For over fifteen years, the mantle of homeless ministry has been a calling placed on the heart. The encounter with Michael is one that will never be forgotten — a scrawny young man of medium height, somewhere in his early twenties. After handing him a sack lunch, the question was asked: did he need prayer? In a soft, hurting voice, he said yes. Looking into his eyes, the next question followed: what did he need prayer for? He shared that his father had recently died of a heroin overdose — and then added that his grandmother had died of the same thing. Michael wanted prayer to be freed from the bondage of heroin himself. This prayer reached back across three generations.
Scripture speaks to this kind of affliction and its attachment to the bloodline — consequences that flow from the sins of the fathers and ripple forward through the generations:
“The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and fourth generation.” — Numbers 14:18
These generational wounds can be brought before the Lord in prayer. A simple prayer of release:
Heavenly Father, I humbly come before You and ask that You expose and remove [name the bondage] from my bloodline. I renounce and break the power of [name the bondage] over me and over any member of my family. If there is anything in me that is holding me back from serving You fully, remove it by the power of the Name of Jesus. I thank You and praise You for the healing You are already doing in my family. Amen.
