Dedicating Our Children To God (Part 1) - Rod Mills

When we dedicate our children to God dedicating we are establishing a spiritual high ground in their lives for the presence of God. We are establishing the hedges of God and His divine protection in their lives. But this goes beyond just the day of dedication; this is the gateway into a whole lifestyle of consecration, surrender and diligence to not be complacent and to contend for your and their place in God.

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​Today, we are going to talk about baby or child dedication consecration of our children to the Lord. And we're going to look at Hannah, in First Samuel, the mother of Samuel. But I'll tell you, Hannah, in my opinion, is the gold standard of how to consecrate and dedicate a child to the Lord. She her testimony is the most profound testimony I've ever heard or seen in human history of dedicating a child to the Lord. So there's a lot we can learn. And we're not going to be able to cover a lot of the really good stuff just because there's so much we can't do. But we're going to cover some of the really good stuff today. And I'm going to read a couple of passages briefly, you guys probably know the story. So I'll pick a few verses, and then just kind of give the background to what's going on. Basically, Hannah had had been barren, she could not have a child. And she just just really, really wanted to have a child. And so she had made this commitment to the Lord. And I want to read in First Samuel chapter one, verse 10. And the scripture says in verse 10, she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord, and she wept in anguish. So can you feel that she's in great pain here. And she made a vow to God, and she said, Lord of hosts, if you will, indeed, look upon the affliction of your maid servant, and remember me, and not forget your maid servant, but will give you give me a male child, than I will give him to the Lord, all the days of his life. And no razor shall come upon his head, which was a characteristic of a Nazirite. And you notice, she didn't say, and I will give him to the Lord, when he turns 18. Now that means something in her day, we'll see that in a minute. And then down in verse 27, what let me fill you in the gap there. So she, she gets pregnant. Amazingly, after all these years of trying to have a child, she gets pregnant. And she has Samuel, and verse 27, she says, for this child, I prayed, and the Lord has granted my petition, which I asked of him. Therefore, I also have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he shall be lent, some of you know it is loaned to the Lord. So they worshiped the Lord there. Now, before we get into what we learned from her experience, I want to talk for a moment, just to kind of give you a brief overview, very, very brief of the benefits or the fruit, or the spiritual effect of dedicating children to the Lord, dedicating children to God is establishing a spiritual high ground in their lives, for the presence of God, and the hedges of God and His divine protection. Now, it's not foolproof, it's not like, Okay, we just dedicate a child to the Lord, and then boom, a hedge comes up around him, all the angels surround them, and they never have any troubles again, because you and I both know that Jesus said, the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. But then he says, But I've come, they might have life so but we are preparing them for the war that they were born into. So literally, children can start out on the low ground. Those of you that are military know what that means. If you start out on the low ground and not the high ground, you start out at a tremendous disadvantage. So the high ground is the key to winning the battle. But when we dedicate children to the Lord, we're literally taking them from the low ground, that spiritual low ground and saying, We're dedicating them to the Lord, this spiritual high ground of knowing God, and we're setting them apart. We'll talk about what that means unto the past. purposes of heaven. And we are beginning this, we're building this hedge around them. So, you know, they many times, you can't build a wall, unless you get a permit or unless you have some kind of legal permission to build it, to build a wall or to build a hedge. In many cases, what we are doing is we are literally declaring what is in heaven on the earth, and giving this legal access and this declaration of building this divine hedge around them. We won't have time to talk about it today. But I would love to come back and study this, because it was so profound in Samuels life, and his mom gets most of the credit. When you read what happens in Sam's life, it's literally miraculous. It's it's governmental miraculous, in other words, miracles on a governmental national scale of how powerful his relationship with God was. So secondly, it is establishing this spiritual beachhead for the presence of God in the lives of these children. We're going to talk about this a little bit more later, but it's establishing ground in their lives, to say, Okay, God can begin to fight for the territory of their lives against the evil one in the future by declaring now this child belongs to God, this family belongs to God. And it makes a legal declaration but also begins to exert spiritual powers on the earth, as it is in heaven around them. Some of us were born with small amounts of that, I mean, some of us were born into families that didn't even know or walk with God, right? That it's kind of like you said, Nancy, it's like the these are not little stranger trickles. God can do something. It's not like, if