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ACI Prayer Cathedral Midweek Service
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Before we delve into tonight's message, it's crucial that we understand a foundational principle: learning that ends only in knowledge is dangerous. The Scripture says, "For lack of knowledge my people perish," but this isn't about the absence of knowledge—it's about the rejection of knowledge and its application.
Consider a doctor who knows smoking is harmful. He has the knowledge, but if he doesn't apply it to transform his behavior, that knowledge can kill him. Learning must end in change and transformation. As John Maxwell said, "The brain once stretched cannot go back to its former limit." You cannot unknow what you know.
Tonight, as God's Word comes to illuminate our darkness, we declare that every word the Lord drops shall bring transformation—in our lives, in our homes, in our families, on the job, in the marketplace, in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
Last week we established that the unexamined life is not worth living. When you critically consider and reflect over your life and come to a firm conclusion that where you are is not where you want to be, it helps you make an informed decision about where you want to go and what it takes to get there.
Life is more than what meets the eye. Especially for the Christian believer who deploys the Word of God—there is immense power and authority within us, much of which we are not aware of. Jesus said in Matthew 22:29, "You err and make mistakes because you do not know the scriptures and the power of God."
Let me illustrate the power God has placed in your hands. In Numbers 30, God establishes that a father has spiritual authority over his household. If a daughter makes a vow before God and her father hears of it but disallows it, God says the vow shall be cancelled. Listen to this: "If her father disallow her in the day that he heareth, not any of her vows or of her bonds wherewith she had bound her soul shall stand."
Imagine the implications. If a father has authority to cancel a vow made before God, he certainly has authority to break demonic attacks on his daughter's life. The same applies to a husband and wife. If a wife makes a vow and the husband says, "I do not agree," God says, "I want peace in your home. The vow is cancelled."
When a husband says, "I am standing with my wife. Not under my watch. By the power of unity, we are fighting this thing," the demonic attack has no choice but to break and give way. The power of spiritual authority and unity is that strong.
All truths are parallel. Everything established in the spirit will necessarily pertain the same way in the natural. The supernatural controls the natural. If it is established in the spirit, it is only a matter of time before it manifests in the natural.
Life itself is full of patterns. Nature is embedded with patterns. Night and day is a pattern. Childhood, adolescence, youthfulness, adulthood, old age—these are processes and patterns. Growth is a pattern because anything with life has the capacity to grow and must also die.
Not every pattern is negative. But when patterns begin to take a negative form, understanding them gives you the power to say, "I will not allow this thing to continue." If something started somewhere, it can also end somewhere. Even what they call congenital abnormality—something a child was born with—we have seen in Scripture that the Lord steps in and transforms the situation, because with God all things are possible unto all them that believe.
Tell somebody tonight: The devil will do his worst, but I know God will do his best. When He does it, everything will look beautiful, and you'll be amazed when God turns it around for your good. Amen.
Last week we took off destroying evil family patterns. Negative patterns are especially debilitating, destructive, discouraging, and deadly. They kill because the devil latches onto them and deploys his job descriptions.
John 10:10 is clear: "The thief came not but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy." The devil is never your friend. If the devil ever gives you something, you can be guaranteed he will take ten from you. If you haven't encountered the devil lately, you're walking along with him—when you're walking hand in hand with somebody, you don't clash.
Tell somebody tonight: Every negative pattern in my life, in my family's life, in my purpose, in my assignment—from tonight, by the light of His Word, every pattern shall be exposed and every negative power shall be broken in the mighty name of Jesus.
Last week we examined Ezekiel 16:44-45. The Scripture says: "Behold, everyone that uses proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, as is the mother, so is her daughter." We know this English proverb: "Like mother, like daughter. Like father, like son."
A crab does not give birth to a bird. A crocodile does not give birth to a mouse. Similarities pertain within certain family lines. The Scripture continues: "Thou art thy mother's daughter that loathed her husband and her children."
Loathing means hatred at the deepest level—hatred to the power five. Why hate somebody you have chosen to hang out with? The mother hates the husband with passion and hates the children. The daughter is described as a potential inheritor of such behavior. Even though she hasn't entered into it yet, there's a stamp on her that says necessity demands she behave like that.
