Cultivating a Spiritually Rich Environment

At the age of fourteen, years before my parents decided to serve God, I became a Christian. I was born again. Until then, I’d attended church only occasionally with my great-aunt, maternal grandmother, or a friend. Still, I’d become acquainted with a place of worship where the gifts of the Spirit flowed, and great emphasis was placed on having faith and knowing and exercising your authority in Christ. I joined that church and began to grow spiritually.

After learning about passed-down patterns of negative behavior that can be attributed to generational curses, I decided to reverse the curses I’d identified in my own bloodline (more about how to do this in a later chapter). I wanted to pass down my faith and new life to my kids when I married and started a family. I wanted to raise my kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and release generational blessings instead of curses. I wanted to be intentional about shaping their future and exposing them to the things of God. My job as their mother would be to not only take them to church but to teach them at home.

Growing up, I’d always wanted two kids—a boy and a girl. But God had other plans. When I married, He blessed me with four sons who were all future leaders, giving me the privilege of pouring into them. Let me tell you a little about each one.

My Four Sons

My oldest son is a quiet storm, laid-back, and quite the philosopher. He loves nature and animals, and I’m not surprised by that. While he was still in the womb, I held my belly during our bonding times and introduced him to the outside world he’d see once he was born. I described majestic trees, green grass, beautiful flowers, mountains, and so much more of God’s creation.

Along with his younger brothers, he suffered from asthma, and after an attack he would have to stay home from school to recuperate. Sometimes he couldn’t even run and play like other kids, but I observed his resilience and faith as he navigated those limitations. Then one day when he was watching a healing evangelist on television, he laid his hands on the screen during prayer and was healed. His health improved from that time on.

This son is musically inclined and sings and plays drums. He also started having prophetic dreams around age four or five. Most of his dreams are literal, meaning he sees real-life events before they happen. He’s a seer.

My second son, also musically gifted, is known for singing and leading worship. He loves to cook and build things. He’s adventurous and loves the outdoors. Growing up, he was often outside catching grasshoppers and other insects.

When this son was a toddler, my dad brought to my attention that he would stop what he was doing around a certain time every day and praise God. At eight years old, he was filled with the Spirit during a church conference. A few years later, one day he started playing the keyboard as he sang in worship. His dad and I were stunned because he’d never had lessons, and we’d had no idea he could play. He picked up playing drums as well. Today he writes and sings prophetic songs.

Son number three, who is quite like my oldest son, loves sports, especially basketball. I knew he would play ball when he reached for the photographer’s ball at three months old during a photo shoot. As he grew older, I cultivated that natural gift by teaching him how to dribble, throw, and pass. He’s gifted to play the keyboard and drums and to sing.

He is also a seer. God will sometimes show him things before they happen too. Around age seven, he had an open-eye vision of one of his god-brothers getting into trouble with law enforcement. A few weeks later, exactly what he saw happened. (I’ll describe what an open-eye vision is in chapter 4.)

My youngest son, Josh, is a global minister, conference speaker, singer, and prolific author. He wanted to be a writer starting in elementary school, where he had the opportunity to write his first book through a journalism program. He’s a dreamer and a prophet, prophesying after the anointing came on him at a young age. He was wise beyond his years, and it’s evident today as he impacts thousands with his revelatory teachings.

During their formative years, my sons formed a singing group called The Giles Brothers and sang for family at special occasions and at church. They wrote their own songs and sang a capella until they learned to play instruments well enough to accompany themselves.

As they grew, they each also developed their own prayer life. One Saturday morning, I came downstairs to hear them all praying. One of them had awakened early and slipped downstairs to pray. Soon, one by one, they all woke up and came down to join in. They weren’t prompted by me or anyone else; they were sensitive to the Holy Spirit and prayed on their own.

Children and the Prophetic Dimension

Since young children are newly born from eternity, they’re more sensitive to the supernatural realm. Kids may see or hear what adults do not, similar to the sensitivity an animal may have to sights and sounds not seen or heard by humans. This often allows them to be open to the prophetic dimension (also known as the heavenly realm), a place in the spirit realm where God gives access to the future through the gifts of the Spirit—namely, dreams, visions, prophecy, and discernment. In chapter 4, we’ll talk about dreams, visions, and prophecy in detail, and you’ll see evidence of the gift of discernment in many of the Scriptures and stories from the Bible I share.

The purpose for the Lord’s giving access to the prophetic dimension, which taps in His mind and heart, is to foretell the future and bring glory to Him in doing so. Amos 3:7 declares God’s special relationship with those who open themselves to knowing the secrets in His mind and on His heart: “Surely my Lord does not do anything unless he has revealed his secret to his servants the prophets” (LEB).

Immersed in the prophetic dimension, I had dreams and visions as a young child. But my parents did not seem to understand them or my prophetic gifts, so I stopped sharing these experiences with them. My maternal grandmother, however, always seemed interested when I went to her with something new to share. She never interpreted my dreams, but providing a listening ear was enough. Since someone I looked up to was willing to take the time to hear what I had to say and, I felt, validate my experiences, I was okay.

Then when I was a young believer in the 1970s, not much emphasis was placed on the prophetic dimension in churches. So although I continued to have dreams and divine encounters, I had little guidance. That’s when I decided to cultivate a spiritually rich environment in my own home and other places as God led and share what I learned with my future children and others.

In this chapter, we’ll first consider what you can do as a parent to cultivate a spiritually rich environment even before your child is born. And then we’ll discuss what you can do as your child progresses through early childhood, adolescence, and even into adulthood. No matter where you are on your parenting journey, it’s never too soon or too late to start establishing what you need to support and walk alongside your prophetic child.

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Order your copy of Raising Prophetic Children: The Building Blocks of Nurturing Spiritual Gifts by Debra Giles