PARENTS, HEAR THIS!

PARENTS, HEAR THIS!

  • Authority, Sexual Safety

PARENTS, HEAR THIS!

I recently shared about a movie sexualizing children. I could not shake this feeling that came over me. It was slimy. I felt nervous and like I was in big trouble, but it wasn’t me. It was the spirit I was encountering. We do not fight actors, Netflix, predators, etc. We fight the SPIRIT behind it (Ephesians 6:12).

It was heavy and oppressive (oppression can feel like depression but is rooted in the spiritual realm). I kept praying against it and wondered why I was coming under it so much. I stood my ground all day, but it didn’t seem to break off me. I could discern that I was feeling scared, nervous, like I was in BIG trouble, that I was outnumbered, powerless, and defeated. I KNOW this isn’t the truth, but this is what I was encountering all day. I asked the Lord if I was taking on too much and feeling what children feel when being abused. Sometimes we can embrace something more than God has called us to and begin to pick up someone else’s hurt, offense, trauma, etc. I know this from my training in inner healing, but I couldn’t shake this. FINALLY, around dinner time, I heard God say, “Lisa, this is not how the victim feels. This is the spirit behind the predator and how they feel right now.” OH MY GOODNESS!! They are terrified of being exposed; this is the hour God is removing the covers of sin. This is not the season to make America great again. This is the season God is using to make America AWAKE AGAIN! So many people are beginning to see what God has seen all along, and there is only ONE way to fight the spirit behind what we see – in prayer with heaven’s tools, which includes OUR AUTHORITY OVER IT!

Not on my watch. NO to hell with the misuse of children. The feeling of being scared, nervous, like I was in BIG trouble, that I was outnumbered, powerless, and defeated is the truth about the enemy and how the people who have partnered with him are feeling. This belief is WRONG: We are losing the battle. Evil is winning. This is the TRUTH: God already won. The devil hates Light. God heals what He reveals. God has been, is, and always will be in control. God knows how to clean His house. People are scared because they are being exposed. Sin never wins. The enemy knows no peace (neither do those who partner with him). The church is opening its eyes. The church is opening her mouth. We have the power to destroy the works of the devil. Jesus has all authority. People are nervous, and it isn’t me!

SECRETS

We have a zero-tolerance for secrets in our house. When a child was caught telling or keeping a secret, I took it very seriously. My children have heard me say this often and know withholding information is a form of lying. 

HELPING CHILDREN DISCERN THE ATMOSPHERE

A great tool for teaching children their authority is to take a spray bottle and catch them off guard by spraying them. Teach them that, like a sneeze, we are always releasing something into the atmosphere. When we throw a tantrum at the store, we aren’t just doing that to Mom but to everyone around us. When we hit our siblings, we are releasing that into the atmosphere. When you are kind, that gets released, too. As you teach, keep surprising them with sudden sprays that fall onto their skin. We release those things into the atmosphere when we release God’s love, respect, honor, kindness, joy, etc. Which one do they want to release? Since my kids have a grid for this now, all I have to say is, “Hey guys, what do you think just got released into the atmosphere?”

Now practice it in the days to come. Before going into a store, ask everyone how they are feeling. I call it “check your gut.” After being in the store for ten minutes, ask the kids how their gut feels now. Oftentimes a child will say, “uncomfortable,” “afraid,” or “not okay.” This is their way of saying something is going on in the atmosphere around them. Teach them it is not coming from IN them, but around them. Someone else ‘sprayed’ that into the atmosphere. We can grow in asking God what He wants us to do.

We can teach children to take the spiritual temperature of a room and then release the opposite. There is power in the name of Jesus that shifts things in the atmosphere everywhere we go!!

PICKING UP AUTHORITY

A mom in our parenting class shared this powerful testimony, but she isn’t the only one who has experienced this, as I hear it often. As she drove home from class the previous week, the tears began to fall. She started to worship, and then laugh, and then cry harder. Words began to fall out of her mouth as she told Satan she was done with the battle and taking back her authority. She cried and worshiped some more. She walked into the house, and instead of finding the unusual defiance and chaos, she found peace – a peace that remained all week long. I had chills as she shared the story because GOD was moving in this mom to bring her back into alignment with Him. 

