Hi, Alison! First, I want to say it’s great to see and hear from you again! Second, I believe that the spiritual gifts are for the church today, as well. However, I too had an issue with this “on demand” treatment of prophesying when I was attending the General Assemblies of God’s ministry school. I think your questions about this are important to think over and discuss.
My own thoughts about teaching children about these gifts generally is to simply teach what Scripture says about them–that the Holy Spirit distributes them to different individuals as he sees fit (v. 11). I think it is especially important to emphasize where the gifts come from and for what they are used. But seeing as this passage seems to make it clear that not every person will have every gift, I don’t believe it is for people to have everyone practice prophesying. That does not make sense to me since only some will have that gift according to Scripture. As the children grow and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, presumably when they receive the Holy Spirit is when they would receive any spiritual gifts as the Holy Spirit sees fit. As you point out, though, it is important to teach them to listen for the Holy Spirit’s leading. That takes the development of discernment. Until that is developed, practicing a gift cannot be expected, because the exercising of gifts such as these (prophesying, miraculous powers, etc) has to be at the prompting of the Spirit who knows the will of God. If we prompt everyone to practice prophesying, especially kids, it would be dangerous, because the prompting wouldn’t be from the Spirit. What will inevitably happen is that they will start to think that any thought that comes into their minds is a word from God.
Growing in discernment to hear the Holy Spirit happens as we strengthen our relationship with the Lord through studying His Word and prayer. As the kids who have given their lives over to Christ grow in the knowledge of the Lord, I believe their gifts will become apparent as they live out God’s Word. And with that will come the discernment they need to practice those gifts through the Holy Spirit’s leading. I do not know exactly how to teach that to kids, though…what hearing the Holy Spirit is like in order to act on it. I tried to explain it to my own kids, but it was difficult to explain it in a way so as to teach them that the Holy Spirit’s leading is not feeling based. I am hoping others chime in about this so that I can learn. I have a gift of prophecy, which absolutely does not happen at my will or on que but only as the Spirit leads or prompts or shows me something. It certainly doesn’t happen every day, either. When it does happen, it’s very different than a feeling, but I am really not sure how to describe it.
So end my thoughts on this for now. If I think of anything else, I will get back. I hope this helps in some small way.