Stopping Sin Patterns

I am honored to introduce you to a precious friend of mine, Denise. She and I worked together for several years at the Alpha Pregnancy Resource Center in Solano County. She was the Executive Director there for a very long time, and I was privileged to work with her as the Director of their Post Abortion Ministry.


Denise is a precious gem! The character of God within her is something I quickly recognized and was drawn to. While under her leadership, I gleaned from her life with much respect.


As I've been sharing with you about generational sins that can be passed down from family to family, (see my previous post, Breaking the Pattern of Abortion) Denise immediately came to mind. God has done a tremendous work in her life in this very area. She did not hesitate to share her testimony with you all. And I know it is with great joy that she does so.


DENISE'S STORY
My mother had an ungodly heritage passed on to her. My grandmother was married 11 times and passed on that divorce along with alcohol abuse, lust, godlessness, etc. . My mother was sadly gang raped as a young teenager. When she went to her mother for help, she was told it was her fault and was withheld medical treatment. These are just a few examples of what was passed onto my mother - sins from a mom who did not love God or follow His commands.


My mother wanted so desperately to give her three girls the love she didn't receive from her mother. And in some ways she did, but her human love was not enough to break the generational sins that were passed on to her.


She did not yet have Revelation 12:11 in her life; the power of the blood of the Lamb or a testimony of salvation, repentance, forgiveness, and victory.


My mother continued the cycle of divorce, alcoholism, adultery, stealing, and abortion.With this influence in our home, my sisters and I (the next generation) followed in the same footsteps as my mother with sexual sin, alcohol abuse, drugs, stealing, and the clincher for me was my abortion.


It was three years after my abortion, I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior and came to repentance for taking the life of my child. I felt His forgiveness for the first time in my life. Not only was I forgiven, but I was set free.

John 8:36

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

It wasn't until Christ came into my life that I had any hope for my future to be any different from what was passed onto me. But, now that I had Christ, or that Christ had me, I had His promises.

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,

plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future.

Hope from the power of sin came to my family. We were awakened to a living hope in Christ Jesus! Not only was I set free, but within 7 years my whole family; my mother, father, and two sisters were saved! Glory to God!

I was now free from the penalty of my sin, but there was work to be done - the deliverance of generational curses (the power of sin). Some people have immediate deliverance. And for others, it is a fight and a process. My experience was I had to fight and continue to fight for every ounce of freedom that I walk in today. My conquering King delivered me, but He also chose to use my will submitted to His.

James 4:7

Submit yourself to the Lord, resist the devil and he will flee.

The Lord worked on ridding my life of stealing and alcohol abuse shortly after I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior. There were memories from stealing at an early age ingrained in me. This was not easy, and as a young Christian, I failed time and time again in these areas. It was heart wrenching and I would cry out to the Lord for deliverance. It came through prayer and memorizing and believing in His word. It was hard work and a struggle...more like a battle, but it was so worth it!

The scriptures the Lord used to help me through this were:

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

James 4:7

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

2 Thessalonians 3:3

But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

Instead of stealing, I would quote scripture. When I failed, I quoted scripture. The Lord turned my struggles into victory through His word. As my walk became more intimate with Christ, I trusted Him, and my life began to change in miraculous ways. I no longer stole, but became useful with my hands. He also gave me an eagle's eye over my children. Not only did He want my life to have victory over stealing, but also my children's.

This is how generational curses are defeated, hope for your future is birthed, and where the purification of generations begins. The amazing thing is that the Lord promises us that He will bless 1,000 generations of those who love Him (Exodus 20:6) and we are able to love Him because He first loved us.

1 John 4:19

We love because he first loved us.

If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar.

For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen,

cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

Because I had made so many mistakes in my life in the area of sexual sin, my faith was weak to believe for my children to live a life of purity and to save intimacy for marriage. I did not know one person in my family or circle of friends that saved sex until marriage. It was then that I met a friend and heard her and her husband's purity story. I claimed that same testimony for my children! The Lord began to build my spiritual muscles of faith. He is faithful and He will do it! The sin of sexual immorality had to go in Jesus' name!

God gave me a vision for my children. It was one of serving Christ and living a moral life of sexual integrity. We all need to have a vision for our lives and the lives of our children and families because the word says in Proverbs 29:18 that where there is no vision, the people perish.