Hear this – it isn’t that she took back what the enemy stole. She picked up what SHE LAID DOWN – her God-given authority. Kids can tucker you out day in and day out. The conflict, endless need for training, and demanding that their needs are met can wear heavily on a parent. And inch by inch, we begin to lay down our authority feeling defeated and tuckered out. If there was ever a time parents must find their authority again, it is today, as there is an all-out war against this generation. God designed for your family to have a wall around it. Not all walls are negative. Walls protect, cover, and give assurance of peace. Picture a front door on a home that is the gateway to letting things come and go inside the home. Authority is the homeowner who confidently opens the doors and has the power to decide what comes in, what stays in, and what must get out of your home. If the door remains open all the time, bad things will wander in simply because nothing stops it. If the door is locked shut, nothing will be able to enter or leave. Authority is the God-given role of overseer, helping direct the traffic of what comes and what goes. When parents shrink back from their position of authority, it is like a disc being out in their spine. It will affect the rest of the body, causing great hardship. When a parent lays down their authority, children feel insecure and unsafe. I don’t need to tell you that they will act out their worry and anxiety, causing you greater hardship and the family more chaos. Not walking in your authority does NOT bring peace to your heart, children, or family. Imagine your family on a boat ride off the coast, enjoying the salty water and warm breeze. Peace and joy flow naturally with ease because all is well. As any waterman knows, the weather can turn quickly, making the sky dark and the waters choppy. Everyone feels the storm as the boat is tossed from side to side. How would you feel if the captain began to pace the deck, spewing his anxiety and fear? What if he called his friends and spoke words of death and doom? How would you feel about the storm? What if the captain saw the rain clouds and immediately jumped up to steer the boat in the opposite direction, whizzing past other boats headed towards the storm? How would you feel if he assured you of who he is and that he is well-equipped and trained to keep his passengers safe and out of the storm? In the first scene, it would not take long for you to partner and come under his fear and anxiety. With the second, you may still feel some uncertainty, but you are anchored to the one with the authority to steer the boat to safety. 

AT THE HELM – At the helm means the position or place of command or leadership. Who is at the helm of your family? Oh yes, we know God is, but having your hands positioned off the wheel and putting the entire responsibility on God denies your role and responsibility. Passive parenting isn’t going to produce the fruit God has called you and your children to bear. You will stand before Him at the end of your life and give an account for the children He has entrusted you to steward and won’t be able to say, “We just trusted You to do it all.” 

I want to invite you to encounter God by telling Him how you feel: “I am tired, I need help, I am scared, I am overwhelmed, I am exhausted, I feel burned out, I feel like quitting. I didn’t sign up for this, I feel ill-equipped…” Tell Him what you need: “I need Your help, I need tools, I need grace, I need a reboot, I need Your power, I need to hear from You, I need to know my children are going to be okay, I need to know I have not ruined them…” 

Watch this clip from the movie War Room and let Holy Spirit lead you in TAKING BACK YOUR AUTHORITY IN YOUR HOME. WAR ROOM | Elizabeth Jordan sends the devil out of her house – YouTube

FEAR IS NOT PROTECTION

A mom asked to meet with me and began to share how she is deathly afraid that her children would be violated sexually. She won’t let them spend the night at a friend’s house, does not like for them to be outside alone, and worries about them all the time. We began to process with Holy Spirit, who revealed there was a sexual door open in their family. The previous generations opened the door through affairs, porn, and living a perverted lifestyle. Her mom (grandma) grew up with the tension and fear of the atmosphere. When there is an adult who is not managing their sexuality well and is making comments or jokes, welcoming pornography into the home, or acting in inappropriate ways, it causes children to feel unsafe and unprotected. The mom (grandma) partnered with a spirit of fear over feeling sexually unsafe. Because the fear, even if the threat was real, was never addressed and resolved, she carried around a fear of being sexually violated and passed that atmosphere on to her daughter. So while my friend was not abused in any way, she grew up with the fear of sexual violation through her mom. And now she was partnering with the fear for her children. 

