Breaking Generational Curses?
There is a simple one-step plan to break all curses off your life – get saved! Once you are saved, any “curse” that you think could have resulted from the actions of your ancestors is broken. All you need to do is believe that and walk in the light of it. You do NOT need any special kind of ministry. He whom the Son sets free is free indeed (John 8:36).
It is ridiculous to think that some kind of “curse” would still be on you as a righteous, blood-washed believer, even if your father was a womanizing drug pusher, your mother taught witchcraft classes, one of your grandfathers was a serial killer who robbed three banks and the other grandfather was a drunken gambler who founded a porn magazine. God will not hold YOU responsible for their actions or curse YOU for what THEY did!
While there are Old Testament Scriptures that state that God will visit iniquities to the third and fourth generations, there are also plenty of Scriptures that prove that even in the Old Testament, under a worse covenant, if you chose righteousness yourself, you would NOT be punished for the sins of your ancestors and partake of that “third and fourth generation” curse. The curses upon descendants must be understood to apply only to successive sinful generations. If you turned from the ways of those ancestors, you would not be under any kind of “generational curse” even under the Old Covenant! This is clear from what Ezekiel said about the sons not being punished for the sins of the fathers:
Ezekiel 18:20:
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
(Much of Ezekiel 18 consists of other statements in a similar vein.)
First, let’s look at the Scriptures that discuss curses on descendants for sin:
Exodus 34:7:
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.
Numbers 14:18:
The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
Deuteronomy 5:9:
Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto 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,
Even here, consider the next verse that continues the thought:
Deuteronomy 5:10:
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
If you were one who kept His commandments, He would show you and your children mercy, not curse you – regardless of what your ancestors did.
We must consider the verses above in context with the verses below, which are also under the same covenant as the curses above. Let’s consider what happened in the Old Testament to someone who was righteous even if his ancestors were bad apples:
Deuteronomy 24:16:
The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
A man was still judged based on what HE did, not what his father did. This is made extremely plain by the following passage:
Ezekiel 18:19-20:
Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
This makes it quite clear that righteousness delivers you from any curse that was on your father.
Jeremiah 31:29-30:
In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.
But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
Consider this: God punished the unbelieving Israelites who refused to believe that they could enter the Promised Land. However, their children were allowed to enter it. God did not make them wait three or four generations because the new generation obeyed Him. Aside from the fact that that many generations would have been more than 40 years, we can see from the following verse that only the “perpetrating” generation was cut off from the Promised Land:
Joshua 5:6:
For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
It was only the people old enough to fight (who were supposed to fight, not wimp out as they did) who were banned from entering the Promised Land.
When Korah was swallowed by the earth as punishment for rebellion in the desert, Korah’s children were not:
Numbers 26:10-11:
And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, what time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men: and they became a sign.
Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not.
The curse on the fathers would not come upon repentant children:
Leviticus 26:39-45:
And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;
And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.
But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.
It makes no sense that you could be righteous under the Old Covenant and be exempt from generational curses though still a fallen man with a sinful nature, but that under the New Covenant, washed in the blood of Jesus with a righteous new nature, you (the righteous) could be forced to live under a “generational curse” because of what your unrighteous ancestors did!
You Are Already Exempt from All Curses
You have been delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son (Colossians 1:12-14). Because you are righteous, you are redeemed from curses. The “curse of the Law” in Deuteronomy 28:15-68 and elsewhere includes curses on children. Jesus redeemed you from this curse (Galatians 3:10-14). You do not need to “get delivered” from it. You are delivered from it because you are a Christian. Agree with God and say so.
Proverbs 26:2:
As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.
You do not have to spend years searching your “roots” in endless genealogies. (Actually, 1 Timothy 1:4 counsels you to avoid endless genealogies.) You have one spiritual ancestor – God, who is your Father! God is not under any kind of curse. Therefore, you have not inherited a curse from your Father.
The “old man” died when you received Christ. Now all things are new, and you as a “new man” are not under any kind of bondage to your former life or anything to do with your former life.
You do not need special ministry to get rid of a generational curse. You do not need to buy a special book or audio series to find out what to do. Jesus has already done everything that needed to be done. He has already delivered you.
Redeemed from Illnesses That Run in Your Family
I should point out that in some countries where I’ve preached, the term “generational curse” is used to describe an illness that runs in a family. Since sickness is indeed a curse according to the Law of Moses, that is a pretty good name for it. However, you are legally healed by the stripes of Jesus of everything that got handed down to you in your genes from your parents. You do not have to get in fear because of how your ancestors died, or because some modern genetic test indicates that you are at risk for a certain illness or even have it already. God heals all your diseases (Psalm 103:3), so ones handed down in your family are nothing to get anxious about. God’s promise to you covers whatever it is. Again, you do not need any kind of special ministry to walk in what God says is already yours (healing from your generational problem). You can just take by faith what is already yours in Christ because He paid for it.
Redeemed from Rotten Behavior Patterns
Many things attributed to “generational curses” (divorce, alcoholism, etc.) are actually handed down from one generation to another through bad examples and ungodly training. While it is a curse (in a sense) to have a parent who leads you into wrong thinking, wrong thinking is cured not by special prayer but by renewing your mind with the Word of God.
The Word explicitly states that you have been redeemed (already) from useless traditions passed down in your family:
1 Peter 1:18-19:
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
Generational Blessings
We would make good progress if Christians would stop getting excited about generational curses and start getting excited about generational blessings that belong to their descendants as believers:
1 Corinthians 7:14:
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.
(This proves that a child is blessed if even ONE of his parents serves the Lord.)
Psalm 112:1-2:
Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.
His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
Deuteronomy 28:4:
Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
(See God’s Blessing on Your Kids for more verses about this.)
If you won’t walk with the Lord for your sake, do it for the sake of your kids! It matters.