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Explains three main legal grounds, upon which demons can gain access to your life: generational curses; the occult; and sexual sin. The issues and bondages that come into our lives through these door ways can be broken and cast out by the power of the Holy Spirit, because we are redeemed and set free by the Cross of Jesus Christ. We need to acknowledge and identify these areas of sin; then renounce and release forgiveness as necessary; then call upon the name of Jesus, who will set your free!
[Review]
Welcome back. We were looking last time, the last session, at the issues of the heart, dealing with root issues in the heart. We explained what some of them were, and how, when people go through difficult experiences, they react, and this forms bondages within their heart. If we don’t deal with what lies in the heart, you won’t in the end, get the person free.
So, what we’ve done is to show you some of the bondages that the heart can be gripped by: ungodly soul ties; bitter root judgements and expectations; negative expectations of the future; inward vows; traumatic experiences; word curses. All of these things bring bondages to the heart, and when we’re thinking of setting people free, we need to be aware of those bondages, and how simple it is to break them. The challenging part is rebuilding the life forward.
[Main Content]
We want to just look at the area of legal rights. The most common doors of entry are: legal rights that are given up by the person through sin. Again, the key to dealing with each one is usually quite simple. Once you have these keys, and a strategy of working with people, you’ll find a huge improvement in the results you get with people when you’re ministering to them. So, we looked at some of the heart bondages.
Now let’s have a look at some of the legal rights. A legal right is a ground or area, that the evil spirit claims a right to have a hold on the person. It’s always a sin base - either someone’s broken the law intentionally, or accidently. So demons really have no power over people, but they try to deceive people, and draw them to break the law of God.
Let’s just identify some of the common ones; and with each legal ground, we’ll just show you simply how you deal with it.
1.) Generational Curses and Iniquity. A curse is a spiritual power that operates until it’s stopped. An Iniquity is crookedness, or twist, or a bent towards a certain kind of problem or failure. So, a generational iniquity or curse is a problem that passes down from one generation to another. From a natural perspective, when you go to the doctor, he’ll ask your family medical history; when you go to the insurance company, they’ll also ask your family medical history; because they recognise that some weaknesses or illnesses come down genetically through the family line.
God considers us connected generationally, so spiritual influences can run from one generation to another. If you violate the laws of God, and open the door for an evil spirit, then generations after you can experience the effect of that.
For example, in Exodus 20, God speaks to His people about idolatry. In verses 3 – 6: “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 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, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
So God is speaking here about the generational consequences of idolatry. To “visit the iniquity” means the crookedness, or tendency to sin, spreads from one generation to another. If you think 4 generations, you’re thinking – you, your father, grandfather, great-grandfather- there’s a lot of people in that family grouping. In one part I think Deuteronomy 23, it says – illegitimacy brings a curse from to 10 generations. In Deuteronomy 23 it also says that incest will bring a curse for 10 generations. So just to summarise: the sins of one generation can have consequences that go on for generations.
So what happens is, a demonic spirit that enters the family line; and because you are legally and genetically connected to that family line, the evil spirit has a right of access to your life. So many times when we’re praying for people, we find that the source (or the root) where this problem began was beyond them, but was in their family line. So when families have been involved in idolatry, or with forms of spiritism, divination, sorcery, there’s an open door created in the family line.
Now, we are not responsible for what our parents did; we are only responsible for what we do. However, the consequences of what they do, we can experience. How is it that these problems keep repeating one generation to another? Some of it may be in the DNA. Scientists don’t yet know enough about DNA to know how it could be corrupted by sin, so some can be genetic. Some are spirits, evil spirits that are in the family line. Some behaviour is just learnt – people copy their parents. We need to understand that Jesus has made room for this power of iniquity and cursing to be broken.
Let me give you an example of a generational curse. I was asked by a woman in New Zealand to pray for her. I said: “What is your problem?” She told me the problem, and what I always ask is: when did this problem begin; because it can give a clue if a situation is generational. This is the problem she had: she was tormented in her mind by sexual images. They were sexual images of a perverse nature; and she was single, and she was a Christian worker. I said: “Have you ever been involved in sexual sin?” “No.” “Have you ever been sexually abused?” The answer was no. “How long have you had this problem?” “Pretty well most of my life.”
