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THE PRAYING FAMILY
The family institution was in the heart
of God since the beginning of creation. He is the one that initiated marriage,
the family and the home. The family was designed by God to illustrate the
Trinity Unity between Father Son and Holy Ghost. The ultimate rage of the devil
is to destroy all of God's workmanships. That's why Satan hates the family, the
offspring in particular. Children threaten his dominion on the earth because
they are a potential extension of the kingdom of God to the next generation.
The onslaught on children in our generation
has reached diabolic dimensions that can no longer be ignored. Satan knows that
is time is short so he utilizes all the arsenal of hell to achieve his purposes.
The church desperately needs people of extraordinary prayer and it has to start
in the family, for the strength of the Church is proportionate to the strength
of the families.
Barna's group reports a significant
evaluation about children and family.
- By the time an American child is 23 years old he will
have seen more than 30,000 acts of violence to which he is exposed through
television, movies and video games.
- By the age of 23 he will have viewed thousands of hours
of pornographic images, listened to hundreds of hours of music that fosters
anger, hatred, disrespect for authority, selfishness, and radical
independence.
- The average adolescent spends more than 40 hours each
week digesting media, and the typical teenager in America absorbs almost 60
hours of media content each week. For better or worse, the messages received
from the media represent a series of unfiltered, unchaperoned worldview
lessons.
- Stress levels have been steadily rising among young
children over the past couple of decades brought about from a variety of
factors: household financial troubles, bullying, physical abuse within the
home, and excessive peer pressure. Most young people admit that they feel as
if they do not receive sufficient attention from their parents; do not have
enough good friends, have personal spiritual perspectives but not much of a
sense of spiritual community; lack role models,
- Parents are struggling: feel overly busy, stressed out
under the pressure of financial debt, dissatisfied with their job, worry
about the future.
- Fewer than one out of every ten families have parents
who pray together, study the Bible together and lead the family in regular
family devotions.
- One out of every three parents of kids under 13 imposes
any significant restrictions or limitations on how much or what type of
media their children are exposed to.
We need to go back to basics. The Bible says that children
are a gift from God. Parents are steward over their lives and they have the
responsibility to raise them as children that please God.
GET STARTED
So where do we start? Why not from God's original design?
Genesis 2:7, 18 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And
the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him
an help meet for him. When God formed the human being, man became not a living
"body", but a living "soul". God determined that man needed
a "companion", a partner that would be a suitable helper for him or a
helpmeet, called also "the alter ego" or "the other self."
She was not a subordinate person. The name "help meet" in fact is the
combination of two words:
- EZER, which means, "super". The word does not
imply subordination or inferiority. The same word is used for God Himself as
in Psalm 121:1-2 "My help (Ezer) comes from the Lord. This verse
implies that there is no better help than God.
- NEGAD or "meet", qualified. Therefore, the
wife is the best-qualified helper, the best-qualified companion or partner.
Better yet, she is the best-qualified prayer partner to fulfill verse 24 and
25 of Genesis 2.
Therefore shall a man leave his father
and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one
flesh.
The word 'flesh' means person. Becoming one flesh
then is not coming into union through physical intercourse, but through a
spiritual one, which will affect the emotions and the mind, thus ENHANCING the
physical union. I like how the above verse reads in the New Living Translation:
"…This explains why a man leaves his father and
mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one".
TWO are to be united in spirit, soul,
and body to the point of having ONE mind, ONE purpose, and ONE direction. This
kind of unity in a couple doesn't come through counseling or any other mean.
Praying together is the only exercise that can unite a couple in oneness of
purpose and vision as their hearts blend before God's throne where vulnerability
is developed in honesty and intimacy. No family counseling can resolve
personality conflicts and improve relationships like being transparent with God
and with one another in prayer.
Few have mastered the SKILL of
communicating with God as a couple. For many it is awkward and the hardest part
is getting started, but God will reward every effort with results that will
affect our children for eternity. The family that prays together stays together
still holds true, but it has to start with mom and dad, they furnish the model
that children naturally imitate.
