For many of us, this is usually a very nice and flattering compliment meaning that you have stature and you follow a great example, OR, maybe your dad has a drink now and again and enjoys himself very much and then forgets that one drink usually leads to another bottle and he ends up beating your mom.
Ok, for the half of you that all fell off your chairs now, next time put a pillow next to your chair then the fall is not so hard! You see, we have become so conditioned by everyday society that we should not speak out about real issues, and the result of it, real issues just become more real and almost never just goes away on its own.
But yes, a compliment, a drink, a chair, and real issues are all linked in such an absurd way that it would have been easier drawing pictures to explain it but let’s try and see how it goes.
So, our story begins on a hot summer night, long ago, when your Mom and Dad decided that it was now the right time to start thinking about making you a reality and not just an idea. Your Mom was her usual vibrant self, enjoying life and looking forward to be starting her own family like her Mom has been telling her to do for so long already. Your Dad had a rough day at work but looking forward to getting home and being pampered by your Mom, having a great home cooked meal and then see where the evening goes. Dinner goes great, food was great, company was great and now you are the next idea that is on the minds of your parents, but your Dad just wants to finish up one last thing he must do for his work before he can relax completely.
Then it happens! Your Mom looks at him and says “You know, you are JUST LIKE YOUR DAD, he was also always working and never had time for his family and he died so young, what a waste of a life he had” and silence ensues for a while in the house after your Dad got up and decided he won’t be talked to that way, and your Mom goes to bed saying to herself “I knew it, I knew he would have some kind of an excuse for this important event.”
You get born 9 months later and you are such a blessing to your parents, they tell everyone how special you are and how amazing you are and as you grow up your focus shifts to things that is important to YOU because I mean come on, it’s your life and YOU are in control of it – well that’s what we all think at some stage of our lives – and then one day your Mom asks you to do her a favour because after so many great years, your Dad got so obsessed with his work that you cannot even remember when you saw him the last time, so they got a divorce, and you live with your mom.
Then the silliest thing happens, you get distracted with something you were busy with and forgets about what your Mom asked you, and later when she calls you for dinner you realise you forgot to run to the shop to get what she asked you to buy, you think its no big deal – it’s just bread and there is some left in the breadbin, but your Mom sees it as you not paying attention or just not caring and she says the thing that has been “generational” – she says to you “You are JUST LIKE YOUR FATHER, he always had something more important to do than spend time with his family”
Ok, now since I have started this story in Hatfield and ended up in Durban, you are probably wondering what the story is about. You are wondering how it’s relevant in your life. You are wondering what it matters anyway if your Mom or Dad said something like that to you – like in EVER…
What we must never forget and always remember – and yes, they mean the same but not really, which is a discussion for another day, is that you have the power to create with your words, with your mouth, with your tongue, JUST LIKE JESUS CHRIST! If we look at Scripture, specifically Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Now let’s take a moment and read that again, I hope you put a pillow next to your chair already as I suggested in the beginning!
What pops out in that verse is POWER, DEATH, TONGUE, and in my mind, it tells me that in simple layman terms, when we use our tongue to form the sounds that we make when we speak, the power that is locked in the words that get formed is so strong that it can cause LIFE or DEATH. Now, you could be saying to yourself “This guy is smoking some serious potent something-something” and unfortunately, you would be wrong to think that it means something else than it literally means. You see, the Bible is the Word of God, the Bible is also written in such a plain and direct way for all of us to be able to understand it. It was an instruction from God that the Bible must say what it means and mean what it says so if I say the sky is blue, you should not need to look up into the sky to make sure, it is blue, because if I meant what I said and say what I mean, then I would mean the sky is Blue,
not a shade of cyan mixed with a bit of sunset red with a dash of yellow – BLUE.
If the Bible then clearly states that with our words, we can bring about life or death, don’t you think we should think twice before saying something too someone – EVER ?? Not only does it mean we should be checking our verbal filters very often and very carefully, we should also start to understand that if we say something to someone that is negative, that is like judging the person who we are talking to and sentencing that person because if I say to you for instance that you are a really nice person and you dress so smart it really fits in perfect with your style, you are going to walk around the rest of the day with a smile on your face and feeling good about yourself, because someone noticed you and spoke LIFE to you – life = compliment = positive = upbuilding = makes a difference in someone’s life. Now the next time that I see you, that morning was just terrible, I woke up late, my alarm clock did not work, traffic was a nightmare, I forgot to brush my teeth, and I see you with the same clothes at the same place and the same time, maybe my thought would have been “Geez that guy really tries hard to make a statement and he cannot even dress himself properly!”
