GCD Short - The Spiritual Realm and Your Kids - Spiritual Sensitivity at a Young Age

 

 In my last GCD Short, I mentioned that kids are more sensitive to the spiritual realm than adults tend to be. Part of the reason for this is that when kids sense something that adults cannot see, the adults tend to tell the kids that what they are sensing is not real, it is just their imagination, like the monster in the closet or an "imaginary" friend. Then the child learns to ignore those things and as a result, they lose their spiritual sensitivity. It is my opinion that this is to the detriment of our children, at least as far as it affects their potential relationship with God.

I will share some stories today from when my own children were young in order to demonstrate how aware of the spiritual realm kids really are. My wife and I learned a few things during those years and we would have probably done a few things differently had we known then what we know now.

I want to stress that in no way do I encourage children to pursue engagement with the spiritual realm (or even for adults to pursue it for that matter), but as parents, I think it is good for us to recognize when what they are telling us may actually be something that they perceive in their spiritual awareness. When we recognize that, we can teach them from an informed position while also avoiding the typical reaction which will cause their spiritual awareness to dull.

 My two oldest kids shared what we understood were two imaginary friends. It seemed strange to us that their shared engagements with these two friends were exactly the same all the time, and it wasn't like my kids were both playing with both imaginary kids separately at the same time; they played together as a foursome. I guess my wife and I chalked it up to strong imaginations and cooperation that their play times were the way they were.

There was another anomaly. When it was time for a meal or if we had to go somewhere, my kids would feel compelled to say goodbye to their friends, or to tell them that they had to go. I recall a time when my wife told our kids that 'Jordan and Skusty' had to go because my kids had some responsibility to take care, and my kids went to tell their friends that they had to go. The interactions were so real.

Later on, after the kids had outgrown playing with Jordan and Skusty, my wife was made aware through the Holy Spirit that these friends were the spirits of real children who had lived previously. They were perpetual children whom we believe are somehow attached to that property, and our kids living there provided them with playmates for those years. The name Skusty was actually a child's mutilation of a Russian girls name, but I now forget what that real name was. We somehow surmised, either by inspiration or through our own wrestling with this information, that it may have been that these children were possibly children of earlier Russian settlers or travellers, and that they may have died and were buried somewhere on or around our property, which is what has them anchored there.

Keep in mind that over the years, we had referred to Jordan and Skusty as our kids' imaginary friends, and that is how the kids must have perceived them. But when we left that property, having been earlier told the truth about the situation by the Spirit, there was a sorrow at having to leave those two behind, even though our own kids had not had any interactions with them for years already. I find it sad that those two children no longer have playmates to interact with, and may not again for years, if ever again, depending on who lives there and if there are children in the family.

Our other child is not as close in age to the others as the first two are to each other; as such, we had learned a little in the meantime and that child's interactions we handled differently. Interestingly, our third child didn't really have a lot of interactions with Jordan and Skusty as I recall, but there were other interactions that come to mind.

For example, our older two were in school and our youngest was still at home when my wife went downstairs to our child's bedroom and found our child having a playtime with what appeared to be maybe six or seven others. My wife observed from the doorway for a while and watched as our youngest was having verbal interactions with these others and moving the toys around in their positions as they played. My wife asked if she could join them, and my youngest said yes and promptly moved the toys on the floor to make a spot for my wife to join them, and the the playtime and the conversations continued. I am sorry to say that I have no further record of the interactions; perhaps my wife remembers it since she was there, but there is more to tell about other interactions.

I recall another time when our kids were in bed and our youngest started crying in their bed, which was in the basement off of the family room where my wife and I were sitting. We went in to see what was wrong and learned that there was something/someone in the room that was disturbing our youngest. We had learned a lot by then, so we told our youngest that whoever was there couldn't hurt them, and that because they loved God, they had the authority to tell the person to go away. We encouraged our child to tell what they saw that he (we later learned from our child that it was an older man) was scaring them, that they wanted to go to sleep, and that our child wanted the man to please leave. We then watched our child as they turned their head as if watching someone walk out of the room. I'll admit, that was a little spooky.

I will add this. It appears that there may be some reason why some spiritual entities are trapped at a specific plane or elevation. Things got to a point where our youngest was perpetually disturbed and could not sleep in their basement bedroom. I think it was our pastor at the time that suggested that we move our child to an upstairs bedroom if at all possible. This was the same pastor who had earlier told us that children are more spiritually aware than adults are and who set us on this journey of more spiritual understanding. We had an upstairs bedroom that I was using as the office for my business, but I gave up my office and we moved our child upstairs, and bedtime became a simple thing again. Our child slept better and eventually lost their sensitivity to a certain degree, though I suspect that it is still somewhat there and becomes more prominent in certain situations.

There is a lot about the spiritual realm that I do not understand. Why does it seem that there are disembodied spirits of deceased people walking the earth? Why are they not either in Heaven as people seem to believe or in Sheol waiting as has become my general belief? Is there some unfinished business that keeps them anchored to this realm? I am not someone who follows or pursues paranormal activity, but I am aware that it happens. I do not seek to engage with it, but if it engages with me, I want to recognize that and respond intelligently.

I think that is what we should want to teach our kids. We don't want our kids to seek these things out, but when they do come across them, our kids should know that, in Christ, we have authority over them and they cannot hurt us.

There is a danger to this, and I am not naive about it. If a child grows exceedingly comfortable with the spiritual realm, they can develop an unhealthy interest in it and seek it out, potentially leading to things such as seances, mediums and other eastern mysticism pursuits. Of course, the Bible is very clear about these things being against God's desires for His people. It is logical to assume that since He has created the spiritual realm, He knows what dangers lurk in the shadows there and He wants to protect us from harm, that is why He instructs us not to pursue these things.

The other side of this is that an understanding that there is a spiritual realm, though not necessarily an understanding of the spiritual realm, can keep us open to the gentle nudgings and stirrings of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we can teach our children, and ourselves, to remain aware of the spiritual realm, I think that God can use our kids and us better and more readily. We just have to learn to recognize what is coming from the Holy Spirit and what is coming from a false spirit.

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