Conversations Josh Hoffert Night Terrors Part 1

a couple years ago Savannah my daughter she's about four now yeah maybe this was two years ago there was one night she woke up in the middle of the night she's screaming she's terrified you can hear it and our place is pretty small you've been there and I went to the room and I could feel as I got closer to her room just this this fear this presence that was just it was tangible so as I got to the door and I started to open the door I almost expected to see something standing in the room it was that tangible the presence of fear was that tangible and I oh I felt repelled from the room there was almost a physical force that I had to break through to get into the room the fear was so present and it had been there been a series of events leading up to that point I mean she'd had these these experiences where she was waking up and she was screaming night terrors and nightmares and it was hard for her to communicate what it was but I remember her culminated really in that night there was just this thing came into the room and she was so terrified so overcome with fear and there was a presence physically in that room it was overwhelming that's not that's not fun at all no I don't know if you guys have ever had an experience like this but it's one of the most common things that we hear people ask all the time up my Kidder is having nightmares my grandchild is having nightmares and how do I deal with this what do I do because I mean if you're a parent and you have an experience like that or a grandparent and you hear about an experience like that or you happen to have that experience that what it does to your heart and realizing that this is happening to your children but there is a way to combat that there's a way to deal with this and to help your kid want not not just to no longer have these nightmares but not to shut down the gift that God has given them and so you know what have you done like for your for your daughter and your son and and what have you done to really help them so that they still desire to dream in the midst of nightmares well one of the things I noticed in that experience it kind of when it culminated in that one is that darkness is attractive there's a certain attractiveness I could lust or a desire to darkness I was seeing kids all the time when they get interested in witches and warlocks and zombies and all kinds of stuff like that and I realized that when these things would show up whatever appeal they had it would attract my daughter's attention so I had to start training her to look for the light rather than the darkness because I noticed when she looked to the darkness it amplified they've got it got bigger and bigger and bigger the bigger she made it the bigger it became and so I thought huh I think if I trained her that God is bigger and light is bigger then light will become bigger if she looks at the light so a phrase that we use all the time what you focus on you make yeah exactly teaching her to focus on a different source yeah that's huge so we were going through the Jesus story book Bible I love the Jesus story book Bible and she kind of anchored herself in the story of the baptism of Jesus we would call it the time jesus took a bath Jesus taking a bath and when the dove would come upon Jesus well we was started telling her look for the peace dove the Dove that brings peace the Dove that's full of light and that was how we began to train her to look for the light so I'd come into the room and I tell her Savannah look for the light don't look at the darkness look for the light yeah yeah that's so good no does she still have nightmares not nearly as much as she used to yeah what's that process look like well I mean once we started realizing realizing what your children are attracted to and what the enemy is trying to do the process of begin training her what that looks like and then praying through that and praying for her and frame with her see I remember I had a friend and I remember coaching him years ago and he had grown up having terrifying experiences and and he I mean he told me a number of his experiences that he had when it was young terrible nightmares he'd see terrible visions and things like that see things when he was wandering around and he I mean his family was they were gifted seers and so over time he learned to turn off the gift because in turning it off he'd never see the scary things anymore he'd never been afraid anymore yeah and it wasn't until he was about in his mid-20s that he started rien gauging the spiritual realm but the very first thing that happened to him was he started having terrifying nightmares again and coaching him through that was recognising your authority recognizing your identity that anything worthwhile I used to say this to him look anything worthwhile is gonna take a fight to get to to get to yes so you to fight for it is a price there was yeah so teaching teaching my daughter the sphere of influence the sphere of authority that she had who she is and one of the things I do with Savannah every night that she goes to bed is I make sure I tell her three things because I want to instill these core values in her especially right before she goes to sleep is daddy is so proud of you daddy loves you and you were so beautiful to your daddy those three things I reiterate every single night before she goes to bed so that that's what she goes to bed with and she's and she knows she's safe there's peace and telling and and then then the practical things when she was waking up from the night terrors at what time is