May that curse break in the name of Jesus. May it break that you will not follow the negative patterns. May it be minus you, minus your children, and minus your offspring.
The Scripture also says, "Thou art the sister of thy sisters." It's not just like mother, like daughter—it extends to siblings. I know of a family of six sisters. All are in their 50s. None of them is married. The last time any of them were in a relationship was when they were in secondary school. When you check the pattern, it cannot be coincidence.
The word "coincidence" is modern coinage—a description invented to explain away things that don't make sense. But every event has a cause. If we take time to inquire of God about the yesterday, today, and tomorrow of these things, diligently seeking Him, God will speak.
Consider Gideon. He said to God, "Don't be angry with me. I want you to make the outside of the fleece wet and the inside dry." God was patient and did it. Then Gideon said, "God, are you satisfied? I'm satisfied. But God, don't be angry—one more time. I want the fleece wet and the outside dry." And God did it again. God has patience, and He will reveal His purpose to you. When He did it for Gideon, the man was confident: "This one I'm going for, I'm going to kill."
God is not interested in hiding His purpose and your agenda from you. Sometimes He gives you just enough light for the next step ahead. If He showed you all 200 flights of stairs you must climb, you might say, "I won't go." But He gives you enough light for one or two steps and keeps you climbing in trust. By the time you reach the top and look back, you say, "How did I make it?" And you realize that if the Lord had not been on your side, something else could have happened.
Tell somebody: God is with you. Closer than you think. Stronger than you think. Ever present than you think. He's with you.
The Scripture describes a woman as "thy mother's daughter that loathed her husband and her children, and thou art the sister of thy sisters which loathed their husbands and their children." The negative behavior is flowing from mother to daughters to sisters—all exhibiting the same patterns.
Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. These were tribes from what is now modern-day Turkey, known to be barbarians—people with no filters who do whatever pleases them. They have no checks and balances. Morality is none of their consideration. Yet the Scripture says these are the people who have given you as an offspring, and necessity is laid on you to behave like them.
As Paul said, "The things that I do not want to do are the things I do, and those that I hate are the very things I do. It's like a tongue has been put in my flesh and the messenger of Satan has been assigned."
But here's the truth: As a believer, the fact that you have contentions does not mean the devil has you. It's a clear indication that something inside is fighting to align with God's purpose for your life while the old person resists change. Contention means there's a shift in the spirit.
Consider a ship. The water and waves are its challenges. When the waters become turbulent and the waves boisterous, that's when the ship's capacity comes alive and all engines function at maximum. But if you scoop all the water and waves away, that ship goes nowhere. The resistance is what the ship must overcome to reach its destination.
The same wind that contends with the eagle causes the eagle to flap its wings and glide, taking it to its destination. Tell somebody: Any opposition, any resistance, any contention, any fight inside as I strive to do God's purpose is a clear indication that God has not finished with me yet. The devil may mean it for evil, but the Lord will turn it around for my good.
When we speak of symptoms or definitions of evil family patterns—whether in a family line or an individual's life—we're talking about a cycle. A cycle completes in joining and keeps going back and forth, over and over and over again. If it's negative, it's stubborn. If it's positive, it manifests.
Isn't it interesting how we're sometimes more enamored with the negative than the positives? We ignore the positives and pour all our strength and energy into the negative. The good deeds of people are written on water, but their bad deeds are cast in brass. Evil always manifests strongly, creating the illusion that it's stronger than good and light. But this only happens when the person gives attention to which one they want to focus on.
A cycle is a repeated, successive happening. The thing repeats. It is successive.
An evil pattern is something negative that continually happens in a particular family and has gained unhindered access into the life, health, finance, well-being, and behavior of every family member. Unhindered access could manifest when people accept certain narratives about themselves.
For example, a woman says, "Diabetes is our family disease. It's coming to me." When did you become an owner of that sickness? Tell somebody: It's not yours. It came from somewhere. Don't accept ownership. The Bible says in Isaiah 10:1, "Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees and that write grievousness which they have prescribed." It's a prescription. They've written it. Don't accept it, because when you accept it, you have to go buy medicine for it.
So even though it's manifesting in your body as migraine, as diabetes, it is not yours. It can never be yours. Woe unto them who prescribe it, but they will still prescribe it. What you do with their prescription is another matter. You can reject it.
Unhindered access can manifest in many ways. Anytime it's time for examination, the person's head begins to ache. The eyes bulge out. They go through pain, fall sick, end up in the hospital. As soon as the exam is over, their health is restored. Why? How can that be normal?
I knew of a guy who would study heavily and steadily. But when it came time to write his exam, he would go to the toilet and sleep for five hours. When the exam was over, he'd wake up. This happened five times.
People said it was fear. But to prove otherwise, when the exam was over, they gave him the paper, sat him in the room, he answered the questions, and he would have gotten distinction—proving it wasn't fear of the exam, but the devil restricting him to the toilet. He would drink coffee and study. When it was time to write the exams, he would go and sleep in the toilet. Five occasions. This is unhindered access.
I know of someone who traveled on a plane, got dressed, went through the airport, boarded the plane. When they arrived, one of their shoes went missing on the plane—a shoe he was wearing. Just one shoe. The immigration officers came out of the booth and were checking documents by the tunnel.
The guy came with one shoe and socks. The officer asked, "Are you alright? Why are you not wearing the other shoe?" The more he tried to explain, the more nonsense he created. They told him to stand aside. By the time they were done with others, he was getting agitated and angry. The more he expressed his anger, the more the people knew something was psychologically wrong. They bundled him and put him on the next available flight back.
When he arrived, he got a phone call from the village. They said, "Next time when you're going, learn how to say goodbye to us. Your shoe is over here. Come and pick it up." The shoe was in the village. Tell somebody: You believe it or not, be spiritual. Be spiritual. Life is more than what meets the eye. They will do you electronics—modern-day spiritual warfare. They will clone you and cause you to appear somewhere before you appear.
A common question: "Where do I start from breaking family evil patterns, especially before marriage?"
If you see patterns in your family where marriages never succeed—no matter how wonderful the wedding, the whole thing gets squashed and broken—often over very flimsy and inexplicable situations because it necessarily must break. The people in these marriages will go and cause trouble so that they can go back to their family homes. They will do something. It's not in their calmness to just enjoy it. They cause trouble that triggers the breaking.
If you've realized certain patterns like this, it's very important that you get yourself to understand what the Word of God says concerning your life, and then you go through the necessary deliverance. Sin is far-reaching. Adam and Eve ate the apple. Did you taste it? Were we in the garden? Did we see what they did? Yet you and I are suffering the consequences of their action. Sin is far-reaching.
You and I are not dealing with God alone here on earth. There is an adversary actively interested in making the Word of God of no effect in your life. He will do anything and everything to fight it. If you are not properly standardized, not properly founded, not properly propped up, he can use all kinds of technicalities to create problems for you and derail you.
Tell somebody: Your disbelief in the existence of a thing does not make that thing non-existent. You can scream, cry, rave, and do anything and say, "I don't believe in gravity." Stand on a building and jump and see if you will not land on the ground. The fact that you say you don't believe doesn't mean it won't apply. As a matter of fact, it can kill you. You have to accept the fact that the thing exists, deal with it, bring it under subjection, so that you can enjoy the full benefit of God's goodness over your life in the mighty name of Jesus.
Someone asked: "As we have generational curses, how can we also invoke generational blessings? Can we have generational blessings?"
Yes, generational blessings do exist. And it can start with you. You decide that whatever pertained in your family's bloodline and got to your point—it ends there. Your children and your children's children shall see the goodness of God. You will speak into their lives. You will proclaim the goodness of God. You will establish the throne of God unto the thousand generations.
But this doesn't come through prayer alone. There are conditions precedent that must be fulfilled. What obedience must do cannot be substituted with prayer. What saved Noah and his children was not the ark—it was their obedience to build the ark despite ridicule and shame. They were building it during the dry season, and people said, "You're mad. What will you do with this ark? We've never seen rain before."
The Bible says: "Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fattest of rams. The sin of disobedience is as the sin of witchcraft." When you don't obey God, when you don't follow His precepts and do His Word, you're not different from witches and wizards who misbehave everywhere.
A typical definition of witchcraft is: One that hates righteousness and loves evil. When somebody is happy according to the Word of God and you're angry with them, you're not different from a witch. When you obey God's principles, you set the stage for generational blessings to flow through your life and bloodline.