Just because my mood indicated my state of mind for the day does not give me the right to speak LIFE or DEATH into your life, but at that stage it does not really make any difference about what should and should not – purely because the words were already said and even if they were not meant to harm or upset or to affect you in any possible way, it does, and it did… It’s like when you “borrow” your parent’s car without them knowing and you accidentally scratch it when you park it back in the garage, the scratch is there, it should not be there but guess what, it’s there, and no amount of talking to that scratch is going to make it realise that it should not be there and magically disappear so you don’t get grounded or lose your pocket money.
Like the scratch, what you speak over someone’s life is REAL. It’s not a fairy-tale with a happy ending where the moral of the story is that the good guy wins in the end, you could be unknowingly be putting a curse on that person’s life, for the rest of that person’s time on earth. Let’s face it, if someone grabs your brand-new Samsung S20 cell phone that you got for your birthday and accidentally drops it and it scratches, you will probably be able to get it fixed up pretty nicely and looking new, but you will most probably always think back to that day when your friend damaged
your new phone.
The same way that your mind will keep on replaying that awful day when your phone was dropped and then flame up those emotions of anger and frustrations, in the spiritual realm there are rules and reminders that are very strong and very “legally binding”. You see, most of the older generation grew up in very structured and guided lives and what I mean with that is that you grew up not being allowed to question authority, you only spoke when spoken to, and mostly you followed in your parent’s footsteps when it came to jobs and studies.
Now I hope you put that pillow close to your chair already because what you probably don’t realise yet is that sometimes things are not what they seem, and that the fact that your Grandma was a nurse and your Mom became a nurse, and you are really keen to start studying for a nurse is not just co-incidence, some things are passed on from generation to generation and sometimes you just feel that the job your mom or dad has is so amazing, that you want to also do that same job. It’s like when you are young and you get given nice and fancy shoes that you wear for about a year until your feet needs more space and the shoes just don’t want to give that space, your brother or sister usually gets the shoes if they are younger. It gets passed on so that it creates more value by being able to keep 2 sets of feet protected for twice as long. We know shoes are real, you can touch them and wear them and kick rocks around and it gives you a sense of security because when you are for instance a long-distance runner, you will always have that “Special” set of shoes that you win every race with.
Just as shoes are real, we know God is real, we know Jesus is real, we know the Holy Spirit is real even though we cannot see Them with our physical eyes. If we know They are real, we also know that Satan is real, angels are real, and demons are real, even though we also don’t usually see them with our physical eyes. If we know that all of this is real, then we also know the Bible is real and the Bible is basically God on paper if you think about it because we believe in God, who is the Truth and the Light and our only Salvation, and by reading the Bible we get given the information that we need to live a healthy and safe life and find salvation and freedom in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And with all of this being real and us believing it, and knowing that the Bible is not written to confuse us but to be a weapon for us to use against the enemy – you can hit a robber over the head with the Bible but this actually means more that the Bible’s information and all it contains is what we need to protect ourselves against the attacks of Satan and his demons, not so much a physical battle.
It’s a lot of information to process yes, but would you rather hear the truth and be able to face it protected and ready, or do you rather want to be surprised by Satan or his demons who can manipulate a situation so much that you would think that it was normal to be unhappy, unsuccessful, lonely, scared and so many negative things we see as being “normal” these days ?
Let’s recap it short and simple and to the point.
You have been given free will
You have been given a choice whether you want to accept Jesus Christ as your salvation
You have been given the knowledge that the Bible is your most valuable and strongest weapon
You know that what you speak has a direct impact on yourself and the person you speak to
You know that the power of Life and Death is a standard feature in you and not one of those optional extras
You know that when you pray, and you lay down certain rules about your life that angels and demons cannot “bypass” that because they abide by your commands
So now the big ending that you need to understand, read again, maybe read again, then process and maybe read it again so that you understand fully what it means in your life if you were born with a generational curse or if someone in your lifetime has put such a strong and heavy curse on your life – maybe not even knowing they did it.
Looking at scripture again it helps to make is more real and understandable. 1Kings 15:3 And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father. This directly means that the current generation of your family is walking in the sins of the generation before them, and just like the Bible shows us of promises made thousands of years ago, which are still in place and honoured today, the same way generational curses can stay with a family for decades to come.
