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It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
Today's Wild Card author is:
and the book:
Charisma House (September 6, 2011)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Rebecca Greenwood is cofounder and president of Christian Harvest International. She is an internationally known speaker who conducts seminars and conferences on prayer, spiritual warfare, deliverance, prophecy, and the kingdom of God. Rebecca is a core faculty member of the Wagner Leadership Institute under C. Peter and Doris Wagner. She lives with her husband and daughters in Colorado Springs, Colorado.Visit the author's website.
SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Free your children from demonic harassment—and teach them to stay free!We must not assume that our children are free of threats from darkness. The enemy’s purpose is to grip and blind every generation—establishing strongholds in the lives of our children from a very young age.
Let Our Children Go is a handbook for parents, pastors, and leaders to help free children from evil influences and demonic harassment. Full of true stories about young people who have been set free, it explains the necessity of deliverance ministry for children and discusses many of the issues they face in today’s world. You will learn how to:
Determine if an evil spirit is harassing a child
Deal with demonic influences and harassment when they occur
Train children to identify demonic activity and eliminate it from their lives
Darkness is on the rise, and it is the role of parents, pastors, and other believers to do all we can to ensure the blessing, protection, and freedom of this younger generation so that they can reach their fullest potential.
Product Details:
List Price: $13.99
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Charisma House (September 6, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1616382589
ISBN-13: 978-1616382582
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
Demons Really Want to Harm My Child?
The answer is yes. Demons really do want to harm our children. The greatest danger to children and adults comes from an unseen force. It is Satan and his army of darkness. This evil spiritual army is obsessed with and completely focused on keeping as many men, women, and children eternally separated from the love of God and the saving grace of Jesus. We must not assume that our children are not a threat to darkness. The enemy’s purpose is to grip and blind every generation, establishing strongholds in the lives of our children from a very young age.
God created mankind because He has a Father’s heart and He wanted children to love. Just as earthly fathers and mothers long to have children born out of loving relationship, our heavenly Father also yearns for relationship with us, His children. Therefore, from the time we are conceived, through birth and throughout our lives, the enemy will set up traps, snares, and schemes in order to keep us bound to lies of darkness and paralyzed from reaching our fullest kingdom potential. He is a predator looking to kill, steal, and destroy all that God wants to release in our lives.
A Modern-Day Story of Breaking the Power of a Deaf and Dumb Spirit
The distraught mother approached the altar with the lifeless two year- old Henry in her arms. A feeding tube protruded from his little nose. His face was drastically swollen from all the medications. What should have been a happy, full-of-life little boy was a sick child ridden with seizures and barely alive. Cathy, his Chinese mother, in desperation to save her sick child, begged us to pray for him. Speaking through her interpreter, I asked Cathy what was wrong with Henry. She explained that he had been suffering from seizures since birth. The doctors were unable to diagnose his condition. I asked, “There is no medical diagnosis for the seizures and sickness?” “No.” Feeling a nudge from the Holy Spirit, I asked Cathy if they were Christians. “No, we are Hindu. We also worship Buddha and are involved in Taoism.”
“Cathy, why did you come to this service today?”
“Because the Hindu priests, the Buddhist monks, and all the Taoist rituals have proven powerless to heal my son.” She shared how they had taken him to every temple on the island for healing. Instead of Henry’s condition being helped, it grew worse. The doctors had given no hope. The prognosis was a fast-approaching death.
I told Cathy we would pray for Henry, but first she needed our attention. I shared the message of salvation, and shortly after receiving the gift of eternal life, her countenance drastically changed. We asked if she felt the love of Jesus. With joyful tears she replied, “Yes, I do.”
“Cathy, before I pray for Henry, you need to assure my friend Pam and me that you and your husband will no longer take Henry to these temples. Only Christians can lay hands on him. You have been asking demonic gods to bring healing to your son. The result has been more demons invading his body, causing his critical illness.” I inquired if she and her husband had dedicated Henry at birth to dead ancestors and Hindu gods. She proudly responded, “Yes!”
