Devil, You Can’t Have My Children!

You have the spiritual authority to stop the enemy from harassing your children. Here’s how to take them from victim to victor.

When our daughter, Kendall, was 2 years old, my husband and I were awakened early one morning by her screams. I noticed the clock read 3 a.m. as we jumped out of bed and rushed to her room.

We were able to calm her, but only after we laid her in our bed between us. The same thing happened again the next night.

This behavior was itself disturbing enough, but it was made worse because it was not normal for Kendall. She had always been content and slept through the night since the age of 5 weeks. Something was going on in her sleep.

I called our pastor to discuss what had happened.

“Your daughter is seeing in the spirit realm,” he explained.

“Seeing in the spirit realm?” I asked, perplexed.

Many times children see in the spirit, he said, but are taught erroneously by well-meaning parents that what they’re seeing isn’t real. He told us if Kendall woke up afraid again to ask her if she had seen something.

“If so, ask her if what she is seeing is good or bad,” he instructed. “If she answers, ‘good,’ she could be seeing an angel—even that can be scary when a child first experiences this.

“If she answers, ‘bad,’ you need to pray and demand in Jesus’ name that it leave her room. Then pray and ask God to send His angels.”

That night Greg and I had difficulty sleeping. I felt righteous anger rise up. I did not like the thought of a demon trying to frighten my baby!

Again, at 3 a.m., she woke up screaming. We walked nervously into her room—this was a first for us too!

She ran to us as we entered her room. We quizzed her as directed by our pastor: “Honey, are you seeing something?”

“Yes,” she nervously answered.

“Is it good or bad?”

“It is bad! Bad!” she said fearfully.

We prayed and commanded the evil spirit to leave.

“Sweetie, is it gone?”

“Yes,” she replied.

We asked the Lord to send His angels to protect her. Kendall smiled and exclaimed, “A pretty angel!” We placed her back in bed. She peacefully drifted to sleep. We left the room awed.

The next night, she woke up screaming again.

We asked her the same questions as before and received the same answers. But as we prayed this time, we placed Kendall between the two of us. We instructed her to command that spirit to leave in Jesus’ name, and then she asked God to send His angels.

Our 2-year-old daughter prayed as instructed. When she did, that demon obeyed her command and God sent His angels.

Since then Kendall has been sensitive to the Spirit, and has understood her authority in Jesus and the scriptural truth of resisting the enemy. As for my husband and I, we learned a truth from this that applies to all of us who are parenting and walking in the Spirit: We can instruct our children to defend themselves against evil.

The Unseen Is Real
Paul explains in 2 Corinthians 4:18 that what we see in the natural world will fade away, but the unseen realm is eternal. With Kendall, we learned the reality of this truth.

Often our children are afraid of the dark, fearful of the monster or bad person who visits at night. If these young ones are seeing in the spirit, they know what they are seeing is real.

It is important for us to tell our children we believe them when they say they are seeing something, even when we don’t see it. When we tell them that what they are seeing is not real, we are training them to shut down their anointing as seers.

Paul illustrates in 1 Corinthians 12:16-27 that we all function in different roles in the body of Christ. Some operate as feet or hands. Some are eyes or ears. In my experience the children who begin seeing, hearing or dreaming in the Spirit are those whom the Lord has gifted in prophecy, intercession and discernment.

The fact is, the enemy will never play fair. He wants to stop us from understanding our identity in Christ and operating in our gifting and calling. Those who are called to see and hear will be spiritually attacked in those areas in an attempt to bring fear, discouragement and a crippling halt to the gifting the Lord has given them.

Maybe you have a child who has encountered nighttime visits and is afraid. Here are a few things you can do to stop the fear and restore peace in your home.

1) Take Inventory
What is in your home? I ask this because the first thing you must do is to ensure that you are not glorifying the enemy in your house. If you have objects of a demonic nature, they will be a red-carpet invitation to spiritual activity. The demonic world will attach itself to inanimate objects to gain entry into our lives.

Does your child play games that are violent in nature? Is he or she reading books or playing games about witchcraft or vampires? What type of music, movies and entertainment are present? Are there magazines with sexual overtones or pornographic material? Does the child’s clothing or jewelry contain demonic symbols? Are there horror movies or objects of idolatry?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, the correct response is to repent for allowing these items into your home. Then destroy them and pray, commanding all darkness to go.

Greg and I ministered to a 9-year-old named Lisa. She was having repeated nightmares. A snake would appear and bite her in the stomach. From the first encounter, Lisa suffered chronic stomach pain. The mother had taken her to the doctor, who found no medical explanation for the child’s pain.

The Lord led me to inquire about Lisa’s salvation. Even though she attended church, she was not a Christian. We shared the gospel message, and Lisa was saved. A strong peace came over her. But she soon said, “Miss Becca, my stomach still hurts really bad.” We knew there was still a deliverance concern.

Based on prophetic insight, we asked the mom if Lisa had watched scary movies. The mother said she was not allowed to, but added: “My husband has a bookshelf full of them. He watches them. ”

We explained that having the movies in the home was an open door to demonic harassment, even if Lisa didn’t watch them. We broke the assignment of death and witchcraft off Lisa. Relieved she exclaimed: “The pain just left. My stomach does not hurt!”

We rejoiced in her freedom and gave instructions to the mother to repent for entertaining these movies and destroy them, and to command all darkness to leave and dedicate the home to God. Even the husband wanted nothing to do with the movies any longer.