okay where's the light in the room where's the light tell me where the light is in the room and then start looking at the light the light will get bigger and that was that was talking her down and then coaching her in those things was significantly helpful and ended up my wife and I were lost in the whole thing we didn't really know what to do you know we'd heard stories of that happening to people but we didn't really know what to do and so both of us started consistently doing that you know one of the things that I've seen just in coaching people who have gone through this because I mean like I mentioned earlier I don't know how many times I've had somebody asked me about this very thing is is I will use a couple things that can help that I've found on prayer obviously you know we have a great big God in so prayer prayer is really important but sometimes there's a contending that happens in prayer and so what I'll suggest is depending on the age of the child if they don't have their words yet right then then you you want the the parents to lay hands if it all possible both parents and I know that's not always possible because I know situations where a single parent Hall or one of the parents this is not interested in spiritual things don't don't understand it don't agree with it that doesn't make sense to them and so it's not always possible but when it's possible yeah you know and God understands when it's not possible he uses what's what's available when it's possible both parents lay hands on the child and cover their dreams every night before they go to bed ask God to give them dreams and ask God to protect them from having dreams from the enemy and then as they have their voice getting the child's authority involved in that having them pray and sometimes it's pray after me just just say what mommy says who say what daddy says or you know having them pray after you and sometimes it's you know they learn that prayer but again it's that same thing every night you're putting their authority and your authority together and praying over them and you know and you know when you're talking to kids you don't use great spiritual biblical prayers the bees go look for the peace look for the peace stuff or you know God I don't want any of the bad dreams I only want the good dreams that are from you right but that that that two sides of that I don't want the bad dreams I do want the good dreams yeah is that that's key yeah that is because one of the things that people do it's like their first inclination is to tell children I mean we all grew up with it because the writers didn't know is there's something scary and your parent tells you that's not real don't pay attention to it there's no monster in the cross the closet there's no monster under your bed that's not real and so you learn in a from a young age to discount the spiritual realm right which also coincides with the gods side of the spiritual realm and so when we hit older we have to learn to reengage those things but if we could teach our children from a young age hey look it's not about ignoring the spiritual realm it's understanding the spiritual realm and that was a big thing with with Savannah in particular was teaching her those and so one of the things we did preemptively was begin to tell her because it's crazy kids will believe anything to tell him and he's just scared is scary exactly so we would we would we would use language like what if you have a scary dream find Jesus in the dream look for him in the dream or I would tell her and if you can't find Jesus you find out a because daddy will come into the dream and if you can't find either one of these then you step on the spider or you step on that thing or you yeah you can do that but it looked for Jesus and look for daddy because you can do that in a dream you know that's lucid dreaming we talked about that in the dreams and visions course so that was we would preemptively begin training her to do that and I don't know if you remember when we were traveling in Hong Kong a couple years ago and I was talking with Savannah and she had said one one night as we were talking about this she said daddy I had a dream with spiders in it and daddy came and scratched the spiders I do that was like yes she was learning her identity she was learning she's a daughter of God and that she's learning that in my household under my authority she has authority to do that yes and then she was doing it and asking daddy daddy came and crushed the spiders and you know ever since that time when we started doing that sure this dreams are significantly different she doesn't have nearly as many of those terrifying dreams yeah there's very very very few times she wakes up screaming and and terrified and very few very few times that you see find any kind of dark presence or fearful presence in there because you begin to train them you begin to teach them and and we're dealing with the stuff in our own hearts too right and that impacts the atmosphere of our house so I've got to deal with my portion of impact in the atmosphere of my house and the environment around my kids yeah what if I'd done that would allow this to exam to the house exactly you know movies that I want is it the the games that I'm playing the books that I'm reading the music that I'm listening to you know is there is there a responsibility on the rest of the house that's opening this up yeah that's key I remember one one thing in particular the Lord dealt with him in my heart that impacted the atmosphere of my heart of my house and I mean this is a whole can of worms we'd