So when a person says: “Most of my life”, or “It began when I was young”, this is a clue it could be generational. So I asked about her family background, and it was very interesting what she told me. Her grandparents had been missionaries in China, and they had a son and a daughter. They sent the children to school in another province, and when the Japanese invaded China in the 30s, they took over the province that these kids were at school; the children were taken prisoner by the Japanese, and the girl was sexually abused by Japanese soldiers. She was about 12 or 13. Eventually the children were rescued, and the parents left the mission field. This woman grew up, she got married, and she had one child - the girl who I was praying for - and the marriage broke up.
Now it’s not surprising the marriage broke up, because she carried the trauma of sexual abuse by these Japanese soldiers; and in those days, you just didn’t talk about anything, you just buried it. So when she was sexually abused, demonic spirits entered the family line; and these were the cause of this young girl, who’s now grown up, being traumatised. The problems this woman was facing, did not originate with anything she had done. They originated in what had happened to her mother, and so the spirits had come down the family line, and were affecting her. We led her to pray and forgive the Japanese soldiers, to stand on behalf of the family and break the cursing that’s over them, and then she was delivered, and her mind cleared.
I’ve prayed for many people that the cause of their problem has been generational. Young men, young women, tormented with demons, and it’s not their fault. It came down the family line. This is particularly so if there’s: idolatry; any form of spiritism; any form of sexual perversion; a door is opened for these cursings to come.
When you’re working with people, and you’re trying to solve a problem in their life, inquire to search for when this problem began. The person is responsible for their own life, just like this woman’s problem was her problem. It was her battle. It was her demons. But the root where this thing had got established was generational. So when you’re working with people, try to assess whether the problem has got a generational root that’s energising the problem.
I remember coming across this first in a Christian school; and we observed an interesting thing. We had all these children, they all had to learn or memorise Bible verses; and there were 3 children in the school, they could remember anything except the Bible. There were 2 from one family, 3 from another family. None of them could remember scripture. They’d learn it; then it’s gone! They could not hold scripture in their mind; but they could learn other things. I really prayed to find out why it is these children cannot learn scripture.
Then I came across it one day. The parents, the father in both families, had been involved with freemasonry. They’d been involved as a freemason. They’d made these curses, or these oaths of allegiance to freemasonry, and it had opened the door for evil spirits to come into the family. Even though the children had done nothing, there were demonic spirits that tormented and stopped them from retaining spiritual things. So when we broke the curses of freemasonry, they were able to memorise scripture. It’s like there was a confusion that left. There were no big manifestations; just they were able to learn scripture. That was one of my first experiences of how curses can come down family lines.
I’ve prayed for very many people where the origin of the problem was in their family background. If you check the family tree, the problems are quite easy to pick up. If you start to pray for them to be exposed, it’s quite surprising how they just suddenly come out to the open. Now there are usually indications that a spirit is operating, or a curse is operating. I’ll give you some examples of a curse operating; what sorts of things you’d be looking for. If you look into the family tree, these are the kinds of things you’d look for, and these are all located in Deuteronomy 28.
Here they are, just quickly and simply. So if there are curses operating in a family - there may be a pattern of mental or emotional breakdowns; there may a chronic sickness and disease that won’t go away; there may be patterns of barrenness or miscarriages, bleeding problems; there may be marriage and family breakdowns; there can be financial setbacks and losses; you could have problems with being accident prone; there could be a history of suicides or violent deaths; there could be a pattern of mistreatment or abuse; there could be patterns of inability to settle – the person’s constantly moving around; or the person may just find that there’s constant spiritual problems.
So, when you’re working with someone, try to track the problems to the root, because often they’re in the family line. How do you deal then, with a demonic curse, or curse operating in the family line? It’s actually really quite simple. I’ll give you the steps.
First, it has to be recognised of course. So, we would identify – “Look, this began in your family line, and it’s continued with you.” So this is what you do... This is what the person needs to do: Firstly, the person needs to renounce the curse in the family line, as a representative of the family. They need to stand up, representing the family, and renounce the curse. If they have sinned themselves in the same way, they need to ask forgiveness for being a part of this. Thirdly, they need to release forgiveness to family members who opened the door for the curse. Release forgiveness. Finally, place the cross of Jesus between them and their family line, and ask Jesus to set them free.
So if you are praying for someone, and there’s a generational curse, you lead them in a prayer, something like this. 1) Confession of faith: “Father I come to You in Jesus’ name. I confess Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord. I’m redeemed by the blood of Jesus from every curse, every evil spirit, all iniquity. I belong to Jesus.” That’s called a profession of faith.
