our responsibility is help our children to understand their special talents and abilities and help them use them for the church. Because God has given them these gifts as a very special way and God wants them to use those gifts too.
What is the purpose of giving these gifts ? As I said previously with the movie clip we have to overcome the Satan’s power. Our enemy's power. Children have a great strength inside them and through that we all can overcome enemy’s power. And also children also can do the extraordinary things just as we see in the world. Through that we all can make a change in both Christians and non- Christian lives. ARISE concert – Cathie..... A little girl prayed for healing We have a battle. And God wants to use children in this battle, because of the great strength inside the children. We all know little David, he defeated the giant Goliath in the battle. God used little David as he had faith in God. In Ephesians 6 : 12 Paul is saying that our battle is not against flesh and blood. But against the power of the darkness. (Satan) God has given gifts to us and our children that others see our good deeds and praise our father in heaven. The Bible says that “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5 : 16” So we should produce good results using the gifts he has given us and should glorify his name. God gave gifts to the church. Paul described that God has given gifts to the church because the church needs to grow. ( 1 Corinthians 12 ) So our children are also the church. We all know that in our adult church, we have pastors, the worship team, ushers, workers etc. And we all know that God appointed them to their positions. We know that in our adult church they have different kind of gifts, they are praising God using tongues, someone may interpreting that language and telling that what God wants tell the church etc. We all experiencing all kind of those things in our church. In the same way, I believe that God wants to use our kids at our kids churches, at our Sunday schools and at our kids clubs. God wants to talk to the children and he wants to encourage them and he wants to tell them a very special things for each. That’s why God is giving all kind of gifts to our children. We can see that there are lot of purposes behind the gifts. So as Sunday school teachers, children’s ministers our responsibility is to help children understand their gifts God has given them and help them understand the purposes behind their gifts. Children can’t understand their gifts themselves. Most surely they can, they can understand their gifts like drawings, painting, singing etc. But they can’t understand the real purpose behind all the talents and abilities. So it’s our responsibility to help them for that.
How can we help our children discover their gifts ? God always wants us to discover the gifts he has given us. Because he has given us the gifts for a purpose. There is a purpose behind every gift. So we realized some of the purposes previously. So God wants us to understand our gifts. So how can we understand our gifts ? How can we help our children to understand their gifts ? I have found a few steps we can follow to understand our gifts. There are lots of ways to understand our gifts, I think so, maybe you guys have a lot of experience with that too. Anyway these are the few steps I just want to share with you guys. First step FAITH. We should believe that God has given us gifts. If we can’t believe that we are gifted, we cannot understand our gifts. We should believe that we are gifted people. As we are working with children, sometimes they can’t understand that they are gifted. Some might not have experiences in their Christian life. Maybe some hardly to think that they are gifted. Some may have heard people telling them that they are not good enough, or they are not doing anything at the church, at the Sunday school. Because of that they can’t believe that they are gifted. Sometimes it is hard to think that we are gifted. As adults we are also the same, sometimes we can’t think we are gifted. BUT if we need to understand our gifts, we should believe that we are gifted. We should encourage children that they are gifted. Shall we look in to the Bible that what Jesus was telling about this. “ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the father will give you whatever you ask in my name. “ John 15:16 According to the Bible we didn’t choose Jesus. But he was choosing us before we came to this world. So as the Bible says he chose us and appointed us, because we should go bear fruit. So God chose us and gifted us. So God will never ask anything we are not trained or we don’t have. So we should believe that we are gifted. As we believe we should encourage children to believe that they are gifted. On the other hand as we believe we are gifted, as we encourage children that they are gifted we should believe that our children are gifted. I know today’s world we are not thinking that children are gifted and God wants to use them and God will use them. We only think that God will use us and God will use us for the children. That’s true, but on the other hand we should believe that our children are gifted and they are going to do a great and mighty things.