probably have to get into on another conversation but it was my lack of submission to my leadership in my church and what God dealt with that in my house I noticed significantly so the attack of the enemy in the middle of the night draw in my own dream life and in the dream life of my children because you only have authority to the extent that you submit naturally yes and that that is HUGE we like to claim I have authority I have a rarity but right you have authority to the extent that you submit to it and that that's huge it was it definitely changed the dynamic of of the night time with myself and my children I remember it significantly so yeah and there's there's sometimes there's a responsibility that we've got to take as as parents as adults for what's happening in the home for what's what's happening with our kids it's not all our fault but we we have to look sometimes is there something that I'm doing and if there is that place of repentance and coming back to that place of authority because you can't open up the door and we'll use an extreme example if you knew somebody was you know was a rapist and you just invited them to come and stay in your house and they raped somebody in the house I like that would be expected right like that's what they do you shouldn't have let them in the house don't let him in the house and so if we if we've opened up a door for the enemy to come in our house and the enemy is doing things in our house we need to close that door we need to push the enemy we need to remove the invitation through but not everything that the enemy does is invitation there's also intrusion and you've got those two sides with intrusion you teach your children Authority yeah and you teach them how to focus on the light and you teach them how to to step up into that place of knowing who they are that God is for them that their parents are for them that they will be protected they will be cared for and when it's a place of invitation you remove the invitation yeah I mean if we have children that are playing around with witchcraft and playing around with dark things and they're having dark dreams then that then we need to stop those things well I don't want to hurt my kids feelings but at what price right but at what price and that that's we have to realize that or our own lives if we're dealing with with issues if we have hidden sin even if our kids don't know about it it still affects them and we have to deal with those things if we want to close the door to what the enemy wants to do to our family yeah and I we were we were traveling as a family just recently and on we were on a a big boat big ferry and they had a place for the kids to hang out and play and and so we took our kids in there they had a TV show thing going on and there was this TV show that came on that was it was like the Good Witch that was helping everybody around and I noticed how fascinated all the kids became with him including my daughter and I was trying to distract her from it cuz I was like I don't really want to teach her that witchcraft is good but it's not what I want to teach her so we've definitely maintained a value for seeing overlooking what she watches because I think we stayed in the art of hearing God garbage into your spirit means garbage oh yeah yes and I know that so every night before we go to bed I bless the spirit of my daughter I bless her spirit to increase in light and peace I bless her soul and I bless her body every night that's that's our prayer I bless Savannah I bless your spirit i bless your soul and i bless your body can I just say I just want to say something because I just when you said that I felt this question just pop up into the atmosphere and it's like but it's it's not that big of a deal here's the big deal glaciers chapter 6 it says God will not be mocked write whatever you sow you will also reap and that's not a law issue that's a creation issue that's not a Mosaic law issue that's a creation issue God will not be mocked whatever you sow you will reap and so if if we're teaching our kids to sow to the flesh and they begin to reap the flesh that would be normal if they so do the demonic they're going to reap the demonic that's going to be normal because God is not mocked but if we teach them how to sow to the spirit they're gonna reap of the spirit so it is it's really important it's not just a phrasing of garbage into the spirit garbage out of the spirit that is a that's a spiritual law it is it really is and we know we've definitely noticed that and in it I don't I personally don't really a problem with my daughter watching television shows or anything like that I know you know let's up that's up to the Parenthood but I know cuz I mean she learned her colors through YouTube videos yeah right and she learned her alphabets and all of that kind of stuff when she was two years old she learned those things cuz you put him on and she's reciting the colors and everything so though I had a three value for the ability it for a child to learn through video you know watching a video but I also know that if you don't pay attention to those things that stuff that comes up I mean it's crazy what people put on kids shows and all of that kind of stuff so we were just be intentional about that because I know what she imagined what you focus on you make room for like jump wings to say yeah and I didn't want that going into her dream life and giving the enemy another reason for trying to attack her yeah so important so important one of the things I've noticed just in patterns and and helping different people go through this