Ministry Training For Breaking Generational Curses

We're going to do a period of teaching and training now to prepare you to identify a generational curse. This particular training session is built to be used with the one hour video that we have specially made and edited to use in a prison setting. So my desire now is to give you additional information so that when you go into a prison setting, you're not just putting on a video, but you understand things about generational curses instinctively, practically, and so that you're not just again parroting information, but you have some practical teaching tools. And so we're going to be looking at how do you identify a generational curse.

Now, there are so much material that we could say, but if you'll go to Deuteronomy 28, I think you are familiar with the fact that there is a chapter, and actually the previous verses in chapter 27 are vital in understanding this, but there is a chapter that tells us a lot about a curse.

Now, as Derek Prince has pointed out in his teaching on generational curses, the word curse occurs hundreds of times in the scripture. It is not some weird, offbeat, strange kind of teaching concept. It occurs all through scripture. As a matter of fact, you might want to put into your notes that the very first time the word curse occurs is Genesis 3:14. And after God takes measure of this situation with Adam and Eve having sold the store to Satan, so to speak. After God takes measure of this situation, the very first thing that happens is God turns to the serpent and said,

“cursed are you.”

So, the leveling of a curse was God's first response to sin. It's not that God wanted to curse. It's not that God sat around thinking of ways to ruin our lives. It simply is that sin, in its very first instance, brought a curse.

Now, some people say, "Well, curses maybe disappeared in the Old Testament, or they only occur in Africa or someplace else." But if you go to the very last place that the word curse occurs, it is in Revelation 22 and verse 3. That is talking about the coming down of the heavenly Jerusalem, this wonderful new life that we're going to experience in the rivers of the water of life. And then it specifically says of that kingdom to which we go, Revelation 22:3,

“‘there shall be no more curse.’”

Now, isn't that interesting that part of the definition of heaven is that it is curseless? That proves to us that generational curses, curses are by definition generational, will go on until God totally renovates this planet and brings the heavenly Jerusalem.

Now, in Deuteronomy 28, we will not take the time to read all the verses, but we are going to highlight parts of it. And brother Derek, in his teaching, has synopsized the the positive and negative sides, the blessing of the curses with seven words each. And these are a synopsis.

When a person is under a curse, there is humiliation. There is barrenness. There is sickness of all kinds. It's it's like people that are under a curse seem to invent new ways to get sick. There is poverty or failure continually. There is defeat.

Then, as you might remember, it says,

“‘And you shall be the tail and not the head.’”

I would call that helplessness. Derek will talk about these things in the video later. And then you will, the Bible says,

“‘You will be beneath and not above.’”

You will always be in the place of weakness.

Now, if you have met a person whose life is a complete shambles, and you can see even in their background that maybe their grandfather was that way, the dad was that way. And you see four or five of these things, then there may be a curse in operation. We all have humiliating moments, you know, we all have times when we're defeated, but I'm talking about a a generational pattern in history.

Now, the opposite, of course, would be the blessings. If a person is under the blessing of God, they are exalted. God lifts them up. There's reproductiveness. When you look at their life, they produce new things that actually survive. The mark of a person who's under a curse is constant life miscarriages and stillbirths. I'm not talking about physical children, though that's part of it. But when a person's under a curse, what they start never finishes. What they begin never comes to completion. And there is a there is a reproductiveness in a person who is under the blessing of God. There's health, there's prosperity, there's victory, there's authority. They are the head and not the tail. And God wants his people to have authority for good. He wants us to bear authority so we can influence our world for the gospel of Jesus. And to be above and not beneath, to have strength, to have influence.

Also, Derek has isolated through years of ministering to and encountering people that seem to be under a curse, these seven marks of a curse. Again, anyone in their own life or even in their family history may have one or two of these things. But if you see repeatedly in a generations of a family, these types of things, you you have to ask yourself, perhaps is there a supernatural barrier that is in place? Mental and emotional breakdown. Repeated or chronic sickness, hereditary, generational, arthritis, migraine headaches, different things that that you you think that these are like the mark of my family. I I've seen it back in the generations. Intense female problems, problems with menstruation, miscarriages, things like that. The breakdown of marriage and family alienation. Families that just are absolutely a mess. Generation after generation, divorces, alienation, kids that can't stand the the sight of their parents. That's not normal. That's not the will of God.

Continued financial insufficiency. We all pass through financial tests, but if life is one long financial test and you never come to the place where, as Derek would say, you move from insufficiency to sufficiency to abundance, you may be under a curse, particularly if it was always like that with your your family, your dad was like that. There's a history in your family of taking bankruptcy and things like that.

Number six, being accident prone. A woman came up to me at a conference a year and a half ago and she said, "You know, all my life," she was a perky little 28, 29 year old young woman, very, very nice. And she said, "All my life, I had strange accidents." She said, "If I had a pair of scissors in my hand, I always stuck them into my wrists." "I I had freak accidents all my life." Someone handed me a copy of Derek Prince's book, "Blessing or Curse, You Can Choose." And she said, "I I read it and then, you know, I I read that little prayer at the end, just more or less to do it." And she said, "It occurs to me standing here that it's been two years since I've had one case of any kind of an accident, I just occurs to me." No emotions, no great thrill, but something's different in my life.

And then seventhly, a history of suicide or unnatural deaths, where you see in a family that there are more than an usual number of deaths, particularly early deaths, unexplained death, dying at 44 of natural causes, and you see that repeatedly. You begin to wonder again, if something supernatural may be happening.

And I want to point out in this 20th chapter of Deuteronomy, these verses, Deuteronomy 28:45.

“‘Moreover, all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed.’”

You might want to underline that word. There are so many people who are alive, but they're destroyed. They've absolutely been decimated by these generational curses.

“‘Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you.’”

Now, watch this next verse.

“‘And these curses shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder and on your descendants forever.’”

You've heard of signs and wonders. Curses are negative signs and wonders. You look at certain people's lives and you have to scratch your head. How can every negative thing that comes into the North American continent always find its way to that person? It's a a supernatural bullseye upon a person's life, where it's like they're always the one that gets the arrow in the heart.

I've learned as a pastor of 25 years that if you have internal pain that's unresolved, you attract people who will multiply that pain. And it is the will of God that you have a supernatural bath to have removed all this negative attraction to negative things.

My illustrations of a generational curse, which I would add to Derek's are, that a person under a generational curse is like a person who is 6 ft tall trying to stand up in a 5 ft tall room. They never ever unwind and stand up into their destiny. It's like a person who is trying to air condition their house but leaves all the windows open. It's like all people that are under a curse, they can work, they can labor, they can try, they can quote scripture, they can do their best. "I'll turn over a new leaf." And it's it's futile.

Now, again, you don't want to see a devil under every bush, and you don't want to call everything a curse that's that that just gives you troubles. So you don't want to be overblown in that, and we're going to produce a balanced form of teaching here, but I think you understand.

Also, if you'll go back a moment to Deuteronomy 27, Derek alerted me as I read the book, and we will cover this more fully later, that there are a specific list of sources of curses. And of course, the the basic biblical teaching needs to be, remove the source for the curse and you will remove the curse. Find where you need to apply the blood. But it it might surprise you the kinds of things that will, in God's economy, attract a generational curse.

So you'd have to ask yourself, "Okay, well I'm trying to identify a curse. I've seen some symptoms. But what might be the causes where a curse might come over my life? Do I have to rob a bank? Do I have to commit adultery? Do I have to shoot the my neighbor? What do I have to do?"

Watch this. In in Deuteronomy 27 verse 15, there are 12 declarations here that the Jews were required to proclaim and agree with that bring a curse. 27:15,

“‘The Levites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel: Number one, cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image.’”

Verse 16, second curse.

“‘Cursed is the one who treats his father or mother with contempt.’”

Verse 17, a third source.

“‘Cursed is the one who moves the ancient or neighbor's boundary stone.’”

I'm going to cover that again in a moment. Now watch this. Number four, verse 18,

“‘Cursed is the one who makes a blind person wander off the road.’”

Would you have thought that if you just kind of had fun with a blind person who is trying to find their their right direction, and they were they needed to be directed this way, but you directed them that way, that God would be angry? But see, when you mess around with helpless people, you insult God so intensely that he can level a curse on you for something as simple as that. See, if you don't have the value systems of God, you may not understand how these curses work. And this is God's value system.

Verse 19, a fifth source.

“‘Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.’”

