February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

You Can Know the Future of Your Kids

If you’ve followed this blog very long you’ve heard me mention a book entitled Spiritual Warfare for Women. It is simply one of the best books I’ve read on spiritual warfare. As I read it, I felt a distinct connection with the author, Leighann McCoy. Just by reading her book I was sure she and I would be BFF’s. So, I called her. I know what you’re thinking…I’m not a stalker, I promise. I just wanted my women at Willowbrook to benefit from the wisdom and teaching of this woman who had blessed me so much through her writing. I’m so excited Leighann McCoy is coming to Willowbrook on February 28 for our Ignite event. Not only that, Leighann is sharing a little bit straight from her heart and life with us in today’s post.

To read more from Leighann you can visit her blog here.

As parents we are hard wired to protect our children from the bumps and bruises of life. As parents we also live long enough to recognize that is an impossible task. No matter how hard we try, life’s hard knocks come knocking on our doors. As the hard knock life came after me, I discovered 5 ways I can always win spiritual battles for my kids!
God’s given me 5 divine weapons that have power to demolish strongholds. Let me preface this by saying these weapons are only available to me because I walk with God. He and I are tight, and He provides me with these supernatural abilities. It’s not magic, it’s relational. When you walk with God in a personal relationship, you can have these supernatural abilities too. The first one is this: I can know what the future holds, and so can you.

God lets me Know what the future holds.

God’s allowed me to see into the future. He did this often during battles recorded in the Old Testament, and He does this today in the battles I fight for my kids. Here’s how…

God tells me what is coming in His Word.

For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.–Jeremiah 29:11

I had a friend who reminded me that this is Jeremiah, not JereMAMA! So many times WE have plans for our children! They are good plans, not to harm them–to give them hope and a future, but they are nonetheless our plans and not God’s.
Zephaniah 3:17 says this:

The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.”

When my daughter Mikel was a young teen, she loved to read fiction. But she read her books in an uncanny way. Just after the first few chapters, where she’d had a chance to familiarize herself with the characters, Mikel skipped over to the end. She would read the final chapter THEN go back to read the rest of the book. I found this strange and asked her why she did this. Mikel replied, “I don’t want to waste my time reading the book if I don’t like the way it ends.”

I had to admit, it made sense. When she made some heart-wrenching choices as an older teen, God gave me Zephaniah 3:17 and whispered, “This is the end of the book.” I held on tight as the story took me places I didn’t want to go and continued to read because God had given me a peek at the end.

Not only does God reveal the future to me through His Word, He also uses my friends. My prayer partner, Karen rushed to my home when we discovered Mikel was pregnant at 18. She cradled me in her arms and spoke a loud that the child that Mikel carried would be a source of great JOY! She said that we would experience a river of delight in the amazing person she would become. Misty is definitely my JOY! Anyone who’s ever met her knows that I am speaking the truth.

God told me about my daughter Kaleigh’s future when she was 9 months old. Tom and I were at a missionary commissioning service. We were moved by the willingness of men and women to leave their homes and travel to the far corners of the world (Eastern Europe) to share the love of Christ. I prayed and committed my life to God, even if it meant we would become missionaries. Very clearly I heard God say, “it’s not you I am calling it’s Kaleigh.” She was 9 months old at the time.

Today Kaleigh is preparing to go to the mission field. She’s already traveled to more countries than I can count. Here she is in her sweet spot.
Because I walk with God and because He’s already been to my tomorrows, I fight from a posture of knowing what the future holds. For even when I don’t know the what, I do know the WHO!