We explained we were going to minister deliverance prayers. Cathy quickly agreed. We broke the power of all baby dedications to Hindu gods and dead ancestors. We commanded all witchcraft, anti-Christ spirits, spirits of infirmity, and death to go in the name of Jesus. I commanded, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I bind your power over Henry and his body right now in Jesus’s name. I break your power and command you to go.” Pam was praying in agreement.
Suddenly Henry’s body grew rigid as he went into an intense seizure. His face turned blue from the lack of oxygen. I remember being very thankful that Pam was not only a powerful prayer warrior but also a gifted nurse. In agreement, we commanded that spirit to go and to loose Henry. This two-year-old opened his eyes, gasped for air, and his overly chubby cheeks turned pink. Something had changed.
We spoke healing, freedom, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit into little Henry. Peace came on him. He was coming out of his slumber. The following night Cathy, Henry, and her Hindu husband came to a Christian service for the first time as a family. She ran to the altar with Henry in her arms. She was so radically changed I almost did not recognize her. Cathy was elated. “My unsaved husband who wanted nothing to do with the Christian Jesus came with me tonight! I am filled with joy. Henry only had one minor seizure today. Only one!” I prayed for them again. We rejoiced in the Lord together.
That night the father went home and threw out every good luck charm and demon god attached to Hinduism, Taoism, and Buddhism. They took Henry to the hospital two days later for more scheduled tests. Everything came back normal. Henry had been seizure free for days. He was opening his eyes and growing more alert. The father told the hospital staff that only Christian pastors could pray for and touch their son. In the hospitals of their nation, Hindu priests make their daily routes to dedicate children to their gods. It was forbidden for any to come to Henry’s room.
Since they could find nothing wrong with Henry, the doctors dismissed him from the hospital. Cathy, Henry, and the father began to regularly attend church. The father renounced his occult practices and received salvation. Henry is totally healed.
Our God is a miraculous, delivering, healing God! One little boy’s intense battle with a stronghold of a deaf and dumb spirit led a family to seek the one true God. As a result, salvation, healing, and freedom flooded in. God can take what the enemy meant for terrible harm and turn it for good. Revival and a move of God can sweep through and ignite a family to be radical followers of Him.
History of Demonic Attacks Against the Next Generation
We have seen repeatedly throughout Bible history the attacks Satan has unleashed against children. Pregnant mothers were ripped open and their babies killed. Herod ordered the death of all male infants under the age of two. Throughout history there has been the annihilation and genocide of children—in the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust, and, in recent history, the genocide of children in Rwanda, Iraq, and many other nations. This is not to mention the horror of Muslim boys being trained to give their lives in jihad from six years of age and the murder of more than 40 million unborn babies that has occurred in our nation alone since 1973. Satan attempts to initiate his plans of destruction beginning at conception and continuing throughout our lives.
Nothing grieves me more than seeing a young child or teenager gripped by darkness and unable to function. Childhood should be a time of joy, laughter, playing, finding ourselves through the guidance of loving parents and a church full of the life of Jesus, and memories of special family times and holiday gatherings. During these years it is God’s design for children to grow and thrive in a loving home atmosphere, to hear the message of salvation, and to grow in a spiritual relationship with Him.
One day we were driving in the car with our three daughters. Four year-old Rebecca was quietly sitting in the back. It was obvious she was processing something in her little mind. She curiously asked, “Daddy, there is God and Jesus . . . and who is the other brother?” We laughed as she voiced her question but were thankful to hear her at such a young age pondering on our Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit and how they relate to one another. Unfortunately, there are many children who are never given this opportunity.
Pharaoh’s Mandated Child Murder
There are many instances in the Bible where we witness the enemy unleashing his plans against the younger generation. We saw it in Egypt as Pharaoh ordered all the male newborns to be killed by the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah. Praise God they were not obedient. As these women feared the Lord, they called on His name asking Him to cause the women to deliver before they arrived. Pharaoh was not impressed with their explanation. I am sure they did not tell him that they had prayed and God faithfully answered. However, he then began to initiate phase two of his plan.
