The 21st Century, Body of Christ, healing ministry struggle with trying warn them of the unusual spiritual conditions of sin, and through consequences believers can become demonised through “sin areas”; that can begin even before infancy and continuing throughout their childhood to adulthood. These sins can be caused through: generational iniquities; abuse and trauma; social through anger, bitterness, rage, rejection and rebellion; sexual; curses from the spirit world; and occultic/witchcraft practices.
These “sins areas” don’t automatically lead to demonisation, but when it does occur, it can range from mild to severe influence. Healing and deliverance has on many occasions been instantaneous at the moment of conversion, while others suffer through prolonged spiritual struggles, as if a “dark shadow” is hovering over their life.
In the healing ministry, it has been found that those believers who struggle with bondages need to practice “self-deliverance” through Spiritual Warfare that is focused on the breaking down of their demonic strongholds within their life, or seek help from other believers to effect healing and deliverance.
Generational sin is “sin judgement”, which moves through the family line. It’s also referred to by various other names, such as transference, inheritance, or familial sin. In some cases demons seem to become identified with a family line, and this then leads to demonic transference, demonic inheritance, and potential generational demons.
It’s known that there is no direct and clearly defined biblical teaching, or examples of demonic transference in Scripture. But, what are found in Scriptures are divine warnings that the sins of parents can have potential devastating consequences on their children. The context in which these warnings are given is very clear, particularly in the case of the “Headship of the family”, who are usually males, who have rebelled against our Almighty God, our Lord Jesus Christ; and HE has said in HIS Commandments: “they hate Him” (Exodus 20:5)
What is implied is a deliberate turning away from our Almighty God, our Lord Jesus Christ, which usually, if not always, involves serving other gods, denying HIM the love and obedience that HIS singular and absolute Lordship demands!
“You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.” (Exod. 20:5)
“You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.” (Deut. 5:9b)
“When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God. 14 For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you.” (Deut.18: 9-14)
In numerous ministries, the ministers have all said that those struggling believers that they had ministered to were afflicted by demons, which have come down through their family lines, even though many believers can quote Scriptures that are supposedly exempt them for such a curse. On that point “HIS Commandments” and the “Law of Moses” are still valid in the “spirit world”, even though many claim that these “laws” are broken by our Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. Commandments are Commandments, and the Law of Moses is the Law of Moses and are still valid.
In these cases it has been seen that rebellion is the main cause, as the authority figure deliberately turns from our Almighty God to serve other gods, Satan, or the spirits, or to do terrible evil. They will often commit their families and future generations to the gods, the spirits, Satan, and evil through blood oaths and ungodly actions and practices.
Jewish heads of households knew whatever they did would affect their families for generations, because HE told them so, not the Pharisees. In times of crisis they stood before God and confessed the sins of their family, even of their nation.
“So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I said: ‘I pray, LORD God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. 8 Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’” (Neh. 1:4-9)
“We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You.” (Jer. 14:20)
“In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans…in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, ‘O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.’
’O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.’
’As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works, which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!
16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” (Dan. 9:1-19)
The Jews understood that the “sins of the fathers” could affect future generations through the principle that family sin or judgment for that sin flows through the family line, affecting generations who had nothing to do with the sins in question.
This “generational curse” can be broken by family members who identify themselves with the “sins of the fathers” or by national leaders who identify with the sins of their nation, either before or after the fourth generation. That is what Nehemiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel did in the above verses.
The Jews interpreted this warning in this manner at least by the time of the divided kingdom (Jer. 31:27-30; Lam. 5:7; Ezek. 18:1-20). The negative approach of the prophets towards this “law of the inheritance of evil” was NOT to deny its reality, but to correct its abuses.
This is exactly how the healing ministry ministers to those who are suffering, and through “confession and repentance” their consciences is relieved, as they believed that they were suffering for the “sins of their fathers”, and not for their “own sins”.
One minister, by the name of Plumtre stated: “Ezekiel objects…to the perverse usage by which one infers that if past generations were as wicked as Ezekiel claims (2:3, chapter 16, 20, 23), then it will be of no use to repent in order to avert the doom he predicts. They say, in effect: ‘what’s the use of repentance? Our fate is already sealed by the “sins of the fathers”’, and against this Ezekiel directs a lengthy disputation.” He also declared that the Scriptures support “the law of hereditary tendencies and punishments that fall not on the original offenders, but on their children, and the law of individual responsibility”.
In light of this Biblical principle of the “law of inheritance” of evil, demonic transference or inheritance appears most unlikely to many, even though their parents and grandparents were involved in the occult or witchcraft, who rebelled against our Almighty God and joined themselves to the deities of the spirit world. They not only present themselves to the spirits, but also their children. Studies in non-Christian religions and occultism reveal this transference to be a fact, and are well known within those practices.
Finally, the experience of most, if not all, believers who are involved in deliverance ministry would reveal this dimension of demonisation to be a vivid reality, even though proving this through their personal experiences and testimonies can be to no avail at times.
Thus, I’ve found that it’s wise to confess the sins of one's family line (Neh. 1:4-9; Jer. 14:20) and smash any potential demonic transference in the life of all new converts from non-Christian families. Many have suffered unnecessary because of the lack of understanding and knowledge of this reality, and because they reject this they suffer unnecessarily. This is especially so true in the life of believers whose families practiced occultism, or witchcraft, and were members of non-Christian religions, or false religions that were involved in extreme forms of moral sin.
The healing ministry has encouraged adoptive parents, in a non-threatening manner, to take their adopted and foster children through deliverance. In several cases where severe demonisation has existed since infancy, demons have declared their presence in the family line, sometimes for hundreds of years.
There is no reason to doubt these claims, because it has been well documented throughout the Church’s history. This gives the evil spirits a sense of ownership of the family line in question. While for Westerners this is hard to accept, it is a reality to be reckoned with. It has been found that when the repentant family member, breaks the ownership through confession and repentance, at that point the generational sin curse stops, end-of-story!