Isn't that fascinating? That if you were to treat an alien, you were to treat a stranger incorrectly, you offend the one that has committed himself to caring for those that no one else will care for. Verse 20,

“‘Cursed is the one who lies with his father's wife.’”

Verse 21,

“‘Cursed is the one who lies with any kind of animal.’”

It's very interesting. If you analyze these 12 curses, five of them relate to injustice. Four of them relate to improper sex. And this simply tells us something about what's really important to God.

Verse 22,

“‘Cursed is the one who lies with his mother-in-law.’”

Verse 24,

“‘Cursed is the one who attacks his neighbor secretly.’”

Verse 25,

“‘Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to slay an innocent person.’”

And if those 11 sources don't get you, then verse 26,

“‘Cursed is the one who does not conform to all the words of this law.’”

In the Old Testament economy, perfect obedience to the law was required. Even though it was impossible, it was required so that we would understand that God's standards are way up here. And God never lowers the standard so we can meet it. God never grades on a curve. He has the standard of righteousness and perfection and holiness. Now, if God forbid, intentionally or unintentionally, we offend God, then we better know something about the blood of Jesus so that we can be washed and we can be cleansed. But these again are some of the basic sources of curses. There are a total of 18 of them and they will be covered as we go.

Now, to define a curse is an important thing. And again, that word occurs, the word curse, some 250 times in the scripture. The Old Testament Hebrew words, the New Testament Greek words are somewhat similar in their their basic picture. But for example, the word blessed or blessing in the New Testament is eulogeo, eu and then logeo. It means a good word. Now, the word for curse is a word that means an evil word that is spoken against you.

It's a it's a very clear picture. A person who is under God's blessing is someone over whom a good word has been spoken. And it's it's over their life. It it it's always with them. It defines what happens to them, it influences them. It's like this wonderful cloud of God's glory over you because there's a good word that's been spoken over your life. But when you're under a curse, it's like an evil word has been spoken over you. And no matter what realm of life that you go in, whether it's marriage, it's parenting, it's health, it's business, there's this thing that frustrates you. And it seems to determine and define what happens to you in your life.

As Derek Prince says,

“‘The mark of a generational curse, if you want to boil it down, is frustration.’”

Lots of effort, lots of good intentions, but absolute frustration. But see, when you are under the blessing of God, you can boil that down into one word, and that is fulfillment. That the dreams that God gives you, the promises that you see in the scripture, sooner or later, they come to pass. You are a person who can look on your life and say, "God, you are walking with me." I have trials, I have difficulties, I have problems, we all have them. But there is a sense of fulfillment in your life.

Obviously, a balanced teaching on this would need to indicate that that people need to be diligent in life, they need to be obedient in life. But I believe it would be spiritual common sense to to show and indicate, certainly my experience as a pastor would say, that you can put two people, two Christians next to one another who seem to all seem to both have the same type commitment, same type passion, same kind of love. And one of them struggles and one of them flows.

And when we go into the the prisons and we sit down across a table or sitting in a chair and we look at someone whose life may have just come apart at the seams and you want to be able to say something to them other than, "Well, hopefully it'll get better." You you want to have something that is real and tangible and inspires faith. And one of the things that's going to help is helping people understand these things of a generational curse.

Let me show you an actual blessing in the scripture. I think this helps us to to understand this concept. If you go to Genesis 27, let's analyze a blessing. And of course, you can define the negative by looking at the positive. That's one way to do it. By the way, what is the opposite of a curse? A blessing. Well, you hear a lot about blessing. But if there is blessing, logically, there is cursing. If there is a very special word that's released over a person's life that gives them the edge, that gives them anointing, that gives them authority, then logically, if you believe in blessing, you really have to believe in curses. I mean, it it really is not logical or biblically sound to accept the fact that there are blessings, and then to ignore the fact that there may be curses.

And very simply in Genesis 27, here is an actual blessing. Genesis 27:27,

“‘He came near and kissed him and smelled the smell of his clothing and blessed him and said, Surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed or favored.’”

“‘Therefore may God give you my son of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine.’”

This is a really neat blessing.

“‘Let peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brothers and let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be those who bless you.’”

Now, this is the blessing of Isaac to Jacob. Notice these four elements. Verse 27,

“‘like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed.’”

I would say element number one is there's favor on your life.

You know what it's like when someone has favor? They walk into a business and someone just wants to help them. They just they want to give you a loan, they want to relate to you. The favor of God is one of the most incredible things. If you're going to work in prisons, you need to have favor with wardens, favor with chaplains, favor with people. And that's a wonderful teaching of scripture. But that's one sign of being under a blessing, is that you you just find favor.

Secondly, verse 28 is provision. When a person is under the blessing of God, God finds a way to supply what they need, not our greeds, but our needs. And here we have declared the father and the son, provision. Then authority.

“‘Let peoples serve you and nations bow down to you.’”

You know, there are people who talk about having authority. Then there are people who have it. And as Derek has pointed out, in Hebrew, the word "authority" and the word "weight" are related. When you have authority, there is a weight to your presence. There's a weight to your words. There's an influence to your person. And see, if God gives you that, and then you use it for God, what a blessing. You don't use it to get rich, famous, happy. You use it for his sake. And that's part of of of being under God's blessing, is when he gives you authority.

And fourthly, is protection.

“‘Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be those who bless you.’”

I heard again Derek point out years ago that when a person is very spiritually significant, as Abraham was in the 12th chapter, then God has to give them supernatural protection because they get shot at from every spiritual direction. And instead of being the person that is always getting beat black and blue by demons and and troubles and problems, when a person is under the blessing of God, it at least blunts or somewhat minimizes spiritual attacks and there's protection over your life.

Now, you might want to write these down, just with reference to that chapter back in Deuteronomy 28. I just looked at some of the main elements of that chapter and how these curses, which are negative words that are pronounced over you, with the the thought of producing humiliation and failure and all of that, how they fit with people. And I and I noticed some very interesting sentences here where it says in chapter 21, verse 21 of Deuteronomy 28,

“‘The Lord will make the plague cling to you.’”

When a person's under a curse, it's it clings to them. It is something that is it it's not removed by self-effort. It is not removed by turning over a new leaf. It's not removed by eating a bowl of Wheaties every morning. These things cling to people, generation after generation. And this is a typical sentence right here in in verse 29, where it says,

“‘You shall be only oppressed and plundered continually and none will be able to save you.’”

I you can feel sorry for your son who's under a curse. You can have empathy for that prisoner who's struggling with a generational curse, but none can save him by good intentions or pity. This requires the breaking of that generational curse which happens only in our precious Lord Jesus Christ. Then speaking of the effects on our children.

“‘Your sons and daughters given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long, and there will be nothing you can do for them.’”

How many generations and families lose kids who go off into rebellion, to drugs, to to all types of things? And every effort, generation after generation produces nothing. Possibly, there is that effect of a generational curse. Where you you you weep your eyes out every night for those children. You do everything you can and you're not able to bring them in. Aren't these heartbreaking but penetrating and modern applications that we see all day every day.

Look at verse 34. It says,

“‘You shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see.’”

When you really see what generational curses do to people, if you have a heart at all, you will at times want to go over and beat your head against the wall. When you see how every realm of a person's life, whether they're in prison or not, can be absolutely ruined. And you can be literally in the Old Testament said,

“‘You'll be driven mad by what you see curses produce.’”

Verse 40 says,

“‘You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off.’”

It's like all the provisions, all the things in your life that you really need that could help you, they draw, they dry up. You really need that wife to stand with you, and then all of a sudden she's taken out with some sickness. You really needed that inheritance to come through and it's delayed, delayed, delayed. And the things that would help you the most, you're not able to get, and you do not and cannot anoint or take care of yourself. A person that's under a generational curse will often times hate themselves and they will literally quit taking care of their life. They'll quit trying to to better themselves because they just give up.

And I mentioned curses as a sign and a wonder. Verse 50 indicates that these things, they have no respect for young or old. And and when you're under a generational curse, it doesn't matter who you are, the enemy will come in and just destroy you. Speaking of in context, a nation coming in against Israel.

“‘A nation of fierce countenance which does not respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young.’”

I'll tell you, there is no age restriction on a generational curse. You can meet young and old who are being equally destroyed by invading forces in their lives.

And I think the two that probably picture the the activity of a generational curse as much as any. Verse 65, it says,

“‘If you're in captivity and if you come under the curse and God has has allowed you to go into some kind of captivity,’" it says, "‘There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul.’"

