 Parenting on purpose, parenting with intention. And the title of my message is Raising Warriors. And I can't help but think that this series in this month is so prophetic for our church, for our generation, and what is happening in society. We can't turn a blind eye and think that what is happening in our society is not affecting the families and the next generation. We can't turn a blind eye from that. We see that the enemy knows. He has a strategy, and he's after the children. He is after the next generation because he understands that the next generation is what the future is, what the future will hold. It is them that will be able to be the carriers of God's glory, amen? That we are not the people that are the tail or beneath. We are the head and we are the above, amen? And that is God wanting to position us as the parents here. And I know that many of us have maybe different walks of life right now, different seasons. Maybe some of you guys are in the season of changing diapers or taking your kid to college. Whatever season you are in, if you're in the middle of teenagers or children about to have kids or do not have kids yet, I want you to know that this message is for you, that all of us have a part and role to play to be an influence. If you're an aunt, if you're an uncle, if you're a friend, if you are someone that is around the next generation, even if you are leaders today that are being life group leaders that is helping the youth, that is helping the children, I want you to know this message is for you and that when the Word of God, I pray that as the Word of God is being spoken, it will touch you, amen? So I hope our hearts will be open to hear this message and to receive and for it to be imparted into you. As I just shared just a few thoughts, I have four E's to share with you that are tools and strategies that really have inspired me throughout my years of raising my kids so far that I really believe will bless you. This is not in any chronological order or order of importance, it's just how I'm going to bring the message to you, all right? So we're going to go ahead and start from Psalms 127 verse 3. So the first E that I want to just share with you is the number one is to embrace the kingdom mindset. Embrace the kingdom mindset. I couldn't say that in many of us have maybe experienced through social media, through society today, maybe even friends or people that you know that say that children are a burden, that they are a problem and inconvenience. Am I right? Maybe some of you have heard. I mean, throughout my, when I was in my 20s, I couldn't hear anything really good about children, people that were close to me in my family perspective and even in my coworkers, when I was going to school, they're like, I love my kid, but don't have them. Have any of you ever heard that? I love my child, but do yourself a favor and don't have them. And I couldn't comprehend this mentality. And as I would go on TikTok and the reason why is because I want to be, I want to know what's going on in society today because I have three beautiful, mighty women of God that I'm raising, and so I want to be relevant and I want to know what's going on right now so that I can be alert, that I can be attentive, and I can know what's happening. And one of the things that I keep coming across in social media is this mentality that children are a burden, that they are the ones that take from you. They take away from your career. They take away from your potential. They're the ones that will pause your potential and they take everything from you. And I know that many of us have heard that from one year to another, or some of us have slowly begin to believe that lie. I want to share my personal testimony. I've shared it in various ways and internship and things like that, but I want to share with you how it seeped into my mentality in the 20s. I began to truly believe that because that was always what I heard. I heard that they were a burden, that they were a bother, and that they're just going to take from me. They're going to take my potential from growing in my career or causing me to slow down. And over the 20s, I recognized and realized that I was having a bad stronghold. And I realized that I began to believe what society believed and what people were telling me. And I knew and realized that through the help of my husband and through the word of God and repenting, I said, God, I can't believe that this is true. Because there's a scripture in Psalms 127 that says that we have bought into a lie. And in Psalms 127, verse three, it says, children are a heritage from the Lord. And offspring, a reward from Him. Children are an inheritance and a reward, a blessing. So if my mentality and my confession is that they exhaust me, that they are a burden, that they're the ones that stop me, means that I am professing a demonic lie. That what my mindset, my attitude does not align with the word of God. So that means I have adapted to society and not to the word of God. And so for me, this is where I would start to realize, I said, Lord, forgive me for having this mentality. May I embrace the kingdom mindset that my children are an inheritance, that my children are a blessing and a reward. They are not a burden. I am not saying that they are easy all the time. I am not saying that you're not gonna lose sleep. I'm not saying that it isn't hard. But what is not hard that isn't good? Right? Work is hard. Marriage is hard. But when you work it through, the reward, come on. The benefit, the inheritance, the legacy that God is wanting to place inside of you so that you place it within them, amen? So the enemy wants us to begin to feel, believe, speak, and profess that our children are a