All Egyptians were ordered to throw all the Israeli baby boys into the Nile River. (See Exodus 1:22.) Therefore child murder became a mandated and justifiable practice in Egypt. Idolatry, witchcraft, and divination were steeped in the beliefs and practices of ancient Egypt. Pharaoh’s top advisors were experts in tapping into demonic powers to achieve supernatural strength. Satan was using Pharaoh and his advisors to implement his plan of wiping out the Hebrew nation to keep the favored child from coming forth. As we know, Pharaoh’s plan was unsuccessful and ultimately brought the end result in which God said, “Let My son go, that he may serve Me; and if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your son, your firstborn” (Exod. 4:23, amp).
Child Sacrifice
While God required animal sacrifice in the Old Testament for atonement of sins, Satan required human sacrifice, his preferred choice being children. The pagan religious ceremonies of ancient civilizations were times of demonic worship. The worship surrounding both masculine and feminine deities was practiced with sexual perversion. Fertility rites, male and female temple prostitution, and sexual sin became a part of the ritualistic expression. The climax of this worship was the offering of children as sacrifices to the demonic deities. We read in 1 Kings 11:7–13 about King Solomon building altars to the gods of his wives, and specifically to Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab, and Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites.
Molech, whose name means king, was the fire-god of the Ammonites and was essentially identical to the Moabite god Chemosh. According to tradition, the image of Molech was of brass and hollow within. His face was that of a calf, and his hands were outstretched like a man waiting to receive something. The priests would kindle the arms of the idol with fire, take a young baby, and put it into the hands of Molech, sacrificing the child to the demon god. While we consider this terrible and inhumane, the truth is, modern-day abortion is child sacrifice. It is the enemy’s way of trying to stop the next generation.
Herod’s Enraged Murder Plot
Herod was infamous for the murders he committed. When the Magi did not return to him with the directions on how to find the baby Jesus, he was furious. The enemy attempted to kill Jesus through an enraged Herod; he issued a death sentence to all boys two years old and younger. (See Matthew 2:16–18.)
The enemy has historically tried to unleash his schemes of death and destruction onto the younger generation. If he can halt the plans and purposes of God by attacking, harassing, causing crippling fear, and killing, he will do it.
My Story of Fear to Freedom
I am passionate about seeing this younger generation set free. I too was one whom the enemy tried to halt through fear and other traps. Fear was something I struggled with throughout my childhood years into
early adulthood. When my sister and I were children, we were staying at a childcare facility while our parents went to a Dallas Cowboys football game. She was six years old; I was three. While climbing on the monkey bars, I fell and broke my elbow. Cell phones did not exist, so the caretaker was unable to reach my parents. I continued to cry
uncontrollably.
Frustrated, she placed me in a crib in a dark room and refused to allow my distraught sister to comfort me. I vividly remember my sister standing in the doorway of the room wanting to come to me and not being allowed to do so. I was in pain and frightened. Needless to say, when my parents returned, they were not happy.
Because of that incident, I became terrified of heights and the dark. From that time until I was delivered from fear as an adult, I was plagued with nightmares. Even after Greg and I were married and had our first child, fear gripped me. If he was traveling out of town on business, I could not sleep unless the television, radio, and every light in the house were on. When I traveled by plane, I had to take enough Dramamine to put me to sleep. I could not stand ladders or balconies. As the Lord began to teach me about intercession, deliverance, and warfare, I realized I had to deal with these fears. How could I cast out a spirit of fear in another individual if I was walking in fear? How could I go to the places and nations the Lord was revealing to me if I was afraid of flying? I began to cry out to Him for freedom. One
time at a women’s retreat, the speaker asked all of the women with fear issues to stand. He prayed over us corporately and broke the spirit of fear. I felt as if something perched on my shoulders left. I was thrilled! When I returned home, I knew I had been set free. Even so I quickly learned that I was going to have to stand in my deliverance to keep the victory.
