You did it! You prepared the great lesson for kids’ church this Sunday. You got the best games, object lesson, and props for your lesson. You have the coolest sound effects and lighting. You have the hippest worship songs for song time, and you are convinced that this week is going to be the best week in kids’ church! Even though all of these things are great, and necessary, did you stop during your preparation time to think about how the Holy Spirit wants your lesson to go? In the excitement of preparing the best lesson ever, we can become guilty of forgetting to leave room for the Holy Spirit to guide us and direct us in our lesson to the kids.

Every week God has something very special to say to each child in your kids’ church. While that knowledge could give us a lot of pressure to make sure everything is perfect, and that we are saying the right things, we do not need to worry because Scripture states, “Do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Matthew 10:19,20, NIV).

We need to be relying on the Holy Spirit to give us guidance and direction for our lessons. We want our lessons to be the voice of God speaking into the lives of our kids. We want God’s presence to impact them in a very personal way. It is the Holy Spirit who allows for that to happen.

The following are tips on allowing the Holy Spirit to lead:

1. Internalize your lesson.

When you are preparing to teach, don’t wait until Saturday night to begin preparing. Rather, begin reading the material and internalizing it, so the application becomes a part of your spiritual devotional life. As you internalize the message of your lesson, you will see personally how the Holy Spirit is teaching you, and you will be able to teach the same message to the kids. The Holy Spirit may have something very specific for you within the lesson that you may miss if you don’t take the time to internalize it. Take time to read it over and over. Use it as a devotional one day of your week. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal something new to you within the passage you are studying for your lesson, and teach out of the abundance of what you have received.

2. Have team prayer before the kids’ service.

This may seem like one of the simplest things to do, but many times on Sundays this is SO HARD. Oftentimes, we are running around trying to finalize preparations for the service, dealing with check in, or handling a situation that occurred between two kids who always show up far too early. But we must remember to take the time to pray, inviting the Holy Spirit to come into the classroom, and to use each team member to minister to our kids. Praying together before the service also unifies your team for that morning. The common goal should be to foster an environment where the kids can experience God personally—and that cannot be done without the Holy Spirit. Take the time to invite the Holy Spirit to your classroom.

3. Give the Holy Spirit time.

Don’t rush your response time. The most powerful part of your service is when you have made the call for response, and the kids are given the opportunity to hear from God. We need to guard that time. When there is so much to do, other games or activities can sneak in and rob us of that very important time. But we need to make a commitment to allow the necessary time for our kids to respond to the Word of God.

We should not rush what the Holy Spirit may be doing in their individual lives, and end the service early because parents are showing up. Demonstrate to the parents the importance of responding to the Holy Spirit, and when they show up, politely ask them to wait as the kids finish their response. You crush the impact of the Holy Spirit in the kids’ lives when you end their response prematurely. Allow that time to come to fruition. Let the Holy Spirit speak to the hearts of your kids and transform them.

When you allow the Holy Spirit to lead your service, you will find that God can and will do great things in the lives of your kids. Be committed to giving the Holy Spirit the position He deserves as the leader. Step back and stand in amazement at what He will do!