It is a winter Monday here in South-Africa, and I am feeling a bit sick, so I decided to rather stay at home today and work from here. The kids are at home too because of the long Soccer World Cup holiday. They are driving down to Cape Town on Wednesday with Tinus and I will be flying there after my speaking engagement over the weekend, and meet up with them on Sunday. I am looking forward to a relaxed time with the family and writing a bit for my new book. I came home tired yesterday and Zozzie said, “Mom, how far are you with your book? If you are on schedule you can come and drink some Milo with us, but if not – you need to pick up the pace!” Tinus only laughed and said, “Looks like Holy Spirit has put Josh in charge of getting the book done in time.” No, I didn’t do any more work that night. I took a warm bath, got some medicine and sat in front of the fire with my family. That is also necessary!
I learned so many things this week! Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to write it all down, but that I could record it and tell you about it! Then you will be able to hear the excitement in my voice. As I walked I kept on saying to myself, “How big is my God!”, that He led me to the book of Nehemiah through Aldo’s letters, even when Aldo was so weak in the flesh. Only now am I starting to see the real message in Nehemiah. What God wanted to show me all along, I saw for the first time this week. Aldo kept on writing during that time about revival, and I couldn’t see how that fit in with the difficult times we were going through. He was writing about revival, and all I was thinking about was survival!
As I was sitting in front of the fire last night, I read this commentary in my Bible: A search of the Old Testament will show you that every time there was a revival in Israel, the first thing the Hebrew nation did was confess the iniquities of their forefathers. Look at what the people did in Nehemiah’s time. Nehemiah was sent by God to enable the people to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. The people had fallen into sin and failure. In fact, they had fallen into the very same sins that had resulted in their fathers and grandfathers being taken away into captivity just seventy years before. They needed revival. They needed the curse of judgment to be lifted from their lives.
Now look what the people did; Nehemiah 9:1-3 says:
On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God.
The Prophet Daniel understood this principle. Daniel knew the time was at hand for the remnant to return from captivity to Jerusalem, but he also knew that the curse had to be lifted first. This could only come through repentance. If you have time, read the whole Daniel 9.
Daniel 9: 16-17 says:
O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us. “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary.”
The Ninth chapter of Ezra also demonstrates prayers of repentance by the children of Israel confessing the sins of their forefathers as well as their own sins.
Ezra 9: 5-7
Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the LORD my God and prayed: “O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. From the days of our forefathers until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.
The Word of God shows that God always honored such prayers of repentance and brought revival and prosperity back to the Nation and people of Israel. Through these prayers of repentance and confession of the sins of the forefathers the curses were lifted off the people and the land.
This was what happened to me. I asked Holy Spirit to show me what the stronghold was that kept holding me back… what was this door that was still open to my family through which the enemy could torment us? And then He showed us this curse: The spirit of death and destruction. It came through my family bloodline and the root is racism. Ask Holy Spirit to reveal to you the curses and the sins at the root of the curse so that you can confess and cleanse it out of your life – that is how you break a curse and your connection to it.
I went on my face and wept, and wept, and wept for the sins of my father and his forefathers before him. I felt the Spirit of God so tangibly upon me knowing that I really stood in the gap for my dad. I asked Yeshua to wash him with His blood and to forgive him. I couldn’t believe what a long time I spent on my face for the sins of my family line. And finally, I also asked Yeshua to bless my dad with His love and mercy. Then I broke the ungodly sole tie between me and my dad, and asked Yeshua to strengthen the godly part of the connection that was supposed to be between a father and daughter. I ask the Lord to separate me and my family completely from all the sins of my forefathers by the precious blood of Jesus. I asked the Lord to remove the curse from us. We are free today because Satan no longer has a legal right to continue to curse my family. There are families that carry the curse of cancer, divorce, sickness, untimely death, mental illness, physical illness, poverty, uncontrolled anger, unbelief, alcoholism… the list just goes on and on… because of these generational sins.
It was only after all that happened, when Aldo wrote “The curse is being broken over us, thank you Mom!”
High, so high was the price He paid for us. He loves us so very much. How on earth can I say thank you that you broke that curse over us? Now he is free, my grandpa, because you are praying for him. Jesus says we are free eternally. Thank You Jesus!
Yes, the bloodline curse is now broken. He says the enemy is gone now – He says your crying for your father’s sins has broken the curse. He is with me all the time – Jesus.
Wisdom says that the blessing has chased away the enemies from hell. He says I am a new person, and that the fire from hell is gone now forever. Wisdom says that it is their fire that attacked my brain. He is crying over me because I am so free from them now. He says the stronghold was a curse that came from your forefathers.
