One Word From God Can Change Your Family (4 page)

—Mark 11:22-24

Keeping a husband and wife from having children is one of the most devastating things Satan can do to a couple. It is also one of the toughest faith battles you can fight because it involves you, your spouse, your child, and specifically the call of God on the life of the child He has promised you.

For three years John and I dealt with childlessness. We dealt with the thoughts that arose when well-meaning friends or relatives asked, “Well, how come you aren’t pregnant?... I thought you all were going to get pregnant last year. Why don’t you have a baby yet?”

At one point, I remember feeling I wasn’t a “whole woman” because I couldn’t give my husband the blessing of a child... (wrong thinking, huh?).

But John, because of the way he was raised, just didn’t operate in fear or doubt. And I had no problem believing God for healing because of the teaching I had been exposed to, and because He had healed me of things before. Nonetheless, focus on the physical healing I needed to be able to conceive, the waiting, doctors’ opinions and discouragement all took a toll on my faith.

By the West Coast Believers’ Convention in Anaheim, California, in 1991, I was becoming discouraged. But that year, Kenneth prophesied over me:
“Because of your faith, the Word has taken root in you, and it won’t be too much longer.”

John and I knew that it was God Who had placed in us the desire to have a family. Truly believing we received, we confessed God’s promise and thanked Him for it daily. Every time we prayed over our food, John and I would say aloud, “Father, I thank You that Marty’s pregnant. We have a perfect child.”

I continued to let God show me new ways to sow seeds for the specific things I was believing for. I gave a baby shower to honor and bless a friend, but knew I was sowing into my harvest as well. I made a conscious decision to sow more love into the lives of the children around me.

Despite all of this, I needed a breakthrough. When I asked God what was wrong, His answer was not a formula. It was not that I was “missing it.” It was that I wasn’t seeking Him enough. I wasn’t pressing in with my faith in every area possible. I had only focused my faith in the area of healing, and because of the discouragement, I was beginning to waver.

Shortly after Kenneth prophesied to me, my turnaround came. God gave John’s grandmother a word for me—the story of Hannah being delivered from childlessness to give birth to Samuel (1 Samuel 1).

While I was already standing on many scriptures, this revelation particularly ministered to me. Daily, as I read Hannah’s story and prayed her prayer, the revelation grew stronger in me that God is no respecter of persons. I got mad at the devil. I stayed in his face with the fact that God loved me as much as He loved Hannah. I repeatedly said aloud that if God would do that for Hannah, He’ll do it for me. I said of friends who had conceived, if God would do that for her, He’ll do it for me. And I thanked Him and praised Him for it.

God met me where I was. I no longer focused entirely on healing for my body, but on the reality that God is no respecter of persons. Daily, my faith grew stronger.

Within two months I was pregnant. On April 7, 1992, Courtney was born. John, who had encouraged me through every bad report, spoke the same words he had confessed at every meal: “She’s perfect.”

Continuing to believe for a child is truly a faith battle, whether you have waited three years or 10. It’s not easy, and is often emotionally painful. If you are wrestling with this and you’re doing all you know to do, then regroup. Look for new areas to apply your faith. God will meet you where you are and take up any slack necessary for you to receive your manifestation.

Children are the right of a marriage in covenant with God (Deuteronomy 28:11), and God is no respecter of persons. What He has done for others, He will surely do for you.

Chapter 6

Ian Britza

A Force to Be Reckoned With

“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”

—Hebrews 12:11

I’m an Australian, and I love the United States. One thing I’ve noticed about these two countries is the special bond they have had in times of conflict. American soldiers even like to fight alongside Australians—because they’re good.

There’s a reason Australian troops are considered some of the best soldiers in the world. The government of Australia puts them through extensive training. And because of their training, they know exactly what to do when pressure comes. Proper training makes those soldiers a force to be reckoned with. Without it, they would lose the battle, and their lives.

But the training those soldiers receive is no more important than the training that you, as parents, give your children. You have a choice to make with them. You can send them out into life without training, and see them torn apart by the pressures of life, or, you can train them well, and see them respond instantly and correctly to those pressures. You can see them rise up to become a force to be reckoned with.

The very lives of our young people can depend on whether or not they have been trained to hear God’s voice and obey Him promptly and completely. That’s why my heart breaks when I minister to young people. They are being given everything except the most important thing—training in how to make right decisions. So many of them are not getting the kind of training we read about in Hebrews 12:11:
“For the time being no discipline brings joy but seems grievous and painful, but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it—a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness, [that is, in conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God]” (The Amplified Bible)
.

The reason training in God’s Word is so important is that in a time of pressure, your child will react exactly as he or she has been trained. Think about it. Are you raising your child on, “Whatever you think, Darlin’,” or are you teaching her to be confident in God’s love for her, to hear His voice and to respond to Him without question?

How you answer that question will determine, for instance, what your teenage daughter will do when a young man from the world is trying to hassle her. What will she do? She’s going to do what you have trained her to do. If you have raised her to be confident in God’s love for her, to hear His voice and respond to Him without question, that’s what she will do. She’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

Where do you start training your children to be world-overcoming vessels of God’s anointing in this earth? You start by giving them positive, Bible correction early in life. Proverbs 13:24 in
The Amplified Bible
says,
“...he who loves [his son] diligently disciplines and punishes him early.”

Starting early is the way you get them past the point of
“for the time being no discipline brings joy but seems grievous and painful...”
and on to the place where they can learn to value proper correction as a benefit to them.

