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April 2013

29 Apr An Insider’s Scoop on the Supernatural!

Posted at 06:30h in Children's Ministry, Leadership, Walk of the Spirit by Billy Burns 0 Comments

Unbeknownst to many children's workers, there is a supernatural manifestation of the work of the Holy Spirit that happens each and every week in your children's services. Supernatural? In your service? Am I mistaken? No. Absolutely not. I know that you are probably thinking that I'm writing and sending this blog post to Benny Hinn and Reinhard Bonnke. No, I am talking about you and your service. Here is where the confusion comes in. We equate supernatural with spectacular. For many, supernatural manifestations are defined as seeing people coming out of wheel chairs or blind eyes opening. While it is true that these manifestations are supernatural, they are also spectacular. It is possible to have the supernatural without the spectacular. So, what is supernatural? In the purest definition of the word, supernatural is anything that transcends beyond the natural. It is anything that goes beyond the natural, human ability. Listen, it is just as supernatural to love a child who challenges your theology (that child that makes you believe that demons can be children possessed) week after week. While there is no organ playing in the background or no toll-free number flashing across your television screen for donations, this is just as much supernatural as anything that I've witnessed on any televangelist's program. Can I prove this with the Scripture? I'm glad you asked. "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost." Romans 5:5 Who is the source of this love? God. Who imparts and manifests this love? The Holy Ghost. My friend, it can't get any more supernatural than that. That hug or those few minutes of one-on-one time with a child is just as supernatural as a deaf ear opening. It is God Himself flowing through a human vessel to touch the need of an individual. Read that last sentence again. To me, that sentence describes what transpires in healing meetings or in a Sunday school classroom. Walk into your ministry opportunity dear brother, dear brother (pardon my slipping into my Benny Hinn mode) and flow in the supernatural! People are waiting for someone working together with the Holy Ghost! And, that someone is Y-O-U!...

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15 Apr Outrageously Contagious!

Posted at 06:30h in Children's Ministry, Leadership by Billy Burns 0 Comments

I know that you've heard the adage that states that "things are better caught than taught". It's true. I know from experience. I was raised in a church that loved and appreciated the Holy Spirit. No matter what subject or text that my pastor, Brother Hankins, would preach or teach, the Holy Spirit's voice could be heard. I went to a church where Brother Hankins would often say, "I wouldn't cross the street without the Holy Spirit" and that dependency was evident in each and every service. His presence was  so undeniably real. Brother Hankins made room for the Holy Spirit to speak and manifest His presence. It was because of catching and absorbing the movement of the Holy Spirit at the Gulf Coast Christian Center in West Columbia, Texas that I now travel the globe declaring: "TODAY is the day of the Holy Ghost!" Let me turn the tables and focus on you and your ministry for a minute. What are the children in your ministry catching? What are they seeing and hearing in your services each and every week that is penetrating deeper and deeper into their spirits? What is becoming a part of their DNA? Is it just the dash and flash of a well-oiled machine?  Is your passion for a move of God's Spirit being overshadowed by the mechanics and wow factor? I guess the best question to ask would be, in some twenty years from now, what will these children who are sitting in your children's ministry right now capsulize as the single truth that they "caught" from being in your ministry? Will you join me in being the B.B. Hankins to this generation of children?  Let's raise up a generation of children who will have our insatiable passion for the Holy Spirit and join us as we proclaim "TODAY is the day of the Holy Ghost"!  Let's make our services outrageously contagious so that the children will catch our desire to "not cross the street without the Holy Spirit". It all begins with one service. Let your next service be that service!...

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08 Apr Are You Smarter Than the Average Bear?

Posted at 06:30h in Children's Ministry by Billy Burns 0 Comments
If you are a product of the 1960's, you grew up watching some incredible cartoons. There's nothing on television today that remotely comes close to cartoon shows like The Jetsons or The Flintstones or cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny or Woody Woodpecker or Top Cat or Tweety Bird or Magilla Gorilla! One of my all time favorites is the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Yogi Bear. If I close my eyes, I can still see him looking at his Jellystone Park sidekick, Boo Boo, and saying, "I'm smarter than the average bear." Yogi snatched many a picnic basket as he showcased his brilliance. Whether you are a Yogi Bear or an average bear like me, here is a truth found in God's Word that is so simple to understand. In praying with boys and girls to receive the infilling or baptism in God's Holy Spirit, you don't have to be smarter than the average bear to know that you know that you know that God ALWAYS wants to pour His Spirit into our children. Luke 11:13 makes His will known.

"Even though you are bad, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:13 (New Century Version)

It's so plain. It's so simple. Even Yogi would know that it is God's unequivocal will to ALWAYS baptize EVERYONE (and this includes children) who asks to be baptized with His precious Spirit. I love what Charles Finney stated in his Revival Lectures:

God's Will"God says he is more ready to give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him, than parents are to give bread unto their children. Here we are bound to believe that we shall receive it when we pray for it. You have no right to put an if, and say, "Lord, if it be your will, give us thy Holy Spirit."  This is an insult to God. To put an if into God's promise, where God has put none, is tantamount to charging God with being insincere. It is like saying, "O God, if thou art in earnest in making these promises, grant us the blessing we pray for."

Are you smarter than the average bear? If not, don't be discouraged. Luke 11 tells us to give our brain a break. No thinking is required. When you pray with a child to receive this gift from heaven, they can and will be filled to overflowing. It's just that simple. So, go ahead and allow the children to ask. Rest assured. They will be filled with the Holy Spirit!
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01 Apr A Post-it Note from God

Posted at 10:30h in Children's Ministry, Walk of the Spirit by Billy Burns 0 Comments

We all need reminders from time to time, or at least I know that I do. I survive a crazy lifestyle and keep on track of appointments and on top of projects because of the reminders that I place in my iPhone and the usage of a ton of Post-it Notes. My friend Jim Wideman teaches in his leadership conferences that God didn't give you a brain for memory. Your brain was placed inside your head to be creative. God gave you tools to assist you with your memory. To that I'll say a big, hearty amen! This week, I want to serve as your personal iPhone reminder or Texas-sized Post-it Note and remind you about a truth that we quote and purportedly live by. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts." Zechariah 4:6 I know that you know this verse. But, many of us know that this so well and yet we fail to heed God's instructions. Let me allow God to tell us His instructions one more time ...

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