When I embarked on fasting and prayer to understand the reasons behind the misery of Christians, God directed me to three passages in the Bible.

First: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.” Exodus 20:1-5

Next: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.” Deuteronomy 5:8-9

Finally: “Our fathers sinned, and are no more; It is we who have borne their iniquities.” Lamentations 5:7

Every sin has two consequences: its judgment and its punishment.

The judgment of sin concerns the one who committed the sin, while the punishment affects both the sinner and their descendants for four generations. The first generation receives the punishment and then passes away. The second generation receives the punishment and disappears, and so on until the fourth generation. I am surprised when some people say they cannot be victims of a curse because they are the children of a pastor or simply Christians. I often ask them this question: were your ancestors Christians, or were they pastors?

During my visits, I encountered different families living under a curse. The manifestation of the curse varies among families. In some families, when daughters get married, they are repudiated or divorced before their first wedding anniversary and return to their families.

In other families, both boys and girls engage in fornication and may have children out of wedlock. However, the spirit of the curse prevents them from getting married. In these families, fornication binds everyone, regardless of age. There are also families cursed with madness. In other words, for families affected by the curse, the manifestations are diverse.

In one of the families I visited, all fourteen (14) members had a motor disability. There were also families whose members always died in accidents. A family cursed with infertility practiced polygamy, thinking it would increase their chances of having children. The cause of this curse, according to the information I received, dates back to a time when two elders argued about the gender of a fetus. Unable to agree, they committed the horrible crime of disemboweling the mother to determine the sex of the child.

Since that day, infertility has plagued that family. Finally, I visited a family where the curse manifested as incurable sores on the feet. There are entire villages where residents are enslaved to alcohol and defecate in their clothes.

What about those composed of irritable people who love to fight, or those who only know how to tell lies? We have accused witches a lot. If you meet an elderly person with red eyes due to old age, they are accused of witchcraft. A witch cannot attack a family for four generations because they only live for one generation. Satan has always wanted to hide the truth and divert the attention of those he has bound.

The curse should not be neglected because it binds and ensnares many people. Let’s see how it can manifest. In fact, when you start a business, a trade, for example, while under the influence of the curse, your business thrives at first, but shortly after, you go bankrupt or barely survive.

One week, you read and meditate on the Word of God; the next week, you have no desire to open your Bible at all. Another time, you pray well; but the following week, you cannot pray. You then spend your time sleeping. As Sunday approaches, you are sad, you want to go on a trip, escape from prayer. Your life is a vicious circle. You stagnate in everything; nothing works. All the examples just mentioned are characteristics of the curse. It strikes four generations.

Imagine four people linked together by the same chain. They represent four generations. Suppose God tells you through a vision or a prophecy to fast for seven days because He wants to bless you. When you start fasting, the spirit of the curse forces you to give up after the second day. The same can happen to someone to whom God promises marriage. When you are about to get married, the spirit of the curse can intervene and break off your engagement.

Suppose the Lord tells you to open a store or start farming. When you take the path or when you are about to do so, the spirit of the curse stops you in your tracks and destroys your project. God can promise you a car, a motorcycle, even specifying the month of fulfillment. However, the spirit of the curse can prevent you from obtaining these blessings. For some people, the manifestation of the curse is such that when they earn money, they make unnecessary expenses.

Perhaps you are only in the first generation of your curse. It is then important that it be broken, or else you cannot prosper. When you take one step forward, the spirit of the curse pushes you back ten steps.

This is how the lives of many Christians are. A pastor began his ministry at the age of twenty and practiced it for fifty years. Upon retirement, he was influenced by the spirit of the curse to impregnate his 15-year-old servant. When under the influence of the spirit of the curse, your end is lamentable, regardless of your title: Christian, pastor, evangelist, intercessor, prophet, etc. A few years ago, a church pastor hanged himself on Pentecost day.

In 2002, a pastor hanged himself in his attic. Another committed suicide by jumping into a well in 2003. Also in the same year, I was in Switzerland, and I said that the country was struck by the curse of suicide. They did not believe me. But in a later newspaper publication, they acknowledged the existence of this curse in their country.

The curse is like an inheritance. It is inherited from parents or ancestors. Casting out demons is part of my ministry, and what I tell you is the truth. Demons are organized like an army, each with its rank. They are more numerous than humans. The spirit of the curse is in second place after witchcraft. It is easier to pray for the resurrection of the dead than to cast out the spirit of the curse. You do not cast out the spirit of the curse as you do with other spirits by a simple command.

The difficulty of casting out this spirit comes from the fact that it binds people through three channels: the family name, blood ties, and gender. To succeed in casting out this spirit, the victim must be aware of their condition and acknowledge it.

Then, they must be determined to get out of it, to be delivered, and with great determination. This determination must be stronger than the desire to eat or even to get a job. The person should then know the history of their lineage. This will be followed by a long fast, then a request for forgiveness for the mistakes made by their ancestors.

Finally, deliverance comes after the deliverance prayer. When you are told everywhere you go that the spirit of the curse is gone, but you find that your situation has not changed at all, it means that it is not true. The spirit of the curse can push you to abandon faith due to the frustrations and confusion in which you constantly live.

This text is an excerpt from the book “The curse of generations” written by Prophet Emmanuel SAWADOGO.