Satan, You Can't Have My Children: The Spiritual Warfare Guide for Every Parent (9 page)

Reverse the curse of the enemy, and refuse to continue living under guilt and condemnation. Speak life from now on. The enemy wants to steal your faith; that is his ultimate goal. He could care less about everything that you do and how religious you are. He’s just interested in robbing you of your faith in Jesus Christ.
Do not let guilt rob you of truth.

Faith is believing that God can and will do what He promises. Take hold of God’s precious promises, stand firm, and learn to resist Satan. Speak the Word. Chew and digest the Word. Pray the Word. Believe and trust God’s Word for you and for all of your family. Nothing else will help. God is ready to restore everything the enemy has taken from you! Make a decision to serve Him with all your heart.

O
NLY IN
G
OD’S
P
RESENCE

In my husband’s presence I am able to find understanding and companionship. In the presence of my pastor I am able to receive encouragement and prayer. Many people are able to go to a psychiatrist, and they learn to cope with their problems. When they go to their physician, he will diagnose and prescribe medication to help them. If they go to their employer, they will receive training, new skills, and compensation. They also may go to their therapist, and he will give them help for one more day. In a mother’s presence, usually you will find nurturing and attention. In a friend’s presence, you’ll find support and a listening ear.

But only when you enter into the presence of God will you be able to find and receive healing and restoration for your spirit, soul, and body. Not only that, but you will also find direction, communion, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, understanding and wisdom, provision, forgiveness, and power over all the works of the enemy. We can fill up several pages of the many wonderful things we can receive in God’s presence.

I also find it very interesting when I find correction in His presence. The Lord will uncover the idols hidden in our lives as we proceed to enter and tarry in His presence. He also reveals unconfessed sins.

As we learn to walk in obedience, all of the old junk and excess baggage that we carry in our souls begins to come out, and they are replaced with God’s love and the fruit of the Spirit.

How awesome to be able to trust the Lord completely and to surrender our lives and our family totally to His care. Only in God’s presence are the battles won!

What you put into your heart will come out of your mouth. If you put guilt and negative thoughts into your mind, then they will come out of your mouth as a curse upon your family. If you put love, mercy, and grace into your heart, then love, mercy, and grace will come out of your mouth to bless your family. The choice is yours.

David said to the Philistine Goliath, “All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the L
ORD
saves; for the battle is the L
ORD’s
, and he will give all of you into our hands” (1 Sam. 17:47).

Can you imagine a boy brave enough to fight a Philistine giant who was greatly feared by the Israelite army? What was it that gave a young shepherd the courage to wage war against a Philistine giant? It was his faith in God and his faith that God would deliver the enemy into his hand. The reason that David had this type of faith is because he spent time in God’s presence.

In His presence you will find peace, and in His Word you will find instruction for every need in your life. You don’t have to spend the rest of your life coping and trying to make things work by yourself. Healing and deliverance are for you and all your family! God is able to do the impossible!

W
ARNING

The battleground against Satan will be in your mind. Your thoughts will carry on conversations. You will say things in your mind that you will learn not to say with your mouth. For example: “It’s no use; my children will never amount to anything.” Discipline yourself to bring those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ as you confess God’s Word over them. It is God who helps your children become the people that He intended them to become.

One important place of spiritual warfare is in prayer. This is the place where the victories are won. Make prayer a habit. Whenever the enemy tries to attack your mind with wrong attitudes, discouragement, guilt, condemnation, anger, confusion, panic attacks, or any other negative thought, immediately begin to pray the Word and to declare your position in Christ. You are a child of God, and the evil one cannot harm you. You are a joint-heir with Christ and more than a conqueror. You are “in Christ,” and Christ victoriously defeated Satan in the past, now, and for all eternity.

When strife enters your home through your child or loved one, immediately pray and bring down the strongholds with the Word of God. Don’t wait until after you have joined in the strife. Refuse to be a part of it. Allow God’s love to rule your heart, and speak words of peace and life.

Discipline your mind and your tongue. Memorize at least one scripture a week, and teach it to your children. Make regular deposits of scriptures into your heart and mind, and the Holy Spirit will be able to make withdrawals for you when you need them the most. Refuse to allow your tongue to speak death. Always speak life—even when your flesh and your mind demand to stand up for your rights, and even when you know you are right. Build up instead of tear down. Encourage instead of discourage.

There is power in your tongue to give life or to destroy, to cause anger or to bring peace, and to bring unity or cause division. There is power in God’s love! Go against your flesh and speak life. Command your flesh to walk in love. Love will disperse the darkness. If you have ever experienced the overwhelming, unconditional love of God, then you should be willing to allow God to love your children unconditionally through the power of your tongue. Unconditional love is an enormously powerful instrument that can be used to encourage your children or to destroy their hopes and dreams. It is your choice. You can build up or you can diminish. Since God chooses to build you up with the truth of His Word, then you should choose to build up your children with your words.

The word
declare
means to proclaim, decree, and to pronounce. The word
established
means instituted, fixed, proved, and permanent.

