Teaching Children About Authority in Christ (godly parenting)

It is my great pleasure to host a guest post from Kevin E Winters who runs Doing Life on Fire Ministries and is the author of two books on hearing and discerning God's voice.

This is an abridged version of Kevin's excellent teaching. The PDF of the full version is available to download here or you can download an mp3 of me reading it here or watch/listen to it on YouTube:

From Torment to Tormentor

What do you when you are a grown man and you have monsters coming out of the closet and things touching you in the middle of the night? Well that was my experience in the early nineties. You see, at that particular time in my life, God was introducing me to a gift called discerning of spirits. Needless to say, I did not enjoy this training period but God used it to teach me about the badge of authority we have in the name of Jesus that makes demons tremble. Eventually, it was me doing the harassing.

This all happened my single days. Then I found a good "thang" and we had children. One of them started showing signs of prophetic gifting very early and spoke of seeing things. It became apparent to me that I needed to train my children because I now knew that the monster in the closet was very real.

How to Convey the Idea

Jesus is Everyone's Boss...Even Satan

First I taught my children that Jesus was like the Chief Police Officer. To really make this idea stick, I also told them that Jesus being a police officer meant that there were bad people who were breaking God's laws. I them told them that these law breakers are spirits called demons. That really stuck with them and embedded Jesus in their minds as one with power to force bad things to do right.

You Are His Deputies

The next thing I did was teach them that as followers of Jesus Christ that we too are police officers. I then explained to them that as police officers we are also responsible for making sure the demons stay in line. To reinforce this idea I obtained three toy badges, one for each child. I then pinned it to them. Then I made them wear them around the house to solidify in their minds that they are indeed the ones in power over the demons.

I also used the substitute teacher to help them understand the concept of the deputy. I explained to them that the Bible says that Jesus went away to His Father to prepare a place for us, and as soon as He was ready He would come back for us. I then explained to them that in order for Him to leave He had to leave someone in charge to deal with the law breaking demons. I further explained to them that those people who were to take Jesus' place is them...the Church. To make it plain for them I said, "When you go to school and the teacher is not there, who is in charge? They said, "The substitute!" Then I said, "So are you telling me that the substitute can assign homework? They said, "Yes." Then I said, "Can they tell you what to do and send you to the office if you disobey them." Again they said yes. Then I said, "So you agree that the teacher has given the substitute all of the same powers that he/she has." Agreeing again, they said, "Yes." Then I said, "That is what you are...Jesus' substitute. And as such you can tell demons what to do and they will obey you." I told them that the demons were not going to obey them per se, but they would respect the authority they have as a substitute. I ended saying, "That is what a deputy is, He is a substitute for the chief police officer."

The Result

After teaching my children this lesson, demons decided it was time to test their understanding. Their goal is to try to steal the idea from our heart before it blossoms into understanding that we effectively use (Matt 13:19). So my children began to have different kinds of encounters. Now again, these encounters were not unique for my children. My oldest daughter was only 8 when she first reported to me that something was touching her in the night. She said, "Demon, leave me in Jesus name." My daughter said that the touching stopped and to this day it has not happened again.

Bringing in Reinforcement

Modelling the Truth

Your children will have to see you walk out the truth in the same way that the disciples saw Jesus modelling His teaching for them. They saw Him cast out demons. They saw Him heal the sick. That's why Jesus could give them power and send them out to do the work without Him being present.

Children do what children see! Why should they believe in the power of God that never seems available to you?

That means that you must be prepared to assist them in reinforcing their authority. One time all four of them were attacked with sickness. All four! So I went to each one of them and with confidence and calmness commanded the spirit to leave them and it did. As you can imagine, that was a confidence booster for them to see what they were taught come to life.

Now I can do this because I God has taught me some things that make this possible. If you want to know what He taught me you can hear the teaching yourself on my YouTube channel.

Restating the Truth

You are also going to find that some challenges are too big for their faith. The disciples also crossed paths with a boy that had a demon that did not respond to their authority or faith. But yet a few chapters before they were casting out demons with no problem. It is logical to assume that the resistance of the demon to their authority caused them to lose the faith they had earlier. Hence Jesus' statement regarding them having "no faith." When these moments occur take it as an opportunity to teach and model for them how to keep growing and going forward. I do a lot of reinforcing and restating the idea of authority in Christ.

