Prophetic Word From the Lord

Act Christian Toward Your Own Family

Faith without works is dead. I have seen so many of My precious

people “just playing church” from week to week. So many have
ceased to be a bright and shining light even within the limited context
of their own immediate families! So many parents in cold
congregations barely ever mention My Name to their kids. Though
they might put on their “Sunday best manners” when among other
believers in the church house, they don’t even SHOW their own
children what Jesus is like by the way they interact with them from
day to day. Their “Sunday manners” and their “regular manners” are
polar opposites.

Parents, even Christian ones, yell rudely (yes, it IS possible to be rude

to a child, not just an adult) at their children when they want them to
do something, or find fault with them in any way, instead of CALMLY
speaking to them in a tone of love and gentleness. My Son was
GENTLE with small children, and very patient toward them. He knew
they were still growing and maturing, still learning, and most of the
little children who approached Him genuinely wanted to please Him.
Jesus took time to listen to their childlike concerns, comforted them,
blessed them. But today’s harried, anxious, work-weary parents are
so stressed out from the hardships and demands of day-to-day life
that they find it hard to slow down and communicate in a tone of love.
They don’t talk. They YELL!

The worst disrespect parents can show towards little children (and
teenagers too) is to mock them for perceived faults and failures.
Some parents make fun of a teenage girl for putting on a few pounds,
so she ends up being an anorectic because she longs for dignity and
fears mistreatment. Instead of saying “thank you” for a lovely picture
drawn by their five-year-old, critical parents will poke fun at the
drawing’s imperfections. When kids bring home a bad report card,
some parents fly into a rage and call the poor child “stupid” even if he
tried his hardest to please THEM. Immature Christian moms and dads
live vicariously through their children, especially their sons. When
junior fails to score a home run out on the baseball field, dad might
berate him for slipping, tripping or being too slow. He might even
mock his son’s masculinity for being a “wimp”.

Misguided parents think they’re doing their kids a favor by insulting

and ridiculing them for failure to live up to THEIR expectations. If the
child utters a feeble protest to protect his or her dignity, they’re told to
shut up and grow up, and stop acting like a crybaby. After all, if they
can’t take a little “kidding” from those who allegedly love them, they
won’t be able to go out and face the REAL dog-eat-dog world! The
parent is allegedly “toughening their son or daughter up” to
desensitize them so they’ll develop a thicker hide.

Christian parents, NOWHERE do I teach such perverse child-rearing

methods in My Holy Word! Instead, My Son taught “Whatever you
want others to do to you, treat them the same way.” Fathers, would
you want YOUR son to call you a limp-wristed sissy or a hopeless
loser? Mothers, would you want YOUR daughter to call YOU a fat, lazy
couch potato slob no one will want to take out? Cruel words wither the
spirit of an individual and create countless future problems. Your sins
against your son or daughter will come back to haunt you and I’ll hold
you just as accountable as if you’d insulted a fellow adult. SATAN is
behind a lot of subtle and not-so-subtle abuse going on in professing
Christian homes today. If you talk about Jesus to your kids and then
act like the devil except when you’re at church, don’t be surprised if
your mixed-up kids reach the point where they don’t want anything
further to do with Me, just because you presented a false, ugly picture
of Christ in your own life. If you cause just ONE of these little ones to
stumble and depart from the faith, it would be better for you if a
millstone were tied around your neck and you drowned in the depths
of the sea (Matt.18:6).

Paul commands parents NOT to provoke their children to get all upset
at them (Col.3:21). Some parents, even so-called Christian believers,
will take nasty little digs at their kids just because they’re in no
position to escape. These parents figure that since they pay for
necessities to maintain the life and health of their kids, that they “own”
them body and soul, which includes some imaginary right to treat their
helpless kids with disrespect. If these childish adults think that way, I
can treat them very same way. I the Lord also maintain THEIR lives
with food, employment, and countless other blessings. I would never
insult them but I would make them sense that there is a deep rift
between them and Myself, an alienation which makes it feel like their
prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. And I can remove My blessing
from their lives and bring heartbreaking circumstances their way to
humble their mean souls.