Proverbs 29:18

Where there is no vision, the people perish;

but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

As a parent, we can be overwhelmed with the negativity in our lives, our children's lives, and in the world around us. God does not want us to be discouraged. He has a plan to help us. He tells us to not be overcome with evil, but to overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:21

Do not be overcome by evil,but overcome evil with good.

As mothers, we have the power to pass on blessing or curses to our children, families, and the generations that follow depending on our relationship with God. We can pass on a godly or ungodly heritage to our children. It is our choice and the decision we make will effect the generations after us.

Exodus 20:4-6

You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything

in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

You shall not bow down to them or worship them;

for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,

punishing the children for the sin of the fathers

to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

but showing love to a thousand generations

of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Our intimacy with God is key to blessing others because we can't give or pass on what we don't have. James 4:8 says if you draw near to God, He will draw near to you. Our intimacy with Christ is not only to be taught, but caught! We can teach intimacy by what we say, but others will catch it by what we do!

John 10:28

I give them eternal life and they shall never perish;

no one can snatch them out of my hand.

Another vision that the Lord gave me was to be faithful in my marriage until death do us part. Early on in my marriage, I realized I had a problem with my thought life. When I did not control those thoughts, they would turn into strongholds of lust. I struggled with this and had opportunities for my vision in this area to be blurred. The generational curse of adultery had to be broken! At one point, I got very concerned because I started to flirt with a person. I began to pray and ask God for help. He helped me by having me confess my sin and struggle with a small group of ladies that I studied the Bible and prayed with. They prayed for me and I began to have victory. For the final stage of that victory, the Lord led me to share this with my husband. The lust was broken! The Lord protected me from adultery!

To this day, my husband and I are accountable to one another and often ask each other if there is anyone/anything in our lives that we are struggling with.

Everything good in our lives is initiated from our Father in heaven. So, we can't take any credit, but give Him all the glory!

Today, I have been married for 28 years to the love of my life (next to Jesus), and all the glory goes to Jesus for breaking the curse of divorce off my family!

My oldest daughter, Brianna, was married in November of 2008 to her first love, first kiss, and saved herself for marriage!

My youngest daughter, Brittany, is a senior in college. She has never dated and is still holding on to her first kiss. Truly, the Lord has shown himself mighty and faithful in purifying our generations from sexual immorality and ungodliness!

My hope is that as I've shared about how Christ delivered my family and I from generational curses, hope was deposited into your life for that same deliverance!

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace

as you trust in Him,so that you may overflow with hope

by the power of the Holy Spirit

.

Thank you, Denise! To God be all the glory indeed!

I don't know about you, but I am always so encouraged by reading or hearing about the great things God has done in the lives of those around us.

My prayer is that within this post and my previous post, you've received something tangible for your life.

Denise currently serves on the Board of Directors

for the Pregnancy Care Center of the North Coast,

last year helping to begin their post abortion ministry.

She has extensive experience and knowledge in pro-life work,
and is a sought after public speaker.

Breaking the Pattern of Abortion

Have you known of a family in which abortion has been a repetitive pattern? Perhaps yours is such a family...

During the time that my abortion decisions were taking place, I was not aware that several of my aunts and a cousin had aborted years before. It was later that I discovered this. They would have preferred that it would've never been known. In many families though, abortion is an action that is not so hidden. In fact, it's the norm of life that they know when faced with an unexpected pregnancy. Have you wondered why abortion will repeat itself within a family like this?

Let's put abortion aside for a minute, and look at the way many things will repeat themselves within a family. Take a father that has had a problem with say, uncontrollable anger. The problem starts with his father, then gets handed down to his own son. Or, how about how someone you know suffers with the persistent depression that their mother or father also suffered from. Many people today are victims of such a cycle due to the sins that their forefathers lived in.

This goes beyond learned behavior. Many children learn to be messy if their parents are messy. But, what I am talking about here is spiritual bondage that is passed down from one generation to another. A generational curse is the continual negative pattern of something being handed down from one generation to the next. Some common curses passed down from family to family can be divorce and disfunction, illnesses such as Cancer, sexual sin such as fornication and adultery, drug or alcohol abuse, financial difficulties, physical/sexual/verbal abuse, criminal behavior, mental problems such as fear and depression, or ABORTION.