burden. That they are the ones that bring problems, not a blessing. And that is a demonic lie. It does not align with the scriptures. And so in my 20s, I began to really repent and work on my mindset. And I realized how enemy does this to us so that he robs us of our blessing, because it is the absolute best thing I could ever have had is being a mother, amen? The beautiful blessing. And I know many of us feel like that, but through circumstances, the enemy robs us. Now, if we truly believe that children are a burden and we have this mindset, we will not be able to raise warriors. We will raise victims. And if we truly believe that they are a burden, they will not only believe they are a burden, but they will be burdened to leaders. Because we have given them, and the thing, this is what's dangerous. I ask myself, why is it that so many people think that children are a burden? Where did it come from? From two things. One is because they were raised as a burden. And number two is because society told them so. The reason sometimes we have adapted to believing that children are a burden at trouble is because that's how they were raised. Because the thing is, is that children can feel it. Children can feel that, mom, am I a blessing to you or a burden? See, the thing that's very interesting is because children are very sensitive. They can feel. And my children would sometimes ask me in different occasions and say, mama, do you love being a mom? They literally would ask me, do you love being a mom? And I'm like, absolutely. And I'm like, and I would ask them back. I'm like, do you see that? Do you feel that I love being a mom? Because that's important, because I could say that all day. But if they don't feel it or see it, there's a disconnect, am I right? And so I would ask them and they said, yes, mama. And then they would ask me when I'm being firm and I'm disciplining them. And they're like, mom, do you still love being a mom? And I was like, yes, but I'm being firm with you right now because I'm doing some discipline right now. Okay, that's different. But that doesn't mean I don't love being a mom. And so the children are sensitive and they can pick up on that. They can pick up on your attitude. They can pick up on the things that you say and the atmosphere that you create. So we got to embrace the mindset of the kingdom. Embrace it completely. And the reason why I say that is that we have not fully embraced the kingdom mindset if children are absent in it. We have not fully embraced the kingdom mindset if children are absent in it. What I mean to say that is that if we don't realize they are a focal point, if they are not part of the vision, if they're not part of the purpose, if they are not part of what we're going for, which is the next generation, which is salvation, which is to bring the kingdom of God on earth, amen. And there's a scripture for that. It says in Matthew 19, verse 13, it says, one day some parents, and this is powerful, this is a powerful scripture, where it really aligns that if we don't have children that are in part of the vision, then we have not fully grasped the kingdom mindset. There was this moment in Matthew chapter 19, verse 13, where parents brought their children to Jesus and disciples rebuked them. Let's read it. One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could lay his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering them. The other translation said, rebuke. But Jesus said, let the children come to me. Don't stop them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are like these children. Isn't that powerful? That the disciples decided to rebuke the parents, but Jesus rebuked the disciples for rebuking the children. Jesus rebuked the disciples. He says, do not get in the way. This is what's dangerous. We can get in the way for our children to come to him because the mentality that they are a bother. They said they are bothering him. Did you see that? Because the children are going to bother Jesus. They're bothering what we're doing. They're bothering the ministry. They're bothering the flow. When we begin to accept that, we are the ones that are coming in the way of them coming to Jesus. And Jesus is the one saying, don't rebuke them for they are the ones that hold the kingdom of heaven. That what does that say? For the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. So my first E is embrace the kingdom mindset. The full kingdom mindset meaning that the children cannot be absent from them. They're the next generation. They're the ones. We have to have this mentality and intentionality that we're raising our children with significance. That we're raising them up as warriors, amen. That they are being raised with a purpose and with an intent to save the next generation. But they're not going to be victims, come on. The enemy wants us as parents to be set up to think us as victims. If we think as victims, they will become victims. But we must operate in the fact that we have the victory, not fighting for the victory. We're operating with the victory, amen. So number one, embrace the kingdom mindset. The second E that I wanna talk about is expose, exposure. And the reason why this is a powerful tool is because the enemy is after our children to be exposed at an early age. As you can see right now, the years are becoming younger and younger where they're exposed to porn, drugs, alcohol. It's only about exposure. See, the thing is, is that the enemy wants to steal the innocence, the pure of heart. So before they're even made in their core belief system, he wants to disrupt it, pervert it, cause doubt, cause fear. He wants for them to be exposed to fear, disappointment, trauma, grief, suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety. He