Have you ever wondered why some families seem cursed while others have all the luck in the world, or so it seems? Do you sometimes wonder why is it that the same sickness recurs in the same family over and over again? Or why is it that some families have a history of murder, alcoholism, anger, hatred etc while other families seem to walk life without any struggle at all? The reason might very well be that a generational sin that is a generational curse which lies which is still unconfessed lies at the root of all trouble. This curse has entered the family due to generational sin. This means, that the curse was born through disobedience or indulgence to sin on one of the generational ancestors. That is how some curses stay within the family for generations on end. The Bible tells us that God visits the iniquity of the children:
“…for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”(Ex.20:5b).Jeremiah confirmed this when he said: “Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name.”( Jer.32:18).
It is not fair, isn’t it? Unfortunately it is how it works. Not only will we bring a curse upon ourselves when we sin, but the curse will pass down the generational line. In other words we can thus say that the law of sowing and reaping is in place here. POur children will suffer the consequences of our sins if we do not repent and change our ways! A good example of this are sexual sins, which will be passed on down the generational line, until the tenth generation! “A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD”(Deut.23:2).
A bastard is someone who is conceived out of wedlock, or a bastard may be an illegitimate child. I distinctly write these two down, because society nowadays tolerates the ‘living together’ without being married. Many children are thus being conceived out of wedlock due to their parent's living together and are carrying the curse. God sees them as illegitimate or bastards because the child's parents are not married. An illegitimate child not necessarily is conceived out of two people living together, it can be conceived through adultery, fornication or even rape. But both carry the curses up to a tenth generation. That is pretty serious folks!
In Deuteronomy 28:15 we see a list of curses that God puts upon us if we disobey His commandments. Other sources of curses that we bring upon ourselves are disobedience to parents, to the Ten Commandments (Ex:20), and the like. God tells us in Exodus 34:6-8 that we will not only sow what we reap, but our offspring will suffer as well.“And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”(Ex 34:6-7).
The words ‘iniquity’ and ‘sin’ carry a deep and thorough meaning. Iniquity, according to the KJV (1611 version) means ‘perversity’ while sin carries the meaning of falling short or a failure to obey God. Iniquity is immoral behavior, while sin means a transgression, an offence committed against God. However, both offenses are in fact a severe transgression against God, for both have the source in rebellion; rebellion against the commandments of God. The outcome of both transgressions is a curse. If you commit one of these or both, you will be cursed by God. Chances are high that your curse will be transmitted down the generational line. Let’s take a look at some examples of the Bible.
First of all we have the curse of murder on Cain’s descendants for murdering his brother Abel (Gen. 4). God warned Cain beforehand telling him that: “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door”(Gen 4:7). Here we see that God was actually warning Cain that he was about to commit a serious offense not only to his brother but more earnestly against God. Cain did not take heed of this warning for he proceeded against his brother, murdering him. This brought a curse upon Cain and his descendants. One of God laws given to us in Exodus 20:13 is : “Thou shalt not kill.”
In Cain’s descendant line the curse went all down to Lamech, who murdered his neighbour because this man had hurt him (Gen. 4:23-24). Here we see that murder can be transmitted down the generational line. And not only murder but lies, deception, hatred, jealousy and anger, and many more as well. If we take a look at the story of Abraham concerning his lie to king Abimelech regarding Sarah (Gen 20:2), we see that this curse was passed down to Isaac who lied also about Rebekah being his wife (Gen. 26:6-7) all the way unto Jacob.
A lie brings deception and Leah, Jacob’s wife was being deceived by Jacob. Jacob did not lover her you see, for he loved Rebekah. But his father in law had tricked him and gave him Leah for a wife instead of Rebekah who was initially the promised wife. Now, if we keep on studying this line of curse, we see that Jacob in return was deceived by his own children. They sold Joseph, who was his favorite son (Gen 37) and thus the lies and deceptions were passed on. From Jacob’s story we might even say that in Jacob’s life the law of sowing and reaping was active. For Jacob had stolen his brother’s blessing and thus begotten this unlawfully. He did this through deception, by posting as his brother Esau before his father (Gen 27). We could say that as Jacob deceived his brother, he in return was deceived by his own children. The law of sowing and reaping!
Another good example of a curse passing down a generational line is David and his family. We see that sexual iniquity began in his forefathers through Tamar’s deception. “Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son's wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness”(Lev 18:15). You see, Tamar was Juda’s daughter in law. She became a widow and as was custom in those days, she should be married of to the living brother. Judah did not do this and Tamar deceived Judah by having him lie down with her (have sexual intercourse) with the result that she got pregnant with twins, Zerah (which means light) and Perez( which means breaking out). The book of Ruth 4:18-22 gives us the generational line of Perez(which name means break through), king David’s ancestor. We see that this sexual iniquity got all the way up to king David and his offspring. King David committed adultery with Batth-Seba (2 Sam. 11:4).
