There’s a God in Heaven Who Loves Children

It was that time of the year again, in which we sent our children, or at least one child, to a type of day camp which was taking place at our church. It was an exciting event, but for some reason (which I cannot quite remember), our daughter was somewhat reluctant to want to go. I sensed the Lord was saying, “Encourage her.” So I did.

If I did not believe in God, I would say it was “luck” or something like that, that got her to go. But no, it wasn’t luck at all. It was indeed God. I knew that when she finally went, that there was something very good about it. What I didn’t know, was just how special a day it would turn out to be, not only for my daughter, but for someone else, as well.

When I picked my daughter up from the day camp (she was 15 at the time), she told me how it went, and it had gone well. Then, she said, “Dad, I hope you don’t mind, but I sponsored a Compassion child.”

I said, “That’s amazing! Of course, I don’t mind!”

She went on, “You know, I’ve been going to this event for three years now, and every year, they offer an opportunity to sponsor a child, and I have not been doing it. I finally decided, I’m going to do it this year.”

Well, I was very proud of my daughter. She had chosen wisely. It was God moving in her heart that moved her. I was very very proud of her. That was my daughter who did that of her own volition. It really touched me. I was very proud and remain proud to this day. It has been several years now that my daughter has been sponsoring this child.

Well, it was not long after this event that something else happened. You see, I have two daughters, and not just one. My other daughter had a phone that needed to be replaced. I called her up and told her that I would like to give her a gift of a new (second-hand) phone. The phone would cost about 200 dollars. I thought it was the right thing to do, because she really needed a phone to help her with her school work. So I went out looking for a second-hand phone, and found one and shipped it off to her via the regular postal service. I called her up to tell her I had just shipped the phone and that it should take about two days to get there. I felt good about that, but something happened as soon as I told her — I felt a grieving in my spirit! Why?!

I didn’t understand it. I thought I had done a good thing. I thought, “Surely, there is nothing else I need to do right now.” But then I considered, “This grieving is for a reason.” I thought, “Did I make a mistake and not mail it properly?” So I double-checked with the post office and made sure that it was correctly shipped. Everything was in order on that level. Yet the grieving remained. Why was my soul bothered? I was most certainly troubled and the sense of trouble would not leave me. What was God telling me? Was this just my emotions, or was God actually speaking to me? I would find out soon enough!

I walked home. Throughout that time, I kept feeling bothered, but could not put my finger on it. Somehow, I was “missing it”. Somehow, intuitively, I guess, I felt that the burden that I was wrestling with related to money. If you know God, the Spirit of God lives inside of you! Somehow, God was speaking to me, but I wasn’t quite catching it!

I thought, “I just spent 200 dollars on the phone and shipped it off to my daughter. What type of mistake did I make?” This really puzzled me. The Spirit of God was telling me something. But I was not able to fully perceive it. I could tell it related to money, but I could not perceive it beyond that.

I reasoned within myself that the issue must somehow be related to the phone, because that is when the Lord spoke to me. However, I was mistaken! My presupposition was wrong. Yes, the Lord had spoken. Yes, he had even spoken to me about money. And yes, he had even spoken to me about my daughter. But no, it was not about my daughter.

Because my presupposition was wrong, it made it more difficult to hear from God! This is a key to learning to hear from God. Be careful you do not approach him with the wrong presuppositions!

My thinking was along the lines of the phone that I had just bought for my daughter, but it was indeed the wrong “track.” There was another track I needed to be on, but I could not accurately perceive it without going to the Lord in prayer.

The burden was so terribly bothersome that now, having arrived home, I began to pace around my dining room table. The house was empty at that point in time, so there was complete liberty for me to do this. No one would mind; I had the whole house to myself! I paced around, and around, and around, maybe six or seven times. I said, “Lord, what is it? You are telling me something about money, but I cannot perceive it. You are telling me something about my daughter. What is it, Lord?”

As it turned out, it had nothing to do with the phone. And that is why I was having trouble hearing, because I was indeed on the “wrong track.” I was thinking about the phone, but at that point, the Lord was not talking to me about the phone at all.

When I prayed fervently and openly like that, then the “blockage” that I was experiencing in my ability to hear God was absolutely and totally removed. Then, I heard God speak to me. He said that he wanted me to give my daughter some money — and it was clear that the amount was in the 1500 dollar range. Don’t ask me how I knew this, but it was clearly communicated to my spirit. Remember, the Spirit of God lives inside the spirit of genuine followers of Christ. And God had communicated that to me. These were not audible words. But they were impressions. And they were very real. It was not emotional. But we are commanded to “test the spirits” to see if they are of God. (God would soon make it clear that it really was him speaking.)

As soon as I heard the Lord tell me this, I called her up, and told her that the Lord had spoken to me, and I was going to give her 1500 dollars. I felt so good about that. I knew I had just obeyed the voice of the Lord. When he speaks, it’s important to obey him! At that time, my daughter then shared with me, saying, “Dad, yesterday, I sponsored a Compassion child!” I was floored.

I was not floored because she sponsored a Compassion child. I was delighted! I was floored because this proved to me that God really was speaking!

The purpose for God speaking to me now became very clear! The purpose was to encourage her, and to bless her, on account of her faithfulness in serving the Lord. God wanted to bless her, as if to say, “Well done, my child. I am so proud of you!” Yes, this was essentially what God was doing. And he was choosing to do it through me, her father! :-)

This also became an encouragement to me. For then I knew that God was speaking to me. And when you know that God is speaking to you about anything of a personal nature like this, then that should bring great encouragement to your soul. For then it means you have a personal relationship with the living God. And that is one way to “test and see” that you are in the faith.

