I want to talk to you about families, and about what God expects of you concerning your family. This is very important. We will begin with the promise made to Moses’ mother in Exodus the second chapter, and then we will read two other passages from the life of Moses.
And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch; and she put the child therein, and laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him. It is interesting that some scientists, after reading this passage about the slime and pitch, decided that there must be petroleum deposits in that area of the Nile river. They checked archeological records and found exactly where this took place; and now there are good, producing oil wells there.
And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river-side; and she saw the ark among the flags, and sent her handmaid to fetch it. And she opened it, and saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maiden went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses (meaning “drawn out”), and said, Because I drew him out of the water. Exodus 2:1–10, ASV.
This is one of the finest things that you could face in regard to your children, given to you by the Lord. You have the same promise that God gave to Moses’ mother: “You take this child and raise him for Me, and I will pay you wages.
There are some tasks that are very thankless, and I think a mother’s duties are among these. Any mother who nurses her child and takes care of that child expecting or demanding gratitude back again is making a mistake. The only time a child fully appreciates his mother is when he is mature and far beyond the time of being a child. You cannot know what a mother faces until you are a mother yourself, or until you are a parent and you understand the problems of being a mother. Can a mother expect a child, a little baby, to appreciate what she does? No, she must simply love and teach the child to love. But there are certain things that you, as a parent, can do which have great reward.
We have to face what we may be doing in our efforts to minister to people in the church. We may be very successful in bringing some of our people into what God has for them; but as far as the burden of some of you parents goes, I think you are concerned only about raising your child, and you are not concerned about your child having a walk with God, becoming a prophet of God, or walking in a ministry. This should be your concern! When you begin to raise your child for God in the proper way, there will be real wages, real returns to your own heart. Otherwise, your child may slip away from you.
It is not enough that you keep your children from accident, that you feed and clothe them, and that they finally grow up and become adults. Just raising a child to become an adult is not worth the effort in this day. And if that is all you are doing, you would have been better off to have practiced birth control and forgotten the idea of having children. If Christians in these end times are going to put their money and energy into raising children, and they are interested in the joys of family life, then they had better go all the way and raise their children to be real men and women of God. It is not worth the effort unless they aim for the very best.
If you are going to raise children, raise them wholly for God. It is not worth all the expenditure of energy when you stop to consider what that energy could do in some other labor for God. Only if you raise your children for God can you say that your work and energies and labors are really worthwhile, in comparison to what those energies and hours of labor would accomplish for the Kingdom of God in some other field. If you look upon your life seriously as a stewardship, and not as some frolic, then you will not consider it just as something for your own pleasure and your own comfort, for the gratification of yourself or your own ego, to boast, “This is my child.” It is true that there is a certain personal self-satisfaction in being a parent or a grandparent; but unless you are going to raise your children for God, there is an expenditure of energy that could be better directed in some other channel, as far as God is concerned. God says, “I will pay you wages. I will give you something back again that is a marvelous return.” And God really does this.
The following passage of Scripture opens a door to something significant in an incident which happened when Moses was a grown man. No doubt Moses had been trained by his mother to believe in the law of God and to follow it. He knew what God demanded of him. After God had spoken to him in the burning bush and had convinced him that he should go down to Egypt and set the people free, as God would give him the miracle deliverance, he finally started down toward Egypt (Exodus 3:1–4:23). Then something crucial happened.
Exodus 4:24–26, ASV: And it came to pass on the way at the lodging-place, that Jehovah met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah (Moses’ wife) took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, Surely a bridegroom of blood art thou to me. So he let him alone. Then she said, A bridegroom of blood art thou, because of the circumcision.
This is a strange story which most people read and then shrug their shoulders and say, “I don’t understand it.” But Moses was going down to Egypt to lead a whole nation out of slavery; therefore, God required that the first thing Moses had to do was conform to the will of God himself. You say, “Moses was circumcised; he knew the law, and he kept the law.” Right—except for one thing: Zipporah, his wife, was a little lax in the ways of God. We know this because of her hostile attitude after that whole incident. She did not want her son circumcised, and so it seems that Moses had compromised. But God met him as he came to the lodging place on the way to Egypt, and the Lord Himself was ready to kill him. Would God rather have a man dead than have him be a servant who disobeys Him? And when Zipporah saw what was happening, she knew why. She knew Moses was being dealt with because, as the head of his house, he had not circumcised his son. He had not brought his son under the covenant blessings, under the things that God had for him. So she circumcised the child and threw the foreskin of her son at Moses’ feet, and the Lord stopped the effort to kill him. Then Moses could go on down to Egypt and lead the children of Israel out of bondage.
Is God that particular about families? He surely is. Look at what God demands of elders.
Faithful is the saying, If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. The bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach; no brawler, no striker; but gentle, not contentious, no lover of money; one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (but if a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) not a novice, lest being puffed up he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have good testimony from them that are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. I Timothy 3:1–7, ASV.