is that there seems to be two seasons of attack that happens with with kids and and usually the first season is right around that that age of maybe 18 months to two years and but often it actually doesn't start to almost three years sometimes it'll start a little bit early but anywhere from let's say about two years old to about five or six years old there's a season of attack and usually that season's season of attack is because there's a gifting that's there's a gifting this there and the enemy's trying to shut it down and the whole point of that attack that season of attack is to bring fear that would cause them to withdraw and no longer want to dream no longer want to encounter that but then the second season of attack usually happens just before puberty few years before puberty right through puberty and in that season of attack that if it would they weren't able to shut down the gift there then the enemy will try to come back at that point in time to to try to defile the gift and that's to anchor the gift so that it becomes attracted to darkness and begins to look for illegal ways to control the spirit realm and and that those those two seasons of attack you're gonna deal with those you know I mean they're the same thing yet right but at the same time you recognize what it is that the enemy is going after and so the first one in the midst of dealing in all the ways that you deal with it you want to make sure that you're continually anchoring the your child in the reality of the spiritual realm that there's Authority and that it's real so they're not shutting down the gift but they're looking for God they're asking God to see you come and the second time you're teaching your children discernment yeah because they're at that age where they need to learn discernment for themselves because they they're coming into that place of adulthood they're coming into that place of maturity and in and they need to begin to learn to discern and make wise decisions for themselves and the enemy is trying to draw and that's why so much that that season of rebellion you know there's the two seasons of rebellion because those are the two seasons the enemies are really trying to attack children to derail destiny right enemy only attacks and tries to resist what God deems is incredibly valuable yes and and again going back to my friend that I was helping coach through that what he had to realize is he had an incredibly valuable gift that the enemy was resisting for a purpose there's a reason the enemy resist though said yes reason enemy tries to come against those things because God has a plan he has a purpose for those people yeah is a plan II as a purpose he wants to use those people to build his kingdom to build other people to be a blessing to other people all of those kind of things but the only medium only resists what has a purpose right right yes so good so it you know one one last little piece I think would be really helpful for for you guys that are watching and just a thing you know the other piece is where there's demonic assignments now I mean the enemy is coming but it's not always a demonic assignment and there's times where you actually have to command the demon just stop yeah and that's that's the other piece I mean when you came into Savannah's room and you felt that presence there was a demon there was yes and when dreams come in the churches as thought I mean Tertullian in the 2nd and 3rd century he talked about dreams that there's demonically inspired dreams demons will actually bring dreams and implant them right there because there's spiritual atmospheres and so then we have dreams that come out of our own soul and and there's dreams that come from God and so the demon demons can do that we we want to command that to stop yeah and and I know that there's some of you that have had your children your grandchildren have had these dreams and it's a demonic attack and and I'm just asked Josh to pray for you guys just to break the power that demonic attack off of your family yeah I would love to one thing to say before that but I would love to do that is one thing my wife and I did is we worked as a team yes we worked as a team so oftentimes my wife she would go through she would go I can feel there's something strange in the house you know my wife is one of those strange people so she that she would walk into the room there's something strange in here even before we'd put the kids to bed she would go I can feel that there's something in here and so one of the things I would do is I would just practically go into the room see myself in the room and the spirit close my eyes and just see God's light emanating from me because he said you are light and I'd said anything that's dark can't stand here it can't be here and so we consistently claimed that territory over time working together her say there's something weird should go there's something weird in the living room something weird here and I'm not saying like yeah we didn't make a big deal out of it we weren't focusing on the darkness it was just we could feel there's something something off in the room something off in the house okay and so I was like as I've got authority here my wife has authority here we're gonna deal with this and so I would consistently see that right so just see the light God has given me emanating and spreading throughout the room and throughout the house and anything that didn't agree with that light had to go yeah it couldn't stay there which is exactly what you're saying exactly what we're saying yeah so go ahead and pray for people let's break