The Role of Prayer in Securing Our Children’s Destiny

0:00 You pray it and he can answer it. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. God will put the prayer in your heart to pray so that he can answer it. Goes into the hearts of the people, doesn't return void, it produces results. And we're gonna go ahead and get, we don't wanna waste our time. We wanna get as much time as we can. And those that are coming in later, they'll just chime in and can join us. But let's welcome and thank God for our leader today, a prophet, Mark. Amen. Hello everyone, good morning, good afternoon, wherever you're coming from.

0:43 We're gonna go ahead, I'm gonna do a teaching and while I'm teaching, we will all be muted and then during the prayer, we will unmute. This is my third guided prayer this week. So it's interesting the direction that the Holy Spirit has been taking me personally, but we had three or four witches in our meeting, a prayer meeting last night in Brick, New Jersey and halfway through the service, not even halfway, they all got up, they were sitting in the front row, of course, and they left. So warfare can be discerned by, you can sense confusion. For me, it was more like, it was like, I was in a cold refrigerator, but once they left, that all left.

1:26 So the enemy doesn't like the message that we bring, the enemy doesn't want believers to pray, but the Bible says men ought to always pray and not faint. So we're gonna continue to pray, prayer opens up the door for God to work and we have not because we ask not and that's why the enemy would like to stop people from praying and I've seen more often than not, it's usually the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things that enter in and choke people's prayer lives. So like us today, we're just making a commitment, we're gonna join prayer together, we're gonna pray, one will chase a thousand to flight, two will put 10,000 to flight.

2:09 So I'm really happy that we're all on together. The prayer focus today, interestingly, the prayer focus will be for our children, our grandchildren and our God children. And many of you are leaders and we have no greater joy than to see our children walking in the truth. And I think sometimes we're so busy reaching, our congregations and feeding the flock of God and it's important that we also stand in the gap and believe God and pray for our own children and our own families.

2:49 And so that's gonna be the prayer focus today, praying for our children, our God children and our grandchildren. Now, while we're getting into the teaching, this is what I would like everyone to do. I did it myself. While we're getting ready, write down right where you are, the names of those young people that you're gonna be praying for. Obviously, some of them are not so young. My twins are 33 and Jacqueline's 32. So write down their names. I like to tell people to do that because it gives them a prayer focus. So when your mind starts to wander, it brings you back into focus. I have, for me, I have my kids' names, the meanings of their names.

3:33 And then I have, this is my daughter-in-law, my other daughter, Jacqueline. And then my son-in-law, I didn't have a picture of him down here in my office, so I put his name on a post-it. So remember that we're praying all manner of prayer, but the prayer of intercession is the kind of prayer that requires perseverance. So in other words, it's not a, you pray, you believe, you receive, and you have. No, this is the kind of prayer where you continually go into the presence of God. You bring your children before the presence of God, before the face of God. You pray the scriptures over and over and over and over on their behalf. This is the kind of prayer that requires perseverance. It's not praying for ourselves.

4:15 It's standing in the gap, putting up the hedge on the behalf for today of our children, our grandchildren, and our God children. I know many of you who are leaders, you have God children, children that weren't born into your family, but they're born by the Spirit of God, and they are those that God has put in your care for you to watch over, for you to pray, for you to stand in the gap for. Okay? So there is a conflict, and I think we all know that, but, you know, and we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. And there is a conflict. Colossians 2, 1 through 5 says, I want you to know what great conflict I have for you and those that are in Laodicea.

5:02 That word conflict in the Greek is A-G-O-N, and it means to race against spiritual foes. So Paul was saying, I want you to know what great conflict I have for you and those that are in Laodicea. There is a race against spiritual foes. That word also means there's a struggle. So there's war over the hearts and destinies of our children, our grandchildren, our God children. He is afraid of them rising up and being everything that God has called them to be, especially those of us who are in leadership positions. You know, the Spirit of God, generally speaking, you know, uses our children to continue in the ministry He's called us to.