Whatever we decide or say with our tongue will be fixed and will be permanent. We have
dynamic power in our mouths
—to lift up or tear down, to heal or to kill!
We choose our words and thoughts!

I
N THE
M
IDST OF THE
S
TORM

As you enter into spiritual warfare prayer, do not be moved by the increased negative behavior of your child or loved one. Do not be moved by the lies and arguments, how your child looks at you, or by what he or she does.

Your child is not happy separated from God. Intensify your prayers, and demonstrate your love when things seem to get worse. Submit your child to God. This is not something you can do with your own strength and strategies. Your dependence and control will only bring disappointment and failure.
There must be a complete surrendering to God of all your cares and concerns.
Only then will God be able to act on your behalf to perform His Word.

It is not a simple matter to surrender our child or loved one to God. It is not easy to say, “God, he’s Yours. Do whatever it takes to save him!” The thoughts of feeling guilt and condemnation if something bad happens to them will stop many people from praying this prayer.

To keep your mind in perspective, you must try to remember that God is a just God. His ways are not our ways. The bottom line is that God answers the fervent prayers of a righteous man or woman.

Keep calm and receive God’s peace, especially when the storm is raging in intensity.
Nothing confuses the enemy more than a child of God who is not moved by the tactics and strategies of the enemy.

Believe that God will save your children. It may be quickly, or it may take many years, as it did for my brothers-in-law. But always remember that their eternal salvation is at stake. Don’t give up. Time is very short, and our journey on this earth will soon be over. Keep on believing in God, and do not let the element of fear and stress become a hindrance. Jesus is the burden bearer and the yoke breaker, and His anointing in your life will cause every demon to bow down to the name of Jesus. If you carry the burdens, then Jesus cannot. Be at peace, dear parent.
You are going to see in these last days a great outpouring of His Spirit upon all flesh.

It took me a long time to learn to walk in peace over the different situations that arose in my children’s lives. I wanted to help God make the changes. It only made me miserable and stressed out. My entire prayer life was concentrated around the concerns that I had over my children.

One day I surrendered. The effect and result of my total surrender to God and my trust in His Word are making a tremendous impact in the lives of my children and family. It is only when we, as parents, surrender our own will and the lives of our loved ones to God that He will begin to create a new family that begins to walk in the law of love.

God has promised to keep us and to strengthen us in the midst of the storms.
Please don’t ever underestimate the power of God within you to deliver you and your loved ones out of the hand of the enemy.
The Lord has promised in His Word to save our lost children. He will keep His promises to those who love Him with all of their hearts and who keep His commandments. Continue declaring and pronouncing the Word of God over your children, and you will see it performed in many miraculous ways in this life.

Every day I have learned to ask God to impart upon me and my husband wisdom and understanding. I cannot adequately express the changes taking place in our family life and ministry because of these two great attributes being imparted upon us by the Holy Spirit. The Word says to ask, and it shall be given unto you. When we ask for wisdom and understanding, it is given to us for the purpose of loving our family and ministering to others.

Intellectual knowledge alone does not automatically provide wisdom and understanding. It takes more than intellectual knowledge. It takes wisdom and understanding of intellectual principles learned so that they can be applied effectively to daily life. This is also true for spiritual knowledge. It takes wisdom and understanding of spiritual principles learned so that they can be applied effectively in spiritual warfare.

Few of us really believe in our hearts that prayer is where the action is. Many believe that intelligence, logic, and reasoning can accomplish all things. All of these things may be profitable and accomplish much success, but in the warfare against evil spirits, only one thing is effective—the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit at work within us and released only by our believing prayer and our faith in God.

T
RAINING
M
IGHTY
L
ITTLE
W
ARRIORS

I firmly recommend to all parents with young children that they begin early training your children how to pray spiritual warfare prayers. Let them become aware of who their enemy is. Don’t keep your children ignorant about their number one enemy. They are capable of fully understanding good and evil when they watch cartoons and children’s programs on TV. Why not understand the real supernatural world in which they live? Don’t wait until they learn to fear the devil and demons, especially in their dreams. They already know all about violence and self-defense. Teach them who is the author of violence, death, lies, hate, and evil.
God has created within their spirits the capacity to understand the things of the supernatural and spiritual world.

Your children can become
mighty little warriors
who are not afraid and who can pray instantaneously when danger comes to them. They learn very fast, but you must program and instill in them everything that pertains to how godliness overcomes evil. Place as much importance in training them in spiritual warfare as you do in teaching them the ABCs.

In the midst of storms, God’s power within us is always greater. Your children can learn to pray in the middle of the night when evil spirits come to scare them with nightmares. Instead of screaming for help, they can learn to plead the blood of Jesus and see the results firsthand themselves. It is the responsibility of parents to train their children to stay away from evil things that can enter into their minds and spirits. Evil spirits can harass and torment children and affect their behavior. We must consistently pray and plead the blood of Jesus over our family. There is power in the blood of Jesus!