Every night for two months I dealt with a spirit of fear. I could feel when the spirit would enter our home while we slept. Instead of burrowing my head under the covers or scooting closer to my husband for comfort, I would get out of bed, walk to the family room, and address that spirit of fear. Even though I could not see it, I would walk to where I felt its presence and address it as if I were staring it in the eyes. I told it to leave in Jesus’s name and never come back. It was no longer welcome in my life or home. I told fear that it would not touch my children or my husband.
During this time, I spent many late-night hours praying. Even when I was worshiping the Lord and moving into intercession, that spirit of fear attempted to return. I would rise from the floor and walk to the spot where I could feel that spirit and address it face-to-face. Greg left town on a business trip. This was the true test! At night, after putting my daughter to bed, I turned off all the lights. The television and radio were off, and I proclaimed, “I am not submitting to fear any longer! I will not embrace you! Your assignment is over, and I say you will not come on me again or my children and their children and generations to come!” Guess what? I was not afraid! Since that time darkness and dark places do not bother me, and I have been able to fly without hesitation.
There is no need for our young to walk through their early years of life in fear, depression, harassment, or torment. Freedom does not have to wait until the adult years. This is the purpose of this book: to equip the church in how to minister to our young and provide a way for them to walk in victory from an early age.
Our Children and Teenagers Are Still at Risk Today
We would all agree that at our time in history dark ness is alive and well. I do not say this to generate fear. Nor do I believe that Satan is as powerful as our Lord—absolutely not. But we live in a dark time in history, and the following statistics from the Teen Mania website prove that this is the case. This generation is in great need of the truth.
• Ninety-one percent say there is no absolute truth.
• Seventy-five percent of teens in America believe the central message of the Bible is, “God helps those who
help themselves.”
• Fifty-three percent believe Jesus committed sin (40 percent of born-again teens believe Jesus committed
sin).1
This younger generation is seeking. They are going to see, experience, and be a part of the most strategic and intense times in the history of the Christian church. They are going to witness firsthand amazing events unfold in our world and miraculous signs and wonders that even the prophets of the Bible wrote about. But there is a battle of darkness raging to keep them out of the light and in deception.
I love what Paul wrote to his spiritual son Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:11–14, 20, as he obviously knew the dangers that his spiritual son would face and instructed him on how to rise above the traps of the world and the enemy.
Paul exhorts Timothy to flee evil, including all the temptations of money and all the evils associated with it, to pursue righteousness and fight the good fight of faith. Reading these verses causes me to ponder. Our children, or those raised in the church, are normally taught to flee evil and to follow after righteousness. But I question how well we have done fighting on behalf of our youth and teaching them how to fight the good fight of faith.
The Greek word for fight in this scripture is agonizimai. It means “to enter a contest, to contend with adversaries, struggles and dangers.” Contend means “to struggle in opposition”; “to wrestle, grapple, battle, fight, compete, argue, wrangle, hold and claim.” Isn’t this what we do in battles with our adversary? We wrestle in battle to fight the competition and struggle against all the arguments of darkness, disputing their hold and taking hold and claiming our freedom and inheritance in the kingdom of God.
Paul understood this. He told Timothy to keep the deposit entrusted to him. Friends, it is our responsibility to guard and keep what God has entrusted to us. We have to step into the knowledge of how to guard and keep not only for our personal lives but also for the lives of our children.
Train Up a Child
One of my favorite truths I teach is that knowledge builds power for action. Part of our role in raising the next generation is discovering who the child is and encouraging him to go that direction as stated in Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it” (amp).
Now more than ever we must ensure this younger generation is trained in the way God desires for them to go. We have to discover who each of them is called to be—not placing them into a cookiecutter mold, but finding the individual anointing and calling and enabling them to pursue what they have been created for. We are to have spiritual eyes, wisdom, and discernment to stop the schemes of darkness in their lives from a young age, therefore empowering
them to be all they are to be. As we advance, it is my prayer that the instruction needed to deliver our children will be imparted and they will be released into victorious freedom as children of the King, ushering this next generation into kingdom destiny.