Let me spell that out – one man’s choices affected his daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandchildren. I am so thankful for the blood of Jesus and the work of the Cross. I helped her forgive her grandparents for opening the door and her mom for introducing her to it, and she confessed her own partnership with the fear. We closed the sexual door and broke agreement with the fear. We invited Holy Spirit to be their Protector. She suddenly felt a deep peace because that spirit that had been following her around was finally gone.

FEAR/INTIMIDATION

I do not need to introduce my children to fear; the enemy has already done that. But when it comes, I use it as the touchpoint of where my kids are going to get introduced to how BIG their God is. If they saw something with their eyes that made them afraid, we began to talk about how Jesus’ blood can wash it clean. If they felt afraid because I was gone, we would talk about how Jesus kept them safe. I was not teaching them about fear but about where God is IN the scary moment. It’s just as important to make sure children know they have authority over the fear and can deal with it in the name of Jesus’ like a police officer deals with the bad in our city. 

NO JUNIOR AUTHORITY

Children so desperately need to be taught their authority. If they do not get a junior Holy Spirit, they do not get junior authority either. How many of us were taught that when we were afraid at night to say, “In the name of Jesus, Satan flee?” While few of us deeply understand our authority, the enemy still had to obey and flee when we used the authority paid for us by the blood of Jesus. Imagine how powerful this next generation would be if children would see the enemy’s tricks for what they were and step over it!? How will they know unless we teach them? Isaiah 11:8.

“My son told my husband there was a ‘bumblebee’ in the corner of his bed, and it was so scary that he couldn’t sleep. My husband first prayed over it and then taught our son to say, ‘Go away in Jesus’ name.’ He fell right asleep after that. Praise God!!”

Kids have a limited vocabulary and range of understanding, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t seeing/hearing things in the spiritual realm. It takes a wise parent to really ‘hear’ what the child is saying. It had nothing to do with bumblebees and everything to do with fear of being in the room. Kudos to this father for ‘hearing’ his son.

GOD-GIVEN AUTHORITY

So many issues with children can be resolved with parents using their God-given authority both in the natural and spiritual realm. You have lost half the battle if you fear the devil or your child’s response. RISE UP and use your God-given authority over that sickness, fear, conflict, disunity, tension, strife, anxiety, stress, etc. Satan is defeated, not you, your situation, or your child.

EXPOSURE TO FEAR

Sometimes we have been exposed to things that need to be dealt with. The number one response from parents worldwide is childhood ‘reoccurring nightmares.’ The nightmares stemmed from kids being exposed to ghost stories, scary movies that mom and dad thought were cool, shows about violence, news shows that walk through murder, rape, or abuse stories, the COPS show, etc. I want to advocate that even if your child isn’t watching these shows, you can still be inviting fear into your home when you are entertained by what the enemy does! Parents, you are the spiritual gatekeeper in your home, and what you allow in will greatly impact your child. Which Kingdom are you partnering with? The greater point is that children need to be intentionally TAUGHT tools to use when fear comes. They do not need to be harassed day and night endlessly with fear. Jesus trumps fear… ALWAYS!

SEXUAL SAFETY

We teach our kids bike safety. We teach them not to answer the door for stranger safety. We teach them “Stop, Drop and Roll” for fire safety. We teach them to wear a life jacket for water safety. But do we teach them sexual safety? Predators are looking for one thing – a child who has no grid for what is happening and has never been taught about sexual safety. When a child encounters things that are sexually unsafe, their spirit knows something is wrong, but they freeze because they do not know how to handle what is happening. They have been taught to obey adults, not to talk back, to never hit, etc.

#1. Children need to know the proper names for body parts – all of them. 

#2. Children need to know what to do should they ever feel unsafe. 

#3. Children need to know that they are never alone and can ask Jesus for help in ALL circumstances.

GROOMING

This is from my friend.

“Please be aware: My kids told me about an app to search for good deals on toys. Today, I thought I would check it out and see what else there was. I pressed the ‘browse’ button and was appalled at the porn items that appeared. I told my kids I was deleting the app and asked them if they knew why. My eight and eleven-year-old both said yes. I asked them if they ever saw inappropriate stuff on it, and they said yes, that when searching for something else, the sex toys appeared, so they quickly closed out of it. Ugh!!! I don’t even know how they came up. So tired of porn everywhere!”