“I stand as a representative of this family. I renounce this curse. I cancel its power. I break all agreements made with evil spirits in my family line. I break all dedications of children to idols and temples - in Jesus’ name.” You see, we’ve dismantled the things that have been done, by speaking words. So first, the profession of faith, position yourself. Second, stand and speak to break the curses. Third, release forgiveness. Then get the person reach out to Jesus to get them free.
I’ll go through it again now and pray a prayer. Firstly, the confession of faith: “Father I come to You in Jesus’ name. I confess Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord. I’m redeemed by the blood of Jesus from every curse; every evil spirit; all iniquity. I stand now as a representative of my family. I renounce every curse, every generational curse, all agreements my family have made with evil spirits, every dedication of children to evil spirits. I cancel all of those agreements now. I hold the cross of Christ between me and my family line. Lord I ask You to forgive me for where I’ve participated in this sin; and I forgive my family members who opened the door to this spirit. Now Lord, I ask that You set me free. Satan, go from my life now.”
Notice in making up that prayer, it consists of those things which I shared with you were foundations for freedom. Confession of faith; recognising and being responsible for the sin; repenting of it; releasing forgiveness; and then renouncing and resisting the devil. The exact order you pray these things, and the exact wording, is not important. Catch the process and the way of handling it. I’ll just go through it again.
“Father, I come to You in Jesus’ name. I confess Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord. I’m redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ from every curse, all iniquity, and every evil spirit. I belong to Jesus Christ. I stand as a representative of my family. I renounce every generational curse, all agreements my family have made with evil spirits, all dedications of children idols and temples. I renounce and cancel all of these agreements. I hold the blood of Jesus Christ, and the cross of Christ, between me and my family line. Lord I ask You to forgive me, where I have participated in these sins; and I release forgiveness to my family members who opened the door to that sin. Lord, I reach out to You to set me free. Satan, go from my life now.”
Ok. Now that’s a simple prayer. Then, often as you lead them in that prayer, the demons start to manifest. So then all you have to do is very simply this: “In Jesus’ name, I break the family curses... break them in Jesus’ name.” See it like something attached to the person - and speak to it. Speak with authority; not loud, but firm. “I break that curse. I break all agreements with evil spirits. I break dedications to idols and temples. I break this curse in Jesus’ name. I break soul ties to idols. Now I command these spirits to come out. Out, in Jesus’ name.”
It’s not hard, once you get the understanding of the flow of ministry. When a person sins, they enter into legal agreements with the demon; so by confession, they are reversing it all. Confessing their faith in Christ; bringing sin to the light; cancelling its consequences; and then reaching out to Jesus to set them free. It’s quite easy to do it. How many reckon you can do that? That’s not so hard, quite simple!
Now remember, depend on the Holy Spirit to guide you. Don’t worry about trying to get the exact wording right, or you’ll focus on methods rather than the flow of the Spirit. So that’s one major doorway of entry, and it’s a very common one.
2.) Another common one is occult involvement. In Deuteronomy 18: 9 – 13, ““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. 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, or one who conjures spells, or a medium or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 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. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God.”
People have a fascination, or a fear, of the spirit world. Today, the media are invading the generation of young people, with supernatural videos and movies and all kinds of things like that. There is a generation arising hungry for the supernatural, and there’s a generation existing, that’s afraid of the supernatural.
In every culture you go, people are aware of a hidden spirit world; and people reach out into that spirit world, hoping for usually one of three things, or more. They reach out for protection, because they’re afraid of the evil spirits; they make offerings to them, not realising that when they make the offering, they’re now submitting and trading with the demon. So when a person makes any offering to an idol, or any kind of sacrifice to an evil spirit, it is now trading with a demon, and the demon has legal access to their life. They have done a trade. Trading is an agreement. The moment a person bows to an idol, or makes an offering, it has come into agreement with an evil spirit.
Usually it’s for protection; or it can be for provision – blessing on life and finances; or it’s to get power over their enemies. It doesn’t matter what culture you go into, you will find people involved in the spirit world.
The major branches of the occult are twofold. 1) Divination. Divination is another word for fortune telling. Chinese love fortune telling, they love it! When they become Christians, they want to have a Christian fortune-teller: “Please come and prophesy for me.”
So fortune-telling is reaching to the spirit world for guidance. How accurate is that guidance? The reality is that the spirit world is very highly connected - it’s like there’s a demonic internet. They can connect and communicate. So when you reach into the spirit world, you do not connect with a ghost of an uncle, or father, or mother. The Bible says it is appointed to man once to die; after that, judgement.