Prayer for Discernment
Lord, thank You that You are opening my spiritual eyes to see, understand, and discern the spiritual atmosphere in my life, home, and my children’s lives. Give Your insight to the traps the enemy wants to unleash into the lives of my children. I welcome You, Holy Spirit, to enlighten the words in the pages of this book. Help me to see and know the schemes of the enemy, not only in my life but also in the life of this next generation. Cause me to be a sharp tool and weapon in Your hands to see those young ones who are trapped in darkness set free. I thank You that as I read these pages, I will have understanding of open doors in my life. Let this be a time of breaking through into freedom and a time of setting our feet on a sure foundation on a new path of understanding the things of the Spirit. Lord, give me Your heart and vision of freedom for my children and this next generation. I invite You to cause me to see and stand in my kingdom authority to see freedom released. In Jesus’s name, amen.
The answer is yes. Demons really do want to harm our children. The greatest danger to children and adults comes from an unseen force. It is Satan and his army of darkness. This evil spiritual army is obsessed with and completely focused on keeping as many men, women, and children eternally separated from the love of God and the saving grace of Jesus. We must not assume that our children are not a threat to darkness. The enemy’s purpose is to grip and blind every generation, establishing strongholds in the lives of our children from a very young age.
God created mankind because He has a Father’s heart and He wanted children to love. Just as earthly fathers and mothers long to have children born out of loving relationship, our heavenly Father also yearns for relationship with us, His children. Therefore, from the time we are conceived, through birth and throughout our lives, the enemy will set up traps, snares, and schemes in order to keep us bound to lies of darkness and paralyzed from reaching our fullest kingdom potential. He is a predator looking to kill, steal, and destroy all that God wants to release in our lives.
A Modern-Day Story of Breaking the Power of a Deaf and Dumb Spirit
The distraught mother approached the altar with the lifeless two year- old Henry in her arms. A feeding tube protruded from his little nose. His face was drastically swollen from all the medications. What should have been a happy, full-of-life little boy was a sick child ridden with seizures and barely alive. Cathy, his Chinese mother, in desperation to save her sick child, begged us to pray for him. Speaking through her interpreter, I asked Cathy what was wrong with Henry. She explained that he had been suffering from seizures since birth. The doctors were unable to diagnose his condition. I asked, “There is no medical diagnosis for the seizures and sickness?” “No.” Feeling a nudge from the Holy Spirit, I asked Cathy if they were Christians. “No, we are Hindu. We also worship Buddha and are involved in Taoism.”
“Cathy, why did you come to this service today?”
“Because the Hindu priests, the Buddhist monks, and all the Taoist rituals have proven powerless to heal my son.” She shared how they had taken him to every temple on the island for healing. Instead of Henry’s condition being helped, it grew worse. The doctors had given no hope. The prognosis was a fast-approaching death.
I told Cathy we would pray for Henry, but first she needed our attention. I shared the message of salvation, and shortly after receiving the gift of eternal life, her countenance drastically changed. We asked if she felt the love of Jesus. With joyful tears she replied, “Yes, I do.”
“Cathy, before I pray for Henry, you need to assure my friend Pam and me that you and your husband will no longer take Henry to these temples. Only Christians can lay hands on him. You have been asking demonic gods to bring healing to your son. The result has been more demons invading his body, causing his critical illness.” I inquired if she and her husband had dedicated Henry at birth to dead ancestors and Hindu gods. She proudly responded, “Yes!”
We explained we were going to minister deliverance prayers. Cathy quickly agreed. We broke the power of all baby dedications to Hindu gods and dead ancestors. We commanded all witchcraft, anti-Christ spirits, spirits of infirmity, and death to go in the name of Jesus. I commanded, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I bind your power over Henry and his body right now in Jesus’s name. I break your power and command you to go.” Pam was praying in agreement.
Suddenly Henry’s body grew rigid as he went into an intense seizure. His face turned blue from the lack of oxygen. I remember being very thankful that Pam was not only a powerful prayer warrior but also a gifted nurse. In agreement, we commanded that spirit to go and to loose Henry. This two-year-old opened his eyes, gasped for air, and his overly chubby cheeks turned pink. Something had changed.
