I trust that these Make It Visible entries are providing ideas that will enhance your teaching about the Holy Spirit. This week, I will share another game that can be used as an object lesson to teach about one of the Holy Spirit’s jobs.
Persons: Leader and 3 boys and 3 girls
Slide: John 16:13
Preparation: Write a lengthy sentence that contains several adjectives on an index card. An example might be “I love to eat gooey marshmallow treats and drink really hot chocolate on cold, wet wintry nights”.
Game: Line up the children side by side and placing the children boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, and girl. Explain that before the service, you wrote a fact about yourself that you want to share with everyone. And, to make sure that it would be memorable, you thought and thought and thought, came up with the perfect sentence that will share earth-shattering news, and then wrote that thought on this index card. Now, you are going to read the sentence by whispering it into the ear of the first person. That person will whisper it into the ear of the next person. This will continue until it reaches the last person who will then tell everyone what they’ve learned about me. Explain that each child will need to pay special attention to what is being said because it can only be whispered one time to them. As the news reaches the last person, ask them to reveal what they’ve learned and then compare what they’ve announced to what you have written on the index card.
Application: In using this game, I have NEVER had the final announcement be any where near the original statement. The sentence given by the final child is generally hilarious. Why is this statement so far removed from what was originally given? The deviation from the original statement could be due to individuals not listening correctly or perhaps being distracted or individuals not speaking clearly. The end result is that the final statement didn’t accurately convey your thought.
How does this apply to the Holy Spirit? Consider this … (Show John 16:13 slide.)
“But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you into all truth.
He will not speak his own words, but he will speak only what
he hears, and he will tell you what is to come.”
John 16:13 (New Century Version)
Notice the job of the Holy Spirit. The heavenly Father talks to the Holy Spirit. There is no whispering going on so that inaccuracies or misunderstandings might arise. The Holy Spirit then tells you what He has learned from the Father. Notice that there aren’t four or five or fifteen people that pass along the information to each other before it gets to you. The information or guidance comes straight from the Father through the Holy Spirit. Is there room for mistakes or confusion? Nope. Because the Holy Spirit “will speak ONLY (emphasis mine) what He hears”. According to John 16:13, the Holy Spirit will insure that you will always, always, always know that you know that you know that you have accurately heard from the Father!
