Cleansing Bloodlines in the Courts of Heaven
One of the things the devil uses against us the most is the iniquity in our bloodline. Most of us are aware of our own sins and transgressions. We know our own stuff. We recognize where we have fallen short. However, things buried in our bloodlines can be a little more difficult to deal with. Remember that when Daniel and others were seeking to get Israel out of captivity and back to their inheritance, they repented for their personal sins and the iniquity of their fathers. Daniel 9:16–17 shows some of this repentance.
O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate.
Notice that Daniel made his supplication and intercession concerning their sins and iniquities for the Lord’s sake. In other words, he was pointing out to God His interest in this matter. God, as a covenant-keeping God, would want to see His people restored to their land and inheritance. He would desire His purposes in them fulfilled but also His reputation in them maintained.When Daniel repented for the iniquities of the fathers, he was not seeking to change their eternal destiny. The Bible says it is appointed to man once to die and then to face the judgment. We find this in Hebrews 9:27.
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.
Every man will be recompensed for the life he has lived. Nothing can change this. However, repenting for the iniquity of the fathers removes satan’s legal right to use it against us. We are not seeking to change eternal destinies. When we take responsibility for our own sins and the sins of our bloodline, we are dealing with the legal issues satan would use to build a case against us. We see this in the life of Israel as a nation. In Second Samuel 21:1, we see David discerning why there was a drought and famine in Israel for three years.
Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, “It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites.”
Saul had killed the Gibeonites with whom Joshua had made a covenant. You’ll remember that Joshua had not inquired of the Lord what to do about the Gibeonites when he encountered them. They made up a story that they were from a far-off land and had come to worship the God of Joshua and the Israelites. In reality, they were a people living in the Promised Land who Joshua was supposed to destroy. They deceived Joshua, and Joshua entered into a covenant with them. Even though the covenant was made in deception, it still stood before heaven. Joshua and the leaders gave their word. You can find this story in Joshua 9:1–15. Now, Saul has broken the covenant with the Gibeonites. This broken covenant had granted the devil the legal right to shut up the heavens and stop the rain. Saul had done this 70 years before the famine occurred. Now, all these years later, there’s a famine because of a broken covenant from 70 years prior. David and all the people had been praying for three years for rain, yet none had come. When David understands why the famine has happened, he sets the covenant with the Gibeonites back in place. The Bible then makes an astounding statement in Second Samuel 21:14.
They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the tomb of Kish his father. So they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God heeded the prayer for the land.
God heeded the prayer for the land. The same prayer that had been prayed for three years was suddenly answered. The difference was the legal right in the history of Israel to resist rain was revoked through broken covenants! God could now answer the prayer of His people because the legal right in the spirit realm granting the devil power through a broken and dishonored covenant was now removed. If we are to see breakthrough, many times we must deal with the history of sin or iniquity in our bloodlines. The devil uses them as a legal right to reduce us to less than what God desires.To discern iniquity in the bloodline, we should understand the nature of iniquity. The word “iniquity” in the Hebrew is the word “avon,” and it means something perverted. It means to be twisted. So iniquity in the bloodline twists the desires and purposes of God. It twists the moral compass of a person’s life. It twists desires from that which is good to that which is evil. Iniquity isn’t just about a single sin. Iniquity is about the twisting of nature. This is why when we are born again, we receive a new nature. Second Peter 1:4 tells us we have received the divine nature, or the nature of God Himself. It is God’s excellence and glory,
By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Through the divine nature, we escape the corruption that is in the world. Yet that which we receive at salvation has to dominate and empower us. Even though we have the nature of God in us, the issues in our bloodline will try to work against us. Notice that the Apostle Paul in speaking to Titus gave him instructions about ministering in the Cretan culture. Titus 1:10–13 shows us a perversion in a bloodline that has affected a culture.
For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain. One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.
Paul realized that even though these people were saved and born again, issues in their bloodline were still affecting them. Their culture had been twisted to be liars, evil beasts, and gluttons. Paul’s commandment to Titus was to rebuke them and challenge them to let the new nature in them arise. They could not conform to that which had fashioned their culture for generations. They had to deal with their bloodline issues so it didn’t continue to twist them and pervert who they were meant to be.In dealing with bloodline issues, we should be aware of anything that twists the real intent of God for our family. For instance, the Cretans were not meant to be liars, evil beasts, and gluttons. Generations of iniquity had fashioned them into this. Perhaps there are addiction issues in your bloodline. Maybe there are sexual issues there. Perhaps anger issues are present. Maybe there is violence. It could be anything. I challenge people to look at themselves and their siblings, their parents, and their own children. Within these three generations, you will see bloodline issues. Begin to repent of these things. As you exhaust these, then ask the Lord for any further revelation you might need. If there are no more realizations, then be at peace. You can only deal with the knowledge you have. I tell folks that when you have dealt with everything you know, then use Colossians 2:14. It says that God made us alive with Jesus,
Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
The “handwriting of ordinance” refers to that which the devil is using to build a case against us. After I have prayed over everything I know and discern, I ask that Colossians 2:14 be applied to my life. I ask that every case against me, known or unknown, be dismissed, based on what Jesus did for me on the cross. I have seen great results simply taking this by faith and executing it.Here is a prayer that can be prayed to come before the Courts of Heaven and cleanse our bloodlines.
Lord, as I come into Your Courts, I stand before You. Lord, I thank You that what Jesus did for me on the cross now speaks on my behalf before Your Courts. I repent for my own personal sins and transgressions, but I also bring the iniquity of my bloodline to You. I ask that anything the devil would legally accuse me of would now be revealed.I bring my bloodline to You through my father (name your father) and through my mother (name your mother) all the way back to Adam and Eve. I ask that anything that the devil would legally be bringing against me would be known.I repent of all iniquities I have discerned naturally. (Deal with each issue separately. Go through them one by one, repenting of that which has twisted the bloodline and generations.) I now ask for the blood of Jesus to speak for me and my bloodline. I ask that any and every legal right of the devil to use these things would now be revoked. Thank You, Lord Jesus, so much for Your blood that speaks for me.I repent for any and all iniquities I discern in my bloodline through my father and my mother prophetically. I ask that anything that needs to be exposed in my bloodline would now be seen. Anything the devil, as my legal opponent, would bring against me, I ask that he be made to show it. [Be sensitive at this stage to anything you see, hear, or feel. Anything that is discerned, whether you know about it naturally or not, repent of it.]I also, Lord, thank You for Colossians 2:14 that declares You took away every case against me on the cross. I ask, Lord, that anything known or unknown would be removed. I ask that the right of the devil to legally use this against me is now revoked. Thank you so much for nailing all these things against me to Your cross. I receive it and accept it in Jesus’s name. Amen.