So people connect with a familiar spirit -a spirit which can give information about the family which is accurate. Because spirits observe people, they’re aware of what they do; and if you consult someone who’s connected to an evil spirit, you can receive information about your family which may be quite accurate; but in doing so, you come under the influence of the spirit. You’ve invited it now to speak into your life.
Evil spirits do not know your future - it is hidden from them. Some aspects of your life are open to them, but they see things God is bringing to you, and they try to disrupt that. If a person goes to a fortune-teller, and listen to the words, literally what they’re doing is agreeing with a demon, and it then becomes empowered to manipulate their circumstances. It becomes addictive, to the point where people can’t make major decisions without consulting the fortune-teller. Today they call those people ‘psychics’, and they have these psychic hotlines, but it’s actually a familiar spirit working with the person.
The other branch of the occult is sorcery. Another word for sorcery is magic; or spiritual power. So people get involved with sorcery, usually because they’re rejected and bitter, and they want power. It becomes extremely addictive, because once the person connects with evil spirits, they feel they want more and more power. Every culture you go to, you’ll find sorcerers; and the more primitive the culture, the more you’ll find it holds, literally, whole villages under its power.
For example, in the days of Marco Polo, Marco Polo visited a man by the name of Kublai Khan; and he witnessed to him. Kublai Khan, Mongolian, father of Genghis Khan. Kublai Khan said this to him: “I observe your Christianity would be good for my nation. I am willing to embrace Christianity.” Now that’s a key point in history. But he said: “However, if you look around me, you see I’m surrounded by sorcerers; and they have real power. They can make a cup lift off the ground and travel across the room and come down in front of me. They can change the weather; and I fear they have power to kill me. So go back to where you’ve come from, and return with a hundred men, who know how to move in the power of God, and can overcome these sorcerers; and I and my nation will turn to Christ.”
This is a strategic moment in history; but when Marco Polo went back, it was 25 years before anyone came; they sent 2 people, not a hundred, and one died on the way there. The nation did not turn to Christ; and subsequently, Genghis Khan literally invaded all of Asia. It would have been under the gospel centuries ago, except for the hold of sorcerers on this king’s life.
Now this is quite a growing problem again. I was in a Bible school, and I had a word of knowledge on a young man addicted to playing an online game called World of Warcraft. It’s one of many games very popular among young people; but in this game, they role-play. They act out, in their imagination, the part. This young man had taken on the role of a sorcerer; and so he would use powers to defeat his enemies and increase in power; but he could become addicted to playing the game. Now he was in the hold of a demonic spirit.
I said to him: “This is what Jesus’ words are. ‘If you look on a woman to lust after her, in your heart, you’ve already committed adultery.’” In other words, Jesus is saying: what is birthed in the heart becomes real in the spirit world. So a person can have adultery already living in their heart, but they’ve not actually committed the physical act. They’ve opened their life to a spirit of adultery. I said: “Your imagination is a doorway to the spirit world; and by giving yourself to this game, you have given yourself to this demonic spirit; and a spirit of sorcery has come into your life.”
So I got him to renounce the game, renounce the identity he was playing. The moment he did, the demon manifested on his face, and he fell on the ground, began to yell; and we got him delivered. So even though he hadn’t actually been involved in sorcery at a practical level, he had engaged on it through the internet, and become demonised.
We had an alter call and over 200 students came up and they got delivered of the same kind of thing. These are people who come to study in Bible school, to learn how to be a leader; but in their personal life, they’re engaging in sorcery. So we need to understand, sorcery is a significant problem to this next generation. The media is full of it; the movies are full of it; and young people are drawn to these things.
What I shared about the addiction to the video games of sorcery, also applies to games of violence. In a recent interview on Discovery channel, with a man who murdered his parents, it turns out he was very bitter against them because he was adopted. Even though the parents tried to care for him, he was bitter against them; and in his teen years, he immersed himself in his room, watching TV and programs over and over again. In his imagination, he saw him living out one of the characters in ‘The Matrix’. One day, he just shot his parents in cold blood.
Now the murder shocked everyone; but it was already building in his heart before it got there. It was very clear, as I watched him on the television, he had a generational illegitimacy - bitter roots against his parents who adopted him; spirits of abandonment; bitter roots against the adoptive parents; hatred that had been nurtured over a period of time; and then through the fantasy realm, had just activated a spirit of murder in his life.
