Breaking Generational Curses

The concept of inherited curses goes back to the Mosaic Law, in which the Lord warned that He would visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and fourth generations  (Exodus 20:5, 34:7 et.al.). The natural outworking of children being trained in, or subconsciously adopting, the sins of their parents is undeniable. But the spiritual dimension of these curses reveals that there is a supernatural cause/effect relationship, that opening the door to evil by agreeing with the lies of the devil has an invisible spiritual reality. 

Generational curses are a special case of the more general curses that were articulated by Moses (Deuteronomy 27:15-26) and woes warned by Jesus (Luke 7:24-26).  Unequivocally Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:10-13). Hence the primary means of redemption from the generational curses is that any descendant who believes in and receives Jesus as their savior is freed from this law. [Of course, younger generations are free to choose their own sins, not from their ancestors’ heritage - for that they are solely answerable - Ezekiel 18:4.] But what of the spiritual heritage of being insensitive to God’s voice and leading? Besides the humanly modeled parental behaviors such as pride, avarice wrath, lust, envy, gluttony, and spiritual sloth, does the Holy Spirit hold grudges against children? I think this question puts the issue in the wrong stocking. 

C. S. Lewis wrote a short section on being close to God, which a later editor paired with part of Psalm 73:

For, behold, those who are far from You will perish;

You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.

But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;

I have made the Lord God my refuge,

That I may tell of all Your works.

 Psalm 73:27-28

C. S. Lewis’ words: “If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?” (Mere Christianity, Book IV, chapter 4))

Other Scriptures reinforce this concept. 

• Jesus told His disciples “ My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. (John 10:27)
• Jesus also said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38)
• The warning, “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.” (Hebrews 10:25)

The juxtaposition of the themes of the blood of Jesus and intimate, personal relationship with Him seems odd. How can a dead person interact with the living? But that is on a purely natural level. In the spiritual eternity of God, the death of Christ becomes the doorway to connection with God. We remind ourselves and celebrate this supernatural, transcendent reality every time we take communion. 

This is the key to breaking the generational curse. It is not in the words of a prayer invoking the blood of Jesus, nor in the rote recitation of the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper, but in the continuous exercise of a relational interaction with God the Father, as an obedient and affectionate son, made possible through Calvary, that the curse is nullified. The core of the generational curse is the transmission of this lack of relationship. And this applies to all of us, regardless of the number of generations between us and Adam. The cure for all the curses is to remedy this root cause.