Hi family, I am writing this blog because I came across something I believe is worth mentioning to my brothers and sisters in Christ. This topic is a reminder to us as Christians, why we need to find balance between spiritual maturity and childlike faith in God and his Son Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. The process of maturity has been copted by the belief that to be mature, you need to be in charge and responsible for your own life. This may be true to a certain extent by the world’s system, but spiritual maturity leads us to become more and more dependant on our Father in Heaven. The more knowledge and wisdom we acquire spiritually, causes us to lean more on our heavenly Father for guidance, direction, provision and protection, so we can fulfill his purpose in our lives. A mature Christian finds peace in obedience and comfort in their faith in God’s Word. What if I said that young adolescent children are already spiritually mature in their faith, but lack the knowledge and wisdom to support it? It may be true that the older we get the more immature we become spiritually? Stick with me as we discuss these topics in this blog.

The entire revelation I received originated from the following exerpt in the bible;

Matthew 21:10-16

¹⁰ And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?

¹¹ And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.

¹² And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,

¹³ And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

¹⁴ And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.

¹⁵ And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased,

¹⁶And 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?

I am sure we are all familiar with this story, but verse 16 is what I would like to focus on right now. The verse from the old testatment that Christ referred to is as follows;

Psalms 8:1-4

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

² 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.

³ When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

⁴ What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

Ironically Christ quoted a verse from King David to validate the cries of the children in the temple, who themselves were praising Christ as the son of King David. The revelation I received from this is truly profound, at least for me. It took sometime to understand what I believe the Holy Spirit was trying to highlight in these scriptures. When I finally understood, it brought me to tears.

In order to grasp the concept of this revelation you will have to replace your mindset to that of a parent. As a parent your child’s well being is paramount. I am a parent myself and I thought when my son grew up, the concern for him and his well being would dissipate. He’s a grown man starting his family, able to provide and fend for himself, he’s got it. The truth is all those feelings and inclinations just become muted, placed in the back of your mind. A parent’s concern and watchful eye for their children never subsides, its only expressed differently as a child grows. In this blog the stage of parenting I would like to address is from babies to adolescents. The verses referenced above by King David and Jesus Christ, both used analogies of children in that stage of their lives. Why? Consider Christ’s words in the following verses;

Matthew 18:3

And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Luke 18:15-16

¹⁵ And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them.

¹⁶ But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

There is something unique children possess, that Christ keeps eluding to for us mature christians not to forget as we grow in our salvation. What is it? How many of us can remember hearing the voice of your child cry in the midst of a crowd? Your body responded before your mind could comprehend what was going on and what needed to be done. No matter what, you were going to get to your child and relieve them of what ever was causing them pain or discomfort. Even if it meant protecting their life with yours. When you consider God as our Father in heaven, how do you think he will react to his children’s cries?

In order to unpack the verses above you know I have to get through the definitions of some words used.

Hosanna:

• Is a hebrew or aramaic word that is best translated as a prayer: “Save now,” or “Save, we beseech thee.”
• Used as a cry of acclamation and adoration.

Perfected:

• Being entirely without fault or defects.
• faithfully reproducing the original
• satisfying all requirements
• Legally valid

Ordained:

• To be appointed, to be put in order.
• to be invested in officially (as by the laying on of hands) with ministerial or priestly authority
• to be established or ordered by appointment, decree or law.

