Generational Blessing or Bondage
The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation. Exodus 34:6-7
What are generational curses? Generational curses are cycles of bondage passed down from one generation to another. Even to the third and fourth generation, as the scripture above has indicated.
In my novel, Loving Leah, the main character, Leah, has had an unusual phenomenon occurring with the women in her family tree. First, her great grandmother (Marlena Corolla) had her husband abandon her during their first year of marriage while she was pregnant with their child. Later, that very daughter, Ava Jane (Leah’s Grandma Havi), was left standing at the altar, as the groom didn’t show up for the wedding. When down the road she married again, this husband abandoned her during their first year of marriage while she was pregnant—just like what had happened to her mother. Leah’s mother, Lenore, likewise had several failed marriages.
And then Leah herself went through the nightmare of calling off her wedding on her rehearsal night. Years prior before Leah was even born, Great Grandma Marlena Corolla had declared that there was some sort of curse on the women of the family. Understandably, Leah was filled with a sense of impending doom concerning her future with this Corolla Curse hanging over her head!
Repeated cycles in a family—like this one in Loving Leah—are big clues that generational curses are in operation.
Below is an excerpt from Loving Leah in which Evelyn DeSoto ministers to her regarding generational bondage. It starts with Leah confiding her family saga to her and Evelyn telling Leah that Jesus paid the penalty for generational baggage at the cross. She asks if Leah would like to pray and cut it off.
They went to the kitchen table where Evelyn took a piece of paper and drew a long, horizontal stripe across the page with her pen. “We’ll call this your family line,” she said, tapping it. “Let’s say you were born here.” She put a dot in the middle of the bar. “On this side of you are your parents and grandparents, etcetera—all who came before you. Just like parents pass on genetic family traits—hair color, body shape, that type of thing—well, there’s spiritual stuff that gets passed down too. Things that you inherit spiritually from your ancestors. Those can be good things if you have godly parents, but if they weren’t, sometimes you get snagged in the consequences of their sins. That’s what we call a generational curse.” She looked up to see if Leah were following her.
“You’ll pass on stuff too.” Evelyn moved her pen to the other side of the dot. “You’ll either pass on a godly heritage or the baggage that comes with undealt-with sin. But when we plant the cross of Jesus here,”—she drew a cross above the dot—“it becomes a stop sign for sin! All of those family curses were put on Jesus so that you could be set free from them—do you see?”
“Okay.” Leah nodded.
Evelyn drew an arrow moving forward from the cross. “God wants to change your family history through you for the good—to pass his blessings down through you. All that old family baggage of yours—we’ll address it right here and nail it to the cross!” She tapped on the dot.
“And that can stop it—the curse thing?”
“Absolutely! We’re going to be specific and render it defeated at the cross!”
Evelyn led her through a prayer of repentance for her sins and the sins of her forefathers and mothers. Then they brought the specifics of the Corolla curse to the cross and proclaimed the power of Jesus over it.
“We declare this generational curse of being ‘cursed in love or marriage’ broken in the name of Jesus and by the power of his blood!” Evelyn said with authority. “The Bible says that ‘Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.’ Leah, Jesus took this curse upon himself so that you might inherit the blessing of God instead! By faith we believe it, and by faith we declare it to be true over your life!”
The two sat quietly for a moment.
Leah looked up. “So that’s it then? It’s done? So, like, even if my mom goes off on me about it, it’s still done with?”
“Well, my dear, it’s a matter of faith! We believe in the power of the cross to defeat every curse, but it’s not a magic wand. You still have to walk it out. You have to follow Jesus and obey him.”
Leah nodded thoughtfully.
“Let’s say there’s a generational cycle of abuse in a family. Or alcoholism. Or rage. It takes a lot of work to change those old, engrained patterns and mindsets, but the grace of God is there to help if you invite him into your situation. And think of how it’ll benefit the next generation if you persist in following Jesus and obeying him. So, stick close to Jesus, Leah. He’ll watch over you and help you. And when that fear comes again—which it probably will—you just remind yourself and the devil that the curse was defeated at the cross of Jesus Christ. Period.”
What about you?
Do you have repeated cycles in your family that need to be broken? Why not address it and change the course of generations after you!
Photo credit: Images by Unsplash.com
Loving Leah book cover designed by Steven Crombie