Can You Hear The Cries of The Children: Destructive Decisions Part 2: The Watch Letter
Would you be able to handle it if you knew a child died because of your actions?
Whether hitting a child in a car accident; a child copying your drug, partying or drinking habit and overdosing; or participating in rebellion/disobedience that brings a curse of death on your family ... can you handle the thought of knowing that your choices or decisions caused a child's life to be cut short?
This post is a serious message, yes it is long, but for a reason. Please, don't stop reading here, please! If you have lost a child; a grandchild; or somehow accidentally caused an actual death of a child and are reading this, please know I am not being insensitive to your pain/situation. There are somethings in life we cannot control. This blog is about what we do have control of. I am not writing to offend anyone or make anyone feel bad, but this message is urgent and follows the blog last week about destructive decisions.
We must face that our decisions and actions or indecisions and inactions can be so destructive that they cause both physical and spiritual death to not only ourselves but those entrusted in our care.
I was not going to write about this. Over the last few days, I have written two different blogs. This context never crossed my mind until early this morning when I saw that it was trending on social media as people talked about how many children and teenagers died this week alone. Most of the comments were from parents and siblings asking why God was taking children from us and saying they didn't understand God's way of letting children die on purpose.
And this is how we mock God: We make him, his word, or his messenger, the blame for something he tried to prevent. I felt like God was compelling me to address it this morning.
God is not a murderer. God cannot sin or cause sin because he is holy. God desires that none be lost. But he also loved us so much that he gave us free will and dominion over the earth because he wanted us to choose him sincerely. So, what happens on this planet is based on our decisions and actions. For example, God is not going to each person infecting them with COVID. It is people infecting people with COVID by not wearing masks, not washing hands, not following guidelines, not being willing to sacrifice and get vaccinated or not go somewhere unnecessary to keep someone else safe.
As I read these social media posts, I kept hearing our Pastor Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn say the title of a message he preached once: "Can You Hear The Cry of The Children?"
I thought, for the ones who committed suicide: how many parents checked their child's rooms, their closets, their backpacks, devices to ensure they knew what was going on? How many made sure they talked to their children in detail, went over the word with them, and spent enough time at home so they felt loved, attended to, and secure? How many tried to model a clean life before their child? How many disobeyed God's commands and did not think about how that relationship, job/money, event, or habit they were chasing more than God would follow them home in the wee hours of the night and overcome their household. Sin can overcome your home like the spirit of death did during the Passover (Exodus 12:13-28)? During the Passover, corruption led to a plague for those who did not have the blood upon their homes (symbolizing obedience to God's instructions, the Blood of Jesus, and salvation).
I'm posting this on Saturday morning.
What did we do with our 10 a.m. today? This is the time God told Chief Apostle Gunn that the adults in our body should be at home spending time teaching the word to their children and talking to them. Even though I don't have children in my home, I have decided to start teaching my future children in the spirit. In faith, I will be going over the word with them as often as possible. And if any parent has to work or has an emergency on Saturday in our body, I am more than willing to step in to help teach.
Deuteronomy 11:19 - And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Our children are in danger (Chief Apostle Gunn has warned of this time and time again, so I am only backing up what has already been taught)! They are uncovered and vulnerable to this world and the enemy's plan because of our destructive decisions. Do we think about how the next move we make will impact the children not just in our homes but in our generations to come and in our church body? Sometimes a child doesn't have to see your sin to take on your sin. It is false doctrine to tell a child to, "do as I say and not as I do." What is in your heart will echo throughout your home, so your child is still exposed to it either way. Sin is a spiritual thing, so its influence can move from one person, and one generation, to another.
Case and point: David.
David's son, by Bathsheba, died because he was conceived as a result of willful sin and bad intentions. David killed a man to be with Bathsheba after he had already fornicated with her while her husband was out protecting the kingdom. What are we willing to kill in our homes, in the spirit or in our church just to get what we want?
2 Samuel 11:
26 And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.
27 And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
2 Samuel 12:
10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
11 Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.
15 And Nathan departed unto his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David, and it was very sick.
Not only did David's son with Bathsheba die, but some of his other children ended up making decisions or getting caught up in situations that led to their death as well, and the death of others.
We know that God had great plans for David's seed. He wanted all of his children to succeed, but David's choices had consequences, and God is a just God. So, while our flesh or the worldliness in us may want to say, "God didn't have to punish the children for the parent's sin," let's stop lying to ourselves and deal in truth. Why isn't the question we ask: "Why didn't David think about the example he was setting for his household? Why didn't David think about what he was sowing into his future generations by murdering, lusting, and manipulating?"
As Chief Apostle Gunn taught last week, the sins of a father (or mother) can pass to the next generation, but the next generation can also choose not to accept that sin and turn to God. So, children reading this decide to turn!
I am writing this to encourage us not to make it any harder than it has to be for our children by choosing to live right so that they are not battling our sin and the sin they will be tempted with. Children, this goes for you, too. The choices you make now will impact your future and your children too. Let's not leave that kind of legacy.
What are our decisions doing to our children right now as you read this? What if our double-mindedness is causing a spirit of confusion in their minds? What if our doubt is causing fear in their hearts? What if our lies are driving guile in their soul?
Chief Apostle Gunn has also always taught us that the devil finds the weakest link to prey on. David did not die. He repented, and God let him live, but he faced the consequences of not seeing some of his children live and thrive. Because of his choices, David outlived some of his children, yet his children were made vulnerable to the conditions of the flesh and did not have the best chance at living the way God intended. The moment David went into Bathsheba and plotted to have her husband killed, he left his children and grandchildren uncovered. We've got to think about how the lies we tell, warnings we ignore, places we sneak off to, things that keep us from coming home, and even overworking and overthinking (this is an area I have seen in myself) impact our households.