wants them to be exposed to that before they can be exposed to the power of God. So it is our duty, our responsibility as parents, as influencers of the kids' lives is to expose that Jesus is greater. That God is power. Amen. That he is more powerful than the enemy, the more powerful than the pain that has been caused to expose them little by little. And I said this in the last service and I'm gonna say this again, based on you as a parent on your discretion, on your discernment, and on what you feel Holy Spirit's leading to you that you slowly start exposing them to the things that you see here in the prayer line. For them to see that when the name of Jesus is being said, demons must obey. They come out. They fear the name of Jesus. They must understand that Jesus has already won. That we're not hoping to win. We already have won, amen. Very good. They have to see and be exposed little by little. And because they're like sponges, which is incredible because sometimes in our pastoral, what's it called, chat, we see videos or pictures of the little kids casting out their brother or sister, saying out in the name of Jesus. They're practicing already what they see here. Come on. They're already doing and maybe practicing on their siblings, my girls do that to each other. And I'm like, okay, you guys are just fighting, but it's incredible to see that what they see, they will do, the exposure, the exposure. And the enemy knows, he wants to do it through at such a young age, even with Disney, little by little start to brainwash them in public schools, in media, in all those avenues. So we must come back a full throttle and say, you know what, before you do that damage, I'm gonna damage you in the name of Jesus and I'm gonna expose them. I'm gonna show them that the name of Jesus is greater. And some people may say like, why would you expose them to such fear and all of that? As I said, upon your discretion, and as you as a parent, when you feel that it's right, I want you to also know, and you all, we all know that there's a craving that's occurring in our society for the supernatural. That when you say it's too young or why would you expose your children to this? But you know what, Harry Potter is not stopping. The witchcraft in the stores are not stopping. The new age in the crystals, where I have to tell my children, do not touch that now, in stores with stuffed animals. Where there's cytanic things in witchcraft and Wicca things that are slowly causing it to come as a little toy. That there's a Barbie, what do you call it? Weegee board. There's a Barbie Weegee board. So now I have to be even more attentive and more alert than ever before that they don't even touch the stuff at stores that I think are safe. So for us to say, no, we shouldn't expose them. No, no, we need to expose them and tell them that this is the demons, that this is the devil and this is Jesus, that this is the light and this is the darkness, this is the fear and this is the faith, this is the truth and that's the lie. We need to make sure to have them understand the difference, that it's clear as day, exposure. Expose them to the truth, expose them. And I have few practical steps for you that I think that will benefit on how do we do this on the step of depending on their age? And the number one is testimonies, is practical steps. The number one is testimonies prophesied the future. You know, testimonies are powerful for our faith, amen, and they're powerful for them to believe that God can heal, that God can deliver, God can bring a breakthrough, that when we pray, He answers. And so not only when sometimes my husband and I would travel and we traveled to Philippines, I would come back home and I would begin to testify to them while I witnessed. And I said, hey, did you, I wanna tell you what happened. This person got healed with this. This person got out of the wheelchair. They're back aligned, this and that. Did you know that we tried praying for someone that had issues with eyesight and now it's become that they can see? You know, slowly but surely telling them, having them witness us showing testimonies, the testimonies that happen here, amen, testify. Showing testimonies, it's exposing the power of God. It is exposing them and planting those seeds, amen. The number two is personal stories, storytelling. You know, in Deuteronomy, it gives us a great insight of Israel that they cultivated a culture of curiosity, that the children would ask, who is this God that split the Red Sea? Who is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? They cultivated a curiosity in the children to ask questions because through storytelling, through telling that you must tell this, you must tell them in remembrance that this has happened, that the Red Sea got split. In Deuteronomy 4a, it tells us that, tell this to your grandkids and to your grandsons that they cultivated this storytelling. To tell them, why is God so good to you? Why do you love God so much? Why are you committed? Is it because of religion? No, you tell them God touched me. And you start to telling them, God answered my prayer here. He healed my soul. He prayed for me. He did this for me, did that for me. He saved me from here. And you begin to tell him, why you love God so much? Why do you read the Bible, Mom? Why do you go to church? Why do we do church? Why are we there all the time? You know, all these things, they tell them why you're sold out. He's my best friend, storytelling, telling it personally to them. Don't be afraid to tell your children what God has done for you. Don't hold it back. Tell them storytelling. The third one is open conversations. They're gonna have questions, very interesting questions. You know, my daughters would ask me at times, Mom, how many boyfriends can I have until I get married? You know, and I'm like, what on earth? Like, where did you get this? And they would ask me all of these things and I would go back to God and I said, God, you got to give me a good, solid answer. Like, do I just say five? You know, like, what do I, I'm just kidding. But like, I really had to give them an explanation in the childlike manner that, what will work for them? So they have an understanding that they understand this is the truth, not just because Mama said so. And so the open conversations, don't hide the answers from them. Allow them to come to you. Allow them to ask you the hard questions. Don't say, well, I don't know, I don't care. Tell them, if you don't know, that's all right. Just say, you know what? I'm gonna pray about that and I'm gonna come back to you so that you can give them a wholesome answer. And Google.com is not far from reach. You know, I do that a lot. I'm kidding, with facts more like when they tell me, why does the sun do this? Why does the moon do this? I'm like, hmm, I don't remember what fourth grade told me, so I'm just gonna Google it real quick and I do that all the time. But when it comes to wholesome questions, we have to give wholesome answers. Take it to the Lord. Ask Holy Spirit to give you ideas. And I didn't know how to answer that 10 boyfriend question, okay? I had no idea what's the right answer, how to go about it in their childlike mind. And God gave me that divine example and I said, how many hearts do you have? And they said one. And I said, well, you have only one heart to give. And in that time, you give it to your father so that he holds it in the time of the altar. That's why the father hands over the wife, hands over the daughter. And I was like, you don't have all the hearts to give. You only have one heart to give. And so that's why we don't have boyfriends. That's why we don't have girlfriends, amen. Cause you only have one heart to give. And God doesn't want you to have a broken heart. And so they're very smart. They're like, well, what if the relationship doesn't work out? You know, and I'm like, like, you know, you're dating and you don't wanna marry them. And I was like, well, you don't give them your heart. You're dating them. And so I'm like, geez, like, they just keep going and going and going. But that was not me. I'm like, I knew that was God's divine example. Cause there's no other way to maneuver. But for them to understand truly, we must have a whole heart to give. And it's not for everybody, amen. It's just for your spouse that God has designed for you. So open conversation, open dialogue, ask Holy Spirit for inspiration. He will give them to you. You know, my daughter asked me, Mom, why don't we celebrate Halloween? And we cannot, and Pastor Brittany did such a wonderful job of saying, because I said so, for us to avoid that, because it causes them to try to find the answers in the world. And we don't want that. We want to be the ones to bring them an answer, amen. Because we have Jesus. We should have wisdom. We should have knowledge. Come on, we read the word of God. We should have depth of being able to answer certain questions. And so she's like, well, why don't we celebrate Halloween? And Halloween is very, how do I say alluring for children? Candy, dress up, fun. Like, how dare you, Mom, rob me of such joy, right? You know, and if I just said, because that's just how we do it, they would have not been satisfied. They would have kind of built a little bit of a wall and bitterness and wished to be like the world. And I don't want them to wish to be like the world. I want them to be able to pull the world, you know, to what they have the way they live. And so we dived in deep. And I said, I used some examples. They had a couple of nightmare attacks, some fear situations. And I said, do you remember that time you were scared? You had a nightmare. And then you had this and this. And they're like, yeah. And I was like, do you want more nightmares? Do you want more fear? We don't celebrate darkness. Halloween is darkness, it's witchcraft. It's, they want to make it look innocent, but it's demonic. And so I told them, I'm like, witches are there. Darkness is there. You're celebrating fear. You're celebrating darkness. And we don't celebrate darkness. And so slowly, but surely, I would chip away and try to do in different ways so that they would understand that it's not Halloween, it's darkness. It's demons. It's demonic. Made it clear as day for them. So when my Emma went to preschool, she was like, Mom, I told everybody that it's darkness and they should not celebrate Halloween. I said, you can't do it. And they all looked at me weird, Mom. And I was like, well, that's my Emma. And then Ellie, she was like, I'm the only one that doesn't celebrate Halloween in my class. And I asked her, I'm like, are you okay with that? She said, yeah, I don't want to celebrate darkness. And I'm trying to get them to be convinced that it's demons. They'll get demons. So, and she took it even further and said, you're gonna get demons if you celebrate. And I was like, okay, okay, like, don't, she's like, they're going to hell, Mom. Will she be going? And I was like, okay, well, we'll talk about theory and all of that later. Like, but I was like, don't say that to people, babe. Like, don't say that, but it's so powerful that they truly will accept what you are telling them when you don't hide the answers or avoid telling them. But you slowly and kindly ask Holy Spirit to help you answer the questions that they're asking for, amen. Don't doubt your parenting. You are their parent. God