Scripture Weapons and Promises
It is a Christian’s privilege to enforce Christ’s victory through prayer and spiritual warfare when needed. How? By knowing God’s Word and staying sensitive to discern the works of the enemy. Parents need to be especially discerning when the evil one targets their children.
My friend Doris’ story illustrates the need to apply Scriptural principles when a child strays into the enemy’s camp– though this event happened some time ago.
One evening when her 13-year-old son Roger* returned from visiting a friend, he threw his backpack in his bedroom and joined his parents and some visitors in the living room. The Holy Spirit prompted Doris with this thought: “Roger brought something in the house that is not holy.” She walked into his bedroom to take a look.
Doris pulled a pornographic video out of his backpack and took it into her bedroom. After the guests left, she and her husband agreed to pray about it before talking to Roger. The next morning, they confronted him with the evidence, telling him they knew he was not using the small television in his bedroom just to play Nintendo, but to watch blatant pornography in his bedroom.
He replied, “I need my privacy.”
“Privacy is a privilege—when you abuse it, you lose it,” she told him. “Your father and I have established the standard of Christ in our home. You live here by that grace.”
Later, Doris prayed over his room, anointing the TV set with oil and declaring that no more unrighteousness be released through it. Three days later it quit with a big puff of smoke.
When Roger continued to act rebellious, Doris enlisted prayer partners to come to her home to pray. She asked them to pray without criticizing or judging him, but with concern for a son who needed the Savior. Sometimes the women sat on his bed and just sang praises to God.
Realizing they were in a spiritual battle, Doris wrote Scripture verses on paper and placed them around Roger’s room—on top of fan blades, under his mattress, in the closet. This was one way she fought with the Word of God.
As many other parents have done, she also stood on the promises, that the Lord would contend with the evil forces influencing Roger, and He would save her son. Doris was claiming Isaiah 49:24-25 (NIV).
“Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives rescued from the fierce? But this is what the Lord says, ‘Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.’”
While the prayer battle continued, she and her husband showered Roger with love while remaining mindful of his need for vigilant parental oversight. Whenever there was a hint something was amiss, Doris would get a picture or a word from God, and she would confront Roger with it. She was always accurate, and he would admit his sin. Though bouts of discouragement would hit, she and her husband never gave up battling for his freedom.
Two years later Roger not only asked his parents’ forgiveness; he also asked them to get him deliverance counseling. Thankfully, he was set free and has served the Lord ever since.1
Scripture refers to Satan with names such as deceiver, destroyer, tempter, liar, god of this age, angel of light, and accuser. Such names reveal his character and help us understand his methods. 2 That’s why Peter warned: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, Resist him, steadfast in the faith..” (I Peter 5:8-9 NKJV).
The Holy Spirit can give us strategy for our spiritual battles. And God’s Word provides us with precious hope-filled Scriptures as we fight this battle for our children to escape darkness and turn to Him.
In our book, “A Woman’s Guide to Spiritual Warfare” we include many spiritual warfare Scriptures for families. Here is one declaration included against the enemy’s attack on children.
Declaration: “In the name and authority of Jesus Christ, my Lord, I bind all principalities and powers of evil in the heavenly realm exerting influence over my children and declare that the assignments against them are cancelled by the blood of Jesus Christ. I bind and break those spirits of deception, addiction, bitterness, perversion, pornography, evil music or games and (add others—–). I declare their power null and void in the life of my children—the blinders the enemy has put on them must go, in Jesus’ name. I claim the Scripture in Isaiah 54:13 that all my children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be their peace.”3
Prayer for Wayward Child: Lord, I’m trusting You that someday soon, my child will call on You for help and run into my arms. Thank you, Lord, for breaking every chain of bondage in his life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Footnotes:
1. Quin Sherrer and Ruthanne Garlock, Lord, I Need To Pray With Power (Charisma House, Lake Mary, FL, 2004), pp. 58-59.
2. See: Genesis 3:1,13; Isaiah 54:16; Matthew 4:3;1 Thessalonians 3:5; John 8:44; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 11:14; Revelations 12:7-10.
3. Quin Sherrer and Ruthanne Garlock, A Woman’s Guide to Spiritual Warfare, (Bloomington, Minnesota: Chosen Books, 2017), p. 216
*The names of Doris and Roger were changed to protect privacy.
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