PRAYER BUILDS A WALL OF PROTECTION AROUND THE HOME
In Ezekiel 22:30 we read that God was
looking for an intercessor that would make up the edge or a wall that would
protect the land from destruction. In Psalm 17:12 the enemy is portrait
like a lion that is eager to tear. There are so many families torn apart. Prayer
therefore creates an enclosure, a fence around the family so that Satan - the
lurking lion - won't leave his den in order to catch your children. (Psalm
10: 9-10).
Prayer not only builds a wall of protection,
but it also demolishes the wall within that keeps members of the family apart.
These are walls of coldness, defiance, resistance, mistrust, suspicion,
self-preservation and so forth. Those self-protective walls fall down when the
family prays together in unity.
Now, the enemy knows the strength of
agreement. In Psalm 2:2 we read: The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed
(in this case the Christina family) saying, "Let us tear their fetters
apart, and cast away their cords from us!" Fetters bind. What ties the
family together? Cords of love, trust, communication, security, transparency and
- most of all - God Himself who is the third strand of the threefold cord not
easily broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12.
Matthew 19:6 "…. What therefore God hath
joined together, let not man put asunder.."
How does God join together a couple, a
family, a church, etc? Prayer first and foremost, then praise, obedience, fear
of God, respect for His way, and acknowledging Him in everything and in every
circumstances.
PROMISES TO THE PRAYING PARENT
Parenting is not an easy task. We are not guaranteed that
we will not experience hard times, struggles and adverse circumstances, but the
parent who does the right thing in praying for his family, holds God's promises
that even if the righteous falls seven times, he will rise again.
Job 5:19-27 "From six
troubles He will deliver you, even in seven evil will not touch you.
"In famine (lack) He will redeem you from death, (of
relationships, dreams, expectations) and in war (times of disagreements
and contentions) from the power of the sword (words that cut and
wound). "You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither
will you be afraid of violence when it comes." You will laugh at violence
and famine, neither will you be afraid of wild beasts (the demonic).
"For you will be in league with the stones of the field; (you will
not stumble and fall) and the beasts of the field will be at peace with
you (when a man's way please the Lord, He makes his enemies to be a peace
with him - Prov.16-17) "And you will know that your
tent is secure, for you will visit your abode and fear no loss. "You will
know also that your descendants will be many, and your offspring as the grass of
the earth. "You will come to the grave in full vigor, like the stacking of
grain in its season. "Behold this, we have investigated it, thus it is;
hear it, and know for yourself." [All parenthesis are added].
Micah 7:8 - Rejoice not against me, O mine
enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a
light unto me.
When the praying parents makes a mistake,
they will rise, and when they are in darkness because they don't know what to
do, the Lord will show them, if they pray about it.
What happens when husband and wife are not
in one accord, when one wants to pray but the other doesn't? This is very common
even in Christian homes and usually it is the wife that petitions God on behalf
of her family. The Bible is full of accounts of godly mothers whose prayers
brought forth godly offspring. The books of Kings introduces many
"good" kings by saying "…and his mother's name was..." The
New Testament refers to Timothy who came to faith through the faith of his
mother and grandmother (2 Tim. 1:5). If this is your condition at
home, why not ask God to bring you a prayer partner and the two of you can
entreat the Lord not only for your own families, but also for those throughout
the world.
At this point someone may say: destruction has already
entered my dwelling leaving behind so much devastation. Isn't too late for me?
Never!! God Redeems. God Restores relationships and rebuilds broken lives. God
does not end with ruin; He starts from them. He started with chaos at creation.
Pray repentance and restoration. Persevere and pray also for the restoration of
the family unit within the Church. God will release much authority through your
prayer because of your identification with what others like you have
experienced. Let me remind you of Jael, the valiant intercessor in the book of
Judges who took a tent peg and a hammer to inflict the deathblow in the head of
the enemy who had entered her tent. (Judges 4).
If you are a child of God, Jesus lives in
your "tent" (home). The blood that he shed on the Cross covers you and
your household, the enemy has not right to enter your tent. Grab the nail (His
blood), take the hammer of His Word (Jeremiah 23:29) and smash the plans,
the schemes, the devices of the evil one against you and your house.
Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by
the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
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