Understanding Generational Sin Patterns

Matthew 5:34-37 (NLT) – “…I [Jesus] say, do not make any vows!…this is from the evil one.”

 Genesis 26:4-5 – “…I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

 God creates, Satan counterfeits.

It’s the storyline of much of the Bible as well as human history. Satan is not creative. He only counterfeits that which God creates in order to confuse people.

Overall, in Abraham’s case, he passed along a generational line of faith in God to his son, Isaac. He was by no means perfect, but he was faithful. He had faith and a covenant with God, a covenant which God would also make with Isaac, which continued the family line of Jesus and generational blessing. However, both Abraham and Isaac were triggered by fear, which led to them lying about their wives. This is called an inner vow.

Another example is some men will say things like “Real men don’t cry”. The shortest verse in the Bible is “Jesus wept” (John 11:35) so if Jesus cried, are you saying you’re more of a real man than Jesus? It often comes from a place of fear and hurt, especially in childhood and adolescence, and, in order to try and protect themselves from future hurt, they also stop the good, creating more bad in their lives.

You know you’ve found an inner vow when someone violates it, it triggers you, and you get extremely emotional.

If men (or women) make these inner vows and pass these negative ideals onto their children out of fear, abuse, or trauma, it can lead to generational cursing which can take decades and centuries to undo. Out of love, parents want to protect their children, but generational cursing comes when parents pass on inner vows, which come from pain, rather than passing on faith in the Lord, which comes from a covenant relationship with God.

The good and encouraging news, however, is that it only takes one person or one God-fearing couple to start a covenant with God, break the chains of their family legacy, and turn a generational cursing into a generational blessing.

 Has there been generational cursing or blessing in your family line? How can you continue blessing or change cursing for your family?

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