Raising Giant-Killers

1. Parenting with Divine Purpose: Raising Giant-Killers

This is our passion—to raise giant-killers who will change the world.

Divine assignment. Parenting is not merely about survival or raising well-adjusted children; it's a divine assignment to cultivate individuals with eternal significance. The metaphor of "giant-killers" emphasizes equipping children to confront and overcome the spiritual and societal challenges of their generation, fighting from a position of victory already secured by Christ.

Children as arrows. Psalm 127:3-4 describes children as "a gift of the LORD... like arrows in the hand of a warrior." This highlights both the joy of receiving children and the sobering responsibility of training them for purpose. Parents are called to instill "God confidence" in their children, enabling them to face daunting obstacles with faith, much like David confronting Goliath or Caleb claiming the giants' stronghold.

Spiritual dividends. Investing in raising children with eternal purpose yields spiritual dividends that extend beyond their direct influence. This investment brings long-term benefits to the entire family line, ensuring that the impact of righteous parenting continues for generations. It's about stewarding God's treasure in a way that pleases Him, bringing triumph in a world born into conflict.

2. Parents as Primary Teachers and Role Models

You teach your children when you sit, walk, lie down and rise up.

Life as the classroom. Parents hold the primary responsibility for teaching and training their children, a mandate clearly articulated in Deuteronomy. This isn't confined to specific teaching slots but integrated into the fabric of daily life—during meals, walks, bedtime, and waking hours. Every interaction becomes an opportunity for learning insight and skills.

Modeling character. Children learn more from observation than instruction. Parents must model the values they wish to impart, demonstrating:

• Hunger for God's Word and prayer life
• Generosity and compassion through giving
• Honor and affirmation for others
• Quick and open repentance for mistakes
• Patience and serving others

Generational responsibility. Parents are tasked with sharing their personal "God-story" and biblical testimonies, creating a culture where children become curious about God's wonders and instinctively trust Him. This process sets the stage for future generations to put their confidence in God, avoiding the stubbornness and rebellion of past generations.

3. Cultivating a Kingdom-Oriented Home Atmosphere

Unity is the context in which children become their best, with the greatest chance of stepping into eternal significance.

Cornerstones of thought. A healthy home is built on foundational principles that shape beliefs, values, and actions. These "four cornerstones of thought" are:

• God Is Good: His goodness inspires big dreams.
• Nothing Is Impossible: This reality encourages risk-taking.
• Everything Was Settled at the Cross: Trust in His complete work.
• I Am Important: Personal significance inspires service.
  These values, when embraced, create a culture where children thrive.

Love and peace. The husband is responsible for the standard of sacrificial love, mirroring Christ's love for the Church, which equips the family to love in return. The wife is primarily responsible for the home's atmosphere, hosting the Holy Spirit and maintaining peace. This involves avoiding actions that grieve or quench the Spirit, fostering an environment of adoration and affection for God.

Intentional communication. Effective communication is crucial for a healthy home, focusing on understanding others, speaking truth in love, and modeling humility. Key practices include:

• Avoiding negative greetings and scheduling discussions
• Not assuming motives and giving the benefit of the doubt
• Confessing mistakes and seeking forgiveness
• Using humor wisely, without ridicule
• Creating a safe space for open dialogue, even with interruptions

4. Embracing Godly Discipline and Accountability

All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Love-driven correction. Godly discipline stems from a heart of love, aiming to shape a child's character with responsibility and purpose, not to punish in anger. It's patterned after God's own discipline, which refines us for our good, enabling us to share in His holiness and produce the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Discipline as an occasion. Effective discipline is a deliberate occasion, not an emotional outburst. It requires parents to:

• Take time to pray and ensure their heart is right.
• Discuss the wrongdoing, ensuring clear understanding.
• Require children to take responsibility and apologize specifically.
• Administer consequences (e.g., spanking with a tool, not a hand; taking away privileges) without public embarrassment.
  This intentional approach prevents children from learning to respond only to anger or threats.

Accountability for ability. Beyond preventing sin, accountability in a Kingdom context means holding one another to account for using God-given abilities and gifts. It's about guarding each other's dreams and contributing to each other's destinies. This fosters a family unit where individuals are encouraged to dream big and take practical steps toward fulfilling their God-given purpose.

