Generational Curses

I wanted to share some thoughts on this subject. I don't want this to be a controversial post, but rather one that offers hope and freedom from all the chatter and confusion over this topic. There is a lot of false information out there that claims very different solutions from what the scriptures simply teach.

The idea of generational curses is that anyone can have a specific curse or demon latched onto them, not because of something they did, but because of something their parents or ancestors did. This is used to explain why people who are living righteously still suffer extreme things or experience oppression.

While not all deliverance ministries will fall into the category of the kind I'll be addressing here, most I believe do, and I want to offer a word of caution to anyone who is seeking to join themselves to one.

Many deliverance ministries pounce on people who are suffering and desperate for relief because these people are vulnerable and in need, thus far easier to control. While I would never deny there is a need for deliverance before coming under the power of the Holy Spirit, it is I believe an offense to His saving power to say a righteous person needs demons or curses cast off of them even after they have repented, been baptized, and committed their lives to Him.

Many ministries claim that the believer must break these generational curses through tireless sessions that can last hours or days while they name and renounce every sin or generational curse they may be under. Some cultish deliverance ministries will encourage people to make offerings for this deliverance, which reminds me of Simon the magician trying to pay Peter to give him the power of the Holy Spirit. Remember what Peter said?

Acts 8:20-22 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 

Deliverance from sin and any curse it may bring is a free gift to repentant sinners. I know many stories of those who, after becoming saved, later on begin to wrestle with demons, some even becoming possessed. When this happens, that person has left the faith. The false teaching of once-saved-always-saved is partially responsible the idea of a believer being possessed. We are warned in scripture that we can indeed reject His salvation and backslide. (2 Peter 2:20–22) The Holy Spirit will not indwell with demons. He will not stand for it. He will not patiently exist beside demonic entertainment.

1 Corinthians 10:21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 

1 Samuel 16:14  Now the Spirit of Adonai departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from Adonai tormented him. 

God permitted a harmful spirit, a demon, to torment Saul because he had rejected God and no longer submitted to Him, even though before, the Holy Spirit had come upon him more than once and done mighty things through him.

Needing deliverance from a deliverance ministry is rarely a one-time thing. These ministries teach that if you're ever having ANY kind of problem in your life, you did something wrong and need to come to them for deliverance, thus creating a constant dependence on them. Sickness, bad circumstances, death, marriage problems - it's because of you and you need their deliverance to the renounce whatever spirit has attached itself to you. They incite fear by telling you there is a risk of seven more demons returning to you if you don't maintain your deliverance. This terrifies weak people who've supposedly been set free from oppression, and it creates superstitious, frantic, fearful behavior that I believe encourages oppression in the home rather than discourages it. Thus they are bound to a life of constant exhausting warring in the spirit. You may have seen the reels of ladies anointing their homes or superstitiously pouring Kroger grape juice in a circle around their house. Thinking you can scare the devil away with burnt sage or grape juice is foolish at best and occult at worst.

These unscriptural rituals are not how we enact our faith and get real deliverance - I'll explain now how we do.

Below are the verses used to claim that a believer can be "possessed" or "cursed" (I use quotation marks because most ministries will avoid using those specific words, even though the definitions are the same. They will instead say things like "breaking trauma cycles" or "cutting soul-ties").

Deuteronomy 23:2 No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of Adonai. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of Adonai.

Numbers 14:18 Adonai is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, 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 generation.

Some believe that not being able to enter the assembly meant not being able to serve in a temple office or even a civil office where they would hold authority. The word doesn't say anything beyond them not being able to enter the assembly, so we need to compare to other places in scripture in order to understand what is being said here. Are these people forever cursed with no hope of salvation? Well, deliverance ministries would say "No, they need to go through deliverance from these curses, and we'll show you how that's done." Do the scriptures say how to break curses after you become a believer? Or do curses and demons only reside on those who live in rebellion to the Most High?

Look at this next verse:

Deuteronomy 23:3 “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of Adonai. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of Adonai forever, because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you."

