What If They Remembered?
Today’s guest blogger is my friend Emily Oakley
A few weeks ago I was pondering things with the Father. I was watching my youngest play, remembering how each one of my five children had a wonderful imagination where everything was alive. It didn’t matter what they played with… it always had life. A leaf could be a bird, or a stone could be alive and have a name, a need to be fed, loved, and a comfy shoebox home. And as I pondered, the Father reminded me that in heaven everything oozes with life. It’s as though the very breath of the Father shines and flows out of everything. The plants have breath. Even the chairs echo with his radiance… and then I started thinking… What if the reason the children play like this is because they’re used to everything in heaven having life? What if it’s really still their normal, even if just for a little while?
And what if before they left the eternal realm in heaven (which is outside of time and he created each one of us before the foundations of the world and knew us by name) their destiny was spoken over them and they were each commissioned by the Father? And what if this was watched by the great cloud of witnesses who continually encourage us and pray for us? What if they each knew the reason we were called for this time, and the season we were stepping into, and how important it was for us to be on the earth for this exact moment in time?
And what if, as each child received their destiny, they also received their guardian angel who knew the promises, the gifts, the talents, the very keys that this child carried for their generation, to unlock doors that no man could shut and that they were placed within each child to enable them to achieve their potential?
What if the angel was awaiting the child to grow? To grow in the strength and love of the Father, and to help the child step into their destiny, to watch them grow into adulthood, helping them even if they were completely unaware they were there?
What if babies are more spiritually mature than adults? What if they’re more connected to the realm in which the Father resides than we are? And that if we actually nurtured them from the eternal realm into the natural realm, whilst giving them opportunities to dwell in the Fathers presence by giving them anointed worship music to soak under, setting them up in situations where they can more easily continue to receive from the Father?
They might just continue to remember him.
And what if they continued to remember?
What if they could still connect to the Father as they were nurtured in the natural realm and they continued to remember?
And if they continued to remember, we have one incredible, mighty army of powerful, sold-out children on our hands. A generation of children that would walk into adulthood who never lost their connection with the Father in the first place. A generation that would run with him their entire lives.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that they won’t need discipline or to be taught anything. Their humanity needs it. But their spirit man will already be growing into who they are in him—only a little earlier than in previous generations.
Many have prophesied about a coming generation the likes of which the world has never seen.
What if we just needed to catch the wind of this fact… that they already know him?
What if we just need to encourage them to continue enjoying his presence… only from here?
And what if they can already see into the spiritual realm?
And what if what’s normal for them isn’t normal for us?
So we shut them down without realising what we’re doing. Thinking that it’s only their imaginations, when some of the experiences they’re having are real.
When my son Archie was very little, probably about one and a half, he was settling to sleep when he suddenly stood up on his little bed pointing to the centre of the room signing with his little hands and saying “swishy thing,” which meant that he saw something bright and sparkly and full of light. At the time I could only close my eyes to see what was in the room, and right in the centre there was a huge angel. He wasn’t afraid. Just incredibly excited. He watched it for a little while, before it left the room and flew away… at which point Archie crawled to the end of the bed, pulled back the curtain and then watched it fly away, before crawling back to his pillow and settling back to sleep. I must admit, I was disappointed not to be able to see it with my eyes open.
When his younger brother was born, it was obvious that he could see too. Fortunately, I would often catch glimpses of what he was seeing. On one occasion, I was in the bathroom and I saw a beautiful, long piece of fabric that cascaded down. As I was looking at it, thinking it was very much like the fabric you often see that cascades from the wrist of some angels… and as I followed it down, I saw Max was looking at it too. As I watched him, he followed this length of fabric up and up…and when I turned to look again, I couldn’t see it anymore. I told him I had seen it too, and that I wished he could talk and tell me what else he had seen. He was only about 6 months old, able to sit up, too tiny to talk.
I have found that he regularly gets dusted by gold dust in colours of gold, red, and green, and sometimes blue. Even when he’s just been listening to a teaching that had been missed in the middle of ordinary, everyday life, whilst cooking dinner and the house is full.
And I know there are other parents that have noticed their little ones brushed with this too. What if we realised that each and every child, every baby was already given a destiny and purpose, that they were already loved and cherished—validated by the Father—whatever situation they were born into? And what if the same was true for their parents and their parents before that and that he cares for each and every generation… giving each one their own destinies to walk in for that particular place in time… to prepare the next generation for the next anointing they will walk in, because he is a creative God… always creating beautiful things straight from his heart as a gift for us?
My parents tell me that I could walk and run by the time I was 10 months old and that I would run away again and again, day after day. I would climb out of the windows downstairs and run up the little hill several times a day.
This is what I remember…
I remember running up the long hill not because I was running away from my parents, but I was running up the hill to wait on the corner. I would stand at the top of the road and wait… and wait… and wait… and look… and look. I remember that he had a white horse. I remember he loved me more than anyone else did or possibly could. And I was waiting for him…day after day after day…. week after week… hoping and waiting for him to come. It still makes me feel emotional when I let myself dwell on it. And it wasn’t that I wasn’t loved by my parents. I was very loved and wanted. I had lost five brothers and sisters although I didn’t know it at this point in time. My parents had waited for me for a long time. But I think I remember because I must have been able to do this for a long time. There are photos of my front garden and I must have been about two and a half years old and there was still no fence to keep me in. I have so many memories of living there… the sounds of wolves howling around the house… although it was probably just the wind. The view from my bedroom window… the trees in the distance and the wonder of what was beyond them.
We moved when I was about 3 years old and I remember suddenly feeling very hemmed in. For my parents, this was great because I could no longer escape and they had peace of mind. But for me, it had taken my freedom away. And slowly my life became full of other things. I never actually forgot… but I stopped thinking about why I waited for him.
And then I remembered this: a few years ago I was listening to a well-known pastor who was sharing a story about a lady from his congregation who had spoken to him about something her small child said. The mum had another baby, and she found her toddler peering over the side of the baby’s cot asking the baby to describe him saying, “because I’m starting to forget what he looks like.”
This story fits with when my son was born. He was taken from us and he was put into the NICU unit simply because his temperature dropped. While this was happening I got the sense that everything was ok. This was his mission to be a testimony. They did a spinal tap and the nurse came out and said she had never seen a baby so calm as they did the spinal tap. While his mom and I were sitting in the NICU holding him or watching him we were instructed to pray for the other babies. Most of the babies in that unit were withdrawal babies. We had to leave him in the NICU and go back to the room and I heard a word of comfort “I will be with him when you can’t.” While in the room my wife suddenly begins crying and she says I see Jesus. I enquired to what he looked like and she described him as sitting in the rocking chair near my son with a shepherds cloak. She only saw his back. Later when it came time to leave the hospital they wouldn’t release us because the doctor hadn’t checked off and I had an appointment to keep. I looked at my son and I said well we know what to do about that. We will talk to our Father about that. He looked at me and I got the sense that he still had a connection with our Father. We prayed and they released us quickly without the doctor seeing him. So I agree the little ones do still have a connection with our Father. At some point I think they forget as they grow older.
Wow…such an awesome testimony for your family!! I’m sure your baby could see Jesus there with you too…and such reassurance for you and your wife…just think, this is your starting block with Him…He has already come through for you…and he will, again and again…just know you have a special place in his heart, and he has a special place in yours…and when you find yourself in a tough place in life, know that your testimony will open the way for blessing…you are a very precious family 🙂
WOW! You are onto something here. God told me something quite similar. When Jesus talked about becoming like little children, that is exactly what he was speaking about.
Children do remember and see the spiritual realm. It is very natural for them. Unfortunately, from the moment they are born we begin a systemized programming to give them a new (false) identity. We give them a name, religion, political affiliation, ethnicity, etc. We fill them with our beliefs and we teach them the values of a fallen world and the expected life plan to follow: birth – school – career- marriage – children – grandchildren – retirement – death.
We strip them of their inherent innocence and put the burden of guilt and shame on their backs. Slowly over time, children are indoctrinated into this world of time, pain, suffering, and death. They forget how to see the supernatural and how to hear and commune with their Father and all living things. We, as adults think we have to learn these things, but it is really an unlearning of false info that leads us back to the perfect innocence and total freedom we were created with; freedom to live in perfect Love, Joy and Peace as ONE with our Father and all creation. This is WHO we are. This is how our Father sees us!
The good new is, our true identity is not lost, just forgotten!
It’s time we become like little children and remember!!
Yeah, our lives definitely become full of other things…I’ve spent a number of days pondering when exactly things changed…and remembering things that the Father showed me even up to the age of seven. And one of the things I have noticed is just how normal it all seemed, even though it was amazing…and how easy it was to see in what we adults call the spiritual realm, and the language we have created to explain it…yet as a child it’s all normal…its not categorised into boxes…I’ve asked the Father to remind me…and true to himself he has :)…
This needs to be a book.
Hmmmmm…that’s an idea 🙂
It’s a great idea. Short Kindle books are easy.
Thank you for this.Going through a similar situation of reflection these days… this was, as is His custom, a confirmation for me on some things. So well stated. Thank you.
Well…where ever he’s taking you…whatever he’s placing on your heart…run with it…run with him…because there’s always a reason…and it may be way more than you can imagine right now…but run in step with him, and he’ll reveal fresh things to you, straight from his word…:)
Good stuff. We need to share more of this and undo the worldview that sees only the “cuteness” of children and misses the fact that there is no junior Holy Spirit.
My wife and I were deemed infertile by the doctors and only got our first child by our church praying for us. When she was about 3 she started praying for a baby brother by Christmas. We were so worried she would be disappointed that we tried to cushion it and play down her faith. God was having none of it. She had a baby brother by Christmas. She then started praying for a baby sister. We were a little wiser then and said “ok” and she got a baby sister. Their faith is stronger simply because they simply trust.
*Although I should point out that after her sister when she then said “I’m thinking of praying for twins” we asked her to refrain. 😉
Wow!! Love this…how amazing :)…and such a blessing…just continue to cultivate all that she carries…and continue to remind her…its part of her inheritance…:)
When my “miracle” daughter was able to walk, but not yet talk, she would toddle all over the house speaking in tongues. I recognized it, and had to ask the Lord to watch over her. She had an amazing childhood with prayer and miracles. I pray she comes back to Jesus soon.
Yes, don’t give up praying for her, and continue to have hope…place her in the Fathers hands…He knows your heart…x
hmm now it makes me wonder, my spirit man always connects with children every time I see them. For example I see them in the store or on the street walking with their parents and majority of the time they stare at me for a longer period of time as if they know me well and at the same time, I start to be moved with great compassion toward them and I find myself blessing them quietly. Just few days ago, my neighbor told me that she found her 5 years old son praying for me behind closed doors. If you come to my living room you will see pictures of children from family and friends, it just lifts up my spirit and I detect the presence of God every time I look at them.
Hello! I have a story about my Granddaughter when she was about 2 yrs old. We have an electronic piano in the house, a full size keyboard and a very realistic, beautiful sound. Anyway, we switched it to “choir” setting because I was fooling around with her at the piano. It sounds like an “angelic choir” and as she hit the keys she immediately looked up to the ceiling and pointed up with a surprised look on her face, as if to just say “ohhh”. How would she know it was angelic, or heavenly?
Jesus Said Suffer the Little children to come unto me for of such is the Kingdom of GOD , that verse is the clincher 🙂
Shared, beautiful story, exactly why children need protection.
When my daughter was 3, she was scheduled to have a bone marrow test one morning unbeknownst to her. She woke the morning of, telling me of the visitor she had the night before. Jesus had visited her thru her 2nd floor window to tell her He loved her.She said an angel came downstairs where I slept and stayed by my bedside and looked over me. This brings me to tears 11 years later. I was newly walking with the Lord then and just beginning to know his love for us and his desire to heal.
The veil or window view into heaven for little children is open, but the curtains gradually close and we forget we have always been the spirit children of God.
I have a son with Down Syndrome and a son with autism, both non-verbal. Their whole lives we would catch them in their rooms, laughing hysterically at something we couldn’t see. Or looking up in the corner as though someone were up there doing something. We can’t wait to get to heaven to get the rest of the story!
Dave,
Thank you so MUCH for posting this!
I feel God in the room with me again.
I will buy the book, once it all comes together!
Jerry
That story made me cry. I believe it I truly do
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
In my case, I don’t remember knowing God, specifically, but when I was little, I would talk in my mind as if multiple “someones” were listening to me, even though I don’t remember ever having any evidence that anyone could hear me. It wasn’t until I was 26 years old (51 now) that I discovered that all that talking and daydreaming I’d been doing were communications to God. Talk about not being boastful. He never told me. I finally just figured it out on my own, and the swooping energy of excitement and everything that came over the following 25 years has confirmed it.
I wonder if I might have developed spiritual autism or something. When I’m talking to God, I never use words; I always conjure up a snapshot of what I’m feeling (and why, what could fix it, etc…) in any moment I’m wanting to send God a little telegram, and then I encapsulate it into a “wad” of feelings and emotions which I then push toward him. I’ve always thought: “He’s God. He knows what this is. How could he not?” I’ve always wondered if I’m screaming in the spirit or something instead of taking the time to articulate it with words, which I find difficult to do when the recipient is God, for some reason. Yet I can rehearse something I want to say to my boss at work about how corporate policy must be designed to drive us all crazy, and I can babble on into insomniatic paragraphs of babbling.
When my adopted adult son was 2, could barely talk, we were in a terrible rain storm. I was driving down the highway couldn’t see a thing, unable to pull over. All of a sudden the rain stopped, the sun was out. I said to myself I’m so glad it stopped raining. Behind me in a car seat, I heard that wee little voice say
I pwayed it would. It blew me away.
We are praying for his return to Jesus.
Thank you so much for writing this. So beautiful and true.
“The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke
that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not
absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in
spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They
always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is
nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.
But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God
says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to
the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may
be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making
them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned
and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” – GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy
I can confirm that children remember heaven. I seem to have a memory of being in heaven before I was born. God showed me the world and all of the evil in the world and I couldn’t understand why people were so evil and why they were so angry at God. God then told me that it was time for me to be born and live in the world. He gave me the choice of what kind of person that I would be and he gave me a choice of several families to be born into. When it was time for me to be born, I became frightened and I cried out to God and he said, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.” I was then in my mother, unafraid, peaceful and content.
I often think about that memory and think about how far I have fallen. Whenever I become frustrated or upset with God, I often find myself realizing that I have become one of those people who I saw from heaven that was so evil and angry. I am reminded about how I thought that the people in the world obviously didn’t really know God if they chose to sin and act against Him like they did. It still gives me perspective some 50 years later and helps me to realize that I am not perceiving God accurately whenever I find myself doubting his goodness. He has been my constant companion. I honestly have no idea what life is like without Him.
Oh, your story reminded me so much of “The Smell of Rain”. This story touched my heart because I had a nephew who was born at 24 weeks just like the little girl in the story. https://activerain.com/blogsview/834930/the-smell-of-rain—true-story-of-dana-lu-blessing
What the article says is absolutely true. God has a destiny for us. When I was a little child of 3 or 4, I looked out the second story of our house, and I saw about a 4 or 5 story building. A child waved at me. I went back to that window, and I couldn’t find the child or the building. All I saw was sky. I think I looked twice. We left that house when I was 4. I still remember when we left. I cried.