I have received many letters from parents who ask about raising children according to the Word of God. Gloria and I have searched the Word for scriptural foundation in this area, and I want to share some of these things with you.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessings of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
(Gal. 3:13-14)

This is very familiar scripture to most believers. There has been much teaching about our redemption from sin, from sickness and disease, from poverty, but not much teaching about the part of the curse that has to do with our children. That is what I want to focus attention on here.

The curse of the law, stated in Deuteronomy 28, mentions children in two verses:

Verse 32 says, "Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand."

Verse 41 says, "Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity."

This is the testimony of many parents today. They watch helplessly as their children are taken captive by the world—drugs, alcohol, perversion and so forth.

As believers, we can use our authority and stand against these forces. According to Galatians 3:13, Jesus has broken the power of the curse, so we have the right to order Satan out of our children's lives.

Don't Ignore Symptoms
Like most parents, Gloria and I have had to deal with the problem of rebellion in our children. We realized that it had to be stopped quickly before it developed into a serious situation.

Don't be guilty of ignoring symptoms of rebellion when your children are small. Don't simply excuse it as a stage they are going through and think that they will grow out of it.

If you ignore it when they are small, you won't be able to handle it when they get older and the rebellion has had time to develop into a strong force.

When we saw this occurring, we immediately went to the Word. Gloria spent much time searching for scriptures we could use to combat these forces. Then we came together and confessed these scriptures before God.

We took authority in the spirit world and refused to give Satan any room to operate. This is our responsibility as Christian parents.

Minister Love
A child does not understand the spiritual forces coming against him, so it is up to the parents to fight the spiritual battles and keep Satan out of the child's life.

This is what we did. We used the Word and exercised our authority over rebellion at work, but we didn't stop there. We took every opportunity to minister love to the children.

Whenever they came around us, we would express our love in some way. It didn't take long for them to begin responding to that love. Don't hesitate to show love to your children. They will respond to it.

It wasn't always easy. There were times when we wanted to break down and cry or lose our temper or do something in the natural, but we would remember what Jeremiah says:

Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they [your children] shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border.
(Jer. 31:16-17)

Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka:  Kenneth Copeland Ministries