5:49 Now, we don't call them and we don't want to put pressure on them, but generally speaking, I've seen it more than not that a lot of times there is one child or one of the children or grandchildren that's called of God with the call of God on their life. And that's why sometimes we will see the enemy attacking one child more than another child because he sees something on the inside of them that is a gift, that is an anointing. He sees the presence of God, the call of God, and therefore he wants to stop them before they even get to the place where their gift is developed and then eventually unwrapped. Now, I know as I'm speaking to you today, I know that the Holy Spirit is enlightening you, He's guiding you, He's speaking to you, and He's talking to you, I would say about a particular child or maybe just all of your children.

6:40 That's the beauty of prayer is we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us and to guide us in our prayer time. Okay, so there is a conflict. Okay, verse five says, "'Though I'm absent in the flesh, "'I am present in the Spirit.'" So the apostle Paul, this conflict is taking place in the realm of the Spirit, okay? And this is the place where the enemy likes to do his work. So those of us as we pray today, though we're absent from them, we're present with them in the Spirit. My one daughter, Jacqueline, she's going, she's on a plane and she's on her way to Newark and she's on her way to a work event overseas.

7:24 Well, I'm with her, even though I'm not physically with her, I'm with her in the Spirit. That's why sometimes you can get your children on your heart and it's so real to you. It's more real to you than this table or the door or whatever the case may be. That is a prayer assignment. You sense them, you have a love for them, you feel them. Well, that's the Holy Ghost enlightening us as parents that they need prayer. We may not know what it is, and that's the beauty of praying in the Holy Ghost. So though we can be absent from them in the natural, we can be present with them in the Spirit. So in the Spirit, when we pray today, we are gonna lay one hand on them, one hand on God, and we're the intercessors, we're the mediators, and we're gonna pray for them, and prayer opens up the door for God to work.

8:17 When we pray, it's gonna release the things of God on their behalf and we are going to see God. God said, call upon me on the behalf of your children and I will show you some great and mighty things. But Margie, you don't know how bad it is for my one child. My one child, it's just so bad. Well, we're sin abounds, grace does so much more abound. Look at the life of the Apostle Paul, right? The Apostle Paul, I mean, he's persecuting the church, he's on the wrong road, heading in the wrong way, thinking he was doing the right thing. But when he had an encounter with Jesus Christ, the blinders came off of his eyes and everything changed.

8:58 And that's what prayer will do, and we're gonna talk about this. Prayer will cause the blinders to come off of their eyes, the chains to come off of their hands, not in the natural where we're doing it physically by praying for them physically in a prayer line or in a church or right in our homes. No, we can activate our faith, activate our authority in the realm of the Spirit right here where we are, right here today, and this kind of prayer will open up the door for God to work. Now, as we get into our teaching before we pray, because I think faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, let's talk about two promises, just two. In my book, Contents, Stewarding the Hearts and Destinies of Our Children Through Prayer, in the back of the book, I have over 70 promises concerning our children that we can stand on.

9:46 And we know that all the promises of God are yes and amen. And so if God gave us a promise about our children, that we're standing on it and we're not moving, we're gonna be steadfast, immovable, standing on those promises that are yes and amen that I will be saved and my entire household. So there's many scriptures, many promises, but I'm gonna bring out two. Psalms 112, one and two says, blessed are those who fear the Lord. That's all of us, all of us who are on this Zoom meeting today, now we have 35, we're halfway there, Apostle Calvin. As Psalms 112, one and two says, blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in His commands.

10:32 Isn't that us, right? We're radical parents, we're radical in ministry, we're radical for God, but we see our kids kind of floundering or we see our kids, they're not in church because one of their leaders fell and completely disappointed them and therefore they're confused about the things of God. But we find delight in His commands and we can do something about what's going on in their lives. Their children will be mighty in the land. Yes, our children, my children, your children, because we fear the Lord, they will be mighty in the land.