We spoke healing, freedom, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit into little Henry. Peace came on him. He was coming out of his slumber. The following night Cathy, Henry, and her Hindu husband came to a Christian service for the first time as a family. She ran to the altar with Henry in her arms. She was so radically changed I almost did not recognize her. Cathy was elated. “My unsaved husband who wanted nothing to do with the Christian Jesus came with me tonight! I am filled with joy. Henry only had one minor seizure today. Only one!” I prayed for them again. We rejoiced in the Lord together.
That night the father went home and threw out every good luck charm and demon god attached to Hinduism, Taoism, and Buddhism. They took Henry to the hospital two days later for more scheduled tests. Everything came back normal. Henry had been seizure free for days. He was opening his eyes and growing more alert. The father told the hospital staff that only Christian pastors could pray for and touch their son. In the hospitals of their nation, Hindu priests make their daily routes to dedicate children to their gods. It was forbidden for any to come to Henry’s room.
Since they could find nothing wrong with Henry, the doctors dismissed him from the hospital. Cathy, Henry, and the father began to regularly attend church. The father renounced his occult practices and received salvation. Henry is totally healed.
Our God is a miraculous, delivering, healing God! One little boy’s intense battle with a stronghold of a deaf and dumb spirit led a family to seek the one true God. As a result, salvation, healing, and freedom flooded in. God can take what the enemy meant for terrible harm and turn it for good. Revival and a move of God can sweep through and ignite a family to be radical followers of Him.
History of Demonic Attacks Against the Next Generation
We have seen repeatedly throughout Bible history the attacks Satan has unleashed against children. Pregnant mothers were ripped open and their babies killed. Herod ordered the death of all male infants under the age of two. Throughout history there has been the annihilation and genocide of children—in the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust, and, in recent history, the genocide of children in Rwanda, Iraq, and many other nations. This is not to mention the horror of Muslim boys being trained to give their lives in jihad from six years of age and the murder of more than 40 million unborn babies that has occurred in our nation alone since 1973. Satan attempts to initiate his plans of destruction beginning at conception and continuing throughout our lives.
Nothing grieves me more than seeing a young child or teenager gripped by darkness and unable to function. Childhood should be a time of joy, laughter, playing, finding ourselves through the guidance of loving parents and a church full of the life of Jesus, and memories of special family times and holiday gatherings. During these years it is God’s design for children to grow and thrive in a loving home atmosphere, to hear the message of salvation, and to grow in a spiritual relationship with Him.
One day we were driving in the car with our three daughters. Four year-old Rebecca was quietly sitting in the back. It was obvious she was processing something in her little mind. She curiously asked, “Daddy, there is God and Jesus . . . and who is the other brother?” We laughed as she voiced her question but were thankful to hear her at such a young age pondering on our Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit and how they relate to one another. Unfortunately, there are many children who are never given this opportunity.
Pharaoh’s Mandated Child Murder
There are many instances in the Bible where we witness the enemy unleashing his plans against the younger generation. We saw it in Egypt as Pharaoh ordered all the male newborns to be killed by the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah. Praise God they were not obedient. As these women feared the Lord, they called on His name asking Him to cause the women to deliver before they arrived. Pharaoh was not impressed with their explanation. I am sure they did not tell him that they had prayed and God faithfully answered. However, he then began to initiate phase two of his plan.
All Egyptians were ordered to throw all the Israeli baby boys into the Nile River. (See Exodus 1:22.) Therefore child murder became a mandated and justifiable practice in Egypt. Idolatry, witchcraft, and divination were steeped in the beliefs and practices of ancient Egypt. Pharaoh’s top advisors were experts in tapping into demonic powers to achieve supernatural strength. Satan was using Pharaoh and his advisors to implement his plan of wiping out the Hebrew nation to keep the favored child from coming forth. As we know, Pharaoh’s plan was unsuccessful and ultimately brought the end result in which God said, “Let My son go, that he may serve Me; and if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your son, your firstborn” (Exod. 4:23, amp).