you didn't have this, that you you're at such a disadvantage that, that you can't make it. But I'll tell you, we should learn to appreciate the consecration, dedication, high ground and beachhead. Because I don't want my kids to have to retrace ground that I did. I want them to be able to start where I left off, amen. So when we study Hannah's dedication of Samuel, it is in fact, what I would call a whole consecration of his life to God. Now, we know that Samuel still has to make decisions. He's, it's not like he has no say in this or anything. But but in this case, it was a consecration. And it was accompanied by extravagant sacrifice. She did not do something that cost her nothing. It cost her her son for in our own family, right. What do you know also, they didn't just be bop on down to the, the local priest there and Rama and just have a little ceremony dedicated to the Lord. They took an offering go reboot the offering is in today's dollars, it's about $10,000. In today's money, this was like they were, they weren't just going here, Lord, we give him to you. They're like your Lord, we give him to you. And Lord, we give you our possessions and they gave an offering that's equal today and $10,000 of money, and donate a dedicated that to the Lord as a sacrifice, sacrificial giving to him to just to as an act of worship, it's, it's more than just, oh Lord, here, we're gonna have a little ceremony. You're tracking on that. So then she uses different language than usual. So let me say this, we know first of all, it was a consecration because of the sacrifice that went with it. In the in the custom in that day, however, she doesn't use the word consecration. This is important. She uses the word say owl in Hebrew, which means a lot of different things. By the way, let me say something about the language, especially Hebrew more than Greek, but it's true in both languages. When you look up a word in the universe, and you go look it up in the lexicon, and it has like 15 different meanings. You can't just pick all the meanings you want it to me. It has to do with what the context of the story is. This is especially true in Hebrew, because their vocabulary is so small, they don't have very many words. So the word they use for there's a certain Hebrew word, and it means an item that punctures? Well, it can mean a pin, it could mean a spear, it can mean all these different things, right? Because it's the idea is that it's an item that punctures the point I'm trying to make here is if you go look this word up, she loaned him to the Lord in this context. Now that word means a whole lot of other things that it doesn't mean in this context. But in this case, she used this word to say she loaned him to the Lord. So unlike many consecrations her consecration carries something unique and exciting. Draw ordinary attention to the eternal reality of the Act and the reward. I'll say it again. It's it's this extraordinary awareness of the eternal nature of the act that she's doing. Now, we'll get into this in a moment. This was not common in Israel during this time. In fact, if you read most scholars will tell us that they didn't generally have an eternal mindset. They understood, oh, we die. And we go to where our fathers are, wherever they are. But they did not think about eternity, like we do in the in the Christian world today. It was not in their mindset. So this was a breakthrough for someone to dedicate a child and say, well, I'll loan him to the Lord, for his life here on earth. Because her mindset is already an eternal mindset. And I believe this is critical for consecration. And you'll see why in just a moment, or you see why I believe this just a moment because of the surrender that's necessary in it. So she understands that his fellowship will be returned to her and closeness. And then in the age to come, and you could see it in her wording. Why is this important? Because it's hard to walk in depth in deep consecration without that mindset, because of the surrender that's required. And you could see that in her life. So she verified this mindset again, in First Samuel 122. And this is what she says, Listen to her words, First Samuel 122. Not until the child is weaned, then I will take him that he may be appear before the Lord and remain there forever. That is not normal language. Do you hear what I'm saying? When she says remain there forever. There is this understanding of both the temporal and the eternal. And she's referring to his presence before the Lord more than his presence in Rama. Are you tracking with me? In other words, she's not talking about oh, yeah, he'll remain in Rama forever. People didn't say that. In these days, they would say they will remain for the rest of their lives, or they would say for the rest of their days, or they would say something to the effect of the temporal, that temporal attention. But instead, she says, He will be in the Lord's presence, and he will remain there forever. So already, the geography she's operating in, is a different geography than everybody else is operating in. When people dedicate and consecrate everything to the Lord, whether it be our children, whether it be our whole family, our hearts, whatever it is, it's almost an perhaps is impossible to operate in that level of consecration, unless we are operating in this heavenly geography from the beginning, or in that process. Because in her mind, she's not just dedicating him so he can be in Rama the rest of his life. She's dedicating him because she wants him in the close presence of God forever and ever and ever, so that even his eternal destiny is bound up in this consecration. So