WHAT has existed in a family blood-line as an invisible barrier can be passed on from generation to generation until it is identified and broken.
Since fathers carry the seed of generations, it is important to consider what was passed on and what we ourselves are passing on to future generations.
A family unit is the beginning of every generation and just as we inherit physical features from our ancestors so do we the spiritual which includes their unrepented sins!
Click on the link below to watch a video on how to recognise curses that run from generation to generation.
The secret sin of Achan in Judges 7:19-20 affected not only his immediate family but an entire community.
Joshua 7: 19-20. Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and honour him. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.”
Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel.
This is what I have done: When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them.
They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”
His actions brought physical destruction to the members of his own family after he “roused God’s anger” because he was unfaithful with the desecrated things he stole from the Canaanites.
There are families today that are bound with curses running from through the generations. Click on this link to read a related post on deliverance from curses. Do Christians need deliverance?
Gehazi brought a curse of leprosy in his family bloodline through a secret sin.
“Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever.” Then Gehazi went from Elisha’s presence and his skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow. 2 Kings 5:27.
Ahab too, brought a curse of destruction upon his household when he got involved in Idolatry.
“Know now that nothing shall fall to the earth of the word of the Lord which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab; for the Lord has done what He spoke by His servant Elijah.”
So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men and his close acquaintances and his priests, until he left him none remaining. 2 Kings 10:10-11.
King David committed sin and was forgiven but the curse remained in his house. “The sword shall never depart from thine house,” the prophet Nathan told him, “because thou hast despised me [the Lord], and hast taken the wife of Uriah” 2 Samuel 13:24.
What we are learning from this is that , you may sin and be forgiven, be right with God, but the curse may be passed on from one generation to another until it is identified and broken through repentance.
A curse has supernatural power to bring harm to a person or a place against which it is spoken.
Click on the link below to read how generational ties can betray your roots.
Adam and Eve were a perfect family- they walked in the fullness of God’s provision until Satan deceived them and they lost their dominion over the earth.
After the fall the curse of sin, death, destruction entered the world.
The family, as God originally created it, has not been the same ever since. Their transgression not only impacted their own immediate family but has been passed on from generation to generation.
Genesis 3:16-18–To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
Instead of the blessing of abundance, came the curse of death, instead of prosperity, disease and instead of peace, fear, guilt, shame and embarrassment.
This is where the degradation of the family structure began and it was the onset of all generational curses.
Redemption from generational curses
God has a remedy for generational curses and has made an escape route through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross:
Isaiah 53:5, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
If we see a particular sin or sins and various problematic patterns affecting our families, that sin is always a curse passed on through the generational blood-line.
Poverty, sickness, barrenness and many other curses can be passed on from generation to generation. God’s word is telling us today that these things don’t just pursue us on their own-there is a cause!
Proverbs 26:2 says, “a curse causeless shall not come.”
Alcoholism is one of curses that has plagued many families down the generation line. You could be fighting an alcohol problem, for example, that goes back many generations.
It is a curse that must be broken so that one is set free indeed.
Another sin that can bring a generational curse is sexual sin. You can find a family where all sisters got children out of wedlock, are unmarried or divorced, or barren. Adultery, fornication and polygamy are common in such families.
Illegitimacy (children born out of wedlock)is a curse. “No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.” Deuteronomy 23:2.
You can break these generational patterns over your life and family through the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross.
He has paid the price by His death on the cross when He became a curse according to Galatians 3:13. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”
How curses flow through generation to generation
When there is a curse in a generation, it didn’t just happen, there has to be a cause behind it.
Deuteronomy 26:16-17 says, The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in obedience to him, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws—that you will listen to him.
What God is saying is, “If you fall into disobedience and get into sin, you will cause curses to follow you and your generations.”
The cause behind generational curses is sin. There was some root of sin, a root of disobedience along the line.
There are specific curses that the Bible speaks of in Deuteronomy 27; 15-26
Cursed is anyone who makes an idol—a thing detestable to the Lord, the work of skilled hands—and sets it up in secret.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
“Cursed is anyone who dishonours their father or mother.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
“Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbour’s boundary stone.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
“Cursed is anyone who leads the blind astray on the road.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
“Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
“Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he dishonours his father’s bed.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
“Cursed is anyone who has sexual relations with any animal.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
“Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
“Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his mother-in-law.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
“Cursed is anyone who kills their neighbour secretly.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
“Cursed is anyone who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
“Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
Passing curses from generation to generation
Anybody who got involved in idolatry was in a cursed position and would pass on curses to his children, grand children and great grand children.
People who get involved in witchcraft or in the occult can pass that sin from generation to generation.
Click on the link below for a related post on witchcraft.
Those who rebel against their parents bring curses on themselves and that curse can be passed from one generation to the next.
Don’t rebel against your parent. It doesn’t matter what they are doing-you will bring a curse upon yourself and pass it on to your children.
The sin gets worse as it remains unconfessed and is passed on from one generation to another.
Sexual sins seems to be one of the worst curses. Deuteronomy 27:20-23 says, “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he dishonours his father’s bed.
Cursed is anyone who has sexual relations with any animal. Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.
Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his mother-in-law.”
Immorality is a sin. Polygamy is a sin-it is a curse, it will hurt you and your seed. Hereditary family diseases are curses. Then there is poverty. Violence is a curse and may be passed on to the new generation.
The curse can starts in one generation and grow, making itself worse from generation to generation.