Are you really like your father? This question will probably confuse you a bit because you should try to be exactly like your Father but not like your father. Nope I am still not smoking anything that would confuse me to the point of asking questions about circles in circles. You see we should all be living the life and having the heart and compassion of our heavenly Father. The problem with society today is that we all try to be like someone that we look up to or can associate with. We want to be like that guy on TV with the big cars and all the money in the world and do what we want with who we want and when and how we want it and just be happy but maybe that guy on TV has had a terrible childhood, was maybe molested or beaten by a family member, maybe even told that he would never become someone respectable or anything, we would never know that by looking at a person. Why do you then want to be like someone that you do not know at all and by wanting to be like that person, also be given the hurt and the sorrow that “comes with that package”?
We know the armbands with WWJD on them that we love to buy and show off our new-found love for the church and what it stands for. What Would Jesus Do – that is the meaning of that little armband. Did you know that the hand just above that band on your arm was nailed to a wooden cross – the Name of That Man IS Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Would you want a nail thru your hand?
Would you want to suffer for all mankind who loves and hates you? It’s a huge sacrifice that Jesus had to make for us, looking at my hands I don’t know if I would ever be able to comprehend the pain and the suffering that He has already completed for us so that we can be free! That freedom that He solidified for us on the cross is big enough and strong enough to even absorb and nullify curses that has been put on your life and the hurt and suffering it is causing you or could still cause you.
Today is the day that YOU should start believing that you can be exactly as your Heavenly Father and that no curse on your life is strong enough to stay with you in your life unless you want it there yourself so it’s a very fine line that you must choose because what you choose and say has the power to bring LIFE or DEATH to your situation.
Now comes the easy part, you can pray that any of these generational or family curses are brokenand lifted from your life and you have the power to command that to happen. You need to pray this out loud though because the whole reason for that curse to be on your life was that someone has SPOKEN the words to put a curse on you and those words, with the power of LIFE and DEATH, are the words that you need to stand up against. When we read the Bible, we read the WORD of GOD, not the Thoughts of GOD. When you are ready, pray this over your life and I know your life will change and become the life that you deserve, the life that Jesus has died for, the life that matters and that should not be manipulated by anyone or anything !
Dear Heavenly Father, I have been confronted and manipulated with so many situations in my life, circumstances and events that previously affected the lives of my parents and grandparents. I plead the Holy Blood of Jesus Christ over my life and the lives of my parents and grandparents. I plead now with YOU and ask that the Holy Spirit bind and break any strongholds of these generational or family curses in my life. Destroy the weaknesses that has been passed on to me through the blood from generation to generation. I pray that you protect me against any returns of these curses and I pray that You will give me the wisdom and knowledge to prepare myself against these attacks. I pray for blessings over my parents and grandparents so that they can also have the lives that they deserved. Lord Jesus, thank You for what you did on the cross for me, You took the nails in Your hands, You did not walk away or make up an excuse why I was not important to die for, You died for me so that I could life and I thank You for that with my all that I am. Help me to be more like You so that I can be an example for others to see that everything is possible with the help and guidance and protection of Your never-ending love for us. I pray this is the wonderful Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen and Amen
Ok now what? You were expecting thunder and lightning and the room to shake? Prayer works a bit different from what you see on the television, but I can assure you that if your prayer was from your heart and out of your free will, angels are already busy fixing the fabric of your lifetime. You are now free from what was keeping you back in your life. You need to believe it, and the most important thing is that you must LIVE it! Make people hopeful again by just looking at you and seeing the peace and love you have received, to know that no one was destined to live a life under a curse. Read your Bible and equip yourself for the days and weeks and months ahead, we never know when the last breath will leave our bodies, but we know how to protect ourselves until that day comes.
If you need help with these prayers and situations or you maybe just don’t understand everything or you feel that you need to see someone or speak to someone about a situation in your life, all you have to do is to let us know, and we will make sure that someone helps you through anything you may be facing no matter how big or small. All you have to do is to say the words – and we will respond. That’s the power of your words – food for thought!
So, let’s speak LIFE into other people’s lives and not death. An amazing music video that you can download and watch is performed by Toby Mac, it’s really worth the watch!
Please note that the YouTube Video is NOT owned by findHOPE but is licensed for use by the CCLI. findHOPE.co.za is a registered CCLI contributor