somehow, she, in faith reached up into the eternal realms and set a place for her son. That's consecration. See, in other words, when we consecrate, we're not just doing something that affects what's happening here, we're actually moving pieces on the board in the heavenlies, and the eternal realm, we're actually establishing a place and not just a dwelling place, but a position, if you will, a majesty and authority in the coming ages by that consecration. We have this power by faith to reach into the higher realms by consecration, and make space for what God will lift us into or those we love, by the act of consecration and dedication. So hopefully, we're starting to see this is way more than a ceremony. We're actually moving pieces in the eternal destiny and establishing a place a seat at the table, a divine authority, if you will, and what you say well, how do we get that authority? Because she said in the presence of the Lord, there is this closeness to the presence of God. She is establishing and making a place for by consecration whenever they will. use this kind of language. In this context. They're talking about an audience with the almighty King. Understand in those days, when you said they were in the presence of the king, that meant you were in the court of the king, you were either there as a visitor or you were there as royalty or nobility, or high position, do you see what I'm saying? So when she uses this language, we can't look at it through our little English culture, we have to look at it through the culture of that day and see what they meant when they use this kind of language. She is consecrating him, and affecting literally the geography of Heaven in his life. So, just so we clear this up, dedications in this life, mostly tend to be these token, meaning, you know, it's kind of like in the you guys are in the military, you specially know what it's like. It's like, there's one ceremony after another, and you get so many certificates, you get, like 100 different certificates and stead of going on your wall, they go in the trash can, unless they're really important, because there's so much pomp, and circumstance and dog and pony shows that after a while, it's kind of like, wow, this is just another formality, you know, and even the people who don't say it often feel it. I'm not saying that there aren't important things happening in those ceremonies. But what I am saying is that after a while, we start to think of those things as mere ceremonies. And they're way more than just ceremonies, especially a dedication of a child. So it's a consecration, in this idea of consecration and in the Hebrew world, is, is really profound, because it's a complete setting apart, or a making holy, that what's holy mean, it's the culture of God, making the culture of God, the situation for people. Can you just mute? Thanks. So do you see, what we're really talking about, is that there's the setting apart unto the purposes of God in this life. And the next do you guys you know this, they're always connected, both in faith, and not in faith, the acts of righteousness and the acts of disobedience. There's always connections into the eternal realm for everything that's happening in the spiritual warfare around, there's always connections to all these things. And I know you guys know that. So Hannah, fully consecrated Samuel to the Lord. And her dedication of her son to the Lord was so complete, that she viewed it as this lifetime loan, it was a complete thing. It wasn't like Lord, will, I'll dedicate him whenever he gets trained up. And when he gets this, and he gets all the qualifications, and I make sure he gets all the right trainers in his life. And he goes to the right school, and he has the right mentors, and he doesn't get the wrong mentors, you start to see what I'm saying. All of a sudden, this is scary. Because she gives up control early on. She gave him up when he was weaned. All right, mothers. Tell me about that. I don't have to ask if any of us has done that. But man, can you imagine giving your child up and we're not talking about for adoption we're talking about to the Lord, when the child is weaned. Wow, so notice this privilege and surrender of parental rights in his passage. So Samuel was that word lit also means literally granted to the Lord. So we see two things and this want to focus on this morning. Consecration demands surrender. Remember that word surrender? What's the opposite of surrender? Control. Surrender is a higher level of obedience. Do you guys remember a couple years ago, we did a series it was about three years ago. And man, I'll tell you, it's a little uncomfortable. There's a, I think everybody's a little uncomfortable with that one, because we were teaching on the higher realms of obedience. The highest higher realms of obedience is surrender. Because Surrender means I surrender control. And so consecration demands surrender of our own self will. And here's the second one, a rejection of complacency. Now, you follow with me on this in a minute, you'll see the connection. So let's look at these because they are they are literally you see these polar opposites. So you have surrender. Which the, what's the opposite of surrender is control. Right? So you can't you can't have control. Like literally I I have to say, Okay, God, how do I walk this way, with this child with my hands open. And then you learn, if you have multiple kids, you learn how to do that with every child, you have to learn. We learned to do that with every blessing of God, every blessing of God, we learn to walk like this. And for those of you listening, I'm holding my