02. Prayer The second step I found is the prayer. We all know that prayer is a very powerful weapon. We all have enough experiences of powerful prayer. In the same way if we need to understand our gifts we should ask from our creator. Because we learnt that God has given us the gifts and so we need to ask God to help us to discover our gifts. If we need gifts in our life we need to ask our creator who gifted us. So we should pray and we need to encourage our children to pray for gifts. And also we should pray for our kids to discover their gifts. The we go to second point of this step. You may think that how many times you have prayed about this. When you working with the children, we you teach children about to pray for their gifts they might think like this too. So what I can do now ? I have prayed for this long time, but still I don’t know what is my gift. There is a answer for this question. This might be so because you have a wrong attitude. We can see about this in the Bible. “ When you ask you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasure. “ James 4: 03 You have friends, who are very popular and God is using them very well. They are becoming popular day by day. Do you ask God to give you the gifts that God has given them is such circumstances ? You might think that you too would gain the popularity that your friends have if you had that gift. Through this you can realize the wrong attitude you have in yourself. We can see person in the Bible who had the same attitude like this. ‘ When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the lying on of the apostles hands, he offered them money and said, “ Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit” Peter answered, “ May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because you heart is not right before God.” Acts 8: 18-21
03. Knowing your gifts The third step I found is knowing your gifts. We should what gifts we have. First We should have faith and then have pray and ask God to gifted us then knowing our gifts. This is the very same with the children too. We must believe that God has given his gifts to our children, we should encourage them to believe that they are gifted. Then we should pray for our children and we should encourage them to ask God to give gifts to them. So then we should know their gifts too. We can see lot of gifts mentioned in the New testament and the Old testament . So in this step we are going to look what are the gifts mentioned in the Bible. And also we can see there is a very special name for these gifts in Bible and it called Spiritual gifts. You can find out what is the different between spiritual gifts and our natural gifts in the booklet I was written called “ Discover your spiritual gifts”. But unfortunately at the it’s only in Sinhala language and I am working with it translating in to English and other few languages too. So if anybody can read sinhala and understand Sinhala you guys can have this book. Anyway I believe that the gifts we have as Christians are Spiritual gifts. When we accepted Jesus in to our life Holy Spirit will come to us and start to work within us. So he will control our gifts and we will use our gifts as spiritual gifts. Anyway we will go back to knowing your gifts step and will find out the gifts mentioned in the Bible. First Gifts in the new testament. We can find no. of gifts in the new testament. Because early church had all these gifts and they knew what is the importance of these gifts. We can find no. gifts mentioned in the 1 Corinthians 12 : 28. It mentioned, Gifts of Apostle, Gift of prophecy, gift of Teaching, Gift of Miraculous power, Gift of Healing, Gift of Administrations, Gift of speaking in tongues, gift of helping others.
What kind of ministry area presently you are involving ? May be your doing as a Sunday School teacher, May be you are a member of your church worship team, May be your the class monitor in your Sunday School or in your kids club................ We recognized that what are the gifts God has given us. As you help your children to discover their gift I believe that you too also recognize some of the gifts you have. So now is the time you want to use your gifts. Encourage your children to use their gifts. Maybe they will think that they are too small, maybe they are think that they are still just kids, but you should encourage them and teach them that the responsibility they have. God has given them gifts for a purpose and now they are responsibility that to use those gifts and do what God wants us from. And also we should encourage children and tell them that when we use our gifts God will give more new gifts too. We can use Philip's life and a example for this. First he was helped to early church at the Jerusalem. (Acts 4 : 34) Then he appointed as one of the seven men. (Acts 6:3) After that he was sharing the word of God among the Judah and Samaria and done a great ministry there. (Acts 6 : 12) In his life first he showed his generosity to early church. Then he became a leader and then he became as an evangelist. God gifted him in leadership gift, then gifted him with the evangelist gift, then gifted him teaching gift, then gifted him prophecy. God gifted him, because he was given what he had firstly. Because of that he became a gifted person. So what kind of ministry you are doing now ? Do it faithfully. God will gift you with many more gifts and he will use you in many more ministry areas. Then you can see the result of your hard work and your ministry. MORE EXPLANATION : Do what you like to do What kind of things you love to do ? What kind of things you are satisfying with doing ? Most of time lot of Christians they are not satisfying with the things they are doing, because they are not using they have and they gifted. 2. Be sensitive with the needs of others Do you feel that you want to do something for needy people ? people who poor, people who suffer ? You can recognize your gifts through your feelings. 3. Use your past experiences, What kind of areas you succeed in your ministry ? What kind of areas you satisfied in your ministry ? The areas you succeed can be your gifts God has given you. Please keep do the things you satisfied in your ministry. 4. Keep in your mind the things others telling about your gifts. What are they saying about your talents and abilities ? You can discover your gifts through the things others telling about your gifts.