Anything that seems to be a persistent struggle or problem and that another of your generations also experienced, most probably is a generational curse. God's word talks about this is several areas throughout the Bible. Once such scripture can be found in Exodus 20:6:

God will punish the children for the sin of the fathers

to the third and fourth generation of those who hate him.

Those who've been impacted by such a curse will agree that this seems unfair and almost cruel because of the repercussions that were assigned to them. There is a hope and a solution for such a problem, however, that the same God of the above scripture promises. You will find within the same scripture, Exodus 20:6:

The Lord promises He will show His love to a thousand generations

to those who love Him and keep his commandments.

The good news here is that once you accept Jesus into your heart (and only then), the transference of these bondages from your ancestors can be put to a stop. Once you become a child of God, no longer will the sins of your forefathers cause curses to transfer into your life.

Accepting Jesus into your life settles the curse issue from that point on. What you still may need to deal with though, is any bondage that was already passed down to you or that you were personally responsible for before you came into covenant with God.

Generational curses can only be broken in Jesus' name. And it's in His name that you must verbally confess what is rightfully yours (according to The Bible). There is power in your verbal confession. Here's an example of what I mean:

In the name of Jesus, I confess the sins and iniquities of my parents (name specific sins if known), grandparents (name specific sins if known), and all other ancestors. I confess my own sins in this same manor. I declare that by the blood of Jesus, these sins have been forgiven and satan and his demons can no longer use these sins as legal grounds in my life! In the name of Jesus, and by the power of His blood, I now declare that all generational curses have been renounced, broken and severed, and that I am no longer under their bondage! In the name of Jesus, I declare myself and my future generations loosed from any bondages passed down to me from my ancestors. AMEN!

Once such a confession is made, you must know that all generational curses are NO LONGER in affect. It's at that point you have been freed from any generational curses you used to live under and that there is a new heritage of freedom that you are establishing for the future generations of your family.

The Lord will unfold to you new freedoms in the days that follow. Don't compare yourself with anyone else in this process. His work in your life will be different than in other's lives. He knows what you need and when you need it. Keep close accounts with the Lord. Stay in His Word and in prayer. Remember that as new freedom comes, the enemy will attempt to steal your freedom away. Stand against the enemy and keep your eyes on the Lord. He is faithful.

James 4:7

Submit yourself to the Lord, resist the devil and he will flee.

I have a very special friend that has traveled this journey, and now has an incredible testimony of freedom that God has allowed her to pass down to her children. Jesus removed the curse in their lives just as I've described. I will share her story with you soon.

For now, won't you take this opportunity to pray and consider where any generational curses may exist in your life? Take an evaluation of all your personal sins and that of your family members.

Praying for you in this!

There's No Limit

A lot has changed inside of me this last year. Abortion recovery has always been on the forefront of my calling. I've expressed to you all time and time again that it is my passion to see others set free from abortion the way God set me free. But, nearly a year ago when my father passed away, some things inside of me really shifted. No, I don't mean that a part of me or my focus died, it's more like God used that experience to broaden my passion. For months, something very different has been occurring inside of me.

I have always loved God with everything that I am, but my passion for Jesus has become my lifeline for living. You know, desperate circumstances have a way of getting us positioned exactly where we need to be with Jesus. I've been in that place with God and I just do not want to leave it. I want to stay where He's dwelling and where He's moving. I'm desperate for the things only He can do. I understand that there is so much depending on my prayers and for this reason, much of my time has been doing just that.

Not everyone will understand this, and that's okay. For me though, I've got to stay right where He wants me for as long as He wants me. He's stirring me in a different way for reasons that I know are important and I don't want to rush.

God has an even greater direction He's wanting to take us all. If we'll just pause long enough to listen, it's amazing the things He'll communicate and reveal. There was a time in my life that I needed an outlined direction to where I was headed. You know the safe kind of boundaries? Not now though. I've taken on some gypsy characteristics (not a bad gypsy ;). I love not knowing where He's taking me. I don't want to know. I don't want my life (or this blog) to be so defined that I/we miss God's leading and direction. I want to let God do what He wants to do! It's sometimes a very quiet and slow process, and other times it's so radically quick and indescribable! If we'll let Him have His complete way with us, there's no limit to His hand at work in our lives.