His son Amnon committed incest with his sister, Tamar (2 Sam.13). We see here that sexual sin can take many courses within a family line, from adultery all the way to incest. In Salomon we see that he had so many wives that most of them were not even believers but idol worshippers and eventually he lost his faith in God and became himself an idol worshiper. Thus we see that sexual immorality can lead up to other sins as well. Sin of idolatry is another sin that God takes very seriously. Take a look: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me”(Ex 20:4-5).
God does not like our worship with other gods. You need to know that all gods are made handmade, for they are not God in heaven, and therefore they are not real gods. He is the only one who has the power to do all things.Many hand made gods need continually appeasing through all kinds of ceremonies or ceremonial meals. Our God does not need that. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and will forgive us our transgressions(1 Jn 1:9). He does not continually need appeasing. Neither does he need offerings done to Him, for His Son was our offering when He died for us at the Cross. This was done one time and it stands for eternity. We see then that idol worhsip not only is against God, it also is against His first and second Commandment (Ex 20:5-7) of God and is thus idolatry.And idolatry is sin, a sin that will put us under a curse from God.
Idolatry is a serious offense because it not only dishonors God, but it will lead us into temptations as well. Idolatry opens the door to the occult, for many hand made gods need to be appeased by occult practices. Salomon was led into idolatry through these hand made gods. Many kings of Israel committed the same sin, idolizing idols and worshipping them. Their worship often turned to Baal. These kings often demanded that the people worship him also, placing themselves not only under the wrath of God but placing the whole nation under it. Baal who is also known as Baal-Peor by the Israelites, was worshipped through the offering of bullocks (see 1 Kings 18:25-29). This form of worship was against God. It was a worship pertaining to the heathens with lots of occult symbolisms. It brought defilement into the country and God hated it.
To dab into the occult is not only very dangerous, but it puts you into Satan’s territory and vulnerable for strong demonic attack. The occult, the name tells it already, is to dab into something dark. The forces of darkness operate in the occult (in darkness) and if you operate in it yourself, you will become liable for strong demonic attacks in your lives. Demons are something not to be messed up with. They are real and if not taken seriously they can cause serious damage in your life. Consider the fact of familiar spirits, these are evil spirits that go down into the generational line. They have been in the same family for years, and every time someone passes away within that family they look for a doorway in a member of the same family. In this way they can stay within families for centuries! That is why for example we see patterns of alcoholism, anger, abuse, hatred, jealousy, murder etc passing from one family member to the other.
The occult opens many doorways for demons to operate in families in order to destroy them. Familiar spirits can thus enter and stay within the family for centuries, literally destroying them. A good example are Royal Houses and other families of the aristocracy. Many of these families have been completely destroyed due to their ancestors dabbing into alchemism which is nothing else than witchcraft. Many of them have alleged oaths to those demons of alchemism in order to change any substance into gold. These families were alwys in strong need of cash and they thought that alchemy was the means of getting cash. Many, many curses have been passed in this way down the generational line. Fornication and adultery were also rampant in those families. The outcome of those curses are obvious. We need to realize that the stronger the sin, the stronger the curse, the stronger the demonic forces and the greater the destruction!
We need to realize that transgressing God’s laws will bring curses upon our lives. Curses are being operated by demon spirits. When God puts a curse on someone it is for the sole purpose of bringing that person to realize his or her committed sin and repent of it, so that God can bless the person again. God has not given us these laws for nothing. Whenever we commit a serious offense, we give way to Satan to enter in our lives to destroy them.Satan hates you and he will do everything possible to destroy you. I have seen many families fall under a curse of cancer for example. I know of a family that has been completely destroyed by this curse, with just one young person remaining. Usually there was some involvement in the occult in past generations. Murder for example is another sin that can be passed on from generation to generation. See the story of Cain. Other sources of curses that can be past on down the generational line is Freemasonry.
Freemasonry for example puts the offspring and their offspring under a sever curse of poverty and destruction. Usually when a family strives to make ends meet, it is due to involvement in Freemasonry in the ancestral line. Many illnesses such as cancer for example can be traced back to involvement in this form of the occult.We will pay for the curses of our ancestors, but we do not have to live under these curses anymore. There is good news. We have Jesus, who became curse for us when He hang on the tree (Gal 3:13). The cross is the answer and our way out of these curses. Isaiah said about Jesus:
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth”( Isaiah 53:5-7). God promised us that if we confess our sins He will remember them no more. “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more”( Jer 31:34b).
In order to properly confess the sins of your ancestors as well as your own sins, you need to make a family genealogy tree. This tree consists of family members up to the third or fourth generation (if you can go that far, most families can not). You do this from both sides, paternal and maternal. You write down all the sins and the weaknesses of your great-grandparents, everything that is known of them. You do the same with your grandparents, all the way to your parents and yourself. Let me give you an example:
Great grandfather on father’s side: anger, alchemy, freemasonry, occult involvement, adultery etc.
Grandfather: anger, poverty of financial insufficiency, rebellion, unbeliever
Father: -financial insufficiency, -uncontrollable anger etc
You: financial insufficiency, drawn into the occult, difficulties reading and or understanding the Bible.