For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge; if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children that believe, who are not accused of riot or unruly. For the bishop must be blameless, as God’s steward; not self-willed, not soon angry, no brawler, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but given to hospitality, a lover of good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled; holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict the gainsayers. Titus 1:5–9, ASV.
They are to have children who are not unruly or accused of riot, but who are in subjection (Titus 1:6; 1 Timothy 3:4). Read what the Bible says about deacons.
Deacons in like manner must be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved; then let them serve as deacons, if they be blameless. Women in like manner must be grave, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For they that have served well as deacons gain to themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. I Timothy 3:8–13, ASV.
Read what God demands of a father and a mother when they raise their children for the Lord.
Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself: for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church; because we are members of his body. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.
This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church. Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she fear her husband.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor thy father and mother (which is the first commandment with promise), that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 5:22–6:4, ASV.
Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing in the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children, that they be not discouraged. Colossians 3:18–21, ASV.
This is what I am wondering: With our children growing up, how much effort are we putting into teaching and ministering to them? We are believing that our study together will bring impartation to our children. We are believing that the elders and the teachers will lay hands on them and teach them and minister to them, and that they will come into something from God. Most of our adults and young people are doing fine. But I am wondering how many of our children are going to walk with God when they get a little older. Many of the young people are well aware that they have been redeemed out of the hand of the enemy, and they are ready to serve God; but what about some of our children who are coming forth? I wonder if they are going to walk with God. Are we going to go the same route that other movements have gone before us, that as soon as the children reach a certain age they are lost to the church because no one has ministered to them the reality of what their parents have? I am concerned about this.
I am concerned about a lot of things. I am concerned about the boys and girls who play in the church building after a service is over with no sense of reverence. I wonder about that. Many of them are from the families of the elders and deacons. I wonder about the fact that somewhere in this we are not reaching through to bring our little children into a walk with God and into the anointing that they should have right from the very beginning of their lives. Is a walk with God good enough for you but not good enough for your children? Bring them into it! Minister them into it! Do what you can. Whether it is Old Testament or New Testament requirements and qualifications, I still believe that God starts dealing with you when you do not bring your family under the blessings and provisions that He opens the door for. God says He will bless your house. He says He will bless your children (Deuteronomy 7:13–14). I do not understand how we can believe in this walk with God and not open up to enter into the full measure of impartation and blessing that can come to our little children and babies. We have seen it in a measure, but we are still too lax in it.
There is an apostolic foundation of order that God has laid out before us, and He blesses that. There is an order for the home (Ephesians 5:21–6:4). There is a provision for the children. There are certain things that we have to bring them into. We must not come so close to it and then miss it. We must carry out the responsibility we have.
It will be very rewarding what God will do for us. We can have Kingdom schools, but I would hesitate to build a school and think that parents were evading their own responsibility and trying to hang it on some teacher who would have their children for a few hours a day. I cannot see that that would be right. I would be more encouraged to build a school if I felt that the parents themselves were doing what they could to bring their children into a real walk with God. Our schools can be a great blessing, but I am convinced that there are rewards and blessings that God will bring to any mother who will consistently see that she is laboring for one goal: to help her sons and daughters become prophets and prophetesses, to bring them into a walk with God in the Spirit.
I am going to speak sternly to you about your little ones. Involve them in a walk with God! Let them suffer. Let them find out what a satanic assault is. Let them learn to build their spiritual defenses while they are young. Let them grow up walking in this spiritual walk from the very beginning, because there isn’t anything else in this world like it worth living for. There isn’t anything else worth putting your time into, except walking with God. Do you want to be a success and make money? What is it going to mean to you? What is going to happen to the world in the next few years? What are you really going to live for? There is only one important purpose: to ride on through into the next age. Having children who can walk with God now is better than giving them an annuity, a paid-up life insurance policy, a college education, or anything else of this world that you can name. Give them all of that if you can, but in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, don’t forget to give them the ability to walk with God.
Exodus 10:24–26, ASV: And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve Jehovah; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you. And Moses said, Thou must also give into our hand sacrifices and burnt-offerings, that we may sacrifice unto Jehovah our God. Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not a hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve Jehovah our God; and we know not with what we must serve Jehovah, until we come thither.
Weigh these words carefully: “We know not with what we must serve the Lord, until we come thither.” You do not know what kind of price you are going to pay. Pharaoh offered Moses several compromises. First he suggested that the men go out and leave the women and children behind (Exodus 10:9–11). But Moses said, “When we come out, our little ones come with us.” Then, after two more plagues (Exodus 10:12–23), Pharaoh said, “Go, but leave the herds behind.” Moses refused that, too. He said, “No, we are all coming out. Not one hoof will be left behind. We are all going to leave Egypt. We don’t know with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither” (Exodus 10:24–26).
