"Fear God, Love God, Serve God": "Ordained Strength"

"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast

thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou

mightest still the enemy and the avenger."

(Psalm 8:2)

"And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say?

And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read,

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou

hast perfected praise?"

(Matthew 21:16)

Samuel

What is "Ordained Strength?" The Bible sends us directly to the scripture in Matthew 21 and explains it; it is "perfected praise!" Beautiful, isn't it? It comes from the mouths of babes; it comes from the innocent heart of a child, that pure heart that just believes. Samuel was given to the Priest at a young age, and he was called at that young age; his first words to the Lord God Almighty were those powerful words that the Lord longs for all of children, young and old, to say, those profound God moving words, "Here am I."

Samuel's father was Elkanah, a Levite, a Priest unto Almighty God, and he had a wife named Hannah, who was barren, but she prayed a prayer in her distress that was drastic; the Lord answered and gave her a son, but He gave Himself a Prophet:

"And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look

on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine

handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give

him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor

come upon his head."

(I Samuel 1:11)

When Samuel was weaned, Hannah took him to Eli the Priest, just as she had promised, and left him to be raised by Eli in the temple. Samuel heard the voice of the Lord even as a young child. Children have a way of reaching God very simply and without fanfare.

David was another one who worshipped the Lord as a young lad, while he was out in the pasture, playing his harp, staring at the stars, cooing the sheep, and cooing His Lord in the moonlit nights. He was just a young boy when he killed the lions to protect the sheep and the new little lambs. He strummed and sang love songs to the God of his soul, as the tall grasses swayed in the lilting winds of David's psalms. He had a heart after God. "What does that mean?" you ask. It is someone whose every thought, whose continual existence is spent in worship and praise to his Creator; it's someone whose every action is to please his God and do His will; it's a person who is lovesick for the lover of his soul, and this starts young. Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise;

God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."

(I Corinthians 1:27)

And a little child shall lead them ... We have entered the time in God's providence when children shall do exploits; children shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover; children shall prophesy and speak God's Word. Acts 2:17 says, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams."

"At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and

earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned,

and revealed them to little children."

(Matthew 11:25)

Children receiving the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues as the Spirit of God gives the utterance is the most beautiful thing you can ever see in this world. When you see it, you know it's real. I saw the children in our Sunday school classes one Sunday some years ago, as the Lord moved and filled them with His Spirit. It was a powerful move of God down in the sanctuary for Adult church, and as we came upstairs, we realized the Lord was moving among the children as well. Parents stood in the hallway crying at the sight and the feel of this move of God. The air was thick with the mighty presence of our Lord, and they were speaking in a language they never learned as God filled them with the Holy Ghost; their little hands were raised, with tears of joy streaming down their faces. It was much like this picture, only the children were much younger, around four and five years old. Powerful, beautiful, precious, and wonderful is our God!

Do we want to receive everything God has for us? We can learn from the little ones; they have no preconceived ideas, no outward or inward inhibitions, no embarrassment in a crowd, no analysis of the situation, no religious debating configurations, no trying to explain it in human terms ... just an approach as a little child: "Jesus said I can have it, and I want it." "Jesus said I will speak in a language I never learned, so I will." It's the pure heart of innocence.

All the Nations of the world have come to the time of Joel 2:28, when God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. It's what we've been waiting for, revival and rebirth of planet earth! It will open the door for the greatest move of God the world has ever seen and it will start with Adults seeing the value of becoming as a little child, and as we do, we obtain the thing that will help us endure to the end, the thing that makes us stand tall in times of persecution, the thing that lifts us to the presence of God: