For age 16 and up

By MariaMaria #639 CM/FM 3441 12/02

Continued from Part 2‚ GN 1027

(All of the short prophecy excerpts which follow are from Jesus, unless otherwise indicated:)

1. This age is a difficult one for a very good reason: It's the last chance that a person has to choose the main and general direction of their life. Of course, I can help anyone change, but especially within My Family‚ the choice of whether that young person is going to give their life to Me or not happens during this time. They may not be aware of it, but this is how it works. It's the time of decision, and although they seem to be in indecision for a long time, in reality they're making up their minds about things, and based on these conclusions, the choices of the rest of their life will follow to a degree.

2. The Enemy knows this and seeks to disrupt and turn them away from My service. He fights hard, he gives no quarter, and he relentlessly battles for the lives and souls of these young ones. The Enemy knows what a great blow will fall on his kingdom through them, and he spares no effort in trying to turn them away from My path and getting them to rebel against My ways.

3. That's why it's not enough to passively "go by the book" in caring for these young ones. It's not enough to say the right things or act in the right way, although those things help. But as with any war, you must fight back. You must be desperate with Me, passionate in your prayers for them, and seeking My answers on their behalf. This desperation, this seeking Me‚ this fighting in the spirit is what will win them.

4. So take this time in prayer. Seek Me on their behalf every morning; seek Me and don't give up! The Enemy won't give up; he'll always be there ready to jump back on the bandwagon and pull down any progress they've made. So you must support them in prayer. Ultimately, of course‚ it will be their decision, but will you have failed to do your part by neglecting to pray for them?

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5. (Mama: ) If you haven't yet read it, I recommend the book summary "She Said Yes," available on the MO site, as inspiring and convicting reading for parents and shepherds of teens who are going through difficult times. About this book summary, the Lord said: "It's a good example of being willing to change your lifestyle, your habits, anything in your life that is necessary in order to rescue your children. Desperation with Me is the key, and if you are desperate and willing, I am able to give solutions in each case that will make it possible for the victories to be won." (End of message from Jesus.)

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6. There is a pervading cynicism in youth these days because they don't see much purpose in life, and that cynicism has also taken hold among the youth of the Family. The only way to get rid of that is to give them a purpose in life, and the best way that they're going to get that is if they see that you have a purpose—and just surviving isn't much of a purpose. So get in gear and in step with all that I have for you, and that will be a big step toward winning your youth to Me!

7. The pull of the Enemy and the forces he is fighting our teens with are very great, for the Enemy knows it's these young people who have the potential to do great things, to walk in great faith, to fulfill great promises, and to become great testimonies. But that will only happen through their individual decisions and personal choices—their choices to read and absorb My Word, to believe in Me and the direction that I'm giving, and to trust the channels through whom I am pouring forth in these days. And in this day and age, that's not an easy task! That kind of faith is not easy for them to accept; that kind of decision is a tough one to make. This is what the Enemy fights with all his power, for that is a key, pivotal point that our teens need to come through to receive the greater strengthening, a more active faith, a clasping hold on the keys to the Kingdom.

8. When you were a teen, the kind of older person you most appreciated was the one who just rolled with the punches and didn't get offended by the outlandish things you said or did. Remember that. It's important. Teens do and say odd things just for the heck of it sometimes‚ to get a reaction, to see what kind of reaction they'll get, or because they're bored and feeling out of it. So just roll with it. Don't let yourself be hurt, but draw on My strength that sees beyond the moment and sees the soldiers in the making in these teens.

9. Be careful about teasing. You have a penchant for teasing people, and it's fun and harmless with those who are stronger. But you should be cautious about teasing. If a teen is feeling vulnerable‚ they're more likely to take it personally and read your teasing as ridicule rather than just innocent fun.

10. Showing faith in one who lacks in some area or who is going through a time when they have very little faith in themselves and their own capability to make it, can in many ways be the catalyst that will help them to make that change and be the person you expect them to be. Give them things to do and a certain level of trust to see that thing through to completion without your being right there waiting for them to blow it and need your help. Of course, they will probably blow it and will need to be picked up many times along the way, but if they feel that you're expecting them to blow it‚ they'll feel like, "Why try?"

11. If you cry out to Me for My Spirit and My leading in each and every situation, if you ask Me to help you to see things and to react to each situation as I would react, then you will bear the same fruit that I was able to bear with My disciples. Don't think that this is impossible. Don't think that you're not able, that your personality hinders you from winning the hearts of the young, that you don't have the same spirit or anointing to win disciples and make them fishers of men. For this is the day of miracles, of greater works! I'm calling you to it‚ and I will make it come to pass. If you let Me possess you completely, then it doesn't matter what you're like or what your personality is like. If I am in you‚ I will do the work through you, and I will do the impossible.

12. This is the only way. Neither you nor anyone else there with you holds the key to that teen's heart. It's locked. It's sealed. It's closed. Only I have the key and only I can get in. So once again, I say unto you‚ ask Me for the key. Call upon the keys of Heaven. This is yet another key that I give you—the key to open hearts. Call upon it, and it is yours. Claim it; take it; use it to open the hearts and to set the captives free.

13. There is only one way to succeed in anything, especially in this battle to win their minds and hearts to Me completely, and that is for you to put your all into this. You'll also need to be a sample yourself of willingness to change, a sample of yieldedness‚ of someone who's not only trying to stay on board but who thinks that it's the most wonderful thing in the world to be close to Me and follow the moves of My Spirit!

14. Remember that a teacher attempting to teach without inspiring in the student a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.

15. No matter what they say or do, be consistently positive in your reactions and give them consideration the way you'd want to be considered. When young people know for certain you have their best interests at heart, they'll be more inclined to follow.

16. Try to look beyond your teenagers' words‚ which almost always have an extra touch of hype or emotion attached to them. Look at their intentions instead. Ask them what they want, and more importantly, why they want it.

17. Allow your teens to tell you anything without freaking out. Sometimes they just want to express what's on their heart, and then they feel better and forget about it, just the way that you do sometimes. Offer to pray for them, and if you're not already their shepherd, encourage them to go to their shepherd or shepherdess for help if that's what I show you to do.

18. Go out of your way to spend time with them and to talk to them. Any relationship takes some effort and work.

19. Be willing to show yourself weak and to apologize when you've made a mistake or you've hurt them somehow. Be honest with them, for when you are, it encourages them to be honest with you too.

20. Pray for a sense of humor if you don't already have one, and use it. Teens appreciate adults who can find the humor in life.

21. Help them to feel needed and praise them every chance you get. Love them well too. They'll never outgrow the need to be appreciated and loved.

22. Be willing to listen to them and to hear what they're really saying, not what you think they're saying. Make sure to take the time to understand where they're coming from. This makes them feel important, and it encourages them to be open to learn new things from you.

23. Junior teens need and desire a tremendous amount of input. If you don't give them the input that they desire, then they'll get it by some other means. And of course the other means that they find will probably not be from a godly, loving source. So make sure that you spend the time and provide the input that they so desperately need and desire. They need input on many fronts. Of course, the spiritual is the most important, but it is also the most difficult to provide and will take much prayer and desperation with Me to provide it in a way that they will accept.

24. Going through the teen years is much like going through the "terrible twos." These young people are learning how to express their new independence. This age is an age of insecurity, as they're no longer children, but they're not full adults yet either. Their bodies are still going through changes and their emotions and hormones are running wild! They have their whole lives before them and there are so many possibilities and prospects and things to try. Also, time is very out of perspective for them, as even a few days seems like a long time to them‚ much less a week, or a year or years. All of this combined makes it a hard age to go through.

25. Let love rule in your life. I've given you many guidelines and even rules to help you understand what it means to live by love. But don't cling to them self-righteously, thinking if you keep all the rules to a "T" you will be living in My love. Because living by My love is much more than a set of rules‚ and the sin of self-righteousness has done much damage to My cause. It has also turned many of your children away from Me. So be careful that you don't fall into this sin and be guilty of making a hard decision harder.

26. I'll do the part of drawing them to the light. You need to be a sample of what joy it is to be in the light, which will keep them facing that direction.

27. Realize that you are engaged in a power struggle, but that you are not wrestling with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers that are seeking to wrestle the young ones away from their service to Me and others. Therefore your weapons need to be spiritual more than carnal. Just being a "good guy," staying "friendly" and "understanding" and "sympathetic," though very important attributes, are not sufficient. You must wage a militant war in the spirit for their souls. You must call upon the keys and all the forces of Heaven to help you. Pray, pray, pray! Keep in close touch with Me. You're in a minefield‚ and only My Spirit knows how to rescue them and walk you through safely.

28. Clean up your own life so you can see clearly to help someone else in trouble. When someone decides to take a spiritual nosedive into Satan's cesspool, you don't have to dive in after them and start swimming around in it too just to show how loving, caring, sympathetic and understanding you are. Point out the difficulty they've chosen to put themselves in. Toss them a lifeline!

29. Know when to stop trying to "fix the problem yourself" and turn things over to Me. Young people can become extremely self-centered and selfish in their battle with "adults," and can do and say a lot of things that cut deeply and wound terribly those trying to help them. More than any other time in life you will have to call upon Me to help you rise above yourself in order to be shielded from the very personal spiritual storm that will batter you as soon as you gear up to fight for a young soul.

30. Satan will use your every fear, your every insecurity, any personal guilt‚ doubt, shame over past mistakes‚ whatever he can to blast you right out of the water! Parental pride, emotional attachments, desires to shield, protect, and overlook will become thick walls in your way. Forces will well up within that will tempt you to "give in," "retreat," "go easy," "pull back," "break rank with others and run to the rescue." You may even "feel" their anger, frustration and rebellion as your own. That's when you must fight the hardest to plug your spirit into Me rather than them.

31. They don't need more wind and waves and angry sea to try and stay afloat on; they need a lighthouse pointing to the harbor, a rock to stand on. The strength they need is not in you and your spirit, no matter how much you think you love them and desire to do for them; the strength they need is only found in Me and My Spirit. You can't rescue them yourself; they will only pull you under. You're not their savior; I am. You're not the author and finisher of their faith; I am. You're not the answer man; I am. Be My sample and My example. Keep lifting Me up and pointing them to Me for the answers they need in life.

32. You're not meant to be confident in your ability to help them; you're meant to be confident in your dependence on Me to be what they need. It must be Me in you that reaches out to them and helps them along—not you striving in what you think they need or will help them. You're meant to be a channel of love to them, but it must be My love working through you—not based on whether or not you get along with them‚ or whether they consider you a friend or not. You must be out of the way in order to reach them, so that My love can then work through you to touch their lives.

33. My love doesn't cower at confrontation, nor does it bow out of maintaining the standard. My love is the purest and truest love, and that's why it also asks that you love them enough to correct them and caution them about the things they say and do at times.

34. I have called you to help these young people, to be the sample that they need‚ to sacrifice in order to help them, to maintain a solid connection with Me so that you are able to continue to know how to help them.

35. This may not sound like a very enjoyable task, knowing that a greater responsibility rests on your shoulders, and you may even question why I ask it of you, but that's the wrong way to look at it. Instead, think of it as the part that you get to play in the transformation of their minds and hearts.

36. One of these days‚ through the love, encouragement‚ guidance, and prayer that you have sent their way, they may stand before Me and before all of you as true disciples, eager and willing to do their part to follow Me. There will be no comparison or thought of sacrifice in that day, and that should be your motivation. Your desire to help them, to accept this responsibility, has the power to effect change in their lives, and that should be your incentive to do all you can to become the channel of My Spirit to reach out to them.

37. Like that quote that says, "He drew a circle that shut me out‚ but love and I drew a circle that brought him in," that is what you must do. Draw a circle of love to bring them in—into your trust, your heart, your life, and most importantly, into your prayers. For the truest love does not stop at concern; it drives the concern to Me through intercessory prayer and supplication for the ones you love and who have a great need. That is the greatest help that you can be.

38. One of a teenager's greatest needs is to have a better understanding of service for Me. For the most part, in some teens' mind, serving the Lord is a boring chore that they feel has been pushed on them all their life like a JJT! They want a challenge and to have goals in their lives, but they're not sure what those are right now. And while there may have been moments of fulfillment in their service for Me, they don't realize that there is great‚ great joy in being in it for the long haul, making the personal decision to throw the world out the window and lay their lives before My feet in service!

39. Being a missionary is not just a JJT or a ministry training program. It's a lifelong profession, jam-packed with excitement and challenge! Often that excitement and challenge comes from overcoming great difficulty, or from making mistakes and learning from them. It's a challenge, but it's more than worth it!

40. Teenagers can smell a fake a mile away! Even if you're just doing your best to relate to them‚ if you're trying too hard and laying it on too thick, it won't be long before they write your name in their mental book of dorks. The secret is to be natural with them. Don't try so hard to relate to them, but just treat them like the brothers and sisters they are. They don't want to be pampered, but they do want friends—people they can count on and feel comfortable with.

41. Your prayers can do mighty things! So don't cease in praying for these dear ones. Don't cease in loving them into the Kingdom through your intercession. Prayer can do mighty things! It can help all those who you pray for to resist the power of the Enemy as he tries to exert influence on them, and it can enhance the power of My ministering spirits who are reaching out to them. Your prayers can strengthen their desire to make the right choices.

42. There are so many factors that can influence a person's will, but this could be one, having a close friendship. There again, you just need to find the key. When a young person shuts himself off from the older generation, it's good to try to find a bridge, someone from the younger generation who's strong in the Lord to try to help that person.

43. Teens want to be useful in some way and help others. But at the same time, they're struggling with feelings of wanting to have fun and enjoy their lives while they're still young. They look at the FGAs‚ or even some of the SGAs, and see many who have lost their joy of living and are burdened with responsibilities and cares that weigh them down to where life isn't that enjoyable anymore. The teens see that and they figure they'd better live it up in the few short years they have while they're still footloose and fancy free!

44. Sermons won't work; they'll be rejected. They have to see you and decide that they want to become like you—that they want to be as happy and fulfilled as you are; that they want to have as much fun serving the Lord as you are; that they want to help others the way you're helping others; that they want to enjoy living with others and interacting with others the way you do.

45. You set the stage for their growth. If what they see in you inspires them, then they'll strive to follow of their own accord without you having to push them. If what they see in you doesn't inspire them, then all the sermons, Word time, rules and prodding in the world isn't going to do it!

46. Teens need to have a goal in life. They're idealistic and want to do something worthwhile. At the same time, they want to enjoy themselves and have fun while they're still young and carefree. So those are two things you need to give them: a reason for living, where they can see the fruits of their labors; and the freedom and ability to have fun and enjoy their teen years.

47. The first of those points—seeing the fruit of their labors—is very important. Just doing dishes or taking care of kids in a large Home and "furthering the Kingdom of God" by making it possible for others to go out fundraising is not something they're going to consider a good reason for living. If life in a Family Home is just surviving, with maybe a little witnessing or CTP on the side from time to time, they'll figure they might as well go out to the System‚ get a job‚ have their freedom, and they could still do a little witnessing and serve God on the side like other Christians do.

48. In other words‚ if they don't see a real tangible difference between System Christians and the Family, then they'll wonder why they should make the sacrifices to be in the Family and live communally. But if they feel that they're personally making a difference in other people's lives, and they see that difference and the effect that they're having with their own eyes, then that's something worthwhile to them. Teens don't mind making sacrifices if they can reach their ideals.

49. You ask what the key is to winning their hearts and helping them to know and experience My love so they'll want to dedicate their lives to Me? You are the key! Your sample is the key! The inspiration level of your Home is the key! The fruitfulness of your Home is the key! Are you winning others to Me? Are you actively witnessing? Are you reaching the rich? Are you promoting Activated and winning disciples? Are you making a difference in your community through a fruitful and balanced "Consider the Poor" ministry? While the latter isn't as important as spiritually changing people's lives, it's good for teens to be involved in that sort of project because it's easier for them to see the tangible fruits of their labors and that they're making a difference in society.

50. Spiritual changes in people are slower and take longer to become obvious in most cases. But even in your CTP ministries, the most effective ones are the ones that are having an obvious long-term effect on people. Not just doing a little here and a little there on the weekends, but a program that is having a lasting impact! That's what your teens are going to be looking for and what they'll want to see.

51. Of course, not every teen is so unselfish that they just want to help others. Many of them are quite self–centered. But, actually, inside they do really want to make a difference. It's just that they don't want to lose their teenhood‚ and the struggle is there between enjoying it while it lasts while at the same time not wasting their life. You have to help them achieve the right balance.

52. My loves, the key to winning their hearts lies in what they see in you—your dedication, your close relationship to Me, your giving your all to Me and to winning the lost to My love. You are the key that can turn their hearts to Me and help them to grow in their love and relationship with Me. Your sample and your prayer power and your determination to follow through on what I show you is what it will take to win them. If what they see in you and your Home members, your family, is a sample of what they'd like to be like, then they have something to attain to. But at the same time, they need to know that they can be like you, but in the unique way that I have made them to be‚ so that they can realize and feel free to grow and become the unique disciple I want them to be, not a carbon copy of you.

53. The key is the power of the keys of the Kingdom that you use to call on Me for My miracles in their hearts, to free them from the power that the Enemy holds over them. Call on the power of the keys to unlock them and set them free! Pray for them, that they'll be what you and I want them to be‚ and don't give up!

54. Your actions and attitudes need not reflect theirs. You can love them even if they're being rebellious, out of the spirit, touchy or grouchy.

55. One of the most important things at this age is for them to have a true friend that they can open their hearts to. They have so many things going on inside their hearts and minds, changing views of life, that it is very confusing for them. They have questions or doubts, and they often feel or know that some of these things are wrong, and thus they feel condemned or guilty for having such questions or doubts. They can be afraid to express them for fear of being labeled a doubter, or for fear of getting in trouble. Then the doubts and questions fester and poison and cause them to grow bitter and angry toward things.

56. They truly want and need to have someone they can trust and share these things with who will not make them feel condemned and bad‚ but can take their worst doubts and their worst questions and help them to make sense of them and sort things out in their minds. They will ultimately have to make their decisions anyway, but these things will be so much easier for them if they're not holding in suppressed anger toward bad and negative feelings they have inside.

57. Rebellion is a reaction. Often it's someone reacting contrary to things with the intent of hurting others, as they feel they've been hurt by these others. Sometimes it's just a reaction that they don't even understand themselves. Either way, you can try to talk about all of this and help them see that the person who suffers the most is them. They will not be able to gain satisfaction by hurting others or themselves.

58. The key is to understand why, and if you can understand why and what motivates them to rebel, then you can seek ways to help them see for themselves how it affects their situation. Try to understand what it is they truly want, and then try to help them see how they can achieve what they truly want without having to hurt themselves or others to get it. The key to understanding them and knowing how to help them get it is found in asking Me. I can explain and make all things clear to you, and give you a good basis to start from in your communication with them.

59. The Word is truly a key as well. Help them to see the Word as a solution and help to their own life and not just something to subdue them. Don't use the Word to beat them into submission, but show them the Word as a solution to liberate them from the vice of rebellion, fear, hurt, and pain, and help them see how it can give them true joy, love, light and happiness.

60. Those who are forgiven much love much. One to whom the greater debt has been forgiven and relieved, has the greater love and appreciation. But you must know the heart before you can extend such mercy time and time again‚ and the only way you can truly know the heart is by asking Me to reveal to you the things hidden from outward appearance. How oft shall you forgive your brother or sister? Seventy times 7 times in a day‚ if they turn again and ask.

61. Sometimes they will not ask if they don't feel that there will be forgiveness. They feel, "What's the point? Why should I confess and ask forgiveness and admit my fault if I won't be forgiven and will only get in trouble? If I will be labeled and never be able to overcome that label‚ then why bother to humble myself before these who will not forgive me anyway?" They must be convinced of your love for them and your willingness to forgive and forget and start anew.

62. They look to see what things are important to you, what things you feel hold value, and they judge you by those. Though they appear to be shallow at times, they really have a very deep side to them that not many see. You don't have to be all fun and games, only appearing to be carefree‚ for they look for quality of character, deepness of spirit, and one who is honest with them and works hard toward what is important to them.

63. Not expecting them to always "act their age," but letting them have times to relax, shows them you understand that life is to be lived and enjoyed as well. It shows you have moderation. If you're always sober and always trying to help them to "reach their potential," they feel it's an imbalance, so they try to lighten things up. If you pray and keep a balance in this, then they'll be more respectful of the times you mean business.

64. Train them and put the responsibility on them for tasks that they can handle, rather than waiting for them to act grown up before expecting things of them. Show faith in their ability to do certain things, and at times I will lead you to expect more than you originally had the faith for. But help them carry the weight through counseling them, making sure to explain things enough‚ giving them reading assignments on it and so forth. But give them responsibility.

65. Take the time to talk things out. They may not feel they have a lot to say or may not even want to talk about things, but as you build a communication bond, things will be easier. If they know you care about what's going on inside and you love their heart most of all, this will help them to feel more at ease with letting you shepherd them.

66. If all you talk about are things like, "Did you do the job I asked you to do?" or "Why didn't this get done right?"—it makes them feel like you're only interested in them as a worker, with you as a boss, and that you're merely trying to lord things over them because you're older than them. But if they see that your interest in them goes way beyond that—that their hearts, their souls, their thoughts, and their future that you are helping them to build are the most important things to you—this will cause more trust in their hearts.

67. You know! You've been there! So when you look at these young ones‚ remember that you were once young also, that you had to go through experiences similar to what they're passing through now, and lend a helping hand. Oh yes‚ they will reject it in appearance, they'll say they don't need it and they can make it themselves. But don't worry, just offer your hand, don't withdraw it, and patiently wait for them to grasp it. They always do.

68. It's part of being young to try it alone first, but they'll eventually come around and accept your help. It's not an easy age; there are many temptations and traps set by the Enemy, especially for My chosen ones, the ones that are called out for a special purpose. But the victory is worth the fight, and even though sometimes it seems like an impossible situation‚ there's nothing too hard for Me, and if you do your part, I will do the miracles!

69. Your part is also to pray without ceasing. Pray for them, that I might work My mighty works in their lives and change the darkness to light, the evil to good, the yearning for the world to a yearning for Me and My ways, that I might draw them into the crystal pyramid where they may pulse and shine with all the other crystals. Pray vehemently against the sticky blobs of darkness which seek to latch on to them and pull them away. Zap them with the power of prayer!—My power, which is so much greater than that of the Enemy!

Copyright © 2003 by The Family

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