SID: You talk about we should be building rather than renovating. Briefly, what do you mean by that?
DIAN: Well, I kind of feel like working with teenagers and adults, we do a lot of renovating. But with children, we get to build. They believe what we say and, if we are wise builders like the Bible talks about, and we build line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, using God’s word, we get to build. It’s way more fun and there’s some cleanup along the way when you build, but nothing like renovating. Sometimes in a church setting, people think, “Well, first you work with the children, then you work with the teens, and then you get into the ministry.” But really God’s word is backwards to that. He said, “If you want to be great in the kingdom, the little ones are the greatest in the kingdom.”
SID: You say one of the keys to building is the way we talk. You even have a concept called “eye to eye.” Explain that.
DIAN: Well, one thing that I feel that’s important for children to know is who they are and who’s there. I love to tell children– Here’s an example. Just recently, a little girl came to church dressed like a princess. Her mom was apologizing ’cause it was just the middle of summer or something. I got down on my knees, or on one knee, it’s the lowest I can get, and I looked her in the eye and I said, “You are a princess. You’re not pretending to be a princess, you really are a princess because you belong to King Jesus. He’s your Father. You are royalty.”
DIAN: Little boys, they want to be– Inside every little boy is this warrior. I love to say to little boys, “You are a warrior prince. You are the son of the King of Kings and you have power over the enemy.” I can feel like when I talk like that to children, I can feel them standing straighter. I love looking children in the eye and if there’s a child watching this or a child right here, what I like to say is, “When I grow up, I want to be just like you.”
SID: Tell me about children praying for adults. Give me an example.
DIAN: The Bible says we’re to have the faith of a child. Why aren’t children on the prayer teams? I said “worship” there because that’s another passion of mine, is worship. Psalm 8:2 says, “From the mouths of children comes praise so perfect, its silences the enemy.” Why aren’t they on the worship team?
SID: I want them on the worship team, with that kind of promise.
DIAN: When you get a child holding a mic on a worship team, a child that’s worshiping God, it’s electrifying. Every child in the auditorium sits up and goes, “Oh, this is for us, too.” I was remembering a story just recently about a little– There’s a lot of things that happen to children in my life when they’re four and five. This was a four-year-old. Their neighbor had lost his wife and he was elderly and he was very, very sad to have lost his wife. This four-year-old was playing in the yard again and the mom came out and she saw her four-year-old sitting on the swinging bench next door with this elderly man. He was weeping. Then she came back and her mom said, “What were you doing?” She said, “Just helping him cry.”
SID: Tell me about the time the colds were going around at your local church and this little girl got up.
DIAN: Yes. Yeah, there was quite a bit of sickness in the–
SID: That’s one of my favorite stories.
DIAN: Oh, I love this one, too. We had been teaching the children that they are royalty, that they have authority. We were in a series like that. At the end of the service, I said, “Kids, today we’re going to pray because there’s too many colds, too much flu going around. We’re going to pray. Who would like to pray?” Kids love to pray. One little girl came up to the front and she took the mic. Her name was Asia. Beautiful, beautiful girl. She stood at the mic for a long time and it actually got awkward because she was just standing there. Afterwards, I realized it was like everything she’d been learning, everything we’d been talking about, it clicked in her heart. She stood there and then she said, “I am a princess. Princesses don’t ask for things. Princesses make decrees. In the name of Jesus, I command every sickness to leave.” She started to pray and we were clapping and it was like, “Woah!”
SID: It all started by you getting down on your knees at the level of a child and looking in their eyes and saying, “You are a princess.” Did you know she got a download of a song that removes supernatural fear? Wait ’til you hear the title: “Ooky Pooky Spooky Fear” next, be right back.
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth