Today on the Everyday Faith Podcast, we continue to hear stories from our friend Brady Combs. Brady is a life coach and a new believer in Jesus who loves to walk alongisde those who are ready to get unstuck and experience the full, abundant life that Jesus offers. During the second part of our interview, we learned more about spiritual topics that Brady is currently studying in his walk with God.Things like generational curses, spiritual warfare, and the power of leaving a legacy of spiritual health rather than spiritual darkness. Join us as we learn more about how to build generational blessings rather than generational curses and discover just how powerful the blood of Jesus really is.
Studying Spiritual Warfare
In our first podcast interview, we discovered the awesome story about how Brady went from a staunch atheist to a curious agnostic, to a born-again Christian. Missed the first part of Brady’s story? Watch a replay of his testimony by listening to Part 1 of our video podcast.
Brady has always loved to study and learn more about things he believes in. As he’s grown in his Christian faith, Brady has found himself becoming curious about the world of spiritual warfare and the power of prayer. During our second conversation with Brady, we dove into topics like the demonic, prayer, generational curses, and generational blessing. The more we talked, we discovered some of the fundamentals of spiritual warfare in the Bible. Here are some reminders about spiritual warfare to help you on your journey with Jesus:
1: The Foundation of Identity: As Brady has studied spiritual warfare, he's learned just how powerful understanding your identity in Christ really is. When you lose your identity, it’s easy to lose your authority. Because of Jesus, every Christian has authority to come boldly before God’s throne, even when they feel weak (Hebrews 4:16). Growing in your identity means growing in God's love for you and receiving His thoughts about you instead of the world's thoughts about you.
2. Praying in the Spirit: The more Brady learns about spiritual warfare, the more he's discovered that praying in the Spirit for an extended period of time is essential to doing warfare well. Wondering what it means to pray in the spirit or speak in tongues? Praying in the Spirit is a supernatural, free gift, given when you are baptized in the Holy Spirit. You can read the whole story of when people first began praying in the Spirit in Acts 2. While some denominations argue about the gift of tongues and whether praying in the spirit is for today, it’s Brady’s opinion that praying in the spirit is essential for spiritual warfare.
Want to take your next step to grow in prayer? Download our FREE e-book: Let’s Talk About Prayer: Simple Steps to Connect with God
3. Living a Life of Consecration: How many of you know the phrase, “A house divided against itself cannot stand (Matthew 12:25)?" If you want to grow in spiritual warfare or learn how to break past generational curses to leave a generational legacy instead, you need to make sure you’re living your life for God. A life of holiness isn’t boring; it’s our birthright to live close to God and follow His commands. Whether we understand it or not, His ways are the best ways and choosing the path God offers is always for the best.
But what does consecration look like? Consecration often looks like:
- putting God first in everything
- growing in consistency in your prayer life
- abstaining from alcohol and recreational drugs
- not engaging in sexual immorality
- not listening to music that promotes sin
- not watching entertainment that promotes sin
- refraining from lying
- growing in the discipline of fasting
Practicing these three key things in your everyday life will help you grow in fellowship with God and help you to engage in spiritual warfare well.
Renouncing Curses & Speaking Blessings
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Life and death are in the power of the tongue?” This phrase is actually a famous Bible verse about blessing and cursing from Proverbs 18:21. While there are many opinions about generational curses and whether they exist, here at the Everyday Faith podcast, we believe that we should speak life with our tongue, and blessing rather than cursing.
An easy way to think about breaking off curses is to think about them like breaking up with a lie. When we break up with lies, we stop believing something false, and choose to believe the truth. For example, if you think you’re unlovable or not pretty or handsome enough, you can ask God, “What’s the truth about me? What do you think about me?”
Because God is so kind, He may say something like, “You are beautiful in my sight” (Song of Solomon 4:7) or “I formed you in your mother's womb – I see you and know you!” (Psalm 139) Because God wrote the Bible, He often speaks to us through Bible verses and confirms the truth about us through His written word.
Next, you can ask the Holy Spirit, “What lie can I give to you, so that I can believe the truth?” God may say something to you like, “You’re believing that I won’t provide for you,” or “You’re believing the lie that I’m not going to be good to you.”
Now that you have a lie (or a curse) that you’re ready to let go of, you simply hand it over to the Lord and say, “I renounce this lie I was believing and I choose to believe the truth. Thank you, Holy Spirit, that you say (whatever the truth was that you heard from God).”