gave them to you. You have authority and influence. That is the reason why God gave them to you, amen. So for us, sometimes we doubt, well, I don't have the right answer. No, you ask Holy Spirit for inspiration. I assure you, he will meet you. Amen, ask him, invite him to give you the right things to say. Open conversations, music, books, videos. This is all over and this is something very challenging right now, even for all of us, is that there's so much that they're absorbing into them. And I have significantly prayed and I encourage each and every one of you. I downloaded Pureflex and it's no Netflix, okay? It's no Netflix, but it's powerful. And I prayed specifically. I said, God, I pray that you will help me land certain movies that will inspire them, that will speak to them at their level. And then I started finding these movies of their age kids praying for healing, praying for kids that would be coming out of wheelchairs and they were absorbing all of this. They were absorbing the miracles and they began to ask me, mom, is this possible? Can God use me in this way? Can I do it? And now they're like, I wanna do that. That's what I want to do. And it's powerful because that is what called us all to do and for that to begin to be imparted in their identity and their core belief that God can use them even at a young age. Amen. So ask Holy Spirit to give you the right music, the right things to be able to have them. Ask the questions. Ask them, is this possible? Is this real? So that there's a dialogue that's open. Amen. Is this blessing anybody? Come on. The last one for practical step is showing them you read the word. Exposure. Some ministers that I've read it through books do this. Now, it almost feels like a setup, but it's not. You know, we pray, we read, we praise God. Expose it, show off in front of them. And I say that in the sense where you don't, we have our secret place, we have our hidden time with the Lord. But do it intentionally. This is intentional parenting where they see that you read the Bible. They see that you lift up your hands and praise Jesus when times are hard but you just want to because you know who he is that they see that you pray. Let them see. Expose them. And I would hear ministers like Bill Johnson, Danny Silk and these great men and women of God that they would do it on purpose so that they always saw what they did. So they knew that, mom, why do you read the Bible? Why do you do this? Why do you do that? So they ask, it pulls them in. Does that make sense? And so that was another practical step is showing off that you love Jesus. So the next E. So the first one is embrace the kingdom mindset. The second one is expose. And the third one is experience, is encounter. And the practical step that I want to encourage each and every one of you is that we have the power to create opportunities for them to encounter Jesus. We as parents carry the authority to charge the home atmosphere, to charge the car atmosphere or wherever you go that you are able to change and shift things that you're able to maneuver and allow for them to get touched by God. See, the thing is, is that we don't want to force God on them. We want to invite them. We want for them to get connected for them to freely come to Jesus, amen. And I want to take this just deeper with a couple of examples that happened. This happened a few years back and my oldest daughter, she's eight now. This was the time when she was six. I was taking her to kindergarten. And on my way driving them to school, I would turn on certain worship music, praise music. But this time around, I was fixated with Carrie Job speak to me song. Such a beautiful song and I just had it on replay. And I just kept playing it, playing it. And on this very interesting special day, and I was playing it and just having my time with the Lord as I'm driving, I turn around and I hear my alley is crying and she's saying, mommy, what's happening to me? I'm feeling something. What is this? And what's going on? And I tried my best not to say this in tears, but what happened is I created an opportunity for Jesus to encounter her right in that car. All it was was just worship music, just doing what you're regularly doing. I wasn't forcing it. I wasn't telling her to raise her hands. It was just creating and cultivating that culture, creating that atmosphere right in the car as I was taking her to school. And at that moment, at six years old, she was able to, she didn't know what it was. That was my opportunity to, not only for her to experience, but my opportunity to tell her, hey, this is Jesus. This is His presence and the seed was sown. Come on. And then things started to happen. Then she got baptized, spoke in tongues on an unashamed conference. Just those moments where we're causing them to be exposed and for them to have those encounters. I want you to know is that we as parents have the authority to cause and cultivate for them to have an opportunity to experience God. The enemy wants them to experience fear. He wants them to experience doubt. He wants all of that. But I want you to know there's power in your prayer. There is power in how you go about things because you are the authority and say, not in my house, devil, the atmosphere is here for God, for Holy Spirit to touch them. And so when there's heaviness in your home or you feel it, you turn on that worship music, you turn on that praise, and then the atmosphere shifts because then we get to understand that he's the king of kings and the Lord of lords. And then you remember that you're not a victim, you're a victor. Sometimes we need that reminder. So I want you to know is that you can charge the atmosphere because you are their parents and you are