A child will not suddenly submit to the rod when he’s 15. That doesn’t mean to give up if your teenager hasn’t already been taught to value proper correction. Pray for him. Remember that there is certainly now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, and all things are possible to them that believe. But realize you can’t force a child to value correction if that child has not grown up seeing it ministered consistently and in love.

One of the great deceptions many parents have is that children have to go through a stage of rebellion. They say, “I’m not looking forward to my children becoming teenagers, because I know they’re going to rebel, like all the others at that age.”

If you keep saying that, they will. But if you will start correction early, your children can go on through their teenage years and into young adulthood without turning from God’s Word.

From their earliest years, I have trained and corrected my boys, believing that they won’t rebel. I pray that they will keep themselves pure, strong and healthy. I pray now they’ll never depart from the Lord, that they’ll think it’s strange that people aren’t Christians.

I grew up under that kind of praying and training. I was trained to love the Lord and to seek His decision first before anyone else’s. And I never rebelled against God’s Word.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t have some challenges in dealing with worldly authorities in my life. When I was 18, I had a teacher who was teaching evolution. He knew I was a minister’s son and a Christian, and he would try to use the Bible to prove his point. He and the class would ridicule me for not believing in evolution. When they did, I just laughed at them.

I’ve had pressure put on me from the world. But when that outward pressure came, my training kept me from the kind of inner pressure to doubt God and compromise His Word.

It never occurred to me to seek the world’s opinion. I thought the world’s opinions stunk and was never embarrassed to say so. I was a force to be reckoned with because I learned early what true obedience was and that correction was good for me.

Training a child early includes teaching them what true, Bible obedience is. By teaching them to obey you promptly and without question, you are teaching them to trust and obey God Who cares for them and wants the very best for them.

Training a child in true obedience will include teaching him to obey when he doesn’t feel like it. Have you ever heard of a sergeant who asked his men, “All right, you little blessings, would you please get out of bed now?” No, that sergeant demands immediate, unquestioning obedience.

Why? Because in combat, those soldiers will automatically do what they’re trained to do.

True obedience means teaching your child to obey unconditionally. Your children need to learn to respond to your voice in the same way those soldiers respond to their sergeant. They need to learn to obey for the sake of obedience.

That means they need to learn true obedience isn’t bought through bribes of money, gifts or favors. True obedience isn’t doing something because of what they think they’ll get out of it, but because it’s right and expected (Ephesians 6:1). Teach them that to
“obey your parents in all things...is well pleasing to the Lord”
(Colossians 3:20,
New King James Version).

Bribes will only teach them to try to bargain with God. You don’t want them growing up telling Him, “I’ll do this if You’ll do that.” God doesn’t bribe His children. He wants them to obey Him because they love Him, not because of what they’re going to get.

True obedience also means to obey completely and wholeheartedly. Children want to do just what is necessary—then quit. For instance, it takes proper training for them to see that cleaning up after dinner doesn’t mean just doing the dishes in the sink. It means cleaning the sink, wiping all the table and countertops, and putting away the tea towels.

Take the time to show them how to do the job right. Show them what a completed job involves, and make sure they understand that partial obedience is really disobedience.

Finally, true obedience means to obey promptly. Prompt obedience is the way you train your children to hear God’s voice. Your children should be trained to obey the first time you ask them to do something in your normal tone of voice. As they learn to respond to simple directions when they’re young, their hearts will be prepared to obey the Lord in more important areas when they’re older.

Your primary responsibility as a parent, is to develop the character of your children. As they grow to value obedience for the sake of obedience, they will begin to experience God’s favor. Their strength of character, coupled with God’s favor, will help them make a difference as young men and women in our world.

The child trained to trust God unconditionally will grow into a person who can boldly turn the pressures of the world into opportunities for faith. And those pressures will come.

I was asked to speak in an Australian city to the members of a popular civic club. The challenge I faced was that the members of that particular club had a reputation for drinking, ridiculing and even shouting out obscenities as their guest speakers spoke. I agreed, on the condition they would not identify the speaker as a minister, but as president of Daystar International, Ltd. (Daystar International, Ltd. incorporates Daystar Family Church where I am pastor, and Daystar International Bible Training College).

As the day came, a member of the club called, concerned about me and wondering whether I should speak after all.

“No, I need to speak,” I said. “You haven’t told them I’m a minister, have you?”

“Well, no,” he said, “But, Ian, they’re going to be foul and I don’t know whether I....”

“It’s all right,” I assured him.

At the head table the next day, I watched as the booze began to flow and the smoke got so thick at times I could hardly see the audience. When they introduced me, everybody settled back, beers in hands and faces etched with curiosity—“Who we gonna eat tonight?”

“My name’s Ian Britza and I’m the president of Daystar International, Ltd.”

Some bloke yelled out, “What business is that?”

“I’m in the business of looking after the spiritual state of our community,” I said.

I noticed a couple of sneers.

“There’s one thing that I can’t stand and that’s a cynic,” I said. “Cynics are people who show everybody how ignorant they are.

“When I was 7 years old, God—whether you believe in God or not is beside the point—God spoke to me. He said I was going to be called to look after the spiritual state of people, to be a minister. I know you people don’t go to church. It’s a shame, because when you’re in trouble, it’s the minister you look to for help. It’s me you come to. Whether you like it or agree with it or not, it’s me.”

You could have heard a pin drop.

“So don’t come to me and ridicule my office when I’ve given my whole life, 24 hours a day,” I continued. “You clock out at 5 o’clock. I don’t clock out. I care about your families. I care about the needs of your young people, your teenagers. I’ve committed my life to speak to them whenever they have a problem. My community needs me in this city.”