When we have understanding of this whole area, then we can more easily administer to more people. So we want to understand what Generational Iniquity and Curses are. We want to learn how to recognise them - what we look for, and then we want to learn how to minister to people to set them free. So we’re going to focus around those things today.
So first of all, we’ll start in Mark 9. I believe that all of you, when you’re ministering to people, will need to become aware of this root problem of generational curses. I’ll just explain what we mean by these terms shortly. So first we want to take a look at a story in the gospel. We’re going to read from Mark 9:20 – “Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.”
So here is a young man, who has got a demonic spirit, and the spirit is manifesting. Many times you find, that when Jesus went to different places, spirits actually manifested. They did this as a reaction to the high level of anointing and presence of God He carried. As the level of anointing in our life rises, we often experience more of these things happening. Particularly you’ll find when you go to third world cultures, you’ll see very often spirits manifesting quite quickly. So the disciples had tried to cast the demon out, but were unable to.
I want you to notice here in verse 21 – Jesus asked the child’s father: how long has this been happening? And he said, “From childhood” - and the word literally means from being a little infant. 22 And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out, and said with tears: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 When Jesus saw the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it: “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” 26 Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28 And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but by prayer and fasting.”
So we’re going to go through the story, and gain some insights. The first thing we see is: a child is being tormented by an evil spirit. This means demonic spirits can be in people from childhood. There’s more than one example, of demonic spirits being in children, in the Bible. We need to distinguish between what is just bad behaviour, and lack of discipline, and a demonic spirit. Some children behave badly because they’ve never been disciplined. This example is not just bad behaviour and lack of discipline - the demon is actually throwing him into the fire - its destructive behaviour. So we see in this child, destructive behaviour, caused by the demonic spirit.
It’s interesting the question Jesus asks: How long has this been in him? Or how long has this been happening. That’s an important question to ask, when you are working with people. One of the things to look for, when you are tracking the presence of generational curses; ask this kind of question: when did this problem begin? Or as Jesus said: how long has this been happening? Now when you ask the question: how long has this been happening; if the person responds: well, since I was very young; then it’s either a trauma that happened when they were young that caused it; or it’s a generational curse of some kind.
So when you are working with people, you would ask: what is the problem you have; how does it affect you; and this question – how long have you had it”. When you ask the question “how long have you had this problem”, you get pointed to: possibly, this has been a generational thing. If you’re in some of the meetings, you’ll know I asked more than one person: how long has this spirit been tormenting you? Oh, since I was very, very young. In one or two cases, I said: this has been since very young, hasn’t it?
So, there’re two questions that will give clues to the presence of a generational curse. The first one is how long has this been happening? Or in other words, when did this start? The second one is: has anyone in your family had a problem like this? Those are the two questions to remember: 1) when did this first start; and 2) did anyone else in your family have this problem?
So, in trying to locate the root of this problem, you have to ask questions. Notice how Jesus started, by asking the father questions. The word “child” is literally the word
“infant”, one that’s just born, or very young; and the father describes the way the child behaves. So it’s almost certain that the child was suffering from some generational spirit.
Evil spirits need some legal ground to enter a person’s life. They need some door to get in. So unless the child had a trauma of some kind, its most likely this was a generational spirit. One thing we need to understand is that generational curses can be the cause of many problems that people have. A little later, we’ll ask: how we’ll recognise a generational curse - we’ll talk about how you would identify it.
Notice that Jesus said that faith is required for deliverance. If you can believe, all things are possible. So, faith is essential. I must believe that God will move - that I have power to cast these demons out. Notice that Jesus, later on the disciples asked Him: why could we not cast this demon out? They had done a lot of deliverance, they had seen results; but this time, it failed - and they were quite puzzled why they failed.