the carrier of his glory and you want them to carry his glory. And so I sit in the car in your behavior of your everyday. So when they go about, you're doing grocery shopping, you're running errands, you're going to and fro from work, use those opportunities for God just to do something. And you want them to experience the love of God and also for the love of people. I would, I started asking Holy Spirit to use me even in the grocery stores. I'm like, God, let me be an example to the girls. Help me to be an opportunity for them to see that we as individuals are solutions, that we are problem solvers. We don't bring problems. So we solve problems because we have Jesus. And so I would have opportunities that I know I knew God did it where, and I'm saying this as an examples, there'd be times where I'm standing in the grocery store line and someone in front of me did not have enough money. They didn't have their card work. And so I came up to them and I said, I'm like, I just want to bless you. Just no strings attached. I just want to bless you. God loves you and just leave it at that. And my girls were watching and they were seeing and through that those were opportunities in the everyday, in the everyday where you just allow Holy Spirit to use you in the slightest smallest to the greatest. It doesn't matter, but allow Holy Spirit to use you. And in those moments they would see. So now when they see the homeless, even though again, that's for a different discussion, they're like, mom, help them. We have a solution. We have money. They think different. They see it differently that they are a helping hand to the people, amen. We can cause that to happen for those experiences and those encounters as Holy Spirit for them and He will meet you at the grocery store. He'll meet you in the car. He'll meet you in your living room. He'll meet you in the kitchen. Wherever it is, He will cause and bring those encounters. The last one here for practical steps is the nightlife. I want to talk about this just slightly, dreams versus nightmares. See, the enemy wants to cause timidity in us, in our children, to remove the boldness and the courageous spirit that He's established inside of us. For He has called us, for the righteous are bold as lions, amen, that is a promise in the scriptures. But what He wants to do is to create a place where He says, I know that the night season is a vulnerable time to attack. And so He want, and when you're sleeping, He wants to attack. And I would hear when I would work in the hospital that a lot of times in the pediatric floor, they would say, my kid is having nightmares constantly. And that what they would say and say, oh, that's just very normal at that age and at that stage. Well, I don't want it to be normal. I don't want them to be in the constant place of fear because it affects them in the day. It starts to affect them in their personality. It starts to make them feel like victims and timid. And that's not what God wants. He wants us to raise them up as warriors, as people that are gonna lead, amen, with boldness, knowing that God is on their side. And what I started to do with Elia, my husband, we started to pray that God would encounter them at night, give them angelic, I'm like, because my Emma was starting to get attacked in the night, she would get constant nightmares. And I'm like, no, not today, Satan, that is not gonna happen in my home. Because I know I came from constant nightmares growing up and I did not want that for her. So we stood in the gap and we started praying and asking Lord, we pray for visitations. We pray for you to encounter them in their dreams, give them prophetic direction, give them the insight that you want, just speak to them, let them know that you are real through their dreams. And we started to pray over the night life. And my daughter, Ellie, just turned eight this year. My husband and I were, as we were praying for her eighth year, we felt something was special was going to happen. We didn't know exactly what, but we had this feeling, this impression that she's gonna encounter Jesus in some way. And I would say about a month later, so she woke up and she said, Mom, Jesus came into my dream. I met Jesus and he said that he's going to visit me again when I'm 21. And he gave me a gift and he said, this gift is Adeline and I want you to watch over her. And we were like tearing up and we were so blown away. We were like, what is this? And it's so beautiful because it reminds me of that scripture where sometimes we want to rebuke what God is doing, but Jesus rebuke the disciples. He says, let them come to me. Let me go, let them come to me. That we don't get in the way of what God wants to do in them. That he wants to meet and encounter them in the night. He wants to encounter them in the car, in the day. When they come to service, when they see things, when they go to kid zone, he wants them to experience him, that he is real, that their core belief is that my God answers prayers, that my God heals, that my God saves, that he is greater than the devil, amen. That he is greater than any scheme of the enemy that could ever do. And slowly but surely in these examples that I'm just giving you is that little by little, their beginning seeds are being implanted in them, believing that God exists. That it's not the God that I serve, it becomes my God. That this God met me in my dream. He's establishing me, amen, that I'm not forcing, we're not forcing on it, but we're inviting the Lord. I'm like, God, you know them. You know how to get to them. You know their heart. I'm giving you permission, come in their dreams. Come in the car, whatever way you need to. I pray for your encounters to happen. I encourage each and