To establish some context to what the children’s cries really meant, we need to understand why they were crying. Jesus had come to town as the famous prophet from Nazareth and entered the temple of God. He found that man had corrupted the purpose of God’s temple, by establishing a worldly system that worshipped the God of money in the house of God. It had literally become the stumbling block for the poor and needy to enter the temple of God. Jesus declared in verse 13 that his house (The temple of God) was made for prayer (Communion with God and his people). Jesus proceeded to clean house and restore the temple to fulfill its purpose. Then the sick, poor, orphaned and needy were allowed to enter the temple, to commune with Jesus Christ, (the word of God in flesh) and they were healed and restored. After the fulfillment of the temple’s purpose, that is when the bible recorded the tears of the children in the temple. Their tears were born from the relief, joy and salvation, from Christ stepping in on their behalf. He removed the obstacles so they could freely enter and commune with God in the temple. Now you can understand why they cried saying ‘Hosanna to the son of David’. Knowing the meaning of the word Hosanna as defined above, they were crying in adoration and as a request for salvation. They recognized Christ as their Savior and pleaded for him to act. The word ‘bessech’ used in the definition of the word Hosanna, means ‘to beg for urgently or anxiously‘. Their cry was for Christ to fulfill his God intended purpose, here on earth. To be the salvation of man. I truly believe this incident in the temple was a physical display of what Christ intended to do spiritually with his death on the cross, in man. This is key in understanding the power in ‘The battle cry of an Infant‘.

Matthew 21:10-16, describes what happens when we accept Jesus Christ in our lives, his blood washes us clean of all sin, then he works on getting rid of all the sinful desires in our lives that have been established over the years. He does this by establishing himself in us through the Holy Spirit and the word of God. Then begins to heal and restore us from our brokeness within. So much so that our transformation will be witnessed by others and they too will be moved to cry out to God, Hosanna! The truth is we as christians have become the Temple of God, when we surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Christ is doing the exact same thing he did in the physical temple, in our lives. This was made possible by his act of sacrifice on the cross. Don’t believe me read the following verse from the bible;

1 Corinthians 3:16-17

¹⁶ Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

¹⁷ If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

The question still remains, why were the children crying out to Christ to save them, after he had already rectified the situation in the temple? Christ was in the temple sitting there, healing and restoring and yet they cried out for his salvation. Save them from who or what? The truth is their enemies were still present, witnessing Jesus’s miracles. None other than the chief priests and scribes who wanted nothing more but to have things return to what they were. They lost their power over the people and their source of income. After all, as overseers of the temple, they allowed the money changers and other systems to exist as an obstacle to the people.  Instead of being filled with joy and praise, they as teachers and shepherds, were sore displeased to see the sick healed, the lame walk and the needy commune with God in his temple. The liberty Christ brought to the temple is in direct oposition to their selfish desire for power and lust for worldly wealth. All this expressed in the temple alongside the children that cried to God. Those children knew as soon as Christ physically left the temple, things would return to normal and they would again loose access to the salvation and deliverance communing with God brings. This explains the battle cry they let out, Hosanna (Lord we bessech thee, save us now). Christ acknowledged this cry as Perfected Praise!.

I believe that picture depicted above, of the children crying out to be saved, in the midst of their enemies, while communing with God in his temple is a foreshadowing. A foreshadow of the christian’s plight of being reborn spiritually, but living in fallen flesh. It is our flesh (like the priests and scribes), that constantly desires to return to our old ways (sin nature). The Holy Spirit living in us (Christ in the temple), helps us to overcome the flesh, healing our hurts and restoring us to holiness in Christ. The flesh and the world’s system that manipulates it, attacks us daily. It is always with us seeking weaknesses it can exploit. This battle is what the battle cry of infants was designed to defeat. Hosanna!, ‘Lord we beesech thee’, set us free from the desires of our flesh and the bondage of this world’s system. As a born again christian our desire is to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so we can walk before our Father in heaven as Holy and righteous. I believe God foresaw this struggle and provided us with the power to resist. The issue is, the power was ordained by God, to those with childlike faith in God and his Son as their Savior Jesus Christ. Anything Christ calls perfect is worth looking into so we will.

Matthew:

¹⁶And 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?

Pslams:

² 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.

In verse 16 Christ is reminding the learned scholars and scribes of the word written in the old testament by King David. Something they should know thoroughly. The only difference is he interprets the end of verse by David as ‘Perfected Praise’. Therefore I believe the following is true;

‘Perfected Praise’ = ‘Ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.’

If this is the case then what the children were saying in the temple is also equal to the above;

‘Hosana to the Son of David’ = ‘Perfected Praise’ = “Ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thow mightest still the enemy and the avenger.’

