No generational or other curse in the life of believers in Christ.

One time, before God opened my eyes to His grace in Christ, I was listening to a taped message from a church that my family and I followed as I drove to work. At a point the preacher went:

"There is someone here. It is your own father that is at the root of your problems." 

Not the preacher's exact words but this was the full gist of what was said. I wasn't aware that I had any "problems" like that but I still showed some respect for the message and the preacher by heaving a sigh of relief - my own loving daddy fell asleep in Christ years ago so this "someone here" with an evil dad couldn't possibly be me:)

I had barely finished formulating this thought in my mind, at ease because I couldn't possibly be this "someone here," when I heard the very next words proceeding from the CD: "Unfortunately the man is dead." 

Whaaaat???!! Was he talking about me, especially as I just had that thought about my own beloved dad being asleep in Christ? He wasn't specific. The voice from the CD player commanded me to start breaking curses of my father's house (something along that line) which I did not even know existed until less than a minute before. And I did, just in case! I didn't even think to reason out what the problem was that this "father" was causing me; just gullibly half-believed it because this very popular and well-respected man of God said so on a CD player! Better safe than sorry, I thought. See oppression that makes a wise man mad! 

We were also commanded to fast and pray towards breaking generational and other curses that Christ has redeemed all true believers from according to Galatians 3:13-14- 

"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

It's no coincidence that Christ hung on the cross. .See Deuteronomy 21- 22 “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God."

The Jews usually executed death sentences by stoning but Christ hung on the cross to redeem us from the curse of the law, including all generational curses.

We were encouraged to give/do things in order to receive from our heavenly Father who gives us all things freely with Christ according to Romans 8:32. We were taught to do our best to be righteous in order to be right with God when "..He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." See 2 Corinthians 5:21. The funny thing is that we used to sing this song a lot:

"Complete. Complete. Complete in Him, I am complete in Him (2x)

It's not by works of righteousness but by His grace alone(3x) 

I am complete in Him."

This song is the truth. Hebrews 10:14 tells us the effect of Christ's one perfect sacrifice for our sins:

"And by His one perfect sacrifice He made us perfectly holy and complete for all time!"

Yet the message we were hearing told us that we were not "complete in Him" and that we had to obey the law and do works of righteousness in order to be holy and complete!

In essence, we were taught to profess Christ but not believe Him; not believe that He accomplished the things that He did to set us free indeed. We had to accomplish these things on our own. It was an exhausting cycle of looking over one's shoulder to see who or what evil  was going to jump at one.

Today, I look back on those years and thank our Lord Jesus for causing me to see His grace and the futility of getting right with God through works of the law, an action that only cuts one off from Christ and causes one to fall from God's grace. Galatians 5:4- "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace."

There's only one Way to be righteous in God's sight and escape His wrath and it has got nothing to do with puny efforts at obeying the law: See Him in Romans 5:9-

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

My experience with the taped message, hilarious as it seems, does not in any way discount the fact that people can be under bondage and oppression because of what their fathers did. This curse is absolutely certain for those who are under Law and not under Grace.  See God's word concerning this in Numbers 14:18 -

‘The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.’

This is God's word according to the Old Covenant (the Law) and it will not return to Him void. He will punish every sin to the uttermost, even to the third and fourth generations. 

We sometimes think that Satan just goes about dashing people curses anyhow. Satan the Accuser does not have any power apart from being the Accuser of the brethren. This is how he kills: He encourages people to keep the Law in order to be godly (just as he did with Eve, telling her she would be like God if she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a picture of the Law.) Keeping the Law in order to be godly ( to be like God) still seems good to many as it seemed good to Eve in the Garden of Eden. But the Law only makes all who try to be godly by it guilty before God. See Romans 3:19-20.

Once such are under Law, cut off from Christ yet professing Him, Satan's fiery darts of accusations thrown at people reminding them of their sins and the coming judgment (even from the pulpit) can hold water; and the punishment after condemnation is death, preceded by the curses in Deut 28. Those who depend on works of the law for their righteousness," thus rejecting that which comes by "one Man’s obedience," are condemned and will face punishment spread across generations as there is no blood to cover their sins. 

With Christ as our Righteousness and Advocate, not under Law but under Grace, the devil has been DISARMED and can no longer wield the power of death over us. See Colossians 2.

In Christ, we are children of the New Covenant (Hebrews 8 - 10). With Christ as our Mercy Seat and our Righteousness, our heavenly Father does not remember our sins, including the ones we inherited from our fathers! We are COMPLETE IN CHRIST. See the promise fulfilled for us in Christ in Hebrews 10:

14 "And by His one perfect sacrifice He made us perfectly holy and complete for all time! 15 The Holy Spirit confirms this to us by this Scripture, for the Lord says,

16 “Afterwards, I will give them this covenant: I will embed My laws into their hearts and fasten my Word to their thoughts.” 17 And then He says, “I will not ever again remember their sins and lawless deeds!”"

Do you see the contrast? In the Old Covenant "He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations."

In Christ, under the New Covenant of Grace, God says of us "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."

If God does not remember our sins and will not punish us for them because they have been punished in the body of Christ, who are we to remember our sins and expect punishment?

Every believer desires to live a life of moral excellence but how to get from one point to the other is where many miss it. Many choose the path of the Law which kills and whose deeds cannot make any righteous in God's sight. See Romans 3:20- "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are."

Believers, we are made righteous by "one Man’s obedience." It is Christ's "Neither do I condemn you" that makes us "Go and sin no more." God hates sin but loves the sinner, far more than how an oncologist hates the cancer in his sick but beloved child. He fills us with the only effective sin "chemo" that He made available to believers -the Holy Spirit. His eyes burn at and destroy sins and addictions but radiate perfect love for the sinner, loving him into righteousness and wholeness. United with Christ, we get to "produce a harvest of good deeds for God." Romans 7:4

Even the vilest offender who believes in Jesus, having Him as his righteousness, gets to receive total forgiveness of sins FOREVER and gets to be transformed to live in triumph over sin and death through Jesus Christ- Romans 5:17-

"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

Beware of those who place the burden of your salvation, even salvation from sins, curses, earthly ills and eternal damnation, on you. God gave His own Son to save us from these things, because He loved us so. Titus 2:14 says of Christ:

"He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

No matter how big the sins or troubles you are struggling with are, by grace, depend wholly on Christ for your salvation and He will save from them all. He is Saviour. Tell Him you don't even know what to do or how to pray. He will love you into wholeness and His Spirit will teach you all things. He did not come to condemn. He came to save, even from sin and death (lack, sickness, depression, stress and all earthly ills are "death begun")

It's no coincidence that John 3:16 is the most popular Bible verse in the world. By grace, understand the word of Grace Himself:

16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

There is no condemnation for all who believe, not because we are sinless by action but because Christ overpaid our sin debt and redeemed us from the curse of the law. To all who believe in Him, He is "The Lord our Righteousness."  Of ourselves, we have none.

The Holy Spirit will Spirit will teach you all things.

Believe Right and you will Live Right