Freedom for Ladies: A Journey to Freedom in ChristSample

Family Bondage

Another woman’s story: “I had been dealing with depression. For months I felt that God didn’t really care for me, and I didn’t deserve to be blessed. I felt alone. I didn’t want to read my Bible or go to church. I began to pray hard, telling God that I wanted freedom from this depression. He led me to some specific Scriptures [that you’ll read today]. Then some ladies from the freedom class heard that there was self-hatred on both sides of my family history. They prayed over me to break self-hatred off my family line, and I have been full of joy since that day. I turned to God as my strength, my fortress, my deliverer—basically, my everything.”

Have you ever been at a family reunion and heard one of the relatives say, “You look just like your mother”? Or gone to the doctor and been asked for your family history because medical conditions run in families? Spiritual baggage also runs in families: addictions, phobias, and struggles with food, alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs. In Exodus 20:5, it says sin can be passed down. It is like a snowball that grows with each next generation. But if we deal with our sin through repentance, that will slow it down from becoming a problem for our children. Then as our children mature in Christ, if they have some of that same struggle, we can teach them to repent of their sin and replace it with the truth of God's Word. 

Today let’s take time to be still first.

Be Still:

Make a list of the negative or addictive things you can see in your family. When I first started my freedom journey, I would sit daily for a few minutes and pray to break things off of my family line that I wanted freedom from. I didn’t want anything to pass on to my children. I wanted them to walk in spiritual blessings. Example: Lord, I thank You that you have broken the generational sin of [name the sin] off me and my children. I bless my children to walk in purity and wholeness. Listen to the Holy Spirit for words to bless them with.

If you have any struggles that seem to be addictive, here are some guidelines for how to pray to break generational sin that may have been passed down. 

Pray: 

• Start by praising God either with a song, a Scripture, or just telling Him what you love about Him. 
• Father, I repent for [name the sin] in my generation.
• I break [name the sin] in Jesus’s name.
• I wash the generations on both my mother’s and father’s side with the blood of Christ as far back as this sin got in. I close these doors in Jesus’s name.
• I take authority over [name the sin] in Jesus’s name.
• You have blessings that God wants to share with you, so begin to bless yourself with the applicable biblical blessing.