hands open to with palms up. And every time we start to hold on, then the Lord starts going, oh, wait a second, let me help you here. He's not trying to take anything away from us. He's trying to teach us this Kingdom Principle, to walk with our hands open. So when we do, it's this surrender. But the opposite of surrender is control like this, we're holding on tight. You know, for for several years now, I haven't been doing lately, but doing fine structure and teaching people how to fly. And one of the first things you got to teach people when they start flying an airplane is how to hold on to the airplane. Because you'll look over and you're flying along and you're there, like 10 hours in the aeroplane. And their knuckles are white, because they're holding on like they're holding the airplane in the air. And they feel like if I just hold on loose, the airplane will fall out of the sky. So there's a technique we teach, if you're flying a stick phone, airplane, you do it this way, you you take two fingers down one finger up like this, and you fly it with your fingers around the stick, two fingers in the back one finger in the front. Because if you teach them that, they'll really start to realize, wait a minute, I'm not holding this airplane in the sky. And they start to learn the whole general. And then they handle the controls much better. And they don't over control the airplane. Many of us over control our families, we over control our lives, we over control ourselves, we over control our children, because we're still learning and all of us are learning this. This is not something that some of us have conquered and the others haven't, we learn to walk with our hands, our palms up in surrender, that's the equivalent of flying the airplane with the fingers like this. And then suddenly, it gets a whole lot easier. Because then we realize, okay, as I've gotten older, so many times when I thought I was in control, I had very little control. You know, because you're holding on tight. It's like the airplane, you know, you're flying and your knuckles are white. And when you land, you're like, Man, I held that airplane in the sky. That's where you feel you don't say that, but you feel that way. And then that's the way we are with raising kids or a family or business or job. It's like, man, you're white knuckling it and you're white knuckling it and you're doing it. And then after a while the Lord is like, let go. And you let go and you're like, what if the whole thing didn't fall apart? In other words, we're learning to walk and surrender. So what's the and not control over controls what we're talking about? What's the opposite of that? complacency. The opposite of this over control is complacency. So these two are polar opposites from each other. So there's this balance. Solomon said it this way. And one passage of Scripture, he said, talked about the wisdom of being able to hold on to one and not let go of the other. So in this case, we hold on to surrender. In other words, we have our palms up, but we don't get complacent. And we see both of these in Hannah's life. So we'll look at him. Consecration protects us from two primary mistakes of parenthood, control and complacency. All right, all you parents, I almost want to say say control, control and complacency. Two of the primary mistakes in raising children control and complacency. I'll say it again, two of the primary mistakes of raising kids control and complacency. And they're polar opposites of each other. Because I'm gonna tell you, if you control, control, control control, you're going to regret it later on. But if you get complacent, and you don't stay vigilant, that's dangerous also. So you start to see these two polar opposites. So it's not uncommon in life, to find ourselves in this place. And we don't just hold on too tight to the things we love. In our family. We hold on too tight to the things we love. Right? I mean, isn't that what people do? That's human nature. Why are we talking about this? This is critical to understand for really walking in true consecration, the power of consecration as it delivers you from a lot of this. Literally, you could spend your whole life trying or you can enter into consecration, and it's almost magical. What happens it's like, wait a minute, this is not so hard. What this is powerful. This is the power of consecration, but it's those things we love and sometimes we love some things more than we should. You know, we live we love our children with all our hearts at least I think most parents do love our children, all our hearts. But the problem is we also love a lot of other things with all of our hearts that we shouldn't. Title, positions, resources, money, reputation, you fill in the blank, you know what I mean? So, what's interesting is this, this kind of lifestyle, we learn to hold all of those things, with our palms facing upward. And wow, what a release it is. You walk as a free man or a free woman. But the key that opens the door that makes this happen is the consecration. Because you have to release it to someone you trust, right. And that's the cool thing about God, what I've seen is, is if I walk like this, God amazingly teaches me you can trust me with this child. You can trust me with this, you fill in the blank. It's okay. You don't have to control it, because I can. And He will bless you in that is this ring and true for some of you. We talk about God's call to keep all things lightly with our hands. We've talked about this much. But how many of us keep our children surrendered to God in this way? Think about that. Now, we're going to dedicate some children today, and I think most of them are really young. It Guys, it's best to do this when they're gonna start now. And it's a whole lot easier when they're 1314 15. Just all the teams really, and it gets it's a lot easier. But if you if you have a child and that child's 10 years old, and you haven't done this, do it dedicate your child to the Lord consecrate them to God, and start walking with that surrender and that that diligence that not in that complacency because it's never too late to start. Don't let the enemy accuse you. But if your children are young, start with them young, because they will reap in their teens what is sown in their single digit life. Right. 