Generational Curses - Part 1

Very thankful for all of God's goodness, and I just appreciate so much the opportunity to be here with you and to share in these sessions. I will be leaving late this afternoon. I hope to be in on Dr. Dickinson's session. We've been dear friends for many, many years. In fact, the Lord thrust us into this kind of study about the same time. He was the head of the theology department at Moody Bible Institute, and I was a pastor of the Judson Baptist Church in Oak Park, and that sort of developed our friendship, and he's been a very valued friend and co-labor in assisting and helping people. Now, you've been distributed a handout, and I want to say just a word about that. As I was looking through the notes this morning, I noticed that they were just not as complete as they should be on the basic outline that we'll be looking at as the Lord gives us time, and so you'll want to look at that side of it. But I was especially concerned that you have the other side, a doctrinal prayer to break generational curses of evil. This is a very, very important document, and I would urge you—this one happens to be written with a view to my own evidences in my family lineage of some generational strongholds. You may add your own list to those that you see in your family lineage. In the middle of that second paragraph, I mentioned, in my own family, I've recognized the existence of evil strongholds evidenced by anger, resentments, greed, pride, fear, emotional illness, and violent death. That's been a very marked characteristic in our generational lineage, a number of violent deaths, including my own parents, as I mentioned last night. And so as we have sought to protect our family lineage, we use this not just once but numerous times as we watch over our children and our grandchildren. And so I would urge you to utilize this, read it aloud, and let it, of course, represent your own intercession, but also use it for the protection of your family lineage. I want to read some Scripture, which will sort of give us the setting for this whole thought. Turn to the book of Exodus. Nobody should talk about this problem of generational transference and generational issues without reading these verses. They're rather startling to some people, and yet there's something very beautiful about it, too. This is where the giving of the law, beginning with verse 4 in Exodus 20. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. We were hearing about idols in the last session, and that is a unique open door for powers of evil to trouble us. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. And this is the startling part of the generational lineage, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. Now, that is something, if you go to the commentaries, you will find very, very little written about this subject. When I wrote my book Raising Lambs Among Wolves, where I at least in a beginning way tried to talk about this whole issue, I just finally gave up commentaries that tried to really deal with this issue. And I called my friend Warren Wiersbe, who's probably the most wide-read Christian that I know of, and Warren told me, he said, Mark, there just isn't much at all. For some reason, people have passed over this issue. They've avoided it. And I really don't know why, because it's not just set forth in this text, but a number of other texts. But the second part is the exciting part, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. And that's the heritage we all want to build in our generation. And I've been determined to watch over my family, to carry on some of the blessings that have come to me from previous generations, and to seek to be a protector and a covering for my children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And I've prayed on down the line a little ways, not knowing how soon our Lord's going to come. But it's just a wonderful thing to keep the covering of the blessing of God upon your generational lineage. That's an awesome challenge and a beautiful one. Then we turn to the 34th chapter. And by the way, this is such an important chapter, because it sort of defines for us what Yahweh means. I don't know if you've ever noticed this before, but it's certainly worth noting. Moses, of course, has been called by God to come back up to Mount Sinai after he broke those original tablets with the Ten Commandments. And God told he should come back. And now let's pick it up in verse 4. So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning as the Lord had commanded him. And he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. And this is where it gets a little teary-eyed. As you read it, it just kind of overwhelms you. Then the Lord, that's Yahweh, came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord, or Yahweh. And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming. What an awesome moment this was. The Lord, the Lord. And then he defines his name, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. That's all wrapped up in Yahweh. That's who he is. Beautiful. But he also has a judicious side to his name. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. There you have it again. Moses bowed to the ground at once. I would think he would. It's an awesome moment. Oh Lord, if I found favor in your eyes, he said, then let the Lord go with us, although this is a stiff-necked people. Forgive our wickedness and our sin and take us as your inheritance. And I think we'd be remiss if we didn't look at some New Testament words on this same subject. So, turn with me to the book of 1 Peter chapter 1. This is one of the New Testament clearer portions that deal with this whole subject of generational issues that if you're going to counsel the spiritually oppressed, you absolutely need to have understanding about this, because inevitably it's going to come up. Many times the demons will bring it up. They will say, well, we've had claim on this family for 500 years, and who are you to tell us we don't have any right? And that's kind of a startling thing. But I've had them be just that bold to me, and most counselors who've worked with seriously demonized people have. Now in chapter 1 of 1 Peter verse 13, therefore prepare your minds for action. And here's where, oh by the way, I was so thrilled that Marcus Warner taught us so well on the flesh. I tried to teach yesterday and somehow it just never seemed to, even the equipment rebelled, but we got through it. But that was tremendous teaching this morning, and I was so thrilled to hear it. But here we read, be self-controlled, set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. And you see, God is not finished with what He's doing yet, but when Jesus Christ is revealed, that's kind of the consummation of our salvation. As obedient children, by the way, the emphasis on obedience is so strong throughout the New Testament, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance, but just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. For it is written, be holy because I am holy. That's quite a challenge. Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear, for you know that it was not with perishable things, such as silver or gold, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers. You see, heritage is important. It's important that you understand something about your heritage, and we'll be talking about that a little more as we proceed. But know that that flowed to you much influence from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a Lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Well, there's some other passages like 1 Timothy, or 2 Timothy 1 verses 1 to 7, where the faith that Timothy had was tied to his mother and his grandmother. And even in the Old Testament prophets, you will find interesting passages like Jeremiah 1420, Daniel 9, 4 through 19, and Nehemiah 9 verses 2 to 37. So that's important material, and I hope you will really look at those passages because it's what we're seeking to deal with. Now I would like for you to take your notes and turn to the F section. That doesn't mean flunk. It means faith, and really a lot going for that passage. So I'd like for you to open your notes because pretty important what's in here, and I think it's something you will want to read carefully once again. We have the Telos notes, which is a little more thorough than what I'll be able to teach you today. I just want you to note that. And then we have quite an interesting study in 1 Samuel 25 about the whole generational issue, what you can do with your generational heritage. Nabal wasted his, Abigail magnified hers, and David multiplied his. You can preach that, and I give you permission to do that if you want. Now if you'll notice, this is sort of a prayer that the one I gave you sort of, I think, ought to take priority over that one. Now you'll notice some practical insights. This is important. I don't have time to cover this, but let me just say that when we're talking about generational sin issues, it's a very sensitive, delicate subject, and there are outstanding Bible commentators who really sort of get their back up when they hear us talking like I'm talking to you this morning, and don't argue with people. Just, you know, speak out of the truth of the Scripture and the Word, and so this is just a caution of how that you approach this whole issue, and some suggestions about renouncing generational strongholds in your own family. I find that immensely helpful in counseling people to urge them to make a list of the generational sins that the Holy Spirit will help them see in their own family lineage by looking at their own life, by looking at their parents and grandparents. It's amazing what you can come up with, and so you'll find that section interesting. Then there's a section on breaking curses. On an F14, you come to the carpenter prayer. By the way, I just want to speak to those of you who are counselors and let you know that this is an extremely valuable diagnostic prayer. I use this often when I suspect that I'm dealing with somebody who's dissociative, who has dissociative identity disorder, which is usually an outgrowth of satanic ritual abuse. We don't teach about that in this beginning course, but you will learn about it in some of the later courses, and many, many times, and what I usually do is have the counselee read this aloud in my presence, and I can't tell you how many times as they have read it, they would just have to stop. They couldn't read it. The kingdom of darkness would so strongly come against them, they could no longer read it, and they just would stop. And then sometimes, the demonic spirits will just emerge and start cursing you or cursing the person that's reading it, and what I usually do is say, if that happens, I say, we'll mark this. We'll come back and talk about it later. You just go on reading, and that quiets the situation, and usually, then we can go back, and the sections where that happened are very significant because that shows where the ground was given, and the enemy was allowed to enter in some very strong way. Then on page F20, by the way, the masonic influence in our nation is very, very strong. I'll not ask you to slip your hand up how many of you might have masonic influences in your family, but I know in a group this size, there'd be several. That's of rather serious consequence because there's so much about the masonic system that is very cultish and entering into oaths and even pronouncing curses on yourself, and all of that somehow needs to be dealt with. This is material that came to our attention a number of years ago from an organization in New Zealand, and if you'll turn to the last page of this, you'll notice that at the bottom, this prayer is taken from Unmasking Freemasonry, Removing the Hoodwink by Selwyn Stephen. This is good material, and I would suggest if you ever, maybe in your own personal life you need to use it, but if you have someone who's had strong influence and cooperation with the masonic system of things, you'll be very wise to take them through it, and I would suggest that you sit with them when they go through it because sometimes they really run into problems when they try to renounce some of these areas where they've given considerable ground, but I want to talk to you about some very practical personal illustrations of this problem. We have in our family a son-in-law, some of you may know him, Dr. Hans Fenzel, who heads up the World Venture Mission organization located in Littleton, Colorado. Hans married our daughter, or met our daughter when they were both students at Columbia Bible College. Hans went on to seminary in Dallas, and they graduated and then received his Ph.D. in Missiology from Fuller Seminary. They were missionaries in Eastern Europe for I believe it was about 12 or 15 years, and then Hans was called to be the head of the mission when Dr. Warren Webster resigned. By the way, Dr. Webster just went to be with the Lord about a week ago, and so God replaces, you know, those that have had great ministry and brings new voices. I couldn't just but help rejoice as Marcus Werner with such ease uses modern technology. That was weird. That was really, I'd never seen something just like that, and I'm glad he understands it and can use it. He does a good job with that, but I'd be totally lost. I'm still using the overhead projector approach. Well, anyway, Hans was saved out of rebellion when he was at the university down in Alabama, and he was walking down the street, part of Freedom March, putting his hand in the air, and the Holy Spirit said to him, what do you have in its place, Hans? And Hans said, nothing, nothing, and before that march was over, he said, Lord, if you have somebody then show me some answers. I'm ready to learn. That very day, one of the missionaries associated with Campus Crusade sat down with him, took him through the presentation of the gospel, and he received Christ, and it was marvelously transformed, and that's very significant because he's the son of Al Fenzel who, with Werner von Braun, came over from Germany after the war to work with those with him in our own rocketry projects here in our own country, which is a fascinating story in itself, but after our children, Hans and Donna, became interested in each other, we were very interested to meet Hans' parents, and we developed a very good friendship, and during the whole process of the wedding and all of that, we became very close, and they'd been to our house a number of times because they were married in our church there in Oak Park, and so they invited us to come to Huntsville, and Al promised he'd give us a tour of the space museum there if we'd come, and so I had a double desire, not just because of the friendship, but I knew his parents didn't know the Lord, and I knew that every time Hans had tried to approach them, they would just put him down, and he was pretty much hopeless about the whole situation, but I knew God was burdening my heart, and so we went, and sure enough, we had a tour of the space museum that probably very few people have ever had with this brilliant scientist taking us and showing us all of the intricacies of the rockets and what they could do, and in the process of that, I said to Al, you know, Al, you must wonder about your son and about me and about Anita because we have a faith that I think must be a little mystery to you, and I'd be so honored if you and Bridget would give me the privilege of sitting with you tonight. This was the last night we were to be with them, and just let me explain to you so that maybe you could understand what's happened to your son and what's the most important thing in my life, and very graciously, he said, I'll talk to Bridget, and we'll see, and so sure enough, at dinner that night, Bridget said, Al told me what you said, and we'd really like you to do that, so what an open invitation, but I tell you, when we started, and keep in mind that he was a part of the whole Hitler movement in Germany, deeply entrenched in that, both of them thought Hitler was one of the greatest persons they had ever known, even though they didn't appreciate what had happened and the war and all of that, but anyway, because of that, I knew we were going to have a battle, so as we, I used the Coral Ridge evangelism explosion approach, and if you know anything about that, it's a very careful, tactful presentation of the gospel, and so as I started to go through that, all of a sudden, the hindrances came. Bridget developed a coughing spell that was just kind of out of control. She couldn't do anything about it. I looked at Anita, and she looked at me. We both knew what it was about, and in our hearts, we were praying without, you know, any obvious concern, and then the doorbell rang, not once, but twice in a period of about 10 minutes. The phone was ringing, and I tell you, it was just kind of chaos, but, you know, we knew what was behind it, the death of 6 million Jews, murdered. Hitler was an occultist, and he tried to bring that influence on all of those who were a part of what he was doing, and that touched their lives, and there were generational sin issues that had been in their family, unbelief, embracing of wrong views entirely, a coldness toward anything to do with the church and Christianity, but I'm happy to tell you to make the story complete. As I came to that place where I said, you know, I can't make the decision for you, your son, Hanskant, but I'd be so honored if you would let me, if you feel God wants you to commit your lives to Jesus Christ, I'd lead you in a prayer and help you, and they looked at each other for just a few moments, and then they nodded that we would like that, and I was privileged to lead them in saving faith in the Lord Jesus, and within a year, Al was with the Lord. He developed a rapid-growing cancer which took his life, but my, what fellowship we had over the phone as he came close to the time of death, but now what, why is that so important to me? Well, of course, it meant these two people both would be a part of the kingdom for eternity, but more important perhaps than that, they are the grandparents of my grandchildren, and generational issues are involved, generational sin issues. I have watched over my son-in-law and my daughter and each of our grandchildren, and dear friends, God honors that, and I'm happy to share with you that that all four of the grandchildren in that family love the Lord and serving Him, and two of them are right at Biola now, the twins, and this summer, the granddaughter, and by the way, she's the one I mentioned with the anger problem. She went as a missionary to Africa, and when she came home, she said to her mother and dad, I love the African people. I think I may go back there as a missionary someday, so God is at work in a wonderful way. They're a tremendous generational blessing, and I should mention at this point that the generational blessings are already evident, and as you begin to study this whole area of generational blessings, Bridget's grandfather was a Lutheran evangelical gospel preaching man, and when my son-in-law was walking down the street, don't think the prayers of that great grandfather of his didn't affect that young man who suddenly saw the emptiness of the life he was living in rebellion and drugs and sin, and he knew there was something different, and God opened his heart to want to hear the gospel, and so generational blessings were flowing, and so it's just wonderful to recognize the importance of that.