11:16 The generation of the upright will be blessed, right? It's the promise of God that our children, our children's children will be blessed, right? Here's another verse, Isaiah 54, 13, all of your children, not just some, not just a few, no, no. We're not, we're radical, right? All of our children, grandchildren and God children will be taught of the Lord and great will be the peace and the amplified, I says, and the undisturbed composure of our children. But I don't see them walking in peace. I don't see that happening.

11:57 Well, we together, we're gonna pray and prayer opens up the door for God to work. Now listen, when we pray, and I feel led to say this, sometimes things get worse before they get better. Did you hear what I said? Why does that happen? And it took me a while to figure that out because we're going into the realm of the Spirit, right? We're going in and we're commanding the devil, take your hands off of them. We're going into the realm of the Spirit, we're praying the word of God and we're praying in the Holy Ghost. And whatever's affecting them, whatever is influencing them is number one, gonna make them feel uncomfortable, right?

12:37 So they're gonna act out, right? Because they're resisting the will of God or the things of God. Or number two, it's the enemy. He doesn't wanna give up his stronghold, right? He's gonna put up a stake, just like when Jesus cast the devil out of the little boy, right? He commanded the devil to leave and what did the demons do? They had to put on a show, put up a stake, put up a fight. The boy fell on the floor. What did he do? Like I think he made a big scene and those demons came out. So I don't want any of you to get discouraged when things begin to get worse. And this is what I just heard in my spirit because progress is being made in the Spirit.

13:19 So when you see that kind of thing happening where they get worse in the natural, just know that in the Spirit, your prayers are opening up the door for God to work and their soul is reacting and the demons that are influencing them are reacting. Okay, so what do we pray? Here's a specific prayer that the Spirit of God gave me this morning. Ephesians 1, 17 through 21. Yes, it's a very famous passage of Scripture. Yes, we probably bring this Scripture out every single time. We know the Scriptures, but are we being doers of it? That's the question. But this is an amazing prayer and I'm gonna break it down. The Ephesians 1, 17 through 21, one thing to remember, especially if your kids are church kids, they've been in church, but they're not where they should be in the things of God, right?

14:08 Their Spirit has eyes, right? We have eyes in the natural, but we also have what the Scriptures calls the hidden man of the heart. And the hidden man of the heart, our spirit has eyes. And so we can believe and we can pray that God will anoint their eyes with eyes salve that they may see. We could pray this verse, and we're gonna break it down, that the eyes of their understanding would be open and enlightened, that their eyes would be flooded with light so that they would walk in wisdom and revelation. Wisdom and revelation. Revelation is that which becomes real.

14:50 In other words, it's so real that they walk in the light of it. It's taking head knowledge, head knowledge going into the heart. And when it gets into the heart, that's when faith is activated. And that's when they walk in the light of what they have in their heart. So here's a good prayer. We're gonna break it down. Verse 17 says that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you our children, grandchildren, and God children, the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Now, Paul prays for the believers to receive spiritual wisdom and insight. He emphasizes knowing God more deeply, highlighting the importance of a personal relationship with him.

15:40 Right? Isn't that what we want for these young people? That the eyes of their understanding would be open so that they would have a deeper, more intimate relationship with him. And verse 18, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that they may know what is the hope to which he has called them, and what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. This verse speaks to the idea of spiritual enlightenment, which we said, Paul desires that all believers' hearts and minds be open to understand the hope of their calling and the significance of their inheritance as God's children.

16:25 It underscores the blessings and the promises that come from being a part of God's family. This is a beautiful prayer for us to pray for our children. Why? Because it'll help them to understand the significance of their inheritance as a child of God. And I don't know about you, I have these three kids born in 1992. It's just incredible to me that they were in my house, they heard me teach, they heard me preach. I'm not a perfect parent, but you don't have to be a perfect parent, but you could be a praying parent, right? And, but it just amazes me that they don't fully grasp or understand who they are in Christ.