What does this mean? God has placed the power to still your enemies attacks, in the cry of a childlike faith. Again we go back to the characteristics of children to explain. They are immature in their thinking and processing of information, but one thing they are clear on is that, in the time of trouble their mom or dad can save them. Regardless of the circumstances, they believe without a doubt, if they call out to their parents they will be saved. No one else but their parents can save them, comfort them and protect them. This purity in belief and faith in their parents is much more mature, than a seasoned believer’s faith in God. How? The more we mature spritually gaining knowledge and understanding in the word of God, our level of reliance on Christ tends to decrease. We assume that maturity in the word equates to self sufficiency and we only need God for the big things. It is why Christ had to remind the learned scribes and scholars of David’s verse. It is why the church in the book of Revelations was accused by God of forgetting their first Love. That initial childlike faith, calling on Christ for everything is lost as we work out our salvation. We begin to sometimes lean on our own knowledge and understanding as we navigate the world’s system as a christian. No longer are we looking to our savior for the basics; provision, protection, guidance discernment etc. We only truly call on him for big problems we can’t solve. It is in the small things that we are led away by our desires, form idols of things and people, and now again need salvation. Not that we are not saved, but we become entrapped and ensnarred in these world systems hampering us from communing with God in our temple.  We need to remember that God provides all and we should be prayerful and grateful for even the things we feel are expected. Food on the table, a job to go to, roof over your head, protection etc are all the basics that baby Christians and Children exercise their faith in for their Parents to provide. This level of faith is preacious to God, because it is pure and believes whole heartedly. The kind of faith that can move mountains with the right wisdom in the word. He protects it.

As we grow spiritually in knowledge and understanding, the wisdom of God should help us become more humbled, surrendered and reliant on our Father in Heaven. Therefore when the enemy comes around and our flesh rares its head, our first thought should be to rely on God’s word. Commune in prayer with the Lord and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Children don’t try to explain to their parents how to help or tell their parents all I need help in is this, when they get in trouble. They cry out for Help!!, completely reliant and obedient to their parents solution, knowin without a doubt they can solve their problem. That’s the ‘Battle Cry of an Infant’. The issue now becomes whether we can truly as a mature adult live life with a child like faith. Can we suppress our pride and ego that says we know everything and submit to the Lord without question? Could it be that our unanswered prayers are being hindered because we are too immature spiritually? We need to consider that we may be loosing our battles because our ‘Battle Cry’ does not invite our Father in heaven to the battle. Its just a cry that mixes self reliance with a weak faith in God to respond. What am I trying to say? When we go forth in the name of Jesus daily dawning the spiritual armor of God, to war against the principalities and powers and rulers of darkness. We cannot forget to cry out to our Father, Hosanna, Father we besseech thee save us, knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt he will. The word of God says perfected praise gives us the strength to subdue and silence the enemy. Why because the power of God is activated by the childlike faith it takes to cry out to God. The words of God listed below are activated on our behalf;

• Isaiah 54:17 – No weapon formed against us shall prosper is activated.
• Psalm 91:11-12  – For he will command his angles concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They will likf you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. (The whole chapter of Psalm 91 is enacted)
• Psalm 23:2 – He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quite waters,
• Psalm 23:4 – Even though I walk through the darkes valley I will fear no emvil for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
• Pslam 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

I can go on and on with the verses in the bible that are unleashed when we in child like faith cry out to God. He instantly responds as our Father with so many solutions at his disposal as documented in the word of God. He is a parent and loves us more that we can ever love our own children, His only goal in response to our battle cry of faith is to come to our rescue and respond to our call for salvation. Trust in God completely, cry out to Him, lean on Him, rely on Him and know He is your Father that loves you. Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed be the name of our Lord God on high.

Then talk about the powere ordained by God in the cry of the infants that we need to remember and use as mature Christians. Humbling ourselves to the childlike level of maturity when we come before God.