Child Sacrifice
While God required animal sacrifice in the Old Testament for atonement of sins, Satan required human sacrifice, his preferred choice being children. The pagan religious ceremonies of ancient civilizations were times of demonic worship. The worship surrounding both masculine and feminine deities was practiced with sexual perversion. Fertility rites, male and female temple prostitution, and sexual sin became a part of the ritualistic expression. The climax of this worship was the offering of children as sacrifices to the demonic deities. We read in 1 Kings 11:7–13 about King Solomon building altars to the gods of his wives, and specifically to Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab, and Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites.
Molech, whose name means king, was the fire-god of the Ammonites and was essentially identical to the Moabite god Chemosh. According to tradition, the image of Molech was of brass and hollow within. His face was that of a calf, and his hands were outstretched like a man waiting to receive something. The priests would kindle the arms of the idol with fire, take a young baby, and put it into the hands of Molech, sacrificing the child to the demon god. While we consider this terrible and inhumane, the truth is, modern-day abortion is child sacrifice. It is the enemy’s way of trying to stop the next generation.
Herod’s Enraged Murder Plot
Herod was infamous for the murders he committed. When the Magi did not return to him with the directions on how to find the baby Jesus, he was furious. The enemy attempted to kill Jesus through an enraged Herod; he issued a death sentence to all boys two years old and younger. (See Matthew 2:16–18.)
The enemy has historically tried to unleash his schemes of death and destruction onto the younger generation. If he can halt the plans and purposes of God by attacking, harassing, causing crippling fear, and killing, he will do it.
My Story of Fear to Freedom
I am passionate about seeing this younger generation set free. I too was one whom the enemy tried to halt through fear and other traps. Fear was something I struggled with throughout my childhood years into
early adulthood. When my sister and I were children, we were staying at a childcare facility while our parents went to a Dallas Cowboys football game. She was six years old; I was three. While climbing on the monkey bars, I fell and broke my elbow. Cell phones did not exist, so the caretaker was unable to reach my parents. I continued to cry
uncontrollably.
Frustrated, she placed me in a crib in a dark room and refused to allow my distraught sister to comfort me. I vividly remember my sister standing in the doorway of the room wanting to come to me and not being allowed to do so. I was in pain and frightened. Needless to say, when my parents returned, they were not happy.
Because of that incident, I became terrified of heights and the dark. From that time until I was delivered from fear as an adult, I was plagued with nightmares. Even after Greg and I were married and had our first child, fear gripped me. If he was traveling out of town on business, I could not sleep unless the television, radio, and every light in the house were on. When I traveled by plane, I had to take enough Dramamine to put me to sleep. I could not stand ladders or balconies. As the Lord began to teach me about intercession, deliverance, and warfare, I realized I had to deal with these fears. How could I cast out a spirit of fear in another individual if I was walking in fear? How could I go to the places and nations the Lord was revealing to me if I was afraid of flying? I began to cry out to Him for freedom. One
time at a women’s retreat, the speaker asked all of the women with fear issues to stand. He prayed over us corporately and broke the spirit of fear. I felt as if something perched on my shoulders left. I was thrilled! When I returned home, I knew I had been set free. Even so I quickly learned that I was going to have to stand in my deliverance to keep the victory.
Every night for two months I dealt with a spirit of fear. I could feel when the spirit would enter our home while we slept. Instead of burrowing my head under the covers or scooting closer to my husband for comfort, I would get out of bed, walk to the family room, and address that spirit of fear. Even though I could not see it, I would walk to where I felt its presence and address it as if I were staring it in the eyes. I told it to leave in Jesus’s name and never come back. It was no longer welcome in my life or home. I told fear that it would not touch my children or my husband.
During this time, I spent many late-night hours praying. Even when I was worshiping the Lord and moving into intercession, that spirit of fear attempted to return. I would rise from the floor and walk to the spot where I could feel that spirit and address it face-to-face. Greg left town on a business trip. This was the true test! At night, after putting my daughter to bed, I turned off all the lights. The television and radio were off, and I proclaimed, “I am not submitting to fear any longer! I will not embrace you! Your assignment is over, and I say you will not come on me again or my children and their children and generations to come!” Guess what? I was not afraid! Since that time darkness and dark places do not bother me, and I have been able to fly without hesitation.