that attack yeah I would love that one thing I want to say is I know there's probably people watching that didn't have parents that knew how to approach them when they were young and deal with these kind of things so on behalf of parents I want to say I am sorry that you didn't have someone teach you how to respond to the spiritual realm you have a gift you are valuable your gift is valuable so I bless you and I bless their dream life I bless you're seeing ability i bless the prophetic ability in you to increase and to come back but under the protection and hand and guidance of God I bless you with the grace of God to reengage your prophetic gifting to reengage that dream gifting to reengage that seeing gifting to reengage it in the spiritual realm of God and his light in his kingdom I bless you with the grace of God and the with the grace of his kingdom doing get to engage that and right now I just break the power over all of those parents that are watching right now who are children are struggling with this I break the power of the enemy right now over the destiny of those young children's lives because they have a purpose and so right now we've we proclaim over every household of parents who are having a trouble trouble with their kids in this area but break the power of the enemy would bless the household in the light of God with the kingdom of God with the wisdom of God the wisdom that's above the wisdom of the world to respond in the heavenly atmosphere that when we break the power of demonic assignment we say there's angelic assignment in those households yes there's angelic assignment for those children and witches I bless you parents to pull in the wisdom of God to partner with his heavenly realm with his angels of this presence to impact the kingdom of God in your house in your environment in your heart and in the hearts of your children and I bless their destiny we just would reach into the future like pulses we reach into the future and bless the destiny of the people that are coming would bless their destiny from this point forward to the future because they have gifts they have a call and God intends for them to increase his kingdom and to be a benefit to his kingdom and to love and heal the hearts of wounded people and so whip speak we prophesied destiny over those children we prophesy wisdom over those parents and I prophesy light encounter and Kingdom over the households of these families in Jesus name today from this moment for it in Jesus name those watching right now from this moment forward yeah yeah yeah and you know if you're one that has had that happen something that that John Paul told me when I was telling him about my childhood grown up with night terrors and demonic visitations as a child the Justice of God says that if the enemy comes and releases a demonic visitation that justice calls for an angelic visitation and so begin to cry out for that angelic visitation to cry out because if you have the gift to recognize a spirit in the room then you have a gift to recognize the spirit in the room and that that's a gift that God gave you and he's gonna redeem that gift and and if you're one maybe maybe you as a child you had dreams and it's not your child that's having the nightmares but you had nightmares and you shut down your gift and you can't really remember having a dream or or there they've been sporadic when they used to happen all the time it just begin to ask god I'm so sorry that I didn't believe in dreams I'm sorry that I believed them when they said that they weren't real and I asked you would cleanse my gift from the defilement that the enemy tried to bring to it and that you would release me to have every dream that you desire me to have I I choose to hear from you in my dreams because I want to hear your voice in any way that you speak to me and so just as as one that carries authority in the realm of the Spirit I just speak over your spirit that you will have dreams again that you will remember that you will hear and the gift that was close will be awakened again in the name of Jesus Christ we bless you to dream and we bless you remember your dreams and to hear the voice of God and recognize his guidance so good it's so good thank you Father mhmmm that's right thank you lord now that this this area it's so important because of how important dreams are yeah and and we don't always realize the importance of dream but I'm excited we come back we're gonna do another conversation just talking about the importance of dreams and what they actually do you're not going to want to miss that that's that's a lot of fun and you know if you don't have a good foundation or philosophy to understand why dreams are so important one of the things that we have here at streams is we we just released recently our dream foundations where I walk through just understanding why dreams are so important and a good way to understand them and keep them anchored in relationship I think that will really really help you if you haven't gotten it yet so bless you guys we're gonna see you next time on conversations me and Josh are gonna talk about the importance of dreams in children and with some of the things that God does with dreams that you probably have never heard of before

Channel: Streams Ministries

Views: 7,375

Rating: 4.9207921 out of 5

Keywords: Streams Ministries, Conversations, Josh Hoffert, Dreams, Night Terrors, John E Thomas, dream interpretation, dream meaning, Christian, Bible, Spiritual, Jesus

Id: mD899xNRgUQ

Length: 27min 43sec (1663 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 14 2017