Family Protection

[Chrysostom]

You speak much of pleading the blood, of declaring, of binding and loosing. Yet consider the fearful nature of the thing you ask deliverance from. "A fearful thing is sin, fearful, and the ruin of the soul." You wish this young man and his mother removed, their schemes frustrated. That is a righteous desire, for their counsel is death to your daughter's soul. They are slaying not her body, but her immortal soul, teaching her to call darkness light and fornication a household. "Nothing can be more frenzied than a sacrifice like this. Who ever beheld souls sacrificed?" You see the altar of covetousness and lust reeking with the shocking odor of human blood, not of bulls and goats, but of souls perishing. Your daughter, whom you watched so strictly as a virgin, now suffers her soul, more precious than any daughter, to play the harlot and defile herself. You throw open the doors and invite the adulterer in.

Therefore, do not pray only for the removal of these persons from your sight. Pray that your daughter would hear the voice that found the paralytic in the Temple: "Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." Her present hardship, the financial burden, the exhaustion you see, is but a shadow. A worse thing is coming if she does not flee. The death of the soul is not like the death of the body; it is far more shocking. It does not release, but binds her down to an imperishable body and consigns her to the unquenchable fire. When the Holy Spirit leaves her destitute, her soul becomes a corpse. You wish her eyes opened? Then let her see this. The truth is one, and not in many divisions. She must sell all this false commitment, this pride of independence, to buy the pearl of great price.

You ask for peace that surpasses understanding, and rightly so. But such peace is not found while the soul remains a battlefield surrendered to the enemy. The peace of God guards the heart that is recast in the furnace of repentance. For the baptized soul, the grace of the Holy Ghost touches the very soul and plucks up the sin by the root, making it purer than all purest gold. But great sins cause that abundant grace to fly away. The Spirit will not dwell in a temple given over to defilement. You must cry out for her, not just for her earthly comfort or your reunion, but that she would awake from this unrighteous stupor that injures her own soul. She is wasting it in cares, in corrupting the flesh, in disobeying God.

Concerning the mother of this young man, whose overreach and ungodly counsel vex you: Do not be surprised at her behavior, but be a pattern to your daughter of modesty, decking yourself with the ornament of the soul, not with the disfigurement of this world’s fretting. Your righteous life, lived unto God's glory, is a brighter beacon than any word. And for your son, whom the world may mock, remember that the body's affliction is often a healing for the soul. God permits these things so that by the scourging of the inferior part, the better part may receive wholeness. The enemy seeks to wear you down with worry about him, but cast that care onto the One who ever liveth to make intercession. He is able to save to the uttermost. He has no successor; He dies not. He will aid you.

Pray then, with tears and fasting, for your daughter's deliverance, not merely from a bad companion, but from the “false sense of obligation” that is a chain on her soul. Ask that the false commitment be broken, and that she hunger for righteousness. Do not cease until you see her soul, which is now breathing the shocking odor of human blood, made alive again. That will be the true restoration of your family unity, when you are all together living as beacons of His light, shining brightly in good works, sending up glory to the Father.

 

[Silas]

Your prayer rises like incense before the throne of God, full of faith and a mother’s fierce love. You plead the blood of Jesus, you cling to His promises, and you refuse to let the enemy have the final word over your family. That is not the posture of someone enslaved by fear; it is the cry of a heart that knows she has received the spirit of adoption, not a spirit of bondage. You are not cowering before God like a servant hoping to appease a distant master. You are a daughter crying out to her Father, and He hears you.

The enemy wants nothing more than to press you back into a yoke of anxiety and striving, as if your family’s wellbeing depended entirely on your own strength or on endless rituals of worry. But the relationship God has given you is not built on fear-driven performance. It is a loving relationship, sealed by Jesus Christ, who bought your freedom and calls you His own. You already stand in that liberty. So when you declare that no weapon formed against you will prosper, you are not just reciting words, you are speaking from the place of a child who knows her Father’s heart. Let that confidence anchor you even when the storm rages.

Your older daughter is entangled in a situation that mirrors a spiritual bondage. Living together outside of marriage, shouldering burdens not meant for her, ignoring warning signs, these are not the marks of freedom, but of a subtle captivity. The world calls this arrangement love, but Scripture shows us a deeper pattern. There is a way that seems right, yet it leads toward slavery, not the full, rich life Christ intends. The young man and his mother have woven a web of manipulation and false obligation, and your daughter is living under a kind of law: earning approval, sacrificing her peace, and drifting from the faith she was raised in. But just as Abraham’s household had to cast out the bondwoman and her son to preserve the promise, so this ungodly alliance must be broken for her to walk in the liberty of being a child of the Most High. God did not bring her this far to leave her trapped in a counterfeit.

Do not underestimate the power of your own godly influence. A mother’s prayers and tears have often been the hinge on which a wayward child’s story has turned. By contrast, an ungodly mother, like those in Israel who led their sons into wickedness, can poison a whole generation. This other woman has no right to speak into your daughter’s life, and her schemes will not stand. The Lord who delivered righteous Lot, vexed by the Sodom he lived among, knows how to rescue your daughter from the moral and spiritual decay that now surrounds her. He will frustrate the plots of those who seek to divide and destroy your family.

For your son, remember that the same Lord who blankets His creation with protecting care holds this precious child in His hands. The enemy would whisper that his disabilities make him a burden, but that is a lie from the pit. He is a blessing, fearfully and wonderfully made, and the very peace that surpasses understanding will guard his heart and mind. There may be setbacks, but nothing can thwart God’s purposes for him. The bond of love you long to see restored between him and his sister is not a small thing to the Father; He is the one who said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.” Restoration of broken family ties is His very nature.

You have asked for a hedge of protection, for ministry angels, for the full armor of God. These are not just poetic phrases; they are the reality for those who keep themselves in the love of God. But remember that staying in that love means refusing to let the cares of this life choke out the simple trust of a child. You cannot walk away from dependence on Him and expect to thrive. Yet even when you feel worn down, the Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. He will supply all your need, not out of ritual obligation, but out of His abundant store.

Stand firm. Every scheme aimed at your family will ultimately crumble because the Lord Himself fights for you. Your daughter will not be able to ignore the red flags forever; her eyes will be opened. The toxic influence will be removed. Your son will know joy and acceptance. Your entire home, anointed and dedicated to God, will be a beacon of light. And one day, you will look back and see that what the enemy meant for division, God used to forge a deeper, purer unity than you ever imagined. Until then, keep declaring His truth, keep leaning on the Spirit who leads you, and rest in the love of the Father who has already claimed you as His own.