Behavior patterns: lying, stealing, bed wetting, nail biting, stuttering, eating disorders, family breakdown, continual financial insufficiency, being accident prone, early death, alcoholism, physical abuse, perfectionism or stubbornness.

Emotional patterns: fear of rejection, rejection, fear of intimacy, emotional abuse, pride, anger, fear, control, manipulation, lust, depression, anxiety, inferiority, guilt, hostility, unforgiveness or resentment.

Sexual patterns: sexual abuse, molestation, incest, homosexuality, promiscuity, lust or adultery.

We all inherit, to different degrees, generational weaknesses and strengths. I (Wilma) will never forget a family I visited while doing district nursing.  They clearly demonstrated a generational pattern. My job as a midwife was to assist mother and baby following an early discharge from hospital. The mother drew my attention to the three-day-old baby's right hand - the little finger was pointed perpendicular to the other fingers. The mother went on to explain that her husband, at the age of five, had a traumatic accident, which affected him emotionally for some time and left him with his little finger pointing out perpendicularly to the others. Both children were born with the little fingers pointing out the same way and on the same hand as their father's.

How can we stop these misfortunes being passed on to us? Can we put an end to them?

I asked that question myself after I began to suffer with a health problem that had created a pattern in my family. I did not detect it until my Endocrinologist pointed out to me that white blood cells were eating my thyroid and creating hypothyroidism. He went on to say that white cells could either eat the thyroid or the stomach wall causing pernicious anemia. It was then that the lights turned on - I remembered my grandfather had pernicious anemia.

I went to the Good Book, the Bible, for the answer. We are told in the Bible that Jesus was pierced for our transgressions, beaten and bruised for our iniquities. (Isaiah chapter 53 verse 5)

Transgressions and iniquities are words we do not use in our language today, so what do they mean? A transgression is an act of sin and an iniquity, according to the dictionary, is perversity or depravity.  One is an act, the other a state of being - an inherent weakness or imperfection caused through acts of sin. It can be passed from generation to generation in the form of physical infirmities, emotional or behavioral depravity or perversity.

What I learnt from the Bible is that when Jesus died on the cross he died not only for my sins, but also for my imperfections - the weaknesses passed down through the generations. It must be noted however that not all weaknesses or imperfections are the result of iniquities.

How do you benefit 2000 years later from Jesus' death?  A free video, 'Your Destiny Your Choice' will help answer that question. It will show you how to receive Jesus' forgiveness. In the same way you recieve his forgivness you can accept, by faith, that Jesus was beaten for your weaknesses or imperfections.

I accepted by faith what Jesus did for me on the cross and my thyroid condition continued to improve so that eventually I did not have to have medication.

We thank Jesus daily for dying to remove the imperfections we see in our family and ask him to set them free. God answers prayer and we are seeing changes.

Here is a prayer that will help you break free from the generational imperfections:

"Thank you, Jesus, for the strengths that I have received from my forebears. Thank you for being beaten and bruised for my iniquities - the generational weaknesses and imperfections that have made me vulnerable.  Please forgive me for my wrong attitudes and actions and the wrong attitudes and actions of my forebears. I now claim freedom from  _______(be specific) _______ and ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit so that I am empowered to live in victory. Amen"

Click here and let us know if you have prayed that prayer for yourself or a family member and we will pray for you also.