I have been pondering about the difficulties that I am facing now, in my mid forties. I was still having financial difficulties. It seems that this has been going on for all my life, always struggling, barely making it. It’s like there is an invisible wall that keeps me blocked in and I can’t seem to get a breakthrough in this aspect of my life.
Between me and my husband, we make good-enough income but never enough. We don’t live on credit, we don’t go on extravagant vacations, we don’t buy expensive cars or things. We live in a modest home, in a modest neighborhood. We faithfully bring tithes to church, we don’t indulge our children. I couldn’t think of anything that we were doing that would appear to be the cause of our financial difficulties. Then, as I was sharing about this with one of my trusted friend, we began talking about generational curses. Could this financial difficulty be a result of a generational curse?
I know that generational curses and generational blessings are real. The Bible is very clear about these. The most representative place in the Bible about generational blessings and curses is found in Deuteronomy 28.
“If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God” (NIV Deuteronomy 28:1-2)
“However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. (NIV Deuteronomy 28:15)
Could my current financial struggle be a result of a generational curse? When I look back in my career as an attorney, there were clients and cases that should have brought in a lot of money. I handled some big cases that should have resulted in a surplus of continuous income. But none of them lasted like that. After the initial stage, the cases and clients phased out. I remember one of my colleagues making a comment, “Yeah, you should have been a millionaire by now.” So, what happened? Why was I constantly on the verge of succeeding financially but never getting there?
I began my search on generational curses on the YouTube videos. I found a lot of materials on the subject. I also found some materials online and read about God’s generational blessings and curses. Pastor Paula White and Pastor Derek Prince, specifically, are the primary people I watched YouTube. Neither of them are people I usually watch or listen to. I have heard of Pastor Paula White and watched/listened to some of her messages before. I can’t say she is one of my favorite pastors to listen to but I always thought that her messages are right in line with the Bible. Pastor Derek Prince is someone I hadn’t heard before. They have distinctly different styles but their messages were the same. From what I knew and believed about the Bible, both Pastor White and Pastor Prince relayed messages that I believed to be true from the Bible.
A word of caution here: I think it’s extremely important for you to have a good foundation of the Bible and Christianity before you start watching/listening to different messages online. Now days, there are a ton of materials you can find and what we know for sure is that, the devil is a liar. The devil will come to you in lying tongue and you must have a strong foundation of your belief to be able to discern the truth. If you are uncertain, seek help from a trusted believer and/or your pastor. Check with multiple sources and people you trust to gain discernment and to find the truth.
I’m certainly not an expert in the area of generational curses or Christianity or anything. I just know what I know from years of learning from pastors, books, fellow Christians, my experience, and the Bible. I also believe that the Holy Spirit is the greatest teacher and he will show us as we seek the truth. From my perspective, knowing what I know, the messages I heard from Pastor White and Pastor Prince rang true to me. I do believe that we’re subject to generational curses and blessings as a result of what our ancestors did or did not do.
I don’t claim to know all the sins committed by my ancestors but there is one sin they committed which is conclusively, without a doubt subject to generational curses: idolatry. Before my mom and my family came to America, we were all Buddhists at birth by the fact that my maternal grandmother was a Buddhist. I remember going to a Buddhist Temple with my mom and my aunt when I was little, in my early elementary years before coming to America.
I also remember my maternal grandmother inviting shamans and fortune tellers to her house and conducting rituals called, “Guht,” which is like an exorcism. I saw the shamans dancing in the front yard and fortune tellers throwing rice or grains on the table to tell fortunes. After my father passed away when I was three, a picture of him was sent to the Buddhist temple where my grandmother used to attend. I don’t know how many years my father’s picture must have been kept at the temple. When I recently asked my mom about it, she didn’t know what became of it. I mention this because my ancestors even in their death continued to practice idolatry that God absolutely detests.
It isn’t just my side of the family but my ex-in-laws and the current in-laws who are guilty of idolatry. Not only that, I am also guilty of going to fortune tellers even after I accepted Christ while I was a church-going Christian. At the time, I didn’t understand the seriousness of my sin against God but ignorance is not an excuse. Besides, I knew that it was wrong because every time I came back from a fortune teller, I felt scared. It was some kind of darkness, this unknown fear that I experienced after visiting a fortune teller. Deep down, I knew that it wasn’t something I should be engaged in.
Coming to this realization, when I began to see all the sins I committed, I repented before God. But I never repented for the sins of my ancestors until recently. This is not to say that I am responsible for the sins of my ancestors. What I learned was that, I am subject to the consequences of my ancestors’ sins. Think of a pregnant woman eating and drinking whatever she wants to that are not good for the baby. Although the baby inside of her womb cannot be held responsible for her poor eating habits, the baby will, no doubt, be affected by it. I learned that this is how it is for generational curses and blessings. Whatever my ancestors did, the blessings or the curses came down to me affecting my life.
Our merciful and all-loving God, however, does not leave us in the condition that we find ourselves in. If we are in the place of blessings, he will continue to take us from glory to glory to be a blessing to others. If we are in the place of curses, he provides a way for us to break from the generational curses. I have learned that you can be blessed in certain areas of your life but cursed in certain other areas. Not everyone has the same problem. Or maybe your problem is not a curse at all but a time of testing in order for you to step into the next level of your life. I think only you would know through sincere searching within your heart, meditating on the Word, talking to trusted believers in your circle, what your source of difficulties may be. If you truly seek the truth, the Holy Spirit will lead you to the answer and the solution.
I hope and pray that we will all break our generational curses and step into a new beginning of blessings. From our generation, we will bring down blessings after blessings to our next generation and those around us. My hope and prayer is that we would be the new generation to carry on the generational blessings in all aspects of our life.
Of course, I don’t want to leave you without sharing the specific prayer that I prayed to break the generational curse from my ancestors. This prayer is directly from one of Pastor Derek Prince’s messages, word for word. If you want to pray now to break your generational curse as I read this to you, please pray with me.
Prayer to break the generational curse:
Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that you’re the son of God and the only way to God, that you died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead; that on the cross, you were made a curse with every curse that is due to me that I might be redeemed from the curse and enter into the blessings.
Lord, I confess any sins committed by me or by my ancestors. I ask you for forgiveness. I also forgive every other person who ever harmed me or wronged me. I forgive them as I have been forgiven. I also forgive myself.
I renounce all contact with the occult in any form and I commit myself into getting rid of all occult objects. And now Lord, having received by faith your forgiveness with the authority I have as a child of God, I now release myself and those under my authority from any curse over our lives right now in the name of Jesus. I declare release, I claim it and I receive it by faith in the name of Jesus. Thank you Lord!
And that’s it.
From now on, let’s envision a world where we carry on the blessings from generation to generation.