As good as our positional realities in Christ are, it is not what we have in Christ that makes us walk in these realities; it is what we know and have believed about the same that makes these realities work for us.
A son who is unaware of his position in his family can be made to scrub the floor, pack the dirt, feed the dogs, etc., while the servants do nothing. His position as a son is not in question. The ignorance of his position is what’s in question.
If he doesn’t know, he doesn’t “have” it.
It is what you know and have believed that begins to work for you. Possession and awareness are two different things. You can own something in full and still live like you don’t, simply because nobody told you it was yours.
Take, for example, this popular notion of generational curses and family patterns. Definitely these things exist. It would be dishonest for anyone to say otherwise. But these things have no power. Paul said, “We know that an idol is nothing” (1 Corinthians 8:4).
But he was speaking to believers who knew, because he must have taught them exhaustively about idols, demons, and whatnot. So that statement showed us there was knowledge he was referring to, and he wouldn’t be so careless as to tell believers coming out of deep idol worship that an idol was nothing if he hadn’t already taught them.
For a believer who doesn’t know, definitely, an idol is something.
I have seen family patterns at work in believers, not because they were not saved, but because they were not taught that “generational curses” were nothing. The curse didn’t lose its grip because they got saved. It lost its grip the day someone finally told them it had already been broken, and they believed it.
Just the same way some believers see scary visions of the rapture and start confessing sins and trying to make their way right. Why? Because they weren’t taught that the rapture wasn’t supposed to scare the believer. So, based on their level of knowledge, they would go as far as to get very frightening revelations of hell and the antichrist. That’s the same way believers who have not been taught about their authority over things like family patterns go about having dreams and revelations of someone chasing them. To discard what they’re seeing without teaching them why they’re seeing it is careless.
“Have I not said ye are gods, but you will die like ordinary men because you know not?”
In this kingdom, what ‘separates’ men is not positional; it is revelational.
Everyone is equal in God’s sight because we have all received the same spirit, but in knowledge, everyone is not equal.
That’s why we have pastors, teachers, and apostles over the flock. Hosea said it plainly long before any of this: God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, not for lack of standing (Hosea 4:6). Position was never the issue. Understanding was.
And guess what?
You live by your knowledge and understanding of your present reality. You don’t live by your potential realities.
I remember someone once saying in a meeting, “Don’t marry potential character.” Everyone has the potential of being good, saved, etc. But if you are considering marrying someone who is of questionable character because there is the potential or possibility of a change in the future, you’re setting yourself up for trouble. Would you wait till this potential for good behavior materializes in some distant future? Before they change, you’re going to be sharing the same home; they will be in your face, talking to you, eating with you, etc. How long will you bear it before they start changing?
The same way, although the believer is delivered from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God, if he doesn’t know this as a conviction, he doesn’t “have” it. Deliverance is a fact of record. It only becomes a fact of experience once you know it.
Now the funny question is, If someone claims to be saved, and he doesn’t understand something as basic as his authority over demons, what then was he taught about justification?
Well, I leave you to unravel that question.
But this is it: Believers struggling with family patterns and curses need to be taught about their believer’s authority, and how to stand in their authority in Christ.
There is the position, but there is also the standing. A soldier can hold a rank on paper and still freeze the first time he’s under fire if nobody trained him to actually use it. Rank without training doesn’t win a battle. Position without understanding doesn’t win a fight either.
The devil has no authority over the believer, but Paul still told believers to stand against the tricks of the devil. And how to stand properly does not begin with launching three days of warfare prayers, casting, and binding. It starts first with accurate teaching.
Many pray when they have no idea what they’re praying about, or against.
This is how to actually start
Start with the curse itself, since that’s what we’ve been using as the example.
Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.”
Read what that’s actually saying.
It’s not saying Christ is fighting the curse on your behalf in the present tense, ongoing.
It’s saying He already became the curse, in your place, at the cross, past tense, finished.
A curse cannot sit on you and on Him at the same time. He took it, which means, legally, it left. That’s not a promise you’re waiting on. That’s something that already happened. The only thing left is whether you know it happened.
That’s exactly why Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
not by hearing prayers,
not by hearing testimonies,
not by hearing warfare declarations,
… by hearing the word.
So the faith to stop fearing a family pattern doesn’t come from binding it harder. It comes from hearing, over and over, that Galatians 3:13 already happened.
Faith isn’t hyped into existence. It’s heard into existence. Neither is it assumed also.
Once you’ve heard it, the next thing is what Romans 12:2 calls being “transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
It’s simple. Your mind currently holds one piece of information: “this runs in my family.”
Renewing your mind means you replace that piece of information with another one: “Christ already became the curse so it wouldn’t have to run in me.”
You don’t shout the old information down. You keep feeding it the new one until the new one is what your mind reaches for first, without you even trying.
Now here’s the part people often misunderstand.
Paul prayed for people who were already saved, already in the family, that God would give them “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened” (Ephesians 1:17-18).
He wasn’t praying for them to get saved. He was praying for them to see what was already theirs. That tells you knowing isn’t automatic, even after salvation. So don’t stop at reading a verse. Ask God, plainly, to open your eyes to what Galatians 3:13 means for you specifically.
Say it like that.
“Open my eyes to see that this curse or this issue or this problem already left when Christ took it.”
That’s a prayer He answers, because it’s a prayer for sight, not a prayer for rescue you’ve already been given.
Then keep looking, because a mind renewed once doesn’t stay renewed. James compares the word to a mirror and says a man who hears it and walks away is like someone who glances at his reflection and forgets what he looks like a minute later (James 1:23-25). So this isn’t a one-time verse you read and move on from. You go back to “Christ became a curse for us” the way you’d go back to a mirror, again and again, until it’s the first thing you see when the old fear tries to show up.
And once you actually know it, the way you respond changes completely.
You stop trying to fight the pattern off and simply say what’s now true.
Ephesians 6:14 tells believers to “stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth.” Not volume. Not three days of fasting. Truth. When the fear of a family pattern (or any other issue) comes knocking again, you don’t need to launch a warfare session emotionally; you say, plainly, “Christ already became a curse for me, so this one doesn’t get to sit on me.” Say it like a fact, because it is one. That’s what standing looks like.
So again, here’s how to obtain your victory in Christ over any issue.
The curse is already broken (Galatians 3:13.)
You come to believe it by hearing it repeatedly (Romans 10:17).
You keep it by meditating and feeding your mind that truth instead of the old fear (Romans 12:2).
You ask God to make it real to you, not just known to you (Ephesians 1:17-18).
You keep confessing it and standing your ground, irrespective of the situation (James 1:23-25, Ephesians 6:14)
Curses are below you, not because you think so, but because God’s word says so. You only have to keep speaking and confessing what you have already read and understood through sound teaching and in the place of deep meditations. This is how you get your victory in Christ!
For further teaching in this regard, you can reach out here: meshackignatius@gmail.com.
Also listen to this podcast: Ask a Question Series (Podcast): How to break free from evil family patterns