“I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” Psalm 4:8 BSB
When I was a child, I had night terrors. I suffered from these recurring dreams for many years. As I grew older and contemplated why I experienced them, I wondered if it was a demonic attack. I wondered what would have happened if my parents had used the power of the Name of Jesus and the weapons of spiritual warfare to send the spirits that tormented me fleeing.
My first experience with my own child waking with bad dreams was when my daughter was only two years old. She started waking in the night, crying because she was scared of a “teacher.” Her world was very limited and we had a hard time trying to figure out what scared her. I was a stay-at-home mom so the only teachers she had were at church. Did she see something scary on TV? We were at a total loss. The only thing we could do was pray for wisdom and revelation, take up our spiritual weapons of warfare, and pray for her.
Below are some of the Scriptures and prayers we prayed. We have prayed these prayers many times over the years when our children have woken up with bad dreams or when they can’t go to sleep because they are having scary thoughts. We taught our little ones to say, “In Jesus’ Name, go away!” to their bad dreams, and bad thoughts, according to James 4:7.
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Here are additional verses to use in Spiritual Warfare:
Ephesians 6:12:“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
I Corinthians 10:5: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Matthew 16:19: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Philippians 4:7: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Col.3:15: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”
Philippians 4:5-7: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Lord, I pray that the peace of God will guard my child’s heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
Love,
Jennifer Valdois & The Help Club Team
Jennifer is a Colorado Springs native and each year,looks forward to summer time when she experiments with vegetable gardening and escapes to the Rocky Mountains for camping trips with her family.
She is trusting Jesus to redeem her life and crown her with love and compassion as He promises in Psalm 103:2-5.
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16 Comments on “Fighting Bad Dreams with Spiritual Warfare”
I feel better knowing I’m not the only one who goes through these phases of nightmares and odd dreams. It’s been happening to me for the past 5 years due to intense series of famine in my living situation I’ve been praying to be released from. I struggled with a lot of heartache from God because I was so upset and disappointed that I was put in a living situation that I’m not in control of especially when it’s my family who’s turned their back against me. The enemy taunts me with dreams every other night with lustful sins due to sexual trauma and intense replays of family scenarios in my dreams. I wake up crying because I’m so tired of going through this but I have to keep my trust in God and not give it too power over my life because Jesus won the battle. Thank you for your story💗
I am so sorry for all you have been going through. I am praying for you right now, dear Sierra.
You are so deeply loved by the Father.
Love,
Mama Deb
Sierra you have to go into Spiritual Warfare. Ephesians 6. Put on the whole armor of God and fight back in victory of Christ Jesus
My husband and I are separated and I have been fasting and praying for the removal of the Jezebel Spirit which is a generational spirit in his family.
I have some awful dreams lately where I wake up talking in my sleep. I usually pray before I go to bed and once I am up from a dream I pray then too. I did dream of my husband coming back home. I believe that my prayers are working and that is why the attacks have been so frequent. I would like to stop the dreams from coming all together. Any suggestions would be help. God Bless.
Hi Sophia,
I am sorry you are going through this. What comes to mind is to definitely rebuke the enemy in the name of Jesus when you wake from those bad dreams. Before you go to sleep at night, I would pray to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. Also, claim the promise in Psalm 4:8 “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.”
Lord, I pray for Sophia that you will guard her heart and mind in Christ Jesus. I pray that these awful dreams would cease and that she would lie down and sleep in peace because you alone make her dwell in safety, even emotional safety. I pray that she would cast her cares on you because you care for her. We cast out all fear of the future. If these dreams are an attack of the enemy, we rebuke him in the name of Jesus. Fill her mind with pure and true thoughts listed in Philippians 4:8. If these dreams come from her subconscious mind, I pray that she will trust you with her future. That you will deliver her husband from the Jezebel spirit, in Jesus name! That he would turn from his sins and be faithful to the wife you have given him. We pray all this in the powerful name of Jesus. Thank you for your love and for your deliverance!
Thank you Jennifer!
thank you for sharing but i do have yer another question/…. if my son is having these recurring dreams can they be connected to me ,,, thank you
I’ve had horrible nightmares ever since I was a child. I’m also a lucid dreamer so I can sense the time in these dreams and they go for hours. I also have the ability to understand that these are just dreams and I do my best wake up when they are bad or I try to make them go away. I used to yell the words “in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to stop” but to no avail. Those words seemed to help my mother but they don’t work for me. They stopped for many years, but these past few months, they are very vivid again.
I am praying for a breakthrough in this area! I wanted to share a resource with you. https://assets.highlands.io/21days/2022/pray-first-guide.pdf
It is a prayer booklet from the Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, AL. Starting on page 45, there are spiritual warfare prayers. Pray through them to break the plan of the enemy in your life. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that God wants you to live free from fear and oppression. With love and prayers, Jennifer
Jennifer, thank you for the prayer and the spiritual warfare prayers. I am no longer having bad dreams. I have been fasting and praying. Also I fall asleep to Gregorian Chants. I was told by a priest that the devil and demons hate the Chants.
But those chants are Catholic??? Catholicism is NOT the way! Jesus NEVER started the Catholic religion. He said “follow me”, not a priest you call “father”. Also, it doesn’t say to call anyone father, only GOD you call father because he’s the creator. I know I may sound harsh but if me being silent costs lives, them I will speak out loud!
Thank you, Trish! You are right, we need to be careful. A great alternative to the chants is the YouTube channel “SOAKSTREAM”
They have 8-12 hour videos where they read straight from Scripture.
Thank you for this because many Christian’s and people of this world do not beleive in demonic spirits and I’ve had bad dreams for years now so I am no longer scared of them ever since I got baptized but my daughter is 6 months and has been crying in her sleep all of a sudden and I feel like or I know it is spiritual but I wanted to see if others have children who are going through the same thing. My background is a family of witches who commit sacrifices monthly and have killed newborns before so my battles are different from many of you. Therefore I know that my daughter will also have battles ahead but atleast she had me to fight those battles in prayer with her because I did not have anyone to do this for me so I had to grow up and fight my own spiritual battles and thank God for Jesus Christ. God bless you all.
Ever since I could remember I’ve had weird/disturbing/scary/sometimes traumatic dreams. Never understood why but as I got older & grew in wisdom I knew I had to spiritually fight it. Dreams really affect me for some reason. Sometimes it’s so intense that it feels like it really happened and takes me hours, sometimes the whole day to shake off. I’m so happy to have found this community through you version bible app! Dreams are a subject that fascinate me, especially as a Christian. I often ask the Lord for HIS DREAMS to reign in my sleep. Now the very bad ones only come once in while, depending on how life is going or how bad my anxiety gets. I’ve been very anxious since I was very small. But I’ve also had the Lord in my life since birth thanks to my faithful parents! The enemy will try anything to “get” us, God’s chosen & faithful ones. Dreams is one way he tried/keeps trying to get me. Sorry for rambling on!!
Thank you for your ministry & faithfulness to your calling to help other women/mothers❤ This Christian single mom to a now teenager is very thankful!!! Can’t wait to check out all of your books.
Much needed reminder to take our children’s nightmares seriously. My parents didn’t and I was timid and scared often. Anxious. Couldn’t concentrate. My grandma was the one who’d take the time to high me and pray. Sometimes repeating in the middle of the night. What a mighty weapon!!
That’s so beautiful that you had a praying Grandmother! What a gift!!
Thanks for being here!