“So these nations feared the Lord, yet served their carved images; also their children and their children’s children have continued doing as their fathers did, even to this day” 2 Kings 17:41 (NKJV).

I have been thinking of this today and read a post that confirmed it. I was thinking about the drug culture in our city and how much of it is a direct result of those of us who at one time were disobedient to God and did the same thing. When we are in disobedience we somehow think that it is not going to effect anyone or anybody, but I believe unless we repent of some of these things and ask God to not let our actions from the past effect those who are down in our generations,.. then it will eventually.

For example, a man who first gave me drugs when I was a young woman may only have been one act of sin, but that one act caused me to begin a few years of drug addiction which I caused others who looked up to me to do also and now their children and grandchildren. Since I have become a Christian in the eighties, I have prayed for all of those that my disobedience and sin affected and many of them have been saved and delivered, but some of the effects still hang on to them in their bodies and in their children’s bodies.

Do you see what it means when it says that these sins visit to the third and fourth generation? (Exodus 34:7). For example, my smoking may be something that is behind me but the effects of it may still visit the children that I bore during that time. Or our disobedience in financial things may still be causing poverty in my children, not because the Lord has not forgiven, but because we now have a poverty mentality in the generations after us and their minds have not been renewed to the ways of God.

I believe that Jesus paid it all and He gave promises for us and our children, and children’s children. We are free of guilt and condemnation because we are in Christ Jesus as it says in Romans, but we must apply these promises to us and our children and begin to walk out and live our lives according to the word in order for these patterns to change in our families. We must begin to take a hold of the word of God that says that He will “restore the years that the locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25).

I believe that as we have been cleansed from these things we must also begin to take steps to renew our minds and hearts to walking in His ways and that our acts of obedience to His will can effect our generations to be blessed and be a blessing.

It is God’s will for us to have life abundantly, but we must see that His ways are better than ours and demonstrate that to our generations. Yes, we can change things but it begins with us who know to do what is right. I always say that “God hates sin because it hates us.”

God takes no delight in our dying but He died so that we might be free and that we would have overcoming power through the Holy Spirit to live the abundant life and so that your family would begin to live life abundant! Yes one act of obedience can turn it all around! What are you waiting for!

“Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord, They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them,And the complacency of fools will destroy them; But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil” Proverbs 1:29-33 (NKJV).

“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” Romans 8:6 (NKJV).

“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children” Psalm 103:17 (NKJV).

~ by Jo Ellen Stevens
Arise Shine!

Jo Ellen Stevens of TCIC Ministries is a Prophetic speaker, author, worshiper and intercessor. She has ministered with her husband for 23 years and was a worship leader at the Assembly of God for many years. She is an ordained minister (Restoration Ministries) and works with Restoration Ministries in their Ministry Rooms doing prophetic worship with her husband. She has taught many bible studies and have led many intercessory prayer groups.