There is no need for our young to walk through their early years of life in fear, depression, harassment, or torment. Freedom does not have to wait until the adult years. This is the purpose of this book: to equip the church in how to minister to our young and provide a way for them to walk in victory from an early age.
Our Children and Teenagers Are Still at Risk Today
We would all agree that at our time in history dark ness is alive and well. I do not say this to generate fear. Nor do I believe that Satan is as powerful as our Lord—absolutely not. But we live in a dark time in history, and the following statistics from the Teen Mania website prove that this is the case. This generation is in great need of the truth.
• Ninety-one percent say there is no absolute truth.
• Seventy-five percent of teens in America believe the central message of the Bible is, “God helps those who
help themselves.”
• Fifty-three percent believe Jesus committed sin (40 percent of born-again teens believe Jesus committed
sin).1
This younger generation is seeking. They are going to see, experience, and be a part of the most strategic and intense times in the history of the Christian church. They are going to witness firsthand amazing events unfold in our world and miraculous signs and wonders that even the prophets of the Bible wrote about. But there is a battle of darkness raging to keep them out of the light and in deception.
I love what Paul wrote to his spiritual son Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:11–14, 20, as he obviously knew the dangers that his spiritual son would face and instructed him on how to rise above the traps of the world and the enemy.
Paul exhorts Timothy to flee evil, including all the temptations of money and all the evils associated with it, to pursue righteousness and fight the good fight of faith. Reading these verses causes me to ponder. Our children, or those raised in the church, are normally taught to flee evil and to follow after righteousness. But I question how well we have done fighting on behalf of our youth and teaching them how to fight the good fight of faith.
The Greek word for fight in this scripture is agonizimai. It means “to enter a contest, to contend with adversaries, struggles and dangers.” Contend means “to struggle in opposition”; “to wrestle, grapple, battle, fight, compete, argue, wrangle, hold and claim.” Isn’t this what we do in battles with our adversary? We wrestle in battle to fight the competition and struggle against all the arguments of darkness, disputing their hold and taking hold and claiming our freedom and inheritance in the kingdom of God.
Paul understood this. He told Timothy to keep the deposit entrusted to him. Friends, it is our responsibility to guard and keep what God has entrusted to us. We have to step into the knowledge of how to guard and keep not only for our personal lives but also for the lives of our children.
Train Up a Child
One of my favorite truths I teach is that knowledge builds power for action. Part of our role in raising the next generation is discovering who the child is and encouraging him to go that direction as stated in Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it” (amp).
Now more than ever we must ensure this younger generation is trained in the way God desires for them to go. We have to discover who each of them is called to be—not placing them into a cookiecutter mold, but finding the individual anointing and calling and enabling them to pursue what they have been created for. We are to have spiritual eyes, wisdom, and discernment to stop the schemes of darkness in their lives from a young age, therefore empowering
them to be all they are to be. As we advance, it is my prayer that the instruction needed to deliver our children will be imparted and they will be released into victorious freedom as children of the King, ushering this next generation into kingdom destiny.
Prayer for Discernment
Lord, thank You that You are opening my spiritual eyes to see, understand, and discern the spiritual atmosphere in my life, home, and my children’s lives. Give Your insight to the traps the enemy wants to unleash into the lives of my children. I welcome You, Holy Spirit, to enlighten the words in the pages of this book. Help me to see and know the schemes of the enemy, not only in my life but also in the life of this next generation. Cause me to be a sharp tool and weapon in Your hands to see those young ones who are trapped in darkness set free. I thank You that as I read these pages, I will have understanding of open doors in my life. Let this be a time of breaking through into freedom and a time of setting our feet on a sure foundation on a new path of understanding the things of the Spirit. Lord, give me Your heart and vision of freedom for my children and this next generation. I invite You to cause me to see and stand in my kingdom authority to see freedom released. In Jesus’s name, amen.
1 comment:
Posting the FIRST Wild Card, but no review. Did not receive the book, though I contacted the person.
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