When you look at your life, you you're your your your sick at heart, your eyes are sad, your soul is destroyed because you see what could have been and and is not happening. This is really a little bit depressing, isn't it? It it really is not the the happy part of the message.

And verse verse 67, finally,

“‘In the morning you shall say, Oh that it were evening.’”

“‘And at evening you shall say, Oh that it were morning, because of the fear which terrifies your heart and because of the sight which your eyes see.’”

When people are under a curse, they're never happy. It doesn't matter if it's their birthday, Christmas, the best of things can happen, but there's always something inside them which is never at rest, never fulfilled. I'm sure you've never met anybody like that. I'm sure you were never like that. But there's something about a generational curse that comes down the line where people are just never happy, never. And it's the will of Satan to so decimate your life that there's never a place where you can just sit and just just be at rest and peace.

You can take these things down later. But I think basically this whole theme of a generational curse is probably best illustrated and it was one of those sources that we saw in Deuteronomy 27.

That Proverbs 22:28 says, “Do not move the ancient boundary stone which your fathers have set.”

And Proverbs 23:10 says, “Do not move the ancient boundary stone nor go into the fields of the fatherless, lest God become your enemy and turn against you.”

In the Old Testament days, they didn't have barbed wire fence and picket fences and things like that. But when I had property adjoining yours, we put a boundary stone between our properties. And perhaps we even, the two heads of the clan, inscribed on that stone an agreement on this particular day that we set a boundary between my generations to come and yours. And I'll not cross this path or this spot to harm you and you'll not cross it to harm me. You're familiar with that concept.

Well, let's just say that five generations down the line, my smart aleck great, great, great, great grandson decides that he wants a little more property. And so he comes out there and just says, "I don't care what my forefathers set. I like that land over there and I'm going to take it." And so he moves the boundary. I I'm sure it didn't happen this way, but I could just picture, you know, some young smart aleck coming out every night and just moving that rock about five yards every day, just getting a little more property.

That is a perfect illustration of how you come under a generational curse. You say, "I don't care what the Bible says. I don't care what my parents have said. I don't care what all these rules are. I am going to move the boundary stone and I'm going to live my life the way I want to. I'm going to listen to the music I want, I'm going to eat the food I want, I'm going to go where I want, I'm going to sleep with who I want. And there's because this is the modern day."

Well, when you read Psalm 33:11, it says,

“‘The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart from generation to generation.’”

God never says, "Oops." He never makes a mistake. And when God sets a boundary, it is a boundary. And you can go up and you can move that stone and you can get away with it for a period of time. You can take advantage of a widow, an orphan, you can steal someone's inheritance, you can mess with a blind person and send them on their way. You can commit adultery. And the world doesn't end immediately. But over your life ultimately comes a shadow. It's like all of a sudden you are driving with the emergency brake on.

You know, Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments, I call them the 10 boundary stones. People hate the Ten Commandments. You know why? Because nine of the commandments have this word in them: not. I tell my kids, rebels are not people who dislike being told what to do. Rebels are people who cannot stand being told what to do. And there are certain commandments which infuriate people. There are certain commandments. You know, I'm okay with that thing of not sleeping with this person or, you know, taking someone's servant. But man, I I that thing of idolatry. I I've got these these images in my house. I don't want to give up those things. They're valuable. They're they're

Well, if you understand it this way, there are basic boundary stones in scripture. All of which, the Bible teaches that if you move those things, you will suffer for it. Israel has a boundary stone around it. Blessed are those that bless them and cursed are those that curse them. You can say, "I don't like the Jewish people. I'm just going to move that boundary stone. I don't care." You you go ahead and do it. You know what's going to happen in your life? There will be a curse on that anti-semitism or on that legalism. Or even on these blurring of gender differences. Why does Deuteronomy 22:5 say that a man should not wear a woman's clothes and vice versa? Because God has created men and women. And when you blur those distinctions, and you talk about unisex and and homosexuality and things like that, you come under a curse.

The occult, that's a boundary stone. We don't mess with that. There are are prohibitions on oppression. There are boundary stones in the family. When there are indiscriminate divorces, when we just decide to trade in that wife for a younger model. When there is rebellion against parents, we saw that earlier. Ephesians 6:3 says,

“‘Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.’”

How many of us have kids that are absolutely provoked to anger for some reason and they're in rebellion?

Proverbs 30 verse 17 says,

“‘The eye that mocks the father and scorns a mother, the ravens of the valley will pick it out and the young eagles will eat it.’”

When a young person has a defiant attitude against parents, it's like they lose their eyes. They lose their ability to see. Spiritual discernment, not there. Looking at the things of God, not like they used to. And it again comes also in the sexual area.

First Corinthians 6:18, how many times I quoted that in the days that I pastored? When the Bible says,

“‘Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body.’" "‘But the immoral man sins against,’" and the Greek word eis also can be translated, "‘the immoral man sins into himself.’"

The moment a person commits immorality or adultery, their life totally changes. And I'm not just talking about sexually transmitted diseases. I'm talking about, we'll see in a moment, it's like backing your spirit up to a sewer pipe and turning on the hose.

There are consequences to adultery, incest, and homosexuality. And when we deal with people in the prisons, we don't go in looking down our nose at people saying, "Oh, you're filthy." I'm not talking about having that kind of a, you know, a super spiritual attitude. I'm talking about looking at the kinds of problems that people may have had to say, "Hey, maybe part of the problem here is you've you've crossed the ancient boundary stones."

I don't have time to develop this, but in in a balanced biblical teaching, you have to teach people about simple thought control. How many of you have ever had a thought that you didn't particularly like? And how many of you have ever had difficulty reeling in your thoughts? My feeling is a perfectly healthy, Jesus-loving Christian would be one who is full of nine things: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control. Wouldn't you love to be married to a person just like that? Full of the fruits of the spirit.

But you know, all of us have tempting thoughts. And instead of a loving thought, we have a resentful thought. Instead of a joyful thought, we have a depressing thought. Instead of a peaceful thought, an anxious thought. And you know, in families, when you get to know like a son or a daughter, and then you get to know parents and grandparents, sometimes you notice, you know, that family, they're they're good people, but man, they're just so harsh. Instead of being kind, they're harsh. And then you begin to investigate that family and you say, "You know, not only is there kindness and harshness, but when no one's looking, there's a stronghold of rage in them."

And you all know the downward trend that can occur. When a person does not deal with a tempting thought, well, then that doubt turns into a stronghold of unbelief. And they just, they just don't believe anything. They just don't don't believe anything. And then they just commit apostasy. They just walk away. See that downward trend?

Well, the thing that a generational curse does is it locks in these areas of tempting thoughts, so they become the primary atmosphere in a home. And the temptation, if it's not stopped, will become a stronghold. And then when the generational curse kicks in, we have got potential tragedies. You say, "Well, how could a person ever murder somebody?" It's by having a resentful thought that they don't deal with. "I just really resent that girl over there that's got that yellow dress on. Man, I can't stand that." And then all of a sudden you just don't like anybody wearing a dress at all. And then you don't like anybody that reminds you of anybody that that looks like that. And then you hate all kinds of people. And then the day comes when you are at a bad place in your life and you're angry, and all of a sudden you just pop somebody, then you're there in prison wondering, "How did I ever get here?"

Well, there's so many things that we could teach on this. There are many people who do not believe that curses exist today. Well, in 1988, as I was preparing to preach a Father's Day message at Good News Church in Fort Lauderdale, Brother Derek's church, God spoke to my heart and said,

“‘Preach on the consequences of committing adultery.’”

I said, "God, please. This is a nice day. This is a day when people want to come, they want to bring their dads, their granddad." But I I knew God has spoken to me by word of wisdom.

And I studied the consequences of committing adultery. And I had grown up reading the book of Proverbs, the proverb of the day keeps the devil away, is kind of like been my attitude. And I read Proverbs 2 for years, Proverbs 5, Proverbs 7. And I saw all the the prohibitions against adultery, but I went back and I looked at it in the sense of the damages that it caused. If you want to dissect a particular generational curse and how it works, simply study the consequences of committing adultery. I'll just show you a couple. And if you study this outline for yourself, you will learn for your own life to study particular themes and to see biblically how these generational curses really work out.

But if you'll just go to Proverbs 2 for a moment, Proverbs 2, we'll read just a couple of these 25 consequences. And once you see them, you think, "These really do fit into the context of the working out of curses." It says in Genesis in Proverbs chapter 2 and verse 16,

“‘We want to deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters her words, who forsakes the companion of her youth, forgets the covenant of her God.’" "‘Verse 18, The adulterous house leads down to death, and her paths go to the dead. None who go to the house of the adulteress return. They never regain the paths of life.’”

Think about tho- those verses that tell you what will happen to who? To you when you commit adultery. You leave your closest friend. You betray the one, and the Hebrew when it talks about the companion of her youth, is really a picture of someone that you walk together with. It's like your consort, your companion, and you've left that person. You can't tell me that you'll ever have the same regard for that woman when you have gone to someone else's bedroom. You've left the companion of your youth. You've ignored and forsaken your covenant with God. God was the one that you covenanted to stay faithful to that woman to. And you, but this this, the 18th verse simply says,

“‘You've invited death into your life.’”

As a matter of fact, you just bought a one-way ticket to death, because it says,

“‘No one that comes back to her returns.’”

I've been in ministry a long time, and I have dealt many times with the wreckage that's come from adultery. And I and I see how clearly you can light you can picture this in terms of a generational curse. Oh, the things that happen. You you are uprooted from your your family and your inheritance in the 22nd verse. When you study all these things, Proverbs 5 verse 4 says that when you commit adultery,

“‘the end of that life will be bitter.’”

You commit adultery, you have just taken a bitter pill. Because life is going to be bitter. And it's going to be painful. It says that you will be pierced with a sword.

When you study the potential outworking of a curse that comes from committing adultery, and then you compare it with people's experiences, the Bible is literally accurate in every realm. You can get these notes later, you can email me if you're in a training session and seeing this video and I'll I'll mail these things to you.

The one that I think is the most interesting is is chapter 6 verse 27, which says this,

“‘Can a man take fire into his bosom and his clothes not be burned?’" "‘Can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be seared?’" "‘So is he who goes into his neighbor’s wife. Whoever touches her shall not be innocent.’”

I don't know about you, I enjoy barbecuing, but I do not enjoy being barbecued. And I would not want to put pour hot coals down my shirt and destroy this part of my life. Well, you know what happens when you commit adultery? You are destroyed in the area of the heart. You are seared in this area of your life. And everything that the scripture says in these 25 things will come to pass for you.

Now, for those who just watched the video, I'd like you to return before we go into some other teaching to a verse that Derek used out of the book of Joshua. And this is an amazing verse of scripture. If you recall, he went into in the video, Joshua chapter 6 and verse 26. Now, in breaking a generational curse, we are working on properly identifying what they are, how they come, and then we're going to tie the breaking of those curses to what Jesus has done at the cross.

This though is an incredible look at what we are facing. Joshua 6:26,

“‘Then Joshua charged them at that time saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord who rises up and builds this city Jericho.’" "‘He shall lay its foundation with the loss of his firstborn, and with his youngest he shall set up its gates.’”

Now, that's interesting, that particular curse which came out of the mouth of Joshua, stated that this was a boundary that should never be touched or moved. This was a city that was under God's curse and no one should ever come by and say, "This looks like a good piece of real estate. Good water, good palm trees. I think I'm going to build a city here." And if they did, that when they began to rebuild the foundation, which of course is where you would start, that your firstborn would die.

Now, if a person continued and violated that prohibition and they got to do the very final thing, which was the setting up of the gates, they would lose the youngest child. Now, that was a curse, and that is a specific, a powerful example of a word that's spoken. Now, picture Joshua speaks that word. That word remains over that city. There's the city with a a curse over it. And now, if you remember, and if you'll turn to 1 Kings 16:34, we have the fulfillment. We have a man who rises up and says, "Well, I'm I'm I don't care if anything has ever been spoken over this city. I want it and I'm going to build here." And in 1 Kings 16:34, we have the fulfillment.

“‘In his days, Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and with his youngest son Segub he set up its gates.’" Now, watch this next sentence. "‘According to the word of the Lord which he, God, had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun.’”

In other words, Joshua wasn't just having a bad day when he looked at Jericho and said, "If anyone rebuilds this city, he's going to lose the youngest and the oldest." This was actually a word that he spoke on behalf of God. Our words have power in any event, but in this case, this was a curse that was pronounced by God. The interesting thing about it is that 525 years elapsed between Joshua 6 and 1 Kings 16. Now, that's incredible that 525 years did not erase those words and that curse. Why? Because God had spoken to it. God had spoken those words.

Think about how many generations had been born, lived and died in 525 years. People that came and went, people came and went. But see, the word of the Lord is eternal. So, we've got to recognize how incredible the power of words, how incredible it is. I don't know how curses are enforced. I I met a person once who had been deep in the occult, which and she told me that curses are specifically enforced by demons and by angels. Blessings are on the angel side, curses on the demon side. I don't know if that's true, but I just think it's incredible to say that 525 years passed and that curse was still in place. Generation after generation.

Now see, what demons are to an individual, curses are to generations and races and nations. Because a demon has a specific assignment to afflict Sister Sadie or Brother Brother Joe with a particular ailment. And that death, that that assignment's canceled and that demon goes looking obviously for another place to go. But curses don't affect individuals alone, they affect the course and the destiny of nations, family groups, generational. That's why they're so incredibly powerful.

But of course, generations can also be blessed. And you know, when you look at the life of Abraham and you look at the life of the biblical patriarchs, the concept was that a man would come under a blessing and the blessing would be generational. So when you're going to really look at this concept of blessing and cursing, you've got to look at blessing almost as much as cursing. And to understand that if I could ever get all that negative baggage off my life, off my family, off my my people group, and if we could then not only be released from the curse, but if we could come under a blessing.

See, I'm thinking in terms of grandchildren. The Bible says a good man, Proverbs 13:22,

“‘A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.’”

So I'm already looking at what I can store up for my grandchildren. But you know what I'm also thinking about? How can I maneuver myself to come under the blessing of God for the sake of my grandchildren? And see, when we go into prisons, we are we have the tremendous opportunity not only of addressing men and women about breaking the generational curse from off them, but then we are potentially affecting all those in their family that that they will produce. So I mean, this is absolutely thrilling to consider.

Now, I want to give you a specific example of a of a generational curse case history right out of the Bible. And this would take a lot of writing to keep up with. It would be better for you to simply get the concept and then we can email you the notes. We'll also give hard copy later to those who are here. But just picture this. There are some of us that really don't like to read certain parts of the Bible. And you know, those genealogies or you know, all that book of Leviticus or whatever, we just don't we don't like that stuff. But I learned that the Old Testament is incredibly powerful in what I would call diagnostics. The Old Testament paints the picture of human sin, human frailty, human trouble. I could never understand why you had all these ugly stories in the Old Testament about who slept with who and and who molested who. I could never figure out why Genesis 39 was in the Bible, 2 Samuel 13. I don't want to read about all these these things until God placed me, and you will run into this when you minister to people. I ran into this whole realm of incest, and I began to look at sexual abuse. And then I began to see that the Bible was giving us in all these horrible stories the real diagnostics and the real revelation about what sexual sin and incest does.

Well, like in also into the historical books, we have in the line of the kings of Israel, a tremendous example of what happens when a man named Omri brings into, and I'll explain this to you precisely how he did it, brings upon the kingdom of Israel a curse. Omri, and then Ahab, Ahaziah, then a man named Joram, who was Ahaziah's brother and Ahab's son, it gets a little confusing. And then Ahaziah. Then a sixth generation, a woman named Athaliah, and then Joash. Now, let's just break this down and let me just paint this picture. This is straight out of scripture. There's a seven generational swing here. If you go to 1 Kings 16, you will read about a man named Omri.

Now, the thing that he did which so offended the heart of God, in 1 Kings 16:24, is he established what I would call a rebel capital. That is, instead of people going up to Jerusalem to worship, he established a counter city called Samaria. And he said, "It's too much for you to go up and worship in Jerusalem," even though that was the place that God chose. So he said, "No, we're going to set up a totally new way of worship." And the Bible says he did worse than all that were before him. He walked in the idolatry of Jeroboam, who was the one that that really gave birth to that rebel northern kingdom in the first place. But he, I believe, brought a curse upon the northern kingdom because he altered the form of worship and the location of it that God had established.

Well, he gave birth to a man named Ahab. Generation number two. And you're probably familiar with Ahab and Jezebel. The Bible says in chapter 16 verse 30, Ahab did worse than all who were before him. He walked in the idolatry of Jeroboam, but he did a very interesting thing. As the second generation of the curse comes, we see how incredibly evil this is going to become because this king of the northern kingdom marries the daughter of the king of Sidon, whose name was Jezebel. And in other words, what he did was, he as the the king of the Jewish northern kingdom, marries an absolutely pagan, abominable woman to to marry the the in a political sense, God's people with the pagan people. And you have an unholy marriage. We call it mixture.

And so, whenever you see trying to marry spiritual and pagan, which happens in all types of religion, such as Santeria, you you are bringing a curse upon your situation. Well, in the third generation of this curse, and this is so typical, the next generation, it was a man named Ahaziah. And this is Ahab and Jezebel's son, and the Bible says he walked in the way of his mother and father. But true to form, in the third generation of this curse, he his life and the kingdom begin to fall apart. He begins to lose ground. Moab, which is one of the the nations as you will remember reading that that had been subjected to God's people, Israel, they rebel. And they begin actually a train of of of rebellions where the northern kingdom begins to lose subject countries and lose Israel. In other words, they are beginning to decay and to fall apart. And also the man has a freak accident. The Bible says that this king is walking through his house, leans on a lattice and falls and has a severe injury in his own house, which would be the sign of something rather unusual that a man almost kills himself by falling down in his own house.

He is the one that Elijah called down fire on the 50s that he sent, if you remember,

“‘If I'm a man of God, then let fire come down and consume you.’”

So this man in generation three is just kind of a weakling. You know, there are people that are under a curse that are strong and they are defiant and they they they just make evil things happen. But as a generational curse continues, some generations are just weak and things just fall apart in their lives.

Well, that's the third generation and he dies under Elijah's prophetic word without a son. No successor, no reproduction. So, his brother Joram becomes the fourth man in this line of kings. And again, interesting as you get in these middle stages, he's not as bad as Ahab, he's not as bad as some of the previous kings. And actually, he associates, as you see in 2 Kings 3 and verses 7 through 15, he associates with the the positive king of the southern kingdom, Jehoshaphat. This man actually has some regard for the southern king, for the things of God. But he's playing both sides of the fence. Again, see, he's just kind of namby-pamby, just a compromiser.

It's very interesting. The Bible says,

“‘He who is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.’”

It is just as destructive to be lazy, uncommitted, not passionate, and lukewarm as it is to be an active destroyer. You know, there's two ways to destroy a house. Number one is just bomb it, but number two, just neglect it. And there are so many people who are under a curse who just neglect everything. They they they're not they're not abusing their kids, but they're not parenting them. And you know, you can lose a child just by failing to have ongoing real intimate open communication with the child. So what's the difference? You can either put a gun to their head or you can withdraw your affection. But in the long run, what's the difference? And we are going to be dealing with people that are under just that exact kind of a curse because they've been like Joram, just neglected and not really cared for.

And so he dies as his subject countries around him like Moab, rebel against him and he just is losing the farm, just just losing everything, life is falling apart. Then there's another Ahaziah who rises up in 2 Kings 8 and 9. And this generation five, this guy's just a blip on the screen. He he get he he comes into power and nothing much is said about him and he's killed. Just just a brief period of time which if you see these different generations, they all have their different um different flavors. And this guy just kind of comes, blotted out, no impact.

I don't know about you, but I think it would be a terrible thing to come and spend some period of time on the earth, and once you were gone, you just sank without a bubble and no one ever knew you were there. There was no impact. You know, no one could could look and say, "Man, you know, he really or she really changed this, they altered that, they they left something." And that again would be the sign of someone under a curse. You know, they go through life, but what have they left? What have they left? What could we say about them that they accomplished?

Well, generation six, the it's always darkest before the dawn. And right before God is going to break through in generation seven, we have the absolute worst of the situation. You'll have to follow this carefully, but this is fascinating. And this is Athaliah. Now, she is the physical daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. And her relatives have been sitting on the throne all the while she's been watching all these comings and goings of her kids and grandkids and different ones that have come to the throne. Now, as the daughter of of Jezebel and Ahab, she has a very wicked heart.

And she does what one of the previous generations does. She not only marries in a political alliance, she actually marries Jehoram who was the son of good King Jehoshaphat of the southern kingdom. So you have a woman who's totally wicked in the northern kingdom, but she marries into the southern kingdom's royal family. So in other words, we have somebody who is going to again mix unholy and holy for a political alliance.

And it's an amazing story that when her son Ahaziah dies, she kills all her grandchildren. She physically kills all the other heirs to the throne. So now she is the one who is ruling in the northern kingdom. Now you imagine a grandmother killing her own grandchildren. And she rules wickedly, very interestingly, she rules for six years. That's the number of man. That's the number of the Antichrist. That's the number of evil, six. And she rules wickedly for seven years. Now, you know, if you were living under Queen Athaliah, it would not have been a pleasant time. Here you are, you're someone who wants to follow Jehovah and your entire nation for six generations has drifted and it's and it's like the ship that's going down and and you think, you know, what's going to happen? When are we ever going to to see God do something?

But I love the word intervention. Whenever someone asked me to pray about a situation and to me it's just over my head, and if I didn't know God better, I'd say it was over God's head. The thing I pray is, "God, I pray for your intervention." Well, generation number seven, fabulous story. You and if you may remember that God had promised in Psalm 132:11 to David, He said,

“‘David, you will always have one of your physical sons to sit on my throne.’”

You'll always have a physical literal son, which of course went down the generations and the Lord Jesus became the son of David and the Messiah. And the the problem with Athaliah is she was such a lousy grandparent that she didn't realize that she missed killing one of her own grandkids. And her own daughter hid a baby named Joash. Kind of gives you goosebumps. And the only remaining son of David left is this little boy, one year old, Joash.

So, the Messianic line is in danger because I mean if this young man dies, he's the last son, he's the last one, last hope. Well, Athaliah's own daughter hides him. Now she's married to a a priest of Jehovah named Jehoiada. And they keep this young baby kept for six years, these six years. So then when the child turns seven, when the child becomes seven years old, he is the rightful heir to the throne. They, if you remember your your Bible in 2 Kings 11 and 12, they bring this seven-year-old king into the temple. If you remember, it says they they stood him by the king's pillar.

You know, I have young children. Can you imagine a seven-year-old with the crown, with the scepter? You wonder how much this child even knew of his own significance and what was happening. And by the way, that's so true of you and me. So often we don't have a clue that we may be the only one that can penetrate a certain prison block, a certain home, a certain level of government. And we're just like a seven-year-old, you know, we're just being guided out there and we know that something's happened. We know that we're a part of it, but we don't have a clue how colossal and important this situation is.

And Athaliah hears this celebration with all the king's trumpets being blown and she's been left out of it and she comes screaming into the temple crying out, "Treason! Treason!" And they say, "Take her outside and kill her." And that unleashes the reign of Joash who institutes wonderful reforms on spiritual and government issues. And I would say that you've got a pretty good example there of a of a seven generation curse.

Now, here's a 19th century similar historical case study, which is not from scripture, but it's from society. And I'll cite the reference in a moment. This is a family history of a particular atheist who was married to a godless woman named Max Jukes. And he, his documented as having 560 descendants that we know of. Seven were murderers, 100 were alcoholics, half the women became prostitutes, which is so common when a family comes under a curse because when there's poverty, defeat, failure, lack of of nurturing, then so often people have only one way to survive and they give their body for for food, drugs, clothes, whatever, very, very common, as you know.

And according to this survey, they cost the U.S. government taxpayers at in 19th century dollars, $1.25 million in welfare, whatever you would call it. Well, that's not See, my my thing would be if I were Max Jukes, and I could look ahead in history and I could see supernaturally what my descendants had become, what would that be like? And I wonder some of us that are are under curses today, if for no other reason than needing to change the destiny of the generations that we beget, isn't that enough alone to get our act together, meet the conditions?

You know, if if if you are meeting someone who's sitting in a prison, they may not have the the right kind of regrets about why they are there. But when you start talking to them about their children on the outside, then they're a mess because they know the impact they've made. And we can actually impact relatives, sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters that we'll never meet, simply by impacting the life of a mom or a dad. But again, I'm a great believer in blessings. I mean, let's give the whole side. Jonathan Edwards, the man who spoke in New England, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," the man who was used to bring revival in New England. His descendants have also been documented, a godly man and a godly marriage. See, it's not only the impact that you have, you've got to think generationally.

You know where it says in 1 Timothy 5:8,

“‘If any man does not provide for his own, he is worse than an unbeliever because he hasn't cared for his family.’”

Well, if you read the context of that, all of us are called to think in terms of four generations. We are supposed to be thinking about caring for our parents, our own generation, our children, and our grandchildren. We've got to think generationally.

Well, think about Jonathan Edwards. 1394 descendants. By the way, I've heard Derek Prince say this many times, large families are one of God's blessings. As a matter of fact, it's very interesting that most of us have read in the scripture about how the ark of God when David incorrectly dealt with it and the man named Uzzah was killed, that they took the ark and went off to the house of Obed-edom. Do you remember that? And the Bible says that God blessed all that Obed-edom had. Well, did you know that in 1 Chronicles 26, it tells us one of the ways that Obed-edom was blessed. And you know what it says? It says he had eight sons, for God had blessed him. Having a biblical value system. When we talk about being blessed, we are not just talking in the material realm. We are also talking about seeing things the way God sees them. For example, Psalm 128:3, 4, and 5 says,

“‘Our wives will be like olive plants in the sides of our in the side of our house and our children like potted plants around the table, for thus shall a man be blessed who fears the Lord.’”

The whole thing about blessings is it is to impact families. It is to impact family life, that we are to enjoy families, enjoy children, and if if God would allow to have a good sized family.

Jonathan Edwards had about three times as many kids as Max Jukes. 295 college grads, 65 college professors, 13 college presidents, lawyers, 100 of them, the dean of a law school, 30 judges, 56 physicians, the dean of a medical school, 75 military officers, 100 missionaries, preachers, authors, and 80 held public office, senators, a governor, mayors, a comptroller, and a vice president of the U.S. Noll and Phyllis Gibson in their book, "Evading Demonic Squatters and Breaking Bondages," have cited that research and I traced it back and the research that they took it from and quoted was some kind of a of a secular government study. So it was a solid piece of information.

So, man, don't you want to be blessed instead of cursed? Especially because of the families that come. Now, how do you break a generational curse? You take someone to the foot of the cross. You take someone to that wonderful, awful, terrible, glorious place where heaven and hell collided, where Christ on the cross, as brother Derek received this revelation years ago, where Christ was punished that I might be forgiven. Where he was wounded that I might be healed. The divine exchange, that all the evil due to me and due to us as sinful man was placed upon Christ, that all the good that's due to Christ can therefore be released to me.

In other words, he became the sin and curse trash can of the universe. All the evil literally placed on Christ. So he was punished to release my forgiveness. He was wounded that I might be healed. And this is an historical fact. This this is not a a philosophy, this is not some kind of positive thinking. This happened. This this literally happened. I mean, there's nothing that the devil can do about it. There's nothing that any kind of curse can do about it. This is a fact of biblical and natural history. He was made sin that I might be made righteous. He tasted death that I may share his life.

Christ became poor. He embraced the poverty curse, as as Derek teaches that thing in Deuteronomy 28. It talks about that when you're under a curse,

“‘You serve your enemies in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and lack of all things.’”

And Christ endured on the cross total poverty, hunger, thirst, nakedness, and lack of everything. Everyone forsook him. He had no one and nothing but God, and then of course God had to turn his back. He was cursed on the cross because Galatians 3 specifically teaches that Christ was made a curse for us. For it is written,

“‘Cursed is the one who hangs on a tree,’" in order that, what does it say next? "‘The blessing of Abraham might come to us.’”

I I I love this theme also of shame and glory. When we deal with people who are in prisons and people who have been hurt, so often we are meeting people who have been sexually abused, who have been shamed in an incredible way. And in the inner city church that I pastored, we dealt with this so often. And you know, to to have a friend, which I did, often times come to me and say, "Pastor, I've never told anyone this, but..." This will also happen when you deal with with inmates. "I've never told anyone this, but..."

And the fact is that sexual sin can bring a curse down a family where this is repeated and there's shame and there's degradation and there's these humiliating things. The Holy Spirit asked me once, "What is the opposite of shame?" The biblical opposite, and I I didn't really have a clue. And I had to search for it in the scripture until I found that the opposite of shame is glory. God wants to wash the shame out of people and replace it with His glory. That's how powerful the cross is. And Christ was rejected on the cross that we might know the acceptance of God.

I don't know how much you deal with people, but I'll tell you, shame and rejection, it doesn't get much deeper or any worse than that. And people that are in these patterns, these these inner wounds, they they are wrapped around their own axle. They they they never seem to make it in certain areas of life until you bring them right to the cross. Hebrews 12:2 says Jesus endured the cross, despising its shame. Hebrews 13:24 says,

“‘Let us then go outside outside the camp to Christ bearing his shame.’”

The cross was not simply to kill Jesus, it was to humiliate and shame Jesus. Well, in all these different areas, we have at the cross, we have a nuclear weapon. It doesn't matter if 500 generations back your father was a Freemason and gave allegiance to Ja Bul On, as we've heard earlier. It doesn't matter if there's been arthritis down your family line. It doesn't matter if there's been sin. That curse can be broken. How? Through wishful thinking? Through just hoping it'll get better? No. Through bringing people literally to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. And now this is what we call in South Florida, shouting stuff. This is shouting stuff because of what Christ has done at the cross.

Well, you know, when you deal with prisoners, often times you are dealing with people who are no strangers to church. They've flat been in church. They've heard sermons. They've got saved 3600 times. But boy, how many of us have been in church and and have not heard about the cross? Not really had a revelation of what Christ has done on the cross? Have a revelation of Matthew 8:16 and 17 where it says, "Christ bore our infirmities and He carried our sicknesses." In my own physical background, if you were to look at my parents, my parents have had between them two open heart surgeries, angioplasties, arthritis, osteoarthritis. I have had coming down in my family line so much sickness. But I came to this understanding of the cross and that is that the fact that my own father has had arthritis for 50 years does not mean I have to have arthritis. The fact that my parents have struggled with certain financial, emotional, or physical things doesn't mean that I have to. But I'll tell you, buddy, I probably will unless I learn to access at the cross the breaking of those curses.

I I I take a look at what God wants a person to be. You know, like Michelangelo who didn't see the the rock, he saw the statue, the carving, the thing in the rock. You look at Ephesians 1, 2, and 3, and you study and you look for the words "in Christ." Just look for the words "in him," "in Christ," or "in whom." Buddy, if you're in Christ, you are chosen. God didn't have to take you, but He chose to take you. You you look somebody in the eye who's sitting in a prison cell, "Hey, God chose you." "He predestined you to adoption as a son." Yes, you fell away. Yes, you're in Adam. Yes, you're you're a reprobate in terms of of having rejected God. But God, before you ever fell, predestined you so He could adopt you back after you fell. He has graced you. Ephesians 1:6, the the King James says, "we are accepted in the beloved." The Greek is even better. It says, "God has graced us with all grace." I call it grace squared. God has graced you. That would be great if God graced you. But what did He grace you with? Grace. You you are graced people because you're in Christ.

You are redeemed. God has revealed to you some of His wonderful strategic purposes in the earth according to Ephesians 1. Sealed with the Holy Spirit. You have the spirit of wisdom and revelation that you can pray into your own heart. Oh, I mean it's it's just fabulous. And does this apply to some super saint? Does this apply to like just to Luther and Calvin and to all to Charles Stanley and all the great people we No. This applies to the person who's born again sitting in maximum security. Of course. You are brought near to God, brought near to God's people. You're one with the rest of the people even though you may be physically unable to associate or fellowship with them. You study that and you'll see that there are 20 blessings in Ephesians 1, 2, and 3 alone. What is a blessing? It's a good word spoken over you that abides on your life. And it doesn't matter what side of the tracks you're from. It doesn't matter if you're black, you're white, you're Hispanic. I say to Afro-Americans, I I hate to say but but but with white skin, I can tell you, I think it's going to be a while before many Afro-Americans really get equal rights or civil rights in this country. But I I tell you, just just do this. Come under the blessing of God. Come under the anointing and blessing and the prosperity and the wealth and the joy of the Lord and just enjoy it. And get your get the the rights of heaven even if you never get the right treatment from the people around you that should treat you right.

Derek talked about the sources of curses, just to reiterate. There are in the book 17 or 18 different sources of curses: false gods, idolatry, the disrespect of parents. And again, you can go right back to Deuteronomy the 27th chapter, 15 through 26, and you can see some of these specific sources of curses. Treachery against a neighbor, injustice to the weak or the helpless, unnatural sex or incest. Let's stop there just a moment and let's look at Leviticus chapter 20. As I shared with you earlier, when you study the effects of adultery, and you will see that the Bible gives various and very specific um ways that those curses work out in people. Well, when you deal in any kind of painful area in an inmate or a friend or someone, go to the scripture and see what the word says about it. And this happened to me when I dealt in incest and sexual abuse and I went to the scripture and I found this verse, Leviticus 20 and verse 12. There are so many verses in the Bible that you're never going to like put in your promise box or you're going to write up and put on your refrigerator. And this is one of them. And yet right here, this this was something that helped me so much to understand this particular curse. Leviticus 20 verse 12 says,

“‘If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death. They have committed incest, and their blood be upon them.’”

Now, that word incest, I looked it up in the Hebrew. It only occurs twice in the whole Old Testament. The only other time it occurs is in the 18th chapter when it speaks of a man having an improper relationship with an animal. I hate to even quote that, but that's the only other place that that word incest occurs. The basic meaning of the word is, if you study it, it is very simply the word confusion. Now, in the same way that if a man has a relationship with an animal, that's just total role confusion. It makes no sense. There is no right connection there. It's just confusion. But that's exactly what happens when in a family, a a dad molests a daughter, or a brother, a sister, or whatever. It's confusion. It's a role destruction. And it carries with it incredible damages.

And I noticed that when I dealt with people, um I've never been able to do this in a prison setting, but in many other settings, that that were victims of some kind of molestation, the one thing they were was they were confused. It's like someone took a hypodermic needle of confusion and injected it to them right into a vein. Because they were so confused about relationships. This is why a young person or a young woman who's been abused sexually will always relate to someone who will either do it again or hurt her in some other way. Because of this confusion, a person runs from help right into trouble. It's a curse. It's a confusion about what's safe, what's not, what's real, what's not. And I'll tell you, you cannot psychoanalyze that out of somebody. You cannot talk that out of anybody. That is a supernatural curse that has to be broken. And it what it's one of the ways that that curse of sexual abuse works out in people.

Anti-semitism, depending on the flesh, stealing or perjury, stinginess. Derek talked about that. Perverting the true gospel. So many places that water down the gospel to the point that it's it's incredible. You you don't get the blood, the word, salvation, Jesus. And then we wonder why the wheels are coming off of our churches. Self-imposed curses, where as Derek said, someone says, "I wish I were dead. I hate myself. I hate my life. I I I'll never make it. I'll never do it." And of course, the curses of father figures. If you were to authority figures, if you were to talk to so many people who are sitting in a cell and you were to say, "Now, what kind of relationship did you have with your dad or your mom?" Sometimes they'll say, "Well, it was perfect, angelic, you know, we went to church." But there are so many times where you'll have a father who had spoken negative words into that son or that daughter. "You're ugly, you're stupid, you'll never make it. Why did you have to come along? We were we were doing fine until you came. Why can't you be like your sister? What's wrong with you?" And those words penetrate into the spirit or into the soul of a person and they fester and they grow. And that and even when that child says says, "I'm going to blow off my parents. I'll never be anything like my dad. I'll never be anything like my mom." Well, in so doing, they have just sealed their fate because everything they're doing, they're doing to be different than mom or dad.

That's that's not only not healthy, the Bible says that when we rebel against mom and dad, we don't have to agree with everything they do, but boy, to have a bad attitude toward parents guarantees, as Derek Prince says, if you have a wrong attitude toward your parents, it will never go well with you, never. You'll never come into all of what God has for you. Unscriptural covenants, objects, soulish talk, and even soulish prayers where people pray against the pastor. "Lord, you know, our pastor, he doesn't understand what's happening. Lord, break him. Lord, Lord, get him. Lord, take care of him. Do whatever you have to do."

I would be very careful what comes out my mouth when I'm praying for authority figures, whether I'm accusing or manipulating or whatever. And of course, there are servants of Satan, there are people who legitimately get on their knees and pray to evil powers to break up marriages and and so on.

Well, we're talking about identifying and breaking curses. We are going to have to be people who learn even once we break curses to declare the right kinds of proclamations over our lives and to destroy curses through scripture. At the back of brother Derek's book, "Blessing or Curse, You Can Choose," there is a chapter on proclamations. But here are some that you'll get in your notes. Let's say that a person like in my family, there's incredible amount of arthritis in my family. Well, my thing is, go to the scripture and ask the the Holy Spirit to quicken to you verses that really, you know, prompt your faith to overcome that. And these are the words to Job.

“‘Behold, thou has instructed many, thou has strengthened the weak knees. Thy words have upholden him that was falling and thou has strengthened the feeble knees.’”

You know, I would make that declaration and application and just just just put it on for my proclamation that I am not going to be anymore, once that curse is broken, I'm not going to go down in arthritis or whatever.

I love this this one on cancer.

“‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted shall be uprooted.’”

Now, I know that's not the context, but that verse was quickened to me as something. I don't believe that God planted that cancer in me, so it's not a plant that has to take root in me. But buddy, I better get a hold of faith so that I can be made well. Fatigue.

“‘He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might, He increaseth strength.’" "‘They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.’”

These are things that can help so much. Fear of man.

“‘The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord shall be safe.’”

There are so many areas of heart disease. When I walked my own mother into open heart surgery, the Lord quickened Psalm 73:26,

“‘My heart and my flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.’”

And that verse kept my mother through a very difficult and actually botched open heart surgery. That verse was a proclamation that I think saved her. Inadequacy.

“‘Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but my adequacy is from him. He has made me adequate.’”

That word adequate in Greek means to be tall enough. Hey, if you need to be able to reach to the top shelf, Christ will make you tall enough to reach to the top shelf. Whatever he's called you to do, whatever that is, he wants to make you adequate to do it. And of course,

“‘I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord.’”

A verse that Derek has shared many, many places and kept a whole lot of people from dying before their time.

One of the things I learned about poverty is many people are poor because of a lack of wisdom. And Proverbs 23:3 and 4 says,

“‘By wisdom a house is built, by knowledge it is or by understanding it's established, and by knowledge it is filled with precious and pleasant riches.’”

Sadness, broken families, there there are so many areas where we can teach people biblical proclamations. So instead of saying, "My marriage is a disaster," you know, "My kids are no good. I'm frustrated." All these negative things that we can replace it with scripture. And the thing I learned is borrow somebody else's confessions until you can find your own. I mean, get, you know, borrow somebody else's, but then you read the Bible. You have a problem with sadness, then you read the scripture until Psalm 16:11 reaches up and slaps you like it did me.

“‘In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand pleasures forever more.’”

Man, I love that verse. And when I read it, it it reached up and it changed my life.

Now, put some meat on these bones. We're going to teach people to meet the conditions, as I've said. And you will see a very clear teaching in Derek's book, pages 189 to 197, on again, these eight steps to meeting the conditions. Now people say, "Well, you know, can you minister the breaking of generational curses to a group?" And people have watched Derek many times minister deliverance to groups of people instead of taking like three hours with each one. Well, when Derek was thrown into the ministry of deliverance, there was a large group of people and he didn't have a whole lot of choice. And what he simply did was he taught people to meet the conditions. And if people will meet the conditions, then they can be delivered. They they can release those demons and they can be delivered even corporately.

It's the same in a prison setting. You don't necessarily have to go counsel or pray for every specific person. Indeed, you will probably be forbidden from doing that. But you teach people, number one, to establish a scriptural basis for their release. When you teach them Galatians 3 and the other verses that Derek mentioned, then to confess their faith in Christ with their own mouth, not what you say, but out of their own mouth that the sacrifice of Christ is perfect. "Lord Jesus Christ, you are the son of God and the only way to God. You died on the cross for my sin." And to repent of all rebellion and sins. God has not promised blessing to his enemies. He's promised blessing to his friends. And so when we repent of all rebellion and sins, repent and believe in the gospel, the scripture says.

And then we actually claim and receive forgiveness of sins. I noticed every time I hear it, at the end of the prayer of when Derek leads people through the breaking of generational curses, that he slips in there, "And I also forgive myself." How important to forgive yourself for that sin that that the devil wants to beat you up with. To forgive all who have wronged you. And if you've never been in a situation where you said, "I don't want to forgive that person," then my hat's off to you. But I've been in a situation where as a friend of mine said, that I would keep I keep a person that I really had ought against. I I would it's like I kept them in my mind in a little cage. And once in a while, I would open the cage, take them out, beat them up, put them back in the cage, back in my mind, and then save save more for later.

And the thing about unforgiveness and anger is that many people are raised on anger. That's all they know. Anger has energy. Anger has a measure of of seeming control. You you tell people, "Don't be angry anymore." Well, I mean, that's that's the glue that holds me together. I'm angry at the white man or I'm angry at the black man, I'm angry at an ex-wife, I'm angry at the president. I don't know, I'm angry at the warden, I'm angry at somebody. Angry at myself, angry at God. That's all I know.

And see, the thing is, it it may take some real time before a person is able to meet that condition that they are willing to forgive those that have wronged them. To renounce contact with anything occult or satanic. If I have contact objects, I commit myself to destroy them and I cancel all Satan's claims against me. Now this again is the prayer right in the book. It's a little bit different than the one that's on the the tape, but it's the same, you know, basic general theme. And I cancel all Satan's claims against me. It's very interesting, if you study pages 68 to 71 and 121 and 124 of the other book called "They Shall Expel Demons," Derek gives some very, very important signs of what an occult practice really is. And it just would take some study on your part.

And finally, release. I ask you now to release me from every curse over my life in your name, Jesus, I release myself. Now, here's the way you can apply this. You can lead people number one in that systematic prayer that meets the conditions. Now, at the end of the video, you have that prayer prayed. And you can simply when that time comes when Derek says to stand up, then right then just stand up yourself. And generally people generally people will get the idea and and follow right along. And you're going to have Derek lead you through that systematic prayer that meets the conditions. Then people release themselves from generational curses, as you know.

Now, you remember Matthew 12:29 that says that when the strong man is bound, then you can plunder his house. My experience across America, not as thorough as Derek's, but my experience across America is that the breaking of generational curses is very much like binding the strong man. In other words, that when people pray that prayer, then Derek says, "Now let's begin to thank the Lord." Right then, the supernatural power of God is already moving because the the strong man is bound. And see, depending on how the Holy Spirit led you at that moment, you can begin to pray for people's deliverance. You can begin to minister in the areas of healing. I do this often times because the atmosphere has just been opened.

Um, you can and I find many times that God will begin to touch people in the healing of of the broken parts within them, the healing of a broken heart. I was three weeks ago in Palm Springs, California. I preached these messages of Derek's down the outline of the breaking of generational curses. A dear sister in the front row, who was a pastor's wife, began to just cry and weep. She grabbed me afterward. It was like kind of like hugging my mother. It was a very sweet moment and she was just shaking as God was was as she told me later, just cleansing her of of abuse and pain. And no one prayed those specific prayers. It was simply that the strong man was bound and then the Holy Spirit just began touching her.

Now, that might be very dramatic, it might be very quiet. And again, in the prison setting, you don't want to get things all stirred up. You know, you're going to have the the um the guards and people probably watching this thing as they certainly did when I did Derek's presentation and and you know, we do not want to have a riot. But so I'm not saying to stir it up. And actually, in a prison setting, most likely all you're going to be able to do is shut the tape off and then then yourself just begin to thank the Lord for a moment. "Lord, we do thank you that you have touched us and helped us and thank you that you've led us to meet the conditions and we praise you and we commit these people to you in Jesus name. Amen." That may be all that you're able to do. It just depends upon the restrictions that you're under.

But if you're in a setting where you have the the liberty and the confidence, here's what you can do. The symptoms of a generational curse, as Derek has indicated, are mental and emotional breakdowns, chronic sickness, female problems. And so, what what you can do is once people have met the conditions, they've released themselves from curses and we spend a moment just having a moment of thanks and praise to God, then you can say, "Now I come against mental and emotional breakdowns in these people in Jesus name." And release your faith in that moment that you are praying a directed kind of a warfare prayer, coming against those strongholds. And you're going to find that you're going to be confronting uh demonic strongholds and and powers and demons. Particularly if you're someone that is experienced in this. I'm not saying you have to do this or you should do this, but it can be something that that has some real impact.

Then praying praying about chronic sicknesses. I actually have a list of some of the chronic sicknesses that come from generational curses like migraine headaches, tumors, arthritis. And I simply cut loose and pray against those things. Female problems. And so you again, you come against because of what Christ has done. Because of what Jesus has done, that curse. And then you bless people. Lord, I bless these ones with the exaltation that comes from you. At the right place, at the right time, in the right way. Make them like Joseph. Take them from the prison house to the state house. However God gives it to you to pray, exaltation, reproduction, health.

Now see, if you take the time to live in this and really live in the scriptures, so that you walk into a setting full of faith, then you are simply the one who is launching faith-filled words out into the air. But if by chance there is anybody there who's got a little bit of faith, and they begin to reach up and grab what you're praying, then you will see change. I don't know about you, but I'm not here to um learn to to slap on a tape. I'm here to learn how to touch and change people's lives for Jesus. And because of what Christ has done. So, man, it's a it's a fabulous um fabulous thing that we I tell people um around the country, meet the conditions. Just meet the conditions.

I also encourage people, and I'll show you one last verse and then we're going to pray. This is a verse that has come to mean so much to me, Numbers chapter 21. As being a pastor of many years and someone that's very concerned never to come into a setting and cause trouble. I I really passionately believe in balance, in proclaiming the whole theme the whole message of the gospel of God. And it's been my impression that if we'll tell people the whole truth about a theme rather than just kind of take a hobby horse on it, that we'll get we'll get our our reward. So in other words, it's meet all the conditions. But you know, another thing that's so simple is lift up Jesus.

See, when you lift up Jesus, you get results that you don't get any other way. We we don't just believe in formulas and praying a prayer that just flops out the mouth. But we know it's the it's the power and presence of Jesus. I've seen Derek model that so clearly. And I when I leave you with this verse, Numbers chapter 21 verse 5.

The people spoke against God and against Moses. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and many of the people of Israel died.

And see, I always put myself in the story. So see, I picture myself out there with my 20 21-year-old daughter Elizabeth, my 17-year-old daughter Carolyn. I'm there with my 11-year-old daughter Lauren, and I'm there with my 5-year-old daughter Meredith. See, I put myself in the situation. And now got my family out there, my wife Denise, and fiery serpents are biting people and killing people. And this is a crowd of two or three million people. So, I'm picturing my five-year-old bit by a snake, turning black, tongue swelling up, beginning to asphyxiate. I mean, I'm picturing looking down at that sandy desert and losing a loved one.

See, I I have found that all ministry requires burden and passion and caring. And you know, if if it's okay with you if people go to hell and if it's okay with you that people, you know, sit in in their sin and and never change, then you'll have a measure of effectiveness. But you know, it's got to touch you deep within. And see, I'm picturing my daughter dying at my feet. And I'm like, "What am I going to do?" And the people in verse 7 come to Moses, and I don't think they came up and said, "Moses, we have sinned." I think they came up and said, "We are going to be obliterated!" And I've got a dying wife or daughter or whatever it is at my feet. What are we going to do?

“‘We have sinned and we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us.’" And Moses prayed for the people.

And see, they're looking for the answer. See, they're looking for the the snake venom, or or the the anti-venom, whatever you call that stuff. They're looking for the answer.

And the Lord said to Moses, "Here's your answer. Make a fiery serpent, set it on a pole, and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he'll live."

See, I would have said, "That's it?" My my daughter is dying, bitten by a snake, and your answer is you're going to put a big copy of that snake up on a pole, we're going to stare at the snake, that's going to solve our problem? That's what I would have thought. You know, when your daughter's dying at your feet, you're going to be rather critical of the answer that's presented.

Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. And so it was if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he, and the Hebrew says, "when he looked continue and gazed at the bronze serpent," he lived.

Well, you remember John 3:16, which says,

“‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’”

John 3:16. Most of us don't remember John 3:14.

“‘For as Moses lifted up in the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world.’”

Notice that the looking in Numbers 21, when Jesus quotes it, the looking turns into believing. For Jesus said, "The one that not looks at, but believes." This is the way you get answers. You look at the cross until you believe what it's going to do. You know what the answer for my five-year-old is? You know what the answer for the most despicable human needs are? Really in essence? It's to stand and look at the cross of Jesus. To stare at it from this angle, look at it from that angle, meditate on it from this facet, think about it from that facet, until it grips you. And see, once Jesus and His cross have gripped you, the devil is out of here. But it's that Jesus-centered love of Him, centering on the cross.

So, meet the conditions and love Jesus. Fall in love with Jesus. And God will not only touch your need, but those around you.