Doorways in Childhood
"Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." — Mark 10:14
The Early Contact
There is a pattern observed again and again in this work:
Demons appear to make a specific effort to establish contact in nearly every child's life at an early age.
Almost everyone — believer and unbeliever alike — can describe one strange event from their early years that was clearly not ordinary. Usually it is remembered as a particularly vivid nightmare that the person insists was not really a dream.
A boy of four or five wakes to see figures ranged along his bookshelves, shooting arrows at him. He runs to his parents' room — the only time in his life he can remember doing so. They call it a nightmare.
A girl of four watches something walk across her bedroom and down the hall into her parents' room. They do not wake. When she tells them the next day, they say it was a dream.
A boy simply knows something is in the closet and cannot sleep unless the door is shut.
Another wakes feeling something under the bed, and finds himself unable to move or call out.
In several of these cases the child, told repeatedly that it was only a dream and left to cope alone, eventually starts talking to the thing that frightens them. Fear disappears. Contact is established. And in more than one case, that child later entered occult practice easily, because communication had been open since infancy.
The Question Worth Asking
What would have happened if the parents had been alert?
A child terrified nightly, whose parents pray with him, anoint him, cleanse and seal the bedroom, and teach him to rebuke what frightens him in the name of Jesus — that child's life takes a different course.
A Six-Year-Old Who Was Set Free
A boy of six was brought to a doctor because of nightly nightmares that had not responded to psychiatric treatment. For several years he had woken screaming every night, plainly terrified. His parents were not believers.
With his mother's permission, he was anointed and prayed over. Everything was commanded to leave him in the name of Jesus, and the Lord was asked to shield and protect him.
Then the gospel was presented simply, and he prayed and made Jesus his Savior.
Finally he was taught one thing: whenever anything frightened him, he should simply say, "Jesus, help me."
His nightmares ended immediately, and the rest of the family eventually came to the Lord through what happened in his life.
His mother said that now and then she would wake at night and hear his small voice saying: "Jesus help me — go away you nasty thing, Jesus won't let you hurt me, I'm not afraid of you any more."
Children can learn spiritual warfare at very young ages. They have a simple faith through which the Lord works powerfully.
And What Fills Their Rooms
It is no accident that so many children's entertainments and toys contain replicas of demonic figures.
These condition children to the appearance of such beings so that they more easily accept them and make contact. As children play, imagining the figures in action, they begin to make contact with the spirit world.
Point to Ponder
Told it was only a dream and left to cope alone, the child eventually starts talking to what frightens them. Then the fear goes.
Verse to Remember
"Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." — Mark 10:14
Question to Consider
What do I remember from my own early childhood that I have always called a nightmare?
Today's Practice
For yourself: write down any strange early memory — a vivid figure, a presence, paralysis, something in the closet or under the bed. Ask the Lord to show you the truth about it. Where it was genuine contact, close the doorway:
"Father, I confess that contact was made with me as a child and I did not know what it was. Close that doorway forever with the blood of Jesus Christ, and in His name I command anything that gained access through it to leave me now and never return."
For your children:
Take their fears seriously. If a child is afraid to sleep because of something in the closet or under the bed, do not dismiss it. They may be experiencing something real.
Pray with them every night as you put them to bed, asking the Lord to shield and protect them.
Anoint the child and anoint, cleanse, and seal the bedroom. This alone usually resolves the problem.
Teach them to rebuke it themselves, in words they can use: "Jesus, help me. Go away — Jesus won't let you hurt me."
And look at what is in the room. Toys, images, screens. What has been given house room next to where they sleep?
Prayer
Father, I was a child once, and something came to me, and everyone told me it was a dream.
Show me the truth about it, and close whatever was opened.
And for the children You have entrusted to me — make me alert. Do not let me dismiss their fears as imagination when something real is happening in their room.
Teach me to pray with them, to anoint them, to seal their rooms, and to give them words they can use themselves.
Let them learn early that Your name is enough. Let them go to sleep unafraid because they know who is with them.
Suffer the little children to come to You. Keep the door open to You and shut to everything else.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
"Jesus help me — go away you nasty thing, Jesus won't let you hurt me." A six-year-old learned that, and it worked.