For in the Bible, we read,

“Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or do you not know about your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.” (2 Corinthians 13:5)

If Jesus Christ is in you, that means you should be able to hear him speak to you. For God is not silent, but alive. And Jesus said,

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

However, it is not you who determines when God speaks. However, you do need to learn to be sensitive to his voice. And indeed, God has spoken many times to people who have refused his voice. Such are not saved or are living in disobedience, and I hope you are not one of them.

“Today if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.” (See Hebrews 3:15)

In order to add understanding to this situation, it would be good to add that at that time, my daughter was borrowing money to pay for her schooling. So the step of faith she took in sponsoring a Compassion child really was a step of faith. It turns out this was faith that was well-pleasing to God!

Thus, I think you can see the heart of God being revealed in this situation. Do you not see it?

In short, God has the heart of a father, because he is the best father of all, being the Heavenly Father. When he sees people sponsoring children, and stepping in to help meet physical and spiritual needs (Compassion meets both of these), then it ends up on his “radar” and he is “quick to notice.” God wanted to send a message to my daughter that he noticed it, and was very pleased. Thus, he told me to give her some money. It was a win/win situation, because it spoke to me, as well, for at the time, I was in the job market, and had financial needs myself. This event told me that God was going to meet my need, as well (assuming I remained faithful to him, which is always an important caveat).

Now at the time the Lord spoke to me, it was May. And the new job came along in September. Thus, there was a four month wait, and I said to my daughter, “My gift to you will be contingent upon my getting a job. I believe God is going to give me a job so I can give that money to you!”

I was correct, too.

You can see that faith was being exercised on both levels. My daughter had demonstrated faith. I, too, was now demonstrating faith. I did not have that money to give her right way, nor was it expedient that she receive the money right away, either. But do you know something? That encouraged my daughter to pray that I would get a new job! So you can see that God was really working a wonderful thing in this situation.

In August, before getting called up for this job (by a recruiter), the Lord also gave me a dream, showing me where I was going to get the job! And it worked out exactly as the Lord showed me in the dream.

So, you see, the Lord has everything in control!

Thus, God knows your needs, even as Jesus said.

What then did I do for those four months? Well, there was a lot of work to do. That’s because we were moving from Ottawa to Toronto. We had lived in Ottawa for 24 years. And now it was time to move. It took about 4 months to pack everything up, and sell the house, and get everything ready. (If you have ever moved after having lived in one place for a long time, you know exactly what I mean.)

A few years later, there was another youth event on at another church (in Toronto this time, because we had now moved from Ottawa to Toronto). I drove both of my daughters to the youth event. The first I drove in the morning. After I dropped her off, I then drove back home, and about half-way home, I felt a small but significant “tug” in my spirit. Was this God again speaking to me? It turns out, it was! I heard him say something like this to me,

“Why did you leave so quickly? You should have stayed and prayed before leaving to go back home.”

Ouch! I made a mistake.

I was now about 10km away from the church building (because I was on a highway travelling at 100km/hour), but I knew that I had to return, otherwise, I would have no peace and I would miss out on something special. What was it?

I didn’t know what was going on. All I knew was that God was speaking to me, and I had a choice to make: either obey, and go back, and get the blessing, or just ignore what God was saying altogether, and lose the blessing, and also lose the sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, which means having God’s favor at all times.

I wisely chose the former!

Thus, I made a U-turn on the road, finding an exit, and now looping back to return to the church building. It would be sooooooo worth it! Yet all this was done on faith, because I didn’t know what it was that God was leading me to do. All I knew was that there was a hidden blessing waiting for me back at the church building. What could it be? Hum!

Faith obeys and then receives the blessing. Faith did not demand the blessing first. I would obey God’s leading. And then the blessing would surely come! It had to! For God is not a man that he should lie. And did not God’s word (the Bible) teach that acts of faith would be rewarded?

“Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

I arrived back at the youth event, and asked the Lord to tell me why he wanted me there. Well, there was a reason. At that event, there was a table setup, in which World Vision was providing the opportunity for people to sponsor children. I approached the table, and I said to leader, “I want to encourage you. You are doing a great work.” Then I told the women the story of my two daughters who sponsored Compassion children. The women responded by saying they felt very encouraged by what I had shared. It was obvious the Lord cared very deeply for these children.

I, too, felt very encouraged, because I knew the Lord had sent me back in order to speak to them. The Lord was also sharing with me some of his own heart at the same time! Thus, it was encouraging for me to know that God was doing this, and that it was not just me. Yes, there had been a reason to come back, after all.

That evening, I came back to the church and volunteered for the youth event. There was an intermission around 8:30 in the evening. My daughter ran up to me and said, “Dad! I am going to sponsor a child!”

Wow. Again!

Later, I found out that both my daughters decided to “go in” sponsoring this child. I was very impressed. But you know, there was something even more impressive, and it was the voice of the Lord, who had spoken to me earlier that day, about these same children.

God truly cares for these children, and gives favor to those who will look after them and take up the challenge to meet physical and spiritual needs.

I encourage you to get involved.

There are different organizations, and you should do your “due diligence”, as they say.

In closing, we are to value and care for human life at every stage, whether young or old or in the womb. The heart of God is for people, and he cares for all of them. When you care for people, and do so as a servant of the living God, God takes notice, and will reward you in return.

Jesus said,

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man came to save that which was lost.” (Matthew 18:10-11)