Being mean to somebody, especially those under your authority, can

really hinder your prayers (I Pet.3:7). It’s bullying, not training for
character development!

After being insulted and belittled throughout their childhood by

“loving” parents, some grown-up kids still take cutting criticism from
judgmental, harsh parents. The stressed-out child finds it difficult, if
not impossible, to honor their father and mother when those parents
refuse to honor them as worthwhile human beings formed in My own
image. Countless caustic putdowns eat into a child’s soul like battery
acid, eroding his or her self-esteem and making them think they’re a
failure and good for nothing. I have had to patch up many frazzled,
wounded souls who got chewed up and spat out by families who
should have supported them, loved them in a POSITIVE way, and
rallied around them when things got tough in the outside world.

A lot of homeless folks out on the street wouldn’t DARE go home to

their parents for any support. Especially so-called “Christian” parents
who are steeped in the “Health and Wealth Gospel” and believe so
much in financial success that they find their own walking-wounded
children an embarrassment in front of respectable Christian friends.
These “parents” manage to find a lot of not-so-subtle ways to let their
down-and-out kids know how they feel about them. Some homeless
people would rather freeze to death out on the sidewalk than face the
chilly treatment they’d get at “home”.

Many Western believers confuse the Gospel with the so-called

American Dream. If someone fails to catch the brass ring at the
religious carnival of Prosperity, they’ve allegedly flunked out of My
Mythical School of Faith, and are a lousy Christian and aren’t worth
bothering with. That’s the satanic lie My American (and some
European) Christians are being marinated in by polished, professional
con artist preachers out for a quick buck. People are worth only what’s
in their pocket (or bank account). Even Christian believers believe this
hogwash, and treat their own flesh and blood accordingly.

The Prodigal Son went out to make his own way in the world, armed
with bagfuls of cash from the sale of his part of the family inheritance.
Oh, he had lofty plans for his future, but he made a lot of dumb
decisions. The Prodigal Son was a sociable guy who didn’t want to
look like a square or a tightwad too stingy to treat his pals to a good
time. Through the bad influence of bad friends, he got suckered into
the swinging party animal scene, and to such an extent he became
promiscuous and blew all his dad’s hard-earned finances on prostitutes
and wild living.

When all his inheritance money was spent and the Prodigal Son had no
more resources to fall back on, he realized he had to swallow his pride,
get up out of the hog pen of failure and go home to his dad. This lad
realized he ran the risk of being raked over the coals for failure and
irresponsibility, if his dad spoke to him at all. But surely they wouldn’t
begrudge him a few kitchen scraps they were going to throw out
anyway. It was worth a try.

Foul-smelling, footsore and raggedy, the Prodigal Son limped toward

his old boyhood home, hoping against hope for a civil welcome. His
older brother, who had ALWAYS lived responsibly and NEVER
disappointed his parents, got ticked off when he heard about his
brother’s homecoming. “Throw the bum out” would have been his
attitude, had his father not said that it was a wonderful thing that his
lost brother had been found, and it was like life from the dead. The
father of the Prodigal Son kept things in perspective, though his son
had broken ALL the laws of success and lived a wild, undisciplined,
wasteful life and had squandered money his dad had sweated for years
to earn. Whereas the Prodigal Son had once been wild and
headstrong, he became meek and teachable, and humbly appreciative
of the blessings of home. Yet even BEFORE the Prodigal Son proved
he’d changed, his dad embraced him and welcomed him home. No
sharp words of rebuke or “I told you so”. No scolding. No ridicule. No
insults. Just love and all the healing that love could bring to a soul
shattered by sin and its consequences. Charity (MY LOVE IN ACTION)
covers a multitude of sins (James 5:20; I Pet.4:8).

