I heard a Christian say that she is trying to practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty. I realized that God isn't random or senseless. He doesn't need our ideas. He is full of ideas. He doesn't want us to use our imaginations to come up with a vision out of our own hearts. He wants us to see a heavenly vision that starts and ends with Him.

With these many voices in the world, how are we to be able to discern? God made a way. Whoever seeks Him finds Him. If we get confused, the scriptural church has ministries who are set for the purpose of setting things straight. Someone may say, "I only listen to God." God speaks through every ministry in the church. Elders and deacons have more responsibility. Elders must be able to teach, and God speaks through them in this way. Sometimes, God speaks through them in the form of counsel. God speaks through the members in the form of prophecy, teaching, encouragement, comfort, songs, songs in the Spirit, and prayer. God speaks through the Scripture. Scripture must be interpreted by the Holy Spirit. God has an order for interpreting Scripture (Ephesians 3:1-5)(Acts 15:2-16:4). However, if anyone will listen to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will teach them the same thing that God has revealed to the apostles (1 John 2:27).

(some caveats about hearing God's Voice)

Christian parents sometimes spend a lot of time teaching their children that one thing is right and the other thing is wrong. That's good and necessary, but that is only the law. Young people need to learn how to discern. The children grow to be teenagers and start making decisions. If they have not learned to discern God's voice by this time, they won't know the difference between the truth and a lie. Often, they can become almost immune to the truth. They can become confirmed in their foolishness, and the only way God can deal with them at that point is through judgment. The lies are deceptive. The lies are marketed better. The lies are dressed up in fantastic decorations. The lies are deceptive. And the children without discernment fall. Discernment is gained by using spiritual senses. Parents are to remind children constantly about their heritage, and not doing so will make the parents very sad one day (Deuteronomy 11:19). It is not enough that your children know about God, any more than it is enough for you to know about God. Your children need to know God. They need to be able to discern the Spirit of God from the spirit of the world. Many young people have no knowledge of what it is to be caught up into the Spirit with the music of the saint. They may have been in many anointed church services, but they have not been caught away by the anointing. They were perhaps day dreaming or thinking about a sporting event. They have not met God. When worldly music comes along, which has the spirit of a night club but Christian words, and all their Christian friends tell them that this is the cool music, they don't know the difference. They have no discernment because they don't know God. They know some Bible verses and they can pray, but there is no depth of root. They have been sowing to the wind and they will reap the whirlwind. Children and their parents need to learn how to yield to the anointing of God.

We are constantly sowing seeds into our souls. In the 1980s, children watched He-man, the master of the universe. This occult character was presented to them as the hero of the show. But who is the real master of the universe? Jesus. These action cartoons plant seeds in little minds, often the children of Christian parents. You see, there is nothing that comes close to the experience of standing in the presence of the Creator, the real Master of the Universe. Little children don't need an explanation of God. In fact, it is easier for them to have childlike faith that it is for adults. They can enter into the anointing very easily. It's more important that children get to know God than any other thing. When Children can enter into the Spirit at an early age, it is a wonderful thing. If a young child prophesies by the Spirit of God, you and I must be in submission to that Spirit. That is more exciting than any made up story ever could be. Think of the seeds of life that the child, walking in the anointing, is sowing.

There is a heart-warming movie starring Peter Falk as John Christmas. We watch it and enjoy it. Our kids watch it. In the movie, a young girl with a beautiful voice is chosen to sing an ancient Christmas carol that is rich in meaning. The author and director cast this song in a negative light, very boring to children. Peter Falk comes to the rescue with a meaningless song and even an instrumental accompaniment. The author and director of the movie cast this meaningless song in a very positive light, and the child actress now acts out a transformation from being bored to being enthusiastic and having fun. What is the secret message? This church stuff is boring. The Holy Spirit checks us in our hearts, but what if we just shrug off this warning from the Spirit of God? Maybe we obey the Spirit and maybe we don't. In either case, seeds are planted. If we go to a church that does not submit to the Spirit of God, the music is probably boring. The sacred songs go dead without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. In either case, whether the Holy Spirit controls the service or human minds control the service, some sort of seeds are planted. Depending on the type of seed, we may be growing, or, instead of growing to maturity, we may be shrinking. Then, we turn on another show, one with violent of suggestive content. We can sense the will of the Holy Spirit in our consciences. We either take heed or not and some sort of seed is planted.

Parents are spending a lot of money to send their children to a Christian school. There was a middle-aged music teacher who was teaching the children many sacred songs. As she did so, the joy of the Lord never really touched her heart. These were serious songs that were anointed by the Holy Spirit, but the coldness of the teachers heart did not allow the flow of the anointing. The power locked up in the words and the melodies never got unlocked. Then the teacher found some songs that brought back her own high school days. Some had a boogie-woogie beat. Some had a 60s rock feel. The songs had Christian words and an ungodly spirit. The teacher listened to her own flesh instead of listening to God. For once, she felt that she looked cool in front of the kids. In her mind, she went back to the high school dances and really got her natural self into the music. That is the spirit that she conveyed to the children. That is the way the children sang the songs. As a result, she really "sold" these songs to the children. She wanted them to feel what she was feeling, and they did feel that to some extent. Seeds were planted. What is the message? The message is, "God is not enough for me. I need something more. I'm going to go outside of the anointing and get what I want."