By Pamela Sheppard

Do you believe that  curses have been  passed on to you  from your ancestors, as far back as four generations?  If this is what you believe, then you are in denial of the scripture that assures  you  that  those who are in Christ have been delivered from all the power of darkness and the wicked one cannot touch us. (Col. 1:12; 1 John 5:18). No curse can go through the cross of Christ and have dominion over those who are in Christ. We are not under a curse once we have come through the cross. Every spiritual blessing is
for us who are in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:3). Anyone that insists they are cursed needs to know who they are in Christ, and maybe who Christ is as the Spirit of adoption  (Rom.8:15).  

What I have found is that those who have been involved in deliverance ministries have actually brought a curse upon themselves by accepting a  specific generational curse as a fact. As a result, their belief in this teaching actually creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that the worker and the captive actually bring to pass together.As Paul warned the Galatians, any one who adds to or detracts from the gospel of Jesus Christ will become CURSED. Ironically, the generational curses teaching   adds to and detracts from the gospel of Jesus Christ, particularly the  power of the cross. This teaching  promotes a law  that hinders grace, and it is by  grace that we are set free from the curse of the law.  Consequently, those who uphold the   “generational curses” doctrine which states  that Satan and his demons create curses for Christians because of ones ancestors, actually opens the door to a curse.
Taken a step further,  this  false teaching  actually  creates the fear that put those who believe in it in even  more bondage than what they may originally have sustained! We as believers “have not received a spirit of fear but power, love and a sound mind.” If you believe this teaching, you are risking the soundness of your mental state, bringing on further anxiety and stress that may “cause you to faint” when you enter into spiritual battle against demons.

Therefore, if you stand in spiritual warfare  with a deliverance worker against a self-proclaimed curse that was never there in the first place, you forfeit the grace that is needed to set you free. This teaching is particularly dangerous because it implies that Jesus didn’t break the curse on the cross. As such,  it stands to reason that if
you believe that you are in bondage to a generational curse, then you must not be saved.

If you are not saved then you are STILL under the power of darkness and Jesus did not remove your sins and His blood has not cleansed you from sin.  Therefore, you have NOT been translated out of darkness and the spiritual weapons of Ephesians 6 will not work for you, if you are in bondage to a generational curse.

So what does the devil get out of this false teaching?  He gets those who teach it and those who believe it to lose grace and to weaken their faith.  

Consider this.  There is a difference between a curse and a plague.  By the cross, Jesus delivers us from a curse because when we become born again, old things become new and the past is washed in the precious blood of the Lamb, which includes any sins that your ancestors may have committed that could possibly affect YOU.  A curse is specific in that it
is an appeal to a supernatural power for harm to come to specific people,
places and things.  A plague is “different.”

 A plague is much more general.  It’s like a tornado.  When it hits NO ONE is spared from its effects and even the innocent who are simply in the wrong place at the time of the tornado.  The innocent get swept up with the guilty.

Jesus warned the elect of God to “come out of Her, lest ye be partakers of HER sins and receive of HER plagues.”  If He is referring to the organized church, (and I believe that He is) then the innocent will be partakers of the plagues along with the guilty.  A plague is a widespread affliction, a sudden destructive influx or an outbreak.  It can also be persistent, but it is also infectious–in the spirit, a plague can be compared to a highly infectious disease like the bubonic plague.  Those who hear the warning and continue to remain in a defiled place are subject to a plague, and the elect of God are not exempt from it.

In “Come Out of Her, God’s People“ you will find these words:

‘There are many who practice a professing Christian religion who live under a curse because they have either added to or taken away from the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I have found from our studies that demons are having a field day with professing Catholics, Mormons, (Latter Day Saints) Jehovah Witnesses, Coptics, Christian Scientists and others.  When you profess to be a Christian yet Jesus is not Lord and the Holy Spirit is not God in your so-called Christian faith, demons will use this fact against you as an occasion to rule in your life.  The demons will be successful because you are practicing a religion that has ”added to or detracted” from the gospel.”

Since most of those who come to Sheppard’s Counseling Center  to be set free from demonic torment were also attending a church that could not deliver them,  I simply asked them to give me 90 days of no church attendance.  Those who can’t do so are not delivered. They are not cursed but “plagued.”

                        Let a word to the wise be sufficient.