5678. Right. Amen. Consequent consecration, obviously, both requires surrender, but it also produces surrender. And Hannah taught us how to do this at a radical with a capital R level. This is radical. What she did this is beyond what people did in her day, or in our day, people don't do this. This was very uncommon among people, Hannah could not fully consecrate Samuel to the Lord's purposes. Without that surrender. Surely everybody can see that. She had to surrender, surrender her parental rights, and control in exchange for something better the Lord's control of she wasn't being complacent. All right, this, there are some people who are surrendering their children up to a lot of talk in the news about this right now. Whatever the school wants to teach him, whatever the youth leader wants to teach him, discipleship, primary responsibility is the parents. number one responsibility of disciple in our children is not the youth leader. It's not the church leadership, the staff. It's our responsibility. Now, it's not just our responsibility. We'll talk about that in a moment. But we're talking about surrender, but not complacency, not surrender, well, whatever they're learning, they'll they'll figure it out, don't do that. It's not their job to figure it out. It's your job to train them and invest into them. So they know the truth and can discern between truth and lies more than any generation right now. We need to be doing that for our kids. Teach them the ways of God, teach them the word of God, teach them the ways of Jesus, teach them the knowledge of God. And there are many not just coming against the knowledge of God in these days. They're trying to institutionalize rebellion, and what God says is dangerous, right. So when they do that, we love them, but what they're doing is radioactive. It's very, very dangerous to the human soul and human spirit. And God provides many warnings. So we're not when we say surrender, we're not talking about complacency. I know I'm saying it over and over and over. But I found that if I say things over and over and over, we tend to learn them a little better. Not one, amen on that, right? I know, I know. So imagine how difficult this must have been for Hannah, especially considering how severely the scriptures and dite Eli, the priest who's about to be his mentor. Oh, boy. Now the story gets tough because Eli was indicted. I mean, you it's rough guys, if I'm not going to take the time to read it, but go read First Samuel chapter to read The whole chapter, and every mother would go, man, there's no way I'm giving my kid to Eli. Like he's the last guy. I would, because he was a failure with his own boys. In fact, we'll talk about this in a moment, the Scripture says that he was honoring his sons more than the Lord because He wouldn't hold them accountable, and let and he was letting them do things they shouldn't be doing. Imagine how difficult this must have been for her. The word of the Lord from the Prophet Eli, and I've just said this, but I want to read it to you. The word of the Lord, from the prophet to Eli, was that he was honoring his sons more than the Lord, because he wasn't holding them accountable in their stewardship of the sacrifices. Now, here's what they were doing and understand this when the Scripture gives an example what the Scripture does earlier in the chapter, the Scripture says that Eli sons were corrupt. And then it has some negative things to say about him. But then it gives this example. Most of the time when people read this, they think of it as, oh, this is the only thing they were doing wrong. No, the Scripture says they weren't corrupt. In fact, it actually says later on in this chapter, that the Lord wanted to kill them. I didn't make that up. It's in there you go read it, it's in the Bible. He was so upset with what Eli was doing. And this, this pronouncement by this prophet over his offspring, you would never want on your offspring, because he prophesied over all every generation of his offspring. And it was terrible. Man, can you imagine that? So this is what's happening. And she's gonna go take her son down there, to be trained by Eli changes the story a lot. How many of you, when the Lord says, you know, gives you a direction, hey, I want you to put your kids in this school. You don't go or put them in a different school, you don't go well, let me go find the worst school with the worst leaders and the worst principal and the worst teacher. But in fact, that's what was happening. She was taking him down there where she promised God, and Eli was a failure, and his sons were a failure. And God was angry with him. And all this stuff was happening in the people knew it. Surrender. Her surrender was extraordinary when we take that into consideration. Now let's talk about surrender. For a moment, when we consecrate children to the Lord, there is this balance, we learn to walk ins. And what we have is surrender in one hand, which controls on the other side of that