Freedom can be this simple! While there are more complex cases of generational curses or situations where lies are deep and layered, this simple tool for freedom in the mind is a great way to speak life with your tongue, receive the truth of Jesus, and release God's blessings over your life.
Generational Curses or Generational Patterns
Within Christian circles, there is much debate about generational curses vs. generational trauma vs. generational patterns. While we won't dive in to specifics in this blogs about each side of the debate, we believe that the blood of Jesus and the power of His name is stronger than any generational curse, generational trauma, or generational pattern. Because Jesus died on the cross, He has the power over all evil, sin, and darkness, and He has broken every curse through His blood shed for us (Galatians 3:13).
No matter what side of the coin you land on, Jesus has the power and authority over generational curses, generational trauma, and generational patterns. Because of His great love for us, we have the gifts of the Spirit to equip us for life and godliness! Th gifts of the spirit are given to believers to help us in life and train us to become more like Christ, and less like the world.
You can learn more about the gifts of the Spirit in our blog: Spiritual Gifts in the Bible: What Are the Spiritual Gifts?
So because of the gifts of the spirit, instead of a lack of control, we have self-control because of the Holy Spirit. Instead of crippling fear and anxiety, we can have a sound mind through Jesus, because He’s given us the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). Whether you think you’re struggling with a generational curse, a generational pattern, or hitting up against generational trauma, Jesus has a way out, a path forward, and restoration for your soul.
You don’t need to have perfect theology or all the right answers to experience the healing and redemption that Jesus offers. While we may never know in full whether generational curses are actual curses or whether they’re solely generational patterns and trauma, Jesus can bring restoration to anyone and anything.
Read more about the supernatural restoration Jesus offers in an interview with our friend Armin Assadi, a former crime boss turned Christian: It’s Never Too Late: A Real-Life Story of God’s Redemption
Bible Verses About Generational Blessing
Now that we’ve discovered how to identify lies, give them to Jesus, and bless those who have hurt us, we can read Bible verses about generational blessing instead of being worried about generational curses. Here are three of our favorite Bible verses about generational blessing to speak truth, hope, faith, and love over your family and your children's, children's, children.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children - Psalm 103:7
Bible verses about generational blessings always remind us of the character of God. The steadfast love of the Lord goes on and on and on! You can’t count how many thoughts Jesus has for you. The Bible says that God’s thoughts for you outnumber the grains of sand (Psalm 139). Bible verses about generational blessings allow us to speak the love, faith, favor, and blessing of God over our families.
Learn more about God’s transformative love in our blog: Faith, Fatherhood, & Fathering the Fatherless
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations - Deuteronomy 7:9
The steadfast love of the Lord extends to those who keep his commandments…up to a thousand generations! How incredible to know that his love is so fantastic, generous, and forgiving. This Bible verse about generational blessing shows us the beauty and the power of keeping God as first in our lives. He is a faithful God who teaches us to become more like Him. One of the easiest ways for us to experience the steadfast love of Jesus is to receive His forgiveness and forgive others. Jesus shows us how to release generational blessing through the supernatural power of forgiveness.
Learn more about how to forgive others, even when it’s hard: What Does the Bible Say About Forgiveness? 9 Bible Verses About Forgiveness
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live - Deuteronomy 30:19
Bible verses about generational blessings offer us the choice of blessing, rather than cursing. Remember: life and death are in the power of your tongue! When we turn to the Lord and declare His word, God promises to meet us. Choosing Jesus and choosing to live the way He teaches us to has the power to change your generational line and the world!
Related Post: The Love of God in the Bible is Better Than You Think
Conclusion
As we finished our conversation with Brady, we were reminded of the power of God’s love and blessings to break off lies and generational curses alike. When our hearts are fully surrendered to Jesus, there is supernatural power released for blessing, restoration, and reconciliation in our family lines and beyond! As we understand more about our identity in Christ, everything changes for the better.
When we add praying in the spirit, living a consecrated life to God, and renouncing lies to receive God’s truth, we go from darkness to light, we receive the power of Jesus’ blood, and we can truly walk in the freedom that is available to us. So, whether you’re navigating generational trauma, spiritual warfare, or simply longing for a breakthrough from God, the name of Jesus and the power of His word can bring your life and your family line into alignment.
Further Reading:
What Does the Bible Say About Marriage?
What Are the Fruits of the Spirit? How to Restore Your Relationship with God? What Does it Mean to Walk in Humility?
How to Overcome Fear & Experience God’s Power
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