Can you hear the cries of the children?
Also, how did these things David was doing impact the church and his work toward building God's kingdom? He used to fight alongside the people to win battles for God. What is it that we want to do so bad or want to have so bad that makes us leave our watch?
What makes us stop working for God or discontinue participating in building the kingdom? At times, David and all of us have been a product of substance abuse. Chief Apostle Gunn taught about this last week. Spiritual substance abuse is when we get distracted from chasing after God and start chasing after substance, leading to an overdose of sin. Substance, in this case, can be worshipping jobs, money, fashion, homes, cars, style, entertainment, worldly knowledge, our own opinions, politics, societal status, relationships and friendships, and yes, even family, overeating, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, habits, addictions ... anything that drives us more than God does. Our substance abuse is also causing us to leave our children behind.
I haven't told this testimony often. But some people know it. I failed multiple times in the area of not causing a child to stumble. This is just one example: Some years ago, God had entrusted me to help three different sets of three sisters at different times. One set was from my hometown, and one here in the area where I live, and one from out of town. It hit home for me because they reminded me of my sisters and me, so I really wanted to help them.
I was spending time with them, encouraging them, and trying to be a good example. But then I got caught in my own ways. My own sin. My own rebellion. And I hid under a rock instead of getting help. I felt I could not help anyone anymore cause I couldn't help myself. So, I completely stopped checking on them and stopped uplifting them about the hope of their future. Soon after, one after the other was pregnant out of wedlock, in a bad relationship, or some destruction happened in their lives.
(Note: these sisters are not currently in the local body, so there is no confusion).
Now, you may say: "Well, you didn't force them to sin or participate in bad situations, and where were their parents? It is not your responsibility." No, they made their own choices, but my choices could have either been the thing that helped them draw closer to Christ or could have been the very thing that helped them walk away from the covering and protection they had under him. My choices could have robbed them of any Godly woman example they had at the time. Yes, they had parents, but their parents were not in a space to help them the way I knew God had assigned to me. We are all responsible for the children in our midst.
Matthew 19:14 KJV: But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
But the real issue was that I was not anchored when I started helping those children. I was not fully surrendered. I was not sold out for Christ, which made me unstable in all my ways. So, the direction of the winds of life moved me. We must take time to make sure we are anchored and fully converted unto Christ.
Just like David outliving some of his children, we could be wavering in and out of sin, and our children mimic the sin and die spiritually and never recover. Then we repent and recover and have to see that our child is lost because of the time we were on the fence .... that is a horrible thing to have to deal with. I don't want any of us to have to experience that kind of sorrow.
That is why now I refuse to give up on our body's and family's children. I refuse to let another child fall to the wayside under my watch, which means I have to refuse to compromise in my own life to help protect them and be an example to them.
Yes, children will be made responsible for their choices, but it's time for us to be honest and come from under the rocks we are hiding and see how much of our destructive decisions have put them in bad situations.
Even if they have not yet died physically, how have they died spiritually? We can be honest with them and acknowledge where we failed but let them know we are turning around towards Jesus and ask them to do the same.
Can you hear the cries of the children?
To the families in our local body: I am watching for our children. I see them, and they are crying. They are bearing so much weight that their frail bodies are crumbling in the spirit. They don't know how to be stable because they are not seeing Godly stability (which is our choice because our pastor teaches us to be stable). Their hearts are turning to stone. Outside of the church: Where are their examples of coping with life through God's word or how to love or show gratitude to others?
It's not that they are untaught. Their pastor, also a grandfather to them, teaches them and cries out for them daily, watching for their souls in prayer. But what is happening in our homes? Are we backing up the teaching there?
Remember Chief Apostle Gunn warned that our homes were becoming devil stations, where demons had free range to come in and out because the devil knew we weren't paying attention and because of the activity happening behind closed doors? Have our homes evolved into devil cities or even an extension of the devil's kingdom because we have lost our watch?
Some may be upset with me for these words, but I am compelled to write this. I am not coming down on the parents; I am not saying you have not tried, many of you have, but I am begging us all to try harder because it's 9-1-1!!! Also: Where are the uncles? Where are the aunties? Where are the grandparents? Where are the older siblings and cousins? How are you being an example and being involved?
I must do what my God says to do. I am also writing this to hold myself accountable because when God works the miracle he will work in me, and my womb will bear children; I want to remember these words and ensure that I live a life that reproduces the life of Christ in my family and not that of darkness.
Last night, Chief Apostle Gunn had the body to study in Job 13 and 14. There is so much we need in those scriptures. I thank God for his wisdom and for seeking the Lord's direction. These chapters cover the range of where we must return to God, and I encourage everyone to read them. Chapter 14:4 says: "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." How can we expect to raise children who are clean, both physically and spiritually, if we are unclean?
Can you hear the cries of the children?
Listen to the 2018 FORREAL Radio Broadcast episodes "Can you hear the cry of the children Part 1 & 2" here: https://www.thebodyofchristinc.com/listen-in?wix-music-track-id=5662964466057216&wix-music-comp-id=comp-j3hyec8g
My pastor always tells me the remedy we need is in prayer and in the word. Listen to today's broadcast "What I Do With Myself Part 4: Pray" here: https://www.thebodyofchristinc.com/listen-in?wix-music-track-id=1611690043433967&wix-music-comp-id=comp-kjfzbgmx
I love you all!
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