"Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed." (Ps. 112:1-2)

Q: Brother Copeland, I don't know what to do about my teenage children. They're rebelling against the things of the Lord and, in spite of my prayers, they're getting deeper into trouble every day. I'm so worried about them. What should I do?

A: First of all, you must start being moved by faith. You can't get anything accomplished as long as you allow fear and worry to dominate your thinking.

Talk the Word
Stop the negative flow by starting to think and talk what the Word of God says about your children instead of dwelling on the problems you see in their lives.

Isaiah 54:13, for instance, says "All your children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be their peace." Receive that promise for your children. Start believing it and speaking it. Then find other promises (such as Ps. 112:1-2 and Deut. 28:4) and use them to build a foundation of faith.

Gloria and I did that many years ago for our children. We saw the devil trying to get a foothold in their lives, so one weekend we got our concordance and four or five translations of the Bible. We began to search out scriptures and write out agreement prayers concerning our children.

We tore into the devil with the Word of God, and started saying, "Thank God, our children are not going to hell. Thank God, they are taught of the Lord and great is their peace!" Instead of walking the floor and worrying about the problem, we walked the floor and praised God for the solution.

Things didn't change instantly. We still had to go through some tough times, but the Word began to turn things around. Today our children are serving the Lord with all their hearts.

Bind the devil
The second thing you need to do is bind the devil with the Word of God and tell him he can't have your children. Then follow the instructions Jesus gave in Matthew 9:38: "Pray...the Lord of the harvest, (to) send forth laborers" into the field who can reach your children.

God knows your children better than they know themselves. He knows whom they'll listen to, and He knows how to bring those people into your children's lives at just the right time.

Start Rejoicing!
The third thing you need to do is to start rejoicing in the Lord. Can you see the sequence there? When parents get happy in the Lord, the children will see it and be glad. Then, God signals for them and redeems them. Your job is to rejoice in the Lord yourself, to cast all your cares on Him.

You may not even know where your children are right now. But God knows and this scripture says He will signal for them and they'll return. It doesn't matter where they are. You probably weren't exactly in your prayer closet when God first found you, were you? I know I wasn't. But He found us anyway and pulled us to Himself.

The fourth thing you need to do - and this may well be the most crucial - is this: When you're praying for your children, be sure to ask God to change you as well.

I know parents who've gone through these steps praying that God would send their children back and He did. But when they got back home, the parents hadn't changed a bit. They jumped right in the middle of them and ran them off again. Don't let that happen.

Instead, soak your heart in the gentleness and the compassion of God. Let God turn you into someone so full of the love of Jesus and so full of His presence that your kids don't want to leave home.

Even with all this, be warned, your children may not turn around overnight. So until they do, be like Abraham and call things that be not as though they were. Say, "I'm not moved by what I see or hear. I'm not moved by what I feel. I'm moved by what I believe and I believe what God says!"

Say that along with the scriptures I've outlined, not just occasionally, but literally night and day. Then dig in your heels and stand. Grab hold of God's Word and refuse to let go of it where your children are concerned, and sooner or later that Word will grab hold of them.

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