If a farmer plants a seed and waters it but goes out the next day looking for a crop and becomes discouraged, we know s/he is impatient. A good farmer knows that it takes time, patience, and persistence to get a good crop. And let me tell you, as they get older, they will get tired of the reminder, but stay with it. My children roll their eyes sometimes but they also lay hands on each other when it is required.

Reinforcing What is Right

Lastly, you will need to reinforce standards of righteousness and stress the importance of holiness. I know that as Christians we are holy but Peter also reminded us to "be holy." Paul also says, "be angry and do not sin, nor give place to the devil." He seems to indicate that while sin has lost its power over the believer, it has not lost its appeal to the demonic. We must understand that there are some things that attract monsters to our closet.

Here is an example. My daughter is an incredible artist. One day her arts teacher gave her an assignment to draw a still life. So she chose to draw a Buddha statue. Nearly half of the way through the drawing she came down with a cold. I asked her if she had attempted to get rid of it. She said yes but it won't go. So I prayed for her and it would not go. So I said, "Lord, what is going on here." This developed into bronchitis. God reminded me of the passage “you should not create any graven images”. I thought, "Really, Lord. You are holding her accountable for an art assignment?" So I told her what it was and why it was there. At first she gave me that "here dad goes again" look, but she believed me. Anyway, afterwards we prayed together repenting and asking for forgiveness.

The next day the cough started to subside and a day later the mucus was completely gone; it had cleared up on its own. My daughter got to see first-hand the relationship between sin, demons, and sickness.

Teaching them About Spiritual Warfare

One morning I came into my daughter’s room and I noticed that just over her bed was a shadowy figure. Since I knew what it was I rebuked it, but I did wonder why it was there.

However, it would come back from time to time and I also started to notice that my daughter was referring to herself as "weird" and her view of herself began to deteriorate.

I needed to teach her the battlefield in her mind. To do so I used the last supper: In John 13 we see Satan's mode of operation. First, he gave Judas an idea, "And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him." Then Judas' acceptance of that idea gave Satan access to his life, "Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him." Jesus then speaks to Satan and tells him to do what you do quickly. Judas now yields to the will of Satan, "Having received the piece of bread, he (Satan through Judas) went out immediately."

This shows my children the importance of guarding their thought life. Sometimes the negative voices are demons trying to gain access to their lives and bend them to its will.

Lastly, I teach them that Satan is a liar and that lies bind us but truth frees us. Lies are chains in the spirit and truth are keys in the spirit. Knowing this I speak truth against those lies that the enemy tries to sell my children. If you children suffer from low self-esteem that is affecting their behaviour, it is because there is a lie from hell that is giving the spirit access to your child. Find the lie and speak truth to it. It will break the spirit's hold.

What They Really Need to Know

1. Sin opens the gate an allows evil to come in. That means that even though we know that God forgave and forgives us for sin, that does not mean that Satan respects those boundaries. He will see an open gate as an invitation to come in and bite you.
2. The blood of Christ is the legal right you have to freedom. Though sin may let Satan into our lives, repentance and the blood of Christ closes the gate and prohibits Satan from holding it again you.
3. Choose your battle and choose your weapons. Sometimes they will come up against things that they don't have the faith for and getting in your bed is a good option!
4. Sin does not diminish your authority, only your faith can do that. A crooked police officer is still a police officer with authority. Similarly, sin does not give Satan authority over them – it is God who corrects them not Satan. This is important so they don't live in fear of being trapped by a spirit claiming to have rights over them due to some area of their life that God is still working on.
5. Reinforce the role of the Holy Spirit as a helper. God has provided them with a team to help them win – they have the Spirit, angels and that all of heaven behind them.
6. Teach them the process. Satan gives them an idea; a lie. They believe the lie. The acceptance of that lie makes them bendable to Satan's will.
7. Teach them the truth about what God says through His word about them. Understanding "the truth" about who they are, what they are created for, and their spiritual position. gives them resistance power.

Hopefully, this will article will lead to an improvement in your quality of life, quality of sleep, and the betterment of your relationship with God and your family.