Overcoming Family Curses and Understanding their Causes

Exposing the iniquity of the fathers and understanding what family curses look like are the first steps to breaking them. Family curses are reoccurring problems that steal, kill, and destroy. Identifying what family curses look like is the first step to breaking them. This article looks at emotional instability, heredity-related family sicknesses, chronic wounds, barrenness, impotence, family breakdowns, lack, poverty, debtors, no ambition, direction, and bondage and slavery. It also explains that curses don't visit the family without cause. After family curses are exposed, Christ's deliverance is readily available.

You need to learn how to break a curse. Scripture is clear: God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children up to the third and fourth generations (Exodus 20:5). Curses don’t visit your family without cause. When someone up the family tree gives spirits the right to visit because of iniquity, they come looking for a reason to mess up your life. Take courage. After family curses are exposed, Christ’s deliverance is readily available.

THE FAMILY TREE

You cannot choose your relatives any more than you can choose skin color, gender, or race. Someone up the family tree could be the cause of a generational curse. A family curse is a payment or “recompense for iniquity.” It is written, “Render unto them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD” (Lamentations 3:64-66).

Before you can break generational curses, we need to identify what they look like. Here is a partial list of family curses for your review. Having one of these in your life or family may not indicate a family curse, to have several “reoccurring” ones might. The help of the Holy Spirit is vital in identifying a family curse. As you read this list, ask Him to give you a spirit of revelation.

EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY, FEAR

“The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart.” (Deuteronomy 28:28)

The first curse we will discuss is emotional instability. Notice the Scripture above says the Lord will “smite with madness.” To be smitten with madness means insanity, craziness, foolishness, irrational behavior, and flakiness. He also uses the term “blindness.” This blindness releases confusion, indecision, and wonderment.

If that’s not enough God follows that with “astonishment of heart” meaning a trembling, unsettled, and fearful heart.

Under this curse, one is easily overcome by emotions and fear. These trigger a person to make foolish decisions and do crazy self-destructive things. In this condition, a person has a continual inner struggle, internal warfare, and frustration.

Confusion and depression are two key indicators of this family curse. This curse teaches why some are double-minded and have problems ordering their lives with the Word of God and renewing their minds.

HEREDITARY FAMILY SICKNESSES

“The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he has consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it. The LORD shall smite thee with consumption, and with a fever, and with inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.” (Deuteronomy 28:21)

Some family sicknesses are reoccurring. Reoccurring is the indication of a family curse. Notice the terms “pestilence” and “consumption.”

This curse releases sicknesses of all kinds. Consumption is a wasting lung disease, emphysema, COPD, and lung cancer. Lung cancer is the number three killer.

He also uses terms, “fever” and “inflammation.” These indicate a curse that is evidenced by arthritis. Inflammation of the brain leads to Alzheimer disease. Then we read the term “extreme burning.” Extreme burning points toward all sorts of strange fevers.

“The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with hemorrhoids, and with the scab, and with the itch, of which thou canst not be healed.” (Deuteronomy 28:27)

Botches are open sores or boils. These are experienced by those that have problems with wounds that will not heal. Scripture also says, “The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head” (Deuteronomy 28:35). This curse attacks legs, soles of the feet and the top of one's head.

The Lord didn’t leave any diseases out of this curse. He declared, “Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring upon thee until thou be destroyed.” (Deuteronomy 28:61)

BARRENNESS, IMPOTENCE, FEMALE PROBLEMS

“Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.” (Deuteronomy 28:18)

Perhaps you have heard menstrual problems know as “the curse.” Sometimes folklore comes from biblical tradition. Menstrual problems may be the result of a family curse. Scripture says, “Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body.” The word body, Hebrew beten, means womb, belly, or abdomen. The womb deals with reproduction. Signs of this curse are infections, hormone problems, menstrual problems, PMS, cramps, fibroids, painful sex, barrenness, miscarriages, cysts, tumors, bladder problems, kidney stones. Female problems plague millions of women. Men too can manifest this curse with erectile dysfunction and impotence.

FAMILY BREAKDOWNS, DIVORCE

This curse manifest in several ways including divorce, family divides, fights among relatives, families that scatter, no fellowship, jailed children, and estranged relationships.

“Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.” (Deuteronomy 28:30)

The divorce rate in America is 50 percent of first marriages, 67 percent for second marriages, and 74% for third marriages, according to the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology. In Japan, the divorce rate is 27 percent, Singapore 10 percent, and India 1 percent.

Children are also affected by this family curse.

“Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.” (Deuteronomy 28:32)

“Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.” (Deuteronomy 28:41)

The iniquities of the fathers are visited on the children. Here are the stats of family breakdowns affecting children:

• 1.2 million children are born in fatherless homes.
• 1.8 million children are latchkey kids.
• 36 percent of kids grow up without a father.
• 75 percent of kids on drugs come from single-parent homes.
• 63 percent of youth suicides come from single-parent homes.
• 70 percent of teen pregnancies come from single-parent homes.
• 75 percent of jailed juveniles come from single-parent homes.

LACK, POVERTY, INABILITY TO PRODUCE

“Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store (kneading trough).” (Deuteronomy 28:17)

“And thou shalt grope at noonday as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.” (Deuteronomy 28:29)

This is a curse on finances. A kneading trough is where food is prepared. I liken this to the ability to produce. Production is the vehicle toward wealth building. Under this curse, one’s ability to get wealth is stopped. People under this curse never have anything saved. They are continually oppressed by bill collectors and what little they accumulate is stolen by the spoilers.

DEBTORS

These same people are slaves to their creditors. Scripture declares, “Because thou served not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies that the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until he has destroyed thee.” (Deuteronomy 28:47-48)

This family curse of lack and poverty needs to be broken as God’s promise says, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).

Poverty is not having what you need to do God’s will. It is not the blessing of God to not have the means to accomplish His plan for your life. A person under this curse will squander, waste and get further in debt and bondage. They are candidates for get-rich schemes of all kinds. The blessed man is not focused on material wealth but on fulfilling their purpose in life as they keep and follow the commandments of the Lord putting first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33).

NO AMBITION, VISION, DIRECTION

“And thou shalt grope at noonday as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.” (Deuteronomy 28:29)

I have met those that have no internal vision for their lives. They set no goals and are blown to and fro by lives circumstances. This curse is revealed in those without ambition. They go aimlessly through life. Ambition is a strong desire to make a difference with your life. It’s vision, dream, or aspiration to succeed. Those under this curse care less about tomorrow. They are without hope and terribly negative. They “grope” as “blind men” with no direction, always uncertain and full of apathy and lukewarmness.

BONDAGE AND SLAVERY

“The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low. He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.” (Deuteronomy 28:43-44)

This person loses his individualism, liberty, and freedom. They are easily controlled and manipulated into a loss of identity. They lose their freedoms, can’t make decisions on their own, and must get permission from their masters. This person will look to other gods for provision and protection, not unto the Lord. They are faithless, carnal, and full of idolatry, entertainment, and anything that divides them from the lordship of Christ.

CURSES WITHOUT A CAUSE

Knowing that God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children up to the third and fourth generation has been quite a shocker for some. You have learned however that curses don’t visit the family without cause. Someone up the family tree could have been the originator. Breaking family curses required you to think about what reoccurring things attack the family. By now we are sure the Holy Spirit has shown you some possibilities. For more detailed information and what to do fast if you are having problems click here.

(c) Jonas Clark
www.jonasclark.com