17:08 They don't understand like the scriptures like we do, or their inheritance, or just some things, you know, that I guess just hasn't been taught them. So this prayer is gonna help that. Verse 19, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might? Here Paul emphasizes that as he prayed, and let's say it like this, as we pray, the incredible power of God will be, not maybe, not hope so, not maybe, will be at work in our children, grandchildren, and God children.

17:50 Through prayer, Paul desired, and we desired them, to grasp the magnitude of God's power, which is available to those who have faith. Our children who know Jesus, but may not have him as Lord, will be affected as we pray. God's desire and will is that they walk in the fullness of this power, and that it is actively working in the lives of this prayer focus today. Now, I don't know about you, but I could tell you from personal experience, I mean, I have a lot of responsibilities in ministry, and in my personal life, and so on and so forth.

18:32 And I can tell when I've lifted off the grass of my hold in the Spirit, I'm not talking about controlling them and being a helicopter parent, I'm talking about in prayer. I can tell when I've lifted off of my hold and gotten a little lax in my prayers, I can tell over time, because you know, people backslide, little by little by little, are you listening? I can tell that when I release my hold, that the kids, there'll always be kids, right? Am I right about that, you guys? How many could say yes, they'll always be kids, no matter how old they get. I can see the difference between when I'm leaning in and praying on their behalf, and really going for, and when I've gotten too busy and not made my children a prayer focus.

19:24 We pray for everybody else, we pray for our congregations, we lead corporate prayer, but what about our own children, right? I don't know about you, but that's what God has been saying to me lately more than ever. Verse 20 said that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. This verse connects God's power to the resurrection of Jesus. Can you imagine if these young people understood the power of the resurrection and the authority that Jesus brought back when he spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly and triumphed over them in his death, burial, and resurrection, can you imagine these kids having a revelation of the resurrection that the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in them, and that this resurrected Lord Jesus Christ will quicken their mortal body, will help them to think, help them to succeed, that they would know the powerful revelation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

20:35 We can pray that they would, right? And again, prayer opens up the door for God to work. So this verse is a prayer for us to pray for spiritual growth and understanding for our children, okay? And I wanna say this, focusing on for them to know God for themselves. They see the God in us working, they see the power of God in us working, and our intimacy with Jesus, and the whispers of God, and the dreams, and the times we hear from God, but God wants our children, these young people, to know him for themselves, okay? So as we pray, the Holy Spirit will rise up in them and come upon them so that they will see the power that is available through their faith in Christ.

21:25 Now, number two, what about your children that are unbelieving, right? How do we pray? I'm not gonna read the whole scripture for the sake of time, but we, I'm telling you, and this is, you could pray this every day for them. If you have a child or someone in your spirit of influence that does not know Jesus, I believe one of the greatest prayers we can pray is Ephesians 3, 18 through 20, and that prayer is that they would be rooted and grounded in love, that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith, and that they would be rooted and grounded in love, that they would comprehend, understand with all the saints, listen, what is the width and length and depth and height, and that they would know the love of Christ which passes knowledge.

22:23 I believe that the greatest revelation anybody in general can have is the revelation of the love of God, because it's the revelation of the love of God that drives out fear. And as an unbelieving child, a young person is influenced by the Holy Spirit, right? Because when we pray, He convicts and He convinces them of their need for Jesus amplified, right? I think it's John 16. So when we pray, the Holy Spirit begins to influence them, and the love of God begins to surround them, and it'll cause them to be convicted, because it's the goodness of God that leads to repentance.

23:11 I know for me, when I always loved God my whole life, I have a picture, I was just looking at it today of me as a good little Catholic girl, and I was holding my prayer book, I always loved God, I had a heart for Him my whole life. But there was a time when I was like 12, 13, that sin revived and I died and I was separated, I didn't really understand what that meant, but I had reached a place of accountability where I needed to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior, that He was not on the cross, He was alive forevermore, nobody told me I needed to receive Him. But I remember when I was going through that transition of not sensing His presence anymore and not having that connection, and to when I got born again eventually, which was only about maybe 30, 40, 50 years ago, it was about three, three, three and a half years.