every one of you that you begin to pray and ask God, help encounter my children, wherever they're at. If they are teenagers, if they are wherever, that you would have them, your prayers will go to them in the name of Jesus, that God hears our prayers and he knows that when you pray, things shift, amen, and opportunities will occur. And the last one is the E is equip, is equip. You know, we are their first teacher and I know I mentioned it a little bit earlier, but being parents, we carry the responsibility of teaching them. We carry that responsibility. We are their teachers first. And I just wanna give just a five practical, four practical steps real quick. Is number one is prayer. Is, this is a tool to equip them that they understand that when you pray, when you knock, he shall open the door. When you say Jesus, he's there. That they know that there's power in prayer, that there's a tool, that if you are in urgency, if you are sick, that we can pray. And to create that attitude that they see you pray, why do we pray as a church? There's power in prayer, that we tell them that and equipping them, hey, let's pray together in the night. You know, even before today, I got my girls and I said, girls, can you pray for me? I'm gonna preach today and I just want you guys to bless me. And it was just really funny. They both prayed the same thing. They said, God, please don't let her mess up, amen. And I was like, okay, amen. And then Emma preached the exact same thing. I was like, thanks, you guys. But anyways, it was just, it was so funny. But, because they saw a couple years back, we did the bloopers, 2021 or something. And they're like, you messed up that time. We really hope you don't mess up this time. And so the cutest thing, but anyways, but prayer, cultivating. And I would invite them as I was believing for something. If we were believing for a breakthrough financially, I invited them in their mind to just be like, hey, can you stand with us? Let's pray together. Let's pray for this. And I would report back to them. I said, did you know that prayer worked? I'm like, that prayer worked, I let them know that. The same thing with praise. That's another thing to equip them in. That we praise the king of kings and the Lord of lords. That he is our Alpha and our Omega. That he has no rival. That he is no one to be compared to. He's our majestic God. He's the one that we serve. He is our savior. And to show them and express to them the power of worship, that it's a tool, that the enemy hates our praise. And so when you are down and when you're doubting, you lift up your hands and praise them, amen. So they see you praising in the car, praising at church, praising in your living room. That you're creating that where they know and equipping them that these are the tools and the weapon of our warfare, amen. Participation, as I mentioned, I had them participate by praying for me before I came on here. And I had the testimony of my Emma just a few months back. I had this severe back pain. And it wasn't going away. It was night and day. And I tried to ignore it, like, oh, it's no big deal. It'll go away. But it was there constantly. To the point where I had a hard time getting up and going down to sit down. And it was excruciating where I told Elia, I was like, I need to go to a chiropractor or something. I need to figure it out. So I was like, you know what? This will be a great opportunity to have my girls pray for me because I know God answers children. So I said, Emma, can you pray for me? So the first day she's like, okay, I'm gonna pray for you. I'm like, just like that movie we saw, believe that God can heal your mom. And so the first day we prayed and she said, is it still there? And I was like, it is. But we're gonna pray again tomorrow. And so she prayed the second time. And I was like praying as I'm like, God please just heal her for her sake. But I'm praying. But I was like, God, just, you know, use her faith. But anyways, as soon as she prayed, the pain left. The pain left. It was gone. It was so significant to me. I was like, oh my gosh, my pain is gone. Like I was like in this odd shock, right? Because the pain was constant every day to now none at all, it has not come back. And I told her, I'm like, do you see that? God answers prayers. I cause them to participate. And sometimes when we're praying for people, or we're seeing the prayer in lines, we involve them that when you pray, things happen. When you say the name of Jesus, demons shake and tremble. And we're teaching them slowly but surely with given opportunity, not to force them, not to force it and demanding, but allowing a Holy Spirit to meet them where they're at, amen. So their heart is open to understand and to invite the curiosity to go deeper, amen. And the last one is problems. I say that with the last P problems is because I used to fear problems. I used to fear for them to be rejected because no parent wants their children rejected, amen. I feared the bullying, the rejection that I experienced growing up. Oh my God, I don't want them to have. I don't want them to be bullied. I don't want A, B, and C to happen. I don't want anything bad to happen. But I realized that over time that those opportunities served me. That those were the problems created opportunities for me to teach them. So when they came back in our neighborhood, they said, mom, someone called me this. The person did that. Those gave me opportunities to equip them. And I said, hey, is that what you believe about yourself? No. And I'm like, well, then what they say doesn't matter. What incredible tool to have for the rest of your life, amen. Where sometimes we accept what people say about us when it's not the truth. Where they