On a very windy night recently, Matey (8) woke up and was quite scared by all the noise outside. I said to him, “Matey, you know what to do when you’re scared. What do you want to say to Jesus?” He then asked Jesus to take away the fear and give him a sense of peace. He then asked Jesus to show Himself to Matey. Matey then shared with me what he saw. Jesus had put a huge angel on top of our house. I encouraged Matey to ask Jesus questions about what the angel’s name was and looked like. Matey answered with the name and then said that there were in fact 4 angels, one for each member of the family. They were sitting on the four corners of the house. He them went on to say that he could see an angel on just about every house in the street. When I questioned him further about this, he replied that there was an angel on each house in the street but the vacant block of land next door where they were about to begin to build a house did not have an angel over it. The conversation finished soon after this as Matey was no longer scared and went back to bed.

Imagine my surprise when I got up the next morning and went outside to assess the damage. The only damage in the whole street was a massive tree limb had fallen from the vacant block of land next door, blocking the road.

There is a purity to what children can see in the supernatural. Several years ago on Remembrance Day (where in Australia we stop and honour the people who have died in wars fighting for our freedom), Matey saw angels dressed in army uniforms guarding our house and the city of Melbourne and all around the outside of the nation of Australia. We hadn’t identified that day as Remembrance Day and he wasn’t aware of it. I believe that was more than co-incidence that on that day, the angels were dressed as they were.

Children tend to be able to see angels and celestial beings easier than adults, especially if they have grown up with it being common.  Children don’t tend to have the same hang ups as adults and haven’t been told that you don’t see angels, demons etc. I encourage you to protect your child’s spiritual sight by restricting the movies they see and the books they read that deal with the supernatural in a worldly way. God has so much to give us that we don’t need to pollute or taint it with what Hollywood movie directors believe it looks like. I believe God would rather our children see for themselves what angelic beings look like. Fellow parents, I can’t encourage you strongly enough to please protect what they watch and listen to and read. They don’t need polluted vision.

Ask them to ask God to show Himself to them. Encourage your child to ask questions of God. Focus the questions on Father God, Holy Spirit or Jesus, so as not to converse with the angelic beings or demons but with God. Spend time in the quiet practicing with your child. God loves questions. He is a good God. He will show your child what He wants your child to know.

When my children see angelic beings or Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit, something I find very useful to do is to ground what they see by getting them to express what they saw with words or drawing a picture. This takes it from the abstract to the concrete and it also validates what they saw. It is a lot easier to then ask more questions (eg what colour was that…) and draw more out of the experience.

I find the times when my children usually experience this is when they are in the middle of worship or an atmosphere has been created of expecting God to show up or when they are scared and they specifically ask God to come and speak with them.

We also use the throne room experience where the kids sit in a large chair with a crown on their head, cape over their shoulders and imagine they are in the throne room with Father God, sitting on His knee. We encourage them to have a conversation with Father God about whatever it is they want to say to Him. It can be quite surprising what they share with God and then listening to what He wants to say to them.

What are your children’s experiences and what have you done to nurture this in your children? I love hearing how you are fostering this in your children. Please use the comments sections to share.