Introduction

The issue of strongholds
- 2 Cor. 10:4-5 - 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (ESV).

- Strongholds are built to keep out harm, they often keep out help as well.

When we conquer our strongholds, we help build a strong place for others as well as ourselves.
- Rev. 3:12 - He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.

- This is how we can tell if we’re truly free – are we focused on bringing ‘support’ to others, or just trying to make it ourselves? This is more than just selfishness, it speaks to the level of freedom we have.

Generational Iniquities and Patterns

This is an amazing incident. After easily the signature victory of his life, Elijah is overcome with such depression that he expresses a death wish! The telling statement is “…for I am no better than my fathers!”

- We don’t have any of Elijah’s family background available from scripture.

- He is simply introduced to us as “Elijah the Tishbite” in 1 Kings 17:1. The word Tishbite literally means, “captivity”. So, there’s a good chance here that Elijah grew up in a dysfunctional home, or at the least, in a home where there was not a lot of faith, vision, or spiritual reality.

- So, in the pressure point of life (a demonic attack through Jezebel), the old narrative surfaced,

- Who do you think you are? God doesn’t really show up for people like you.
- Of course, this is irrational, based on what had just happened, but still became the governing reality in Elijah’s life.
- That’s what a generational pattern or iniquity looks like.
- Alcoholic children become alcoholics. Abused children abuse.

I believe this is the principle spoken to us by God in Exod. 34:5-7
5 Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

At the surface, this looks unfair – God causing the children to suffer for the sins of their parents. But that’s usually what happens, and it is not God doing it, it is simply a principle released. The opposite is also true – righteousness can be passed down from generation to generation.

- This is an extension of the law of Genesis (“…each according to its kind”.)

- One neuroscientist has written that they have discovered that the thought patterns of parents are passed down through the DNA to four generations! (Leaf)

- The children of those who serve God & pursue righteousness tend to serve God and pursue righteousness.

- The children of those who live in fear or lust or manipulation or anger tend to do the same.

- We see this played out in scripture: Abraham and Isaac; David and Solomon.

The Cross and breaking generational iniquity
- I remember an incident as a young man, about the time I got married (a pressure point of life). I was dealing with a spirit of darkness out of nowhere, seeming to block my relationship with God. Like Elijah, I had seen a number of real spiritual victories and accomplishments. As I received prayer, God showed me a vision of Jesus hanging on the cross, and then literally falling into hell. Eph. 4:9 tells us, 9 (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?. In the Greek language, one meaning of this word ‘descend’ means “to fall”.

- In the vision, Jesus told me, “Your father had a spirit of failure assigned to him. That spirit is now assigned to you, but I died to redeem you from that.” And then He showed me I Pet. 1:18-19,
18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

What about you?
- Have you had to battle with a destructive generational tendency – depression, addiction, obesity, anger, etc.?

- Do you struggle with fear that broken patterns in your family background will resurface in you (divorce, poverty, abuse, depression, anger, abandonment, disease, etc.)?

- Are you aware that you can pass on either a broken or a redeemed lifestyle, to both natural and spiritual children?
- God spoke to me once, “What you bring to the cross, your children don’t have to deal with like you did.”

- I believe there are many today who need to bring something to the cross and be fully redeemed from some issues of past generations.

- We also need to transfer our dependency to our heavenly Father.