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<< [home] [indonesian] >> Q: Brother Copeland, my teenage children are rebelling against the things of the Lord, and – in spite of my prayers – they’re getting deeper in trouble every day. 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. 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 says that “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 Psalm 112:1-2 and Deuteronomy 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, my children are serving the Lord with all their hearts. 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 out laborers” into the field who can reach your children. God knows your children better than they know themselves. He knows who they’ll listen to, and He knows how to bring those people into your children’s lives at just the right time. The third thing you need to do is to start rejoicing in the Lord. Zechariah 10:7-8, “Those of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their hearts shall rejoice as through wine. Yes, their children shall see it and be glad. Their heart shall rejoice in the Lord. I will whistle for them and gather them. For I will redeem them…” 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. 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 compassion of God. Let God turn you into someone so full of His presence that your kids won’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 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, grab hold of God’s Word and refuse to let go of it where your children are concerned. Sooner or later, that Word will grab hold of them. <Reprinted with permission of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Locked Bag 2600, Mansfield Delivery Center, QLD 4122, Australia, Believer’s Voice of Victory, Volume 28, No. 5, ©2000> << [home] [indonesian] >> |
Faith Seminar August 15-17, 2001, Plenary Hall, Senayan, Jakarta
Tabitha Ministries, P.O. Box 255/CPA-HU, Ciputat 15411, Indonesia. Fax: +62 21 3145124.E-mail us with questions or comments. Free Magazine (only for Indonesian mailing address)
Copyright © 2001 Tabitha Ministries.
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