Notice how it says to the "tenth generation" and then "forever"? Now, do you remember that Ruth was a Moabite? Not only did she leave the land of Moab and join the assembly of Adonai, she became part of the Messiah's ancestorial line. Does this mean she broke the law or that her offspring had to recite prayers that renounced their past and break the curses that were placed upon them as Moabite descendants? I think not. I will show you the very moment that Ruth was no longer a Moabite, but became an Israelite, set free from her past and redeemed by her faith and actions - in an instant.

Ruth 1:15-17 And [Naomi] said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people 👉 and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. 👉 Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May Adonai do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” 

It was forbidden for Israelites to marry into the other nations. However, we see that it was permissible when the one from the other nation gave up their past, such as in the case of the harlot Rahab when she married Salmon who later fathered Boaz who would become the husband of Ruth. Do you see the beautiful story of redemption Abba is showing here? Yes there were laws and curses placed against the heathen - but that is the key point. They were still heathen while under those laws and curses. Once anyone submitted to the hand of Adonai, they were no longer heathen, no longer Moabites, no longer bastards, no longer under those laws and curses. They were delivered.

That moment of deliverance comes when the man puts off his old identity and takes on the new through faith in Adonai's salvation and through ending all lawlessness. Deliverance is granted when you repent and become a believer. The following verses confirm this.

Ezekiel 18 (Paraphrased)  The word of Adonai came to me: “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge’? As I live, declares Adonai GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die. If a man is righteous and does what is just and right - if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor's wife or approach a woman in her time of menstrual impurity, does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully—he is righteous; he shall surely live," declares Adonai GOD. “If he fathers a son who is violent, a shedder of blood, who does any of these things (though he himself did none of these things) ... shall he [the son] then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself. Now suppose this man [the reprobate son] fathers a son who sees all the sins that his father has done; he sees, and does not do likewise ... [he] obeys my rules, and walks in my statutes; he shall not die for his father's iniquity; he shall surely live. As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his iniquity. Yet you say, 👉 ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares Adonai GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? 👉 But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die. Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. 👉 Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways," declares Adonai GOD. 👉 "Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves 👉 a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone," declares the Adonai GOD; "so turn, and live.” 

The reason God had to explain this multiple times here is because people, just like today, believed that even the righteous who has turned away from his past identity could be under a curse. We see this same incorrect thought process in Jesus's time:

Joh 9:1-3 As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. (Did Jesus mean that his parents and this man were sinless? Or did He mean that their sins were not the cause of his affliction.)

We are born into a cursed world, to be certain. Abba never promised that the righteous will not suffer. We all suffer because of Adam and Eve's sin, because that curse has yet to be ended when death and sin are cast into the lake of fire. To claim that you can be completely free of suffering and oppression and sickness is a false teaching. We MUST bear this suffering patiently and endure until the end. Sometimes we are able to receive miraculous healing and deliverance, but do not let people make you think you are cursed or lacking faith just because this may not be something you experience at this time.

I've had people personally tell me that they physically felt the deliverance - they coughed, sneezed, or choked while they were being prayed over and were told that this was the demon leaving them. I've seen people screaming and wailing while being prayed over and the ministers saying that this was the demons speaking through them. This does not prove they were demon possessed. Our bodies and emotions are very gullible to peer pressure, and the stress of being under this kind of intense pressure (sometimes the deliverance techniques used are even violent) can cause our bodies to respond like this in order to relieve that tension. Don't put yourself under this kind of mental control.

If you are a believer who is experiencing severe oppression and feel the need to seek deliverance, please don't go the route of seeking out your generational sins. None of those things applies to you. What does apply to you is your own sin. And sometimes it could simply be that we are being oppressed because we are in a season of refinement and testing, like Jesus was in the wilderness. Did Jesus seek deliverance methods for this? Or did He rather fast and pray and endure until the devil left Him. Sometimes oppression comes because we are going through a time of vulnerability (it says that the devil left Jesus until a more opportune time). If we are experiencing intense emotions such as grief, fear, or anger, we are more vulnerable to attack because we are not as strong to resist. Sometimes we invite oppression into our homes because we become lax in our walk. Sometimes, like I said at the beginning of the post, some completely leave the faith and the protection of the Most High, and like Saul, He permits the tormenters to come at them without restraint. These attacks can be resolved very simply and require no deliverance ministry. Repent and return to Him in all aspects of your life. Endure testing. Stay faithful.

