#4 in Know Your Enemy
“You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me”
The Word of God must shape every belief we have about spiritual matters. Every belief we have about God must be shaped by Jesus, specifically what he accomplished in his atoning work on the cross and his ascension.
We must know what the Bible says on any given matter if it's going to shape our beliefs. Yes, it's true, there are things the Bible doesn't address, but when it does address something, we don't need to develop theories or ideas in addition to what's clearly stated. This is a helpful principle in the subject of generational curses.
What Is A Generational Curse?
The only place in scripture we see generational curses is when God made a covenant with the Israelites, otherwise known as the Mosaic or Old Covenant. God rescued the Israelites out of Egypt and offered a covenant of protection to them. They didn't want to approach God on his terms, so they asked Moses what God wanted them to do to uphold their end of the covenant.
Anytime a covenant is instituted, both parties promise to offer the strength of their families or kingdoms to protect the other. A list of promises and curses is also agreed upon. The promises or benefits of one party may be, "you can use the river on the south end of my land to water your animals but do not use the northern section. If you do, I will take half of your cattle." For the one party, losing half their cattle would be a curse of breaking the covenant.
In the case of God's covenant with the Hebrew nation, he spelled out the promises, blessings, and curses at Mt. Saini.
Exodus 20:1 And God spoke all these words, saying: 2 "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 "You shall have no other gods before Me.
This was God's first stipulation on the covenant, to worship no other gods.
4 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
This is the curse for worshiping other gods, God will visit iniquity on a few of their generations.
6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
But if they uphold the covenant, he will bless 1000 of their generations.
The generational curse of iniquity is restated later in the story.
Exodus 34:7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation."
Numbers 14:18 'The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.'
A generational curse was enforced by God for the sin of idolatry. That's it. That's what the Bible says about generational curses. There is nowhere in scripture that says demons install and enforce generational curses. There is no mention of evil spirits gaining the right to attach themselves to a bloodline for involvement in secret societies, generational sin patterns, or anything else like that.
I go into much more detail about modern-day deliverance ministry and what's misnomered as generational curse breaking, but I will move on to the good news for this article. We are not under the covenant where God curses people for the sin of idolatry. Instead, we are under a new and better covenant where Jesus upholds our end of the covenant for us.
Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith." 12 Yet the law is not of faith, but "the man who does them shall live by them." 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Under the Old Covenant, you were cursed and punished for breaking the Law, OR you were blessed for keeping God's commandments.
Under the New Covenant, Christ bore ALL of your punishment for breaking God's Law AND fulfilled the Law for you, so you are qualified for ALL of the blessings and promises and NONE of the curses.
Even if you were to bow down and worship satan himself while playing with an ouija board, wearing a pentagram, and swearing Masonic oaths, with Slayer playing in the background, you would not fall under a generational curse. Even if ten generations of men before you in your family were 33rd degree Free Masons, you are not at risk of a generational curse.
Demons can not install and enforce curses, period, no ifs, and or buts about it. They sure want you to believe they can. They want you playing around in that minefield of loose theology all day long. Many well-intended modern deliverance ministers have sought to help people break free from demonic oppression with one foot still in the Old Covenant.
I believe in deliverance ministry, but there is no need to break curses or scare people half to death, making them feel like they have open doors for demons into their lives for things their ancestors were into.
Demons are real. They do try to deceive and attack us today. And yes, they do tend to stick to the same bloodlines or families, but not because that family is cursed, it's because we tend to repeat the same patterns our parents did, which makes us think the same way they did, which makes us vulnerable to the same deceptions they fell into. So yes, turn from the destructive patterns of your parents and grandparents, but don't live in fear that you may be cursed for something you didn't even do.
There are generational deceptions and lies, but God or a devil enforces no curse. If we repeat the patterns of our parents, it's related to how we think and make life choices, otherwise known as strongholds.
A stronghold is not a powerful demonic presence in your life, it's a belief, thought, or pattern that promotes deception and isn't built on the word of God. The way to "break" a stronghold is to repent, change the way you think, put on the new man, and you will experience transformation, and that demon will lose its grip on your mind.
The demons that try to torment and deceive us in the same way they tormented and deceived our ancestors are familiar with our family's customs and culture, so they repeat the same tactics from generation to generation. They are what the Bible calls familiar spirits.
Yes, you can end the cycle and forever "break" the pattern. So I'm not mad at that language. But the breaking is not done because someone pukes in a bucket, gets hit with a Bible, or completes an elaborate sozo or inner healing deliverance session. It's broken when the individual wakes up to the finished work of Christ and lives in the power of their new creation identity when they renew their minds and put on the new man.
The truth is we have been delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of Jesus. Jesus was cursed for us, qualifying us for the blessings. And demons were stripped of their authority. So let's quit playing around in the mixed covenant world of generational curses and help people live in the power of who they are in Christ.
Familiar Spirits
Demons are masters of human observation. They have watched us for thousands of years. They know us better than we know ourselves. But they always overplay their hands. They always seek to control, pervert, lie and destroy; it's just in their nature.
If you find yourself irrationally repeating the sin habits of your ancestors, you could possibly be entertaining a spirit that's familiar with your family. The good news is you can change your patterns and walk away from those cycles at any minute. But you're going to have to process through your heart beliefs. You're going to have to identify the areas you still identify with those familial patterns and send them away.
How to renew your mind and experience deliverance.
It's called put off, put on. Identify the problem area. Define the patterns you want to be free from. Identity a new way of life or set of patterns that are rooted in your identity in Christ. Find some passages related to your identity in Christ in that specific area, and memorize them. Each time those old thoughts or emotional patterns arise, quote those passages, acknowledging that this is who you are. You are not that old pattern, it has no power over you, and you are free from having to repeat those cycles. You may have to take an action like removing yourself from the opportunity to engage the cycle. Eventually, you will rebuild your identity to reflect who you are in Christ in that area, and it will lose its influence in your mind and heart.
Not Everything Is A Demon
Science has now identified an aspect of our physiology that shapes our lives. It's called epigenetics.
Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Unlike genetic changes, epigenetic changes are reversible and do not change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body reads a DNA sequence.
Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression (active versus inactive genes) that do not involve changes to the underlying DNA sequence — a change in phenotype without a change in genotype — which in turn affects how cells read the genes.
Several lifestyle factors have been identified that might modify epigenetic patterns, such as diet, obesity, physical activity, tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, environmental pollutants, psychological stress, and working on night shifts.
To put it simply, your parents not only pass down genes that determine your gender, your eye color, and your body shape, they also pass down energetic information in the form of beliefs, habits, and life philosophies. The good news is you can change these things.
The influence of the epigenetic material passed down from your parents is more of a threat to you than devils are. With a devil, you can tell it to leave, and it'll go. With epigenetic information, you must renew your mind and adopt a new identity if you want to change a hereditary destructive sin habit.
The devil gets way too much credit for the problems in the world. We create most of them ourselves. The enemy is a factor, but only to the degree we are willing to be deceived and stay stuck in our patterns.
I hope you take the time to watch this whole series. I believe it will help you become confident in your authority in Christ and will empower you to rise above the deceptive influence of any devil that may dare to enter your life. You are not under a curse, you are already delivered, and you don't have to be afraid.
