Section (2) of Ch. 4. (The Power of a Parent’s Blessing)

 

Section (2-1) of Ch.4.

Section (2-2) of Ch.4.

 

Potential Consequences of Blessing and Cursing

 

 When a child is blessed at the time of conception, the parents are giving God authority to impart His message into the child’s heart from the very beginning. This means that right at the time of conception, a strong sense of being valued, loved, wanted, accepted, and welcomed will be present. A clear sense of purpose and destiny are released to the child from the start. When the conception is blessed, the parents are recognizing that this child is not an accident. Rather, God has chosen to create and release that specific child at that specific time into that specific family to fulfill a divine purpose and destiny.

 

 Another key benefit of the parent’s blessing at the time of conception is that through this act the father and mother place a spiritual hedge of protection around the child that blocks demonic access to the child while he is in the womb. Many parents do not realize that the marriage covenant creates a spiritual hedge of protection around the conception of a child and his or her ongoing growth in the womb. When parents conceive a child outside the protective hedge of marriage, the unborn child is potentially exposed to whatever demonic spirits may be present at that time.

 

 We will examine this concept in more detail later in this chapter, but I wanted to point this out as a reminder of the power of the marriage covenant. There was a time not terribly long ago when it was considered immoral for a couple to have a sexual relationship outside marriage. Today premarital sex and cohabitation have become so common that many people consider it normal behavior. They have no idea the devastating generational consequences these choices bring.

When I began to study more deeply what the Bible had to say about the consequences of conception outside of the protective hedge of marriage, one of the first scriptures I encountered was Deut. 23:2: “No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the LORD.”

 

 This seemed to be quite a severe consequence, so I asked the LORD what this verse meant. I wondered if God was saying that He would not receive a person of illegitimate birth in His congregation for ten generations. When I prayed about this, I clearly heard the Father say, “It is not that I will not accept the person of illegetimate birth, but rather that the enemy has a legal right to keep him out of My congregation for up to ten generations. I am willing to accept anyone who comes to me in the name of Jesus.”

 

 This is a devastating consequence if through one act of sexual sin demonic spirits have a legal right to afflict up to ten future generations of people. If each generation has only four children, then by the tenth generation more than one million people would have been affected. So through one act of sexual immorality the enemy has the potential to devastate more than a million people. This, in my opinion, is a highly effective scheme of destruction. If I were the devil, I would work diligently on this plan, and it seems he is doing just that. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 40% of births in the U.S. are to unmarried women.1

footnote

1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Unmarried Childbearing,” Sep.14, 2012, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/unmarry.htm (accessed Dec.

7, 2012).

The Strongman Principle

 

 Many years ago I discovered a biblical principle that is critical for every parent to understand. I have come to call it the “strongman principle.” They are gatekeepers, as it were, for their children. Through the choices parents make, they expose their children either to the things of God or the things of the devil. This may seem unfair, but it is indeed how life on Planet Earth is set up.

The Bible talks about the strongman principle in the Book of Matthew. Jesus said, “How can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house” (Matt. 12:29).

 

 In this passage Jesus was explaining how to expel demonic spirits. He seems to imply that there is a hierarchy of demonic spirits with which one must deal. The lesser ones seem to be protected by the authority of the stronger ones. So if one attempts to expel a demonic spirit that is lower in the chain of command and abiding under the protection of a stronger demon, the authority of that stronger demon allows that spirit to remain in place.

 

 Consequently one must first find the highest-ranking spirit operating in the situation, which in this verse Jesus calls the “strong man.” Only when you bind him it is possible to eliminate all the lower-ranking demons and clean the house. I have personally found this principle to be true, and I know many seasoned deliverance ministers who also attest to this.

As I meditated on this passage one day, it occurred to me that the strongman principle works exactly the same when Satan and his demonic spirits are trying to invade your house. The Greek word translated “house” is oikos. But in Matthew 12:29, oikos does not refer to a physical dwelling place but to the family. For example, in Acts 16:30-31 the Philippian jailers asked Paul what he must do to be saved. Paul said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household [oikos].” Obviously, Paul was not saying the physical structure in which the jailer lived would be saved; he was referring to the man’s family and extended household.