Consider the verses below - how deliverance and righteousness comes from our actions of repentance, not recited prayers or words pronounced over us.

1 John 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

James 1:22 But become doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Titus 1:16 They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient and reprobate to every good work.

Matthew 7:21-23 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ 

Matthew 6:7 But when you pray, do not use vain repetitions, as the heathen do. For they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

We need these trials and testings to understand that it is not by our own strength that we endure and are saved. Tests and affliction cause us to fully cast our weaknesses and failings on His supporting arms of grace.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 [Paul:] "So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Remember: The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son.

KEY PHRASES USED BY MANY DELIVERANCE MINISTRIES:

Generational cycles / Generational patterns

Often used to imply inherited spiritual curses that must be "broken,” even though Ezekiel 18 refutes this idea clearly

Breaking bloodline strongholds

Suggests believers need special rituals or prayers to escape family sins, even though Yeshua’s blood fully cleanses (1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.)

Inner healing

While healing from trauma is important, this term is often tied to unbiblical rituals or guided visualizations meant to access the “wounded soul”

Soul ties

A phrase never found in Scripture, often used to suggest emotional or sexual connections that must be broken by special prayers, even when true repentance and obedience would suffice

Deliverance prayers / Deliverance sessions

Usually marketed as necessary for believers to be set free — despite the Bible clearly teaching that we are already delivered through Messiah (Colossians 1:13,14 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.) Leaders in these groups are often seen as anointed spiritual warriors and exercise excessive power.

Casting out the spirit of... (fear, lust, rejection)

This blurs the line between fleshly struggles and demonic activity, implying every problem is a demon needing exorcism, which removes personal responsibility

Freedom ministry or Freedom rooms

These may sound harmless or inspiring, but they often involve unbiblical practices that cling to recitations instead of taking simple steps to stop sinning. Repentance is not saying "I'm sorry," and listing all your sins. Repentance is quitting doing what is wrong.

Legal rights in the spirit realm

This phrase is used to teach that demons have ongoing permission to torment believers unless certain formulas are followed

Spiritual mapping / Cleansing the land

Practices that lean toward mysticism, focusing on reclaiming physical and spiritual territories rather than personal holiness and obedience - this one in particular goes deep into the spirit realm and pulls from occult knowledge on what goes on there

Breaking assignments / Canceling contracts with the enemy

Again, this suggests the enemy has authority over a believer unless specific verbal actions are taken

WARNING SIGNS OF A CULT

1. Absolute authoritarianism from the leader or leaders without accountability.

2. Zero tolerance for criticism or questions.

3. New revelations and extra knowledge given that do not align with scripture.

4. Evasiveness or no disclosure over how donations are used.

5. Exclusive club-like behavior that makes members feel privileged and encourage unreasonable fears about the outside world.

6. Obsessions with conspiracies and the government's persecution through taxes and other laws.

7. Extreme control over members and their personal lives - sensitive information is gathered and then used to manipulate members into submission (leaders may dictate how members should dress, eat, marry, or spend their time and money).

8. Scripture used to manipulate and abuse members into obedience (guilt, shame, and threats of curses, hell, or divine punishment are used to keep people in line).

9. Followers feeling they are never able to be “good enough”.

10. Anyone outside their group is considered lost, unsaved, or incapable of knowing the truth.

11. Members are pressured to cut ties with anyone who doesn’t agree with the group, including family.

12. Members are expected to give their time and energy beyond reason, often with fear attached to withholding.

12. A cult breeds suspicion or hatred of outsiders, claiming persecution as proof of righteousness.

13. Members are discouraged from reading or listening to any teacher outside the group.

14. Leaders may claim to be prophets, apostles, or prophetic fulfillments of leaders or teachers spoken of in scripture in order to gain unquestioning loyalty.