I don’t think we know yet what price we will have to pay. And we won’t know until we are down the road a little further. But let’s be prepared to go the whole way! What do you think is going to happen to you? Do you think you might become a martyr for the Lord? Do you think you might die for this Word, for this testimony? Do you think you will suffer and be persecuted for it? Mothers, could you raise your sons to become ministers of the Lord to go into some other land preaching this Word, and then see them die? Could you face receiving the news that there was a riot, and that one of your children was killed in it? Could you do it? It would be better to do that than to see them shot down on some faraway battlefield. If I had a choice, I would raise them for God and see them die for the Lord first, rather than in wars. America is paying a price (in Vietnam); she is seeing her sons and daughters slaughtered elsewhere. I would rather see our children give their lives for the Lord than to see them be raised in a careless manner, as in a lot of families. We are seeing this happen in families that have a good income. Their children run off, get hooked on drugs, and fall into all kinds of trouble. Soon nothing short of a miracle of God can restore them to normality. Is that what we want for our children? We have an opportunity to give them the best. Why should we hesitate on the price? Why should we hesitate to do anything we have to do? The dearest price we can pay, the most expensive thing of giving our life, is a lot cheaper than the defeat that will happen to Christians in this generation who do not walk with God. Let’s see that not one of our children will be left behind. Let’s raise them for the Lord. They will be good husbands and wives, bondservants of the Lord, prophets and prophetesses of the Kingdom.
You say, “Well, I think we should just let them grow up by themselves.” What happens to young people who grow up by themselves? They are the ones who are rioting in the universities (1970). But if you talk to them, you see that most of them do not even know why they are rioting. Probably not one out of a thousand has ever read The Anatomy of Revolution.* Many of them have never read Karl Marx. They know nothing about what they are doing. Then why do they do what they do?
They have had everything given to them, but they are protesting against the society where there is no challenge. Do you want to get through to our young people? Then give them something to live for. That will reach them. Give them something to live for! Give them something to fight for! Give them something to die for! They will do it. But give them a car, give them all the allowance they want, give them fine clothes—and watch them go to hell.
We have something to live for. We have something to sacrifice for. We have something to die for. I want to stir you up concerning your children. I want to stir them up. I don’t care whether they have money or not, but I do care whether they walk in the will of God. You are all going to walk in the will of God.
Many times before I came into this walk, I worked to build up a church in numbers, seeing people saved and filled with the Spirit in almost every service. But what happened to them? All we had to do was introduce something more of God to them, and they would run away from it. I know what it is to build a church in numbers, but I gave that up years ago. I want to build something in the church. I could not bear being a pastor of the average church anymore. It would make me sick; it would nauseate me. There is something so hypocritical, so phony about religious Christianity. I want to pastor real people, people who are going to walk with God. I am not going to ask the impossible out of them, just all that is possible. I want them to be dedicated. I want them to serve God.
I want our children to walk with God. Let’s raise them for something better than cannon fodder, for something better than the divorce courts and broken homes, for something better than bars and drunkenness and drugs. Let’s raise them for God. We can break through the impasses, in the name of the Lord, so that we do not lose our children to the devil. We have the vision. Let’s go after it with all of our heart.
I have a feeling that Jesus was a revolutionary. Paul caused riots. If Jesus and Paul were here today and they were to minister in this country, within the course of thirty days, the riots would not be in the streets and the universities; they would be in the churches. They were that revolutionary. Read your Bible. Read what happened in the early Church. Let’s protest against this smugness, this indifference that makes people settle down and just exist, that makes them become a vegetable. Who wants to be a vegetable? I would rather be dead than be a vegetable. I would rather have anything than just an existence. I want to live the life that God called me to live! I want to be what He wants me to be! I want to walk in the grace of God! I know I am nothing in myself, but I know He called me for something better than to vegetate. He did not call us that we should fail in the purposes and destiny that He raised us up for. We are going to see fulfillment.
Father, we bless Your people, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let this Word be a rich inducement to help them. Encourage the fathers! Encourage the mothers! If they are not guilty, let them rejoice that they are not guilty. If they are guilty, Lord, prick their hearts that they do something about it as they repent and seek You. Give us churches of people who are yielded to Thee, O God, and children whom we are raising to be the sons and daughters of Joel’s prophecy.
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. Joel 2:28, ASV.
Giving birth to a son is one thing; giving birth to a son of God is quite another. Of which does your fruitfulness consist?
The smallest cell of the Kingdom of God is the family. In reality, the Kingdom of God is the Heavenly Father’s family.
The family that serves God together seems to survive together.
While your child is “growing up,” include spiritual maturity in the process.
It is the nature of a growing child to be always hungry; it is the nature of a growing child of God to be always hungry for the Word of God.
Give the family something to live for; give them something to live by.