When Satan Afflicts Your Child Like He Afflicted Mine

When Satan afflicts your child like he afflicted mine

Informal teaching notes on Luke 9:37-56

37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38 And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. 39 And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. 40 And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” 41 Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? (Talking here about his own disciples! How long am I to be with you and bear with you? How long is it going to take before you guys start getting the picture) Bring your son here.” 42 While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43 And all were astonished at the majesty of God.

So this is a story about what demons can do to our children. I heartily recommend a book: “The Seduction of our Children,” by Neil Anderson. Anderson says one of the ways Satan attacks our children is through manifesting an evil presence in their rooms. The point here is that if your young children tell you there’s something under the bed, or something in the closet you might want to believe them. There probably is something frightening and menacing there, and since the demon is manifesting this presence to your children and not to you, the chances are you won’t see it.

When asked my children about this - they were like  7and 9 - my daughter said there was an evil presence in her room who watched her as she got dressed. So I asked her what did you do? “I went into my closet and got dressed in there in the dark.” So I prayed against that spirit, and it left and didn’t trouble her any more.

Now when my son was about 5, we moved to a different house, he had a nice big bedroom, but he wouldn’t sleep in it. We asked him why and he was vague about it, and wouldn’t tell us It wasn’t until about two years later we figured out what was going on.

Finally one night he made up his mind he was going to sleep in his own bedroom. So I went downstairs to pray with him, and here was the prayer he prayed that night. He said, “God, if they break into my room and kill me tonight, please don’t let them kill my family.” That kind of blew me away, but I figured he’d heard some story about bad guys breaking into a house and attacking the family that lived there.

In the meantime, I had read Anderson’s book, and so I asked him the same question I asked my daughter. He told me an amazing story. Since he had been about 3, three demons had appeared outside his bedroom window every night. (They always appeared outside his room, never inside - but always at the window where he could see them.) They had frightening, menacing looks on their faces, and they had some weapons in their hands which they threatened him with these weapons. They’d tap the weapons in the palm of their hands and glare at him, like they were saying we’re coming after you next.

So I asked him how he managed to get to sleep with these men outside his bedroom, and he told me he closed his eyes real tight and asked God to protect him.

He tried to describe the weapons they were threatening him with, but I couldn’t quite figure it out. Then not long after that, we were watching a news story on the Rodney King riots in L.A. They showed pictures of the riot police with their riot batons in their hands, and J.D. said to me, “Dad, those are the weapons the bad guys were threatening me with".” They’d just tap, tap, tap, tap the riot batons in their against their open palms, and glare at him.

When he told me the full story, that night I prayed with him against these demons and commanded them to go and leave my son alone in the name of Jesus. And they went away. But a couple of nights later, J.D. told me they had come back. So I prayed again, and they went away, but a couple of nights later they came back again.

So I said “J.D., look, you have as much authority over demons as I do. The authority is not found in me but in the name of Jesus. So here’s what I want to you to do - the next time they come back, I want you to pray against them just like you heard me pray against them, command them in Jesus’ name to leave and tell them in Jesus’ name they can’t come back.”

And so he did - a little 7 year old boy engaging in spiritual warfare against demons all by himself in his bedroom. And this time, in response to commands he issued against these demons, they left him and they never troubled him again.