 

 So when the enemy comes to plunder your house (oikos), he is after your family. His purpose is to devastate your marriage, children, and grandchildren. But to do so, he must first bind the strongman. Who is the strongman of your house? The husband is the strongman to the wife, and both parents are strongmen to the children. Thus in any area of life in which the enemy can bind or access the parents, he can bind or access the children.

Satan, being a legalist, understand the universal law of God and the principles of authority. Thus the devil and every demonic spirit know they cannot attack children who abide under the authority of their parents; they must go through the parents to get to the kids. Sadly, if parents are blind to Satan’s devices, or if they don’t understand their role as strongman, the enemy may get direct access to the hearts and lives of their children through the doors they unwittingly open (Hosea 4:6).

 

 Let me give you a few practical example of the strongman principle at work. Suppose a father is driving recklessly with his three-year-old son and two-year-old daughter strapped in the backseat. Just as he turns around a sharp curve, a rabbit runs out in front of the car, causing him to swerve and lose control of the car. The car crashes, and the father and his two young children are killed.

 

 In this case it is clear that the two children died because of their father’s actions. It was not the children’s fault; they had no choice in the matter. A father driving his car recklessly with his children inside exposes them to danger. The father was charged by God to serve and protect his children, but in this case he did not do so. This is unfair, but it is how life works. Children are indeed exposed to benefit or destruction based on their parents’ choices.

Let me give you a couple of other physical examples of the responsibility parents have to discern danger and establish protective boundaries for their children. Toddlers in general have no true understanding of gravity, traffic, or poison. God, being very smart, placed protective agents in the lives of these children who are supposed to have more understanding of the dangers in the world than the children. Of course these agents are called parents.

 

 Therefore a loving and wise parent establishes protective boundaries to restrain unaware children from harm. Wise parents may build a fence with a locked gate around the lawn of their home to restrain a small child from running into a busy street and risk getting hit by a car. Likewise the parent may place a gate at the top of a staircase to the basement to keep a toddler from falling down the stairs and injuring himself. A parent may place potentially poisonous medicines in a locked cabinet to prevent a child from drinking lethal substances. These locked gates and cabinets may be inconveni-

ent for the parents but are there for the sake of the children.

 

 Suppose, however, that parents did not understand the danger of traffic, gravity, or poison. Those parents likely would not establish or maintain protective boundaries for their children to guard their children from these threats. It’s clear that the children of these uniformed parents are at great risk of harm, and many will perish simply because their parents lack understanding. I believe this paints an accurate picture of the situation in many families today.

Most parents understand the importance of establishing physical boundaries for their children, but many seem oblivious to the need for them to also establish the spiritual boundaries to protect their children. Through the years I have heard a certain type of testimony again and again. A father on a business trip finds himself alone in his hotel room facing a lot of pressure from his work and feeling a little unappreciated. He turns on the TV and begins to channel surf. Soon he has stumbled across a pornographic movie and is enticed to watch it. Aferward he feels guilty, and the next morning he asks God to forgive him.

 

 Question: Has this father’s choices affected anyone other than himself? Answer: Absolutely! As a father he is a spiritual strongman to his wife and children. Satan can access a godly parent’s child in the area in which he can bind the parent. Yet the father in my example has no understanding of his role as a spiritiaul strongman for his children. Therefore he is both surprised and devastated a few weeks later when he and his wife learn their thirteen-year-old daugther has been sexting“ (sending and receiving text messages with lewd photos attached) with boys in the church youth group.

“How could this have happened?” he wonders. The enemy succeeded in binding the father in the area of lust, and through that opened door Satan accessed the daughter. In 1 Pet. 5:8 the Bible tells us that our adversary, Satan, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Without realizing it, this father opened a door that allowed the roaring lion to devour his daughter. It is important for this father to now close the spiritual door he opened by repenting of his actions before God; then he must take back the ground in his life and in his children’s lives that he gave over to the enemy.

 

 God established many protective boundaries for families by means of ceremonies, traditions, and cultural values, but our society has, for the most part, abandoned them because we have not understood their purpose. Many of these ceremonies, traditions, and values were thought to be purposeless and inconvenient, even by Christians. Parents just did not realize that these traditions created or maintained a hedge of spiritual protection around their families.