24:00 And I remember being in the car and a secular song would come on, and I don't know, I want you to show me the way, I want you to show me the way. It's some secular song, somebody one day told me who sang it and who it was, but it's a secular song. And when that song came on, I could feel the Holy Ghost right now, the Holy Ghost would come in my car, I didn't know it was Him at the time, and He would convict me and I would feel the love of God, and it became a prayer in my heart, and it became a prayer to God. Lord, I want you to show me the way.

24:40 I didn't know that Jesus was the way, the truth and the life, I didn't know that verse, but it became a prayer of my heart and there was conviction in that car. And I found out later that the pastors of a church at the time and my charismatic, born again, tongue-talking mother, Catholic Cares man, they were all praying for me, they made me their prayer assignment, and they started praying for me, and because prayer opens up the door for God to work, it released the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and very real, and it worked, because one day I'm in my bedroom, and I just was like, wanted to be saved so bad, didn't understand how, because nobody preached to me, nobody told me, and I heard an audible voice on the inside or outside, I don't know where it came, it really came from within, and I was like, what do I have to do to be saved?

25:39 What do I have to do to be saved? And I just was so desperate for God, because let me tell you, these kids, in the hearts of all of these kids, they want God. I'm telling you, they, yes, they're acting out because they want God, they need God, and they're just trying to find Him in all the wrong places. So I said, Lord, what must I do to be saved? And I just kept saying it and saying it and saying it, night after night after night, and one night I heard the audible voice of God, he said, only believe, and literally a light came on, my eyes were open, I said, I believe, that's all I said. I was literally taken and translated out of the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of light, a very real spiritual experience, it happened in my bedroom, because the prayers of my mother, and the pastor, and his wife, don't ever underestimate the power of your prayers.

26:36 Suddenly, your prayers will work. Suddenly, you'll see the manifestation. So we should pray that our unbelieving young people have a revelation of the love of God, and then pray Matthew 9, 37 through 38. Pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers across their path, pray that. Jesus said it himself, therefore pray. Why do we pray? Because man is God's avenue into the earth, we have to pray, we have the authority, we have to pray. Some of the people, I'm not gonna get into this in the grace movement, oh, I stopped praying, you know, it's case said, oh, said, oh, because it's all by grace, no, we gotta pray. Jesus said, pray, what?

27:16 Pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers, in this case, across the paths of these young people. And I can guarantee you, they'll be sitting at a bar, they'll be sitting in school, and the Holy Spirit, who is the director, he will lead, guide, and direct an unbelieving person to be a light and a witness to them, to preach the gospel to them, that this is the day and the acceptable year of the Lord, now is the day of salvation. And because you've prayed, when the laborer comes across their path, you know, they will be in a spiritual position to have their eyes of their understanding open in revelation, and they'll see Jesus, and they'll accept him as their personal Lord and savior.

28:00 Some plant, some water, God gives the increase. We, a lot of us as parents, we're sowing a lot of tears, but our tears, we're gonna reap them in joy, because we have no greater joy than to see our children walking in the truth, and God's promised us salvation for our homes. Lastly, we need to pray, because Satan is the God of this world, 2 Corinthians 4, three and four, he's the God of this world, he's blinded their minds. So we use Mark 16, we take authority over the devil on their behalf. They have no authority, they have no rights and no privileges, but we take authority over them on their behalf.

28:43 If you just joined us, I asked everyone to write down the names of the young people in your spirit of influence, your children, your grandchildren, your God children, we are going to pray, this is our prayer focus today, and we are going to pray for them, having their names or having a picture of them, or writing their names on a post-it, it's a prayer focus and it keeps us focused as we pray. So that's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna go ahead and unmute, and I'm gonna lead in prayer, and we'll just see how the Holy Ghost takes us. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's podcast, it has been such a joy sharing this time with you.

29:27 For more inspiration and resources on today's topic, please visit our website at margiefloran.org. Thank you.