Praying Light – Kids and the Supernatural

Children need relationship and connection. They need to feel a part of something that’s important; they need to contribute. The current generation of young people are hands-on driven with a desire to impact and change. Media and social networking have opened up opportunities for them to voice their opinion and share their ideas. Kids are sitting in classrooms creating machines, scientific experiments in science and robotics, writing their own books, creating their own movies, and designing games and websites. Children in kindergarten are voicing what they would do if they were President. They want to matter.

This desire is a powerful. Hollywood has recognized this and responded with movies and television shows depicting the powerful child wizards who can save the world, young superheros, teenage rock and media stars, and so on. The days of “Leave It to Beaver” and his fishing pole are far gone. And what kids today relate to the “Little House on the Prairie” family? Kids don’t want simple anymore; they want the powerful, and supernatural. The world has shifted its focus to the darkness.

Some in religious circles are trying to veer the attention of children from Hollywood to the Church by engaging them in spiritual warfare. They are teaching children to have out-of-body experiences that take them into the “heavenlies.” They glamorize these experiences as having heavenly visions and experiences with God. In reality, they are subjecting children to spiritual warfare, which is not make-believe or glamourous. Demons do not leave kids alone because they are cute or little. Children do not have the ability to rationalize where their boundaries are, especially when Hollywood has depicted that they can be all-powerful, like Harry Potter. Leading people to engage in spiritual warfare is something that takes time, training, and a seasoned relationship with God.

What am I saying? I am saying that children do want to matter and make a difference, but we cannot be like Hollywood. We cannot put more emphasis on the supernatural than the simple things of God. We cannot give the impression that to be powerful means we have to war against demons everyday. We cannot put more emphasis on DOING than we do on just BEING. When we do, the focus becomes about us, instead of Him. The focus becomes on the darkness, instead of the light.

What can we do? When working with children we need to give them opportunities to make a difference in everyday life that they can see. We have them pray for world issues. We have them pray for the homeless in their city. We share with them a problem that we are having and ask them to pray with us about it. We go beyond prayers over meals to prayers that matter for eternity. We take them on missions trips. We get them involved in feeding the hungry of our cities. We teach them to bring LIGHT into the darkness of everyday life, instead of steering them into the darkness of the demonic realm. We show them that we are NOT powerful, rather God is. Every time He answers a prayer He is showing His power. Every day we breathe, He is showing His mercy. Every time we get to be in His presence He is showing us His mercy. It’s about Him, not us. 

Train them to bring God’s LIGHT, not play in the dark. In the process, the Light of God will destroy darkness naturally. The focus will stay on Him.
“…Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty…” (Zechariah 4:6)

Light always affect darkness. Darkness never quenches light.

Colleen Clabaugh
WNOP Kids Prayer Coordinator 

IDEA FOR PRAYING LIGHT:
Take flashlights or light sticks into a room that is slightly darkened. Pray for world issues such as war, famine, disease, etc. Pray for issues in your city such as the homeless, drugs, gangs, etc. Pray for person, family, or church issues. With each prayer, have a child turn on a light. The more you pray, the more light that is created, expelling the darkness.