Christian parents, don’t EVER tear down your precious little children
and growing youngsters when they need encouragement to mature
into loving, strong, capable, Christlike adults. Wicked words minister
death to another person’s soul! After years of being belittled, insulted
and mistreated by other family members, even if they say they’re “just
kidding”, there will be dire, sometimes permanent consequences. The
grownup child will not face the workplace with the same degree of
confidence as someone who has always been treated like a worthwhile
individual. That person might cry at the slightest provocation because
“life hurts”. If they’re a man, they might bottle up these bad emotions
so much that it gnaws at their innards like a corrosive poison and
could manifest in outward bodily illnesses. If they’re a woman, they
might lose their natural feminine tenderness of heart and become so
mistrustful and cynical they can’t stand working around the public, or
even in the social setting of an office.

Many wounded believers need to be set free from spiritual bondages

put on them by members of their own family before they can be all
I’ve called them to be in the earth! To constantly speak negative
words over your son or daughter, brother or sister is to CURSE them
and set them up for future heartache and failure.

Don’t ever allow insults to fly back and forth between your children.
Some say sibling rivalry is a very normal, natural part of growing up,
and there must be something wrong with any child who never fights to
maintain his/her place in the pecking order. Let My will be done on
earth as it is in heaven. Do people fight for power in heaven?

Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). Truly
an evil tongue is a world of wickedness, set on fire by hell itself (James
3:6). I have heard the grossest insults exchanged between a dominant
sibling trying to keep a younger brother or sister “in their place” and a
child who is so stung they feel they can’t help but retaliate in order to
save face. Quarreling children minister DEATH to each other through
unkind, vicious verbal attacks.

Parents, always discipline your children in love. You don’t have to beat
bad behavior out of them. Indeed you CAN’T beat the fallen nature
out of anyone (Prov.27:22). If someone is determined to act like a
fool, that is his nature and only the Cross of Christ can deliver him
from satan’s bondage. Physical punishment is DANGEROUS in the
hands of imperfect, out-of-control parents who are driven by anger
and don’t know where to draw the line. If you’ve trained your child to
love Jesus, and especially if they’re born again, they ought to
RESPECTFULLY listen to you as a wise parent while you’re
reprimanding them for bad behavior. Christian children should accept
an appropriate punishment with the full knowledge of why it’s being
inflicted. For some it could mean doing extra chores for a few days
instead of having fun with their friends. For others, it could be loss of
privileges or grounding.

There must be an appropriate apology and reconciliation between the

one who said the cruel words and the one affected by the bad
behavior. But if this apology is FORCED by threats of further or worse
punishment, it probably isn’t heartfelt, just a convenient escape hatch.
And so the enmity between the children will probably continue and
may even escalate. If the child shows no evidence of repentance he
needs to be warned that God in heaven watches and hears everything
they do and say, and they are ultimately accountable to Me, not just to
their parents. People saying “I’m sorry” out of social pressure to
“repent” can TEMPORARILY escape trouble. But without godly sorrow
there can be no real repentance or reconciliation with Me (2 Cor.7:10).

Always make the punishment fit the crime. If, for example, an older
child verbally abuses a younger sibling by bragging that he gets to go
to camp because he’s loved a whole lot more than the younger one,
then he shouldn’t get to go. Instead, he ought to spend that time at
home studying what My Word teaches about love. And once the child
has prayed for forgiveness and received a fresh anointing of My love,
he must DEMONSTRATE that love by being a friend and good example
to his offended sibling.

Have compassion on those smaller and weaker than yourself, just as I

have shown YOU compassion. A tiny child who offers to help you clean
up after supper and drops a dish should not automatically be
punished, if at all. That child has far less control over his chubby little
hands than you have over your mature, skilful ones, and chances are it
was an accident. If the little child enjoys a close relationship with you
and wants to please you, they probably feel bad enough about the
mishap. If they act embarrassed or upset about it, they should be
comforted and reassured that it wasn’t their fault and you still love
them. Even go so far as to thank them for loving you and helping you.
A broken plate is far less of a tragedy than a tiny broken heart.

While it’s important to explain why bad behavior is wrong, children

especially need to be reminded that THEIR sins helped put My precious
Son on the Cross. And those sins include every thoughtless cruel
word, every mean prank, every bit of malice they’ve ever harbored
toward others. Forgiveness in Christ is free but it doesn’t come cheap!

Christian parents, children learn by watching your daily example.

Don’t just tell them about Jesus and His love. SHOW THEM!