How can we use our gifts ? Use every opportunity you have. Take part of the training classes According to your gift you can involve with Sunday school teaching training programs, leadership training programs, worship trainings, music training classes. You can know lot of new stuff from those programs. Encourage you children to involve with the training programs. In your church please organize training programs for them. Help them to involve with the training programs organizing by the other churches too. Share my experiences as a Sunday school teacher when I was 13 or 14. 2. Read the books. May be you cannot go to lot of training programs because of your busy schedule. But you are able to read books. Please read books, magazines etc. Collect new areas and new stuff, then you’ll become a person with lot of ideas. Maybe your children can’t go to such a training programs because of the busy life they have. Studies and everything they have to do and they are busy. It maybe you guys also busy with your stuff. So encourage you children to read lot of books. But they are able to read books. So if you guys can please organize a library for your kids in your church. Collect enough books and magazines, CD’s etc. for them and help them collect new ideas and new stuff. 3. Encourage to Keep use their gifts. When you keep using your gifts you can improve them. It’s like daily exercise to your body. When you exercise daily you’ll become so strong and healthy. As same way when you keep using your gifts it will become stronger. So encourage your children to keep use their gifts, if they have gift of music, let them to use their gifts at your Sunday school or at the church. If they are good with creative stuff, use them n your church to decorate your church. Etc. 4. Recognize the values of your gifts If you don’t want to use your gifts and if you are not happy with the gifts you have, you never can understand the values of your gifts. If you can understand the values of your gifts and if you can understand how it important to the church, then you can active with your gifts. 5. Gifts are giving your a self value. In today’s world most of the youngsters can’t understand who are them? Who’s me ? Where I am going ? They are asking those questions themselves. But spiritual gifts are giving your value. CHILDREN IN THE BIBLE WHO GIFTED Joseph - Genesis 37 : 2 Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. He was seventeen when he sold as a slave to Potiphar. When he was working for Potiphar God was with him. Then He was in the jail God gifted him with the gift of knowledge and the gift of wisdom. Because of that he was able interpret their dreams. It led him to the palace and was able to interpret dreams king’s had. The he appointed as the second to the king. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. 40 You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you." Genesis 41 : 39 2. David ....................As when God used David to defeat Goliath. 1 Samuel 17 : 33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.“ When David was defeat Goliath, he was a boy. He had a great faith in God. That mean God gifted him with a gift of faith. And also God appointed him as the next king of the Israel. That mean God gifted him with the gift of leadership when he was a boy. And also when he was taking care of his father’s sheep, he was sang so many hymns to God and God gifted him with the gift of music. 3. Solomon .............. God had appointed Solomon to succeed him. Who when he became a king, thought of himself as but” a little child” "Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 1 Kings 3 : 7 Then God asked him that what he want. He asked that he need wisdom to rule the people. Then God gifted him with the gift of wisdom. Then gifted him with the gift if administration, gift of leadership 1 Kings 3: 11-15 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, "Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for--both riches and honor--so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life." Then Solomon awoke--and he realized it had been a dream. 4. Josiah When he was eight Josiah became king, and was a good one. Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left. 1 Chronicles 34 : 1-2 That mean when he was eight God gifted him with the leadership gift. When he was sixteen, he sought to serve God and when he was twenty he instituted religious reforms throughout Judah. 5. Jeremiah When God was calling Jeremiah as a prophet to the nation he was a child. But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, `I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Jeremiah 1 : 7 6. Timothy He came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. Acts 16 : 1-3 He must have been quiet young, for it was over twenty years later that Paul tells him to let no one despite his youth. Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young,........................ 1 Timothy 4 : 12 God gifted him with the gift of Teaching, gift of pastoring, gift of leadership. God gifted so many young people and the children in the bible with the spiritual gifts. He has given these gifts to children and also he has given the opportunities to use those gifts.
YES, we looked at the Bible and found many children God has used. God has used them for very special works. We noticed that some of them used to change the nation. Some of them used to overcome the battle, some of them used to judge the nation, some of them used to build the nation. So I strongly believe that God wants to use our children to change this world, to build this world, to judge this world and to proclaim good news to the world. So as we children’s ministers our job is help our children to discover their gifts God has given them and help our children use them.
Help children to Discover their Gifts First of all I really need to say a BIG thank you to my dear God for given me this wonderful opportunity. I am Asela Jayarathne and came from Sri Lanka. Last five years I was working with the Kidsreach Sri Lanka as a full time worker. And I was able to minister thousands of kids all around Sri Lanka. It’s a great privilege to do a ministry like that. And I really thank God for given me this opportunity and also I thank Pastor David for given me this opportunity too. And thank you very much for you guys too for coming to this workshop. I strongly believe that there is something very special God wants to tell you guys and also tell me too. I believe that that’s why I God brought me all over from Sri Lanka. Long time I was praying for this and I believe today God has very special thing for you and for me too. Before we start our workshop I would love to show you a video clip I was taken from a very famous movie.