5. Empowering Children to Hear and Respond to God

God has enabled parents to obtain a prophetic grace for the family simply because of their role as parents, and because they ask.

God still speaks. A core value of Christian parenting is the belief that God actively speaks to His children, providing insight and direction. While never superseding Scripture, this prophetic grace, available to parents, offers specific guidance for each child's destiny, purpose, and needs.

Nurturing spiritual sensitivity. Parents can cultivate an environment where children expect to hear from God by:

• Praying Spirit-led prayers for their children's future and spouses.
• Observing and affirming their children's unique abilities and desires.
• Creating "prophetic files" (mental or physical) of what God says about them.
• Asking open-ended questions like, "What do you think God would be saying in this situation?"
  This training helps children recognize God's voice and respond with surrender and obedience.

The Samuel principle. Just as Samuel ministered to the Lord before he fully knew Him, children can be trained in the motions of worship and devotion. This creates a momentum that attracts God's voice and leads to personal encounters, making sense of their earlier training. These encounters are transformative, shifting their worship from duty to genuine affection.

6. Strategic Exposure to World Need and Community

Isolating our children from the pain of other people is an unacceptable way to live.

Cultivating compassion. Parents have a responsibility to expose their children to world need, fostering a heart of compassion rather than entitlement. This can involve:

• Helping strangers in need of food or shelter.
• Participating in local or international missions (e.g., orphanages, serving the poor).
• Inviting foster children into the home.
  These experiences stir children's hearts, teaching them to serve those who cannot repay them and to recognize the value of every human life.

The strength of community. While individual faith is paramount, much spiritual growth and maturity occur within biblical community. Exposing children to diverse small groups and meaningful relationships teaches them:

• The value of different age groups and backgrounds.
• How to "call out the gold" in others, celebrating strengths.
• The importance of loyalty, faithfulness, and mutual support.
• Emotional intelligence, crucial for personal and professional success.

Sacrificial fellowship. True community involves sacrifice, where relationships cost time and effort, not just convenience. This sacrificial fellowship, or "sharing," is one of the three New Testament sacrifices God is pleased with, alongside praise and doing good. It's in this context that children learn to navigate life's challenges together, understanding that "if you want to go far, go together."

7. Guiding Sexuality by Divine Design

God created sex to be enjoyed. Sex is both for procreation and for pleasure. But God also created the setting or context for sex. It is to be enjoyed only in the covenantal relationship called marriage between a man and a woman.

Pleasure within boundaries. God designed sexuality for joy and pleasure, but within the covenantal confines of marriage between a man and a woman. Any deviation from this design, while offering momentary pleasure, inevitably brings sorrow and costs, as violating design leads to pain.

Purity and purpose. Parents must proactively teach children about their sexuality, fostering openness rather than shame. This includes:

• Discussing the purpose of a sex drive and the beauty of purity.
• Giving purity rings as a physical reminder of a covenant before God.
• Setting clear dating standards to avoid creating expectations for premarital sexual encounters.
  The goal is to equip children for a joyful, fulfilling marriage, built on self-control and respect for God's design.

Navigating cultural shifts. In a world increasingly redefining sexuality, parents must remain firm in biblical truth while demonstrating compassion. This means:

• Loving individuals regardless of their lifestyle choices, without agreeing with what is contrary to God's Word.
• Helping children understand the spiritual roots behind gender identity confusion (e.g., abuse, fatherlessness, porn).
• Equipping children to offer compassion and prayer to struggling friends, while upholding the truth of male and female design.

8. Navigating Societal Influences with Wisdom

It is the goal of the powers of darkness to have leaders in these governments overstep their role and make the individual family powerless.

Government's overreach. The devil seeks to influence the home by causing government to overstep its God-given role. While government is designed to protect and empower, it is not equipped to parent. When government usurps parental authority, it leads to policies that undermine God's design for the family, such as allowing minors to make irreversible medical decisions without parental consent.

War for the mind. The primary battleground is the mind, where demonic "fortresses" are built through speculations and lofty thoughts raised against the knowledge of God. Parents must equip children to:

• Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
• Discern truth from deception, especially from agenda-driven media.
• Engage with truth and compassion, without demonizing those with opposing views.
  This spiritual warfare frees people from deception and allows them to see clearly.

Raising transformers. Children are being raised to transform the world, requiring them to understand culture, government, justice, and education from a biblical perspective. This means:

• Living out Kingdom principles fruitfully, demonstrating their effectiveness.
• Entering various professions (law, medicine, politics, business) to influence societal values.
• Proclaiming God's truth not just through words, but through lives that embody His wisdom and power, making people hungry for the King.

9. Intentional Exposure to the Supernatural

What greater thing could you give to your children than for you to be someone who has been exposed to the supernatural interventions of God?

The distinguishing mark. The biblical account of Joshua and the elders highlights that exposure to God's supernatural deeds profoundly impacts leadership and faith. This exposure cultivates an acute awareness of God's presence and the unseen possibilities in any situation, transforming individuals into leaders who inspire wholehearted service to God.

Experiencing God's power. Parents must prioritize exposing their children to authentic moves of God, not just stories or videos. This involves:

• Seeking out and attending corporate gatherings where the Holy Spirit is actively moving.
• Hosting genuine prophets and ministers who operate in power and wisdom.
• Traveling to conferences or mission trips where miracles and divine encounters are common.
  These experiences leave an indelible mark, shaping children's perspective on reality and their confidence in God's power.

Cultivating hunger. While God brings what we need, we often must "go get" what we want. Parents should foster a hunger in their children for more of God, encouraging them to:

• Seek personal encounters with the Lord.
• Embrace inconvenience and sacrifice for divine appointments.
• Learn to discern and respond to the Holy Spirit's manifestations.
  This intentional pursuit ensures children experience God's transformative power firsthand, launching them into a life of profound impact.

10. Equipping Children with Practical Spiritual Warfare

If Brian learned how to use what God had given him, he would have victory, but he would also be able to impart it to others.

Weapons of victory. Children must be taught practical spiritual warfare to overcome the devil's devices (lies, manipulation, accusation, distraction, division). Parents can equip them with four primary weapons:

• The blood of Jesus: Emphasizes legal right to victory and freedom.
• The Word of God: A powerful weapon for declaration and fighting for destiny.
• The name of Jesus: The name before which all evil trembles, a tower of strength.
• Praise: Lifts God high, scattering His enemies and focusing on His goodness.
  Teaching children to use these tools empowers them for lifelong victory and to help others.

The battleground of night. Tormenting experiences, like night terrors, provide opportunities to teach children to engage in spiritual warfare. By guiding them to seek God for a specific word or strategy, parents empower them to find their own victory, turning areas of weakness into strength, as exemplified by Brian's journey from night terrors to leading many into freedom.

Communion as intercession. Partaking in Communion is a powerful act of remembrance and proclamation, serving as a tool for intercessory prayer for the family. Parents can:

• Confess healing over physical ailments through Jesus' broken body.
• Proclaim the blood of Jesus over each family member, claiming their souls for the Lord.
• Pray for their children and grandchildren to know God, be taught His ways, and experience revival.
  This consistent, intentional prayer from the unseen releases God's power and will over the family line.

11. Fostering a Legacy of Hope and Transformation

God has chosen our families to have an impact on the course of world history.

Beyond revival to reformation. While revival brings spiritual awakening, God's ultimate intention is for it to translate into lasting societal reformation. This means believers, including the next generation, must not only experience God's power but also apply Kingdom principles to every sphere of influence—government, education, business, and culture—to bring about tangible, lasting change.

The cost of complacency. The historical lesson of the Jesus People Movement highlights the danger of anticipating Christ's return without actively "occupying until He comes." A generation of zealous believers, by neglecting to pursue excellence in various professions, inadvertently ceded influence in key societal systems to the ungodly. Parents must instill a vision for children to be both passionate lovers of Jesus and excellent in their chosen fields, becoming leaven in corrupt environments.

Unfailing hope. Parenting is a sacred mission, patterned after the Father and the Son, filled with both challenges and immense privilege. Despite weaknesses and ignorance, God's sufficiency ensures victory. By embracing intentional parenting—raising children who embody love, power, wisdom, and purity—families become instruments of God's design, impacting world history and extending His Kingdom for generations to come.

Last updated: November 29, 2025