coin. So you're you're home, you got surrender, and you're seeking control, but in the other hand, is this diligence, this, I'm not going to be complacent. And so I'm going to speak to those of you that have young children, we're going to dedicate them as these kids grow up. Most likely, I'm not gonna say he won't, but most likely, God's not going to come to you and say, hey, when your kid hits three, I want you to drop them off down here at such and such place and turn over your parental rights to them and dedicate them to me, that's probably not going to happen, right? But what is going to happen is, each year that they grow older, there are times when God is pulling them into their calling. And that's where it gets uncomfortable. And I'll tell you, you guys that have raised children, you can think of stories where this has happened. And I was just thinking, in my own life, there are many, probably hundreds of stories. But I remember our oldest son, you guys know, went to Air Force Academy. Well, when he was 13, he was in Civil Air Patrol and all of this. And the time came that he needed to go to the basic training encampment in Texas, and we were in Arizona. He's 13. And now I'm confronted with Okay, he's never been away from home. He's just turned 13 Am I gonna put him on an aeroplane by himself to another state? That'd be one thing. But he's not being met by relative. He, and then he's going into a basic training experience as a 13 year old, not as an 18 year old. Are you tracking with me? Now, if if you're a teenager right now, that's no big deal. But if you're a parent of teenagers, it gets real, especially if they're getting close to, to 13, perhaps one of the greatest stories, and she's not up here today. But what he's here is 12 years ago, Janae came up to me, and she had just turned 20 years old. And she said, we're getting ready. We're getting ready to PCs from Fort Leavenworth to South Carolina. And she goes, Dad, I've been praying, and I feel like the Lord's calling me to move to Colorado Springs. Now as a dad, I mean, I'm all about supporting my kids and all this and I'm like, okay, She has no money. She has no job. She has no car. Are you getting the picture? I mean, as a parent, no money, no job, no car. And I'm going, I don't think this is the will of God. I didn't tell her that I didn't tell her. But I'm thinking, I'm thinking this, I don't think this is the will of God. So I went to pray. And immediately the Holy Spirit said, This is my will. I want you to support her in this and, and, you know, this is me doing this. I was flabbergasted. I was stunned. I was beyond surprised. I was not expecting the Lord to say yes, well, then what does she met you like a month or two later, and you guys winning be married today? If it weren't for that? And then you know, most of you know, now she's in the movie business. She wouldn't be in that either. Because she didn't never, she would have never met him. So all I'm saying is, is that as a father, when your first daughter gets ready to leave home, and she didn't have a car, she didn't have money, she doesn't have a job to say, Yes, honey, I think that's a good idea is either foolish, or it's faith. But I want you to see that there, you're going to have many times as these kids grow up, when they're young. And when they're teenagers. And even when they're grown. They're you're going to have these times when you have to turn your hands open and go, Okay, God, if this is you, I'm in it. And by the way, when it's the Lord, I'm 1,000% in like, I'm like, Okay, God, I'm into this, or I remember our son, you know, one of our sons is a special operations and, and, and when he turned 13, he wanted to sign up for this Arctic survival course, in the wintertime. We lived in interior Alaska. Now guys, people die, like this is serious, it gets down to 65 below. And I'm like, Should you wait till you're like 18? To learn as he goes, No, Dad, I'm ready. I'm ready to do this, you know. And there's just this. Now, what's amazing is each one of these examples I'm giving you with the kids were directly related and part of their DNA and their life calling. And every one of them look where they are and what they're doing right now. And you will see a direct connection to when dad had dad and mom had to surrender, and say, and today would they be in their life calling. If we did not walk in that surrender right? Now, this is an art form that we learn, because we have to learn to do this hundreds, if not 1000s of times in our lives. The same is true with this. With this diligence and not allowing this complacency, whenever we dedicate someone or something to the Lord, there is a passion and a grace that moves in that. That's beyond our own power. Guys, listen, if you dedicated your child, your family, your marriage to the Lord, and then you're finding that you there's this grace of passion and investment, and you're all in remember this, a lot of that didn't come from you. Right? That's what grace is. Grace is when God deposits the motivation and the power to do it in us. Right. So remember, he is the source of that. So surrender, is this willingness to cooperate with God. First was we we must be the guardians who protect their well being. And every leader must be thoroughly vetted before they are with our children. Now, listen, I'm gonna tell you, it's going to take a lot for me to put one of my kids or grandkids under Eli, are you with me? We're not saying don't vet leaders. We're not saying don't vet mentors. We're not saying don't vet people whenever they're being mentored. But we are saying this, there's one thing I've learned, I don't