And today – we are free indeed, and Aldo is well, so well!
For the first time I am at such a good place – I am free indeed! I can pray for my dad without any resentment holding me back! I can bless him with a sincere heart. Even though he is a Christian, I can trust God to bring him to revelation and repentance of how deep this racism thing goes, and to lead him into the abundant life in Christ. I love my dad, and I know that through generations of ignorance we still carry seeds of sin which we transfer from the one generation to the next (sin, iniquity, transgressions). If you are in God, you are in love. Test your own heart with this scripture – “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him” (1 John 2: 9-11).
After being born again we still have impure bonds that are not broken automatically – this is what I believe – these sins, curses, bondages or iniquities are passed on from generation to generation and must be confessed and cut off at the root. Healing is not automatic we have a part to play too. Just like the Israelites had to apply the blood of the Lamb to the doorpost so that the plague of death will pass them by, so we need to also apply the blood of the Lamb (Jesus Christ) to the doorpost in our lives.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace (Romans 6:11-13).
The price has been paid already but we have to apply it to our lives. Yes, I still hear the argument of people telling me that they don’t need to break any curses after they have accepted Jesus Christ , because the blood has washed them from all that. The irony is, that I was also one of those people – but I tasted the destruction first hand of what these unbroken curses can bring, and now I don’t argue anymore, I just know what I know, what I know.
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4: 22-24).
The moment I started praying for the sins of my father, and asked that he be washed by the blood of the Lamb, the curse could be rooted up and broken. One person said to me later, “Retah, you don’t know your identity in Yeshua yet – if you really knew, you would know that curses can’t affect you if you are a Christian.” I am past the point of arguing about this stuff, all I know that I am free and that my family is free, and I could feel the release after breaking the curse of generational sin. Maybe you are right that I don’t understand my identity in Christ completely yet, but I can tell you one thing – I am learning quickly, step by step! Or should I rather say bite by bite, because only once you have tasted it for yourself do you really know. That is why God said: Taste and I see that I am good (Ps. 34:8).
A great revelation about repentance has broken open for me and my family. One morning while Josh was getting a haircut the rest of us were drinking a coffee at a nearby coffee shop and Aldo made a typical teenager comment about something. I said, “No, Aldo. You can’t talk that way to us!” “Sorry, Mom,” came his quick reply. “I think that you must rather tell Jesus you are sorry, because if you only tell me your sorry it will just be in the flesh, but the strongholds are built in the spirit. If you repent immediately you are washed with the blood of the Lamb and it is wiped out.” We prayed right there in the coffee shop, and I knew that it was wiped away in the spirit realm. I felt so light afterwards and the lady whose shop it is saw us praying and walked up to us a bit later and told us about her personal problems seeking advice. I smiled in spirit, because through our obedience we were not only washed clean when we walked out of the shop, but she was also ministered to by Holy Spirit.
I am definitely not going to let sin pile up and go un-repented again, especially after all that we have been through. I will keep on repenting so that my grandchildren won’t have to pray for the sins of their grandmother one day. Tinus laughed and said, “Aldo, when you are out of line again, make sure it is not in a restaurant – because your Mom will make you repent anywhere!”
Josh and Aldo’s cousins are going with us to the Cape for two weeks, and Zozzie said, “Someone just has to warn them that the new rule in our house is that you repent just where you are to Jesus when you do something that is not nice.”
Wisdom says his blessing is upon us now, and He says that the Bible is my help. Please always bless me. I told Wisdom that through deliverance the enemy has been driven away from me, and He says they will no longer be able to hurt me, because He says that the curse has been broken. I didn’t know about the curse. Blessing is what broke the curse. My mind is complete clear now. I forgave them Mom, because I know that I should. The Lord has chased the demons away to hell.
Yes, and so all of us walk this road. We learn, we make mistakes, we fall, we stand up. I wish that all of you can learn from my mistakes, and avoid them in your own life. I think back at the lady’s words when we walked out of the restaurant, “At least you have your child back even though he looks like this.” ‘This’ is so fantastic to me! Because ‘this’ keeps me so humble.
I receive e-mails from around the world saying that you are rejoicing with me that Aldo’s eye is open, but his eye isn’t completely open yet. It is more open than usual, but still not completely, and in the afternoons when he gets tired it is worse – but we are so thankful for any step forward, even if it is a small one.
I honor Abba for His love in our lives.
I honor Abba for your love in our lives.
May God bless your spirit.
Retah