In reality, a family is a spiritual entity, not just a collection of people living under one roof. There is a type of spiritual glue that unites a family, just as there is a type of “nuclear glue” that bonds the particles of an atom together. When an atom is split, it does not affect just that one atom. The split initiates a chain reaction with far-reaching and often devastating consequences, as this process produces energy that can drive the explosion of nuclear weapons. A similar principle is at work in a family. There is spiritual protection within the confines of a family, and if there is a break, the consequences are far-reaching and potentially devastating.

 

 I promised I would go into more detail about the importance of the marriage covenant. Many people seem to think marriage is a somewhat antiquated concept, nothing more than a legal piece of paper. This is not at all true spiritually. I believe that if a legitimate covenant of marriage ceremony could be recorded with a spiritual video camera, we would see two things happening in the spirit realm. I believe we would see somemthing like the creation of a new atom that previously had not existed.

 

 First, we would see two separate families (atoms), each with their own nuclear glue and spiritual hedge of protection. Then in the ceremony, in a right and healthy way, the young man (one atomic particle) would be severed from his parents (the atom) and a young woman (another atomic particle from a separate atom) would be severed from her parents (a second atom). This is described in Gen. 2:24: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother.”

Second, when the pastor or presiding authority proclaims, “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife,” I believe that spiritual video camera would record the creation of a brand-new-family (atom) that now has its own glue and spiritual hedge of protection. This part of the process is also described in Gen. 2:24 when it says the man will “be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” I believe the phrase “one flesh” is referring to this newly created spiritual entity.

 

 Let’s now put this into the context of the spiritual battle in which we are currently engaged. As mentioned earlier, God’s plan is to empower everyone to fulfill his God-given purpose and destiny, while Satan’s plan is to destroy everyone’s identity and destiny. Hence a spiritual battle rages for access to each person’s life from the day of his conception. How well do you think a toddler or, worse yet, a child in the womb can understand spiritual warfare and protect himself from demonic entities? Not at all! The child is defenseless.

So a baby in the womb has no chance to even understand the ravenous lion seeking to destroy his life. God, being real smart, understood this and provided His agents to preserve and protect the life of this child. Again, these agents are called parents. God intended for parents to understand the spiritual threats against their family and their role in establishing a spiritually protective hedge for their children through the covenant of marriage.

Children conceived outside the marriage covenant have no spiritual protection. Even many Christians don’t realize that the covenant of marriage is the spiritual hedge that protects unborn children from demonic access. It is so muchy more than a piece of paper.

 

 From a spiritual warfare standpoint, a child conceived outside the covenant of marriage is completely exposed and vulnerable, similar to a child sitting on top pf a pile of bricks in a war zone. A child conceived within the protective bounds of marriage, on the other hand, is much like child inside a brick fort in a war zone. If your children are indeed found in a war zone with a brutal enemy seeking to destroy them, would you rather they be enclosed in a fortified brick castle or just sitting on a pile of bricks totally exposed to the enemy?

 

 I have had some teens say to me, “I don’t see what’s wrong with sleeping with my girlfriend if we really love each other and we are committed to getting married.” They don’t realize it, but they’ve already stated the problem: they don’t see what’s wrong. Many people don’t see longer-term or generational consequences to their choices. This is why God gave us written instructions in His Owner’s Manual, the Bible.

While some people are busy seeing what it’s like to violate

God’s instructions, they are potentially opening doors to the demonic realm in their own lives and in the lives of their children. Unfortunately most people never do corelate the subsequent fruit in the lives of their children or future generations with the seed they sowed in their generation.

 

 “You mean to tell me, Pastor, that there is a difference between whether I engage in sexual intercourse with my fiancee five minutes before the wedding ceremony or with my wife five minutes after the ceremony?” When young people ask me this, I have had to tell them, “Absolutely – especially if a child is conceived.” That wedding ceremony is not just a formality; it is a spiritual reality. It creates a spiritual hedge of protection both for the couple and any children they may conceive. I’ve seen many people who have violated this principle weep bitterly when they realized the consequences of their selfish choices. I first learned this lesson through a dramatic encounter with one family several years ago.