have everything my kids need. Are you with me? I do not have all the wisdom and impartation and mentoring and coaching that they need. God brings other spiritual fathers and mothers and mentors into their lives. And part of this consecration is that willingness to bring them in and to make space for those spiritual leaders in their lives. Why am I talking about this on dedication week, because this is part of dedicating these children to the Lord, because dedication is not just a ceremony, consecration and dedication is something that starts the day you do it, but it keeps you from then on we're doing it I believe all the way into eternity. We're still dedicating we're still committing our hearts are still saying yes. To this dedication, this consecration and this set and apart unto God, and it doesn't stop when your kids hit 18 Does it stop those of you have grown kids? Did you quit? No. As a matter of fact, in a lot of cases, it's even more intense after they're grown. And, as well. So this idea today as we pray over these children, as we dedicate them to the Lord, this is not just the day of dedication, it's the gateway into a whole lifestyle of consecration, surrender, and then that diligence, to not be complacent, and to contend for them and their place in God. Wow. I love this. I'll tell you, I think part of the reason why is because, guys, there's so much blessing from it. There's the blessings that come from this. blow our minds every day today. I mean, there's almost not a week goes by that this has not the fruits of this does not continue to astound me. Because this is what God does when you surrender to Him. When you turn over raising those kids to him, it's amazing what he can do. And what he does do. Hannah's heart was totally surrendered to God. You could see that. So she was able to totally trust him. You see the difference, not just a little bit of surrender, a total surrender, and a total trust, like she was all in. And this, I'm like, Lord, this is what I want out. I want to be this way with everyone and everything in my life. So that Lord, when I do when I do consecrate when I do surrender, like all of my heart just as shouting, yes, yes, yes. And that's the that is the deep pouring out to God that we want for these kids. And when you have that kind of surrender, and that kind of dedication, you will stay up in the night praying for them, you'll contend for them, you'll invest into them, they'll get tired of you investing into them, I promise you that and you just keep on investing, you know? And they're like, I know, I know that as Oh, no, wait a minute. I don't know, listen, let's talk about this, you know, and you're just investing to the point where you have to let up once a while, and I'm not talking about control and talk about love. And that investment that goes in. All right. That's probably a good place. To stop here. Let me see if there's anything critical. There's so much good stuff in this that we only have a certain amount of time. Yeah, that's probably that's probably enough for today. Oh, but listen, really, honestly, we should be teaching on this constantly. Because this is life. And you know what's really cool about it, if we get it, right, kind of like what we talked about, and First things first couple years ago, if we get it right in the fundamental callings of God, ie marriage, parenting discipling, our families discipling, our spiritual family, when we get it right in the fundamentals, we will find that we will start getting it right in all these other areas of life. They're building blocks, they build on each other. So when you're dedicating and consecrating your children to the Lord and your family, to God, you're literally setting things into order. And it's amazing how many other areas, they will fall into place. And you're like, wow, I didn't think this was gonna be this easy. Well, it's a whole lot easier to do calculus if you did algebra and trigonometry. Right? And the algebra is the family. The algebra is the marriage, the algebra is raising the children and then the dominoes begin to fall into place. Amen. Let's do this. Let's pray. And then I'll discontinue the recording because we're going to begin dedication and we'll clear some chairs out here and consecrate these children to the Lord. Amen. Lord, wow, what an inspiration Hannah is to us. And Holy Spirit, we're just asking you, we pray that you will literally pick us up each one and assure us and our families into this kind of consecration, this kind of dedication, this kind of reaching into the heavens, and and literally making space for the next generation in the eternal generations. And Lord, we pray open our eyes and cause us to see open our ears and cause us to hear. We pray for a grace that will be so promising and so profound, that it will thrust and break through every stronghold of the enemy. And we will be praying these hedges around these children today. And this consecration to the Lord and Lord, we pray Do it, do it what's on your heart, do it in our lives. Doing our friends lives do it in our family's lives. Do it in our spiritual family. And Lord, we pray, may you get all the glory and all the praise in Jesus name, Amen and Amen. Thank you for joining us today. Aaron ova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated NetCast international prayer Council network and numerous international seminary scholarships. Together, we are lighting the fires of revival, fueling prayer movements and raising up friends of Jesus in the nations. We invite you to partner with us in this extraordinary movement. 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