got bullied. And I said, hey, you got to stand up for yourself, this A, B, and C. And so those were the problems that not to fear them but to utilize them has points of equipping, points of teaching them, amen. That you can help them out, process things. And it's incredible because as soon as you teach them, they absorb it. They take it and they'll say it to their friends or to say it to themselves. So through all of those things, is number one, embrace the kingdom mindset. Two is exposure. Exposing them to that God is greater than the enemy that they'll ever face. The third one is experience. Cultivating experience and encounters and you are able to give that to them. We as parents, people that are influencing in their lives, we can offer that to them. And the fourth one is equipping them, teaching them morals, values, integrity, things of the Bible, things of the word of God, these tools that are weapons, prayer, praise, but helping them be participating and problem solvers. Causes them to be warriors. Causes them to be the leaders. Causes them to be the light of this world, amen. Because I really believe that we are called to raise the next generation. That they are not beneath, but they are above. That they are the head and not the tail. As it says in Deuteronomy 28, that they are always the head and not the tail. Amen. That they are the ones to bring solutions. That they will lend and not borrow. That they will have creative and innovative ideas. That they will be able to establish God in the entertainment industry. That they're gonna be entrepreneurs. They'll be able to make powerful changes in the government. That they will be able to cause shifts. That we will not ride the wave, but we'll change the wave. That we will challenge the enemy's culture. And we're saying we're rising up with a different culture, amen. We're going to raise them up with significance, with intentionality. That these kids are marked by God. That God has given them to me. That I can make that generation, that legacy, but also that they're gonna go out into the world onto unashamed clubs, back to their schools, and make a mark, just like this guy was saying that it's gonna change the school. Come on, that they're gonna do things that the enemy is trying to do and use our children. The children are gonna come back and say not in this place, not in my time. Amen. I truly believe that God is raising Moses's. That he's raising Esther's. That he's raising Deborah's. That he's raising prophet Elijah's. And as it says in Acts two, where it says that in the last days I will pour out my spirit and your daughters and sons, they will dream dreams and they will prophesy. That the power of God will be upon them and upon us, amen. And I truly believe that at this moment as I'm coming to a close, is that I sense in my spirit as we pray that we change the way our mindset is. I also believe that God wants to reconcile and redeem. I hear those two words in my heart. Is to reconcile and to redeem. Is that some of you may be grieving a time that I didn't raise them right and there's this condemnation in your spirit. I want you to know is that our God is a redeemer. Through one touch, through one encounter, that's all you need. So you as a parent that maybe you're sitting here and you're grieving right now that I didn't raise them right. I want you to know is that God can redeem and he wants you to be connected to their heart so they can be connected to Jesus. And he wants you to reconcile with your teenager. He wants you to reconcile. Even if they're out of the house, it doesn't matter. He wants to redeem your family and your family legacy. He doesn't want broken homes anymore. He doesn't want broken parents anymore. He doesn't want broken families. He wants to reconcile you, amen. So if you feel that it's too late not in God's hands is not late. If you surrender that relationship that's broken with your child and say Holy Spirit, help me. What can you do to reconcile? For us to reconcile this, I want you to know he wants to save that. He wants to redeem your relationship. And through that, you will begin to influence them to go closer to the Lord, amen. How many of you guys are believing for that? Let's join up and let's pray. Come on. We're gonna pray right now. And I'm gonna have one of the ministers help me with the second prayer. But the first prayer is saying God forgive me for slowly believing in the lie that children are a burden. For me having that mentality, for me having that mindset or even I confessed it. And I want you to say God I want to believe and begin to have the kingdom mindset that you have given them to me as an inheritance and as a reward. Let's pray. Lord I thank you that you are breaking off lies right now. That you're removing lies and deceptions that the enemy has been using to influence homes and families. I thank you Lord for the anointing that is here that is in this place that you're bringing them to believe that God you have chosen me as a parent to bring them to you Lord to build them up to edify them to equip them. I thank you God that Lord we want our minds to change for us to see that they are our inheritance that you have given us a reward and a blessing. So Lord I thank you that right now hearts are melting Lord that you're shifting mindsets that you're breaking off lies, those walls and those barriers in the mighty name of Jesus Lord. We thank you Lord for what you are doing inside of us right now in Jesus name. Thanks for watching this sermon. If this was a blessing to you would you let me know in the comments below what stood out to you from this message? What are you taking home with you from this message? 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