I was driving full speed down a country road when the car pulled out in front of me. In the one second before impact, the thought went through my mind that whatever was about to happen was going to be very bad, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. There was a deafening crunch, the smell of smoke, and the wondrous realization that I was alive and all right. I sprang from my vehicle to come face to face with the driver of the other car, discovering with unimaginable relief that no one was hurt.

It’s not easy to total a Chevy Tahoe. As the other driver apologized over and over, I felt I was given the gift of mercy and was able to reassure him with heartfelt goodwill that it really was okay, even as I prayed over him for peace. A car was temporal, I said, and the accident not a big deal. Amazingly, although the airbag had gone off, it never touched me, nor did any part of my body sustain impact. I walked away from the collision that left my car undriveable with a tiny scratch on my wrist as sole evidence of the accident. I wasn’t even sore the next day.

That morning, before I’d left, my five year-old had told me in troubled tones, “Mommy, last night I dreamed you went to Heaven.” Reassuring her, I suggested we pray together for my protection. I believe God heard and answered that prayer in the amazing way I was guarded a few hours later.

Jesus says in Luke 11:13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” A week prior to my car accident, the Spirit had nudged me to pray for a greater measure of Himself for my children. Specifically, I prayed that the prophetic would be released in my kids. Prophecy is simply hearing the voice of God and speaking forth what He says. Children are usually especially attuned and sensitive to things of the spirit.

Peter, quoting the prophet Joel said, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17). We are in the last days. Our sons and our daughters are prophesying. Do we hear it? Are we attuned to the Holy Spirit in them? Do we realize that we can ask for more of God’s Holy Spirit (consider what all that implies!) for our children? And how wonderful that through our children, sometimes God comes through the most plainly and the most simply.

God speaks through many different means, and I have lost count of the ways He has spoken to me through my children. My daughter’s word the day of the accident was one of many. I have heard God’s voice come through my preschoolers in the most unexpected moments, exhorting me to take courage, to bless someone, and even in regards to deep things in my heart which they’d have no idea about. They’ve even shed light on more “earthly” things (both my children accurately foretold attributes of our next vehicle before we even began shopping).

Once I had a dream that I felt was a prophetic word for a sister in my church. It involved two female lions, which I believed represented family relationships in her life. That morning, I debated in my mind whether the dream really meant anything at all. I had just dismissed it when my three year-old called to me from the other room. “Look, Mommy!” I came over to see what she was pointing at. In a sticker book of 500 different wild animals, she had her finger on a female lion. That convinced me to deliver the word, which was received and cherished by this Christian sister.

The best gifts were costly to God but are freely available to us. “Ask and you shall receive.” “You do not have because you do not ask.” “How much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.” “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” “Ask, and I’ll give you the nations as an inheritance.”

Heaven’s riches are available, but sometimes we must take the time to ask Him. What better gift can we bestow on our children?