Dearest family,
Thank you for your patient attention on Sunday as we dealt with some aspects of the subject of generational sin and generational healing. If you were not present you can download the ‘genogram’ that is referred to in the message, as well as downloading the message.
You’ve just noticed that the print got bigger, right? Here’s why: because I want to make sure that if you are part of the community of COSC and have never been through the Healing Prayer Training, email Monique Monique@christourshepherd.org today and sign up for the next two Saturdays. This is an opportunity not to be missed. Don’t forget that Monique also invited any who have already been through it, but would benefit from a refresher, to also sign up. Our goal is that every member of COSC is equipped to be part of this ministry, not just in the church but amongst your friends and family.
One of the consistent issues that we have to deal with in our healing prayer ministry is the present effect of past familial and generational influences. The continuing experience of the consequences of familial and generational patterns of behavior and bondage, of attitudes and actions, of dispositions and diseases, of idolatries and ideologies, of accidents and addictions, of weaknesses and compulsions, of lust and license, of pathologies and psychologies, of fears and failures, of violence and violation, of ungodly cultural practices and traditions and religious beliefs, of losses and traumas, of unresolved injustices and unrequited grievances and griefs, of national or tribal pride and ethnocentric independence and isolation, of curses and evil vows – that are perpetuated and continue to oppress and depress, sometimes like shadows, that can never quite be evaded or avoided, sometimes like a weight that cannot be lifted, sometimes like something on the inside that cannot be expelled, as if it were a part of the biology. An unknown voice once poignantly put it like this: “I have Jesus in my heart but grandpa in my bones!”
Because of the prevalence and sometimes the virulence of these generational issues in people’s lives, and given the many bad effects and consequences, we wanted to offer an opportunity for some house-cleaning right at the beginning of a new year, and for some spiritual settlement of things that many of you may be dealing with, especially some of you who have come to COSC recently - things that need to be confessed, repented of and cut off, where cleansing needs to be experienced. It is good for everyone to be familiar with the subject even though not everyone will be affected by it in the same way. To this end we arranged three distinct sessions:
On Sunday I affirmed some spiritual facts about generational sin and the spiritual need for generational healing.
Next Sunday the 17th, for any who missed Sunday, or for any who want to have some more practical help to assemble and discern your family tree (genogram), Celia will run a short class before church at 9:00a.m.
On Tuesday January 19th, at 7:15p.m., our monthly Healing Prayer Service, we are going to conduct a Generational Healing Eucharist, as we have done in the past, where we will bring the record of our generational sin, and our need for healing to the communion table and put it under the blood of Christ.
The fact is that we do not get to choose our parents and all that constitutes our racial, geographical, social identity. Maybe for some, generational healing has to do with a holy acceptance of that identity. We may wish we were born other than we are, whether other conception, whether other race, other gender, other parenting, other social and familial circumstances. Our birth marks the beginning of a new generation, that is inevitably, inextricably, linked with the generation that conceived and bore us, and the entire history of preceding generations, with their pains and their pleasures, their vices and their victories. There is a sense in which that little newborn that you are looking at in the maternity ward, is the product and sum of all that has happened before. There is a resurgence of prior generations, immediately represented by the competing discussions about who the child looks like, as both sides of the previous generation stake their claims. There is a sense of mystery, of depth, of awe, as when a submarine or a whale suddenly and impressively breaks the surface of the deeps. However, there are many different dimensions of inheritance. Obviously there is the biological, the genetic, the physical. There is the material, the means of provision, that often determine so many social and emotional choices. But there is another crucial dimension of inheritance: the spiritual, because we are essentially and vitally spirits wrapped in a body.
The scriptures tell us that as Christians, we are in the generation of Jesus Christ. We have a new Father, a new family. The iniquity of the generations was laid on Christ. We are now in the Body of Christ. And grandpa’s bones are not in that body!
And don’t forget to sign up for Healing Prayer Training!
Pastorally yours,
Stuart