Parents as Spiritual Covering for their Children

Parents as Spiritual Covering for their Children: In the Kingdom of God, Jesus Christ is the only mediator between humans and the Father (1 Timothy 2:5). However, Scripture exhorts us to pray for one another, and to share each other’s burdens. This is where the prayer of intercession finds it usefulness in the church.

It calls for us standing in the gap for others; going before the Father to plead for His mercy on their behalf. In other for us to do this, we must have an unbroken relationship with God. Intercession is more critical in the home environment because we want to see our loved ones walking in the truth.

Therefore, godly parents are the best channels of such prayers, since no one can give another what they do not have. Acting as spiritual covering demands more than perfunctory and casual prayers that some people say just to assuage their conscience. Interceding for children must begin at their conception.

Parents need to present them before the LORD and speak words of life over them before they are born. Pray for their health, education, careers, friendship, to guard against the influence of ungodly peers, marriage and other important aspects of human life. Parents should intensify their prayers as their children grow into toddlers, teenagers and adulthood.

Even when they marry and leave the home, parents must continue to cover their children in prayer without necessarily being nosey or prying into their private lives. God knows the need of each of His children. All the parents need to do is show care by reminding the Father of His promise to bless us and our children; and to be their Teacher (Isaiah 53:13).

These are the promises parents must claim for their children while presenting them to the LORD as their spiritual covering:

1. Isaiah 59:21, “As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says the LORD, My Spirit that is upon you, and My words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring’ says the LORD, from this time forth and evermore;
2. Psalm 102:28, “The children of Your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before You”;
3. Psalm 112:1-2, “Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in His commandments! His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed”;
4. Isaiah 44:3-5, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit upon your offspring, and My blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, ‘I am the LORD’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD’s’ and name himself by the name of Israel”;
5. Isaiah 61:8-9, “…I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the LORD has blessed”;
6. Isaiah 65:23, “They shall not labour in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them”;
7. Proverbs 20:7, “The righteous who walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him”;
8. Proverbs 14:26, “In the fear of the LORD one has strong influence, and his children will have a refuge”;
9. Jeremiah 32:29, “I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them”;
10. Deuteronomy 4:40, “Therefore you shall keep His statutes and His commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for the time”; and
11. Acts 16:31-33, “And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ And they spoke the word of the LORD to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptised at once, he and all his family.

Mark Altrogge, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Indiana, USA emphasised the importance of parents acting as spiritual covering for their children until the day they (parents) leave this earth to be with the LORD. He stressed that even when parents do not see their children saved in their lifetime, God can still save them in His own time.

Altrogge noted that although God does not guarantee that all our children with be saved; He promises to hear our prayers; that the prayer of the upright is powerful end effective. He also observed that God has given us good reasons to believe that He desires to save whole families.

 As I type this article, tears welled up in my eyes for the opportunities my parents missed to pray for my siblings and me. If they had done what we advised in this article, I would not be going through the horrors and pains inflicted on me by satan and his demons due to polluted bloodlines of my forebears.

While these battles have increased my understanding of spiritual things, especially the hideousness of the devil, I wish with all my heart that my parents had done the needful in their lifetime. So, if you are reading this article as a parent, pray earnestly for your children using the Scriptures provided as a guide. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you more if you so desire. You are the caretakers of your children. Don’t let them down by your carelessness.

***** Some materials sourced from 12 Promises Every Parent Should Ask God to Fulfil, https://www.biblestudytools.com