In this life experience on earth, God is teaching and training us to live fully in His nature. This means that some of our thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes must go. We must kick them to the curb because they are not helping us towards God’s goal. These thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes are referred to in the Bible as our “old nature” or “old man nature”. It’s a nature that is built from the examples of role models in our lives, and from our life experiences as well. A big part of this old nature holds us back and keeps us from growing in the faith of Jesus Christ. If we do not grow in faith, we will miss out on some of the blessings that God has in store for us. Our old way of operating keeps us blinded to the opportunities that lead to the Father’s goodies, but our new nature in Christ will open our eyes wide to them.
In 2Kings 6:17, Elisha prayed that the eyes of his servant, Gehazi, would be opened so He could see the glory of the horses and chariots of fire that surrounded Elisha. The king of Syria has sent an army to capture Elisha and wanted him dead or alive. His servant thought that he and Elisha were dead men walking. He believed they would be captured and killed. Gehazi did not think about the fact that God had done mighty works through Elisha in the past, and would surely not abandon His prophet, Elisha, in this time of peril.
We can see the concern Elisha had for his servant, because he wanted him to know the power of God so that he would not cower in fear. This is a great lesson to us all. Elisha saw the spiritual presence of God’s protection with his physical eyes, and he prayed that his servant’s eyes would be open to see the glory of the Lord as well. Trusting God had become Elisha’s nature, and we must have this same nature as well.
There’s a war going on in our minds, and Jesus Christ has already won this battle. To walk in the victory he has won for us, we must learn to think like him. Through the Apostle Paul, God commands us in Romans 12:1-2(NLT), “12 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Most of us are taught to copy the behaviors, traditions, and culture of the world. If society says something is okay, then many of us accept this, regardless of what God says in His Word. Often what society teaches is totally opposite from the example of Jesus Christ. God calls upon us to reject anything that goes against His sovereignty and Word. He tells us not to be conformed to the world’s image, because that is not who He created us to be. His aim is to transform us into a new person. He wants to introduce us to our real selves, the self that was made in the very image of Christ. After Christ, this introduction is the greatest and most important of any other, and it’s a lasting one.
We are transformed as we renew our minds to God’s Word and change the way we think. This will undoubtedly cause some mental and emotional discomfort. We’ve got some stuff that we’ve learned from our parents, and they learned it because their parents passed it on to them. These habit patterns and behaviors were passed down from generations. They were deeply engrained in our parents and it’s the same with us, so much so that these things run on automatic. They’re a part of our culture, and in our minds, this makes it okay to allow that old programming to continue to run.
God tells us a little bit about these generational ills in the Old Testament. Numbers 14:18(NLT) tells us, “The Lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty. He lays the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.” People living thousands of years ago, during Biblical times, rebelled against God just as people today do it. They would not make a break with the sinful habits of their fore-parents and ancestors. These were practices like idolatry—worshipping things rather than worshipping God, sexual immorality, incest, lust, greed, addictions to substances like alcohol and drugs, excessive partying, gambling, murder, vulgarity, abusive and profane language, adultery, thievery, lying, blasphemy, evil thoughts, filthiness, and gossip. All of these are spearheaded by demonic spirits that leech on to our families and continue to spy on them for openings to land a curse upon future generations.
The consequences of these types of sinful behaviors continue to land on generations because the behaviors are continued. The cursed chain of sin isn’t broken by someone who genuinely repents to God, allows Him to turn their lives around, and breaks this generational curse. It can be done. It just takes a willing vessel.
In Numbers 14:18, God let the Israelites know very plainly that He doesn’t excuse wrong behavior. In other words, the guilty don’t get a pass if they refuse to repent. A true hero in a family is the person who realizes the weight of generational sin and the damage that ancestral sinful practices have caused. This person doesn’t turn a blind eye and say, “well that’s their sin and their issue. It has nothing to do with me.” That is a false presumption. God expects us to confront the old nature, old way of doing things, with the newness of Christ. This requires us to look at the generational sin and cultural traditions and practices that have influenced us, because much of this can keep us weighted down and in bondage. We become stuck in wrong believing and this prevents our faith from maturing, and it blocks our blessings as well.
The beautiful thing about our Heavenly Father is that we serve a God that is merciful and full of grace. He is the God of second chances and never gives up on His people. Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, He has made it available for us to be redeemed. This redemption should cause our hearts to change, so that we are no longer stuck in quicksand. We should ask God for the spiritual strength and wisdom to pray, so that through us He can break the chains that satan has used for generations to imprison our families.
There is no greater offense to God than sin. He forgives, thankfully, but we should have a heart towards Him that wants to apologize for the sin that was committed against Him by people in our family that we didn’t even know. Even if we didn’t personally do these things, we owe God an apology, because the blood of those who sinned against Him runs through our veins.
Ephesians 1:3(NLT) declares, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.” Through Jesus Christ, we have everything we need to live free, but we must wake up and respond to God with repentance and genuine sorrow for our sin. We must be deeply grateful that He has empowered us through the Spirit of Christ to break chains of oppression and spiritual darkness. Sometimes, we are the ones purposed to do this by seeking God’s forgiveness and laying the burden of generational sin at His feet. Again, we should do this with a heart of genuine sorrow, the kind that those before us should have had.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Breaking Chains”, written by KLizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2022. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.