Often overlooked, children have just as much influence spiritually as we do. They’re also targets, just as much as we are. How do we go about raising spiritually strong children who wholly rely on God?
The Dream
“When we went to America, I made a lot of friends. We were an all-girls class and I was the only brown person amongst peach people. We decided to make our own show and called it Kid’s Hour. Just when we were about to start, a man came in and on his jacket was written ‘Mr. D’. He yelled at me, asking me to get out of the classroom. Luckily then I woke up.”
This was my nine-year-old daughter’s dream and your guess is as good as mine as to who Mr. ‘D’ is.
The Crisis
The first thought that came to my mind was to ignore the dream and take the situation lightly because she’s just a child, it couldn’t be serious. But the Holy Spirit reminded me that the enemy likes to prey on little kids. As the saying goes – ‘catch them young’ – which is exactly when they are helpless and ignorant. Remember that if God could use young people like David, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Joseph, then the enemy can also use children.
It’s sad to know that many Christians today are laid back in their attitude towards standing against the enemy. They would rather not be on the offensive for fear they would become the enemy’s target. But the truth is that the enemy hates the fact that you belong to God. He would rather come after you to steal what you have and eventually destroy you.
So, you see, there is no room for being passive. That is why the Bible instructs us to RESIST the devil and he will flee. That’s the only way you can triumph against him. The word ‘resist’ in the original translation means to actively fight against. Fight against what? His lies, schemes and deceptions. As the Bible says: we are not ignorant of the devises of the enemy. Child of God, refuse to give him any opportunity in your life and your home. Because when you give him an inch, he will make his bed in your home. And we need to go about raising spiritually strong children to resist from the get-go.
The Word
As a militant mother, it is my duty to protect my home and chose not to take this lightly but attacked with every aggression in me. The Bible instructs us to train up a child in the way he should go so that when he is older, he will not depart from it.
This scripture, in its original translation, simply means to take the child back to its source, which is the word of God (we are born not of corruptible seed, but by the word). The word is also our instructional manual for a successful life on this earth.
With this you do not expect Mr. ‘D’ to congratulate you saying …oh! Well done! You are raising spiritually strong children. NO! he will fight back.
I did not utter a prayer of fear, or what we call a panic prayer. I did not go “oh God, why did my daughter have to dream this kind of dream. Oh, why Lord? Please help me.” NO! Instead I took authority, that Jesus gave me, and fought from a position of victory because the Lord Jesus Christ already defeated the devil by declaring what my Lord has already given and made in me through Christ Jesus. The Bible says He triumphed over the enemy and then made a public show of him.
So, you see, the defeated foe is powerless except by ‘my cooperation’, only if I give in to his deception does he stand a chance. I taught my daughter to reject this lie from the pit of hell and we went straight to the Bible to remind ourselves and Mr. ‘D’ of who we are in Christ.
What we learnt
For the purpose of what I wanted us to learn, we referenced from the King James Version with the Hebrew-Greek Translation.
She read “Grace to you…”.
I said: “Pause! Read that part again.” “Grace to you…” she reechoed.
I asked her what she thought it meant and she said grace means favour. I told her she is correct, but grace here is underlined. That means there is more to the meaning than what we are reading. When we went to the original translation, she read that grace is the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in life included gratitude, acceptance, favour, joy, …every description here was a good and not bad. We are accepted (in the beloved), not rejected. We are favoured with the kind of favour Mary, the mother of Jesus, had.
By this time her countenance had changed – her face lit up. This is who we are in Christ. Mr. D, as subtle as his attempts are to make us doubt what God has said concerning us like he did to Adam and Eve, even to our Lord Jesus Christ himself in the desert. God made mankind to be like himself. The Bible says He created man in His own image and likeness. Meaning that we are to look like Him and to function like Him. But when the serpent came to Eve, he said that when you eat the fruit you will become like God. Now that’s deception right there and it caused them to fall.
In the case of Jesus Christ, God himself announced “this is my beloved son” in the Jordan river and when he came out, the Bible says he was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. His first taunting was” “if you are the son of God…” But of course, Jesus knew who he was and so triumphed over him. Likewise, we are children of the most high God. Loved, favoured, accepted. But the enemy; whose only purpose and mission is to steal, kill, and destroy; lies to us concerning who we are and the moment we give in to his deception we begin to feel we are not loved, not favoured and not accepted. We begin to look in the wrong places for love and acceptance, which can eventually lead to destruction.
By this time anger was welling up in her against Mr. D. and she unleashed it through the confessions I led her into making. I am a child of God, I am greatly loved by God, Jesus was rejected on the cross so that I will be accepted in the beloved. I can never be rejected. I am blessed and highly favoured. I have favour with God and with men. I refuse and reject every lie of the enemy.
Mission accomplished! And like Miss Clara in the movie War Room, I shouted: “Hey Devil, once again you just got your butt kicked!”
See? We have not yet arrived but this is definitely a part of the training. Next time she’s faced with anything like this, she has a better idea of how to handle it: always go back to the source – the Word, to fight crisis.