He could’ve been helped if someone knew what to do; if someone knew to deal with the generational roots, and deal with the fantasy that had come into his mind. So how do we deal with occult roots? Very simply: the person needs to acknowledge they’ve been involved in these things; they need to confess and repent of them; and then renounce all agreements they made with the evil spirits. They must cancel all agreements made with evil spirits. If they cut themselves, or invited the spirits in; whatever thing they were involved in, they need to renounce it; and then reach out to Jesus to set them free.
If I was leading someone through a prayer like that, I would first start with a confession of faith. “Father in heaven, I come to You in Jesus’ name. I confess Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord. I’m redeemed by the blood of Jesus from every curse, from every evil spirit, from the power of sin. Lord I confess to You now, that I have been involved in the occult in these ways; and I ask You to forgive me. I renounce now, I cancel all agreements I have made with evil spirits. I cancel them, I reject them, and I reject the spirits. Lord, I release forgiveness to those who’ve hurt me, and I ask You to set me free. Satan, go from my life now, in Jesus’ name.”
You see its similar process. It’s made up with the same bricks that we shared on the foundations for freedom. Once you’ve got that process, it’s quite easy to apply it in each place. You may vary it a little, in its order or its wording, depending on what the Holy Spirit says. So then, how do you minister? First, break the agreements. Second, command the spirits. Break the agreements, command the spirits. “In Jesus’ name, I break every tie to this evil spirit. I break the agreements you made.” Or maybe: “I break the soul-tie to that fantasy game. I break the attachments to that spirit.” Now sometimes, even as you break those attachments, or break the agreements, sometimes even at that point, the demon starts manifesting. “Now, come out! Out!” Command the spirits to come out.
So it’s quite straightforward. Using those foundational blocks for freedom, the person will: acknowledge their sin; confess it to the Lord; renounce the agreements; release forgiveness to others; ask the Lord to set them free, resist the demon. You break the curses, break any attachments, break any agreements, and command the demons to come out. Straightforward isn’t it?
3.) There’s another third area. The third area is sexual sin. Sexual sin opens the door for spirits to enter people’s lives. The reason is this: God has set a law in place, that two become one flesh through sexual union. So when a person is involved sexually with another person, there is a joining or a bonding of their lives together. In 1 Corinthians 6, it tells us that: ‘he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit; but if you’re joined to a prostitute, you’re one flesh’. In 1 Corinthians 6:18, it warns us that every sin is outside your body; but sexual sin, something is imparted into you. Luke 4:33-36, there’s a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit.
Sexual sin affects people in different ways. 1) There is a soul tie formed to that person. 2) There are memories, pictures of what they did, and what they experienced. 3) There are reactions in the heart when the relationship breaks up. So when a person has been involved with someone sexually, and the relationship breaks up, there’s always grief. Often because of the pain, people make bitter judgements about men or women; they make inner vows; or even death wishes to try and shut down the pain. 4) Demonic spirits that can enter the person’s life.
Sexual sin affects people deeply. God wants us to be clean, so we can love and worship. It’s very common for people who’ve been involved in sexual sin, to find it hard to worship without unclean pictures coming into their mind. So one of the unfortunate consequences of sexual sin, is there are imprints into your mind as a result of these experiences. The journey of freedom can take a little bit of time.
When we are dealing with sexual sin, we are dealing: 1) with the spiritual issues – which is sin being confessed and repented of, and demonic spirits being cast out; 2) we’re dealing with the soul ties, the attachments to other people. 3) We’re dealing with the defilement in the soul – reactions to being hurt; and lasting impressions, or toxic memories, that are there. People can be forgiven in a moment, just by confessing the sin. They can be delivered in a short time; but the mind then, needs to be renewed, so they begin to pursue holiness and purity, and overcome the invading sexual temptations.
In the area of sexual sin, we need to understand that the Bible teaches very strongly and clearly about its dangers. The reason the Bible speaks so strongly about it, is not because it’s worse than any other sin. Sexual sins are sins; it’s because the impact on people’s ability to be intimate with God, and with one another, is deeply affected. God made us for relationships. He gave the power to be able to express love in an intimate way. So, when we’re involved in sexual sin, it affects people’s ability to be intimate, to be close and feel loved. It affects people’s ability to form relationships. It’s like a constant polluting of the mind.
The kinds of areas that you need to be able to identify are the following kind of sins. Now the church needs to be able to speak really clean, clearly into this area. It’s a far bigger problem than you realise; and because there’s a shame and secrecy over it, these problems go underground, and people live tormented with these unclean things going on in their life. They conceal it, and then become isolated because of it.
Some examples of sexual sin: Fornication – that’s sexual sin, you’re not married; Homosexuality,