Sid Roth - Building and Equipping Kingdom Kids with Dian Layton
Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it's naturally supernatural. What do parents usually ask children after attending children's church? Did you have fun? My guest says there is something supernatural that is so much greater than just old fun. One night changed my guest forever. Now she trains thousands of children to move in the supernatural to be end time soldiers. Even adults will go to the next level of gifting when they hear my guest. But there's a secret. You have to become like a little child. Can you become like little children? Can you become like a little child?
Sid Roth: Dian Layton, you have been helping little people for over forty years. I'm just curious. Did you always have this heart to help little people?
Dian Layton: No.
Sid Roth: No?
Dian Layton: No. No. They saw me as an energetic, on fire, brand new Christian. I had been a Christian just over a year by then. And they said, “Why don't you work with the kids?” And I said, “Kids kind of bother me. They irritate me, and they get on my nerves.” And I like, but, okay. Like, you know. I gave my life to Jesus. If that's what I'm going - I'm going to be a servant. So I ended up working with the kids. And I found that I had such love in my heart for them. They nicknamed me Huggah wuggah. And I would hug them. And I thought, because I had no training, or anything, in children's ministry, I thought that my job was to make sure that children's church was fun. But one night that changed my life we were talking to the children about Jesus is our Shepherd, we are the sheep. The Bible says that the sheep know the Shepherd's voice. So, we had been acting out sheep and shepherd stories from the Bible. We had some time. And I said, “How about if we listen to God? The Bible says we know His voice. Why don't we listen to God?” And it was a whole new thought for me. And I thought - Okay. I think when we listen to God these kids are going to have like prayer requests or testimonies. It never entered into my mind or my heart that He would actually speak to them. And I said, “Let's listen. Let's go really quiet and listen.” And in my mind I'm thinking, “This is going to be so cute.” So, I let like a minute pass, or so. And then I said, “Okay. Did anybody hear God speak to you?” And all these hands went up. And I thought, “Okay. It's going to be so cute.” One little girl at the back of the room was waving, waving her hand, a little girl named Karen. And I said, “Karen, come up and tell us what God said to you,” thinking it's going to be cute. I can still remember her walking up that aisle. She had long ringlets, and they were bobbing. And she walked up to the front with such determination. And she said, “The Lord just told me that my spirit is just as big as an adults.” And she went and sat back down. And I was like, “That's not just cute, that’s–“ Oh! And then I thought, my job is not just fun. My job is to feed them spiritually. And I want those spiritual meals to be bright, and interesting, and nutritious like, we don't want to just give porridge. Right? So there's still an element of fun and enjoyment, but a richness. And so, I started to pray. I said, “Lord, please, give me ideas for how to teach the children how amazing You are, how awesome and exciting You are, to help me to teach them about Your kingdom.” And He started to give me downloads.
Sid Roth: This is what I find so fascinating. Speaking of downloads, your book, Soldiers with Little Feet. How did you get that title?
Dian Layton: Okay. Well, I used to do a lot of speaking at camps. People would bring me in for summer camps. Every morning they would have, I think it was six a.m. prayer. I'm not a six a.m. kind of girl. But I would get up at six a.m. to go and be prayed for. There was a beautiful, beautiful woman in that church. Her name was Sister Overall. I loved it. She was over-all amazing. And I would, like, get my coffee and be rubbing my eyes. And I'd go kneel down. And Sister Overall would come and put her arms around me and pray for the children, and pray for the anointing, and pray. And she, it was just so awesome. And one of the mornings when she was praying for me I heard footsteps marching, marching. And not just a few. Dozens. And then hundreds. And I knew from the sound of the footsteps that it wasn't adults. It was children. And it was an army of children. And I listened to it for a few minutes, and then, in my mind, in my heart, the Lord sang this song to me. I hear the sound of an army of soldiers with little feet. And they are marching into battle in the name of the King of Kings. And then there's like verses and stuff. And it's like - Oh, I like it. I like it! Woo!
Sid Roth: You know, you have to understand. She is getting these downloads from heaven, because it's God's greatest desire for young people to not just play games in church, but to do the most exciting things possible. We'll be right back.
Sid Roth: You talk about we should be building rather than renovating. Briefly, what do you mean by that?
Dian Layton: 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. There's some clean up along the way when you build, but nothing like renovating. And sometimes in a church setting people think, “Well, first you work with the children, and 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 Roth: 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 Layton: Well, one thing that I feel that's important for children to know is who they are and whose they are. So I love to tell children, I like to, like, here's an example. Just recently a little girl came to church dressed like a princess. And her mom was, like, apologizing, because it was, you know, it was just, like, in the middle of summer, or something. And I said, so, I got down on my knees, or like on one knee as low as I could 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.” And little boys, they want to come like, like, they want to be, there's, inside every little boy is this warrior. And I, so 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.” And I just, and I can feel like, when I talk like that to children, I can feel them, like, standing straighter. And I love looking children in the eye. And I say, if there's a child, like, 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 Roth: Tell me about children praying for adults. And give me an example.
Dian Layton: The Bible says we're to have the faith of a child. Why aren't children on the worship, or on the prayer teams? And I said worship there, because that's another passion of mine, is worship. Psalm 8 verse 2 says from the mouths of children comes praise so perfect it silences the enemy. Why aren't they on the worship team?
Sid Roth: I want them on the worship team...
Dian Layton: Right?
Sid Roth: ...with that kind of promise.
Dian Layton: When you get a child holding a mic on a worship team, a child that's worshipping God, it's electrifying. And 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 four - there's a lot of things that happen to children in my life when they're four and five, and this was a four year old. And their neighbor had lost his wife. And he was elderly. And he was very, very sad to have lost his wife. And 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. And he was weeping. And then she came back, and her mom said, “What were you doing?” She said, “Oh. Just helping him cry.”
Sid Roth: Tell me about the time the colds were going around at your local church, and this little girl got up.
Dian Layton: Oh. Yes. So, we, yeah, there was quite a bit of sickness in the families...
Sid Roth: That's one of my favorite stories.
Dian Layton: Ah. I love this one, too. We had been teaching the children that they are royalty, that they have authority. We had been, like, we were in a series like that. And at the end of the service I said, “Kids, today we're going to pray, because there are too many colds, too much flu going around. We're going to pray. Who would like to pray?” All hands, kids love to pray. So, one little girl came up to the front, and she took the mic. Her name is Asia. Beautiful, beautiful girl. And she stood at the mic for a long time. And it, actually, got awkward, because she was just standing there. And afterwards I realized it was, like, everything she'd been learning, everything we'd been talking about, it clicked in her heart. And 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.” And she started to pray. And we were, like, clapping, and it was like, whoa! It was like...
Sid Roth: 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, supernaturally, fear? But wait till you hear the title. Ooky Pooky Spooky Fear. Next. Be right back.
Sid Roth: Dian, what is the biggest problem with all your forty plus years of helping young people, the biggest problem children have?
Dian Layton: Fear. Fear. The Bible says fear has torment. And over, and over, and over, and over, and over in the Bible you see “Fear not. Fear not. Be anxious for nothing.” I think it's a human problem, and it begins in childhood. And if we could equip children to conquer fear as a child, that sets them up for life. Right? And I, because I struggled with fear, I'm very acquainted with how fear can grip you. And so, I got a download. And one song, it's called the Ooky Pooky Spooky Fear Song. And it sounds like just a silly song, but it's actually been a powerful song in the lives of many, many people, including myself.
Sid Roth: Now, this is not something that you could think up.
Dian Layton: No.
Sid Roth: I don't think anyone could think up Ooky Pooky Spooky Fear. Could you think that up? I couldn't think that up.
Dian Layton: One day I, like, heard this song in my head. And so I came to kid's church the next Sunday. And I hadn't sung the song out loud. It was just in my head. And I said to the kids, “Listen to this song!” And it goes Ooky pooky spooky fear, you have no right to come near. In the King's name you get out of here. Fear be gone. Be gone. Fear be gone. We tell fear to go away.
Sid Roth: I don't think that fear stands a chance against a song like that.
Dian Layton: No.
Sid Roth: And now you've written a new book about this.
Dian Layton: The Ooky Pooky Spooky Fear book. Because there's verses in the song, too. The first time I sang the song out loud at children's church a little girl in the front row, her name is Danielle, so, I'd been singing "Ooky pooky". Just kind of having fun. And Danielle burst into tears. And I thought, “Oh, no! Did, like, some boy pull her hair? Did she pinch her finger in the chair? Like, what happened?” And I stopped, and I said, “Danielle, honey, what's wrong?” And she said, I can still remember her face, she said, “I’ve got scares inside of me.” And I said, “Alright. Well, today we're going to tell those scares to get out of you. We're going to tell fear to leave you alone.” And we laid hands on her, and prayed for her, and we sang that song. And she remembers that day. And after church I went and found her mom, because I would always want to communicate things like that with parents. So I said, “Just so you know, this is what happened in kid's church.” And the mom said, “Oh! Praise the Lord! We've been up every night for weeks with terrible nightmares. And the nightmares stopped.”
Sid Roth: You know, this not only works supernaturally for children. It works supernaturally for adults. Tell me about that person who was going to have surgery, and this song.
Dian Layton: I just got this note on Facebook just recently, because we were letting people know that the Ooky Pooky Spooky Fear book is coming out. And so this gal, she said, “Last year I was heading in for a kidney transplant.” I forget her exact wording. But it was, basically, she was terrified going into surgery. And she said then she remembered from deep inside, she could remember "Ooky pooky spooky fear". And she said it, she sang that song, and she told fear to leave her alone. And she went into surgery, and it helped her so much to have peace going into that. And I get stories like that all the time.
Sid Roth: Well, how would you like to hear the song, Ooky Pooky Spooky Fear? Are you interested at home? Are you interested in the audience? Okay. Let's roll it.
Sid Roth: Dian, there's such a wonderful, awesome presence of the Living God here. I believe that you could pray, and young people and adults would be set free of all types of fear. Do that now.
Dian Layton: Isn't that amazing? Psalm chapter 8 verse 2 says, “From the mouths of children comes praise so powerful it silences the enemy.” The voice of the enemy is way too loud in this generation and in your life. And praise is a weapon. So, we're going to pray. The name of Jesus is high above every name, including fear. And fear has no right to rule your life. Let's pray. Please pray after me. King Jesus, Thank You that Your name is above every other name. You have all power and authority. And today I say Jesus is the King and the ruler of my heart, the Lord over my emotions. Fear will not rule me. Fear will not torment me. In the name of Jesus I say, fear go away. Ahhh, Thank You, Lord. Amen.
Sid Roth: You know what that reminds me of? I just read this the other day. In Proverbs, the 18th chapter, the 10th and 11th verses say, listen to this. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it and is safe and set on high far above all evil. You're far above all evil.
Dian Layton: Amen.