As you read the title “When to (do we) start teaching children about Spiritual Warfare?” I am sure some may be fixated on the ‘when’ more than the post. So I will tell you…
Now……right now, start teaching them about Spiritual Warfare. Whether they are two years old, five years old, sixteen years old, or even thirty-three years old. The age does not matter, just start teaching your children about Spiritual Warfare now.
This is vital.
As Christians’ raising our children in a faith based home; we all know (or should I say, we should know) that battles will happen. What could seem like things are just going wrong, can actually be schemes from the enemy. Every little situation can be known as a fiery dart, not just a case of bad days. Unlike bad days; we can get pass it with knowledge. Through our relationship with God, we are able to gain insight to the situations we are facing and confidence in our authority as a child of God.
“Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.”
Luke 10:19
Wouldn’t you want to teach your children this? Wouldn’t you want them to know as a believer in Christ we must believe in all aspect of what God’s’ word teaches us, not just what can tickle the ear?
And most importantly wouldn’t you want them to know we have power?
If we believe God never allows bad things to happen to us: that it’s just life happening, we become foolish and ignorant to everything else in the word of God. Including the fact that we have authority in the Spirit.
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:14 NIV
How can we teach my children about Spiritual Warfare?
Simple….By Example!
Do you know how Paul gained Timothy’s attention through written letters to him?
By mentioning his grandmother Lois and mother Eunice. Timothy’s mother and grandmother were his greatest examples of Christ and walking in faith.
Paul then goes on to tell Timothy because of their example he is persuaded to know that Timothy has the same faith. He reminds him about the power we have because of faith:
Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:6 NKJV
My children know me pretty well when it comes to prayer. They know how important it is to me and how often in our home prayer is. They have grown to discern the difference between warfare prayer, a prayer of praise, a prayer for needs, and a prayer of thanksgiving.
This is something my husband and I purposely take time to be examples of.
Related posts:
Spiritually Cleaning your Home
The War Cry of Our Hands
5 Ways to Defeat Spiritual Death
As stewards over our home, we desire to proactively keep the word of God alive for our children to witness. We may not have all the answers or know every direction to go (raising teenagers will definitely microscope this area) but building a relationship with God through prayer is where we have seen growth within ourselves and in our children.
Through prayer we speak the word of God. We repeat scripture back. As Romans 10:17 teaches us:
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God;
This will give perceptive as parents (and as followers of Christ) that speaking His word gives us faith in His word, which then gives us insight to what we should know as Christians. That will then lead us to understanding our position and authority in doing Gods will through our walk and through Spiritual Warfare.
Teaching our children about Spiritual Warfare can be done in multiple ways.
If you have a teaching anointing, use it by teaching your children through creating bible studies.
Do you sing? Write worship songs you can sing with your children about being a conqueror.
If you are a creative, bible journal through scripture about Spiritual Warfare with your children.
Are you a mom constantly on the go? Create scripture cards once a week. Give them a new scripture to memorize. Memorize it with them.
A good area of scripture you can start at is in the book of Ephesians. Chapter 6:11-17
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Being an example to your children is not about being perfect in front of them. It’s about humility, willing to learn in front of them and with them, striving to walk in your calling, and showing them that through Christ we are capable to fight and stand firm in our faith.
How do you teach your children about Spiritual warfare? Is this something you try to practice within the home?
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Wow such a good post. We taught our children from a young age to put on the armour of God and how to fight spiritual battles. Now that they are grown up, we are still here fighting with them and now they are fighting with us! It is amazing to now have our children to call upon as prayer warriors when the need arises!
Love this! My parents taught us how to battle through prayer also. It is such a honor and blessing to pray with them. You are doing a great thing with your children. Having my parents battle with me, builds me up so much in the knowledge and insight of spiritual battling. Many blessings to you and your family!
NOW is the time to teach our children about spiritual warfare. I see so much anointing in this post as the Lord spoke to you about this very topic. I am so glad my kids are still young because I am able to teach them through singing and verses about being conquerors in Christ.
No devil can come near a praying mama . Amen?
So glad to add this amazing post in the round up
Yes, Amen! Thank you for sharing the post and for the encouragement! Love you sis!
Carmen, this is so relevant and necessary. I remember when my kids were little, and when they would have “nightmares” we wanted to teach them that God was even over their dreams, fighting for them. So we prayed and always asked God to stand in the way and grant them peaceful dreams. It sounds like a little thing, but it was so important for us to show them God as their Protector who fights for them. He never failed to answer that prayer with all 3 kids.
YEESSSS! Amen! And it is not a small thing….teaching them that is such a BIG thing! It is a great example you have set before your children to have them learn at such a young age that God is their fortress!
The Prince Warrior Series by Priscilla Shirer is a great way to introduce kids to the concept of spiritual warfare in a way that is easy to understand. Plus the books are very adventurous and intriguing. Check them out if you get a chance! Thanks for sharing this wonderful post!
I definitely need to check that out. Thank you for the tip!!
I am so glad you wrote this! It is my thought process exactly! We need to give them the tools now, not later. My parents never truly believed me when I was being attracted as a young girl (as early as 5yrs old and I sure remember) they’re strong believers, but would always chalk it up to other things. But the Lord was always there teaching me how to fight those battles. I was so frightened and I could then feel the Lord’s presence and felt peace. He prepared me for even the battles I gave now.
Praise be to God! His power and might live in us.
Wow, what a awesome testimony! Thank you for sharing! My parents were also strong in their faith but teaching children to walk in their anointing and learning that there is spiritual warfare was not necessarily taught to them either so it was not relevant for them to pass down. Now my parents see how important it is to me and my siblings with our spouses to teach our children and now our parents are our biggest cheerleaders and supporters of doing this. Love having them as grandparents learning with us how to teach our children to war and to have them pray for us as parents as we do it.
Thank you for this reminder to arm ourselves and our family through the power of prayer! I’ve heard you pray out loud Carmen, and I felt the power of the Holy Spirit in your prayers. Praying outloud immediately dispels darkness. When I think about the power of listening to someone pray, it reminds to pray out loud in front of my children.
Amen, yes it definitely does! I love the verse in John that speaks about how darkness can not comprehend the darkness. I often pray that verse out loud because it makes me vision being the light as I war in prayer.
So so important! We are raising kingdom warriors and they need to know there is an enemy! Blessings!
Definitely teach them through worship warfare, Scripture memory and sharing communion together regularly as a family, plus also laying on of hands and praying together. Whenever we are intensely praying through something our 4 year old will go get bread and juice from the fridge, which surprises some people but it’s something we’ve been doing as a family for a few years now and definitely see breakthrough when we do it. I’m going to be doing a post soon on how spiritual warfare can affect your health and what to do about it. It’s such an important topic, and you’ve covered it really well.
That is so beautiful! Doing communion together as a family! I have got to do that with my family. That brings so much power into the unity as a family!
Thank you for this encouraging post! As a mom to a young child, this is something I’ve bene thinking about for the future. As you said though, I need to start thinking and acting on it now. He’s old enough to observe when I’m praying, reading the word and speaking about God. I need to be more relentless in sharing this with him and any future children I may have. Thanks for sharing this wisdom! 🙂
Thank you so much for your kind words Brooke! I notice how much my young ones see what we are doing too. For example, my three year old daughter will lay face down in middle of the living room when worship music is playing throughout the house. I can only remember a handful of times that I have done this to pray in front of her in the home but every time she does it, it reminds me of how effective our example is. She must have been in awe and wonder of what I was doing that it imprinted her to imitate during worship time. This has humbled me and taught me so much about how much our actions matter, especially about towards the Lord.
Amen and Amen! NOW is the time to reach our children. Spiritual warfare is real. Love all your ideas of how to teach our kids…worship songs are great!! Great and much needed post!
Thank you so much Lureta!
Amen, Carmen. It’s never too early. The Lord has shown me so much just over the last few years about spiritual warfare. And Ephesians 6 is a great place to start and even camp a while there. Kids do see our example in praying for heaven itself to be displayed in our everyday lives. The enemy hopes we don’t discover how to fight him in the battle of light and darkness. If we could pull back a corner of the heavenlies, we’d be astounded at the army of angels and demons duking it out for the sake of believers here on earth.
Yes, you are absolutely right! I can not even begin to think if I could comprehend the immense amount of warring there is for us. But what a vison?? War for our lives to be with our Lord!
It’s never too soon to teach our children about spriritual warfare. I started talking to my kids about the power of Satan and even my 4 year old seems to understand. She takes the concept a bit too far and blames Satan for her bad behaviour, but it shows me that she thinks about these things and knows that her bad behaviour is not something she should be doing.
Behinds scenes I am smiling big with a thought of a four year old blaming satan. I have a three year old and I can just imagine that conversation…lol But Praise God because you are right, they get the concept and that is awesome you already got past that hurdle.
Thank you, Carmen, for a practical and helpful post about teaching our children well.
May we be men and women who model and train our kids to pray, to know scripture, and to understand the battle.
You are a blessing~
Melanie
Amen! That is my same prayer! xoxo
Amen, Carmen! I wish I had known more about spiritual warfare when my children were growing up. Teaching them to pray and how to go into battle with Jesus beside them is so important. Thanks for this great reminder! <3
Thank you Deb! I think about how many times my mother has prayed with me to battle for someone or something that meant so much to me! It has been a honor to battle with her and I pray it continues to go in generations.