Sid Roth - How to Devil-Proof Your Family
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it's naturally supernatural. I am mad with a godly anger over what the devil is doing to marriages, what the devil is doing to children. I am angry and my guest has come up with a supernatural way to devil-proof our families. Do you want to know this? Me, too. I don't know how you two survive. What were you, 17, and how old?
Ken Blount: Nineteen.
Sid Roth: Seventeen and 19, you get married. You don't know God. You were sabotaged from the get-go. You should have never survived.
Ken Blount: No.
Trudi Blount: No.
Ken Blount: We heard that the word around town was those two will never make it.
Trudi Blount: Right.
Sid Roth: And then you became, how did you become an alcoholic.
Ken Blount: Well I didn't want to, but my dad was an alcoholic and I hated it when I watched him growing up. But then I fell into it, and by the time I'm 19, I'm drinking on a daily basis.
Sid Roth: So Trudi, you came to the end of yourself. Tell me about that.
Trudi Blount: Right. Well you know, like every girl, I've known him since I was 12 years old, so we grew up together. And I thought he would be the answer to all my prayers, you know, the knight in shining armor. And we hadn't been married six months, and I could tell that things were not going well. It was in the middle of the Vietnam War. We were newly married. We were having a hard time making a living and that's a lot of reasons he began to drink, I think. It was just having a new bride and he's fearful. But it just seemed like he came home every night and he would begin to drink and there was no communication because they forget everything you talk to them about. And I never had felt so alone in all my life. And so that night I cried out to God, and I just said, "If you don't show me that you're real I'll never walk in the door of a church again and I'm not going to serve you anymore". And the very next morning when I woke up, there were people at my door with beautiful feet that began to share the Gospel with me, and it was my sister and my brother-in-law.
Ken Blount: And they told you about Jesus.
Trudi Blount: Yes. They began to talk to me about Jesus. And in fact, my eyes were swollen. My brother-in-law just said this, he said, "Do you believe God could heal your eyes"? And I don't know why I said it, I just said, "Yes, I do". He said, "Can we talk to you about something that happened to us". I said, "Yes, please". They had gone to the dentist and this dentist was a man that was saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, and he began to witness to them and got them filled with the Spirit there at the dentist office, and it changed their life completely. And when I heard about it, I just said, "I want that. How do I get it"? And they said, "Well, we're not really sure, but we'll pray with you". And so I remember I was in my living room and it's still the sweetest thing to me to remember. You know, I'll never get over being saved, ever. And I prayed and asked Jesus into my heart. And then, I said I want that other thing, which is not a thing. It's a person, but I didn't know that then. I want the Holy Spirit. And they said, "Well we're not quite sure how to pray with you about that, but just ask him". So I remember I reached my hands towards Heaven and I began to just beg, "God, please fill me with your Spirit". And my sister tapped me on the shoulder and she said, "Well I know one thing. I don't a lot, but I know one thing. You don't have to beg him for anything. He wants you to have this". So I remember I lifted my hands towards the Lord and I was trying to speak in English, and the next thing I know this beautiful language began to roll out of me.
Ken Blount: When I got home that night, you can imagine, she was so joyful, she had been crying, and I thought, what's going on. And she told me, "I've been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit". And she thought I would immediately want to jump in, but I said, "No, I don't think I want that".
Sid Roth: Why?
Ken Blount: I thought God was mad at me, Sid. I thought, see, Trudi is sweet and wonderful, but I know what kind of guy I am.
Sid Roth: Okay. So God adds a little bit more. You have a marvelous healing.
Ken Blount: You grew up with crossed eyes.
Trudi Blount: Right.
Ken Blount: Took a fall when she was a little four-year-old girl that triggered a birth defect and caused her eyes to cross.
Sid Roth: Couldn't surgery help?
Trudi Blount: I had three surgeries in my lifetime and they would try to cosmetically fix it. But because it was a birth defect, it would always go back.
Sid Roth: I see.
Ken Blount: It was incurable.
Trudi Blount: Yes, it's incurable.
Ken Blount: But one night at a home prayer meeting somebody said, "Trudi, would you like to pray for your eyes"? She said yes. So they prayed for her and within an hour, she looked in the mirror. She took her glasses off. Something was going on with her eyes. She looked in the mirror and her eyes were totally straight. And she threw her glasses away. Her vision was 20/20.
Sid Roth: Okay. That had to push you over, Ken.
Ken Blount: You can imagine.
Sid Roth: So you became a believer immediately.
Ken Blount: She came home. I wasn't there. I walked in the door. She said, "Look at my eyes". And I knew what she was going to tell me. Her eyes were straight. I knew the trouble she had with her eyes and I thought God is after me, but I still wasn't ready.
Sid Roth: Now Trudi, I understand, is doing some secret work. She's laying hands on the bed to get you to be, what were you doing?
Trudi Blount: Actually, he's drinking. So he went to sleep real sound every night. So when he would fall asleep, about the only scripture I knew was that when you pray in the spirit you pray a perfect prayer. And I thought, I don't know what he needs, but the Holy Spirit does. So I would wait until he fell asleep and I would just put my hands on his back, and just pray in the Spirit until I fell asleep.
Sid Roth: Secret. Sneaky.
Trudi Blount: Yes.
Ken Blount: That's a sneaky thing to do for somebody that's running from God.
Sid Roth: Okay. So you're still running. You're on your way to run to a liquor store to get some more alcohol.
Ken Blount: Which was a normal occurrence.
Sid Roth: But something happened.
Ken Blount: Well I'm driving down the road and I was thinking about conversation that her prayers were working. And Sid, the Lord, the only way I know how to say it is the Lord filled the car. I knew God was there. I heard God speak and I heard the Lord say to me, "I love you". And then he said this: "I want to help you". Then the third statement he said, "Why don't you ask me to help you". And there's so much in those three things. God loves everybody. God wants to help everybody, but God can't unless we invite him in. Now I didn't immediately do that, but within a few days, I was in our living room and I got right with God. Please, God, forgive my sins. Please make me a new man.
Sid Roth: You know, the devil knew they were going to do something powerful. He gave him a black eye.
Trudi Blount: Yes.
Sid Roth: They were going to devil-proof the family. And so he threw everything he could think of at them, but they threw back. Do you remember, you might have seen the Gospel Bill television show? Well guess who was Nicodemus? You're looking at him, Nicodemus. And thousands of children, a whole generation of children came to the Lord, were encouraged in the Lord because of what they did. They persevered. But I want them to teach you how to devil-proof your family, your marriage, your children. We'll be right back.
Sid Roth: You know, Ken, most people don't realize what God is up to. God wants a family. What does he mean by that?
Ken Blount: Well you think about how the earth was created. God made a man and God later made a woman, and so a marriage starts the entire Bible. So we have the Bible beginning with a marriage, and then at the end of the Bible, we see that there's an event called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, which is a seven-year celebration in Heaven with Jesus and the Church where we enjoy seeing, meeting him face to face, other people, and we eat for seven years, which is awesome. So the Bible begins with a marriage and it ends with a marriage, and then the story is about this family that is very dysfunctional, but God continues to love them and work with them until he can work redemption's plan.
Sid Roth: Okay. God wants a family. The devil wants the opposite of what God wants. Most marriages don't know that in addition to their own differences there is a devil. Ken, what are the differences between men and women, briefly?
Ken Blount: Well men are headliners. We like the facts. We were created by God to be leaders. And so we just want to blow through life, but then women are more detailers. Women get into the details of life. They think more out of both sides of the brain, whereas men are more think out of the one side, which is a logical side. Women see things that men don't. The Bible said when Adam was in the garden alone, it's not good that this man is alone, so I'm going to give him a help mate, "help mate", it says in King James.
Sid Roth: You know, in most marriages the differences cause a war rather than realizing by pulling the two together they're better than any individual. As a matter of fact, why do you believe the devil hates marriage so much? I mean, it's coming out more so today than ever before in history.
Ken Blount: Right. It's because marriage is designed to be the foundation of everything in life. And of course, the devil wants to get to the foundation. In fact, the scripture says in Psalm 11, "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do"? That's talking about righteous people through Jesus.
Sid Roth: Is there any family, say children that are totally rebellious, husbands that are at war with their wives, not realizing the war is coming from the invisible world? Yes, there are these differences, but there really is a devil and he's really fighting you. And rather than falling over and playing dead, you're saying there's something that can be done about it. Is there such a thing as a hopeless marriage, a hopeless relationship with children?
Ken Blount: No, I don't believe that. I believe if you will apply the principles of God, know what the Word says and then grit your teeth sometimes to apply those principles and understand that a husband's greatest gift to his wife is to love and care for her.
Sid Roth: What does it mean to you, to you, Trudi, when your husband loves you unconditionally?
Trudi Blount: It brings security. It brings hope, stability. And you know, when your husband is loving you it's easy to submit to that because there's no fear there. You're not afraid you're going to get hurt or trampled on, or mistreated because that's not the behavior that Jesus would treat the church like. So when you see how he treats the church and that he sacrificed and loved it, and gave his life for it, when a husband has that attitude about his wife and she knows that, she will jump off a cliff with him because she knows then that the two of them together are going to create something that's very strong and loving, and it produces that strong foundation.
Ken Blount: In fact, the word "love", love is not just a romantic thing, although it's part of it, but the word "love" in the Hebrew language actually means I will give.
Sid Roth: Now you tell me, Ken, about the spiritual security system. What is that?
Ken Blount: Well it's like, I liken it this way. Our house has a security system that we arm and when we arm it, it protects the perimeters. But if I don't arm the security system, which is my job, I have to arm it, I have to make sure that I do my part, then it sets up boundaries around my house that can't be penetrated. Well God has designed his Word to be like that. When we learn how to act on his Word in our family, when we learn how to in our marriage give and take, when we learn how to the importance of protecting our kids and watching over them and setting perimeters in their life, we are setting up a security system around our family that the enemy will try to penetrate, and it's an ongoing, daily thing that we must do and be proactive with.
Sid Roth: What is the first thing someone should do to devil-proof their home?
Ken Blount: Well the first thing is you don't cooperate with him. You don't give him permission.
Sid Roth: No one is going to give him permission.
Ken Blount: We give him permission when we don't act on the Word of God, when we don't' do what the Bible says to do.
Sid Roth: It's time to stop rolling over, playing dead, giving up. There is hope and I want to inject that to you supernaturally. When we come back, I want you to understand there's even a psalm that gives you the full plan to devil-proof your marriage. Be right back.
Sid Roth: Ken, you said the devil is always after our seed. What do you mean by that?
Ken Blount: Well I was in a church service not too long ago and the pastor preached on kids, and the pastor came up and talked about we're going to give an offering and if you have children away from God, I want to encourage you to give a special seed because this is family, we're going to call this family seed for your children. And he said, "Don't let the devil steal your seed. If he speaks something to you to give, do it because the devil wants your seed". And that stuck with me and I thought, the devil is after the seed. The devil is always after the seed. Then I thought, what is our most important seed? Of course, financially we must have money to make it, but our most important seed is not our money, because we can't take that with us. It's not your house or your career. Our most important seed is our children. That's the one thing you can take to Heaven with you is your children. And so seed must be invested in, must be planted. Then it must be nurtured as it grows up, so there is no greater picture in the Bible of the importance of training our children properly than the principle of the seed.
Sid Roth: Now you say there's a supernatural psalm that literally can help devil-proof our home. Tell me about that, Psalm 127.
Ken Blount: Psalm 127, five verses that begins, "Accept the Lord build a house that labor in vain that build it. Accept the Lord keep the city, the watchmen wakes but in vain". Well the Jewish people teach us that the builder is the husband, the father, and the watcher is the wife, the woman, which the man is the one that leads. He's the leader of the family, but the woman is the watcher or has all these different avenues that they see things. And so God has designed that partnership to then produce children. And then it says that, "Our children are like arrows in the hand of a mighty man". So what is an arrow? An arrow is a weapon, but it's not a weapon unless it's prepared properly and then unless it's put into the bow and aimed, and then it's fired. So our children, we're preparing them. We're making sure they're a straight arrow. Their shaft is straight. We're making sure their arrowhead is sharp. We're putting the Word of God in them, and then there comes the day that your children, you love them, but they leave you, and that's God plan. The entire time they're growing up we're preparing them for leaving. They begin to leave the day that they're born.
Sid Roth: So you actually see this as a supernatural blueprint to devil-proof our home.
Ken Blount: Absolutely.
Sid Roth: Is it possible to keep our children from what culture is doing to them?
Ken Blount: Yes there is. Ideally, we do this all the time that they're growing up. We begin when they're young. Take this very seriously. Live this out in front of them. The greatest thing our children, the greatest way they're going to learn how to stand against the culture and the enemy of our time is for us as mom and dad, or if you're a single parent you can still do this, model this for them.
Sid Roth: Tell me about the supernatural blessing of a family serving God.
Ken Blount: Well Sid, we find it in Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, in what the Jews call the Shema, where it talks about you're to serve, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and then we're supposed to diligently put this in our children, talking about this when we rise up and we lie down, when we walk by the Way. This is talking about a commitment to train our children in the Word of God. And then when we do that, it goes on to say, "And God will give you houses that you didn't build". He'll give you cities that you didn't build. He'll give you olive trees, olive vineyards and trees that you didn't plant. So this is supernatural. This is committing to God to love. It's really very simple. Love God. Put the love of God in your kids and then the blessing of God comes on you to do something that you couldn't do on your own.
Sid Roth: Okay. The people watching us right now, what they're saying is that sounds wonderful, but it's too late for me. They need some supernatural hope for their children, some supernatural hope for their marriage. I want you to pray for them right now.
Ken Blount: I've got that hope for you. And here it is, Acts 16:31, this promise in the New Testament where Paul says, "If you'll believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you'll be saved". Now that is awesome. But it goes further than that. He says, "You'll be saved and your house". That means your family. So what we're saying is you can begin today. In fact, this prayer will release a brand new anointing in your life and in your family to bring this to pass. Why? Because your prayers are powerful. They reach out. They can cause events to begin to happen in the lives of your children, your relatives. We're going to pray right now. We're going to stand on Acts 16:31. We're going to believe that God is going to begin to move in your family. So Heavenly Father, I ask you right now in Jesus' name for these people that are watching for their families, we pray that the anointing of God, the angels of God, may people come into their path that will preach to them the wonderful Gospel that they will hear. Lord, begin to work in these families. And we claim their family members, their blood family members to be saved, to be touched by the power of God. We command the devil to take his hands off them and we speak this and declare it to be done in Jesus' name.
Sid Roth: And I'm going to tell some of you this. Do you remember how Trudi would reach over and put her hand on Ken while he's sleeping, and pray in tongues? I tell you, the Word of God says, in Exodus 12, "A lamb for a house, a lamb for a family". You and your house will be saved.